Overdue Character Customization

BloodyStigmata

I just want more customizable polymorphs.

Granted, I'm not talking about the more transformative, beastial polymorphs like werewolf, skeleton, wraith of crows etc--I think those are fine as they are. I'm talking things like the Maelstrom Baron or the Xivkyn polymorphs.

As an example, I'm currently using the Maelstrom Baron as a means to play as a "Dremora" character, which work very well don't get me wrong, but literally the only thing the Polymorph does that my current outfit underneath does not is change my outward racial appearance to Dremora, as I literally have the same exact armor on underneath just dyed a different color.

I can't apply any skins, hairstyles, markings or anything to the polymorph, but I can to the dark elf hiding underneath it. In fact, I've made the dark elf underneath it look more like a dremora minus the horns and the voice. What's more, I've noticed that different people's Malestrom Baron's look different in the face than mine does--I'm assuming this is because the facemorphs I have set for my base character changed the dremora underneath it somehow. If it can do that, why can't I customize it myself a little more?

I guess what I want, if it's within the realm of possibility, is "racial polymorphs" that allow you to customize your character as one of the non-playable races (Sea Elf, Dremora, Golden Saint, ETC). They aren't going to add any new playable races for obvious reasons, but something like this would be the next best thing.

Faulgor

Absolutely big bloody no on the skin tones.

LadySinflower

They really need more long hair styles in the game! I can count on one hand the styles that I like enough to buy or use out of a pack. Even when new hairstyles come out they are almost always short. I'm looking for hair past the shoulders! (although it's probably not there because of weird clipping and difficulty animating it to move normally with the character). In Skyrim the first mods I always install are the ones where I can change hairstyle and hair color. I always have a character with long, flowing purple hair there. We need better options in ESO. Crazy hair colors, yes! If you don't want them, don't use them. Better makeup options! Both eyes and lips. I would like more choice of eye colors at character creation but probably would not buy an eye color pack with crowns. Hair and makeup packs, yes, I would pay for them.

tinythinker

MornaBaine wrote: »

Just as you wisely created the hair pack and makeup pack that allow us to change the hairstyles and makeup of our characters any time we want, it is now well past time to release the following packs in the same manner.

Eyes and Eyecolors. There's no logical reason not to. Humans should be able to have any color of eye across the human races. Ditto Argonians, Khajiit, Elves. And while it might be impossible to give the human and elvish races Khajiit or Argonain eyes humans should be able to have elvish eyes and elves should be able to have the other elvish eyes and human eyes. Why? Because lore supports this. It is stated that children will always have the same racial appearance as their mother but MAY show some traits of the father. This would actually be a way to do that.

Hair color. Unlock ALL the racial haircolors. Not only is it supported by lore but there's absolutely no logical reason why folk in Tamriel can't dye their hair any darn color they want. But please, if you're going to make obviously dyed hair in outlandish colors... make that its own pack separately from the character creation colors. Sell these in a pack as you did the hairstyles.

Skincolors: Again, no logical reason elves can't have human skin tones or humans have elvish skin tones. And certainly no reason for locked human racial skintones. Let Argonians change their skin if they want. Ditto Khajiit fur!

New makeup, facial scar and facial hair system. This one will be harder but I'm sure you can do it. Especially if you can sell it to us!
Lip color and eye makeup needs to be applied separately. Find a way to split up the base lip and eye makeups so we can mix and match. Give us eyelashes that do NOT remove or change eye makeup or facial hair. If you can't do that, then add a selection of the base game make up WITH eyelashes! Eyelashes need to be useable by male characters and WITHOUT removing facial hair.

Add ALL of the unreleased hairstyles you've been holding out on us as a single hair pack.

Add all of the previously only obtainable via crown crate eyelashes/eye makeup as a single purchasable pack. Ditto the lip colors. These items should have never been in the crown crates and violate your original pledge not to put such things in the crates.

The above will not cause sales of appearance changes to drop because we only use those when we ALSO want to change the face and body of a character. Few people are willing to use those ONLY to change makeup so you're really just cheating yourself by not making the above offerings. If you want our money, and we know you do, give us things we actually WANT to spend it on. My wallet is ready!

Would you also want to be able to save appearance settings as a file, @MornaBaine?

And, btw, did you ever achieve Legate Black?

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo

Yes a free pack for veteran players, please.
We could have the tiger mount and a new bowl cut hair style to prove we are indeed still here

Kadraeus

TheImperfect wrote: »

I would like the male body models to be upgraded to make it easier to get them looking less potatoey. Unless it's just me it's hard to get buff without the potato look.

