Should there be an option to hide other players' costumes?

Heindrich · January 2016

A few recent threads have illustrated that players have vastly different tastes and demands with regards to costumes that conflict with each other, such that no matter what Zenimax does, some people will be deeply unhappy.

Some feel that costumes shouldn't exist at all. How people look should reflect what they are wearing, and people should be rewarded (visually) for investing in cool motifs and obtaining impressive dyes.

Some want a lore friendly and immersive experience, so fancy polymorphs and cross-dressing for comedic purposes upsets them, with some justification.

Some people just want over-the-top funny, badass or otherwise "cool" costumes and polymorphs and don't care about lore or how players fit in or not with their environment.

There is simply no way to reconcile these vastly different and entirely valid positions.. So I propose that there should be a gameplay setting option to hide the costumes of all players other than yourself. Thus if you wanna look badass/funny or mess around with your mates in a wedding dress gank squad, you can do... but people who are bothered by it don't have to just put up with it.

anitajoneb17_ESO · January 2016

No

Voted no because I think it's important for the feeling of "playing together" that we actually all see the same things. There are already too many variations imho, depending on your graphic settings (with lower settings you don't see flying titans in IC for instance), or gameplay settings (helmet, inner light orb showing or not for instance), and the weather is client-side too. Let's not add to this.
Big nords in wedding dresses are an annoyance for sure, but still...

Also, most armor choices are determined by the stats you want to reach by using them, and not by their visuals. We end up with non sensical or ugly combinations which really need to be hidden behind costumes. Not even mentioning the ugliest of all : the monster sets !

BabeestorGor · January 2016

No

Unfortunately it would have to be an all or nothing option. Although at times I'm annoyed by burly Nords in wedding dresses or an influx of the latest mount I'd rather that than have my character apparently be the only person in Tamriel with a particular costume or mount.

DannyLV702 · January 2016

No

Pretty rude.

lolo_01b16_ESO · January 2016

Yes

Would be great, at least for Cyrodiil. I really dislike that I can't tell what armour my opponent is using by looking at him. If I see someone who is wearing cloth, I want him to be squishy and not hide a full set of heavy armour beneath his dress and if someone looks like a heavy armoured knight, he shouldn't die in 2 hits because he only wears light armour beneath his costume.

Sharee · January 2016

Yes

The option should be there for PvP areas. What type of armor your opponent is wearing has gameplay implications, and should not be hidden.

Browiseth · January 2016

No

The entire reason costumes exist is because players want to change how their character looks to others and/or personal preference

Earelith · January 2016

No

There is a virtual world with real players that chose how their characters should look...

Elsterchen · January 2016

No

I actually enjoy running around in a (totally free) crown dishdasha and feel it suits my redguard exeptionally well while practically disguising my heavy-armor in PVP.

Those wise old words: beauty is in the eye of the beholder, might be reason for PVP losses and sometimes serious eye-sores... but this is a little cost to pay for the freedom of beeing able to express oneself.

Sausage · January 2016

Yes

I think its good idea, but then I see some idiots who wear costumes and use some extremely colorful gears.

Vestar · January 2016

No

No.
If someone buy a costume is also to be watched by other people, not for him alone to see, otherwise a mod that changes armor appearance would be enough (and free too).
If there are so many people unhappy with ZOS choice, then ZOS should either let things like they are or delete costumes from the game, plus costumes are a costant of every MMO.

TheShadowScout · January 2016

No

As an "all or nothing" option. No.

What I would love is to see some costumes to become "non combat only" instead... all the "clothing" style costumes. As in, "no burly orcs fighting in weddding dresses (while enjoying heavy armor protection)" Wearing those on a wedding for everyone to see should still be a go though!

Glaiceana · January 2016

No

I say no for pretty much all the reasons already mentioned above. Also, I'm pretty sure some rule or law or terms of service would be broken if this was suddenly introduced, as people bought these with real money value in the knowledge that everyone could see their costume. To suddenly make it viewable to only them must be an abuse of money/goods/agreement of quality.

TX12001rwb17_ESO · January 2016

Yes

If someone is wearing a costume in combat how do I know what armor they are wearing beneath it? They might be wearing heavy armor underneath it yet look like they are wearing light armor, this has an effect on gameplay just so you know, if anything could we at least have a polymorph option, not being able to see who or what you are fighting because they are using a polymorph has a real effect on gameplay and some of those morphs arn't even lorefriendly (Im looking at you Pumpkin Polymorph) and Im here to play an ES game and when I see that I don't see an ES game, If someone wants to dress up as a skeleton or a Xivkyn and make other players believe they are another race then they should at least be treated as the races they appear to so someone dressed up as a skeleton or Xivkyn should take more damage from silver.

Infact shouldn't we have...umm Army uniforms? the alliances aren't very organized if they don't even have a uniform, even the Imperials have a uniform.

TX12001rwb17_ESO · January 2016

Yes

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Voted no because I think it's important for the feeling of "playing together" that we actually all see the same things. There are already too many variations imho, depending on your graphic settings (with lower settings you don't see flying titans in IC for instance), or gameplay settings (helmet, inner light orb showing or not for instance), and the weather is client-side too. Let's not add to this.
Big nords in wedding dresses are an annoyance for sure, but still...

Also, most armor choices are determined by the stats you want to reach by using them, and not by their visuals. We end up with non sensical or ugly combinations which really need to be hidden behind costumes. Not even mentioning the ugliest of all : the monster sets !

But we don't all see the same things, some people see ESO in 4k some others see it in 720p, as you said weather is client side so for some people it is raining while for other players it is not.

theher0not · January 2016

Yes

I personally don't care if others see my costume or not. When I buy or use a costume I use it because I want to look good for myself since my crafter is way too low and bad at crafting for making decent good loolking gear for my main (and since i am waiting to buy osirium untill I am done with Gold and IC quests on my main I have no easy way to get mats). If others want to see my quest gear combo of awefull looking peaces I am fine with that, if they don't and want to see my costume that's fine too.

