character-creation
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Freddie Mercury spotted in EVE Online
EVE Online's new character creator went live yesterday in a mammoth 1.2 Gb patch. While some players (myself included) are still waiting for the patch to finish downloading, it's already clear that the new characters are a big hit with the EVE community. Immediately following the Incursion expansion's final release yesterday, the forums exploded with topics full of people trying out the new avatar customisation process -- with hilarious results. Players have even begun faithfully re-creating real-world celebrities, from Freddie Mercury and the Village People to the cast of Star Trek. On the other side of the fence, some visually impressive, realistic and even emotive avatars have been produced. Before the new character creator went live, people had some reservations about it. While the new characters were expected to look very realistic, some players prefer to pull funny faces and create hilarious avatars that better suit their clownish approach to the game. Other players expressed concerns that there might not be enough variety, and that all the members of one bloodline would look almost identical. While the choice of clothing is likely to remain limited until Incarna, it seems that all other fears have been squarely put to rest as players continue to make some fantastic and often hilarious avatars.
Old EVE portraits to be backed up -- log in today for high-res captures
EVE Online's Incursion expansion's final phase is upon us, bringing with it the cataclysmic destruction of several hundred thousand disembodied heads. Those passport-photo-style mugshots next to characters' names on the forum and in-game chat channels will all be removed in tomorrow's patch. In their place, we'll create new photos using an advanced new full-body avatar generator. We've seen this new character generator in action, and it can produce some really impressive results that far outshine the old avatars we currently use. More importantly, the new avatars will be full-bodied characters for use with the upcoming Incarna expansion, rather than just small passport photos. Players have expressed concerns about losing those EVE character portraits they've have had since as far back as 2003. In response, CCP has announced that all of the current portraits used on the forum are being backed up to an alternative web-server which will be kept open to public access. However, these portraits are limited to a width and height of 256 pixels. If you'd like to capture your current character in full high-resolution glory, you'll need to log in tonight to capture it. In a new last-minute devblog, the hilariously-named CCP Purple Tentacle has just posted details of the portrait backup service and instructions on exactly how to capture your character in high definition. If you're caught away from your PC tonight and unable to capture your portrait, we'd like to help out. Please leave a comment with your character name and I'll be available for the next few hours to log in to capture the image for you. I'll then email the image to the email address you use on Massively. If you'd like it sent to a different email address, please include it in your comment or mail your request to brendan@massively.com and I'll send it to that address. When I'm no longer available to process requests, I will update this post. UPDATE: The deadline has now passed and old portraits an no longer be catured in high resolution. Lower resolution portraits of up to 256 width and height can be downloaded using CCP's portrait backup service, which is now live.
Alter-Ego: Let's get this character started
This week, I'm going to start off with a bit of controversy. Are you ready? Here goes: I actually think the DC Universe Online character creator makes sense in terms of its costume limitations. Now, before you come at me armed with pitchforks and hateful comments, hear me out. Looking at DC Universe Online as part of the greater DC Universe, I note that not all heroes are welcomed by the public -- and villains even less so. There are no "Costumes R Us" on every street corner, and there aren't copies of "Superpowers for Dummies" one can snag from the shelves of the local bookstore. As much as we may know as players ahead of time, our characters are assumed to not have the same level of knowledge from a story standpoint. In short, new characters are not going to roll out of the creator as a fully realized Captain Badass or Madame Awesome. Instead, new heroes and villains would probably be highly confused about any powers that showed up out of the blue. Once they've come to grips with the basics, only then would they likely be trying to piece together a new secret identity with all the gusto that someone with a glue gun, duct-tape, and half-remembered sewing lessons from 7th grade home economics classes could muster. To a character starting out with basic knowledge, character costumes would probably look like someone threw a goth and a cosplayer in a blender and then added a dash of drag queen for extra fierceness. Call it an edge of realism. Thankfully, SOE has saved our characters from their first embarrassing steps involving costume malfunctions by offering a number of cool-looking yet basic options in the character creator. As you level, so do your powers -- and your gear. Now that I've gotten your blood boiling (or hopefully a chuckle or two), it's time to dive into the first days of being a hero or villain in DC Universe Online. For those of you who have already jumped in and are well on your way, don't worry -- I haven't forgotten you. I'll also be adding in some tips and tricks I've picked up from playing as well as telling you how you can join up with us in-game as part of a heroic new League: Massively Overpowered!
