Where's Cryptic's Character Customization?

magnumstar

I've been playing Cryptic's games for several years now, started off with City of Heroes and from there to Champions - Star Trek Online - and now Neverwinter. One thing that had drawn me to Cryptic games was the level of character customization, no other MMO I have played gives the player the ability to fully customize and create a unique character the way a Cryptic game does. So I was surprised at the skimpy character creation tools when I made my 1st Neverwinter character, there wasn't the amount of options I am used to in their other titles.

My surprise quickly turned to annoyance when I found out that to do any alterations to my character after creation was going to cost me zen. Then my annoyance turned to disgust when I found I couldn't alter the looks of my armor or clothing and to even change the color I had to buy dye bottles using zen. It seems in this Cryptic game it costs zen to do almost everything, it's so bad I don't let any of my character stand in one spot very long in fear I'll be charged zen for the space.

The ability to fully customize a character and make it unique from other player characters is Cryptic's biggest draw to their MMO's and to purposely gimp this they will be shooting themselves in the foot. My recommendations are -

-Allow players to customize how their character/clothing looks using an in game tailor and currency.
-Create an armorer and weaponsmith that players can visit so they can change the way their armor or weapons look.
- More clothing options/costumes need to be created that are also customizable and fit the genre of the Neverwinter realm.
-Extend these customizations to hirelings and mounts.
-Get rid of the dye bottles and allow players to use a color pallet for all alterations.

Those who have never played any other Cryptic game but this one won't know what I'm talking about. My advise is download one of the other Cryptic games and you will quickly come to understand that Neverwinter is severely lacking the customization tools the other titles have.

sockmunkey

riftizdead wrote: »

Really ? How many MMO that's is not made by cryptic have you played ? Sounds like none to me.

Go to Rift for a trial and the char customization there can teach cryptic folks a thing for two. But then again, besides the combat system this NWN has to offer which is unique and additive, everything else is either very generic or very thoughtless.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Ive played CO over 3 years. In all that time ive not once seen a character duplicated, or looking somewhat similar to another, unless it was intentional. It is the only game, i'm aware of, that you can turn off names and recognize people, from considerable distance away, simply by their own unique looks. STO manages to also be likewise as impressive and manages to do so in a game with an ordered military structure and standardized uniforms. To be able to allow highly customized characters without greatly breaking the military structure immersion is a rather impressive feat.

And this goes well beyond normal face and body sliders. Those have always been considerable. But Cryptic has always been well known for having an insane array of clothes and costumes to make characters look beyond unique. Cryptic actually level restricted the full power of the character editor in CO because they honestly felt it was intimidating to new players. And they did this all without visible gear. Truthfully, visible gear has always taken a lessor role in characters looks in favor of player choices. NW has really been the only exception to that.

vrtesseract

Hihi, I played 10 years on COH & WOW, also played LOTRO, SWG, EVE, NEOCRON, SEED, auto Assault, DDO, Pirates of the Caribbean online, UO,AO, sto, ad champs online and a few others I haven't played rifts but I hear its dead...

one I will have to come to the OP's rescue and say yes he is right when he says CO sto and COH were very good at letting people customize their characters. COH had a very extensive character creator which was mimicked by CO its spiritual successor, STO let you fully design your companions as if they were alt versions of you. and all gave us bio tabs, COH had the concept of foundry which has been improved o in STO and here, and CO lets you totally customize powers and even the look of the powers.

most outfits/costumes were saved via costume slots and not in an inventory object like a lot of wow based mmos are and fashions were account based not char based creating a got to have them all feel. while this restricted the ability to say take off your hat. it allowed for each outfit to have different hair, makeup, and eve walking stance. and the sliders were so diverse in CO I could make a female character look like a guy on one costume if I so desired. ( I did it once to make her nemesis for a rp)

now also noting back to my large list of mmos ive played ive also played in a LOT of NEW games and betas as well as the seasoned versions. and this game is not that bad if you compare it to just out of beta COH or LOTRO, especially at the rate they are adding pets and outfits. I have high hopes for this game especially once they release another class or 2 im sure Halloween and christmas will bring a few cool things ect...

