The lion, the witch and the LotRO wardrobe
With all of the hubbub surrounding next month's implementation of a free-to-play model in Lord of the Rings Online, it would be easy to overlook all of the other additions coming in the patch, such as the instance scaling and revamped beginning areas. One of the most highly anticipated features -- and most-praised by beta testers -- is the new wardrobe system, which will allow players to organize and store cosmetic outfits for every occasion.
However, LotRO's wardrobe has raised a bit of confusion over what it is and how it functions, which is why Turbine's Elliot Gilman penned a new developer diary to explain the wardrobe in detail. Gilman starts by pointing out that while the wardrobe may seem similar in appearance to your inventory or bank vault, it doesn't actually store the items, but instead makes a copy to use for cosmetic outfits in the future. This "doppelganger" item, as he puts it, carries over the look and color, but not the stats, associated with it. Another cool function of the wardrobe is that you can equip each cloned item with multiple dyes, allowing you the choice of color when you get dressed in the morning.
Players start with a decent 20-slot wardrobe, but the fashion-conscious can pay with Turbine points to upgrade it all the way to a mammoth 50-slot walk-in closet. Like shared storage, the wardrobe is available to all your characters on a particular server, although if a character couldn't wear the original item due to restrictions, she won't be able to don the doppelganger either. You can read the full dev diary over at LotRO's site.
