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Klingon-side height slider & need for "muscular definition"
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Due to personal schedule issues during CB and OB, I never managed to get a captain to Lt. grade 6 to unlock the Klingon content. Managed to do so today, and immediately logged out & in to check out the Klingon costume builder.
HEIGHT SLIDER
While the "Alien" species has a wide-range height slider like Federation "Aliens" (4'6" to 7'0"), all the named species in the Klingon faction are stuck with a Human scale height slider -- from 5'6" to 6'6". Not only does this allow for a minimum of variation between the faction's named species, but it also seem to run counter to established relative sizes between Humans and certain other species. This includes the species descriptions found in the costume creator:
Klingon: "...are larger and stronger than Humans."
Nausicaan: "Taller and stronger than Humans..."
and some of the information presented at the Memory Alpha wiki:
Gorn: "...an average height of approximately two meters." [2m = 6' 6.744"]
Orion: "Orion males are..., on average, taller and more muscular than an average Human male.
While the Memory Alpha wiki does not comment on the average height of Orion females, jumping to 02:15 of this scene from The Cage shows the comparative heights of Vina (as an Orion female) and Christopher Pike (played by 6'0" actor, Jeffrey Hunter). Vina's Orion is depicted as being at least a head taller than Pike. Granted, one could argue that this illusionary Orion female, created by the Talosians, might not be representative of the species. But one could also argue that the Talosians do seem to base their illusions on the knowledge and experiences of their victim, to heighten the sense of believability and immersion -- so Vina's Orion female guise could be representative of at least the upper scale of the Orion female height range, as far as Pike had encountered or understood it.
If possible, please increase the upper limits of the height sliders on at least the 4 above-named Klingon faction species.
NEED FOR "MUSCULAR DEFINITION"
Since we haven't had a chance to play with the TOS or Mirror Universe uniforms yet, Federation faction characters generally only expose two areas of skin: their faces and their hands. Klingon females and Orion females, however, can have completely bare arms, shoulders, and a certain amount of torso "skin exposure." Unfortunately, these areas show very little in the way of pigmentation variation (especially when compared to facial complexion) and no muscle definition whatsoever. The end result -- especially when one begins to push the various "bulk" sliders further to the right -- has a very "doughy" appearance, and does not mesh at all well with the comparatively very detailed facial skin.
I'm not asking for a "muscle definition" slider a la Champions Online (although that might be a good way to address this -- albeit with a rightmost slider setting perhaps a little less extreme than CO's), but I think that exposed skin areas on STO characters (whether male or female) would definitely benefit from some touching up to give at least a little more "tone."
--Chris
HEIGHT SLIDER
While the "Alien" species has a wide-range height slider like Federation "Aliens" (4'6" to 7'0"), all the named species in the Klingon faction are stuck with a Human scale height slider -- from 5'6" to 6'6". Not only does this allow for a minimum of variation between the faction's named species, but it also seem to run counter to established relative sizes between Humans and certain other species. This includes the species descriptions found in the costume creator:
Klingon: "...are larger and stronger than Humans."
Nausicaan: "Taller and stronger than Humans..."
and some of the information presented at the Memory Alpha wiki:
Gorn: "...an average height of approximately two meters." [2m = 6' 6.744"]
Orion: "Orion males are..., on average, taller and more muscular than an average Human male.
While the Memory Alpha wiki does not comment on the average height of Orion females, jumping to 02:15 of this scene from The Cage shows the comparative heights of Vina (as an Orion female) and Christopher Pike (played by 6'0" actor, Jeffrey Hunter). Vina's Orion is depicted as being at least a head taller than Pike. Granted, one could argue that this illusionary Orion female, created by the Talosians, might not be representative of the species. But one could also argue that the Talosians do seem to base their illusions on the knowledge and experiences of their victim, to heighten the sense of believability and immersion -- so Vina's Orion female guise could be representative of at least the upper scale of the Orion female height range, as far as Pike had encountered or understood it.
If possible, please increase the upper limits of the height sliders on at least the 4 above-named Klingon faction species.
NEED FOR "MUSCULAR DEFINITION"
Since we haven't had a chance to play with the TOS or Mirror Universe uniforms yet, Federation faction characters generally only expose two areas of skin: their faces and their hands. Klingon females and Orion females, however, can have completely bare arms, shoulders, and a certain amount of torso "skin exposure." Unfortunately, these areas show very little in the way of pigmentation variation (especially when compared to facial complexion) and no muscle definition whatsoever. The end result -- especially when one begins to push the various "bulk" sliders further to the right -- has a very "doughy" appearance, and does not mesh at all well with the comparatively very detailed facial skin.
I'm not asking for a "muscle definition" slider a la Champions Online (although that might be a good way to address this -- albeit with a rightmost slider setting perhaps a little less extreme than CO's), but I think that exposed skin areas on STO characters (whether male or female) would definitely benefit from some touching up to give at least a little more "tone."
--Chris
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Comments
STO image 1
STO image 2
STO image 3
CO image
IMO, the graphic artists have done a fine job designing both the clothing items / textures and the faces in STO. But, again IMO, in this case the overall presentation of this character is spoiled by the complete lack of detail / shading / texturing of the rest of her body. The builder in CO, however, only provides a similar lack of surface detail on body parts if the "Muscle" slider is thrown all the way to the left. In the sample image I prepared, that slider setting is only at 35% and yet a respectable amount of surface shading / detail is obtained. Certainly, Star Trek has never really called for the Mr. or Ms. Olympia levels provided by the right-most 50% of the CO Muscle slider. And while Nichelle Nichols may not have possessed abs of steel, her Mirror Universe uniform displays far more tone than the above-linked STO character.
Again, I'm not requesting the addition of a Muscle slider a la Champions Online -- although additional customizing tools are always welcome. All I'm hoping for is the addition of a little more tone / definition / detail to STO character models' skin surfaces that would normally be covered by the basic Starfleet uniforms. With the eventual de-bugging of the female Mirror Universe costume options, I imagine we'll be seeing at least a little more exposed skin around the Starbases than we have up to this point. It'd be nice if those newly-exposed portions of the models showed a similar level of detail to that of their costumes and faces.
--Chris