Why is Character Creation So Bad?

[Thelooney]

...But in SWTOR everyone uses the same human build with a handful of different heads. All the interesting body types (and races) are reserved for the NPCs.

 

Which is a shame. Can you imagine the utter and complete glee if say...a Jawa was a playable race? Or how about the classic, Mon Calamari? Wookies? Or whatever race yoda is. Such a vast and diverse species in Star wars universe...

[Gaff]

The character creator is pretty terrible. It is probably my biggest issue with the game, and that just sours every experience.

 

Do they care? Maybe.

 

Are they going to do anything about it? No.

Edited January 31, 2012 by Gaff

[Gehoornde]

I agree with OP. This is one of the main reasons so many people are quitting.

[Chromiie]

Most of the time someone complains about this, they bring up tons of single player games with deep character creation methods (elder scrolls, custom fighter games, etc). .

 

TOR is a single player derp. I so went there.

 

Also incase you haven't noticed people are also talking about OTHER mmo's with good character creation system that have some depth.

 

 

 

 

City of Heroes

 

 

Champions Online

 

Star Trek

 

 

 

By the way, this argument happening over WoW's character creation, you're both correct from your respective directions. WoW had a few faces, skin color, hair types.. it was pretty limited. Way more limited than SWTOR. But WoW did a great job at making their races look different, and in that respect it was much better than SWTOR. Humans had a very different body type from Night Elves, Dwarves, Taurens, Orcs, etc. Even Forsaken (which were just undead Humans) were vastly different from Humans. But in SWTOR everyone uses the same human build with a handful of different heads. All the interesting body types (and races) are reserved for the NPCs.

 

 

I can't help but agree with this. As limited as WoW's character creation is no race looks a like. Unlike say TOR with the Miraluka, Humans and Cyborgs which are all aesthetically the same thing. Twileks, Sith Purebloods, Rattaki, Chiss and anything else I miss look all a like and unless if someone is walking around with out a helmet or has hide helmet on I assume we are the same spieces.

 

At least WoW I could tell a race by just look at them. Each race runs, walk, jumps and look so different from each other I could deal with the lack of an indepth character creation system.

Edited January 31, 2012 by Chromiie

[Bigbozo]

More options is not always better. Honestly, I dont need to stretch out cheekbones, choose how long my nose is, choose how deep my eye sockets are, choose how many toes i have, how many eyelashes I have, how long my tongue is, and 5 hundred other random things that DONT MATTER.

 

The elder scrolls series has an amazing amount of choices for character customization...and most of it isnt even used by most people. When you're dealing with an online game, there IS such a thing as too much customization. Again, more is not always better.

 

Most of the time someone complains about this, they bring up tons of single player games with deep character creation methods (elder scrolls, custom fighter games, etc).

 

THIS IS NOT A SINGLE PLAYER GAME.

 

In a single player game, you want your character to be as unique as possible, because a major factor of the game comes from customization. This is also why in these single player games, you can generally make your character really good at almost anything you want (skyrim is another great example). The name of the game here is customization.

 

In a multiplayer game, every single option you change on your character then has to be rendered by every single player on the server that sees you. The more detail (and options) you throw into the mix, the more of a drain it takes on the server and your own hardware. You want to be able to look decent, and somewhat recognizable, but at the same time, you actually want to be able to PLAY the game, too.

 

Could it be better? sure, EVERYTHING could be better.

 

Does it suck? No.

 

The only thing i'd really like to see is maybe 1-2 more body types (maybe one between body types 1 and 2, and one between 3 and 4), and a way to seperate the eyebrows/cheekbones from the skin complexion.

 

With all the customization that other, older games have, it can't be that big a drain on the servers.

 

Also, this is a mutly player game. I don't want my character to look like every other player's.

 

The lack of options is about the only bad point I've found for this game (other than bugs that will [hopefully] be fixed soon). From what I've seen male characters have better hair styles than females. Why can't my female toons have long hair with out covering half their face or a mohawk?

[Izorii]

I agree with the OP as the first part of the game most people see its pretty poor. I am hoping when legacy comes in they do a revamp to the character creator, which is not part of legacy and allows the legacy options to be selected easily. Still hoping for more species, more hair cuts, better facial customization.

[Toweleeeie]

I agree with the OP as the first part of the game most people see its pretty poor. I am hoping when legacy comes in they do a revamp to the character creator, which is not part of legacy and allows the legacy options to be selected easily. Still hoping for more species, more hair cuts, better facial customization.

 

if they add all that stuff in for Legacy, they better add a vendor where i can add the new stuff to my current characters.

[PibbyPib]

I expect it's because of the cinematics more than anything else. You can say that MMORPGs always try to keep player models as simple as possible, but games like Champions Online show that even hundreds of proportions set by the player aren't necessarily a problem.

 

In SWtOR, you have a lot of cut scenes where characters interact, and custom proportions could play havoc with that.

[PibbyPib]

The elder scrolls series has an amazing amount of choices for character customization...and most of it isnt even used by most people.

 

lol, indeed.

[LeMage]

One of the games I played that is no longer in existance (MxO) had a pretty decent character creation and thoughout the game you had the opportunity to change aspects of your character, hair style, colour, body shape etc by gaining pills from drops in hideouts.

 

MxO came out in 2004 to have as many choices as TOR is one thing but further than the original choices in creation, here you cannot as yet change your character and very limited and expensive change your Companion after the freebee customization.

 

WoW has its barber shops and Fallen Earth let you change hairstyles for free (as long as you didnt start off bald) YEs limited amount of changes but more than here. Already I would like to change a couple of aspects of one of my Chars.

 

TOR isnt the worst by far of the new games but its not the best, for me I was pretty unhappy with DCUO character creation and on the opposite side of the coin I had more "fun" creating my char in APB than playing the game.

[Izorii]

I assume when we get legacy options we will get a barber shop. I dont think we should be able to change species but everything else should be changable.

[SWImara]

i really get a good chuckle when i see this.

 

character creation is better than

 

WOW

LOTRO

AOC

WARHAMMER

 

and those are just the few i've played.

 

but if you were expecting character creation like in Star trek online or EVE online or APB. you're crazy.

 

EDIT: RIFTS character creator was pretty good to.

AoC's character creation was definitely better than SWTOR's. I enjoy the heck out of SWTOR but your options on customization are limited.

 

 

But at least different members of the same race can have different body types. I abhorred He-Man mage syndrome.

I must admit I loled on that one.

Edited January 31, 2012 by SWImara

[Dremic]

i really get a good chuckle when i see this.

 

character creation is better than

 

WOW

LOTRO

AOC

WARHAMMER

 

and those are just the few i've played.

 

but if you were expecting character creation like in Star trek online or EVE online or APB. you're crazy.

 

EDIT: RIFTS character creator was pretty good to.

 

 

i dont hate on this game at all really i love it but you are wrong here.

 

yeah the character customization in WOW wasnt that impressive but guess what the races all looked different. all the races in swtor are just re-skinned humans. with one exception and thats twilek. oh and twileks cant wear hoods..

Edited January 31, 2012 by Sireene
content - PM'd

[LaManoNera]

i really get a good chuckle when i see this.

 

character creation is better than

 

WOW

LOTRO

AOC

WARHAMMER

 

 

That's like saying dirt taste better than sand.

[Talorya]

I assume when we get legacy options we will get a barber shop. I dont think we should be able to change species but everything else should be changable.

 

You assume too much and expect too little.

We have no information about legacy other than the video that touched on it briefly.

Even then it showed 2 things,

1) Family tree relationship between your characters on the server with your legacy.

2) Miraluka sith warrior on korriban.

 

Not offering a species/full on customization change is I think rather idiotic, there are people with all 8 of their character slots filled already and have progressed them far enough that they don't want to reroll just to be a different shade of colour. If BioWare was to release additional race/class combinations as part of the legacy update, they NEED an option/npc in the game that allows full change of the character including all features and species.

 

Species choice does squat in this game in terms of story anyways, you're either "human" or "alien" if you were ever mentioned. Not even the sith purebloods gets a mention of their species name, just "hey, we have the same skin colour!" as your dialogue choice and the npc replies "bleh, I don't care"(not exactly but for all purposes that's what he means).

 

 

 

Coming off of games like Aion and DCUO I've gotten really spoiled by the character customization in those games.

Aion's was fantastic, you could make anything you wanted, fat, skinny, old, young, toddler or even an overgrown chicken. DCUO allows for freedom to change your appearance based on your personal preference and selection of unlocked appearances and not bound it to what you're wearing at that moment.

 

MMOs for me has always been pretty heavily focused on the ability to make "your" character. Right now with locked combination of features on the CC this game isn't delivering what it should be delivering.

 

Holding off on the basics is idiotic, BioWare, if we're supposed to "Play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and be the hero of your own Star Wars™ saga", we need to be able to make our characters as WE see fit, not how you dictate which lekku patterns are allowed with which eyeshadow/lip colour or wrinkles with these eyebrows. It's ridiculous to say you have a character creator when it's really just a preset selector, works for a single/moba game, but not for a MMO.

[Skylarke]

Most of the complaints like this that pop up end up coming from Goblin and Gnome players. "Coincidentally" (or maybe not so much), they also tend to be the ones who love being as tiny as possible for PvP.

 

I think that Character Creation/Customization in SW:TOR is fine, though I'd like to see other (including smaller) races added in the future.

 

When I have the option of smaller races, I've tended to favor them (since my early days of PnP gaming... My first 1st edition AD&D character was a gnome... ).

 

PvP isn't much of a factor to me, as the only MMORPG in which I've actually enjoyed and participated in it frequently was DAoC in which I played my Lurikeen and Brit equally.

