[PC] Character Creation Redesign

ambassadorkael · March 2019

We've done a complete overhaul of the character creation system in Star Trek Online! You can find out more here:

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11104033

undedavenger · March 2019

I am very excited about this. But if we don't get some more freedom in the creation process, it is going to be a little pointless. Allowing BOFFs to wear whatever we can wear is an important thing.

korithian1 · March 2019

I can't see an option to load previous saved appearances?

Also would be great if this could open up Cardassians to the Romulan faction, just saying

thay8472 · March 2019

Are you removing anything else?

angarus1 · March 2019

The new UI looks great, though I will miss the Save Outfit and Load Outfit buttons. Whenever they worked, they were a nice and easy way to load in character looks I'd pre-planned on a boff etc.

balarick · March 2019

I never had any issue with the character creation system. The fact Jo "was so overwhelmed that [they] had to walk away and come back to it later" is a bit... odd. Still, streamlining is great and I'm not opposed to it, but I don't see why the streamlining can't be done within the LCARS UI.

Also, if you're looking into "quality of life" changes (for the tailor as well), you could make all colors available for every clothing items. It's kind of ridiculous that different clothing items have one of two different palettes. Just combine them all into one (maybe put the smaller one above the bigger one, or below it (whichever)), so we don't lose anything but increase customizability, and maybe even create an advanced color palette option that allows you to manually change individual colors -- but that one might be too much. Just having a combined palette for each clothing item would be a substantive addition.

Anyway, I do look forward to playing around with the new system.

where2r1 · March 2019

Wait....how come I did not get an option to change my Nausicaan character in the tailor before getting the Engage button?

I am going to try it again.

Hmmmm... Second time is the charm, it seems. I get into the tailor for editing. I think my program needed a second run at it to load it correctly.

Did a third Nausicaan character and no problems loading the new "Preset" page and tailor the character before getting the Engage button.

++++++++

I LOVE this little movie at the beginning of Klingon.

Excuse me... I have to go kick a Ferengi....

OH, and I checked my Lethean character I created previously...his head is not invisible.

tradik · March 2019

The biggest issue I see already is your handling of 'Faction'. One of the biggest points of confusion we see from New Players is the Faction, or Virtual Faction system.

In CharGen, looking at your Faction Page, you are already off to a bad start by calling them that, and not clearly mentioning forced Allegiance options later. STO has two factions, just with a variety of unique options for starting stories.

rkinne · March 2019

(Trolling comments moderated out. - BMR)

Unknown · March 2019

This content has been removed.

slifox · March 2019

So we get an extra character slot just for this? I cringe at the thought of having to replay all those missions yet again and starting from scratch. At least make this week a Delta recruit week.

commanderkassy · March 2019

Why are you taking out the load and save outfit buttons? This boggles my mind. Sometimes I reroll a character or make a new version of an old character. That just became exponentially harder, thanks a lot!

chipg7 · March 2019

It's a shame this update comes right on the heels of the Foundry death, but...

Wow, is this ever a great system! The new step-by-step creation is definitely more streamlined. And as a fellow Space Barbie enthusiast, having the visuals of options instead of just the text is a massive leap forward.

I would love to see these changes implemented in the tailor too. It's a shame that this new UI is limited to something most of us only see when a new faction or Delta Recruit-like promotion is on.

Great work!!

ikonn · March 2019

The new interface does have a more "modern" look. However, I really don't like having the Save/Load option removed for previously-designed costumes. Many of my characters don't use preset uniform options.

samborski · March 2019

The joy... Thanks for the free characters slot btw. The UI change is kinda unnecessary though, it is kinda nice to have it all streamlined and all, but ultimately it's unnecessary, like seriously, the old UI did it's job pretty well, and I can't remember having any problems when creating my first character whatsoever .

duasyn · March 2019

Looks nice. Personally, I'd have reversed the Faction list in Character Creation to go from oldest to newest. Since, currently, the only 2 real/main factions are at the bottom of the list. Everything else is a quasi-faction.

Those quasi-faction should have a * that states that they will have to join Starfleet or KDF at some point so new players don't feel they have to re-do their character if that knowledge would have made them choose differently had they known.

megacharge07 · March 2019

The Load/Save outfit option is missing. This is an integral part of the character creation editor and renders the editor broken without it. Aside from that it looks promising,

Also the Editor has unnecessary lag to it. While this doesn't break the editor it severely degrades the experience. This should be looked into as well and remedied.

balarick · March 2019

So, now, instead of having faction, species, gender, and career all on the same screen, you have to go through one screen for each, with giant buttons to make it look like you're using space effectively.

And in the appearance section, every aspect is within its own sub-window, instead of everything being immediately available and quickly customizable. Just seems like a lot more clicking just to get to what I want to change, in addition to the clicking needed to actually make those changes.

And you can't use your own saved presets because... why? Was that just too hard to fit in with the new and unnecessarily complicated system?

Honestly, this isn't the worst change that could have been made (except for the loss of the save/load uniform option), but it's just a question of, Why fix it if it ain't broke?

C+. B if the save/load option is restored.

unclegoldie · March 2019

I agree with everyone else that I'd like to see the Load/Save Outfit brought back. Another missing item is the ability to toggle the character into a "static" pose. I personally liked this option because I found it easier to "sculpt" the face if they weren't moving around as much. Other than that, my only major complaint is that there are certain outfit "presets" which are available for males but not for females (FED based primarily). Are there any plans to "fix" this?

One other thing I noticed is that this change seems to be for character "Creation," but current characters are still using the "old" system. Are there any plans to make this change "standard?"

commanderkassy · March 2019

Thanks, I hate it.

