You have probably noticed that high level heavy shields are too small with almost the same shields graphic. Some of the players thought that a cosmetic shield slot might be solution.
There are two different systems involved: the appearance system, that governs what the avatar wears, and the equipment system, that governs what the avatar wields. They're entirely different, and the work done on the one system doesn't easily port to the other. We want to do it. I really want to do it. But it's a lot of work, that gets prioritized against lots of other work.
Could we at least get different racial crafting recipes for shields, like is done with armor in the earlier armor tiers?
As it happens, speaking for myself, I regret that decision we made. I asked for it, because there were a lot of armor appearances that were too uncommon, since crafting only produced one appearance style. I wanted more of the art to be more easily accessible.
But it became a less than optimal decision because it threw the loot recipe ratios completely out of whack, which then created more work that was not anticipated. Then when the outfit system came in, the variety in crafting styles mattered a whole lot less. So while I thought it was a simple suggestion, it turned out to be more costly and less important than it seemed at the time. Lesson learned there.
