Mortal mask for vampires

Xarico · August 2020

Please consider adding an option for a vampire character to temporarily assume their mortal appearance. I'm not suggesting anything free, or even something usable in-combat; for example, it could be an out-of-combat toggle that consumes a fixed portion of the character's magicka pool while it's active. Doing so is clearly established in ESO lore as being possible. The reason I'm asking for this is not even that I dislike the vampire appearance as it is (including stage 4), but merely because I want to have more customization options to play with for my main character.

Inb4
1) "Vampires are monsters and supposed to look scary, do you want to play Edward Cullen?" - Jeffrey Dahmer or John Gacy are/were infinitely more disturbing and monstrous than a veiny bloodfiend. Part of the reason they were so scary is precisely that they appeared normal or even attractive until they decided to attack you. If everyone could identify a serial killer (or a terrorist, or a r*pist, or a narcissistic abuser, or, well, a vampire) by their appearance, everyone would be far less afraid of such people. Personally, I'm very much in support of vampires being obligatory "monsters" and would make prolonged abstinence from human blood lethal, if we're talking about who I would like to play.
2) "Vampire appearance is a part of the skill line's penalties" - playing a vampire character is not an exploit, it shouldn't be discouraged and punished. Nowhere else in the game are you penalized for making gameplay (or RP) decisions by unrelated restrictions on your appearance customization options. I mean, for Christ's sake, you can even choose to wear revealing light clothes despite actually being in full heavy armor (and I have nothing against people having access to such an option). As of Greymoor, just playing a stage 1 vampire incurs a skill cost penalty while providing zero tangible benefits; surely players are already discouraged enough from being one unless they are truly interested in playing the (sub)class?

TX12001rwb17_ESO · August 2020

We should have an Ashen Lord look, where we keep our normal skin but get the glowing red Vampire eyes.

Why does he get to look so special?

Ectheliontnacil · August 2020

Xarico wrote: »

Please consider adding an option for a vampire character to temporarily assume their mortal appearance. I'm not suggesting anything free, or even something usable in-combat; for example, it could be an out-of-combat toggle that consumes a fixed portion of the character's magicka pool while it's active. Doing so is clearly established in ESO lore as being possible. The reason I'm asking for this is not even that I dislike the vampire appearance as it is (including stage 4), but merely because I want to have more customization options to play with for my main character.

Inb4
1) "Vampires are monsters and supposed to look scary, do you want to play Edward Cullen?"

If you want to play Edward Cullen just equip the arctic rime skin.

Kalik_Gold · August 2020

Mentioned a Racial skin illusion in a skins thread earlier..... this could work in making Vampires appear Mortal.

Basically each race would get a skin, so an male Altmer using male Altmer illusion would look mortal, or they could use other skin illusions to also appear Mortal and different race.... (can read the entire concept in the link below)

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/6925966/#Comment_6925966

josiahva · August 2020

Xarico wrote: »

Please consider adding an option for a vampire character to temporarily assume their mortal appearance. I'm not suggesting anything free, or even something usable in-combat; for example, it could be an out-of-combat toggle that consumes a fixed portion of the character's magicka pool while it's active. Doing so is clearly established in ESO lore as being possible. The reason I'm asking for this is not even that I dislike the vampire appearance as it is (including stage 4), but merely because I want to have more customization options to play with for my main character.

Inb4
1) "Vampires are monsters and supposed to look scary, do you want to play Edward Cullen?" - Jeffrey Dahmer or John Gacy are/were infinitely more disturbing and monstrous than a veiny bloodfiend. Part of the reason they were so scary is precisely that they appeared normal or even attractive until they decided to attack you. If everyone could identify a serial killer (or a terrorist, or a r*pist, or a narcissistic abuser, or, well, a vampire) by their appearance, everyone would be far less afraid of such people. Personally, I'm very much in support of vampires being obligatory "monsters" and would make prolonged abstinence from human blood lethal, if we're talking about who I would like to play.
2) "Vampire appearance is a part of the skill line's penalties" - playing a vampire character is not an exploit, it shouldn't be discouraged and punished. Nowhere else in the game are you penalized for making gameplay (or RP) decisions by unrelated restrictions on your appearance customization options. I mean, for Christ's sake, you can even choose to wear revealing light clothes despite actually being in full heavy armor (and I have nothing against people having access to such an option). As of Greymoor, just playing a stage 1 vampire incurs a skill cost penalty while providing zero tangible benefits; surely players are already discouraged enough from being one unless they are truly interested in playing the (sub)class?

Sure, a timed illusion skill would be acceptable that would take X magicka/second to maintain.....but if people don't want to look like a vampire they shouldn't be a vampire...pretty simple, its just one of the many downsides to being a vampire. I really am not sure why people are under the impression that they shouldn't be disfigured by a disfiguring disease. The illusion skill would be a realistic workaround though.

On another note, my tank is a vampire(mainly because I haven't bothered to get cured since they made the changes) and I tend to wear the Amberplasm skin...it seems to negate the vampire look since I don't visually look like one....maybe some skins are a viable workaround for you?

Remember Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim...if you were a vampire you looked like a vampire and people treated you like one...why would this be any different in ESO?

Rohamad_Ali · August 2020

I didn't read everything so excuse me if this was already mentioned . You can use disguises to look mortal still . Just save the ones you like best . It would be a nice RP tool but not sure if that's lore friendly or not .

preevious · August 2020

Yeah, I wish there was a way, as well. I mean, the arctic rime skin is nice, but I wish we could do better.

