Suggestions

You ever just wish FR had just a small little wig, instead of oddly colored feathers and massive manes of reed-infused hair? Ever wanted a hoodie? T-shirt? Glowing red orb by your dragon's wing?

My solution: custom apparel! It'd work like custom skins and accents. You'd buy a blueprint specifically for it, draw up your apparel, and send it off for the admins to check it and make it an item. They could be pretty strict in their judging, and try to give you alternative apparel items if there are any. But, it'd solve the problem of 'if only there was this piece of apparel'.

I was thinking, since the skin/accent blueprints cost 1k and 2k each, maybe make the apparel blueprint 3k or 4k? Then it would discourage players from just drawing a specific outfit and buying it, rather than trying to find already-made apparel on-site.

Then, for coverage rules, maybe make the max 35%-40% of the total viewing square. That way, people can't just shade in the entire square and have it be technically allowed.

For art rules, mostly the same as skins/accents. Nothing graphic or NSFW, nothing 100% black, lineart has to be darker than the apparel itself, etc.

Additionally, though, prolly make it so the lineart can be the same shade as the dragon, just 'cuz it's apparel. Then, it has to be something that makes sense being apparel. Like, you can't just make a few markings or a simple necklace, jewels, etc that would be better suited as a skin or accent. It's got to overlap the lineart or go outside the silhouette in a noticeable way, and work with other apparel under it.

Trading, selling, copying, ownership rules, etc of custom apparel would work in the same way as skins and accents.

Do tell me what you guys think about it, if it's been suggested before, if you think it's a good or a bad idea and why, etc. I'm curious to see what y'all think.

I think you're greatly underestimating how much this would cost. I'd say try hundreds of USD minimum for the work. For the privilege? The reference point I see is the Kickstarter value of 300 USD, but Kickstarter packages are usually cheaper than established game customization prices.

If the staff are the ones drawing it, so the apparel matches the site style, sure I have no problem.

@Dagomor

Oh frick, I guess it would have to be a lot more expensive. Maybe a commission from the admins would be better? At the same time, though, it'd just be more work for them, on top of managing the site.

@Dragonwyspr

Oh I think the suggestion is fine, the staff can decide whether they want to offer it and figure a price they'd do it at. I've seen the price sometimes set by auctioning off the option. All I'm trying to say is, this will be something very few players can ever do if the staff are the ones drawing it.

I suppose they could offer the option to let someone create apparel and fit it for every breed and sex, but the staff would still need to add it to new breeds, and be as stringent or lax as they choose on accepting it.

@Dagomor

Definitely. Perhaps make it so you can make it just for, say, Bogsneak Males or just for Imp Females, like you can do with skins.

Ehhh, I'm on the fence.

I don't think making it super expensive because of the Kickstarter makes sense if they're user made, because the KS stuff was pricey because the actual ARTISTS draw the art for the rewards, so you're basically paying for a commission. With this, you're basically making a skin or accent that goes outside the lines. And while it should be expensive, it shouldn't be ridiculously expensive like that.

THAT SAID...

I think this works for sites like Lioden, not so much for FR.

FR goes out of its way to make art consistent across genes, apparel and such. That's why this sort of thing isn't great. I don't want usermade vistas, either. Not only would it require staff to approve/deny the things, which would go beyond just approving for style and requires, to a degree, a knowledge of things that can potentially be plagiarised or too obviously influenced by other media.

It just seems like a lot of work. Especially since FR apparel is to be used across ALL breeds (barring Ancient ones). It just wouldn't be feasible.

Stick to accents and skins.

@Greyjoy

Yeah, it'd prolly only cost a lot if you were going with paying the FR artists to make apparel. So... prolly 5k-10kG at most.

As for the raw sensibility of it, makes sense. It would definitely be a bit if a hassle for staff to even judge UM apparel.

I would say no support at any cost.

My reasoning is simple. I like the idea that apparel is universal across (modern) breeds and I don't have to play a game of 'does this apparel fit this breed'. I have that on n another site I play, and while I love the site, it makes it a hassle to figure out whether or not my favorite breed can wear this beautiful piece of apparel I just found.

This would mean that the artists would have to make apparel fit every pose currently offered, which not all artists would be willing to do, but it also means that there would have to be SOME way of updating that apparel to fit new breeds. This can be a problem. The original artist might have gone inactive on site, or just doesn't want to update the art, or their style may have changed drastically in that time period and so on.

FR might not be able to actually update the apparel to fit new breeds (I have seen some artists upset when people remove a non-transparent background from their works, so I can imagine that there would be some who would not want someone else to use their artwork like this) and even if they could, it would still be yet more work for them in the long run as they have to not only update their apparel, but potentially have to mimic another artist's style so that the new apparel isn't jarringly clashing to the original artist's apparel.

@Jemadar

Yeah, it would definitely cause some issues with that whole system, whether it was made where you could make apparel for a specific breed/gender, or if you had to make it for all of them. All it'd be is drama and confusion.

So, uh, bad idea. I can definitely see why.

@Dragonwyspr

You aren't the first one to have this idea, and while not a bad idea in concept, I think execution would probably be a nightmare, no matter how they did it.