Face customization suggestions

So, I've been playing around with the new male avatar in the character editor. I'm pleased somewhat with the ability of the features to be molded, but have a list of suggestions I'd like to offer. There are a couple of obvious things I could add like ear position and ear size, but there's no need to mention those and I don't know how important they are anyway.

Here we go; mockups made by me through photoshopping,

1. NOSTRIL POSITION


I was trying to figure out what was making me unhappy about the default nose, and realized it was that it was flared a bit and had a bit of a snarl to it. If there were a slider to control the nostril position, players could set it in a different position in relation to the nose tip, which in turn would give it more or less of a flare.

The first picture shows how it would look at a low setting, which would give it a highly relaxed look, and the last picture shows how it would look at a high setting, which would give it a highly flared look. I would probably give it a slightly relaxed look, such as in the second image. By changing this setting along with the nose tip position and nose bridge protrusion, a player could go to the extreme of creating an upturned nose. The current default nose is shown in the middle, marked as 'neutral.'

2. FOREHEAD SLOPE


The default forehead slopes a bit back, as you can see in the middle picture that's marked 'neutral.' Players would benefit by being able to change the forehead slope to reflect what they want for their character.

The last picture shows how it would look at a high setting, where the forehead is coming up straight from the brow, with no slope. The first picture shows how it would look at a low setting, the forehead pushed back even further than the default.

3. JAW HEIGHT


A problem comes up with most character customization editors when you adjust some of the features to be smaller, such as shrinking the eyes or shortening the length of the nose. To balance out the face, you normally want to change the position of the facial features a bit so they're closer together. But because the shape of the head doesn't change, the forehead and chin end up looking longer and the facial features look crammed into the center of the long face. Because of that, and because people have natural variations in their jaw size, it makes sense to create a jaw height slider.

The first picture shows a very big jaw, how it would look at a low setting, and the last, a very weak jaw, how it would look at a high setting. The middle, marked 'neutral', is the current default, and it tends to look a little bigger looking at the face from the front, rather than from the profile.

4. FOREHEAD HEIGHT


Just as the facial customizations described above can lead to a long chin, they can also lead to a tall forehead. Because people have different shaped faces, it makes sense to give players a slider for this as well. The first picture shows a low forehead, and the last a high forehead, with the current default marked 'neutral', which again, tends to look a little bigger looking at the face from the front, rather than from the profile.

5. NECK THICKNESS


I suppose that the thick neck of the current avatar represents some muscle mass, and the avatar's body is pretty muscular. One could warrant that at some time when there is some player customization of how muscular his character looks -- maybe linked somehow to his strength stat -- it would also affect the girth of his neck. However, I think its also natural to have some variation here, and there usually is a neck thickness slider in games to adjust it.

The first picture shows how it would appear at a low setting, with a smaller neck girth, and the last how it would appear at a high setting, with a larger neck girth, with the current default in the middle as 'neutral.'

6. LIP TONE


No, this doesn't mean makeup!

I noticed that the current lip tone in the game is pretty pale. That's fine, no problem. In real life, differences in lip tone between person to person vary: it depends on factors like age and ethnicity. As a person gets older, he tends to lose lip color. The redness of lips also blends into different skin types differently. Players who choose lighter skin tones might want to make their lips stand out more, and players with darker skin tones might want to redden it a bit more for contrast. With that in mind, it would make sense to have a kind of transparent overlay that would be a 'secondary skin tone' that would shade the lips a bit to player preference. The 'secondary skin tone' could also affect other body features; the only relevant one I can think of though besides the lips are the nipples on the male body.

With the current lip tone in the middle, marked 'neutral', I showed a range of lip tones ranging from a dark pink-red to a lighter pink-red, and a dark purple-red to a lighter purple-red.

7. EYEBROW DENSITY


There have been raging debates on the forum, I know, about eyebrow thickness for the male avatar! Should they be sparse, or should they be thick? Offering a slider for density would allow them to set it for themselves. Players could make them denser , or make them near but disappear.

The images show a progression from a very sparse eyebrow to a very dense one, with the current eyebrows shown in the middle, marked 'neutral.'