However, for reasons I can't quite wrap my head around, many players are against it, despite having no consequences on them. Go figure ..

Vevvev · August 2020

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

We should have an Ashen Lord look, where we keep our normal skin but get the glowing red Vampire eyes.

Why does he get to look so special?

You have a very good point! I mean look at this guy!

I want to have something like this as well.

SilverBride · August 2020

A similar idea was recently brought up on another thread. Basically that Vampires were often depicted as intelligent and well-mannered, rather than grotesque monsters. They have also traditionally been depicted as refined and enjoying the finer things in life. ESO must realize this, too, which is one reason this exists:

https://eso.mmo-fashion.com/vampire-noble/

I suggested that Vampires only assume the Vampiric appearance when in combat mode, and otherwise look as they do when going about their normal daily lives. These transformed appearances could still vary by stage, as they do now, thus indicating the level of commitment to Vampirism of the character.

This should be possible since Werewolves only look like Werewolves when they trigger the transformation. For Vampires it could be triggered merely by entering combat mode.

Phanex · August 2020

I do know that the "Disguises" from the missions will remove all traces of vamparism from your features. You have to have find a cool looking disguise to use.

dsalter · August 2020

Lore wise Elder Scrolls vampires always look vampuric, just some clans/strains are better at blending in than others because of either illusion spells making OTHERS think they look normal or they are very good at persuading others (usually the first one)

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDGreentext/comments/2dpqop/the_original_story_of_sir_bearington/ is a classic example of good speech

SilverBride · August 2020

Phanex wrote: »

I do know that the "Disguises" from the missions will remove all traces of vamparism from your features. You have to have find a cool looking disguise to use.

This would be fine except that I, for one, want to look like a Vampire when in combat or feeding.

Phanex · August 2020

Aye, I agree with ya, but the OP was wanting something Outside of battle and while in Town. Probably to use while working with vendors too, but my way won't work to confuse the vendors.

Xarico · August 2020

dsalter wrote: »

Lore wise Elder Scrolls vampires always look vampuric, just some clans/strains are better at blending in than others because of either illusion spells making OTHERS think they look normal or they are very good at persuading others (usually the first one)

Extremely debatable, as nowhere in Daggerfall, Oblivion, Skyrim, or ESO is it explicitly stated or even implied that all vampires that are perceived as human use illusion magic. Even if it were true, (most) ESO polymorphs, outfits, and skins would be illusion magic lorewise, but the player is able to see their effects just like everyone else.

josiahva wrote: »

Sure, a timed illusion skill would be acceptable that would take X magicka/second to maintain.....but if people don't want to look like a vampire they shouldn't be a vampire...pretty simple, its just one of the many downsides to being a vampire. I really am not sure why people are under the impression that they shouldn't be disfigured by a disfiguring disease. The illusion skill would be a realistic workaround though.

On another note, my tank is a vampire(mainly because I haven't bothered to get cured since they made the changes) and I tend to wear the Amberplasm skin...it seems to negate the vampire look since I don't visually look like one....maybe some skins are a viable workaround for you?

Remember Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim...if you were a vampire you looked like a vampire and people treated you like one...why would this be any different in ESO?

Not X magicka/second, X magicka/toggle activation. A percentage of the total magicka pool would become unavailable for as long as the toggle is active.

The vampires from Oblivion are said to be "indistinguishable from living persons" unless starved. The fact that the player can identify vampire NPCs by sight, or that playable vampires also look non-human even when fully fed, violates the game's own lore. Even so, other NPCs cannot recognize that the PC is a vampire unless the PC is starved - even if the NPC in question is a vampire hunter or a priest of Meridia - indicating that in all three games non-starved PC vampires are supposed to look human. That's also how it works in Skyrim and, most importantly, ESO.
In addition to that, several prominent vampire NPCs (Rada al-Saran, Harkon, Valerica, Serana) only have glowing red/orange eyes to indicate their vampirism and otherwise appear as they did in life. For the most part, so does the vampire PC from Skyrim/Dawnguard. I wouldn't call them "disfigured."

Tell me, do you avoid using the outfit system and would prefer to see it removed from the game, since people shouldn't be under the impression that they can use any armor or weapon but have an entirely different look? Isn't being aesthetically limited to wearing a specific leather coat the only fair consequence of choosing to wear it for the set bonus it provides? I see that you use skins - do you make sure that your character's ability to change their appearance so dramatically and then revert back to their normal form is well explained and justified in-universe? If so, then any of them (and especially the Blackmarrow Necromancer) can serve as the definitive proof that vampirism can be semi-permanently hidden with Illusion or Alteration magic even in the eyes of the vampire who is using the spell.

Thank you for the skin suggestion, though! The only one that would somewhat address my issues is the Blackmarrow Necromancer skin, but I don't really see myself obtaining it in the foreseeable future (which is ok). Generally speaking, my issue is not that I dislike the vampire appearance (I would probably miss stage 3 and 4 looks if they were completely removed), but that I would like to have at least intermittent access to my character's original appearance (while having access to his clothing and costumes at the same time).

Phanex wrote: »

Aye, I agree with ya, but the OP was wanting something Outside of battle and while in Town. Probably to use while working with vendors too, but my way won't work to confuse the vendors.

I mean, not necessarily, I very much support SilverBride's idea and think that it would be ideal. I just also think that it's even less likely to happen than something similar to my original suggestion.