Further player character customization awareness thread

Akselmo

Wouldn't mind adding different kind of warpaints to my characters face.

MornaBaine

Heruthema wrote: »

AGAIN ZOS just allow character changes at the Character Selection page. This is NOT rocket science. ALLOW changes to everything except RACE and CLASS. How does this change the game for anyone except in a positive way. Why are we having discussions on whether hair or face or tattoos or this or that can be changed. It is pointless, JUST ADD THE FEATURE in the CHARACTER SELECTION Menu.

/rant over

I second your rant! With as many things as they do that end up making players REALLY ANGRY you would THINK they'd be falling all over themselves to do something that a large portion of the player base REALLY WANTS and that would actually be fairly SIMPLE for them to implement. It would also be a really nice demonstration of, "Yes, paying customers, we hear you! And we're actually paying attention!" I don't really care what little hobby horse Paul Sage has squirreled away in his head to introduce this in some really "neato" way down the road. Because all of their REAL development time needs to be going into fixing everything they routinely break and developing things that enhance gameplay. Character customization is an easy fix. SO FIX IT ALREADY.

Artemiisia

phreatophile wrote: »

I would support hair and adornments , perhaps even the face sculptor like in Skyrim. Name change even, but race and gender should be locked.

for me name should be locked as well, if people have made lots of enemies, by trolling, rage quitting and such, they shouldnt have a possibility of a name change for clean record

MornaBaine

Artemiisia wrote: »

phreatophile wrote: »

I would support hair and adornments , perhaps even the face sculptor like in Skyrim. Name change even, but race and gender should be locked.

for me name should be locked as well, if people have made lots of enemies, by trolling, rage quitting and such, they shouldnt have a possibility of a name change for clean record

Since character names are linked to account names I don't see this as an issue. If someone has been enough of a jerk that you put them on your ignore list changing their character name is not going to take them off it because ACCOUNT names cannot be changed.

Heruthema

Artemiisia wrote: »

phreatophile wrote: »

I would support hair and adornments , perhaps even the face sculptor like in Skyrim. Name change even, but race and gender should be locked.

for me name should be locked as well, if people have made lots of enemies, by trolling, rage quitting and such, they shouldnt have a possibility of a name change for clean record

The character name is still tied to the account name. So why would changing the name break that?
I still hold that RACE and CLASS are the only things you should not be allowed to change.

MrGhosty

I don't think Race should be changeable, but I do think that once you have played 1-50 you would then have an option to pay for a class change. The proviso of course being that your new class lines would be at beginning level so you would have to level them up in other more difficult surroundings and it would have to cost like respeccing does. My reasoning for this is that as classes change due to balances and such the class I chose 8 months ago may not really represent what I want to do today. Some folks also don't want to give up on all the time they invested or start from the beginning. They want this character but they want them to have other abilities. The changes in stats would be no different than a buff going away so it doesn't seem terribly complicated.

We need more customization period, more hair styles, more tattoos, piercings, clothing, everything. This may not be a big deal to some when there are really big gameplay issues out there, but most of this would be art asset related so they could give us this quality of life improvement while still working on the other problems.

Esha76

I really don't care if anyone wants to change their name, gender, class, race, etc... I have more important things to worry about than what strangers want to do to alter their video game characters.

But for the simple reason of variety and keeping things "fresh" - cosmetic changes like tats, hair, make-up, color, etc. would be nice to be added sooner than later.

I would also like to request the ability to alter facial details like cheek/chin/eye/etc size and height. Like many other people, I to have found several characters that looked pretty good in creation and early on... but over time I get rather "ehhh" about their appearance. Especially after seeing other NPCs in the world and thinking "Damn, I wish I made my character look more like that..."

Quality of life, that's all. But really nice quality to be able to make these minor changes I hope to see soon. I have seen Green posts stating it's something they want to do, and are currently thinking over the options on what they are going to do with this idea.

Kesstryl

Just made another alt, thought everything looked fine, then hit create, and in-game the hair color looked different from the char create dungeon. So now I have to delete yet another alt and recreate, and HOPE I get it right this time so I can enjoy the character and not feel like I might need to go through another endless delete and recreate cycle.

