Premade Costumes Need To Stop - CUSTOM Costume Slots / Scrolls (Suggestion!)

ForestGuard · July 2015

Forest Guard here, leader of the once-featured Bramblescar Clan and the guy who keeps the [PC-NA] RP Community Guild Map running over on TESO-RP.com. Before I start I will say I love this game. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't have been subbed since launch and on into Tamriel Unlimited. This is the game I've been waiting for, for 10 years, and I merely want it to be everything it can and (IMO) should be.

Sadly, TESO is behind the other MMORPGs out there on (armor) appearance customization, which doesn't really help to sell the idea of "Tamriel Unlimited".

SW:TOR has Outfit Slots. (Purchased without real money.)
Rift has Wardrobes. (Purchased without real money.)
WoW has Transmogrification. (Purchased without real money.)
...and so on. (I know there are plenty more.)

What I am suggesting here is a compromise. I don't mind paying real money for this sort of feature, but I do mind paying real money for costumes that we can't customize or dye in any way shape or form. That is something no game out there wants to do to their players, and for good reason. I, and much of the community, was overjoyed when dyes were released-... but now if we buy and use a costume ALL of that work is meaningless, all of the dyes unlocked through hard-won achievements are useless.

Most people use costumes for one reason: They don't look as bad as their leveling / PvE / PvP gear. Is that a good enough reason to have them? They simply look LESS bad? I don't think so. We don't want to make our character look less bad than they already do, we want to make them look exactly as cool as they're supposed to be. So here is what I think needs to happen:

New Crown Store Items:

Costume Creation Scroll: 500 Crowns
-Consuming this scroll will save your current outfit's appearance and turn it into a Custom, Re-Nameable Costume accessible from your collectibles menu. The costume will never disappear, but after 30 days it will become Locked, at which point you CAN delete it. To unlock your costumes you will need to use a Costume Recharge Gem, making it accessible for another 30 days.

Costume Recharge Gem: 50 Crowns
- Can Be Traded - Consume this gem to access any Locked Custom Costume for 30 days.

Costume Edit Gem: 50 Crowns
- Can Be Traded - Consume this gem to save up to two changes to your current Costume. (Cheaper than buying a new Scroll if you find an item or two that work better with your set.)

I think this would inspire more subs, and Crown purchases. To give eight characters a Custom Costume it would be 4000 gems. (But who needs to outfit eight characters with costumes for leveling / gameplay?) Keeping those (theoretical) eight costumes charged each month would be 400 Crowns a month (bit less than a costume pack) and leaving you with 1100 Crowns if you're subbed. (Again, that's assuming you actually have eight costumes to charge.)

Alternatively (maybe preferably) you could simplify it and give us Custom Costume Slots, and allow us to unlock them for 500 Crowns each. Saving a set would be as easy as right clicking and saving. No pesky scrolls or gems, but after you unlock the slot it still goes inactive after a month and you have to pay the same 50 Crowns to unlock it.

Why is this important?

Some of us use clothes and armor to express our characters in ways that are instantly lost and forgotten when we actually want to enjoy the game's content, losing our character to 'this stranger who keeps putting bloody mismatched gloves / boots on because somehow he knows they have 50 more armor'.

The question is-... Why shouldn't my guild-mate and I be able to EASILY look like this while we play:

Instead of this?

XxTemppyxX · July 2015

im all for this..some costumes are good as is..but some I would love to dye..but even with skyrim..and so on tes has always seemed to lack with customization...something they should improve for eso...most games ive played have a unique slot window just to add pieces for a costume..allows u to dye them and hide what you dont want to see.

however, what this game does have..i must admit..the armor while leveling looks a hell of alot better then in most mmos lol

FancyTuna8 · July 2015

I like the idea of costume slots, as something in collectibles so they don't take up inventory, but not sure how that works for armor with stats. I could see it for non-armor, working the way the jester costume works.
I also don't think it has to be as convoluted as what you proposed. Not sure if I read correctly that you are saying we pay real money for costume, and then have to pay ongoing to unlock it for a month?

