Vanity Tab for looks?

DeadlyPhoenix · December 2015

So, I love having tons of options available to customize the way I look in ESO. There are tons of different styles available to craft as well as a lot of unique gear that is only available for certain sets. The lower level equipment even has its own, more simpler look, than medium to high level craftable gear. Then there is the dye station that allows you to customize that look even further, giving you tons of available choices and options to make your character look the way you want. I am the type of person, though I am a bit embarrassed to admit it, that likes to create different looks and I do it quite often. However, being vr16 and wanting to always be at my full potential in battle, I am locked into one look once I have my gear. I can't expect to be able to craft and change my look anymore with crafted equipment taking anywhere from 120-170 materials each to make. Back when it didn't take much, I could change my gear out often and still be just as powerful since the upgrade materials, to purple at least, aren't that hard to come by as of yet, I'm sure they will make that harder as well Lol....

So my question is, who else would like to see them introduce a vanity tab so that people can wear whatever they want, whenever they want and they are able to do so freely without losing out on their stats from their best equipment. I know some people say, "They won't do that because they will lose out on money that people spend to buy their costumes." While this is somewhat true, less people might buy them, it's not completely true either. With the exception of the first normal armor costumes you could buy, everything else is unique and unobtainable in game from what I have seen, leaving people to still want to purchase them. Also they could even charge crowns to unlock the vanity tab and make even more money or set it up to be a monthly charge of crowns to keep it instead of a one time purchase. I would gladly pay monthly to be able to look however I wanted without having to invest in a new set if I wanted to actually be able to fight in it. You can't say that we wouldn't be able to tell if someone has good gear or not then because you can't tell what set they're wearing as is unless it's a unique appearance item set like necromancer or air, fire and martial vr11-14 gear.

Anyone else have any ideas on this? I have more to say, buy I'm not sure how the community will respond to this, whether good or bad, so I will see what people think and then add more to it

personally I would love for them to do this, plenty of other online games have done it and have spoiled me I guess.... So what are your thoughts? Should they be working on something like this? Do you think they actually would? Do you like the idea? Just looking to get other peoples thoughts on this. Even if there isn't a vanity tab, it would be nice to be able to swap an items appearance with another. Even if there is some kind of charge, definitely not crowns for this one though. For instance, I like the look of the necromancer chest piece and hood, but I don't much care for the set bonuses and they don't come in size vr16

so if I were able to swap my current vr16 legendary chest piece for it, destroying the necromancer gear, but making mine look like it, I would even be happy with this.

You have read enough now I'm sure, so I will let your eyes have a break now

please leave a comment as to what you think.

Gidorick · December 2015

This has been suggested before. I don't care for the idea. You should look like what you wear.

And no, I don't like the whole costume thing either.

DeadlyPhoenix · December 2015

Gidorick wrote: »

This has been suggested before. I don't care for the idea. You should look like what you wear.

And no, I don't like the whole costume thing either.

That is one mans opinion and even if it was suggested, that just tells me other people are interested in it

but thanks for your feedback

jircris11 · December 2015

Gidorick wrote: »

This has been suggested before. I don't care for the idea. You should look like what you wear.

And no, I don't like the whole costume thing either.

some wish to have a certain armor style and the style materials are expensive so why force them to make it over and over again? swtor has the tab and it works great. lets me look my best while questing and not worrying about my mash up of gear.

DeadlyPhoenix · December 2015

jircris11 wrote: »

some wish to have a certain armor style and the style materials are expensive so why force them to make it over and over again? swtor has the tab and it works great. lets me look my best while questing and not worrying about my mash up of gear.

This is exactly what I am talking about. Other games such as DC Universe Online and Rift also offer a vanity tab, though by far DCUO has the best version of it I think because once you equip a previously never before worn style, it saves it to your list and you can destroy/sell it and still be able to use that appearance at anytime you wish.

UltimaJoe777 · December 2015

Thing is there are hundreds of thousands of players and if each of them designed an outfit unique to everyone else the game would not have enough data to contain each and every aspect of all of them. Best you can do in a multiplayer game like this is get the look you want as close as you can get it. Fortunately there are ways, and if there isn't you have costumes!

