Suggestion - Racial Change (Lore Friendly)

Argantis_Dragonheart

Dear Bethesda,

I love your game and the direction things are going in ESO. However, there is something that has been bothering me. The long slow grind to level is not for everyone, and we all make mistakes along the way. In the MMO world this is not an issues, because the developer always makes sure to provide ways to change anything relevant.

In this regard something has been overlooked. Races. The racials are critical to game balance and in regards to build choice. Many, many players would like to go back and alter that choice, but there is currently no means to do this.

Please bring in racial changes. Charge for them, we dont care, I would happily pay $10 or $25 to change my race which is, and has been for some time, a sourrce of serious discontnet with my character. Rerolling just to change race is also something that is not on option.

It should be noted that not all of these desires to change race are purely due to lack of user forsight. You as a developer have modified and changed, and I am sure will continue to change, some racial passives and how they work within the game mechanics.

Here is the lore friendly part. You could even introduce a quest line and allow it for free, that would set a new precedent as other MMO games tend to look at this as a paid service. You could put a cool down of something like 30 days to 6 months on the quest, to prevent people from being ridiculous with it and also to not burden the infrastructure too much.

Anyways, since we are all just a "vestige" and basically a hollow container of a person, containing no soul, only to be filled after retrieving many, many Skyshards, this can all work with the lore. It can be said that we have found a "key" shard that contains very relevant information as to who we were, and upon defeating a gatekeeper, Mannimarco, a lieutenant, Shegorath, or some new faction of evil, we could then regain a portion of our "identity" and former self, including our race and some brief history. You could even introduce a "karma" system that tracks the choices we made in quests along the way and make our background dependent on the actions we had chose through all of those quests, or even possibly just our main faction quests.

Please Bethesda, do not let us down. Let us have fun and play the game and characters the way we want to play them.

Lynx7386

Theoretically you could put your own soul into a soulshard and then have it extracted into another body. A lich is created by removing the heart and soul of the individual while retaining a link to the body, and undead are summoned (in some cases) by using a trapped soul to animate a dead body.

Easy enough to justify with TES magic - you simply undergo a ritual to have your soul taken out and put into another body. Of course, if that body were dead (a corpse) it wouldnt really work out, but you couldnt take a body that a soul is already inhabiting either, and finding a willing sacrafice for such a ritual would be problematic.

IkQ

This is exactly how I feel about the issue - a lot of things has changed and we now know a lot more about game mechanics, where I now wish I would have gone a completely different way with my race. And your suggestions on implementation is a good way to do it. In particular your suggestion about vestige finding part of his/her lost soul would, as I see it, not go against or disrupt anything lore-wise.
On the other hand, I want the option to race change implemented ASAP and I wouldn't mind paying a fee through the ESO store. I would most likely be willing to pay more than the $25.

Wizzo91

I agree.

And please don't come here with "immersion-breaking" arguments. What do you care? If others want to change race - let them do it. The chance you will see the other play while questing, remembering his name and race is very very low.(and also getting annoyed by it)

I like the quest idea - 6 - 12 months cool down sounds good.

Second option would be a cash shop.(If you have CD on quest and want to change again for some reason) About 10-20$ sounds fine.
Max 4-6 times a year.

suelothvar

personaly hate the idea, but then im type of player that wouldinstantly dump the cha, should something like race change, change my cha, as it wouldn't feel like my cha (im odd)

Pluss soon as players get race change they will likely whine until they can have class change too, then game will just devolve into.. Make fastest leveling race/class combo, then change to what you wanted to play.

Likely then followed by some level cap raise and a forum filled with "but I payed for a race/class respec and now need to do it again, game is dead I quit" spam.

Samadhi

I like the current setup. I didn't change my race in any of the previous Elder Scrolls games either (though console commands made it possible).

Erock25

I love the OP suggestion and think they should do this ASAP

ianangelospreub18_ESO

I like the OP suggestion and just to add as well I believe there is a quest in greenshade? can't for the life of me remember which though where an elf wants to turn into a kajit or something for a hunt? Something like that I could be totally wrong but I could swear I remember getting a potion to try and transform him, even if that was meaning more in a cosmetic and temporary manor, if they really wanted to take the easy road they could just make it possible to change race with a potion and even have it be part of that quest line or something. I rerolled and created my own races a lot in Skyrim so would be fun to me and wouldn't affect anyone that dislikes the idea or doesn't want to and who knows maybe at some point later they will add a new race, they already are for the npcs(Naga), so is always possible and there might be one later that someone wants.