Storyboard: Flaw of the land
Nobody's perfect. Heck, most of us aren't even within spitting distance. That's why we spent a column starting in on a discussion of flaws as they affect characters, breaking down the broad categories of flaws that you can give a character. But as I said right then, there's a lot more to talk about when it comes to flaws, especially since your flaws can be far more important than your character's actual abilities. It's useful to understand that you could make your character profoundly incapable of understanding selfish or deceptive motives (ignorant flaw), or make him a former murderer who's adventuring as a sort of work-release program (redemptive flaw), or even just a deaf mute (functional flaw). But it's important to understand why these things matter -- in a world where everyone is telepathic, a deaf mute is only at a slight disadvantage. You need to pick out marquee weaknesses that are relevant, and you need to know when a smaller flaw is actually useful to roleplaying.
EVE Online player creativity -- Ship fitting edition
Two months ago, CCP started a new series of monthly EVE Online devblogs showcasing the game community's creative efforts. The EVE community is known for its artwork and incredible fan-made videos, but through CCP Fallout's monthly blog series, we've come to see some of the community's other creative endeavours. In previous editions, Fallout looked at in-game news and politics website EVE News 24, question and answer site Skill Training Complete, an impressive minecraft video of a scale Gallente shuttle, and a collection of EVE podcasts. In the latest issue, CCP looks at some of the latest developments that have drawn attention during December. There's an impressive video showing off the new EVE character creator that will be going live with Incursion 1.1 later this month. The video shows off both male and female avatars. Also covered is the Python Fitting Assistant, a cross-platform offline ship fitting tool similar to the very popular EVE Fitting Tool. The highlight of this month's blog has to be LOLFITS, a website where players can post some of the monumentally bad ship setups they've seen players use. If you think your ship setups are poor, I guarantee they're spectacular compared to some of the hilarious setups on LOLFITS.
Last chance to capture your EVE character's portrait
It's been a long time coming, but a major part of EVE Online's highly anticipated Incarna expansion is now just around the corner. Later this month with the implementation of the Incursion 1.1 patch, the existing character creator will be replaced by a shiny new Incarna character creator. We'll finally get to design an entire avatar, complete with arms and legs, rather than being limited to just a head and a pair of shoulders. Upon logging in after the Incursion 1.1 deployment, players will be prompted to re-create their characters using the new character renderer. In just a few short weeks, those characters we've grown accustomed to over the years will be gone. Now is your last chance to capture your character's portrait. If you'd like to preserve a portrait for posterity, be sure to log in and capture it in high detail before January 18th. In a new devblog, CCP Lopi explains some of the challenges associated with the new character creator. When we look at a character's info in-game or click on his name in a chat channel, the EVE client currently downloads information on the character from the EVE server and then renders a small passport photo. With the added complexity and higher-resolution textures used in the new character creator, rendering portraits on-the-fly in this manner would take an unacceptably long time. To get around this issue, portrait rendering will be done ahead of time, and the mug-shots we see in-game will be stored on a central webserver. The game will then retrieve the user's image directly from the webserver instead of rendering it. As a result, we should no longer get the short burst of lag associated with rendering a character's portrait, and server load should be decreased.
Storyboard: Flawed premise
If there's one major element I've been coming back to over the course of this year (which isn't quite a year of this column, but close enough for government work), it's character creation. This is not by coincidence -- a lot of roleplaying consists of just throwing the right mix of characters in a closed space to encourage interaction and then letting them play off one another. So it seems fitting to close off the year by talking about what I consider one of the most vital elements in creation: making your character an incompetent mess with severe emotional issues. Yes, I'm talking about flaws, which are one of the best ways to add definition to a character that might otherwise be lackluster. Like sculpting from marble, flaws cut away the edges of a character and help bring everything into greater definition. But it's a delicate balance between making an interestingly flawed character and making an execrable lump of flesh useful only as monster bait (or a virtual infallible deity whose flaws are all non-starters such as "well, he can't play the oboe"). You want a character just flawed enough to be interesting, but not so flawed as to drag others down.
