I dislike your light, Gameboyfrank! [Hollowjack Feedback Thread]

manavortex · September 2016

I have given this some time to sink in, and the more I think about it, the more revolting I find the idea of Tamriel's adolescent population turning into Power Rangers even more than it's already the case with Dro'Mathra. Hollowjack is where I draw the line... Dark Brotherhood style.

The Elder Scrolls Offline used to be gritty fantasy games, and if you saw something flashy you knew that you were either about to make close acquaintance to a foyada or that some serious magic was about to hit your face. Saying that everyone and their stroboscoping FlashBangTigerMount shining like Las Vegas on hist sap would ruin the atmosphere is like saying that Molag Bal likes it rough. It's not only immersion-breaking, it hits immersion critical and it dies in agony.

Let me illustrate the problem.

If I had wanted to play the Orange Power ranger, I would've... oh, wait!

The main reason I'm so upset is that the gear is actually awesome. Dro'Mathra is an alternative Khajiit style, I love the bracer thingies that you wear around your biceps - but I can't wear it because I look like a Marvel character. Hollowjack medium is awesome, the sleeves are lovely and I dig how the inlayed textures dye differently from the cloth, but nobody will ever see it because it drowns in the HUGE NEON ADVERTISEMENT FOR BAD TASTE THAT SOMEONE SLAPPED ON TOP.

*clears throat*
I got carried away. Apologies.

Please, reconsider this. It's not fair towards your designers, and it's not what I play this game for.

TheDarkRuler · September 2016

I like the visual and I really want this visual on my main.

susmitds · September 2016

I, for one, am definitely going to wear Hallowjack medium with Valkyn Skoria.

manavortex · September 2016

susmitds wrote: »

I, for one, am definitely going to wear Hallowjack medium with Valkyn Skoria.

Please just... don't leave the basement, will you?

susmitds · September 2016

manavortex wrote: »

susmitds wrote: »

I, for one, am definitely going to wear Hallowjack medium with Valkyn Skoria.

Please just... don't leave the basement, will you?

You can find me at different times in Raw'lkha, Grahtwood and at times in Wayrest and Mournhold as well.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · September 2016

susmitds wrote: »

I, for one, am definitely going to wear Hallowjack medium with Valkyn Skoria.

We'll be able to use you for emergency lighting.

Ivan04 · September 2016

I agree. The reason I didn't quit this game (shortly after I started playing) is that that I compared the amount of silliness in this game to other MMOs, and came to conclusion that this game is only a little bit more silly than previous TES games, it was tolerable back then. It's a lot less tolerable now, seeing how the game slowly becomes a cartoon. Hopefully we will never see pandas in this game.
ZOS, please be original.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · September 2016

@Ivan04 >.> <.< Spectacled bear count?

manavortex · September 2016

I, for one, am definitely going to wear Hallowjack medium with Valkyn Skoria.

You know, Dremora are servants... easily enslaved... just a single little spell...
Are you looking for a job, maybe?

Ivan04 · September 2016

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

@Ivan04 >.> <.< Spectacled bear count?

Kung-Fu Spectacled Bear 4: Rise Of Blind Fury

Faulgor · September 2016

Huh?

Compared to Amber armor Hollowjack is freaking modest. Not even mentioning things like Morrowind Glass ...

manavortex · September 2016

Compared to Amber armor Hollowjack is freaking modest. Not even mentioning things like Morrowind Glass ...

Morrowind Glass was green, but at least it wasn't glowing. And Amber Armor, hmm, you do remember where you picked that stuff up, no?

Panda_iMunch · September 2016

I do think some of the armor is pretty ridiculous, but this is pretty tame. You should see some of the armor sets that looks like plastic with paint on them!

Look at glass, AD armor, dwemer silk looks like silly puddy, ancient orc looks like fruit roll ups with some of the rare dyes, and more that I do't care to look up. I don't mind armor having a slight polish to them, that was par for the course, but there's wasn't a mirror polish on everything. Seems that most armor these dats either makes you looks like colorful food, a mirror, or a joke. Can't we get some of the weathered adventure look?

Carbonised · September 2016

Dro-m'Athra had ample opportunity to be tasteful and fit the overall visual design of the rest of the motifs. And instead they came up with neon zigzags and an overall laughable and cartoonish design. Which immediately became insta-popular, as I crafter I get asked to make Dro-m'Athra all the time.

