Aesthetic Customization is always lacking.

Dauzqul · November 2012

Character Customization should be a game in itself. In order to achieve this, the aesthetic creation must be deeper than ever. The following shows that it is possible to be able to manipulate the graphics on our armor and clothing:

The above will clearly void the problem of everyone looking the same in the end, e.g., SWTOR. Moreover, it gives you the tools to be completely unique.

With proper rules (ban offense), e.g., no vulgar, racial, obscene, or copy-written material, players can turn this function into a great experience.

The following are simple male / female models. Users were able to add paint and/or draw their own tattoos to depict their new look. They could do this to their clothing and armor as well:

Quizzical · November 2012

In a single-player game, you can do that. But how do you do it in an MMORPG? Make everyone download 1 MB or so of textures every time a new player enters the screen? Make it procedurally generated, in which case, you'll considerably restrict what players can do?

And let's not forget that using the same textures for a bunch of different players is a huge performance optimization. When you only have a few players on the screen at a time, that doesn't really matter. But if you want to go raiding or have large, crowded cities, being able to use a lot of textures for multiple players makes a major difference in frame rates. That won't matter to people with higher end video cards, but if you want to make the game playable on lower end hardware, it helps a ton.

Helleri · November 2012

Quizzical is right on the money...Thing is, in a social MMO where the point is to customize this can work. But, not in a game MMO.

Firstly, In a Social MMO, you'll never have so many people in such close quaters at once that it becomes an issue (they have to litteraly restrict how many people can be in an area with social MMO's that focus on building and customization to make it work).

There are compromises though. If you make a second life account (and once you stop being a newb on second life) you can check out a Sim-Set called Kingdom of Sand. Weapons are regulated and users are expected to stay within the relative concept of about 1200 C.E. to 1400 C.E. North-West Africa. But, this extends to it's mythology as well. So, you will see things like a hashashiyin lecturing a D'Jinn on the finer points of killing. And that assasin might almost look modern if they justify their wear enough OOC'ly (out of charecter-wise)...But may look something more like assassins creed.

They use sims adjecent to each other in second life as their game world...they actually scripted out their own meter/hud system for combat (which you have to buy to be able to play there, beyond observer mode). They can do this because even though they call themselves an MMO (they do no one who actualy knows what one is does). They are infact an MORPG... dropping the Massive Part. And, second life by default limits the number of unique traffic that can be within a certain area at any one time.

So while highly doable (and a lot better looking then those pics btw), it takes that 'just so' set of circumstances for a game to do it. And, any game that does has to loose something in order to gain in this area (the gaming elemnt, overal quality, scale it's done on etc.).

Dauzqul · November 2012

Originally posted by Quizzical
In a single-player game, you can do that. But how do you do it in an MMORPG? Make everyone download 1 MB or so of textures every time a new player enters the screen? Make it procedurally generated, in which case, you'll considerably restrict what players can do?

And let's not forget that using the same textures for a bunch of different players is a huge performance optimization. When you only have a few players on the screen at a time, that doesn't really matter. But if you want to go raiding or have large, crowded cities, being able to use a lot of textures for multiple players makes a major difference in frame rates. That won't matter to people with higher end video cards, but if you want to make the game playable on lower end hardware, it helps a ton.

The game above is All Points Bulletin. It's an MMO and works on the fly. Everything you have just said is void.

Castillle · November 2012

Not sure if you tried apb but i remember going to social areas and 90% of the people were stuck in the "textures not loaded yet" mode o.o

Same with cars. It was a great char creator though!

Quizzical · November 2012

Originally posted by mmoDAD
Originally posted by Quizzical
In a single-player game, you can do that. But how do you do it in an MMORPG? Make everyone download 1 MB or so of textures every time a new player enters the screen? Make it procedurally generated, in which case, you'll considerably restrict what players can do?

And let's not forget that using the same textures for a bunch of different players is a huge performance optimization. When you only have a few players on the screen at a time, that doesn't really matter. But if you want to go raiding or have large, crowded cities, being able to use a lot of textures for multiple players makes a major difference in frame rates. That won't matter to people with higher end video cards, but if you want to make the game playable on lower end hardware, it helps a ton.

The game above is All Points Bulletin. It's an MMO and works on the fly. Everything you have just said is void.

