Zenimax, when are you going to address the problems with veteran armor aesthetics?

Arsenic_Touch

seneferab16_ESO wrote: »

Once again, it's the lack of a specular map. With a specular map you decide how the texture should react to light, thus making it *pop*. A spec map is how you make metal look metally, and cloth look clothy etc. It seems like these veteran ranked items for some reason have lost it's spec map, making them look very old school and bland.

@zos_ginabruno, could you look into this, please?

That's the word I was looking for, didn't see your other post. The forum layout is kind of bad that when I post I have to refresh to see other posts that took place while I was posting, while other forums would be updated immediately.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Everyone, just to give you a quick update, we are working to improve the look of the Veteran Rank materials and give them a higher-quality appearance. You can expect to see these roll out sometime in the future (as they're being actively worked on, we don't have an ETA yet).

Also keep in mind that the dye system will give you a lot of different options once that system is available.

I suppose that's better than the previous response you gave, which was essentially a slap to the face. Maybe you can light a fire under their feet to get things rolling? this is going to become an increasingly bigger problem for you guys as more and more people hit veteran ranks.

ZOS_GinaBruno

seneferab16_ESO wrote: »

Once again, it's the lack of a specular map. With a specular map you decide how the texture should react to light, thus making it *pop*. A spec map is how you make metal look metally, and cloth look clothy etc. It seems like these veteran ranked items for some reason have lost it's spec map, making them look very old school and bland.

@zos_ginabruno, could you look into this, please?

Yep, we're looking into that now.

seneferab16_ESO

Awesome!
Looking closer on @arsenic_touch 's image it looks like the normal map is missing as well.

Dramonicous

Arsenic_Touch wrote: »

I just found something interesting.



This is veteran rank 1 blue rarity tophide leather medium armor in the bosmer style with heavy shoulders and a kresh hood.

The picture on the right is what it normally looks like, very bland, like it's missing something.

The picture on the left just randomly happened, some how the armor is much more detailed, the bone spikes have sheen, the shadows and the material is more detailed. The colour pops out and looks realistic, only problem is the face shadows are screwed up.

The darker armor looks so much better, despite the shadows on the face. It's disappointing that it disappeared when I reequipped the armor.

I kinda think the khajit looks better with those shadows on the face, atleast on this picture (maybe not in motion)

Ahanu2

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Everyone, just to give you a quick update, we are working to improve the look of the Veteran Rank materials and give them a higher-quality appearance. You can expect to see these roll out sometime in the future (as they're being actively worked on, we don't have an ETA yet).

Also keep in mind that the dye system will give you a lot of different options once that system is available.

I know this is totally unreasonable to request, but please fellows, expedite that dye system! It encompasses the whole game, not just a single level area's content, or questline. We're MMO players, looking good is something we love!

Dekkameron

That random dark patches on the character look like the same effect that happens when you use the templar skill "Repentance" that drains the essence from corpses. As the bodies on the ground suddenly go all red/black blotchy.

ElleShaped

Hey all, just throwing a note in here:

Something else I've discovered making my thread is that all armors from VR6-VR10 in one style have the same appearance at the same quality level.

This is both a departure from the pattern at levels 1-50 (it changes appearance every new material or every 6 levels within a material) and from VR1-6 (VR1-2 has one look, 3-4-5 another, and 6+ the last)

Though it'll give me a lot of work to do once the spec map is fixed and the dye system goes in, that's work I'm looking forward to doing!

Arsenic_Touch

Dekkameron wrote: »

That random dark patches on the character look like the same effect that happens when you use the templar skill "Repentance" that drains the essence from corpses. As the bodies on the ground suddenly go all red/black blotchy.

Just checked. I do have repentance on my character some how. It's not going away, heh. While a bug it did illustrate that there's a problem with the armor, heh.

However, when I posted the screenshot, I didn't have it. (the buff wasn't there) so I dunno.