Hollowjack is, if possible, even worse than Dro-m'Athra. Seriously, the visual design and (usually) quality of this game is pretty much the only thing you got going for you, the rest of the boat is sinking fast. Did you fire your talented designers or what happened? Your motifs used to look so good. Why do you ruin it by adding these cartoonish and childish motifs. Did you do consumer statistics and find out that the average age of your subs is around 16 years old and felt like you needed to cater to that?

We don't need more Diablo III visuals in this game...

Valorin · September 2016

I have to agree with Manavortex here. Awesomely made, but totally the wrong lore for all that flashy stuff. I mean, if I walk around in the Shivering Isles, yeah, okay, there is some weird stuff going on, or in some other plane of Oblivion. But even now, with Dro M'athra style and Panther, Nirn has become a Las Vegas kind of place, and not the one I remember from the offline games.
"Sure," you might say, "it's second Era, perhaps it has been like that...", and I can't argue with that, but it's not the tune that got me going in any other Elder Scrolls game. It's awkwardly misplaced for me and kills off all the awesome work and detail that went into the less flashy worldspace.

I leave this guy here, whoever that is, whom I met in Eastmarch, not in the Shivering Isles as the outfit might make you think, but in beautifully cold and grim Skyrim... Immediately killed off the atmosphere and mood of my surroundings.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · September 2016

Faulgor wrote: »

Compared to Amber armor Hollowjack is freaking modest. Not even mentioning things like Morrowind Glass ...

I would like to argue that Oblivion's Glass armor was worse than Morrowind's.

Oblivion:

vs.
Morrowind:

manavortex · September 2016

I would like to argue that Oblivion's Glass armor was worse than Morrowind's.

Still better than Horrowjerk though

Valorin · September 2016

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

Faulgor wrote: »

Compared to Amber armor Hollowjack is freaking modest. Not even mentioning things like Morrowind Glass ...

I would like to argue that Oblivion's Glass armor was worse than Morrowind's.

In Morrowind it was more the possibilities of back-then graphics, that Skyrim glass armour just has a bad paintjob... That's _not_ what we are talking about. It's about cartoonishly glowing stuff. Like Dro M'athra and like Hollowjack.

Cloudless · September 2016

I'll have to agree with Manavortex. A few months ago (last year?) most new motifs really looked immersive and pleasantly fitting with the game environment - and I'm talking about glass too: glass armors have at least a lore-friendly reason to exist, and they're not near as gaudy as Hollowjack or Dro-m'Athra. Sure, armors can still be dyed in bright pink, but at least players aren't forced to use ridiculous colors on them. In the past few months, though, things seem to have been taken a worrying turn when it comes to that.
It seriously feels odd and unfitting when you meet some player wearing mercenary or base racial styles right next to your average Skoria/Dro-m'Athra wearing young player feeling like he needs to show off by giving everyone around him an epileptic crisis. I'm rather sure that most old time TES fans cringe as much as I do when witnessing that.

tl;dr: please ZOS, pretty please with moonsugar on top, reconsider some of your recent armor design choices.

Faulgor · September 2016

manavortex wrote: »

Compared to Amber armor Hollowjack is freaking modest. Not even mentioning things like Morrowind Glass ...

Morrowind Glass was green, but at least it wasn't glowing. And Amber Armor, hmm, you do remember where you picked that stuff up, no?

Yes I do, but Hollowjack doesn't seem to have very mundane origins either (although I haven't done the quest).

In principle I agree that I don't want everyone to run around like a power ranger, but armors like these do have their place in TES. It's just usually much rarer than you can expect in a game with thousands of players

But Dro-Mathra is cancer.

manavortex · September 2016

It's just usually much rarer than you can expect in a game with thousands of players

Yeah, 1.4 Shezzarine/epic champion per Era, and not gazillions of adolescents without taste buds...

ArtOfShred · September 2016

Yeah I have to agree too. I feel like its okay for certain things to exist like the Dro-m'Athra Panther and armor, Hist Guar etc, but they should be nowhere near as accessible or prevelant as they are. If the flashy stuff was a reward for difficult content or very large time sinks, the rarity might make it feel a bit more lore friendly. Like you see one dude in 1000 on a panther and go "whoa what is that and where is it from?" Now its like 1/10 is using either motif or mount and it just vomits all over immersion. Big pull for me to the game was the lack of sillyness or lore/immersion shattering things being present in the game, and that's starting to no longer be the case.

