Here is an example of what Eve Online is doing with character creation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3P7cu4ekuY&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTH_ez8IxqM
Now I have no immediate expectation of seeing anything like this in STO. I only post it as an example of a direction STO could move towards. Something to perhaps aspire to.
Currently an Eve player cannot walk around with their character ingame. This is something that is on the way, but even when it gets implemented it will be done in a very limited fashion. Players will only be able to walk around their "bridge" and thats about it. So it will always offer far less freedom than STO.
STO is a much more ambitious. It lets you walk around not just the interior of your ship but dozens of different locations interacting with other players and npcs. STO also offers players the ability to create races that are not human. Obviously this makes it much more difficult to produce and implement a character creation feature like Eve Online offers.
However, I personally would love to see some attempt at moving in that direction and away from the cartoony character models we currently have. The current models aren't bad, but personally I find they take away from STO's immersion.
Comments
Anyway, back to the topic. EVE can make such an awesome char. creator because they have to raw server power to. EVE is a HUGE game, much more so than STO. It's literally the WoW of Space games. (Though Star Wars, TFO online might change that. The Halo MMO certainly would, if Bungie hadn't cancelled it.) If Cryptic ever gets the sheer processing power CCP has, then it its almost certain we'll see stuff starting to look nicer.
Yup. Think I first heard about "ambulation" coming to EVE in...07? 08? Something like that. I also recall that it was "coming for sure this spring" about a year later.....
Seriously....3+ years to walk around your bridge/ space stations?
So this is not a deviation by the Dev's but kept up by the community itself.
I think STO don't have to hide, while Incarna will be released for EVE. However your information about it ain't right. There will be enough interaction on huge stations between the players with their humanoid avatars, and as far as I know, there will be no bridge walk in, like you had written. In EVE the Capsule pilots are, as the name say in a fully hermetical closed capsule. The avatars the user will control in any spacestation will be clones. The consciousness of the original would be downloaded into the clone, yada, yada, yada.
Back on topic:
STO will change piece by piece a lot to his avatar editor. It will still remain one of the most detail supporting and versatile editor for an MMO. And let us not forget, that any game has his own flair. EVE Online's look is very realistic, STO however follows the shows, and as I think the dev's did mostly a great work.
All in all, we don't have to be worry STO would be beaten in the avatar discipline. It can still evolve a lot.
The eyes especially don't have much variety in shape. We need sliders there to vary not only overall size but also independent horizontal and vertical size sliders as well as angle.
The cheeks also need a few additional sliders. Notably absent are the "cheek bone" height and size sliders that can be found in several other games. Visually these sliders would affect the area of the cheek below the eyes and to the sides of the nose.
Additionally, the mouth needs a few more sliders, including separate top and bottom lip fullness sliders, a mouth corner slider (I.E. corners up is more smiley and corners down is more frowny), and an overbite/underbite slider.
And finally, some ear sliders would also be welcome. Size, shape(pointed or round), and a slider for how much they stick out from the head would be nice.
These few sliders could add a huge amount of customization and allow for vastly different looks compared to what we have now. If the devs need any more inspiration, they should look to games such as Aion, City of Heroes, and even their own Champions Online for ideas about what what they could add.