Further player character customization awareness thread

Wing · November 2014

one of the best ways to get the attention of Zos is obviously through threads on the forums. so lets please keep this thread going and I will continue to update and edit this post as people come up with or refine ideas.

Character customization options:

is a big part of TES games, and one of the reasons I bought a great PC when skyrim came out was the /showracemenu

you gave us armor dyeing and for that many of us are grateful, however with our shields or weapons usually being their own color it tends to force us to dye our armor to match, very disappointing given the range of colors and options you gave us.

also you have a very detailed character creation system, with many options not even seen in normal TES games. however we only get one chance to use it and are never able to make adjustments to characters we could be spending hundreds of hours and possibly our entire ESO career with.

so things I think I and the community might like to see added.

-weapon and shield dyeing
-some form of barber that replicates the body and face section of the character creation menu. (the system is obviously already designed and in game just need to make it accessible past character creation)
-the possibility of quest reward tattoo's/hair styles/piercings (ala fable series)
-the possibility of perhaps a one time race change service to allow people to correct racial mistakes but not change race every few weeks to a fotm race.
-the ability to "hide" at least shoulders, but possibly also arms, boots, and belt (no not chest and pants, we don't need naked people roaming about the land.)
-the ability to change your characters name
-battle scars (possible rewards for quest or achievements. . .or deaths?)
-various other dye options (matte, pearl, luminous, etc.)
-the ability to change the appearance of named or set items (through crafting or whatever)
-the ability to possibly change your characters name.

in summation I believe character customization options are a pretty awesome thing that effect players enjoyment of a game (everyone likes to look how they want) without adding items or power to the game.

please add your feedback and suggestions and post them here and I will do my best to keep everything updated.

phreatophile · November 2014

I would support hair and adornments , perhaps even the face sculptor like in Skyrim. Name change even, but race and gender should be locked.

Gidorick · November 2014

My honest feeling is changing race in ESO would be lore breaking.

If you made a Khajiit and named that Khajiit a race appropriate name such as Fa'taba... but then changed to Argonian, Orc, Mer or Man, the name wouldn't make any sense whatsoever. What then? Should we be allowed to re-name our characters? At that point it's a different character... just create an alternate.

Changing hairstyle and facial hair, sure, but changing race... I just flat out disagree with that, especially since Alliance is tied to race and each race has their own perks. Having race locked encourages alternates and encourages replay. ZOS would devalue their game if they allowed this.

while I personally don't want to change the LOOK of my character (facial features, etc.) there is no gameplay/design reason I can think of that would discourage this... so... sure! Magical fantasy plastic surgeons. Have at it! lol.

I think we just need more in the future. More hairstyles, more options when creating a character. More scars. More tattoos. the options we have are great... we could just use more of them.

phermitgb · November 2014

yeah, I tend to agree with above - if you're at the point where you're thinking changing race and gender, you're really just looking at a re-roll at that point, at least as far as I'm concerned.

I'm...divided on the issue of body changes - at one level, I think that's a rather large-scale change - on the other hand, no character quite looks the same in the character generation panel as they do once you've been out in the world adventuring for awhile, and seen your character in different lights, from different angles, and so on - so yeah, character re-shape would be a welcome addition

definitely a wider array of hairstyles couldn't hurt, as long as there's *some* effort not to make them outlandishly silly

I've been waiting for a character rename since launch - I know most games, especially sub games, usually charge a modest fee for name changes, and I'm prepared for that - but I've been holding onto a name on a character that suffered from the no-zoom-face bug on launch, and I WANT THAT NAME!!!

name change - gimme gimme gimme

I'm always a fan of cosmetic gear as well - weapons and shields, and I even remember a variety of people looking for unique styles for weapons and shields (inverted holds for left-handed and ambidextrous characters, for example - or possibly reverse-held swords and such...)

anyway - with first and 3rd person view, I think visual customization is a huge component of the attraction of any MMO, and ESO in particular, and I certainly feel that cosmetic customization deserves a modest allotment of development resources

Wing · November 2014

I will add and edit the original based on current ideas and feelings

Lithium Flower · November 2014

Practically gasping for a face sculptor type recustomise option here and I want the full monty or at least - hair, face, body, height, body type, adornment, etc options there. I wouldn't personally change race but there's an Argonian who turns into an Khajiit in one of the quests in Reaper's March, so why not? As long as they have to level up the racial passives again.

