Character Creation Extravaganza!

[derula]

CyanStargazer was just talking about a Frankenstein's Monster class in Deadhaus. That got me thinking, and rather than going off-topic and derailing that thread, I thought I'd make a new one.

I just realized what it means to have an array of vastly different monster classes for player characters: the character creator is going to have to be ridiculous!

Of course you can create monsters in several other games that just have sliders with ridiculous range. However, the result of such tomfoolery is usually just deformed humans, not actual monsters.

Most if not all character creators I have seen were restricted to a tight humanoid spectrum. Where non-humanoid features are possible, often you can only pick from a range of choices.

While choice-based character creators are good and probably provide enough options already to let everyone a distinguished design, I'm really curious how a slider-based system could work with undead or similar creatures that may barely resemble a live human.

Could we see a degree of translucency for ghost-type characters? Could we freely choose the amount of guts hanging out of our zombie? A slider for ghoul hunchback?

Also, can some appearance be tied to actual game skill? Like a trade-off situation, e.g. darker-skinned vampires have more Thirst, but can handle sunlight better. Or something.

Anyway, really curious about what your take on that is. I think it would be cool to have a little monster factory that isn't limited to "normal" humanoid slider settings.

 

[CyanStargazer]

That sounds awesome. If you could give zombies or revenants varying stages of decay, I could probably recreate one of my undead D&D characters in game.

 

[Pawniuss]

The first thing that comes to my mind after reading this are the bizarre creatures in medieval illustrations. Not sure if that's in line with the things the devs are looking for but there's plenty of material there to inspire some really crazy designs.

As for character creation, personally I don't really like to spend much time doing that, at least not at first, so I wouldn't be interested in overly detailed options like picking the amount of wounds, decay or whatever. Basic character creators can be very time consuming as it is, especially for someone that wants to jump into the game right away, putting too many options can become a flaw. Perhaps the ability to further customize your character would be more appealing as part of the levelling process instead of the initial character creator.

 

[derula]

As for character creation, personally I don't really like to spend much time doing that, at least not at first, so I wouldn't be interested in overly detailed options like picking the amount of wounds, decay or whatever.

Maybe there could be simple presets combined with a "randomize" option that would create slight alterations of said presets?

Perhaps the ability to further customize your character would be more appealing as part of the levelling process instead of the initial character creator.

That is a very interesting idea! Maybe they could make it so one could tell by just looking at a character what level range they're at? E.g. stages of decay in zombies, or prominence of vampiric features (length of teeth, paleness of skin...) in vampires. Like as a sort of visual aging cue, where "age" is level. That would be pretty dope, but not sure how feasible it would be.

 

[Pawniuss]

That is a very interesting idea! Maybe they could make it so one could tell by just looking at a character what level range they're at? E.g. stages of decay in zombies, or prominence of vampiric features (length of teeth, paleness of skin...) in vampires. Like as a sort of visual aging cue, where "age" is level. That would be pretty dope, but not sure how feasible it would be.

Not necessarily, customizing a character's appearance with better armor or parts in the case of cars and other machine types is already a thing in video games. Customizing an undead character with new limbs, full bodies, etc. is basically the same concept. And once the game is released this can be improved based on players' feedback to make something more unique that better fits this game. It could be fun, at least from our end. Though the devs may not think the same, he he.

 

[Rogo]

Personally I don't like slider based character creation so I hope its avoided, I think too many options can take away from and sometimes even break the original conceptualized vision of the characters. I would prefer a set of presets to choose from that keep your character normalized to the world and their current standing in it. If everyone looks wild and crazily different at the start of the game then the impact of earned cosmetics and items later is lessened. Standing out should be a reward.

Perhaps the ability to further customize your character would be more appealing as part of the levelling process instead of the initial character creator.

This this and more this, I love games where the visual uniqueness of your character is earned, where items on your character can be instantly recognized and linked to in game achievement and participation through leveling, events, etc... It gives you something to strive for and can be used to add story and lineage to the actual items you have obtained and now wear proudly.

Maybe they could make it so one could tell by just looking at a character what level range they're at? E.g. stages of decay in zombies, or prominence of vampiric features (length of teeth, paleness of skin...) in vampires. Like as a sort of visual aging cue, where "age" is level

Love this idea, having one or two visual aspects of each character class linked to level or prestige would be interesting and allow for some interesting customization options that only open to characters at those levels, ie adding elements to a vampires teeth once they are a certain length etc...