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Debate 3: Potential of the Character Creator


Wilks Checkov

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Okay, today I figured I would bring this up for debate as I have not seen a massive amount on this subject yet.

 

In a good character creator we need many things to make a game great, for one - a realistic character creator, hopefully nothing like ARK Survival Evolved with unrealistic postures and body sizes. 

 

Then perhaps a decently detailed character creator - a good example of which would at-least to me be Eve Online's character editor/creator. High detail models, with various aesthetic options to choose from. 

 

As we know we will be staring at these characters for nearly 90% of our time in-game. So for the most part we do not want to see some horridly misshapen character looking back at us. 

 

To create a good character you need some freedoms, mostly to choose body types, sexes, facial features, hair and eye colors; but it does not need to be taken to the extreme either. Where you have full access to the editing of arm, leg, hand, feet,  and head sizes. That in my opinion is a total recipe for disaster, especially if the developers are looking to go for near complete realism within the game.

 

Now there are exceptions as well in which would work quite well, for instance aesthetic options like tattoos, scaring, or augments, or external cybernetics like arms or legs would be a plus, even if they were part of a skin $ shop. 

 

 

 

Anyway I thought I would bring this to all of your attention and let you decide on the factors behind it. Feel free to comment and change my ideas around or even add on to them. You do not need to ask for my permission, I quite in-fact welcome the input. It helps the idea generation process. 

 

So let me leave you with a question: What do you think of the current Character Creation ideas? What would you do in the position of the developers in this instance?

 

 

Have fun debating. . .

 

 

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While the game is in 1st Person view, the need for a character creation is indeed something that makes a person recreate themselves in a game.


Said Character Creator should have, in my opinion, preset bodytypes, three heigh levels, with possibly each body preset offering something and taking something else away. Bigger body types and muscular? More carrying capacity and/or longer short energy burst activites, like sprinting. Smaller ones? A bonus on reduction on the lock-on of enemies on you and possbily, but at the cost of less of a carrying capacity, with the middle body type being the perfect balance of both.


As for the face, we can go for, pretty much anything. If the game can support 10000 players in one place, the small facial features won't even play a role in the long run, with clever LOD magic being utilised at a distance, to reduce any potential popping texture issues. If the other guy is 10 kliks away, you won't be making out facial features anyway.


As for scars, that's something that should be a remnant of a battle, not something preset. Given the Resurrection Node DevBlog, our characters are wisped away moments before actual death by the quantum magic involved in the Nodes. Some of the battle's scars should be a remant, like, the "killing" blow, being a particular scar, depending on the weapon that caused said scars. Burnmarks from lasers, rugged patch of skin from a bullet, or cuts from a melee weapon (fingers still crossed).

Tattoos should be something done in-game in my opinion, not in the character creator. Like, a badge of honor being tattooed onto someone to display their actions as an impromptu medal, possibly, being designed by a player in the organisation, in-game.


These are my opinions and I don't expect everyone to accept them. I'm just advocating on freedom of customisation as a player proceeds the game regarding facial features, or ink on their body. For all we know, there could be a "Plastic Surgeon" specialisation in the game for medics, complete with a name change. *paranoia intensifies*.

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i feel that there will be a character creator where you can customize yourself. be silly if there wasnt. but prealph, using dummy models....hard to say for sure what we will be able to wear and look like...anyways!!

 

 

i completely agree with you captain. tattoos and scars shouldnt be something done on boot up. and i believe the scars after death are very viable just based on how the death mechanics work, die and you possess a body from a similar universe where you didnt die. and tattoos being a organization marker would be interesting if you were to leave your organization....or if you got one from another org just to spy!!

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i feel that there will be a character creator where you can customize yourself. be silly if there wasnt. but prealph, using dummy models....hard to say for sure what we will be able to wear and look like...anyways!!

 

 

i completely agree with you captain. tattoos and scars shouldnt be something done on boot up. and i believe the scars after death are very viable just based on how the death mechanics work, die and you possess a body from a similar universe where you didnt die. and tattoos being a organization marker would be interesting if you were to leave your organization....or if you got one from another org just to spy!!

Well, it would also make said "Plastic Surgeon" viable in-game, due to people might be going after your very name if you were to betray an organisation. With that, they should also lose track of you in a Friends List. That's some deep undecover stuff right there. Why create a new character? Plastic Surgeon can help with that. Perhaps with a "DNA" sample acting as an identification of your character's ID on the server. If the enemy has you in their databases, then, good luck withe infiltration going anywhere.

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Well, it would also make said "Plastic Surgeon" viable in-game, due to people might be going after your very name if you were to betray an organisation. With that, they should also lose track of you in a Friends List. That's some deep undecover stuff right there. Why create a new character? Plastic Surgeon can help with that. Perhaps with a "DNA" sample acting as an identification of your character's ID on the server. If the enemy has you in their databases, then, good luck withe infiltration going anywhere.

"Wonderful! Espionage would just be more interesting then. But, the changing of names should be present or the plastic surgery is all for naught. What do you think?"

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"Wonderful! Espionage would just be more interesting then. But, the changing of names should be present or the plastic surgery is all for naught. What do you think?"

We would need some kind of document forger along with the plastic surgeon to be able to change our names i feel like

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"Wonderful! Espionage would just be more interesting then. But, the changing of names should be present or the plastic surgery is all for naught. What do you think?"

