Skill Styling in Gold Road doesn't include any combat pet reskins

Transairion

The Elder Scrolls Anniversary Live Event has begun, and with it some new information releases such as this Q&A with Rich Lambert telling us all manner of things. For me the below quote is the most frustrating by far:

"Besides the color change, will the styling feature have other visual changes players can add in the future?"

"Maybe. At launch it's color, but part of the reason we built the system the way we did was so that we can expand it to things like that. A lot of questions we get from players are, I'm a Warden and I've had the same bear forever. Can we get different pets? Sorcerers are like, hey, that Winged Twilight is getting old. I would love to see something else.

That's the idea behind the system. When we do that, if we do that, is unknown right now, but we've built the styling system to incorporate all of that feedback."

I'd be thrilled if not for the caveat: "when we do that, if we do that, is unknown right now". There's not much reading between the lines here, it's all pretty much laid bare.

It's not in Gold Road. It's not even being worked on right now. It's just... a possibility in the future. Except we already have had that possibility in our minds since 2018 when Morrowind Expansion dropped and our friend the Feral Guardian got a Collectors Edition reskin. That was 6 years ago and we're currently celebrating our 10th anniversary of the game total, so it's been around for half the game's shelf life. Is there some reason why it worked for Warden but you've ignored it ever since?

Look, I get it. I do. Changing a Sorceror scamp into a Dwemer Spider, for example is a whole bunch of new animations, let alone entire new summons like Flame Antronachs dealing different damage types. That costs big money. But even now, after all this time, we still can't get simple recolors for the other classes? Can my ugly Winged Twilight not be blessed with blue skin at least?

"By the way, there's also a visual customization side that comes with the new system. The preview server allowed us to automatically unlock the following cosmetic changes for existing skills:

-Barrier Blue
- Cleave Red
-Dawnbreaker Dark Purple
-Entropy Yellow
-Expert Hunter Red
-Force Shock Negative
-Grand Healing Purple
-Low Slash Orange
-Magelight Green
-Meteor Orange,
-Poison Arrow Red
-Regeneration Blue
- Reverse Slash Red
-Snipe Red
-Soul Trap Purple
-Trap Beast Illuminating
-Vigor Blue
-Wall of Elements Purple
-Warhorn Orange
-Weakness to Elements Purple
-Whirlwind Orange"

There's no Class skills listed here, so we'll have to wait until PTS to be sure if the Gold Road styling options are only for non-class-locked skills. But even so.

It just sucks to have something so requested, to have some hope with a new feature addressing it and it's just slapped out of your hands with a "If we get to it we'll get to it". That's the same thing we figured with Spellcrafting, which took 9-10 years to reappear in the stripped down form of Scribing.

Spellcrafting's example spell, mind you, was Summon Flame Antronach and all manner of morphs/variants. The Scribing spells have been revealed and none of them are summons, except the Assault skill being visually mount-related. Unless there is a special variant of this skill that makes it linger to fight with you, it's just the same as Warden skills being animal-themed regular abilities. So I can't even play around with a new combat pet!

Any real hype I had for Gold Road has been sucked out, but I have niche interests in combat pet skills so I understand most people might not care. Maybe I just wanted to vent. I just think basic recolor reskins for combat pets was a pretty low expectation and to hear they're not even being worked on... that just hurts.

colossalvoids

My problem is that they're always saying they'll expand on the system when it's not expanding in actual objective reality for years. Sure they would add colours but more substantial changes might take another ten years with the tempo we're having.

BlueRaven

I don’t think they need to reinvent the wheel to much at first.

I would be ok with different skin options even if the overall affect is just cosmetic.

Swapping a warden bear, for a wolf or tiger, but the effect is just cosmetic? Perfect. That is all would like.

tsaescishoeshiner

I see it as a good first step towards getting those new pet skins. It's worth noting that they didn't reskin any class skills for Gold Road, so at least every character gets to benefit from the first round of new skill skins.

