In COH the only way to have a shield that was clear was to have one that was very obviously hi tech and ugly as a borg. I want a character who can summon up a magical shield that's made of energy and has the classic coat of arms shield shape.
For that matter why couldn't we set a level of transparency for any object we have, including weapons, helmets, and even capes? If we set it to maximum transparency the devs could decide if it's clear but still visible or totally invisible.
—
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
I doubt there'd be a problem with semi-transparent energy shields like the ones that Green Lantern can create:
[img=200x300]http://www.poeghostal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/gl_constructs-2.jpg[/img]
I'm even sure there wouldn't be a problem allowing them to be in the classic [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heater_shield]heater[/url]-shape as well.
But I doubt they'd ever let us have 100% transparent and/or invisible items for at least three reasons:
1) It would be too easy to create "invisible" clothes like that. We'd instantly have "nude" people running around like that.
2) What's the point of having things like invisible capes flapping around but still causing a waste of processing power to technically "render" them?
3) It would be a bad thing to have invisible weapons in PvP - people would be pissed if they couldn't tell if you're holding weapons or not.
They might eventually allow us to create certain non-clothes items that might go as much as say 80% or even 90% transparency, but they'll never let us have completely "invisible" items.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I didn't expect clothes to be one of the things you could make transparent. Though armor worn over your clothes might be cool.
As for people getting pissed, well, I could see that but suppose invisible equipment were something you unlocked by taking a tertiary ability called invisible weapons? Really I can't see any reason to make other items totally invisible. If you don't want a cape or helmet don't get one.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
Then people would just wear as few "clothes" as possible and only put on invisible armor. That's part of the problem with this: How would the Devs know what to flag as safe to be made into even semi-transparent costume items?
Obviously the Devs could provide a tertiary ability called Invisible Weapons. But that would only make the problem with having invisible weapons in PvP a problem that was built-in into the game. It's not a question of making sure everyone could equally have invisible weapons in PvP; it's a question of whether ANYONE should have them from a fundamental metagame balance point of view. It's like suggesting people could use flamethrowers to play tennis - it just doesn't make any sense to allow anyone to have them.
I just go one step further and question whether we should have any costume or weapon items in the game that could be made 100% invisible. Like I said before getting things that are semi-transparent might be cool but getting completely invisible "anything" probably isn't.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I tried to find where the devs said that they were not going to stick to the CoH concept of magic and tech styles and will blend some things more. Maybe it was during the Q+A a while back. Regardless...I doubt we will just see powers and outfits be that simple in CoT....eventually we will get a nice variety of options.
This is most likely a non-issue. Bikini style outfits will almost certainly be in the game with or without something covering it...but even if it was an issue the obvious way to avoid the nudity aspect would be to ensure that the bathing suit areas are just not able to be fully transparent....
Again...this seems like another non-issue to me....given that weapons are purely an aesthetic aspect and not an indication of power the fact that a foe cannot see them seems completely irrelevant.
It could be a nice costume/customization aspect if certain aspects of the object could be rendered transparent similar to how we can color the buttons on a jacket ...we could now make them invisible. I know in CoH there were a lot of costume options that I would have loved to remove aspects from (mostly jackets and hats). All in all though...I doubt the amount of extra effort involved to bring this about is worth it. I think the best option is to provide a few options of armor/weapons that have a transparency slider is more than enough for most cases.
Seriously I never imagined or suggested transparency as an option for clothes only for accessories.
And as islandtrevor pointed out even completely invisible weapons wouldn't make any difference in this game with Aesthetic decoupling. All it would mean is your animations would be taken from the weapon sets but you wouldn't see a weapon, the attack effects would be the same no matter what.
Mind you I also said it would be up to the devs just how high the maximum level of transparency would be.
If they don't want them invisible that's they're thing, it's no big deal to me.
But I really do want to be able to make my weapons & shield look like they're made of energy by making them transparent and adding a glowing aura.
I also have a character in mind who creates nunchaku out of psionic energy.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber