Character Creation ideas for 4.X

[SavingPrincess]

Here are a few character creation wishlist items for 4.X.

- Bi-racial/Borrowed Racial traits.

Hilda. Am I right? A Midlander Hyur with Elezen ears, a Roe-size with a Hyur face. A Lala with Mi'qote ears and a tail? A Au'Ra without horns? With some minor tweaking of existing assets, you could open up character creation to a whole other level. Even just a body/head separation would be a huge step... (yes, let players have Roe bodies with Lala heads, and vice versa, you know we'd all enjoy it on some level). With Hilda existing, we now know that races DO cross-breed, and since armor assets are created for the specific head/body shape, this would only require checking to make sure there aren't any weird clipping issues between body/head (like on robes/unified armor pieces) with very little "new" being created.

(Cont)

[SavingPrincess]

- "Personality" (read: Animation sets)

Why should ALL Midlander female's have to ride their Unicorn side-saddle? Why can't big tough Roe men dance like a Lalafell? Why can't we choose animations for our character to match their *personality* rather than their race? You should be able to make a super-aggressive Midlander woman, or a very timid, Mi'qote male. All they have to do is duplicate animation pathing to other races and then review/tweak as needed. This should include attack animations, emotes, running/walking, riding, etc.

[SavingPrincess]

- Voice Set previews

While I and many others use this lovely [YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/0Zbox0/videos) made by a Japanese person with a big heart and too much time on their hands, it would be nice to, in addition to having new voice sets, be able to preview all the voices used by those sets. How many times did you get through character creator only 10 levels in to find out your characters battle voice drives you up the wall (the answers is two, two times).

[SavingPrincess]

- Hair "parts" not "styles"

One of our new hairstyles already does a baby version of what I'm referring to. (I'm referring to [this one](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lvi81Kqt7t4/maxresdefault.jpg) which is essentially the same style with different bangs) This should be the way the hair system works. Love the front of a ponytail style and hate the actual ponytail? Change it. Love the back of a hairstyle but hate the front weird bangs? Change it. Again this is a modification of existing assets, very little "new" things would have to be created.

[SavingPrincess]

- Separate visual styles and gear progression (when desired, maybe a level 60/70 restriction, but ideally not).

This would be a similar system to that implemented in many other games, like Guild Wars 2, SWTOR, LotR, Blade & Soul, etc. that separates out a characters gear from their visual style. It would be awesome to "make your outfit" at the start of character creation within a limited number of "starter" clothes, and then unlock styles as you progress through the game (similar to DCUO, equip the item once, it records that it's visual style is unlocked in a menu system). It could even function similar to the aesthetician where you enter a "character creation menu" and create your style for your various jobs/classes.

- Auras (not Au'Ra's)

Auras, so many other games have them, we want them, they can be craftable, somethingsomething economy crafters something something.

- Capes

Duh.

[SavingPrincess]

- Invisible Glamour for Weapons when appropriate.

Monks should be able to fight bare-handed, a Paladin should be able to have an "energy" shield that is only visible on block, every class can have an invisible "energy" style weapon that leaves special-effect trails during animations, etc.

- Dye Wardrobe

Guild Wars 2 does this perfectly, and with retainers now being able to bring the cash-shop dyes, I don't see any reason why we can't up the rarity of dyes in game and make them unlockable.

[SavingPrincess]

- Improve on range of existing sliders

Completely NEW sliders "like leg/torso height" would absolutely demolish how SE decided the armor visual system should work (why they hard-designed so much of this I have no idea). However, there's no reason why Mi'qote can't have a muscle slider, or a Midlander's chest can't be as large as a Highlander. More "shader" sliders would be nice (things that affect the skin and not the model, like the muscle slider) like tan's, body hair, age/wrinkles, scales, etc. Head size should be scalable without TOO much visual trouble (again, maybe on robes but normal head-pieces can scale just fine with the head).

[SavingPrincess]

- More makeup control (both genders)

The "pick a color, now light, dark or off?" system is sad. The eye-makeup options are sad. The fact that you have to decide between if you want decent eyeshadow or a butterfly on your face is sad. Give us an [RGB color picker](http://images.hanfordlemoore.com/tem...lor-picker.jpg) and allow us to layer things within reason. Give separate eyeliner, eyeshadow, blush, facial tatoos, scars, markings, adornments, jewelry, etc. and don't restrict it to gender.

[SavingPrincess]

- More facial parts, period.

This goes back to the cross-race thing again. There's no negative impact to the character visual system by letting races borrow facial customizations (think eye shapes, mouth shapes, nose shapes, i.e. the things they let you change now) from other races. Either find a way to get rid of the "base face type" option and let you piecemeal it from things, or add a TON more base face types. Again, even sliders for facial parts would be 99% compatible with every piece of armor in the game.

[SavingPrincess]

These are some (reasonable) things that are completely doable. I imagine they wouldn't be completely possible with the PS3 still in play, but with a little ingenuity, you could just lock visuals on PS3 clients to defaults (i.e. they don't see your sliders, makeup, etc.) which in turn would "strongly suggest" to PS3 players that maybe it's time to upgrade to get the "Full experience!"

What are your ideas? What do you think of these? Feel free to yell at me and tell my I'm stupid below.

<3