Season 9 Dev Blog #9: New Heads & Complexions

pwecaptainsmirk

Hailing all Captains!

Joe Jing, Sr. Character Artist reveals details about the newly updated Heads & Complexions options added to our character tailor! Learn all about the new features in this entry of the Season 9 News Dev Blog series.

Link to the blog.

~CaptainSmirk

johngazman

Something which I cannot complain about. Excellent stuff.

mustrumridcully0

Can we get a bigger picture of the Dyson Crew? (Or even all of the pictures)?

I am certainly looking forward to spending some time in the character editor again and see what is possible now.

kagasensei

I just hope you'll be able to revisit at least some of the standard-face-twins we encounter as NPCs throughout the game (e.g., Klingon War episode). Literally every second mission-NPC looks alike...

thegalaxy31

YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES! Thank you SO much!

thegalaxy31

As for the Dyson crew.... Gorn look all alike.

hypl

Now all you need to do is add facial expressions so our characters don't look so lifeless and dull.

druhin

As an offtopic comment:

Regarding "Admiral Tuvok", I feel that it was a missed opportunity, not to put him in a Security "Gold" Uniform. Perhaps in STO's time period, he would've been Head of Starfleet Security. Or as a tie-in to non-canon, maybe put in charge of Starfleet Intelligence / New Section 31. Either way, I think the Gold uniform suited him better. And it wouldn't be unprecented to have an Admiral in Gold uniform. Case in point: Toddman

tehjonel

STO is a live game; we don’t want to simply change any asset that players have grown to like. Many players have been using these textures already for years.

RIIIIIIIIIGHT... so what happened to the texture on the pockets and panels pants that players have grown accustomed to?

ashkrik23

Do these upgrades even apply to all species?

thegalaxy31

ashkrik23 wrote: »

Do these upgrades even apply to all species?

Probably not. It doesn't really matter with Gorn though.

thay8472

ashkrik23 wrote: »

Do these upgrades even apply to all species?

I imagen it'll only effect human looking species (no Gorn, Caitains, Nausicaans or Leatheans)

mirrorchaos

well, its a start. still a long way to go to make the character customisation something good, something that was promised and failed in the previous 2.0 iteration. hope to see a few more added, the sort of asian faces, both near the middle east and china/japanese/korean area and the various hair for both sexes and beard options to males. eventually, to get away from this absurd oversized upper bulk and scrawny legs, i mean that has to go. also the female inner thighs need to be worked on as well.

ashkrik23

thay8472 wrote: »

I imagen it'll only effect human looking species (no Gorn, Caitains, Nausicaans or Leatheans)

They really need to hit something beyond the humanish species for once.

ducklesworth

Love it. However, I want to point out that Cooper is some of the worst modeling work you've ever done.

ducklesworth

thegalaxy31 wrote: »

Gorn look all alike.

That's speciesist.

otowi

Nice.

As another said above, will we get to meet the crew of the USS Dyson or the RR/KDF Dyson ships anytime soon?

The First Contact Day would have been a perfect time for that I think, just to mix it up a bit. That, and it would make more sense for those ships to test the new torpdeo, since it's likely that Dyson Joint Command will be tasked with fighting the Undine.

zeuxidemus001

Too funny lol. I just wonder how much time they took just to make one additional face that every character regardless of race will look so much the same lol.

robdmc

I like the idea of more option but some of us cannot tweak our older characters.

For example. If I try to tweak Gronk I loose her jacket.

I also here that there are older gorn out there that are stuck as well.

Will there be any plans to bring back older options as well?

ashkrik23

ducklesworth wrote: »

That's speciesist.

And we could say most of the feds look the same with their bland uniforms XD.

ducklesworth

robdmc wrote: »

I like the idea of more option but some of us cannot tweak our older characters.

For example. If I try to tweak Gronk I loose her jacket.

I also here that there are older gorn out there that are stuck as well.

Will there be any plans to bring back older options as well?

First: you don't lose anything. It just reverts back to the uniform slot. It's a bug, to be sure, but one easily remedied by either switching back to off duty and picking the outfit you had before OR by just hitting the revert to last save button(that arrow in the shape of a circle) on both top and bottom of the costume options.

Second: The original Gorn design was hideous. If players want to keep that look, not being able to update their costume is the price they have to pay. I have more than a few costumes that took advantage of the setslottype code(the one that allowed, for example, Omega pants, boots, and belt with a starfleet uniform top) that's since been removed from the game, and can't be edited without taking those options away. THAT is stupid, one should be able to mix and match costume options, especially for purchased or unlocked costumes. I know that it was being abused, making for hilarious combinations that, to be fair, broke the immersion of the game, but separating costume options into different "folders," for lack of a better term, is just ridiculous.