DeadlyPhoenix · December 2015

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

Thing is there are hundreds of thousands of players and if each of them designed an outfit unique to everyone else the game would not have enough data to contain each and every aspect of all of them. Best you can do in a multiplayer game like this is get the look you want as close as you can get it. Fortunately there are ways, and if there isn't you have costumes!

I think you're misunderstanding the concept of this. It wouldn't be adding anything more items to the game or anything like that, it's simply adding another tab to use for equipment. Think of how you have 2 hot bars for two different weapons once you hit level 15, all you're doing is simply adding a new slot that covers your existing armor without replacing it with items that are already in game. Purely cosmetic. Say I'm wearing a nord style helm, but I want to make it look like I'm wearing a bosmer one, just equip it to the vanity tab and it appears as though you're wearing the bosmer even though you actually have the nord one equipped and are still receiving it's stats.

TheShadowScout · December 2015

I really dislike the idea of a vanity tab system for ESO.

It's an immersion thing for me...

I happen to think that if you want armor protection for your character on any battlefield, you bloody well ought to look like your character is wearing -armor- and not some cotton shirt, evening dress, dancers outfit, or underwear. And yes, I have seen all those in other games which allow vanity tabs.

With some games, its no big deal, it works in DCUO because there your "gear" is notning but a game-representative of your "superpowers", and is not really supposed to have anything to do with your looks. In ESO as a fantasy game, that's somewhat different, here people are supposed to wear armor for protection, and not spandex (or whatever) over bulletproof skin...

Yeah, I am no friend of costumes in combat either.

Don't get me wrong, I like costumes - for roleplaying support, for quick clothes change to fit into some RP scene... for chothing options without straining your inventory as the burglarable civilian clothes might... just not for combat visuals.
I would much prefer if those "civilian" costumes would unequip as soon as your character takes damage...

What I -would- like to see is some option for master crafters to reforge/resew/recarve set items into any style they have learned, maybe taking a bit of resources, maybe with a destruction chance that can be migrated by using more resources, maybe even requiring some extra-rare resource people have to spend some time getting, similar to nirncrux or perfect roe... Possibly also allowing highlevel gear to use low level appereance options (cough, breton light shoulderpiece, cough).

DeadlyPhoenix · December 2015

TheShadowScout wrote: »

I really dislike the idea of a vanity tab system for ESO.

It's an immersion thing for me...

I happen to think that if you want armor protection for your character on any battlefield, you bloody well ought to look like your character is wearing -armor- and not some cotton shirt, evening dress, dancers outfit, or underwear. And yes, I have seen all those in other games which allow vanity tabs.

With some games, its no big deal, it works in DCUO because there your "gear" is notning but a game-representative of your "superpowers", and is not really supposed to have anything to do with your looks. In ESO as a fantasy game, that's somewhat different, here people are supposed to wear armor for protection, and not spandex (or whatever) over bulletproof skin...

Yeah, I am no friend of costumes in combat either.

Don't get me wrong, I like costumes - for roleplaying support, for quick clothes change to fit into some RP scene... for chothing options without straining your inventory as the burglarable civilian clothes might... just not for combat visuals.
I would much prefer if those "civilian" costumes would unequip as soon as your character takes damage...

What I -would- like to see is some option for master crafters to reforge/resew/recarve set items into any style they have learned, maybe taking a bit of resources, maybe with a destruction chance that can be migrated by using more resources, maybe even requiring some extra-rare resource people have to spend some time getting, similar to nirncrux or perfect roe... Possibly also allowing highlevel gear to use low level appereance options (cough, breton light shoulderpiece, cough).

The only thing is you already have that with the crown store costumes. I've personally seen my fair share of huge male orcs running around in a wedding dress... Plenty of people wearing the noble outfits and such in battle. I understand immersion purposes, but it's already been broken with those costumes. Not to mention the Halloween outfits. So for me, I don't see it any less immersive than what they have already done.

As I said in my first post though, it doesn't have to be a vanity tab. I agree with your last statement and it would be a much more immersive approach to allow us to look the way we wish. I am a light armor user though and I love the look of a lot of the heavy armor gear, if we could make it appear heavy but still be considered light, I would be OK with this. I don't see them allowing for that though, so I think the vanity tab is a better approach.

