What I think of when I read "skins":

Battleborn Fan Creations
#4

That’s why I made something up that changes the hitbox abysmally.

Of course that argument has the easiest conclusion of “Well we don’t need to change the model at all then”. But at the same time, it could also mean “We might as well change the model slightly, in places where it doesn’t matter”.
I generally defend the point that shooting the tip of a hat shouldn’t hurt anyways. The bullet might pass the model there and actually hit a vital part, but losing hp from a piece of ripped cloth is silly imo.

Or at least skins that aren’t just pallete swaps, but actually new “skins” in the very sense of the word. Like how every Benedict skin has the star on the chest. That could be changed for example.

OR to take it a step closer towards my previous point: The mechanical parts at the side of his rocket launcher always look the same. What about some gears instead of pipes? No game-impact at all.

#5

There’s no need for sarcasm.

If you check the ‘dev tracker’ button, you should be able to track down what Jythri had said on the matter. Basically, as I understand things, there might be a few skins that do what you suggest, but they’ll be rare, given the extra work required, for even minor changes to the hitbox/silhouette.

#6

To be fair, I actually were the person to ask that question there :worried:
I just wanted to sum it up in a new topic, while also giving an example myself that could act as an anchor for my argumentation. Also it’s much easier to add thoughts this way, than adding them to a conversation that has already jumped topics ages ago.
I might add more ideas for original-similar skins to “convince” them that my approach is possible.

Also: What sarcasm? :confused:

#7

I thought the use of ‘abysmally’ was sarcastic. I see now that you may have been referring to the quick artwork. My apologies.

I recall Jythri saying that they have to be very careful with even very slight changes. Because coding. Even 'born clothing forms the hitbox, not their body, so any changes require extra code.

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#8

MentalMars had said that there’s gonna be more skins available in the in-game store. I also remember @Jythri saying there’d be skins available as loot; there will also be premium skins

#9

MentalMars has actually made a few videos showing off the currently available skins, and they’re recolors. Those are the ones that you can unlock via challenges.
From my last conversation with Jythri, I took that there wouldn’t be any skins that alter the model. Or at least that there are none right now, but it seemed like that hadn’t crossed their minds in particular until then.

As for the nature of the skins that come with the dlc, I’m highly excited to see whether they’ll be recolors as well, or if these are going to be a bit more interesting.

#10

On his Oscar Mike gameplay you can catch an opponent using a Thorn skin that isn’t part of her standard unlocks; makes her look like a “dark Elf” or something
Either way they look pretty cool

#11

That’s another recolor of her base appearance. Just watched the video in x1,5 to find it again. I saw that one too.

#12

I have come across one skin that looks like more than a recoloring of the model. During one of the streams I watched yesterday, a random Montana skin popped up showing Montana with a set of Peacekeeper armor. Normally, Monty is shirtless, but this skin had full armor up to his neck. So it seems there are more than just recolored models in the game.

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#13

Link please? I want to see that.

#14

Unfortunately it was a live stream and I didn’t have the foresight to take a screenshot. It was during one of MaddCowQQ’s streams, so you might be able to see it in his archived videos on Twitch.

#15

Thanks. I’ll try to find it.

#16

What I’m noticing is that every unlockable skin recolors the armor/clothes of the character, with exceptions to Benedict (his head feather), Miko, and robots like Marquis and Caldarius. With Thorn her hair and skin color remained the same, with her unlockable skins any way

#17

Was it this stream?:

It was posted 15 hours ago. i don’t want to watch through 8 hours of video, so I’d like you to tell me whether I got the correct video of 3.

#18

image
Benedict-US-Skin.jpg757×800 192 KB

Not a lot of changes, but not just a reskin.

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#19

Yeah! Like that, but a bunch of them for every character.

I already made a small list of skin ideas.
What do you think about Bride-Phoebe in a wedding dress? Miko as a different mushroom? Benedict as a seagull?

Those are just generic ideas. Haven’t bothered to mentally visualize freaky stuff like a Mecha-Montana yet.

#20

Well, there seem to be a few different ways to alter a character’s appearance, in ascending order of magnitude:

  • Change one or more colours/tints (blue to pink)
  • Change one or more textures (metal to leather)
  • Change actual equipment/clothing models (change a sword to an axe)
  • Change heads
  • Completely change the entire character model

I do not mind games that take extreme liberties with these when there is no competitive multiplayer, but competitive multiplayer games need to be very careful about anything past a texture swap because you start to change the recognizable silhouette of a character. For example, you could make Montana pink or change his clothing to look like bear skins, but he would still look like Montana and you as an enemy or ally would know who he is and what he is about. But as soon as you start going much further that can change.

Hit box aside, it would be a bit unfair if Montana suddenly looked like a gun-toting bear (OK, he kind of looks like that now… :stuck_out_tongue:). You would not know how to deal with that until you knew that was Montana and had committed all of the possible variations of all Battleborn to memory. Granted, before a match you should have a good idea of who you are playing with and against, but it still can be jarring.

The more I think about it, though, the more I wonder how useful appearance modifications will be. This is a first-person game, and people usually buy such things for themselves, not for others - as much as we like to think they do, most other players do not care about your character, only their own. So, if we cannot really see the changes for most of gameplay (there are some third person parts, I am aware), how important are they?

#21

League of Legends is a successful competitive game with the most active players. The skins there alter a lot (model, skill vfx, animations). The small number of skins with overbearing vfx-changes are banned in competitive play. There are like 500+ skins in the game. So I guess Battleborn players would be able to handle 3 skins and a handfull of recolors per character.

And as I already mentioned before, you just have to stay close to the original design for the hitbox. No matter how much anyone insists on the opposite, this is not a game where you lose because you weren’t able to snipe those 5mm of additional cloth with Benedict’s rockets. It’s fast paced, and not a precision-war. Even for Marquis. And I think the people at Gearbox are far smarter than the minimum required to understand, when it’s too much and when not.

To impress others of course :smile:

#22

How dare you good sir. What about the swag and the bling?

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#23

I felt left out so I spent 20 minutes on this. Meet NERV Kleese.

Get in the robot, Phoebe.

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