Columba

Sorry, I disagree that this is a priority at all. There are far more important things to fix right now such as endless loading screens, stuck characters and basic functionality breaks. Please don't waste any time of this for the next few months.

Asava

You'll be happy to hear that the art department and developers are in different areas and it would not drain any development resources that are needed to fix bugs.

Columba

Blackwolfe5 wrote: »

This makes me not want to level up all the way to v10. Granted I'm only level 24 currently but still.

Wonder what went through their head when texturing the v10 armors.

"Ok, so v10.. we should probably make this look cool. Let me tr.. ooh, lunchtime. Meh, I'll just use this boring old texture that we discarded because it did not look very good. Players probably won't notice anyway."

Fine , don't level up then. Let us know how that works out for you.

Arsenic_Touch

Columba wrote: »

Sorry, I disagree that this is a priority at all. There are far more important things to fix right now such as endless loading screens, stuck characters and basic functionality breaks. Please don't waste any time of this for the next few months.

This issue has nothing to do with endless loading screens, stuck characters or basic functionality breaks and to think that having them work on this is going to stop them from working on the other stuff is kind of amusing. This is a priority for the departent that handles these sort of things and will become an increasing priority as more players hit veteran rank.

Columba

Asava wrote: »

You'll be happy to hear that the art department and developers are in different areas and it would not drain any development resources that are needed to fix bugs.

Someone has to implement the changes. Someone has to approve them. Someone has to manage them. Doesn't really matter if one person draws something. Besides, there are other art issues.

aipex8_ESO

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Everyone, just to give you a quick update, we are working to improve the look of the Veteran Rank materials and give them a higher-quality appearance. You can expect to see these roll out sometime in the future (as they're being actively worked on, we don't have an ETA yet).

Also keep in mind that the dye system will give you a lot of different options once that system is available.

Thanks!

aipex8_ESO

seneferab16_ESO wrote: »

aipex8_ESO wrote: »

Another missing specular map.
Notice how the light acts on the piece to the left, and how there's a lack of any kind of even remotely similar effect on the one to the right.

I don't think it's missing all together, there definitely is specularity on the metal bits, it's just not as shiny as the level 40 armor. Very early in the game, when you crafted Dunmer armor, the white would have similar dull metal and as you upped the quality it would become shinier and copper colored (how it should work). With all the racial motifs and options available, it's sad that 75% of the people in the VR zones are wearing Golden Saint or Dark Seducer costumes to hide their ugly VR armor. I'm so sick of seeing Golden Saint armor!

Irissa

I don't understand at all how this could possibly be "as intended" when the preview screens for Veteran level armor show something so completely different - if it is intended to look like this then the character creation screen should show it...

How my character looks is important to me - I view it as an achievement/reward for the effort made to level to VR10 to be able to wear the best looking armor in the game - this is not something unique to me nor new to mmo's, it is what many many players strive for.

And waiting on dyes just means more days of costumes

seneferab16_ESO

aipex8_ESO wrote: »

seneferab16_ESO wrote: »

aipex8_ESO wrote: »

Another missing specular map.
Notice how the light acts on the piece to the left, and how there's a lack of any kind of even remotely similar effect on the one to the right.

I don't think it's missing all together, there definitely is specularity on the metal bits, it's just not as shiny as the level 40 armor. Very early in the game, when you crafted Dunmer armor, the white would have similar dull metal and as you upped the quality it would become shinier and copper colored (how it should work). With all the racial motifs and options available, it's sad that 75% of the people in the VR zones are wearing Golden Saint or Dark Seducer costumes to hide their ugly VR armor. I'm so sick of seeing Golden Saint armor!

Yeah, it's hard to tell from a picture without turning the character around to see how the light react to it. It looks like the lighting is all painted light.
How about the normal map? There's _definitely_ something missing as the gear looks very flat, bland and old school. It seems from Ginas reply that the colors are by design, but the dull flatness of it all, I am sure is not.

