New/Upgrade Crafting: Aesthetician

[Leo G.4501]

**Overview**

The Aesthetician is a crafting profession that specializes in character looks. As an aesthetician, you will be capable of crafting things to temporarily or permanently alter a character's armor weapons, hair and body using a combination of materials, dyes and transmutation charges. But there is a catch: certain changes can only be performed by an Aesthetician therefore the Aesthetician must be present.

 

**Crafting as a Service**

I'm sure you've played other MMOs where players utilize AFK personal shops that sell goods or services. I think Tree of Saviors has a neat take on it where certain classes are actually these kinds of services such as providing combat buffs, repairing equipment, world teleports and so on. For this suggestion, a similar feature would be implemented but less restrictive in that you wouldn't need to sit stationary for your "shop" to be accessible. Through the process of a quest, you can obtain a retainer who appears in the city you are in that will act as the face of your shop (you can even choose the look and race of your retainer!). Of course, you can also have players access your service by directly interacting with your character as well but this would be an alternative that could later be upgraded so that your service can appear at any other city of your choosing so long as you yourself are lodged somewhere.

 

So what would this service be? The simplest service would be haircuts. A player can visit you or your retainer for a quick clip or dye and some haircuts would be unique to the Aesthetician profession. Other advanced services would be changing the shape/color of the body but these are more time consuming and difficult to perform for even an Aesthetician, requiring time-gated crafting materials to perform. Another aside, the Aesthetician can set their own prices. All of the services they provide have a gold cost (taxed, of course) but some of the advanced permanent changes require transmutation charges from the customer that is then paid directly to the Aesthetician. The Aesthetician can then use those charges to craft other materials for their wares and services or just use them for their own armor/weapon looks.

 

It should also be noted that haircuts are broken up into 3 categories: Simple, Advanced and Unique. You can imagine how some of the options would be place among these categories but the Unique category would be something of an anomaly because these haircuts cannot be accessed via the makeover kit and are only temporary so you'd have to visit an Aesthetician ever so often if you favor a unique hairstyle for your character.

 

**Crafting Levels**

For simplicity's sake, I'll break the levels down into a barebones categories of what to expect:

lvl1-200:

Wares = Permanent one-tone hair dye (transmutation charges to craft), Temporary 2-tone hair dye, Simple Scissors, Permanent Hat/Hood/Helm Retailor/Retanner/Rearmor (transmutation charges to craft), Permanent Mitts/Gloves/Gauntlets Retailor/Retanner/Rearmor (transmutation charges to craft), Permanent Slippers/Boots/Sollerets Retailor/Retanner/Rearmor (transmutation charges to craft) NOTE: these types of items are sellable, essentially giving players the ability to sell off unused Transmutation Charges if they like

Services =

* Temporary Simple Haircut (24hrs, requires Simple Scissors)

* Permanent Simple Haircut (requires Simple Scissors, costs Transmutation Charges)

 

lvl 201-400:

Wares = Permanent two-tone hair dye (transmutation charges to craft), Pro Scissors, Permanent Scarf/Mantle/Pauldron Retailor/Retanner/Rearmor (transmutation charges to craft), Permanent Pants/Trousers/Grieves Retailor/Retanner/Rearmor (transmutation charges to craft), Permanent Robe/Coat/Breastplate Retailor/Retanner/Rearmor (transmutation charges to craft), Permanent Backpiece Refitting (transmutation charges to craft), [insert weapon] Refitting (transmutation charges to craft), Miracle Scissors

Services =

* Temporary Advanced Haircut (24hrs, requires Pro Scissors)

* Advanced Haircut (72hrs, requires Pro Scissors, costs Transmutation Charges)

* Permanent Advanced Haircut (requires Miracle Scissors, costs Transmutation charges)

* Unique Haircut (5 days, requires Miracle Scissors, costs Transmutation Charges)

 

lvl 401-500:

Wares = Armorsmith/Artificer/Chef/Huntsman/Leatherworker/Tailor/Weaponsmith's Inspiration, Aesthetician's Makeover Kit (requires a few time-gated materials. NOTE: this is a character-bound item that cannot be traded or sold), Jeweler's Accessories, Quantum Dye

Services =

* Brief Equipment Transmutation (1hr, requires the equipment's inspiration type, can use any skin in the game)

* Finite Equipment Transmutation (6hrs, requires the equipment's inspiration type, costs Transmutation Charges, can use any skin in the game)

* Quantum Dye-job (72hrs, requires Quantum Dye, costs Transmutation Charges, can use any dye in the game on hair/body/gear)

* Aesthetician's Makeover (Permanent, requires the Aesthetician's Makeover Kit, costs Transmutation Charges, can makeover a character to include the unique haircuts)

* Aesthetician's Aura (72hrs, requires Jeweler's Accessories, give a character any aura in the game + a few unique auras)

 

__Aside notes:__

I could see several other aspects to the "services" aspect of crafting, such as Jeweler having services that remove certain upgrades from player's equipment (such as jewels, medallions, runes and sigils) for a gold price. That's just an example but there could be other ideas floating around. Another aspect that could be explored are either quests or purchased items that open up your shop in multiple locations at once or while you are logged off. Coupled with other casual activities players can do to interact with the world or one another (such as card games or fishing) I think it could breath some new life in the social aspect of the game.

[yoni.7015]

No thanks. There are makeover kits already in game

[Rauderi.8706]

The most I want is to be able to sell my useless hair kits to someone else. :|

7 keys, 3 of those useless kits. ANet, pls.

