test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Put the Character Creator Back the Way You Had It
lordoffiling
Posts: 5 Arc User
So. After CoH closed down, my 85-man supergroup made the switch. Well, most of them did. Many had already tried the game, some were already here, some were on the fence, some decided it wasn't for them.
About 40ish had never tried the game. All of them--and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE--had this to say about their first character creation experience in Champions Online:
"I can't believe how limited the costume creator in the game is compared to CoH. I'm really disappointed."
I had to explain to each of them that their first character was limited costume-choice wise and that after they'd finished the tutorial they could go in and really make the character look how they wanted.
The response was pretty unanimous: "WHY?!?!!?!?"
Now, thankfully I was there to catch them and explain the situation. But people coming in on their own have no such advocate. They're much more likely to see the weak version of the costume maker, spit on the game, and uninstall it.
Put the costume creator back the way it was! There is *NO REASON* to limit it for first time players. They are *NOT THAT DUMB*. The creator won't confuse them. The creator being *limited until you complete the tutorial* will confuse them.
At the very, very least, put in a little pop-up that explains that the character creator will be unleashed after they complete the tutorial for the first time.
About 40ish had never tried the game. All of them--and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE--had this to say about their first character creation experience in Champions Online:
"I can't believe how limited the costume creator in the game is compared to CoH. I'm really disappointed."
I had to explain to each of them that their first character was limited costume-choice wise and that after they'd finished the tutorial they could go in and really make the character look how they wanted.
The response was pretty unanimous: "WHY?!?!!?!?"
Now, thankfully I was there to catch them and explain the situation. But people coming in on their own have no such advocate. They're much more likely to see the weak version of the costume maker, spit on the game, and uninstall it.
Put the costume creator back the way it was! There is *NO REASON* to limit it for first time players. They are *NOT THAT DUMB*. The creator won't confuse them. The creator being *limited until you complete the tutorial* will confuse them.
At the very, very least, put in a little pop-up that explains that the character creator will be unleashed after they complete the tutorial for the first time.
Post edited by lordoffiling on
0
Comments
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Click up there if you want to find more about the costumes behind my heroines.
It was succeeded.
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
PARSER USAGE GUIDE: click here for an easy how-to ٩(๑･ิᴗ･ิ)۶٩(･ิᴗ･ิ๑)۶
Spectre beats Eido in an SG run: VIDEO HERE
- the only reason I can possibly think of why CO has such a poorly designed 'limitation' (and yes, my lack of proper English back there is my point)
Razira's Primus Database Page
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
It's possible that their analytics show that a number of people get to character creation, and never get around to actually playing. Maybe they spent too much time making a character and then the naggy wife was like "COME TO BED!" and the guy divorces her and OF COURSE she winds up getting the computer that he bought while she sat at home and ate ice cream all day YEAH THAT'S REAL FAIR, AMERICA
In all seriousness, recommend to your team mates that they check out the Forums. There are two stickies, one by Bluedarky (Transitioning From COH) and the other by Keikomyst (So I'm Just Out Of The Tutorial...) that will give them plenty of need to know info. These two are need to read.
'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.' Terry Pratchet The Thief Of Time
Like someone else in the thread said. "Oh man! This costume creator has a lot of options! I can make my character look exactly how I want! ... Screw this I'm outta here!"
It just really doesn't ring true, does it? Why in the hell would you short-change your most powerful feature?
So is there really not a way exit the simple costume creator to get to the full detailed costume creator without having to go all the way though the tutorial? I mean I guess I can see having a default option of a simple costume creator for those who just want to get to the game fast but I cannot see why they would force a person to run at least 1 character though the tutorial before allowing access to the full costume creator?
I agree, I can't make sense of it either if that is the case.
All die, so die well.
I wonder who the Executive Producer was that made this decision.
Now that sounds flamy but I say it to prove a point that bad business decisions being made to this game are killing it.
/signed 100% OP.. the longer new players spend in costume creator the longer it takes them to get tired of the game. It's the games BIGGEST draw and instead of showing it off, they have stifled it.
Robobo was the E.P. when the "streamlined" character creation bit was added.
He had already jumped ship in all but official capacity. But I wont hang this one completely on Brad.. but even still he inherited it and didn't do anything to address it.
As a matter of fact, it was slated to be fixed sometime before CoH went down (heard from a developer) but we all know what happened shortly before it did go down.
I think there's a thread out there somewhere complaining about the lip service of "Slated To Be Fixed".
But I dont remember any such communication. If I be wrong then wrong I am.
It was said in a chat channel in-game (I am personally the one who asked him about it, and got the answer).
As such things go, you can choose not to believe me and all that, but I've never blindly defended Cryptic and their decisions, and am not interested in lying just for the sake of it. In fact, at the present I'm as disappointed as I've never been before with the company. So do with that whatcha will.
It's profoundly stupid.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
That's cause it's not true.
