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Kiff
Protector of the Realm
Joined: 27 Oct 2002
Posts: 257
Location: Indiana |
| Character customization; Who's got it right? |
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AC2 took it all away (newbie friendly) and left you with only a few options of how your character can look.
UO gave you a ton of options in how you will physically look.
EQ and DAoC gave you a good choice of how to set your stats and abilities but not so many options on how you will look.
Its one of my favorite things in any RGP, making my character me. Setting the stats and physical characteristic to make it just the way I want. So...what game has got it correct so far, or who has come the closest? Do you like more or less?
I like the more options I have to make him different from someone elses character the better. |
Thu Aug 14, 2003 3:26 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
There's no doubt the answer to your question is Star Wars Galaxies. There is no contest, no other game comes even close to have as much customization options than SWG as far as physical appearance goes. Not even close.
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Thu Aug 14, 2003 3:32 pm |
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Kiff
Protector of the Realm
Joined: 27 Oct 2002
Posts: 257
Location: Indiana |
SWG is out of my price range. |
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Thu Aug 14, 2003 4:50 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by Kiff
SWG is out of my price range.
I wasn't aware this was supposed to be a question about the type of price a game charges though...  Regardless of that and in answer to your original question,
quote:
Originally posted by Kiff
So...what game has got it correct so far, or who has come the closest?
SWG has, hands down, the best character customization features on the market today.
Anarchy Online has a good number of customization options. It's probably the best one after SWG, in my personal opinion. But they are just a series of different static features, and as such you're bound to see two characters looking slightly alike in the world. Still, AO offers a good variety.
Earth & Beyond's character creation is fun, but pretty much irrelevant as you only see your avatar in space stations. Your most important feature (the ship) is not customizable very much, so that makes it poor...
I'm not aware of the options in A Tale in the Desert, or Eve Online and can't comment on them.
You already commented on EQ, DAoC, UO, and AC2 yourself... what else is there? 
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Thu Aug 14, 2003 5:22 pm |
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Kiff
Protector of the Realm
Joined: 27 Oct 2002
Posts: 257
Location: Indiana |
Naa was just saying SWG is a bit pricey. I'm very reluctant and kick myself every month I give $13 to Sony.
E&B isn't my type of game, nor is AO, I like Star Wars, but I'm reluctant to pay for playing SWG, and I'm not so sure I would like it as a RGP either. My fav are the midevil fantasy RPG's.
I would like to get on SWG now just to see the character customizations you're bragging about. But oh well. Maybe the games I'm into will pick up on that. |
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Thu Aug 14, 2003 7:20 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by Kiff
I would like to get on SWG now just to see the character customizations you're bragging about. But oh well. Maybe the games I'm into will pick up on that.
I think I saw someone who had a video of it once... Let me check my old stuff and get back to you with a link if I ever find it  It's definately worth a look. I wouldn't buy the game just for that myself though, but that's just me. 
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Thu Aug 14, 2003 8:32 pm |
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Hyrrix
Fourty-two
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Posts: 282
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Well... I still think that parameters like strength, muscles, attractiveness, etc should be largely determined by your stats. A very strong looking man with hardly any strength at all simply doesn't make sense.
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Fri Aug 15, 2003 8:32 pm |
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ShadowWolfe
Noble Knight
Joined: 19 Feb 2003
Posts: 205
Location: In the northern mountains of the western continent. |
I regualarly play ac2 and was quite let down about the character customization ... every lower lvl character looks the same and its really ... quite annoying ... when i first played SWG I was like a kid in a candy store ... HOURS OF TWEAKING!  ... limitless possibilities ... although Im not really a sci-fi guy ..  oh well maybe there will be a fantasy game with character customizations and implementations abroad such as SWG. untill then ill continue with my 3rd generic ac2 character
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Fri Aug 15, 2003 11:36 pm |
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Xanaki
Ghost of Asheron
Joined: 07 May 2002
Posts: 398
Location: Helsinki, Finland |
Ekim, how can you say SWG has the best customization if you have not tried e.g. Eve Online
In Eve the character does not really have such avatar like in other traditional MMORPGs. Other players will be able to see your portrait in game e.g. in communications and such. So in Eve it is just a static portrait. HOWEVER, it has tons of customizability, the most I have seen in any game I have played (Haven't tried SWG heh .
