I was thinking about something the other day that EQ2 did pre-launch that you guys should do in order to drum up more interest.
You guys should make a standalone character generation tool and tie it back to one of the cheap contribution levels. Besides drumming up interest in the game, it gives backers the ultimate "carrot" while they wait for Alpha/Beta and might actually generate some revenue for you guys to go out and hire some more people. EQ2 did it and from what I remember, it was pretty successful.
Yeah, it generated a lot of hype for EQ2 when they announced that it was happening. You were able to generate your characters ahead of time using the tool and import the template once the game dropped. If I remember right, you got it when you pre-ordered the game. VR could do something similar but tie it to the $50 pledge package. Watch the loot roll in :)
The only game that I've ever seen do this is Dragon Age: Origins. If I remember correctly it had a little intro scene/story and you could play as the character you just created? It was just enough to distinguish the races and get me into the lore a bit. I'd love to see something similar for Pantheon. Nothing high budget, but something that teaches the player about the races, world, and lore would be great. I am not one who particularly seeks out lore, but pre-release I often soak up everything I can find, so maybe there are others out there who would do the same.
Something like this would be pretty cool only if there was a large amount of character options for level 1. I don't see that with Pantheon or Unity engine. But I suppose it may be cool to see the races up close and study the classes a little more in depth.
Something like Black Desert Online is different becuase one of the game's features is having completely unique characters, but that is a capability of the engine. I don't think that would ever happen with Unity.
bigdogchris said:Something like this would be pretty cool only if there was a large amount of character options for level 1. I don't see that with Pantheon or Unity engine.
Somethin glike Black Desert Online is different becuase one of the game's features is having completely unique characters, but that is a capability of the engine. I don't think that would ever happen with Unity.
It did not give you any spell or build functionality and was limited to appearance.
To be honest, even if it didn't have the capability of being able to import pre-made characters into the game itself, I'd still be happy. If it was basically just a standalone clone of the character creation tool, I could still spend hours playing around with the different appearance customization options and take note of the ones I like. But of course, being able to save and import characters to the live server would be a nice bonus and save some more time. Just not necessary, as far as I'm concerned.
Bazgrim said:What a fascinating idea!!! And as someone else mentioned on the "teaching of the lore etc"... imagine if it had all that those video tutorials or whatever on each race and lore... it would guarantee we all SAT through all the "lessons" and didn't ESC through them to get straight into game!!! We'd be the most knowledgeable group of gamers EVER once the game was actually released... haha...To be honest, even if it didn't have the capability of being able to import pre-made characters into the game itself, I'd still be happy. If it was basically just a standalone clone of the character creation tool, I could still spend hours playing around with the different appearance customization options and take note of the ones I like. But of course, being able to save and import characters to the live server would be a nice bonus and save some more time. Just not necessary, as far as I'm concerned.
Love this suggestion!! :D
I like this idea for at least two reasons. The important one is, I usually rush through the character creation because I want to start playing the game, but if I had enough time to play arond with the editor before the game is released, this would be great. The second reason is to keep us busy and if you are busy the waiting time is passing by much faster.
If possible this could even be cobined with the lore teaching machnisms, that were already mentioned, or some other fun stuff, like mini games, etc.
Landbert said:I like this idea for at least two reasons. The important one is, I usually rush through the character creation because I want to start playing the game, but if I had enough time to play arond with the editor before the game is released, this would be great. The second reason is to keep us busy and if you are busy the waiting time is passing by much faster.
If possible this could even be cobined with the lore teaching machnisms, that were already mentioned, or some other fun stuff, like mini games, etc.
I could do without mini games and stuff. That just wastes development time, unless they were already planning on having those mini games in the actual game itself. If each race is going to have it's own cinematic to give some background on the lore when you create a new character, (like in WoW, for example) and they have them completed before launch, then that'd be great. But it should only be features that are already planned to be in the game and have just been completed early, so they can just ship them out in a little bundle to give us something to chew on while we wait anxiously for launch. That way, it doesn't slow them down from launching the game because they're just sending out little bits and pieces (like the character creation tool) that are already done.
This would be awesome just to play around with the different races with even though I have no intention of playing said race. And even if it couldn't be saved/imported on release, the setting could easily be jotted down (slider numbers, hair, eyes, etc) and then just plugged back in. I believe GW2 had done this prior to launch also, though I may be mis-remembering that. I know a game that I've played at launch did do it, and I didn't play eq2 at launch or Dragon Age....hmmmm....bad memory makes everyday an adventure.
Anyways, great suggestion OP, hopefully one they will look at when they come closer to finishing up the racial models :)
Great idea. It would definitely be pretty cool even if it was just straight character customization without the ability to save anything. Has anyone played a game with early name reservation, though. All the pledges have that attached, and I wonder how it would work. Would it just be a system where you make your character ahead of time, but just can't log in?
kaifus said:I was thinking about something the other day that EQ2 did pre-launch that you guys should do in order to drum up more interest.
You guys should make a standalone character generation tool and tie it back to one of the cheap contribution levels. Besides drumming up interest in the game, it gives backers the ultimate "carrot" while they wait for Alpha/Beta and might actually generate some revenue for you guys to go out and hire some more people. EQ2 did it and from what I remember, it was pretty successful.
Now that you mentioned it, I remember using that in EQ2. What a great idea!
Shucklighter said:Great idea. It would definitely be pretty cool even if it was just straight character customization without the ability to save anything. Has anyone played a game with early name reservation, though. All the pledges have that attached, and I wonder how it would work. Would it just be a system where you make your character ahead of time, but just can't log in?
I kind of wonder if they're just going to use beta for that, and associate names you use in beta with your account, and lock any other account from using them with a report saying it's already taken. Seems the easiest approach to me.
Shucklighter said:Great idea. It would definitely be pretty cool even if it was just straight character customization without the ability to save anything. Has anyone played a game with early name reservation, though. All the pledges have that attached, and I wonder how it would work. Would it just be a system where you make your character ahead of time, but just can't log in?
In games I have played in the past with early name registration it reserved the name you pick across all servers until you create a character using that name on one, which then freed up the name on all the others. For the most part you only have 24-72 hours to make the character before the name reservation opens regardless.
Feyshtey said:I instantaly grabbed it in EQ2 during beta when it was available. I thought it was a pretty cool thing. Black Desert did this too, and I admit to playing with the character creator even having no desire to play the game.
I did the exact same thing. Playing with the character creator was a lot of fun prior to launch on EQ2 as well as BDO. I think it would drum up some more interest for the game and get people excited.
DDO released a character generator pre closed beta. I'm pretty sure there was a stipulation that it was subject to change. It really increased my excitement level for the game.