There are a lot of them, actually, and it's probably not what you might assume.
In-game Livery loads painfully long, changes between skins are painfully long and THE WORST OF ALL, you can't rotate your ship to see cosmetics from all sides. I can not comprehend how it is even possible.
So, the fixes would be
a. Allow rotation of camera around ship in livery (essential)
b. Make it load faster (to be fair might be technical issues that are too hard to fix, fine.)
c. Make better sorting. There absolutely should be sorting by "collection" (e.g. pirate, diplomacy, etiquette) at least on the website.
d. Just rethink UI, idk? I am not UX designer, but I would like to see anyone who would agree that both website store and in-game cosmetics menus feel good to use. They are absolutely uninviting.
I don't colonize systems or own fleet carrier, but those options are just terrible. You open the store and see that your amazing personal base or a station in a system you gonna dedicated many hours and resourses are just... Default with some bleak color changes. Bummer. I don't believe that anyone who wanted to buy skin for their FC open the shop and got really excited about the options. It's vey stale. Stations too.
Racing games in early 2000s had better customizations. It's just 2d textures that are slapped on the model, I am pretty sure company with billions of pounds in revenue can do better. At least because better cosmetics mean more people buy them = more money.
I got 2 new friends into the game recently and I've been playing with one before and recently all of us just checked the store and agreed on how poor the selection is. It also feels very cheap and deceptive because there a lot of skins that a just most basic color changes that cost like something more. Odyssey suits are the worst about it. There are a lot of options, tens of them, most of which are just unisnpired pallet swaps sold separately. I don't like default suits, but when you open the store there's 0 inspiration. I mean I actually most of paid suits QUITE A LOT, but instead of being presented with suits I like and also a bunch on top to suit different tastes, I get bombareded with dozen of pallete swaps that I have to dig through, though this ILLUSION OF CHOICE. It would be much better if we had like 3 variants for color and 20 for actual models. Or even better, free color swaps because maybe don't be infinitely greedy.
In short, if you want to by most suits you want to do it because default are boring and there's like one OK option instead of opening the store and getting escited about all the personalization you can get for yourself to express your CMDR vibes.
bobbleheads and ship kits are mostly fines.
decals are just very limited...
So, fixes would be
a. More meaningful cosmetics (most of same pattern with the recolor should just be bundle only...) that express different styles and vibes (for some ship there are already enogh skins)
b. More crossover of skins between ships (I don't understand why something like silver chrome or pirate is not available by default for every ship).
c. More models for suits
d. Less illusion of big store. Would anyone argue that store (for suits for example) would look MUCH BETTER if instead of endless amounts of same suits it had like 5 suit models and also 5 other items for recolour (each item = all the color palletes for certain suit)?
I just want to emphasize this again. It might feel good at the first minute, but when CMDR actually wants to buy anything, they start scrolling through pages... and see the pattern. The pattern of most items being just recolors that pose and meaningful separate items. It feel cheap. It feels deceptive.
That might be a bit counter-intuitive, but I have a personal strong opinion that if you don't get free cosmetics and everything is paid only, people have harder times engaging with the system in the first place. There is a difference between suddenly deciding to buy some ARX for customization out a blue and using it regularly and wanting more options. It would be great to have rewards for in-game stuff, like a special suit model for exobiologst elite, or special paint job for getting some rare goods to Colonia, or Hutton Mug bobblehead... (I know about retro targoid bobblehead, it's great example) Some of them can be secrets! Not only it would make game more fun, but when person uses the customization systems with stuff they earned in-game they eventually would won't to have even more options. If you don't eat for a day you get hungry, but after the first bite you get even hungrier
I know that some skins were given from community goals and for vetran players (and I have some of them), and no bad thing happened, univrse did not collapse due to cosmetics being not arx only! Do more with that.
It is also important that your store does not look "cheap" or tasteless (and it does look like that when you sell 20 of the same helmet with slight color changes as separate items when you only have 5 suits options).
1. UI is horrendous, both in-game and on a website.
Categories are strange and limiting, let's say I want to check all pirate skins or all "etiquette" paints jobs. I can't do it. You can only select by ship (which is ok) and "color", which is not at all the logic behind most paint jobs. There are retrowave, there are pirate, there are "etiquette" styles and all other and for some ships only very specific ones, Which color I should find French paint job? (not sure if there are french but I definitely remember some country flags for some ships...).In-game Livery loads painfully long, changes between skins are painfully long and THE WORST OF ALL, you can't rotate your ship to see cosmetics from all sides. I can not comprehend how it is even possible.
