The dye system as I understand it now, is that you buy/find (?) bottles of paint and apply them to one item, much like it was in Titan Quest for example.
The system as it is is pretty cool already, especially for those who like roleplaying:
My Demonhunter, "BlackNightMan", only wears black. His victims never see him coming.
My Witch Doctor, "VoodooDude", wears mostly greens and browns. It allows him to feel one with the spirits of nature.
My Barbarian, "MrKittenLover", was banished from his tribe by his father after an incident with another Barbarian male. He wears all pink, to show the world that he feels comfortable with his sexuality despite his hardships.
Well, you get the point: for some players, dyes can add a lot of depth to the game, for others they are just a handy tool to cover up that ugly green cap. So simply adding dyes to the game should be an improvement for all players. But I was thinking, wouldn't it be fun if there's more to it? Aren't there ways the dye system could be used other than purely for the looks? I can think of two ways.
One obvious way is like some kind of medal, a tangible reward for completing a certain quest or reaching a certain achievement. These dyes could not be obtained otherwise, so when you wear them, it shows right away thay you've reached this achievement. Possible colors are: black, gold, rainbow, or something more dynamic like the clouds in the CE. Ice, fire, smoke, bright light...
The problem with this is of course the AH. It feels wrong to sell medals you've earned for others to wear them. Still this could make sense if the dyes are extremely hard to come by. If they are achievement bound, they could even have only one per account, so getting your character dressed up in all rainbow gear would be a trading achievement in itself (unless you use the RMAH).
The second is something I haven't really thought through yet, but it may be interesting for an expansion. What if dying your gear in a certain color pattern gave you a certain bonus? Like all black adds 2% dodge chance. The advantage of this is that it would add a tremendous amount of character customization. The disadvantage is that you won't be able to pick your colors purely on esthetical grounds if you want all the benefits.
So what are your thoughts? Can you think of anything else they could do to make dyes more interesting? Or are you only interested in changing your gear's colors?
I like your first thought, achievements and medals. The AH wont be a problem because you wouldonly be able to sell and buy common dyes: red, blue, yellow, green, brown etc. but the more unique dyes like black, white, smoke, cyan, indigo.. I mean the color list goes on FOREVER just go to your local paint store haha but for those dyes they would be more like the soulbound item meaning you can only use it for that one character. It will be displayed like this
Blocking trade would bring other problems though. Imagine you obtained the extremely rare PLUM color. You got it as a reward for beating inferno with a character. Pretty epic, right. So you want to save that for your best piece of armor, the one you want to wear. But that would also make that armor untradable, i.e. economically worthless. So what if you find a better armor? You won't even be able to trade away your Plum Magic Tunic. And if they won't block items in this color, they may as well not block the dye itself.
The advantage is though, that a Plum Magic Tunic would be infinitely more valuable than a violet one. Someone who's already got Plum Magic Boots may pay a lot to complet his set. So that would add economic value to your vanity reward.
So, give a vendor in ACT 1 or something the ability to wash of dyes to the original color making the armorpiece tradeable again.
Thoughts?
Actually this isn't even necessary, you could just redye it with a cheap dye in that case. But actually it would be nice to give the blacksmith the ability to 'wash' items. Just in case you want to revert an item to its original color.
As for the super rare only one dye. The problem is everyone will just horde them instead of using them because of the frequency of upgrading gear. Nobody wants to use the only one chance on anything because you know you will swap out that gear anyway.
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As for the super rare only one dye. The problem is everyone will just horde them instead of using them because of the frequency of upgrading gear. Nobody wants to use the only one chance on anything because you know you will swap out that gear anyway.
This may be true in the beginning, when we don't know the items' relative usefulness yet. But after a while you should be able to at least select some items you'll keep using on some character, I think.
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The system as it is is pretty cool already, especially for those who like roleplaying:
My Demonhunter, "BlackNightMan", only wears black. His victims never see him coming.
My Witch Doctor, "VoodooDude", wears mostly greens and browns. It allows him to feel one with the spirits of nature.
My Barbarian, "MrKittenLover", was banished from his tribe by his father after an incident with another Barbarian male. He wears all pink, to show the world that he feels comfortable with his sexuality despite his hardships.
Well, you get the point: for some players, dyes can add a lot of depth to the game, for others they are just a handy tool to cover up that ugly green cap. So simply adding dyes to the game should be an improvement for all players. But I was thinking, wouldn't it be fun if there's more to it? Aren't there ways the dye system could be used other than purely for the looks? I can think of two ways.
One obvious way is like some kind of medal, a tangible reward for completing a certain quest or reaching a certain achievement. These dyes could not be obtained otherwise, so when you wear them, it shows right away thay you've reached this achievement. Possible colors are: black, gold, rainbow, or something more dynamic like the clouds in the CE. Ice, fire, smoke, bright light...
The problem with this is of course the AH. It feels wrong to sell medals you've earned for others to wear them. Still this could make sense if the dyes are extremely hard to come by. If they are achievement bound, they could even have only one per account, so getting your character dressed up in all rainbow gear would be a trading achievement in itself (unless you use the RMAH).
The second is something I haven't really thought through yet, but it may be interesting for an expansion. What if dying your gear in a certain color pattern gave you a certain bonus? Like all black adds 2% dodge chance. The advantage of this is that it would add a tremendous amount of character customization. The disadvantage is that you won't be able to pick your colors purely on esthetical grounds if you want all the benefits.
So what are your thoughts? Can you think of anything else they could do to make dyes more interesting? Or are you only interested in changing your gear's colors?
Magic Tunic
Maroon
Chest Armor
+5 Attack
Durability 20/20
Letting people know when they inspect you its not just red.. its playing through the game on normal without a piece of clothing Maroon.
The advantage is though, that a Plum Magic Tunic would be infinitely more valuable than a violet one. Someone who's already got Plum Magic Boots may pay a lot to complet his set. So that would add economic value to your vanity reward.
There is a vendor who sells this item.
As for the super rare only one dye. The problem is everyone will just horde them instead of using them because of the frequency of upgrading gear. Nobody wants to use the only one chance on anything because you know you will swap out that gear anyway.
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