ESO Tailor: A New Merchant and Skill Concept

Gidorick

With the addition of regular clothing to Elder Scrolls Online through the justice system, I think it would be quite beneficial to add tailors to the game to handle the construction and distribution of casual clothing in ESO.

TL/DR
ESO should have systems in place for players to buy and/or craft casual clothes within ESO.

Here is an overview of the sections of this post:

• The Clothing
• The Benefits
• The Materials
• The Skill
• The Patterns
• The Merchant

The Clothing
Clothing could provide players with many different options with which to outfit their character. All clothing needs to be able to be dyed and will take the place of armor if worn. Players should be able to wear a mixture of Clothing and Armor. All clothing should continue to be unisex.

• Head = Hats, Crowns, and Masks
• Torso = Shirt/Blouse and Underwear Tops
• Hands = Gloves and Bracers
• Waist = Belts and Bandoleers
• Legs = Pants, Underwear Bottoms, and Skirts/Kilts
• Feet = Shoes and Sandals
• Shoulders = Backpacks, Bags and Capes/Cloaks (eventually)

The call for different underclothing could be satisfied with making underclothing garments act as normal garments. This would leave it so that if a player removes all of their equipped garments, they will still see the Underarmor-inspired underwear we all wear now.

The Benefits
Currently, clothes have very little benefit for players. Most players use clothes for RPing more than anything else. There could be some benefit to clothes having an actual advantage within ESO. Here are a few ideas:

• Passive XP: What if each article of clothing awarded a player passive XP while they wear it within ESO? It wouldn’t have to be much. Perhaps there are 5 levels of clothing and the lowest levels (1-10) only offer 1xp per minute while wearing the clothing and the highest level (50+) offer 5xp per minute of wear.
  
  7 articles of the lowest level of clothing would yield 420XP per hour. 7 articles of the highest level of clothing would yield 2100XP per hour.
  
  If a level 25 player were to wear 7 articles of clothing they would earn 1260XP per hour and would have to stand around in that clothing for about 26 hours to get to the next level.
  
  To combat players completely abusing this system, the amount of XP earned through passive means for each level and each CP could be capped at 25%.
  
• Crafting Inspiration: Another option would be for clothing to increases the inspiration gained from crafting tasks. This system could again, work with 5 levels and each article of clothing could increase the inspiration gained by 1% at the lowest level and 5% at the highest.
  
  Using this system, someone who is level 40 who is wearing 7 articles of clothing that are level 40 would gain an additional 35% inspiration. Someone who is level 8 would gain an additional 7% inspiration.
  
• Sprint Buffs: Increased Sprint speed could be an alternate option for clothing buffs, 1-5% per article of clothing.
• Swimming Buffs: Increased Swimming speed could be another option for clothing buffs, 1-5% per article of clothing.
• Stealth Buffs: Thieves would enjoy a stealth buff which could increase pickpocketing change, 1-5% per article of clothing.
• Regen Buffs: Players could wear clothing in conjunction with their armor to increase Health/Stamina/Magica regen, 1-5% per article of clothing.
• Capacity Buffs: If my Bags and Encumbrance concept was implemented clothing could increase bag capacity by 1-5 slots per article of clothing and removing that clothing could cause the player to become over-encumbered.

To prevent any of these from allowing a player to become overpowered, each clothing article type could offer players a different type of buff, so instead of a player who is only wearing clothing getting 7 different 5% sprinting buffs totaling a 35% speed buff, the player would receive a speed buff only for his or her Footware.

Taking this idea farther we could have specific types of clothing with specific buff types. This could be so that players could stack a few of the same buffs, if they wish, but it wouldn’t be to an extent that would cause the buff to be overpowered.