Wing · November 2014

agree with what you said but I forgot about this part

Lithium Flower wrote: »

I wouldn't personally change race but there's an Argonian who turns into an Khajiit in one of the quests in Reaper's March, so why not? As long as they have to level up the racial passives again.

so it is possible within the game world, sweet and good catch

just to be clear if this was considered I don't think it should be a constantly available mechanic like appearance change or skill respect, I think it should be a quest that you can only do once per character.

Forestd16b14_ESO · November 2014

FACE SCULPTOR FROM SKYRIMS DAWNGUARD DLC ....... said it before and gonna keep saying it when threads like this pop up

Wing · November 2014

Forestd16b14_ESO wrote: »

FACE SCULPTOR FROM SKYRIMS DAWNGUARD DLC ....... said it before and gonna keep saying it when threads like this pop up

and I much appreciate it

if everyone else could be bothered to voice their opinion on the matter I would very much appreciate it

Audigy · November 2014

Hmm,

a barber I support. I would also support a cosmetic tab for tattoos, piercings or whatever silly things we gave our Chars upon creation on early access

These things could be "adjusted" more than once and wouldn't require a quest.

The body I wouldn't change, same goes for the race. About the name, maybe if there is a specific quest in the DB for it. But it should be limited so that people cant change every day, maybe once every three month and a maximum of three times in total.

Wing · November 2014

Audigy wrote: »

-snip-

thanks for your input and support, it is very much appreciated

RDMyers65b14_ESO · November 2014

Dude, there are already nekkid people running around on the game. I can't go into the bank without seeing two or three. It gets worse... they are usually vampires with pale bodies. Ewwwww.

But other than that, I agree with you on all of it. It would be nice to be able to fix typos in the name without having to reroll the character. Appearance change would be great.

Aoife32001 · November 2014

To be honest, while I am all for lore and realism, I would like to see Zenimax allowing all changes other than race/class. This includes body type. I know I am constantly tweaking my characters in ES games. In my mind, I'm just changing the character to what he/she always would have been, had I not screwed up at the initial creation screen (or had the initial creation screen been more accurate regarding in-game appearance).

I don't think such changes need to be worked into lore or the story, and I would be perfectly fine with them being offered at log-in (even if they deduct gold from the given character's assets for it). Not everything that happens to your character has to actually happen to your character in the game world, if that makes sense--there is the world of you, the character creator, and the world of your character in-game. I would prefer to see character editing left in the former (though I'll certainly take it in the latter if that's the only way to get it!)

Esha76 · November 2014

Due to racial passives, I can see being locked in your race. But in regards to everything else I can't comprehend why people have an opinion, especially negative, about other people wanting variation in their characters as time goes on. If I change my appearance and/or gender 6 times a day I can't comprehend why that would affect anyone else's game experience in the slightest. I just can't grasp why anyone would even care what my characters look like, if their appearance changes, or that one should have restrictions and penalties in making such changes.

ZOS has already stated they want to add some sort of appearance changing tool. It's obviously down the road, but it's coming. And just because they add it, doesn't mean one has to use it. You have the lovely luxury of ignoring it. As for the rest of us, we should be able to change our appearance as many times as we want without restriction. Why is this even an issue??

diabeticDemon18 · November 2014

Wing wrote: »

one of the best ways to get the attention of Zos is obviously through threads on the forums. so lets please keep this thread going and I will continue to update and edit this post as people come up with or refine ideas.

