Who designed the character models in SwToR?

[Macetheace]

I must say job well done, i know people have their favourites, and are critical, but I must says

 

1. Your character models are one of the most gorgeous looking and appealing in any game

 

2. The way you designed your faces, and the close-ups, the voice acting, the modelling of the face during actions and speech, exquisite, well done

 

3. You implement new levels of detail I had not seen in a video game prior to this. This really impressed me, well done

e.g. Never saw games implement an adam's apple, a characteristic quite prominent in most males, esp slimmer/fit ones. Will we see player characters have more options on this

Never saw a crotch bulge either, in tight pants, both details are 100% anatomically correct and are male defining features yet video games never go into detail almost like they're afraid of men

use of eyebrows and face muscles was extensive and detailed, it is like watching a cgi cartoon but it's your game toon

 

4. Your animations, - they stole my heart, so cool, the way guns, sniper rifles, lightsabers are handled, i know i posted some improvement posts to movement in combat improving, but what you have is still really really cool to see, whether you're double wielding lightsabers or that amazing assault cannon troopers have to the double blasters or mercs and slingers or the double bladed lightsabers of shadows/assassins. Great stuff, I didn't like non-force users wielding vibroblades and staffs like force users did, made the player character a bit less awesome when normal mobs use the same animations, but the animations themselves are really well done (can you make the normal non-force mobs not leap like force users? or wield their weapons like force users?)

 

Some questions for you I'd love to know.

1. How easy is it to implement an adam's apple? I noticed only player twi'lek model size 1 have, but Voss models some have or not and will we see at least an option to have on all male toons?
   
2. Why did you not implement a body hair options on males? or body tattoos or body scars ? curious, since this would be just like scars/markings we have available on faces but on the body.
   
3. How difficult would it be to introduce a whole new body size for males and females? I've really longed to play a tall but thin male or a really fat female nearly as wide as the Size 4 male.
   
4. Did you ever consider having an options to vary the thickness of the beards? They're cool but i've often wanted less hair on the same style, occassionally more.
   
5. Will we see more faces too? esp some of the NPC faces and facial hairstyles not accessible atm? even through the Cartel market?
   
6. Did you ever consider giving non-force user mobs a different animation to wielding vibroblades and electrostaffs? Just to make the force user player more unique, i was disappointed to see Qyzen or Yuun etc companions and some mobs leaping about like my warriors, having no force abilities.
   

 

 

Out of WoW, ESO and SWTOR, SWTOR character creation is my favourite, - don't get me wrong, ESO has a lot more options to tweak and adjust, but, i noticed they use the 1 face for all their humanoid races. But you can tweak nearly everything about them - they don't have an adam's apple or crotch bulge though, but they do have body hair. Their animations don't change at all except for the weapon you wield or spell you cast. They do have body hair though and attoos which was a plus

 

• WoW, is different in that they have distinct models representing each race, which gives them 13 variations, however it's the one option in each race. again i'm not dissing their work, it does make a lot of variation as Orcs are very different from Night elves in turn different form humans or draenei, gives an assorted variation and they match it with different animations per race per gender, which is also quite an effort. However in one race, it's the one look/size with minor differences. Also the detail is not
   
  
• SWTOR gives you a host of distinctly different faces, and you get 4 sizes too, which is quite an effort, there is little racial distinction however between the races, but you have many features constituting each race and many face options, a lot of faces are shared, but there are a few unique ones. Rather than limit a face to a race like wow, you got to share more faces in SWTOR, and you got different body sizes, actual different ones, which neither of the two allow you to change in your race, sure ESO you can broaden and lengthen a bit, but it's slight variation, it's not a new size. Animations in SWTOR are handled by your class and whiles some are shared across the faction, many are not, quite an effort too. SwTOR has no body hair or body scars/tattoos, but as mentioned before, you get the adam's apple, the crotch bulge, and tons of options.
  

 

Great job. Thanks to the team who did this all. Last question: What are your plans to give more options to customize characters? Will we see new faces? new sizes? new features like adam's apple options on all males, body hair and body scars/tattoos etc? Thanks for reading

Edited November 24, 2014 by Macetheace

[Essence_of_Light]

I wouldn't hold my breath on getting an official dev response for those questions.

 

Also, I think you may a little, ity-bity obsession with adam apples and crotch bulges, as you kept reminding everyone reading your post. Sorta reminds me of another forum-goer who as a small obsession with inanimate objects, or should I say... robes.

Edited November 24, 2014 by Essence_of_Light

[Macetheace]

I wouldn't hold my breath on getting an official dev response for those questions.

