Dyes or "Layers" ? colors, thumbnails and tiers.

Harvall · January 2016

I wanted to start a discussion about current state of dyes, colors and thumbnails that represent them. Response from ZOS would also be nice accent, altough i realize, chances for that are rather low, especially in a discussion of minor importance like this.

I wanted to start with a word, that coloring system IS in good state as it is. Recently added possibility to dye shield has been huge impact and allows for more stylish look for shield users. However, there are still inconsistencies among them that i hoped to be fixed in the "shield dye" patch. Here is mine "default look"

Dyes, are actualy "layers" in understanding as final color is a result of blending armor color and the dye i believe ? anyways, this system is fragile and wrong. One dye is supposed to color your armor in the same fashion, while currently final result is dependant on racial style of the piece. Here is an example

Here i applied "Daedric Red" to the glove piece and chest piece. I remind - same dye. Result is obviously diffrent.

Next thing, Thumbnails. color they represent is in many cases wrong entirely. Darker thumbnail is brighter in result that brighter thumbnail of the same color. Here i used "Starlight Gold" which has obviously brighter thumbnail and "Hlaalu Gold" which has darker thumbnail. Tried my best to get good shot but it may be still had to see diffrence for some. Here is an comparison. Results are opposite (besides color diffrences between pieces described higher)

Next thing, Tiers, or color bars that a person can select to apply dye to. Sometimes they are mixed. What i mean is. from my (long) experience If you use heavy armor, first bar from the left is supposed to be the "primary" - coloring the main plates of the armor. Middle bar is supposed to be secondary - coloring the edges and sides. Third bar (farmost right) is tertiary - coloring straps and leather paddings. Some armors have them mixed in a way that middle bar colors straps and third bar colors edges and so on. This leads to wrong results if using "dye all" option, leaving wrong colors exposed and making armor look wrong. Example.

Gold colored second bar on leg piece which colors edges and sides along with gold colored second bar on chest piece which colors straps and leather paddings

Colors should look the same with the same dye, no matter what style of the piece is used or what bar colored. This mostly applies to shields. color should be the same. but they are not because of "layer". Example:

Boots are metal and shield is not ? yet diffrent results (i know that shields are made with wood in ESO, but all shields in game are divided to metal and wood. You can know which one is which by listening to a block sound. its more clingy with metal shields)

Last thing i want to mention is a fact that some colors do not apply at all on some pieces and bars. I dyed my whole armor with "Coldharbour Ash Black" in one screenshot and dyed mine bosmer style pauldron with "Birch White" in PRIMARY slot in second screenshot. No effect at all. nothing is changed. (i assure you i checked all possible angles) Take a look and those two. (besides that in the bosmer pauldron primary bar is mixed with tertiary as well)

Overall i noticed that Mercenary style causes most problems. It has everything wrong in it what i described in the post. Wrong color, wrong bars, everything.

That would be all. I encourage to reply and say what do you think about it.

daemonios · January 2016

100% agreed. Dyeing right now is awesome as a possibility, but the results are often disappointing, for the reasons you stated so extensively.

Also, keeping in mind that dyes were introduced as rewards for achievements, I'd like to be able to show I've done a particularly hard achievement through my armour colours. Right now that's all but impossible because for the same dye there are huge differences in the final result depending on armour weight and racial style.

LadyNalcarya · January 2016

daemonios wrote: »

100% agreed. Dyeing right now is awesome as a possibility, but the results are often disappointing, for the reasons you stated so extensively.

Exactly. Especially white colors, they look dirty/stained all the time, and reds that often look too pale/greyish.

rhymer · January 2016

Absolutely agree. Especially it is noticable with the uncommon racial styles. Dwemer shields and engine's guardian pauldrons look the same with any color applied. It should definitely be changed!

Acrolas · January 2016

In a way, it's working as intended. The powder dye would blend, not replace, color. So if you add dark red to white, you get a light red. That's why the mid-neutrals like brown and gray, and other mid earthtones, are easier to dye.

A super-easy gold sink would be to sell an alloy that turns all the colors of an armor to medium matte silvers. Then most dyes would color as seen. A color change would probably be faster to roll out than adding whole transparent style layers to every piece of armor, because color change would really just be a grayscale version of the original armor - from a design standpoint, just a few clicks per item.

Recremen · January 2016

I love the dyeing system, but it does have a few issues like this. Maybe they'll continue to improve it as we move forward?

Invictus13 · March 2016

Huge problem because shield dye does not correspond to the armor dye of the same style.

daemonios · March 2016

I changed a few pieces of armour on my tank yesterday and wanted to dye them the same way as the previous ones. It seems to be getting worse and worse! I'd dye my legs and part of my armour would change color! It's seriously a mess and, while not my biggest peeve in the game, I think it's high time they looked into it.

We need dyes to look the same on armour as they do on the selection boxes. We need armour pieces to actually be dyeable. We need one piece's colour not to change when you dye another piece.

Forestd16b14_ESO · March 2016

And here I am still waiting for weapon dyes let alone a revamp dye system.