The RPG Sanctum - #17: Simple vs Complex Character Creation

[Rosestorm]

On this episode of the Sanctum, we explore the various elements that go into character creation. We also prepare for an almighty debate yet to come.

Listen: http://www.rpgamer.com/rpgsanctum/sanctum17.mp3
Download: http://feeds.feedburner.com/rpgamer/DJog
itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-...um/id416583261

[Gold_guardian]

The episode is not showing up on Itunes or on the rss feed

[LegendaryZoltan]

I guess your program works in stereo because the music sounded correct to me.

Roy, your voice is SO quiet compared to everyone else's. If you send me the MP3 file once you've made it, I can compress it so that there is much less variety in everyone's volume.

[Rya.Reisender]

Usually I just want my characters to progress automatically.
This is out of two reasons:
1. I don't want to think for hours about builds without actually playing (read: enjoying the game).
2. Being able to decide for a build always opens up several ways to make a useless build. Nobody ever managed to make such a system perfectly balanced no matter what decisions you take.

[Ocelot]

Whereas there are few things I love more in gaming than fiddling with character creation 'till the cows come home. I'm sure that's due to my upbringing on a steady diet of old-school PC RPGs and PnP adventures, but I also love customization in general. I'm very much looking forward to KoA: Reckoning because of its unique character creation and progression system, and I've been planning how I'm going to create my Guild Wars 2 characters in my head for some time. It's a disease, but at least I share it with my spouse. He spends even longer than I do in character creation and likes to use global name databases or fantasy name generators to name his characters.

[Rosestorm]

The episode is not showing up on Itunes or on the rss feed

The feed is up, I posted it really late yesterday, so it sometimes takes a while for it to appear on feedburner or itunes to read it and add it to the list. It should appear in itunes in a few hours.

[VonBeardly]

That opening tune is really really beautiful.

[LegendaryZoltan]

That opening tune is really really beautiful.

Thanks. The ending music is the "full version" of the opening part.

Rya, I think Kingdoms of Amalur will be the game to get. The creator said that he wants to make it so that no matter the character you make, you can beat the game. Even jacks of all trades.

[Rosestorm]

I personally can't wait for Amalur

[Fowl Sorcerous]

god, you are such nerds trying to undermine each-other. and you're all greasy or fat.

[sirsniffy]

I would love to know what you guys think about the fact that Western developers still cannot adequately render long hair in character creation models. You see ponytails, buns, short hair, bald, braids, etc...but nobody has been able to render long flowing hair that moves realistically. We've seen shoulder length, but that's about it.

I always want to create a female character model with LONG hair, but they are never available. I suppose you could argue that since most of the settings are medieval (with likely poor women), the women would not technically have long lush hair. And for space personnel in the future, it would not be practical for the females to have "Real Housewives" hair.

But you can't really argue that, since I doubt dreadlocks or cornrows were available then either.

I look at a lot of Korean and other 'Asian' developed MMOs and it seems like they can render realistic long hair. So what's their secret, and why have U.S. and other "Western" developers not discovered this yet? Is it just a case of laziness or lack of tech?

[jcservant]

I tried listening to this on my computer with external speakers but really couldn't. In order to hear Roy, I have to turn my speakers way up. But, as soon as someone else talkes, they are much louder, and I have to turn it back down. I'm not sure what's going on there And sometimes, Roy is talking at the same time as the others. I'm not sure if there's a time sync issue with the track, or it's just him talking over them. odd.

[Rosestorm]

I have purchased a new headset that should hopefully fix the issue of me sounding quieter.

[Fowl Sorcerous]

I would love to know what you guys think about the fact that Western developers still cannot adequately render long hair in character creation models. You see ponytails, buns, short hair, bald, braids, etc...but nobody has been able to render long flowing hair that moves realistically. We've seen shoulder length, but that's about it.

I always want to create a female character model with LONG hair, but they are never available. I suppose you could argue that since most of the settings are medieval (with likely poor women), the women would not technically have long lush hair. And for space personnel in the future, it would not be practical for the females to have "Real Housewives" hair.

But you can't really argue that, since I doubt dreadlocks or cornrows were available then either.

I look at a lot of Korean and other 'Asian' developed MMOs and it seems like they can render realistic long hair. So what's their secret, and why have U.S. and other "Western" developers not discovered this yet? Is it just a case of laziness or lack of tech?

rendering realistic hair is like rendering realistic fabric times a thousand in terms of difficulty (watch the bonus features on Monsters Inc to get an idea of the struggles Pixar went through for fur), it's not that its a secret it's just more effort than it's worth in a lot of cases. Furthermore, there are games that half-*** it and it looks terrible for it, I'm think of the hair-coloured ribbon-things attached to the heads of the cast of DOA4. So it's a limitation I can understand and appreciate why they keep ladies hair short-cropped.

[Zaku77]

I've got an idea for a future show. What do you all think (and the more people on this one the better) about the Final Fantasy fanboy crowd. Let me elaborate a little bit. I'm talking about the people that think the sun rises and sets around FF7, and immediately love anything with Final Fantasy in the name. The people who claim to be big into RPGs, but have never heard of/played any DQ/SMT/BoF/WA/Tales/Chrono Trigger/etc JUST Final Fantasy.

To compare it to a similar situation. I love metal. I hate it when people claim to be metal fans, and when asked further they say they like "uhh Metallica, and Ozzy". That is not a metal fan. That's a person that has heard a couple of mainstream songs, from a couple of mainstream bands, and is now touting them-self as a metal head. I suppose I am saying that Final Fantasy is the Metallica of RPGs.

This mentality of many folks that I know has caused me to attach a negative stigma around FF even though I really like many of the games. It bothers me for them to go say what the hell is Dragon Quest, or have to almost beat them over the head to get them to try Chrono Trigger simply because it lacks the "Final Fantasy" in the title. I finally got a buddy to pick up DQ IX and Chrono Trigger now that he has a DS. He had just started 'em up, and immediately threw 'em down when he found out there was a Final Fantasy IV on it because "It's a good proper Final Fantasy with the story! and blah blah blah". This is irritating to me! haha


I suppose the topic could be: What is your stance on this? Does this bother you, if so to what extent. Does it affect your view of the Final Fantasy series. and etc etc. I'm not sure I formulated my thoughts on this perfectly, but I reckon you'll be able to get the gist of it.