Tbh I've always thought the character proportions without clothes looked weird anyway, at least for female characters. The legs are too big compared to the arms (I usually decrease leg size and increase arm size), the hands are too small compared to the arms, and the shoulders have unnatural creases above the armpits. It doesn't bother me too much since my characters are usually fully clothed/armored, but it is something I've noticed.

M_Volsung

Folkb wrote: »

Oh and some slider numbers ffs. So I can at least record my settings.

And for the height slider to give you an actual height measuement.

MornaBaine

Faulgor wrote: »

Absolutely big bloody no on the skin tones.

Why?

MornaBaine

tinythinker wrote: »

Would you also want to be able to save appearance settings as a file, @MornaBaine?

And, btw, did you ever achieve Legate Black?

Yes...and no. Because as much as I would desire to have the gorgeous Legate Black it is still trumped by the fact that I'd rather have bamboo slivers shoved under my fingernails than engage in the sheer amount of PVP necessary to achieve it. LOL

MornaBaine

Youyouz06 wrote: »

Yes a free pack for veteran players, please.
We could have the tiger mount and a new bowl cut hair style to prove we are indeed still here

LOL I do cherish my tiger far above all the other silly flashy mounts that have come out. And yet I stilly typically opt for horses.

spartaxoxo

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

TheImperfect wrote: »

I would like the male body models to be upgraded to make it easier to get them looking less potatoey. Unless it's just me it's hard to get buff without the potato look.

Yeah. I'd like to see the things we already have get bettered before anything new gets added. Better proportions, less pointy polygons, better feet etc.

A lot on the list isn't even lore accurate despite the OP saying it.

It is stated that children will always have the same racial appearance as their mother but MAY show some traits of the father

This is not correct. The child will usually be the race of their mother and can show traits of their father but not always. It can also be the opposite, as in taking the father's race. In rarer exceptions there might be more of an even split.
Either way just because your mother was a dunmer and your father an imperial you're not going to be a dunmer with olive brown skin or human eyes. The traits are usually less noticeable than that. Honestly, there's not much lore about crossbreeding besides a very biased book, so we can't tell much about it. But of what we see Elder Scrolls doesn't really have much of the typical half-breeds many other fantasy worlds have. The majority of children will look mainly like one race of their parents.

Adding some more hair and eye colours would be good, because that is supported by lore, we even see it on npcs. But making everyone able to mix eye types and stuff all willy nilly is not.

This. If you want elven eyes, make an elf.


Also personally, I also don't think that skin tones should be customizable on a whim either. Skin color isn't a costume change. It should require just as much commitment as a race change. Even eye color is pushing it as I doubt Tamriel has color contacts.

LadyLethalla

Lighting overhaul too.
Also, if we OWN hairstyles or any other things like this, let us use them on character creation!
Edit - also.it would be FANTASTIC to have more voice options... just saying...

MornaBaine

spartaxoxo wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

TheImperfect wrote: »

I would like the male body models to be upgraded to make it easier to get them looking less potatoey. Unless it's just me it's hard to get buff without the potato look.

Yeah. I'd like to see the things we already have get bettered before anything new gets added. Better proportions, less pointy polygons, better feet etc.

A lot on the list isn't even lore accurate despite the OP saying it.

It is stated that children will always have the same racial appearance as their mother but MAY show some traits of the father

This is not correct. The child will usually be the race of their mother and can show traits of their father but not always. It can also be the opposite, as in taking the father's race. In rarer exceptions there might be more of an even split.
Either way just because your mother was a dunmer and your father an imperial you're not going to be a dunmer with olive brown skin or human eyes. The traits are usually less noticeable than that. Honestly, there's not much lore about crossbreeding besides a very biased book, so we can't tell much about it. But of what we see Elder Scrolls doesn't really have much of the typical half-breeds many other fantasy worlds have. The majority of children will look mainly like one race of their parents.

Adding some more hair and eye colours would be good, because that is supported by lore, we even see it on npcs. But making everyone able to mix eye types and stuff all willy nilly is not.

This. If you want elven eyes, make an elf.


Also personally, I also don't think that skin tones should be customizable on a whim either. Skin color isn't a costume change. It should require just as much commitment as a race change. Even eye color is pushing it as I doubt Tamriel has color contacts.

I'm not sure I understand your objection. According to the lore elves and humans can have children together. Children tend to look like the race of the mother but can have physical traits of the father. So being a human race but with elvish eyes or skin really isn't an issue.

It's also understood that we sometimes get bored with the look of our characters. Or say I, as a roleplayer, decide that one of my characters has died. So I'd like a new one without having to level a brand new character. ZOS already has no problem with us doing this and are glad to take our money to let us. This is just an extension of that that gives them another way to make some more money and allows us to have the customizable options we want. Since it doesn't affect YOU in any way it seems a bit odd to me that you'd take the trouble to protest.

