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Is Characterization better then Wow

mkafnamkafna Member Posts: 14
in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
I was wondering if making a new character (Avatar) is much more diverse then it is in WOW.



The Characterization in WOW is a little limited.



Also which game would you all recommend at the moment wow or Vanguard?



Thanks



mkafna
«1

Comments

  • DMEnocDMEnoc Member Posts: 153

    The basic faces and hairstyles are kinda limited but yes there is tons more customization then there is in WoW.

  • ShoalShoal Member Posts: 1,156

    Yes, it is much more involved.  But do realize, in WoW, character customization is through Gear anyway.  In WoW, if you are wearing a standard Helmet, youre face cannot be seen well anyway (but, you can disable Helmet graphic).

    But, lets expand on the concept of character customization.   Let's look at what you see the most of, other NPCs.  Both Monsters in the world and NPCs in towns and such.

    Here, in World realization, WoW shuts down V:SoH, wraps it up, and puts it in the bin.   No matter where you go in WoW, NPCs are alive.  They actually breathe and shuffle around.  They talk to other NPCs.   They patrol around the Post or Town.  They have things to do, places to go.  A Town-Post-City in WoW feels very much a populated place.  Not so in V:SoH.   NPCs in V:SoH are pretty much dead statues, stuck into the ground.

    One word on WoW graphics.   You will hear they are 'bad' and 'cartoon' like.   Please understand that the WoW graphics are based on the Warcraft line of games.   They are not based on 'reality'.  So, they are supposed to look the way they do.   It is how Warcraft looks.  They have done a stellar job with the WoW graphics.  Areas have very different look and feel.   And there are many, many divergent types of areas.  From desert to jungle.   Forest to plain.  Wasted lands to underwater areas.

    Lots of trial keys (2 per box) given out with BC expansion.   See if you can borrow someones CDs and a Trial Key.  Play for a couple of weeks and see for yourself.   One thing to note, the Newbie areas are a VERY good indicator of the standard PvE WoW game.  But there are many more games within WoW.   Raid Game, Crafting Game, Reputation Game, and now with BC, a PvP RvR type game.  And 3 major continents to do everything on.

  • gauge2k3gauge2k3 Member Posts: 442
    I would say about equal, the presets like hair and such are not as visually different then in WoW but the customization of your face and body is better then WoW.  In the end I would say they offer an equal amount of customization, maybe more in vanguards favor.
  • Scy22Scy22 Member Posts: 25
    To answer your question.  No.



    Each race has 4 faces,  4 hair styles,  the sliders are trivial.



    Each face looks almost identical.  even if you tweak the hell out of the sliders,  what you end up with is a face that looks 99% like the one you started with.  you cant change the bone structure at all.



    Same goes with the body.  you can use some sliders to make almost non existent changes.



    If you chose a race,  you will look almost exactly like everyone else of that race, period.





    As far as class customization goes,  it doesn't exist.  There's zero intraclass specialization.





    If you are a rogue,  you will be EXACTLY like every other rogue of your level.  Only difference will be in gear.  Assuming you have comparable gear, you will be a spitting image.



    Same skills,  same spells,  same everything.



    This game took a huge leap backwards in customization.
  • sololocosololoco Member Posts: 542
    If you want to make camparisons don't choose WoW as that game has the worse avs yet.  Every race looks exactly alike, the only difference might be the color of the hair or if there is hair or not.   WoW can't touch VG in practically anything.
  • DeadJesterDeadJester Member Posts: 499
    If you  are looking for a game that gives you  alot to chose from then  CoV or CoH is the way to go.  Both Vsoh and Wow lack true characterization in the avatars.
  • sephersepher Member Posts: 3,561
    WoW's initial character customization - highly more stylized, more hair options, and most importantly pass the character creation screen; each race is way more uniquely animated, and the character animations blow Vanguard out of the water completely all together.



    Vanguard's initial character customization - plenty of sliders to tweak the height, width, length and depth of every little anatomical feature you've come to expect more or less from games like Sims 2 and the Movies; or even MMOs like City of Heroes. Shortcomings with limited hair and face options though can render all your nitpicking slider movements nill; since mostlikely when five different people see they have the same hair they aren't going to much notice the centimeter differences in their cheek placements.



