Remove gender restriction from armor

[Ryck]

Issue:
We should not feel obligated to make our character a certain gender just for the ability to wear specific armor pieces.

Cause:
Talking specifically about the Lv. 35 Thief overall Blue Avenger which only female thieves can wear and gives +4DEX (potential +5DEX) with room for scrolling. There is no male version of this overall.
This has always been an issue but wasn't a huge deal as the overall traditionally required 70DEX to wear whereas a Sauna Robe did not require any.

With stat requirements being removed in RevivalStory, it is now objectively better to play as a female thief as you essentially get access to a Sauna Robe with 4-5 DEX already attached.

Effect:
As is, there is no reason to play a male character over a female, especially as a thief, and to a lesser extent warriors.

This by itself is one problem, however, the implications here is that with this many female thieves/warriors running around, there will be a lot more red Sauna Robes (female only) when they complete the quest for it. Where in other version/servers there are almost no red Sauna Robes we might potentially see an equal amount of both red and blue, or possibly a large majority red, meaning everyone will (be required to) make female characters to scroll, trade, and use the red Sauna Robes.

Potential Solutions:
The bandaid solution: Add a male version of the same overall that exist in the later version of the game.
The permanent (easier) solution: Remove gender restriction from all armor. (while you're at it, apply this to cash shop as well)

 

[EddardStark]

Agree. As well as the +4 bonus it's annoying when the female overalls sell for 110k ea in store NPC, whereas I've seen male Sauna robes have inflated to 1-2mil per sauna robe. This adds a heavy cost for male players when you need to buy multiple sauna robes just to get around 14-15 dex.

Other solution would be to make Top/Bottom Dex and Luk scrolls available. Having those scrolls would make the game much more enjoyable since the secondary stat restrictions have been removed. At the moment the incentive for Male thiefs is still to use the sauna robe. However if Top/Bottom Dex and Luk scrolls were available this would encourage players to actually hunt for Top/Bottom armors and then scroll them.

 

[bluetapeboy]

I dont care what the solution is. I dont want gender neutral armor because nostalgia, but there should be equality of opportunity, whether there is equal accessnto top/bot dex/luk scrolls early on, or add. A male thief overall.

Part of the issue i think is that the blue sauna robe is so nostalgic and iconic to the male sin look, and i don't like getting rid of that. I've seen some suggest the knucklevest overall (king pepe i think?), but imo who wants to wear knucklevest forever. I suggest EITHER taking the blue sauna robe skin and making a lvl 35 thief version "Blue Cloth Robe" OR take the cotton Uniform (dual blade lvl 30 overall) make it level 35, and add whichever one to the drop tables and applicable npc stores.

 

[DrewDragoon]

I would prefer the solution of adding top/bottom scrolls to hand picked mob droptables, so it is available to players and thus male sins can scroll their gear. Keeps a bit of difference between the two, this way.

 

[Helium]

I dont care what the solution is. I dont want gender neutral armor because nostalgia, but there should be equality of opportunity, whether there is equal accessnto top/bot dex/luk scrolls early on, or add. A male thief overall.

Part of the issue i think is that the blue sauna robe is so nostalgic and iconic to the male sin look, and i don't like getting rid of that. I've seen some suggest the knucklevest overall (king pepe i think?), but imo who wants to wear knucklevest forever. I suggest EITHER taking the blue sauna robe skin and making a lvl 35 thief version "Blue Cloth Robe" OR take the cotton Uniform (dual blade lvl 30 overall) make it level 35, and add whichever one to the drop tables and applicable npc stores.

This. Or just make the sauna robe quest and reward repeatable.

 

[Ryck]

Very good points on the Top/Bottom scrolls. To be honest I completely forgot they touched on that possibility. Though quite frankly at this point I think the dev team forgot too...

Unless something is said about it in these upcoming days leading up to the re-launch, I foresee very few male thieves for the immediate future which is what matters the most.
When (if) the top/bottom scrolls are added, I doubt anyone will be restarting their account - I know I won't. And I certainly won't be waiting for these scrolls that may or may not exist anytime soon.

