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Character creation and immersion


Kiklix

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As some of you know I am currently spending my time in other voxel games making spaceships. In one of the games (which is mostly 3rd person) you can customize your character with height, name, skin color, face (eyes, nose mouth etc) hair style just like many MMO's. However in the other game (mostly first person) where you can actually make constructs work there is no character customization outside of the color of the space suit you wear. 

My question is: Is there going to be reasonable character creation and customization for people who like to role play, or at the minimum like to play in a role play community as it greatly helps with immersion in game?

Also, if this IS the case and we can make unique males, females of all colors etc will there also be a UI element (that does not really need to extend past the interface) that allows for us to give a back story on our characters, their alignment like Neutral good, neutral neutral, neutral evil, Chaotic good, etc? 

If there is not going to be a character 'stat sheet' (I am thinking like pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons), will DU allow for addons like world of warcraft?

Thank you,

 

Kiklix/Alien Paragon

 

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Character customization and creation is something I also would like to see in DU that can be done really well to make every character unique and made to how the player would like their character created :) Maybe not right at the start but perhaps after or during the beta I would like to see this happen. As for giving our characters a backstory, I also would like to see that for role-playing :) So, for example, a player can look up another players in-game character profile and it would have some info about the players character like group/faction that they belong to, what their in-game occupation(s) and/or skills are (like trader, builder, soldier, pilot, explorer, etc.), a short biography on the players character to make them unique, and so on :) Of course if a player doesn't want certain things visible to other players they could choose to not make it visible :) Something like that could come in handy if a player wants to look for a builder to build them a spaceship or to hire players that are good pilots to fill their spaceship with for example :)

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I'd also love to be able to make my character feel unique and have options to flesh her out a little. With personality stats or skills that allow for room to grow. Physical options that offer a generous selection of characteristics such as hair style, body shape etc.

 

Another important aspect for me is armour and clothing. Having options in this regard and even being able to alter the colour of armour and clothing.

 

For me to feel at home in a game world requires immersion. Some of that comes from a fleshed out world with strong lore, as we know Dual Universe has, but also from my own character. Can I make her look as I want? Can I play around with her in character creator until I'm happy? Can I collect different armour and clothing for her so she feels the part? Can I give her a first name and a last name? Can I earn titles for her, and will she grow in her abilities and skills?

 

So excited for Dual Universe.

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Myself, i am a big fan of character customization. I think the closer i can get to being able to anyone's real face the better.

 

As for written biographies, I'm not a huge fan for the sole reason that it is for role play, which when you think about it, its weird that someone can know your life story before you even say hi. If its on a console or data pad on your ship or residence, I'm all for it. Now how that relates to character customization, its simple, clothing.

 

Clothing can be a visual biography. For example, Things can be as simple as a red arm patch to show that you are an expert pilot versus say a green arm patch that says you are a novice pilot. Maybe you could have fancier helmets the more building work orders you complete. You could have a formal looking suit when you get enough money from the exchange/market/auction house. So on and so forth. But if this route is chosen, It would be extremely nice if you could change what you are wearing at any given time, might need to visit a closet or outfitter though.

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Having a customized character is good. I was hoping they might have some set boundaries. so you cant be a midget with a 3 foot wide head or ect monstrosities you can create in say Aion.

 

As you say though, making a character you like is the first step, but the real fun is having cool clothing and armors to put on your character.

 

I'm torn between concepts of making characters look exactly as you want. Like.. wearing a jacket a skirt and wielding your weapons out on the front lines. You feel cool, but thinking about it, its really dangerous and ineffective. With things like shield generators or something maybe it will make sense.

Although, if ground based combat, and pvp is going to be a sticking point. It can be good to keep clothing cosmetics down for visual balance.

Like if you have 'tank' armor and it normally would look all bulky and strong and have some unique visual markers to let enemies kind of see 'hey thats a tank', but you allow them to cover up with cosmetic clothing somehow, and they look like a 15 year old schoolgirl instead of a iron clad huntress, that can upset a portion of the community, or even prevent the team from expanding into a semi competetive arena mode or ect. Unless you distinctly disable cosmetic things in arenas battlegrounds or whatever.

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Myself, i am a big fan of character customization. I think the closer i can get to being able to anyone's real face the better.

 

As for written biographies, I'm not a huge fan for the sole reason that it is for role play, which when you think about it, its weird that someone can know your life story before you even say hi. If its on a console or data pad on your ship or residence, I'm all for it. Now how that relates to character customization, its simple, clothing.

 

Clothing can be a visual biography. For example, Things can be as simple as a red arm patch to show that you are an expert pilot versus say a green arm patch that says you are a novice pilot. Maybe you could have fancier helmets the more building work orders you complete. You could have a formal looking suit when you get enough money from the exchange/market/auction house. So on and so forth. But if this route is chosen, It would be extremely nice if you could change what you are wearing at any given time, might need to visit a closet or outfitter though.