Vevvev

MornaBaine wrote: »

tinythinker wrote: »

Would you also want to be able to save appearance settings as a file, @MornaBaine?

And, btw, did you ever achieve Legate Black?

Yes...and no. Because as much as I would desire to have the gorgeous Legate Black it is still trumped by the fact that I'd rather have bamboo slivers shoved under my fingernails than engage in the sheer amount of PVP necessary to achieve it. LOL

You don't have to PvP to achieve it as progress through the ranks is based upon Alliance Points earned.

Log in rewards giving AP
Scouting quests
PvE quests in towns
Repairing walls and doors

All those give AP without actually having to engage in PvP combat, and then you can boost your gain even further with the War Torte food and the AP earned bonus by killing a Cyrodiil delve boss. During Midyear Mayhem you get a boost to AP earned as well.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

MornaBaine wrote: »

It's also understood that we sometimes get bored with the look of our characters. Or say I, as a roleplayer, decide that one of my characters has died. So I'd like a new one without having to level a brand new character. ZOS already has no problem with us doing this and are glad to take our money to let us. This is just an extension of that that gives them another way to make some more money and allows us to have the customizable options we want. Since it doesn't affect YOU in any way it seems a bit odd to me that you'd take the trouble to protest.

Yes, they can interbreed, but it doesn't mean you will have a breton with dunmer eyes. More like a breton with normal breton eyes but the colour might be that of or similar to their dunmer parent's.

MornaBaine

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

It's also understood that we sometimes get bored with the look of our characters. Or say I, as a roleplayer, decide that one of my characters has died. So I'd like a new one without having to level a brand new character. ZOS already has no problem with us doing this and are glad to take our money to let us. This is just an extension of that that gives them another way to make some more money and allows us to have the customizable options we want. Since it doesn't affect YOU in any way it seems a bit odd to me that you'd take the trouble to protest.

Yes, they can interbreed, but it doesn't mean you will have a breton with dunmer eyes. More like a breton with normal breton eyes but the colour might be that of or similar to their dunmer parent's.

While that's certainly plausible I don't think it's anything we actually know for sure. The lore on the subject is VERY vague. So it'd be up to the current lore master to decide but i think both our suggestions are equally plausible. Honestly, I'd just be happy if ALL the haircolors and eye colors (if not actual eye types) were unlocked and I'd happily pay for it. I still think it'd be fine to unlock the Mer (including Orcs) and human skin colors across the board. Look at the outlandish skins and polymorphs that are available. THen tell me how that could possibly be worse. At least it's PLAUSIBLE.

MornaBaine

Vevvev wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

tinythinker wrote: »

Would you also want to be able to save appearance settings as a file, @MornaBaine?

And, btw, did you ever achieve Legate Black?

Yes...and no. Because as much as I would desire to have the gorgeous Legate Black it is still trumped by the fact that I'd rather have bamboo slivers shoved under my fingernails than engage in the sheer amount of PVP necessary to achieve it. LOL

You don't have to PvP to achieve it as progress through the ranks is based upon Alliance Points earned.

Log in rewards giving AP
Scouting quests
PvE quests in towns
Repairing walls and doors

All those give AP without actually having to engage in PvP combat, and then you can boost your gain even further with the War Torte food and the AP earned bonus by killing a Cyrodiil delve boss. During Midyear Mayhem you get a boost to AP earned as well.

Hmmm... expect my incoming Discord DM! LOL

NotaDaedraWorshipper

MornaBaine wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

It's also understood that we sometimes get bored with the look of our characters. Or say I, as a roleplayer, decide that one of my characters has died. So I'd like a new one without having to level a brand new character. ZOS already has no problem with us doing this and are glad to take our money to let us. This is just an extension of that that gives them another way to make some more money and allows us to have the customizable options we want. Since it doesn't affect YOU in any way it seems a bit odd to me that you'd take the trouble to protest.

Yes, they can interbreed, but it doesn't mean you will have a breton with dunmer eyes. More like a breton with normal breton eyes but the colour might be that of or similar to their dunmer parent's.

While that's certainly plausible I don't think it's anything we actually know for sure. The lore on the subject is VERY vague. So it'd be up to the current lore master to decide but i think both our suggestions are equally plausible. Honestly, I'd just be happy if ALL the haircolors and eye colors (if not actual eye types) were unlocked and I'd happily pay for it. I still think it'd be fine to unlock the Mer (including Orcs) and human skin colors across the board. Look at the outlandish skins and polymorphs that are available. THen tell me how that could possibly be worse. At least it's PLAUSIBLE.