    You've probably seen Vanguard screenshots and may've been impressed, but once everything starts to animate it's far less impressive due to poor character animations. I don't mean poor just as in not to the quality of World of Warcraft's or any other games, but poor as in slow, overly-reused, often out of synch, sometimes skipped, and lacking of nice tidbit features such as race specific animations for the same ability used by two different races, and so on.



    Vanguard edges WoW out as far as character customizations go, if for no other reason than simple things like being able to adjust your height and weight. So there's some things you can always depend on like not being the same height as the next person; but again things like having the exact same hair style brings such an expansive system down sometimes.



    Still, Vanguard will impress you moreso than Vanguard....but once everything animates World of Warcraft and most MMOs out there destroys Vanguard easily. So no matter how much you customize your doll in Vanguard, it still moves like a plastic barbie.
  • matraquematraque Member Posts: 1,431
    Originally posted by sepher

    WoW's initial character customization - highly more stylized, more hair options, and most importantly pass the character creation screen; each race is way more uniquely animated, and the character animations blow Vanguard out of the water completely all together.



    Vanguard's initial character customization - plenty of sliders to tweak the height, width, length and depth of every little anatomical feature you've come to expect more or less from games like Sims 2 and the Movies; or even MMOs like City of Heroes. Shortcomings with limited hair and face options though can render all your nitpicking slider movements nill; since mostlikely when five different people see they have the same hair they aren't going to much notice the centimeter differences in their cheek placements.



    You've probably seen Vanguard screenshots and may've been impressed, but once everything starts to animate it's far less impressive due to poor character animations. I don't mean poor just as in not to the quality of World of Warcraft's or any other games, but poor as in slow, overly-reused, often out of synch, sometimes skipped, and lacking of nice tidbit features such as race specific animations for the same ability used by two different races, and so on.



    Vanguard edges WoW out as far as character customizations go, if for no other reason than simple things like being able to adjust your height and weight. So there's some things you can always depend on like not being the same height as the next person; but again things like having the exact same hair style brings such an expansive system down sometimes.



    Still, Vanguard will impress you moreso than Vanguard....but once everything animates World of Warcraft and most MMOs out there destroys Vanguard easily. So no matter how much you customize your doll in Vanguard, it still moves like a plastic barbie.
    It's all a matter of taste.



    In my guild, of about 20 peoples, no one complain about animations.  Spell effects are better then wow IMO.  But yes, the combat is less flashy then WoW.  More realistic maybe?

    eqnext.wikia.com

  • ayanelayanel Member Posts: 150
    You have *a lot* more choices in Vanguard but they are *a lot less* meaningful.  Each race has 4 faces which are very similar, 4 hairstyle most of which are bad, and a lot of sliders to control height, width, facial features but its hard to create a character that is distinct under anything but the closest inspection.



    WoW gives you far fewer choices but the choices you have are more meaningful.  Also sadly lacking is are the different walks, emotes, and “flavor” of the different races.  As far as I can tell only some key combat animations differentiate them, although I’ve not explored every possible race so I could be missing something.



    Overall though I’d say WoW does a better job of making the races feel unique.
  • sephersepher Member Posts: 3,561
    Originally posted by matraque

    Originally posted by sepher

    WoW's initial character customization - highly more stylized, more hair options, and most importantly pass the character creation screen; each race is way more uniquely animated, and the character animations blow Vanguard out of the water completely all together.



    Vanguard's initial character customization - plenty of sliders to tweak the height, width, length and depth of every little anatomical feature you've come to expect more or less from games like Sims 2 and the Movies; or even MMOs like City of Heroes. Shortcomings with limited hair and face options though can render all your nitpicking slider movements nill; since mostlikely when five different people see they have the same hair they aren't going to much notice the centimeter differences in their cheek placements.



    You've probably seen Vanguard screenshots and may've been impressed, but once everything starts to animate it's far less impressive due to poor character animations. I don't mean poor just as in not to the quality of World of Warcraft's or any other games, but poor as in slow, overly-reused, often out of synch, sometimes skipped, and lacking of nice tidbit features such as race specific animations for the same ability used by two different races, and so on.



    Vanguard edges WoW out as far as character customizations go, if for no other reason than simple things like being able to adjust your height and weight. So there's some things you can always depend on like not being the same height as the next person; but again things like having the exact same hair style brings such an expansive system down sometimes.



    Still, Vanguard will impress you moreso than Vanguard....but once everything animates World of Warcraft and most MMOs out there destroys Vanguard easily. So no matter how much you customize your doll in Vanguard, it still moves like a plastic barbie.
    It's all a matter of taste.



