Skin progression

  • SansSariph
    Lord
    Insider

    Something I think the game would benefit from is progressive enhancement of skins.

    The good news is - we already have this in the 2x faction-specific cosmetics you unlock every 5 levels.

    I'd love to see this same concept applied to other skins in the shop - everything from peg legs to hats to hull paint to sails.

    Imagine getting basic blue sails with a simple fleur-de-lis, then an upgrade that adds colored stripes on the edges, then another upgrade that adds gilded flourishes around the fleur-de-lis, etc.

    This accomplishes some major goals:

    • More unlocks and more motivation to voyage. At the moment there is a long dry spell between once you start hoarding enough gold to get the cool things you want (ship customizations especially) and hitting 50/50/50. The level 50 rewards and the others in between frankly aren't that exciting, generally being recolors of loot you can already buy. I think we should unlock something every single level if possible.
    • More gold sinks. Make the upgraded versions get progressively, exponentially more expensive. Once I get my 70k ship enhancements I don't even know that I'll care about gold anymore. What is there to spend it on? Nothing in this game breaks the bank and eventually your gold is just a score.
    • More investment in the skins I have. I love my faction cosmetics - I am using the spyglass, watch, compass, shovel, tankard, and lantern. I have not bought replacements. I really enjoy hitting those level 5 milestones and adding some additional small detail to each one and seeing them get just slightly more respectable. If you could see some truly gorgeous hull decorations or an amazing hat in the store that you can't unlock yet, but you can buy some basic version of it and get ever-so-slightly closer to your dream version every week, you don't even notice how slowly the grind is going because you feel like you are always making forward progress.

    Ultimately this comes down to "need more (cosmetic) content", but how that content is presented to the player can make a huge difference.

    Thanks for reading!

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  • I Am Lost 77

    @sanssariph how about a full overhaul of ship customization in general. Let us pick our railing color, sail color, sail emblem, figurehead, figurehead colors, decking color, hull color, ship name, captains quarter's interior design, ships wheel color, ships capstan color. Like real full unique customization

  • SansSariph
    Lord
    Insider

    @i-am-lost-77 said in Skin progression:

    @sanssariph how about a full overhaul of ship customization in general. Let us pick our railing color, sail color, sail emblem, figurehead, figurehead colors, decking color, hull color, ship name, captains quarter's interior design, ships wheel color, ships capstan color. Like real full unique customization

    I'm all about more in depth ship customization but I think that's a separate topic - what I'm talking about here could be applied to any skin in the game, riffing on the existing sail designs was just an example.

  • I Am Lost 77

    @sanssariph i wish things weren't all the same 2 prices look here is a really nice coat $12000. look here is a tattered coat $12000.

  • SansSariph
    Lord
    Insider

    @i-am-lost-77 said in Skin progression:

    @sanssariph i wish things weren't all the same 2 prices look here is a really nice coat $12000. look here is a tattered coat $12000.

    Yeah, agreed 100%, this is related to what I am getting at. Why am I paying the same for a rusty chipped sword as I do for a fancy one? Why not allow one to upgrade into the other (and let you choose which skin you want to use along the way)?

  • SansSariph
    Lord
    Insider

    Guild Wars 2 is a model to follow here - their endgame is also about cosmetic progression and I think they mostly do a great job with it (a lot of the best skins are gated behind the cash shop... maybe don't follow that part).

    Several legendary or ascended skins follow a real progression chain where you use one stage to upgrade into the next and it's quite engaging.

    The key to cosmetic progression is to actually have progression. Buying what you want with gold as soon as you hit a magic number isn't super exciting once you have a couple of skins and no longer look like a homeless pirate.

  • LaVaStEw99
    Marauder

    @sanssariph

    I think the current "upgrades" are horrible. Why would i spend 70k on a figurehead and then upgrade it for a change of colors with double the cost. 140,000 is a lot to come by especially when i only made 1000 in 2.5 hours because of constant pvp attacks.

    Same with clothes and item sets.

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