Post by Damian on Sept 17, 2016 22:04:01 GMT 10
This topic comes up from time to time when talking to people about Lord Of Decay. Inevitably there is somebody who just has to change the appearance of their avatar and until now I've always shrugged it off.
I don't think character customisation is critical to a successful RPG. There are plenty of memorable characters from RPGs that players are happy with like Talion from Shadow Of Mordor or Isaac from the Dead Space franchise.
I've been against character customisation for two reasons:
A proper character customisation feature like Black Desert Online involves an enormous amount of co-ordinated effort, weeks of development and a whole swag of performance concerns.
I've always said that if we cannot do it "right" then we are just not going to do it. In my opinion there is nothing worse than a poorly developed feature.
However, recent events have forced me to re-evaluate the merit of character customisation in Lord Of Decay. I've been mulling over a compromised solution.
Stay with me. It's not as bad as it sounds.
Textures
The main difficulties with character customisation stems from having to create multiple base meshes that are vertice-dense and are packed with lots of blend shapes. In other words, flexible 3D geometry.
Textures and materials are then wrapped around this flexible geometry and they have to fit just right.
There is more to it, but you get the idea.
What I am proposing is that we leave the 3D geometry as it is. Your avatar would always have the same facial features and physique, but we could allow you to add some texture "embellishments".
While this means you would be unable to pinch the nose in, widen the eyes or add a strong jawline you would be able to add your own personal touches by like:
* Tattoos
* Makeup
* Scars
* Hair Colour
* Eye Colour
Advanced Heads
Our 3D character pipeline requires that Scott models the bodies and the heads separately in order to create facial expressions.
That being the case, we could probably give you the ability to select from a few Base Heads. Maybe we could even allow you to select from a few different hairstyles.
I want to be clear that we have not yet experimented with any of these things and the development cost would still be substantial.
We're just trying to get a feel for what the community wants.
So now the hard questions. Do you think it's worth developing a "compromised solution" or is it a waste of time?
How important is character customisation to you when you play games?
I don't think character customisation is critical to a successful RPG. There are plenty of memorable characters from RPGs that players are happy with like Talion from Shadow Of Mordor or Isaac from the Dead Space franchise.
I've been against character customisation for two reasons:
- I felt it was more important to first develop the actual game mechanics and gameplay experience before considering customising your character.
- With over 20 x characters and only 1 x 3D artist Scott wouldn't finish modelling until 2027.
A proper character customisation feature like Black Desert Online involves an enormous amount of co-ordinated effort, weeks of development and a whole swag of performance concerns.
I've always said that if we cannot do it "right" then we are just not going to do it. In my opinion there is nothing worse than a poorly developed feature.
However, recent events have forced me to re-evaluate the merit of character customisation in Lord Of Decay. I've been mulling over a compromised solution.
Stay with me. It's not as bad as it sounds.
Textures
The main difficulties with character customisation stems from having to create multiple base meshes that are vertice-dense and are packed with lots of blend shapes. In other words, flexible 3D geometry.
Textures and materials are then wrapped around this flexible geometry and they have to fit just right.
There is more to it, but you get the idea.
What I am proposing is that we leave the 3D geometry as it is. Your avatar would always have the same facial features and physique, but we could allow you to add some texture "embellishments".
While this means you would be unable to pinch the nose in, widen the eyes or add a strong jawline you would be able to add your own personal touches by like:
* Tattoos
* Makeup
* Scars
* Hair Colour
* Eye Colour
Advanced Heads
Our 3D character pipeline requires that Scott models the bodies and the heads separately in order to create facial expressions.
That being the case, we could probably give you the ability to select from a few Base Heads. Maybe we could even allow you to select from a few different hairstyles.
I want to be clear that we have not yet experimented with any of these things and the development cost would still be substantial.
We're just trying to get a feel for what the community wants.
So now the hard questions. Do you think it's worth developing a "compromised solution" or is it a waste of time?
How important is character customisation to you when you play games?
. Well heres the short version of what i said. I really like your idea. Complete character customization is always really cool but having a preset character can work better depending on the gameplay and narrative of the game.