It's time we stopped all dressing the same.

[Surlok TP]

Whenever people discuss the game City of Heroes the topic of the character creation system is almost always brought up.

For those that have not played it,the character creation so very in depth,Allowing you to alter the traditional aspects of a character such as Body type,Face hair skin color etc while also allowing you to select exaclty the costume the character will wear.It is incredibly in depth and certainly one of a kind but why is that?

People say when comparing CoH to others that CoH's character creation blows the competition away,but really it doesn't.Other popular MMO's have loot in them,which CoH does not,at least in the armor sense of the word.When you develop your character in say Everquest 2 you have myriad of options to do so,more so actually than CoH in regards to actual physical appearance,even including the recent additions to CoH's already robust character creation allowing you to now alter your bodies dimensions.But you can't alter what your EQ character wears,not initially anyway, which is where the comparison between the traditional character creation systems and CoH's ends.

You can't alter it initially because as your character advances through the game world he will aquire equipment that will alter his appearance,Where as CoH allows you to in effect wear every piece of armor in the game from creation,every other game forces you to earn it as you progress.So they effectively have the same options ultimately,you just don't get to choose them like you would in CoH...

The question I have is why? why is this system still in place? everyone that has played CoH has said that creation is probably the most exciting part of the game(Doesn't say much for the actual gameplay but that is for other discussions)If you play in the world you rarely see characters looking the same,sure they may have a similiar design but the color may be different or it may have different secondary designs or whatever.


What if you loaded up WoW and went to design a character,and instead of starting off in Newbie rags you could choose from all the item graphics in the game that currently exist from items up to say level 20.You could design a character in a matching outfit if you wanted,he could wield a weapon that looked exactly how you wanted,and the character that your Role Playing would appear as you wanted him to.No more wearing a Bright Pink hat as a warrior because it gives some fancy bonus,no more wearing a raindbow of platemail because these are the optimum equipment slots for your class.

Remove loot as a physical item pressense and replace it with Augments.Allow a character from 1-10 to Augment his BP and legs one slot each,as he levels he is able to Augment more of his armor slots,and allowed more Augments per slot up to whatever restriction put in place.

A Lvl 60 for example could augment 5 slots in his chest slot,all he needs to do is find Chest slots augments that offer Ac or HP or whatever,each individual Augment in each slot could be resitricted.One slot in the chest will only take AC augs,while the secondary Slot will only take HP slots and the other three slots will take any secondary Stat Slot.defeating a massive Raid boss will open up the ability to slot effects into armor areas.So now you can also put an effect into your chest slot into the 5 original existing ones.


All the while you level you open up more of the existing in Game armor graphics,Clearing a dungeon like Molten Core unlocks costumes with a Mining,Lava whatever themes,killing the final boss unlocks various Weapon graphics available only to those who were present.This allows players an enormous wardrobe at all times to truly make themselves look how they want,it satisfies the need to look individual and it also satisfies the need to look uber by only unlocking special clothing slots by completing certain events or raids.

You still get loot,it just doesn't have a graphic,you simply apply it to your armor slots.


This system exists to some extent in SWG or at least it did,and there lies another example.By completing a bunch of quests and getting your faction up with the empire you could earn a Stormtrooper suit,I don't know if you could then slot it that isn't the point .....

I am so tired of looking likie everyone else apart from my face,tired of wearing ugly crap cause it has some effect that I need to have.Change items to augments,imbues slots enhancements whatever you want to call them and simply apply them to slots on your character sheet that you increase VIA leveling or raiding.Open clothing options as you level and for completing quests,dungeons and raids.I want Quests for a towns militia that earns me that towns suit of armor that I can wear and RP being part of the militia.

I can't see why this doesn't already exist,is this to deep of a system? Is it to much to ask for?

[FuckYou]

Dyes were a good thing IMO. They gave people a crude way to customize their appearance.

Building on the EQ dye system, there should have been basic dyes available to everyone - red, blue, green, whatever. Then there should have been either high level tskill dyes with level reqs, dropped dyes, faction based dyes, or all of the above.

[orcmauler]

I always liked the DAOC dye system, you could make or buy various types of dyes on a sliding cost scale.

I.E. Melt your eyes yellow was like 30 silver per vial (7 or so slots to dye so 2.1 gold) so the cost was significant for lower levels, but not overly so.

However once you could afford it (or could make it if you were an alch) EVERYONE it seems went black which was around 5 gold a vial.

