Poll Which is the best graphical style to pursue for ESO looking forward to next decades? Characters

AcadianPaladin · August 26

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

I like the current artistic style mostly. That is why I dislike the obtrusive neon cartoon exploding mounts that is so out of keeping with the rest of the game.

I would like to see moving hair - like some styles already have - expanded to more styles.

LunaFlora · August 26

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

SkaiFaith wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

if zos changes the game's textures i hope it would be nothing more than better resolution, like more pixels and polygons.
i don't believe zos would do anything else nor would i want anything else.

i want the game to stay recognisable.

Do you have examples of "Korean beauty style"?

And by anime art style are you referring to Japanese games like Zelda, Pokémon, Final Fantasy, and Monster Hunter? or a specific game?

I was thinking of specific games, yes:

Realistic - Dragon's Dogma 2
Korean - The First Descendant / Black Desert Online
Anime - Genshin Impact / Final Fantasy

I thought that being specific with these games in the poll options would have hurt results...

thanks, i asked for examples because the poll options were too vague to me as there are a lot of different korean and japanese games and thus couldn't imagine it.

and it's still a little vague as Genshin impact looks very different to Final Fantasy to me

shadyjane62 · August 26

Other - explain in comment.

I won't be here for whatever is to come. Only till my sub runs out.

Jaimeh · August 26

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

I like how ESO fantasy looks more realistic, everything from maps to spells are really beautiful, and it's more immersive this way. I hope the new direction with the flashing recall animations and mounts etc., won't take it too far.

Bo0137 · August 26

Other - explain in comment.

ESO has no reason to and will not change its art style.

However, I would love to see more "ordinary" outfit styles (not costumes) more often. Low fantasy, some people call it. Feasible, mundane.

I really think we got way too many bulky, aggressive, buoyant styles already. Let us play with something more natural-looking.

IMO, the best outfits are those that manage to look organic. It is so beautiful and so cool to see people doning a knight outfit or a courier outfit.

Right now we mostly only have costumes that satisfy those needs. We need actual style pages that fit into that category (chest, legs, gloves...)

We have the very pretty "common" attire found in stolen pieces that are not yet available for the outfit system. Usually the seasonal events (pvp, april's fool, holiday, halloween) bring the best of them.

We need more. More low fantasy, more mundane, more down to earth.

LannStone · August 26

The most realistic graphics/design possible as tech permit

I think they could remain faithful to classic ESO style and try for a bit more realism at the same time. We have seen this already when you compare characters and locales of a few years ago to ones today - sharper, more detailed. So classic style and more realism are not necessarily opposed.

SkaiFaith · August 26

LannStone wrote: »

I think they could remain faithful to classic ESO style and try for a bit more realism at the same time. We have seen this already when you compare characters and locales of a few years ago to ones today - sharper, more detailed. So classic style and more realism are not necessarily opposed.

YES! I couldn't agree more. Some Skyrim mods are very good in this, right? Something similar could work...

Also, one thing about our characters right now I don't like it's skin texture and seeing some poly lines like under armpits, or eyes animation... I think things like these could be addressed without drastically changing characters' appearance.

Amottica · August 26

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

The_Isatope8 wrote: »

I don't think that ESO should try to emulate other styles too much, let it be its own thing

This is for certain. Most choices would not make sense and do not stand a chance of happening. There is a greater chance that WoW will change its style to become more realistic than ESO will change to any of those styles.

DreamyLu · August 27

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

ESO is different than other MMORPGs and it should stay like that.

However, for me, one thing I would like to see is a bit more creativity by costume and armor aesthetic. It's OK to be middle age style globally, but well, in the end it's a fantasy world so it should allow for some styles a bit more "out of the standard" and also some colors with a more "straight" rendering (less greyed out) would be nice.

Riddari · August 27

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

The only thing i would want from korean style games is some of the hair styles. They've been knocking it outta the park with a lot of the beautiful fantasy hair. I'm talking braids, looong hair, good looking short hair. That and some more attractive faces. Other than that just a rework of some of the armors that are just 2d textures and I think they're fine. While they're at it they should make the belt slot connected to the hip and groin flaps.

