Hi! I have recently started playing this, somewhat amazing, game (and i have to say, I love it!). However, I do have one slight quarrel with "SWTOR", and that is how you can't lock a characters appearance. Within other games (DC Universe Online, or DCUO, is an excellent example of this) you can choose an initial character appearance in terms of clothing etc and then lock that decision, meaning that no matter what you equip later in game your appearance is never changing, unless you specifically change it yourself, or don't choose the lock option (obviously these appearance options didn't include the best looking stuff in the game or even the worst, just a reasonably sized array of choice). If something like this could be implemented into SWTOR this would literally be my favorite ever game.

Just a few things as side notes:

- To cope with all the existing players and characters there could be an item sent to everyone's mailbox in order to "re-model" their character

- This COULD be a Subscriber only feature, or (as a more popular option) just be more "beefed up" in terms of choice for subscribers (either would vastly encourage me to continue my subscription)

- DO THIS AND I SHALL LOVE THIS GAME FOREVER!!!

Hi! I have recently started playing this, somewhat amazing, game (and i have to say, I love it!). However, I do have one slight quarrel with "SWTOR", and that is how you can't lock a characters appearance. Within other games (DC Universe Online, or DCUO, is an excellent example of this) you can choose an initial character appearance in terms of clothing etc and then lock that decision, meaning that no matter what you equip later in game your appearance is never changing, unless you specifically change it yourself, or don't choose the lock option (obviously these appearance options didn't include the best looking stuff in the game or even the worst, just a reasonably sized array of choice). If something like this could be implemented into SWTOR this would literally be my favorite ever game.

Unless I am missing your point, this is more or less what they implemented with Orange custom gear. Once you have a look that you like, you can change out mods and keep the look. Now granted, you can't replace that gear with completely different gear and look the same (which is what I believe you are asking for), but the ability to have gear that levels up with you, and that you can replace with something else when you find or earn the more advanced orange gear, seems a better alternative. My advice, is that you pick some low orange gear and just worry about modding it up - your look will never change. If you pick up other mod-gear you can strip out the mods and put it in what you like. If you pick up a piece that is not moddable, vendor trash it for cash or put it on GTN.

if I'm completely honest I hadn't heard about "Orange Gear" before now, just googled it and I'm not entirely sure if i understand it still, it is VERY complicated (obviously I will now continue to look into it). However, I still stick to my guns with saying that the system that DCUO is currently using seems altogether less complex and confounding and i would still love for something similar to be implemented.

It really isn't that complicated. You change out the mods of the item, instead of changing the actual look. Basically, keep the look you have, but improve it's stats as you find new mods or buy new ones.

However, your suggestion does give the benefit of being able to equip certain level 50 gear with set bonuses that's tied to the gear itself instead of the item mods.

so how would I acquire a set of this orange gear, and what are my choices in terms of visual aspects?

I can't say every, but most items in the game have and orange equivalent that can be bought or found somewhere.

You can check the GTN and filter for "custom" items for a fairly decent selection of more common pieces. Various specialty vendors sometimes have custom pieces and those pieces, if armor, can also be found at the respective armor weight vendor (light, medium, heavy).

If you want to spend some money, the cartel store also has full sets and single pieces (chest only) that are not only custom, but adaptive, meaning it scales it's protective value based on the highest armor proficiency of the character wearing it. They can be rather pricey, but some of it doesn't look half bad. It can also be found for sale on the GTN, but usually at fairly steep prices, albeit fake money instead of real.

Social and PvP vendors also have a fairly decent selection of custom items should you choose to raise your valor or social ranks, but social item vendors tend to be hard to track down sometimes.

Ah ok, that helped a bit!

I still think that they should adopt a more DCUO-ish system though!!