Unrelated note. Hey Cryptic, when are we getting the Enterprise Maco uniforms? You've had them coded since at least the launch of LoR. Also, I would sacrifice my firstborn for baseball caps, with customizable emblems (Enterprise, Niners, or even the name of your character's ship - shouldn't be that hard to do).

tehjonel

I know that it was being abused, making for hilarious combinations that, to be fair, broke the immersion of the game...

really? you thought the setslottype code helped break the immersion of the game by mix/matching unlocked costume pieces? have you seen some of the characters running around in-game? it's like some of these characters were the hellspawned offspring of barney the dinosaur and a garbage-pail kid.

but for real though, bring back that setslottype code. i have a bridge crew decked out in honor guard and would like to make some adjustments. kk thx.

kurumimorishita

I love them.. simply fantastic work there!!!

olivia211

I requested a big afro several months back. I am not kidding. I think it would be really awesome to have someone with such a hairstyle. If you all design it, I will surely apply it to a couple of my characters.

zensutra

THANK YOU, JOE!

I've been irked about this for years...two complexions (for females, for example) since launch. Considering the amount of customization available to the engine, it was a travesty that it languished for so long. And no, I don't consider scars or age lines a whole different face...the features and shadows were still the same.

I came close to suggesting that they add a purchasable 'face/complexion' pack just because I got tired of my human bridge crews looking so similar.

I thought it was funny, though, how diverse the male examples were with the new complexions, while the whole line of female faces looked so similar. Ah well, we'll get what we can. :rolleyes:

I'm just glad Cryptic finally either let the character artists get into the character creator, or you trained/hired some new folks.

boogieman624

Can we get the Dyson Uniforms?

altechachan

boogieman624 wrote: »

Can we get the Dyson Uniforms?

I think that's the costume unlock from the Tier 3 Fleet Spire.

worffan101

Not bad. I support this wholeheartedly.

captaind3

Great work. I would like to test this out on Tribble, but my officers are rocking the Jupiter uniform and any change I try to make costs 550 zen that doesn't exist on Tribble. Is there a way around that?

hypl wrote: »

Now all you need to do is add facial expressions so our characters don't look so lifeless and dull.

Agreed, though perhaps expression packs.

For instance, while storywise my Vulcan first officer does smile on rare occasion, seeing her bust out a grin in a Foundry mission was jarring. (As was the stammering about my appearance as a Klingon Captain in the Doomsday machine mission).

Also the stances need a look too. For instance same Vulcan character, if I was actually in complete control she would shift on occasion between standard, feminine, and thoughtful, and her walk would always be feminine.

And my Captain would've shifted to the gruff intimidating stance during Step Between the Stars when Cooper started mouthing off. But would normally cycle between standard and swagger. Dev team it's something worth looking at. Y'all said you were looking at suggestions. Stance is also an important part of a character.

mirrorchaos wrote: »

well, its a start. still a long way to go to make the character customisation something good, something that was promised and failed in the previous 2.0 iteration. hope to see a few more added, the sort of asian faces, both near the middle east and china/japanese/korean area and the various hair for both sexes and beard options to males. eventually, to get away from this absurd oversized upper bulk and scrawny legs, i mean that has to go. also the female inner thighs need to be worked on as well.

I'll put middle eastern at the top of that list.

ducklesworth wrote: »

Love it. However, I want to point out that Cooper is some of the worst modeling work you've ever done.

Yeah but that's because Cooper looks like the tool that he was.

darkelipse04

Yay a blog post with substance this time!

All this effort put into a blog post about changes in face/skin tone modeling. Yet a new PVE event featuring the Undine in yesterdays blog was so lacking it come off ridicuiosly lazy and so uncaring it was not only disappointing but sad.

I guess some people write better "blogs" than others?

futurepastnow

captaind3 wrote: »

perhaps expression packs.

For instance, while storywise my Vulcan first officer does smile on rare occasion, seeing her bust out a grin in a Foundry mission was jarring. (As was the stammering about my appearance as a Klingon Captain in the Doomsday machine mission).

Also the stances need a look too. For instance same Vulcan character, if I was actually in complete control she would shift on occasion between standard, feminine, and thoughtful, and her walk would always be feminine.

Some optional facial expressions would be nice.

More and better stances would be very high on my list of character requests. I'd like an arms-crossed stance that isn't ridiculously over the top. A hands-on-the-hips idle stance, too, perhaps? Or how about a feminine stance without the silly girly running animation.

Also, switch to the "Thoughtful" stance and look at your character's feet. There's no way that ankle isn't broken.