I would like a "Clothing" outfit that automatically comes on when I enter a town's limits, and off when I leave. I should be able to slot clothes I find/buy into this. I don't mind if I am choosing either from regular clothes found in game, or (nicer/better) clothing pieces I can buy (account-wide) from the crown store and dye to my desires. They could make plenty of money off me buying a couple different styles of leg and torso coverings, as well as hats and boots (and possibly gloves.)
I'm betting many subscribers would end up spending at least a third of their monthly crown allotment on these pieces, assuming they were interesting. They could start with real-world examples of clothing from ancient up to renaissance times, and then stylize them to fit the racial styles in game. Hint: I would buy a samurai's basic robe, as well as a kimono (imported from Akiviri). Plus a fancy middle ages shirt like a noble would wear. Look up some burial/ceremonial Saxon/Anglish/Viking clothes--that's a buy from me.
I'd pay for slots for clothes, probably at least 2 (male and female), plus the clothing pieces themselves.

Coni · July 2015

Two examples of well thought-out custom clothing options - LoTRO has many costumes available to buy and slots for each character to store them (2 free 'costume' slots with more purchasable from the in-game store). It also has a 'wardrobe' where you can drag gear you have acquired and it becomes 'appearance' gear that can be shared by all your characters. You can also dye ANY piece of clothing (whether it is cosmetic or adventuring) although the dye system is much more basic than ESO's.

The now no longer MMO, Vanguard, had a second set of character gear slots which you could use either for 'appearance' gear or as a spare set of armour (items in the spare set were not damaged when you died).

In both these examples you could choose which items displayed individually so you could hide the helmet or the gloves... in VG there was also the option for a character to appear bare-chested for all those barbarian types

Ninjury · July 2015

I'm not into RP, not am I into social armor - but I stumbled across this and decided to take a look due to the social armor unlock during Veteran Ranks.

Racial styles aside, I think you're bringing a very good suggestion to the table. Considering I get my custom appearances (I too, like to express my character by looking smashing) through racial styles when crafting, I would still like to see this suggestion in the works.

If a game is going to apply social armor, there's one way to do it, and that is through letting the players customize their setup freely. Whether it should cost crowns or not is an entirely different story, but I can imagine the profits from costumes would rise if it allows one to be creative and bring his or her own look to it.

My two cents.

ForestGuard · July 2015

While I definitely agree new clothing options should be sold in the Crown store, this is mostly about the resources we have now and the fact that we can't make the best use of them.

Costumes + Dyes = Dyes are wasted.
Costumes + Dozens of Armor Models = Models are wasted. Forced into a handful of static, pre-made looks.
Dozens of Armor Models + Leveling = Models are wasted. Forced into a mishmash of undesirable looks. Leave behind "low tier" appearances out of necessity.
Dozens of Armor Models + Dungeon Loot / Armor Sets = Models are wasted. Forced into a handful of mostly static and undesirable looks, all in the pursuit of the best stats / bonuses.

Custom Costumes = UNLIMITED(tm) access to all resources and looks. Dye any pieces you can get any colors you can dye and make your character who they are supposed to be.

Rev Rielle · July 2015

I like your ideas. They've been spoken about many times on the forums.
We can only hope ESO has listened and it is one of the "Quality of Life" mechanics they're working on.

MornaBaine · July 2015

I realllly want costume slots that allow ME to customize costumes. But I really don't want to pay for them more than once.

YourDugsBalls · July 2015

I used to play another MMO called Runescape now you could buy an item for real money on there store called a "Dragon Keepsake Key" now this item could be used to store armour which you obtained as a drop or bought. You could mix items to wear that were clothing or armour and use it to cover up what you had underneath to still wear what you thought looked cool. The majority of players would use clothes while still having the full benefit of the armour they were wearing. This was a massive hit on the game and everyone wanted these keys. The only exception in this rule which I agree with was it got dissabled in PvP zones

QueenAyrenn · July 2015

Yeah, I was a bit shocked when I realized we couldn't alter our appearance from the armor we have equipped, save some premade costume, and disguises.

