In the bombcast awhile ago Jeff said he hadnt seen any loot to do with customising the look of your character. They seem to have the weapon drops covered, but are they seriously not worrying about things that change and personalise the look of your character? Im really excited about this game, but not hearing anything about character customisation is a bit worrying; having 4 soliiders running around looking exactly the same is pretty lame.
 
Is there any news on whether there will be clothing/armor loot drops, or is it all just guns?

I am excited for this game but it seems the developers are making some bad decisions. Barely any character custimation. No trade feature. First come first served loot drops. What are you doing Gearbox!?

I haven´t heard a single mention of any character customization in this game.

I think people are expecting this to be an fps version of diablo when its not. 
 
You can change the color of your character but thats about it.. remember its an FPS... You wont even be able to see yourself.

" I think people are expecting this to be an fps version of diablo when its not.   You can change the color of your character but thats about it.. remember its an FPS... You wont even be able to see yourself. "

" @Gunner said:

" I think people are expecting this to be an fps version of diablo when its not.   You can change the color of your character but thats about it.. remember its an FPS... You wont even be able to see yourself. "

For a game to have such a focus on loot, not to have character customization is very strange. After all one of the main points of loot is to 'show it off'. MMO's like WOW are built around this fact.  Yes its a FPS and its not essential, but not having armor/clothing loot seems like a big oversight. Dont get me wrong, ill still buy the game and it still looks awesome, its just a bit disappointing. "

" @Raiden36O said:

" @Gunner said:

" I think people are expecting this to be an fps version of diablo when its not.   You can change the color of your character but thats about it.. remember its an FPS... You wont even be able to see yourself. "

For a game to have such a focus on loot, not to have character customization is very strange. After all one of the main points of loot is to 'show it off'. MMO's like WOW are built around this fact.  Yes its a FPS and its not essential, but not having armor/clothing loot seems like a big oversight. Dont get me wrong, ill still buy the game and it still looks awesome, its just a bit disappointing. "

thats the thing, Its not an MMO or a major online game for that matter.. its primarily a single player game with the ability to have online co-op. Its not like Diablo were the sole purpose of online is to show off your gear or anything, the online seems to be more of a "hey lets go into this cave and see whats at the end of it" kind of thing.  Dont get me wrong, i like customizing my own character just as much as the next guy, but for a game like this, its just pointless. "

well its 1st person all the time so you can't see yourself anyways

ENOUGH ABOUT THE NO TRADE FUNCTION UNLESS YOU HAVE PROOF!!!
 
Giantbomb was only speculating about a lack of a trade feature, they didn't confirm it because they aren't gearbox.
 
So unless you are a gearbox employee and can confirm right now that Borderlands is shipping without a trade feature then shut the fuck up already.
It would be insane to ship the game without a trade feature, its probably just not implemented yet, or they left it out of the latest public test builds for some reason.
 
Also I'm glad to know you can at least change character colours, that should be enough to keep me happy =P Though it sucks not having different armor styles.

This is what was written by Gearbox on their forums. It was written by the Gearbox Creative Director, Mike Neumann. Source.
 ******************
I was twittering this, but I'll just go ahead and post here to avoid further confusion.

"Armor" in Borderlands can be broken down into one of two schools of thought.

Statistics and Visuals. It's all represented, just probably not in the traditional sense you're thinking of.

We have a very robust system for upgrading your character in ways that are not weapons. You can upgrade:

-Shields
-Class Mod
-Artifacts

All of these added together provide the same ability to customize your character as a traditional RPG, albeit in a slightly simplified matter. A shield is basically what keeps you alive, but with thousands upon thousands of them around, you're sure to find some that do really interesting things (faster recharge, higher capacity, do damage to enemies, light **** on fire, make you breakfast, etc.)

In addition there are class mods which do all matter of crazy things. Class mods are specific to Hunter, Siren, Besersker, Soldier, and can affect any number of things. Some buff your existing skill tree stats, some increase individual skills as well as well as Co-Op skills (i.e. stand next to Mordecai and your accuracy goes way up!) Some do crazy stuff like multiply the number of bullets you fire each time you fire your gun... the list goes on. I'm just listing off the crap I've seen-- and there's no way I've seen all of it.

Artifacts are another type of collectible gear. These are rare, and they can have really insane effects. The one I have on my Bloodwing right now actually blows people up on contact... it's crazy. And hilarious. And everyone loves a bird that can blow people up. That's the only one I'll spoil... Artifacts are the super happiest drop you'll find in Borderlands.

And as for visuals. We separated the visual customizations of the characters from the gear upgrades to allow people to look how they want without affecting their gear. Like in some games... you end up looking like a total dork just to get the stats you need. Not so in Borderlands. The characters can be customized and re-customized at any New-U station around Pandora.

I think I answered that to the best of my ability. Please refrain from eating the chairs.

Peace.  
*****************
 
I'm not sure if that is what you were looking to know, but there you go.

Thanks for that Penguin, sounds like gearbox have it things covered beyond just the gun drops.

Artifacts? Sounds like [at least partially] STALKER character progression (which I loved).

I talked to Randy Pitchford for about 20 minutes yesterday while I was online to play and I asked him about the character customization (sorry, no sex changes).  He made several really good points about it and how it's a loot drop game about guns and they're not into playing dress up.  Clearly they've thought about it and from the painfully brief 20 minutes I got to play it they've made the right decisions.  It's a blast to play and every time a weapon drops you get that "holy shit I've got to shoot this mfer at something RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!" feeling that you get maybe a handful of times in other games.
 
I did ask about the trading function and they said that it's not in the game, but they are planning to do some substantial support after launch so obviously it could make it in eventually if enough people want it.
 
Gunner: There are actually a couple third person shots.  I saw someone playing as the really big roided up looking guy and he has some sort of power rush attack that went third person while he pummeled a dude.  No need for dress up for it, but it did look SICK!

" (...)Gunner: There are actually a couple third person shots.  I saw someone playing as the really big roided up looking guy and he has some sort of power rush attack that went third person while he pummeled a dude.  No need for dress up for it, but it did look SICK! "

And that's why this game will suck.

The trade thing is such an obscure reason for hating on this game.  People are so fickle.
 
It's first person, hence no reason to prioritise loot which changes your appearance.  Would it be nice?  Sure.  Would I rather they spent all of the time that would take making the game play better instead?  Absolutely.
 
The only question marks that remains over this game for me is how dice rolly the shooting is and how MMOy the missions are.

  The only question marks that remains over this game for me is how dice rolly the shooting is and how MMOy the missions are. "