AION - Mummy Outfit

For the previous 2 (or 4) consecutive posts, I have been touching on mix-and-match of Aion armor with mod. So for this post, I am going to work on a costume mod. With Halloween approaching fast, I figure that I want to add 1 more costume to my stash of Vampire Outfit and Zombie Apocalypse Outfit. My initial idea was to make a Banshee Outfit but it was soon replaced after AION NA introduced the "Luna Shop" event.

In this new event, NCSoft has introduced a new in-game currency called the "Luna Coins", which can be used to complement various aspects of the game that are well-loved by players, such as a wardrobe that can hold skins, for re-skinning unlimited times without destroying the skin, and special daily craft that can make randomly available items such as costumes, decorations, mounts, emotion cards and even pet eggs. :D

But you may be asking what's the Luna Shop got to do with my change of heart, to make a Mummy Outfit instead of a Banshee one? Well, this have to do with one of the skin that was introduced with the Luna Shop, namely the "All-Wrapped Up" costume. Maybe if you take a look at the screen capture below, you will know why. XD



All-Wrapped Up!

As you guys can see, this new costume kind of wrap up my character, with ribbons, into a pleasant "present". XD   And incase "All-Wrapped Up" sounded like something that I have made up out of the blue, it is in fact and really the in-game name of this costume. I didn't make the name up.  >.<

But would you guys agree that other than the ribbon, the wrapping itself do look something like a mummy's wrapping? Well, that's what I thought when I first look at this costume, and so, Mummy Outfit comes to mind.  :p

Unfortunately, a pretty face popping out above a wrapped up mummy's body just doesn't seem to be correct.  ~.~   And to make it double unfortunate, there is no way I can change her head since I do not have the means to modify the mesh (or skin surface).  :'(

But hey! This is AION, the king (or queen  o.o?  ) of  games, in terms of skin assortment! And the answer to my problem, is in yet another skin, namely the "Spooky Spandex". Look at my hero (or maybe anti-hero after you have seen what it is..) in the screen capture below.



Spooky Spandex

I hope it didn't spook you.  :p   But yes! This is exactly the skin needed to pull it off . And so, I got off to work by duplicating part of "All-Wrapped Up" design onto the "Spooky Spandex".

For the final product, take a look at the images below.

Front view

Rear view

 

Side view

Is this more spooky than the Spooky Spandex? Especially that featureless face, making you wonder what lurks behind those wraps.  >.<"   For some reason, it also kind of reminds me of the "Silver Surfer" from "Fantastic Four".

Well... I had wanted to expose part of her face, similar to her body, but the mesh has nothing below the cloth, so removing the cloth would cause a "hole" to appear in the face. We can't want our cake and eat it as well I guess..  >.<

Well, that's all for the mod shown here but in the video, you will get to see the other fun thing about the mod, due to the special effect of "Spooky Spandex", when the character get into combat mode. :D

 

 

Download Link

 

AION - A Re-visit to Rebel Chain Set Part 2

Welcome back to Rebel Chain Set Part 2 (with Mod). In the last post, we have seen the mix-and-match between the Rebel (Rentus Recovery) Chain set and Vasharti General's Chain set. Specifically, I have chosen to use the pants and shoes from the Vasharti General's Chain set, to mix with the Hauberk, bracer and shoulder of the Rebel Chain set. The end result is a gold and black colored, tight fitting armor set that looks okay but not perfect, due to the colors and style mismatch. >.<   So, in part 2, I got into mod mode to modify the style and color of the Rebel Hauberk, in order to match the style of the pants and at the same time, removing accessories (that I think are excessive  ~.~   ) on both the hauberk and gloves.

 

Without further delay, let's see what I have done for the final customization.  :)

 

Front view - Before & After

Whoops! I think the most prominent change, as you can see from the above image, is from the golden half body armor to a black bikini top with gold chains and black nettings.   :p

 

The original gold color of the armor cannot be dyed, but after my mod, it can now be dyed to black or any other color. I chose black because it matches the black shorts and nettings, plus gold-black combo is a great match too!  :D

 

And for the bra straps, I have chosen to use gold chains since it matches the shoulder and bracer, and more importantly, we can't call it a chain armor if there's no chain on it. :p

 

Well, with the most prominent change explained, let's look at the other items that I have mod, if you have not noticed them yet.

 

Accessories that are removed

Looking at the above image, we will notice that the ring around the neck has been trimmed, the ribbon (banner) on torso and waist have been removed, and finally, the weird lines running along her arms are gone for good.