Character customization options:

is a big part of TES games, and one of the reasons I bought a great PC when skyrim came out was the /showracemenu

you gave us armor dyeing and for that many of us are grateful, however with our shields or weapons usually being their own color it tends to force us to dye our armor to match, very disappointing given the range of colors and options you gave us.

also you have a very detailed character creation system, with many options not even seen in normal TES games. however we only get one chance to use it and are never able to make adjustments to characters we could be spending hundreds of hours and possibly our entire ESO career with.

so things I think I and the community might like to see added.

-weapon and shield dyeing
-some form of barber that replicates the body and face section of the character creation menu. (the system is obviously already designed and in game just need to make it accessible past character creation)
-the possibility of quest reward tattoo's/hair styles/piercings (ala fable series)
-the possibility of perhaps a one time race change service to allow people to correct racial mistakes but not change race every few weeks to a fotm race.
-the ability to "hide" at least shoulders, but possibly also arms, boots, and belt (no not chest and pants, we don't need naked people roaming about the land.)
-the ability to change your characters name

in summation I believe character customization options are a pretty awesome thing that effect players enjoyment of a game (everyone likes to look how they want) without adding items or power to the game.

please add your feedback and suggestions and post them here and I will do my best to keep everything updated.

Race and Gender, please don't. I wouldn't like to see a character morphing from male to female over and over... or suddenly go from Wood Elf to Orc... but tattoos, hairs, and styles/piercings would be cool. I don't think a facial morph should work either... I don't think they had plastic surgery back in this time lol

but it would be cool to change my hair and become a bearded lumberjack rather than what I started as... an old mage :[

Kesstryl · November 2014

YES to being able to change face, hair, and body past character creation (no to changing race, that would throw off the skills and doesn't make sense. Yes to some wizardry plastic surgery though because such a NPC already exists in Skyrim so it's not lore breaking). I have alts sitting because I want to change them, but don't want to level them, but don't want to lose current level, but don't want to play them when I want to make them look better. We really need this now, not a year from now. I have only 2 characters I'm happy with the appearance of, the others I've rerolled repeatedly only to find something else off. The lighting and angles in char creation can make things look different than in-game, and I need to be able to change them in-game to be sure. Yes it might seem trivial to those who don't care, but for some of us who are more into the story and character aspects this really means a lot to our game play.

Wing · November 2014

hey guys thank you so much for the support and keeping this thread up and going, I really appreciate it

eventide03b14a_ESO · November 2014

Wing wrote: »

one of the best ways to get the attention of Zos is obviously through threads on the forums. so lets please keep this thread going and I will continue to update and edit this post as people come up with or refine ideas.

Character customization options:

is a big part of TES games, and one of the reasons I bought a great PC when skyrim came out was the /showracemenu

you gave us armor dyeing and for that many of us are grateful, however with our shields or weapons usually being their own color it tends to force us to dye our armor to match, very disappointing given the range of colors and options you gave us.

also you have a very detailed character creation system, with many options not even seen in normal TES games. however we only get one chance to use it and are never able to make adjustments to characters we could be spending hundreds of hours and possibly our entire ESO career with.

so things I think I and the community might like to see added.

-weapon and shield dyeing
-some form of barber that replicates the body and face section of the character creation menu. (the system is obviously already designed and in game just need to make it accessible past character creation)
-the possibility of quest reward tattoo's/hair styles/piercings (ala fable series)
-the possibility of perhaps a one time race change service to allow people to correct racial mistakes but not change race every few weeks to a fotm race.
-the ability to "hide" at least shoulders, but possibly also arms, boots, and belt (no not chest and pants, we don't need naked people roaming about the land.)
-the ability to change your characters name

in summation I believe character customization options are a pretty awesome thing that effect players enjoyment of a game (everyone likes to look how they want) without adding items or power to the game.

please add your feedback and suggestions and post them here and I will do my best to keep everything updated.

I am all for any cosmetic customization changes that don't impact actual game play.

Lord_Kreegan · November 2014

What would be neat (with the limits of the legal systems for the countries in which this game is being played) is if we could send frontal and profile pictures to ZOS and have their artists duplicate it for us... maybe charge us $10 or something like that (a way for ZOS to make some additional money).

