Depressing Character Login Screeen

Lylith · March 14

sans-culottes wrote: »

Livvy wrote: »

I absolutely HATE this login screen.

Totally depressing. I want to be uplifted when I log in to a game. Not depressed.

So happy it's almost Spring here. Everything else is looking up. Then I login to this game and it's like being met with death.

Why there cannot be an option for a different screen, I don't understand. I'm happy for those that like it. But for those that don't, it is just sad and unnecessary to have this inflicted upon us every time we log in.

I'd rather have a blank screen than this...

I’m sorry this login screen affects you in this way. I much prefer it to the Gold Road screen.

me too.

always liked coldharbour and i enjoy the darker look to the login interface.

hope they keep it a while.

Bethgael · March 15

GLP323b14_ESO wrote: »

I'd like to see it display the region each specific character is in.

TBH, I actually thought that was what was going on, because my main was in CH at the time (Luxury Vendor shopping and stashing furnishings). Then I scrolled down, saw everyone was there and thought, "okay, maybe it's just the same as what the top char is in. Okay". Moved her back to Galen, and.... bum.

BretonMage · March 15

So I've been living with the login screen this week, and I realised that if I could dissociate myself from the memory of Coldharbour, as a single loading screen, it's not bad; the greys and glowing blues are actually quite beautiful. It's just that it's, well, Coldharbour

with all its memories of riding around for hours in the darkness, lost, going around in circles trying to navigate around chasms and impassable mountains, the dark, craggy landscape all blending into each other after a while. And eerie not-quite-music accompanying you all the while. I have to say that my stomach clenched when I saw the screen for the first few times.

Dragonnord · March 15

I don't like the blueish tint/reflection it puts over my characters.

emilyhyoyeon · March 15

On the point of light color (as opposed to just theme):

With the Coldharbour background, any characters using mostly warm colors in appearance look worse because of the blue tinted light; with the Gold Road background, any characters using mostly cool colors look worse because of the yellow/orange.

This doesn't take into account, either, anything else like how the Gold Road screen, for example, also was just super overwhelming in intensity so even my characters with warm color appearances looked not very good despite the colors harmonizing.

IMO the easiest solution would be to always have the choice between the neutral alliance backgrounds + the current content themed background. (Not sure if this creates the same issue as giving players the choice of any previous background though)

At the very least, I'd go with keeping the screen lighting on characters neutral, even if it doesn't match whatever the current background theme is.

JeroenB · March 15

My impression of the thread:

a lot of people really don't like Coldharbour (and also a lot of people really do);
a lot of people find their characters look terrible under blue lighting (and also a lot of people find their characters look great);
a hopefully small but definitely present group of people suffer some degree of actual mental or physical issues (depression, migraine, eye strain) from blue tones in general or Coldharbour specifically or this background scene specifically.

I agree with emilyhyoyeon's point above: keeping the lighting on the characters neutral would resolve at least one important part of players' concerns -- and importantly, not just for this new scene, but also for the previous overly-orange scene. And this is presumably something they could manage within the current engine limitations that prevent us having a choice of scenes.

reazea · March 15

It makes me sad every time I log on now. Gold road login screen was a little overdone, but it least it wasn't so depressing.

colossalvoids · March 15

It's definitely interesting to read other's perspectives on it, never even thought that Zeni's Coldharbour is something that can affect people emotionally, always felt like their designs were always super tamed and not going far enough to capture the essences of the planes, basically making "family friendly" versions of those.

All I can add to the chore is more options would be welcomed when technical issues would be sorted out, from the polarising feedback it better be sooner than later. Current one is definitely amongst my favourites because it's sharpness and lighting doing good job on the details unlike previous one being too "diffused" and felt as overly saturated without good enough lighting to accommodate it.

redlink1979 · March 16

I like the Coldharbour background.

TaSheen · March 16

reazea wrote: »

It makes me sad every time I log on now. Gold road login screen was a little overdone, but it least it wasn't so depressing.

Yeah....

Kallykat · March 16

Okay, this background is starting to grow on me.

Initially, I was just relieved to be rid of the bright golden one we had last year which had horrible lighting for my characters and, despite lots of playing with settings, looked horrible on my screen in general. I would still appreciate being able to choose which background to use (especially if it was per character), and I still miss having natural lighting with which to view my characters on this screen. However, I have to admit that quite a few of my characters actually look pretty good in this lighting (see the spoiler for a few of them), including some fiery characters with a warmer, contrasting palette.

I also don't find this background depressing. I get that Coldharbour itself is not a happy place to be, but blue is often thought to have a calming or soothing effect. I think that aesthetically, ignoring the lore of the locale, it is actually quite a beautiful (if monotone) setting.

LalMirchi · March 16

For me this is the worst character select screen to date, the mushroom one was not pretty, the Gold Road was too bright but the color scheme was OK. This character select screen is depressing and I spend as little time as I can there.

I used to spend a lot time on character select screens before, browsing through my characters and planning their deeds. Not any more.

shadyjane62 · March 16

Hate it.

Cerilon · March 16

I think it's the best one yet, hope they make more like it!

McHina · March 19

Don't mind rotating char login screen but please to be Coldharbour only. That place have so much to offer.
It just, feels like hooome

Romo · March 19

Marronsuisse wrote: »

I love it. The setting aside, the lighting is SO much better and my characters look amazing. No more harsh overhead sunlight! I used to squint my way through login because the lighting made some of my characters look so fugly.

I 100% support people being able to choose which login visuals they want, though. Mostly so I can keep this one forever.

Agree with this.

illutian · March 20

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

but there are some tech limitations to make that happen currently

You could, I dunno...change it back.

I don't even understand why Coldharbor is the theme if this is suppose to be "Fallen Banners". Like...battlefield in Cyrodil with the tower in the background and the three banners smoldering at their bottoms.

Ya know, like the blog banner on the ESO site: /en-us/news/post/67679

But animated and with a flattened ground area (ie a cobblestone road) where the character will stand.

colossalvoids · March 20

illutian wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

but there are some tech limitations to make that happen currently

You could, I dunno...change it back.

I don't even understand why Coldharbor is the theme if this is suppose to be "Fallen Banners". Like...battlefield in Cyrodil with the tower in the background and the three banners smoldering at their bottoms.

Ya know, like the blog banner on the ESO site: /en-us/news/post/67679

But animated and with a flattened ground area (ie a cobblestone road) where the character will stand.

They've never changed the background when some people found it bad, it's always staying until the next year. Thematically it's tied to the summer content whatever it might be as PTS prologue quest suggests.

licenturion · April 14

Good news for those who hated the cold harbour screen

They changed it on the PTS.

Syldras · April 14

I didn't mind the Coldharbour one, but the new one also doesn't look bad. I expected something more flashy when I heard "tropical island". Actually it doesn't look very tropical at all. Wait, isn't that supposed to be the exact place that's also shown in the latest picture of the Three Heroes (with the Nord petting a wolf that looks like a sheep)?

Dithieon · April 14

licenturion wrote: »

Good news for those who hated the cold harbour screen

They changed it on the PTS.

Is that a Mammoth mount?

licenturion · April 14

Dithieon wrote: »

licenturion wrote: »

Good news for those who hated the cold harbour screen

They changed it on the PTS.

Is that a Mammoth mount?

Yes it was in the store under a new section ‘elephant’ mounts. The running animation is super goofy lol

Wuduwasa13 · April 14

1) I don’t spend enough time on the character login screen to particularly care how it looks. 2) zos will never manage to put out a design that pleases everyone, someone will always dislike and be unhappy. And if they scrapped any type of login background people would still inevitably moan.

I understand not liking something and wanting to express umbrage about it to a sympathetic audience, but really, what can zos do about it? Nothing.

Dithieon · April 14

licenturion wrote: »

Dithieon wrote: »

licenturion wrote: »

Good news for those who hated the cold harbour screen

They changed it on the PTS.

Is that a Mammoth mount?

Yes it was in the store under a new section ‘elephant’ mounts. The running animation is super goofy lol

Lol, I wouldn't expect anything less😵‍💫 I like it! Thanks

Hurbster · April 14

Been able to change your login screen in DCUO since the first expansion came out...on the PS3.

And I like Coldharbour, it's supposed to be a terrible place.

SilverBride · April 14

licenturion wrote: »

Good news for those who hated the cold harbour screen

They changed it on the PTS.

I was fine with the Coldharbour one but this one is pretty nice, too. I like the sky and colorful clouds in it!

WhiteScythe · April 15

Ulfson wrote: »

I would like to change the char login screen. To me it is really ugly. Coldharbour is a place I have HATED since it first came out. I have enough depression today without a game that is a downer.
Is there a way to change it?

I totally agree!!! What I really want is the option to select background per character or something -- think a bit like WoW's camps on the character screen.

Give me that RP edge ZOS, I want this.

Barovia87 · April 15

They literally could have done a tropical, or a coastal beach, background for Solstice. It would not have been hard to make the outdoor lighting neutral for that either. I don't HATE what we got in Coldharbour, but what a waste of a beautiful opportunity. We could have had flowers, lush jungle vines, tease the new architecture, sparkling waters, and gleaming beaches. Instead we got... a lot of blue.

I seem to be in the minority on this one, but I never found the main story especially compelling. It was okay. I'm glad other people are excited to revisit it, but that hype train is missing me entirely. So the login background is doing exactly nothing for me on the nostalgia front, either.

If they want to do really niche, harsh, extreme backgrounds like this, I echo the general sentiment wanting a choice of background.

cmetzger93 · April 15

Adding that I would also love to be able to change the character login background

katanagirl1 · April 16

The Coldharbour screen has so much more detail on my characters than the previous ones, and the lighting looks fine for all my characters. Guess I was lucky. The only thing that I thought was weird is the floating, glowing, wobbling rock at the top center. Not sure what it’s doing.

The new pts screen has the same thick awful fog and is orange just like the Gold Road screen. Not an improvement in my opinion.