Equipment Template Upgrade?

[AliamRationem.5172]

I was wondering if it would be possible to update equipment templates to have their own separate preferences?  Specifically, I would like to set up different mounts and settings for things like backpack/trinket visibility between templates.

[Danikat.8537]

I think this would be popular, but I suspect it would require re-working how all those things work. At the moment they're completely separate, there's no association between which equipment template you're using and cosmetic options like gliders, mounts, outfits etc. You can't even have different skins and dyes on the same item in different templates (except legendaries).

I don't know how much work that would be, but I doubt it would be a quick change, which means the big barrier to doing it is finding time for the necessary people to work on it and the budget to pay them for that time. If it's a lot of work and not considered important or profitable it's not likely to happen. It probably would lead to more equipment template sales because then players who don't use lots of different builds can still use them for cosmetics, but the question is whether that would cover the cost of doing the work. (Of course I can't answer any of these questions because I don't know how much time it would take, or how many people, or how much profit it might bring in, that's something Anet would need to work out.)

If it was up to me, and if the time and money required for the work wasn't a factor I'd say re-work the whole way cosmetic options are presented and chosen in the hero panel so there's fewer menus to deal with. I'd probably keep the equipment section largely the same, but combine the wardrobe and armour dyes into one menu so you don't have to go out and back in, and then have one menu for all the other cosmetics (clicking on one would bring up the options, like how the wardrobe menu works) with dye options in the same menu for things that can be dyed. Then add either a new menu or a button on the cosmetics menu to save your current selections as a template/loadout/whatever you want to call it.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Of course I wouldn't know how much work is required, but I expect they could sell a lot more equipment templates if they were easier to use as cosmetic templates as well.  It might even be worth it!