FlipFlopFrog

I'd like to see a complete rework of how pet skills work in this game before they start milking our wallets for more cosmetics.

We have an entire companion system now which lets you change your companions combat style, skills, appearance etc. And It's only used for six characters...six....this Is such a waste!

Why not treat summoned pets like companions? It would add some much need depth and personality to these classes, you could have complete control over your pet, whether you want it to take a tank, dmg or healing role.

Faulgor

We already knew that there wouldn't be any skill styles for class skills with Gold Road.

On the one hand it's nice to hear that they approached the system already with pets in mind. Which makes it so puzzling that they aren't even working on them rn, lol.

Erickson9610

Well, it's good to hear that the flexibility of the Skill Styling system may allow for creative things like that to be done. I personally hope to be able to change the fur color of my werewolf form via a Skill Style for the Werewolf Transformation skill, the same way Warden bears can be either grey furred or brown furred.

It would also be cool to be able to get "polymorphs" via Skill Styles, like how people want different pets via Skill Styles. Regarding Werewolf, I know some people want to play as different werebeasts, whether that be cosmetic via Skill Styles or implemented as entirely new skill lines, but I'd personally be fine with some of the existing "polymorphs", such as the skeleton werewolf model seen in Unhallowed Grave, being given to players as Skill Styles.

WolfCombatPet

FlipFlopFrog wrote: »

I'd like to see a complete rework of how pet skills work in this game before they start milking our wallets for more cosmetics.

We have an entire companion system now which lets you change your companions combat style, skills, appearance etc. And It's only used for six characters...six....this Is such a waste!

Why not treat summoned pets like companions? It would add some much need depth and personality to these classes, you could have complete control over your pet, whether you want it to take a tank, dmg or healing role.

I want my companion to be a wolf.

No need to bring it into dungeons or PvP. It would work just like any other companion.

The companion system is already there. I'm not even picky about animations. It could have no visuals for gear. Instead, we would get to customize its appearance. Fur color, eye color, size, fur markings, etc.

I main warden, and I would have loved the option for a wolf combat pet.
But if they don't even have plans for that and are putting so many resources into companions... maybe they will make one of the next companions a wolf.

Bucky_13

WolfCombatPet wrote: »

FlipFlopFrog wrote: »

I'd like to see a complete rework of how pet skills work in this game before they start milking our wallets for more cosmetics.

We have an entire companion system now which lets you change your companions combat style, skills, appearance etc. And It's only used for six characters...six....this Is such a waste!

Why not treat summoned pets like companions? It would add some much need depth and personality to these classes, you could have complete control over your pet, whether you want it to take a tank, dmg or healing role.

I want my companion to be a wolf.

No need to bring it into dungeons or PvP. It would work just like any other companion.

The companion system is already there. I'm not even picky about animations. It could have no visuals for gear. Instead, we would get to customize its appearance. Fur color, eye color, size, fur markings, etc.

I main warden, and I would have loved the option for a wolf combat pet.
But if they don't even have plans for that and are putting so many resources into companions... maybe they will make one of the next companions a wolf.

I'd like to see that, but with a bunch of animals. Personally I want a senche cat. But bears, kagouti, guars etc would all be cool to run around with.

Sure, it would feel a lot like the hunter pets in WoW, but it would be cool to run around with an animal companion.

Warden bear and sorc pets in other forms, would also be nice. Just having a bear feels so boring. Not to mention that NOT having a flying pet as a sorc that takes up half of your screen when you use it would be neat.

Danikat

At least we know they're aware of that. I'm sure I'm not the only one who, when skill styling was first announced, immediately thought about the endless topics asking why we've never gotten more options for the warden or if we could ever change the twilight into something less annoying.

I don't really care about being able to change the colours on some weapon skills, this system will only be interesting to me when I can use it on class skills, partially for things like making the arcanist less overwhelming, but mainly for the possibility to have something other than a bear on my warden and to finally reduce the number of twilights constantly flapping in crowded spaces.