Character creation

[Currin_Bloodstorm]

Look im new to this so go easy on me, but im wondering about character creations, will it differ from other games like DAOC or EQ where hey that guy has my same face but hes a little shorter and with some war paint on. Will you be able to change color of hair/ skin will there be many styles of hair/facial. Also will yuo be able to pick eye color, body type, bulkiness and hieght, and just a thought, was wondering if there could be toggles implimented making it able to stretch or disfigure facial and body feautres, like give your character a large nose or broad cheek bones, making your character different from other characters. i think small details like that would definatley set it apart from other MMORPGs. -currin

[Terevanincu]

was wondering if there could be toggles implimented making it able to stretch or disfigure facial and body feautres, like give your character a large nose or broad cheek bones, making your character different from other characters. i think small details like that would definatley set it apart from other MMORPGs. -currin

Totally agree with you there it would be really great if we could do that unfortunately we have no info yet on the char creation interface . Maybe the devs could give us a char creation interface ss?Please devs..

[Anarroia]

Yea man, I know what you mean. There should be an insanely huge variety of how to make your character look, as this is very important for the realism for each individual player. I hope the d00ds of DnL will make this happen (as this game should be better than any other) ;P

[Engataz]

Wow...if they take all the suggestions we make, there's gonna be an awful lot of lag for those of you on 56k in USA...but i think they should do it anyways, i mean, c'mon, it would SO be worth it. You could make your character look like you IRL. I think that each race should start off with a basic figure model, depending on the sex, and be able to choose color, scale, and detail options from there. Cool?

[Grovsalt]

They had an excellent character creation process for Project Entropia when i was beta testing that, you could do anything, change everything from the size on your feets to your ears!

[Currin_Bloodstorm]

Just another thought on character creation, i think it would be awesome if you let us do the body destortions to make our chacter unique, but also if you gave us a huge variety of base faces to choose first and to work from. itd also be awesome to see huge vareitys of tattoos and maybe wrinkles, or bags could be put in under the eyes so the faces dont end up looking plain. -Currin

[Madsniper]

yes good idea, im goign to have one main chara Ash and one chara i can make so very very ugly so i can scare of darksiders.....i call him...stichface

[maginnovision]

They say tens of thousands of people can play at the same time, and I think they should make it so that it is actually UNLIKELY that you find someone else who looks like yourself... that would be cool...

[viv]

hope there will be different pictures to choose form to make ur character. that will be cool and will make the difference when compared to other games

[Danthalas]

I hope this topic gets a great deal of attention. Not sure what the ramifications are on how it would impact gameplay but I'm in total agreement that it would be worth whatever falls within the realm of possiblity.

[Leyanne]

OOooo I like the idea of toggling specific features to make them smaller or larger etc. And Ash honey - you make that ugly character if u want - but he is banned from the bedroom. I want my gorgeous tall, handsome, sexy Ash. Kissss

[signofdeath]

well if u think about if u were to create a hideous character shouldnt it have less social skills...just a thought

[dimercury]

I guess I should title my new posts a little better seeing as how I asked the same thing but got like 40 views and this one got about 210. lol. Oh well, somethin to learn from :P

[Kahlis]

Well what you guys are talking about is Morph points on mesh. Basically hands, feet ears, eyes, nose, cheekbones, age, weight... that can all be done almost easily.

One problem I've seen with height however is they have to go back and redo animations because different height means you'd move and do things different. I think, however, with the height restrictions per race it would be easy to find a "happy medium" for animation and then just scale it.

But I'm not sure what kind of engine they're using. So, really, I don't know how much they'll be able to do with avatars. It would be neat though. Very neat.

I'd like to be able to apply scars and other natural skin stuff. (Brith marks, grass stains, swollen eye, only one eye, things like that.)

-Kahlis

[sivitri]

Well if you can change your characters face and siz of body height etc etc... it would be great of course :P

[Santarr]

I do not know if say aging is also a part of this game..

But say a character creation tool coupled to say a character skill tool to see what the character can do when say level 40 so one could plan a career a bit ahead of time would be nice.. It would also show people trying to use a race for a certain career if it would be a viable choice in terms of being strong enough or that one had better choose a other race..

