Character Creation

[Ripflex]

TFPs can we get another pass on character creation, I mean many of the zombies appearances are looking better than our characters at this moment ?  A bit more detail, less stiffness and a redo on hair and face types etc ?  Don't be like ARK developers where they add a map and more tech and leave the character creation since version 1.0 ....

 

[Riamus]

Not sure about the faces but they are working on animations that are greatly improved from what they've shown off.  That alone should make a big difference.  Add in the armor/clothing changes and your character should look much nicer even if they don't do a lot with faces or hair.  Of course, improvements to those would be welcome.

[Syphon583]

There's definitely new character models and animation coming in A22+. To what extent our characters can be customized is still unannounced.

 

 

 

[FramFramson]

My guess will be headswaps of a selection of prerendered heads one one or perhaps a very small number of bodies. Not as many sliders etc. Obviously hairstyles will be customizable, but not sure what else will be.

 

In theory it's a step back, but given that the character creation is so dated and the fact that almost all the the sliders are inaccurate, broken, or entirely non-functional, it'll be a big upgrade in customization even without the update to character graphic quality.

 

Can't come soon enough!

[Laz Man]

Although cool, I believe the third party UMA system is outdated and thus limited to what it can do.  Probably one of the reasons it is being replaced.

Edited September 2, 2023 by Laz Man (see edit history)

[Adam the Waster]

Hey anything Is better then the playdoe like creatures we have now. 

 

Tho tbh I'm more looking forward to the Armor and I think it's going to be like what Fram said or we only get set characters. Like on console.  

 

Ether one I'm Okay with. 

[FramFramson]

Having only 100% preset characters would be a bit lame, so here's hoping we get at least a couple body types, even if it's just a very basic trio of thicc/average/skinny. But if we all have to have the exact same body type I'm hoping that at a minimum there's at least a decent selection of faces/heads.

 

It already seems like hair can probably be chosen, so there's that.

[Abusimplea]

They should keep it Bethesda style. A single human body fully rigged and lots of sliders to influencing the numerous bones' scaling parameters. With enough bones even the female/male distinction could be done with slider offsets only.

[Old Crow]

2 hours ago, Abusimplea said:

They should keep it Bethesda style. A single human body fully rigged and lots of sliders to influencing the numerous bones' scaling parameters. With enough bones even the female/male distinction could be done with slider offsets only.

 

"I'm Doc Mitchell. Welcome to Goodsprings. Now, I hope you don't mind, but I had to go rooting around there in your noggin to pull all the bits of lead out. I take pride in my needlework, but you'd better tell me if I left anything out of place. "

[Riamus]

10 hours ago, Abusimplea said:

They should keep it Bethesda style. A single human body fully rigged and lots of sliders to influencing the numerous bones' scaling parameters. With enough bones even the female/male distinction could be done with slider offsets only.

I'm fine with basic character creation options since we are first person.  In a third person game, I want a lot of freedom in how my character looks because I see the character all the time.  With first person, I only see my character if I'm driving, so I don't really care about it.  It does provide some variety when seeing other characters but considering you are usually only seeing a handful of players unless you're using the larger servers, that isn't even an issue.  I'm certainly not against having options but I don't think it needs anywhere near the level of Bethesda.  The best character creation options I've seen in a game aren't even from Bethesda but were for the MMO game called Aion.  I have no idea if the game still offers the same customization options it did when it first came out, but I'd assume so.  They went beyond anything Bethesda has done.  But that's for a game with a lot of people where you need enough variety to keep things from looking stale.  And you were in third person so saw yourself.

[Abusimplea]

47 minutes ago, Riamus said:

I'm fine with basic character creation options since we are first person.

They should add a hotkey to switch between first and third person and let us drive in first or fight in third person too.

Apart from that, i would like there to be more body awareness in first person mode - like seeing your feet when looking down and the hands actually matching the body morphs and skin color.

 

1 hour ago, Riamus said:

I'm certainly not against having options but I don't think it needs anywhere near the level of Bethesda.

What they have now actually is what i call Bethesda style: A base body and sliders to adjust bone scalings. It is somewhat bugged currently, but it is the right concept for this type of game and in principle allows for loads of customization with minimal 3D artist exhaustion. They might just need to fix the rig and add more bones to it. They could also redetail the mesh a bit - but it actually is acceptable as it is as long as they don't add a closeup portrait mode for quast dialogs...
They don't need to go Skyrim body enhancement mods or multiple humanoid races. Just a human body with a ton of sliders that you spend an hour adjusting till you got what you want and then use that character for thousands of hours is fine.

Diversification is king for maximum immersion even when we only see our hands most of the time.

 

1 hour ago, Riamus said:

The best character creation options I've seen in a game aren't even from Bethesda but were for the MMO game called Aion.

The best character creator i encountered so far was in the MMORPG Chimeraland. They've gone real nuts with their body selection wheel. It wouldn't make sense for them to copy that as limiting the player race to more or less deformed humans is fine for this sort of game.

[Riamus]

Well, everyone has different ideas of what is good in a given game.  For me, I barely even touch what we have because it is a first person game.  Some will go crazy with what we have regardless.  As I mentioned, I'm fine with a lot of options even with it being mostly first person.  I just don't think it is all that necessary.  Considering the models they are showing, I am not expecting as much choice when they change to those but we will see.

 

If they added third person for walking around and fighting, then I would be more interested in character customization.  I think that would be a good option.  Right now, we just have third person and third person with eyeballs showing.  😁

[Abusimplea]

3 hours ago, Riamus said:

[...] and third person with eyeballs showing.  😁

Yeah, that eye balls are creepy as @%$# - they are barely okay for my dirty-green-skinned and lank survivor.

[FramFramson]

23 hours ago, Riamus said:

Well, everyone has different ideas of what is good in a given game.  For me, I barely even touch what we have because it is a first person game.  Some will go crazy with what we have regardless.  As I mentioned, I'm fine with a lot of options even with it being mostly first person.  I just don't think it is all that necessary.  Considering the models they are showing, I am not expecting as much choice when they change to those but we will see.

 

If they added third person for walking around and fighting, then I would be more interested in character customization.  I think that would be a good option.  Right now, we just have third person and third person with eyeballs showing.  😁

 

The funny thing is that it really will be more choice rather than less, because right now we effectively have only one male face and one female face because the sliders are all broken. Only hair and outfit provides any noticeable character variation in A21.

[Abusimplea]

2 hours ago, FramFramson said:

 

The funny thing is that it really will be more choice rather than less, because right now we effectively have only one male face and one female face because the sliders are all broken. Only hair and outfit provides any noticeable character variation in A21.

Yeah, the invisibility dye of some mods should make it into vanilla, so we can get the stats of armor while still showing some skin and the latest savage country fashion.