How Immersive & Involved do you want Character Creation to be?

[barmaglo]

Character generation - is the better half of the game.

[Zero]

I think a mix of interactive and Old School would be good. Pop-ups over stats that tell you what they do vs. say an all out tutorial.

[Piccolo]

Something like RoA or Darklands or Daggerfall.

This.

[nikolokolus]

As long as the mechanics are clearly laid out and choices in front of me allow me to flesh out a concept I have in my head then it really doesn't matter to me. In general though, I don't like long narrative sequences and I don't need everything spelled out for me. NWN2's chargen was good and I still like the way Fallout and Arcanum did it.

 

I don't know how that exactly fits in with the poll, but whatever.

[teknoman2]

i voted the 2 first choices. either make the character as you go through a tutorial, or BG style step by step.

also i dont really care to have a detailed character creation. im fine with a premade character that i can shape during the game.

[Data4]

Old school character sheet. Simulated dice rolls and all that jazz. And sweet Jesus on a jetski, no facegen or anything deeper than hair and skin color in the visual department.

[Elerond]

questionares can be fun. I for example liked one in Jagged Alliance 2, but that was because questions were funny and character creation didn't played so high role as it usually plays in crpgs. So I can't say how well such questionare can work in project eternity.Questionares in elders scroll games didn't sit well for me. But bethesdas games are not best examples about character creation in first place.

 

If there is interactive character creation it should be fun also on reruns of the game. Interactive character creation can be fun on first play through but I haven't seen any implementation where second, thrid and so on times were something else than tiresome waste of time, so I can't recomend it.

 

Best character creation system what I have seen are those which gave player clear options where s/he can choose and creation tool tells for the player what impacts this options have in the game.

[Aedelric]

I do not want taken by my hand and guided through everything, we are not idiots, so drop the tutorials.

 

Characters mean everything in RPG's so character design should be very detailed and flexible. Unfortunately in a lot of games the choices are superficial, like in Forgotten realms you can pick the god you follow, which is the last you ever hear of it.

 

I hope Project Eternity is different and our choices matter.

[moridin84]

Definitely a character sheet, something like NWN2 works great. Obviously you also need a bunch of (decent) pre-made's to pick from as well, if you don't feel like customizing a character.

 

If there is interactive character creation it should be fun also on reruns of the game. Interactive character creation can be fun on first play through but I haven't seen any implementation where second, thrid and so on times were something else than tiresome waste of time, so I can't recommend it.

Yeah this is my problem those things too.

 

If you want a prelude type thing then it needs to be skippable.

Edited September 29, 2012 by moridin84

[Sylvius the Mad]

RTFM - But then let us assign everything as we see fit as long as we comply with the rules.

[Starwars]

I would just like a big ol' character sheet slapped in my face when starting up the game. Obviously with good tooltips and such if you want them on, that is one good "modern" feature to have. But yeah... I like to just have all the character options gathered in that one place, and then I can tweak them to my heart's content.

 

EDIT: Character creation should be the first, big choice you make in the game I think. It should, in some ways, decide a lot of how you experience the game through your character.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Starwars

[NoxNoctum]

The more complex and arcane the better.

 

Think Dwarf Fortress, if it was a character generator.

[metiman]

I couldn't find any options in the poll that fit. I'd be perfectly happy with just a BG2 or IWD system, but I quite liked the ToEE system as well. I'm not bothered by innovative character creation as long as I don't have to use questionaires or tutorials. I hate those. I like to study the manual and min/max in my head for a while before starting the game though. I'm kind of indifferent to starting backgrounds. Perhaps if it was done in a way that actually affected the story it might be interesting. I'm not too thrilled with the idea of your background affecting your stats though.

[Sashaa]

Character creation is important to me. Also, make it old school please.

