Character creation really that powerful?

Esperant · #1 10-14-2004, 07:49 PM

I dont mean to sound ungreatful because Im not and I love the character creation in EQ2 startup kit. However, their statements about how its the greatest character creation game ever is a tad far fetched. After playing around with it I felt I had a greater level of chracter creation in SWG than I did this. The only difference being the number of races to choose from. THEN AGAIN, the full version has'nt been released right? so who knows. This could all change.

Now, I am a gamer artist. Concept artist for 6 years, texturer for 3 and have been modeling for 2. What I'm saying is, I know what kind of work it takes to have transformations within the geometry. That takes a LOT of hard work for things as simple as raising, tilting, sharpening, and lowering eyebrows. What makes it amazing is the sheer number of models you get to choose from. But on over all customization for the faces... well scope out Sims 2! Now thats a lot of face customs!

Anyone else think this? Comments?

Ecstasia · #2 10-14-2004, 08:22 PM

(Sims 2... still need to get around to buying that... but I've too much to occupy my time right now as is. >.>)

Yeah, personally, I expected a bit more after reading some of the things about it that I did, but at the same time, I'm not really disappointed in anyway... perhaps this is because the only other MMORPG I've played is FFXI, and EQ2 (or even just the CC disk) has "infinately" more customization than that did with it's dozen or so faces and three sizes. ^^;

Banalan · #3 10-14-2004, 08:25 PM

Well as a layman to computer graphics, in other words just a simple old user, I was excited by all the talk about EQ2's customizable character avatars. I beta tested SWG and played it for a year, I guess I was spoiled rotten to character creation programs after that lol. EQ 2 is great, don't get me wrong! Compare it to DAOC or EQ Live and there is no comparison, now compare it to SWG where you could be fat or thin, tall or short and there was absolutley no way to run into anyone in the game who even looked similar to you, it does seem to fall short a bit. But from what I keep reading in the beta journals is that you can't really get a notion of how great the characters are in EQ2 until you see them in game, moving, interacting with the environment and things like that. So I guess I will reserve my final comparison of the two until I see the models in use.

Serpentis · #4 10-15-2004, 04:29 AM

This is true for me as well, I was expecting a bit more from it....all in all it's not bad though. Sure beats a stick in the eye!

guice · #5 10-15-2004, 05:24 AM

Don't worry, you're not alone. There's TONS is disappointment with the character creation screen all over the public (and private) forums. It's quite poor and some of the options are a complete waste of space (ugh, ear height? cheak bones (did a woman add that!)?)

Sadly, I don't expect us to get much more than what's on the CD.

[no offense on the woman comment, it's just women are the only people I can think of that would ever pay attention to a person's cheak bones]

Serpentis · #6 10-15-2004, 05:47 AM

LOL, maybe so, maybe so. Well, from what I can see of the CC, they added those features to give that little bit of customization to truly make each face different in some way. But I think most of those will be hard to notice really. I don't mind so much the lack of height adjustment...they left those out because of the armor graphics. From what I understand (which ain't much) they set the height and body shape so that they didn't have to mess with the height and shape of armor in the game...or something to that effect. Most the other features customizable were disapointing...although we did have a veriety to choose from, it still left the feeling of being limited and with no real customization to it. Not sure what they may or may not add later on, I have heard rumors of many different things... not that it matters all that much to me. Im sure there will be allot more to it that grabs my attention than just how my guy looks.

Esperant · #7 10-15-2004, 11:35 AM

Well I read an official thing somewhere off the EQ2 main site forums that the height adjustment was limited so you did'nt have those wackos running around with midgets and out of proportion muscles heads. This goes along the same lines why they crack down on people with improper names such as lord arseface

I think the weighting for the rest of the body could have been changed somehow in some way. Because really... all our body proportions will be the same. The only thing thats going to set our bodys appart will be skin color and height which will barely be noticable unless someones at top size and the other is on the low end.

Serpentis · #8 10-15-2004, 12:05 PM

Well, I will give it some time...incase they add more to it. Look at it this way...It could have been worse and been like the old EQ.

Esperant · #9 10-15-2004, 12:26 PM

this is very true

Flipside_80 · #10 10-15-2004, 02:25 PM

I was rather entertained by my CC disks (simple minds, yes)...

...however, I'm in the camp of gameplay > graphics. I was happy to see I could at least customize my toon to a bit of a degree as opposed just picking a "stamp" face and moving on. Could it have been better? Absolutely! But, it didn't suck either.

15 hours later...STILL haven't decided what justifies my "perfect" toon look

Flip.

Stilletto · #11 10-15-2004, 04:17 PM

Ya i was a little dissapointed with the CC. The Sims 2 and Tiger Woods golf have a little more in the way of changing the over all look... but I supose we dont really want to see a char and have to guess what race they are! At least you can tell a troll from a iksar so... I only hope they use different graphics to change the look you have for different armors or say ear rings and such. I've seen some screens that kinda scare me... The orcs having the same looking plate as the twins elf chicks...and it looked as if they all had the exact same leggings and boots... I supose they could have but..doubt it.
Still the game looks awesome! I cant wait till lvl 50 and 2 years down the road so i can afford the griffon to fly around!!