One of the biggest things that have always bugged me about ESO is the inability to change the appearance of a piece of gear. Sometimes a new style is introduced that I would like to try out but the cost of crafting the same set I am wearing in that new style is extremely prohibitive, especially if I have fully upgraded my gear. Some of the most popular item sets are also in styles which I consider boring. I have thought about this for a while and I have finally managed to flesh out a new game system in my head which I would like to suggest to everyone, especially the Devs. This system can also add new utility and vitality to the research mechanic and also increase the scope of all three consumable professions. My suggestion for an appearance conversion system is as follows:

Research:

• You can research appearance conversion for each corresponding motif chapter you know (13 in total for every motif)
• Research will require destruction of an item crafted in that motif chapter by yourself
• Research time will increase for every chapter in that motif style that you have already researched
• Motifs like the Nord or Daedric with only 1 motif chapter will still be divided into 13 research chapters
• The research passives in the woodworking, clothing and blacksmithing trees will affect research times and numbers. The blacksmithing passive will affect melee weapons; the clothing passive will affect armour pieces and the woodworking passive will affect bows, shields and staves.

Changing appearance interface:

• The appearance change system is accessed via the armor/weapon crafting interface, in a tab similar to the "item improvement" tab
• Any item, including non-crafted sets and pieces can have the appearance changed to any style you have researched for that particular type of item
• Three different crafted consumables (which I will call red, green and blue "catalyst") are consumed in the conversion process
• The ratio of the "catalyst" consumables used in the process depends on the type of item being converted (for example a chest item vs a sword)
• The amount of catalyst used also scales to the champion level of the item being converted
• Once converted, a tag is applied to the item that says Appearance:<Motif Style> and the item cannot be converted again while its appearance is changed
• Appearance change can be reverted to the original by right clicking in the inventory and selecting "Revert appearance"
• Items remain bind on equip after the first conversion; however, on reverting it becomes bound to the player
• Items can be dyed in their new style just like any normal item currently

Crafting Catalyst

• Red, green and blue catalyst are crafted through the furniture interfaces of enchanting, provisioning and alchemy respectively
• The praxis/recipe/formula for each catalyst will be obtained by combining 10 different recipe fragments for each together with something like merethic restorative resin (available currently from mystics)
• Each fragment would be obtained by a rare drop through a different avenue. Writs, master furnisher boxes, PVP, trials, world bosses, undaunted pledges, dungeon bosses, world events (eg jesters festival), the justice system etc are just a few ways the different recipe fragments can be spread across the game to make the process of obtaining the recipes relevant to everyone as well as make the recipes more difficult to obtain overall
• Catalyst recipe fragments as well as catalyst can be traded and sold at guild vendors. This will enable people who do not participate in a particular activity to make use of the system as well

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TLDR; This is my suggestion for a system to enable the changing of appearance of a piece of gear into that of a crafted style you already know