[Fixiooo]

Some hairstyles are blatant copies from Dragon Age and Mass Effect. That just reeks of laziness.

[Asuka]

I'm sure this thread has been around, but I couldn't find anything in a search.

 

Anyway, I think BioWare was pretty cheap when it came to the selected species for each side. They took the cookie-cutter route in the blandness of character creation. Every race is just one slight variation of a human. Most "options" are reused for almost every species. For example, the four male "body type" options are all the same:

 

1) scrawny, short "kid"

2) average height, build

3) tall, bodybuilder

4) or REALLY fat!

 

Can't have a husky guy? No, your choice is teenager, adult athlete, bodybuilder or couch potato.

 

The scars are all the same, as are the hair styles. Seriously, how stupid does a Zabrak or Sith look with a Justin Beiber hairstyle or that dumb-looking mohawk? Serious, cornrows? Are Sith Warriors gonna get a quest to go into a recording studio to perform "Juggernaut's Paradise" or "Straight Outta Korriban"? Give me a break!

 

I think there should be more variations that are species-specific. I like that the facial tattoos for the Mirialan, Rattataki, and the Zabraks are different. But the general build of the characters are all the same.

 

Here's an idea: try making original species that are unlike any of the others. Some species in the Star Wars galaxies would be awesome additions in a game like this. But, it seems too difficult to make anything actually "special". It's a shame when all the characters practically look the same.

 

It's not bad per se, just what BioWare is known for in their games.

[AKfourtyseven]

This is what character creation is supposed to look like...

 

 

City of Heroes has destroyed every other MMO for character creation since it came out way back in like '05/06

Edited January 31, 2012 by AKfourtyseven

[Jessabeans]

My problem with the character creator isn't a lack of options as much as the options already there are poorly implemented and look sloppy/lazy.

 

Female hairstyles, are all different versions of just a few and nearly every one glitches into the head or is just improperly made. Most of them just have bits stuck on in unnatural ways. Or features like face tattoos or markings are tied to things like cosmetics, or facial markings are tied to eyebrows so it becomes so much more limiting. If you don't want your twi'lek to have clown makeup you are limited to 3 lekku patterns. If you don't want large caterpillar eyebrows, you have to have a red sunburn (on your green skin.)

 

The biggest letdown of this game for me is instead of enjoying the game and becoming immersed I keep seeing eyesores and mistakes that leave me thinking about the developer instead of caring about what is going on with the game. The same way that you can't enjoy a good movie if all you are thinking about is the director because his/her 'mark' is all over the acting/editing. A good game should have you thinking about the game, not the developers (especially when you are only thinking about how poorly some of them did their job.) I don't understand why this game was released with the character customization like it is it gives you a sour taste right when you start the game and sort of sets the stage for a letdown.

Edited January 31, 2012 by Jessabeans

[pjskull]

OP: I agree. How could all of these older games have so much more advanced of Character Creation systems and SWTOR is so limited? I have a feeling Legacy will inject more options... We'll see... Edited January 31, 2012 by Sireene
Inappropriate Content

[Andryah]

Most of the complaints like this that pop up end up coming from Goblin and Gnome players. "Coincidentally" (or maybe not so much), they also tend to be the ones who love being as tiny as possible for PvP.

 

It must be former Lurikeen players from DAOC then. Little bastages.

[tmpearson]

Voice acting.

[Andryah]

Some hairstyles are blatant copies from Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

 

Which in turn are copies from real life.

 

Oh the humanity!!!

 

Design decision =/= laziness.

[Laeris]

I'm sure this thread has been around, but I couldn't find anything in a search.

 

Anyway, I think BioWare was pretty cheap when it came to the selected species for each side. They took the cookie-cutter route in the blandness of character creation. Every race is just one slight variation of a human. Most "options" are reused for almost every species. For example, the four male "body type" options are all the same:

 

1) scrawny, short "kid"

2) average height, build

3) tall, bodybuilder

4) or REALLY fat!

 

Can't have a husky guy? No, your choice is teenager, adult athlete, bodybuilder or couch potato.

 

The scars are all the same, as are the hair styles. Seriously, how stupid does a Zabrak or Sith look with a Justin Beiber hairstyle or that dumb-looking mohawk? Serious, cornrows? Are Sith Warriors gonna get a quest to go into a recording studio to perform "Juggernaut's Paradise" or "Straight Outta Korriban"? Give me a break!

 

I think there should be more variations that are species-specific. I like that the facial tattoos for the Mirialan, Rattataki, and the Zabraks are different. But the general build of the characters are all the same.

 

Here's an idea: try making original species that are unlike any of the others. Some species in the Star Wars galaxies would be awesome additions in a game like this. But, it seems too difficult to make anything actually "special". It's a shame when all the characters practically look the same.

 

Uuuuungh.. UUUUH... nuh na-nuh-naaaaa.... I'm a TROOPA!