Hi folks!
Queen is approaching rapidly, so I thought I would take some time to explain the new vanity features coming up.
The update will contain multiple additions to the "Appearance" section of the Player Menu (accessible by clicking your character Avatar or name in the top left corner of the screen):
1. Avatar Selection
2. Wardrobe
3. Emotes
4. Misc.
Avatar Selection
As the "old" avatar selection screen was running out of space to display all of the avatars and rings, we decided to integrate the avatars into the Appearance menu.
When opening the menu, you will be greeted by a nice new window showcasing all of your unlocked avatars and rings.
Here you will be able to set the combination that you feel suits your character best. To do that simply click the avatar and ring that you want to display.
Your currently selected combination will always be displayed at the far top of the menu. The individual pieces will also have a golden backplate, to make them easier to spot within the list of entries.
Wardrobe
Similar to the already implemented Mount Skins system, Wardrobe Skins will let you change the visual appearance of your equipped armor and weapons. Applied skins are purely cosmetic and don't alter stats of items in any way.
When opening the corresponding tab of the appearance menu you will be presented with a mannequin with dropslots, very similar to your inventory. This is your current selection of Wardrobe Skins.
Below this you will find a list of possible skins for every equipment slot that can have a skin applied. Skins that require purchase before use will be marked with a gold symbol in the bottom right corner, while skins that require unlock via an unlock item are marked with a lock. Unlocked skins are not marked with any symbol. To apply a skin simply drag & drop it into its corresponding mannequin dropfield or right-click it. Once you have done that, the selected skin will update ingame immediately.
When trying to equip locked skins or when left-clicking any skin you will open a preview window that allows you to view, equip or purchase the selected skins.
Once unlocked, Skins are permanent and you cannot lose them. Just like Mount Skins, Wardrobe Skins are account-wide, so you can use your skins on all characters of that account.
Spells on Wardrobe Skins
For the launch of the Wardrobe feature we are converting lots of old armors and weapons into skins, as we did with many old mounts (for a full list of these items read this post).
Some of these items have spells attached to them. To avoid losing these spells we came up with a system that allows you to use these spells alongside your normal equipment spells.
Whenever equipping a skin that has spells, you will notice a small button to the right of your spellbar.
Clicking this button or using its hotkey (default: Shift+V) will switch your spellbar to the golden vanity mode. Here you can perform any spells included in your vanity equipment according to its slot.
Wardrobe Visibility & Settings
Wardrobe skins mostly follow the same visibility rules as mount skins, with a few notable exceptions.
First and foremost, armor skins apply to your character no matter what you wear underneath, meaning skins will also be visible on a naked character.
When wearing weapon skins in main hand and/or offhand slots, these skins will always be visible while in any city cluster, including islands and hideouts. While outside of these "safe" areas, your character will be displayed with the actual equipped weapons and only switch to vanity equipment once a vanity spell with an animation is triggered. So if you ever felt destined to run through the black zones as an innkeeper wielding a great warhammer, now you can do that ;).
Additionally, as we don't want wardrobe skins to interfere with instanced PvP content like city fights, Crystal League, Arena, or Hellgates, all vanity visibility will be disabled within these areas regardless of your settings.
Edit: Following player feedback, we have changed the visibility settings for Wardrobe skins in Queen Patch 2.
Wardrobe skin settings for instanced PvP and PvE areas now no longer overwrite the player's custom settings. This means that players who choose "always show" will see Wardrobe Skins (on themselves, their guild/alliance mates, or others, per their settings) in Hellgates, Crystal League Matches, City Fights, Arena and Expeditions.
Similar to Mount Skins, Wardrobe Skins will have visibility options in the settings menu under general settings. Per default, Wardrobe Skins are always visible. But you can decide to hide them for yourself, play partners or opponents to reveal their "original" equipment in non-safe zones. The setup will look similar to this:
Show wardrobe for yourself:
Always (Default)
Only in safe areas
Show wardrobe of play partners (Same Guild, Alliance or Party):
Always (Default)
Only in safe areas
Show wardrobe of opponents:
Always (Default)
Only in safe areas
Emotes
To make the use of emotes easier, we have integrated them into a subsection in the player menu. When opening the player menu, you will now be able to perform emotes by simply selecting them from the fold out list.
Additionally, you can now set up to five emotes directly to a hotkey via the key bindings settings.
Misc
- Appearance UI can now be opened via a Hotkey (default: V)
- Players can now be inspected using via a Hotkey (default: Y)
I hope this post gives you an idea of how to use the new systems in place. Of course we will be adding additional content for all things vanity in the future.
Do you have any questions or feedback?
- Mo
Queen is approaching rapidly, so I thought I would take some time to explain the new vanity features coming up.
The update will contain multiple additions to the "Appearance" section of the Player Menu (accessible by clicking your character Avatar or name in the top left corner of the screen):
1. Avatar Selection
2. Wardrobe
3. Emotes
4. Misc.
Avatar Selection
As the "old" avatar selection screen was running out of space to display all of the avatars and rings, we decided to integrate the avatars into the Appearance menu.
When opening the menu, you will be greeted by a nice new window showcasing all of your unlocked avatars and rings.
Here you will be able to set the combination that you feel suits your character best. To do that simply click the avatar and ring that you want to display.
Your currently selected combination will always be displayed at the far top of the menu. The individual pieces will also have a golden backplate, to make them easier to spot within the list of entries.
Wardrobe
Similar to the already implemented Mount Skins system, Wardrobe Skins will let you change the visual appearance of your equipped armor and weapons. Applied skins are purely cosmetic and don't alter stats of items in any way.
When opening the corresponding tab of the appearance menu you will be presented with a mannequin with dropslots, very similar to your inventory. This is your current selection of Wardrobe Skins.
Below this you will find a list of possible skins for every equipment slot that can have a skin applied. Skins that require purchase before use will be marked with a gold symbol in the bottom right corner, while skins that require unlock via an unlock item are marked with a lock. Unlocked skins are not marked with any symbol. To apply a skin simply drag & drop it into its corresponding mannequin dropfield or right-click it. Once you have done that, the selected skin will update ingame immediately.
When trying to equip locked skins or when left-clicking any skin you will open a preview window that allows you to view, equip or purchase the selected skins.
Once unlocked, Skins are permanent and you cannot lose them. Just like Mount Skins, Wardrobe Skins are account-wide, so you can use your skins on all characters of that account.
Spells on Wardrobe Skins
For the launch of the Wardrobe feature we are converting lots of old armors and weapons into skins, as we did with many old mounts (for a full list of these items read this post).
Some of these items have spells attached to them. To avoid losing these spells we came up with a system that allows you to use these spells alongside your normal equipment spells.
Whenever equipping a skin that has spells, you will notice a small button to the right of your spellbar.
Clicking this button or using its hotkey (default: Shift+V) will switch your spellbar to the golden vanity mode. Here you can perform any spells included in your vanity equipment according to its slot.
Wardrobe Visibility & Settings
Wardrobe skins mostly follow the same visibility rules as mount skins, with a few notable exceptions.
First and foremost, armor skins apply to your character no matter what you wear underneath, meaning skins will also be visible on a naked character.
When wearing weapon skins in main hand and/or offhand slots, these skins will always be visible while in any city cluster, including islands and hideouts. While outside of these "safe" areas, your character will be displayed with the actual equipped weapons and only switch to vanity equipment once a vanity spell with an animation is triggered. So if you ever felt destined to run through the black zones as an innkeeper wielding a great warhammer, now you can do that ;).
Edit: Following player feedback, we have changed the visibility settings for Wardrobe skins in Queen Patch 2.
Wardrobe skin settings for instanced PvP and PvE areas now no longer overwrite the player's custom settings. This means that players who choose "always show" will see Wardrobe Skins (on themselves, their guild/alliance mates, or others, per their settings) in Hellgates, Crystal League Matches, City Fights, Arena and Expeditions.
Similar to Mount Skins, Wardrobe Skins will have visibility options in the settings menu under general settings. Per default, Wardrobe Skins are always visible. But you can decide to hide them for yourself, play partners or opponents to reveal their "original" equipment in non-safe zones. The setup will look similar to this:
Show wardrobe for yourself:
Always (Default)
Only in safe areas
Show wardrobe of play partners (Same Guild, Alliance or Party):
Always (Default)
Only in safe areas
Show wardrobe of opponents:
Always (Default)
Only in safe areas
Emotes
To make the use of emotes easier, we have integrated them into a subsection in the player menu. When opening the player menu, you will now be able to perform emotes by simply selecting them from the fold out list.
Additionally, you can now set up to five emotes directly to a hotkey via the key bindings settings.
Misc
- Appearance UI can now be opened via a Hotkey (default: V)
- Players can now be inspected using via a Hotkey (default: Y)
I hope this post gives you an idea of how to use the new systems in place. Of course we will be adding additional content for all things vanity in the future.
Do you have any questions or feedback?
- Mo