I've tried creating faces that look like pictures, but I can't really get as close as I'd like to. Some of my pictures look more like my dogs than my ex-girlfriends from when I was a whole lot younger...

Maybe limit it to a picture of ourselves for our mains to avoid legal issues (using somebody else's likeness without their permission is verstrengt verboten).

Kallipsoe · November 2014

My character customization wish list.

Barber Shop In game.

Face Changer “just like the one in Skyrim in the Thieves Guild” in game.

Tattoo Parlor in game.

Split Adornments into several sub categories Tattoos, Scares, Jewelry and Facial Hair. This will allow the players to have tattoos, scares and jewelry instead of just one on their character.

Costume crafting as part of the clothing skill. This will allow players to make costumes that let them look the way they want no matter what armor they wear.

Jewelry crafting as part of blacksmith skill. Not only to build rings to enchant but to make nose rings, ear rings and other adornments that unlock new character customization at the tattoo parlor.

A quest line where your soul is ripped from your body “again” and placed in a meat suit after your old body was destroyed. This would be a lore friendly race change with possibly a real world purchase to unlock the quest and maybe a nice “9 month reward” for the players.

Achievements that unlock things like glowing eyes, eerie glow around body and other effects to demonstrate your power.

Power customization much like we saw in City of Heroes. This would not change the effect in any way but only the animation of the ability. This would allow Sorcerers to make the “Crystal Shard” look like an ice shard, fireball, lightning bolt or “color of the player’s choice” energy bolt. Again this would not change the power in any way just the animation in order to allow a players character to fall more in line with what the player wants. I would love to have a Dragon knight spit out a green vile instead of breathing fire. This alone would allow us to make almost any kind of character we wanted just because it would look like we wanted it to.

As I think of more I will defiantly add them to the list.

Wing · November 2014

thanks for keeping this alive guys, can we get some @ZOS_JessicaFolsom action in here to know this has been seen and on the radar? this is pretty important stuff for some of us

khele23eb17_ESO · November 2014

What I think should definitely be added is either the ability to reforge armor to a different motif or the option to craft your own costumes. Theres really no reason for an MMO in 2014 to have high/max level characters afflicted by the dreaded clown suit syndrome.

qiyamatawilrwb17_ESO · November 2014

hear me out here....
Luminous gear colors...
obviously there would be some that abuse it, but ive been using a smattering of the brightest aqua color along with metallic bronze and black on my firemage.
obviously luminous flora and fauna occur naturally... why not smear a mushroom over yourself?

qiyamatawilrwb17_ESO · November 2014

battle-scar rewards! wear that missing eyeball proudly to prove you took down the biggest and badest!

or, tattooists ingame offering alternative tattoos to the character creation.
(still want black tattoos on vamp skin!)

qiyamatawilrwb17_ESO · November 2014

add children to the cities. and ofc make them non-killable

qiyamatawilrwb17_ESO · November 2014

wouldnt it be good if your player's hair grew on its own and you HAD to visit the "barber".

manny254 · November 2014

Haven't done this myself, but if you send a support ticket with a valid reason you can get a name change.

Wing · November 2014

qiyamatawilrwb17_ESO wrote: »

wouldnt it be good if your player's hair grew on its own and you HAD to visit the "barber".

lol, this made me think of the first fable, when you got out of jail your hair would start to grow because you had yet to go to a barber, and I always forgot till your beard began to clip through your helmet XD

op updated btw /thumbs up

Wing · November 2014

and btw im kind of against the unkillable children, there are always some that are just @$$hats and you need to use mods to be rid of.

abigfishy · November 2014

Barber and tattooist seem like no-brainers. I also like the idea to hide shoulders, gloves, belt and/or feet. You can already wear a costume so no-one knows what you are really wearing so why not? Shield dying would also be great.

Wing · November 2014

Thanks for all the support guys, please keep posting your thought and comments here so we can get this stuff the attention it needs