Flight Rising Discussion

A different thread today about the birdskull recolors, got me interested it seems like remakes are polarizing in the community. There seems to be two category of revamps. Loyal remakes And Replacement remakes Im going to talk about 2 examples of remakes we have been given. --- Loyal apparel remakes, are items that were remade but still loyal to the original design. Roundhorns were remade, and pretty much the same exact thing, but shorter and less biologically mature appearing than its old version. however, art wise far more consistent across all breeds. especially Bogsneak and imperial. (see them compared on all species:[url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/frd/2203513/3#post_27623928] here in this users post[/url]) [img]https://i.imgur.com/ulnJdo8.png[/img] When I say less mature appearing, I mean, literally, in nature round horns grow more coiled and thicker, the more mature round horned animal becomes (Dall sheep for example), and with the revamp they were made shorter and thinner and with, In my opinion a lot less realistic annulus in general because of the unnaturally perfect and even spacing. [img]https://i.imgur.com/dMYOKRv.png[/img] these are annulus, annuli is singular, and the age of the animal can be measured by counting them. This sheep is 8 years old. For me these loyal to the item remakes are fine even with the loss of finer details, such as the annulus in the roundhorns. --- I'm mainly curious about other peoples thoughts and feelings about a full replacement apparel remakes, that do not even look like the original sets, to the point it could have just been a separate apparel item or one that goes along side the original rather than replace it. The design of the actual item we got from the steampunk replacement. then the steampunk tail bauble item icon art still represents its older version, [img]https://www1.flightrising.com/dgen/dressing-room/dummy?breed=14&gender=0&skin=0&apparel=434,22046&xt=dressing.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/JQw0RTp.png[/img] This type of redesign bothers me somewhat, since the older version could have been preserved as its own item set, and we could have had, options, instead of what happened and had items totally steamrolled by something completely different. I can understand the staff not wanting to add too many of steampunk items, or not wanting to draw up two separate sets of a similarly themed apparel set when they make a new dragon species. also i can understand maybe replacing them because of the fact that newer dragons will always have better looking apparel simply because of apparel artists skill in the craft getting even better over time and creating inconsistency in appearance simply because they have improved. with that understanding in mind, I still think, We could have had both. [emoji=bogsneak sad size=1] and maybe, we could have just had the remakes Seven (7) new color additions that were released. instead of replacing the Five (5) original steampunk color sets Putting the "could have" aside, I feel that, the revamps that replace an item design but don't remain loyal to the originals beyond sharing the theme such as "steampunk", somewhat destroy a small piece of where fr started, despite records of them existing on wikis. (although i say that the icons are still featuring the old apparel even on the recolors that were launched with the replacement remake.) This thread has gotten really long, thanks for coming to my ted talk

I'm perfectly fine with replacing full sets with new art. As long as any particular art errors are taken care of with them. Steampunk I'm looking at you.

This is even considering that I preferred some of the old dented armor sets before they were remade. They never have kept the old versions of sets that were remade, and I'm not seeing it something that would happen going forward.

I like making things actually match the current art style, as opposed to how mismatched it can end up with putting older items with newer ones.

Eh most of the re done apparel I don't use so... I don't really mind it xD

[quote name="Falinks" date="2020-02-22 15:21:07" ] i've heard campaigns for 'sister apparel sets', so you'd have your old bronze steampunk in one set, and your new in another. that way, dragons that look bad in the new keep the old, and dragons that didn't suit the old can get apparel that fits 'em better. win-win situation, i see it. [/quote] Except that then there would be double the amount of the same items in the system as opposed to just having one set to deal with. Sticking around in the marketplace trying to find one steampunk item just to find its of the wrong type. Already enough of that issue with Ancient gene types.

Personally, I understand why apparel will be remade, to update old artwork and keep it in line with newer, better artwork. And, normally, I have no problem with that.

The problem is that this can be disruptive for the player base when it's done with no prior warning. I'll use the steampunk stuff as an example. I and many others had outfits that used the old artwork as integral parts, but the redesign changed that. In some cases, it made it better, but in other cases, it completely ruined outfits that had been carefully and meticulously planned.
I was lucky in that, even though I had designed several outfits using them, I had only completed one, so I didn't lose much other than the time spent designing the outfits. I know a number of others were not so fortunate and had to sink more money into repairing or completely redoing outfits.

I would honestly prefer if staff gave people a head's up before making such a big change. Yes, it's their site and they can do what they want, and yes, they will get naysayers no matter what they do, but wouldn't it be better to be informed that a set is going to get a big overhaul in the immediate future?

In the long run it's probably a good thing, but I dread 'em because I'm a curmudgeon who hates losing things I already have.

It depends on the reason it's done for? Art errors, yeah, fix them, and loyal remakes don't bother me that much (though the roundhorns did lose some important aspects with their update, they're much less natural looking sans the ridges and irregularities, so those remakes aren't devoid of potential controversy.) The overhauls, though? I'm never one to change things for the sake of change, and "I think the set didn't age well and it could look more streamlined" just gets my asdfghjkl on. (Steampunk wings, why...) That's definitely a case where sister sets is the superior solution than redesigning something everyone was using for its current look.

Edit: Oh, and I also consider price a factor. It's much, much worse to overhaul something people paid gems for, because suddenly it turns into an issue with real-world transactions made with retroactively... somewhat dishonest? terms.

[quote name="Reilata" date="2020-02-22 15:20:09" ] I like making things actually match the current art style, as opposed to how mismatched it can end up with putting older items with newer ones. [/quote] The art style is fairly consistent even when it comes to aged assets. It simply has improved over time. with roundhorns I think they got a remake because they were clearly copypasted from one breed onto another, But then they were given a bit more attention on some other breeds. leading to some looking pretty funky and others looking decent based on breed rather than the roundhorns actually looking good. There could have been something similar on the steampunk sets but I honestly dont really remember, and cant find comparisons that put the flaws on display. I wish there was an encyclopedia for it to just look back at the older assets there were changed. -- i think the staff already added in quite a bit of steampunk apparel like 7 color sets with 8 pieces each, is quite a lot of additional apparel. One of the steampunk sets you can only acquire from grinding in certain venue which is Tin set so I wont count that, for MP apparel here, Copper set i think u can get as coli loot but also at MP. The rest of them have bundles. The number of market items for steampunk sets has been doubled from 5 to 11 sets already. The competition that has occurred between modern and ancient genes is a bit different than the apparel tab that caters to only modern dragons.

[quote name="Laluzi" date="2020-02-22 16:07:52" ] In the long run it's probably a good thing, but I dread 'em because I'm a curmudgeon who hates losing things I already have. It depends on the reason it's done for? Art errors, yeah, fix them. "I think the set didn't age well and it could look more streamlined" just gets my asdfghjkl (steampunk wings, why) and definitely a case where sister sets is the superior solution than redesigning something everyone was using for its current look. [/quote] This, basically. There's got to be a balance they can find of updating art but not changing old lineart/coloring so drastically that it ruins years of players' carefully constructed outfits. (Although it is worth noting that I would very much like to see a lot of head apparel fixed, because so many pieces sit strangely on a lot of breeds.) But the main thing for me is, like has already been mentioned, it'd be a lot better if we could get some warning. A little heads-up goes a long way.