Outfit Station and dyeing equipment

katanagirl1 · September 2022

I admit I probably don't use the outfit station as much as most players, and recently bought another outfit slot from the crown store so I can change a style on one of my characters for one set of gear. My intent was to use one outfit with one build in the armory and the other outfit with another. I have one set that I crafted in a certain style and I don't want to change that style, but do want to dye all the gear.

So at some point in the past this last set of gear, the crafted set, became an outfit, probably because I just did if for an Endeavor. I started playing around with the outfit station a few days ago to better understand how it works before I use the new outfit slot, and found something I am not sure is working properly (at least not the way I understand it). Recently I saw something on the ESO webpage about outfit stations, and it stated you can always dye your gear without having to pay gold. I am not sure that is the case.

Here I chose "No Outfit" to dye my gear, first armor and then weapons. I can dye the armor pieces, but do not see a way to actually dye my weapons without an outfit slot. There are only options for offhand and backup weapons. Again, I do not want to apply another style to the weapons or the armor, just dye them.

Here is how it looks with an outfit applied. Now you see the bow and dual wield daggers. Again, no new style has been applied, I just dyed the gear and before I could exit I had to "Apply changes" to get it to save in the past.

Even if I choose the offhand weapon or backup weapon with "No Outfit" selected and select a dye, I get an error message about then not being dyeable.

Is this the way dyeing weapons is supposed to work? Or did something get bugged because I had to save as an outfit and there is no way to revert to just dyeing and saving?

ghastley · September 2022

This will not make any sense without an explanation of the history, and maybe not even then.

Before there were Outfit stations, there were Dye stations, which only handled dying, and the rules for what could be dyed, and how much that cost, were established for those. Weapons were not part of that, just body armor and helms. You could dye a costume, too.

Outfit stations came in as replacements for dye stations, with added functions. They could now replace the style, and not just the color, of items, and weapons were now included. All the new features had new prices, but old features of the dye station, and its pricing, remained the same.

There was a period of fiddling about with how “hide helmet” related to this, but that got resolved. Not the way we would like, with the hide option on each slot, but it is stable.

It helps to think of the outfit as an extra layer over the worn equipment. You need to buy the layer, and pay to dye it, even if the layer underneath can be dyed at a lower cost, or you can leave that slot out and let the worn item show.

And then there are disguises, tabards, polymorphs, and probably more ways to change appearance. Some are a total change, some incremental. It’s a wonder any of it works!

katanagirl1 · September 2022

Yeah, I used dye stations before they became outfit stations. I thought you could dye weapons with them, though. I guess it would explain what is happening. Did we all run around with red rubedite swords and daggers before outfit stations?

ghastley · September 2022

Yes we did. Weapon “morphing” was a major selling point, as you could do sword and shield with an axe that just looked like a sword. And it could be blue. I forget what the limitations are on that, as the novelty wore off quickly.

katanagirl1 · September 2022

So that means if I want to dye my crafted Xivkyn bow with colors I have to use an outfit slot. Not such a big deal when you already have one outfit slot.

Now that I have 3 builds in the Armory for this character, having bought a new Armory slot with Crowns, I have to buy another Outfit slot with Crowns so I can visually tell which set I have equipped. It’s double dipping on milking the customer that way.