Argonians, Khajiit and the existence of body markings

NoticeMeArkay · January 18

I find it quite disappointing that such a large part of achievable rewards ingame happens to be body markings, while two races can't even apply them without changing their fur pattern or scale pattern underneath. I'm a simple player, I see a new cool "look" for my character and I'm happy once I get my hands on it by playing the game I enjoy.

But in the case of beastraces I don't get to enjoy much of it.

I believe both fur/scale patterns and body markings should have been separate categories right from the start because now every player who either selected a khajiit or an argonian for their playthrough will not be able to fully enjoy probably 30-40% of the achievable rewards ingame because it doesn't apply a coat of paint ontop of their fur and scales. It replaces it entirely.

Argonians can't even wear the bright-throat markings and skin combined as the NPCs do ingame, because one REPLACES the other.
If you apply any body marking as a saxhleel, your character will apply the default skin which, without any intend of being mean, doesn't look good. Maybe it's its age, maybe it's the lack of easily spottable detail in comparison to the other scale patterns but the default skin looks 'peeled' to me personally.

And why would a khajiit lose his striped fur pattern by applying red paint such as the glenmoril wyrd markings? The look of those and many other (but not all if you wish) clearly tell, that those are markings left by paint, blood or whatever the artist felt appropriate to use. Nobody magically bleached out whatever marking the furstock presented naturally prior to applying the paint.
If this or something similar was the initial idea behind the strong visual shift for both beastraces then I have to say, the execution of it didn't go well.

It doesn't look good. It makes character creation for beast races a struggle because on one hand you've put a lot of work into your character but on the other hand how else are you supposed to show off your newest achievement if not by taking their visual identity and replacing it instead of adding the body markings as a spicy cherry on top.

If there is any chance for the developers to change this, I'd welcome it a lot.

Taril · January 18

To be fair, this is part of an overarching issue with cosmetics utilizing the same slots.

The same thing happens with other stuff, such as tattoos/markings/makeup/scars as well as jewelery/adornments.

There's a plethora of things that could definitely benefit from being moved into separate categories.

katanagirl1 · January 18

I agree with your first statement about the vast majority of the rewards being skins or body markings. I don’t want to take away from anyone’s enjoyment of those, but If you aren’t interested in these at all, like me, then a lot of rewards are useless for you on any races.

I’m not sure if any others feel this way, maybe it’s just me.

TaSheen · January 18

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I agree with your first statement about the vast majority of the rewards being skins or body markings. I don’t want to take away from anyone’s enjoyment of those, but If you aren’t interested in these at all, like me, then a lot of rewards are useless for you on any races.

I’m not sure if any others feel this way, maybe it’s just me.

I'm generally not at all interested in the skins/body markings either.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · January 19

As someone who loves the beastraces, especially argonians, it's something that has annoyed me for years, and I and others have brought up this issue before. Felt extra bad during Blackwood release, because in the trailer and a lot of the promotional pictures etc they have this argonian who of course got crocodile skin with Bright Throat markings on them. Something we can't do. How you can't even combine the Bright Throat skin with markings has been boggling my mind for years. Or well, I know why it can't, it's because skins goes on top of markings. So it's more they did a bad choice in which category they put things. If the Bright Throat skin was actually a marking and the Bright Throat markings were skins, then we could combine them.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · January 19

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I agree with your first statement about the vast majority of the rewards being skins or body markings. I don’t want to take away from anyone’s enjoyment of those, but If you aren’t interested in these at all, like me, then a lot of rewards are useless for you on any races.

I’m not sure if any others feel this way, maybe it’s just me.

The majority of skins I dislike, because usually they are just imo eye sores that doesn't blend into the setting or style well. Some are absolutely ridiculous and badly designed.

I only like two types of skins. Ones I can use on my argonians that looks like they could be lore fitting skins for them, such as the Bright Throat, Deadwater (which literally are argonian skins) but also ones such as maormer fish and Reefdweller. They work too.
The second are ones such as decayed zombie, Peryite's Afflicted and Do'Krin Ascetic's Henna. The first two have afflictions or looks that are lore fitting and nut that uncommonly seen, so useful if someone wants to make a zombie or undead character for something or someone sick with something nasty. Do'Krin Ascetic's Henna I like because it's just a marking, one that is actually nice looking (could be without the face part though) but in the skin slot instead of marking so it can be used by argonians and khajiit. More skins like that would be nice. Same with an "illusion" skins for vampires and other simple, immersive and well made ones.

These are rare though and are getting rarer while the amount of the weirdest skins and markings increases that really doesn't fit Elder Scrolls. It's very quantity over quality. Some are just obnoxious photoshop vomits with their saturation put at maximum.