 

And one last change is that those 3 lines that runs from her bracer to her finger tips are removed too, in the glove mod that is separate from the hauberk mod. So this post actually contains one and a quarter mod. A quarter because the glove mod is easily done and take much less effort than the hauberk.  :p

 

Lines on hands removed

So, do you guys agree that this customized armor set looks better now? You can check out the video below for a better view of the armor set.

 

 

 

Download Link

 

AION - A Re-visit to Rebel Chain Set

Today, we'll be re-visiting the Rebel (Rentus Recovery) Chain Set because I just love this armor set so much.  xD   If you guys can recall, I have done a mod for the Hauberk (Rebel Cleric/Chanter/Aethertech Hauberk) and turned it into a 2 piece bikini armor (Veteran Hunters Chausses) in my previous 2 posts. In this post, I will show yet another possibility that we can have with this set of armor with it's newer counterpart (Vasharti General's Chain set).   :D

 

First of all, let's refresh our memories on how the original set looks like.

 

Front & Rear view

 

Front & Rear view - Close-up

 

Side view - Close-up

This armor set may be slightly old (AION 4.X) but I still see players wearing whole or part of it here and there, because it is just so unique and beautiful. However, like I have said before, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and my opinion of the baggy pants is still a sad "zzzz".  D:

So, I looked through the massive AION chain skin collection and found the pants that I need. This pants happens to drop in the same dungeon/instance (Occupied Rentus Base), and is the new counterpart of this older set; known as the Vasharti General's Chain set.

Let's see how the new pants match up with the old set, shall we?

New pants but mismatching shoe

Well, the pants seems to sit in nicely, but the shoes (brogans) are kind of mismatch.   :'(    So, I will probably have to replace the shoes as well... Let's see...

Shoes changed and fit nicely

As expected, the new shoes fit in nicely with the pants, since they are designed as one set. :D

Rear view

With the shoes changed, our customized armor set is almost complete, except for the mismatched colors. Unfortunately, for the casual players, dyeing this customized armor set can be a BIG problem because the black pants and the golden top cannot be dyed. For those players, including me (before I learn to mod), who have tried, we will know that only the banner (ribbon) running across the torso and the waist area can be dyed.  T_T

While the color may look fine from the front, because the waist cloth is partially covering the pants, the rear view shows the distinct difference... Which is not ok, as this is the view I am looking at when she moves about.  :(

So, in the next step, I will get into mod mode to modify the colors and remove that banner and lines running along her arm. But that'll be in Part 2, so stay tuned.  :p

P.S: For eagle eyes readers, you guys may have also noticed that the bracers have been "secretly" changed. While I think the ring bracer looks cool, the 3 lines that run from the bracer to her 3 fingers aren't. So, I instinctively replaced them, forgetting that I can simply remove the 3 lines too, with mod.   >.<"   LOL...  So don't worry... those braces will be back in Part 2.  :p

 

 

 

AION - Rentus Recovery Cloth Armor Set Part 2: Rentus Recovery Tunic and Ophidan Legging Mod

As promised in the previous post, we'll take a look at how we can take our armor customization to the next level through the use of skin mods. In order to achieve my desired customization, I have modified both the Rentus Recovery Tunic (or Rebel tunic) and the Ophidan Legging. So without further delay, let us look at the before and after screen captures.

  

Front view - Before and After

Can you guys spot the difference?   :p   

In case you have difficulty spotting the changes, the following 3 screen captures will point them out for you.   :D

Front view - accessories removed

Well, for the first thing, I removed the golden, mini wing-like accessories located at the front of her waist, which I had mentioned in the previous post. Not only does it not change color with the tunic, but it also looks out of place with the replaced skirt (Ophidan legging). So, off it goes!    >.<

Front view - Full to partial armor

The next item that I mod is the chest area. Although the full chest armor looks nice, it gives this strong, hard feel of a plate armor. As such, I decided to have it mod into a bra-type armor, to give it a softer, clothier feel. It's a cloth armor to begin with, isn't it?  XD

 

Actually I also tried removing the sleeves but it exposed some discontinuities between the upper arm and the main body, so I scrapped the idea.  ~.~

Front view - Trimmed skirt

For the last item on the list, I finally got to the Ophidan legging. Readers who have followed this blog would have probably guessed what I intended to do... My love for leggy-ness.   :p

 

If you did guess correctly, well congratulation, but sorry...  no prize to give away   :'(    As a consolation, you can download this mod from the link at the end of this post.    :p

 



Anyway, I stripped off the cloth part of the skirt to reveal her full legs, but the front portion seems empty because the 'feathers' do not cover the area. I would have replaced the area with the same feathers but it is beyond my access to mod a solid object into a translucent one.   ~.~

 

Instead, I trimmed the around-the-wait skirt into a triangular portion that specifically covers that empty area. Hey! I even added a little design on that small piece of cloth.  :p

 

So, what do you guys think of this fully customized armor set? Or do you guys have some improvement tips (except nude  >.<  )?

