I will start off by apologizing for sounding like a negative nancy, doomsayer or whatever you would call me, but I love the game and someone will have to rise against this update.
I suggest writing down a reply or some sort if you at all agree or disagree with me on these points.
There was a time... Where tara raids were awesome, and raffles were really fun.
I got my first freshman title there. I also got my first pieces of dragon armor...
I used it as armor and social armor (when available) ever since..
I have ALWAYS loved the armor, I don't know why.. The color? I don't know.
What I do know is... This new updated texture looks very bad.
I'll be the first to admit I have some nostalgia for the original but-
Let's start with the good actually.. the chest, not bad except for the weird gold trim in the back, warping of the texture and a general loss of fidelity and original color.
At least you kept it looking sorta like the original.
Then we get to the bad parts..
The rest of the set looks so far from the original it hurts my little trader heart.
It is painfully obvious you have no art director or senior artists to guide you.
If you are going to update textures you could at least keep them close to the original and not take away every piece of nostalgia we had for the game.
This is not the first armor you have "updated" to look worse (or in best case, sidegrade) than the original.
Flowers tech was the start, and honestly... I thought you had gained wisdom from that and stopped what you were doing, I guess I was wrong.
You had to continue to remove old armors, such as the Nomad's armor...
I didn't really complain when you used those textures on the new birthday armor, 'cus I actually like change and new things.
But when you start to replace 2D texture masters' work that has always been good enough with amateur's work for no good reason it really irks me.
I suggest you restore the original armor textures and use these new textures on NEW armor to drop in Subway, TOTW, SoM, Foremans, IS etc..
That way new players can feel some sort of progression, but instead you decided to delete old armor that some of us old people actually like.
You made one new armor to last you from 0 -> 220 so new players won't ever upgrade or feel rewarded for playing.
Making old players (like me) not want to play, alienating returning players.. and at the same time pushing new people away from enjoying the game seems like very poor design choices.
Speaking of poor design choices... Making all these items available in shops must be some sort of joke... Where exactly do you propose new players make credits? Certainly not from missions anymore.
I believe I have said this before.. but I will say it again.
New ICC feels like a kids "private wow" server, it does not look or feel professional.
It is a block superimposed on the terrain with weird round overly large structures that serve no purpose, with white textures (that do not belong on Rubi-ka) and other things slapped on top of it as if it was a "test board".
The signs looks like the first things I did when Photoshop was JUST released many years ago; TV Interlace effect filter... really?
The new shop terminals do not feel like they belong on Rubi-ka, I always felt "welcome" to spend all my hard earned credits in the old supermarkets.
I can't say I feel anything other than frustration from the new one.
I also cannot read what the stores say.
All of these changes in combination will hurt the game so much it hurts me just thinking about it.
I for one will not stand for it and will no longer be playing once 18.7 hits live (in this state).
And just to put into perspective on how much I disagree with these changes, I've said nothing when any of the expansions or any update so far has happened.
{edited by Bekrowe: Account status is not allowed}
I also have not said anything about the "profession balance" act that is going in at the same time, as those are tweaks that can be fixed.
I have already offered to make you new whompas, shops and give you a ICC design that at least makes sense compared to how it looks on Live right now, all free of course.
I want no compensation, NOTHING other than to not see these (IMHO. bad) changes on Live.
Quick work, not even close to being "representable"
http://imgur.com/a/ZZIHT
http://i.imgur.com/riSKTXW.jpg
It almost seems like you followed a "how to kill a game 101" manual.