PTS Update 42 - Feedback Thread for Skill Styling

ZOS_GinaBruno · April 15

This is the official feedback thread for Skill Styling. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

Which Styles did you focus on collecting?
Were you able to figure out how to unlock any Styles you were interested in?
What did you think about how Styles were acquired?
Did you find Styles to be a good way to help customize your character?
Do you have any other general feedback?

MashmalloMan · April 16

I really really really love this system and I'm happy you started it off with 20+ earnable styles in game. Had this not been added this patch, no one would be surprised, however this is a welcome and fun addition. It's a great example of letting players earn better rewards and customize our characters. I hope you continue to add to it over time. I would not be surprised if you sell some of these for crowns/gems, but I really hope you still add them to content rewards, achievements, etc too. A fine balance between the 2 options would be nice.

Few points I'd like to mention:

You created cool new style icons in the skill menu, but these new icons don't appear on your skill bar. Missed opportunity and a bit perplexing as to why your artists(or perhaps coders) created them at all. Please place these on our skill bars.
I've heard some people express they would like a way to disable styles in pvp, while I don't agree because at the moment, they only effect universal skills and I feel they're still easy to identify. I think it would be nice to have an option for it client side the same way you can hide ally vfx as well. Should be shown by default, hidden optional.
I hope you add class pet reskins in the future, as long as they're in theme with the class like an Air Atronach in place of Matriarch for Sorc, but I personally think you should draw the line there, no colour styles. Universal skill colour styles help us better match them to our classes visual fantasy and are typically only 1-3 skills out of 12 on our bars. Eg. Blue Vigor for a Sorcerer. You can still easily identify a Sorc because of their blue/purple vfx from lightning/dark magic abilities, blue vigor only supports that. If class skills start becoming red/black/pink/green, etc, I feel you've gone too far in the direction of hurting class identity by stepping on each others visual fantasy's and making it hard to identify whos who at a moments glance.

Alp · April 17

All I want is a reskin that removes the red glow from my weapons when I have Grim Focus slotted.

olsborg · April 17

Couldnt figure out how to apply them to my skills.

Jierdanit · April 17

olsborg wrote: »

Couldnt figure out how to apply them to my skills.

It seems like some addons change the UI so you cant use them.

If you turn off your addons you should be able to chose the style of a skill in the skill book.

olsborg · April 17

Jierdanit wrote: »

olsborg wrote: »

Couldnt figure out how to apply them to my skills.

It seems like some addons change the UI so you cant use them.

If you turn off your addons you should be able to chose the style of a skill in the skill book.

Thanks!

QB1 · April 18

Yes!! Please add the new icons to our skill bars!

“You created cool new style icons in the skill menu, but these new icons don't appear on your skill bar. Missed opportunity and a bit perplexing as to why your artists(or perhaps coders) created them at all. Please place these on our skill bars.”

Sylvis · April 18

MashmalloMan wrote: »

You created cool new style icons in the skill menu, but these new icons don't appear on your skill bar. Missed opportunity and a bit perplexing as to why your artists(or perhaps coders) created them at all. Please place these on our skill bars.

If I were to hazard a guess I would say that they didn't have the new color icon replace the original icon because it applies to both morphs of the ability. It would be harder for the player to see at a glance which morph they chose (and I often switch between morphs depending on build or if I'm doing pve/pvp).

tsaescishoeshiner · April 18

Did you find Styles to be a good way to help customize your character?

Yes, however I think the effect won't kick in until there are more options. For example, it's nice to choose a purpley theme for destruction staff--having more colors in the future (like necromantic, daedric, druidic) would give more choice to differentiate each staff-user. It's a great start!

Do you have any other general feedback?

Specifically, the Onyx Force Pulse style had unusual contrast--the staff still has a white circular particle effect surrounded by black, which I thought was pretty distracting. I'd like it if it was all black, or even more of a shadowy effect or more colorful (like purple). There's something about the force pulse effect (being fast and not looking elemental) that makes it not fit in as much with the rest of the skill line. Lacking color was an issue (to my eye) that the Onyx effect doesn't address.

I found dual wield's option lacking in identity. I would hope for a wind effect or prismatic (like Prior Thierric) for dual wield. I know the other lines already have a red/bloody effect, but that would be good, too. And shadow for the thief types (for bow, too!)

Generally they're cool! Although some like Soul Trap and Entropy have such subtle effects, I wonder if focusing on more impactful visuals would have made more sense.

Erickson9610 · April 18

I need to repost this here, because I believe that Werewolf should not only get their own Grimoires to fill the holes in their builds, but also their own Skill Styles to give them some form of customization:

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Wuuffyy wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Skoomah wrote: »

Let’s face it. Going mag sorc is way more fun. I can get my melee bloodthirsty satisfaction from my DK. At least with DK, I can actually put my ESO fashion to good use. Werewolf fashion is boring.

Maybe in the future we'll get Skill Styles for the Werewolf Transformation skill to allow us to customize how our transformation looks? It'd be cool to be able to change the fur color or use polymorphs like the skeletal werewolf, and so on.

This should be a thing. At least dyeable fur colors (and I and many others would be willing to pay extra for this functionality).

You can't even argue the "can't tell which morphs" thing w/ the introduction of the scribing systems+the morphs are already easily distinguished by pets/no pets.

To prove your point, observe this:

This is a Pack Leader werewolf who was given the brown fur of the unmorphed Werewolf Transformation. Look at the variety of existing werewolf customization options that ZOS could give us:

Don't forget model swaps (polymorphs) like the undead werewolf or the skeletal werewolf:

The best part is, ZOS wouldn't need to create brand new assets for players. These already exist in-game. These might work like the Slate-Gray Summoned Bear collectible, which changes the fur color of Warden's bear from brown to grey.

Players can already hide their armor weight (with outfits) or race (with polymorphs), and Skill Styles serve to change the look of skills, so this is the most reasonable way to give Werewolf players some in-form customization.

Werewolf players lose access to all of their human form customization when they transform. Outfit styles, polymorphs, skins, and so on. Please give Werewolf players some Werewolf form customization. I would personally pay money just to have access to some form of customization for the form that I try to maintain.

T3vvy · April 19

I've found 2 bugs so far on the PTS, hope this is the right place to report them

Bug 1:
The new Snipe and Poison Arrow Styles have their symbols switched for some reason.

Bug 2:
The blessing of protection style is not unlocked by default on the template that is supposed to give full access.

Might post some feedback later, but so far it seems like some of the new styles look awesome, and some are barely noticeable or just kind of meh.

MashmalloMan · April 19

This isn't specific to skill styling, but on topic nonetheless.

This is a long standing request from the community, please consider removing, or at the very least adjusting the transparency applied to our characters from skills such as Sorc's Lightning Form, DK's Dragonblood, and Medium Armor's Evasion. This would improve player freedom, expression, and functionality.

We spend so much time on the visual's of our characters only for them to become invisible to not just us, but other players. Not to mention it adds confusion in visually cluttered fights for the most important aspect of understanding your characters light attack weaving timing and positioning. Many players feel forced to use metronome add-ons to better understand when to time light attacks because they can't see their character.

What's interesting is casting a skill that applies a visual effect to your characters textures like Blade Cloak, before you cast Lightning Form, prioritizes the 1st ability, cancelling out the transparency all together. I love the way this looks as an example of how it could work.

Removing (or adjusting) the transparency would not remove the vfx of lightning bolts or the spinning winds around our character, so they would still look and feel the same as we've always known them.

Lapin_Logic · April 19

Suggestion. Hair dye.

We can customise our flesh to be magma, we can customise meteor to be flame red and I can summon a fire steed all while stood at Auridon wall or chilling at a keep, Yet we can't change hair color without buying an appearance change token, and we can't dye our hair vibrant hues at all (we all want to see an orc with cotton candy pink hair), Or how about flaming hair particles that can be added to stock race hair, flaming dreads on a mag DK, surely the mages of Tamriel can come up with a simple illusion after 10 years?

emilyhyoyeon · April 19

Did you find Styles to be a good way to help customize your character?
With this first batch, no. But seeing the potential in it, yes; it's amazing character customization and what will keep me playing ESO, along with Scribing, until the game shuts itself down.

When I first heard about Styling during the announcement stream, I assumed that ''purple Wall of Elements'' and ''green Magelight'' meant that Wall of Elements could also be green and Magelight could also be purple, etc etc.

Like, I assumed each of the 22 skills coming with U42 Styling would get five or so colors you could pick from for each. Maybe this is coming in the future? If so, as in, if Styling is continually expanded upon as mentioned, I really hope we get a lot added each update.

What's coming with U42 is so bare that I'm almost completely uninterested in this first batch (compared to when I thought the first batch would be five or so color options for each of the 22 skills).

Do you have any other general feedback?
Otherwise, I want to add that the deep purple of Wall of Elements and Weakness to Elements is so beautiful. I really would love to see this color on way more skills, especially class skills, and especially nightblade skills.

All of the other colors are great too. Black Force Pulse is very cool. Ultimately I'd like to see each skill get all the colors other skills can get. Hopefully this is possible.

Yamenstein · April 19

Some of the new styles look great, others are barely noticeable. I suppose all the awesome ones are going to come from the crown store. I would expect to unlock these styles with the accomplishment of really simple achievements. Nothing here screams “grind for days” or “organise the best raid party”

Jsmalls · April 20

Do you have any other general feedback?

Very cool system but need to look into the interaction of visuals versus other effects that share those same visuals.

For example the new Meteor styling has the indicator very close to it potentially the exact same coloring as a Valkyn Skoria meteor. Previously (PvP) it's known you don't need to block when you know it's a Valkyn Skoria meteor, but you definitely have to hold block of it's a real Meteor. This takes away that differentiation.

It's not a bug but would definitely consider it an oversight. Would greatly appreciate them changing the color of the indicator for one of them.

HatchetHaro · April 21

Skill styling, while cool, is an accessibility nightmare.

Colourblind players will now have far more trouble distinguishing between different effects from allies and enemies, putting them at a clear disadvantage. Certain colours are far less visible to them.

Even regular players now have to keep track of two colours from the same ability, and in the heat of combat, trying to identify useful friendly buffs is now much harder.

Please consider allowing players the option to disable skill styles from simulated proxies. I understand that sort of defeats the whole purpose of the skill styling system, but the importance of accessibility can not be understated.

emilyhyoyeon · April 23

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

Like, I assumed each of the 22 skills coming with U42 Styling would get five or so colors you could pick from for each. Maybe this is coming in the future? If so, as in, if Styling is continually expanded upon as mentioned, I really hope we get a lot added each update.

What's coming with U42 is so bare that I'm almost completely uninterested in this first batch (compared to when I thought the first batch would be five or so color options for each of the 22 skills).

I felt like it would be helpful to add what I was interested in out of the first batch of skills, had the color options been what I assumed before
Wall of Elements: blue
Magelight: yellow
Combat prayer: yellow

ZoeliTintanie · April 23

[*] Which Styles did you focus on collecting?
- Created a Char with everything unlocked on PTS , haven't actually done the quests etc, waiting for launch day to enjoy the questing.

[*] Were you able to figure out how to unlock any Styles you were interested in?
N/A

[*] What did you think about how Styles were acquired?
[*] N?A
[*]
[*] Did you find Styles to be a good way to help customize your character?
Its a start, yes, but, I cannot customize my character the way I want with what's currently provided.

[*] Do you have any other general feedback?
- Pet Skins
- Color Wheel for skill color selection so we can really, customize
- styling for class skills (color wheel access)
- some class animations & skills are very very lackluster in comparison to the basic scribed skills and styled-skills offered.
- Some are even re-used (critical surge & overload *ult*) which would benefit from having access to the color wheel for class-skill color-styling (I love sorc but I want to see some other color lightning and have more prominent effects on things like Wards & Crystal Fragments)
- allow the players to pick the animation being used for scribed skills from a few options or update some of the current class animations and skill-ability affix/etc. (ice fortress only gives major resolve for a class skill, critical surge only gives proph and a heal proc) scribed skills have 3 "traits", even DKs weapon buff only has 1 trait on it, a weapon buff.

Erickson9610 · April 26

I posted this in the Skill Styling Bug Reports section, but just in case this isn't actually a bug:

Erickson9610 wrote: »

No idea whether this is a bug or not, but the Slate-Gray Summoned Bear collectible is not listed as a Skill Style, despite doing the exact same thing as a Skill Style.

Instead of being treated as a Skill Style, it's currently being treated as a Customized Action, except it's in its own Special category.

It makes sense to have the Slate-Gray Summoned Bear collectible accessible in the Skills menu like any other Skill Style. I think that collectible was overlooked when Skill Styling was being developed, but this would be a good quality of life change to make. I'd also like to see other Skill Styles in the future to let us customize Class abilities, Ultimate abilities, and pet abilities the way the Slate-Gray Summoned Bear collectible does.

Erickson9610 · April 27

Earlier, I made a few mock-up images of what it might look like to see the Slate-Gray Summoned Bear collectible be recontextualized as a Skill Style, rather than as its own collectible in the Special section:

Erickson9610 wrote: »

I've made a few mock-ups of what the Slate-Gray Summoned Bear collectible might look like if it was implemented as a Skill Style. As you know, Skill Styles use the icon of the base morph of the skill, which is recolored to match what the Skill Style looks like.

For instance, here's how I think it might look like in the menu, compared to the Regeneration skill with the "Regeneration, Azure Blue" Skill Style equipped:

Then, keeping in mind that Skill Style icons continue to use the recolored icon of the base morph of the skill, here is what Wild Guardian with Slate-Gray Summoned Bear might look like, compared to Combat Prayer with the "Blessing of Protection, Sky Blue" Skill Style:

Here's what it might look like in the menu for applying the Slate-Gray Summoned Bear skin on Feral Guardian and its morphs:

And here's how it might look in the Skill Styles section of the Appearance Menu, with the name changed to "Feral Guardian, Slate Gray" to match the naming convention:

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin Was Slate-Gray Summoned Bear considered at all when developing the Skill Styling system, and is there a chance that it will be integrated into the Skill Styling system?

I really hope that the Slate-Gray Summoned Bear collectible won't be forgotten as more and more Skill Styles are added. I'm definitely looking forward to getting more Skill Styles, and I hope that some of the future Skill Styles will recolor/retexture pets the way Slate-Gray Summoned Bear does.

Erickson9610 · April 27

I recently made a thread asking for Skill Styles for Werewolf Transformation, so I'll append the new information here:

Erickson9610 wrote: »

So, with all of that out of the way, here's some mock-ups I've made to illustrate how Skill Styles for Werewolf Transformation may look in the UI, using the fur colors of black, brown, gray, and white, as shown earlier in the post.

Werewolf Skill Styles in the Collections Menu:

Selecting a Skill Style for Werewolf Transformation from the Skills Menu:

And finally, here's what the 4 aforementioned Skill Styles might look like in the Skills Menu alongside each morph of Werewolf Transformation.
Werewolf Transformation:
Werewolf Berserker:
Pack Leader:

So far, I haven't found any serious reason why this couldn't be possible. Conveniently, the text would fit in the Skill Styles menu. It'd also be a great opportunity to add more than one Skill Style for a single ability.

Like the case with Grimoires, I genuinely believe that Werewolf would benefit the most from said feature, solely due to the restrictions that are placed on Werewolf. Only Werewolf skills are allowed, and only Werewolf cosmetics are allowed (of which there are currently none for the Werewolf form). Grimoires would give Werewolf greater combat flexibility, and Skill Styles would give Werewolf greater cosmetic flexibility.

Lalothen · April 27

Skill styles are definitely a cool way to customise and add visual variety/theme to a character. Some of the styles are a little subtle, but then the unstyled effect is relatively subtle too so that's to be expected. As more styles become available I will definitely be looking to create themes consistent with the roleplay & visual aesthetic that I've chosen for each of my characters (the onyx black force shock makes me think about the potential of a black lightning sorc).

My hope is that this will be expanded to pets & skill lines like WW & Vamp in future. As a Sorc main I've wanted to switch out my Twilight for something less huge, flappy and generally visually intrustive/annoying for years, so being able to unlock a different or smaller pet skin (flying imp, nixad, a purple/blue version of the flame atro model, to give a few examples) would be a blessing.

kdevans53 · June 6

I received an item called "Mosaic Skill Thread" (Purple) yesterday after completing the last Mosaic World Event location. What is this Item used for and how is it used?