I’m sorry. I have read your message again, but I still don’t understand which part you are referring to. Could you please point to the missing argument directly? I don’t understand very well what I haven’t addressed in our discussion.
Sorry if I came on too strong. I am not an elitist, when it comes to restricting peoples tastes. The reason i am arguing for immersion is not for the sake of realism. Its because I don’t want the gameplay to suffer. NRFTW is a game, where gameplay should come first. Not only based on my personal preference, but also on how it is advertised, what it is inspired by and huge parts of the audience it already attracted.
If you don’t believe me that the gameplay could suffer severely, here are only some potential issues, if transmog is implemented (at least without some necessary restrictions):
- Loss of strategic visual cues (i can’t plan ahead or anticipate what is happening when the appearance of a character does not match their playstyle)
- Distroted perception of appearance vs functionality in general
- The reward value of finding cool looking, good items gets diminished
- Design inconsistencies when it comes to appearance vs functionality - which can hurt the functionality of game elements, also more design load for the developers
Edit:
Figuring out what restrictions are necessary, so we avoid as many issues as possible, while still having some Transmog in the game, is what finding common ground looks like from my perspective.
I sincerely hope, you see where I am coming from.
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The White Pre Order Cerim Armor is a Joke without Transmog and the Current Enchanting system.
The same with Craft Sets, because they are to expensive to farm.
The only viable way is Sell Loot onmass and Buy Tradersets for mass enchanting.
You are welcome, Evocator, and there is no need to apologize. On the internet, when talking with strangers, you always need to exchange a few messages until you can fully understand what the other person is trying to communicate, so there is no harsh feeling at all.
So, we are switching the focus from immersion/roleplaying to gameplay. Fair enough. So, for the sake of a healthy discussion, I would like to expand on what you just pointed out and let see if you can find valuable what I add to the discussion.
It appears to me that this is primarily a multiplayer/PvP issue, and a valid one at that. One potential solution could be to include a toggleable setting that allows players to see others without any visual cues, thereby addressing the concern.
If transmogs were applied randomly by the system, I would indeed agree that we have an issue here, but applying a transmog is an action that a player does voluntarily so he is aware that the current item
appears in a way and behaves differently since the player itself applied the transmog in the first place.
I want to tell you a story about a game that I have been playing for years and have followed since it was on early access: Grim Dawn. In Grim Dawn, you have WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get). So if a monster is wielding a fire weapon, and you kill it, it will drop that weapon. But even if the game is founded on this solid and compelling system, people complained to the devs. Since the devs made way so many beautiful armors and gear, they wanted to be able to change their appearance (by transmog) to enjoy more all the art the developers made. So even a game that was founded on WYSIWYG and the devs insisted much on this concept ended up giving the players what they wanted. And I can tell you Grim Dawn is absolutely an healthy game, with a thriving community.
Part of this concept is similar to the points above, so I want to discuss only the load for the developers. While it is true that implementing a transmog system requires time, it pays off way more than the time needed to implement it. The devs need to release a few cosmetic sets not only to pay off the original investment but also to profit from them since once the system is in place, making a new cosmetic set requires little development time but can yield huge profits.
I know they do not want microtransactions, but not all cosmetic sets are sold through microtransactions. Many games have cosmetic DLC that is cheap and one-purchase only.
“The obstacle is the way.” And whatever design challenge you may have, there is always a solution to the problem. Sometimes, we tunnel vision and tend to believe that compromise (or lack of restraint, as you would have said earlier) is detrimental. Sometimes, you can have state-of-the-art compromises that are so functional that you are glad to have had an obstacle to deal with cause you can get out of it stronger and with a better product.
Transmog would be cool, yeah.
Liked the idea that it unlocks with every level requirement 11, 21, ??, ??.. Keeping the progression fantasy or what you would call it, in tacked. 
Romolo, let’s get the terminology clear cause this is confusing.
Enchanting = changes the attributes of a gear without altering the appearance
Transmog = changes the appearance of an item without altering its attributes.
They are two different systems, and no amount of improvement of the enchant system will ever make the transmog system redundant because they are entirely different systems.
A Grim Dawn enthusiast like me 
Ive a 4500h steam playtime. This game is done with so much love and long term motivation. Most played arpgs of all time for me beside D2. Also loved the pace of the game and hit feedback. All felt really meaningful.
Never used the transmog tho 
But i wish that some ideas of GD carry over to NRftW: Devotion “like” System, Fractions/reputation gain and special bosses.
So Romolo, I was right, there is a terminology issue here.
Because the enchant system that you are suggesting is one that includes both enchanting and transmogrification in one single process.
I think it is better to split them into two different terms because you are the only one in this thread to use enchanting with this double meaning, and it is really confusing to have a discussion with everyone while someone uses a different terminology.
It’s completely off-topic, but Grim Dawn attracted me to this game.
I love ARPGs, but I hate online gaming, ladders, seasons, and randomly generated maps that all look like copies of the others.
This leaves me with Titan Quest and Grim Dawn to play. And I have thousands of hours as well.
The level design sold me on this game. It gave me the same vibes when I entered Burrwitch village for the first time—a well-crafted maze that is memorable and enjoyable to navigate.
