Official capes discussion thread

[CoeliJoeli.2139]

Still bought the cape haha

[Donari.5237]

Lots of good ideas. I'd love a musketeer's cape (which is "Asymmetrical worn over one shoulder" per another suggestion in the OP, or else is tabard style and has a full front panel). However, those drape over one arm and while I retain hope ANet will give us proper cloaks, I have a sinking feeling that all of these things will be designed to hang down along the back only for clipping and rig reasons.

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > @"Tommo Chocolate.5870" said:

> > > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > > I suspect this is why Anet spent years telling us capes wouldn't work with the physics in GW2. It worked in GW1 (sort of) because the physics and graphics were much more basic so it didn't matter of it looked like a sheet of card stuck to your back.

> > >

> > > But it seems like Anet are looking for some "quick wins" at the moment, or maybe all the constant requests and claims that it doesn't matter if it clips or floats or looks terrible convinced them that...Well, it wouldn't matter and players would be happy with what they could do even if it's not up to their usual standard.

> >

> > I'm not convinced that this is a "quick win", since the capes are dyeable, and we were always told (in any threads anyone made about it) that making dyeable back items would be a huge undertaking. That said, I can't remember if we were ever told that by anyone who actually worked for ANet! (Although the forum poster I remember making that claim - who doesn't post anymore - I always strongly suspected was an ANet employee anyway.)

>

> If I remember correctly what they said is that making existing back items dyable would be a huge amount of work because they weren't originally designed that way and to change it they'd have to re-create each one in a different way, which is nearly as much work as making a new one, and there's loads of back items (probably over 100). I'm not sure if it was a deliberate decision to make them undyable or if it just wasn't thought about because before launch there were very few back items with skins.

>

> I'm not sure why it's taken until now to get some dyable ones though, maybe they just thought it was more important to be consistent so having made dozens of undyable back items they should keep them that way?

 

Having searched through old posts requesting dyeable back items, I found [this dev quote, from the old forum](https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Dye-backpacks-Shining-Blade-back-issue/page/1#post6257985 "this dev quote, from the old forum"): (Note: it is a dev, but posting from a non-dev account - they explain further down the page.)

 

> It’s extremely hard to alter the engine so backpacks are dyeable. As far as the engine is considered, backpacks are considered items (like weapons) and gliders are considered effects. The engine needs to be fundamentally altered from the ground up to allow for item dye channels. It’s not impossible, but not easy.

 

To me that suggests that, in order for the capes to be dyeable, they must either have altered the engine in some serious way, or found a workaround in which the capes are not considered "items" in the same way that the old back items are.

 

> This is pure speculation but we've also been told capes are not easy to make, so maybe they decided it's better to put a bit of extra effort into the ones they are making and make fewer overall, rather than having to make lots of different capes with different colour schemes to suit different characters?

 

Having different capes with different colour schemes, you'd end up with a huge number of capes even for a relatively small range of possible colours - so I think it's a good thing that they avoided having to do it that way.

[ugrakarma.9416]

I will just not talk anymore with plebs who dont had capes.

 


 

[Danikat.8537]

I noticed today when I logged into my second account that the cape is locked in the gem store if you don't have HoT. So I suspect it's made in the same way as gliders and on some level the game 'thinks' it _is_ a glider. I'm not sure how that works with it filling the back item slot but I don't know that much about how GW2 is made.

[Windu The Forbidden One.60]

> @"TheAgedGnome.7520" said:

> > @"Windu The Forbidden One.6045" said:

> -

> > **Is there any chance this can be fixed?** The cape would look so much better if our 2 hand weapons were positioned closer to our characters.

> >

>

> But positioning the weapon closer to the body will probably cause clipping problems with larger armors or armors with lots of protuberances (spikes, shoulders flourishes, etc.) So they are probably limited in how far they can adjust things without causing further issues.

>

>

 

But as I've shown in the screenshots, the distance between your character and the weapon seem to be determined by what back item you use.

When using Mad Memoires v2 the weapon is very close to the body (exactly as close as it needs to be for the cape), and last time I checked that didn't cause any problems either.

 

So I honestly think this could actually work really well. I mean sure there might still be some clipping, but it would look better than it does now.

All Anet would need to do, is change the distance of 2hand weapons **when using the cape only** and make it the same it is for Mad Memoires v2.

[Blocki.4931]

Sadly there isn't a cost efficient method of fixing this. Generally speaking it either requires changing for every single piece or a code foundation where clipping is essentially made impossible. I've heard of maybe one or two games that have done that, because it's a massive pain. A game the scale of an MMO seems out of question.

[Super Hayes.6890]

Awesome looking cape! It's also free to apply once purchased!! My shield doesn't make it disappear while stowed and it has four dye channels. I haven't been this pleased with a gemstore purchase in a long time. Looks great on my mounts too! Just get me that horse skin and I'm set for life lol.