*sigh* How many times has this been said now? Look, sadly in this case, it's a no-no for the shareholders to discuss the confidential stuff publicly...
1) I don't have the time to search for a quote right now
2) I couldn't post a direct quote or I'll get myself in trouble. I care about y'all, but y'all ain't worth the risk in this situation.
But tell you what, let's play a hypothetical guessing game. I'm going to be customer-service-level of frustratingly vague so as to give you a hint without actually saying anything at all: Perfect World Contractual Agreement, Hulk clones, and "artistic style uniformity". Cryptic enough? (hehe get the pun?) I'll let y'all interpret what that means while I take my personal bets on who's going to get closest to the actual statements.
NOTE: I didn't say it was good reason, but it wasn't a case of "we hate our customers" or "this costume creator is so powerful people won't ever start playing the game so we must limit it!"
Are any of you smart enough to use logical reasoning to deduce the answer on your own? We shall see! *makes some popcorn*
Well said! *thumbs up*
Death to the costume creator restrictions! Long live liberty! Bring out the pitchforks & torches! Fight the system! Oh wait I'm getting carried away...
Consolidate the currencies! (Please!)
Does your Champion have a theme song? (share it!)
Got a funny in-game screenshot? (share it!)
Please fix the Overdrive energy unlock! (Should help promote thematic build diversity!)
so /signed
Now if someone is unable to decide what costume pieces to choose he would simply start with the default one or use the random costume selector and later on , whe he has make his mind, to edit his costume. No need to limit his choice unless of course their lawyers had advised them against that"because a player could die before the screen trying to decide what costume piece to take".
And that, let me tell you this, is slightly offensive towards the players intelligence
I found PWI quite robust.
FW is more limited than WoW but better looking.
Wait? Whaaaa..?
Yep, because what this game is known for is customisation and so people coning looking for that being turned away
A button for streamlined creation would handle those finding the range of choice to daunting. I'm sure theres a lot more players attracted by the customisation than lost because of it, and so more revenue lost by the change than gained by it.
While she has been rescued
what diabolical mastermind
was behind the devious brain-napping of
the Volterrific Dr Cerebellum?
Futhermore you're ignoring the randomize button. If you were really that lazy and unoriginal you could simply click that until you see something that's cool. I did that with creating a nemesis once because I got bored of using my regular two.
There's NO good reason for the "streamlined character creator". (I hinted at the reason on the previous page). I blame greedy lawyers and incompetent executives at PWE who don't understand (or care about) this game .
We kind of need to stand united together as a community on this...
Consolidate the currencies! (Please!)
Does your Champion have a theme song? (share it!)
Got a funny in-game screenshot? (share it!)
Please fix the Overdrive energy unlock! (Should help promote thematic build diversity!)
1) As has already been brought up I seriously doubt that people trying this game for the first time are gonna go "WFT do I need so many customization options for? F'k it, I QUITE!!!"
2) It limits and hides from new players the #1 selling point of this game, making them think its customization options are some of the worst there are when its the completely opposite.
3) Even from the point of view that people might be "overwhelmed" by choices so early on (which I suppose might be true for an extremely minuscle segment of the population), limiting the starting number of pieces per category/editable area while keeping the same "overwhelming" number categories/editable areas does NOT address the percieved issue AT ALL. All that does is give us a crap selection with the same overwhelming number of options.
Want to get people fast into the game? Give them some Preset costumes with the option to modify them with access to ALL existing pieces. /Problem solved. Cryptic had already figured this out when they made CoX. I have absolutely no freaking clue what rock fell onto their head to make them forget since then.
This has been brought up dozens of times in like two years and its seriously hurting this game, but clearly Cryptic/PW don't want this game to succeed.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Champions Online: Be the hero you wish you could be in a better game.
Don't take any wooden nickels! The buck stops here! Just say no to drugs!
I think randomizing preset costumes is not the same as building your costume over a simplified set of options. However, I think this is not the objective of this thread. Having a non-optional streamlined character creator was a bad idea in general. They made a generalization about new people on this game. My proposal was basically, having a choice given they already have both versions of the character creator. I don't see how is having a choice such a bad thing.
sad thing is one of my friends actually DID more or less say that when I tried to get them to play. :eek:
Not saying it isn't dumb as hell mind you, just that it has indeed happened once.
There's ZERO reason to take one of the strongest selling points in the game and NOT have it available for new players.
We don't need your friend in this game
Anyway limiting the costume piece selection for new players won't stop that from happening. We'll still have an extensive selection of pieces to choose from at the end of the day, even if we're forced to wait to get them. And limiting the selection wont really get new players into the game that much faster. All that will do is frustrate them when the actual piece they want/need doesn't show up.
If they really want to keep things simple for some they need to add a selection of Premade Costumes. If people don't want to spend time making their costume limiting the pieces from make things any better since they'll still be expected to do something they don't want to do.
