How can Anet remove engi hobosacks?

HOBOSACK - a hideous backpack item, indicating which engi kit is being used while replacing a backpack (Tyrian Glossary)

If you ever tried playing with engi profession, then you know what I’m talking about. They are hideous, they are huge, they hide all our backpacks and legendary weapon auras and they make our beautiful characters look hideous. And if you play as an engi, you have to put up with them, because they are a part of the necessary class mechanic.

There is a hobosack thread on official forum that has 30 pages, more than 1400 replies and more than 125000 views. There is another thread, in the HoT section, where many people discuss whether this issue will be solved in the expansion. So far with no official dev response.

I won’t discuss here, whether this is an issue or not. Even Colin has made a statement about it:

ColinJohanson.2394:

„It’s something we’re absolutely aware of and want to address in the future, one of my main characters is an engineer so I feel ya on this one. My poor quaggan backpack is visible like 2% of the time I play as I kit swap, never mind my weapon skins...“

This can be understood as a confirmation, that they want to solve this issue. This statement has been made more than a year ago and there have been many great suggestions since then:

1 More skins for the hobosacks

We could change the looks of our hobosacks. It would still cover our backpiece though but there would be a possibility of customization. There could be cultural skins, legendary skins according to the equipped legendary weapon, hell, there could be many gemstore skins! But those would be the skins that only 1/8 professions can use.

2 Visual upgrading of the kits according to the character’s level

This could be one of the “easier” solutions. (I only assume, I don’t know how much work it would take) The higher level your character would be, the better the looks. A downside of this would be the fact that on level 80, there would be only one looks. I don’t doubt that Anet designers could make them look badass, but they would still cover the backpack and legendary auras. Still better than the ones we have. (We want to look badass! At least I do.)

3 Making the stowed weapons visible while using the kit

The weapon would hang next to the hobosack. Legendary weapon’s aura could be visible. I imagine there would be a problem with huge weapons like Scarlet’s Kiss. Also I have no idea, how this could be implemented with the stowed shields. Maybe shields on the hobosack? But that would prevent the hobosack to indicate which kit is used at the moment. And also big downside – ugly bags on our backs would stay.

4 Shrinking hobosacks and displaying them with the backpacks

Maybe if the kits were made much smaller and put under the backpack, it could be realistic. I don’t know, it seems pretty hideous for me and I can’t imagine how many clipping issues there would be.  This option was suggested by the player that doesn’t mind the clipping between the backpack and hobosack, so… ugh. Please, no.

5 Changing the design of the kits and putting them on another body part

There are many possibilities: fannypack, on the belt (Batmaaan), hanging of the belt, off the holster (Attack on Titan, anyone?). One suggestion was also to just place them on the chest. I can see that anger and hate if the item that covered the backpack would suddenly cover the front chest armor.

6 Hobosack’s looks would be affected by the looks of the backpack

In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult and time-consuming options. For any released backpack, there would need to be 6 more hybrid designs (one for every kit). But it’s still an option, so that’s why I’m even mentioning it.

7 Adding On/Off toggle for the hobosacks and add a <kit equipped> indication

Those who like the kits, would keep them and those who don’t, would not see them thanks to the on/off toggle in the options. Indication of the kit could be similar to the ele’s attunement indication – simple icon for every kit. If some visual indication would be possible. I’d suggest a small round-shaped drone flying next to the left/right shoulder of engi that would change it’s appearance according to the used kit. There were also auras suggested, but in my opinion, they could mess with the legendary auras, so not a good idea.

Or just remove the hobosacks and let the kit weapons be the indication. Flamethrower and elixir gun could stay. Tool kit’s wrench could be enlarged to be more visible. For the bomb kit, character could carry a big bomb in his hands and grenade into each hand for grenade kit. For med kit, the character  could carry a medicine chest or medicine bag.

Some people were also suggesting an audio indication, again like ele when swapping attunements. This however, can’t be used with engi, because kits don’t have cooldowns and while using multiple kits, engi could change into shouting lunatic that couldn’t shut up and would sound like a Skrillex song.

My opinion  

In my opinion the option to Toggle the hobosacs On/Off seems the most realistic. The specific icon for each kit could easily indicate it. If Anet would still want to have also another visual indication then the offholster kit (suggested by Anet dev) seems probable. I’d like a kit drone more, but I’ll take it.

Anyways I really hope that when Anet will talk about engi specialization, they will also introduce a solution for this issue. For the case that hobosacs will stay even after the release of the Heart of Thorns, I have a special option for them: Introduce more hobo like clothes so that we can mix and match them with the hobosacks and still be diverse ;)