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Forums > Home› Feedback› The Art of Star Trek Online

Boff visual uniqueness

organicmanfredorganicmanfred Member Posts: 3,236 Arc User
edited November 2014 in The Art of Star Trek Online
I have spent about 2 hours yesterday to overhaul my Bridge Officers at the Tailor. And I am talking about 25 Boffs, already reduced from 38...

I really tried to give each human looking Boff a unique face. But no matter what, nearly every Boff looked the same, especially in the eyes and front section.

I received the usual European John Shepherd masculine looking guys, the sturdy looking black men with bloated cheeks, some guys looking like a fairy, the hispanic Visor guy, and the women having a porcelain face with anime eyes, with a touch of a french maiden.

It is especially the eyes and head form that looks on every character the same. No matter how much I toy around with the sliders.

It even took me about 15 minutes to get a decent Asian looking character with different looks than the other one.

The pre-set faces and random buttons don't really help.


Has anyone some tipps for me?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • lindalefflindaleff Member Posts: 3,734 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    I usually just end up giving them different hair. If I run out of decent hair options, then I switch to different hair colours. Still, more unique faces would be a vast improvement.
    I completed a 2-man CSE, ISE, and KASE, Optionals included. And I soloed Winter Invasion.
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  • organicmanfredorganicmanfred Member Posts: 3,236 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Forgot to add that I am not complaining about the Tailor. Over the last month there have been a lot of improvements been added by the Artists and Devs.

    I would kindly ask for newer pre-set heads at the Tailor. I love this Dyson character group shot, there I see a big diversity in unique faces.

    Or I just don't have that much inspiration and creativity :D
  • dragonsbrethrendragonsbrethren Member Posts: 1,854 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    I have to admit to mostly using preset faces and using hair to make them look unique, too. In fact, outside of my main, even my player characters are using presets or the defaults (which, oddly, aren't in the presets). Even my main started as a preset, recreating her is a matter of changing complexions and changing, I think, four sliders. Plus hair, skin tone, eyebrows, eye color, ears...

    One thing I'd like personally like to see are some body presets. I have the default male and female player character body saved and I just load that for all my boffs now. While I like to think I have a pretty good sense of anatomy and what looks right (I can certainly tell when other players do things wrong), I'm pretty bad at making decent looking unique bodies. I've done it, again, for my main's crew, not even the entire crew, and it's a lot of effort.
    @Kinanra_STO on Twitter • Star Trek Battles Regular • Sarita Devastated, my latest Foundry mission
  • tiro100tiro100 Member Posts: 73 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    All of my boff's generally looked the same, until I let my wife mess with them. She's much better at stuff like that, years of playing Sims. But even she has frustration with how little there is to work with.
    Playing STO on and off since January 2nd, 2011!
  • hat3urfukinggutshat3urfukingguts Member, Cryptic Developers Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    please delete my post
  • crypticjoejingcrypticjoejing Member Posts: 211 Cryptic Developer
    edited November 2014
    We're definitely on-board with an update to the preset heads. Most were created 4 years ago with very limited and outdated assets. Quality and variety could definitely be improved, and it's something we have on our minds.
  • organicmanfredorganicmanfred Member Posts: 3,236 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    crypticjoejing wrote: »
    We're definitely on-board with an update to the preset heads. Most were created 4 years ago with very limited and outdated assets. Quality and variety could definitely be improved, and it's something we have on our minds.

    Oh wow.. JoeJing himself replied to me :D

    please, I just want to make it clear again that I am NOT complaining about the work you people do in the studio. Especially all those updates and improvements are gorgeous, especially with the DR release this year too.

    Yes, I sound like a Cryptic fanboy, and maybe I am. But I like this game and I spend as much money as I want to buy stuff. No one forces me.

    Anyway, I would love to have those new preset heads, or maybe that the programm itself spits randomly preset heads out to us?

    What I personally also would love to see is that the basic head structure options get named (Caucasian, Asian,..), if it is possible.

    And the possibility to hide or to retract the preset head and hair options would be nice :D

    Thank you
  • turbomagnusturbomagnus Member Posts: 3,479 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Like dragonsbrethern mentioned, when/if the head presets get redone, would the dev team be willing to consider body presets? Bodies like 'wiry', 'muscular', 'shapely (female)', 'Clemenza' (fans of "The Godfather" will know what I'm talking about here), etc.

    Between head presets, body presets and the 'stance' settings (standard, twitchy, seductive, Brawler, etc.), it would really increase the ability for character customization even before someone begins using the sliders. (On my Gorn character, part of what helps me keep each of the Gorn BOffs seperate is that each one uses a seperate stance, so I know that those can definitely help.)
    "If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it's not for the timid." -- Q, TNG: "Q-Who?"
    ^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
  • crypticjoejingcrypticjoejing Member Posts: 211 Cryptic Developer
    edited November 2014
    organicmanfred wrote: »

    ...or maybe that the programm itself spits randomly preset heads out to us?

    What I personally also would love to see is that the basic head structure options get named (Caucasian, Asian,..), if it is possible.

    Pt 1. Ewwwww...not a good idea with our system unless you want really ugly random generation 99% of the time :D. We'd have to do a lot of work to "guide" the randomness. Let's start with improved presets first.

    Pt 2. We actually don't want ethnicity explicitly tied each head. People's faces come in all shapes and you can make a wide range of ethnicity with multiple head and face textures. I mix and match all the options when making characters. Labeling would cause a subconscious and/or artificial limiter on how people make their character faces and every white guy will look the same, every black guy, etc. and we'll get even more complaints that characters all look the same.
    turbomagnus wrote: »
    ... would the dev team be willing to consider body presets? Bodies like 'wiry', 'muscular', 'shapely (female)', 'Clemenza' (fans of "The Godfather" will know what I'm talking about here), etc.

    Oh yeah! absolutely considered. For some time now. It's a complicated issue though and we haven't found an easy/fast solution and haven't been able to devote the resources to the complex solution thus far. But def on our minds.
  • dragonsbrethrendragonsbrethren Member Posts: 1,854 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    Nice to know body presets are a possibility in the future. Those will really help. :)
    @Kinanra_STO on Twitter • Star Trek Battles Regular • Sarita Devastated, my latest Foundry mission
  • azniadeetazniadeet Member Posts: 1,871 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    I think the character models and faces have come a long way. Some of the best work STO has done, and also relatively quite responsive to player concerns.
  • organicmanfredorganicmanfred Member Posts: 3,236 Arc User
    edited November 2014
    azniadeet wrote: »
    I think the character models and faces have come a long way. Some of the best work STO has done, and also relatively quite responsive to player concerns.

    yes, the character folks have been more than wonderfull this year with all these patches, fixes and additions.

    If I may ask for one more thing: Would be nice to have Benzite Boffs finally in game, and the TOS Klingons for the KDFs. :D
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