When you create a character you first select your race and sex which gives you the basic features to your character. Then you are presented with a full 3-D editor where you can modify the aspects of the race pretty much how you like. You have sliders that you can use to customise almost every aspect of your face (shape, expression etc). You can select the lighting, clothing, skinpaint (tattoos), hair etc. of your character. You can also turn the head to different angles you wish (tilt and turn). In the end you can create almost anything from real awful looking ugly monsters to pretty looking girls with the choices.
This is why with all the customization options in Eve it's sad that the result is only a static portrait visible as a image whenever you e.g. look another players stats or chat with them.
Of course, there is also reason why it is only a static image in game. It has *TONS* of polygons in construction phase. The face portraits have very much detail (*many* variables that control how you look) so after you have edited the features of your portrait the game renders a static image and stores it in the server.
If you browse the official Eve Online forums, e.g. : this thread you see the real ingame character portraits on the left side of the messages. If you click the small portrait, it will display a full sized, detailed version. E.g. here's my main characters portrait: Nova Star. I think it's clever to integrate the game database with the official game forums
Also Project Entropia had a pretty much similar way to modify your avatar. It had similar sliders (at least in the beta) which you could use to modify the aspects of the face and body. Not sure how it is now since the game itself was pure junk
Ekim, I'm not here to say that SWG has less options to customize the avatar but Eve has it also decently implemented
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Mon Aug 18, 2003 1:27 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by Xanaki
Ekim, how can you say SWG has the best customization if you have not tried e.g. Eve Online
Yeah, you're absolutely right! I'm usually careful about that, but... I read a little about Eve before, and acknowledged that although the avatar custumization was very much praised, it was also said about it that it was a little disapointing because it had so little impact on the players. It's a little like in Earth & Beyond where you had more options to customize your avatar, while your avatar was only seen very rarely in the game.
In a context where your avatar is concenred, I still maintain that, even though I haven't actually seen every other game out there, SWG has one of the most custumizability. But not only is this customizability great, but it has an actual impact on the game because your avatar is your most obvious representation in the game, and after having played for almost 2 months now I can't say I've come accross any two characters alike in any way! I can actually see a friend coming towards me and recognize him even before I see his name tag over his head!
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Mon Aug 18, 2003 2:13 pm |
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MoonDragon
High Emperor
Joined: 25 May 2002
Posts: 1254
Location: Waterloo, Canada |
Xanaki, you are actually wrong. SWG has better character customization than Eve. Or rather, it has the same options for the head (maybe even a couple of extras--it's hard to say since Eve bundles specific features into those weird boxes that do not explain which feature you're changing and SWG gives each change a name and its own slider--e.g. jaw width, chin extrusion, nose length, nose width, lip shape, lip colour, eye shape, eye colour, etc>), but in SWG you get additional options for the body and on top of that you don't just end up taking a snapshot of your character in one pose, but rather get to play the game with the 3D character that actually looks like what you picked. Big difference.
Oh, and on top of that, once you meet an advanced Image Designer (class of player) in the game, they can change your appearance even more with options that were not available at the character creation screen.
--Edit--
Come to think of it, that makes SWG the ultimate game when it comes to character design, as you can play a character who's job in the game is to perform character design! And you can tweak your own character five times a day if that's your cup of tea.
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Last edited by MoonDragon on Tue Aug 19, 2003 2:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Tue Aug 19, 2003 2:05 pm |
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RedTiger
Village Leader
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Posts: 93
Location: Center of Chaos |
I saw some of the screenshots that have been floating around for UXO. everything looks alot more cartoony in terms of the character graphics so I'm wondering how much customizing it'll allow for appearance. Does anyone know if they're going to be doing a full demo at this San Francisco event? |
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Tue Aug 19, 2003 2:10 pm |
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Xanaki
Ghost of Asheron
Joined: 07 May 2002
Posts: 398
Location: Helsinki, Finland |
quote:
Originally posted by MoonDragon
Xanaki, you are actually wrong.
MoonDragon, just how am I wrong? I never said Eve has better customization. I just stated how it is implemented in Eve Online Read my message again. in the end I state this:
quote:
Originally posted by Xanaki
Ekim, I'm not here to say that SWG has less options to customize the avatar but Eve has it also decently implemented
Besides, the system that Eve now has is good for the game system. As in Eve you never walk around with your character. So the ship basically is your avatar but in communications you are presented with your portrait. It would be pointless to have that 3-D avatar in Eve because you only see those in communications
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Tue Aug 19, 2003 3:28 pm |
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