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[Column] Elder Scrolls Online: How Much Does Character Creation Matter?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Last week the Elder Scrolls Online team released a great new video showing off the massive number of ways that players can customize their characters. But is this what players -really- want to see? We offer a few thoughts to answer that question. Check it out before leaving your ideas in the comments.
The character creation in ESO looks to be fairly robust. You can adjust your weight, your “ripped”-ness, toy with eye color, hair, tattoos, hair, spots on Argonians and Khajiit. You can tweak the width of the shoulder, the girth of your chest, arms, length of feet, and so on. You can bet I’ll very likely be a rotund Orc who defies stereotypes. There are quite a few options for faces too, and most of them are far prettier than what you’ll find in Bethesda-made Elder Scrolls games (without mods, of course). The long and loose hairs still look a little stiff and unmoving to me, which I hope isn’t the case (let me Orcish locks flow, damn you!). But from the little two-minute video below, I’m fairly confident I’ll be able to make my characters look exactly how I want them to look.
Read more of Bill Murphy's Elder Scrolls Online: How Much Does Character Creation Matter?
Comments
I've never believe in the "turning off" gear so you could see your character.
If we do this then let's not have gear. Or don't have a helmet slot and just give your character sheet "tick marks' where you can apply benefits as you earn them.
No, if we are going to have gear or helmets then my taste points to allowing easy quick ways to rmove the helmet. Maybe have it "donned" when you enter combat and removed after combat.
Or, as I always do in Obvlion and Skyrim, I have my helmet assigned to quick slot "1". When I enter combat I hit "1" and I'm wearing a helmet. Afterwards I remove it.
Additionally, why not make it so that helmets have an open face. Problem solved.
I love character creation and love being able to mold the face/body, etc to my specifications. I do tend to "check in" on my character to reinforce "who" that character is. I suppose similiar to looking in a mirror.
Maybe make it so that wearing head gear gets you a "minus" in reaction when dealing with NPC's so removing head gear is considered "polite". Though if you are talking to a warlord you might get a different reaction.
But then again these are "role play" concerns and not everyone cares for such things.
I would offer that those who don't care about tweaking every little facial features wouldn't care one way or another. Those who do care would probably welcome instances where you "not" haveing head gear or "not wearing armor" would be considered a good thing.
Ever see Dragon Age Origins' character Logain? He wears his heavy plate armor "all the time'. Even in the castle while drinking wine by the fire.
Perhaps for a more role play intensive game allowing "role play" choices that matter would work for those who care.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
If you asked me what the 100 most important things about the game are I wouldn't have to think twice to tell you that this wasn't on the list.
I like to have some customization but almost every game released these days has more than enough. The games that go over the top with this usually pay a price in the feel of the actual gameplay and movement so if anything it is a negative in my eyes.
I like a robust system a lot. I will spend an hour easy making a new character, even on not so robust systems. At the same time it's not that important.
Just last night, I was wondering is this where all my computer resources are going? I've been playing a lot of planetside 2 lately, The graphics in that game blow away most modern mmorpgs, plus there are physics, and everything is real time. Heck bullets make bullet holes on everything. Character models relatively simple though.
Why do our new mmorpgs have some many issues with things like culling and overall performance when they are much much simpler? Is it because of all the detail on our characters?
I would gladly sacrifice extremely detailed CC for a mmorpg world made like Planetside 2's.
To me character creation isn't near as important as armor/weapons and being able to dye it all any color I want. I'd rather a huge range of different styles in armor/weapons/city clothing than my character creation. All I see is the back of my character anyways.
If my character looks different walking about with armor customized anyway I like, no one is going to notice my characters face/shape much anyways, they're going to notice my armor/weapons first.
Even though I haven't played Lord of the Rings since it went F2P, it was the best in the sense I could look anyway I want and still wear the armor I wanted without having to show it. Loved that, and wish other games followed their customization in that way.
Aside from character creation/armor-weapons customizations what I'd really like to see in a game is an ignore feature that actually works. One where I can put someone on ignore and I don't ever have to listen to/group with that person AND their alts ever again. I'd pay extra per month just for that one feature. You'd see a lot less people being asshats to everyone if there is a chance no one would group with them.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
To me character creation is really important. Something as simple as lip size, eye spacing, nose lenght and nostril size and position is the difference between an average character and the dream character i want to build.
Yes gear, RP outfits and such is also important to me, but i prefer to have it all.
