[Suggestion] Organizing Every Cosmetic

[Malthurius.6870]

There are a lot of cosmetic effects and items in GW2 that are cumbersome to keep track of. There are a lot of infinite tonics, auras are becoming more prevalent, mining tools have cosmetic vanity, and there are many toys available. I have a few ideas that I want to present here about adding convenience to these items and potentially giving players more goals in game.

Cosmetic Tonics

Cosmetic Tonics are a very fun and interesting type of item that are cumbersome for more casual players. It seems like a waste to me that these can potentially take up so much space and come off as wastes of space for a lot of players. Combat tonics clearly have more value to players, but the minor cosmetic tonics (like thoughtless and thoughtful potion) are barely worth the inventory space it takes up and costume brawl is practically forgotten due to no one carrying around costume weapons (which I'll get to later) or costume brawl tonics.

In the same vein we have a finisher collection or a mini collection, I propose we have a cosmetic tonic/potion collection as well that unlocks these tonics account wide. This collection would include all tonics that change the form of the player that either grant them costume brawl abilities, or change the characters appearance in a minor way (like Embiggening Tonic or Thoughtful Potion) or a major way (like Kodan Tonic or Watchknight Tonic).

This doesn't have to be exclusive to infinite cosmetic tonics either. As seen in the finisher collection, WvW dolyak finishers have charges/uses. I see no reason for this not to be applied to single use cosmetic tonics as well.

Instead of slotting tonics or potions into a single slot, you would basically use the tonic from the hero pane.

Auras

Auras are going to quickly become a mess as more are added. It's cumbersome to change auras out and there's no way to hide auras you're currently using if that aura infusion just so happens to be the best in slot at the moment. Auras are a very cool cosmetic feature, but they're far from reaching their full potential as a feature.

Auras should not be in infusions that have stats (like agony) which are important to a character's power and progression. This is similar to there being no wardrobe system for armor and weapons and requiring you to use a certain skin because it's currently best in slot, but to an admittedly lesser degree.

Similar to the Wardrobe, make it so that auras are unlocked account wide in a collection that you can easily access from the hero pane. These auras can be slotted into aura slots (of which there should be at least 6), and allow the player to slot the same aura multiple times to allow aura stacking like players can now. You could even make changing your aura cost transmutation charges. Also, allow for the aura to be toggled off with a checkbox inside the equipped aura's box.

Aurora's visual effect could be turned into an aura under this system instead of an effect that's granted by having Aurora equipped. Perhaps you could make Aurora's aura unique to disallow stacking it.

Thoughtless and Thoughtful potions could also be turned into auras, since that's what they are effectively.

Toy Box

I don't think I have to explain this one much. There's a lot of miscellaneous toys and fun items in the game, including costume brawl weapons, instruments, and vanity buff stations. Make these unlock-able account wide as well in a collection similar to the tonic collection I mentioned above. These toys are unlocked and used from the hero pane, guaranteeing that they see more use in game.

Permanent Gathering Tools

The functionality and convenience of the infinite gathering tools should be removed from the cosmetic portion... at least after you purchase them. Adding a collection of permanent gathering tool skins that you've purchased that you can swap out, even on your temporary tools, would add a new little detail and level to fashion wars.

This would function similarly to the wardrobe or glider collection, where you select from your permanent gathering tool skins and change the appearance of your gathering animation for any tool you use in your gathering tool slot in the future until changed. Leaving the slot empty would then use the gathering tool animation that's in the gathering tool slot, naturally.

Long Term Benefit

All these additional collections would make using these items and cosmetics much easier. This would also help lay a strong foundation for adding new items to the game in the future and add some much needed consistency to these item types. Not only that, but it would also encourage players to actively seek out these items more often, since they will no longer take up space in their limited inventory space. It would also make these items more visible to players and give them more goals to work for.

The wardrobe was one of the most impactful features ever added to the game in my opinion. These account wide collections won't be as impactful, but I believe they'll have a similar effect on player interest in all these items.

[Alanar.9854]

I must agree with basically all of these ideas, though there could be other ways of accomplishing the task.

The wardrobe is what makes this Fashion Wars 2 and is a core component of the economy and player drive. Organizing everything into the wardrobe would be a phenomenal way to encourage actual collecting and, as the OP stated, providing goals.

Before it gets out of hand with other new legendary trinkets, it really should be a priority to change how auras are handled. I'm not of the mind that legendary trinkets should be dyeable but certainly able to be hidden.

[Roam.5208]

I agree with a lot, but NOT the six slots for auras idea. I think one, maybe two, max.