[eimatshya]

I often enjoy character creation, especially in games like Fallout 1&2 and Arcanum. Really, I'm not that picky, though. I don't particularly like in-game generation like in Fallout 3 and New Vegas because they become mind numbingly tedious on repeated playthroughs, but they don't ruin the game for me. The only way character creation can ruin the game for me is if I am stuck playing a pre-set character that I can't identify with at all. This is the problem I have with the Witcher games. There are things about those games that I really like, but I can't empathize with Geralt at all (or with any of the other characters for that matter). As such, I have never really been able to get into the games. It took me years to finally get all the way through the first game, and I have only managed to get a few hours into the second one.

[Locke03]

I often enjoy character creation, especially in games like Fallout 1&2 and Arcanum. Really, I'm not that picky, though. I don't particularly like in-game generation like in Fallout 3 and New Vegas because they become mind numbingly tedious on repeated playthroughs, but they don't ruin the game for me. The only way character creation can ruin the game for me is if I am stuck playing a pre-set character that I can't identify with at all. This is the problem I have with the Witcher games. There are things about those games that I really like, but I can't empathize with Geralt at all (or with any of the other characters for that matter). As such, I have never really been able to get into the games. It took me years to finally get all the way through the first game, and I have only managed to get a few hours into the second one.

 

Pretty much this. I like to customize my character even if it is only superficial. If it has an effect on the game itself, than that's all the better, but a good character creation experience does a lot to color how I feel about the game afterwards, especially early on. A less good game (NWN) will draw me in more than a superior game (The Witcher) if I feel that, on some level, I have invested something of myself into the character I'm playing.

[swordsandroses]

I loved character creation in most of Black Isle's games, and I could spend like an hour just rolling for perfect stats, while thinking of perfect background story and how to bloody name the char.

[metiman]

Whose idea was the question answer and psych test format for character creation in FONV? That was really awful.

[dlux]

This is a strange poll. I'll just go with, I want character creation to be something like D+D plus Fallout.

It is indeed strange and rather confusing too... The typos don't help either. ^^

 

Whose idea was the question answer and psych test format for character creation in FONV? That was really awful.

Play Fallout 3, then you will know (Answer: Bethesda).

Edited September 30, 2012 by dlux

[Gurkog]

Arcanum, Fallout 1/2, Drakensang, NWN 2, etc... style character creation would make me happy. Lots of options and some background traits that effects the starting experience.

[JWestfall]

Yeah, character sheet with all the delicious numbers, tasty statistics, and succulent selection choices for me. The more sliders, selectors, distributors and dials, the better. If there is a reasonable way to incorporate graphs and arcane formula, then even better-er. I expect that I will need to read the manual/rules before I even think about creating a character.

 

Of course, a nice selection of pre-rolled characters and packages are fine for those who aren't as bat **** crazy as me.

 

Let me type in a short background, or at least add my own notes to an existing background package.

 

No, no, no to FO3 style (or similar) tutorial/story-driven character generation. If there is a tutorial, then make it a separate choice in the menu.

[Avantre]

I doubt there'll be a huge amount of stat customisation (beyond choosing the major strength, intelligence, etc stats) at the character creation portion due to you having to select a class (if the game was classless I'd expect more at-the-start-stat-customisation) - I'd expect the majority of that to come later on when you start to level. I suspect that people expecting fallout levels of starting selections will be disappointed.

[beerflavour]

I remember some older CRPG (Ravenloft) having a gypsy laying out cards on a table. This method of character generation was simply fitting the theme of the game.

 

The Infinity Engine character generation was OK too. You were led step by step through the creation screen and determined your character.

[jarpie]

I remember some older CRPG (Ravenloft) having a gypsy laying out cards on a table. This method of character generation was simply fitting the theme of the game.

 

The Infinity Engine character generation was OK too. You were led step by step through the creation screen and determined your character.

 

Ultima-games did the gipsy thing ever since Ultima 4, it was somewhat decent system and suited the game. Not sure will it work in Project Eternity but it all depends how they do the game.

[Ashram]

Character creation is an important part of any good RPG. The more options given to the player the better.