Character creator being revamped or something?

cusashorn

I'm seeing advertisements on Facebook for Star Trek Online. Nothing new or unusual, since it was through FB that I found out that the game went F2P half a year ago anyway.

Anyways, something caught my eye. Here are two different advertisements showing what looks to be a revamped character creation system.

Whats... uh... What's the word here? We actually getting something that's a little easier to manage or is this just a case of photoshopped false advertising?

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a291/Cusashorn/FacebookAdvertisement.jpg

tenkari

looks more like they are "simplifying" color selection for hair eyes and uniforms....

jkstocbr

These are old ads with 'artistic flare' prepared by someone in marketing probably during beta. Someone in the forums asked the very same question about 12-18 months ago.

majesticmsfc

Personally I feel the creator creation works great how it is, there is only one issue, a major one I think that exists, and that is forced traits. I feel each species should have no traits forced, but have those unique ones optional. Currently the only species that make really good characters seem to be Alien and Joined Trill, unless someone is going for a ground only character or a hybrid.

Also a re-trait and re-species respec would be nice too.

cusashorn

That's a shame. I never cared too much how you couldn't zoom in on individual parts of the body. It's hard for me to customize my character's feet with the Rotate Left-Right bar hovering over it, with my only option being to zoom all the way out.

mercuriciodide

majesticmsfc wrote: »

Personally I feel the creator creation works great how it is, there is only one issue, a major one I think that exists, and that is forced traits. I feel each species should have no traits forced, but have those unique ones optional.

I agree. Species-specific traits should be optional. The mandatory nature of the traits conflicts with canon, too.

Spock's brother wasn't logical. He was emotional. Tuvok was also emotional, not logical, in his youth and after he developed amnesia. Frankly, going by canon, Vulcans should be emotional as the required trait and logical as the optional, since they are prone to extreme emotion by nature and only by logic, which is learned not innate, do they master it. Since most Vulcans are logical as a way to master their emotions I can see a case for both emotional and logical to be required, but I agree with giving people options when making characters. Physical strength could be required, too, but not logical. And, why aren't Vulcans required to be telepathic?

Also, by the way, there's a conflict between Orion PCs, BOFFs, and DOFFs in terms of trait flavor. Male PCs must have physical strength, many male BOFFs have seductive instead, and almost no male DOFFs have seductive. It seems like multiple people worked on these and didn't communicate. Personally, I think male Orions should be able to have seductive or physical strength -- the way it was implemented for BOFFs. I think seductive should be more common for the females, though. I also think the game should not present all male NPC Orions as brutish. That conflicts with the existence of the seductive trait as an option, unless you're a rare person who is into hulking brutish types. It's also just plain sexist, just like the way only the women have skimpy clothing as an option. Nonetheless, I am glad that, at the very least, seductive is an option for BOFFs and that the PCs can go shirtless. Let's just make seductive an option (rather than forcing physical strength) for male Orion PCs, provide one sexy costume (like a speedo -- not much to ask in comparison with what the women get), and make a few NPCs who aren't brutes.

mikewendell

mercuriciodide wrote: »

And, why aren't Vulcans required to be telepathic?

Same reason as the logic I would think. Not all Vulcans have the full ability.

mercuriciodide

mikewendell wrote: »

Same reason as the logic I would think. Not all Vulcans have the full ability.

Really? I thought all Vulcans are innately telepathic. Even if they need training they still have it innately. Logic, by contrast, must be learned. Vulcan telepathy is more limited than Betazoid, though, in terms of distance. But, it's more advanced when it comes to mind melds (except for outliers like the guy who ended up living inside the living ship).

mikewendell

mercuriciodide wrote: »

Really? I thought all Vulcans are innately telepathic.

Trying to find a reference to see what it is officially. All I can find is an Ask Jeeves article and no reference is on that.

cusashorn

mercuriciodide wrote: »

I agree. Species-specific traits should be optional. The mandatory nature of the traits conflicts with canon, too.

Spock's brother wasn't logical. He was emotional. Tuvok was also emotional, not logical, in his youth and after he developed amnesia. Frankly, going by canon, Vulcans should be emotional as the required trait and logical as the optional, since they are prone to extreme emotion by nature and only by logic, which is learned not innate, do they master it. Since most Vulcans are logical as a way to master their emotions I can see a case for both emotional and logical to be required, but I agree with giving people options when making characters. Physical strength could be required, too, but not logical. And, why aren't Vulcans required to be telepathic?

Also, by the way, there's a conflict between Orion PCs, BOFFs, and DOFFs in terms of trait flavor. Male PCs must have physical strength, many male BOFFs have seductive instead, and almost no male DOFFs have seductive. It seems like multiple people worked on these and didn't communicate. Personally, I think male Orions should be able to have seductive or physical strength -- the way it was implemented for BOFFs. I think seductive should be more common for the females, though. I also think the game should not present all male NPC Orions as brutish. That conflicts with the existence of the seductive trait as an option, unless you're a rare person who is into hulking brutish types. It's also just plain sexist, just like the way only the women have skimpy clothing as an option. Nonetheless, I am glad that, at the very least, seductive is an option for BOFFs and that the PCs can go shirtless. Let's just make seductive an option (rather than forcing physical strength) for male Orion PCs, provide one sexy costume (like a speedo -- not much to ask in comparison with what the women get), and make a few NPCs who aren't brutes.

You are listing the exceptions, not the norm. Vulcans as an entire race have chosen to suppress their emotions in order to embrace logic for thousands of years. After that long a period, it becomes who they are. Tuvok only expressed emotions because he suffered brain damage in that one episode. Yes, he was emotional as a child, but that doesn't mean that ALL Vulcans are. Tuvok was again, the exception, not the norm.

mercuriciodide

Everything I've seen in canon says Vulcans are inherently emotional and logic is what they learn to control those emotions.

sharyssa

Ummm, you can change the traits in character creation and pick new ones...for any race, thats how I know of a human with telekinesis.

macfelly

mercuriciodide wrote: »

Everything I've seen in canon says Vulcans are inherently emotional and logic is what they learn to control those emotions.

Sybok had emotions and wasn't very logical.

V'tosh ka'tur

eiledon

dunno how the discussion got derailed onto vulcan psychology..

but the interface in that advert looks like the pwi character creator. I am thinking it is a kitbash for the purposes of an advert to give it a bit of oomph, as actually showing the sto interface in such a small image would be kind of pointless as it is mostly sliders and click boxes, and would not provide a lot of impact.

Hardly false advertising as the STO character creator is equally as versatile (and more so in some areas) than PWI

sierrafortune

Yeah it looks like they slapped a STO image with the little color option from the Character Creator in Perfect Worlds game of the same name.