Character Cosmetic Customization

I think that it could be nice if they introduced two kind of eq set like in Dekaron. First for stats and the other for appearance.

It's more important then hair or skin colour imo.

"

WhiteBoy88 wrote:

There are plenty of great excuses to only offer 1 gender per character.

Firstly, the designer's vision of what his own work is meant to be. This is mostly artistic, be it visual or literary.

That's a really bad excuse. Sure, if this game was ridden with books upon books of lore and was a single-player game, then I'd agree with you. However, while the game may have some back story, I see no reason for not expanding the lore to accommodate multiple characters.

"

WhiteBoy88 wrote:

Secondly, the immense amount of money it costs to pay for the man-hours needed to create the models, textures, and animations, and to make them work properly. Months ago, Chris gave a rough estimate that it would cost about $250,000 to create the opposite gender for all 6 classes.

This is why it should be a micro transaction. When the player base hits a respectable amount, offer an alternate sex unlock for $14.99. Massive profit (and god knows I'd buy it)

"

WhiteBoy88 wrote:

With all that said, the plan has always been to offer aesthetic customizations in the cash shop. Dyes, at the very least, will be available. Facial features are unlikely as you rarely see characters' faces, and this would involve a fair bit of modelling. Hair color, maybe, but you can't hide you headgear anyway (and I don't think this will be an option).

I'll agree with you that small things like facial features are probably a waste of development time. However, some degree of noticeable customization, like a choice of preset garments, would be nice.

Running around in town with a dozen red-shirted identical guys dampens the aspect of character immersion, which, as I've stated before, is a big factor of an online community.

i realy hope to see a female dualist and a joan of ark esque Templar by the end of the open beta. i like feeling like the character i make is mine, not just generic adventurer A. The gamplay is loads of fun i wanna see some more character development done.

P.S. PLEASE put pants on the templar ....... PLEASE

I personally don't think this is very important, or even good(to have much customization). The reasons have been pointed out many times before, but I say them again. Firstly the characters will be tiny on your screen and will be covered by armor and weaponry very soon, which rules out the point of most customization completely. The second reason is a matter of taste, but I enjoy when the characters have a disctict personality, look and backstory, that immidiately appeals to me and I can get to playing right away instead of toggling many(pointless) options. It's an artistic thing that appeals to me, and a very RPG thing to have disctict and memorable characters, which many customization options would certainly dilute.

Think Diablo 2 for example, the amazon and barbarian etc. are such memorable characters that promote the game. If there were different hairstyles and skin colors and bodypaint etc. they would lose something in my opinion. I'm not really against female or male versions of characters though, because it's easier to carry over the distict look of the original character.

That said, in order for this to work, the characters would have to be really strong in design to appeal. I think the current models in Path of Exile could use work, even if the concepts of them are good.

Still, because money needs to be made, it's a good microtransaction for those who really want to customize. But it shouldn't be at the expense of creating those inital strong and memorable character designs

this man has a point. LIsten to him, if you can and want to make a better game!

"

Izman wrote:

"

WhiteBoy88 wrote:

Firstly, the designer's vision of what his own work is meant to be. This is mostly artistic, be it visual or literary.

That's a really bad excuse. Sure, if this game was ridden with books upon books of lore and was a single-player game, then I'd agree with you. However, while the game may have some back story, I see no reason for not expanding the lore to accommodate multiple characters.

My only point there is that it's the artist's decision. Should Picasso have stopped painting abstracts because most of the audience didn't understand them?

Also, the lore is being worked on. There are already some very well-written short stories explaining the Act 1 areas and some of the enemies. The fact that the lore isn't finalized doesn't mean GGG should change their plans for it for arbitrary reasons.

Dev's have stated clearly why their aren't different sex options for the avatars on numerous occasions. Quick and dirty:

1. cost's a lot of cash to design one (cash better spent elsewhere currently)
2. You aren't playing a open D&D style RPG where you make your own character and supply the back story, you're playing a pre-defined class with pre-defined motivations and origin.

Is it possible that different avatars will be added down the road in shop? I'd say certainly. Anytime soon? Nope.