Pls make weapons and backpack dyeable!

[Slowpokeking.8720]

At least some of them, it would be so cool to dye the holosmith' lightsaber.

[Wondrouswall.7169]

But some people would dye if that happened.

[Issildia.1289]

@Slowpokeking.8720 said:At least some of them, it would be so cool to dye the holosmith' lightsaber.

^ A thousand times YES! I loved the dyeable weapons from the first game. And I bought the moth wings backpack/glider thinking I could dye it. It was a huge disappointment when I realized my mistake.

Now, I am very much aware the work that would need to go into developing dyeable areas for all the weapons in the game and all back packs. I am a software engineer, so I get it. But maybe a few items could be converted over at a time, especially the most requested items.. Maybe put up a poll asking players which 10 items they wish were dyeable and try to make it happen. And ensure that most future items could be dyed as well. I know when I am coding that it is so much easier to make it right the first time, than to fish through the code to make changes months later.

[STIHL.2489]

well what if they only allowed some back items to be dye-ed, maybe just the future ones, for example, or just the ones that had glider combos and if you dye the glider you dye the back item.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

Here's a former dev explaining why we can't dye weapons and aren't likely to every be able to

...the decision to dye armor but not weapons was a design one (in the sense we chose to do it, not that there were insurmountable technical issues), and made pretty early.

• We wanted a much richer dye system for GW2 than we had in GW1.
• This would require some changes to the way that the source art was authored, which increased the complexity (and thus time) of doing so.
• That additional complexity pays off best for armor, which is more visible on-screen than weapons generally are,
• and so (I think) it was decided that we wouldn't bother authoring dye support into the weapon art.
• Eventually this decision would have led to code changes or optimization relying on that assumption, and we arrive at where we are today.

As with all things, it could be made possible to dye weapons with sufficient code and art resources sunk into it. But

it would be a nontrivial undertaking

(and probably a non-trivial patch download!) to

re-author all the existing source art with appropriate metadata for dye channels.

(text is verbatim; emphasis and bullet points are mine)

The reasons are the same for backpacks, which is why gliders can be dyed, but not otherwise identical back skins. (I didn't save the dev quote for backs, but if someone really wants it, I'm sure I or someone else can find it. Eventually.)

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tl;dr It's only "possible" in a theoretical sense

• They decided long before launch that there wasn't enough bang for the buck (effort|time) to dye weapons.
• The existing game depends on that decision, so changing it would mean re-rendering every single weapon in the game (whether dyeable or not), plus additional QA to make sure weapons work properly with extra 'metadata'.

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For what it's worth, a few of the past requests from the old forums

• https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Weapon-Dye/4662447
• https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Weapon-dyes/3344528
• https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Dye-able-Weapons/5768082
• https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Let-us-dye-weapons/4547784
• https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/hot/Weapon-dye-Application/4818242
• https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/hot/Weapons-back-Dye/5090753
• https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Dyes-for-weapons/5836961
• https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-Dye-Channels-on-Legendaries/6521161

[Narrrz.7532]

I understand the reasons this is impractical to implement, but i still think it's a good idea.

Bear in mind it need not be a total conversion style thing, and need not apply to all weapons/backpacks. It could be implemented slowly, with testing done on each piece as its implemented, before moving onto other existing ones.

The holosmith sword is perhaps the most spectacular argument so far as to why they should take the time and put in the effort to make it so.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Narrrz.7532 said:Bear in mind it need not be a total conversion style thing, and need not apply to all weapons/backpacks. It could be implemented slowly, with testing done on each piece as its implemented, before moving onto other existing ones.

You'll probably want to re-read the developer's comments again. It cannot be done the way you've described, not even on a trial basis. The entire system has to be overhauled first and then every weapon (and back) has to be converted to the new system, regardless of whether they make any dyeable at all.

