Guild Wars 2

Today I was doing story missions with my Asura and noticed Councillor Flax undeniably wearing an Human T3 cultural armor set. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Councillor_Flax
If cultural armor is so reserved to their own races, why is this Asura wearing a Human T3 set? And of consequence, why aren’t PCs allowed too?

At launch for a short period, all races could use all other races cultural. This was changed, can’t remember the reason.

Then that Flamekissed armor came out in the Gemstore – which if you didn’t know the Light armor was Human Light T3 reskinned to be “flamey” – this caused a gargantuan uproar. ArenaNet rightfully caved in and admitted their mistakes, removed & changed all existing armor to what it is today.

As to why I can’t go to an Asuran vendor and buy that awesome T3 for my Human Warrior is simply unanswerable though. If all races could use all races armor, there would be no crying anywhere. Those seeking “exclusivity” in an online community are foolish.

Remember the Flamekissed Fiasco? Well, ANet sure does.

Flissy.4093:

At launch for a short period, all races could use all other races cultural. This was changed, can’t remember the reason.

Then that Flamekissed armor came out in the Gemstore – which if you didn’t know the Light armor was Human Light T3 reskinned to be “flamey” – this caused a gargantuan uproar. ArenaNet rightfully caved in and admitted their mistakes, removed & changed all existing armor to what it is today.

As to why I can’t go to an Asuran vendor and buy that awesome T3 for my Human Warrior is simply unanswerable though. If all races could use all races armor, there would be no crying anywhere. Those seeking “exclusivity” in an online community are foolish.

I’d like to know that reason, hence why I created this post. How can they justify lore-wise the fact that NPCs can wear cultural armor of other races while PCs cannot?

Flissy.4093:

At launch for a short period, all races could use all other races cultural. This was changed, can’t remember the reason.

Then that Flamekissed armor came out in the Gemstore – which if you didn’t know the Light armor was Human Light T3 reskinned to be “flamey” – this caused a gargantuan uproar. ArenaNet rightfully caved in and admitted their mistakes, removed & changed all existing armor to what it is today.

As to why I can’t go to an Asuran vendor and buy that awesome T3 for my Human Warrior is simply unanswerable though. If all races could use all races armor, there would be no crying anywhere. Those seeking “exclusivity” in an online community are foolish.

The main issue with the flamekissed was not the fact that you could wear it on other races, most of the hate was because it was a cooler version of the already existing T3 and you could directly buy it from the gemstore, apply it without crystals and in the end spending less of what T3 user paid. So… many of them felt cheated.

Erick Alastor.3917:

Flissy.4093:

At launch for a short period, all races could use all other races cultural. This was changed, can’t remember the reason.

Then that Flamekissed armor came out in the Gemstore – which if you didn’t know the Light armor was Human Light T3 reskinned to be “flamey” – this caused a gargantuan uproar. ArenaNet rightfully caved in and admitted their mistakes, removed & changed all existing armor to what it is today.

As to why I can’t go to an Asuran vendor and buy that awesome T3 for my Human Warrior is simply unanswerable though. If all races could use all races armor, there would be no crying anywhere. Those seeking “exclusivity” in an online community are foolish.

The main issue with the flamekissed was not the fact that you could wear it on other races, most of the hate was because it was a cooler version of the already existing T3 and you could directly buy it from the gemstore, apply it without crystals and in the end spending less of what T3 user paid. So… many of them felt cheated.

This … but also I guess because the other cultural armor was not available to the light humans… so it was just their armor that got demoted, sorta.

Disclaimer: I have no official opinion either way on this subject, just adding more information.

The whole point of cultural armor is to eliminate clipping and streetching issues. This is especially important for the Asura and Charr.

It makes no sense on other races because these issues would just return.

Hannelore.8153:

The whole point of cultural armor is to eliminate clipping and streetching issues. This is especially important for the Asura and Charr.

It makes no sense on other races because these issues would just return.

Well, they failed at that even then. At least notably so for Charr. So, I really don’t see what makes it so different than other sets.

I actually liked the Human T3’s on the charr, looked pretty decent for once.

I wish they would do away with the Racial Restriction to Cultural Armor. With all the (playable) races coming together more and more, it seems natural that there would be people that would take an interest in the fashion of other cultures and imitate it. We already have a bunch of Non-Norns running around in Braham’s Armor, which is clearly all Norn.

