Aesthetic Crafting

Carter_DC

I'd really enjoy any system (even a paying one) that could allow me to recraft any piece of gear to the racial (and level) style I want, just like I can do atm with Imperial style (and the Imp Ed)... only better.


As eager as I am to get new playable content (Arx Corinium would be nice since we haven't had a new VET dungeon since October 2014), there's something else i crave in ESO, though it's really futile : Aesthetic Crafting.

Come on ! Some artists at ZOS actually put a lot of good work in theses super nice armour sets (Even revamped orc's and redguard ones).

Besides on low level characters with crafted gear, we actually never get the benefice of seeing theses pieces in full sets any more.
All VR14 players (but some tanks) wear at least 5 pieces of looted armor, and most of them are the same ones (not mentioning the monster sets that are really starting to bother me).

There are actually 10 races x 4 leveled styles x 3 armor types = at least 120 different racial sets ( not even counting the 5 rare styles) that just go to waste and that really saddens me. (I really enjoy my lvl36 orcish heavy armor full set on my reroll, and might never get to see it again)


Since the means to change any gear into imperial style already exists in the game, such a system could easily be implemented and would have a similar positive impact as the die system had.
(obviously, such a system should take into account usual restrictions of knowledge, level and bind to account)

Additionally, for a cost or some rare loots, uncommon styles like the ones of the Worm Cult, Ebon or Sanctuary set, would really be great !

Lynx7386

They really need to add a second set of inventory slots for appearance only. You equip your 'good' gear in your normal inventory slots (head, chest, etc.) and then you equip items in the secondary appearance slots that will override what your gear looks like.

So I could equip a veteran 14 imperial heavy chest armor for stats, but equip a level 1 bosmer medium chest piece for appearance.

It should work for weapons as well, but the appearance slot must match the same type of weapon that you have in the equipment slot (one handed, two handed, staff, bow, shield, etc.)

This would also open up some more gear usage appearance-wise, since a lot of players using the 2handed weapon skill line feel forced to use greatswords due to the extra damage they deal, but like the look of a maul or battleaxe. You could equip a greatsword in your equipment slot, and a battleaxe in the appearance slot.

Aren_Liore

^^Agree 120%
I for one, enjoy how the lower level gear looks. And would like to use some dropped sets too. I also hate the purple color of my swords, oh what I'd do to be able to use two orcish swords of dwarven quality and not take a massive dps hit.

Carter_DC

Lynx7386 wrote: »

They really need to add a second set of inventory slots for appearance only. You equip your 'good' gear in your normal inventory slots (head, chest, etc.) and then you equip items in the secondary appearance slots that will override what your gear looks like.

So I could equip a veteran 14 imperial heavy chest armor for stats, but equip a level 1 bosmer medium chest piece for appearance.

It should work for weapons as well, but the appearance slot must match the same type of weapon that you have in the equipment slot (one handed, two handed, staff, bow, shield, etc.)

This would also open up some more gear usage appearance-wise, since a lot of players using the 2handed weapon skill line feel forced to use greatswords due to the extra damage they deal, but like the look of a maul or battleaxe. You could equip a greatsword in your equipment slot, and a battleaxe in the appearance slot.

well seems a lot more complicated than just being able to change your gear style.
But I definitely agree about weapons needing this as well.

Egg_Death

I don't know that I agree that it is a good idea to make it possible to have any style without sacrificing your run-of-the-mill "best" gear. Perhaps let a crafter re-forge a dungeon loot piece to whatever style he or she chooses (and knows), but this shouldn't be a free thing for people who spend no time on crafting at all. This would do a lot to combat the "I'll get better gear from loot, so why bother?" attitude that is ingrained "becuz itz MMO and has to do X, Y, and Z". It would also be nice to more seamlessly meld the different armor classes, at least when using the same racial style. My sorcerer's heavy cuirass looks odd when the little side flaps are literally levitating over my hips because I'm not wearing heavy pants to fill in that space.

If we start letting people make their weapons look different, what's to stop me from making my spellcasting sorcerer in light armor with a destruction staff from looking like a templar tank in full heavy armor wielding a broadsword? Making identical items look different is not addressing the underlying issue of having clear "best" items that are only dropped as loot. The only fix I can see is allowing crafters to change looted gear to suit their preferences without losing the attributes.

As for full sets, maybe there needs to be strong 7-piece buffs to incentivize using full-sets of matched armor, or at least on armor with the same style. For example, an altmer in mixed light-heavy armor with all altmer-styling gets some type of magicka-related ability or stat boost. Or, maybe each style has a small benefit on its own and you can mix and match pieces to get a more diverse build.

Vaelen

They should really add a Wardrobe system to change your gear appearance to another set of gear without changing the stats. Several games such as Rift and Guild Wars 2 already have that kind of wardrobe system, and ESO could too and they could sell charges for it in the Crown Store. Also, I don't know why but currently costumes can't be dyed which is limited compared to other games.