It erks me when I level an alt, because even though you change your armor almost constantly 1-50, it looks the exact same for around 10 levels at a time. Let me craft some daedric robes, and set that in the appearance tab.

Gogog Bloodthroat · July 2015

I would like to see how everquest 2 had the alt-appearance where you can put armor on just for looks while you had your actually armor on under it. That way you can make your character look how you wanted without having to sacrifice the bet set combinations cause it looks like crap

Atleast my opinion on it.

ForestGuard · July 2015

Glad to see so many people agree. I got a mod comment on my other main suggestion thread (Restoration Staff Types - Light, Blood & Nature) hopefully this will get some attention too.

thunderwell · July 2015

I like the way LotTO did it.
You have a seperate character panel with slots that save the appearance of the appropriate costume/gear.
WoW did an ok way of customization.
Go to a vendor and pay in game gold to change the appearance of your armour.
Though, WoW did have limits: Plate armour to plate armour, cloth to cloth, etc.

LotTO's method, you could exploit the wardrobe "Bank" and have your light/cloth wearing class look like they're wearing heavy/plate armour.
This wardrobe bank saves appearances of various wearables.

Neebs · August 2015

All for this, lotro nailed it, the outfit system there is great, some sort of custom outfit here would, personally, make the game a lot more awesome then it already is.

temjiu · October 2015

Necro to this thread because it's worth it. Came back to the game to try out the new areas, and surprised that they still haven't instituted a customization process yet.

GW2 allows you to unlock all the "skins" in the game, and apply skins individually to each gear slot. cost = 1 token, which are bought in packs of 5 in the store for a fair price. each time you change a gear piece you need to re-skin it, but tokens are relatively cheap in comparison. i have no issues paying for the tokens.

Wildstar has a hugely open and accessible customization window. you can unlock up to 1000 different skins, and apply them at any time for free most often. adding dyes can cost in game currency...but you can have multiple gear sets and hotkey them to switch at will.

FFXIV has one as well. a bit more clunky, but it's there...

LoTRO has already been mention, as has WoW. Neverwinter Online has one too...and IMO they are making far worse decisions in design then ESO is, so if they can get it in game...

Path Of Exile even has a custom gear skinning feature...and it's a small game made by a small indie company. Hoping Z recognizes this...they are one of the few (only?) modern MMO's without a full gear customization mechanic. IMO it is now an industry standard. and f2p isn't an excuse...80% of my list above are f2p games (Wildstar added the customization during the f2p transition)

I think you would be amazed at how much you would make ($$$) from the store if you put that in game Z. Personally, I LIKE spending money on games that allow me to do stuff like this...hint hint...often above and beyond what you get for a monthly fee.

And easy way to get it started Z is to copy GW2. create tokens, sell them in small packs (one pack could have enough tokens to reskin a full gear set, minus weapons), and there ya go. skin is permanent unless you decide to reskin the same gear. replacing the gear means you need to re-skin your new gear. it's simple to deploy, its a renewable income source, and it gives Prems something small and consistent to burn their free crowns on.

Remember...all those packs you sell in the store atm are one-shot willies. This idea means regular....consistent...income source

Erdmanski · October 2015

Another solution would be to make it so you can freely convert your amor style back and forth, similar to how you can convert items to Imperial. Make it so you can convert any time to any style you have learned.

Then, add in a feature for researching costumes/appearances/apparel items. This would consume the appearance/apparel, but let you convert items to these styles freely as well. They would be uncraftable, but you could keep your armor stats while wearing that servant outfit style.

Gidorick · March 2016

I personally wish they went with custom costume slots and Tailoring motifs that allowed us to make non-armor clothing in pieces. Dress as you want and then "make" a costume with those items (consuming the items)....

ESO is filled with many MANY should-haves. Probably like all other MMOs.

AlienSlof · March 2016

Making them dyeable would be a good start, so we can at least use our favourite colours and get some variety.