Brilliant
Just brilliant!
If http://gfx.gaminator.tv/data/character/364/364.3.jpg was here today he would be proud
R.I.P Tommy Angelo

Gotta say yes indeed. This type of customization does wonders for a game, and Bethesda would see a huge profit from it in both word-of-mouth sales, reviews, and fan popularity of Skyrim.

I can tell they've (BGS) dabbled in this kind of thinking from the artistic perspective already. All we need to do (as the dedicated community) is convince them that it would be worth their time and effort to add this as a practical in-game functionality, and they'd be well rewarded.

Wow, had expected a little more negative feedback, or at least a critique.

Well then, one point that came up was - its not an mmo, no one else will see your character, why bother?

This level of customization my not appeal to someone who is going to blow through the main quest in 10 hours and then say they 'beat' Skyrim, but for someone who is going to put 100+ hours into the game, give me all the customization you can fit into the game. Of course leave the option not to for the casual players and the ones that it doesn't matter to, but for the rest of us... that's what screenshots are for.

For me, I know I put over 100 hours into my Morrowind character, doing every quest, collecting every unique item, then making my character look awesome and making an armory in my house complete with armor mannequins (another essential feature). Ive put approximately 300 hours into oblivion over the years, but that's due to failing hard-drives, I've put 80+ hours into a character twice then had my computer crash and lose my saves. The final play-through is on the xbox and was played without the amazing player made mods. But even over those three play-throughs, I made three very different characters, but they basically looked the same in the end. For me, a little more customization would have done quite a bit for the longevity on my character. Its the same story for fallout, I would have loved to see my over-the-top-action-character with a half-dozen guns a shish-kebab and a fat man strapped to him, or on the other hand, my more diplomatic character in a business suit with a single pistol in a shoulder rig.

Which brings me to the other criticism, the ability not to show anything.

Of course not everyone wants to be strapped with gear, or even have gear for all of the quick-select spots, I don't even want to show everything all the time. It depends on my armor setup at the time, or even what mission I'm on. The point is customization, you don't have to show it if you don't want to, but its still there for you to use. I know Skyrim has a streamlined menu system, but I do think that a hard-point/quick-select menu would be the easiest thing to do, complete with options: show/don't show/don't show scabbard, show/don't show cloak, show/don't show helm, show/don't show belts...

And, when I've leveled past the usefulness of a certain set of armor, I would love to have armor mannequins in my house where I can hang up a beloved setup to look at whenever, or in the case of Oblivion, to represent the vanquished enemies gear that I wasn't going to use. On one play-through I had Frostcrag Spire, and when you would enter the first thing you saw in the center of the room were two armor mannequins in combat poses facing each other, one in my set of Dragon armor, the other in the King of worms gear. Then as you went farther in you saw a ring of them around the room, one representing each armor type complete with weapons. It looked awesome, I was proud of that collection. Too bad I lost the screenshots too.

Another thing I'd kinda like to see is the option to show a backpack, that you may be able to buy upgrades for, which may improve carry weight or at least aesthetics. Example: at the beginning you have a shabby sack on a rope slung over one shoulder, later in the game you have a nice leather pack with pouches and whatnot. In the same way you can buy upgrades to your scabbards and belts and gear straps: at the beginning you have simple cloth or worn leather but you can eventually buy fancy tooled leather or plated belts etc... which of course you can dye to match your current setup.

And as to fur trimmed cloaks and clothing/armor... absolutely! This is Skyrim! Each province of Tamriel has unique people and armor types (chitin and bonemold anyone?) or at least unique versions of the usual steel, iron, ebony, etc... so for Skyrim I say there has to be some winter gear, fur lined cloaks etc...

Dude, you are so wrong..

Also: A Poll

Lol wow, didnt expect so much criticism for playing devil's advocate... Beleive me i play barbie too.. i role play alot on second life which easily has the most avatar customization every seen in any game ever created. Seeing as all clothes, and avatars are created, uploaded and sold by players you can literally be anything youd like.. presently I have about 30 different types of avatars on my one account.. from full animals, to anthropomorphic to different races. That doesnt account for the easily 100+ outfits ive accumulated... in fact fashion is so extensive Second Life has its own TV shows and schools to learn fashion...

