'Body type' customization?

[AndAnAnimal]

Hi there guys. I'm excited for the game and registered here to ask a question that I can't find discussed anywhere.

 

Does anyone know if we will have the ability to customize our player characters body type? For example, can I make a thick set muscular fighter or a skinny tall wizard?

 

I hope that we can!

[Lephys]

I hope so, too. It doesn't have to be modern MMO "adjust forearm apex... adjust elbow depth... adjust foot size" or anything so specific. But, mayyybe something a little more in-depth than "You can pig between small, medium, and large."

 

You could even venture into not-purely-cosmetic territory with some of the stuff (like height/size), but that's a pretty hefty "maybe."

 

Really, just simple physical build customizations would be nice. Tall, short, lanky, bulky, muscley, etc. Stuff like that.

[MasterPrudent]

I'm certain this has come up before and I'm pretty sure Josh Sawyer wrote something suggesting that there wouldn't be much - if anything - beyond different hairstyles, skin tones and fabric colours. To be honest in an isometric game like this my main concern with character customisation is that we get as many portraits as the art people can "paint".

[Karkarov]

Like Prudent said, due to the way the game will be shown you won't get to see a ton of character detail anyway beyond armor and weapons.  I am sure there will be some basic stuff you can change though but I expect it to be on level with like Torchlight or something similar.

[exodiark]

I do hope that there is fat body type. Not only it adds variety to NPCs, I also want to be a fat godlike bastard.

Edited February 18, 2014 by exodiark

[Ulquiorra]

heh .. it whoud be fun to have Death Godlike with black angelic-like wings ....awwwwww ....awsome

[rjshae]

Like Prudent said, due to the way the game will be shown you won't get to see a ton of character detail anyway beyond armor and weapons.  I am sure there will be some basic stuff you can change though but I expect it to be on level with like Torchlight or something similar.

 

It's possible the paper doll panels in the inventory screen may show more detail, although they haven't shown us that yet. But given the amount of detail shown in the update #72 rendered cat form, we may get to see a decent sized representation of our characters.

[Quadrone]

It's rather unlikely.

Like the myriad of "easy" little additions that frequently get suggested here on the forums, this one too doesn't give you enough bang for your buck.

 

If each race can be scaled in height and girth relative to their specific size that creates a lot of extra work.

Plate armors have to bulge outwards arround the stomach, capes shouldn't clip through your extra wide hips and you also got to make sure extra short orlans don't touch the ground with the weapons they're holding. Both during idle and attack animations ofc. There is probably much more to watch out for that I don't know of since I know diddly about modeling, texturing and animation.

[Tamerlane]

I do hope that there is fat body type. Not only it adds variety to NPCs, I also want to be a fat godlike bastard.

Josh has said that there will be no NWN2-style height/girth choices, at least.

[Sir Chaox]

Let them focus on content and less on little things like this IMO. As Quadrone pointed out, it could result in a great deal more work for little gains.

[Ulquiorra]

If each race can be scaled in height and girth relative to their specific size that creates a lot of extra work.

 

From a modeling perspctin its .. 15 minutes ... to scale a model to shorter one (but as waight as original), you take scalin onption in 3d maker program .. 6 models ... 1 hour and 30 minutes ... and make some minor changes ... 3-6 hours yeah .... a hudge about of time

[Quadrone]

 

If each race can be scaled in height and girth relative to their specific size that creates a lot of extra work.

 

From a modeling perspctin its .. 15 minutes ... to scale a model to shorter one (but as waight as original), you take scalin onption in 3d maker program .. 6 models ... 1 hour and 30 minutes ... and make some minor changes ... 3-6 hours yeah .... a hudge about of time

 

 

It helps if you read the rest of the post as well.

[motorizer]

They did say in one of the updates though, what a timesaver it is having scalable armour.

 

 

During January, we've developed a new system to allow our human bipedal skeleton to be shaped and morphed into the other playable races and have armor be shaped and morphed along with the skeleton.

[Lephys]

I'd just like to point out, in regard to "these are tiny little character models," that overall body shape/size/stance is about the most noticeable thing you can mess with in such a situation. A hairstyle can get covered by a helmet or hood, gender can get even get blurred by armor, but the fact that your Aumaua Barbarian is twice as wide as everyone else in your party is going to be pretty blatant even if everyone's wearing full clone plate.

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I liked the body customization in Temple of Elemental Evil. Particularly when using enhanced resolutions, having that <3' halfling rogue could be hard to find on screen, lol. I also like the contrast of my short and plumb gnome wizard contrasted with my gigantic 6'4" warrior priest. Since the armors are scalable, I wouldn't think it too difficult to have the same ToEE feature in P:E.

[AGX-17]

I do hope that there is fat body type. Not only it adds variety to NPCs, I also want to be a fat godlike bastard.

Being fat is a rare privilege of those in positions of power or the elite class/es (societal, not gameplay,) in a pre-industrial society. Most simply can't be fat, they don't have the resources to achieve such a state. I don't think you can play through the game as a slovenly nobleman. Even if you could, there should be massive penalties to strength, stamina and health. They'd also need to make the fat characters move at a much slower pace than others and double over wheezing while pleading for the rest of the party not to leave them behind.

 

A fat rogue might be hilarious if you deliberately want a useless rogue so you can laugh as they ineptly try to pick a lock or disarm a trap with their fat sausage fingers. Or try to stealth.

Edited February 19, 2014 by AGX-17

[Sir Chaox]

A fat rogue might be hilarious if you deliberately want a useless rogue so you can laugh as they ineptly try to pick a lock or disarm a trap with their fat sausage fingers. Or try to stealth.