Some ideas on what article of clothing could provide what buff:

• Head articles of clothing = Inspiration Buff
• Torso articles of clothing = Passive XP Buff
• Hands articles of clothing = Stealth Buff
• Waist articles of clothing= Regen Buff
• Legs articles of clothing= Capacity Buff
• Feet articles of clothing= Sprint Buff
• Shoulder articles of clothing= Swimming Buff

Clothing could be allowed to be enchanted in the same manor, and using the same glyphs, as armor. Armor Enchantments add to max Health, max Stamina, and max Magica, which wouldn’t conflict with any of the suggested buffs.

Clothing could also have a base armor value that is much MUCH lower than any armor, but still present. This could be the trait that is increased when Clothing is improved.

The Materials
Since the Clothier uses some of the materials that would make sense under the Tailor skill, a completely separate set of materials would need to be added to ESO to facilitate the Tailor skill. Real world plants such as cotton and moss as well as Elder Scrolls specific plants such as Marshmerrow and Kreshweed could be used to make fabrics. There could also be a selection of animal materials, such as wool, fox fur, rabbit fur, and different types of silk added for the different fabric types.

The materials within the Tailoring line should be refined into some sort of fabric. There could be different leathers added to ESO or the Clothier materials could be recycled. Multi-craft materials are not currently present in ESO but that doesn’t mean they’re an impossibility. Mult-craft materials could also open up the possibility of using alchemist materials in poisons or blacksmithing materials in jewelry. The Raw material could just be processed into a different material. Jute could be refined using Clothier skills into Jute, but using Tailoring skills it could be refined into Jute Linen.

Mercerizing agents could be used to take Clothes from Normal to Fine, Superior, Epic, and Legendary. The items used could be fasteners, buttons, oils, balms, solvents, soaps, or any number of items that could us used to improve clothing. Improving the quality could improve the armor rating. A legendary article of clothing should be comparable to a normal piece of light armor.

Clothes should be able to have traits added to them in the exact same manner as armor, even though some of the traits would cause doubling up of some buffs.

The Skill
The Tailor skill-line should contain passive skills very much like the Blacksmith, Clothier, and Woodworker.

• Weaving: a 9 level skill allowing players to use more clothing materials and allowing players to make higher level clothes.
• Keen Eye: Textiles: 3 level skill to help spot Tailoring materials.
• Scavenger Hireling: 3 level skill for a Tailoring hireling.
• Cutter: 3 level skill increasing the chance of extracting tailoring ingredients.
• Altering: a 4 level skill reducing research times.
• Mercerize Expertise: a 3 level skill increasing the chances of improving the quality of clothes.

The Patterns
Unlike armor, clothing shouldn’t be separated by racial style and players should need to find and study patterns to make specific articles of clothes. Each article of clothing should have its own pattern. In this way, patterns are more akin to recipes than they are motifs.

Once a pattern is learned, players will need to gather the correct fabrics to make the specific article of clothing. The simpler articles require only one fabric, more complex clothes can require four or maybe even more fabrics.

Patterns should be able to found in much the same way that recipes and motifs can be found. ZOS could even take it upon themselves to release quarterly pattern packs for each season.

All of these items should be available at a new merchant type that would need to be added to ESO, The Tailor.

The Merchant
The Tailor would, ideally, be situated inside a store. They could use a cart, but would need to have a privacy screen for customers. After all, players will be changing clothes and that requires a modicum of modesty.

Players should be able to buy and sell materials, patterns, and completed clothes from the Merchant. Unlike when players are crafting their clothing, players who are shopping for completed clothes should be treated to a preview of the clothes. This should function similarly to the Crown Store preview but could place the player in a specific area of the store, such as a dressing room or behind the privacy screen.

Players should also be able to ‘flag’ items for purchase. That way they can mix and match their clothes before they decide on a specific outfit. Only one item type should be able to be flagged at a time.

The materials Tailors sell shouldn’t be the raw materials, the merchant should sell the finished fabrics for players to use while making their own clothes.

Thoughts?