MornaBaine

Kesstryl wrote: »

Just made another alt, thought everything looked fine, then hit create, and in-game the hair color looked different from the char create dungeon. So now I have to delete yet another alt and recreate, and HOPE I get it right this time so I can enjoy the character and not feel like I might need to go through another endless delete and recreate cycle.

While this is one major reason right here why we should be able to return completed characters to the creation screen for further tweaking and polishing it also highlights another problem entirely. The lighting for the character creation is TERRIBLE! It SHOULD be the same as the bright OUTDOOR lighting we have at the character selection screen. I don't know who the "mastermind" was who decided it would be fun for us to make our characters in gloomy twilight conditions but I'd like to stuff a skooma-laced sweetroll right up their nose and then turn them loose at the edge of a cliff and just see what happens.

AureateRN

MornaBaine wrote: »

(snip)

I, your fellow wall-of-text Queen, salute you! And yes, I made it all the way through and I completely agree with you! The lighting is SO BAD in character creation and we really need to be able to get a bigger face close up view!
...etc.

I'm sure it's absolutely no surprise that I agree with you entirely, and it's nice to meet another "waller"....and SO yes and YES to all you had to say! Loved your assessment of our current options, which are absolutely pathetic.

I see/play other games where everything down to precise eye shape, size as well as the exact color of the the inner and outer iris of the eye are controlled basically the way our chat colors (oh, goodie) are and I just want to cry. *cough* Bioware *cough* "This is what ESO was supposed to offer...

What do we get? Vague and ephemeral promises of more options someday, maybe, perhaps, down the road, possibly as part of some gold-sucking RP type process ----as if we need more forced PvP commerce (and yes I meant to state it that way).

"Yes, indeed, our art department already has..." Let me guess. Hemorrhoids from sitting on their collective thumbs???

And yeah, my bank account has some ideas too, like not paying the subscription fee until ZOS gets this character creation cluster-f...um, rhymes with truck FIXED!

Perhaps that, done by enough people's bank accounts, not that I'm suggesting it; that's a personal decision, would get their attention. Perhaps it's the only thing that will get their attention focused on this issue?

AureateRN

Aoife32001 wrote: »

(snippy snip)
I second both of you.


If ZOS is determined to make this "social", just add hair barbers and make-up artists, and leave the rest of the character editing to the individual players, outside of the game world (like at the character-selection screen, for example).

Thanks! I liked your post too! I am particularly concerned about more enforced player to player commerce. They've already removed the possibility of auction houses to protect their megaservers (burden on---US).

They have ridiculously limited character creation (again, burden on---US).

Now they are using the excuse that they have to work out the complex mechanics of working character modification into some kind of social interaction rather than just giving us more options and some freakin' barber shops/salons (double burden on US because it's not a system we want plus they can use that "social" excuse to delay implementation indefinitely...oh, it's actually a triple burden on---US, because it's also an excuse to severely limit our options because they have chosen to implement it in such an awkward, social way, all of which is bound to give them a built-in excuse for it to work poorly when (if) it is ever actually introduced.

It's worse for those of us already not keen on all the enforced player to player ((which has turned out to be player vs player)) commerce as the ONLY way to purchase ANY material thing of any real value in the game. We can't just craft our own everything because we don't have personal housing to store everything. It's ... well, in a word, sucky. In a more mature word, inconvenient...but that doesn't really convey the disgust I feel toward the whole system right now.

I know, I should be a good little brown shirted, jack booted ...um, player and do as I'm told, and stop pointing out these issues and asking questions. I must pretend, like a good citizen of der fad...er ...player, yes, I mean player...that there's nothing to see here, nothing at all...

Milf_Hero

Commenting to keep the thread going. very good idea @Wing. I recently became a tank and made had a friend make me a shield to match my armor. I picked one type of shield because by the image it shows when your in the crafting screen, I thought it was a silver/white shield. He makes the shield and hands it to me and when I equip it..... it turns out to be Pink. Not that Pink is not a guys color but seriously... My armor colors are usually black. And for the detials or linings i switch between gold/blue/grey/red. I was disappointed because I made my friend make another shield and that one turned out purple...

