So BW is hearing us loud and clear about the models of armor?

the starter pvp chest for a sith warrior looks better than any other set, but it is not moddable, there is a moddable set that is similar, but it takes a lot of pvp to get.... the columi and tionese and rakata sets make you look like a transformer and look terrible...

from now on, use the pvp design as the basis for future designs at least for this class for the pve sets

Hear hear! My god but some of us troopers colouring is silly. I would love perhaps a cloak over my Vanguard and a hood to cover my helm. (If anyone here has read the Gaunts Ghosts books i wanta Tanith kinda look) Also perhaps let us change the markings style. Look at Clone Troopers. such diverse marking designs and colours AND even better look at Clone Commandos. At this i point at Sev and his awesome HANDPRINT OVER HIS VISOR!! Note that now..Stylised designs say placing insignias or other details to make your trooper or Hunter more..say individual.

Personally give me that Beta t visored helm and cloak (Not a kama at my waist) hood over my helm and maybe mando markings and kill marks. Colour the armour black with green markings and a blue visor and ill be sold.

There are quite a few issues surrounding armor in this game that leave a person simply scratching their heads.

1. Hood up / Hood down - This has been covered alot, but really, NO ONE at Bioware thought about this? Did they really believe all Jedi run around with a hood up ALL the time? How often did we actually see Jedi on-screen in the movies where they actually had their hood up? It's significantly less than the amount of times we see Jedi with their hoods down.

2. Bald Jedi - Even if we are stuck with hoods up, why oh why does it make our Jedi bald? They couldn't design the robes in a manner so that our Jedi didn't end up looking like Tibetian monks?

3. Companions - They say we will have "Unify to Chest" for companions sometime down the road. When? God only knows, but it can't come soon enough. It does wonders for our player characters, but obviously it needed to be implemented for Companions as well.

4. Tag Restrictions - I can understand "Light" and "Dark" restrictions. However, placing the tags like "Trooper" or "Jedi Knight" on the Orange armor pieces creates a major headache for trying to gear Companions. This is especially aggravating for Troopers, in trying to make their Companion's UNIFORM match their own. Either drop the class restrictions, or make the Companions fit those descriptions so they can use that armor as well.

5. Incomplete looks - On my old server, I was trying to get a uniform look going for my Trooper's squad. Now, go and try and find a pair of Orange boots that is made of white duraplast, that doesn't have a restriction on it, or some odd coloring. The best boots I could find, have a "Light II" restriction. Seriously? Bioware not only needs to put in the "Unify Companions" option, but they also need to round out several of the armor sets too.

6. Lack of choice - This goes with number 5 above. Simply put, there is just not enough choice. Bioware needs to expand the armor catalog for each armor class (Light, Medium, Heavy) as well as each class by about DOUBLE. And especially for Troopers, they need to offer more set pieces for the varying squad colors (blue, red, yellow, orange, black, green, brown, etc.)

7. MORE PANTS! - Jedi Consulars (and I think Sith Inquisitors as well) have like 3 pairs of pants to choose from. Yes, you read that right. THREE PAIRS OF PANTS! Yet, Jedi Guardians have Heavy Armor that look like a plain pair of pants, Troopers have plain looking pants at the early levels, and Smugglers have tons of plain looking pants. But Consulars and Inquisitors HAVE to wear robes? /facepalm

8. Republic Civillian Armor / Imperial Military Armor - So we have Companions Corso Riggs and Qyzen Fess. Neither of them are Republic Military, nor are they members of Havoc Squad. Now, go try and find some Heavy Armor for them that doesn't make them look like a Stormtrooper or a Jedi. On the reverse side of the coin, if you want your Bounty Hunter to look like an Imperial Soldier, you need to have bought the Collectors Edition, AND, your armor is limited to Light armor. Yet another /facepalm moment here.

I could go on and on and on about this topic, but I think by now, you get the message. Bioware needs to put some serious focus into armor and appearance, and they need to do it sooner rather than later.

