User blog:Spinfx/Character equipment display

It's 2014, and by this time ya'll probably already noticed that many RPGs now display equipped gear on your characters. It's about time, right? After all they're using 3D models, not 2D sprites, so it's not like they have to sprite each and every possible combination of equipment.

Having said that, notice how the games which allow you to customize your character's features - specifically hairstyle - seem to always forget that helmets get in the way? Right?

So, a "show helmet" toggle option should be available. If it's checked, the helmet would be displayed when equipped; when unchecked, no helmet is displayed even when you equip one.

Such a simple thing, right? But as far as I know, only a tiny handful of MMOs have something like this (I don't know which ones, and I've played a bunch of MMOs, albeit mostly the Korean-based F2P ones back in the 2000s). Can't think of any singleplayer RPGs that do this either, although I have heard of mods for the TES games that do this.

This is merely a cosmetic thing, but imho it's about time this is a standard feature. Let's not even talk about how hair clips through helmets/other equipment, or, heck, how equipment clips through each other in general (equip a sword and wear a dress/robe, see how the sword "pokes through" the robe in several places).

I haven't actually played the newer Final Fantasy games, can anyone confirm whether those characters' saloon-like glossy hair actually correctly lay on top of armor, or simply clip through them like in all other games? Honestly, this is more of a problem for me rather than people griping about "omg y no hi-res textures". High res textures don't matter if your damn hair is clipping through your shirt collar, that's more immersion breaking than non-high res textures.

Back on topic. Here's another thing: gore. Notice how back in Dragon Age your characters can get splattered with blood? Yea that seems to be missing from most games too. Make this a toggle option, so those of us who aren't squeamish don't feel immersion breaking when your warrior swings a huge 2-handed axe and cleaves through a dozen enemies, and emerges looking as squeaky-clean as if he just stepped out from a parade. If Dragon Age could do it half a decade ago (yes, it's been that long), newer games don't have much of an excuse. Again, to me this is more important than mindlessly applying high-res textures to everything.