speaking of additive I had a few suggestions in a thread of my own which I feel will had not only to customization but some of the other issues people are facing as of late. since anyone can complain but it takes creativity to suggest solutions.

http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?483891-Idea-Craftable-Fashion-Objects

magnumstar

sockmunkey wrote: »

You have no idea what you are talking about. Ive played CO over 3 years. In all that time ive not once seen a character duplicated, or looking somewhat similar to another, unless it was intentional. It is the only game, i'm aware of, that you can turn off names and recognize people, from considerable distance away, simply by their own unique looks. STO manages to also be likewise as impressive and manages to do so in a game with an ordered military structure and standardized uniforms. To be able to allow highly customized characters without greatly breaking the military structure immersion is a rather impressive feat.

And this goes well beyond normal face and body sliders. Those have always been considerable. But Cryptic has always been well known for having an insane array of clothes and costumes to make characters look beyond unique. Cryptic actually level restricted the full power of the character editor in CO because they honestly felt it was intimidating to new players. And they did this all without visible gear. Truthfully, visible gear has always taken a lessor role in characters looks in favor of player choices. NW has really been the only exception to that.

It is sad Neverwinter didn't get the options the other titles carry. I had high expectations in creating a character for this game based on the other titles. Cryptic needs to pay attention on how many and how long people spend at the tailor on those other titles, the players really enjoy customizing their toons.

sockmunkey

Seriously. If you want your head to explode, this is but a taste.

http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=223561

No need for a new race when you have this degree of "what can I come up with today" at your finger tips.

nehemiah217

sockmunkey wrote: »

Seriously. If you want your head to explode, this is but a taste.

http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=223561

No need for a new race when you have this degree of "what can I come up with today" at your finger tips.

LOL!!! Desperate Housefly and Tacofang are awesome!

I do have to agree with the OP, give my vote for MORE CUSTOMIZATION, and suggest it not cost real life money (aka zen) to do, either. Why not one of those other worthless currencies, like gold!

I played City of Heroes and I can say that, being my first Cryptic game, I was blown away by the amount of customizations that you could make to you characters. Another one too was Asheron's Call. I was a beta tester (which was actually a big deal back then, not like it is today) and played until Asheron's Call 2 came out. AC also, was a game which offered actual optical recognition of characters based upon their face. The faces used to be the most customizable feature of that game, and when you ID'ed another player you got a picture of their face, two of which were rarely ever alike.

That's what I miss, is that ability to spend as much time on your costume as you do in the Foundry.

bracer2

lol, thats funny. There is no character customization. Theres class balance instead. (rendering everyone the same imo, with no unique functionality, essentially the same exact toons) Character customization is a D&D fundamental.

reiwulf

I know that they have to get money someway, and cosmetics are a huge source of it, but still we should be able to customize more our characters, they have lots of sliders, but at least the face ones don't change much, they should have a much wider range.

obsidiancran3

Actually they shouldn't have a much wider range, the idea of the range given is your character will still look fundamentally like a member of their race within WotC's specifications for the race. You should be able to tell all 4 elf types apart for example - hence limited skin palettes.

Still things like more hair, tattoo and scar options would be a great boon.

But mostly more flexibility with gear appearance for lower cost, especially on transmuting objects. (Yes I understand the AD economy manipulation that it causes, but not everyone who wants to keep the look of something has the resources of a lvl 60.)

fallenhawk

When you can change your look in STO for just over 1k EC and here it cost what 500 zen or over 250k AD it just show how mush PWE is pulling to make this game a cash cow/grab game.

xariama

Agreed, I'm quite disappointed in the lack of customization options, compared to other Cryptic titles, past and present. However, I've managed to work with what's available, to decent enough effect. But charging outrageous amounts of Zen for simple things that should be available to everyone is a bit blatant.

reiwulf

obsidiancran3 wrote: »

Actually they shouldn't have a much wider range, the idea of the range given is your character will still look fundamentally like a member of their race within WotC's specifications for the race. You should be able to tell all 4 elf types apart for example - hence limited skin palettes.

Still things like more hair, tattoo and scar options would be a great boon.

But mostly more flexibility with gear appearance for lower cost, especially on transmuting objects. (Yes I understand the AD economy manipulation that it causes, but not everyone who wants to keep the look of something has the resources of a lvl 60.)

but most elves look bscially the same (with different colors) you should be able to lower eyes more (faces tendo to be too long here) and mouths to be higher up the face. I can't make a good looking elf because the mouth ALWAYS is too low. even on the highest possible setting.

khimera906

As it is now, the game seems unfinished to me, as if they rushed to release it, not only in terms of character customization but in many other aspects. I really hope to see more customization to characters, gear, mounts and companions as time goes on.
I have messed around with the Foundry a bit and the customization allowed there is far grater then the one in character creation. You get more colors and you can make some pretty drastic changes to the body and face features. Also you can add any stance to any race and gender you like (a zombie stance to an Elf of a female stance to a male character). I am not an expert in programming, but I don't think it would take a lot of time and resources to allow more colors, more customization of body and face and the possibility to pick a stance for our character. All within reason, of course - I don't wanna see players with a 10 meter neck and twitching like a foulspawn , that would be creepy. These things are already in game, all they need to do is make the available at character creation.

zahinder

The lack of customization of both appearance and class abilities was a good part of what lost my interest in this game.

I keep reading the forum from time to time hoping something big changes, but Cryptic often disappoints me.

beckylunatic

Slightly off-topic, but I saw an incredibly unique character model last night, so much so that I sent a tell to compliment the creativity.

It wasn't an especially attractive model, being apparently based as much as possible on the look of a Roswell-style alien to my eye.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_alien

But it really stood out among all the relatively normal-looking folks (so far as dwarves and drow go).

magnumstar

obsidiancran3 wrote: »

Actually they shouldn't have a much wider range, the idea of the range given is your character will still look fundamentally like a member of their race within WotC's specifications for the race. You should be able to tell all 4 elf types apart for example - hence limited skin palettes.

Still things like more hair, tattoo and scar options would be a great boon.

But mostly more flexibility with gear appearance for lower cost, especially on transmuting objects. (Yes I understand the AD economy manipulation that it causes, but not everyone who wants to keep the look of something has the resources of a lvl 60.)

Just looking at the cover art and illustrations for the Forgotten Realms books and RPG stuff there seems to be a wide range of just what an elf looks like. And that stands to reason since everyone has their own personal specifications as to how an elf should look. Also If there were elves I imagine they would have variations in features per race as well as a variance in how individuals look just like us humans. So the more sliders for the various features would allow each individual to fashion their elf character to their own specifications. Vulcans and Romulans in STO have several choices in pointy ears as well as a whole array of slider options for facial features and the end result is most all these characters end up looking like the race to which they belong. So I wouldn't worry too much about more options blurring the lines between the various D&D races. Characters, gear, armor, weapons, hirelings, and even mounts to some degree should be customizable using in game currency (Gold).

dudewhat12

Craptic


Mod im kinda bored right now....

would be so kind and clean up after me....again?

good boy

magnumstar

xariama wrote: »

Agreed, I'm quite disappointed in the lack of customization options, compared to other Cryptic titles, past and present. However, I've managed to work with what's available, to decent enough effect. But charging outrageous amounts of Zen for simple things that should be available to everyone is a bit blatant.

My hopes is that the charging of zen for customization is just a temporary thing to finance the game and get it going. And hopefully the Mod will read through this thread and pass our requests along to the Devs, I believe it is in their best interest to make customization an in game option.