I have played with it more and I just despise this.

Way too many screens.

Every screen lags like 3+ seconds to load, which is somehow worse than the old one.

It's clunky.

No load/save buttons which is FUNDAMENTALLY BROKEN.

No static pose.. WHAT!?

And the least you could do would be to return the old body type presets, and you didn't even do that during an overhaul.

Overall, this is a horrible change, and I'm totally baffled as to why they let you do it.

Silly me, when I saw the headline I was excited, but ya done $#%& it up, to quote a certain angry man named Joe.

tk79 · March 2019

Interesting change. But removing Load Outfit is a big mistake. It was the option I most used when creating new characters, as buggy as it was.

tvalavulcan · March 2019

Wow. I like the new UI. Simpler to use. Also for those wanting stuff added back in, Jo did say there was other stuff that was being explored for the new Creator. Some of those things may make it back in.

radonne · March 2019

Removing the Save/Load options is simply unacceptable. It's way too tedious to write down all the variables when you want to reuse a uniform, and that happens all the time - especially if I want my bridge officers to look like we serve together!

Beyond that, I'm struggling to see much actual improvement here. The UI is more modern, but as people have said the 'simplicity' comes at the cost having to iterate through a bunch of additional screens. I guess leading with the presets makes it more welcoming, but I have a very hard time believing anyone who wants to play an MMORPG is going to be completely stymied by having presents included alongside a bunch of dials and lists.

So overall, I'm going to have to rate this a serious negative. This should have been tested before you dropped it on us unannounced.

-R

inferiority · March 2019

A nice change, but can you add the 'sparkle' back to the ENGAGE button, please?
The increased size on the color palettes was a fantastic surprise. (Alas, I noticed that the Cardassian jacket/pants combination has different palettes and so don't make a matching outfit.)

leonisunderheart · March 2019

The Jem'hadar Career choice is using Fed icons instead of Dominion faction.

Overall, this will make it more comfortable for new players. As stated above, the new Character Creation interface is a more 'modern' look. Also as stated above, it's less convenient to experienced players who know what they're doing. Specifically, the distinct tabs and the time to reload the various hair style tab.

Removing the load/save is inconvenient and adds an additional step when I would rather be running the tutorial and progressing my character. I would use one of my presets then customize further for that particular toon.

I'm indifferent about the static pose but I've not gotten to Space Barbie level yet.

Overall, thanks for the UI revitalization. It shows that there is still some care being applied to STO after AoD's catastrophe.

dtereusb · March 2019

It's been stated previously, but yes, Save / Load outfits needs to be brought back. I customize all my uniforms / my BOFF uniforms / Bios. Kind of tedious otherwise.

On another note, bring back: costumecreator.setslottype TRIBBLE. Unrestricted Tailor for unlocked uniforms was the best and way better for "Space Barbie".

kadajm · March 2019

Do they know that now there is no way to make ur last name come first, as a Bajoran or Asian. Once in game it just says u can't fix it cause it just says "You already have a character by that name." So Idk how to fix this only way was to make the character that way but now that the option was removed I have no way of doing it now.

herrgis · March 2019

tradik wrote: »

The biggest issue I see already is your handling of 'Faction'. One of the biggest points of confusion we see from New Players is the Faction, or Virtual Faction system.

In CharGen, looking at your Faction Page, you are already off to a bad start by calling them that, and not clearly mentioning forced Allegiance options later. STO has two factions, just with a variety of unique options for starting stories.

I don't see any confusion or anything deserving of the criticism of a "bad start".
There are indeed presently six playable factions when you start out. Allegiance is irrelevant at this point (during character creation) and has no influence on my Captain's face, clothing options or choice between tac/eng/sci.

Less is more. As I channel Steve Jobs for a moment …"Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It’s about saying NO to all but the most crucial features."

The choice of a factions to ally with the KDF or UFP is already handled at an appropriate point in their storyline with clear impacts of the choice at that time. Even if you don't know what to do, there is always a defer option until you can make an informed choice.

Cheers.

alyxvixen · March 2019

The new character creation system is nice, simple, clear and easy to navigate. And I'm saying this after 3-4 years of playing. It's a good change and I feel Jo did a good job with it.

Though the lack of static stance can get annoying when you're trying to work on the face and the character keeps looking away. I'm indifferent about the load/save uniform option as I could never get it to work for me properly (would forget saved uniforms, only apply the jackets, ignore the Uniform only and completely replace a BOFF with the saved one...)

All in all, it's an improvement...

Though one question...
If you've hit the maximum of 50 characters (which I know people have done), will you get the extra character slot?

zeithri · March 2019

As others have said, and I stand with them.

- I hate this Change -

- Constructive Part -
It's not streamlined it's cumbersome.
It's not useful, it's frustrating.
It lags more now than it did before ( it would occasionally go slow, but now it's always slow ).
And why the hell would you ever remove Save / Load function? Just because they glitched often?

And of course, you did not add any other useful features to it either.

Know what would actually been nice? If the number of species we have unlocked, the more options become available in the character creator to make our own custom stuff. Why is it that the editors become less and LESS freedom giving the more time goes on?

(Off topic trolling comments moderated out. - BMR)

where2r1 · March 2019

Ah...yes, I agree with a few other folks comments here....it does pause quite a bit between the various tabs, as well as pages.

zeithri wrote: »

As others have said, and I stand with them.

- I hate this Change -

- Constructive Part -
It's not streamlined it's cumbersome.
It's not useful, it's frustrating.
It lags more now than it did before ( it would occasionally go slow, but now it's always slow ).
And why the hell would you ever remove Save / Load function? Just because they glitched often?

[PC] Character Creation Redesign

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