Compare that with increasing flexibility when dyeing armor. A lot of people have asked ANet to increase the number of channels in armor pieces. All the ones that have one, two, or three channels could be converted to four (if ANet chose to do the work): the system for four channels already exists, so it's simply a matter of redoing each piece. Accordingly, they could convert them all or choose to slowly convert them on a trial basis. ("Simply" doesn't necessarily mean "easy," only that it's straightforward to describe.)

In contrast, since weapons don't have any capability to be dyed currently, they have to create the system that allows that to happen. And since all of the existing skins were made assuming that they couldn't be dyed, they have to be redone to take that into account, regardless of whether they will ever become dyeable. (In some cases, that will be largely copy/paste; in some, it could mean starting from scratch. However, every single skin has to be reviewed and some work will need to be done on all of them.)

I do miss this feature from GW1, but I far prefer that ANet give us newer skins rather than spend enormous amounts of time to redo every single old skin.

[DebraKadabra.5278]

@Narrrz.7532 said:I understand the reasons this is impractical to implement, but i still think it's a good idea.

Yeah, I agree with that.

[AegisRunestone.8672]

@Wondrouswall.7169 said:But some people would dye if that happened.

But, here at the Kochi Dye Shop Fashion Wars, we live to dye! =)

Edit: I would love to be able to dye my backpacks and weapons (especially if they added capes as backpieces, dye channels would be required).

[Lonami.2987]

I think this is something that they'll need to do some day, even if just as marketing for new weapons around an expansion.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

• The existing game depends on that decision, so changing it would mean re-rendering every single weapon in the game (whether dyeable or not), plus additional QA to make sure weapons work properly with extra 'metadata'.

That wouldn't happen, they would just disable dye channels or set them to 0 with the older weapons that don't get upgraded, just like there are armor pieces without dye channels.

[akenoyuki.8210]

Dye-able weapon will be look so awesome <3

But I think it's impossible implement it on the weapon we currently haveMaybe it's possible on the new weapon edition?(Or npc to exchange our current weapon to the new one that dye-able)

[sorudo.9054]

the game has GW1 as basis, saying it would require a total new system is bogus since it's already inside their system.sure they need to change the weapon skins to be adaptable for the dye system but beside that it's actually quite easy relatively speaking, the same goes for backpack dye's.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

There are lots of popular player suggestions where we don't have a direct response from ANet about whether something is likely or even realistically possible. In the case of dyeing weapons, ANet's been very clear that: of course it's possible, but it would be an enormous drain on resources. I'm not sure why people aren't willing to accept their word on this, especially since these are exactly the same people who would be in charge of design & implementation & QA.

I'm not saying it can't ever happen. I am saying that it's not realistic to expect that it can happen anytime soon, because there are so many other features (big & small) that we want (and that they want and/or have been planning for years).

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@Lonami.2987 said:I think this is something that they'll need to do some day, even if just as marketing for new weapons around an expansion.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

• The existing game depends on that decision, so changing it would mean re-rendering every single weapon in the game (whether dyeable or not), plus additional QA to make sure weapons work properly with extra 'metadata'.

That wouldn't happen, they would just disable dye channels or set them to 0 with the older weapons that don't get upgraded, just like there are armor pieces without dye channels.

You think that ANet hasn't considered that possibility? They have described the process more than once and each time, they are clear that all existing weapons (and backs) would have to be retrofitted to the new system to avoid breaking anything, even if they don't allow them to be dyed, including the possibility of disabling the dye channels or setting them to a fixed color. It's not at all like existing armor pieces without visible dye channels, because the capability to dye them already exists; there is no existing capability to dye weapons. The developers set up the game and their tools assuming weapons would never be dyed and assuming that armor can always be dyed.

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@sorudo.9054 said:the game has GW1 as basis, saying it would require a total new system is bogus since it's already inside their system.sure they need to change the weapon skins to be adaptable for the dye system but beside that it's actually quite easy relatively speaking, the same goes for backpack dye's.

The engine might have the same origins, but it's been heavily modified. Just because something existed in GW1 doesn't mean it exists for practical purposes in GW2 or that it's "quite easy", relatively speaking or otherwise.