Who designs ESO fashion anyway?

fred4

Because, in all honesty, that's not that person's main job or they should have been fired long ago. I've played this game for a long time and tend to overlook the poor fashion choices at this stage, but with all the motif farming during the anniversary event, and the recent addition of the outfit system, it's disappointing that the majority of styles look like crap. My opinion, of course.

When I started playing, I thought the gear looked OK, but the more I leveled up, the more elaborate and ugly it became. Note to ZOS: Painting complicated patterns and ornaments on gear does not make it look good. Can we have something simple and elegant, please? I frequently end up coloring my gear in dark and uniform colors just to hide the ugliness beneath.

We can use low level gear in the outfit system of course, and that's OK, even though the choices that look half-way decent are limited there too. The problem, however, is that the textures of the racial styles are poor and low resolution compared to the later gear.

The coloring system is also a problem. Choosing a color does not guarantee it will look the same when you mix and match different styles. Also some colors are shiny, whereas others are not. Note #2 to ZOS: Fabric should look like fabric, and metal should look like metal. Take Khajiit light armor, for example. The level 1 gear looks OK, if a bit manky, but the higher level gear just adds a shine that makes it look like plastic. Add that many colors re-inforce the shininess of the material you apply them to, which they IMO should not, and you actually have relatively few choices for coloring your gear. Conversely I was very pleased to wear a Vet1-level (Calcinium) Breton heavy armor when I started playing the game long ago, before the coloring system. It was lovely, golden, and shiny, but that was only at Vet 1 to Vet 3. Later gear colors looked dull. Basically what I'm saying is that shininess should be a property of the material, not the color.

I am pleased with the character creator in this game. Not only does it allow you to tailor faces, but also body types. As far as the latter, it's actually much better than Skyrim. There are more parameters. It allowed me to create an overweight character with small breasts, for example. This brings me to another problem with the gear and costumes. They don't always respect the choices made in the character creator. One of the most egregious examples is the blue "Noble Dress" from the Crown Store, which makes your character much slimmer than they normally are. Conversely the Corseted Riding Outfit makes them look wide and cylinder-shaped, if you don't go for an overly slim waistline in the character creator. The point is: There is no consistency. My main character was designed to look good, if a little overweight, in the racial gear. She is also the only one who can wear the blue Noble Dress without looking anorexic. On the other hand, when Thieves Guild came along, the clothes were all really bulky.

What is it with the petal-shaped waist-line appendices in almost every style? I appreciate that this is part of the protection in a real-life knight's armor, but that doesn't mean every chest piece needs it. Clearly light armor derives it's protection from magic (shields), and medium armor from dodge rolling. I think ZOS got into a bit of a rut designing almost every style along those lines. It's become: Modify the shape of the petals slightly and paint something else on it. Where are the creative choices? Some of the low-level racial gear is useful simply because it doesn't have these appendages and thus allows for more unique-looking outfit design.

Gear stands and falls with the chest piece. Finally let me list some of the chest pieces that I actually think look good (on my female characters):

Nord heavy armor, level 1 and 2. Why is this the only chainmail in the game anyway? More chainmail, please!
Pact heavy armor
Xivkyn medium armor
Wood Elf jerkin and robe, level 4, if only it had better textures.

Turelus

You make some good points but sadly it's kind of overshadowed by the more rant sounding parts and especially so with the call for a dev to be fired in the opening paragraph.

starkerealm

With the outfit system you can revert to the lower tier looks if you want. You know, like iron or rawhide pieces.

Taleof2Cities

“My opinion, of course.”

You’re certainly right about that ...

Gilvoth

Who designs ESO fashion anyway?

@104:37 of this video below shows the man you are looking for, his name is:

Jared Carr, he is the Art Director at Zenimax Elder scrolls Online.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gNVxn80j4g&t=3162s

Gilvoth

to be fair, all of the elderscrolls titles have allways had strange and very odd look armors, eso is really following suit to that normal look of, how should we say ... "off look" ...

i do feel the look is following what we saw moreso in morrowind, so for me it does keep the taste and feel we had in morrowind.
i cannot say i am bothered by it. it does look acceptable and believable for what we would think was in that time and Age.

so in the end of the day, i do like what we have.

wenchmore420b14_ESO

dwemer_paleologist wrote: »

Who designs ESO fashion anyway?

@104:37 of this video below shows the man you are looking for, his name is:

Jared Carr, he is the Art Director at Zenimax Elder scrolls Online.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gNVxn80j4g&t=3162s

This^.
But as to the OP's statement that "Because, in all honesty, that's not that person's main job or they should have been fired long ago." , is well, wrong.
On top of the Concept Artists mentioned above, the Costume Design is done by Tatiana Malinko. Yes this is her full time job and yes, she is a professional at what she does.
Here is a vid highlighting how she does her job.....Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqp-Univuyg&list=PL544E3ECCF3FB4203&index=59&t=0s

Also, calling out ZoS employees to be fired???
Not cool man... Not cool....
Also, IMO the armor and costumes look great.
So, who here wants the WoW look instead???? (Insert sarcasm tag)....

emilyhyoyeon

dwemer_paleologist wrote: »

to be fair, all of the elderscrolls titles have allways had strange and very odd look armors, eso is really following suit to that normal look of, how should we say ... "off look" ...

like what? average types of armors (what would be the equivalent of khajiit style robes that the OP uses as an example) coming out awkwardly shiny isn't reflected in TES4 or 5 at the very least. Average types of armors that parallel the base racial styles in ESO would be armors like fur, iron, mithril, etc. in the single player games. OP isn't referring to armors like glass and daedric which are meant to look relatively bizarre.

fred4

Turelus wrote: »

You make some good points but sadly it's kind of overshadowed by the more rant sounding parts and especially so with the call for a dev to be fired in the opening paragraph.

Yeah, well, what can I say? That opening paragraph is rhetoric, of course, and I don't mind you calling it a rant. Rants can be useful. What I really mean is that the department is short-staffed, and hence I'm wondering whether they're only doing it part time. There is some carelessness in how character girth is handled, and there is some clunky code in the coloring system. Above all there is too much of a paint-by-numbers approach. This is not just evident in the styles, but also in the crown crates. When people mock the lipsticks, is this not exactly what they mean? How many variations of quilted snoods do I need, especially when the basic piece looks best anyway? There also isn't a single apex reward I ever aspired to. The way these are an endless redesign of skeletal standard mounts just speaks to the lack of resources in that department.

I won't complain about the landscape design. This, I feel, is Bethesda / ZOS' great strength. They won't short-change on that, because they know it. They could stand to add some resources to fashion and character accessory design, though.

On another positive note, let me add that I like the hairstyles in this game. Skyrim avoided long hairstyles in the vanilla game, due to clipping issues. This game has one. The premium hairstyles have been good and, in general, I think it's been quality over quantity.

Waffennacht

If there's that few people designing them, I gotta say, I'm actually VERY impressed!

All my art work ends up with a similar feel.

I dunno, I find a lot I like as much as I don't

phaneub17_ESO

While the armor on here is more conservative compared to other MMO's boob-plates aren't very effective being shaped like two hills vs a single smooth flat surface. Also unlike games such as WoW, we don't have crazy giant belt buckles, shoulders that should tip you over if you lean forward just a little, and weapons that would make you fall over just trying to swing it. The styles in this game are more sensible and subtle, I like that.

ZOS_Ragnar

We have closed this thread as it is not constructive.