Toggle backgrounds for character selection screen

Ajaxandriel

A suggestion I think about for long…

Could we chose and set the background screen for each character, ourselves as players?

Previously it was based on the character’s alliance (Alik'r for Covenant, Skyrim for Pact, Auridon for Dominion). But now we all have Greymoor background screen (witch is nice).

But I would like to have Summerset screen behind my high elves, Vvardenfell and Deshaan behind my dark elves, Glenumbra behind my Breton, Valenwood behind my wood elf, South Elsweyr behind my khajiit, and so on.
Let’s chose!

This is purely cosmetic and only the player him/herself can see it. It highlights the ambiance and the fantasy we project on our characters… Well I can’t see a good reason not to have it!
Except it's a tiny loss of game development time.
Thoughts?

Syldras

Yes, inspiring

Even when the backgrounds were still faction-based, I had always wished they were rather based on the character's race. But actually it wouldn't be much more work for the devs to let the player choose from a selection, I guess, so that might be an even better solution.

Elwendryll

I'd want to set a camera in my house for the background.

nukk3r

No, useless

It adds nothing to the game. Even if you take RP factor into account, not every character was born in their supposed province.
I'd rather have a simple grey background, than a scene that puts my GPU under a 98% load for some reason.

tomofhyrule

Yes, inspiring

I'd love to choose.

The Skyrim one worked great for my Orc, since he was born in Skyrim and fights for the Pact. My next character's going to be a Skaal Werewolf who ends up with the Covenant, so I don't know how fitting Alik'r is for that. Be better to put up soething like Glenumbra in that case.

The new one is really nice, but being the same for all characters is a bit boring. And then that'll probably change to Colovia next year, which may or may not fit again.

I'd like a simple setting to switch. Maybe have a handful of different areas and let us set by character. Not the end of the world, but it would be fun.

Hurbster

Yes, inspiring

A choice of background would be nice. Back when I played DCUO (and learned to animation cancel) you had a choice of login backgrounds and character selects based on the DLC you had on your account. Assuming the old screens have not been deleted they could do this. Hell, be a nice thing to give ESO Plus people a wider choice to choose from.

Ajaxandriel

Yes, inspiring

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I'd love to choose.

The Skyrim one worked great for my Orc, since he was born in Skyrim and fights for the Pact. My next character's going to be a Skaal Werewolf who ends up with the Covenant, so I don't know how fitting Alik'r is for that. Be better to put up soething like Glenumbra in that case.

The new one is really nice, but being the same for all characters is a bit boring. And then that'll probably change to Colovia next year, which may or may not fit again.

I'd like a simple setting to switch. Maybe have a handful of different areas and let us set by character. Not the end of the world, but it would be fun.

Yes, the best would to have the choice for each character regardless of the race or the alliance.

Jaraal

Yes, inspiring

So tired of this ugly Skyrim background! Would rather toggle a blank screen, to be honest.

Suna_Ye_Sunnabe

Yes, inspiring

Yes, a splendid idea. Not only am I unimpressed with the plastic look of the current background, but I'm even less a fan of the aggressive marketing for Greymoor.

peacenote

Yes, inspiring

Yes but only if it doesn't make login times slower. Otherwise no.

Chaos2088

Yes, inspiring

Think we all would want to customize this feature.

Ragged_Claw

Yes, inspiring

Yes, I miss having different background for my character and seeing the same one over and over is boring (even though it's cool). A list of presets to choose from would be awesome.

Gilvoth

Yes, inspiring

cool idea
(also would be cool if we could have one of the backgrounds be in our home)

CaffeinatedMayhem

No, useless

No, I really like having a unified background.

Ajaxandriel

Yes, inspiring

Elwendryll wrote: »

I'd want to set a camera in my house for the background.

Gilvoth wrote: »

cool idea
(also would be cool if we could have one of the backgrounds be in our home)

If we ask for our homes, it may be far more expensive to develop and heavier to load... (Imagine, it would have to find the house you selected for each character, scan it, generate a diorama, then display it on your character screen ... and then again if you clic on the next character, and so on ) It would be awesome but I think it can't happen this way.


It would only cost some virtual dioramas to create, plus one UI toggle to build, if they do 1 background screen per Tamriel Area.

Syldras

Yes, inspiring

nukk3r wrote: »

Even if you take RP factor into account, not every character was born in their supposed province.

That's why I think a few premade backgrounds to freely choose one from would be good. Let's say 1 for every country/race. So if you play a Breton born in Skyrim, you could choose the Skyrim bg. Or you could choose by the place you currently quest in, or just what you think looks best.

@Ajaxandriel What might work would be taking a screenshot of the home and selecting that as a background? It would be static, though. But the loading time would probably be fast, if the picture would load from the local screenshot folder.

