Character creator

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Scars in the Alpha-2 character creator (first pass).[1]

The cool thing about this character creator is that it's not just intended for your character. It has application with NPCs that you might hire.[2]Steven Sharif

We're gonna use similar tech for implementing things like Animal husbandry.[3]Zachary Mallet

Kaelar Alpha-2 character creation (first pass).[4]

This tech is 100% created in-house at Intrepid and is not metahuman.[5]Steven Sharif

We'll be adding many, many more customization options to the character creator.[6]Cody Peterson

The character creator (or character customization system) allows players to define the look of their in-game characters, hired NPCs; and potentially creatures raised by the animal husbandry profession.[2][7]

The Ashes of Creation character creator is 100% developed in-house by Intrepid Studios and is not MetaHuman.[5]

Additional character creator features include.

  • There will be unlockable features for character customization.[11]
You have that scar because you participated in this siege, or these many sieges; or you have this tattoo because of your of a cultural background, or because of a quest that was accomplished where you're able to get that.[11]Steven Sharif
  • The ability to save and potentially to share characters with other players.[1][12]
The beauty of it is that you can save your character- and we already have some of those features available- and load them; and in the future we want people to be able to share those characters amongst each other.[1]Margaret Krohn
  • The ability to undo changes (Ctrl + Z) will be supported, including undoing changes that were made several edits earlier.[13][14]
  • Choosing base idle animations of characters will be possible in future.[15]
    • Certain animations, such as blinking, will be present when they don't interfere with the customization process.[16]
  • Adjusting the background scene and lighting is a planned feature.[16]
There's going to be a lot of environmental controls that are offered to the character creator so that people can set it up their scene the way they want to grab screenshots or to grab recordings or whatever they want to do.[17]Steven Sharif
  • Asymmetry in terms of manipulating different components of the body or different body features such as hair, beard, and eyes.[18]
Asymmetry is going to be functionality that's possible in manipulating either different components of the body or different features like hair. The beard we saw a little bit of that blending with highlights that you can do. Margaret talked a little bit about the eye asymmetry that you can include. Obviously those are going to exist within certain parameters that we want to define on a per-race basis, but it is something that we think is cool.[18]Steven Sharif
  • Body adornments, such as piercings will be possible within cultural limits.[19]
  • The developers are considering whether to allow custom tattoos to be uploaded by users.[20]

The aim is for the character creator to be on par if not much better than that of BDO.[21][22]

Character appearance

Facial adjustments in the Alpha-2 character creator (first pass).[23]

There is a great variation that's going to be available from a character standpoint when creating your character, especially around the face. Whether it be the shape of the jawline, the cheeks, the ears, the nose, the lips. You know we want to provide a lot of options and an agency to the player to customize their character appearance.[24]Steven Sharif

Character appearance can be customized in the character creator (CC)[26] and via in-game salons/barbershops.[11][27]

We want there to be a lot of room for people to manifest their own identity, to role play how they want to from an appearance standpoint. There's going to be parameters within which you will be able to customize a character. We want the culture and the identity of the races to exist in a range that makes them easily identifiable from other players and other cultures. So, because of that, we have to have a spectrum you can exist on. There will be a lot of hair variants you can do, body art tattoos that you can apply. You'll be able to play with the scales of the facial structure, the bones, the height, width, the body fat percentage. You'll be able to add body hair on different parts of the body. If you want to have hair on your feet, you can dial that up.[28]Steven Sharif
  • Character models are focused on realism.[29]
  • A player will see a generic character before customization.[30]
  • Character designs will have influences from a wide range of cultures, such as European, African and Asian.[31]
  • Lolis will not be in the game.[32][33]
  • Sliders and other controls, such as color palettes, will offer flexibility in customization but there will be limits based on race, gender, and the artistic style guidelines that the developers are adhering to.[34][35][32][36][37]
There's going to be constraints to the sliders, so that was one of those big questions as work began on the character creator: How much agency do you want to allow pulling like the lower lip all the way down in this weird deformed look, or having like [an] offset cheek that's just asymmetrical to the side of the face. There's not going to be the ability or agency to create those types of weird character things. However you will have the ability to move, slide, change, grow, decrease all those components, but they'll be kept in a more reasonable and presented way in the same sense you won't be able to change the appearance of the dwarven, nor the Dünir or the Niküan races to, in my opinion, create what would be traditionally considered a Loli character.[32]Steven Sharif

