Explanation for why no non-Prime Skins on Prime Weapons?

[S3b5]

I don't know if this has been explained somewhere so I wanted to ask. Is there a reason why you can't use non-Prime weapon skins on Prime weapons, like you can with Prime/non-Prime skins on Warframes? Is it an oversight that has just gone unaddressed for years or is there a legitimate reason I don't know about?

 

[NinjaZeku]

Not just "regular" weapons either, I would so love to be able to use Mesa's OG fingerguns on her Prime.

[UnstarPrime]

11 hours ago, S3b5 said:

Is there a reason why you can't use non-Prime weapon skins on Prime weapons, like you can with Prime/non-Prime skins on Warframes?

I'm a bit confused about what you're talking about, because I use a Bo Skin on my Bo Prime and it makes the weapon look like a non-Prime Bo.

My best guess is that you might be trying to use a weapon skin with a weapon type that it isn't compatible with?  Can you add more details?

[Tiltskillet]

13 minutes ago, UnstarPrime said:

I'm a bit confused about what you're talking about, because I use a Bo Skin on my Bo Prime and it makes the weapon look like a non-Prime Bo.

You're using a custom Bo skin, correct?  Something like Bo Nocturne?  OP is talking about base weapon skins.  e.g., I can't equip the base Knell skin on Knell Prime, even though I own both.  I can equip a multitude of custom skins.

[(XBOX)Big Roy 324]

17 minutes ago, UnstarPrime said:

I'm a bit confused about what you're talking about, because I use a Bo Skin on my Bo Prime and it makes the weapon look like a non-Prime Bo.

My best guess is that you might be trying to use a weapon skin with a weapon type that it isn't compatible with?  Can you add more details?

Prime frames allow you to use the base skin if you own both.

Weapons do not.  You can use skins that share the base model.  But not the literal base skin. 

Example being if I have the burston prime. I can use the festive skin on it.  But not the base skin for the burston itself.

 

[UnstarPrime]

24 minutes ago, Tiltskillet said:

You're using a custom Bo skin, correct?  Something like Bo Nocturne?  OP is talking about base weapon skins.  e.g., I can't equip the base Knell skin on Knell Prime, even though I own both.  I can equip a multitude of custom skins.

Ahhhh, that makes sense.  Yeah, it is unfortunate that we can't use the original skin on Prime weapons.  The whole reason I bought my Bo skin wasn't because I thought the skin was great, but rather because I wanted my Bo Prime to have the same model as the Bo because I greatly prefer it!

[TARINunit9]

Probably a combination of low demand and spaghetti code. Did you know DE once screwed up and stored the stats for a Zaw in the 3D model? Meaning if you applied a skin to a Zaw, it was now dealing zero damage

[S3b5]

14 minutes ago, TARINunit9 said:

Probably a combination of low demand and spaghetti code. Did you know DE once screwed up and stored the stats for a Zaw in the 3D model? Meaning if you applied a skin to a Zaw, it was now dealing zero damage

Man that sucks. I wanna use a Burston but already have Burston prime (and sold my old Burston) since non-Prime just looks better but I don't wanna pay for a skin lol. Hopefully someday they add it, it would be a nice QoL thing.

[(PSN)robotwars7]

3 hours ago, TARINunit9 said:

Probably a combination of low demand and spaghetti code. Did you know DE once screwed up and stored the stats for a Zaw in the 3D model? Meaning if you applied a skin to a Zaw, it was now dealing zero damage

classic DE. I remember they also once said it wouldn't be possible to put skins on Zaws in the first place, but they found a way around it, thank goodness.

I'm not sure about it being "low" demand, I've seen this a few times on here and personally I'd love to use base Karyst and Pangolin Sword on their Prime counterparts. I think the demand is there, but there would be other reasons like the spaghetti code as you say, or simply the prospect of making this change for several hundred weapons, increasing for every time a weapon gets primed.

[TARINunit9]

51 minutes ago, (PSN)robotwars7 said:

classic DE. I remember they also once said it wouldn't be possible to put skins on Zaws in the first place, but they found a way around it, thank goodness.

Those were the same problem: they disabled Zaw skins for about a year specifically because they were causing Zaws to deal zero damage

[Nimisha_Prime]

For the most part, it's about showing off individuality vs what can actually be seen. When you're in a hub, everyone can your beautifully designed frame. But your weapons are holstered. Hell you can't even see my Venka Prime because the blades tuck away. Weapons tend to have very general 'one size fits all' skins, with the more popular ones having a very limited selection of custom skins. And it goes back to them just not being visual most times. The other problem is that you can make 55 skins for warframes. Even three skins each is only 165 skins. But we have more than 500 weapons. Three skins each would be 1500. There's simply no time to make that many, nor is there a point in it when they're not visible. While it could be done, it'd be so much work it easily enters the "why bother?" category.

[Lancars]

I would like to use the boar skin on the boar prime cause boar has a better reload then the prime.

[Tellmeninetails]

Because regular warframe skins on prime warframe as a glitch and they kept it.