Agreed I definitely felt bummed when he said originally they planned to let us pick a 3 color scheme and then changed that to artist control. Although I am a bit weary with just how vague is answer was to the question at the end. Picking 3 colors and having the game engine automatically make it work sounded pretty good and simple.

[quote]Agreed I definitely felt bummed when he said originally they planned to let us pick a 3 color scheme and then changed that to artist control.[/quote] Not sure if this is what you mean to communicate, but if you watch again, you can verify Shepherd's statement that the 3 swatch (1 swatch=primary/secondary) scheme was for your entire guardian's "global" appearance (armor, suit, cloth rather than color for individual pieces). This was intended for the artists to have control over not having players running around with a garish rainbow of gear. As you say, it does seem good and simple, but that's not how it seem to play out in terms of user testing and discussion. The art direction actually changed according to player investment/gameplay design in light of the fact that players were not as excited about inspecting/equipping new gear or when only their characters' geometry and not their geometry and color changed with wearing a new piece of gear. Now when you pick up new gear, at least its default color will be according to tier and not directly "overwritten" to match your global character's color palette. This also suggests that the color scheme of individual pieces rather than simply your guardian's global color palette will be user-editable. You can still certainly set up your own color scheme to match your gear's colors with other pieces of gear, it's just not forced. And now the default scheme appears to communicate higher-tier and/or higher level gear better than it did before, where everything was overwritten by the 3-swatch "global" user palette. In other words, you can rest easy, though the artists will probably hate you for making them Taste the Rainbow.

[quote]the artists will probably hate you for making them taste the rainbow.[/quote]Hahaha, can't agree any more. Some people will do this but most players will probably have some aesthetic feel.

Yeah, it simple for initial- and midgame, but in the endgame it would be nice to just pick your own color schemes. It's all a part of the image you're trying to build.

Agreed. I just meant in the GDC video it went from a clear player controlled scheme to an artist controlled scheme to and artist controlled default scheme with murky details on player control. I'm hoping for the best. I'd really like if each of the armor pieces ended up with 3 color options.