Medieval_Miss81

I think this is a good suggestion, but I would go further and suggest that a faction change also be allowed. If people start a character in one faction, then realize that they really wanted to play in another faction, it is difficult to have to level an entirely new character in the other faction and leave behind the character that they already worked so hard on.
A lore possibility for this could be while doing the veteran content in the other factions, the character realized that they actually believed more in that one alliance than the other. Isn't that what Meridia is trying to promote - an understanding of the other sides?

dsalter

Argantis_Dragonheart wrote: »

since we are all just a "vestige" and basically a hollow container of a person, containing no soul, only to be filled after retrieving many, many Skyshards

someones not finished the main story

milesrodneymcneely2_ESO

suelothvar wrote: »

personaly hate the idea, but then im type of player that wouldinstantly dump the cha, should something like race change, change my cha, as it wouldn't feel like my cha (im odd)

Okay, am I the only one who had an image of the poster in a red-sequined dress twirling around a dance floor?

ianangelospreub18_ESO

Medieval_Miss81 wrote: »

I think this is a good suggestion, but I would go further and suggest that a faction change also be allowed. If people start a character in one faction, then realize that they really wanted to play in another faction, it is difficult to have to level an entirely new character in the other faction and leave behind the character that they already worked so hard on.
A lore possibility for this could be while doing the veteran content in the other factions, the character realized that they actually believed more in that one alliance than the other. Isn't that what Meridia is trying to promote - an understanding of the other sides?

I like this idea and does fit well with the lore.

Malekithe

I really hope that at some point they will allow race changes. After playing so long with my character, it would be nice to be able to change things now that I know more about the game and how I like to play without having to start all over again. I'm also not at all opposed to an ability to change factions. Obviously there is any easy solution so people don't go crazy, put a limit on the amount of times any of these actions can be taken. Or increase the price each time (if you go that route). Here's to hoping to see this happen!

badmojo

No, lore friendly or not, that's stupid. Re-roll and deal with the fact that your choices have consequences.

Wing

im obviously for it. as long as its either one time only or has a massive wait time. fix mistakes, but don't turn into fotm race every chance.

it happens in game as well. in AD in greenshade a dark elf turns into an argonian (he was trying to become a khajiit)

so it is backed in game.

Loneshard

I am against this Idea!
Changing character name, more character slots, in the shop would be fine!
But racial change... seriously?

I think that will not happen!
You have 7 more character slots.. create a new toon

Argantis_Dragonheart wrote: »

Please Bethesda, do not let us down. Let us have fun and play the game and characters the way we want to play them.

Bethesda is here..
http://bethsoft.com/

Jitterbug

Lynx7386 wrote: »

finding a willing sacrafice for such a ritual would be problematic.

Last I was in Coldharbour a couple dudes just stood there looking pretty bored, they might be up for it...

Turelus

I'm against this. The passives although everyone screams and raves about them are not that big a deal.

I don't want to play another game where you can just pay some money (gold or RL) and change every single thing about your character. This just creates the ability for everyone to play the current FOTM characters with no effort.

If you want to play x race but chose y, make a new character. 1-50 can be done in two days with grinding and one other player in addition to that what I know of the champion system race perks while helpful will not matter as much.

Tanis-Stormbinder

All for it

Darkeus

extra cash is always good! and they lose this extra cash by not offering these kind of services like race change. wtf managers you have there? rly ) or is that complicated to implement it? if there are people willing to pay for it... then do it!

AshySamurai

Lynx7386 wrote: »

Theoretically you could put your own soul into a soulshard and then have it extracted into another body. A lich is created by removing the heart and soul of the individual while retaining a link to the body, and undead are summoned (in some cases) by using a trapped soul to animate a dead body.

Easy enough to justify with TES magic - you simply undergo a ritual to have your soul taken out and put into another body. Of course, if that body were dead (a corpse) it wouldnt really work out, but you couldnt take a body that a soul is already inhabiting either, and finding a willing sacrafice for such a ritual would be problematic.

For this quote and all others. Characters in ESO don't have a soul (soul shriven, remember?). Manimarco took it at the beginning. Yes, I've completed main story (and Cadwells' Silver). All react on you like you're don't have a soul even in CS and CG.
And one more - you were made your choice and now you face consequences. Be proud of who you are!

tinythinker

Argantis_Dragonheart wrote: »

Please bring in racial changes. Charge for them, we dont care, I would happily pay $10 or $25 to change my race

IkQ wrote: »

I wouldn't mind paying a fee through the ESO store. I would most likely be willing to pay more than the $25.

inferneuseb17_ESO wrote: »

extra cash is always good! and they lose this extra cash by not offering these kind of services like race change. wtf managers you have there? rly ) or is that complicated to implement it? if there are people willing to pay for it... then do it!

No cash shops. Sub fee only.

guybrushtb16_ESO

AshySamurai wrote: »

Lynx7386 wrote: »

Theoretically you could put your own soul into a soulshard and then have it extracted into another body. A lich is created by removing the heart and soul of the individual while retaining a link to the body, and undead are summoned (in some cases) by using a trapped soul to animate a dead body.