Character detail and customisation is becoming less important to me in MMO's. All that lovingly fine-tuned face sculpting is really wasted when the only person that ever sees it is me, and only when I zoom in close with the camera.
The last time I had a good look at some other character's face was in SWG, because there I often seemed to end up in face-to-face conversations with other players. Hasn't happened in any of the recent MMO's I've played, the game play is just too fast and there never seems to be any reason to have an ingame toon-to-toon chat.
But clothing, armour and weapon details and textures I do value. Those are the things that you see most of on your and other characters.
I'm guessing it won't matter that much as I can change my looks on a whim thanks to the cash shop.
The system looks good though.
But it can't be. It eats up system resources. This will have a negative impact on other parts of the game almost for sure. So you have to decide how important it is keeping that in mind.
Character creation is very important... however, it needs to be more than simple face or body adjustments.
Character creation can have tattoos and importing certain designs as well.
Armor customization, and design with color and mixing different existing pieces with other parts in the game.
How about a back story, and certain tattoos mean something? We can write our own biography and create certain elements at the character creation screen. That would be very meaningful, and very enjoyable for myself.
What about a theme song of our own? Depending on the game, but even if it were a fantasy game, and there is in game music creation we can write our own music and it can be played in certain events to recognize our achievements... imagine winning a duel and them playing your song.
I can try to think of more... but I think any more ideas and it will be a lot of out of character creation and more into the back story of the character and legacy... which can carry on in the game.
I think character creation should have an impact on the game's story, if there is one, but also the story impacts our character. Lets say there is a choice in the story or just a situation in the game that results in a lost limb. That limb can be replaced with something synthetic or not be replaced at all... maybe its a game with a lot of crafting, and we could have it replaced but we dont need to.
I think the back story and creating something like a bio is very important to character creation, and to phrase it differently, give tools to create 'proof' of that back story so to speak within the limitations of character creation.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
Both methods of "tailoring" your character's looks are hugely important.
A robust character creation system is NEVER frowned upon, but, heaven forbid, you have a cookie cutter system for character creation, you can rest assured you're gonna hear about it in the reviews and on your forums.
A detailed system of tailoring your characters gear, with dyes, or "transmogrification", or what-have-you, has been steadily gaining in popularity among more recent MMOs.
All this is largely due to players desiring a certain level of uniqueness in a game world that is geared towards homogenization. Talent builds, BIS- gear, unbalanced racial advantages, all of these lead players to cookie-cutter appearances.
I know for myself, and many of the people I have played with over the years, being able to tailor our in-game alter-ego to the level that we want has a big impact on the longevity of our gameplay.
T
It's very important. Not only because I don't want to play a random looking nondescript character, I don't want to look at NPCs that all look the same either. So for all the reasons most people like to be able to customize themselves, it effects the world we play in as well.
Devs use the same builder players do to make NPC character.s They may have more options but it's still the same system.
I do like character creation, as for helmets, I always turned off the graphic part in option to see my characters head.
Character customization and gear / weapon customization are both important to me. Without them, I may as well dust off the Atari 2600 and load up Gunslinger:
Character creation matters a LOT to me. If I cannot make a character that I am feeling attached to, the game is loosing its appeal to me. And it's not even about having incredible amount of customization, but to be able to create a character I like.
Example... I am a huge LOTR fan, but I just can't immerse in LOTRO because characters in this game are plainly horrible.
On other side... even though I would prefer more realistic characters in SWTOR, I was able to create characters that I absolutely adore and I am very attached to.
Of course that's my opinion
I am pretty excited about character creation in TESO from what I've seen so far, but we shall see....
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
Their Character Creation looks great and I like it a lot. I'm the type of player that takes his time from the moment I create a character until I finish everything I set out to do within a game.
I guess it doesn't matter to the other type of player that random create a character and space bar, space bar, space bar through all the stories and cut scenes to hurry up and get the end gear so they can come on the forums and complain about how the game is empty.
I gave up on what this game could of been and have excepted the fact that it will be another theme park game, so I will take my time and make a unique character, enjoy the story lines of all 3 factions, stare at the nice artwork throughout the world, do some FvFvF in Cyrodiil and just wander around the world of Elder Scrolls until I get bored. I hope to atleast get a few months out of it, maybe more if they do the expansions right.
I care very little for character creation. I usually spend less than a minute clicking accept , accept, accept, to make my character. I realize for most people this is a big deal, however. You are usually wearing so much gear you can't even really see your character anyway.