I doubt they’ll allow one day every race to wear every cultural armor. Mainly due to two things :
-Some sylvari cultural would look extremely weird on anything else, especially a Charr. Maybe it won’t bother some people, but the biggest problem is
-Asura and Charr do not have female versions. While it is not too bothersome for Asura, the T2 medium charr has an exposed torso. A bra could easily be added, but it’s still extra work. Then they also have to redesign the boots.

RedStar.4218:

I doubt they’ll allow one day every race to wear every cultural armor. Mainly due to two things :
-Some sylvari cultural would look extremely weird on anything else, especially a Charr. Maybe it won’t bother some people, but the biggest problem is
-Asura and Charr do not have female versions. While it is not too bothersome for Asura, the T2 medium charr has an exposed torso. A bra could easily be added, but it’s still extra work. Then they also have to redesign the boots.

It would involve creating models that, as far as we know, may already exist, since we already have Human light T3 models for all races.
The Sylvari cultural problem could be turned into comething similar to Twilight Arbor’s armor set for other races. It would appear just like clothing made of plants.

In my Charr example (and pretty much the only one due to nudity), I doubt they have an alternate version laying around for females.

As for Sylvari, it’s kind of a mix of problems. The models are already there for both sexes, and even if we ignore how weird it’d look, there’s sort of a nudity problem. With Sylvari it isn’t so bothersome, but on another race it would look quite skimpy (I’m not so much against it, but QQ’ers will flock).

It has been pointed out that even the benevolent Toymaker Tixx wears human cultural garb. Of course, he might be a special case since he is loved by one and all. I for one would not care to see my Charr dressed up in fig leaves though.

Captain Shud also wears human cultural armor, or at least partially.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Captain_Shud

It would be awesome to have cultural tiers allowed on all races – if Anet rly want’s us to not choose race because of something exclusive for it – they should make it ; ) I would love to see norn t3 on human, or charr t2 on Sylvari : ) Also it would be cool if we have to do some special events/earn race trust (ex. by helping ppl on race specific maps, it could also bring more ppl to 1-15 and 15-25 areas)

(Like always – im sorry for my english : <)

Really? We’re getting upset at the NPCs over cultural armor now?

I’d love it if they did away with not only cultural armor restrictions, but armor weight restrictions as well. …The combination of outfits would be wonderful!

It would also help to address the issue that some armor weights don’t have enough variety. (too many skimpy cloth outfits, too many leather trench coats)

Seriously, we have clothies wielding greatswords, leather wearers wielding shields, and plate wearers wielding scepters and foci. I don’t think it would break the immersion to see a Mesmer in Norn plate, or a Guardian in Asura cloth.

Cripes, in some cases, you wouldn’t be able to tell the armor weight of a piece, outside the context of the game.

NPCs always break the rules and do whatever they want to. Like the Thief NPC in Orr using Pistol/Warhorn. .-. Currently any race can easily fit into any culture armor~ it’s just not allowed. I guess due to racism against adventurers. :o

Doggie – yes! It must be racism! Lets fight with it! Let’s make petition for Anet – STOP WITH CULTURAL RACISM! :"D

RedStar.4218:

In my Charr example (and pretty much the only one due to nudity), I doubt they have an alternate version laying around for females.

As for Sylvari, it’s kind of a mix of problems. The models are already there for both sexes, and even if we ignore how weird it’d look, there’s sort of a nudity problem. With Sylvari it isn’t so bothersome, but on another race it would look quite skimpy (I’m not so much against it, but QQ’ers will flock).

I see where you’re coming from, with your mentioning of the female Charr and that particular armor. I’m trying to recall if I ever saw that particular scenario when people used to be able to wear the armor of other cultures, but I can’t recall seeing that one. Maybe someone else in here saw it and knows how it worked out?

serenitygirl.1967:

I’d love it if they did away with not only cultural armor restrictions, but armor weight restrictions as well. …The combination of outfits would be wonderful!

I think they already said they can’t easily do that because of how they designed armor parts, especially due to medium armor where the chest part includes coats that go way below the waist. Which would result in (even more) terrible clipping issues between light armor skirts and medium armor tops.

But the opposite would be so nice : light classes will finally have more pants options and medium armor will finally have coat-less tops.

race restrictions on armor are pointless, still thinking inside the current system, there should be a way to get a race’s aproval, so lets say you complete certain achievements and that certain race will accept you in their ranks so you now can wear their special clothes.

a pretty simple system and an extra goal for completionists

As has been said, NPC’s can break the rules. (It’s kind of been that way almost any and everywhere you go… Not just this game.)

I do recall back in the Beta (I think, and no, I don’t have any links, I’m working off of memory…) that all the races could wear everyone’s Cultural armor. But it caused a number of problems beyond just armor pieces clipping through each other.
The biggest of which was a bug that caused the outfits to completely vanish from a character, leaving them completely nekkid for a time… (which I believe is one of the reasons why the Flamekissed armor was pulled and changed, aside from the stupid QQ that erupted here on the forums… Just my opinion on that though. :p)

Regarding charr and asura, there’s already plenty of armor skins, particuarly heavy, that end up in exposed chests on female charr and asura. There’s nothing there that shows, but if this is a concern for some people regarding cultural, it’s already an issue and nobody’s made a stink about it.

Hermes.7014:

I’d like to know that reason, hence why I created this post. How can they justify lore-wise the fact that NPCs can wear cultural armor of other races while PCs cannot?

Firstly, “justify” is such a strong word. It’s like you’re implying there is criminal activity involved here… It’s a video game lol.

Anyway, the reason is simply this:

Gameplay > Lore

Everyone knows the implications of cultural armor and how it works. The fact that only human players can wear human cultural armor is part of the game mechanics. The mechanics were designed to give each race an exclusive and distinct visual aesthetic. The lore reasoning for it is superficial. Maybe that asuran NPC is just a really wealthy and important guy. Maybe he bribed a human tailor to craft him the outfit. Maybe he used to be human, but he got involved in some silly Inquest experiment… Who knows?

korelg.7862:

race restrictions on armor are pointless, still thinking inside the current system, there should be a way to get a race’s aproval, so lets say you complete certain achievements and that certain race will accept you in their ranks so you now can wear their special clothes.

a pretty simple system and an extra goal for completionists

Yeah, some sort of reputation system would be amazing. Maybe a combination of map completion and dynamic events around that race’s home city for tokens to ‘unlock’ the vendors.

Apart from the work required to modify each race’s armour for everyone else – which I am certain would be minimal – it’s a win-win. We get more cosmetic options and a proper incentive to do event chains and explore the world.

Xenon.4537:

Everyone knows the implications of cultural armor and how it works. The fact that only human players can wear human cultural armor is part of the game mechanics. The mechanics were designed to give each race an exclusive and distinct visual aesthetic.

It seems like a very dated and unnecessary mechanic, one that was introduced simply because of difficulties encountered in the beta stage. Strange that the clothing is off limits but the weapons aren’t. Here’s hoping this restriction is lifted someday, and soon.

Jahroots.6791:

korelg.7862:

race restrictions on armor are pointless, still thinking inside the current system, there should be a way to get a race’s aproval, so lets say you complete certain achievements and that certain race will accept you in their ranks so you now can wear their special clothes.

a pretty simple system and an extra goal for completionists

Yeah, some sort of reputation system would be amazing. Maybe a combination of map completion and dynamic events around that race’s home city for tokens to ‘unlock’ the vendors.

Apart from the work required to modify each race’s armour for everyone else – which I am certain would be minimal – it’s a win-win. We get more cosmetic options and a proper incentive to do event chains and explore the world.

A reputation system might be a good way to make use of the Personality System, since it currently serves no large purpose.

It’s likely just to much work.
Changing human armour to other races is what they always do. They don’t change them that much and it often doesn’t look the best because of that.
Charr or Aura armor to human you couldn’t leave it basically the same since they don’t have gendered armour so you have to make a female version and head and feet likely would require redoing. Some Sylvari armour looks like its growing from them and incorporates skin colour. It would look really weird on another race.

DigitalKirin.9714:

Remember the Flamekissed Fiasco? Well, ANet sure does.

“BUT YOU CANT DO THAT, ANET FFS!!”

Demented Sheep.1642:

It’s likely just to much work.
Changing human armour to other races is what they always do. They don’t change them that much and it often doesn’t look the best because of that.
Charr or Aura armor to human you couldn’t leave it basically the same since they don’t have gendered armour so you have to make a female version and head and feet likely would require redoing. Some Sylvari armour looks like its growing from them and incorporates skin colour. It would look really weird on another race.

It indeed would mean creating new armor models to adapt the sets to other races, but if that is considered too much work, then I don’t know what isn’t in a game that relies mostly on skins.
I just imagine that we’re going to be stuck with the same old armor sets, maybe with some fire particle effect added.

Dakota.4591:

Regarding charr and asura, there’s already plenty of armor skins, particuarly heavy, that end up in exposed chests on female charr and asura. There’s nothing there that shows, but if this is a concern for some people regarding cultural, it’s already an issue and nobody’s made a stink about it.

Anet covered the orrian armor heavy. They won’t leave an exposed nipple on a female human/norn character. Asura and Charr don’t have nipples, nor do Sylvari.

Erick Alastor.3917:

The main issue with the flamekissed was not the fact that you could wear it on other races, most of the hate was because it was a cooler version of the already existing T3 and you could directly buy it from the gemstore, apply it without crystals and in the end spending less of what T3 user paid. So… many of them felt cheated.

Oh, but a good deal of the rage WAS “human T3 is human only! Capiche?” The “exclusive” argument was very prevalent, and it would be again.

Hermes.7014:

Demented Sheep.1642:

It’s likely just to much work.
Changing human armour to other races is what they always do. They don’t change them that much and it often doesn’t look the best because of that.
Charr or Aura armor to human you couldn’t leave it basically the same since they don’t have gendered armour so you have to make a female version and head and feet likely would require redoing. Some Sylvari armour looks like its growing from them and incorporates skin colour. It would look really weird on another race.

It indeed would mean creating new armor models to adapt the sets to other races, but if that is considered too much work, then I don’t know what isn’t in a game that relies mostly on skins.
I just imagine that we’re going to be stuck with the same old armor sets, maybe with some fire particle effect added.

Relying on skins or not with how things have been going, especially in regards to adapting armour to other races I don’t expect them to do something like this.

Jahroots.6791:

korelg.7862:

race restrictions on armor are pointless, still thinking inside the current system, there should be a way to get a race’s aproval, so lets say you complete certain achievements and that certain race will accept you in their ranks so you now can wear their special clothes.

a pretty simple system and an extra goal for completionists

Yeah, some sort of reputation system would be amazing. Maybe a combination of map completion and dynamic events around that race’s home city for tokens to ‘unlock’ the vendors.

Apart from the work required to modify each race’s armour for everyone else – which I am certain would be minimal – it’s a win-win. We get more cosmetic options and a proper incentive to do event chains and explore the world.

I like the reputation idea in theory, but how many people would actually make use of the reputation system rather than just transmuting the armors between characters?

Charr Light t3.
/thread

Am I the only one who’d rather ANet just design some new armors, and actually incorporate them into the game via content rather than the gem store?

/pipedream

OP, I’m with you. WhyTF anet let an asuran npc wear human cultural armor while customers cant?

We need justice, revise those t3 on npc like they did on flamekissed.

3887411

Gameplay > Lore

Lore-side, Asura technology is prevented from Bookah hands. Asuran armors are full with technology and devices.

RedStar.4218:

Dakota.4591:

Regarding charr and asura, there’s already plenty of armor skins, particuarly heavy, that end up in exposed chests on female charr and asura. There’s nothing there that shows, but if this is a concern for some people regarding cultural, it’s already an issue and nobody’s made a stink about it.

Anet covered the orrian armor heavy. They won’t leave an exposed nipple on a female human/norn character. Asura and Charr don’t have nipples, nor do Sylvari.

My point wasn’t so much about humans, norns, or sylvari. Those races have both male skins and female skins, whereas charr and asura only use the male skin regardless of gender. People were mentioning that some of the cultural skins have exposed chests which would result in ‘topless’ charr and asura, and I was just pointing out how this is already the case with non-cultural armor.

korelg.7862:

race restrictions on armor are pointless, still thinking inside the current system, there should be a way to get a race’s aproval, so lets say you complete certain achievements and that certain race will accept you in their ranks so you now can wear their special clothes.

a pretty simple system and an extra goal for completionists

I cant believe how many people dont understand that Sylvari armor wouldnt even be compatible with other races. For starters, they arent wearing it. It’s essentially a part of their body. If you look at the T2 light armor for Sylvari, it’s plainly obvious that it’s not worn like cloth or leather. There is just no way to explain a Charr wearing Sylvari cultural armor. The fact is, a sylvari wearing cultural armor is just as buck naked as they are if they wore no armor at all.

Gameplay only requires items to equip it, so that’s not a reason for it.

Ykfox.3825:

Am I the only one who’d rather ANet just design some new armors, and actually incorporate them into the game via content rather than the gem store?

/pipedream

No, you’re definitely not the only one. I’d love to see some more in-game armour, and incentives for players to do open world PvE in order to get them.

arisravenstar.6043:

I like the reputation idea in theory, but how many people would actually make use of the reputation system rather than just transmuting the armors between characters?

They’d probably have to make an more or less identical set, minus the race restrictions, and available from different vendors. Perhaps some ‘ambassador’ type NPCs who hang around in the main city.