Suggestion: Player-Made Costumes/Crown Store Cosmetics

Exalted_Goose

Hello everybody!

Being fairly new to this forum, I'm not entirely sure if a suggestion along these lines has already been proposed, but I suppose that by creating this thread, all I'll be doing is reinforcing a notion with which I agree. If this has already been asked, then I apologise for creating a duplicate thread.

So, for a bit of backstory: yesterday, I decided to continue grinding in CoH 1 for more Lich set items, to go on my monstrously evil Magicka Sorc, and I actually made some substantial progress in finding armour pieces. Indeed, while the traits weren't ideal, at least I now have the set bonus, (all I require now is a Restoration Staff in this set), and can resume grinding for hopefully some better-suited pieces should the all-mighty, omnipotent RNG allow. However, I really don't like the look of the Lich set - of course, at present, you cannot change the aesthetics, (save for colouration), of dropped set items - and the dye pattern and fact that, to me, it just looks like a bunch of tattered rags draped over my Vampire Sorc's ashen body makes it look really quite underwhelming and unimposing, (I am also fairly pedantic, especially concerning the look of my characters). I have a few Crowns left on my account, (enough to buy some costumes from the Crown Store), so I decided to see how my ESO wallet could contribute to my wardrobe.

All that I saw were civilian clothes. Granted, some of them looked really good, but, I mean... ...come on. I feel that we're really quite stuck in the costume department, because I, for one, don't wish to dress my evil, malevolent, Vampire Sorcerer in an Imperial-style casual outfit, or a wedding dress - it seems that all that is being currently offered in the Costumes department of the Crown Store is occasional wear, and notwithstanding my view that it does look very good, as far as immersion and mileage from these costumes go, for me, there's very little. I know that designing and implementing costumes is probably quite a time-consuming task, and would be fairly low-down on ZOS' priority list given how close we are to Morrowind's release, and that's why I like the idea of having a scheme that allows players to make costumes, submit them to ZOS, and, if they're approved, maybe even have them implemented.

I'd like to refer to PlanetSide 2 - a game that allows players to create player cosmetics, submit them, and then hopefully see them implemented into the game. I actually dabbled in this a little bit, so I'm fairly familiar with how the system works: essentially, one can use a 3D modelling piece of software, such as Blender, to create the model of either a helmet or piece of armour. The game's website has a portal that takes you to the hub of the player-created item scheme, and from there, you can download a myriad of armour/weapon textures to apply to your models, (to adhere to the aesthetic of the game); moreover, the models of each possible player variation, (as in, the race you choose, the gender, etc.), are also provided, allowing you to model and fit your piece according to the requirements of every possible body donning your items. The website offers a list of necessities and rules by which you must adhere to for your item to be considered, such as maximum poly count, etc., and with that, you're away - you can go off and create whatever you want to, (modelling it around the body model that the game website offered for the best visual idea of how it will look), apply the textures as given by the game, (and there are a lot of textures that you can use), submit it to the developers, and, if all is well, they will consider implementing it into the game; your prize is a small cut of the in-game paid currency, (their equivalent of Crowns), made by each sale of the item that you created. I don't know what their process of moving your file into the game is, but from a designer's perspective, that's a rough overview of the system that PlanetSide 2 uses, and it worked really well. Community-made items were never buggy, always worked well in the game and with raw player models, and added a little flair of customisation, to vary the game's look and also to help players visually distinguish themselves further from others. In PlanetSide 2, because of this system, players are literally spoilt for choice with regards to cosmetics.

Now, I know that PlanetSide 2 and ESO are very different games, but a number of games that I have played in my time have offered a system like this - Warframe actually provides a piece of software built specifically for creating cosmetic pieces. I would quite like to see something like this added to complement the game, at some point, because players know what players want, and if I were to create my ideal envision of an evil Sorcerer costume, perhaps, someone else might like it too. I think that it'd be a nice little way of giving back to the community and giving back to the game, while also buffing up the stocks of the currently quite limited Crown Store, and creative endeavours into which you can pour in a lot of time and dedication are always great fun to do, and feel very rewarding. Of course, ZOS would seriously have to consider how they would achieve this process in ESO - technically, and adhering to social standards/matters of law in using content created by others - but if other games have found a way around this, I would hope that ZOS would be able to as well.

Many thanks for reading, and have a splendid weekend everyone!

AlexanderDeLarge

I completely agree with this. It's clear they're really struggling with cosmetics and finding stuff to fill the RNG boxes with. People aren't happy with the crates and people who exclusively use the crown store aren't happy either so why not crowdsource it?

Exalted_Goose

AlexanderDeLarge wrote: »

I completely agree with this. It's clear they're really struggling with cosmetics and finding stuff to fill the RNG boxes with. People aren't happy with the crates and people who exclusively use the crown store aren't happy either so why not crowdsource it?

Exactly, and also, I suppose that the Community itself knows what it wants. If someone with the ability and know-how to produce models and texture them sees that, perhaps, the Crown Store is lacking in content with regards to cosmetics, they would essentially be able to fill that void in whatever aspect they see fit, (for instance, I'd hope that someone would get crackin' on an evil-looking wizard costume, because the Crown Store needs more of those ). 3D design is also fairly easy to pick up - at least, the basics - and with a few trials/online tutorials to get you started, you can produce some fairly nice models; I've been self-teaching myself graphic design for a little while now, (inspired by the PlanetSide 2 scheme), and I can now produce some fairly okay-ish, sufficient stuff, (I'm still a long way from being even remotely good, though).

It is also a real shame that some of the more interesting costumes are found in Crown Crates, where the all-powerful RNG decides what the game blesses you with. Even then, a lot of these are quite underwhelming, in my opinion, and, as far as immersion goes, cater to very few people, (as in, with the current Wild Hunt crates, if you want to play as a being of the earth, nature-loving type, they're just for you; otherwise, there's very little to work with despite the number of costumes available). I'm sure that, given the opportunity, players would be making loads of costumes for ZOS to have a look at, and the stocks of the ESO fashion store would hopefully soon start to swell!

Thanks for posting!

Fishoscandi

Everyone would love to make their own costumes, but because 50% of the Crown Store is costumes and other cosmetics it's probably not going to happen. IMO the costumes and other cosmetics(hairstyles, beards, personalities) are purchased the most. Tokens? Meh.