Hmm, maybe a sorta "hacking" specialty for people to hide their names, but the faciaal reconstruction should be a medical thing. Think of people running a "witness protection" service. You don't have to create a new account or a new character. You only need to change your name and appearence. A big org's leader should not do that, cause that would collapse the organisation itself, due to him not being recognisable as the leader at that point due to legal reasons. Possibly, the DNA/Player ID could be used by people with a "Tracking" skill to find you down, so your DNA should be a form of ID many orgs would need for you to enter their higher echelon. If you were to betray them, nothing would save you by Bounty Hunters, with, PERHAPS, a very costly material wise Gene Treatment solution to change the Character's DNA/ID on the server. That would give players incentive to specialise into being medics with a chance of high profit on running such services.

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Hmm, maybe a sorta "hacking" specialty for people to hide their names, but the faciaal reconstruction should be a medical thing. Think of people running a "witness protection" service. You don't have to create a new account or a new character. You only need to change your name and appearence. A big org's leader should not do that, cause that would collapse the organisation itself, due to him not being recognisable as the leader at that point due to legal reasons. Possibly, the DNA/Player ID could be used by people with a "Tracking" skill to find you down, so your DNA should be a form of ID many orgs would need for you to enter their higher echelon. If you were to betray them, nothing would save you by Bounty Hunters, with, PERHAPS, a very costly material wise Gene Treatment solution to change the Character's DNA/ID on the server. That would give players inentive to specialise into being medics with a chance of high profit on running such services.

"Slow down, Captain! Hacking and tracking will be really intense, but, the game shouldn't be made easy for people to do commit crimes and get away. Only smart people succeed in that and smart people think and plan."

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"Slow down, Captain! Hacking and tracking will be really intense, but, the game shouldn't be made easy for people to do commit crimes and get away. Only smart people succeed in that and smart people think and plan."

That's why I said that the name change may be something that has a negative backfire and should be costly to be executed, material wise that is. Like, requiring some hardware to be built which are fried after the name change is done, thus, the whole operation costs a lot to be carried out, let alone, by someone of integrity who won't sell you out on your new name.

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That's why I said that the name change may be something that has a negative backfire and should be costly to be executed, material wise that is. Like, requiring some hardware to be built which are fried after the name change is done, thus, the whole operation costs a lot to be carried out, let alone, by someone of integrity who won't sell you out on your new name.

"That sounds a whole lot better."

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Well, it would also make said "Plastic Surgeon" viable in-game, due to people might be going after your very name if you were to betray an organisation. With that, they should also lose track of you in a Friends List. That's some deep undecover stuff right there. Why create a new character? Plastic Surgeon can help with that. Perhaps with a "DNA" sample acting as an identification of your character's ID on the server. If the enemy has you in their databases, then, good luck withe infiltration going anywhere.

 

Come sleep with dirty mistresses here, Dr. McSteamy  ;)

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"That sounds a whole lot better."

And don't forget. The DNA/ID harvesting should be something expensive as well, so the whole process won't be mandatory but an investment in security and check of the background of a certain person. Gameplay wise that is. If an begrudging engineer who has been belittled decides to sell his name and identity so an infiltrator could find access in a Battleship and plant some explosives, that should be an emergent gameplay asepct. To that extend, Black Ops operationswould become costly, due to the resources going into these things and not simply just a Spec Ops who is called Black just because Black is cool.

 

 

Black Ops are paranoia fuel. You don't know if the silent guy in teamspeak, who claims he doesn't got a mic is an infiltrator. It creates the need fora community to be bonded and interact, instead of simply having an organisation roster. Interactivity will be the only deterent for an infiltrator's short access. The long con is only an aspect of the infiltrator's mental fortitube to keep a straight face and don't "go native".

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Love, all these ideas as they add a great deal of realism to the game and the espionage aspects of it! This may be less in scope to the whole spy thing, but it would also be good if the plastic surgeon could remove 'fatal scars' if that particular defeat was especially embarrassing.

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Love, all these ideas as they add a great deal of realism to the game and the espionage aspects of it! This may be less in scope to the whole spy thing, but it would also be good if the plastic surgeon could remove 'fatal scars' if that particular defeat was especially embarrassing.

A very good point indeed. Plastic Surgeons would have planty a customers as it seems. Perhaps even working cosmetically for other people.

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Potentially for even installing augments and other more advanced cybernetic implants.

Hmm.... perhaps an engineer can manufacture cybernetic implants if he splits the skillpoint distribution into the medical skill tree to reach a certain quota, then he is tagged as Biotechnologist. Then a surgeon is needed to plant said implants into a person, similar to how in WoW back in the actually good days, an alchemist was needed to transmute a collection of items so that a weaponsmith could forge a certain weapon. And given the devs saying that players can manufacture items and then sell them for others to use, we could be seeing something of this nature.

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If this game plans on having Roleplay as a feature, there is no going without a character creator. Simple as that. I don't expect them to add the creator straight off the bat, which is understandable. It seems they have a placeholder for the character model already. There's no doubt for me that they will add one eventually, however in depth it may be.

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Any suggestions on what I should base tomorrows debate around? - apparently this one was fairly popular.

 

Armors, jumpsuits and how they could behave, given each specialisation, or at least, how inventory should be handled, if it should be a visible thing, like a backpack, that could extend to an armor or jumpsuit upgrade.

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Obligatory character creator request, furry tails and ears which replace human ears.

 

Yes armors could be good. there has already been some detailed ideas on money, but we could bring it up again some time.

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Obligatory character creator request, furry tails and ears which replace human ears.

 

Yes armors could be good. there has already been some detailed ideas on money, but we could bring it up again some time.

I'm still standing by my suggestion of making cosmetic surgeries a profession for players to specialise into. 

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