I think an animation overhaul and a lighting overhaul are all you REALLY need to modernize this game.

davidtk · August 27

The most realistic graphics/design possible as tech permit

Lugaldu wrote: »

Why they should even change the style to something completely else, like catoonish or Korean...? I am sure that this will never happen although the flashing mounts and childish talking foxes are of course a little concerning.

I agree... One reason I still play ESO is that it is not a cartoonish and anime style game (there are plenty of games with that styles and most of ppl love that games...). I like the "western style" of the game tbh.

I want some graphics overhaul. Like better textures for old content, furnishing, outfits. More polygon model of players character. Everything what can be doable on the client side. Like "Extreme" graphic option.

LikiLoki · August 27

Other - explain in comment.

Isometric (top-down) with the style of a hand-drawn comic book. It's time to make fallout 2 in the TESO world

Bobargus · August 27

Other - explain in comment.

As long as it allows itself to be run smoothly on any low end pc or any platform imaginable, keeping the theme of accessibility to the game as the first priority, i would be ok with any kind of graphical style.

That aside, i would prefer a non-realistic graphic style that focuses on representing the bare bones of the game, rather than making it look as beautiful of realistic as possible.

Simplicity and accessibility is what i would prioritize.

Benzux · August 27

More Anime art style direction

I don't actually want ESO to change its art direction or whatever, the game looks perfectly fine as-is. However, I am voting for this option purely because it sounds hilarious, and honestly I would love to see more Elder Scrolls stuff (whether official stuff, fan art, short animations, etc.) in an Anime style. I recall seeing a clip of someone playing Skyrim with the Japanese dub years ago, and someone in the comment section said that the storyline of the Dawnguard DLC is basically a crazy anime plotline (high priest of a sun god gets cursed, then blames his god for it and creates a whole-ass prophecy meant to take out the sun just to spite his god), and that comment has lived in my head rent-free since then.

Syldras · August 27

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

No Anime stuff, please... Of course, new Japanese and Chinese clothing, hairstyles, decorations and furniture would be fine, that's what a big percentage of Dunmer things in this game are anyway, but I'd like to see that in the current, rather realistic and down to earth style.

Lugaldu wrote: »

Why they should even change the style to something completely else, like catoonish or Korean...? I am sure that this will never happen although the flashing mounts and childish talking foxes are of course a little concerning.

I think that realistically, the main question for ESO's art direction would be: "rather calm and realistic or more loud and flashy? And when it comes to that, I'm absolutely against more "loud and flashy".

I'm sometimes wondering whom ZOS considers their target audience. There is a noticeable shift to louder and flashier effects, compared to how ESO looked in the beginning. Also when it comes to the narrations, there had been a shift to simpler dialogues and more cliché characters over time.

SkaiFaith wrote: »

Also, one thing about our characters right now I don't like it's skin texture

I'd be okay with the current texture, if it wouldn't make every male character look like a hairy bear

It just looks ridiculous on some characters.

SkaiFaith · August 27

Syldras wrote: »

...I'm sometimes wondering whom ZOS considers their target audience. There is a noticeable shift to louder and flashier effects, compared to how ESO looked in the beginning. Also when it comes to the narrations, there had been a shift to simpler dialogues and more cliché characters over time...

I know it probably isn't the most correct choice of words on my part but that's what I mean with "cartoonish" as artistic style both visually and in writing.
I'm with you in not enjoying it.

Vulkunne · August 27

Just want to see results...

The art itself isn't the problem. Too many armor pieces don't scale well to the character using them. Examples include things like (but certainly not limited to): Hexos Heavy Shoulders and House Dufort Helm, as both of these styles fit the character too snug and are strangely smaller compared to better designed pieces. If you look thru the various styles, you will find lots of other helms with these same issues. Many armor motif styles need to be cleaned up and scaled properly, it's been an issue with this game for as long as I can remember. Fixing this problem doesn't make this game like other games either, but there are many other games where you can tell a great amount of time and care went into preparing their styles.