    In my guild, of about 20 peoples, no one complain about animations.  Spell effects are better then wow IMO.  But yes, the combat is less flashy then WoW.  More realistic maybe? Of course there's always going to be someone with a contrary opinion to popular opinion; but popular opinion remains that character animations in Vanguard are far subpar. Sure, you can decide to look at inadequacy as simplistic and realistic, but that isn't going to work for the majority, including Sigil too apparently who've always promised animation revamps, new spell effects, and currently has job listings for character animators and such.






  • matraquematraque Member Posts: 1,431
    Originally posted by sepher

    Originally posted by matraque

    Originally posted by sepher

    WoW's initial character customization - highly more stylized, more hair options, and most importantly pass the character creation screen; each race is way more uniquely animated, and the character animations blow Vanguard out of the water completely all together.



    Vanguard's initial character customization - plenty of sliders to tweak the height, width, length and depth of every little anatomical feature you've come to expect more or less from games like Sims 2 and the Movies; or even MMOs like City of Heroes. Shortcomings with limited hair and face options though can render all your nitpicking slider movements nill; since mostlikely when five different people see they have the same hair they aren't going to much notice the centimeter differences in their cheek placements.



    You've probably seen Vanguard screenshots and may've been impressed, but once everything starts to animate it's far less impressive due to poor character animations. I don't mean poor just as in not to the quality of World of Warcraft's or any other games, but poor as in slow, overly-reused, often out of synch, sometimes skipped, and lacking of nice tidbit features such as race specific animations for the same ability used by two different races, and so on.



    Vanguard edges WoW out as far as character customizations go, if for no other reason than simple things like being able to adjust your height and weight. So there's some things you can always depend on like not being the same height as the next person; but again things like having the exact same hair style brings such an expansive system down sometimes.



    Still, Vanguard will impress you moreso than Vanguard....but once everything animates World of Warcraft and most MMOs out there destroys Vanguard easily. So no matter how much you customize your doll in Vanguard, it still moves like a plastic barbie.
    It's all a matter of taste.



    In my guild, of about 20 peoples, no one complain about animations.  Spell effects are better then wow IMO.  But yes, the combat is less flashy then WoW.  More realistic maybe? Of course there's always going to be someone with a contrary opinion to popular opinion; but popular opinion remains that character animations in Vanguard are far subpar. Sure, you can decide to look at inadequacy as simplistic and realistic, but that isn't going to work for the majority, including Sigil too apparently who've always promised animation revamps, new spell effects, and currently has job listings for character animators and such.







    They can change it, i have no problem with that :)



    I don't mind the current ones either.

    eqnext.wikia.com

  • ayanelayanel Member Posts: 150
    Originally posted by matraque

     Spell effects are better then wow IMO.  But yes, the combat is less flashy then WoW.  More realistic maybe?
     I may be missing something but one of the first things that struck me about Vanguard was how lacking the spell animations were, even compared to WoW, which is saying a lot.



    Now maybe the latter ones get really impressive but all of the ones I have seen are extremely lackluster. 
  • KarinuveKarinuve Member Posts: 2
    The lack of hair options really kill the ability to make a unique looking character, apart from their clothing/armor.  Hair is extremely visible, and can make the face look drastically different.  If you look at some of the older 2-d mmorpgs with very simplistic graphics, like Nexus TK or Dark Ages,  the faces are all identical apart from the hair.  Despite them being a whopping ~20 or 30 square pixels, slap a different hairstyle on the head and the characters look like completely different people.  Vanguard not only has 4 hairstyles per race, but a lot of the hairstyles are extremely similar.  I'm hoping they add more later.



    They only thing so far that's bothered me about the animations is the spear animation.  I haven't seen the staff animations yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if the two were extremely similar.  I know that spears aren't purely a thrusting weapon, but of the animations I've seen so far, all three are slashing/striking motions, two of them upward.  My character is holding the blade end of the spear in his off hand, and grips it held laterally in front of him.  I'm almost starting to wonder if the thing doesn't have a point, given the total lack of thrusting going on.  Maybe it's just an animation I haven't seen yet.



    Normally animations wouldn't bother me that much, but when it makes that little sense/lacks that much realism, it becomes grating to watch. 
  • mkafnamkafna Member Posts: 14
    Why cant they make an avatar similiar to the one in oblivion i mean you would probably never get two identical characters.