8. CUSTOM EYEBROWS


Even better -- or with the slider -- would be the ability for players to select custom eyebrows like they're able to select custom facial hair. After all, a wizard might want eyebrows that are wild and bushy, and a sorcerer might want eyebrows that are wiry. Allowing players to pick custom eyebrows would allow them to create much more of a sense of character personality and uniqueness.

9. MIX-AND-MATCH BEARDS AND MUSTACHES


The same would be true with the ability to mix-and-match different beards and mustaches. In the current editor, the same mustache is duplicated for a couple of different beard styles, with and without mustache, but I'd suppose most players would want to match those beards with different mustaches. Why not allow this? Its better to offer players that flexibility instead of populating the list of facial hair with a long, never-ending list that they have to scroll through. Its a very easy way to create character uniqueness and personality.

If the plan is to add more choices from later on: never fear, there are always more types of beards and more types of mustaches. They don't need to come in a pair. The above graphic shows a dashing mustache and a trimmed mustache, combined with a goatee and with a full beard.

10. AGING FEATURES


The current avatar is very wide-eyed, which doesn't work if you want to give your character an aged look, or even just a world-weary look.

The probably most important feature would be a slider that would let you adjust the heaviness of the eyelids, to create hooded eyelids. Players might use this for younger characters, to just show a more wizened appearance. The eyelids should be aligned with the brow more than they are with the eye, so they can sag over the eye more when its turned. Then, there might be a slider to create bags underneath the eyes, creases by the nose, furrows on the brow, and creases by the lips.

Now you're avatar is ready to be a wizard!

 

And a button on each panel that just adjusts each slider randomly for those of us who are really indecisive.

 

Great suggestions.

 

~Keeping Both Styles, Old & New Available~
Just as was with the Old Knight's Home now on sale with only slight differences, I would like our game to also preserve the work that's been done on our Old Style Bodies & Faces, through having an option within the character creation screen.
We've all now seen how drastically different both Old and New Style can be (female being unknown), and to throw away the work that's been done on our Old Style Avatars would be a shame after investing so much into it, "but also keeping down any revolt that could come from player dissatisfaction"

~The New~
It's difficult to change the newer Avatar's face, and anything would be an improvement beyond what we have, because no matter how we change that face, it still looks related to the original it starts with, meaning that we'll all seem related in bloodline if nothing is changed.

The aging is a great feature, as well as those eyebrows, wow!
Great Work as Always Redfish!

~Time Lord~

 

For the purposes of mixing-and-matching beards and mustaches, anything that's not a mustache would be in the same category as a beard. So you could mix mustaches with a soul patch, or mix mustaches with mutton chops.

Eyelids inspired by these,



Need to look like an old wizard.

Eyebrows,

 

Excellent suggestions. This kind of feature is the one i like the most because i think it's more defining than the width of my jawbones or the height of my mouth. It may require some kind of flag to control dialogue because currently, most NPCs treat you like a young man

Also, I agree with Time lord that the sliders don't offer enough configuration to create a character from a different race or just with odd features. Let's see how this improves!

 

Yes! please really need more customization.

 

I agree with all of the above and I'm going to summarize my thoughts for improvement which have already been iterated months and months ago.

My suggestions:

Reboot the base model for males and females completely.
The Avatar's rear looks strange and out of shape now with whatever was done to his model.
When running, the legs move bizarrely, bow-legged and floppy feet.
Add more colors, shapes, styles and severity to sliders for all the facial customization
PLEASE get rid of the five o'clock shadow as the default "clean". Add it as facial hair.
Physics for hair and beards, please.
I would also say reboot the facial hair completely because it seriously looks like is was scribbled on with pencil. (Also, most of it no longer fits around the mouth properly. E.G. the mustaches rest ON the upper lip instead of above it.)
Edit: I also like Redfish's idea of mixing and matching mustache and beard. Under facial hair, just have separate sub categories for beard, mustache and sideburns!

Here is an example of what I know Unity 5 is capable of from another indie MMO I support (and this was early in development). The below character creation has since become even more comprehensive (and the game isn't even in pre-Alpha yet). The facial demo starts at :55. The base model and skin texture is gorgeous and the variety I've seen so far on randomly generated chars leaves much to be desired with the limited features we have in Shroud.



And pardon my lateness to this party. I was binging on Overwatch.

 

A simple customization would be different colors for hair and beards.