We should definitely be able to die our weapon and shield.

AureateRN

Kesstryl wrote: »

Just made another alt, thought everything looked fine, then hit create, and in-game the hair color looked different from the char create dungeon. So now I have to delete yet another alt and recreate, and HOPE I get it right this time so I can enjoy the character and not feel like I might need to go through another endless delete and recreate cycle.

I empathize completely!

Please allow me to make one small but major correction. It is not YOU who made any mistakes, but ZOS! Please bear that in mind.

The mistake, or flaw if you will, is in a game wherein the characters look markedly different in character creation than they do in-game. That is not your doing. It has existed for EIGHT MONTHS and they have done NOTHING to fix it, and have chosen to give it empty lip service instead, because it's seen (imo) as an issue that female players tend to care about more than male players, and it's something they, themselves care about less than their own pet projects...so it falls by the wayside.

They know other games have already rolled out things they can't touch, so they are trying to focus on content they can still improve that will "wow" people at the shows and conventions. THAT is the real issue, not player satisfaction and CERTAINLY not what they perceive to be female player satisfaction.

Obviously, they are 100% wrong if they think guys don't spend time on their characters too--especially those who play females, which just ARE harder to get right. Gee... I wonder why that is? Not as much of a priority perhaps from day one?

Oh...how SHOCKING!

Whatever their reasoning it needs to be fixed sooner than later! This is especially true when we can only make one small adjustment per day then have to wait 24+ hours to make another, which may or may not look similar enough in-game to be "tolerable" ...nothing has looked "good" or "right" but at this point I'd be satisfied with "tolerable" FOR NOW...until the oft-hinted at and far too belated FIX (and modifications) are active.

(I will now stop posting for another couple weeks, having used up at least that much of my word quota. *grin*)

Moonshadow66

Lithium Flower wrote: »

(...) there's an Argonian who turns into an Khajiit in one of the quests in Reaper's March, (...)

There's also an Argonian in Stormhaven who turns into a crocodile. But ok, that's not a playable race

MornaBaine

AureateRN wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

(snip)

I, your fellow wall-of-text Queen, salute you! And yes, I made it all the way through and I completely agree with you! The lighting is SO BAD in character creation and we really need to be able to get a bigger face close up view!
...etc.

I'm sure it's absolutely no surprise that I agree with you entirely, and it's nice to meet another "waller"....and SO yes and YES to all you had to say! Loved your assessment of our current options, which are absolutely pathetic.

I see/play other games where everything down to precise eye shape, size as well as the exact color of the the inner and outer iris of the eye are controlled basically the way our chat colors (oh, goodie) are and I just want to cry. *cough* Bioware *cough* "This is what ESO was supposed to offer...

What do we get? Vague and ephemeral promises of more options someday, maybe, perhaps, down the road, possibly as part of some gold-sucking RP type process ----as if we need more forced PvP commerce (and yes I meant to state it that way).

"Yes, indeed, our art department already has..." Let me guess. Hemorrhoids from sitting on their collective thumbs???

And yeah, my bank account has some ideas too, like not paying the subscription fee until ZOS gets this character creation cluster-f...um, rhymes with truck FIXED!

Perhaps that, done by enough people's bank accounts, not that I'm suggesting it; that's a personal decision, would get their attention. Perhaps it's the only thing that will get their attention focused on this issue?