    If WOW had oblivions characterization it would have been alot better then having orcs that have exactly the same physical size same head shape etc only hairstyles and colors making things different. 



    There would be so many people working on WOW and VSH it just confounds me that they cannot make a system that allows one to create a unique looking char from everything to height width face hair colors etc.



    Hopefully age of conan will deliver a radical improvement on this issue.



    What do you people think, that programmers are not putting enough effort into characterisation



    Mkafna
  • Deathstrike2Deathstrike2 Member UncommonPosts: 1,777
    Originally posted by Scy22

    To answer your question.  No.



    Each race has 4 faces,  4 hair styles,  the sliders are trivial.



    Each face looks almost identical.  even if you tweak the hell out of the sliders,  what you end up with is a face that looks 99% like the one you started with.  you cant change the bone structure at all.



    Same goes with the body.  you can use some sliders to make almost non existent changes.



    If you chose a race,  you will look almost exactly like everyone else of that race, period.





    As far as class customization goes,  it doesn't exist.  There's zero intraclass specialization.





    If you are a rogue,  you will be EXACTLY like every other rogue of your level.  Only difference will be in gear.  Assuming you have comparable gear, you will be a spitting image.



    Same skills,  same spells,  same everything.



    This game took a huge leap backwards in customization.

    Completely agree 100 percent.  I was grouping last night, and 3 of us looked identical.  It's not unusual.  The sliders do little to nothing noticable for in game customization.

  • sephersepher Member Posts: 3,561
    Originally posted by ayanel

    Originally posted by matraque

     Spell effects are better then wow IMO.  But yes, the combat is less flashy then WoW.  More realistic maybe?
     I may be missing something but one of the first things that struck me about Vanguard was how lacking the spell animations were, even compared to WoW, which is saying a lot.



    Now maybe the latter ones get really impressive but all of the ones I have seen are extremely lackluster.  Nope, it's the same deal. Dark Age of Camelot both before and after expansions have better spell effects if you ask me. Nothing has struck me like getting a Wizard's damage add buff for the first time in Dark Age of Camelot, or using Hellfire for the first time on my Warlock in World of Warcraft.



    All of Vanguard's spell effects are boring and generic...no dancing or use of instruments (animated) a-la Minstrels in DAoC on my Bard, no visible parrying animation when I parry like Dark Age of Camelot.



    Vanguard is severely lacking in animation, spells and otherwise...anyone who doesn't see it I don't understand. Realism? Having no parry or block animation is more realistic than DAoC how? Nah, just inadequacy.
  • ShadowFeintShadowFeint Member Posts: 64
    The thing that bothered me the most in WoW as far as Characterization was the leg and chest pieces and how they were just textures wrapped skin tight around me, Shouldnt this plate pants be thicker than that mage's pair of tights?



    As far as looking identical, I didnt really look much different than any other person of the same class as me at any particular level in WoW.



    The combat animations are far superior in WoW though, they have a very fluid feel but honestly you stop noticing them after awhile.



    The previous remarks about lack of hairstyles is on the mark but VG's saving grace is that when new ones are added you can just re-customize your guy at any time.

    Fun Factor is what makes or breaks a game, if its not fun just play something else.

  • sololocosololoco Member Posts: 542

    The best game for making your character is Second Life, no game comes close to this one in customizing your av.  But this game isn't about fighting, at least not like these type games.

    CoV, CoH are not too bad but they also have a set number of faces so people will look alike in many instances. 

  • bgentbgent Member Posts: 13

    I personally can't say if Vanguard's characterization is better then WoW because I only tried WoW out for a week and didn't really spend to much time on the Characterization there, but I do think that compared to most mmo's Vanguard ranks in the top for Characterization. No its not the best one ever out there but it is far better then a lot of other mmo's, but it ofcourse it seems in some mmo's where the characters all seem the same its usually the armor that every one is trying to customize. So maybe SOE could add this to future patches and make more availabilites in the characterization part.

  • MrbloodworthMrbloodworth Member Posts: 5,615

    Characterization? No.



    Customization?  yes.

    ----------
    "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me

    "No, your wrong.." - Random user #123

    "Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.