So, the fixes would be
a. Allow rotation of camera around ship in livery (essential)
b. Make it load faster (to be fair might be technical issues that are too hard to fix, fine.)
c. Make better sorting. There absolutely should be sorting by "collection" (e.g. pirate, diplomacy, etiquette) at least on the website.
d. Just rethink UI, idk? I am not UX designer, but I would like to see anyone who would agree that both website store and in-game cosmetics menus feel good to use. They are absolutely uninviting.
2. Selection of most cosmetics is very poor.
Don't get me wrong, there are great skins. My favorite are pirate skins and etiquette, I also like chrome silver and black skins. There are some other good too. I understand that it's a taste thing, but a lot of them are just weird collection of lines or something abhorrent like retrowave or shock (sure, a matter of taste...) and it really feels like something that should be just sold as bundles... I think we just need a bunch of better skins and wider selection for all ship models. Why no chrome skin for mandalay? Why cobra mk5 has such poor skin selection? You open the skins and just depressing, unless it's a ship that was lucky to be included in some cool collection or has midnight black (can't go wrong with midnight black). I understand that some of it might be driven by faction aesthetic (like, imperial-only skins), but I think there's a lot to improve. Why my cobra mk5 can only be "planar" with very limited choice of colors?I don't colonize systems or own fleet carrier, but those options are just terrible. You open the store and see that your amazing personal base or a station in a system you gonna dedicated many hours and resourses are just... Default with some bleak color changes. Bummer. I don't believe that anyone who wanted to buy skin for their FC open the shop and got really excited about the options. It's vey stale. Stations too.
Racing games in early 2000s had better customizations. It's just 2d textures that are slapped on the model, I am pretty sure company with billions of pounds in revenue can do better. At least because better cosmetics mean more people buy them = more money.
I got 2 new friends into the game recently and I've been playing with one before and recently all of us just checked the store and agreed on how poor the selection is. It also feels very cheap and deceptive because there a lot of skins that a just most basic color changes that cost like something more. Odyssey suits are the worst about it. There are a lot of options, tens of them, most of which are just unisnpired pallet swaps sold separately. I don't like default suits, but when you open the store there's 0 inspiration. I mean I actually most of paid suits QUITE A LOT, but instead of being presented with suits I like and also a bunch on top to suit different tastes, I get bombareded with dozen of pallete swaps that I have to dig through, though this ILLUSION OF CHOICE. It would be much better if we had like 3 variants for color and 20 for actual models. Or even better, free color swaps because maybe don't be infinitely greedy.
In short, if you want to by most suits you want to do it because default are boring and there's like one OK option instead of opening the store and getting escited about all the personalization you can get for yourself to express your CMDR vibes.
bobbleheads and ship kits are mostly fines.
decals are just very limited...
So, fixes would be
a. More meaningful cosmetics (most of same pattern with the recolor should just be bundle only...) that express different styles and vibes (for some ship there are already enogh skins)
b. More crossover of skins between ships (I don't understand why something like silver chrome or pirate is not available by default for every ship).
c. More models for suits
d. Less illusion of big store. Would anyone argue that store (for suits for example) would look MUCH BETTER if instead of endless amounts of same suits it had like 5 suit models and also 5 other items for recolour (each item = all the color palletes for certain suit)?
3. Less illusion of "we have a giant store with so many options"
I just want to emphasize this again. It might feel good at the first minute, but when CMDR actually wants to buy anything, they start scrolling through pages... and see the pattern. The pattern of most items being just recolors that pose and meaningful separate items. It feel cheap. It feels deceptive.
4. Game lacks cosmetics that can be earned in-game.
That might be a bit counter-intuitive, but I have a personal strong opinion that if you don't get free cosmetics and everything is paid only, people have harder times engaging with the system in the first place. There is a difference between suddenly deciding to buy some ARX for customization out a blue and using it regularly and wanting more options. It would be great to have rewards for in-game stuff, like a special suit model for exobiologst elite, or special paint job for getting some rare goods to Colonia, or Hutton Mug bobblehead... (I know about retro targoid bobblehead, it's great example) Some of them can be secrets! Not only it would make game more fun, but when person uses the customization systems with stuff they earned in-game they eventually would won't to have even more options. If you don't eat for a day you get hungry, but after the first bite you get even hungrier
I know that some skins were given from community goals and for vetran players (and I have some of them), and no bad thing happened, univrse did not collapse due to cosmetics being not arx only! Do more with that.
I think having an actually good ARX store with BETTER OPTIONS is good for everyone. FDev wants money, players want good cosmetics. Win-win.
It is also important that your store does not look "cheap" or tasteless (and it does look like that when you sell 20 of the same helmet with slight color changes as separate items when you only have 5 suits options).
...