[Super Hayes.6890]

Okay, am I the only one that likes how they look on Char???

[Brother.1504]

> @"LaFurion.3167" said:

> Credit where credit is due, capes have been wanted by a HUGE amount of players over the years. Nearly every month or so we get a post asking about capes. Even though it took years and years (and years), you guys finally did it... and made them dyable on top of it, which had never been done with any other backpack.

>

> Do you see how amazing the response is? How much cash you guys made from every account logging on? I'm sure if you check your statistics and logs, 90% of accounts that logged in had a gemstore purchase within the first 10 minutes of playing! It was a very asked for thing, and ANet you guys finally delivered (without flopping. kind of like templates, but I digress).

>

> Now, please continue listening to us from here. Blizzard has only started to do this after 16 or so years of running their mmo. Anet doesn't need to take this long!

>

>

> It doesnt have to be huge things, but continue to consider, if a huge amount of players keep asking for something, be it in game balance changes, item requests like capes (horse mounts perhaps?), or ui/quality of life changes, it will be so good for Guild wars!

>

>

>

> My request - the log in screen be updated to today's standards. Let us set "favourite" characters, that don't move back when they are no longer the most recently logged on toon on our acc. Let us "lock" characters in places if we wish, so that we know exactly where our characters are. Its a small thing, compared to letting CAPES that can be DYED in the game!

>

>

> But yeah, credit where credit is due. Good job Arenanet. Even though I hate your lack of content, and people may hate on the gemstore locking (the guild capes are tiny and pathetic), you guys did a good thing!

 

Was a nice surprise when I logged on Tuesday.

 

 

Good Job Anet!

[Harper.4173]

But this is absurd - there already exists in the game a state where they do not clip that badly.

The other issue is apparently it is bugged and clips like that only for me - others do not appear to see it in that state. Will dig deeper and return.

 

Edit: It appears it was correct. I had a friend screencap me and lo and behold the cape and sword are fine. But it looks broken on my end.

What gives?

[Super Hayes.6890]

> @"Tukaram.8256" said:

> Yeah, that is the guild cape. It is too short for anyone. The gem store cape looks pretty good, but is too expensive to buy for each of my avatars. I have to decide which one gets it...

 

Once bought it is free to apply account wide. You don't need transmutation charges at all. Purchase once and apply to all toons over and over if you wish.

[Harper.4173]

Image for clarification.

https://imgur.com/a/LqHXyYx

[KidRoleplay.3615]

I bought the cape because GW1 told me to. Then I realized after the fact that my 30+ characters all have long since had their fashion established and that the cape wouldn't work on them.

 

All except one. I put it on her and it improved her look tremendously, and it dyed well (though the lighting of some maps results in slight clashing), and it was the only character of mine where not only did it fit, I managed to keep it from appearing tacky.

 

Really, back items are all about your mix and match game. Most people are just... really, really bad at it.

[Cronospere.8143]

> @"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:

> > @"Donari.5237" said:

> > > @"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:

> > > Not to rain on OP's parade, but, I'm not sure capes have been an amazing success. I just checked the gw2efficiency stats. 2823 players - of the 239564 with gw2efficiency accounts have unlocked the Basic Guild Cape and just 2286 of those 239564 have unlocked the Emblazoned Cape. That's 1.178% and 0.954% respectively. While I realize the 239564 gw2efficiency accounts are not the entire GW2 player population, it is a non-trivial sample size from which to draw conclusions.

> > >

> > >

> >

> > Question on that: Does gw2efficiency track all accounts, or only those that sign in and thus get updated? I did buy the Emblazoned, and I do have a gw2efficiency account, but I don't regularly go to that account and haven't since my purchase. Would I be one of those 2823 players or does gw2efficiency not know about my purchase yet? If it doesn't, that could be a factor in the low amount of reported unlocks.

>

> My understanding is that it tracks all gw2efficiency accounts with API keys. I think somewhere it says that all accounts are crawled every 24 hours. I could be mistaken on that, though.

>

> And I just rechecked the stats. We are up to 4051 (1.691%) for the guild cape and 3325 (1.388%) for the emblazoned cape, out of 239614 accounts.

 

Many people still need to do some guild missions again. Some with small guilds will need some weeks. I suspect these numbers going up after sunday. When many guilds do their guild missions before reset.

[Cronospere.8143]

Why do people always want everything on first day of release.

Some things you need to work for.

500 gems is perfectly fine.

10 commendations also.

I dont see any problems..

[Randulf.7614]

Isn't the guild cape about the same length as the GW1 cape? Maybe only a tad shorter?

