Since we're complaining about what's wrong in games

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,806
46
91
why can't i ever make a character in my games look the way I want him to look like, especially in MMOS.

Why do I have to look like every other person playing, and I don't just mean character faces, but like armor and weapons. or if i can't customize it myself, at least give use some choices in how it looks.

for instance, I find the Sword of Poontang Attraction, give me the option of choosing the long sword, the scimitar, the rapier, or the broadsword look.

I guess one way to do it would be to get rid of unique/magic weapons and make everyone use standard weapons, but then part of the appeal is to keep getting better and better gear.

Another way would be to have everyone use standard weapons and then have the ability to get spells or scrolls or something to add stats and affects to them.

so instead of finding the sword of poontang attraction with +20 stamina, +10 strength, +2 e-penis, you find a scroll that adds that stats to your current weapon.

that way you can choose whatever weapon you want and then add the stats to it, to further customize your character.
 

CKent

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
9,020
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I like being able to look at someone in an MMORPG and know what they're wearing and how leet it is. The fact everyone looks the same, at least in WoW, is due to lazy game design.
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
Nov 30, 2005
50,235
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Originally posted by: pontifex

Another way would be to have everyone use standard weapons and then have the ability to get spells or scrolls or something to add stats and affects to them.

so instead of finding the sword of poontang attraction with +20 stamina, +10 strength, +2 e-penis, you find a scroll that adds that stats to your current weapon.

Isn't that what crafting is for? Also, I'm not sure about other MMOs but there are dyes in LOTRO so you can change the colour of your equipment. Granted these are relatively small levels of customization, but every little bit helps.

KT
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,806
46
91
Originally posted by: KeithTalent
Originally posted by: pontifex

Another way would be to have everyone use standard weapons and then have the ability to get spells or scrolls or something to add stats and affects to them.

so instead of finding the sword of poontang attraction with +20 stamina, +10 strength, +2 e-penis, you find a scroll that adds that stats to your current weapon.

Isn't that what crafting is for? Also, I'm not sure about other MMOs but there are dyes in LOTRO so you can change the colour of your equipment. Granted these are relatively small levels of customization, but every little bit helps.

KT

everyone just has the same crafetd item then. its not like you can change how it looks. and yeah, dyes are really basically worthless if i want to change the the design of my armor, like adding spikes or something to it.
 

imported_Imp

Diamond Member
Dec 20, 2005
9,148
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Well, in Morrowind you could do most of what you want and name all your equipment Poontang's ______. In MMOs I'm guessing it would take too long to download everyone else's custom looks and equipment; I sure don't want to spend an hour before every session getting the latest version of everyone's character appearance.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I remember when I first started playing WoW, I tried to buy the black dye and dye my armor. I felt like a noob asking about it in chat :p.
 

potato28

Diamond Member
Jun 27, 2005
8,964
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I remember that in Diablo 2 you could change your armors colour with enchantments... but also D2 wasn't a WoW...
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,729
559
126
I wish they made armor like sort of even in games. You know how there's the shit armor, then as soon as you can you put on the less shit armor and after that you get the average armor and so on. I think that sucks. I think there should be the armor that is a bit more resistant to poison, and then the armor that repels frost or something...none of them is really better, just different.
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,830
3
0
My problem is with the faces and stuff like that. I only played EQII for like 2 days, but it pissed me off that they allowed so much face customization, yet you always looked basically the same. elves ALL looked like they had Down Syndrome, no matter how much you adjusted the face dimensions

Edit: Maybe not Down but some other genetic disorder

http://aggrome.blogspot.com/20...umor-team-fashion.html
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,323
4,904
136
Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
i dont think that todays computers can recreate my physical perfection.

is that you JL Gatsby? :laugh:

At least it's not DVK916 :p
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
31,491
9,817
136
Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
i dont think that todays computers can recreate my physical perfection.

is that you JL Gatsby? :laugh:

At least it's not DVK916 :p

i think the bandwidth required to render that chin would cause all servers to explode :D
 

legoman666

Diamond Member
Dec 18, 2003
3,629
1
0
Originally posted by: CKent
I like being able to look at someone in an MMORPG and know what they're wearing and how leet it is. The fact everyone looks the same, at least in WoW, is due to lazy game design.

I agree that it is lazy, but it is very nice when PVP'ing. As long as you know what you're looking at, you can immediately tell what gear someone has. That way, based on their gear, you can judge if you should attack or run the hell away.

But then again, I cancelled my WoW account more than a year ago, so if I saw someone's gear now, I wouldn't have a damn clue as to what I'm looking at.
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
33,929
1,097
126
There's a lot of stuff wrong with MMOs. Customizability is one of them. I liked the way that City of Heroes did their character creation.