ADarklore

In DCUO, every piece of gear or equipment had a 'style' and once you've equipped that style, you could always utilize that style in your appearance options... they allowed style appearance and equipped appearance to be different. This was awesome and allowed a lot of creativity in designing the look of your character... what this would look like in ESO, would be that someone wearing pieces of heavy armor, could instead, use light or medium armor appearance as long as they had 'equipped' that appearance style in the past... the same would go for weapons.

Taleof2Cities

Not hugely opposed, but this proposal disincentivizes the whole need for motifs. It takes a little bit of game time to find, trade, buy motifs ... so why should we now not be rewarded for spending the time to do so?

This is especially true with the handful of Dwemer motifs I managed to find. Though the Dwemer motif did come to the Crown Store, it was nice to have some special gear after a little bit of work.

I do agree that it would be nice to wear any armor lower than your current level at the stats of the crafted level material. Some of those lower level sets, as OP pointed out, look nice (e.g. the new Orc and Redguard armor).

Lots of threads, too, on weapon dyes which I also support ...

Snowgoons

Just do it like DC Universe did and let us "unlock styles" and choose what we want to look like, what could possibly be the harm, i mean i saw the biggest norn in a wedding dress in pvp today...

Moonscythe

I tried LOTRO for a while and had to give up because of my ineptness with the controls but one thing I really liked was the appearance menu where I could have my armor, whatever it was, and still look put together to the outside world.

I had a Redguard in Stros M'Kai who got the Pirate's Vest as a reward. It happened to be the best thing in her inventory at the time and it is butt ugly. Fortunately, she was the beneficiary of a set of costumes I bought with my crowns before transfer so she got to walk around in a nice set of Breton Medium but I still had to look at that godawful green baggy tunic in the character window.

Yinmaigao

People have been asking for this option for a loooooong time.

Hopefully someone @zos is listening

Carter_DC

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Not hugely opposed, but this proposal disincentivizes the whole need for motifs. It takes a little bit of game time to find, trade, buy motifs ... so why should we now not be rewarded for spending the time to do so?
...

well, just as I said in op : "(obviously, such a system should take into account usual restrictions of knowledge, level and bind to account)"
Just as changing style to imperial is atm limited to ppl who bought imp. ed., of course than kinda things should be dependant on the motifs you learned.

With just a simple function added to the API that checks for ownership of racial style before applying any changes, we could have working addons in a matter of days. Any intern at ZOS could have this kind of system up and running in no time.

J2JMC

As a few have mentioned, dcuo had some of the greatest character customization I've personally experienced. It was great for when a piece of gear was extremely powerful but looked stupid. You could literally turn the appearance of the gear off but still have the item stats. I hated helmets and gloves on my characters so this was great. Also worked well for non-stat giving items that were purely aesthetic.

TheShadowScout

Here's what I really dislike about completely free character customization options - it allows people to get all the protection, yet run around naked if they want to (and we know, some would want to)

Thus I very much like ESO not going that way.

That stated... it -would- be nifty to be able to recustomize your armor. Finally get a really nice set completed but hate the visuals? Recraft it to one of your learned visuals.

But... they seem to lean more towards selling costumes in the crown store, so... I won't hold my breath for this.

Lynx7386

Until they allow dying of costumes, they'll never satisfy the aesthetic demands of the players. Even then, it's not likely to satisfy most people.

A second set of inventory slots for appearance only would be the best route to go. Some basic limitations ensure that it isnt abused or too 'out there': The item being used for appearance must be the same type of item as what's being used in the actual equipment slot. This means that if you have light armor in your equipment slot, your appearance item must also be light armor. If you're using a staff, the appearance item must also be a staff. However, there is a little leeway: If you're using a greatsword in your equipment slot, your appearance slot can be equipped with a greatsword, battleaxe, or maul. All of these function in the same way, but it opens up the appearance of using other weapon types that are not used right now because of poor passives (5% weapon damage from a 2h sword will always outweigh bleed damage from an axe or armor penetration from a maul).

MornaBaine

You know I hear a lot of complaining along the lines of, "Well if they change it so anyone can have X then it's not fair because I "worked" for X and now no one will know I am special and all that "work" I did was for nothing. So they better not dare change it!"

First of all, it's pretty disturbing that so many people seem to take "achievements" they got by killing leisure time playing a game from their comfy computer chair so seriously. I, apparently foolishly, thought you were playing this game because you were having fun doing so.

Secondly, as an argument it just doesn't even fly with ZOS. Know how many people were absolutely outraged (myself among them!) because we pumped a LOT of "effort" and gold into getting the Night's Silence set (and tricking it out with a bunch of gold and purple improvement mats AND spendy fire resist glyphs in my case) only to then have them come in and TAKE AWAY it's stacking ability with the vampire speed bonus??? ZoS never offered to reimburse us our gold after making that set completely worthless. And, in fact, they outright refused the people who ASKED for them to do so. And yeah, a few people even quit the game over it. ZoS did not care. They have the right to change anything any time they want, regardless of what the player base thinks of it. And they've shown they will do so.

So c'mon ZoS, give us an appearance tab override system and give us dyes. Those shouldn't be things we have to beg for in this day and age and level of technology.

Lynx7386

Exactly, it's pretty pathetic that were still asking for standard mmo features nearly 2 years after launch.