Since I can't choose "Agree," "Insightful," AND "Awesome," all at once I'll just do it here! LOL I definitely agree that they simply can't be bothered to address what they seem to think of as "girl issues" like appearance and post-creation character customization. I was incredibly underwhelmed by character creation and I still am. I've played older games that offer far more. Yes, the art style is cool and you CAN make some pretty awesome-looking characters despite the limitations. It's the bad lighting and the astonishing lack of choices (lack of color options for hair and eyes, lack of detail choices in same, lack of makeup choices, lack of hairstyle choices, lack of tattoo choices, am I missing anything?) that really throws me. What year is this again? How much did I pay for this game? Oh yeah, I bought THE most expensive version x5. Let's not talk about what we're shelling out in monthly subscription fees. And yet every single issue I have raised, and commented on in the MANY other threads written by others...not a ONE of them has been addressed. And even ROBES in this game look like armor, especially the Imperial ones. You'd THINK we could get a decent looking TOGA what with all the extremely detailed and awesome looking Roman-esque ARMOR they have put out but...NOPE. They just seem to have an incredibly difficult time dealing with the concept of FABRIC. And WHY in the name of all that is holy do they INSIST on giving fabric an underlayer (for lack of a better term) that makes it look DIRTY if you put a light dye on it? I've completely given up using Lamae White for anything but trims which is the only place it SOMETIMES actually looks white. And why are virtually all the most vibrant colors attached to PvP achievements? And why are NONE of the desirable colors available for SOLO achievements? I'm already so horrifically BORED with virtually every light armor style they have I can barely stand to look at my character. LOL So yeah, total "girl concerns" they can't be bothered with despite having a few visible women on their team. All I can think is that these girls have drunk the Kool Aid and only advocate for "boy issues" to maintain their gamer cred or, if they DO peak up for the desires of female players...nobody is listening to them. Which is strange. Because half my guild is female and during the day we're the vast majority of those logged in. It may be nearly 2015 but a lot of women, whether they work or not, have the leisure and desire to play these games. But at some point we get sick and tired of being ignored and go look for a new sweetheart.

HeroOfNone

I would be able to get behind a babershop and tatoos shop, however changing ones race would be a bit lore breaking. As I suggested before it would be good to tie the baber and tatoos to achievements

achievement based barbershop and tatoos

Wing

hey everyone thanks for keeping this thread going

I would like to point out the "make a new character" response.

this is really a bad solution. there is SO much content in this game that is simply time consuming that the thought that you would have to do things like:
-re grind to vet
-re grind through cadwels silver and gold
-re grind to vet cap (14 at time of writing)
-re collect all the lore books
-re collect all the skyshards
-re acquire all pvp ranks (skill points)
-re learn crafting traits (months and months of time)
-etc.

just because you want to change your hair? or eye color? and you call us ridiculous for asking for a barber lol.

as far as the race change to get fotm build advantage. I know that's not true as the race I am now is better for my mage build (altmer) but I want to be a nord for RP reasons. (when I created the character at launch there was still the stigma of "had to be a race from the proper alliance" and my group was all going AD, so the idea of playing anything other then AD races was not an option at the time)

I do not however agree with class change, that's pure mechanics and I do agree that the answer is make a new character. everything else has cosmetic reasons.

Lynx7386

Yes to:
-Post-character creation customization (Body and face menus only)
-Dye for weapons and shields
-Name change (I'd prefer this as an ingame quest where you can change your identity, not fond of microtransactions, but it should definitely require some investment and have a 3-6 month cooldown before being available again to the same character)
-New hairstyles, fur patterns, scale patterns, body markings (tattoos/etc.) available post-creation as rewards for completing quests, achievements, and so forth.

No to:
-Race Change
-Gender Change
-Faction Change

MornaBaine

Lynx7386 wrote: »

Yes to:
-Post-character creation customization (Body and face menus only)
-Dye for weapons and shields
-Name change (I'd prefer this as an ingame quest where you can change your identity, not fond of microtransactions, but it should definitely require some investment and have a 3-6 month cooldown before being available again to the same character)
-New hairstyles, fur patterns, scale patterns, body markings (tattoos/etc.) available post-creation as rewards for completing quests, achievements, and so forth.

No to:
-Race Change
-Gender Change
-Faction Change

Out of curiosity, why "no" to sex change? I get race change, as it affects mechanics, and faction change as that can really skew things in Cyrodil AND require mechanics that probably don't even exist yet. But sex affects nothing gameplay-wise so why the big nope?

Lynx7386

MornaBaine wrote: »

Lynx7386 wrote: »

Yes to:
-Post-character creation customization (Body and face menus only)
-Dye for weapons and shields
-Name change (I'd prefer this as an ingame quest where you can change your identity, not fond of microtransactions, but it should definitely require some investment and have a 3-6 month cooldown before being available again to the same character)
-New hairstyles, fur patterns, scale patterns, body markings (tattoos/etc.) available post-creation as rewards for completing quests, achievements, and so forth.