The downside of such a tool would be that many people would start to create the so called uber characters much earlier.. tho anyone simply downloading the tool could then create the ultimate person for him/herself so just playing longer does not matter then at least for the character.. Plus it would alleviate the necessity of say skill reset tools to a large degree, because one can map out all skill/player points before hand.. and only if say a complete mechanism would be changed would a skill reset be needed..

(Not like neocron where one started playing not knowing what would boost what and sometimes one would end up fixing those mistakes by lagging around for hours at a time swallowing reset pills for each 5 points and losing XP due to them..)

[detritus]

This is probably one of the few things I think horizons did well, you can see an example in the character creation video on stratics... it is very good when it comes to customisability, and as for moving differently depending on your size, seings each race will be ROUGHLY simmilar, they could have one movement animation for each race and the size shouldn't bother it too much.

I hope that your ingame actions will effect your characters appearance though, for example, a great deal of running, or working out, be it fighting or otherwise, woudl result in a more muscular frame, wheras more time spent teleporting everywhere, and relying on mounts for travel would make you more... portly.

[Wolfstar]

Creating a unique character is becoming more common in these types of games and I expect DnL will be no exception so I agree with the fact that its highly unlikely you'll come across a character looking the same as yours :)

[detritus]

in CoH they actually stated that they wouldnt ALLOW characters to be too simmilar, i think they said at least 3 different aspect had to be different. I hope they incorperate that here

[Edited on 9/11/2003 by detritus]

[Wolfstar]

With all the fine tuning you get to do during character creation in games now its unlikely that you will get many characters looking the same

[KillaC]

Will you start of with some kind of clothing because I know in most ive played you start off half butt naked which is cool if your female ,but anyhow do you.

[Wolfstar]

That I can't answer except that in SWG you start in underclothes (underpants and a vest) but other games its naked yes, we'll just have to wait and see and try not to imagine a fat naked lady :(

[KillaC]

Yea I hear ya there also should start you off with some kind of small weapon depending on what race you are you could maybe get one small spell or something.

[Taurendil_Cuweasse]

Having a lot of faces, hairs, colors, etfc doesn't lag that much since the information is in your computer. Only some text will be passed on the internet so when you approach another person, your appearance info is sent to them.

[Synder]

that goes the same for modifieable face mesh points, server just sends data points for each mesh point, on top of base face model.

[LordDeath]

yes like Elfs could start off with a bow and arrows, or braves and other big characters should start off with a small sword... something like that

I agree they should start you off with atleast something small of that sort...

[Wolfstar]

Starting with the basic weapon for your race/class is a good idea but you'll soon outlive that weapon then need to go see a NPC or a crafter to get the best weapon you can use at that skill level :)

[signofdeath]

say ur an archer think u will start with a bow and if so how many arrows?

[Wolfstar]

Now the amount of arrows I don't know but some games allow you to retrieve your weapon from the kill once you defeat it so you can collect the old arrows plus collect any you find lying around as UO uses this method with archers.

[dimercury]

I'm sure that you will be supplied with minimal weapons from your trainer/master person. These items though will probably only be sufficient for a short period of time until you are able to purchase one from a npc or crafter like wolfstar stated. And as for as the archer question goes, I'd say that they would give you as many arrows as you need although they would basically be like shooting a toothpick compared to the highest ones you will be able to craft/buy.

[signofdeath]

so do u think that they will aply the durability idea to arrows? if indeed u can get them back

[dimercury]

If they do allow you to retrieve your arrows from your kills I'm sure they will implement a sort of durability factor with arrows so you won't have an infinite amount otherwise it seems like it would be too much of an exploit.

[Wolfstar]

That we will have to wait and see but in UO the arrows are reusable and there isn't any durability on the arrows only on the bows.

