Transmutation of gear

lirithiel

This topic is a sore point for me because I love the idea of transmuting gear and I would change the looks as often as was necessary or desirable but there are many hindrances.

First and foremost is the view appearance window and the problems associated with it. Amongst those are the shadows on the back of the character, making it impossible to see any details of the item you are considering changing to.

Second is the fact that one has to purchase an item before seeing its appearance. A terrible idea that. Who in their right mind is going to spend AD, especially now, on an item that may or may not have the desired look.

Third is the price of transmutes. Still. Too. Expensive. Even more so when you're changing gear every three months or so. Tied in with this is that you have a good chance of losing the look you had when you upgrade your gear as the piece you transmuted was artifact equipment, which either will be used for refining you new piece or destroyed in the process of acquiring said new piece.

An example is the bow I picked up in Fiery Pit whilst levelling. I really want to transmute my Elemental bow to the quest reward I received but the thing stopping me is that I will lose that appearance if I acquired the SH bow or any other bow in the future. The same goes for the artifact cloak.

I'd like to suggest some ideas to make transmuting better for all concerned. Both WoW and Diablo III have a wardrobe function that saves all skins of gear/weapons you have picked up during your adventures. That makes re-using obtained skins so much easier (and less grindy gods forbid!). I'd like to see a function added that allows you to view the look of any gear you don't own, mostly from the AH or vendors. Fix the shading in the change appearance window so we can see detail in 360 degrees. Make transmutes a lot cheaper and make them available on the zen market as well.

Feel free to add any other suggestions in an attempt to make improvements to transmuting.

silverkelt

50k ad sink is one of MANY many cost gating items that need to be removed.

mifiisu

you don't lose the appearance, you just use the transmuted item for the new transmute process, but obv you have to pay later on if you started with a free transmute item
For example, I had the body armor piece from the protector's jubilee event last year and used it to transmute my High Vizier armor. Then, since I couldn't play for the better part of the summer, I again used my old High Vizier tunic (transmuted into the jubilee item) to transmute my Elemental Alliance armor to have the looks of the jubilee event armor

lirithiel

mifiisu said:

you don't lose the appearance, you just use the transmuted item for the new transmute process,

You do when the item you transmuted is artifact equipment. Who in their right mind would choose appearance over RP? For normal gear your point is accurate ofc.

locksanpockets

A flat 5k transmute fee would be easy to implement. I asked for this long ago.

This is a subject that should give players a clue about how long they plan to stay in business. If they don't change prices like these then they don't plan on keeping this game alive.

lirithiel

locksanpockets said:

A flat 5k transmute fee would be easy to implement. I asked for this long ago.

This is a subject that should give players a clue about how long they plan to stay in business. If they don't change prices like these then they don't plan on keeping this game alive.

I'd even settle for gold as a cost to transmute gear. So many of my guildies had piles of gold that donating to the mimic is hardly ever an option for me.

silverkelt

why put anything on it.. dont give in so quickly. IT should be free, most other games allow you free cosmetic gear of anything choose.

Sell an account wardrobe so we can keep our appearances as well. They are loosing money by this system.

lirithiel

Idd they could make a killing from transmute micro-transactions in the zen store.

beckylunatic

lirithiel said:

An example is the bow I picked up in Fiery Pit whilst levelling. I really want to transmute my Elemental bow to the quest reward I received but the thing stopping me is that I will lose that appearance if I acquired the SH bow or any other bow in the future.

I agree that it would be ideal to have a saved library of appearances to choose from in order to preserve items that can only be obtained once.

That said, that series of quest reward weapons uses skins that were first made for the Aryvander (spelling?) items made in artificing/weaponsmithing, and can be recreated. Expensively! But it's possible.

lirithiel

The one I'm referring to has dragon heads on both ends of the bow. Haven't seen it anywhere else before.

beckylunatic

lirithiel said:

The one I'm referring to has dragon heads on both ends of the bow. Haven't seen it anywhere else before.

Hum, if it's dragons, then it's not the same, which is inconsistent with other classes. The bow I was thinking of is the first image in this thread:

http://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/527214/longbow-images

lirithiel

beckylunatic said:

lirithiel said:

The one I'm referring to has dragon heads on both ends of the bow. Haven't seen it anywhere else before.