No to:
-Race Change
-Gender Change
-Faction Change

Out of curiosity, why "no" to sex change? I get race change, as it affects mechanics, and faction change as that can really skew things in Cyrodil AND require mechanics that probably don't even exist yet. But sex affects nothing gameplay-wise so why the big nope?

I get wanting to tweak some bits of your character - hairstyle (hair and fur can be cut/trimmed/dyed), tattoos (add or remove), skin tone (say you get a tan, or you're a vamp and want lighter skin), scars (add or remove, healing magic could do it probably), or change your body type/build (work out, or eat too much, your choice)... but mysteriously transmogrifying yourself into a completely different race, or into the opposite gender, just has no foundation in ESO lore or world mechanics.

Yes, I'm sure there's probably some magical mumbo jumbo explanation that someone will come up with to suggest gender changes are possible... but I just dont think it's needed. If you're really going through THAT much trouble to change the entire image of your character, you're better off rerolling. Not to mention a gender change will almost always demand a name change as well.

MornaBaine

Lynx7386 wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

Lynx7386 wrote: »

Yes to:
-Post-character creation customization (Body and face menus only)
-Dye for weapons and shields
-Name change (I'd prefer this as an ingame quest where you can change your identity, not fond of microtransactions, but it should definitely require some investment and have a 3-6 month cooldown before being available again to the same character)
-New hairstyles, fur patterns, scale patterns, body markings (tattoos/etc.) available post-creation as rewards for completing quests, achievements, and so forth.

No to:
-Race Change
-Gender Change
-Faction Change

Out of curiosity, why "no" to sex change? I get race change, as it affects mechanics, and faction change as that can really skew things in Cyrodil AND require mechanics that probably don't even exist yet. But sex affects nothing gameplay-wise so why the big nope?

I get wanting to tweak some bits of your character - hairstyle (hair and fur can be cut/trimmed/dyed), tattoos (add or remove), skin tone (say you get a tan, or you're a vamp and want lighter skin), scars (add or remove, healing magic could do it probably), or change your body type/build (work out, or eat too much, your choice)... but mysteriously transmogrifying yourself into a completely different race, or into the opposite gender, just has no foundation in ESO lore or world mechanics.

Yes, I'm sure there's probably some magical mumbo jumbo explanation that someone will come up with to suggest gender changes are possible... but I just dont think it's needed. If you're really going through THAT much trouble to change the entire image of your character, you're better off rerolling. Not to mention a gender change will almost always demand a name change as well.

Well, consider the following scenario... As a roleplayer, say I take my character through a story arc and at the end of it the conclusion is that they die. Now, suppose this character is already Vet level. What am I to do? Delete this character I've spent more hours than I even want to think about leveling up? Relegate them to bank mule status? A Vet level character is a HUGE time investment. Now, also suppose I have an idea for this great villain character from Bangkorai...who happens to be male whereas my now "dead" character happens to be female. I'd like him to be a master vampire for my story purposes. My now "dead" female character already happens to be a master vampire. Who does it hurt for me to go back into the character creation screen, change this character's sex and name, and use them as the villain of my next plot? Why shouldn't I be able to? What sort of "lore mechanic" is necessary in this scenario? If I am unable to alter race and class then nothing has changed mechanics-wise, I didn't get "free" neato new abilities, I didn't get to have a high level "fotm" character suddenly without having to put the time in to actually build that character up. And with the Justice System, if my character had a bounty on them, the altered character will STILL have a bounty on them and I'll have to deal with that.

Does the above cause you to reconsider your stance at all?

ItsGlaive

Char customisation should've been figured out a long time ago. Give us access to the head/body creation tabs in the main menu and job done

Wing

actually both changing race and changing gender have appeared in ESO:

in glenumbra there is a quest where you go back in time and slightly alter the time stream resulting in some of your present day peeps having a different gender (and some funny in game dialogue)

in greenshade you create a potion for a mer to become a khajiit, however you get the wrong ingredients and he becomes an argonian

so both are possible via in game methods, they have been done. the question is can they be done to the player.