[signofdeath]

i really hope bows live up to their full potential in this game in most games they r set on the back burners and seen as a sencond class weapon where really they do a significant amount of damage it would be nice if wut armor u had on directly effected ur chance of death..like if u hade a helm on it would decrease the chance of sum1 with a bow getting a head shot on u and if u had no breast plate on it would increase the chance of sum1 stabbing in in the heart..lol...just a thought

[detritus]

hopefully the starting equipment will be of a quality low enough to give us very basic use, whilst still being incredibly undesirable to continue using... unless of course you are intent on proving how elite you are by continuing to use a terrible weapon as far as possible. And I do mean that, there shouldn't be any worse weapons than the initial ones, although they should still be balanced for the character. I guess Race and class would both have to be taken into account as for what this weapon would be though, for example, a Brave Tank would have a broadsword, wheras a Dwarf Tank would have an axe, and a Human Tank would have a Shortsword. this would continue as an Elf mage could have a staff, wheras a fairy mage could have a wand, an elf ranger could have a bow, and so on... both race and class would have to be taken into account as far as starting weapons go... I would like to see starting clothing though, a tunic and pantaloons or something, I don't want to KNOW what a naked dwarf looks like **shudder** and as far as the arrows go, a set number of uses shopuld be instigated, whereby the arrow itself would have a form of point value and depending upon what it impacts with, it looses a certain ammount of durability. say it goes through a metal armour, it should be far less likely to be usable again than one that merely goes through an unprotected chest.... on a sidenote, I would like to see arrows being used as stabbing weapons as seen in LOTR, damn that scene with legolas was cool

[dimercury]

I really hate to bring it up every other post but seeing as how it's basically my only background I kinda have to. But anyways, in DAoC all characters would basically start out with the same stuff. Tank type characters would start off with a short sword, axe, blunt weapon and a small shield and the mage type characters would start off with staves. These would be different for different classes and races but nonetheless they were all basically given the same starting equipment. Then as they started choosing which profession they would join, they would then be able to get different items such as dual wielding or the ability to use scythes or large weapons.

[signofdeath]

lol ya arrows as stabbing weapins would be nice but then it would be easier to break...its much easier to break stabing like that

[detritus]

oh I won't argue with you there, it should make them relatively useless afterwards, or at most have one use MAX afterwards, but it'd still look cool :P

[signofdeath]

lol next thinf u know u can come up from behind ppl and strangle them with ur bow...

[detritus]

don't be silly, it'd damage the bow, i'd take the string off and garotte them with that, far more civilized :P

[chimaera]

How about using a Broadsword as a throwing knife, i'd be impressed at that

[detritus]

to be honest mate, I wouldn't put it past the 1/2 trolls to be able to :P on that note, what do you guys think are the chances of ransom objects being used as weapons by the larger and stronger races, it would be interesting to see a half-troll just pick up a boulder an lob it at someone...

[Zelph]

i really hope bows live up to their full potential in this game in most games they r set on the back burners and seen as a sencond class weapon where really they do a significant amount of damage it would be nice if wut armor u had on directly effected ur chance of death..like if u hade a helm on it would decrease the chance of sum1 with a bow getting a head shot on u and if u had no breast plate on it would increase the chance of sum1 stabbing in in the heart..lol...just a thought

I agree with you here, in most games bows are either overpowered or underpowered. To implement bows properly I think they need to base it on real life calculations. I'm not too familiar with the physics involved with using a bow so please, someone who is familiar with this add to it or correct me, but from my knowledge the power (P) of a bow relies on two factors, that being draw weight, and strength of the person using it. The P (power) in effect than determines the velocity, and Distance of the projectile as well as the damage done to the target. The initial accuracy (A) of the projectile is determined by experiance and calculations of the individual, as well to some degree the time (T) the draw is held. After the arrow is released the A of the arrow is affected by a few other factors, such as wind, weather, target movement, soft cover (shrubs, small plants, etc.), and hard cover (walls, buildings, trees, etc.), we'll say all this is X. If the arrow hits the target then the chance to wound the target is affected by the armour (or lack thereof) of the individual. The severity of the wound is determined by the P of the arrow, as well as where it hit (an arm hit isn't going to do as much damage as say a head or chest), and to some extent the type of arrowhead we'll call all this Z.

Of course, this is just how it would look in real life, when we add magic to the equasion it get's much more complex. Spells can affect everything from accuracy, power, damage, etc., so the computations could get infinitely more complex.

