I thought it would be prudent to begin a discussion on the future development of post creation character customisation in regards to the current system of outfits, costumes and collectibles. And what might be added as future collectibles for the player base to purchase or earn via in game rewards.
To start I think the ESO has a decent level of post creation character customisation since the introduction of the outfit system, but time and again I and many others see wasted potential for both the players and ZOS with content releases in the crown store in the form of costumes, body/face markings etc.
What I would like to propose is an overhaul of post creation customisation with the integration of costumes into the outfit station, dyable and "stackable" body markings, facial markings, dyable adornments and hair. And new collectible categories to truly make everyone's character completely unique to fit their own head canon.
Outfits/costume integration:
As many costumes are essentially multiple unique style pages stitched together (of course not necessarily a complete set of 7 pieces), I think the available parts of costumes should be able to be used independently with the existing outfit system. An example being the recently released "Pact Mother Elite Ensemble", players should be able to use the helmet, shoulders, gloves and robe independently of each other in the outfit station. It seems illogical to have what is subjectively one of the best open faced helmet designs in the game currently locked to a specific alliance and outfit aesthetic. This argument could also be made for other costumes such as the "Court of Bedlam" or "Grim Harvester" costumes that are truly unique and would be popular outfit choices if not for the otherwise too limiting use for player aesthetic as they come as a package.
Even if it were to be an ESO plus feature, the option would greatly improve consumer engagement with costumes whilst simultaneously granting better value for money for these items for players. Costumes could also be better marketed in future as bundles of style pages without necessarily being the full 7 piece set as motifs are.
Body markings:
With regards to body/facial markings. I think it is about time that action to taken to allow players to either use multiple of each of these collectibles at once, or reorganise these sub categories into more specific categories to be used together (or both). For example Khajiit and Argonian body markings should be their own category, with body markings in the form of tattoos being a separate "layer" that would then going over the top of this aforementioned layer.
For example an overhaul would look to a series of layers (each of which could have multiple selected at once depending on the nature of the layer) which would allow a greater level of personal customisation for the player. Such as:
Skin pattern (Scales, fur pattern, freckles/moles) > Body markings (Tattoos with potential for multiple selections to create a truly unique tattoo pattern) > Scars (self explanatory and again multiple chosen at once).
The game has an incredible number of options for body/facial markings but only one can be used at a time, leading to dozens of dormant options never to be used, allowing players to use multiple at once whilst also freeing up Khajiit and Argonian players from having to choose between scale/fur patterns and tattoos/ body art would drive up player engagement and see more of these designs used by the player base.
As for other categories such as facial hair, these should definitely be broken up into more categories such as eyes, facial hair, eyelashes, horns/antlers (in the case of Bosmer), makeup etc.
Ordered in a logical manner so as to be interpretable by the player. Facial hair > Makeup > Eyelashes > Eyes > Horns for example.
As a side note I believe all tattoos, adornments (both major and minor) and hair should be dyable using the current outfit station dye selection.
Finally, a suggestion that I believe would be greatly appreciated by the community is the introduction of "back collectibles", such as backpacks and cloaks. Now I am aware Capes/cloaks are a touchy subject due to their implementation issues but I believe by introducing a back slot collectibles tab ZoS would be able to integrate a large number of new items without affecting balance or otherwise upsetting the applecart of gameplay.
To explain further. Some outfit pages and costumes currently include backpacks, as part of the previously mentioned costume breakdown process these backpacks could be made into separate pieces that can be used independently on a players back in the collectibles tab. Addressing a long standing demand for backpacks in the game from an aesthetic viewpoint. Furthermore this opens up the opportunity for new back collectibles seen on certain NPCs such as banners as seen on the Xivkin bosses in IC Sewers. And potentially answer the cape/cloak question (which can be rigged to the player character Argonian or Khajiit tail skeleton to provide a consistent but low system intensity animation). Players could also opt to use a shield motif or other weapon motif on their back that is inactive for gameplay but present for an aesthetic choice. The options are quite extensive and all result in one outcome, greater player engagement with the content both current and to be released.
A further suggestion would be to allow a slider feature for certain outfit pieces such as shields and shoulders, as many players seem disgruntled with shields consistently being smaller and shoulders unnecessarily larger that they would like relative to their character. This as a feature would be very easy to implement if nothing else is. I would also touch upon revising the dye slots for many motifs allowing a greater amount of certain motif/styles components to be dyable. If more dye channels are required to achieve this I think this would be agreeable (eg. fur on Coldsnap motif or the badge on Dragonguard motif).
I am aware this is a large block of text but I want this game to succeed and I believe this area of the game requires some attention while we wait for new playable content. I could go on about customisable summons and pet skins, spell skins etc but this post would be far too long and its long already.
Would love to hear what the community has to say, as I believe everything suggested is both desirable and achievable with relatively little effort in the grand scheme of the games development.