 

 

 

 

Download Link

 

AION - Mix-matching Aion skin - Rentus Recovery Cloth Armor Set

So far, I have mostly focused on showing the skin mods that I have created in Aion. But there is another way that gamers can have fun with the numerous armor skins in Aion. And as the title of this post has hinted, it's mix-matching.   :)    In fact, I have been doing that all the while when I show you guys my mods. For example, remember the Vampire Outfit, in which I chose matching shoulder, glove and shoe? And this mix-matching is only possible because Aion has such vast number of armor sets and the ability to re-skin the look of an armor piece onto another (i.e. replacing the look of an armor without changing its attributes or stats). Wonder how many artists and graphic designers did NCSoft hire to achieve this feat.  xD

 

But some may wonder how a mix-and-match would work. Well, from my previous posts or for fellow gamers who have played the game, you will know that Aion armors come in a 5-piece set (as in design) such as chest, pants, shoulder, glove and shoe. Of course, there are also some chest pieces that includes the pants (e.g. Kunax Hauberk) and special full body costumes that is a 5-in-1 (e.g. Sexy Leopard Tights). So, it is quite obvious that mix-and-match can only be fully possible for armor sets with 5 separate pieces, partially possible for chest-with-pants pieces, while not possible at all for those 5-in-1 costumes because the full costume overrides any worn pants, shoulder, glove and shoe... >.<

For armors that is not a 5-in-1, you may take a liking to one or few of the pieces while disliking the others. This is where mix-and-match enter the scene by choosing armor pieces of other sets to complement your primary set. The armor pieces of different sets need to complement each other in terms of style, theme and color. But if you wonder whether there's a standard for mix-and-match, I would say let your imagination be the only limit. But remember though, beauty in the eye of beholder, one person's perfect match may look weird for another.  >.<"

For my first mxi-and-match example, I will show you guys the Rentus Recovery Cloth set, which I think has a really nice chest armor. By the way, the way I make my selection is to first find a chest armor that I like, and thus I would address the mix-and-match set using the set name of that chest piece. Here's the screen capture of the original full set.



Original Rentus Cloth Set

As you can see, this is actually a beautiful set by itself with combination style of ancient Egypt and Celtic. However, according to the "Beauty in Eye of Beholder" law, I kind of like the chest, glove and shoe but not the shoulder and pants (or long skirt). So I look among the massive collection of Aion cloth skins to find suitable replacements. I can only choose from cloth armor because skin of different armor types cannot be used for re-skinning (e.g. Cannot re-skin leather armor onto cloth armor).  ~.~   The only exception to this is the clothes type which can be re-skinned onto any armor type (Clothes type are mostly costumes without  stats or attributes e.g. Sexy Leopard Tights).

Finally, I chose the Ophidan Leggings and Veille's Pauldrons (shoulder). The Ophidan set is a crafted armor set that uses Balaur (dragon) materials and Veille set comes as special reward from participation on Balaurea siege or bought off Black Cloud Marketplace (BCM).

And the end result of my search? Look below :D



Mix-and-match Shoulder and Skirt

Do I look awesome now? Actually, the shoulder and pants (skirt in this case) are really nice too in that they complement each other in term of style, and the Rentus Recovery Tunic provided the missing piece to bring them together.  :D

However, like I have mentioned before, the pieces needed to complement each other in terms of not only style but also color. With the white transparent "feathers",  the gold colored chest piece just look kind of out of place, isn't it?  :(    So the next step is to dye (or recolor) the chest skin to white as shown in the screen capture below.

Chest Armor (Tunic) dyed white

See the difference now that the tunic has been dyed white?   :D

However, after the mix-and-match, I still have some problem with the armor set....   :'(   Yes....that 2 golden mini 'wing' like accessories on the waist... Not only do they look out of place but also the fact that they are not dyed like the rest of the tunic, remaining gold in color.   -.-"   And, yes... certain parts of some armor pieces will retain the original color even after applying a dye (like the purple collar on this tunic), which is fine unless someone prefers all red, all green or all blue like the Sauro Commander Tunic, which I have mod before.

Well...for the casual players, this is as far as we can go about making our own favorite customized armor set, that brings out the individual characteristic of our avatar.  >.<" 

But having access to armor skin mod, I can modified the armor skin to my satisfaction as I will show in my next post. So stay tuned for Rentus Recovery Cloth Armor Set part 2.  :p

As a side thought, having skin mod can bring character customization right up to the next level, that is, if any game developer dares to take on the challenge... But hey, you guys already made face and body customization possible, didn't you?   :D