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Maybe It’s A Conspiracy At The Department Store — 15 Comments

  1. I’m right there with you. My consular has been wearing the Preceptor outfit since it came out. Imagine my surprise to find out that it now has a hood up and giant stupid looking shoulder wings. Thanks fellas!

    • Yeah, I don’t care which version looks stupider, honestly, it’s not a debate as to which version is better. I just want to be able to buy something and go on my way without worrying about combing through patch notes to make sure that the thing I just bought is something I will continue to like.

      Last night – those GLOVES. They were perfect with my outfit, and then they changed and were NOT. This cost me some serious cash because I had to add an augment slot to a different pair of gloves and then move all my mods. Any time I log in and have to spend cash just to get “back to zero” after something is borked out makes me very very irritable.

  2. That’s not good. I find it hard enough to find clothing pieces I like. Now I have to worry that they might mutate? What!? Why would anyone think this was a good idea?

    • You know, I would consider paying for outfits that mutated from day to day, like they were actual clothing worn by a real person and not just a static texture immutably placed on an animated character. I’m too lazy to do that on my own (plus the game really doesn’t support it), but even minor things like putting the hood up or not based on the weather could be pretty cool for immersion.

      That said, this can’t be happening to outfits that people purchased because they liked a specific allegedly static look.

      • Oh, yes. That kind of changing would make sense and, like you say, add to immersion.

        Though I think that, in addition to having not enough good (at least by my opinion) looks in the game, they really should’ve included more planet appropriate looks. Where is the cold weather gear for Hoth? If Quesh’s atmosphere is supposed to be dangerous, why aren’t we given some sort of breathing apparatus?

        And why not have interactive clothing? Jedi wear hooded robes in the movies, yes, but they generally take the hoods down in good weather or when inside. Have a setting where the hoods just do that. Heck, have your clothing (and even you) look beat up after a fight. (Yes, it would be odd that healing somehow fixes clothing, too, but it’s also odd that nothing ever leaves a speck of dust or a mark on you or your clothing.) Could be cool.

    • I totally get why they did the fix in the first place – because the art on the outfits didn’t match the art that was promoted, so that is a problem in itself. However, this is a case of “ship has sailed” – at least with the older stuff. Remember when they removed comms from story mode EC? People were pissed about that in part because that had been the status quo for months. The longer something has been allowed to continue, the more difficult it is to get the audience to accept a change.

      • Not sure if I’m reading you correctly, so apologies if this sounds like I’m just repeating your point.

        The dev post I linked to was made in response to the current uproar over the changes made to the outfits in this patch, 1.6.2. What I took from it was that, hopefully, they intend to find a way to give people like yourself a way to get the old look back (without it costing extra CC, which really should be a given, but I still think its important that they’ve acknowledged it) while those who like the new look can keep that. Depending how long this takes to implement, if it even can be done, it may be too little too late but at least they’ve held their hands up and admitted they didn’t think it through properly.
        I know this doesn’t fix everything for people like yourself who have already spent a lot credits pulling mods and who will likely have to do it all over again if and when the fix to the fix gets implemented, but at least Bioware seem to taking all concerns on board rather than just remaining silent and pointing to the TOS.

        • No, I’m delighted that they are acknowledging that people are mad and understanding why they are mad – and attempting to fix it. But it cracks me up every time they give a wide-eyed surprised look and say “oh! You guys are mad about that? Who would have guessed?”

          • Yep. Flogging a dead horse, but that’s where improved communication would do them a world of good. A bit more interaction on the forums, maybe proposing (or at least warning about) changes before they are made and getting feedback would help them avoid this situation. Not always going to help because sometimes they will have to make unpopular decisions simply for the good of the game, but at least a bit of warning before the change would give us time to prepare for it.

          • Well, yes and no. Yes, I’d love large and conspicuous warnings, please. But that implies and imposes a duty to READ the forums in order to SEE the warnings. While many MMO players see forums as a way of life, there are also people who do not spend their free time reading about the game (those are the people who will never see this blog). So, is it fair to expect those people to keep current with the forums as part of their gaming experience?

            If you buy a product, in general, what is your duty to keep current on that product? For example – and this is a bad example because it has to do with safety – when you own a car, you are not expected to scan the manufacturer’s website every now and then to check for recalls. They send the recall notice to your house. Again, this is a bad example because gaming changes are WAY different than safety recalls, but what I’m focusing on is what duties we, as a society, put on consumers to be informed, and to what extent is it reasonable.

  3. Indeed the problem is the presence and implementation of the change at all, as honestly I have at the least a minor problem with every item of clothing in the game. The main issue is that now that I know the Cartel Pack random contents are subject to change I would feel uncomfortable buying any Cartel Pack pieces. (Of course, I haven’t been negatively affected as others such as Njessi, as due to lack of funds, both in-game and real, I haven’t actually purchased any Cartel equipment, only browsed a lot when I was frustrated with other aspects of the game.)

    Also a little thing to Njessi about Njessi’s space pants:
    I believe you were saying the costs-more-space-commendations “Republic Pilot’s Pants” would suit your tastes even more so than your current “Pilot’s Pants” because of something about the bumpy color-changing thing on the side. As far as I can tell, the Experimental Pilot set that is directly available from the Cartel Market has the same appearance as the Republic Pilot set available from Starship Upgrades vendors, so theoretically you could get that instead of grinding space commendations. Hopefully the fact that the Experimental Pilot set is not part of the random Cartel Packs means it’s immune to the appearance changes mentioned in this article (in any case, since it’s a copy of the set from Starship Upgrades that would probably be odd anyway).
    Only problem is, when I checked five minutes ago nobody was offering it on the GTN and I feel like 10 USD is a bit expensive for just the pants.
    As for color matching, from a cursory glance the “Experimental Pilot’s Pants” seem to act the same as the Starship Upgrade vendors’ “Pilot’s Pants,” but I haven’t purchased it and tried. Do take note that the bumpy secondary color-matching panels on the outsides of the upper thighs of the “Pilot’s Pants” actually appear to be present on the shins of the “Experimental Pilot’s Pants”/”Republic Pilot’s Pants,” so if it’s true color-neutrality you’re looking for, then you might not be totally satisfied. Usually boots will cover part of that, so I suppose the severity of the effect for each pair of pants depends on whether your sides or your shins are in view more often?

    I dunno.

    • You are totally right about the experimental pilot pants. Fortunately, I was able to get the more-expensive space pants from commendations regardless (I was a few comms away when the experimental pants released, and I was mostly there). It helps a lot that when the experimental pants launched they also fixed preview-with-color-match – so I learned that the model has some weird knee pad areas that sometimes change color. Ultimately, I stuck with the original cheaper space pants because they are SHINIER and match what I’m wearing better, but future outfits may be good with the more expensive space pants.

      As for spending money (in-game and out) I totally understand. I keep saying to myself that I’m going to buy a cartel pack of coins for $40, the BIG one, then I think “what would I buy?” and I get all bogged down and end up not doing it. I’ve only bought a few things on the cartel market (mostly unlocks) with my freebie subscriber stipend, and a few cheapies on the GTN – although now that my income stream from crafting has dried up, I’m being a lot more frugal on the GTN.

  4. Replying to your last comment, as we seem to have run out of “Reply buttons” up there.

    I think the forums are a perfectly acceptable place for any and all information pertaining to the game to presented, however there should be some sort of conspicuous notification on the game launcher giving a brief overview, with a link that leads players directly to the in depth information. That way you could at least make an informed decision as to whether or not to follow it up without having to go trawling.

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