UESP Forums

I'm done.

Anyhoo...I like it if it can be done right and it doesn't get messed up.

Ok I'm done with this. Don't wanna get banned by the wizards of this forum. I'm going back on topic.

Any of us with the admin powers (me, MM, and AKB) could make the changes. I don't think adding points based on profile entries, or having images on profiles like that, is possible to do. ES-ifying the field names and making custom fields definitely does have potential, though. Adding custom profile fields is easiest, while changing the name of a default field (e.g. interests, occupation) is a little more complicated since it involves editing files, but it's possible. We'd probably run any changes past Dave before doing it.

I think a good way to do this is to come up with ideas and start to form an idea of the specifics of what you want: possibly a few different options. Once that's been decided and run by the mod team, we could make a poll to see if anyone is interested, and if so, which of the options they like.

As far as race goes, I think we've pretty much decided no on that already, for several reasons. Sometimes people don't like being labeled with that or aren't sure what they'd fit into (especially if mixed race), and labels can vary by region (for example, "African American" is the politically correct term in America, but not elsewhere), and, as already noted in this thread, it can be a sensitive topic.

I thought the only mod that has admin powers is MM. Since when did they start giving mods admin powers?

I thought MM was part mod, part admin like AKB, just with green coins instead of blue.

So much has changed... since 2009.

Anyway, if you have FTP access to the server, editing the files shouldn't be a problem, as long as you know php.

Ok sorry for my off-topicness.

Yea, better leave race out of it...

I'm pretty much against the entire idea, but if people think that would be fun, don't let me stop you. As long as only arbitrary game flavor-text stuff gets in.



You wish.

Alright, that's enough side-banter and one-line zingers, thank you very much. Let's continue discussing the actual topic now.

As Alarra said, the changes wouldn't be difficult to make, but having a starting point would be good. What would you guys like to see?

(A lot of this post is being generated "on the fly". Pardon the some what sporadic nature and the way I answer my own questions. Feel privileged; you are reading me think!

Personally I was hoping for a more Oblivion-oriented UI. I think it would fit better with the default UESP skin. Plus, I am partial to the artistic style of the Skills images from Oblivion as well. Note that I do want NEW images for the skills we'd use, but mimic Oblivion's style. While we can recycle ES skills, and maybe even skill images, new ones would allow for a more fitting IRL experience. Because in all honesty having a "Mercantile" skill is a bit vague and not really an occupation these days, if it ever was a proper occupation at all.

I agree with Alarra and MM on the race thing. I wasn't to know that it would have such an affect as it did. Not implementing it seems to be a good idea, considering the lack of agreeably consistent racial character traits. Thanks mods for heading this problem off at the pass!

Unlike a video game, where Attributes are a "rule" that define mathematical calculations used to affect in-game actions/interaction/reactions, real life is a bit more tricky. What this mean for our set up is that Attributes will not be used the same way they are in ES games.

*I break from my above paragraph as this thought occurs to me: should we limit the number of attributes to 2 and Skills to 7 (or perhaps 10 like Morrowind)? This would allow user to narrow the input to give a brief, and condensed descriptive of themselves. Even in an ES game, just as is true with real life, every body is a little bit of every skill and attribute. Limiting the input fields to 2 Attr. and 7/10 Skills would be more appropriate to the purpose of this idea; as a brief descriptive of a person, not his/her life story. On a personal note, I 'd prefer not to give my life story on my Profile Page. Brevity is my friend here.

Note that attributes are character traits of yourself. They are not a "performable" action. One may BE curious, but yo do not DO curiosity. Curiosity is not a verb.
So any way. For example my two attributes might be Curiosity and Intelligence. My Class might be "Woodsman" (Im shooting from the hip for names here, so bare with me). The skills associated with that class, as Woodsman is a preset class, not a custom one, would include Archery Marksman, Stalking, Firemaking, Skinning, Tanning, Herblore, and Culinary. I wonder if we ought to break down certain skills, like Cooking into Trees, like World of Warcraft does with Smithing. (I dont play, but I read the original game manual, so correct me if I go astray here.) Cooking could branch of into gourmet and "campfire" cooking, just like WoW's smithing skill branched into Weapon Smith or Armor smith at a certain level.

**As I proof read, this thought occurs and I inject it into the confusing mass of thoughts:
As per Archery, this has me thinking of renaming to Marksman, like Morrowind and Oblivion have. However, I wonder at the wisdom of doing this as it omits, through generalization, the fields of archery and... the use of fire arms. I am proud of Archery, and hiding in the generalization of Marksman feels a bit wrong for some reason. But, I suppose other might feel the same about the Culinary skill. So as said above, we'll make it Marksman. Users can specify upon request on the forums.

*I again break my above paragraph as an idea comes to me. There shouldn't be skill levels. That is too subjective a matter. it would be like measuring pain. Ordinarily we judge ourselves much harder than others do, so providing a realistic and accurate real-world skill level would be very hard. True, some users have met other users of UESP, but surely they didn't hang around long enough to place a skill level. Also, a bias would exist. Not wanting to hurt feelings, they would give them a high skill level out of kindness. Then there is your mother. And Azura knows that your mother is better at cooking any ways, to use a specific skill here, so how dare you assume a level 100 Culinary Skill. And no, your mother isn't running around with a special enchanted apron that boosts her Culinary skill above 100, and yes, the skill cap would have to be 100, if there was a skill cap at all. While an amusing train of thought, enchantments don't exist in real life (or at least in a consistency agreeable format).
So long answer short: no skill levels. HOWEVER! There are character levels, which is your age. This allows the birth date feature to remain in place so that users can know the chosen age of their fellow UESP'rs.

Any way: how would we moderate variations in a skill, such as Culinary? Or should it be left intentionally vague? After all, as I said above, this is a brief descriptive of the user, not his life story. Should they want to get more in-depth, others may specifically inquire about a user's mentioned skills, or else the user may give further detail on their Culinary skill at their own accord in the appropriate thread(s).

I think we should head up certain renowned members to mete out the requirements of this idea. Jak, if I recall correctly, and assuming he is still around, was quite handy with a photo editing software. He used to offer free sig and avvy services. Perhaps, Jakarius, you wouldn't mind adding your own creativity to the pot here for things like Skill and Attribute images? We'll need Class images too. Heck, a whole team of artists, that being the collectively skilled and talented members of UESP with knowledge of drawing (digital or "archaic") would be positively groovy! Ya'll could have your own thread where you exchange technical ideas. This would allow "outsiders", such as myself, who is not an artist (in the drawing sense) to follow your progress, and / or inject our ideas into the mix.

Speaking of services, I had another idea! (Yay! This tl;dr post gets tl;dr-er!) The current Profile Page has Websites tag. What if instead we had a Services tag that gave a link to the user's personal website. Say if you run an Etsy account, for instance, a thumbnail image, like seen in oblivion, could be used to direct others to your page. The thumbnail logo would presumably be the same image used for whatever we replace as the Mercantile skill.
On a similar topic of Profile Page fields, I am not sure how we would integrate such things as points of contact, such as email addresses and socials links and other things like the Status feature and ES games played. Perhaps we could call them Quests instead, and have a pull-down tab with each ES game, for both console and PC.

I won't include my ideas on possible Attributes and Skills right now. I'll think about it as I drive to work and similar physical "down times" were mental creativity is more active.

There should be a blank field in the new Profile that allows users to write a short "back story" on their self. I don't know if a character limit should be impose on this field, but it might be a good idea to keep in tune with the requirement of brevity.

We need to decide what UI from what ES game we want to follow, or take from. Because some of use have not played all ES games, please provide images, either as a screenshot, or even hand drawn sketch, or even detailed written descriptive if all else fails, of your ideas.

At the mod team; while I understand the logic of merging my original thread with this thread, I wonder if it would be prudent to carry on in-depth discussions (such as what skills we should have, image examples, etc) in this thread. While it is still discussing a forum change, being of a specific long-term objective would it not be better to have its own thread, rather than occupying this general intent thread? Or would y'all rather wait until this idea has more directed steam under it?

I'm not sure we were thinking that a complete UI change would happen. The core of the idea, of making the profile page line up a little more with TES games by renaming fields and adding a few new fields, is what we were asking ideas for.

This isn't really related to Venger's idea, but how about adding fields for information regarding a user's account on Elder Scrolls: Online. I'm thinking of asking forum members for the sever they're playing on and their nickname. Perhaps this could even be displayed underneath the avatar on the users' posts. Might make it easier for forum members to recognize each other in-game.

I actually kinda like Vengar's ideas of having each profile have X amount of major skills to define their "real life character". For example, I'm an avid runner so one of mine would be Athletics. Skills levels sound tricky, I'm against it. Two attributes sounds rather fair. I think all these changes could make for a pretty nifty cosmetic change on the forums!

Just to point out something that seems rather simplistic, has anybody thought to use the 'Other Profiles' field to add their ESO profile?

ESO: WombatWeasal73 for example

Look to how I use my field, it's short, simple, and most of all public. It really is an under-used feature, truly. Other info such as server could still be set somewhere publicly if your creative, or go the classic route and ask. Honestly I see no reason why a thread shouldn't be dedicated to just this, treated much like we do the threads for Steam, 360, or PS3

December CotM idea!

With the theme of last month's in mind, and with the common theme of artistry throughout past comps. I propose that this month's competition be about designing a CD case jacket for the bard song's of ESO and Skyrim. What might the art work on the CD case be if Bethesda (or whoever makes ES games these days) released them as a separate soundtrack?

Yes? No? Shut up and gtfo our forums? Whatcha thunk?

Personally, I think that idea sounds fun and hilarious! It sounds like it would be one of the more time consuming activities though, so not sure if it would get many participants.

Hi Venger, thanks for the idea. I've added it to our COTM thread although for this month we're deciding on going with something else.

Quick question; are banned members now being given the title of 'BANNED User' and being stripped of their coins and previous title? A quick glance o'er Dove's profile is what piqued my curiosity.

Nope, that was just a joke from Chat; it's just a changed title (like the COTM Winner one) and they're not actually banned.

Okie doke. I definitely got the feeling I was missing some sort of in-joke there, but I wanted to make sure.

You can thank me for that.

I've got a question. When is the next time we're going to have a CotM? I mean, having the purple coins for the last couple of months has been nice, but I'd like to have to fight for them again... I understand if all of the mods are busy though, life happens to all of us, I'm just curious.

It should be in March; we've decided on the next competition, but yeah, just have been busy and none of us got around to posting it.

Yes, it's being held in March next. I'm also going to tell you guys now it'll also be a prize competition!

Is there any way to get to the bottom of the page quickly when using the mobile version of the forum? (Like a 'go to bottom' button) At the moment I'm scrolling all the way down which is quite laborious.