CAV Shop to be released next month

Stacee posted an update on the AW Forums today concerning the upcoming CAV Shop and the current state of 5.2:

I wanted to start a thread to help clear up some of the confusion and open up the stage for some constructive input.

First off, the release of 5.2 is in two parts. It was released this month, minus the CAV Shop Items buying system, so that we could test the new boost engine and all the other additions like global chat channels and various new settings and tweaks and clean up any bugs that have been missed in the initial beta testing. You have all been doing a tremendous job, already spotting several bugs that can be addressed and really breaking in the new AW release.

What about the CAV Shop Items buying system? That will begin next month. It's the reason many things you came to use and love were taken out in this initial CAVtemplate. We needed to make a simpler layout for testing purposes and we needed to have items for you to test buying that we know should work. This will all make it easier to test that the buying system is working correctly without having to work out bugs that the artists created (yes, we have our own bugs we create).

You've already noticed some changes in how the CAV window works. We realized how confusing the separation of clothing from their textures was in the older CAV window. The new system tries to group similar items together, so things like eyes, lips, cheeks, etc no longer are on their own, but are now grouped under the head with all their attached textures. Same for clothing. You'll no longer have to put on a shirt and then scroll down looking for the texture that applies to what you just put on. The options will appear right underneath (+/-). Hair has also been gloriously simplified in that fashion. You'll also notice that there are now two "type" categories: human and anime. Because of the buying system, it will be possible not only to buy clothing for these categories, but also to buy more "types" as they become available. It's going to open up alot of opportunity for individuality and style.

That being said, the older items that you loved will make a return appearance. In fact, you may even see some items that got lost from the first CAV system finally resurface. (This is actually the third CAV redo, for those keeping track)

The past few months I've gained alot of experience on creating CAV pieces and learning the new CAV layout and the Shop Item entry system. It's been an eye-opener for sure. This is where I want to open up the floor for ideas: what would you like to see that is new or different in the CAV system? I've already created new items that will hit the stores eventually, but I welcome more ideas. Pictures would be incredibly helpful to me, so if you have them, share. While I can't guarantee an idea will make it into the CAV system, it may inspire something similar. What would be cool for the future?

I've got some strong opinions on the micro-transactions (particularly how to make them successful) and our place concerning them... I may write up a bit of a rant on that later.  For now, let's just wait and see where this goes... glad to see they're going forward with it. :)