Cosmetics and whatever happened to the Official Discussion thread feedback?

[Saekee]

That's sweet. I wish it were as easy for the devs to create these cosmetics/item appearances as it is for me to photoshop them. Heck I wish I knew the art program(s) they're using I'd be willing to make more than one of these for free if it meant I could make my characters look the way I want.

/signed

[Aelonwy]

Strictly speaking this isn't really about cosmetics but how I hope some of our choices will appear if Tieflings ever become a player race.

From left to right, all using human base, first uses skin and hair already available to human, eyes recolored red, horns from typical NPC tiefling. Let's call the first one the standard tiefling. Second from the left has skin a blue-violet close to one drow skin tone, recolored red eyes, horns from the named tiefling Carver (Multitude of Menace). As close as I could get to what a tiefling with a Night Hag ancestor might look like. Third has skin and eye color available to humans, I gave the eyes slit pupils and added white and black stripes to the normal orange hair to give the impression of a tiefling with a Rakshasa ancestor. Fourth from left, I changed nearly everything about this image, the skin tone is altered from the most red normally available to humans to make it essentially darker and more saturated, I made the eyes red, I added horns from the named tiefling Fortis (Tavern Brawl), and I used a snake scale pattern to add a scale-hairstyle. This tiefling would represent demon or devil ancestry such as Pit Fiend, Horned Devil, or Erinyes. The final image I adjusted a normal human skin tone to be magenta pink (again similar to a drow tone) and used Carver's horns to make a Succubus style tiefling.

Hopefully, we have multiple horn style and horn size options. I would prefer if the horn color matched whatever skin color we chose or if it had a separate color selection like skin/hair/eye palettes.

The visual effects of outsider ancestry can be read about in the reference books of Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and Races of Faerun.

[Aelonwy]

When I get the 2nd half done, the Aasimar versions, should I post the images to a suggestions thread?

[Saekee]

When I get the 2nd half done, the Aasimar versions, should I post the images to a suggestions thread?

why not? do both

[Wizza]

why not? do both

Agreed. I love your work, and really wish we had some of these in game.

[Aelonwy]

Probably my favorite race to play in pen and paper. Mostly, because I get to describe my characters as divinely beautiful. I used a human base for all images, and as much as possible used the existing character creation palettes.

From left to right: on the far left we have a Ghaele ancestry inspired Aasimar with rainbow hair and I tried to give the illusion of rainbow eyes but the detail is probably too small to notice. Second from the left Lillend ancestry results in pastel skin tones of a variety of lavender, pale violet, periwinkle, seafoam, and usually feathers or scales for hair. I used an existing hairstyle and layered feathers over it and tried for a similar skin tone to one of the drow skin tones but lighter and less dusky. Third from the left, solar ancestry, which results in golden or silver skin tone, usually but not necessarily with matching gold or silver eyes and can have feathers for hair. So this third one is an example of a Golden Solar ancestor with feathers again layered over an existing hairstyle. Photoshop on feathers is a new pet peeve of mine, its tricky, finicky effort and I don't like it. The fourth one, on the far right, is an example of Silver Solar ancestry with normal hair. So obviously the colors needing to be added to the human palette for Aasimar so far (not including art work for feathered hairstyles) would be rainbow hair (far left), pale violet skin (left middle), golden eyes (right middle), and silver skin (far right).

I would also like to point out that I think this is the prettiest set of lips for the human female in character creation but I almost never choose them because zoomed out all but one mouth seems to be frowning. Therefor, I usually choose the smiling mouth (which can be seen on the tiefling image in the previous post above) . I wish this one could be made to smile more.

Stayed tuned for Part 2.

[Aelonwy]

I used the greenest human skin tone, saturated it a little and adjusted it to a smooth seafoam green suitable for Planetar, Lillend, or Couatl aasimar ancestry, I gave her green lipstick just because the pinks/violets looked too contrasty to me.