They have added newer dyes that require rare monster drops, but they aren't that impressive if you ask me.

[Surlok TP]

Dyes were ok,if you were a plate class you still looked like every other plate class and it was worse standing next to someone of the same race,especially with luclin graphics.


The other aspect is actual modding of files,you can do this in CoH although they do not support it and actually restrict people from posting on the boards about it.

FPS games though are as popular as they are as much for the modding as the game,Do a search on Counter-Strike Mods and you will find thousands of sites offering Maps,mods character/gun models and even complete engine revamps,Hell Counter Strike itself was a mod made by two guys off the half life engine.


You can alter the .mpq files in Wow and make your weapons and armor use whatever models you want,you can make your mount look like any mount in the game as well.No one can see it but you as it's client side but the option is there.

Communites are an important part of any multiplayer game,in 2 weeks Grand theft Auto:SA will release for PC and it will spawn countless mods and skins overnight simply because there are thosands of people that love doing it.

FPS developers embrace these communites and often add player made maps and mods to their games,or as posted abovei n CS's case outright buy the mod and market it.It's another avenue yet to be explored by MMO's and they really need to get with the times so to speak.

[Ahnkosis]

I would like something of a merger between loot graphics and augment graphics.

Like for example, you get shouldpads of plainness, which have nothing special about them, just a set of plate shoulders. When you slap in armor spikes on them, the appearance is reflected on the armor, now instead of plain, you have spiked shoulders.

You could add countless things, blades, additional armor, chains, runes, etc etc.

It would be a way to add some customizability into the system without doing away with loot graphic progression, because face it, when you as a newbie looked at someone who was decked out in all the latest and greatest velious gear for the first time, you said to yourself "I want that!"

If everyone had access to the same pallete of armor graphics, then there would be no excitement to try and achieve what someone else already has.

[Surlok TP]

If everyone had access to the same pallete of armor graphics, then there would be no excitement to try and achieve what someone else already has.

Not suggesting you should,you start out with a limited pallete and as you level you unlock more.

Complete a quest for your town and earn the suit of armor graphic it's guards wear.Beat Molten Core and win the armor graphics based on that dungeon,each boss you kill in MC opens up more Weapons graphics only available to those that have done so etc etc.If you want to look uber you can,if you have beat MC and unlocked every type of armor graphic in the game but still wish to wear newbie armor graphics you can do that to.

[FuckYou]

The "feature unlocking through progression" is extremely common in console games... even sports console games. NHL Hits 200X had different models and arenas that became available the more you won.

Integrate this into MMOs.

[Samus Aran]

I didn't really like dyes in EQ.

I remember being able to run through EC tunnel and know for the most part what gear people had on because of their look. Once people started dying them, it became a lot harder/impossible (although it could be at that point, textures were being recycled like it was going out of style).

[Braen]

Models... Gotta catch them all!

I choose YOU. Pik-i-ni!

[Ahnkosis]

Well then, a combination of your suggestion and mine would only bring more variety and depth to the system. Once you get your MC graphics, and your boss weapon graphic, you do a special quest or find a special drop that adds a particle effect to your weapon.

Imo, that was a big mistake with WoW's weapons and enchanting. The particle effects imo should be reserved for special weapons, so that when you see a guy running around with a flaming longsword, you know that it's Teebu's Flaming Sword or that you had to kill Ragnaros to get the sphere to augment into your sword.

Anytime I see a fiery weapon in WoW I assume either demonslaying or fiery weapon. That's just sad to me.

[Braen]

One thing WoW said about it's models for end game content was that when you see someone wearing Onyxia or MC loot, you will KNOW they did it.

Did you really get that impression? Did the models stick out? I mean i saw the pally helm from Onyxia and it was a metal headband...

[FuckYou]

ownt

[leane]

The "feature unlocking through progression" is extremely common in console games... even sports console games. NHL Hits 200X had different models and arenas that became available the more you won. Integrate this into MMOs.

Try Guild Wars

[FuckYou]

I didn't like their implementation or combat system. I'd like to see an actual MMORPG with an unlocking mechanism.

[0hz]

I'd rather see looks determined by functionality and time spent developing a multitude of worthwhile equipment options to support variety in functionality.

Variety in looks would come as a result and look would retain symbolic and strategic meaning beyond "I'm a triple black badass!".

Taken as a whole, customizable looks would result in far less variety than we see now. Sure, currently, every warrior who has the best item for every slot looks exactly the same but...They represent a completely insignifigant fraction of the population as a whole.