Character Creation Systems (XCOM2 vs. POE)

[Heijoushin]

Like a lot of other people, I've been addicted to XCOM2 for the past couple of weeks. One of the things I love most about the game is the character creation system, which is simple, yet very satisfying. I say simple because it's not like say, Fallout, where you can tweak your character's nose down to the last cm (I really don't think that's necessary BTW).

Now even though XCOM and POE are vastly different worlds/settings, I think POE could learn a little from XCOM2. 

 

1. Sexy factor

Firstly, to be honest, whenever I make a character in a game, unless I'm doing some specific theme, I generally want that character to be hot/sexy/handsome. Surely many people feel this way?
XCOM gives you a variety of ways to make hot characters. 

POE? Not so much. There were one or two elf/human faces that might qualify, but it was literally impossible to make a hot/handsome dwarf, orlan or aumaua. Let's not even go into Godlike. I suppose this is more of a graphics issue though. 

 

2. Props

In XCOM2, you get hat/helmet, upper face, lower face, scars and armour/weapon patterns. You can do a surprising amount with this. Now, in POE, you have to find all your gear, and customize that way. But would it hurt to give the character some purely cosmetic freebies in the beginning? For example: eye-patch/monocle/hood etc.. 

Likewise, in XCOM2, a soldier's country has no relevance, but you still get to see the flag on their back. In POE, you can choose your background, but at the end of the day, its all text. How about some visible (and again, purely cosmetic) reminders of their background? Like... aristocrats get a free fur coat. Priests get a free robe etc. 

It's embarrassing to put it this way, but if I make a character, I want to play dress-up damnit. If you're not going to make in-game clothing shops, how about that sort of thing is free at character creation? 

 

What do you guys think? Or if there's a game that has a better character creation system, let's hear it. 

 

Edited February 16, 2016 by Heijoushin

[Humanoid]

I haven't customised much of anything in XCOM 2, since everyone is essentially disposable. One thing I did do was that I messed around with the game files to have all the character names (which includes not just soldiers, but every NPC in the game) pulled out from a custom set of names. Appearances are all completely unchanged, although if I see a guy with a ponytail and hipster glasses again I might use them as bait.

 

I enjoy character creation as much as anyone, but my limit is one. One custom player character is all I have the energy to bother with. In The Sims I'll play a single sim, and if I want a bigger household I'll let it happen organically by moving some NPC in. Wasteland 2 was too much for me, designing four characters to complement each other was just too much work and consequently I still haven't gotten around to playing the game. (Yes I know there are premade ones, but it's not the same)
 

Appearance-wise obviously being totally hawt is important, but within the context of the character design. A typical character of mine might be a female catburglar, and I decide she's got a boyish figure, short hair, and an angular face - all conducive to that line of work. Then I make as nice-looking a character as possible within those parameters. Or I design a greying playboy. He's got a mustache because those were in when he was in his prime. He's still in good shape, but can't hide the lines on his face, and he's decided recently to give up on dyeing his hair. In a game like The Sims I'd do this by designing his appearance as a young adult to be a typical good-looking young guy, making all the adjustments there, then toggling the age setting up and leaving it as is.

 

Props - clothes mostly - I can't generally be bothered with on character creation. I'll pick the one or two colours that will be their primary theme, pick clothes that match top and bottom, but that's it, no fiddling around with shoes, accessories, makeup, etc. Game permitting, I'll keep the neat-looking stuff I manage to pick up during the course of the game and build up a wardrobe that way, but that's obviously only really relevant in open-world sort of games, notably Bethesda ones.

[Darkpriest]

I lov3 the xcom2 customizqtion. It is simple and elegant with enough options. I do miss a template creation, although there is a.mod for that, and i miss the description pre mission what kind of ao they are heading in so i can prepare a camo for it.

 

Poe had enough options also you are comparing a team learning unity to a team squeezing last drops from unreal engine 3...

[Heijoushin]

@Humanoid: You surprise me! 1 isn't enough for me. A 4-6 man team is just right (That's why I'm more of an IWD guy) 
Totally agree though, boyish thief girl and aging playboy are great options. 

 

@Darkpriest: Yeah, I know, I didn't come out to dis POE. But I just noticed my satisfaction rate was a lot higher with XCOMs system. And maybe it all comes down to the engine, but that doesn't mean one can't compare. 

[Lorfean]

​1. This is partly due to the difference between isometric 2.5D and full 3D -- meaning facial details are basically wasted in a game like PoE because the only place you get to enjoy them is the level up screen, and even there they're not super close up -- and partly (or maybe even largely) budgetary / resource constraints which, you might be forgetting, is where PoE and your average AAA title are on completely different ends of the spectrum.

2. PoE does this to a certain extend by having different starting armor and weapons depending on the region you chose, which is a nice detail IMO. Monocles, eye patches, etc. would (again) be wasted details in a 2.5D isometric game, though really IMO there *is* actually a very nice amount of variety in the looks of the gear you can find and especially the rarer pieces look extremely good.

 

I have to say though, the more I wrote here the more I felt it was kind of ridiculous to compare these two games. Not just because they're vastly different games in terms of what you do, how you obtain gear, etc. but also because PoE is a kickstarted indie title and XCOM 2 is a full blown AAA sequel to a very successful game. The differences in budget, team size and resources is astronomical, man... It's not fair to compare them. Let alone poll them like you did.

[HawkSoft]

I'd be satisfied with PoE if it had an auto-generate option for the character portrait (from the paper doll) rather than being limited to fixed portraits.

 

Divinity: Original Sin is about at the limits of what I can be bothered with in a party RPG.

 

Two Worlds 2 is just too much like hard work for minimal results.