RazzPitazz

The Clothing;:
Agree
The Benefits:
Mostly disagree.
Sprint, inspiration and exploration. Anything else makes little sense and would undermine actual play. On the fence about enchanting them.
The Materials; The Skill; The Patterns:
I really don't feel another crafting line needs to be added for this. At the very least a light armor crafter could make these with the same mats as light armor.
The Merchant:
I really feel the clothing fills a void between RPers and actual player merchants. They are worth good gold, and quite frankly I am happy to sell it for cheap to people who actually want them.

Gidorick

Your feelings reflect my own initial thoughts @rajaniemiorama_ESO. Thank you for your input.

I was originally going to suggest the skill line and crafting abilities sans any benefits. I am 100% fine with clothing being JUST clothing but I thought that the passive XP concept would appease some RPers... then I thought that perhaps having only passive XP associated with the clothes would make clothes a bit tailor made (no pun intended) for one group of payers. Having other passives would encourage all players to mix and match clothing with armor leading to a more diverse aesthetic to the game.

I did consider that the Clothier (light and medium armor) skill line could make clothes but I personally dislike that the Clothier makes 2 types of armor as is. I feel like throwing a third clothing type under the Clothier fold would be putting too much under one skill.

Also, the number of items under the Tailor line could very easily outnumber those of the Clothier line.

I too was unsure about enchanting. I initially suggested clothes be unable to be enchanted but the more I "added" to clothes, the more they became a type of armor. This made sense to me because someone wearing clothes should have a little more protection than someone running around naked.

What would you think about the benefits of clothing just being passive XP? There is no other way to gain passive XP in game and at the small amount I've suggested it couldn't really be quickly abused. It would enable players who spend a large amount of time RPing to have a little bit of benefit from their RPing. If this were the case, then I would think the 25% per level/per CP be in place so a player can't literally just stand around and gain levels.

What of traits? Do you think clothes should be able to have traits added to them?

I considered that traits could be disallowed for clothes and research could be used to "discover" patterns. Players could destroy and deconstruct clothes to learn how to make them. This research process could take the consumption of multiple of the same article of clothing to learn how to make that article.

So I guess my questions are:

1. What do you think about clothes just having passive XP?
2. Do you think clothes should have an armor class?
3. Should traits be able to be added to clothes?

TheShadowScout

Looks interesting, though I disagree with needing new materials - no reason several crafting professions couldn't share the same materials, stich it one way and its a light armor wizards robe, stitch it another way and its en evening dress...

The benefits can be debated, I don't think the boni should be per clothing type, more something choosen by using the right style material or something...

I like the idea of "unremakable clothing" giving a bonus to pickpocketing, stealth or so... noone gives the servants or street sweepers much of a second glance, right?

And fancy clothing could then give bonus to merchant transactions (sell for X% more gold, buy for X% less gold because you look so fancy and such, making the merchant cater to you in hope of repeat business from the noble looking customer, etc.)

Swimming... is a different topic. I always though it would be better if clothes gave a -penalty- to swimming, from, say, -3% for each piece of light armor, -5% for each piece of medium armor, and -15% for each piece of heavy armor to swimming speed... Of course, I'd also want swimming to cost stamina, and clothing giving a similar penalty to that... so in that spirit, I can#t really agree with swimming boni for clothes...

Stuff like that...

Gidorick

You have a point @TheShadowScout. I too think they could reuse materials. And swimming didn't fit. 100% agree.

So with your idea the clothing level (Normal, Fine, Superior, Epic, and Legendary) would increase the quality of the clothing and would change the clothes buff? I like the idea of one pattern having differing quality clothes. 1 pattern = 5 different clothing items but of the same style.

So maybe

Normal= sneak bonus
Fine = pick pocketing bonus
Superior = research speed bonus
Epic = 5% merchant bonus
Legendary = 10% merchant bonus

Have all clothes be made of wool and cotton but then things like linings and silk make them better. That would be different!