Anyways, i truly am for all of this but there are people who will rush it and if they dont want to be forced to deal with some huge amount of customization they shouldnt... I personally just want the constructions set so i can get to work learning to script and mod which will allow for even MORE customization

Dang, I expected the results to be a lot stronger than that. Character customization is probably the most essential part of TES. Freedom is also extremely important, but the in depth character customization is what sets TES apart from other open-world games. I mean, you can be anything, from a normal human being, to an orc, to a lizard person, etc.

What? That just came from a TES fan? You're playing the wrong game, man.

Really well thought out, i like all the points he made about the equipment, scabbards hanging from your side.
Like a short sword hanging below my longsword and a dagger strapped to my side.

To me, it depends on the game. Some games lend themselves better to customization than others. Beth games lend themselves to customaztion very well.

Now, it is time for my obligatory "you can do all of that with the Construction Set" I got most of that stuff covered in mods I've made: tabards, sheaths for back weapons, side weapons on boots/waist... And this is not only for my character. If I think something makes more sense on this NPC or this guild, etc, I'll change it.

I would love for character customization to be the this in depth, but if i have to choose between beth to making a game where my character is ridiculously customizable and has less factions and quests etc or a game with moderate customization and more guilds and factions etc.I am going to pick the second option and enjoy the extra game play.

#1 - You bring up a valid point, however it you leave this issue to mods and the construction set you alienate the players who are on consoles. Which brings me to another point: Bethesda, please find a way for player made mods to be uploaded to consoles. There are a ton of mind-blowingly amazing player made mods, give the console players a chance to enjoy them too.

#2 - I think/hope that what I'm proposing is not labor intensive to actually implement. I don't know how much effort it too to make the mod from comment 1, but when I thought this out I was looking to add the most game-play value with the least added effort and I think I've struck a good balance.

- If any of you can think of ways to improve the idea please post them, I would really like to see this implemented and I think that the more streamlined we can make this idea the better chance we have of actually seeing it happen.

I would seriously faint if they managed a way to add mods to the console. It would be amazing....

As for labor intensive yes, it would be..

If i had to choose between customization and amazing game play id opt for more game play rather than super awesome customization

Apparantly Todd has had talks with Microsoft and Sony about implementing mods for the consoles.
Maybe the next-gen consoles

Alright, what can I cut out to reduce the labor but still have most of the features?

I care more about what I think of my character than someoone else

these are awesome ideas. it would make my put a dagger on my quickslots even though im going to be a pure mage

and this game definitely needs cloaks and coats. throw one on over your armor when you're in a city to hide your powerlevel (or your massive ink, as will be my case) and hopefully they will have a button/unbotton option

In most things medieval people actually layered the armor (not like you're saying - mix and matched, but literally layered). Example - no one put plate mail or chain mail over naked skin. Usually it was cloth clothes, then leather, then chain mail. The real badass knights did all those three then plate mail on top. Something like that'd be nice. Like the strength requirement for the plate just stacks with the requirement for the chainmail, etc.

I was actually considering this, the example is just what I would do. For this I was thinking that the heavy/medium/light armor skills would actually depend on total weight of the worn armor not just what type pf armor your wearing. This way you can have a couple pieces of plate and still be in the 'light' category. And of course there would be the associated perks that make it even better.

I agree with the OP. I don't need all of it, but I expect more customability that that of Oblivion. At least I want pauldrons and layered clothing back. Some decent facial hair for a change, would be nice too. Why do game developers vaste time creating so many crappy beards anyway (Dragon Age, is what easily comes to mind)? Usually amoung 10 beards there's only 1 or 2 bad-ass ones, if any... Do they honestly think players want the lame ass ones?!? So please, Bethesta... save those peasant beards for the npc's okey?

Bump.


I also want to be able to design my own tattoos XD

I really want to see the return of those classic tribal/clan tattoos from Morrowind. It really made the Nords and Dunmer beyond awesome

But, yes, characters must be as customizable as possible. I really didn't like how Oblivion limited that quite a bit what with every race sharing the same hairstyles (with the exception of the beast races and the elves having a few extras, which I was still disappointed that all the elvish races shared those extra hairstyles)

Also, with the addition of dual wielding, I must see dual scabbards. It's what makes the look complete Quite possibly adding a few one-handed blades sheath on the back, that would be excellent. :celebration: :celebration: :celebration: