Info Needed Mercs changing appearance

Discussion in 'Bug Reports' started by JeffHanson, Jan 16, 2020.

  1. JeffHanson Augur

    Came back after a five-year break and my high-level mercs look different from when I left.

    Leveling a character in the 50s and my merc keeps changing appearance -- seems to be at random.

    I spent a little time and trouble to hire mercs that looked the way I wanted. This is annoying.
    Inga, GNOME_POWER, Yinla and 3 others like this.
  2. Prathun Developer

    Are your mercenaries being changeformed in any way? Wolf form, for example?
  3. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    Are you using Jann mercenaries? They are intended to change form. hehe :)

    I understand all mercs can change their weapon based on level, however.
  4. Dythan Ban Lev in Plane of Fire guy

    I'll take shaman aura for 100, Alex.
  5. JeffHanson Augur

    No, no changeform or illusion being used on the mercs. Possibly two separate issues here:

    1) I had dark elf female mercs on two different level 100 characters when I left the game for five years. When I returned to the game a couple years ago, both had transformed from their original look to the short-haired dark elf female merc.

    2) Recently started a character from scratch with a gnome tank merc. It was changing appearance when I leveled up. I don't mean the usual changing sword and shield -- his hair and eyes would change color, facial hair would come and go, etc.

    The same thing is happening with a guktan merc on another character now. I think it changes appearance when I level up, although maybe not every time I level up. I should level from 60 to 61 tonight, and I'll see what happens.
    Vexana_Lanys likes this.
  6. Duder Augur

    Your mercs eye color changed? Ohh my, that's terrible =(
  7. Froglok Augur

    This is not a new bug.

    Several years back I decided to work on Shroud progression. After removing the Shroud my DEF Merc that has long white hair (said to be the "rare" look at the time) was now a DEF merc that had short cropped hair and an entirely different look (gear wise).

    A petition merited me a GM visit -- who had me fire the merc and rehire mercs until I got the same one back again (free of charge, btw).

    Them, in short order, she reverted back to the short hair again. I decided to just do the hire / fire thing on my own to get the right merc back AGAIN.

    Unfortunately, she reverted back once again and I gave up.

    I agree that illusions, ornaments, familiars and so forth -- to include mercs -- are all about how they look based on what individual players like the most.

    Why the merc -- and particularly the DEF Female merc -- change their look is annoying.
    Vexana_Lanys likes this.
  8. MasterMagnus The Oracle of AllHigh

    Yes, some of us choose a merc for their appearance, right down to their hair color and style.

    They randomly change 'head appearance' settings.

    To reproduce, hire a human or dark elf merc that you can clearly see hair color, facial hair color, hair style, and face. Then drag them around to different zones and level.

    They will change appearance but keep their same name. It breaks my immersion I tells ya.
  9. Qbert Gallifreyan

  10. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    Hired a pretty blue frog (would have been happy with anything but green) suspended her after play session a few weeks later and she has now changed to the default green.
  11. GNOME_POWER Augur

    I hired two frogs(red and blue) about five years ago but now they are green.
  12. Inga Elder

    Hire long hair female dark elf mercenary while shrouded.
    Remove shroud and zone.
    Mercenary become short hair (default?) appearance.

    I don't know about different/suspended/already hired mercs.
  13. Aanuvane Augur

    This is not new - I use gnome and dwarf mercs and their appearances change frequently.
  14. JeffHanson Augur

    I know it's not game-breaking, and I know it's not a new bug. I just thought I would post it here now that we have a bug forum.

    It would be nice if mercs would stop changing appearance and we had something like a /mercface command that works like the /face command.
    Yinla and MasterMagnus like this.
  15. Kelea New Member

    I know I am digging up an old thread, but this bothered me for months. I have a half elf rogue Merc that would change her hairstyle on a dime. One night she even decided she wanted to wear a helm in an instanced zone. While it was lovely, it was really weird and didn't match her chainmail armor at all.

    So at one point, I decided she needed a real name. I purchased potion from the DB store and named her. Over 3 months later her appearance has not changed. I know it could be completely coincidental, but it ...
  16. Jumbur Improved Familiar

    I have a clockwork soother "goldbot"-model, and sometimes when he gets an illusion he later returns as a "rusty bot" instead of the shiny "goldbot". its only temporary though, zoning seemed to fix it.

    I also vaguely remember my merc having less impressively looking weapons in the early levels, I guess he acquire upgrades as he levels?
  17. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    Frogs have a bad habit of changing skin colour, very annoying especially if you spent time getting the frog to be a nice colour rather than green.

    I want my salmon coloured frog merc back!
  18. NemesisHF rookie veteran

    This report is 2 years old but this is still an issue. I have DEF healer mercs for several of my characters and after zoning with them they will revert from the long hair style I prefer (the kind with the forelocks like the female DEF merc liason has) to dark short cropped hair. I'm pretty sure a HIE merc I have did the same thing. Beyond that I'm not sure because most of my tank mercs tend to be Iksar and I don't notice their scale patterns changing as obviously as I do with hair styles.

    It seems that this only happens if I zone or do something while the merc is active. If I suspend them before I zone I can travel all around the world and when I reactivate them they will look exactly the same as I left them. But if they follow me through the zone line... *poof* new hair.

    I get that this is just mildly cosmetic and doesn't really matter but I spend time trying to get my mercs just the way I like when I hire them, with names I like and appearances I want because I know I'm going to see them for hours and hours afterwards. The fact that later on I may eventually have to spend plat or bayle marks to fix this with the knowledge that it'll likely just go fubar again is frustrating. As is my revelation upon finding this thread that the issue is at least 3 years old (probably more if the above discussion of the tweaking of shroud mechanics and how it may have happened around the same time this started occurring).

    Another poster is also right that the guild hall attendant customizer should be able to work on mercs for their face/hair aspects if this is going to be an ongoing issue.