[Shaaba.5672]

Did I see a tonic wardrobe suggested? upvote

But yeah, a lot of this would be great and has been a popular feature to request. I'm all for it and will support it each time I see it come up. I also would like to suggest two aura slots max. I know people will freak out and hate the limitations on their self expression, but my eyes can't take it anymore. I'm sorry if there are people who responsibly use three or more auras, but you can blame it on the your irresponsible, hooligan classmates. This is why we can't have nice things. :p

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

All of those are good ideas. So good that ANet has, at times, also endorsed (in purpose, if not in the specific details). When they have, they've always said (words to the effect of): it's harder to implement than it sounds, since they want the quality to be at least as good as the (good) systems we already have.

That doesn't mean people should stop asking for this sort of thing — on the contrary, I think it suggests we should keep asking. However, it also means I'm not holding my breath waiting.

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Here's my tl;dr of the specific suggestions and my comments:

1. Cosmetic Tonics — create a wardrobe slot for these and apply them as you would an outfit (select and check/don't check).
2. Aura slots — add aura slots to the equipment panel; apply from the wardrobe. Convert some tonics into Auras.
3. Toy Box — also use these from the hero panel.
4. Permanent Gathering Tools — separate the cosmetic aspects from the functionality of the gathering tools and allow people to apply 'skins' from the wardrobe.

I'd prefer to see an actual Toy Box and a Tonic Box that were separate inventory items. You could choose to store toys or not, you could choose to put it in a shared inventory slot or not. These seem functionally different to me from the 'wardrobe', so I'd prefer to see them treated differently.

I'd be content with Auras being added to the wardrobe panel, as long as we can still stack intensity — I'd also be ok if we got e.g. two slots for free and needed to pay gems to unlock more.

The gathering tools are more complicated, because some skins include different functionality (some drop flakes, some unbound, some sprockets). So ANet would either have to drop that functionality (and deal with unhappy customers who spent extra for it) or create three elements: the infinite use (an account-wide unlock), the skin (per character), and the functionality (which would also be per character). Since that's a lot of work, I'd prefer to see a simpler solution sooner, so I'm hoping ANet could find a way to provide flakes, unbound, and sprockets through some other mechanic.

[Malthurius.6870]

@Roam.5208 said:I agree with a lot, but NOT the six slots for auras idea. I think one, maybe two, max.

The only reason I suggested 6 slots is because 1 or 2 slots would feel like a step back for players who, say, have 6 ghostly essences stacked on them and like the way that looks. I'm actually really happy to see that there's some aversion to aura stacking and I'm more personally in favor of your suggestion.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:The gathering tools are more complicated, because some skins include different functionality (some drop flakes, some unbound, some sprockets). So ANet would either have to drop that functionality (and deal with unhappy customers who spent extra for it) or create three elements: the infinite use (an account-wide unlock), the skin (per character), and the functionality (which would also be per character). Since that's a lot of work, I'd prefer to see a simpler solution sooner, so I'm hoping ANet could find a way to provide flakes, unbound, and sprockets through some other mechanic.

I would basically disassociate the gathering bonuses from the skins/animations themselves and leave them on the gathering tool. Whatever gathering tool you still have equipped would give the appropriate gathering bonus for what it is.

Instead of physically changing the skin/animation on the item itself (like the armor/weapon wardrobe does), I suggest that you choose the permanent gathering tool skin/animation from the ones you have unlocked and it overrides the skin/animation on any and all gathering tools (even ones with charges) until you change it. This would give you the desired appearance without compromising any functionality.

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Yeah, I know that Anet has stated that there's a lot of work to do to make these kind of systems. Heck, it seemed like a lot of work to get existing items added into the material storage system. So going through every single one of these items that can be applicable to a system like this and adding them to a wardrobe like system can take them a lot of time. But I think it would be development time well spent. I think it would be a great boon to player interest and retention.

[Wolfheart.7483]

@Malthurius.6870 said:

@Roam.5208 said:I agree with a lot, but NOT the six slots for auras idea. I think one, maybe two, max.

The only reason I suggested 6 slots is because 1 or 2 slots would

feel

like a step back for players who, say, have 6 ghostly essences stacked on them and like the way that looks. I'm actually really happy to see that there's some aversion to aura stacking and I'm more personally in favor of your suggestion.

Limiting to one or two rather than more is only relevant because you may not want to see them on other players. I am all in favor of a game option to tone down or hide auras of other players but those players should not be limited to one or two simply because others may not want to see them.