 

 

I understand the lack of realism brought forth by the ability to know someones back story. My feeling is that in a sci fi game, the only way someone can know this information about you is to 'scan' them. Even then I suspend my disbelief just like I suspend my disbelief when I see someones name floating over their head.

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Hello there and happy new year.

 

My thoughts on this subject :

  • Backstory is necessary for role players but should not be automatic, nor mandatory. That way, it does not give potentialy sensitive data and will be more relevant.
  • I think EvE biography (accessible to everyone) is a good starting point and may be customized to display more or less information depending on personal authorization.
  • Also, it may be a good idea to let player share information on other characters so they can tell their "community" that X is a bad guy or Y helped them well. This could be done by a kind of "global network" which is accessible in the game from character, items, etc. and on which people can write notes and share them with their "faction" (like a personalized text display under generic informations or help).
  • About character customization, it is important that each character can be unique and that it is possible to determine roughly their equipment at a glance for PvP (don't create an heavy armor looking like a mage dress please :) ).

 

Regards,

Shadow

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I understand the lack of realism brought forth by the ability to know someones back story. My feeling is that in a sci fi game, the only way someone can know this information about you is to 'scan' them. Even then I suspend my disbelief just like I suspend my disbelief when I see someones name floating over their head.

 

Now imagine an optional setting that would hide the floating name until that player said it Would be nice for those who are heavy RPers. Could turn into a simple mini-game that might spur additional social interaction. Of course it could back-fire aswell.

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Now imagine an optional setting that would hide the floating name until that player said it Would be nice for those who are heavy RPers. Could turn into a simple mini-game that might spur additional social interaction. Of course it could back-fire aswell.

 

I have wished for a pvp game that did not have the enemy name plates up for a long time. It makes sense to see friendlies, esp if they are in your party, but it never made much sense to me to have enemy name plates up. I like to use terrain and cover in FPS but when your name sticks out, it kills that strategy. I would rather the default be off and the option to turn it on. 

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I have wished for a pvp game that did not have the enemy name plates up for a long time. It makes sense to see friendlies, esp if they are in your party, but it never made much sense to me to have enemy name plates up. I like to use terrain and cover in FPS but when your name sticks out, it kills that strategy. I would rather the default be off and the option to turn it on. 

I completely agree.

 

Also, having names floating around your head is like a painted target for players who begin to get known and it's annoying.

 

Regards,

Shadow

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Good points, perhaps instead of floating enemy names we could have devices that help us find hiding enemies or track their movements. Things we have to make from blueprints and require rare or higher quality materials so that these instruments aren't too common.

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Good points, perhaps instead of floating enemy names we could have devices that help us find hiding enemies or track their movements. Things we have to make from blueprints and require rare or higher quality materials so that these instruments aren't too common.

I like this idea.

 

Also, we could have some kind of scanner to identify people, as long as the scan requires a bit of time and can only targets one person at a time.

That could lead to interesting "Bounty Hunter" gameplay where the hunter needs to identify the target.

 

Regards,

Shadow

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For me the best game for avatar full character /body customization and immersion (Unique game characters...), cloths and tools ...i love this part of the game...im continue and play on and the game is Entropia Universe (is MMORPG Real Cash Economy...so... ), sorry for this but need to give the paradigm... :rolleyes:

 

Anyhow this is the first best look in this games...i hope devs to have measured and work on this...as i have see on screenshots of game site the socializing and politics is one of first features of the game...so cross my fingers for the best result... :)

 

Faceof... B)

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I like this idea.

 

Also, we could have some kind of scanner to identify people, as long as the scan requires a bit of time and can only targets one person at a time.

That could lead to interesting "Bounty Hunter" gameplay where the hunter needs to identify the target.

 

Regards,

Shadow

 

Bounty hunters sound really cool to me. I wonder if there could be a criminal system of some kind, I can't remember which games have this kind of thing, but if players choose to be 'bad guys' and build a reputation as such, maybe there could be 'bounty hunters' to try to catch them, both using technology to their advantage.

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I'd be cool with bounty hunter stuff. I will more likely go the pirate route myself or smuggler. I'll have to wait and see how the game is developed to see what direction feels the best to me. 

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Bounty hunters sound really cool to me. I wonder if there could be a criminal system of some kind, I can't remember which games have this kind of thing, but if players choose to be 'bad guys' and build a reputation as such, maybe there could be 'bounty hunters' to try to catch them, both using technology to their advantage.

One such game would be Elite of course. But one point, I think, is that a criminal system shouldn't be universal and be an automatic implementation as in Elite Dangerous. Like in real life, justice systems would have to be established by players themselves to determine what is bad or good or wrong or right. Also adds more roles for players ex. judges and lawyers.

 

But yeah, bounty hunters sound cool. 

