Add skin preview on the map before purchase

[baculinivan-web]

Purpose

Add skin preview feature that allows players to see how a skin looks on the map before purchasing it. Currently skins are only visible on the store card, making it difficult to make informed purchase decisions.

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Objectives

• Add a "Preview" button to the skin store card UI.
• Render the selected skin on the player's territory on the map when preview is activated.

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Description

Currently, players can only see skins as small images on the store purchase card. This makes it hard to judge how a skin will actually look in-game on their territory.

This feature adds a "Preview" button to each skin card in the store. When clicked, the skin is temporarily applied to the player's territory on the map so they can see how it looks at actual game scale. The preview is local-only — other players do not see it. A dismiss button or clicking away exits the preview and restores the original appearance.

This is a UI/UX improvement that should increase player confidence in purchases and reduce buyer's remorse.

I can take this on.

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Discord:

fghjk_60845

[baculinivan-web]

I think it would increase purchase rate of skins, cause users will see how beautiful they actually are.

[iiamlewis]

@ryanbarlow97 is your PR / Issue still active?

[baculinivan-web]

@ryanbarlow97 is your PR / Issue still active?

I am working on it. It is kinda slow...

[baculinivan-web]

@ryanbarlow97 is your PR / Issue still active?

Was there another issue for the same thing ?

[VariableVince]

@ryanbarlow97 is your PR / Issue still active?

Was there another issue for the same thing ?

It was this: #2857

And since that PR was already closed @iiamlewis , no active developments happening currently afaik.

There was that thing where evan let users try a skin in-game, but that was reverted (it tanked sales), a preview like this was always the better idea in hindsight

[baculinivan-web]

@ryanbarlow97 is your PR / Issue still active?

Was there another issue for the same thing ?

It was this: #2857

And since that PR was already closed @iiamlewis , no active developments happening currently afaik.

There was that thing where evan let users try a skin in-game, but that was reverted (it tanked sales), a preview like this was always the better idea in hindsight

Why wasn't it merged?

[VariableVince]

Why wasn't it merged?

Probably because at the time, evan had other plans (use the skin in-game as a review instead of from the menu), but not sure you'd have to ask him. I thought it was a nice feature at least that could also help with sales for those who doubted how it would look like in-game, without actually being able to use it in-game before buying.

[ryanbarlow97]

I reopened it, looks like a tonne of conflicts which I don't have time to fix atm @iiamlewis

[evanpelle]

Hi @baculinivan-web, this issue hasn't had activity in 5 days and doesn't yet have a milestone assigned.

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