So to break it down into simpler terms the range is determined by the P
The A is determined by the T and the X
The damage done is determined by the Z

So it'll look something like this P + A (+T -X) = %tohit, and Z

Comments?

[richardguy87]

But arent arrows a little more powerful in real life than they make them seem in most games? I mean if you tak a hit from an arrow in the chest, you arent fighting for a while. So why are they so weak in games?? shouldnt they make bows a little better, and start you off with something weaker , like darts for instance?

[richardguy87]

maybe you should get more experience faster if your use a really weak weapon later in the game?

[Kellare]

I think you'll find that most in-game weapons are weaker than in real life - this is generally to account for parrying etc, skill of the combatants in avoiding blows and a bit of a super here factor - ie characters are way above average.

I don't think too many people would play the game for long if a broadsword killed on a first hit or hacked an arm or a leg off - you might like the idea of hacking off limbs - especially when they weren't your limbs, but it would get a little tiresome if it happened on the first hit of every combat.

ps. Welcome to DnL Richard. Also - if you need to add something, just hit the edit button and add it to the first post - the mods don't like double posting ;)

[Edited on 11/11/2003 by Kellare]

[chimaera]

As for your more experience for weaker weapons at higher level richard, i can't see that working at all. Imagine a warrior character, already capable of killing most characters with a basic weapon suddenly starts getting extra xp for using that simple weapon. Nobody would consider using anything except simple weapons. The norm for this is you use a simple weapon, you build up some experience with it, allowing you to use a slightly more advanced weapon better and so on. Any other form of combat advancement system doing the opposite to that would just be unfair.

[signofdeath]

what i was referring to in my post was that the armor in most games protect u too much from arrows where as the long bow was put into use because it had the ability to go through plate armor easily and chain armor is complete vulnerable to peircing attacks and only really protects against the edge of the sword and such things so if u think about it the only defense against arrows u should have is a sheild and some sorts of magical protection and dodging and other such skills but i think they should put a handicap to those sorts of skills when being attacked with a bow so if u have 50% chance of dodging a normal weapon than u should only have 40% chance to dodge an arrow ...u r much more likely to dodge or block a sword than an arrow....but i suppose in oreder to keep everything balanced none of this will happen otherwise we would have a game full of archers with normal warriors not really standing a chance against them since they would already having a running head start and can hit without being hit back....nevertheless it would still be nice to see weapons have more of a realistic damage most other games neglect weapons unless they r sword or axes where as a flail would cause more damage just from the way in moves perpetually gaining speed but the sword can only move as fast as ur arm...just a thought

[Phelony]

this would be a breaking point for me....i hope with all the detail they put into the world enviroment they will spend some time on character creation.....swg star wars galaxies had a great character creation system...i really enjoyed making characters on that...i spent a good hour and a half tweaking my main character it was great

[kaltgoulash]

That is the worry, them spending all this time on the Scenery whereas that does not matter nearly as much as the gameplay itself.
I hope they are going to put as much effort into character creation and all other apsects that come with this.
Also, Fighter weak against mage, Mage weak against Ranger and Ranger weak against fighter is FAR too basic. There has to be more to combat than this.
Maybe an ability for the Fighters so they can auto dodge spells occasionally, not too often as to unbalance the game.

[kaltgoulash]

That is the worry, them spending all this time on the Scenery whereas that does not matter nearly as much as the gameplay itself.
I hope they are going to put as much effort into character creation and all other apsects that come with this.
Also, Fighter weak against mage, Mage weak against Ranger and Ranger weak against fighter is FAR too basic. There has to be more to combat than this.
Maybe an ability for the Fighters so they can auto dodge spells occasionally, not too often as to unbalance the game.

[kaltgoulash]

That is the worry, them spending all this time on the Scenery whereas that does not matter nearly as much as the gameplay itself.
I hope they are going to put as much effort into character creation and all other apsects that come with this.
Also, Fighter weak against mage, Mage weak against Ranger and Ranger weak against fighter is FAR too basic. There has to be more to combat than this.
Maybe an ability for the Fighters so they can auto dodge spells occasionally, not too often as to unbalance the game.