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One such game would be Elite of course. But one point, I think, is that a criminal system shouldn't be universal and be an automatic implementation as in Elite Dangerous. Like in real life, justice systems would have to be established by players themselves to determine what is bad or good or wrong or right. Also adds more roles for players ex. judges and lawyers.

 

But yeah, bounty hunters sound cool. 

 

Bounty hunters will certainly make my life in space that much more interesting! :D

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One such game would be Elite of course. But one point, I think, is that a criminal system shouldn't be universal and be an automatic implementation as in Elite Dangerous. Like in real life, justice systems would have to be established by players themselves to determine what is bad or good or wrong or right. Also adds more roles for players ex. judges and lawyers.

 

But yeah, bounty hunters sound cool. 

I do agree with Astrophil on this point: Players need to be in charge !

Also, consider that bounty hunters usually don't care about right or wrong. They just hunt whoever has the highest bounty, even if the bounty is offered by the worst guy in the Galaxy... so anyone may face them sooner or later :).

 

Regards,

Shadow

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I recall seeing posts on the Star Citizen boards where some players were organising themselves into different roles, such as police, pirates etc. Perhaps DU might be similar eventually.

 

Hmm..did not know that. DU should attract similar mindsets...will be interesting to see what people come up with. 

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To the question "Is there going to be reasonable character creation and customization for people who like to role play?", the answer is Yes.
However, it won't be in the Alpha, that's for sure. 
 
For the Alpha, expect to have a character appearance hidden by a spacesuit or something similar (so no customization available) but there will male and female versions and this "default outfit" (probably the Alpha Team outfit) will be of decent quality. As said before: focus remain on gameplay features for the Alpha.
 
We are currently looking into possibilities regarding custom character creation. But this is a huge task.
We have also planned to have a Character Sheet, but the design is not final at the moment (a tab with the possibility to write a Biography is in the todo list).
 
No decision has been taken yet about allowing UI add-ons created by players or not.
We'll keep you informed on this topic as well.
 
 

 

  • Also, it may be a good idea to let player share information on other characters so they can tell their "community" that X is a bad guy or Y helped them well. This could be done by a kind of "global network" which is accessible in the game from character, items, etc. and on which people can write notes and share them with their "faction" (like a personalized text display under generic informations or help).

 

We're derivating from the initial topic here: This is more about "in-game social tools" than custom character creation, but yes, there are also internal discussions about that in the team ;)

 

One such game would be Elite of course. But one point, I think, is that a criminal system shouldn't be universal and be an automatic implementation as in Elite Dangerous. Like in real life, justice systems would have to be established by players themselves to determine what is bad or good or wrong or right. Also adds more roles for players ex. judges and lawyers.

 

But yeah, bounty hunters sound cool. 

 

 

This is what we want to see on the long run: Players in charge for as many roles as possible, especially those that can generate social interaction, as it should be in a real sandbox MMORPG  :)

 

 

I recall seeing posts on the Star Citizen boards where some players were organising themselves into different roles, such as police, pirates etc. Perhaps DU might be similar eventually.

 

That... will be another topic for DevBlog Post. We have a social media project that should facilitate this kind of roleplay preparation (that will be one of its purpose, but not the only one), even before the release of the game. But I've already said too much for now  :ph34r:...

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Actually good to hear that Nyzaltar, it relieves a hidden frustration from my mind. A irritant where I get upset when I can't make a character look the way I would like - Spacesuits and helmets though are the perfect alternative, at least for me, until the team is ready to review new character models or other possibilities.

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Hi Nyzaltar and thanks for the answers.

 

Space suits are cool too.

Can I request that players can put their helmet on or off after alpha ?

 

That's true that we've a bit diverted from initial subject here.

I hope Kiklix will forgive me... but I may continue... just a bit, I promise  :unsure:.

 

About this statement :

No decision has been taken yet about allowing UI add-ons created by players or not.

We'll keep you informed on this topic as well.

I would just say: if it is easy to implement UI modding (for example, because you are already coding it in LUA), just do it.

Most people won't use it, but there will be a point where some UI elements won't meet player needs and they will be happy to be able to mod them (think about EvE: how many times have ou wanted to tweak what overview shows or which notifications pop ?).

 

In the other hand, if it's hard to implement, just forget about it for now and ask the question back within a year (maybe in a poll for players).

 

Also, I would limit modder access to already displayed information so that players don't get unfair advantage.

Ensuring all mods are public and open source may be a good idea too.

 

PS : feel free to split the topic and move my question in another subject if you want to.

 

Regards,

Shadow

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That... will be another topic for DevBlog Post. We have a social media project that should facilitate this kind of roleplay preparation (that will be one of its purpose, but not the only one), even before the release of the game. But I've already said too much for now  :ph34r:...

 

 

I've read all of your post Nyzaltar, as always interesting and promising stuff....this however made me especially curious  :D looking forward to that DevBlog post too!

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