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I remember when a livery editor was a major requested-feature among GT players. And so here we are, with GTS introducing it in that October 2017. However, just because GT's contemporaries - such as Forza and NFS - also feature a livery editor, is that alone a reason to include a livery editor?
Let's consider some personal observations, and if you bear with me, a few hypotheses I had as well.
When I examine the sorting options for car liveries (and to an extent, the helmet & suit liveries, too) other than "latest" on the site, I'm gonna be blunt. For a feature that's ideally mean to facilitate an additional way for players to ostensibly express themselves, I am seeing next to no original designs. For every fantastic design I've seen in forum livery competitions (either here or on Reddit), there's a billion liveries that simply replicate something else. Either a real-world racing livery, or a car from a videogame, or perhaps from a movie. (I swear, if I see another Paul Walker R34...)
On top of this, there are potential costs to GT/PD with the current system, such as paying moderators to prune offensive liveries/decals, and paying for the hosting of all the decals/liveries.
Ideally, the livery editor should be designed insofar that creating good-looking liveries, which can help to express a given player, should be easy. This may not necessarily mean that all the options we have in the current editor are necessary. On the other hand, it may be better to have this current editor serve as some sort of "advanced" mode, and complemented with a comparatively simpler mode that makes good livery creation easy.
The system that comes to mind for me is the one used in Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005). In there, you can pick any color you wish, and for sponsor stickers, you can pick a sponsor, then place it in a preset location on the door, or on the rear panel. You can also pick a sponsor sticker for the front & rear windows, too. In a revised version of this editor, I'd add additional preset locations to place these decals, especially locations where sponsor decals already appear on the default livery.
As for the livery, you have various vinyls, some of which can cover the entire car, and may also offer you the option to pick multiple colors for some vinyls. In MW2005, some of these vinyls could range from simple racing stripes, to one that resembles the Gulf livery seen on various Porsches and Fords. If something similar were to come to GT, these presets could be submitted by actual livery designers, such as Andy Blackmore, or Sean Bull.
In addition, I'd add the option to use the entire car as one section, rather than needing to continue a design from the hood to the main body, or the reverse. I also would eliminate all the special colors (aside from the real-world car paints), in lieu of making them options for the paint you ultimately pick, complete with the option to pick two or three colors for a potential colorshift paint. And instead of a carbon fiber texture, I'd allow it so that you don't have to paint over every section of the car - you could leave a wing or the front canards as CF, but still paint the body or hood, for example.
And even without a livery editor, there could be other ways to allow players to express themselves, namely with various mechanical parts. In this regard, I am referring to rear wings and wheels, as well as the various aero parts seen in GT6. There's also the idea of the RM system returning, as both a way to convert a road car you own into a formal race car (whether in Gr.4, Gr.3, etc.) as well as to potentially remove these cars from the dealerships to avoid clutter within their menus, with the latter function dovetailing the RM feature into making each RM car a surprise of sorts to experimenting players. It's like finding which Pokemon within your party evolves with a certain evolutionary stone.
I also had some thoughts on the default decals that ought to be available within the editor. For a given car, I'd make both the modern logo for the manufacturer a decal, but also any historic, period-appropriate version of the logo if the car is sufficiently old enough. I'd also only have certain default sponsor decals available if they're actually equipped on the car, such as how the RC-F Gr.2 features Snap-On and Takata, or how the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP features Bosch, BBS, and Brembo. (Of course, I'd still have the option for players to have custom decals if they still wish.) I'd also have the nameplate for the car as a default decal - something I'd also display at the dealerships, like in GT4. And I'd also have decals for the modern manufacturer logo as "separate parts." For example, there could be logos having both the Toyota logo and its name, and then one with just each of those two elements. I also would add all in-house tuners as default decals (something we somewhat already see with TRD being a decal on Lexus & Toyota vehicles) such as AMG, Ralliart, STI, M, N, SRT, and so on.
It's just that I'm thinking back to when Kaz picked that tuned Honda at SEMA recently, and how he said it's in the spirit of GT. (I agree.) So that got me thinking about how the livery editor can also reflect that, or better-reflect that. I wonder if there's a similar discussion to be had on the course editor, as well? Maybe we could have an option to craft a route in Google Earth, and make it a track in GT, even if the scenery may differ quite a bit. I'm unsure what to make of previous course creators, between GT5 and GT6, and if they could truly offer interesting community-created content, and not have a repeat of the livery editor where it's mostly just replicas for the cars, suits, and helmets. (Perhaps also offering skins or a special hidden version of a car would be good, there? I know we were able to get special helms/suits relating to Senna in GT6...)
Minor edit: I think there also should be a way to share settings beyond listing them on forums, and potentially a way to share customized cars - perhaps adding stuff like an aero kit would still be listed as a “livery”?