[kaltgoulash]

WTF, that was not intentional spam.

[dimercury]

If you go back and hit the edit buttont then click !delete this post! it should solve your lil' dilema ;)

[Zelph]

It would be cool if the character creation process was a bit more interactive than just changing your appearance. We know that the signs of the zodiac will throw a random twist into the creation bit, but what if say you could create a background story for your persona. And maybe select from a list your background history of your character - say if you were a farmer then you would get an additional bonus to your strength, and maybe animal kinship, but would get a slight hit to your intelligence and charisma.

[dimercury]

I think you will be able to customize your base stats as in most mmorpg's but as for the story thing I'm not too sure. Would make things interesting but also a little more complex. What you could do is tell ppl you were a farmer in order to get that extra initial strength. "Pa had me wakin up at the @$$ crack o' dawn milkin' ol' Bessy." :P

[Boattail173]

Does anyone know if you will be able to, "Tattoo" your charachter??

[Zelph]

Yep for sure! There will even be magical ones :cool: Dev Chats 11, and 15 have information regarding tattoo's. They can be decorative and even magical, and they will be able to glow. One of their graphic artists was a tattooer before joining them :)

[Edited on 12/11/2003 by Zelph]

[Kurt_Chus]

Your Char creation should be loads betta than other MMORPG's i love customization :cool:

Magical tattos would be cool, what about rings and amulets and even earing's?

[Kurt_Chus]

Your Char creation should be loads betta than other MMORPG's i love customization :cool:

Magical tattos would be cool, what about rings and amulets and even earing's?

[Kurt_Chus]

Your Char creation should be loads betta than other MMORPG's i love customization :cool:

Magical tattos would be cool, what about rings and amulets and even earing's?

[DigitalMastermind]

Click edit in the thread area... click the DELETE!! button in the edit area... click edit. Repeat once o.O N' yes, magical tattoos would be spifftacular.

[dimercury]

I've tried to tell em digi but they just won't listen :P

[DigitalMastermind]

Hehehe... You would think it (the forum) simply wouldn't allow identical messages like that? O.o .......... o.O

[Wolfstar]

I've noticed why double posts are happening on this forum Dig ;)
All the time its happened to me has been when the forum has lag and doesn't update the post and still displays so you believe incorrectly that it hasn't posted your message so you hit send message again and you get double posting happen :(

I even had it do 5 posts the other day because of this fault and had to delete the other 4 posts before someone noticed ;)

Well I put it down to the forum software that we're running on as it doesn't happen with certain forum software double posting is harder to achieve hehe

[Kellare]

I'm pretty sure only clicking the 'Post Reply' button once, fixes this problem ;)

[Wolfstar]

No Kellare the problem is caused due to lag and you press once then allow sometimes an eternity for the page to refresh and you'll have a single post other times its lightning fast.

But if you don't wait the minute or sometimes 90 seconds that the forum can take to load and then hit the post button again you get a double post due to lag :casstet: ;)

[chimaera]

I've had this same problem wolfstar where the page has shown no sign of loading for ages after you click "post reply", but its easily solved by people deleting the excess post as you and i have. It would be nice if others did the same too instead of filling up forums with the same post :(

[Kellare]

LOL@Wolfstar - you do realise that you said you hit the button again?

Clicking links multiple times because a page hasnt loaded is not unique to the DnL forums though - I realise its annoying that it puts the post in twice but a little patience fixes the problem.

[Wolfstar]

I know its not unique hehe we run forums ourselves but use software that doesn't allow double posting like that and stop picking on me I'm tired :( some of us have to go out and work all day with long driving involved ;)

Either way anyone that does double post can see plainly the reason why and use the edit button and tick delete message and they will remove the second/third/fourth/fifth post hehe :)

[chimaera]

Actually kellare i see where wolfstar is coming from on this as i too pushed the button more than once and patience wouldn't have helped on this occasion as the page showed no attempt at loading. usually when i post a message i get a progress bar on the bottom of my explorer window as i'm sure others do, but on the instance in question no bar appeared, leading me to believe that the page was not loading. I'm assuming from wolfstars description that he faced this same factor. Whether it is lag i am not sure, it may be a bug but it isn't a major problem and can easily be corrected by simply deleting the excess posts as so many of us have already mentioned.

