[Suggestions] Allow Characters to Change Weight Classes

Would it be possible to have a way in game to change a profession's weight class? I would love to be able to wear any armor and be able to mix and match armor weights, but if it's not an easy thing to do then how about allowing professions to change their weight class? Such as a Warrior wearing a full set of heavy armor changes weight classes to either medium or light armor, but they have to wear a full a set of medium armor or a full set of light armor. This can be just a purely cosmetic change so it doesn't affect balance.

Sounds like an okay compromise to me (assuming it's as easy as it sounds... and it might not be).

I wonder if it's possible to divorce "profession" entirely from weight, so that the "wardrobe" would have a drop down to choose the weight and then every skin you applied would have to be the same weight. It would end up meaning that you might have to spent 6 transmutation charges just to change one skin, but that seems like an acceptable tradeoff.

The most likely objection is that there's a lore-ish reason for different weights and some people might dislike the idea that there's no way to tell a necro from a thief. However, with the ubiquity of outfits, that's already true. Allowing thieves to wear light armor just accepts that as the new reality.

If there is any way to improve fashion wars 2, I am all for it.

It sounds like a rewrite of the UI for two more wardrobes, a way to switch between wardrobes and a way to have non profession armors become a type of outfit and a toggle to choose which one that shows.

Make it so that you change weight classes based on how much food you eat, and how much movement your character does.

Hmmmm it sounds awesome but idk if arenanet would allow it. Basically it would mean restructuring every class to make it so all classes can change right? It would be nice but idk how the balancing worked. They would also have to change the stats of each character to fit. Elite specializations and traits would get mixed. Might be all over the place. It would be a good thing for ability to fully customize but be bad if we don't know how to mix the traits. Maybe if we were just allowed to change skins and the armor skin wouldn't matter but keep the same armor stats. Maybe that would be nice. But to change class like that IDK. It would defeat the purpose of adding characters. So arenanet wouldn't need character slot add ones anymore. Which would hurt them in the end. Not saying no. Because I'd think it's cool. Just balancing would be a nightmare.

If nothing else, mix and matching would be impossible currently, and highly improbably for Arenanet to go through the considerable effort changing how things work. Also, not really a fan of the idea..

Hate Is Fuel

I'd love this. Kind of like an "outfit" option so instead of just outfit we could choose "light", "medium", or "heavy". Really would add to fashion wars.

While I do think mix and match would be more fun, due to restrictions I really doubt that's going to happen. Being able to select a weight class and use those armor skins wouldn't require re-meshing all the armor to work together.

As far as I understand the solution to this was the introduction of ourfits. But Outfits in itself null any weight class as right now my Beserker is running around in the Ancestral Outfit which looks like it would be light armor for all intents and purposes. I dont think Arenanet likes going back, they keep moving forward? I would love it if they would though .

Its weird that we are not allowed to change our dress because of the material its been made from hahaha but i get why they do that. i believe we should be allowed to transmute at least

The original system was designed around players being able to recognize others' professions at a glance. The skins were designed for each weight, with the original professions' visual cues customized for those skins. The advent of Outfits changed that philosophy, but not the effects designs, which is why some outfits don't look as good on certain professions as others. Going "whole-hog" into skin customization, even keeping the armor classes separated, would necessitate a redesign of individual profession effects: how and where they appear on the character, how they work, etc.

I'm not saying "they can't do it", merely pointing out it's more complex than it would seem on the surface. ...far from "skin deep", as it were.

Get rid of weights all together and open up all armor skins to everyone.

@runeblade.7514 said:If there is any way to improve fashion wars 2, I am all for it.

If armor becomes purely cosmetic that will be awesome. I used to play SWTOR and they had the same light/medium/heavy concept, then they made all armor cosmetic and the armor value is based on your class. A warrior in light armor looks strange? Sure, but if that is how I like my warrior to look, I do not see that being a problem. And from functionality you get the heavy armor value regardless of the type of armor you are wearing. Mix and matching armors from different categories looks hideous? Maybe "hideous was the style I was going for.

I do not see any drawbacks as long as the armor values becomes tied to the class versus the armor, and the armor becomes purely cosmetic.

@otto.5684 said:

@runeblade.7514 said:If there is any way to improve fashion wars 2, I am all for it.

^This^

Few things:

The main reason (as stated by developers) for lack of ability to mix different armor weights was due to horrible clipping that would occur. This is not an issue if you simply go from using armor of one weight to armor of another weight.

The other issue that people would bring up is likely the ability to spot the armor class -> profession in WvW and PvP. However this is not a big issue as outfits can already make you look like a different armor weight type character.

The biggest drawback that I can see (and the main reason why I think this will never happen) is because you would only ever need one or two ascended armor sets or a single legendary set per entire account (at the moment you would want at least one direct damage + one condition damage set per armor weight). This will greatly reduce the money/material sink that the ascended and legendary armor presents.

TLDR: Skin mixing won't happen due to clipping, full armor class swapping won't happen because it reduces material sink.

@Zania.8461 said:...The biggest drawback that I can see (and the main reason why I think this will never happen) is because you would only ever need one or two ascended armor sets or a single legendary set per entire account (at the moment you would want at least one direct damage + one condition damage set per armor weight). This will greatly reduce the money/material sink that the ascended and legendary armor presents.

TLDR: Skin mixing won't happen due to clipping, full armor class swapping won't happen because it reduces material sink.

I hadn't thought about account-wide armor sharing. Maybe it would be an opportunity to change/shuffle the money/material sink costs for account bound armors. Possibly adding in an "affordable" soulbound recipe version. Then add a way to "upgrade" the soulbound versions to account bound.

Wrong thread!

@phokus.8934 said:Get rid of weights all together and open up all armor skins to everyone.

At least allow Skins to be worn from the Gemstore.

I have always thought they should add wardrobe/outfit slots that you can set up yourself. So if you wanted to you could set up a light armor set in slot one, a medium in slot two, and you'd just have to select which one to use, just like outfits right now, and your look would change to what you had set up. This would allow people to wear light/medium/heavy on whichever character they want and also allow people to swap between different looks on the fly (require transmutation charges to set up the outfit, but not to switch between them). It would add so much more to Fashion Wars being able to create more looks for different professions.

Could Be idea for elite spec too."Elementalist becomes battlemage with heavy armor and 2h sword"

If this turns out to be possible, class changes should be as well, because it's practically the same concept. Going from ele, changing class to heavy and swapping to guard or rev. (example)

Add a style slot next to each equipped armor slot. Have style slots require the transmutation charge to change and those slots simply display a skin of any weight class. When equipping a new piece of armor, the game could prompt you to change the style slot to the skin of the newly equipped armor piece for free at that moment.