[Suggestion] Bring Back Tattoo Armor

I'm a huge fan of these skins from GW1 and I would love to see them added to GW2. This is seriously a no-brainer. It's literally just a texture on the base body. No modelling required. A few hours in Substance Painter, maybe a couple more to hook it up in-engine. GW1 fans would snap these skins up like hot cakes.

As I recall and as the name implies these were only available as special rune armor for some classes, think monk and necromancer specifically. Not that I would be against outfits like this, but I don't think it was available for everyone.

It was only for monks in gw1, but then again dervish armor was only for dervish, and they made it an outfit anyone can wear in gw2. No reason they can't give it to every class.

What then happens with norn since they already have tattoos? How does tattoos work on charr fur?

@Zeefa.3915 said:What then happens with norn since they already have tattoos? How does tattoos work on charr fur?

The tattoo armor would replace whatever skin pattern the character has. It's just a texture swap. It would be the same as if you had switched skin/fur pattern using a total makover kit. Except that this is an armor skin you can dye and (hopefully) mix and match pieces.

Is this to be an outfit, armor, or an addition to character creation/total makeover? In this game if it’s armor then it’s more than a texture on the base body. It could be done but it would probably be with the next expansion If it’s an outfit there’s no mix and matching and if it’s a change to char creation then it’s not a skin that can be mixed and matched either.

seems like an interesting option for an outfit...

Shaved Charr with tats =) :p

@"DarthFurby.3970" said:As I recall and as the name implies these were only available as special rune armor for some classes, think monk and necromancer specifically. Not that I would be against outfits like this, but I don't think it was available for everyone.

That's how all armour worked in GW1. Each profession had their own armour sets which no one else could wear. The Profane armour which is in the gem store periodically was Necromancer armour in GW1, even other light armoured professions couldn't wear it. I guess they could do that because there was only 1 race (and simpler graphics) so they didn't need to make 5 versions of each armour set.

As other people have said if it was in GW2 it'd either be an armour skin (presumably light armour) or an outfit, in which case it would be open to everyone but with no customisation. I'd prefer armour, but I realise that would take much longer.

@Danikat.8537 said:

@"DarthFurby.3970" said:As I recall and as the name implies these were only available as special rune armor for some classes, think monk and necromancer specifically. Not that I would be against outfits like this, but I don't think it was available for everyone.

Yea, my memory on that game is a bit hazy. I also wasn't speaking against the idea at all. Admittedly it did make sense in the theme of the class to have either tattoos or scars (necro) as their cloth didn't do much in way of protection anyway.

It would take more time but I would prefer individual armor skins as well, so mixing and matching would be possible. Though a cloth skin wouldn't do much for me as my mains are all medium.

There were Necro tatoo armor skins as well.

This link has the images. Again, it was armor.

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Necromancer_Scar_Pattern_armor

Maybe it could be a Racial armor for humans. I think if it overwrote the tatoo's selected for a norn, people would complain. Then norn could get a shirtless racial armor, etc etc.

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:Is this to be an outfit, armor, or an addition to character creation/total makeover? In this game if it’s armor then it’s more than a texture on the base body. It could be done but it would probably be with the next expansion If it’s an outfit there’s no mix and matching and if it’s a change to char creation then it’s not a skin that can be mixed and matched either.

It would either be armor or an outfit. And how would it be more than just a texture? Have you seen the skins from GW1? It's literally a texture on the base body with some sort of skirt or loin cloth to cover the naughty bits. GW2 already has skirt/pant geometry for all the races. No need to model anything new. Just paint textures.

I'm fairly familiar with modelling, rigging, and animation. Trust me the amount of work to bring back tattoo armor is minimal compared to creating a new armor set with physical armor pieces. If they were able to do the dervish outfit, they can easily do this one.

@"DeanBB.4268" said:Maybe it could be a Racial armor for humans. I think if it overwrote the tatoo's selected for a norn, people would complain. Then norn could get a shirtless racial armor, etc etc.

My ideal conception of it would be individual armor pieces, and if a norn wanted to they could equip the "gloves" and still keep the racial tattoo on their chest. There's ways of accomplishing this with blended alpha channels and such.

However if Anet's shader and armor setup just can't pull it off for whatever reason, then it would be an outfit and the norn would just have to choose between their racial tattoo and the outfit tattoo. I mean think about it, norn already have to make that choice. Not all armor in the game shows off the norn's naked body. You rarely actually get to see norn tattoos unless you specifically chose certain armor skins. I don't see the difference between choosing the GW1 tattoo vs choosing the Citadel of Flame armor, for example. Both would function as armor skins that cover up the base skin texture.

@"Strider Pj.2193" said:There were Necro tatoo armor skins as well.

This link has the images. Again, it was armor.

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Necromancer_Scar_Pattern_armor

I would love to see the necro scar patterns too. That's a natural continuation of the idea. I think it would look pretty dope on other classes too such as warrior and revenant, especially if it were individual armor pieces you can mix and match. Imagine scar pattern chest/arms with mistward legs/boots.

@Xenon.4537 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:Is this to be an outfit, armor, or an addition to character creation/total makeover? In this game if it’s armor then it’s more than a texture on the base body. It could be done but it would probably be with the next expansion If it’s an outfit there’s no mix and matching and if it’s a change to char creation then it’s not a skin that can be mixed and matched either.

An outfit, sure. But if it’s armor, how will the stats and runes in this game be applied if it’s just a texture on the skin?

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

@Xenon.4537 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:Is this to be an outfit, armor, or an addition to character creation/total makeover? In this game if it’s armor then it’s more than a texture on the base body. It could be done but it would probably be with the next expansion If it’s an outfit there’s no mix and matching and if it’s a change to char creation then it’s not a skin that can be mixed and matched either.

Every armor piece in the game has a piece of geometry and a texture associated with it. Even the naked character body has geo + texture associated with it. Everything is polygons with texture put on it. Think of the geo as a sculpture, and the texture as the paint on the sculpture.

Long story short you take the base player geometry (the naked body) and you change the texture associated with it. Then you save that as a new armor. Have the UI artist draw up a little UI icon for the hero panel, and voila.

Let me ask you this: How do you attach runes and stats to the invisible slippers skin that is already in the game? Same way. It's an armor piece that simply uses the base geometry as it's physical appearance.

I suspect it’s not as easy as you think considering ANet has already said that armor is complex and expensive to create in this game. I doubt the game is set up to have textures on the skin that can also have stats and runes. Even the invisible boots are pieces of armor, they’ve just been made transparent.

/shrug. But good luck in your quest.

Dont want to upset you ... But it will likely be in black lion chest as outfit or gemstore outfit

@"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:I suspect it’s not as easy as you think considering ANet has already said that armor is complex and expensive to create in this game. I doubt the game is set up to have textures on the skin that can also have stats and runes. Even the invisible boots are pieces of armor, they’ve just been made transparent.

/shrug. But good luck in your quest.

I don't think you understood anything I said... I don't wish to be condescending, but it's just hard to explain how this stuff works sometimes. As I said, I'm pretty knowledgeable about modelling, rigging, etc. I know exactly why Anet says "armor is complex and expensive to create" and that's because making new physical armor requires painting weights and rigging. It's a lot more effort from multiple artists through the pipeline. I'm not claiming Anet is lying about that. It takes a lot of effort to make something with coat tails and pauldrons and plates of metal covering the body.

This tattoo armor is completely different. It would take minimal effort because it's just changing the texture on geometry that is already modelled, weighted, rigged, etc. You don't need a modeller because the models already exist in game. You don't need a rigger because there's no new appendages, coat tails, weird things sticking out, etc. You don't need an animator for the same reason. All you need is one texture artist to paint a pretty texture, and a tech artist to hook it up in the engine. And for all we know that texture artist and that tech artist could be the same person, depending on how specialized anet employees are.

Also, sorry but that's not how the invisible boots work. "invisible" is just a name. There's no reason for them to create a boot skin, then attach a transparency map to it to make the polygon invisible... Then render the naked foot inside of that... That's convoluted and unnecessary. All they need to do is render the naked foot.

@Talindra.4958 said:Dont want to upset you ... But it will likely be in black lion chest as outfit or gemstore outfit

Yeah I've come to expect that. Personally I would happily buy it from the gem store.

@Xenon.4537 said:

@"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:I suspect it’s not as easy as you think considering ANet has already said that armor is complex and expensive to create in this game. I doubt the game is set up to have textures on the skin that can also have stats and runes. Even the invisible boots are pieces of armor, they’ve just been made transparent.

/shrug. But good luck in your quest.

Let me put it this way.

The game is set up for 3 ways to display something like this. It can be armor. It can be an outfit. It can be something at char creation to add tattoos or markings on the skin. Anything that’s added to the game will need to fall into one of these 3 categories or it will need to have a completely new system added to the game. And yes the invisible boot is armor. It has stats and runes and fits into an armor slot. Just because it’s invisible doesn’t make it any less a piece of armor, no more than any other armor that has invisible areas where the skin show. So unless they make a whole new system where there are textures on the skin that aren’t part of the armor system but still have stats and runes then it will be armor and fit into the armor slots. Or it will be one of the other two options (outfits or tattoos).

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

@Xenon.4537 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:I suspect it’s not as easy as you think considering ANet has already said that armor is complex and expensive to create in this game. I doubt the game is set up to have textures on the skin that can also have stats and runes. Even the invisible boots are pieces of armor, they’ve just been made transparent.

/shrug. But good luck in your quest.

I appreciate your input and concerns. However I'm confident they could do this with comparatively low effort. It would not require a whole new system. I don't know how else to explain it. You take the geometry of the base body, and make it into an armor skin with a new texture. It would be armor. Armor. Yes. Armor with rune slots and everything. That means this would fall into your first "category" by the way. If you are interested I can explain in greater detail how modelling, UV mapping, skinning, texturing, rigging, etc all works?

@Xenon.4537 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

@Xenon.4537 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:I suspect it’s not as easy as you think considering ANet has already said that armor is complex and expensive to create in this game. I doubt the game is set up to have textures on the skin that can also have stats and runes. Even the invisible boots are pieces of armor, they’ve just been made transparent.

/shrug. But good luck in your quest.

In that case it will be armor with all the costs that come with armor, which won’t be cheap to make just because it puts marks on the skin. That may cut down on production time some but cosmetics are not the only costs.

As has been said

Regina BArmor is one of the most expensive things in the game to create. Armor is complicated and needs to be created with many considerations in mind, and these considerations may not be easily apparent or describable to fan armor designers (snip)

Regina BArmor is one of the most expensive things in the game to create. Armor is complicated and needs to be created with many considerations in mind, and these considerations may not be easily apparent or describable to fan armor designers (snip)

As I said earlier, I know exactly the reasons she is referring to. It's called Rigging. More specifically, painting skin weights. And again, swapping a texture does not require any of that.

with all the costs that come with armor

Again wrong, for the same reasons I keep repeating... It's a texture swap, not a full fledged pipeline ordeal.

Painting skin weights. Enjoy. This is what Anet doesn't have to do, because they already did it in 2012 when they made the player character rigs in the first place.