I was looking at my BOFFs and was surprised to notice their armor was invisible.
I liked it that they had two different appearances, one for casual wear and their full body armor when they beamed down to fight hostile actions.
I even specifically chose their armor for visuals.
It's not as realistic when they show up to fight battles in "space pyjamas".
And yes, I am aware that the armor pieces are in the tailor now, but to wear them, you've got to erase their "casual outfits".
Let me be clear, BOFFs are not player captains, with multiple outfits that can be switched on at the flick of a mouse.
That's why they should have armor visuals restored for their use, so they can have the armor and the casual outfit.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
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I was looking at my BOFFs and was surprised to notice their armor was invisible.
I liked it that they had two different appearances, one for casual wear and their full body armor when they beamed down to fight hostile actions.
I even specifically chose their armor for visuals.
It's not as realistic when they show up to fight battles in "space pyjamas".
And yes, I am aware that the armor pieces are in the tailor now, but to wear them, you've got to erase their "casual outfits".
Let me be clear, BOFFs are not player captains, with multiple outfits that can be switched on at the flick of a mouse.
That's why they should have armor visuals restored for their use, so they can have the armor and the casual outfit.
I think the stronger (and more all around profitable) choice would be to give BOffs costume slots.
But I actually think they should hold on that because I think the smarter choice there is to link costume slots to ground trait/species loadouts and there's an order that needs to be done in.
1. Give BOffs customizable traits, like Captains.
2. Incorporate species/gender selection and active trait selection into the tailor costume customization interface. Instead of species being set at the character level, it's set at the costume level. This enables a whole new area of character expansion since new species can be marketed to people who don't alt and to use with BOs. (That said, an individual BO may have extra species/trait options unlocked that other BOs do not. For example: a Diplomacy BO may have a Gorn option but can be set to other species.)
3. Give BOffs extra costume slots.
I think that's one of those things that would benefit the game but would have to happen in that order from a technical feasibility standpoint, which means some visual inconvenience until they add the BO costume slots.
I think the stronger (and more all around profitable) choice would be to give BOffs costume slots.
But I actually think they should hold on that because I think the smarter choice there is to link costume slots to ground trait/species loadouts and there's an order that needs to be done in.
1. Give BOffs customizable traits, like Captains.
YES! I would love to be able to customize my BOFFs' Traits. Hell, I'd even be willing to BUY Traits to add to their Trait pool.
2. Incorporate species/gender selection and active trait selection into the tailor costume customization interface. Instead of species being set at the character level, it's set at the costume level. This enables a whole new area of character expansion since new species can be marketed to people who don't alt and to use with BOs. (That said, an individual BO may have extra species/trait options unlocked that other BOs do not. For example: a Diplomacy BO may have a Gorn option but can be set to other species.)
Not sure how I feel about this since it would effectively eliminate the need for extra BOFFs since you could just re-species/gender/trait your BOFFs, not to mention we can't even re-species/gender our captains. You basically wouldn't need more than 3 BOFFs for each career field for a total of 9 BOFFs, and only 5 if you allowed them to change careers, too.
I think that's one of those things that would benefit the game but would have to happen in that order from a technical feasibility standpoint, which means some visual inconvenience until they add the BO costume slots.
I definitely agree with giving BOFFs extra costume slots, as long as they can get an Off Duty costume slot.
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Agreed - Traits and Extra costume slots for my buffs would get my hands in my pockets for sure. The thing that annoys me most about changing my captain's slots is that I then have to change all my Boff costumes too.
At least give BOFF's access to all of the Kit parts or all low-tier Kit parts for their costumes. Their current limited mix-match selection leaves much to be desired..
Agreed - Traits and Extra costume slots for my buffs would get my hands in my pockets for sure. The thing that annoys me most about changing my captain's slots is that I then have to change all my Boff costumes too.
Agreed. It's handy to be able to right click your portrait and get the change costume prompt when on a ground map. It'd be great to have that option for your away team, too.
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I'm not sure that's ever going to happen. I'd love it, but I doubt it. The way I understand the engine works is that each costume slot counts as another paperdoll (please correct me if I'm wrong). So if you have two costume slots, because you can basically switch those any time you want, the system loads both of those when you enter a zone. The more paperdolls being loaded by the system at once the bigger the footprint and the more it impacts every other player in zone with you. It's the same reason why they put a hard cap on the maximum number of ship slots any one player can have.
My main has 29 boffs (don't judge me! >__>). I know that's not typical, but I also know there are other players that have a lot of boffs as well on multiple characters. So if each boff suddenly got two costume slots, and I enter a zone with a few other players like myself what kind of system footprint are we going to leave? And how is it going to negatively effect other players in the same zone?
As you can clearly see, the option to enable visuals has been taken away.
I know it works for some armors. Apparently not for all. They need to fix that.
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I'm not sure that's ever going to happen. I'd love it, but I doubt it. The way I understand the engine works is that each costume slot counts as another paperdoll (please correct me if I'm wrong). So if you have two costume slots, because you can basically switch those any time you want, the system loads both of those when you enter a zone. The more paperdolls being loaded by the system at once the bigger the footprint and the more it impacts every other player in zone with you. It's the same reason why they put a hard cap on the maximum number of ship slots any one player can have.
I don't think I understand that.
But maybe if you sacrifice costume slots from your captain? Say every crew member shares extra costume slots, and they could go to either a BOFF or your captain. Would that work...?
a much more simple approach would be to link the boff's armor on/off to the captain... when you switch your armor on, so do they - when you take it off, they do as well.
2. Incorporate species/gender selection and active trait selection into the tailor costume customization interface. Instead of species being set at the character level, it's set at the costume level. This enables a whole new area of character expansion since new species can be marketed to people who don't alt and to use with BOs. (That said, an individual BO may have extra species/trait options unlocked that other BOs do not. For example: a Diplomacy BO may have a Gorn option but can be set to other species.)
This is more complex than it looks.
The way I see it, a "Race respec" (including gender change) would require all costume slots to be cleared, due to constraints within race types, genders, and costume pieces themselves.
I don't think the devs want different costume slots referencing different races+genders. I believe they want your character to have a single race+gender.
That said, race/gender respec would be an awesome thing. Make it a C-store item even and I'll gladly pay for it.
a much more simple approach would be to link the boff's armor on/off to the captain... when you switch your armor on, so do they - when you take it off, they do as well.
Except that my captain's armor visuals are always off by default.
So it wouldn't work for me.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
The way I see it, a "Race respec" (including gender change) would require all costume slots to be cleared, due to constraints within race types, genders, and costume pieces themselves.
I don't think the devs want different costume slots referencing different races+genders. I believe they want your character to have a single race+gender.
That said, race/gender respec would be an awesome thing. Make it a C-store item even and I'll gladly pay for it.
I'm suggesting that costume slots function more like ship slots.
In Slot 1, I'm a Caitian, in Slot 2, I'm a Ferengi.
First of all, racial reassignment surgery was almost trivial in TNG. But more to the point it provides synergy with space ship hot swapping. So while there is a decent immersion reason, there's enough gameplay benefit to trump immersion there for me anyway.
Cryptic won't generally push new playable species because this is very much a single alt themed game. But if your Captain changes species when they change costume slots, it makes species more marketable again. So while people race swapping constantly may lose some immersion, it's probably also the big incentive for Cryptic to ADD more playable species since it's unlikely to be profitable purely as a new character feature.
Tying trait loadouts into costume slots would be ssential for this since changing a slot's race would change it's available costume options and its available traits.
I see this as maybe a 2-3 season feature that would come in steps unless they bit the bullet and made species hotswapping a season centerpiece.
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I think the stronger (and more all around profitable) choice would be to give BOffs costume slots.
But I actually think they should hold on that because I think the smarter choice there is to link costume slots to ground trait/species loadouts and there's an order that needs to be done in.
1. Give BOffs customizable traits, like Captains.
2. Incorporate species/gender selection and active trait selection into the tailor costume customization interface. Instead of species being set at the character level, it's set at the costume level. This enables a whole new area of character expansion since new species can be marketed to people who don't alt and to use with BOs. (That said, an individual BO may have extra species/trait options unlocked that other BOs do not. For example: a Diplomacy BO may have a Gorn option but can be set to other species.)
3. Give BOffs extra costume slots.
I think that's one of those things that would benefit the game but would have to happen in that order from a technical feasibility standpoint, which means some visual inconvenience until they add the BO costume slots.
YES! I would love to be able to customize my BOFFs' Traits. Hell, I'd even be willing to BUY Traits to add to their Trait pool.
Not sure how I feel about this since it would effectively eliminate the need for extra BOFFs since you could just re-species/gender/trait your BOFFs, not to mention we can't even re-species/gender our captains. You basically wouldn't need more than 3 BOFFs for each career field for a total of 9 BOFFs, and only 5 if you allowed them to change careers, too.
I definitely agree with giving BOFFs extra costume slots, as long as they can get an Off Duty costume slot.
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Agreed. It's handy to be able to right click your portrait and get the change costume prompt when on a ground map. It'd be great to have that option for your away team, too.
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You can't.
See this screenshot.
As you can clearly see, the option to enable visuals has been taken away.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
My main has 29 boffs (don't judge me! >__>). I know that's not typical, but I also know there are other players that have a lot of boffs as well on multiple characters. So if each boff suddenly got two costume slots, and I enter a zone with a few other players like myself what kind of system footprint are we going to leave? And how is it going to negatively effect other players in the same zone?
I know it works for some armors. Apparently not for all. They need to fix that.
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But maybe if you sacrifice costume slots from your captain? Say every crew member shares extra costume slots, and they could go to either a BOFF or your captain. Would that work...?
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The new system is much better, and something which people have been asking for since the MACO and Omega armor visuals were introduced.
This is more complex than it looks.
The way I see it, a "Race respec" (including gender change) would require all costume slots to be cleared, due to constraints within race types, genders, and costume pieces themselves.
I don't think the devs want different costume slots referencing different races+genders. I believe they want your character to have a single race+gender.
That said, race/gender respec would be an awesome thing. Make it a C-store item even and I'll gladly pay for it.
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Except that my captain's armor visuals are always off by default.
So it wouldn't work for me.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
I'm suggesting that costume slots function more like ship slots.
In Slot 1, I'm a Caitian, in Slot 2, I'm a Ferengi.
First of all, racial reassignment surgery was almost trivial in TNG. But more to the point it provides synergy with space ship hot swapping. So while there is a decent immersion reason, there's enough gameplay benefit to trump immersion there for me anyway.
Cryptic won't generally push new playable species because this is very much a single alt themed game. But if your Captain changes species when they change costume slots, it makes species more marketable again. So while people race swapping constantly may lose some immersion, it's probably also the big incentive for Cryptic to ADD more playable species since it's unlikely to be profitable purely as a new character feature.
Tying trait loadouts into costume slots would be ssential for this since changing a slot's race would change it's available costume options and its available traits.
I see this as maybe a 2-3 season feature that would come in steps unless they bit the bullet and made species hotswapping a season centerpiece.