Oh and Appearance tab? Would certainly go a long way towards addressing these issues, however, if they do it, then it needs to be a robust system, and it also needs to be given to Companions as well. We spend so much time with Companions by our side, it is imperative that anything done to address this issue, be done for the Companions as well.

I honestly feel like gear in this game (looks-wise) is one of its achille's heels. It just plain looks bad with the exception of a couple of female dresses. Not sure what they were thinking with the assassin tier set when they made it. It pretty much figures as my all time worst tier set of any game so far. It was bland, odd-looking, had little definition (most of it was a blur) and simply not what a star wars fan would like to wear.

Plus, what materials are you guys assigning to your sets? Look at the Tionese Field Tech armor set for example. What is that supposed to be? Metal? Plastic? Velvet? Doesn't look like armor honestly. Feels like a black kamen rider cosplay gone bad.

Is it the lighting though? Because ever since release this has been one of my biggest gripes with the game. Armor just looks horrible (in my opinion) whereas everything else (environment mostly) looks great. What gives?

/approve but put all those stuff on imperial side too pleaze

Oh that was the intent of my post. I just posted from the republic point of view because I have more experience with it's inadequecies. I'm sure the Imperial side has just as many issues, and even touched on a couple that I am aware of.

I haven't played anything at level cap, so I'm not sure if there's something that would restrict you from using orange armor, but just having more orange armor in different styles and slots (and reducing the cash penalty for removing mods from armor, c'mon, Bioware) would do a lot for people being able to dress the way they choose. I actually thought the idea of having an orange set you liked and could mod all the way up to 50 if you didn't like any of the other sets you found was a neat way to provide gear customization.

I know I don't like being forced to wear ugly armor just because it has better stats.

I like the looks of quite a few sets just the colors kinda suck. You would think as far as sith go you would see more black then purple and red.

Also a hood toggle would be awesome maybe some more head gear/masks and such that show up with hoods like in the one video for the sith.

I also agree with the prices for swapping mods in and out of sets is a bit costly and lame who exactly are you paying if your in the middle of nowhere pulling the mods yourself?

How to fix Armor:

1. Do away with all armor restrictions other than Social. All these do is limit possible appearance styles in an already appearance limited game. Hell, let empirial players wear republic goods and visa-versa and you may just make the Black Market of Narr-shada worth something.

2. BW is working on a way to make social armors fit the armor level of the wearer. Make this work for all armors. Get rid of the light/medium/heavy failboat and let the class of the wearer determine the stats. This will alone will increase the potential armor selection by a factor of 3.

3. Make all armor/weapons of every color reverse engineer-able to orange, all of it, especially social, otherwise, you've already crapped out orange social before you've even fixed it. Why? Augment slots. Also, this will make that sadly unused white gear usable through reversal to orange.

4. Lower the ludicrous prices of mod swapping. As of right now, it costs me 140k to swap all the mods out of 1 gun. I have 2. Once I get guns with augment slots, it'll cost me around 170k, per gun. No only is this an abusive form of money sink in a gear based game,, it's also unfair since dual wielders get hit twice as hard.

Once you extend this issue to armor, the problem escalates several fold. Changing one's entire armor and weapon loadout at cap should not cost north of a million credits. Drop this number by 1/4 and we'll talk. Better yet, separate mods from armor altogether and you'll make the game better by leaps and bounds.

Just to clarify. What most player really are asking for here are Custom schematics for much of the early equipment offered in game. (The colors can differ slightly.) In general these are the traditional looks that players are talking about and the meshes already exist in game and have been properly tested.

Most of the players making comments like this are not requesting new meshes or anything that clearly requires a lot of lead time.

Also most, especially in the RP community feel that these custom crafted items need to be available at relatively low levels, 15 or 20, so that players can get their look early on and stay with it. For Jedi this also means crystals in the Red, Yellow, Blue and Red "Iconic" colors should be readily available. A case for Cyan, Magenta and Purple being added can also be made.