So what are the floating bloated-colored cubes for? Yeah, you're having a blast goofing around in Maya, but somehow I don't think they'll remain in the final composition. What's with the mustard gas filter? It looks like you're hitting random buttons and are somehow impressed that they did something.

Stick with the kran head, but remove everything else - if you actually want this to be good in the end.

I KNOW, CRAZY IDEA.

Criticism isn't always going to be a pat on the head and a cookie - get used to it.

I also think we should not let those idiots see this post or they'll catch on to us <.<

Secrets are secret for a reason >:( Why don't you just tell everyone where we hid Miguel's body, while you're at it?

Maybe you could train to tattoo different races, meaning you acquire different canvases to work on. So, there would be a canvas for arm tattoos, one for chest tattoos, one for face tattoos, and so on, for each race. That kinda fixes the race differences... but I don't know about the UV squares.

I wish it were that simple, but that's not the case. Depending on the size of the tattoo, let's say something that runs from the shoulder down to the forearm, parts of it could be stretched because of the UVs. The only way to find out where this stretching will happen on a tattoo is outside the game client, when you're actually creating the art. And face tattoos are even more difficult, since heads have so much more variation than just an arm or a back. Having the same tattoo repeated 23 times to account for the different character models will be very messy, and when I was still working on the project, Luca really hated redundancy of any kind.

Even if it is not possible for players to create their own designs, perhaps everything could be done with templates? I dunno... That would require tons of art...

Right, but the main issue here is actually making this look possible in the first place. Even templates don't fix the UV issue.

Ah, but making something harder to bot does not necessarily make it enjoyable, and a game should be fun first and foremost. In addition, the rarity of something should never come from a lack of enthusiasm for trying. These are very bad arguments to use. But hey, if the team says they'll look into it, they will.

In the meantime, you could always make Wishlist threads with suggestions of more interesting crafting systems.

Reviews don't usually pat PS on the back for being a volunteer-run project, because reviews don't give an A for effort. You get an A for being an awesome game, and PlaneShift isn't there yet, regardless of the awesome effort spent on it. Most positive write-ups are by players who have stuck around for several months and have found a reason for doing so. The negative are from players familiar with many other MMOs, and are looking for more than PS can currently offer.

Game companies are successful by catering to player whims. It's how they stay afloat, and it's why there haven't been any WoW-killers to date. No one does it as well. It's also why I found the following comment distasteful:

The complaints basically fall into the "not enough graphics/functionality content" category as they usually do, coming from players who are used to getting their every whim catered to.

That's usually what makes a game fun, as an enjoyable use of someone's time. Pretty graphics, and a lot of functionality. In general, dismissing players who want this might not be a good idea, because this is really what PS is striving to become. A lot of people really do make whine-like remarks about slow progress (and reading reviews with typos makes me want to dismiss the author's entire opinion, truth be told), but once you get past all the defensive reactions in your head, it's worth noting that their points are just as valid as the positive ones.

Well, the developers know how much power they have over the community - some more than others. (When I was involved there was a wide gap between the team members who cared not at all about this, and cared too much. I suspect that this gap still exists to some degree.) What would make PlaneShift an interesting object of observation long-term, is the fact that no one knows exactly where it's going. The developers who worked on PS 8 years ago could not have expected it to change the way it already has: features previously crossed out in bold red being implemented, certain mentalities and ^attitudes in community leaders being supported, etc. While Luca oversees everything and definitely has a master plan for a general direction, a lot of little things are malleable. Little things that add up.

So if there's an interest in following a real change rather than a cycle, from an outside perspective, that's what I would look at. The rhythmic rise and fall of the community isn't as intriguing.