 

Sounds like Kevin James.

[Lephys]

Being fat is a rare privilege of those in positions of power or the elite class/es (societal, not gameplay,) in a pre-industrial society. Most simply can't be fat, they don't have the resources to achieve such a state. I don't think you can play through the game as a slovenly nobleman. Even if you could, there should be massive penalties to strength, stamina and health. They'd also need to make the fat characters move at a much slower pace than others and double over wheezing while pleading for the rest of the party not to leave them behind.

 

A fat rogue might be hilarious if you deliberately want a useless rogue so you can laugh as they ineptly try to pick a lock or disarm a trap with their fat sausage fingers. Or try to stealth.

This. People even try to say "that's ridiculous that there aren't fat people in video games like this. That's discrimination!" But, really, it just doesn't make any sense for some dude to be like "I'm a veteran warrior who's fully capable but also can't even sprint 30 feet to get away from some orcs, and/or I get really tired after a few sword swings!" It's the same reason you can't make 500lb dudes in sports games. It's not saying "Hah-hah! Fat people suck! Skinny people rule!" It's simply depicting a world in which people who travel around on foot all the time and don't have a bunch of leisure time and/or rations wouldn't really be very out-of-shape.

 

Now, sure, you could have less-than-ultra-ripped characters and such. Realistically-proportioned females who aren't automatically supermodels, etc. But, there's only SO out-of-shape someone's going to be, and still be an adventurer.

 

There'll probably be plenty of portlier NPCs and such, simply living in towns and cities. But, not people actively battling a whole game's worth of trolls and undead minions, and making jump checks over chasms, etc.

[AGX-17]

 

A fat rogue might be hilarious if you deliberately want a useless rogue so you can laugh as they ineptly try to pick a lock or disarm a trap with their fat sausage fingers. Or try to stealth.

 

Sounds like Kevin James.

 

But Kevin James doesn't make people laugh.

 

 

BUUUURRRRRRN

Edited February 19, 2014 by AGX-17

[exodiark]

Well I can imagine mages can be fat too, lots of them should be in middle-to-upper class. I can imagine lots of them didn't even lift )

 

Besides, medieval warriors (like Gladiators) are usually stocky with extra layers of fat, because they add protection. 1 inch of fat could protect delicate organs from glancing blows too.

 

It doesn't have to be extremely fat, but a beer belly sort of body type could add more to immersion, if applied to occasional NPCs like older people, food merchants, or really rich nobles.

Edited February 20, 2014 by exodiark

[Lephys]

 

 

A fat rogue might be hilarious if you deliberately want a useless rogue so you can laugh as they ineptly try to pick a lock or disarm a trap with their fat sausage fingers. Or try to stealth.

 

Sounds like Kevin James.

 

But Kevin James doesn't make people laugh.

 

 

BUUUURRRRRRN

 

Hey now... a lot of times, sure. But, if you haven't seen Here Comes the Boom, I recommend it. It's even kind of relevant to this thread, since Kevin James is being used as an example of a typical big-guy character mold, and yet, in the film, he falls out of that character mold when he "becomes an adventurer" (aka partakes in MMA fighting).

[Silent Winter]

When I think of 'bulk' for the character models, I'm thinking general broadness - could be muscle and a little fat (or a bit skinnier than normal - you still wouldn't have a muscleless weakling with no body fat carrying that equipment all that way - the walking alone would build some muscle).  So 'big-boned' rather than 'fat'

That and height are enough for me.

Not that the BG approach bothered me at all - but as suggested earlier, the TOEE system might be easy enough to do.

[AGX-17]

Well I can imagine mages can be fat too, lots of them should be in middle-to-upper class. I can imagine lots of them didn't even lift )

 

Besides, medieval warriors (like Gladiators) are usually stocky with extra layers of fat, because they add protection. 1 inch of fat could protect delicate organs from glancing blows too.

 

It doesn't have to be extremely fat, but a beer belly sort of body type could add more to immersion, if applied to occasional NPCs like older people, food merchants, or really rich nobles.

There's no middle class in pre-industrial economies, gladiators were not medieval and are no longer alive (and thus cannot currently be "stocky with extra layers of fat.") Even assuming it were true that Roman gladiators were all obese, the only "armor" value fat has is against shallow slashing. If Roman gladiators were equipped with the same armor Roman soldiers were issued (as opposed to panties and maybe a pauldron or helmet,) then they wouldn't be so desperate that they'd resort to relying on becoming as walrus-like as possible to survive.

 

All that said, PoE is a world far beyond that, in which firearms and steel are standard. How fat do you propose a person has to be to stop a musket ball with pure lard?

 

 

So 'big-boned' rather than 'fat'

"Big-boned" is an euphemism for "fat."

Edited February 20, 2014 by AGX-17

[Silent Winter]

 

So 'big-boned' rather than 'fat'

"Big-boned" is an euphemism for "fat."

 

Yes, I know, that's why I said it

But my actual (less tongue in cheek) point was the 'broader' v. 'fatter' thing.

[LadyCrimson]

I think you'll be able to zoom in enough to get a decent telling glance re: general body shape, even if it's an isometric game. They'll still be rather small, however, so a lot of body config. types isn't something I'd put much focus on. Full 3D games are where I sometimes wish for more variety in body shape. That said, a "slim," "average" and "stocky" option would be fine.

 

But I doubt it'll even have that much. Mostly clothing type detail and portrait/imagination options.