Kendaric · September 2016

It's not only the armor... the weapon ultimates as well. Those that I tried make you light up like a christmas tree, not exactly fitting for stamina-based ultimates.
In Morrowind and the other titles you could at least disable/change the overly bright and flashy stuff via mods...

AronTsoni · September 2016

I have to agree with Manavortex.

I have nothing much else to add, and yeah. flashy armour like this should be more special, like some rare uncraftble armor

Twirlz · September 2016

I totally agree with Manavortex here... Do we reeeeeally want this game to turn into some flashy Power rangers/World of Warcraft knockoff? This game's unique selling point is its atmosphere and immersive setting it shares with all the other TES games. If you sacrifice that to look like some glow-stick with a face then you will really be making many players sad.

perhaps the line should've been drawn at the Dro'martha motifs and that panther... Lets not have more shiny players running around breaking immersion...pretty please. I'm trying to see how this can fit in with the lore too... We know you can steal glow-sticks in the game but I'm not so sure if it justifies dressing as one. *shrugs*

elias.stormneb18_ESO · September 2016

Valorin wrote: »

I have to agree with Manavortex here. Awesomely made, but totally the wrong lore for all that flashy stuff. I mean, if I walk around in the Shivering Isles, yeah, okay, there is some weird stuff going on, or in some other plane of Oblivion. But even now, with Dro M'athra style and Panther, Nirn has become a Las Vegas kind of place, and not the one I remember from the offline games.
"Sure," you might say, "it's second Era, perhaps it has been like that...", and I can't argue with that, but it's not the tune that got me going in any other Elder Scrolls game. It's awkwardly misplaced for me and kills off all the awesome work and detail that went into the less flashy worldspace.

I leave this guy here, whoever that is, whom I met in Eastmarch, not in the Shivering Isles as the outfit might make you think, but in beautifully cold and grim Skyrim... Immediately killed off the atmosphere and mood of my surroundings.

The dro-m'Athra are from the Dark Behind the World, which is connected to Namira's (or Namiira's) Scuttling Void in Oblivion. The dro-m'Athra are not from Nirn, nor is their armour. Therefore your argument of how it was more fitting in the Shivering Isles makes no sense. It is the perfectly right lore for it. Please, make sure you know what you are talking about before you make an argument concerning it.

manavortex · September 2016

It is the perfectly right lore for it. Please, make sure you know what you are talking about before you make an argument concerning it.

So we're in the Dark Behind the World now?
Else, why would about 50% of Mournhold's population wear the local fashion in Namira's plane of Oblivion?

Mettaricana · September 2016

This is more of an argument of you worry about what your character wears ill worry about what mine wears I'm not forcing you to wear neon lights and ride neon tigers just because cyrodiil morrowind and skyrim are as vividly exciting as a wet paper bag in previous titles doesn't mean bright glowing armor isn't lore friendly. If you don't like it plenty of mmos to go play. Need to learn this is not lord of the rings or medieval earth drab mud and fleece whatever the devs deem lore exsists dromatha hallow jack whatever.

elias.stormneb18_ESO · September 2016

manavortex wrote: »

It is the perfectly right lore for it. Please, make sure you know what you are talking about before you make an argument concerning it.

So we're in the Dark Behind the World now?
Else, why would about 50% of Mournhold's population wear the local fashion in Namira's plane of Oblivion?

In Oblivion every other Bandit you encounterted would be wearing Daedric Armour if you were high enough level. Gameplay is not an accurate representation of the lore, I never claimed that it was. I was only arguing that the design choices for the dro-m'Athra style make perfect sense.

manavortex · September 2016

I was only arguing that the design choices for the dro-m'Athra style make perfect sense.

Sure, given that everyone is a Namira cultist all of a sudden (not saying that's impossible, just maybe silly). But point aside, since I don't think any of us is wrong:

Could the Oblivion-inspired armor maybe not look like Las Vegas on Skooma?

Edit: Please?

Elyu · September 2016

The dro-mathra skin is limited to those who have completed the hardest content in the game, scaled to max level only

Would it be so hard to have the 'look' of the armour limited to the rare gear that goes with the content?

If you want a craftable version of what the super-powerful monsters in the dungeon are wearing. make it a 'crafted replica' of the gear.

If anything I'd like to see a break between what is crafted and what is looted.

Have end-game gear have one unique look, and have new motifs be a look only crafters can make, that cannot be found on any monsters in game.