Ability to dye armor
Ability to dye armor
The main issue in this case is mechanical.
Blizzard uses a static texture map system. That is, each individual “look” of armor is an individual texture file, even the ones that look very close in color, like the Arena gear and the Tier gear.
The current game engine doesn’t have the ability to “tint” things.
Additionally, many textures would end up looking much flatter if tinted, a lot of contrast would be lost. (While this is something that can be corrected for, it is one of the reasons that Blizzard has listed for not allowing dyes).
Far worse to my eye, is the fact that it would add a considerable amount of graphic bloat to game, as you’d suddenly need 5 to 10 times the number of armor texture files, even just to allow some basic color variations to be available.
On the social side… yes, hot pink armor would be very “popular” and would have a detrimental impact on the look and feel of the game.
Filed under: World of Warcraft