*EDIT*
Also, there are a lot of those unique sets that you can't learn. Like the necromancer set and as I said before, I like the chest and hood of this set, but you can't learn it, so you wouldn't be able to recraft your items into it.

DeadlyPhoenix · December 2015

Also, as for the thought of the vanity costumes unequipping the moment you take damage, I could see a lot of issues with this, mainly in terms of lag. If they allowed them into Cyrodil, imagine a huge battle of 50 vs 50 and all of them using a costume. The two groups collide and everyone freezes for several moments while all of that gear is replaced with their actual equipped armor.

TheShadowScout · December 2015

DeadlyPhoenix wrote: »

Also, there are a lot of those unique sets that you can't learn. Like the necromancer set and as I said before, I like the chest and hood of this set, but you can't learn it, so you wouldn't be able to recraft your items into it.

You can't learn it -at this time-...
No technical reason for them not to make it learnable in the future if they choose to do that, right?
And I would love to see such. Even though "necromancer" is kinda a "one-third" style, as it seems to exist only for light armor...
But there are others. Seducer? Lich? Golden Saint? Each of those is in the game, not just as costume, but also as drop, and could be learned if the powers that be decide to.
Could be done as learnable style, or locked to a specific crafting station...
Could be getting some new style materials, one way or another (I'd like to see necromancers to have a style material gained by refining ash from grave urns and ectoplasm from ghost kills...

)

Phinix1 · December 2015

I believe this is a NEEDED feature in any self respecting modern MMORPG.

/signed

MornaBaine · December 2015

TheShadowScout wrote: »

I really dislike the idea of a vanity tab system for ESO.

It's an immersion thing for me...

I happen to think that if you want armor protection for your character on any battlefield, you bloody well ought to look like your character is wearing -armor- and not some cotton shirt, evening dress, dancers outfit, or underwear. And yes, I have seen all those in other games which allow vanity tabs.

With some games, its no big deal, it works in DCUO because there your "gear" is notning but a game-representative of your "superpowers", and is not really supposed to have anything to do with your looks. In ESO as a fantasy game, that's somewhat different, here people are supposed to wear armor for protection, and not spandex (or whatever) over bulletproof skin...

Yeah, I am no friend of costumes in combat either.

Don't get me wrong, I like costumes - for roleplaying support, for quick clothes change to fit into some RP scene... for chothing options without straining your inventory as the burglarable civilian clothes might... just not for combat visuals.
I would much prefer if those "civilian" costumes would unequip as soon as your character takes damage...

What I -would- like to see is some option for master crafters to reforge/resew/recarve set items into any style they have learned, maybe taking a bit of resources, maybe with a destruction chance that can be migrated by using more resources, maybe even requiring some extra-rare resource people have to spend some time getting, similar to nirncrux or perfect roe... Possibly also allowing highlevel gear to use low level appereance options (cough, breton light shoulderpiece, cough).

While I agree with you in the main you also need to account for the magical protection armor offers also. Think of the glyphs you can get that up a specific stat you can apply to each set of armor. It's kind of like your example where they can wear whatever they want because the real protection comes from character stats/mutant powers. On the other hand, I kind of hate seeing people in an evening gown out fighting bandits as well.

TroubledOne · December 2015

I really wish we had one. Or (possibly even better) a way to craft armor to look like lower level armors. My dunmer had this awesome outfit with these straps that went across his chest and colorful feathers. Level up enough and all you get are variations on the same design with no skin/muscles visible. It feels much more bland and makes me wonder why I even got the option to apply body designs or tattoos when I eventually level past being able to see them. I also really like some of the low level designs a LOT more than the higher level stuff.

As for what makes sense? Well, fireballs make sense. Why can't enchanted armor make sense? Why can't I pretend my character's so good at fighting that he gets by with less armor than the typical NPC without people telling me my pretend is less valid than their pretend full armor with fireballs and dragon wings?

TheShadowScout · December 2015

MornaBaine wrote: »

While I agree with you in the main you also need to account for the magical protection armor offers also. Think of the glyphs you can get that up a specific stat you can apply to each set of armor. It's kind of like your example where they can wear whatever they want because the real protection comes from character stats/mutant powers. On the other hand, I kind of hate seeing people in an evening gown out fighting bandits as well.