Let's consider some personal observations, and if you bear with me, a few hypotheses I had as well.
When I examine the sorting options for car liveries (and to an extent, the helmet & suit liveries, too) other than "latest" on the site, I'm gonna be blunt. For a feature that's ideally mean to facilitate an additional way for players to ostensibly express themselves, I am seeing next to no original designs. For every fantastic design I've seen in forum livery competitions (either here or on Reddit), there's a billion liveries that simply replicate something else. Either a real-world racing livery, or a car from a videogame, or perhaps from a movie. (I swear, if I see another Paul Walker R34...)
On top of this, there are potential costs to GT/PD with the current system, such as paying moderators to prune offensive liveries/decals, and paying for the hosting of all the decals/liveries.
Ideally, the livery editor should be designed insofar that creating good-looking liveries, which can help to express a given player, should be easy. This may not necessarily mean that all the options we have in the current editor are necessary. On the other hand, it may be better to have this current editor serve as some sort of "advanced" mode, and complemented with a comparatively simpler mode that makes good livery creation easy.
The system that comes to mind for me is the one used in Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005). In there, you can pick any color you wish, and for sponsor stickers, you can pick a sponsor, then place it in a preset location on the door, or on the rear panel. You can also pick a sponsor sticker for the front & rear windows, too. In a revised version of this editor, I'd add additional preset locations to place these decals, especially locations where sponsor decals already appear on the default livery.
As for the livery, you have various vinyls, some of which can cover the entire car, and may also offer you the option to pick multiple colors for some vinyls. In MW2005, some of these vinyls could range from simple racing stripes, to one that resembles the Gulf livery seen on various Porsches and Fords. If something similar were to come to GT, these presets could be submitted by actual livery designers, such as Andy Blackmore, or Sean Bull.
In addition, I'd add the option to use the entire car as one section, rather than needing to continue a design from the hood to the main body, or the reverse. I also would eliminate all the special colors (aside from the real-world car paints), in lieu of making them options for the paint you ultimately pick, complete with the option to pick two or three colors for a potential colorshift paint. And instead of a carbon fiber texture, I'd allow it so that you don't have to paint over every section of the car - you could leave a wing or the front canards as CF, but still paint the body or hood, for example.
And even without a livery editor, there could be other ways to allow players to express themselves, namely with various mechanical parts. In this regard, I am referring to rear wings and wheels, as well as the various aero parts seen in GT6. There's also the idea of the RM system returning, as both a way to convert a road car you own into a formal race car (whether in Gr.4, Gr.3, etc.) as well as to potentially remove these cars from the dealerships to avoid clutter within their menus, with the latter function dovetailing the RM feature into making each RM car a surprise of sorts to experimenting players. It's like finding which Pokemon within your party evolves with a certain evolutionary stone.
I also had some thoughts on the default decals that ought to be available within the editor. For a given car, I'd make both the modern logo for the manufacturer a decal, but also any historic, period-appropriate version of the logo if the car is sufficiently old enough. I'd also only have certain default sponsor decals available if they're actually equipped on the car, such as how the RC-F Gr.2 features Snap-On and Takata, or how the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP features Bosch, BBS, and Brembo. (Of course, I'd still have the option for players to have custom decals if they still wish.) I'd also have the nameplate for the car as a default decal - something I'd also display at the dealerships, like in GT4. And I'd also have decals for the modern manufacturer logo as "separate parts." For example, there could be logos having both the Toyota logo and its name, and then one with just each of those two elements. I also would add all in-house tuners as default decals (something we somewhat already see with TRD being a decal on Lexus & Toyota vehicles) such as AMG, Ralliart, STI, M, N, SRT, and so on.
It's just that I'm thinking back to when Kaz picked that tuned Honda at SEMA recently, and how he said it's in the spirit of GT. (I agree.) So that got me thinking about how the livery editor can also reflect that, or better-reflect that. I wonder if there's a similar discussion to be had on the course editor, as well? Maybe we could have an option to craft a route in Google Earth, and make it a track in GT, even if the scenery may differ quite a bit. I'm unsure what to make of previous course creators, between GT5 and GT6, and if they could truly offer interesting community-created content, and not have a repeat of the livery editor where it's mostly just replicas for the cars, suits, and helmets. (Perhaps also offering skins or a special hidden version of a car would be good, there? I know we were able to get special helms/suits relating to Senna in GT6...)
Minor edit: I think there also should be a way to share settings beyond listing them on forums, and potentially a way to share customized cars - perhaps adding stuff like an aero kit would still be listed as a “livery”?
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To pay some people to moderate is peanuts, and you would think that some of it would be automated to flag up a lot of questionable content, and you also have people reporting stuff.