1: What do you think about clothes having passive XP?
2: Do you think clothes should have an armor class?
3: Should traits be able to be added to clothes?

TheShadowScout

I'd say, no to XP bonus for wearing clothes (too easily abusable by switching your outfit just for turning in the quest), armor... maaaaybe, but at most half of what comparable light armor had, there is a difference between a linen shirt, and padded linen armor, after all.

Traits... I see no reason not to let the clothes have traits. of course... now I wonder how useful that'd be. Might be better to have technically only one quality for this "civilian clothing", but do the "beggars rags" and "fine clothes" distinction I had been thinking about in other ways... say, in the clothes themselves, have two options for each style, to either make "unremakrable" beggars-rags/servant attire style clothing that increases sneakyness, or "fine" high-class/noble-style clothing that increases social effects?

And then have special traits for such clothing, since I doubt the usual traits would make much sense for what is basically non-combat attire... I mean, "impenetrable & reinforced" would kinda be wasted on non-combat attire, "training" makes no sense if its not counting for any armor skill line (and it shouldn't), and "exploration" is generally not something you do in a simple shirt, but in proper gear (armor) - the only ones I can imagine being somewhat useful right now is Well-Fitted, Infused and Divines, maaaybe Sturdy too I guess... suboptimal for street clothes, but possible I guess...

And each trait material would give one bonus for "unremarkable" clothing, and a different one for "fine" clothing? Put Sardonyx into a servants shirt for stealth range bonus, or into a nobles jacket for merchant selling bonus, put Garnet into a beggars hood for pickpoceting bonus, or into a fancy hat for merchant buying discount, that sort of thing... put diamond into a washerwomens skirt and you get an bonus to bounty fees, put it into a flowing ball gown and you get a horse training cost discount, etc.

Crafting boni is a good idea BtW, research speed is not the one I'd choose though... increased chance with tempers? Increased chance for deconstructiong/refining drops?

Possibilitiey, possibilities...

Gidorick

not bonus XP, Passive XP. Low quality would yield 1XP per minute worn, Highest would be 5XP per minute worn. This XP would be independent of all other XP gain. I was thinking it could be capped at like 25% per "event" (level/Vet Rank/CP)

What I was thinking is that Clothing need not be just for town use. If a player really wanted to run around adventuring in clothes they should be allowed some modicum of protection and traits would allow them to have some adventuring viability. After all, even SOME clothes is better than completely naked when in a dungeon.

Good point on the crafting bonus. I need to edit the original thread to change some of the ideas.

TheShadowScout

Gaining XP just for weaing stuff??? Bad idea, I can smell the bots already... leave bot logged in, just walking in slow circles in town, go off to sleep, profit... even if capped, many people still would do it, especially at low levels where those 2000XP per night still count... and we'd have those somnambulists running around adding to our lag.

Making non-armor clothing somewhat viable for adventuring... that would be possible I guess. Like I mentioned, lower armor value then light armor I see no problem with... combined with no skill line support that would make it an awful choice for adventuring, but then there are a great many adventure quests that are rather easy to do anyhow, so having the choice to "up the difficulty" by wearing street clothes instead of your nifty enchanted robes or leathers would be welcome for some I reckon...

Would make for neat new player taunts "I whupped that boss while only wearing my bathrobe and houseshoes..."
(note to developers - add wearable bathrobes, houseshoes, nightgowns, clogs, straw sunhats, and other "everyday living functions" clothing to steal or if this OP idea ever goes live, buy/craft)

Gidorick

Oh I agree it would be abused... that's why I suggest a cap of 25% per "event"... let the bots gain 1/4 of a level, 1/4 of a CP, they still have 3/4 that needs to be done legitimately. And at MOST 35XP per minute 2000 XP would take about an hour.

I hate how modern gaming must be designed with mitigation of abuse in mind.

As I suggested in the OP, the BEST piece of clothing should be comparable to the lowest piece of light armor. aaaand how I have the urge to adventure like this: