Dec 3, 2011

Posted by in Blue Milk & Cereal | 19 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Will You Miss Color Matching On Gear?

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Some time ago, BioWare revealed that they had a checkbox in the preferences that would allow players to automatically match the color of their gear to the primary color of their chest armor. This would prevent the “clown on acid” look of armor sets that became the unfortunate norm in other games. Everyone seemed happy with this level of customization.

In a recent patch however, BioWare seems to have removed support for the option. As usual, this has caused some discussion on the forums. Why would they remove a feature that offers customization options to the player? Was it causing a technical problem? Or perhaps, maybe they’re making way for an appearance tab, where such an option wouldn’t be as necessary.

Either way, let us know your thoughts! Why do you think it was removed, and would you like to see it put back in?

Would you like the option to match the color of the rest of your gear to your chest piece put back in?

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  1. i am more interested in a smooth launch than uniform-looking gear. if there is enough of a demand from players then i’m sure bioware will put it in. it’s too early to nerd rage about little stuff like this. let us not forget, the game still hasn’t launched yet…

  2. I kept looking for this tab when my BH got a little weird looking. I looked and looked and looked and could not find it. Nice to know it was removed. Thought I was going a lil nuts. It was a very nice option to keep your Toon looking cool. You can always turn it off if you want but yeah man bring it back. I enjoyed it!

  3. I kinda enjoyed the feature myself…hopefully they bring it back for launch

  4. No reason for them to have removed this. At least as far as launch goes. If they removed it for testing purposes, then that’s all well and good. But it should definitely be in for launch. This and the recent change to mod slots on Artifact gear is somewhat troubling. I really hope there was just some testing purpose to this, and that it will be in on launch day.

    • You need to get out more if not being able to color coordinate your pixels on a video game is “troubling.”

      • I assumed i didn’t need to qualify the statement to indicate that it was within the context of an online computer game. Seeing as how we are here on a site made to discuss the game, i assumed we were all on the same page with that one.

        For clarity: it is troubling in terms of development and changes prior to launch. Anyone who witnessed what happened to WAR in the two months before launch knows to be wary of any changes close to release. I am not drawing a comparison to those two, just saying that care needs to be taken by developers with regard to what their future players see happening.

        Their radio silence on this issue isn’t doing them any favors. I do not believe they owe us answers, i’m not that kinda person. I do believe clear communication with your fanbase is important, especially 2 weeks before launch when there are concerns regarding customization and appearance options within the game. See the film “The American President” for a nice speech on what people will listen to when they have nothing but lies or misinformation to go off of.

        • They have not been radio silent. Yellow posts have been made about the feature.

          Broad assumptions are dangerous.

          BW has been turning options on and off during different builds to test out the metrics and get solid data.

          As far as any technical reason to turn it off, well yes there is. Having the option can create more lag when each player you are near is having to send an additional bit of information to the server then back to your client. Multiply this by each player in a crowded place and it could create lag.

          However, we are not without hope and their is a possibility the option will come back.

  5. I don’t remember them telling us it was going away or even in patch notes. Did I miss something? Perhaps it is just shut off until launch? I was looking forward to matching and not a green gear nub, lol

    • Oneiros Lucidity says:

      They did mention it a few builds back, I think after the second beta weekend. If I remember correctly, it was also noted on by one of the devs that they take things out to specifically test without them. This was in response to the initial clamor of it’s removal. So the only source saying that it will actually be removed for launch is the rumor mill. At this point, my money is on the feature existing at launch.

  6. I like it a lot, but if it’s creating instability or massive graphical lag, then I’m fine with them removing it. I would assume there’s a reason for it, and it’s not just a random removal.

    • Those kinds of reasonable assumptions are pretty much the exact opposite of what goes on over at the official forums. Seriously, it’s like some kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland over there!

      I would just like to see it in at launch. If they had reasons to test without it, that’s fine. But it would be nice to have in a couple weeks.

      • Bielduwyn says:

        If you were to look at the official forums you’d think they were about to release some unplayable, glitchy mess that looked like an N64, nay, a Playstation 1 game and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever (unless they add their suggestions right this instant, then it’ll become GOTY material overnight).

  7. In the November build they replaced almost every item graphic in the game, and in the notes it was said that the ‘Match Chestplate’ option was disabled to test out the new item designs.

    Of course, this was back before the NDA drop and even under NDA we couldn’t post build notes on the tester forums. And now those build notes have disappeared into the ether with the big updates since then, and so we get this problem =b I’m pretty certain the option will return for launch.

  8. A great feature in RIFT was the ability to dye your pieces of armor to end up with a uniform and customized look. Bioware’s option isn’t the same, but they are missing out on a great opportunity by leaving it out.

  9. They removed it so beta testers could search for texture bugs easier. And then the forums explode.

  10. Honestly I haven’t really seen anything quite extreme as the picture in the article. Bioware did a good job on the gear textures, and nothing really looks too out of place from what I’ve seen.

  11. jeremy_pwnz says:

    I feel u should have 2 earn your gear, I hated in WoW when all the scrubs would get their welfare epics.

  12. JudgeMarek says:

    I read on the forums yesterday(sorry the SWTOR site is down currently, so I cannot link) that they removed the color matching feature in order to make sure that all the armor textures were proper before full release. I do not know how valid this information is, but it is a very likely scenario.

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