Many times you have those on the forums and in game who are really against making changes and quick to react when someone makes a point they don't like but it's just funny to me the game has these simple issues for years, which haven't been fixed and I just wish more time and energy went into QA and producing quality content instead of coming down on us for little things. Like if I put a helm on, supposed to be a heavy helm and it makes my head appear *smaller* than before, I mean is this a joke? The marketing materials never show things to scale very well so when we get content that isn't robust and probably was never tested it's not a good look. Its laziness and a lack of pride in what you produce and also reflects poorly on leadership as well who apparently has become 'comfortable' with the way things are.

katanagirl1 · August 27

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

The game looks beautiful and realistic to me already. I purposely go without keen eye just to save ruining the scenery.

It would be nice to improve some of the older styles, though. I have the Redguard heavy style on one character, I like the plate armor and mail shirt, but it looks so low res. Older styles have much shinier textures on leather that is annoying.

Lumsdenml · August 27

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

The elder scrolls is what it is. Let other things be other things.

Miademora · August 28

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

the style where i can turn off the fog

AvalonRanger · August 28

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

Just I don't like too much ugly looking horse model and some plastic impression
creature monster model, but mostly OK. I want to stay current character model
including mine. Just please maintain Elder Scrolls world air.

opethmaniac · August 28

Just want to see results...

I like the graphic style inspired by Lord of the Rings. The problem is that the graphics are mostly from 2014, with the exception of the newer DLC areas, which are more elaborately designed.
The problem with this graphic style is that it ages quite badly. It is foreseeable (and obvious) that the graphics are slowly becoming outdated.
And this is where the dilemma begins: If the graphics are to be updated to the quality of current games, many players will probably no longer be able to play the game without restrictions. At the moment, ESO is very undemanding in terms of hardware requirements.
In addition, it would lag much more in PVP, for example, than it already does.
WOW does not have this problem with its cartoon graphics because they are simply timeless, which was probably the right decision by Blizzard at the time.

This question is therefore difficult to answer.

Syldras · August 28

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

opethmaniac wrote: »

The problem is that the graphics are mostly from 2014, with the exception of the newer DLC areas, which are more elaborately designed.
The problem with this graphic style is that it ages quite badly. It is foreseeable (and obvious) that the graphics are slowly becoming outdated.
And this is where the dilemma begins: If the graphics are to be updated to the quality of current games, many players will probably no longer be able to play the game without restrictions. At the moment, ESO is very undemanding in terms of hardware requirements.

From the replies in this thread at least, I have the impression that many people are content with the style at it is, while only 9% (currently) wish for the most realistic style as possible. There doesn't seem to be a big request for graphics "updated to the quality of current games".

SkaiFaith · August 28

Syldras wrote: »

opethmaniac wrote: »

The problem is that the graphics are mostly from 2014, with the exception of the newer DLC areas, which are more elaborately designed.
The problem with this graphic style is that it ages quite badly. It is foreseeable (and obvious) that the graphics are slowly becoming outdated.
And this is where the dilemma begins: If the graphics are to be updated to the quality of current games, many players will probably no longer be able to play the game without restrictions. At the moment, ESO is very undemanding in terms of hardware requirements.

From the replies in this thread at least, I have the impression that many people are content with the style at it is, while only 9% (currently) wish for the most realistic style as possible. There doesn't seem to be a big request for graphics "updated to the quality of current games".

Maybe you are right, but I think the demand to have older zones taken to newest DLCs level is totally there.
And also, it seems even the more conservative players agree that at least little touches here and there to things like textures and such would be appreciated.

Syldras · August 28

Remain faithful to the Classic Elder Scrolls style as much as possible

SkaiFaith wrote: »

Maybe you are right, but I think the demand to have older zones taken to newest DLCs level is totally there.
And also, it seems even the more conservative players agree that at least little touches here and there to things like textures and such would be appreciated.

Yeah, I've seen the requests. But just wanting higher texture resolutions and maps built with more details (like more items in buildings) isn't the same thing as wishing for a complete graphics update.

I was replying to a post saying a rather realistic graphics style was a disadvantage compared to comic style, because with a realistic style, people always want to have the most realistic possible cinema-style graphics. And that doesn't seem to be true.

TX12001rwb17_ESO · August 28

Graphics are not important.