It could be that all the maps are there but something wen't wrong with the shader and it's not letting them shine as much as they should. No idea why veteran gear would have it's own shader, but could be.

netsike

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Everyone, just to give you a quick update, we are working to improve the look of the Veteran Rank materials and give them a higher-quality appearance. You can expect to see these roll out sometime in the future (as they're being actively worked on, we don't have an ETA yet).

Also keep in mind that the dye system will give you a lot of different options once that system is available.

Thank you, you are an angel!
And as the others said, I also noticed, that sometimes it seems like the specular map is missing or something is wrong with it. And another problem: (I don't know if it's supposed to be like this) there is no difference between superior and epic armor! Here is an example (it's not me):

Grumpy Khajiit episode 3#:
Superior:


Epic:


That is me in my VR5 bosmer superior armor, and the epic looks exactly the same:

Uviryth

What really bugs me is that you cant use the skins of the lowerlevel-armor in highlevel.
You have so many cool options, but theyre all gone once you outlevel them. Thats just sad (and sooooo 10 years ago programming-wise).

KerinKor

Arsenic_Touch wrote: »

This is a priority for the departent that handles these sort of things and will become an increasing priority as more players hit veteran rank.

Cosmetics don't affect gameplay nor do they add to the gameworld so IMO gear looks are pretty low down the priority list: though I guess the more players get the gear the more QQ there'll be, there's no other reason more players would increase its priority.

KerinKor

Uviryth wrote: »

What really bugs me is that you cant use the skins of the lowerlevel-armor in highlevel.
You have so many cool options, but theyre all gone once you outlevel them. Thats just sad (and sooooo 10 years ago programming-wise).

I agree that in this day and age, and even more so in ESO with its' TES ancestry, that a cosmetic system like most other MMOs have now one way or anther wasn't part of the game design.

While I said about it's not a priority right now that scarce resources get devoted to purely cosmetic aspects to appease the fashion victims, being able to 'dress' oneself in a manner which appeals is something many want to do: all we have at present are the various disguises which we can use as we level.

mowind

well, to play devil advocate here....it could be worse!

we could have had the same designers that did SWTOR.....talk about some bad artistic decisions there.

dunce cap healer FTW!!!!

Uviryth

mowind wrote: »

well, to play devil advocate here....it could be worse!

we could have had the same designers that did SWTOR.....talk about some bad artistic decisions there.

dunce cap healer FTW!!!!

I actually like the Designs of SW:ToR

Sev

tair88b16_ESO wrote: »

I've posted this comparison in another thread already but here's another example: medium VR10 daedric armor.

"By design", my butt.

Looks to me like blue quality and higher use the basic, unaltered texture for that armor set. I'd guess it got shoved in as a placeholder when things didn't get finished.

Weberda

You go around killing monsters all day or getting mugged by all kinds of evil people and at the end you think you should look like you're on the red carpet?!?!?

netsike

Weberda wrote: »

You go around killing monsters all day or getting mugged by all kinds of evil people and at the end you think you should look like you're on the red carpet?!?!?

Lol, that's not the point. But reaching VR10 and be able to craft a blue/purple armor should be more rewarding. I think I can say, that 95% of the players care about the armor styles.

Weberda

I must be doing it wrong. The first, second, and third thing I look at when it comes to clothing is the armor rating. I'd wear a potato sack if had a rating of 200. Of course I run a squishy sorc so that kind of stuff is kinda important.

netsike

Weberda wrote: »

I must be doing it wrong. The first, second, and third thing I look at when it comes to clothing is the armor rating. I'd wear a potato sack if had a rating of 200. Of course I run a squishy sorc so that kind of stuff is kinda important.

If you could have a potato sack and a shiny, but realistic and good looking robe with the same stats, I don't think you would choose the sack...

Weberda

Depends on which has more pockets....

F7sus4

Yo mama, your kitten've got really fat! ;-)