So, one thing I've noticed a lot of people talking about was that it'd be awesome if they could get a Zakuul shield to go with the saber pike or general other appearances. I don't know how appearance sets work for offhand shield generators or such, so I'll say nothing of the sort (although having a shield generator that actually gave the particles for a Zakuulan shield would be pretty nice) but I thought of a few points that might work in lieu of that:

 

A pair of gloves that sets a shield on the left hand: it might cause some clipping unless some animation changes were involved, but it'd allow double-hand users to combine Senya's force pike with the Zakuulan shield for their Zakuul sets.

 

Having the shield set as an off-hand techblade: It's already shown that there can be some changes to animation for weapons, so this could be a good alternative. Granted, this means it won't work with currently typically accessible pikes, since the only one you can /technically/ get a hold of is Senya's two-hander, leaving that combo out, but it'd still grant a shield. Maybe have the "sheath" animation for it follow the sheath animation for a one-hand weapon and ignore the shield, having the shield stay on the arm.

 

Having both of these as options for players would definitely draw a lot of attention from the role-playing community as a whole. While I never really got into the whole zakuulan role play, I feel like this in general would fill a niche a lot of people I know have been complaining about. I'm also pretty sure an item like this would see use in other people's play styles: even the gloved ones would probably be used extensively by characters like Juggernauts and Knights who think having a shield would be pretty cool for their tank sets.

 

I personally think having it as an off-hand generator/shield would come to the most interesting and useful effect for everyone, but as I said: I don't know how the game treats these items and particles for these items, and I won't even pretend to know if this is possible. If it is, then having the Zakuulan shield particle set appear on a generator or shield would be a drastically better setup than anything I offered here. If not, then I think these options would come to a great amount of approval from many parts of the community. I'd also like to think that, with this in hand, there could even be other "shield" options down the line that could be pretty cool as well. Just something to think about.

 

That being said, if anyone has other potential ideas of how this could work, or other ideas regarding the shield/shields that are possible (or even some naysayers, because that's valuable feedback as well) please, by all means comment away.

So no interest, I take it? I had figured there would be some people who'd think this was a good idea, or maybe some people who would slam it, but absolute silence is kinda sad.

I'd be really interested in a pike/shield set available from the CM for use in Zakuulan character RP!

It's unsubstantiatedly silly, really. Offhands should get visualization clearly, don't see how knives and shotguns are less important than offhand sabers. Every slot should be visible.

We started asking for shotgun skins back in 2012, but devs preferred to ignore it.

I'd like to see this become a thing not just for the flavor of adding a Zakuulan shield to the game, but for potential future applications it could have. It could be very fun all around.