Ten levels of RIFT: A guide to your first day in Telara
With two RIFT beta events under my belt, I was given the supreme honor of creating a guide to the first 10 levels of the game. Naturally, I fell apart under the stress, assumed the fetal position for a couple days while whimpering about "frame rates," and then was prodded into action by our editors. That's quite literally "prodded," mind you -- Massively purchased a pair of cattle prods last year at a police auction. It's going to be years until the scorch marks fade from my spine. The purpose of this guide is two-fold. First, we want to give anyone who's interested in RIFT but couldn't get into the beta a chance to vicariously experience RIFT's newbie path. Second, while RIFT is careful to hold your hand during your first steps into Telara, there are always a lot of things that can be easily missed while one is partaking in the wonders of a new virtual world. So this guide is here to share a few tips and pointers that beta testers may have missed. What are you waiting for? Roll up a new character by hitting the jump!
The Daily Grind: Which game has the best customization?
When Massively posted our first impressions of DC Universe Online earlier in the week, we noted that the character creation system was sub-par compared to systems in other MMOs in the same genre. However, DCUO has multiple ways to customize your character once you actually get into the game. Also last week, the artists and developers of EVE Online's character revamp talked about the behind-the-scenes work of rebuilding the character designer. In a virtual world where it's already hard enough to stand out from other players, being able to customize your personal look is important. This reporter knows that there were groans in the Star Wars: The Old Republic community when the team mentioned that there would be no appearance tab or cosmetic feature, though in the same breath, the developers assured us that there would be enough unique style to satisfy. So putting all other gameplay aside, which game do you think has the best character customization? Why is that? What makes that MMO's customization different from all the others out there? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE Online developers discuss the depths of character design
"So our key theme for the new character creator is that the player was to feel that he personally, single-handedly, through his decisions and skill created a hyper-realistic human representation of his character in-game," Torfi Frans Ólafsson, creative director of EVE Online, explained to Gamasutra in a developer diary describing the intent of the new character creator in the Incursion expansion. EVE Online is breaking new ground by giving players the ability to create "hyper-realistic and yet slightly exaggerated and cinematic" characters, as Art Director Ásgeir Jon Ásgeirsson says. As fans of the industry, we are excited by the insight into what exactly goes on behind the scenes of our favorite games. This developer diary gave the artists of CCP a chance to let us know what they thought of the process and the outcome of the latest innovation to EVE. Art Manager Benjamin Bohn says they were looking for an "all-or-nothing quality level" and, it "was obvious that this was going to involve sweat and blood." However, the end results would leave both the players and CCP employees in awe. To get more insight into the vision and actual work involved in rebuilding the character creation system from the ground up, be sure to catch the whole developer diary. And for those already playing, the next part of Incursion hits December 14th!
EVE Online player creativity -- Gallente shuttle in Minecraft and more
Over the years, the EVE Online community has produced some stunning creative works. From epic videos that have been years in the making to fictional stories or artwork, EVE has inspired some fantastic creative efforts. Last month, CCP posted the first of a new monthly series of devblogs highlighting the creative efforts of people in the EVE community. In last month's installment, CCP Fallout looked at two of her favourite fan-run websites -- EVE News 24 and Skill Training Complete. In this month's second part of the series, Fallout is joined by CCP Zymurgist to discuss some of the awesome things players have done throughout November. The report kicks off with some videos of the awesome new Incursion character generator in action, produced by players on the EVE test server. Also in the news is a list of player-run podcasts called the EVE Pod Pack, maintained in a similar manner to CrazyKinux's EVE Blog Pack. The highlight of this month's piece, however, is undeniably the video of a full scale Gallente shuttle faithfully reproduced in Minecraft.
