Guild Wars 2

THE ISSUES
I’ve been thinking a lot since the introduction of the wardrobe system and as much as I was thrilled to get the wardrobe, there’s been a couple of things that have always bugged me in the way it works and the way skins are unlocked in this game.

Having played around with the wardrobe quite a bit and comparing it to some other games i play, the gw2 wardrobe system is messy and cumbersome to use and it doesn’t promote customization as well as it should, especially during leveling. Overall it’s not bad, but it could be so much better.

1) I dislike having to destroy or bind a skin to unlock it.
Solution: Unlock skins when they enters your inventory. The only exception here should be highly prestigious skins such as legendaries, BLTC skins etc.

2) I dislike having to overwrite my armor in order to create/change appearance. I had really hoped that with the addition of the wardrobe, this process would be eliminated, but as we all know it’s still here.
Solution: Separate the appearances from armor, except outfits They can stay where they are.

HOW WOULD IT WORK
By creating dressing rooms in which you can create and save multiple appearances and access them with a push of a button.

If you click on the wardrobe tab on the main menu, you are taken to a copy of your equipment interface. This copy is neutral it shows your currently selected appearance and is not affected by what you do in the dressing room. This is where you access rows of numbered tabs, each one allowing you to create a different appearance. Think of this window as a sort of a lobby to the dressing room.

So for eg: you have 10-20 small tabs at the bottom of this interface. You click on one and it takes you to a dressing room where you can create an appearance. This dressing room again is a copy of your equipment interface, except all the equipment slots are empty. This is where you fill them with skins you have already unlocked and which are accessed in the same way as they are now, simply by clicking the relevant equipment slot which then brings up the related skins.

It would make sense to add dye channel boxes beside each equipment slot in the dressing rooms so you can save the entire look in one go. You can still keep the current dye system for dyeing your outfits and actual armor, but the dressing room system should be kept self-sufficient.

Once satisfied with the way you look, save it and the tab you had originally selected now has a new icon that depicts some aspect of your new appearance for eg: helmet that you have actually equipped. From now on, when you want to use that appearance just select the wardrobe again, then the tab you saved your new appearance on and voila, you have a new look. A skin you like better comes along? No problem, click that tab again, change the skin, save it and you have a new look again! Or you may like both skins and you may decide to get another appearance tabs and now, you can switch between them at any time.

Continued below

THE COST & BENEFITS

This system would eliminate transmutation charges. Instead, the appearance tabs unlocks would be purchasable via gem store. Each tab unlock, would allow you to save one appearance, which you can then access and switch between them as mentioned above. Best part about this, it leaves your armor in tact and you don’t have to destroy/overwrite anything to gain a new look.

The skin unlocks would remain account bound, but appearance tabs can be either character or account bound (I would prefer if they remained account bound just for the convenience). Depending on how this was done, the price of tabs would vary. If tabs were account bound, you can charge a lot more per tab, perhaps a flat rate of 400-500 gems? In this case however, you would have to make sure the appearances themselves could be saved to each individual character. If this system was made character bound, then the appearance tab would have to be considerably cheaper. They may start at say, 10 gems for your first unlock and progressively get more expensive until they reach a price cap, which in this case could be around 100 gems?
What would really top this system, is if the first slot is made free, so that people can experiment a bit and new accounts can have at least one appearance while lvling.

I’m well aware that there’s been a lot of complaining about the current system and having to keep using trans charges each time you want to change your appearance and having to overwrite the existing one. There’s resentment by some people of having to keep using trans charges on bought skins, where it makes them feel like they never truly own them, but are only renting them.

With this system, you can have 20, 40, 60 tabs, the sky is the limit (as you can copy the same interface infinitely) and perhaps Anet’s storage capacity, but i think people would be much happier buying appearance slots than trans charges. I don’t even think it’s the cost of them, but rather the principle of it. I don’t have the figures Anet does, but I suspect they make little money from trans charges. I for one have never had to buy one, but despite that, i would be happy to purchase appearance tabs for my characters if implemented along the lines as described above.This system i believe would please majority of players having ability to switch between looks at click of a mouse would please just about anyone i think and and Anet could make some extra money for their hard work. In my eyes, its a win, win for everyone.

Well sorry about this lengthy post. If you’ve come this far, thanks for reading. If you like the idea, support it, comment on it, or make your own suggestions if you so desire.
Cheers!