Cinbri

Yes, inspiring

With Greymoor release they showed that they can change background. We just need new setting in menu with list of different zones backgrounds. For example:
1. Vvardenfell: Molag Amur
2. Vvardenfell: Bitter Coast
3. Deshaan: Mournhold outskirts.
4. Stonefalls: Ash Mountain.
5. Bal Foyen: Dalmora.
6. Vvardenfell: Balmora.
7. Skyrim: Blackreach.
8. Etc..
9. Etc...

Each zone background can be reward for explore those zones.

opaj

Yes, inspiring

Syldras wrote: »

That's why I think a few premade backgrounds to freely choose one from would be good. Let's say 1 for every country/race. So if you play a Breton born in Skyrim, you could choose the Skyrim bg. Or you could choose by the place you currently quest in, or just what you think looks best.

Yes. I need a Morrowind background for my Breton, a High Rock background for my Khajiit, and a Valenwood background for my Orc.

Syldras

Yes, inspiring

@Cinbri As much as I'd love it, I'm afraid one picture for each zone or even town would be too much work. I'd be happy enough to have any Morrowind background (well, Molag Amur preferred... as Zafirbel Bay might be too specific) instead of the Skyrim one for my Dunmer chars.

ghastley

Yes, inspiring

No need to add more right away. But since we have at least four sitting on our clients so far, (unless they got deleted when the new one arrived), just let us pick from what we have. Then add more as they crop up.

Ajaxandriel

Yes, inspiring

Syldras wrote: »

@Ajaxandriel What might work would be taking a screenshot of the home and selecting that as a background? It would be static, though. But the loading time would probably be fast, if the picture would load from the local screenshot folder.

It may not work since the background is a digital diorama with deepness effect and some animated things
...or somehow take a "3D screenshot" from one specific place in your home that we would be able to put into the selection screen of the character? Hmm... That still looks like a lot of work I guess.

One screen per zone would be awesome enough. It's a lot of choices! 34!
And even some more if they add screens of daedric planes theys already released for questlines or fights.

tomofhyrule

Yes, inspiring

I think the easiest option would be to have 9 backgrounds - one for each of the initial playable races - but give us the option of selecting our favored background in the character menu (like how we select titles or outfits). It'd also be a fun callback to games like Arena and Daggerfall which used that setup.

Of course, some places are easier than others. Places like Hammerfell could go with either a desert like Alik'r or a badland like Craglorn, Elsweyr could get the plains of the north or the jungle of the south, etc.

If I were choosing backgrounds, I'd make them simple animated images (wind blowing, etc) themed in each of the major story zones (5 per alliance). I might also include Craglorn's badlands as a sixteenth one. The chapter and DLC zones have significant overlaps with the others. With that, the only things that really have no similarity would be Coldharbour and the Gold Coast...so maybe those would need to be added in as well.

And of course, they could put other ones in the Crown Store.

What would be fun is also if the loadscreen ended up client-side, so the server side just had the character with no background. The client side would be where you get to see all of that, so performance wouldn't be affected. Then again, I know nothing about game programming, so I don't know how feasible that would be.

BisDasBlutGefriert

Yes, inspiring

Wait a sec....I still have my original backgrounds from whatever race I picked years ago.

My nord still has her winter mountains, my redguard still has her deserts, and the others have theirs too.

Maybe it changes if you have the greymoor update?

TempPlayer

No, useless

I wish the selection screen is a complete black or a single image with a list of character name to choose from. Yes! Not even showing the character model at all. All these so that the selection screen take less then 1 second to load.

Ajaxandriel

Yes, inspiring

BisDasBlutGefriert wrote: »

Wait a sec....I still have my original backgrounds from whatever race I picked years ago.

My nord still has her winter mountains, my redguard still has her deserts, and the others have theirs too.

Maybe it changes if you have the greymoor update?

I have Greymoor screen but without having bought the chapter...!
But I do have Morrowind, Summerset and Elsweyr. Maybe you have not?

Ajaxandriel

Yes, inspiring

TempPlayer wrote: »

I wish the selection screen is a complete black or a single image with a list of character name to choose from. Yes! Not even showing the character model at all. All these so that the selection screen take less then 1 second to load.

Indeed that could be a possible option of the toggle among all the other, for people who prioritize performance at entering the game.

WeerW3ir

just mentioning i did this before.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/523720/different-character-backgrounds#latest

Ajaxandriel

Yes, inspiring

Haven’t seen that

Wow this guy had quite a bright idea too

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

Best option would be to create different background for every zone and show character background as zone from which he logged off.

This could replace any toggle because we would simply have to log off in the preferred zone to get our preferred background 🤔