I was listening to one of my favorite MMO podcasts this morning and they remarked on how cool it was that Black Desert Online released their character creator before the official launch of the game and that gave people time to create their characters and gain an attachment to them early.
Now, I have seen a few MMOs do this (FFXIV and Wildstar come to mind) and it got me thinking. I don't know about you but I tend to spend a lot of time creating a character because let's face it. If the game is good, I will be playing this character for potentially years and I like to make them as perfect as I can but on Launch Day there are a lot of other things on people's minds. Getting all of your guild onto one server, reserving your name, actually playing the game, etc and spending a lot of time in the character creator tends to hamper this.
I know Launch Day of The Elder Scrolls Online, I spent about 4 hours in the character creator making my perfect character. I was in TeamSpeak with my Dungeon Crawler Network crew and they were all like "Hurry Up! Let’s get the guild going and adventure!" but for me it was more important getting my character right so I wouldn't have regrets later.
When the podcast I was listening to mentioned how more games should release character creators early and allow people the ability to import their characters they created into the game on launch day this made me think.
What do you guys feel about getting a character creator early? Do you obsess over the look of your character for hours or do you just random and go in? If you had a week ahead of time to create your characters how much time would you spend making it perfect?
Considering this is a small team on a small budget I'd rather have resources put towards building the game rather than a bunch of early access alphas or other early releases designed only to satisfy impatient gamers.
No character creator just means 4 hours of time spent when the game is live rather than before the game is live. That's not worth the possible months of man hours it would take to build such a utility.
Black Desert Online is an exception to the rule because a huge focus of that game, and a reason many people are even playing it, is the character generation system.
I would of course use it if it came before the game, but I would just take an hour at the start and make my character and read racial abilities etc.
I would rather have the game than early access to character making. If it's a game that's good enough to be played for years, taking an hour to get started shouldn't be a big deal.
I hope they release some more class and race info way before the game releases. There is very little info on Classes other than the names of them and basic generic descriptions.
This isn't a huge deal for me. I'm not the type to random my character's appearance and I do spend a bit of time on creating my character's looks but it's nothing I really need early. As someone else mentioned this is a small dev team and something like this, for me, is unnecessary.
I like the idea of being able to create my character before the game launches much like other games have done in the past. But I would also not really want it if it came at the expense of say an extra dungeon for the game or further development of a class or race.
If they put enough detailed information on the website such as racials I can plan ahead and get a good idea of what I will want to play without a secondary .exe file that requires development time, I already know I want to play a Cleric the race will be Dwarf, Elf or Human - depending on the pros and cons of each race. I'm not sure that Pantheons character customisation is going to be highly expansive so I'm not entirely sure it would justify development time to do such a task.
But I would certainly not be upset if it was added.
bigdogchris said:Considering this is a small team on a small budget I'd rather have resources put towards building the game rather than a bunch of early access alphas or other early releases designed only to satisfy impatient gamers.
No character creator just means 4 hours of time spent when the game is live rather than before the game is live. That's not worth the possible months of man hours it would take to build such a utility.
Black Desert Online is an exception to the rule because a huge focus of that game, and a reason many people are even playing it, is the character generation system.
I think you are overestimating this by a huge margin. The character creator portion needs to be created anyway, so really it is just adding a save feature and compiling it as a separate stand alone program.
I'm not saying that it doesn't require additional work... but it's not like adding a foreign feature that wouldn't be part of the final game anyway... and it wouldn't really take months of dedicated time.
I'd like to see one, but consider it fluff and am not really that worried about it one way or another.
Having a character creator early is really nice and I would like it, however if it does use up extra resources to manage as JimmOthy suggested, I can pass. Those of us on these forums will be testing and can create the character in beta and remember how we did it, so we can quickly create it on Launch Day.
Most, or all, of the reasons (and I understand they are valid) for having an early character creation setup are met by already mentioned ideas from VRI.
While I don't remember if it was ever set in stone, but the first 5 or 10 levels are going to be free 'trial' play, so there isn't any reason to worry about the time spent on creating a character once the game is installed. It's not going to cost you even if they give the first month's (week, 2 weeks) sub free, as EQ did.
bigdogchris said:Considering this is a small team on a small budget I'd rather have resources put towards building the game rather than a bunch of early access alphas or other early releases designed only to satisfy impatient gamers.
No character creator just means 4 hours of time spent when the game is live rather than before the game is live. That's not worth the possible months of man hours it would take to build such a utility.
Black Desert Online is an exception to the rule because a huge focus of that game, and a reason many people are even playing it, is the character generation system.
I have to agree with ya. I tend to spend a lot of time in character creation as well, so glad I have guild friends who aren't impatient. Have to look good getting those server first :)
Rubezahl said:I think you are overestimating this by a huge margin. The character creator portion needs to be created anyway, so really it is just adding a save feature and compiling it as a separate stand alone program.
I'm not saying that it doesn't require additional work... but it's not like adding a foreign feature that wouldn't be part of the final game anyway... and it wouldn't really take months of dedicated time.
I'd like to see one, but consider it fluff and am not really that worried about it one way or another.
I think you are forgetting that BDO launched in Korea last year. There's a big difference between spending pre-release development resources on this and essentially post-release "extra features for new territories" features like the character creator is.
Also, this game is using Unity engine and the focus is on the group and gameplay content. I really doubt there is going to be a highly robust character creation system with a lot of changes you can make to the characters. I imagine being able to change faces and hairstyles and colors and basic features like build and height but that's probably about it. I don't expect or want more than that, and if I'm right the level of creation doesn't really warrant a standalone creator to "show off" what really is a minimalistic creation system.
If a developer comes out and says "Hold on BDC, you're wrong! We have a creation system comparable to BDO and want to show it off!" then I'll admit I was wrong and maybe an earlier character creation system would be worth it.
I actually spend a significant amount of time on my characters. I also spend time making characters for other people. (if the program allows for it.) Releasing it to us early gives people time to get their head around it and also feeds the hungry Pantheon fans waiting for some kind of release. It is always wonderful to see how people manipulate it to get absolutely stunning results, more so if it is of lesser quality than some of the creators available now. :)
Best to you all,
Aviana
p.s
It would be wonderful for you all to add this to your creator if possible. For those who have a creative mind, to help kick start another, perhaps not so creative. After all, It is something you will be looking at for the duration of your play-through. Making it so you CAN save "characters" for others to use is fantastic!
bigdogchris said:Considering this is a small team on a small budget I'd rather have resources put towards building the game rather than a bunch of early access alphas or other early releases designed only to satisfy impatient gamers.
No character creator just means 4 hours of time spent when the game is live rather than before the game is live. That's not worth the possible months of man hours it would take to build such a utility.
Black Desert Online is an exception to the rule because a huge focus of that game, and a reason many people are even playing it, is the character generation system.
Have to disagree with you here completely. They could easily do a stand alone with a save and import feature with very little time needed. They could also just tie character creation to the login servers and open the login servers a week prior to launch while keeping the game servers down. That would mean no extra work at all really.
Either way it doesn't bother me. Being able to pre build my toon means I spend more time doing it but if we don't have that option then I will build it super quick and not worry about it.
I fear half the population will be on their third prodigy by the time I get my main just so.
Id love a character creator. More importntly the ability to export and import models to it. Not just for the creator either but in release game as well. Such a simple feature which so many MMO's neglect to put in. Ill probably try out different models for different races/gender and try to apply them to different classes to see which one sticks. It sucks having to redo everything every time.
If there is sufficient funding and time...yes, if not ..no get the game ready for release no rushing. Remembering that this game isn't funded by a large rich studio. And we have a relatively small Dev team in comparison to other games out there. Extras can come later ..after release, perhaps an option to go fiddle with your looks and stature after launch, you could do that in Vanguard. Even SWG had a class called Image designers ..people you paid to change your looks..after launch.
Not sure why this thread got necro'd. An almost identical conversation was recently had here: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/5243/page-from-eq2-playbook
Check it out to see what other people think.
I also would like to see character creation released early. I too spend an enormous amount of time creating my character. Another option is alpha/beta character transfer to release version. That way you can spend a lot of time being creative with a few toons. Of coarse the transfer should be character only, no items or gold. One problem is character names. Unless they come up with a solution for claiming your character name before servers are released you may have people fighting for the same name. But early character creation would be awesome.
Bazgrim said:Not sure why this thread got necro'd. An almost identical conversation was recently had here: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/5243/page-from-eq2-playbook
Check it out to see what other people think.
Because someone did like they were supposed to and searched the forums properly instead of starting a new thread. This one being titled appropriately as well.