User:Neovicis/GW2 suggestion - Character Customization

More Features for Character Creation

Having a wider range of customization options for characters would greatly satisfy the large number of players who are either picky about their character's appearance or are trying recreate specific character from either a movie, another game, or even real life. The Character creation engine in the original Guild Wars series gives some but not a great deal of flexibility. To allow for more specific customization, the character creation should be divided into a number of different "rooms" for editing different aspects of the character. The different rooms could be as follows:

• Profession - The first step would be to select the character's profession.
• Race - Human, Norn , Asura , Charr or Sylvari. The character's choice of race would affect the customization options that follow.
• Sex - Next, before any specific customization, the character's sex must be selected.
• Muscularity and Physique - Here, one can edit how masculine or how feminine their character looks and also edit how defined the muscles are. The most effective way to do this would be using two separate sets of multiple slider bars (one set of sliders for each aspect). The slider bars would span from 0 to 30. On the physique sliders, for example, 0 would make the character more lanky or flat while 30 would make the character's figure more full with broader shoulders and larger arms for males and wider hips and larger breasts for females. Different parts of the body would be controlled by different slider bars. For instance, when creating a female character, the different physique sliders would determine hip width, shoulder width breast size and so on, but keeping them all separate to their own individual slider. As far as muscularity goes, the individual sliders in the set could determine how defined muscles in separate body parts are. There would be one slider for the arms, one for the chest and abdominal area, one for the legs and so on. This is also where the character's height should be determined.
• Face - This is where one would construct the face of their character. The editing would begin by selecting a face from a gallery. this is for the purpose of having something to build off of. The player would then proceed to edit the face, changing the size of the eyes, the nose, the cheeks and the lips using more slider bars. Also, the player should be able to add wrinkles to the face to simulate age if they choose to. Other features like scars and moles may also be added.
• Hair Style - Hair customization would probably have to be similar to how it is in the original Guild Wars series. The only difference, however would be that all the hairstyles would be available to all characters regardless of profession. Also, new hairstyles should be purchasable in different areas in the game form NPCs bearing the [Hairstylist] title in towns and outposts.
• Undergarments - Characters should be able to select the style of undergarments their character wears. Although the undergarments will not be visible for the most part, it would be useful if different under garment styles gave slight bonuses such as a small increase in HP or energy or a boost in some other areas.
• Colors - The next step is to edit the color of the skin, hair, eyes, and undergarments. For male characters the facial hair would also be editable separately from the head hair color. For females, the color of the lips and other makeup would be editable. For editing colors, players should have a full color wheel, with all colors and shades. The same should also be true for dyes for armor and weapons. Instead of purchasing dyes of fixed colors, characters should be able to create their own custom color of dye to put in a vial and then buy as many vials of it as they want.
• Voice - the Character voice should be customizable to match the character appearance. This is achievable through having a selection of different voices with different accents and having the player be able to adjust the pitch with a slider bar.
• Naming - The final step would be to name the character. The player should be able to create a nickname for their character that is used by NPCs in the game. Nicknames should only need to be single word names to increase the realism of the NPCs' speech.

During the character creation, the player should be able to go back and forward between the different rooms to change something that they had done before without losing the most recent changes that they have made. If a player does not wish to go through the entire process of character creation, there should be an option to randomly generate a character. This would make the character creation engine suitable for people who are very specific about their character's appearance and for people who just want to play the game.

Why this is a good idea

• A good character creation engine does increase the popularity of a game. Some find it more enjoyable when they are playing with their own character and not one selected from a catalog.
• This will allow for an even greater amount of diversity among characters.

Why it may not work out

• The character creation components would have to be altered for each different race especially the Asura and Charr races. But still, it would probably be worth the extra work.
• The new coloring system would neutralize the values of different dye colors. But that might not always be a bad thing.