[Aliah]

Your Char creation should be loads betta than other MMORPG's i love customization :cool:

Magical tattos would be cool, what about rings and amulets and even earing's?


that would be so awesome

[dimercury]

They have actually talked about all that type of stuff (tattoos, amulets, rings and such) and said that they will have the accessories but not really sure bout the tattoos. I am pretty sure they will have them in the game, just not sure about being able to customize them. One question though: Will rings, amulets, belts and other excessories actually be visible on your character?

[Kahlis]

Disclaimer: I'm not advertising, just trying to give a hands-on suggestion/idea

Hmm, try out the character creation for this game, Uru. It's a demo and all the options for the creation aren't implimented in that, but it gives you a basic idea. Would this work for faces and whatnot?

http://www.3dgamers.com/games/uru/
OR
http://www.gigex.com/general/title/downloads/?id=&packageID=0051400038&source=00001

The character creation in that is better than what I've seen in many MMO's (Although that is just the single-player version)

-Kahlis

[Brandon]

The dev chats say there will be tattoo's, both normal and magical. The magical tattoo's can glow and will increase certain abilities. They are considering making it a skill that can be practised.

[Zelph]

One question though: Will rings, amulets, belts and other excessories actually be visible on your character?

Don't know about these items, would be awesome if it could, but for sure clothing/armours/weapons will, but I'm sure you already knew that :D

I would guess with the graphical power that they have that it will be possible. I mean, later on they say they will be able to show limbs being lost, disease and sickness effects, as well as armour/equipment being worn out, scuffed, etc., so why not?

[mappam]

Please Please Please let me create a flat-chested female!

I am SOOO tired of running around in a virtual world looking like Dolly Parton!!!

[DigitalMastermind]

There was a screenshot I saw earlier in the forum that showed a very anatomically correct gal with pigtails. Hopefully you'll be able to increase/decrease your torso sizes as you wish during character creation. Not many games give this fully, Horizons comes closest so far, I don't know exactly what DnL has in store.

[Ethstrallel]

LOL Mappam . I know what you mean, at least a character that is proportioned-lol

Well, as for myself I will be a fairy, not sure if I will be dark or light. It kind of depends if there will be a difference in dark and light magic. So eg: As a fairy you can be either light or dark. so if you are a light fairy wizard are your spells any different from a dark fairy wizard. But if the spells are more based on class then either a Necro, Wizard, or maybe an Illusionist. It all depends on the final race/class description when the game is released to retail.

But I will have alts. So I will have a wood elf druid , wood elf ranger. Names... that I will not give away ;)

[Toki]

I just hope there are many choices for the Brave race, I think I will go with that one first... see what there is about it.. wish they had in-game shots of all the races and not concept art :(

[Mog]

They should let you pick what weapon you want to use, such as in SB. In SB when you added str, you LOOKED stronger then before, i hope they somehow implement this, because a strong person shouldnt look weak ;)

[Edited on 16/11/2003 by Mog]

[Aliah]

can you even edit your characters face? i.e. lines on their face, eyes, etc.

[KillaC]

About the arrows heres something I haven't seen to much being able to shoot in first person and shoot them in the eye or something stealthy style.

[KillaC]

About the arrows heres something I haven't seen to much being able to shoot in first person and shoot them in the eye or something stealthy style.

[KillaC]

About the arrows heres something I haven't seen to much being able to shoot in first person and shoot them in the eye or something stealthy style.

[KillaC]

About the arrows heres something I haven't seen to much being able to shoot in first person and shoot them in the eye or something stealthy style.

[KillaC]

About the arrows heres something I haven't seen to much being able to shoot in first person and shoot them in the eye or something stealthy style.

[KillaC]

Dang this stupid Aol made it appear three times.

[Strofer]

You could always edit the posts and use the delete button Killa. Duh! :casstet:

[Mog]

Haha :casstet: