My Issues with Undaunted "Trophies"

prof-dracko

The only reason I do new dungeons lately, besides getting a bit of context for the upcoming stories, is to see what new busts, trophies and other furnishing we get. But lately the new stuff is...weird. This is a trend I've seen going over the last few years of dungeons. We started with stuff like Bloodspawn and Slimecraw. Neat, creature heads that look cool and have a bunch of possible applications. Then things like the Stone Atronach and the Engine Guardian are great, because they aren't limited by that bit of wood behind them.
Then there's Swarm Mother and Selene. Ok, that's just...it's the same model. One is just slightly extended.

Then we start getting to the weird ones. King Narilmor. Grundwulf. Mother Cianniat. Zaan. These...these are just people. Those are human heads. Most recently we have Prior Thierric, who doesn't even have the justification of being some kind of non-human. That is literally mans head and upper body slapped on a wall. What?
You've done more interesting things before, ZOS. Stonekeeper was an arm, not a head. That's a neat idea. Why couldn't you have tried something different for these ones? If you insist on having the "flagship" boss be the last one every single time now, at least get creative. In Unhallowed Graves we got the giant skeleton. That was cool. The Prior could have been his helmet on a stand or something. But a whole decapitated human head? Feels off. And slightly lazy.

You've done better before. Throw a bone to your housing fans who want something neat AND usable.

LadySinflower

Agreed. I'm not putting a plaque of a human head on my wall like he's a deer I bagged in the last hunt. I don't care how much of a bad guy he is. That's creepy.

ashadris

Na i like them how they are.. human remains mightve been decayed though instead of looking alive so yeah zos is kinda lazy either way

MornaBaine

It is rather disturbing. For human/humanoid opponents I'd much prefer a stand with their armor and weapons. Because those are the kinds of trophies you WOULD take. You know, if you're not a psychopath who thinks heads on your wall are neat.

SickleCider

MornaBaine wrote: »

It is rather disturbing. For human/humanoid opponents I'd much prefer a stand with their armor and weapons. Because those are the kinds of trophies you WOULD take. You know, if you're not a psychopath who thinks heads on your wall are neat.

Gosh, that would be excellent, and also fulfill some of the requests for weapon and armor displays. ZOS, please!

Starbridge84

You only think its weird because if you walked into someone's house IRL and saw a human head mounted on the wall you would freak out, and rightfully so. However, this is ES, fantasy, fiction. The dev crew will unlikely change things up as far as the normal/vet small group dungeons completion rewards go, since they have such a large collection as is, changing it now would only cause the other side of people to post about how things aren't the same.

They wont change things up to invite upset/rages posts to the forums.

colossalvoids

I'd say they can do better job here. If the guy had some interesting adornment or a weapon, why can't we have that one a plaque instead of literal boring head?

Make a sword, a helmet or a gauntlet of sorts and it would kill 2 birds with one stone as people asked a lot about shields and swords to put on their walls.

Veinblood1965

I personally think they should have quit changing them when they were a"head" long ago.

Starbridge84

colossalvoids wrote: »

I'd say they can do better job here. If the guy had some interesting adornment or a weapon, why can't we have that one a plaque instead of literal boring head?

Make a sword, a helmet or a gauntlet of sorts and it would kill 2 birds with one stone as people asked a lot about shields and swords to put on their walls.

I could get behind the piece of gear as a trophy, but they would need to make that a drop and not the completion reward. Again, you have a lot of people that like the current head mounts and changing it now would only invite upset/unhappy/rage posters.

Araneae6537

I’d be happy with variety in the trophies and there are some already which are different — one is a rock and another is part of a Dwemer robot. I think armor or weapon on a stand would be awesome! I do use some of the heads, but with the exception of the dragon skull, never hung as trophies on the wall, but in various other ways for “spoopy” houses!

prof-dracko

Starbridge84 wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

I'd say they can do better job here. If the guy had some interesting adornment or a weapon, why can't we have that one a plaque instead of literal boring head?

Make a sword, a helmet or a gauntlet of sorts and it would kill 2 birds with one stone as people asked a lot about shields and swords to put on their walls.

I could get behind the piece of gear as a trophy, but they would need to make that a drop and not the completion reward. Again, you have a lot of people that like the current head mounts and changing it now would only invite upset/unhappy/rage posters.

Those people already have dozens of options. All I'm asking is for some variety. As I pointed out, the Stonekeeper trophy was one of it's gauntlets instead of it's head. That was cool. The Prior has an otherwise unique helmet that they could have put on a little pedestal instead of the dudes whole upper torso. The bronze busts can be left totally unchanged, they're unique enough.

everseeing_njpreub18_ESO

I can agree in more variety and more specifically to hist point of actual trophy items. I'd prefer this guys sword, that gals staff, giant critter pelts, etc.

Heads are ok for some things, but when considering these in most cases were sentient living beings, evil or otherwise, it does seem a little creepy for my "TEMPLAR OF HOLY LIGHT!!!" to hack off the head and bring it to the local taxidermist.

colossalvoids

Starbridge84 wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

I'd say they can do better job here. If the guy had some interesting adornment or a weapon, why can't we have that one a plaque instead of literal boring head?

Make a sword, a helmet or a gauntlet of sorts and it would kill 2 birds with one stone as people asked a lot about shields and swords to put on their walls.

I could get behind the piece of gear as a trophy, but they would need to make that a drop and not the completion reward. Again, you have a lot of people that like the current head mounts and changing it now would only invite upset/unhappy/rage posters.

In a well executed manner they should have some of them "unique" and some with some default racial / customisable with motif styles. But even inclusion of some unique ones via plaques wouldn't hurt, won't make much sense anyway to have some distinctive and unique looking one to be multiplied throughout ball the walls. But that's just me.

Leogon

I wish we could trade collectible furnishing slots for traditional furnishing slots. I would much rather have for example 405/810 traditional furnishing slots for a manor-sized home than 350 trad. 55 collect./700 trad.110 collect.

prof-dracko

colossalvoids wrote: »

Starbridge84 wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

I'd say they can do better job here. If the guy had some interesting adornment or a weapon, why can't we have that one a plaque instead of literal boring head?

Make a sword, a helmet or a gauntlet of sorts and it would kill 2 birds with one stone as people asked a lot about shields and swords to put on their walls.

I could get behind the piece of gear as a trophy, but they would need to make that a drop and not the completion reward. Again, you have a lot of people that like the current head mounts and changing it now would only invite upset/unhappy/rage posters.

In a well executed manner they should have some of them "unique" and some with some default racial / customisable with motif styles. But even inclusion of some unique ones via plaques wouldn't hurt, won't make much sense anyway to have some distinctive and unique looking one to be multiplied throughout ball the walls. But that's just me.

I should point out that every dungeon boss up to ICP and WGT, as well as every world boss and delve boss in the base zones, do have a unique drop. Drops, in the case of some dungeon bosses. Bits of jewelry, weapons and armor with unique names. I've been collecting them. Apart from the name and sometimes a little bit of flavor text, they're totally unremarkable and no different from regular bits of gear.

Cillion3117

I kind of like them. But my main is the kind of guy who would put human heads on his wall. To each their own...

NotaDaedraWorshipper

This has been a topic recently between friends and guildies. Especially now with the addition of Prior Thierric. Like, what the hell were they thinking? It's just a normal person's head on a plaque!

They could have just made it his helmet, scarf with emblem, sword, all three or something! The trophies could be a bit more fun in general, not everything has to be the damn head. I remember the trophies you got in the game serie Fable, which were a lot more varied. There was a lot of heads too yes, including normal people's, but that game is also quite different from ESO and anyways there was also so many other things. Like a different part of the monster such as a hand, stinger, teeth and eye. Trophies taken from humanoid things could also be part of their armour, clothes, or some other item important or symbolising them.

Using the Prior as an example, instead of his head the trophy could have been: His weapon and/or armour, an emblem of the Knights of the Silver Rose, or some retrieved relic.

Jaimeh

I like the more unique looking trophies too, like stonekeeper, etc., because you can use them as furnishing in different ways other than decorative busts.

TeruKisuke

I honestly find the human heads to be a bit more useful than the others as far as decorative pieces. I've made custom people before with the DoM and the Vateshraan witch because the latter looked awesome. After all, using houseguests all the time is boring.

I think I take more issue with the fact that DoM you have this awesome-looking Meridian construct thing, but you chose the boring dude for the mount? I find the choice a bit odd when they choose the most normal thing that isn't even the final boss.

prof-dracko

TeruKisuke wrote: »

I honestly find the human heads to be a bit more useful than the others as far as decorative pieces. I've made custom people before with the DoM and the Vateshraan witch because the latter looked awesome. After all, using houseguests all the time is boring.

I think I take more issue with the fact that DoM you have this awesome-looking Meridian construct thing, but you chose the boring dude for the mount? I find the choice a bit odd when they choose the most normal thing that isn't even the final boss.

Also a valid point! They seem to default to the final boss with the latest DLCs, no matter how dull they are. Moongrave had an awesome unique-looking gargoyle boss. March of Sacrifices had an Indrik. At least Unhallowed and Stone Garden gave us something a bit more unique. Just feels like a wasted potential.

And while I'm free to complain about the petty things, they need to stop putting banners as the achievement furnishings with the Undaunted merchant. There's no reason they can't be rare drops in the dungeon itself, they've done that before. Or actually put more rare furnishing drops in dungeons. That way the housing crowd has an incentive to go back and try them. They did with Fang Lair and (I think) March of Sacrifices, but then they gave up on it.