The Daily Grind: Do you make ugly characters?
With the Thanksgiving holiday safely behind us, it's now time to assess the damage to our waistlines. With all the leftovers likely making the rounds over this long weekend, it might even be Monday before some of us get back to our normal dietary routines. All the food talk got us to thinking about character customization in MMORPGs, specifically the fact that few games allow you to make unattractive avatars. Those that do tend to resemble a veritable theater of the absurd, as the silly folks among us delight in making grotesque caricatures and over-the-top uglies. One former Star Wars Galaxies player even made an in-game career out it. Starsider veterans in the audience may remember one Ichben Einberliner, a strange chap who loved to strip his Fat Bastard avatar down to a pair of speedos and do a seductive pole dance for the unfortunate patrons at the Coronet spaceport. Rumor has it that Berliner was even awarded a character badge by SOE GMs (ostensibly for his unique personality) after regaling space travelers with his diaper-clad cabaret act for months on end. Whether it's the Ichbens of the world or the folks who make bobblehead midgets in Aion, there are always a few on every server. Today's question is two-fold: Do you make unattractive avatars? Why? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Rise and Shiny recap: Dark Age of Camelot
I wanted to start this week's first impressions of Dark Age of Camelot with a clarification. I want to make sure that everyone knows exactly what I mean when I say, "I did a first impressions on that game." You'll notice that most (if not all) of the time I use the words "first impressions" instead of "in-depth review." We don't do those here on Massively; even our weeks-long Choose My Adventure series isn't a traditional review. We don't assign numbers or use any sort of scale. And from the very beginning of this column, I have maintained that premise -- I take a look at a game for a week and report on what I experienced, not on what I read about or was pressured into experiencing. I'm keeping that premise alive with Dark Age of Camelot. Yes, I know about the RvR. Yes, I'm aware that it's crazy good and it's what the game is "all about" according to readers. Did I experience it during my week in the game? No. While I'm sorry to disappoint already-familiar fans of the game, my job is to cover the initial experiences of the game for those who have not experienced it. This is not a trip down memory lane as much as a request for players to try the game out. So, what did I think? Let's take a look.
Storyboard: Archetype discussion -- the Soldier
Welcome to this week's installment of Storyboard, in which I'm starting off what I am tentatively hoping to keep as a semi-regular series. For all the previous discussion of characters that don't work, we haven't touched upon any that do work. And considering we've all sat there trying to think of any sort of hook for our characters, it's useful to have some stock types to draw from. I'm going to take a look at some of the more common stock types, how and why they work in a variety of settings, and what sort of touches you can add to make a character stand out. Of course, the first archetype we're looking at doesn't stand out. In fact, he excels at being a part of something larger, a cog in a machine whose only purpose is death. He's fighting for Stormwind, he's fighting for Bastok, he's fighting for the UFP -- he's the universal soldier, and he really is to blame. So why not cue up some appropriate background music, and take a look at the soldier as an archetype.
EVE invites players back to try out Incursion
As anyone who follows EVE Online should know, Incursion, the 14th expansion to the game, will introduce new avatars. For many MMO players, the graphics-quality -- especially the quality of the player character -- is an enormous draw or repellent. CCP recognizes this, so it has offered something not many companies do. The developers would like former players to come back for five days to try out Incursion on the test server Singularity before the expansion is officially launched. Specifically, they would like you to try the character creator and the social media tools in EVE Gate. This morning many former EVE players received an email asking them to come back. If you had an active account between March 13th, 2009 and November 3rd, 2010, you may want to check the inbox attached to your EVE account, as you probably have an invite in there. Unfortunately, active and expired trial accounts don't count, but Steam is offering a the full downloadable game plus a 30-day subscription. To read more about the character creator, be sure to check out the developer blog, and while you're there, read up on EVE Gate and its mix of social media and gaming. With Incarna releasing next summer, Incursion is a the perfect opportunity to try out the precursor to walk-on stations -- today.
Exploring Eberron: Which class should I play?
