Image Designer Archive
Thread: Jan/8/04 patch : A new ID perk?
For clothing, I would have to say no. A tailor's greatest perk is. At master level you get bright red, electric blue, magenta, true orange, etc. Colors that players want, and only a master tailor can give them. If you give the ability to redye clothing to another profession, you cut into a tailor's most marketable asset.
So as to dying clothing, I would have to say no. Two thumbs way, way down.
Forarmor though, this would be a nice perk. Armorsmiths probably care less.Most in fact would welcome the change. It would allow mismatched colors of armor to sell where normally they might not, and they could just produce one color of armor from a factory (saving them time) and just have an ID change them later.
So for armor, I'd have to give it a big two thumbs up. Can't see a downside there.
Oh no. As a Tailor on one server and an ID on another, I can see both sides, but really; if IDs could change the color of any item, then why oh why would tailors and armorsmiths have the "skill" to make things in more than one color? It's one whole skill tree for tailors, that colors and sockets thing, yes? Yes. If IDs could dye anything, why would any tailor make anything in any color other than black? Nope. I dun like it. 
I must admit, I'm failing to see how this could possibly generate more sales for tailors, vendor nerf or not. At present, if people want an outfit in a particular colour, they mail me a custom order requesting it, and that outfit is almost always available for them on the same day it's ordered -- with the possibly-impending nerf, I would have no qualms in putting up an extra vendor specifically for those orders.
With your proposal, I need only sell one outfit to any player who happens to stop by my shop. Ever, if they decide they like a particular style, and many do. They would then have an infinite array of colours to choose from, and I would see a negation of further business from that person -- since now a large portion of their tailoring needs are not actually tailoring needs at all.
I love image design, have often wished I had more points to spend on it, and I fully agree that the class needs more love in terms of actual designs and colours. But I truly do not think this is the way to do it. It makes entirely as much sense to give tailors the ability to change a customers hair and eye colours to match the outfit they've just sold to them.
Consider this: what if ID's could change the color of furniture, currently uncolorable? Or shoudl that rightly be given to architects? Any thoughts...
The reason Image Design has come up in discussion with Armor colors only is that many armorsmiths seem to be saying they don't enjoy that aspect of armorsmithing. They would love to make factory runs of armor in a basic color and have picky customers see an Image Designer or buy a dye kit of some kind for customizing the colors. THat is not to say all Armorsmiths feel this way, some would like the opportunity to dye armor any color they want, the majority don't seem to be interested. Tailors on the other hand would descend upon our forum and beat us with mallets if the ability to redye their items were given to us 
Two things to keep in mind:
1/ There was oncea lot of opposition to us getting the ability to do body and face adjustments. Bio-engineers wanted the skill. If beta Image Designers had sat back and said, you're right all we do is makeup and hair, not plastic surgery, wemight nothave all of our face and body customizations now. I'm not arguing for or against armor dying specifically here, just saying, let's not limit ourselves to one or two facets of what makes up a person's image. We are severely lacking in the content department, and everyone knows it.
2/ There is now andthen what could be termed "striking while the iron is hot". That is, times wherea window of opportunity comes openfor a profession or group of professions. Should such a perk happen, it does not mean that it would necessarilytake the place of something else slotted to happen for the profession(s),but that something comes up that can be done easily or as part of something else, and the profession(s) happens to be in the right place at the right time. I know there is concern that wish list items not happen before bug fixing, but just remember that there are different teams working on different things in SOE 
Just some general thoughts...
Message Edited by Kwee on 01-11-2004 04:38 PM
Master tailor here--this is a terrible idea, from a clothing perspective. After getting the ability to make fleshwraps, leotards, etc., the single biggest perk for becoming a master tailor now is the ability to get the full 255 color palette. Since there is no proper item decay and the holotailoring phenomenon is knocking the crap out of tailor sales anyway, this would rob tailors of one of the very last reasons to master our profession because we're genuinely interested in it and good at it.
Please DON'T ask them to do this. It might not be the final nail in the tailoring coffin, but it would certainly start to fasten the lid down on the profession.
NJ62 wrote:
Clothing? Well... eh... yes and no. I think that if someone wants the same outfit in a 2nd color, it means he or she intends to wear both, not that he or she is bored with a particular color. It's hard enough to find an image designer that people won't be changing their outfit colors back and forth unless it's a permanent change.
I have to disagree. When I was playing over the weekend there were eight master image designers in Coronet alone. Right now "image" is separated into two classes. Image designers are in charge of changing the body and hair and tailors take care of the clothes that goes on those bodies. To me it is too bad that you practically have to be a master tailor/master image designer/master merchant (which is impossible) to have the entire "image" package, but since the classes are separated I think that we should stick to those separations. It makes sure that one class does not get hurt for the benefit of another.
Oh... and besides. I hate to think of all my nicely colored clothes that would end up being dyed black.