On the far left, I blurred out the shaved head hairstyle because Planetars are naturally bald. My reference material didn't mention if that could be passed to the aasimar descendant but I'm sure someone knows the lore better than I. On the remaining three I used the same snake scale pattern I used on the red tiefling above. On the second from the left, I allowed the green skin tone to show through the snake scale pattern and added feathers I colored in rainbow hues. The remaining two images have the scales in rainbow tones with white or rainbow feathers. These aasimar display signs of Lillend or Couatl ancestry. Obviously, this is an entirely new skin tone and hairstyle for humans. I hope I've shown that mixing and matching some of the features can result in entirely new and interesting appearances.

For reference, I used information from the books Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and Races of Faerun.

[Saekee]

I wonder how much money the DDO store can pull in using your hairstyle cosmetics?

[Aelonwy]

Agreed. I love your work, and really wish we had some of these in game.

Thank you for the kind words, and thus encouragement.

I wonder how much money the DDO store can pull in using your hairstyle cosmetics?

I really didn't do anything that innovative with the hairstyles. I guess if they sold a rainbow dye+style combo that would make them some ca$h. I can't figure out why they haven't altered the Totemic Lavalier yet. It was trivially simple for me to do in photoshop and I just can't imagine it taking them obscenely longer to do in any art program. By far that is the simplest cosmetic change I've made to anything and I think it would sell on the DDO store. I can't say how many they might sell. Nor can I guess what colors would sell the best. But I personally would purchase at least a violet and seagreen, and possibly a red one. Come to think of it a Black Totemic Lavalier with glowing red bits might look pretty cool with some of my earlier fiendish re-designs.

The thing is whomever started making matching armors and helms... this person is on the right track. People interested in cosmetics, like me, are interested in creating a matching "look" or "theme" for their character. This theme might include everything from race, hairstyle, hair color, or helm, armor, even what cosmetic pet the character is paired with and possibly even the color of the DnD dice that roll on screen.

[Nonesuch2008]

I think that you are spot-on with the thoughts on themed armor sets, most lootgen combos make it look like our heroes do their shopping at the Stormreach flea market (which of course is the poor man's knockoff of the Bargain Bazaar).

Your tieflings showed an amazing variety that I really was not expecting to see, especially without the expected entry of a generic orange-skinned tiefling. We can only hope to see that kind of variety in game. One variety that I think would be striking, almost jet black skin paired with the red eyes and red or off-colored horns. DDO needs lawful evil alignment, I could have a lot of fun playing with that archetype.

The Aasimar and Archons definitely have some crossover potential in looks, especially with the feather design, and I was thinking that the silver skin would look incredible paired with a crystal ice blue eye color.

Nice work, as usual.

[Aelonwy]

I think that you are spot-on with the thoughts on themed armor sets, most lootgen combos make it look like our heroes do their shopping at the Stormreach flea market (which of course is the poor man's knockoff of the Bargain Bazaar).

Absolutely. I would say at least half of the random gen armor designs no matter the quality (magecraft/celestial etc) and quite a few named armors, for that matter, look cobbled together piecemeal by some deranged and possibly half blind armor smith. But you've given me a quest idea for my PnP group... *ruminating*

Your tieflings showed an amazing variety that I really was not expecting to see, especially without the expected entry of a generic orange-skinned tiefling. We can only hope to see that kind of variety in game. One variety that I think would be striking, almost jet black skin paired with the red eyes and red or off-colored horns. DDO needs lawful evil alignment, I could have a lot of fun playing with that archetype.

My first tiefling was what I considered a generic, standard tiefling. I could make her darker but that was the darkest human skin tone currently available and I was trying to demonstrate my planar races images with as few changes as possible. I'm hoping that the devs can see that with the addition of horns and several unique hairstyles each that mostly what they would need to do for the "art asset" portion of planar races is adjust/extend the color palettes. You are correct, your conceptual coloring of your chosen tiefling would be very striking and hopefully they give us enough variations and enough color options to mix and match a substantial variety of characters.

The Aasimar and Archons definitely have some crossover potential in looks, especially with the feather design, and I was thinking that the silver skin would look incredible paired with a crystal ice blue eye color.