2. On that note, this game is all about creating your own unique superhero and taking him on adventures. Right? So, if a person hits the costume creator and becomes daunted, and quits because he doesn't feel like doing that, then perhaps this isn't the game for him? I mean, seriously, why are we giving a bad first impression to the people who probably will enjoy the game to make it easier on the people who probably won't? How does this make a lick of sense?
Somewhat I doubt that was the real reason your friend did give up.Probably he simply didn't like the game and he did gave you the first excuse that came to his mind
Since you had already finished the Tutorial by the time this particular bit of stupidity was flubbed on us (yes, I made that word up. There weren't any real ones that did the job, o.k.?) you would never have seen the new "system". Lucky break, there.
'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.' Terry Pratchet The Thief Of Time
Actually, I took the liberty of creating a second new account just to see what was up, and I have to admit I found it severely lacking in some areas.
lol I wish, nah I was there with him, he didn't even get through character creation because it was "too complex".
I just really REALLY hope this is a more or less unique case because dang if it isn't dumb. It's like going to a buffet and saying "This place sucks there's too many types of food to choose from".
You're welcome. :biggrin:
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
This game is GONE TO THE AMERICANS.
Based on tech they already clearly have 'cause they use it other places, I'd have done this:
When you enter the creator, you get a popup asking whether you want the Basic Creator, or the Advanced Creator. If you have never reached level 10 with a character, the Basic Creator button says (Recommended!). If you have, then that's on the Advanced button.
Default (in case you press enter) would be whichever one says (Recommended!). Voila, everybody happy.
It is possible that their analytics show that yes, but their analytics don't show to them the real reasons the players did quit. It could be, for example,, that the player didn't like how the char did look , not for the choices of costume, but for the way the char was drawn.
I know that was an issue among many CoH players. They didn't like the cartonish look of CO chars.
That being the issue of course none will waste any time to create a char that at the end he would not like and of course he will find that is useless to have so many options to costumize the char if you cannot create one that you like
Agreed, but this has been said many times and so far it has never been reverted. I know a few people who quit as a result of the change. I talked to them about how open the character creation was here, they logged in, they saw the new limited version (which is vastly inferior to what I describe seeing as I use the full one), they thought I was off my rocker and never came back to the game.
Granted it was a small number of people but if that's happening to people I know I can only imagine how many times this has occurred for people I've never seen.
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
My Characters on PRIMUS
[#]WeNeedHeroicFashion - <Aura Suggestions> - <CO Wiki (WIP)> - <Crowd Control Discussion> - <Telepathy in Champions Online> - How to review The Force Power Set - Join the Champions Online: On Alert Discord!
I am @RavenForce in game
__________________________
I believe the reasoning behind limiting new people's costume creation is because they do not want new people to get bored of the character creation process and quit before they actually play.
While that last sentence may sound alien to many of you, the developers know this to be the case for many (not some, but many) new players.
While there are people who care very much about specific itemized details on their costumes, they (YOU) are already playing, and will likely continue to do so.
That move (limiting initial costume creation time) isn't made with you in mind. It's for the casual person who's never played a superhero-themed, or perhaps any MMO, before.
Not attacking... just saying.
Peace
After the tutorial I had found a tailor, and decided to **** around with it more. I had WAY more fun with it. And this entire time I just assumed I didn't know how to use the creator, or was just bad at it.
And now, about 7 months later, I'm just finding out that it's because it was limited. Wow. Good to know in case I give anyone a heads up about the game.
You can download the CoH Icon Tailor with all options unlocked, and it still doesn't compare at all to CO. Best part about the game really!
Also, remind people of the costume save feature, in case they wandered into an hour long character editing session like I have many a times only to find out I had been disconnected, and lost all that work. It's really frustrating if you forget.
Which by the way, you just put a character name in right at the end before you can choose to play or skip the tutorial, and then hit save.
Then you can load that costume any time you are in the costume editor or tailor by clicking load, and then looking for the name you gave it. It will usually be named like this: account name, the name you gave it, then a string of numbers that is a date and time stamp. Also, it's currently gender locked, so male costumes won't work on female avatars and stuff, and the other way around.
Do you have numbers to back up this assertion?
Decisions like this don't get made all willy-nilly. They don't just sit around trying to come up with things for people to do because they're sitting on their thumbs all day. This seems to me like a reactive decision, meaning something prompted them to do it.
I would be surprised if they didn't have some sort of analytics keeping track of everything that happens when a person logs in. Pull up a log of all new registrants, and see how far they got in the game, how long they were logged in for, how much time they spent here, there, everywhere.
They probably saw a lot of people just not coming back to the game after they got to around level 10, and that's probably the reason why the early game was redesigned so many times. And, they probably saw a lot of people not even getting past the character creator, whether they spent five minutes there and quit, or they spent four hours there and just thought that was enough time spent, and logged out.