As far as other games go, the customizability in Heavy Gear was really nice. You were in a robot-type thing and you chose actuators, weapons, engines, body types, etc. You had to make it all work. If you put really heavy stuff on a light body frame, you'd break its legs just by standing there. I like the direction that Crysis is heading in. BF2142's customizability is nice too.
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,323
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Originally posted by: Chaotic42
There's a lot of stuff wrong with MMOs. Customizability is one of them. I liked the way that City of Heroes did their character creation.

As far as other games go, the customizability in Heavy Gear was really nice. You were in a robot-type thing and you chose actuators, weapons, engines, body types, etc. You had to make it all work. If you put really heavy stuff on a light body frame, you'd break its legs just by standing there. I like the direction that Crysis is heading in. BF2142's customizability is nice too.

I want Heavy Gear 3 :(
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
33,929
1,097
126
Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
There's a lot of stuff wrong with MMOs. Customizability is one of them. I liked the way that City of Heroes did their character creation.

As far as other games go, the customizability in Heavy Gear was really nice. You were in a robot-type thing and you chose actuators, weapons, engines, body types, etc. You had to make it all work. If you put really heavy stuff on a light body frame, you'd break its legs just by standing there. I like the direction that Crysis is heading in. BF2142's customizability is nice too.

I want Heavy Gear 3 :(

I bought HG2, and I couldn't ever get it to work. A Heavy Gear game using the Crysis engine? Oh, man, that would be some gaming bliss.
 

Drift3r

Guest
Jun 3, 2003
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Originally posted by: Imp
Well, in Morrowind you could do most of what you want and name all your equipment Poontang's ______. In MMOs I'm guessing it would take too long to download everyone else's custom looks and equipment; I sure don't want to spend an hour before every session getting the latest version of everyone's character appearance.

You'd have video lag more then actual lag. The amount of random and custom armors if such a thing were put in the game would make any area with more then 10-15 people in it video lag city especially during intense PvP battles.
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,729
559
126
Originally posted by: Drift3r
Originally posted by: Imp
Well, in Morrowind you could do most of what you want and name all your equipment Poontang's ______. In MMOs I'm guessing it would take too long to download everyone else's custom looks and equipment; I sure don't want to spend an hour before every session getting the latest version of everyone's character appearance.

You'd have video lag more then actual lag. The amount of random and custom armors if such a thing were put in the game would make any area with more then 10-15 people in it video lag city especially during intense PvP battles.

Thats true to an extent, but you'd have to download any custom stuff as well when you connected or when it was needed in a scene. I mean, there's a lot of different looking armors and stuff in WoW to already isn't there? I actually don't think it would really hurt performance video card wise much more, since its still loading textures for each guy. But maybe WoW reuses more then I think. (I haven't played it)

A better way might be an intelligent background downloader, that selected the nearest players and downloaded their equipment if you didn't already have a copy. That way it would be biased towards getting only the information you were most likely to need. Of course, players that just connected would cause a lot of problems.
 

BD2003

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
16,815
1
76
It would also be somewhat of a RAM limitation - if everyone could customize the look of their armor, that would be a ton of data not only to load, but to keep in memory.
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
Originally posted by: pontifex
Another way would be to have everyone use standard weapons and then have the ability to get spells or scrolls or something to add stats and affects to them.

so instead of finding the sword of poontang attraction with +20 stamina, +10 strength, +2 e-penis, you find a scroll that adds that stats to your current weapon.

that way you can choose whatever weapon you want and then add the stats to it, to further customize your character.

If you could pick your items, every newbie would change their starting weapon into a 2handed scythe, then change their starting armor into full platemail, run around for 30 minutes looking like the next coming of christ, get bored because they will never look any cooler than that, and quit.

You haven't grasped the whole carrot on a stick process yet.
 

Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,716
417
126
tbqhwy.com
Originally posted by: CKent
I like being able to look at someone in an MMORPG and know what they're wearing and how leet it is. The fact everyone looks the same, at least in WoW, is due to lazy game design.

it didnt used to be so bac, i have no issue with the "Tier Sets" looking the same but there should be more variety in random loot

and they wernt always lazy back in the day each set looked really different

now the Blue dungon set looks like T3, T4 is unique, T5 and Arena Season 2 look the same, and T6 will be the same as Season 3 of the arena just slightly different color

it would be cool if we could at least color it differently, same model but when you get it you ca specifiy a base color
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,729
559
126
Originally posted by: BD2003
It would also be somewhat of a RAM limitation - if everyone could customize the look of their armor, that would be a ton of data not only to load, but to keep in memory.

That is certainly true...but with 2GB kits so cheap these days I'm not sure how big of a concern that really is.

Another way is to allow players to "build" seemingly unique items by snapping together prebuilt pieces some how. That way players don't have to download anything more then a set of instructions on how to built the item clientside. That shouldn't take up much space really or network traffic. If you give them enough legoes you should be able to create a lot of fairly unique items in game.

And you really don't want to give them full control anyway, otherwise you'll end up with a bunch of people wearing "naked man" armor or suits with porn sprayed on them. It'd be kind of funny but probably would be a bit jarring in a fantasy envirnoment.