Upgraded Version of the Kyne's Aegis Trial Skin in the Crown Crates (Why This is a Bad Decision)

starkerealm · June 2020

karekiz wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

AlienSlof wrote: »

shaielzafine wrote: »

The game devs consistently show they do not value hardcore players' time and effort. They value casual players forking out money for story and casual content.

No, this is an incorrect assumption. The MARKETING department decides how the art assets are distributed; the devs are just told to make stuff. They may not even know exactly how that skin, or that model, or that emote will be offered to the gaming customer. They are told to make, they make.

I worked for a very short time for an up-and-coming game developer (it eventually fizzled out and nothing ever came of it), and I was asked to make this or that. No one told me how those assets would be offered to players, whether in-game or monetised. That part of the team was nothing to do with me or the other artists.

Close, not quite.

The Crown Store team is distinct from marketing, and seems to get first pick when new cosmetic items are created. I'm still not 100% certain the Bloodroot Forge skin wasn't intended to be a dungeon reward until the Crown Store team wandered in and laid claim.

There is a very old video where they said it was. The skin was created as a reward but then they swapped to a hat.

The reason stated was to allow players to equip both rewards at the same time <Hat + Skin> vs Hist rewards of two skins and only one wearable.

It makes some sense, but it was a back peddle at the time.

Fang Lair/Scale Caller has always had the best combo rewards. Personalities would be a great Vet trial Trifecta reward. Mounts too <Godslayer>.

Yeah, I should have said, "convinced," not, "certain."

Michaelkeir · June 2020

starkerealm wrote: »

Pauls wrote: »

skinnycheeks wrote: »

But the truth is: we like them as rewards because they are a visual representation of an accomplishment. When I earned my hideous purple skin from completing Veteran Cloudrest +3, I didn't care that it was ugly and looked like giant purple wrinkles. I wanted to wear it everywhere because I was proud of the achievement.

Not "we" but you. Speak for yourself, oh – you already did.
You may be surprised that people like skins not only to brag about but also because they like how it looks, so it doesnt matter how its obtained.

You may have missed a critical detail here. Just because you, "like," skins, doesn't mean they should be selling skins that are very close to existing billboard skins.

Nobody is complaining about the Opal skin, or the Maomer skin, or the flame attro skin, or the deadwater skin, or the Peryite skin, or the frost rhime skin. At least, if they are complaining about them, it's not about their existence, just about the price.

The issue here is that there's a skin directly designed to undermine the prestige of a vet trial skin. If ZOS decided to start selling an alternate version of Blackmarrow Necromancer with a slightly different glow pattern, you can bet people would be extremely upset. It is deeply insulting to anyone who worked for that skin.

While I get that you might like skins, if you want the prestige of wearing one of the billboard skins, you should earn that skin, not buy a knockoff from the Crown Store, and leave people questioning if the skin they're seeing is the result of someone working for it, or opening their wallet. That's a reprehensible slap in the face to anyone who runs endgame content.

At this rate, it's only a matter of time before ZOS starts selling those skins for Event Tickets.

They have. The Psijic glowing Tattoo looks VERY similiar to the Blackmarrow necromancer skin but the color is more pronounced. I was shocked upon seeing it after earning mine after hours of running that dungeon only to see a more brighter version of it given away for free.

starkerealm · June 2020

Michaelkeir wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

Pauls wrote: »

skinnycheeks wrote: »

But the truth is: we like them as rewards because they are a visual representation of an accomplishment. When I earned my hideous purple skin from completing Veteran Cloudrest +3, I didn't care that it was ugly and looked like giant purple wrinkles. I wanted to wear it everywhere because I was proud of the achievement.

Not "we" but you. Speak for yourself, oh – you already did.
You may be surprised that people like skins not only to brag about but also because they like how it looks, so it doesnt matter how its obtained.

You may have missed a critical detail here. Just because you, "like," skins, doesn't mean they should be selling skins that are very close to existing billboard skins.

Nobody is complaining about the Opal skin, or the Maomer skin, or the flame attro skin, or the deadwater skin, or the Peryite skin, or the frost rhime skin. At least, if they are complaining about them, it's not about their existence, just about the price.

The issue here is that there's a skin directly designed to undermine the prestige of a vet trial skin. If ZOS decided to start selling an alternate version of Blackmarrow Necromancer with a slightly different glow pattern, you can bet people would be extremely upset. It is deeply insulting to anyone who worked for that skin.

While I get that you might like skins, if you want the prestige of wearing one of the billboard skins, you should earn that skin, not buy a knockoff from the Crown Store, and leave people questioning if the skin they're seeing is the result of someone working for it, or opening their wallet. That's a reprehensible slap in the face to anyone who runs endgame content.

At this rate, it's only a matter of time before ZOS starts selling those skins for Event Tickets.

They have. The Psijic glowing Tattoo looks VERY similiar to the Blackmarrow necromancer skin but the color is more pronounced. I was shocked upon seeing it after earning mine after hours of running that dungeon only to see a more brighter version of it given away for free.