I did mention in a previous comment that we got very little information about interbreeding in TES. Unlocking more hair colours is fine, like proper black for altmer and other colours we see on npcs.
But skin colours and eye types? No, nothing in lore backs that up, and humans with orc/dunmer skintones or vice versa would've been mentioned somewhere if it occured for half-breeds.
Most skins are are awful enough as it is, we don't need more of that.

I rather see the character creator being bettered with numbers on sliders, something that indicates height on the height scale, better lightning and angles, see some body movements etc.
Then as characters go I'd like to see updated models with better proportions, textures etc. There are some weird pointy polygons at certain spots. Feet and wrists are not good looking when visible and behave weirdly.

For additions, I'd like to see khajiit and argonians being able to use body markings without losing their furpattern/scale type, and have the long since datamined tail features added.
More hair and facial hair options for everyone.
Being able to change colour on adornments and not have them be based on haircolour.
Facial hair, Minor and Major adornments added in the character creator too and not lumped together as one.
That's the stuff I'd want to see, not things that are barely if at all backed up by lore.

Thavie

GW2, here we go.

MornaBaine

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

It's also understood that we sometimes get bored with the look of our characters. Or say I, as a roleplayer, decide that one of my characters has died. So I'd like a new one without having to level a brand new character. ZOS already has no problem with us doing this and are glad to take our money to let us. This is just an extension of that that gives them another way to make some more money and allows us to have the customizable options we want. Since it doesn't affect YOU in any way it seems a bit odd to me that you'd take the trouble to protest.

Yes, they can interbreed, but it doesn't mean you will have a breton with dunmer eyes. More like a breton with normal breton eyes but the colour might be that of or similar to their dunmer parent's.

While that's certainly plausible I don't think it's anything we actually know for sure. The lore on the subject is VERY vague. So it'd be up to the current lore master to decide but i think both our suggestions are equally plausible. Honestly, I'd just be happy if ALL the haircolors and eye colors (if not actual eye types) were unlocked and I'd happily pay for it. I still think it'd be fine to unlock the Mer (including Orcs) and human skin colors across the board. Look at the outlandish skins and polymorphs that are available. THen tell me how that could possibly be worse. At least it's PLAUSIBLE.

I did mention in a previous comment that we got very little information about interbreeding in TES. Unlocking more hair colours is fine, like proper black for altmer and other colours we see on npcs.
But skin colours and eye types? No, nothing in lore backs that up, and humans with orc/dunmer skintones or vice versa would've been mentioned somewhere if it occured for half-breeds.
Most skins are are awful enough as it is, we don't need more of that.

Then what do YOU see as being acceptable indications of crossbreeding with other races? Since the fact is we are told that it happens, that children of such parings may express traits of both parents...and yet we're told nothing as to what those appearances might look like. Therefore your guess is as good as mine. After all, absence of evidence does not equate to evidence of absence. We learn new lore all the time as the game evolves. Including things that were never mentioned in any previous lore. My suggestion is an easy and logical answer that could be implemented with little trouble on ZOS' part.

I rather see the character creator being bettered with numbers on sliders, something that indicates height on the height scale, better lightning and angles, see some body movements etc.
Then as characters go I'd like to see updated models with better proportions, textures etc. There are some weird pointy polygons at certain spots. Feet and wrists are not good looking when visible and behave weirdly.

For additions, I'd like to see khajiit and argonians being able to use body markings without losing their furpattern/scale type, and have the long since datamined tail features added.
More hair and facial hair options for everyone.
Being able to change colour on adornments and not have them be based on haircolour.
Facial hair, Minor and Major adornments added in the character creator too and not lumped together as one.
That's the stuff I'd want to see, not things that are barely if at all backed up by lore.

Your suggestions for improving the character generator are certainly valid and are things I'd like to see too. But they are beyond the scope of this discussion here and merit their own post. I will say that things ZO$ can't monetize have very little hope of seeing the light of day. But that's no reason NOT to exhort them to do the right thing.

MornaBaine

ADarklore wrote: »

I'm not sure this will ever happen because adding/changing anything in character creation would ultimately change existing characters and I'm sure thousands of people would be upset to log in and find their character's appearance was suddenly different. Some people have invested a lot of time in their character creation, so I can imagine them being very upset if that suddenly changed.

That did not happen when they made the hair and makeup packs available. I'm not suggesting character creation changes but rather making things that are available in character creation available post creation as they've already done with hair and makeup. So, again, nothing should change unless you, the player, choose for it to.

Now, making actual changes TO character creation may indeed cause some changes to occur in existing characters. I don't think much could be done about that. But all they'd really need to do is give everyone one free token per character so they can go in and make the adjustments they would like with the new settings.