The balance between vanity items and Planetside's signature visual style

[LZachariah]

This will be a very tricky line to walk, but I believe that the SOE artists can manage it. However, I'm bringing it up for discussion (and so that the topic gets addressed).

One thing that I loved about Planetside was the VERY homogeneous (but still diverse) art style of each faction. Not only could you easily recognize which faction a person was, each faction had distinct threads of style that echoed from one unit type to the next; Terrans were almost classical and warrior-like, NC were industrial and almost minimalist, and the Vanu were sleek and alien.

With the introduction of vanity items for sale, I have a slight worry that the factions might be blurred somewhat. What I do NOT wish to happen would be the game degenerating into Global Agenda, which has a marvelous art style, but is COMPLETELY heterogeneous; there is NOTHING unifying units with the most basic of exceptions (Robotics agents each have a servo-arm, Assault agents each wear heavy armor, etc). For instance, will our color palettes be restricted to certain factions? I definitely hope so; Vanu will be restricted to Purples/Blues/Blacks, NC will be restricted to Greys/Urban Camo/Blues/Yellows, and Terrans be restricted to Reds/Greys/Blacks, etc. Even "if" the basic model of a character were to remain within the standard color palette, a mostly-purple Vanu with bright green gloves and boots would start taking dangerous steps toward Global Agenda.

Conversely, if the SOE art team pulls this off, and gives us variety while still absolutely capturing the visual style of each faction, they will make eleventy-hojillion dollars on vanity items, and I will be RIGHT there, outfitting my Special Ops combat demolition soldier exactly how I want him. The image of the NC infantrywoman on this new GameInformer article gives me hope; the surgical mask and the helmet look fantastic, and are absolutely in keeping with the NC style.

I think I have conveyed my concerns pretty well; vanity items, if done poorly, could disrupt the visual cohesiveness of the three individual factions, but if done right, it would be absolutely amazing.

Thoughts?

~Zachariah