Key differences there being; the Psijic tattoos were earned through ingame activities, they were body markings, not a skin, and they came out over a year after Dragonbones.

The part where the Blackmarrow Necromancer was a skin was very important to players who wanted to hide their vampirism, and the skin was a go to way to achieve that for a lot of players. Something the Psijic body markings did not do.

skinnycheeks · June 2020

Pauls wrote: »

skinnycheeks wrote: »

But the truth is: we like them as rewards because they are a visual representation of an accomplishment. When I earned my hideous purple skin from completing Veteran Cloudrest +3, I didn't care that it was ugly and looked like giant purple wrinkles. I wanted to wear it everywhere because I was proud of the achievement.

Not "we" but you. Speak for yourself, oh – you already did.
You may be surprised that people like skins not only to brag about but also because they like how it looks, so it doesnt matter how its obtained.

Being proud of an accomplishment is NOT AT ALL the same thing as bragging. Just because I'd want to wear something and feel proud of what that represents doesn't mean I'm running in circles around people in town saying, "look at me, look at me!" You've got the wrong impression. It's a personal thing, not a show-off thing.

WrathOfInnos · June 2020

skinnycheeks wrote: »

Pauls wrote: »

skinnycheeks wrote: »

But the truth is: we like them as rewards because they are a visual representation of an accomplishment. When I earned my hideous purple skin from completing Veteran Cloudrest +3, I didn't care that it was ugly and looked like giant purple wrinkles. I wanted to wear it everywhere because I was proud of the achievement.

Not "we" but you. Speak for yourself, oh – you already did.
You may be surprised that people like skins not only to brag about but also because they like how it looks, so it doesnt matter how its obtained.

Being proud of an accomplishment is NOT AT ALL the same thing as bragging. Just because I'd want to wear something and feel proud of what that represents doesn't mean I'm running in circles around people in town saying, "look at me, look at me!" You've got the wrong impression. It's a personal thing, not a show-off thing.

The Dawnbringer totem memento is a perfect example here. That awful reward cannot be used as a subtle cosmetic to show you are proud of an accomplishment. It only exists to be a blatant and disruptive brag.

Skins, mounts, costumes, hats, dyes, polymorphs etc are a much better way to reward players for achievements. Assuming they are not cheapened by similar products in the cash shop that require zero effort to obtain.

siddique · June 2020

I completely agree with the OP here. A crown store version of purple can also be found. The vscp skin and psijic body marks seem to be very similar as well.

I find it greedy, in bad taste and downright lazy attitude.

Vrienda · June 2020

I just wish they'd make the older skins easier to obtain.

I'd give the veteran DLC dungeons a go if they guaranteed the skin for completion. As it is now the Dungeon DLC's are useless for me.

Vaoh · June 2020

Another issue is that there’s this strange mentality that only 0.00000001% of people even play PvP and Endgame PvE, therefore it’s pointless to put truly exclusive rewards into those activities or fix performance.... as a result, ZOS did a few things:
• Sunspire’s Ice-Fire skin reward is a worse copy of the Crystalfrost skin
• Kyne’s Aegis Seaborn Silver skin reward is a worse copy of the Runic Seabrume skin
• Bloodroot Forge’s Blood-Forged skin reward was ripped from the dungeon and placed into the Crown Store
• Siegemaster’s Warhorse would have been earned in-game through collecting seven Ironclad Requisition fragments in PvP, but was instead placed into the Crown Store
• Crown Crates feature something like 2-3 skins every season and often feature unique designs, unlike the past two years of trial skins.

There’s more but you get the idea.....

I’d argue that if ESO followed the guidelines of game balance we had in Homestead, and if the game performance was at least as good as back then, this game would be thriving far more than it ever has at any point so far. Especially in PvP and Endgame PvE. These two populations used to be huge because those aspects of ESO were amazing.

xaraan · June 2020

One other annoying thing to add is that the skin you earn in the trial ignores the fact you have a tail if you are argonian, yet the one you get from crates will have the pattern along the tail.

SORjosh · June 2020

I agree with OP on this. Trial skins should be unique and stand out, and should be nothing like what is sold in the crown store. Also, zos needs to do a better job on the trial skins all together imo. vss and vka skins are fugly. I only kept them on long enough to take a group photo and then slapped my VAS skin back on.

xF1REFL1x · June 2020

We still get a cool title...

montiferus · July 2020

ZOS loves to pander to the low APM player base. You can see it first hand in this thread lol.

It is a joke that they make these skins so similar.

Aztrias · August 2020

I actually think the trail one looks better

The Crown one is a bit too flashy for my tastes.

Lord_Wrath · August 2020

The sad thing is: Zos knew better and they did it anyways.

Rexy18 · August 2020

For this particular skin it doesn't make that much of a big difference since it only requires veteran completion, not hardmode (unlike AS and CR), meaning most people will have it anyway. But I do agree that PvE rewards should be highly distinguishable from bought stuff