[MetalGirl.2370]

They don't bother giving us hairstyles for way over 3 years.

What makes you think they'll do any of what you just said ?

[Randulf.7614]

I admire the thought and effort put into the idea, but we are already able to do all this ourselves without relying on someone else and it's a simpler system.

[dodgerrule.8739]

I’ve gotten the makeover kits and never used one. It’s not really useful if you don’t care about the fashion wars garbage

[phs.6089]

We don't have haircuts, we don't hairdressers

[Trise.2865]

Good effort. Well detailed and conceptualized.

[Leo G.4501]

> @"MetalGirl.2370" said:

> They don't bother giving us hairstyles for way over 3 years.

> What makes you think they'll do any of what you just said ?

 

I think it's be a cool starting off point, then, if they put in a slew of new styles, especially when one considers the abundance of resources to change hairstyles that players already have. The hurdle that really stands in the way is the prospect of fashion one has to upkeep.

 

But I was mostly interested in the forum's reaction to personal shops.

[MoriMoriMori.5349]

> @"Leo G.4501" said:

> > @"MetalGirl.2370" said:

> > They don't bother giving us hairstyles for way over 3 years.

> > What makes you think they'll do any of what you just said ?

>

> I think it's be a cool starting off point, then, if they put in a slew of new styles, especially when one considers the abundance of resources to change hairstyles that players already have. The hurdle that really stands in the way is the prospect of fashion one has to upkeep.

You are missing the aspect of RoI. What you offer is direct competition for existing gemstore items, and at the same time it requires significant investment of manhours to develop. How Anet will benefit from all this? Unless you can answer this, your chances to make them implement it are slim.

 

As I see it, if they would like to add new haircuts, or a system which allows you to do custom haircuts, a more logical approach from commercial company's point of view would be just to tie it to existing gemstore item(s).

 

[Leo G.4501]

> @"MoriMoriMori.5349" said:

> > @"Leo G.4501" said:

> > > @"MetalGirl.2370" said:

> > > They don't bother giving us hairstyles for way over 3 years.

> > > What makes you think they'll do any of what you just said ?

> >

> > I think it's be a cool starting off point, then, if they put in a slew of new styles, especially when one considers the abundance of resources to change hairstyles that players already have. The hurdle that really stands in the way is the prospect of fashion one has to upkeep.

> You are missing the aspect of RoI. What you offer is direct competition for existing gemstore items, and at the same time it requires significant investment of manhours to develop. How Anet will benefit from all this? Unless you can answer this, your chances to make them implement it are slim.

>

 

I think you're coming at the idea from the wrong perspective. The point is to roll the ball regarding broadening crafting to be more than it is without being too intrusive. They're already looking to add 500 to chef and jeweler, do you think it's simply for parity? It could be, but I'd like to imagine the devs aren't just a bunch of OCD addled individuals that just have to see everything symmetrical and that they're moving toward making chef and jeweler better.

 

Also also, this suggestion was in response to posters complaining about transmutation charges. You mention that this is in direct competition with existing gemstore items. So are the other methods of obtaining transmutation charges, self-style hair/makeover kits and by proxy, black lion keys...but technically, this isn't in competition with those. You still need transmutation charges to be able to permanently change hairstyles and the this craft doesn't create transmutation charges, it merely takes transmutation charges from individuals who have them and are willing to part with them.

 

Think of this like a welfare and capitalistic system:

 

Player A is one of those casual players who doesn't do much PvP/WvW and finds farming keys/map completion boring so their pool of transmutation charges are low. Player B is a different player who plays majority WvW and has an abundance of transmutation charges that they rarely ever use.

 

Both players could benefit from this craft as Player A can become an Aesthetician and give out haircuts and reskins and get transmutation charges from their customers OR Player A can simply purchase the reskin crafted items from an Aesthetician.

 

Player B could also benefit from the craft as they can use those abundance of charges and craft them into reskin charges that are sellable for gold.

 

In either scenario, gold is involved and thus it has an equivalency to gems. The logical bridge of transmutation charges to gems, however, is shaky at best and inconsequential at worst. If this creates competition for purchasing transmutation charges, it's only insofar as the gold equivalency of the charges is cheaper than its gemstore price.

 

> @"MoriMoriMori.5349" said:

> As I see it, if they would like to add new haircuts, or a system which allows you to do custom haircuts, a more logical approach from commercial company's point of view would be just to tie it to existing gemstore item(s).

>

 

You're not wrong, but the goal of this suggestion is to build a kind of content flow that doesn't diminish as quickly. If a haircut is merely a gemstore purchase, then that's it. It's just a piece of cosmetics. No player interaction, no world consequence, no lore connection. It's just another lifeless bit among hundreds of other similar bits and bobs. I'm not saying everything added has to have some significance, I'm saying some things you could TRY to give it some kind of significance or interaction or something to break away from the same cosmetic slump the game is locked into.

 

Again, this suggestion was somewhat in response to the couple of transmutation charges threads and also a springboard to other ideas. I'm in agreement with most of the assessments thus far because I find it would be difficult to make any haircuts that are good enough that players would actively want to get their hair cut periodically rather than the convenience of it being how they want it all the time, not to mention that many of the features can already be done simply using the system as is (or that a lot of cosmetics invalidate other cosmetic options through sheer gaudiness). Other cosmetic options would be required to get past that hurdle to get player characters in those barber/stylist chairs but cosmetics as a whole is rather lifeless and samey. However, that's hardly an excuse to will the system to **remain** lifeless and samey. Have you any ambition? lol