Character Phenotypes

[Sakar]

If this has been discussed and I missed it in my search, please reply or PM a link/links.

I know it is very early in devolpment to be concerned with customizing character appearance, but \"in the future\" if I could see one thing added I\'d like to see \"phenotypes\" - thin, normal, buff and \'overweight\'; or whichever ones make sense, or some combination that can be easily applied to all races.

Why do I want to see this? I feel it makes roleplaying in a graphical environment easier, and smoother. Roleplaying that your character is an obese merchant who is constantly out of breath after going from one store to another is easier to understand when your character looks the part. It also makes the races less \"flat\"- not all male humans should look like guards, and most spellcasters probably wouldn\'t have broad shoulders after slouching over books and studying glyphs. With male Enki, their appearance isn\'t as slender and agile-looking as an Enkidukai urchin boy would be. Kran might be an exception to the phenotypes. Klyros would look awkward flying AND carrying a bit of a gut. Elves are known for being lean or slender.

I understand it is still possible to roleplay such things as an overweight merchant, but with character models sitting in front of a player the ability to suspend disbelief and smoothly accept the environment becomes strained.

[zanzibar]

I agree.  In addition to race, there should be body shape, face variations, and hair style and colour.  This is on the same list as making armour visible when worn, and adding clothes to the game (especially cloaks IMO).

[Induane]

mmmmmmm Cloaks...

/me drools.

[darkw00t]

i mentioned the overweight thing in another post, i reckon it a good idea as it makes it more realistic it should also make hard to do certain skills as well

[Bnm85]

I definitely would like a variety for visual appearance but I don\'t agree that it should impact stats or speed of raising those stats. Sure, it may look weird for some combinations but also kind of fun.

[Rage McCloud]

Well obviously this is already planned as during CC you see the face,haircolor,eyecolor,etc. by the name and such... but yes it is a good idea...

[Sakar]

Originally posted by Rage McCloud
Well obviously this is already planned as during CC you see the face,haircolor,eyecolor,etc. by the name and such... but yes it is a good idea...

I was already aware of hair/skin/etc options, but specifically a character\'s body build is what interests me.

Having it affect stats brings up more coding work, and would discourage newer players from having fun making a non-standard appearance. Easiest solution for this if it really would be odd, like an overweight Klyros, would be \"simply\" to disable that phenotype.

A character that looks harmless, say an emaciated Dermorian wearing rags, might be an experienced player with high strength. This could be considered not that the character is actually strong, but is skilled enough to utilize their strength more efficiently- hence, \"experienced\". An agile character that is \'large\' is not actually unusual. One of my friends is, hrm, \"big\", and he is fast. And can kick. He\'s scary even if he\'s only mock fighting. But I digress...

These are simply more examples of how roleplay can be \"spiced up\" and in an easier way; if you constantly have to describe your character\'s appearance when someone new enters the area, it detracts from your ability to continue smoothly and uses up more time.

(I also seem to remember at one time human female models, and hair and outfit colors? Or am I crazy? I hadn\'t played PlaneShift in a year or two.)

[zanzibar]

My understanding is that they had to redo all the old models, and they haven\'t gotten around to many of them yet.

[Antranianni]

Phenotypes would be GREAT, they would add so much depth to a character, making it possible to get away from that all beautiful, muscular standard hero cliche.

But phenotypes also require LOTS of work - unless they find some way to automatically convert models to the different phenotypes on the fly, they\'ll have to do every outfit for every race in every phenotype. That\'ll be also quite heavy on the game download and all...

Still, maybe they really could find a way to do it on the fly (requiring only a single model the client could work with) - we had a nifty program back at the NWN comunity that helped converting models to the larger phenotype, yet last I worked with that it still required a few minor tweakings after converting a model

[Rage McCloud]

Yes and if you run around a lot and kill monsters you becomse strong and if you sit down and if you dont run much you become fat and your endurance goes down...