Removing the gender restriction is something that can be done with relative easy (probably? IDK, I'm not familiar with these things)
It can even be implemented as a temporary solution until the scrolls are fully implemented and balanced.

 

[Mice]

I think it makes more sense to be able to choose M or F character upon creation, rather than being stuck with whichever gender you initially attached to your account.

Then you can just play a female character, which guys do all the time. It isn't like MS was ever known for its balance when it came to gear and the marketplace.

 

[Robbery]

I don't have an actual argument for this one, I just don't like it lol. I definitely sympathize with feeling pressured to create a female character to take advantage of this with the removal of secondary stats being needed to equip it.

Personally I'd rather see the change reverted even if only for this specific item instead of making it unisex. Worst case scenario I'd settle for a custom male overall with the same stats. (For the record I play female char btw)

I just think this might be a bit too silly.
Courtesy of @Helium on the discord.

 

[Martinho]

Seeing that image, I'm saying:
UNISEX EQUIPS PL0X!!!

 

[WillardDog]

First, what a loaded question. I feel the 1st option is only winning because people want equality, not unisex avengers. With regards to overalls, every class has equality of access to using an overall with bonus stats between sexes, even if they are implemented slightly differently. Except thiefs.

I dont care what the solution is. I dont want gender neutral armor because nostalgia, but there should be equality of opportunity, whether there is equal accessnto top/bot dex/luk scrolls early on, or add. A male thief overall.

Part of the issue i think is that the blue sauna robe is so nostalgic and iconic to the male sin look, and i don't like getting rid of that. I've seen some suggest the knucklevest overall (king pepe i think?), but imo who wants to wear knucklevest forever. I suggest EITHER taking the blue sauna robe skin and making a lvl 35 thief version "Blue Cloth Robe" OR take the cotton Uniform (dual blade lvl 30 overall) make it level 35, and add whichever one to the drop tables and applicable npc stores.

I feel very similarly. The image posted by Robbery is too silly. Regardless of implementation, via top+bottom scrolls or some sort of equivalent male overall (imo keep suana suana, that will get confusing; and just add cotton uniform into game, shouldn't be too difficult), I don't care which it is as long as I can play a male dit and not feel bad because of it.

 

[WillardDog]

This. Or just make the sauna robe quest and reward repeatable.

you've completely missed the entire point he was trying to make, and the entire point of this post. Also, that quest is aids.

 

[Martinho]

It's happening! xD

 

[devious]

It's happening! xD

Quite huge really, glad to see it happening!

 

[Amy]

Why only the avenger, though? Why not just flat out remove it for all armors? I'd love to be able to equip the male mage armors, but have a female hairstyle, for instance.

 

[Martinho]

Why only the avenger, though? Why not just flat out remove it for all armors? I'd love to be able to equip the male mage armors, but have a female hairstyle, for instance.

Ideally, gender would be removed from the game entirely. You don't pick a gender at the start and you can choose any hairstyle, eye shape and clothes you like.

I have a female colleague whose hair is exactly the Vincent hairstyle, I just realized. =)

 

[Amy]

Ideally, gender would be removed from the game entirely. You don't pick a gender at the start and you can choose any hairstyle, eye shape and clothes you like.

I have a female colleague whose hair is exactly the Vincent hairstyle, I just realized. =)

True. You could remove gender from the game and nobody would even notice, because female and male maplestory characters look the same if you dont impose this arbitrary armor restriction

 

[Ryck]

Glad to hear this is being addressed! (And that they are actually reading the suggestions on this forum)
Wacky even mentioned addressing the warrior Sky Shark set in the future.
All in all, great.

Although looking back on it, if the solution was to hotfix this particular overall in this way, perhaps changing this overall back to requiring 70DEX would achieve the same thing while maintaining the value of Sauna Robes.