Downsides to character customization

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by Traak

Hehe, you mean we can choose, on an individual basis, what kind of walk,run/whatever we can use? Slow, fast, sideways, gunfighter swagger...

Yeah. Saints Row 2 allowed you to pick between like 10 different walks for your character. Granted since its a city simulator game with a lot of civilians, they already had to do the various walk cycles, but it was cool nonetheless. I'd definitely love to see more games do it just to do it. I find it strange that they never do, despite having many other customization options and goofy animations for the fun of it.

Rather than just using one mocap artist(or two if there are women), get 5 or 10 different people and record their walk/run cycles.

[Crator]

The only reason people would buy stuff that makes them look stupid is so they can wear it when not in serious game-play. During actual game-play, you are going to wear the things that make you're character fit the play style that you like. So if you are a sniper you are going to wear the field gear suited to hide your character in the backdrop of whatever enivironment you are fighting in. I could see SOE selling spoof gear for fun, but do you really think people will wear it while playing the game? I doubt anyone would squad with you. Meh, who knows...

[Traak]

But they don't have to be visible to anyone else but themselves.

So videos of the TR PWNing with his skull bass-guitar and KISS outfit, replete with 12" platform shoes would make it to youtube, but what we would see in combat is just the familiar set of normal-looking options.

But... wait, no third person, so there wouldn't be any point in having some nutty costume that no one else could see, because you couldn't see it either!

I guess that solves that.

I think people want to have the ridiculous outfits to wear to preen and strut in front of others, and really rub it in when they kill someone *you were just killed by that weirdo in the flasher coat and pink stockings*. Or whatever.

Since we can't see our player anyway, and God knows, the rest of the community isn't interested in seeing him/her/shim/it/whatever, then I don't really see any point in the customizations.

[Crator]

Customizations that make sense, for the battle field, I'm all for. Just the silly stuff, yes, I agree completely with Traak.

[CutterJohn]

Silly PS universe. Breaks the Laws of Thermodynamics, but not the Laws of Fashion.

[Talek Krell]

Originally Posted by Crator

All the capes I've seen in MMO games I've never really liked. They just don't look real.

I think the problem is that games don't generally put much effort into it. Ends up looking like you're wearing a sheet of colored cardboard. Unfortunately doing it properly is probably pretty expensive, and I don't know how to fix that one.

[Xyntech]

The only real way to do it properly is to have it behave like a real cape. That may take more money, but what it really takes is more processing power to calculate the physics.

Do we really want to have optional cosmetic items that have that much greater a performance impact than players who aren't wearing them? Seems like a bad idea.

Trench coats would benefit from cloth physics as well, but still can look okay without physics, so trench coats would be a lot better of an idea. Much more appropriate for most battlefield situations as well.

[Talek Krell]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

Trench coats would benefit from cloth physics as well, but still can look okay without physics, so trench coats would be a lot better of an idea. Much more appropriate for most battlefield situations as well.

As long as we're not taking our inspiration from the Matrix movies. >_>

[FastAndFree]

Originally Posted by Talek Krell

As long as we're not taking our inspiration from the Matrix movies. >_>

Okay

[Talek Krell]

Originally Posted by FastAndFree

Okay

Booya, Captain!
The mug can be a cash shop item.

[Graywolves]

Originally Posted by FastAndFree

Okay

I've seen it....



....I must have it!