Here is a proposal for supporting loadouts in the game. I’m in favor of supporting a LOT of loadouts, and would be interested in hearing other thoughts.
Number of loadouts:
To determine get a ballpark of the number of loadouts, we have to consider the following:
Combat loadouts:
Warded sets: 4 (Ancients, Angry Earth, Corrupted, Lost)
Protection gems: 4 (Fire, Ice, Nature, Void).
We may want 4 sets of jewelry (Amulet, Earring, Ring) permanently gemmed with T5 protection gems of each type.
Loadouts for all combinations of the above gives us 16 combat sets.
Throw in a beast ward set and that gives us 17 combat sets.
And I’m not even considering other dimensions like PvP, or role (DPS, Healer, Tank) or attributes (Dex, Focus, Int, Str)
Trade skill loadouts:
Arcanists, Armorers, Chefs, Engineers, Fishermans, Harvesters, Jewelcrafters, Lumberjacks, Skinners, Smelters, Stonecutters, Tanners, Weaponsmiths, Woodworkers.
That’s 14 trade skill sets.
So that gives us 14 + 17 = 31 sets.
Throw in a luck set, and that gives us 32 loadouts.
Solution: Armor Dolls (Action Figures)!
Loadouts are supported through Armor Dolls placed in a player’s house.
Up to 4 dolls can be placed in each house.
Three levels of dolls, crafted through the furnishing trade skill.
Minor Armor Doll: Supports 1 loadout
Basic Armor Doll: Supports 2 loadouts.
Major Armor Doll: Supports 3 loadouts.
- Loadouts can be named by the player.
- Items in a loadout do not have to be in the player’s inventory and do not count towards the carried weight. They just have to be in the player’s storage or inventory. If the item is no longer in the player’s storage/inventory, it is removed from all loadouts it appears in.
- 1 loadout out of the possible 36 is activated through a menu on the player bio page. A similar menu should exist to select trophy buffs so all possible trophies can be placed in each house. The rationale is that traveling to each house to change a loadout or trophy buff is a chore and doesn’t make the game challenging in a fun way.
Other thoughts:
- Each loadout could include an attribute and weapon spec, though this might make the system a little complex.
- An easy to use loadout system would help players get experience in other roles like Tank, DPS or Healer (and make it easier to get full groups to do mutations) or allow players who don’t normally PvP to build a PvP loadout and get PvP experience.