Welcome back to this blog! You may or may not have noticed the change in the blog's name from "Aion Skin Mod" to "SkinXFormer's Skin Mod". As the title of this post has hinted, I have kind of move on from Aion to Blade & Soul....with mixed feeling, since I have been on AION for like 5 years and more. I have been thinking about whether to create a whole new Blog for Blade & Soul skin mod or to just add it into this existing Blog... >.<
Well... After some thoughts, I figure that I should just add it into this Blog since it still deals with mod-ding game skins and it doesn't seem right to just let this Blog goes to waste. Hopefully, you will continue supporting this Blog which is actually also a log of my gaming journey. XD
In preparation for the incoming Blade & Soul skin mods, I have added labels "Aion" for all the past posts and initiated each AION related post with the name, so fans of Aion can easily filter what they want.
My AION account is still active so if anybody has any request for AION skin mod, I would still be able to look into it. After all, I have been on the game for such a long time. :D
Anyway, my moving away from Aion isn't because I got bored of the game but incredibly, because of this same armor skin that got me started on skin mod-ding. This particular armor is known as the "Vasharti Brigade General's Jerkin" in AION and "Ashes in the Fall" in Blade & Soul.
For one, Blade & Soul does not have different armor types (e.g. plate, chain, leather or cloth) like in AION. In Blade & Soul, all costumes are known as outfits (since they have no stats) and can be worn by anyone as long as there is no race or gender restriction. Each race (Jin, Yun, Gon and Lyn) gets their own design of the same outfit. This means that when different race put on the same outfit, they will look different. So, in place of having character class determining what armor they can wear in AION, it is the race that determines it in Blade & Soul. This is good in a way since players don't have to keep running the same boring dungeon in hope that their armor type will drop. This is something that probably AION picks up, by introducing armor box loot instead of the armor themselves (i.e. box drop but armor within is determined by the class that opens it).
If we compare AION's and Blade & Soul's armor types, Blade & Soul's outfit would fall in the costume category of AION, where one piece contains all parts (chest, pants, gloves, shoe and shoulder).
Then how does Blade & Soul go about letting players customize their outfit? Well, they do it by having head adornment, face adornment and general adornment. Head and face adornment as the name suggested, goes onto the head, like helmet, glasses or hairstyle. The general adornment can be anywhere of the body from head to leg. Unfortunately, general adornments normally need to be worn together with the specific outfit that it comes with, except some special ones.
What about character's stats then since there is no armor? In Blade & Soul, stats come from (other than weapon) accessories such as necklace, earrings, ring, belt, bracelet and soul shield.
So far, I have modified several outfits and some are outfits worn by the NPC characters in game. And I was surprised to see some of the cinematics played with the NPC wearing the modified outfits. It seems that instead of pre-producing and saving the cinematics on disk, Blade & Soul actually render them in game and that alone cuts a lot of hard disk space. However, the cinematics may look choppy when the game is ran on a slow computer. >.<"
For a start, you can check the videos below for the cinematics involving JinSoyun, Zulia and the Twins (from Bloodshade Harbor).
In the video below, you can also see a few of the skins that I had modified. I have not made any video for them yet, so I capture the cinematic that is played every time I defeat the dungeon boss, with a different outfit, and compiled them into one single video. I will probably make new videos for each of these modified outfits, in the future, since they are not very clear in the video.
Back when I was not playing Blade & Soul, but was just checking out the game, I can't help but to notice this outfit that bares amazing resemblance to the armor that got me started on skin mod.... And what's even crazier is that it has the CORRECT color! O.O
Out of curiosity, I installed and started playing Blade & Soul so that I can get my hands on this outfit. Eventually, I fell for its graphics and gameplay style, and has since extended my indulgence in skin mod into the game. XD
Don't just take my word for it though! Check them out yourself in the image below.
On the right half of the above image, you can see the "Vasharti Brigade General's Jerkin" from AION, but with the torso area blackened; while on the left half, you can see "Ashes in the Fall" outfit but with the correct color for the torso area. Do you agree that these 2 costumes look almost identical? XD
Well, that's not the only identical costumes. Check the below images for some other similar costumes.
What about these two on top? Doesn't the basic design looks identical?
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| AION - Vasharti Brigade General's Breastplate without glove/shoulder |
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| Blade & Soul - Ghost in The Shell |
And for these two above (Left: AION - Dragon Training Suit, Right: Blade & Soul - Sunrise Action Hero); although both costumes' names omitted the use of Bruce Lee, all fans can still easily recognize that iconic action suit anywhere. XD
Well... Blade & Soul and AION could be sister games since both are creations of NCSoft and thus, may share some similar asserts such as costumes designs. But as I come to find out, other than some shared costume designs, both games differ much in the virtual world, storyline, play style and costume types.
For one, Blade & Soul does not have different armor types (e.g. plate, chain, leather or cloth) like in AION. In Blade & Soul, all costumes are known as outfits (since they have no stats) and can be worn by anyone as long as there is no race or gender restriction. Each race (Jin, Yun, Gon and Lyn) gets their own design of the same outfit. This means that when different race put on the same outfit, they will look different. So, in place of having character class determining what armor they can wear in AION, it is the race that determines it in Blade & Soul. This is good in a way since players don't have to keep running the same boring dungeon in hope that their armor type will drop. This is something that probably AION picks up, by introducing armor box loot instead of the armor themselves (i.e. box drop but armor within is determined by the class that opens it).
If we compare AION's and Blade & Soul's armor types, Blade & Soul's outfit would fall in the costume category of AION, where one piece contains all parts (chest, pants, gloves, shoe and shoulder).
Then how does Blade & Soul go about letting players customize their outfit? Well, they do it by having head adornment, face adornment and general adornment. Head and face adornment as the name suggested, goes onto the head, like helmet, glasses or hairstyle. The general adornment can be anywhere of the body from head to leg. Unfortunately, general adornments normally need to be worn together with the specific outfit that it comes with, except some special ones.
What about character's stats then since there is no armor? In Blade & Soul, stats come from (other than weapon) accessories such as necklace, earrings, ring, belt, bracelet and soul shield.
So far, I have modified several outfits and some are outfits worn by the NPC characters in game. And I was surprised to see some of the cinematics played with the NPC wearing the modified outfits. It seems that instead of pre-producing and saving the cinematics on disk, Blade & Soul actually render them in game and that alone cuts a lot of hard disk space. However, the cinematics may look choppy when the game is ran on a slow computer. >.<"
For a start, you can check the videos below for the cinematics involving JinSoyun, Zulia and the Twins (from Bloodshade Harbor).
In the video below, you can also see a few of the skins that I had modified. I have not made any video for them yet, so I capture the cinematic that is played every time I defeat the dungeon boss, with a different outfit, and compiled them into one single video. I will probably make new videos for each of these modified outfits, in the future, since they are not very clear in the video.
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