MornaBaine

Wing wrote: »

actually both changing race and changing gender have appeared in ESO:

in glenumbra there is a quest where you go back in time and slightly alter the time stream resulting in some of your present day peeps having a different gender (and some funny in game dialogue)

in greenshade you create a potion for a mer to become a khajiit, however you get the wrong ingredients and he becomes an argonian

so both are possible via in game methods, they have been done. the question is can they be done to the player.

People are constantly being changed into other races in this game and at least with the Goblins YOU get to become a Goblin and keep the disguise and be a goblin any time you want. So yeah, plenty of game-supported reasoning to make any of that happen already exists.

And since we see people getting turned into monkeys, dogs, goblins and even crocodiles I would LOVE to see disguises become available that let US turn into various animals. I would SO roll a khajiit if I could get a disguise to let me turn into a house cat so I could play an alfiq!!!!!!!!!!

OMG...I've thought of a new post now. Somebody stop me, I clearly need help....

MornaBaine

Let's not let ZOS forget that this is important. They should be working on the "fluff" like this right alongside their "more important" projects. First year anniversary NEEDS to see full character customization implemented WITH lots of NEW options in hairstyles, tats, scars and cosmetics!

Hanzus

Race and gender change, no way, sorry.

As for the rest of the stuff: body changes, hair, tats, adornments, color changing weapons, etc. YES, I am totally for all that stuff It would be a huge plus for ESO to have that. I honestly cant believe that stuff isn't already in the game already .

MornaBaine

Hanzus wrote: »

Race and gender change, no way, sorry.

As for the rest of the stuff: body changes, hair, tats, adornments, color changing weapons, etc. YES, I am totally for all that stuff It would be a huge plus for ESO to have that. I honestly cant believe that stuff isn't already in the game already .

I can understand being against race change because of the changes to stats that would cost. It would definitely require new special coding. But sex change? Why not? It affects NOTHING regarding stats so there's no logical reason to disallow it. If you have one, you'd be the first. So go ahead...explain to me why sex changes should be disallowed.

Emencie

MornaBaine wrote: »

Hanzus wrote: »

Race and gender change, no way, sorry.

As for the rest of the stuff: body changes, hair, tats, adornments, color changing weapons, etc. YES, I am totally for all that stuff It would be a huge plus for ESO to have that. I honestly cant believe that stuff isn't already in the game already .

I can understand being against race change because of the changes to stats that would cost. It would definitely require new special coding. But sex change? Why not? It affects NOTHING regarding stats so there's no logical reason to disallow it. If you have one, you'd be the first. So go ahead...explain to me why sex changes should be disallowed.

Heck I have no Idea why people are against race change... Unless the racial skills are so out of balance that we have FOTM races, and even then that is not a problem with changing your race, that is a problem with the game balance.

There is no reason not to have name race an gender changes. Since those changes are all generally aesthetic and aesthetic changes don't hurt the game or anyone else playing the game.

MornaBaine

Emencie wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

Hanzus wrote: »

Race and gender change, no way, sorry.

As for the rest of the stuff: body changes, hair, tats, adornments, color changing weapons, etc. YES, I am totally for all that stuff It would be a huge plus for ESO to have that. I honestly cant believe that stuff isn't already in the game already .

I can understand being against race change because of the changes to stats that would cost. It would definitely require new special coding. But sex change? Why not? It affects NOTHING regarding stats so there's no logical reason to disallow it. If you have one, you'd be the first. So go ahead...explain to me why sex changes should be disallowed.

Heck I have no Idea why people are against race change... Unless the racial skills are so out of balance that we have FOTM races, and even then that is not a problem with changing your race, that is a problem with the game balance.

There is no reason not to have name race an gender changes. Since those changes are all generally aesthetic and aesthetic changes don't hurt the game or anyone else playing the game.

The only reason I can see to disallow race change is that they'd probably end up having to give you a free respec because of the stats changes.

Iago

A race change for some people would force them into a new alliance area,