Weapons in Outfit Designer in the Works

One of the most-requested features of Outfit Designer has been the inclusion of Weapons. Whilst BioWare have mostly remained silent on this matter, Charles Boyd recently took to the Forums and stated that the team were looking at seeing if they could fit this addition into this year's schedule.

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In general, things which this will be useful for are such things as being able to utilise any rare Cartel Crystal regardless of given Stats (finally I can use my DvL Black/White Hawkeye Crystal for something!), and the usage of a rare or unique unmodifiable Weapon as a viable tool. Depending on how Tunings are applied to a Stamped Weapon it may be possible to use the same one multiple times since unlike a Dye a Tuning is not properly 'consumed' and can be extracted.

I'm sure quite a few Sith Warriors across the years have been somewhat disappointed that they couldn't use the special Ancient Sith Blade retrieved from the Tomb of Ajunta Pall in the long term, although selling it while 'useless' of course means they have lost all access to it. Similarly, people swiftly discovered that Lord Dramath's Force Pike, counting as a standard Lightsaber, was 'unbound', meaning that legible Characters could wield it as their own. This resulted in a few unique and as-yet unseen animations coming to light since it was the first time a Double-Bladed Saber was seen being put to use as a Single-Bladed variant, and is something which I'm sure people would want to put to the test once again as a 'proper' weapon if it still counts as 'unbound'.

Additionally since many customisable weapons, notably Blaster and Sniper Rifles, have had 'incomplete' Premium and Prototype (heck, even some of the Standard versions count in this regard!) versions in the past which in some ways can look better than their more complete and viable cousins, this will enable people to experiment freely with weapon looks in ways not possible or, as previously mentioned, viable until this is implemented. Similarly, in the case of some really old and retired weapons, Premium and Prototype versions of the models may be the only way to get access to them again for newer Characters and Players, especially since certain exclusively-veteran Orange models of Lightsaber are still annoyingly Alignment-Bound whilst Premium/Prototype versions aren't.

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I will certainly be taking full advantage of this feature, since in having main-backup Alts in the form of a Guardian and Juggernaut (and fourth-tier Alts of Sage and Sorc), I find myself annoyingly limited by Legacy Lightsabers if one gets too far ahead of the others without easy access to equivalent Hilts. As it is, both the Guardian and Juggernaut have their own 240 Hilt installed in their separate sabers (while the Sage and Sorc have been left very behind), but obviously this will be largely nullified when the Guardian eventually gets a 248.

Not being a fan of any Legacy Saber outside of the newly-BoL original Consular, Guardian, and Warrior model, I'm really looking forward to finally being able to have all Force-Wielding characters use their specific Lightsabers whilst also all benefiting from the one Legacy model. Finally, no more Augmenting sabers when I fancy to give a specific Character a new Hilt!

Beyond this, my Merc and Gunslinger now have next-to-no-use for this since the gorgeous BoL Hunter's Blaster model was recently added to the game in 5.2, while I have no Operative or Vanguard so my Sniper and Commando are still being left to their own devices in this regard.

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Obviously, it's too early to have any of these points answered, but I have my own list of queries regarding this addition.

• If the Character's weapon is not equipped, presumably just like the Stamped Outfits themselves the Stamped Weapons will continue to persist. In this case, will 'drawing' the weapon result in the usual raising of the fists, or will the Stamped Weapon still be drawn visually? If there's one thing Outfit Designer has done, it's screw with people's awareness of their gear not being equipped, and whilst Abilities will be greyed out with a nonfunctional weapon, it will still be confusing to people if the 'unequipped' weapon is still drawn, since not everyone looks immediately at their Ability bar upon logging in.
• In the case of Assassins, Commandos, Shadows, and Snipers, will Stamping a 'standard' Weapon that lies within their Base Class's Weapon Proficiency on their chosen Outfit impede abilities which only work with their specialised Weapons? I'm assuming not, since in the Outfits themselves armour-weight has no practical use and is rendered purely cosmetic so weapon type will probably be the same way. Regardless, this could potentially screw with a lot of animations, particularly for the Shadow and Assassin. 
• Outfit Designer is presented as a 'uniform' feature with no variation because there is nothing which can vary from Class-to-Class in terms of equippable armour slots. Weapons are a very different kettle of fish altogether, since whilst every Class has two Weapon slots, only four Advanced Classes actually make use of visible weapons in both. Since Foci, Generators, Shotguns, and Knives are invisible unless used in a special ability (in which case all Shotguns and Knives are identical anyway), most Classes can't even make effective use of this second cosmetic slot, so will the slot for Foci, Generators and the rest still be a customisable option within the Outfit Designer? I'm assuming so, but it will seem like a most unnecessary 'feature' to any Class which isn't a Gunslinger, Marauder, Mercenary, or Sentinel. "Yay, I can finally get rid of my ugly BoL Shotgun by stamping... an identical (yet very rare this one time) Shotgun in its stead. Oh."

If the second point is a non-issue, I'm looking forward to seeing how many Commandos opt for the 'stealthy' route of having a Rifle rather than the Big-Frickin'-Gun approach. Considering that a number of people who play Vanguard are disappointed by just how little they "mow stuff down" with their rifle, I can see them being very pleased with the ability to finally create a 'proper' Star Wars Storm/Clone Trooper using a Rifle Stamped onto a Commando with this feature.

Similarly, I'm curious how many Snipers decide to use a Blaster Rifle if given the viable option to do so without nerfing their DPS output (I once came cross one during a ToS run in 3.0 using the DLA-13 Heavy Blaster Rifle; unsurprisingly, his DPS was at the lower end of the scale). Whilst most Blaster Rifles are far too short and 'cosmetically ineffective' as Sniper Rifles (too short a barrel, no scopes, etc.), there are a couple which may be passed off effectively, most notably the DC-15 Blaster Carbine.

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There's one thing in particular, beyond updates from the Developers of course, which I'm going to be keeping an eye on when the time for this feature's apparent eventual inclusion draws near.

This is how quickly the aforementioned Premium/Prototype models will begin to escalate in price when people realise there's a market for them when there almost never was before. Similarly, whilst Cartel Crystals with 'advised' Stats can sell for extortionately high prices, Crystals with 'useless' Stats are significantly Cheaper even though they are of course still rare. When Crystal appearances will no longer matter compared to their Stats through the Outfit Designer, the price for these once-useless Crystals will also doubtless begin to skyrocket.

The in-game economy in SWtOR can be quite scummy at times, and doubtless this will be another 'interesting' time for the GTN at first, similar to how at the start of every Expansion with new Augment Kits the price initially starts off as being insanely high before falling to more reasonable levels.

So basically, if this is ever actually going to come into the game and you wanted to take full advantage of it, start looking at weapon models and Crystals sooner rather than later, just in case you can snag a relative bargain while there is otherwise no market for them.

Obviously, this feature is still very much a concept at this point, but it is nice to hear that it is being worked on, and I look forward to seeing it sooner rather than later!