Body appearance

Vaelune, Dünir and Empyrean Alpha-1 early character model 3D renders.[38]

So many options coming down the road. Our character team continues to refine our customization options![39]Steven Sharif

Head appearance

Alpha-2 character creator hair and beard customization (first pass).[49]

Every hair color uses the accent and the fill differently, but usually the fill is the root color and the accent is the tip color.[49]Zachary Mallet

Face appearance

Vek presets in the Alpha-2 character creator (first pass).[56]

Heads will be relatively proportional to the body size, with some limited variability.[57]

Appearance details

A "default player appearance" may be automatically applied during sieges or other large scale battles to improve client-side performance.[63][64][65]

Character blending

Blending in the Alpha-2 character creator (first pass).[9]

This is more of a large scale macro tool that you can select a couple of presets and then you can get certain features from one preset or different features from a another preset. So you place down your presets and then you can click and drag and morph between those different presets.[9]Zachary Mallet

Character blending allows the combination of two or more presets from the character creator. It allows users to click and drag to morph between the different presets to create customized characters without spending time adjusting each angle of every body part.[9]

Character sculpting

Sculpting in the Alpha-2 character creator (first pass).[66]

Clayton and I tag-teamed on this one. We really wanted to give players that feeling that they were grabbing and pulling and sculpting their own character; especially with more minute details. I mean, it would have been easy to give character- players 100 sliders, but it feels better to have a much more tactile response, like clicking and dragging and pulling all these points around.[67]Zachary Mallet

Sculpting micro adjustments with the Alpha-2 character creator (first pass).[10]

Zach mentioned how much variation we achieve through the customization features. A lot of that is achieved through what Steven is playing with right now: with these dots that are appearing; and the reason why those are dots instead of the little plates that you see highlighted on the character is because these are actually changing the shape of the character's features altogether. Plates are used for moving things around and it sort of maps exactly to your input; and that's why that pick map or the plates feel so nice. Then you can click on those dots and drag those around and actually change the shape of a feature altogether.[10]Clayton Stamper

Sculpting provides the ability to customize different segments of any part of the body in the character creator.[66]

  • Plates are used for moving features around.[10]
  • Dots are use to change the shape of the character's features altogether.[10]

Examples:

  • Adjusting the length and proportions of limbs.[66][41]
  • Sizes of calves and thighs.[66][41]
  • Adjustments will allow a character to appear more feminine or masculine.[44]

Tulnar appearance

Tulnar character model concept art of the three base influences.[68]

There's a number of minor races and major races that all sought refuge within the Underrealm and we talked about how this particular player character race was going to have a pretty unique approach when it comes to character customization because with that background there comes different species influence in the race itself and we want players to be able to dial up or down those influences as they see fit between the humanoid, the simian or mammalian, and the reptilian influences; and as you dial those things up, your base body- if it exceeds a certain percentage threshold- will assume the form and stance of one of three primary types of influences that exist for the Tulnar. And now what you're going to see is those three distinct influences and you can be of course a hundred percent in one if you wish and you'll be very similar to what you're going to see here from the concepts; or you can mix-and-match and you can blend between the different influences.[69]Steven Sharif

The Tulnar race does not have sub-types. Instead, players will be able to significantly customize the appearance of Tulnar characters based on three base influences; or blend between these different influences.[69][70][71][72][73][74]

Races are primarily humanoid in appearance.[75]

  • There are feline and bestial components that can be scaled up when creating a Tulnar character but Tulnar do not equal furries.[32][71]
  • Catgirl and Loli Tulnar are not able to be created.[32]
Tulnar do not equal furries, but there are definitely some bestial components that you can scale up when you're creating your Tulnar character, so you could max that setting I guess. Whether or not that would give you what you would think of as a furry, I guess it's going to be up to your interpretation of what a Furry is.[71]Steven Sharif
Q: Will character creator allow us to make Tulnar that might look somewhat like Kobolds from Pathfinder or DnD?
A: I wouldn't say exactly, but there's definitely elements of Kobolds that you could incorporate in a character creator with the Tulnar, yes.[77]Steven Sharif
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
  • Mammalian Tulnar may have snout features, fur and inverted knees.[78]
  • Reptilian Tulnar may have more circular eyes and head shape, and scaly skin.[78]

Cosmetic items

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Cosmetic items allow players to customize their character in-game.[8]

  • Eye color.
  • Skin color.
  • Hair color.
  • Hairstyles.
  • Tattoos.
  • Scars.

Cosmetic items that produce in-game cosmetic effects will also be available.[79]

Racial skins

Racial skins enable a player to change their character's racial appearance.[80][81]

  • Racial skins transform the race of the character to that skin. The original racial appearance of the character is entirely replaced.[82]
  • Racial skins can be toggled on and off.[81]

You're changing your race over to that, which means that you won't look uniquely different if you were a Vek angel or a Human angel.[82]Steven Sharif

Racial skins are not costumes. This means that armor and character customization is possible on these.[83]

  • Skin color customization.[84]
  • Racial skins appear along with any costume appearances.[85]

There are plans to create other racial skins.[86]

  • Some potential future ideas include undead and werewolf (lycan) skins.[87]

Costumes

Vestments of the Runecarvers pre-order pack cosmetic costume.[88]

The costume cosmetics that are included in each month's pre-order set are indeed a full piece, and when you put it on it will cover your entire appearance. You will not be able to mix and match/toggle those pieces individually (other than your helmet) when you're wearing the entire costume. This is partially why there is a separate category for accessories - those are able to be worn/equipped on a more individualized basis, so you can mix and match to your liking![89]Sarah Flanagan

Costumes were available for purchase from the cosmetic store.[90]

Full costumes do not mix and match pieces.[95]Steven Sharif

Armor appearance

Alpha-1 female plate armor 3D render.[104]

We want to be realistic with the application of particular types of armor, such as plate armor. In this regard for the different sexes there's a fine line that has to be drawn between accentuating the form of the sex as well as making it somewhat realistic and actually applicable to the environment.[104]Steven Sharif

  • Armor will not be overly sexual in appearance.[104][106]
    I'm more of the mind that it wouldn't really serve a purpose to have bikini plate armor, just in like reality, if you're going to have armor, it should be protective. I think from a fashion statement is enjoyable for some people, but it's a an immersive issue.[105]Steven Sharif
    • Some armor and costumes will be more revealing than others, but there will not be nudity in the game.[108]
    There might be sliders, but there are not gonna be naked sliders.[108]Steven Sharif
Each race is getting its custom geo pieces, which then will share thematic components such as color palette, attachments, design filigree. Those types of things will get shared across the geo but generally you're going to see unique races with unique geo.[112]Steven Sharif
  • Cosmetics can be used by all races but there may be slight variations to make them work with the body builds of each race.[100]
  • Hair will likely be masked if helmet display is toggled on.[121]

Appearance slots/Transmogs

Gear will have appearance slots (Transmutation/Transmog/cosmetic slots) that are used to copy the appearance of an item (in some cases).[125][126]

  • There are rules when applying cosmetics to specific items, unlike costumes, which don't have level restrictions.[97]
  • Cosmetic slots can be toggled on or off on their character by the player.[127]
  • A "default player appearance" may be automatically applied during sieges or other large scale battles to improve client-side performance.[63][64]
Cosmetics, whether purchased from the shop or earned in game, are an important component of MMORPGS I personally enjoy; and there's a lot of collectors out there who spend a great deal of time either in-game achieving these things or spend money purchasing them from the cosmetic only marketplace; and we don't want to demean or reduce that achievement or that expenditure. So it's going to be situational where the default appearance will be applied and can be activated.[63]Steven Sharif

Attachments

Attachments are able to be unlocked as flair pieces to armor to create a customizable look.[128]

  • There will be hundreds of attachments available ranging from a small clasp to the front plate of a breast plate.[128]

Timeline

The character creator is intended to be included in the Alpha-2 client.[129][130][131][21][132][133]

Character creator is scheduled before the start of Alpha-2, so players will have an opportunity to see the character creator in the start of Alpha-2's client that they'll have access to. It's something that I believe last milestone, or maybe it's this milestone was getting re revamped or retouched up.[129]Steven Sharif
  • Some aspects of the character creator may not be present at the start of Alpha-2.[130]
The character creator is in a usable, functional, and testable playable format for Alpha-2. It may not have all the bells and whistles of course that we want to launch with, but it is going to be a part of the Alpha-2 client that players will get to interface with.[130]Steven Sharif
Character Creator will likely enter PI testing within the next 1-2 months.[134]Steven Sharif
We aim to have the character creator in the hands of players before the release of Alpha Two.[131]

Visuals

See also

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