    How are you?" -Me

  • DMEnocDMEnoc Member Posts: 153

    Originally posted by Deathstrike2
    Originally posted by Scy22
    To answer your question. No.Each race has 4 faces, 4 hair styles, the sliders are trivial.Each face looks almost identical. even if you tweak the hell out of the sliders, what you end up with is a face that looks 99% like the one you started with. you cant change the bone structure at all.Same goes with the body. you can use some sliders to make almost non existent changes.If you chose a race, you will look almost exactly like everyone else of that race, period.
    As far as class customization goes, it doesn't exist. There's zero intraclass specialization.
    If you are a rogue, you will be EXACTLY like every other rogue of your level. Only difference will be in gear. Assuming you have comparable gear, you will be a spitting image. Same skills, same spells, same everything.This game took a huge leap backwards in customization.
    Completely agree 100 percent. I was grouping last night, and 3 of us looked identical. It's not unusual. The sliders do little to nothing noticable for in game customization.

    WoW has like 4 facs, 4 hairstyles, a few facial hair options (or piercings for females) and 1 body style for each race. How did VG take a huge leap backward?

  • xAlrythxxAlrythx Member Posts: 585
    Originally posted by DMEnoc


     

    Originally posted by Deathstrike2


    Originally posted by Scy22

    To answer your question. No.
     
    Each race has 4 faces, 4 hair styles, the sliders are trivial.
    Each face looks almost identical. even if you tweak the hell out of the sliders, what you end up with is a face that looks 99% like the one you started with. you cant change the bone structure at all.
    Same goes with the body. you can use some sliders to make almost non existent changes.
    If you chose a race, you will look almost exactly like everyone else of that race, period.


    As far as class customization goes, it doesn't exist. There's zero intraclass specialization.


    If you are a rogue, you will be EXACTLY like every other rogue of your level. Only difference will be in gear. Assuming you have comparable gear, you will be a spitting image.
    Same skills, same spells, same everything.
    This game took a huge leap backwards in customization.

    Completely agree 100 percent. I was grouping last night, and 3 of us looked identical. It's not unusual. The sliders do little to nothing noticable for in game customization.

     

    WoW has like 4 facs, 4 hairstyles, a few facial hair options (or piercings for females) and 1 body style for each race. How did VG take a huge leap backward?


    Unfortunately WoW has more than 4 faces and 4 hairstyles, I was sorely dissapointed with Vanguards character customisation, the only difference I see between myself and the same race of myself is that I might be taller or shorter....the faces look hardly different and the hair styles are shocking....I would even go so far as to say Vanguards customisation is amoung the worst I have seen.

    Currently Playing: Everything but MMORPGs
    Cancelled: L2, FFXI, VSoH, LotRO, WAR, WoW
    Looking Forward To: SW:TOR

  • lancebirdlancebird Member Posts: 166

    VG has more options.. but the overall effect is they both have about the same visible options.

  • Rayx0rRayx0r Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 2,902

    this is absolutely the stupidest comparison ive seen in this forum

    i see a lot of baiting, but this one takes the cake.

    height, weight, torso, body width, independant leg/arm sizes, facial hair, hair color and highlight color

    image

    “"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a robot foot stomping on a human face -- forever."
  • PhoenixsPhoenixs Member Posts: 2,646
    I think the idea behind the character creation system in Wow is better, the fixed heads, hair, face and so on, but it fails because the options are limited. If they would add more options there it would be really good. I think fixed options are better since it gives the art team control over how the final characters will look. So people don't fuck up.



    Since sadly there are alot of people out there who seem to have a taste that is so, well I don't know what to say, but it is just disturbing to see what some people manage to create with "free form" character creation systems like in Vanguard. I don't know how many times I have run across orcs that are so broad that I start to wonder if I fucked up my aspect ratio, or if the other one did it.



    Also a slider based system does give you a illusion that it's alot more detailed, than it really is. Because you have to be really close to a character ingame to really see the difference between many of the sliders. It doesn't do that much when you move the slider from left to right in many aspects of the system. Specially many of the facial slider seem very useless since the difference is rather minimal.



    In the end is just the characteristics of a character that really matter. Hair, ears, nose, eyes, skins color, body. Sliders that move your nose 1 mm up or down don't really matter.



    Since Wow is quite limited, Vanguard's system is abit better in terms of options. But even if you will run into alot of clones I think the Wow characters are much cooler. Since the Blizzard art team has control over what players create you won't run into some really stupid combinations, like you sadly do in Vanguard. For me that is something that makes or breaks a game . I can't stand playing with gnomes that have a 1.5 m deep chest and range 3 m from shoulder to shoulder, it's just
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