That Mix-n-match potential was exactly what I was hoping to express. Maybe I didn't do such a very good job with the tieflings. Perhaps I should have shown some of them with something besides just red eyes. Perhaps the Night Hag descendant would have looked different with gold eyes. I thought about making a scaled hairstyle with horns down the center of the head like a mohawk but my first effort looked a little silly (stegosaur-like) so I scrapped it.

Nice work, as usual.

Thank you

[Aelonwy]

Just keeping my images together. This is the result of insomnia not expectation.

[mightstriker]

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to put all of these different looks together. You have serious talent, and a splendid imagination! In particular I was crazy about the mimic armor (the beholder butt - GENIUS!) and the holiday themed clothing. Loved, loved, loved the green and red with the white furs. OMG. I would actually purchase DDO store points again to have those cosmetics. What you did with the Bloodplate and helm. Drool. (BTW, I also was extremely disappointed by the Gleaming Armor and Tourney Armor when first acquired. Absolutely underwhelmed.) The Spectral Dragon armor was also masterful. Nice work!

The hair colors you posted - woman. That rainbow hair... I am pouting now because DDO doesn't have the sense to put you on contract, and have that color available NOW!!

The orbs - what a clever way to customize what your arcane caster holds.

One of the "cosmetic" issues I currently have (and have whined about it before) are the sorceress savant skins. In particular, the way my air savant sorceress appears. Or rather, doesn't appear, on account of having a tornado whirling around her which completely obscures her. Would you please use your magical talent to show DDO what a savant should really look like? I actually rather liked the effect the savant used to have, where it was more subtle. Except the earth savant had some weird clubbed stone hand... And yes. I do realize the effect can be toggled off and on, but it would use some of my precious spell points.

I agree with many of the other posters that having unique druid animal shape dyes or skins; druid, arti and necro pet options would also be amazing.

[Aelonwy]

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to put all of these different looks together. You have serious talent, and a splendid imagination!

Thank you, that's very encouraging.

In particular I was crazy about the mimic armor (the beholder butt - GENIUS!) and the holiday themed clothing. Loved, loved, loved the green and red with the white furs. OMG. I would actually purchase DDO store points again to have those cosmetics.

I can't take much credit for the beholder butt, yes I put it together visually but it was my hubby's idea. And yes he can be an evil genius. Its my hope that the art devs see these images and get ideas to add some of these to the game or the store with their own spin most likely. They have the original art files so theirs would undoubtedly be better than my photo-shopped screenshots. Also to be fair my first take on the holiday outfit didn't look like that... it was monochromatic, but I was inspired by another poster's suggestion for holiday style cosmetics to recolor it.

What you did with the Bloodplate and helm. Drool. (BTW, I also was extremely disappointed by the Gleaming Armor and Tourney Armor when first acquired. Absolutely underwhelmed.) The Spectral Dragon armor was also masterful. Nice work!

Hopefully, some of the darker more fiendish designs might get seen (by the art devs) before the Ravenloft expansion. They would fit there very well. If they could actually create Spectral Dragon Armor with the illusion of being translucent - I think it would end up being one of the most sought after items/cosmetics in the game.

The hair colors you posted - woman. That rainbow hair... I am pouting now because DDO doesn't have the sense to put you on contract, and have that color available NOW!!

I'd love to have rainbow dye available now too but I don't know how complicated it would be to fit multiple colors to every single hairstyle. Its probably more realistic for them to recolor a single hairstyle for females/males and sell it as a combo color+style. I'd work for my own cosmetics. Assuming I could use their art programs of course.

The orbs - what a clever way to customize what your arcane caster holds.

Again those ideas were initially inspired by another poster's Suggestion Thread. Yes, I came up with many of them on my own but I might never have made any if someone else hadn't asked for new cosmetic designs for orbs.