I've been looking forward to this week's column for a while now. I've been wanting to look at the intricacies of class and race selection and setup in Dungeons and Dragons Online for several weeks, but Halloween events and Update 7 took precedence for obvious reasons. Now that it's settled down a bit, I can finally dive in. Over the next few weeks I'm going to do a series of overviews on getting started. DDO is a funny game when it comes to this sort of thing, because you can throw together pretty much anything (within reason) and get through the first five levels or so just fine. It's not until you get past that point that you start finding out the hard way that the selections you make at character creation are pretty important. Much of the process is trial-and-error for many newer players. You roll a character, play it until things start getting more difficult than they should, figure out where you messed up, and either reincarnate or start another character. I hope to make this process a little less tedious and painful, so follow along after the jump and let's get started!
Storyboard: Problem children, part the second
Creating characters is hard work. It's hard enough when you're just concerned with making a really cool melee character who can kick other melee characters up and down the block, and it gets infinitely harder when you're trying to put together something that at least looks like a three-dimensional individual at the right angle. That having been said, there are certain ideas that are just problematic, character types that might seem like a good idea when you're staring at the screen but become a really bad one as soon as you hit "create." Our last look at problem characters focused on the sort that you know you're creating at the time, the sort that sound nifty in your head but cause some serious problems in actual play. This time we're looking at the other side, the sort of thing that's far easier to notice while interacting with characters rather than while creating them. But it's still well worth keeping these types in mind so that if you start traveling down these roads, you can make a turn. On to the problem children!
City of Heroes unveils a trailer for the next super booster
The sixth Super Booster for City of Heroes is coming, and it's going to be a very different experience from the previous boosters. The first five numbered boosters were very direct in their theme, with each one focusing on a different origin type. This time around, the pack is focusing on all five origins, with new capes and auras to show off just where your character comes from. It's dubbed the Origins Pack, and a trailer has just been released to show off all of the unique new effects players can enjoy. Embedded after the cut, the video features a quick walkthrough of the five new capes and 10 new auras added with the new pack, with the auras featuring intensely unique effects that suit each different origin. Each aura and cape has additional uses, as well -- it's hard to imagine that a Radiation-themed villain wouldn't want the Toxic Fumes or Atomic aura, just as an example. The pack is tentatively set to release on November 3rd, but until then, players can enjoy the trailer and start thinking about their next costume changes in City of Heroes.
NYCC 2010: DCUO's Q&A panel and fan event
The gods of New York Comic Con smiled upon Detective Comics fans and MMO junkies alike this weekend, as DC Universe Online kicked butt and took questions at not one, but a senses-shattering two Q&A sessions on Saturday. Conventioneers enjoyed a glimpse into the character-creation process at the "Creating the Next Legend Panel," and then Sony Online Entertainment invited fans to a special Q&A event afterward. And I would not be exaggerating if I said the audience reaction was riotously positive. Executive Creative Director Jim Lee, Creative Director Chris Cao and Art Director Mark Anderson shared details and fielded dozens of questions about the DC-based MMO at both events. Discussion ranged from costume creation to endgame content to the game's recent delay to early 2011.
Final Fantasy XIV gets a version update and another developer dispatch
The bad news about the most recent version update for Final Fantasy XIV is that, despite player hopes, it does not yet contain the heavily awaited first revision to the market wards. That's planned for next week, according to the patch notes themselves. The good news is that it does contain a number of bugfixes and helps clean up several chat oddities. Accompanying the notes on the main page is another dispatch from the developers about how the game works, this one on the topic of character creation and disciplines, and while the developers give some vague answers, they also offer some useful, concrete information. For example, while there are no game differences at the moment based upon a character's birthday or guardian deity, both are in the works -- and if the benefits that are ultimately awarded for your chosen deity disappoint you, Square-Enix will be giving players the chance to change their guardians. The new dispatch also provides a full listing of where to get tools and weapons for every discipline at the start, allowing players from any nation to change class right from the beginning. Final Fantasy XIV players are encouraged to check both the patch notes and the latest update and to keep their eyes peeled for what promises to be a large update next week.