(I generaly oppose things that limit estetic choice for people as long as it doesn't affect the gameplay so therefore i vote yes, even if I won't turn it off)

Edit: I also feel like costumes should automaticaly be disabled for enemy factions in PVP (so AD can only see AD costumes, Ep only ep and DC only DC). It can be an advantage to see what gear the enemy is using, mabye not in big battles but in smaller fights or if you are a stealthy/assassin player it can help

petraeus1 · January 2016

No

I think it's ZOS' responsibility to keep costumes and armour in line with their proposed and favoured art style for the game, which in case you could describe as 'realistic with a light cartoon touch'. People will have varying tastes and will customize their character accordingly, but it shouldn't be so that ZOS has to hide players preferred outfit for other players' taste. Aside from the practical problems (what would they look like?), people customize their character also to present themselves to other players in the game. I don't want my character to be censored, even if I myself can't tell the difference. It's part of the fun of customizing gear, knowing that other people see it. Rather ZOS has to make sure the options are limited for people who like to go outside the proposed art style of the game, by adjusting the colour palette and skin textures accordingly. (Whereas the GW2-style is different, where ANet just puts whatever weird items you can think of in the game so it's all sparkles, rainbow and candy.)

Streega · January 2016

No

Although my eyes also bleed sometimes when I'm looking at huge, bearded brides (and supposedly bad-badasses in a rainbow armor), I respect everybody's right to express her/himself. We all are (or rather should be) grown adults here, so you can't just tell somebody what she/he should wear. Imagine approaching somebody on the street and say to him: "Sir, I find your dress ugly, can you remove it?"

As for battle environment, be prepared for worse and respect the flimsy elf in dress

Erdmanski · January 2016

No

I must be playing a different PVP than everyone else. I don't have time in PVP to stop, look at someone's armor, change my skills, and then proceed to attack them differently than I would have otherwise.

Does it matter what armor they wearing? You are still going to spam ambush, wrecking blow, focused aim, or whatever spammed ability you use (since that's basically what PVP combat is).

Elloa · January 2016

No

No need to waste time and ressource to code such a thing.

Zorrashi · January 2016

Yes

If it purely optional I see no reason to say no.

timidobserver · January 2016

No

I do not bother with the tedium of dying my gear or using nice motifs because no one is ever going to see it.

Thavie · January 2016

No

Sausage wrote: »

I think its good idea, but then I see some idiots who wear costumes and use some extremely colorful gears.

What about others people with bad taste in the streets of your town? You wanna hide them too? Living world is not perfect because of life in it.

Zorrashi · January 2016

Yes

Thavie wrote: »

Sausage wrote: »

I think its good idea, but then I see some idiots who wear costumes and use some extremely colorful gears.

What about others people with bad taste in the streets of your town? You wanna hide them too? Living world is not perfect because of life in it.

I would also like to shoot fire fire, be able to summon a horse from nowhere and be able to teleport to major cities. But alas, the ESO has no bearing in real life and vice versa.

lolo_01b16_ESO · January 2016

Yes

Thavie wrote: »

Sausage wrote: »

I think its good idea, but then I see some idiots who wear costumes and use some extremely colorful gears.

What about others people with bad taste in the streets of your town? You wanna hide them too? Living world is not perfect because of life in it.

How many people in the living world can hide a full body kevlar suit beneath a coctail dress?

Erdmanski wrote: »

I must be playing a different PVP than everyone else. I don't have time in PVP to stop, look at someone's armor, change my skills, and then proceed to attack them differently than I would have otherwise.

Does it matter what armor they wearing? You are still going to spam ambush, wrecking blow, focused aim, or whatever spammed ability you use (since that's basically what PVP combat is).

Seems so, in the pvp I play, it is very helpfull if you are facing e.g. a small group with 2 templars to know which of them wears light armour and should be killed first.

Also I don't get why poeple are against an option to change what everyone sees on his own display.

Daraugh · January 2016

No

If someone finds the long blue silken robes from the Wrothgar collection tasteless in favor of seeing some heavy armor, dyed all magenta or bright green then the problem isn't with the costume.

Thallia · January 2016

Yes

Kinda needed for PvP tbh. Imagine a organized Guild group sieging, everyone with the same costume. You cant tell who's who, luckily ive never seen this happen but the option is there. All nord male bride sieges incoming

kojou · January 2016

No

I don't think I want developers to waste time on this. There are much better things I would rather they do.

robkrush · January 2016

First, we obviously can't hide costumes because not as many players will buy them. Showing them off, or looking like your friends, is a big part of the deal.

That said, Id love to options to switch off player costumes AND pets.

What i would like the most is an option to put players in very generic/plain equipment ,that stands out from npcs, based on their class and sex. The green and purple armor bothers me just as much, if not more than, the green and purple costumes. The only player created armor I care to see is my groups. Besides, wouldn't it be more realistic? It just looks messy to have EVERYONE in different, mismatched, gear.

My 2 cents.

Valen_Byte · January 2016

No

Sharee wrote: »

The option should be there for PvP areas. What type of armor your opponent is wearing has gameplay implications, and should not be hidden.

Hiding armor is exactly why I wear a costume in PVP. I dont want you to see what im rocking and you have no right to change that.

I play the way I want, not how you want.

Chelos · January 2016

No

You manage to ignore inequality, injustice, the weather and Justin Bieber, ignoring a costume you don't like should be a basic skill in anyone.

The Elder Scrolls Online

Should there be an option to hide other players' costumes?

Should there be an option to hide other players' costumes? 238 votes