Meanwhile in Guild Wars 2…
M’colleague found some cosmetic items in the Guild Wars 2 store, and seeing as we each had some gems in our wallets, we decided to try them out for style. You can’t deny that Charr look rather splendid in shades – m’colleague on the right hand side doing a fine impersonation of Ozzy Osbourne, I think you’ll agree.
But it was the hats that really topped the bill; I think I’m looking quite pimp, there on the left. Alas, they share the same cosmetic slot as the shades, and indeed can only be equipped in cosmetic outfit mode, which means that you can’t charge into combat while wearing a top hat as you can in at least one other game; well you could, but you wouldn’t have any armour or weapons available to you, so it would probably be a short, if fabulous looking, death.
Can you use the transmutation stones to put the appearance of a cosmetic item on a piece of combat gear? I’ve got admit I’ve not tried that yet, but my latest alt in the GW2 beta is a pistol-packing charr thief and he would look AWESOME with those aviator shades and one of the trenchcoats…
Scratch that idea – just tried it. It seems “head armour” and “head clothing” can’t be combined. Pity…
Ah, good thought, and it’s a shame indeed that it didn’t work.
I think there’s definitely a policy of keeping cosmetic/town clothing and adventuring armour separate. I imagine it’ll keep adventuring parties looking fairly sane, but it’s going to be quite the carnival in towns and cities.
A welcome return of Hat News!
Those Charr do look spiffing, and it is indeed a wasted opportunity that such sartorial elegance cannot be seen on the battlefield.
I imagine m’colleague will perform a more exhaustive hat news post at some point, but there certainly seems to be potential for it from these tentative initial investigations.
I, personally, am rather disappointed that armour appearances aren’t a tad bit more customisable. Although the fact that one can purchase gems with ingame gold somewhat makes up for that.
I think Transmutation Stones will definitely help there, and the nice thing is that they work for weapons too.
I have to say that I think the dye system is fantastic. It’s great to be allowed to freely change dye options whenever and wherever, and for no fee. I also like the fact that they granted a set of base dyes to start with, then made the rest collectibles, which adds another fun ‘achievement’ feature to the game.
My initial impressions of the cosmetics are certainly favourable; it’s not quite as flexible as LotRO’s system, but I think it has potential and the dye system is most splendid indeed.