Character Creation Options!

[Paksenarrion]

The options in character creation was...lacking. But being able to change boobs and butt size? That seems a bit towards the wrong direction. After all it's not Sims 3. (Although it is amazingly fun making Sims, so why not.) Heck, if FFXIV had a character creation like Sims 3, it would be a perfect world. Sadly, it's not a perfect world.

I was actually surprised that a western RPG, like Dragon Age, had a lot of customization. I spent a good amount of time creating my character. Not to mention other games, like the previous mentioned Sims 3.
FFXIV character creation was kind of a let down. I often see others that look like me. =(

[Phenidate]

I'd like it if they had an barber shop where you can change hair style/color and other characteristics for a gil fee and to prevent people from spam changing their looks have a timer on it like guild leves or something like that. I'm against real money fee to change hair color/style/charateristics but I think a real money fee would be good for changing race.

Not sure why the ability to make changes should be time limited, or how that would have any negative impact on game play.

I do agree that a barbershop should be implemented (doubly so if there are plans to add previously unavailable options), and that accessing its services should cost gil, NOT real currency.
Race changes I would even say should be handled with in game currency. Granted its accepted that such a drastic cosmetic change cost IRL money, but its barely any different from changing your hairstyle or model height from the stand point of the system. (Granted, I'm not for race changes. We have multiple character slots for a reason, even if they for some odd ball reason charge us more for each slot)

The only games I know of which charge for cosmetic changes to the character model (aside from race changes) are of the 'free to play' variety. The kind of game who's business model revolves around generating the need for these chages by strictly limiting character options, and offering premium choices with the incentive of individualizing your avatar from the sea of repetitious faces. If I am paying a monthly fee for a game, I expect any services of a 'cosmetic nature' added to the game be included in this fee. Its part of the game I am playing, that I paid for up front and continue to pay for to fund its maintenance and future development. Everyone who plays such games should be afforded these options as such.

Granted, in the case of FFXIV there is a chance it could transition to a free to play like many recent MMOs have. If such a thing should happen, I would expect at the least that current players who purchased the game be given 'premium access' considering that we already paid the for the regular or collectors edition of the game.

[Darry]

So if this was added, assuming some of the "Slider" options were taken from this and actually implemented, would players who have already made a character be able to modify him or her? Or would they be forced into making a whole new character? Regardless, I wouldn't mind slider options as long as they were moderately balanced (no cone heads and very tiny heads, etc).

[Impulse]

So if this was added, assuming some of the "Slider" options were taken from this and actually implemented, would players who have already made a character be able to modify him or her? Or would they be forced into making a whole new character? Regardless, I wouldn't mind slider options as long as they were moderately balanced (no cone heads and very tiny heads, etc).

Bayohne posted this earlier in the thread. It also shows up in the side dev tracker.

Greetings everyone!

First off I wanted to say that it's great to hear the kinds of things you're looking for when it comes to updating the character creation options. We're seeing lots of interesting ideas pop up! We spoke with Yoshida and he said that of course, while these kinds of suggestions and ideas will take some time, they do have plans for it in the future! He also feels that it's important to offer the option to change your existing character's appearance at the same time, too.

Sounds pretty exciting, huh? What do you guys think?

[chime85]

Greetings everyone!

First off I wanted to say that it's great to hear the kinds of things you're looking for when it comes to updating the character creation options. We're seeing lots of interesting ideas pop up! We spoke with Yoshida and he said that of course, while these kinds of suggestions and ideas will take some time, they do have plans for it in the future! He also feels that it's important to offer the option to change your existing character's appearance at the same time, too.

Sounds pretty exciting, huh? What do you guys think?

I (and many others) are looking forward to seeing what develops from this. This positive feedback from the SE team is greatly appreciated. Thank you for the response.

Cannot wait to hear more on this

[Kiko]

Greetings everyone!

First off I wanted to say that it's great to hear the kinds of things you're looking for when it comes to updating the character creation options. We're seeing lots of interesting ideas pop up! We spoke with Yoshida and he said that of course, while these kinds of suggestions and ideas will take some time, they do have plans for it in the future! He also feels that it's important to offer the option to change your existing character's appearance at the same time, too.

Sounds pretty exciting, huh? What do you guys think?

Sweet i cant wait for that cuz i do want to do some changes to my exciting character!!! also guys it will be sweet if u can also do some fix to the exciting name ... i heard of many ppl who mess up on their names and i am one of then hahah ooppzz!! xD

[Enthy]

Not sure why the ability to make changes should be time limited, or how that would have any negative impact on game play.

I do agree that a barbershop should be implemented (doubly so if there are plans to add previously unavailable options), and that accessing its services should cost gil, NOT real currency.
Race changes I would even say should be handled with in game currency.

I agree that it would be very nice if SE would allow us to change everything about our characters even race/gender any time we feel like it for a gil fee. but I'm sure they'll feel the need to put some sort of restrictions. The restrictions said in my original post, in my opinion would be acceptable.

[Abriael]

I agree that it would be very nice if SE would allow us to change everything about our characters even race/gender any time we feel like it for a gil fee. but I'm sure they'll feel the need to put some sort of restrictions. The restrictions said in my original post, in my opinion would be acceptable.

No, thanks, seriously, no race/gender changes. That goes a tad too far.

By the way, I seriously doubt that sliders will be ever implemented. The FFXIV character creation is composite, meaning that it's not based on mesh deformation, it composes selectable elements in order to create different results.

Turning character creations from composition-based to mesh deformation-based wouldn't be a transformation, but a complete redesign. They simply would have to scrap the whole character creation implementation and make a new one.
Thing that, by the way, would inevitably and automaticly change the looks of the characters already present in game, because there's simply no way for an engine to recalcolate with sufficent precision all the deformations necessary to reproduce perfectly a predefined mesh.

Considering that the vast majority of results obtained by a deformation-based character design are actually unviable (ugly, deformed, simply bad looking, even with restricted sliders), it's much more efficent (and wastes much less resources that are better used elsewhere) to add more options to the current system.

The only slider I'd consider would be an age slider that would overlay a texture and a normal map to simulate skin aging, and that doesn't require deformation.

[Soukyuu]

By the way, I seriously doubt that sliders will be ever implemented. The FFXIV character creation is composite, meaning that it's not based on mesh deformation, it composes selectable elements in order to create different results.

I don't think it's composite, it wasn't in alpha. At least when it came to adjusting height. Also when you select a different face, the body model for female characters gets deformed.

If SE are going as far as re-using armor models (with different textures/blend-able parts) to save resources, I really doubt they would load a different model for each character template - that would be a waste of resources.

[Enthy]

No, thanks, seriously, no race/gender changes. That goes a tad too far.

By the way, I seriously doubt that sliders will be ever implemented. The FFXIV character creation is composite, meaning that it's not based on mesh deformation, it composes selectable elements in order to create different results.

Turning character creations from composition-based to mesh deformation-based wouldn't be a transformation, but a complete redesign. They simply would have to scrap the whole character creation implementation and make a new one.
Thing that, by the way, would inevitably and automaticly change the looks of the characters already present in game, because there's simply no way for an engine to recalcolate with sufficent precision all the deformations necessary to reproduce perfectly a predefined mesh.

Considering that the vast majority of results obtained by a deformation-based character design are actually unviable (ugly, deformed, simply bad looking, even with restricted sliders), it's much more efficent (and wastes much less resources that are better used elsewhere) to add more options to the current system.

The only slider I'd consider would be an age slider that would overlay a texture and a normal map to simulate skin aging, and that doesn't require deformation.

I don't think you read my original post in this thread. I think sliders are a bad idea too. As for race/gender change... why not? whats it to you? If you don't want to you don't have to. personally, i don't plan to race/gender change. but i think people that would like to should be allowed to. ....But seriously, why would that bother you?