Post-Prologue Chargen

[Osvir]

Chargen = Character generation

What I'm wondering is a typical "Are you fine with all the choices you've made?" type generation. We see it in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, as well as in Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim.

Let's say I make a character, I do all the tutorial and prologue stuff, then I'm not entirely liking my character... will I have to start from the very beginning or could I get an option to change class, appearance and so on?

[Silent Winter]

But then, what if you don't like your new character?  The place for chargen is at the beginning, not part-way through the game.
Point being - you use the early game to get a feel for your character and abilities/play-style - so starting a new character would make sense to start again.

I can see some people wanting to change a single selection or change stats but it's only going to be an issue when you first play the game as you get to know it.

 

Wait for the 'save-game editor' mod to do that stuff

[Osvir]

Well it is convenient.

I start a character, get to this point, the game Auto-Saves perhaps.

Next time I want to play with a new character, I just load this save (skipping the prologue/tutorial) and I can create a new character.

[Silent Winter]

Then why not just a 'skip tutorial' option (like in NWN2 OC)? (Less funny but less silly than 'Dungeon Be Gone' mod)

Or a short-cut out of the prologue (like candlekeep - buy some gear and talk to Gorion, don't need to do all the quests as you'll soon get enough experience).

[PrimeJunta]

That's a Bethsoft peculiarity. I hope we won't see it in P:E.

[CoryStarkiller]

I think it is a great feature.

[Messier-31]

I don't care that much TBH, if I had any doubts then I would probably start a new game and rolled a new character.

 

Why?

 

Immersion... wait for it.... breaking.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Messier-31

[ravenshrike]

That's why one of the first things I do will be to make versions of all classes with the varying backgrounds/races before taking them through the prologue/tutorial and saving them there. Then I can just use a SG editor to flip various things out at that point in subsequent playthroughs. Of course, that will end up with me playing thorough the tutorial eleven times(unless there are more backgrounds than classes).

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I actually like this feature. It doesn't inhibit players who do not wish to re-roll in anyway. Those who are new to the game, or find that another class/build would be better suited to them can easily adjust things without starting all over again. In Fallout 3, I even had a master save at the point where this choice was offered so that I could start any character I desired without having to run through the prologue yet again.

[Karkarov]

Don't think it will really be needed, it isn't like we have to deal with detailed face/appearance editing or a ton of choices.  You will basically pick a race, male/female, maybe a hair/skin color, what region you are from, then a class, then distribute stats.  It isn't much to really worry about, you should just be sure you like what you have before you continue.

[Osvir]

Like I said, it is simply put "convenience".

A checkbox at character creation would be enough as well, "Skip Tutorial" type of thing, though I think it would be more fitting with a title of "Skip Prologue" really. It could be greyed out the very first time you play, and having a tooltip box when hovering over it saying "You need to finish the Prologue once before you can use this", and the next time you start from the beginning it'll be open to skip the prologue.

The issue I am having with Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 is the non-skippable cutscenes. It's just 5-10 minutes out of my life but it gets awfully boring when in your own head you replay the cutscene 500 times before it is even finished.

So the issue or topic isn't entirely about "Post-Prologue Chargen", it is also about Skippable cutscenes.

[soulburner]

I'm not so sure about this idea. I believe a 'skip prologue' option would be best. But even better would be a prologue/tutorial that's so tightly integrated with the game you won't even want to skip it, even while being at a 500th playthrough.

 

Skippable cutscenes? Hell yes, I hate it when some games do that. Sometimes the cutscenes are so long (and sometimes boring) I quit the game before they are over :D And while we're at it, I want a skippable "Obsidian" logo animation at start-up. It will be a nice thing to see when starting the game (like being more aware of the fact we are starting something so anticipated and most likely brilliant ) but not for the 500-th time.

[Amentep]

Okay...I'm a irredeemable game re-starter. If I can create my character I'll tinker around with race/class combinations (add a moderately deep character appearance editor and I may spend hours before I start the game).

 

I like being able to skip cutscenes because of it so I can get to test driving the character I created.

 

But weirdly I also feel like I've cheated my final character if I don't playthrough the entire game with that character. Weird, I know, but even thought the Elder Scrolls allowed you to change the character at the end of the prologue (and you could save right before there and come out with any character you wanted) I always played the prologue because that's where I got to see the character in action.

[marelooke]

Character creation should, as has been pointed out before, come first, before any intro sequences.

 

Personally I'd prefer BG2's solution of making a dedicated tutorial level, entirely separate from the game, over making the first area of the game into a tutorial.

 

Imho this solves two common problems:

* having to go through the darn tutorial each time you start a new game (= annoying)

* having to use Google or restart the game if you missed something in the tutorial or took a long break and could use a refresher (happens to me pretty often)

[Amentep]

^Many people felt Irenicus' Dungeon served as a tutorial level. There was even a mod allowing you to skip it and start outside the dungeon.

[IndiraLightfoot]

I reckon the NWN2 OC got this right. You had a neat tutorial (the fair), but you could pick a convo option with your step father immediately, which made you skip to the more urgent attack on the village. However, if you were a completionist, you missed out on a few xp by not doing all the stuff in the tutorial fair, which I do think is indeed fair.

[marelooke]

^Many people felt Irenicus' Dungeon served as a tutorial level. There was even a mod allowing you to skip it and start outside the dungeon.

 

Many people were wrong then Irenicus' Dungeon was a major part of the story. I can't blame them for wanting to skip it the umpteenth time through though (same as the entire Asylum/Underdark thing getting a bit old after the 7th time through)

 

I reckon the NWN2 OC got this right. You had a neat tutorial (the fair), but you could pick a convo option with your step father immediately, which made you skip to the more urgent attack on the village. However, if you were a completionist, you missed out on a few xp by not doing all the stuff in the tutorial fair, which I do think is indeed fair.

 

I'm OCD enough to always go through it, and then be annoyed by it, but I'm quite willing to accept that that is just me

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

^Many people felt Irenicus' Dungeon served as a tutorial level. There was even a mod allowing you to skip it and start outside the dungeon.

 

Many people were wrong then Irenicus' Dungeon was a major part of the story. I can't blame them for wanting to skip it the umpteenth time through though (same as the entire Asylum/Underdark thing getting a bit old after the 7th time through)

 

I reckon the NWN2 OC got this right. You had a neat tutorial (the fair), but you could pick a convo option with your step father immediately, which made you skip to the more urgent attack on the village. However, if you were a completionist, you missed out on a few xp by not doing all the stuff in the tutorial fair, which I do think is indeed fair.

 

I'm OCD enough to always go through it, and then be annoyed by it, but I'm quite willing to accept that that is just me

 

You're not alone!   I wouldn't have brought it up if I wasn't guilty as charged, as it were.