One of the "cosmetic" issues I currently have (and have whined about it before) are the sorceress savant skins. In particular, the way my air savant sorceress appears. Or rather, doesn't appear, on account of having a tornado whirling around her which completely obscures her. Would you please use your magical talent to show DDO what a savant should really look like? I actually rather liked the effect the savant used to have, where it was more subtle. Except the earth savant had some weird clubbed stone hand... And yes. I do realize the effect can be toggled off and on, but it would use some of my precious spell points.

I agree with many of the other posters that having unique druid animal shape dyes or skins; druid, arti and necro pet options would also be amazing.

Do you have a screenshot of the more subtle air savant? Personally, I would prefer if the air savant effect was more like the Electrical Energy Sheath of Draconic Incarnation, but my husband like its as is so I guess it appeals to some. As to cosmetic skins for the druid, arti and necro pets; yeah that could be pretty cool. I'd much rather have some cosmetic skins for my druid herself. I mean right now you can be in bear form, summon a bear, and have a bear cosmetic pet but the animal companion can only be a wolf. I'd like to be a panther, summon a panther, have my cosmetic panther cub, and turn my animal companion into a panther too.

Thanks for the kind words. I like reading other people's thoughts and ideas. At the end of the day we all want our characters to look how we envision them.

[Blastyswa]

Back in May of 2015, Severlin opened an Official Discussion thread about how we would like the appearance of existing items tweaked to make new or improved cosmetics/items. I've been thinking about that thread and some of the new appearances we've seen on armors, helms and shields in the past year and first off I'd like to send a big thank you to the art department that has been doing such a wonderful job. Secondly, though, I'd like to send some visual aids for my own feedback in that thread. For reference my first post on that thread was #33.

This is my take on the Desecrated Leathers. As you can see I removed the backpurse and yoga mat and replaced them with the belts and accesories from the Drow Hunter's Leather recolored black. I also recolored the swashbuckler hat to match.

I will add a few more images today and then more as I get time.

They're both ugly, but you'll get basically what I'm thinking (probably, they are very ugly).

[Aelonwy]

Alright so this is my Spellsinger/hagglebard dressed in Lavender Spiral (one of the most attractive cosmetic skins they ever made so of course its no longer available) with my vision of a cosmetic butterfly aura that surrounds and follows the character fluttering just as they do in Vale of Twilight (which is also where I caught these specimens).

And this is a circling butterfly crown similar to the Elemental Victory.


Also posted to the suggestions thread that inspired them : My wife breaks for butterflies.

[Aelonwy]

They're both ugly, but you'll get basically what I'm thinking (probably, they are very ugly).

Aaargh. My eyes, my eyes... okay I kid... I'll see what I can do; I'm not really into capes myself but I'll try to come up with something.

[Aelonwy]

Alright, this was something I worked on some time ago but it didn't turn out the way I wanted so I redid it with some actual eye images instead of the eyeball from in-game items. Anyone who has ever seen the Beastmaster ( a fantasy flick from the 80's) will know exactly what I was trying to illustrate here. On the far left is an entirely unaltered image of my paladin wearing the crown Teraza's Sight. The following three images show the crown re-positioned higher on the forehead and thus allowing the eyebrows to show (very aesthetically important) and illustrating an animated eye opening in the center of the crown. I have no idea how possible this is... I just think it would be fun.

[Saekee]

Alright, this was something I worked on some time ago but it didn't turn out the way I wanted so I redid it with some actual eye images instead of the eyeball from in-game items. Anyone who has ever seen the Beastmaster ( a fantasy flick from the 80's) will know exactly what I was trying to illustrate here. On the far left is an entirely unaltered image of my paladin wearing the crown Teraza's Sight. The following three images show the crown re-positioned higher on the forehead and thus allowing the eyebrows to show (very aesthetically important) and illustrating an animated eye opening in the center of the crown. I have no idea how possible this is... I just think it would be fun.

I remember growing up with Beastmaster when it came out--was really young--and that creepy ring would open up.
Teraza's Sight definitely needs this, or something very close.

[Nonesuch2008]

Just keeping my images together. This is the result of insomnia not expectation.

I should have known that you would take up the challenge. That's not bad, not bad at all! I could easily see it springboarding into several other cool looking variants.

And thank you!