It's not that it's impossible. It's that there are always trade-offs. I haven't played APB, so I'm not sure what trade-offs they chose. But given how fast the game shut down, I'd say it didn't work very well for them.

Classicstar · November 2012

You don't see many characters looking same in Guild Wars 2 eather. specially becouse of dye system.

Dauzqul · November 2012

Originally posted by Classicstar
You don't see many characters looking same in Guild Wars 2 eather. specially becouse of dye system.

There needs to be than just armor dyes.

more than

Loktofeit · November 2012

Originally posted by mmoDAD
Originally posted by Classicstar
You don't see many characters looking same in Guild Wars 2 eather. specially becouse of dye system.

There needs to be than just armor dyes.

There are. The dye system is one of the things that contribute to it, not the sole option.

TsaboHavoc · November 2012

Originally posted by mmoDAD
Character Customization should be a game in itself. In order to achieve this, the aesthetic creation must be deeper than ever. The following shows that it is possible to be able to manipulate the graphics on our armor and clothing:

The above will clearly void the problem of everyone looking the same in the end, e.g., SWTOR. Moreover, it gives you the tools to be completely unique.

With proper rules (ban offense), e.g., no vulgar, racial, obscene, or copy-written material, players can turn this function into a great experience.

The following are simple male / female models. Users were able to add paint and/or draw their own tattoos to depict their new look. They could do this to their clothing and armor as well:

APB artists deserve credits and to be well know in the market. They deserve a featured place in the market. this is pure talent, not the garbage shit they fed us since 2004;

Dauzqul · November 2012

Originally posted by Quizzical
Originally posted by mmoDAD
Originally posted by Quizzical
In a single-player game, you can do that. But how do you do it in an MMORPG? Make everyone download 1 MB or so of textures every time a new player enters the screen? Make it procedurally generated, in which case, you'll considerably restrict what players can do?

And let's not forget that using the same textures for a bunch of different players is a huge performance optimization. When you only have a few players on the screen at a time, that doesn't really matter. But if you want to go raiding or have large, crowded cities, being able to use a lot of textures for multiple players makes a major difference in frame rates. That won't matter to people with higher end video cards, but if you want to make the game playable on lower end hardware, it helps a ton.

The game above is All Points Bulletin. It's an MMO and works on the fly. Everything you have just said is void.

It's not that it's impossible. It's that there are always trade-offs. I haven't played APB, so I'm not sure what trade-offs they chose. But given how fast the game shut down, I'd say it didn't work very well for them.

The game wasn't shut down for its character creation. In fact, the character creation system is probably the sole reason why people play today. There are more people in the social district than in the combat realm.

HolyCrusader · November 2012

APB had a very good character creator, and is one of the very few that matches or even surpasses that of City of Heroes.

Quizzical · November 2012

Originally posted by mmoDAD
Originally posted by Quizzical
Originally posted by mmoDAD
Originally posted by Quizzical
In a single-player game, you can do that. But how do you do it in an MMORPG? Make everyone download 1 MB or so of textures every time a new player enters the screen? Make it procedurally generated, in which case, you'll considerably restrict what players can do?

And let's not forget that using the same textures for a bunch of different players is a huge performance optimization. When you only have a few players on the screen at a time, that doesn't really matter. But if you want to go raiding or have large, crowded cities, being able to use a lot of textures for multiple players makes a major difference in frame rates. That won't matter to people with higher end video cards, but if you want to make the game playable on lower end hardware, it helps a ton.

The game above is All Points Bulletin. It's an MMO and works on the fly. Everything you have just said is void.

It's not that it's impossible. It's that there are always trade-offs. I haven't played APB, so I'm not sure what trade-offs they chose. But given how fast the game shut down, I'd say it didn't work very well for them.

The game wasn't shut down for its character creation. In fact, the character creation system is probably the sole reason why people play today. There are more people in the social district than in the combat realm.

You missed the point. It's not that people would quit because they didn't like the character creator in itself. Rather, allowing more customization in the character creator necessarily means having to make sacrifices elsewhere. For customization on par with what most MMORPGs offer, the sacrifices are relatively mild.

But if players are allowed to doodle arbitrarily on their armor? That's a lot tougher to distribute to other players without causing big gameplay problems such as Internet lag or poor frame rates. Not impossible, mind you; only tougher. Did such compromises contribute to APB being shut down? I don't know, but it might have.

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Aesthetic Customization is always lacking.

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