The "but... but... magic!" explenation is not really all that valid in TES lore.

Yeah, -some- backgrounds have "magic forcefield" type anchantments (D&D, bracers AC0, ring of protection+5, etc.) TES lore never had much of that, different system. Sure, there are magic shields and magic summoned armor - anyone who wants to depend on those, can, just use a sorc, wear no armor, cast shields and bound armor and see how far that'll go...

Enchanting wise, some always go on about how enchanted wedding dresses should offer as much protection as steel plate. Guess what? Enchanted steel plate will offer way more protection still! Which is why so few refuse to wear white armor without enchantments I guess...

The way I see it, all the decent armor we get in the game is already heavily enchanted. A flimsy piece of cloth won't be able to match up just by crying "enchantment" to enchanted steel, right?

The main thing is, in TES lore, protection for humanoid based characters generally comes from their worn armor. (it might be argued that khajiit get a little extra because fur, and argonians a little more extra because scales, but... while that might be worth a thougt next time it comes to rebalancing racial passives, there generally are no "mutant invulverability superpowers" for player characters in eso, just good only fashioned armor)

So I still think that the evening gown belongs for roleplay events (and I like how costumes allow one to change quickly for those without filling your inventory with clothes... now if only they moved all the disguises to costume as well in some way), and the bandit fighting should be done in padded robes, boiled leather or plate mail.

One of the things I really -would- like to see added was more -options- for our armor looks. And not just some transmog feature, but maybe more options added to the various styles... I'd love to be able to choose any style in, say, summer and winter version, with the former lighter and maybe even a bit less coverage, and the latter with added fur collars, quilted cloth coverings, etc.
Or maybe just some more divergent style options, like we have with robe/jerkin selection in light chestpiece... I would love to be able to choose between craftable pants and kilt/short skirt for legpieces (would also be a great "ancient rome" look for imperials, or "scotsmen" for nords...), or similar added style options.

Of course, on the other side I also would love to see waaaay more civilian clothes options, since those things are way better at giving us an "individual" non-combat look then costumes, even if latter became dyeable sometime in the future. I would love to be able to mix and match my preferred "city streets" look from a much wider selection of civilian clothing... would love to be able to buy those from tailors and research them for my clothier characters... would love to see some non-combat effects to civilian clothing too (reduced vendor prices if wearing nobles clothing, increased crafting chances if wearing craftsmen outfits, whatever...)

DeadlyPhoenix · December 2015

@TheShadowScout I agree with most of what you have said here. One thing is for certain, we need more options to choose the way we wish to look.

I'm not for people off fighting in an evening gown either, but it happens and that's the way the creators made it. So while I don't approve of it, it's going to happen regardless so we may as well accept it.

I do however feel like some of you are being a bit too harsh on the vanity tab option though, because not all players will want to have that "civilian" look. Me personally, I would love to be able to wear heavy armor but still get my light armor passives. I realize that doesn't follow the lore, but it allows for more character customization and I am all for that. Also.... how many times in Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, did you run across a mage wearing cloth, but yet one stab or slash to the chest didn't kill them? The game wasn't set up to make it realistic, it was made to be if you decide to wear heavy armor, you could take more damage as a result. My point being, if this game had lucky or precise shots that could kill in one hit, then yes, the idea of not fighting in robes is valid, but as it is no one is going to kill anything your level in one shot, at least not all the time so fighting over, well it's not immersive because in real life.... this isn't real life, it's a game. You want a game where armor and mechanics like that mean something, go play Darksouls. I wear light armor and often it is just plain cloth yet I still fight that dragonknight wearing full heavy plate wielding a great sword and win without him killing me in a single slice of his blade even though cloth is basically like running naked....

Not trying to down anyone's thoughts, just sharing my own.

Abob · December 2015

I think a good option would be to learn these unique styles (draugr's heritage, lich, etc) the way we research traits.

Voxicity · December 2015

I'm all for more customizing.

However i did also like the fact that when leveling and using the gear from quests or from drops, there was a chance the gear would look crap, and a chance it would look good. This allows for more player decision making: should I choose the gear that looks good, or gives me better stats?

This also meant that if I came across some gear with a great look and nice stats, there was a much bigger sense of self accomplishment.