SOTA Characters...Please don't stick a fork in it

With you on this one Majoria.

 

In this case the existing model proportions are completely FUBAR. Her body is contorted, out of shape and her arms look like they were smashed with a crowbar
Even the male avatars need some work in that regard.

In terms of female avatars in general I agree they should be given a proud stature worthy of an Avatar. None of this bikini bimbo Dead or Alive nonsense. I want to see battle-hardened valkyries strutting around like they own the place! (ofc distressed damsels are also ok too )

 

"Looking Good & Feeling Good";

Character creation is one of the central drawing points into creating the "You" you want to be!

I can't see having all this lawyer talk and $ spent about maps, or how I our anyone will PvP or PvE or PK.... every time some special intricate costly B$ that makes me think that I need a "Game Rule Lawyer Degree" just to be able to walk the streets of our New Britannia, "It just makes me want to puke"!

I want to look good, or at least "the way I want to look";
We place so much detail into every single piece of "Stuff" here, that I think we deserve in our personifications that same level of detail.
When my work shop station looks better than me and my house looks better than me, then there is definitely something wrong with my ingame "Me"!

I'm not saying that our game must be like every other game, but I will say that many very successful games have invested less into their gaming world and more into their character customizations and looks. I won't mention other games for comparisons here because I don't like plugging other's games here. this is our SotA and I want to like it

I also want to like, what I look like in it
You're so right majoria70 !
~Time Lord~

 

Please pardon me while I put aside an entire weekend to create my character.

Seriously though, that is sooooo dope.

 

As an aside, I never quite figured out why they picked CryEngine for Star Citizen. I can't think of what that engine offers for that type of game that is worth the hassle of CryEngine.

 

No point in talking about re-working the character creator yet; they don't really have anything but a character creator place holder yet. They're getting the main gamplay into place before focusing on that.

 

The mechanics of character creators are well-established; many games have them in varying levels of detail.

The mechanics of crafting and housing are more specific to SotA.

They're doing things in order of what has the most new mechanics to work out.

 

The thing that I suspect is going to be *really* hard for the team will be getting whatever their "final" character models are working reasonably well in a wide variety of lighting configurations. They're trying to make darkness visceral and meaningful, with less ambient light than in other games, but it will be tricky to do that without making the characters just be muddy, while at the same token not making them shine like brass when there is a lot of light.

 

The original post in this thread compares Mass Effect 3 concept art with an in game model. The in game female (Fem Shep for the win!) model is still far from perfect.



The SotA female avatar model really needs to have the arms reworked.

Sadly, often the best character models I see are fan-made mods for games like Skyrim that add nudity. There versions of those models/textures with underwear, but frequently it seems fans wanting to see nudity spend more time on great character models than what I see in games coming from professionals.

 

Variety is the spice of life
I don't want to see nudity here, but perhaps that's the base model that the artist needs to start with. Just looking at these two very different models, it is apparent that a nude model was not what they started with.

SotA is a work in progress, but I think the first model any artist should be able to first consider, is the nude, and then add some undies before we get it But I'm not a graphic artist, I'm just the critic...
~Time Lord~

 

To improve a little the models and give them variety will be good, but we have to remember that this is some kind of MMO (or at least one part of the game will be). That is very different from a single player game, even if this game have that possibility, or even mutiplayer games. Just look what happened to Conan. Most of the JRPGs doesnt have that good graphics, but they make them in a kitsch way that they look very good.

And with the housing system the computers will be already very charged. Even with tons of millions of dollars the game should be far away from Titanfall, or our computers could die (or we should play totally instanced).

 

Good looking characters are important too a good number of people. Some people will run the other way just looking at the characters displayed on the Updates page. I've seen better looking characters in the Unity website that could be used here.

 

Where's Stephen Daniele when you need him!
Here's a very rough example of where things are going wrong with the model. Note that I've tweaked the 2D image to compensate for perspective and camera angle to keep the face and ankles roughly aligned.

Even with such a rough overlay you can already see the problems with the location and shape of the hips, knees etc.


Bear in mind there are two separate factors in this discussion:
- Character models; and
- Character customisation.

The former is what I've noted above. The basic skeleton of the character.
The latter is the adjustment of the shape of certain features whilst maintaining the core human proportions. Allow too much adjustment and you end up with unnatural looking characters, which is fine for some stylised art styles, but not so great for SotA which appears to be aiming for realism.

 

lol good diagram Selbie, and thanks. **majoria claps her hands**
I just love examples when making a point. That must make me visual lol.

yes there are two things being talked about here.
I agree and each one would be needing their own system, also they'd have their own issues to be worked out,

but overall both Character Customization and the character model are of importance for the bottom line ,

and that is ........we each get a character we can be proud of ........and that SOTA has a character that is deserving of the game so they can be proud to advertise with them.
Then many will say 'hey l want to try that game' and mean it lol.

So no matter which style anyone preferred, they would be perfect for our game.. We'd just have the options for different preferences people had.

 

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LOL Thanks Caska. I do have Dev access. I have heard very vague hints and watch all videos and read, read, read and oooooh I so want to know more please.

It is a bit hard for me to wait since I feel like it is possible the characters and maybe some other features could be hurting the funding for the game, and.....yes.... I know it is not all about me lol....now where did that come from?

It must be getting late I am delusional haha, thanks for your great input and positive comments.

 

That rigged max model they just released is REALLY going to make things jump off. (Not because of me, I really suck at 3Ds but there are several people in the community and obviously on the team that will be kicking butt.) A lot of the feedback has been about getting the final skeleton. There's a lot of work ahead but great reasons to stay encouraged too. Don't give up, Majoria70. You're right about mediocre characters being a turn off to possible funders. By the way, we STILL haven't gotten the character that they pitched EQ2 with and it's been 10 years. My ranger still can't sit in a chair either.

 

You nailed it. I cant find the tread now but a few alphas ago there were complaints that the characters, female in particular, were less than natural looking and thats what we zeroed in on: torso to leg ratio is WAY off right now.

This gets another of my patented +11s.

 

I agree the characters need alot of work! but the lady in the new wedding dress on the store page is quite beautiful so I know the team can do it!

 

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Oh thanks Caska. for the bit of encouragement. I'm so glad Portalarium
heard us on this, well or maybe it was their plan all along.