Hum, if it's dragons, then it's not the same, which is inconsistent with other classes. The bow I was thinking of is the first image in this thread:

http://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/527214/longbow-images

Shieeet wait I think that is the one. Its been in my personal bank for months now so couldn't recall exactly what it looked like. Good to know that I can get that skin at least again. The mats aren't likely to be a problem.

santralafax

Cool bow!

ghoulz66

Pity they didn't think of a way to keep many old transmutes that were 100% lost during the EE launch. Put em back up in the bazaar as AD sinks or something like the arcane wanderer, ect.

santralafax

ghoulz66 said:

Pity they didn't think of a way to keep many old transmutes that were 100% lost during the EE launch. Put em back up in the bazaar as AD sinks or something like the arcane wanderer, ect.

Agreed. I've been looking for good transmutes for my new GWF weapon, and most things I find pictures of no longer exist. I should have bought the Greatsword of the Shadow Wolf while there were still 3 in the auction house, I just didn't understand why they were 200,000 ad at the time. Then the last one went up for 4 million. (Don't know if he sold it for that....)

lirithiel

Something else I would like the devs to consider is the ability to remove a transmute that has been applied to an item to re-use. This is especially important when it comes to artifact cloaks. Most cloaks are no longer available (Demonweb Wrap) or are unique (Tyranny of Dragons campaign cloaks). I no longer transmute my cloaks but just turn off the appearance as I know I will lose the look/transmute when I eventually have to refine my old cloak into the new one. Because if its the choice between RP and looks, the former will always win out.

lmk2

The cloak part is quite harmful, lots of Caturday cloaks might still be sitting somewhere.

icyphish

i would love spending Gold instead of AD for the transmutes too

beckylunatic

lmk2 said:

The cloak part is quite harmful, lots of Caturday cloaks might still be sitting somewhere.

Mine are, because if I use them, I'll lose them. So in the bank they sit.

santralafax

What was with the Caturday cloaks?

idisha

You folks cited Diablo and WOW for your cosmetics. You both are sadly at a loss even then. If you want a cosmetic system, look to LOTRO. You can swap light/med/hvy armors into cosmetic slots no matter your class. How many of you want to portray mithril chain shirt (aka I fight in my tunic)? Or what about the tank who fights in chainmail because it is ensorcelled? This is D&D Cryptic. APPEARANCE IS EVERYTHING. Your system is woefully written. Stinks even. LOTRO is ftp and they managed it. In fact, they make loads of money by throwing up cosmetic layers for cloaks, pants, shirts, armors, I mean its ridiculous the number of options they give you and all of it you can buy! (Psst money).

You all are asking why transmutation costs AD? I'm asking why transmute at all. It has a slot for you to drop your appearance item into. Leave it alone. Drop the item in the slot. Lock it. Tada, there's your appearance. When you want that appearance on a different item? Unslot it JUST LIKE AN ENCHANTMENT. Crazy right? DDO sucked wind this way. In the end, everyone looked the same. Why? Well, for one, DDO didn't have a cosmetic system to speak of.

Neither does Neverwinter.

That's right Cryptic. You don't have a cosmetic/fashion system.

Sure, you have a right click for fashion. (PS when you inspect people you can't see it)

But how many outfits do you have? 6? Laughable.

Can you preview items not in your possession? Nope.

And now what I'm hearing is that if you cosmetic an artifact and later have to use that artifact as a 'reagent'. Well. POOF there went your look that you strived hard for so thanks for that kick in the HAMSTER dismantling of your own cosmetic system.

What you have is a band-aid that you called a fashion system.

Unfortunately, I bled through mine looking for something better.

I have high hopes for this game. The graphics blow DDO out of the water. The game play isn't that bad. I love the setting (love Forgotten Realms). You're sitting on a gold mine and pawning off a system that is HAMSTER upon us. I find that rude.

So let's get away from rude, huh? Respect your players with some decent code. Thanks!

beckylunatic

santralafax said:

What was with the Caturday cloaks?

It's just a unique item that is only good for cosmetics and cannot be reclaimed or replaced. So if you apply it to an artifact neck and replace that neck later, bye bye memorabilia.

rollingonit

The Caturday Cloak and the Whispering Caverns invis cloak are my 2 most prized possessions in this game. Heh

Both unique.

Agreed though that gear cosmetics costs need to be adjusted. Seems backwards how little gear cosmetics work in this game, but I think they focus on power/cost vs cosmetic/cost.