[Windu The Forbidden One.60]

> @"Blocki.4931" said:

> Sadly there isn't a cost efficient method of fixing this. Generally speaking it either requires changing for every single piece or a code foundation where clipping is essentially made impossible. I've heard of maybe one or two games that have done that, because it's a massive pain. A game the scale of an MMO seems out of question.

 

All they would need to change is the code of the cape, as the distance of 2hand weapons is determined by the back item itself, not the weapon (as you can see in the screenshot). Not to mention some back items already have this, like Mad Memoires v2, so whatever is needed to pull it off already exists in the game.

 

It didn't cause problems for Mad Memoires V2, so I don't see how it could cause issues for the cape.

[Donari.5237]

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> Isn't the guild cape about the same length as the GW1 cape? Maybe only a tad shorter?

 

I've barely touched GW1 but am pretty sure my mesmer/monk there has an ankle length cape. It's been years since I played, so I don't recall if I started with a shorter one and got hold of a longer one somehow.

[Donari.5237]

> @"Tukaram.8256" said:

> I like the look of the gem store cape, but the price seems high to me as well. At 100 each, I would be likely to get one for each avatar. At 500, it will take a while to talk myself into buying 1 (and it may not happen). I am not a big gem store customer anyway, because almost everything in the gem store is overpriced.

 

You only need to buy it once. It unlocks in your Wardrobe and you can use the one you bought from the store as a one-time free application to one avatar's back item, then go to your Wardrobe on other avatars Hero Panels, left click on their back item in the panel, scroll down the options on the left (at least right after purchase the cape will be the bottom right one, I have zero idea how they sort out things in that panel over time, it's always a jumbled mess of outfits and minis and skins for me), click the cape. It will then tell you this will cost one Transmutation to apply, you agree, bam, that avatar is now sporting a cape.

 

This is the process for all unlockable skins. They get added to your account, forever. Any new character has full access to all your skins, dyes, outfits, etc.

 

 

[Diak Atoli.2085]

> @"Donari.5237" said:

> > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > Isn't the guild cape about the same length as the GW1 cape? Maybe only a tad shorter?

>

> I've barely touched GW1 but am pretty sure my mesmer/monk there has an ankle length cape. It's been years since I played, so I don't recall if I started with a shorter one and got hold of a longer one somehow.

 

The GW1 cape is actually in the middle of the two, as it hangs down to the waist.

[Head Kracker.4790]

> @"Cronospere.8143" said:

> Why do people always want everything on first day of release.

> Some things you need to work for.

> 500 gems is perfectly fine.

> 10 commendations also.

> I dont see any problems..

 

My biggest thing is its never 500 gems that's the issue its the 300 other gems from the 10 bucks that usually need offset by another 10 bucks to purchase another item then the off set from that. Its a endless cycle unless you can convert enough gold which lots of players tend not to since conversion is pretty bad for gold gem parity.

On the commendations, your really willing to pay more for less? All the other guild back parts actually come with actual stats with their skin, the guild cape does not and costs twice as much.

[Ashen.2907]

Pretty reasonable pricing IMO. The store version can be purchased without any real world money expenditure and the guild option can be earned in an hour.

[Substance E.4852]

> @"Dahkeus.8243" said:

> > @"Substance E.4852" said:

> > > @"Dahkeus.8243" said:

> > > GW2 Fanbase: zOMG! Give me things, but don't make me pay for them!

> > >

> > > Also GW2 Fanbase: Why are devs leaving ANet to go to other companies!?!

> >

> > "Wow, this cape is a bit pricey, maybe bump it down to at least the same price as that elaborate chair you just released?"

> >

> > "Oh so what you're saying is you don't want to pay anything, huh?!"

>

> Oh, so you don't like the use of hyperbole to make a point then?

>

> > @"Substance E.4852" said:

> > This is why discourse on the internet is effectively dead

>

> Hmm...

>

>

 

It stops being "hyperbole" when you grossly misrepresent the person's point to make a personal attack so other's will upvote your post

 

Wanting something to be a little bit cheaper or more in line with other items is in no way the same as asking for it for free and You know that

 

> @"Cronospere.8143" said:

> Why do people always want everything on first day of release.

 

Anet does this funny thing where they don't leave items in the store long term and not everyone can earn 200+ gold in 3 weeks

[Zeivu.3615]

We need more gold sinks and capes have always been in demand. I don't care too much about that. Just like the Griffon, it good for the game in the long run.

 

 

> @"Substance E.4852" said:

> > @"Cronospere.8143" said:

> > Why do people always want everything on first day of release.

>

> Anet does this funny thing where they don't leave items in the store long term and not everyone can earn 200+ gold in 3 weeks

 

Then you are doing something wrong. There is plenty of ways to earn gold. Find your strength and play it.