Easy enough to justify with TES magic - you simply undergo a ritual to have your soul taken out and put into another body. Of course, if that body were dead (a corpse) it wouldnt really work out, but you couldnt take a body that a soul is already inhabiting either, and finding a willing sacrafice for such a ritual would be problematic.

For this quote and all others. Characters in ESO don't have a soul (soul shriven, remember?). Manimarco took it at the beginning. Yes, I've completed main story (and Cadwells' Silver). All react on you like you're don't have a soul even in CS and CG.
And one more - you were made your choice and now you face consequences. Be proud of who you are!

Lore wise, the main character wouldn't even need to jump through all the hoops a mortal would to change their body. They are a paragon vestige, which means they aren't even really mortal anymore anyway. Each time they die, they essentially reshape their phyiscal body instantly out of thin air. At this point, it doesn't sound far fetched that they might be able to learn how to slightly change their physical form somehow.

Gameplay wise, "living with your choices" sounds all nice and fair until you realize that the circumstances under which you made these choices change all the time. In an mmo, things change constantly, and if the thing I chose in the beginning doesn't work the way it did when I chose it, that sense permanency is already lost anyway.

And ultimately, it isn't really any of your business if I change my race. If you don't want to, feel free to ignore it, but there are many people who want it and to me it sounds rather childish to deny them that just because you don't want to do it yourself.

Yuke

Racial respec?

AshySamurai

@guybrushtb16_ESO‌, I don't argue against barber. It's ok. I would like to see it in game. But changing race with all racial passives affect all players. Today all become dunmer, tomorrow all will change it to breton. What is the point of it? Just following fotm? Want to change your race - roll another character. Because if you're not going to follow fotm you can roll a new one and all will be fine. What the problem? Now I see it like you want to change your race every month. And I don't want to see service like this in game.

eliisra

Or they could balance racials instead? They're doing it for classes in 1.6. Why not revisit races? Especially since the CS will remove soft caps.

But yeah, 7+ months in PvP and I still haven't found enough argonians to finish my slayer achievement lol. If you could change freely, it would be even worse, a lot of races would more or less disappear from PvP and endgame PvE. That actually affect my precious immersion.

Than again, if ZoS aren't going to tweak racial passives, they might as well allow us to change by completing some quests or paying. Sort of cruel having people stuck with under-performing races, to make the game look more authentic and lore-ish.

Re-rolling is a very depressing option, since it takes a lifetime to grind all skill passives (Undaunted, Alliance War etc). Also exp in 1.5 being non-existent once you reach VR.

tinythinker

eliisra wrote: »

Or they could balance racials instead? They're doing it for classes in 1.6. Why not revisit races? Especially since the CS will remove soft caps.

But yeah, 7+ months in PvP and I still haven't found enough argonians to finish my slayer achievement lol.

I like the Argonian racials, but if they want to buff the existing numbers of those bonuses I won't complain at all

Turelus

AshySamurai wrote: »

@guybrushtb16_ESO‌, I don't argue against barber. It's ok. I would like to see it in game. But changing race with all racial passives affect all players. Today all become dunmer, tomorrow all will change it to breton. What is the point of it? Just following fotm? Want to change your race - roll another character. Because if you're not going to follow fotm you can roll a new one and all will be fine. What the problem? Now I see it like you want to change your race every month. And I don't want to see service like this in game.

As I said pretty much this. All this service will do is have everyone rilling the "best" race for that months builds. You can already reset all attributes skills and later champion points. Let have at least some choices you make in character creation mean something.

Tanis-Stormbinder

The whole gaming is changing with the Championship system, why not allow a one time only race change.

KatenKyokotsu

Why not create a poll out of this ?? Am curious about it, as I too would love a race change to be possible

guybrushtb16_ESO

Turelus wrote: »

AshySamurai wrote: »

@guybrushtb16_ESO‌, I don't argue against barber. It's ok. I would like to see it in game. But changing race with all racial passives affect all players. Today all become dunmer, tomorrow all will change it to breton. What is the point of it? Just following fotm? Want to change your race - roll another character. Because if you're not going to follow fotm you can roll a new one and all will be fine. What the problem? Now I see it like you want to change your race every month. And I don't want to see service like this in game.

As I said pretty much this. All this service will do is have everyone rilling the "best" race for that months builds. You can already reset all attributes skills and later champion points. Let have at least some choices you make in character creation mean something.

If you want that, then by all means, stick to your choices. I personally don't want to, and I don't see how my enjoyment of something would be to your detriment.

Also, regarding the "everybody would become fotm argument", there are right now races that pretty much suck at everything, and still people play them. I doubt those same people would jump the fotm any more than they do now if they could change it. And again, all those people who think "choices should matter" could very much stick with their choices if they wanted to.