 

Also, I think you may a little, ity-bity obsession with adam apples and crotch bulges, as you kept reminding everyone reading your post. Sorta reminds me of another forum-goer who as a small obsession with inanimate objects, or should I say... robes.

i hope they do respond, i'd be interested to know how they did it, and what they're planning next. oh and I picked up on the level of detail visible in their charas , video games aren't known to generally show secondary male characteristics like adam's apples, body hair and crotch bulges, yet these very things are what distinguish the genders. Kudos to them, it shows they put A LOT of effort into this, I appreciate this, and i think others do and if not aware, should be made aware.

 

People get up and dis this game for all manner of silly reasons and there are so many fascinating and really good things about it. And I know their passion leads them to keep whining for more things, but I hope it helps when occassionally, a player sits back and appreciates all the cool things that are actually there. It reminds people that they have a lot here already, lest in all the moaning and whining they forget that there's much more really good about this game than bad.

[Essence_of_Light]

<snip>

 

I agree that there are plenty of things in this game that makes it a cut above the rest of the MMOs out there. It being Star Wars is one of those things, but it also more than that. Overall, the past year has been pretty good for SWTOR; the launch of GSF for Preferred/F2P players, GSH, Forged Alliances, and 12x XP being some of these things.

[Macetheace]

I agree that there are plenty of things in this game that makes it a cut above the rest of the MMOs out there. It being Star Wars is one of those things, but it also more than that. Overall, the past year has been pretty good for SWTOR; the launch of GSF for Preferred/F2P players, GSH, Forged Alliances, and 12x XP being some of these things.

 

yeah, and the potential is really exciting too, the things they can do with GS and strongholds and guild conquests is really exciting - not to say they will, the game is already a lot of fun with new planets, and ops etc.. but new systems like strongholds, stronger interweaving of legacy, companions, crew skills, instances and strongholds -- explorable 3-D space, new types of space battles where youc an get wohle servers in ovlved or guilds. fight from a guild ship or go in a star fighter, esp ify ou've developed your own ships in GS .. so much

 

other impressive stuff are the cinematics, i noticed one by one they're retouching all the early planet models yous ee in the fly in scenes, they're looking so much cooler when you fly to nar shadda, coruscant, fleet, Tattooine , if they took the next step and hit the load in screen picture with a transition scene(obviously have the loading progress bar show so people know when the zone is loaded so they can skip the rest of the transistion scene if they want to).. it would play like a movie.

 

i'm also looking forward to some more art, i'd love to see what new stuff to character models they'd do. I hear a new raec is in order, will we get a new size too? what about new options like body scars/tattoos and hair (males only) or more adam's apple options_. What about new face types too? Some NPC faces are still not available yet, and they're unique. It's all very exciting.

Edited November 24, 2014 by Macetheace

[Eraan]

I'm extremely annoyed with the armour mesh and texture issues though. There are lots of problems. Many good pieces are ruined by small but really annoying issues. Female body type 2 is the most problematic.

 

Some hairstyles could use some adjustment too (gaps between the hair and skull).

Edited November 24, 2014 by Eraan

[AdrianDmitruk]

As for a new body type, it's really really unlikely. The community *****ed, moaned, and hollered for a body type between 2 and 3 for males before the game launched, but it was sadly to no avail. Now the answer would probably be "too technically challenging," if you got an answer at all.

 

I would happily fork over CC to change about half my characters from body type 2 to body type 2.5. But I don't want my toons to look like they just broke into the drug store and robbed/consumed all the steroids from its pharmacy.

[Macetheace]

i also noticed that 2.0 did update minor character details, e.g. Chief Hurkwill has a higher definition beard, and it's different looking tot he ones characters have, Lieutenant Thorne on Imp side Balmorra has a face type players cannot access, as does Iresso Customization 4 also has one.

 

so i'd love to see those in game and available too. I've always thought we should have a slider to vary facial hair thickness on the available styles, like from a light stubble, medium stubble, light beard, normal (currently the one available), bushy and very overgrown.

 

but, they can do this all in a features pack: you get:

 

1. New faces
   
2. New upgraded beard textures
   
3. Beard sliders
   
4. Body tattoos
   
5. Body scar option
   
6. Body hair options (male only)
   
7. Adam's apple toggle option (male only) or put it on males not just size 1 Twi'leks.
   
8. New body size (if possible - a tall but thin male and a fat female.)
   

in addition to new hairstyles and other things

Edited November 25, 2014 by Macetheace