Also, as you never used transmog in GD, I never used the camera. Mine is always pointing north and never rotated once, so the fixed camera of NRFTW is a massive win for me.
You know what else this game should take from GD? Monster infrequents. The loot here is really lackluster, and it doesn’t have much identity. Sure, plethora of weapons and all well made, but the focused grind a monster infrequently can have is something different.
Same
Same
Need to make a post about “what wicked can learn from grim dawn”.
Monster infrequents ← also good point. I really like if monster types have loot tables based on what they are using.
I hate if items are getting to generic. Hunting for meaningful items which are connected to the wearer. Take the alkamos set rings from the steps of torment boss. This is so motivating. Would love to see roguelike dungeons like that in wicked
getting off-topic
btw. a new dlc is coming this year.. will buy it no matter what. Just to keep the game alive.
Diablo 3 did a good job with transmog, you only get new appearance if you first found the item and salvaged it.
As of right now I don’t even look at how armor looks, just stats, so for finding cool looking armor with terrible stast brings no joy, what use of it.
With transmog it brings back this joy, since now player would have ability to change appearance without loosing stat gains
I fail to recognize how what I wrote has been perceived as hostile. But well then, farewell. I will still quote you in the future if I think what you are writing is confusing, needs clarification, or is something I would like to expand on to converse with other users. But feel free not to answer me.
PS: when you change your mind and want to converse with me, feel free to do it. You will be always welcome.
I appreciate you taking the time to reply. When it comes to the internet, there is always a fine line between discussion and emotional argument.
I am not a game dev, but when it comes to additional systems, it appears, that there is always a more or less hidden design cost. The more features you have in your game, the more restrictions you put on your other features.
Thus the basic approach in gameplay first games would always be, either don’t have tagged on features, or restrict non-gameplay features in a way that it doesn’t truly hurt gameplay. Sometimes it may be even possible, to shape them in a way, that they have a positive effect on gameplay or the gameplay loop. Which i think Moon Studios is trying to do with a lot of the subsystems. Its a little bit of work in the grey.
For example, i think transmog issues don’t exist as much in most traditional ARPGs - As every weapon and piece of armor functions basically the same - gear has no impact on animations or skill choices -, and the gameplay is fast paced enough that PvP interactions become basically a non-issue. One could argue, that it is not truly necessary to restrict appearances.
For the sake of discussion I will try to give feedback to your points, but I think most of these issues can not really be solved “cleanly”.
I like your idealism about toggling. Potential issues;
- It does not take social media / recordings into account
- Everything happening within the game would basically have to be animated twice?
- Sidenote: It still occupies the same design space, more on that later
I see what you are trying to say, though if it does not matter what i look like towards what my character can do, this perception becomes indeed distorted. Or at least detached from one another.
I like your passion about enjoying more art. Consider:
- As a more traditional ARPG, Grim Dawn is not as restricted as NRFTW (See my earlier point)
- Adding art to the game is also possible within a more restricted transmog system, that does not hurt gameplay
Preface: This argument has basically nothing to do with the other.
I don’t think NRFTW wants or should be a profit over gameplay game. Though it could be fine gameplay wise, if transmogs are, again: restricted enough.
I personally would prefer it very very very much, if FOMO and exclusion within this game is kept to a minimum and not locked behind paywalls. I will buy every expansion, if the game becomes good. That should be enough in a pay to play title. If there need to be transmog sets, make them clearly distinguishable and as you said: low budget one time payment only. And please please please don’t have a Battle Pass.
I fully agree and hope you are truly open to compromise. As i said, transmog with some restrictions would be fine imo.
I also like the approach proposed by @RomoloHero in making gear customizable enough, that transmog is not necessary to live out your character fantasies.
I’d even go a step further and say, that uniqueness of weapons and interacting with he crafting systems and vendors to get gear to play/look the way you want even adds to the fantasy of a Character.
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What’s the complaint here? If someone already has high level loot then they’ve already gone through the progression to get that loot, why make them go through it again just because they reroll a character?
As above, would love to customise alot of the cool armors in the game and change up my look every now and again! Hide Helmet option is also a must.
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yes please we really need this
agree we absolutely need this
Yes, please. I got a new helm from Crucible, it looks like a jellyfish and I like it but too lazy to replace the current one.
Just adding a Transmog option to the armors to add some semblance of fashion freedom, might be problematic in pvp when it’s released but it can be dealt with in 2 ways:
1- Making it invisible (as in turning it off) in PvP matches (if they’ll become a thing) or have it as an option if possible to be disabled in the players’s own options (toggling it on toggles their Transmogged looks but does so to the other players as well)
2- Restricting transmogging to gear weight class, as in you can only transmog (copy the looks of an armor and putting it on another) only if they’re in the same weight class (Light, medium, heavy)
Kudos go to User “Curry Pencil” from Discord for the second solution.
Best of luck with the game and may the people of Sacrament live to see another day!
The gear looks the certain way to indicate weight class and characters’ potential abilities and fighting style. It would also obfuscate the character telegraphing in pvp.
Imagine you are facing opponent who has a flower or a torch in his/her off-hand, but it’s actually a shield or the way around. Or maybe a character has a secondary weapon which looks like 2-h sword which is actually a wizard staff. Graphics that won’t indicate anything would be pointless.