https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
Spending hours on character create screen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
Took me an hour to design a few of mine.
because I was trying to go for an ancestral aesthetic, as I kind of liked the idea of my monk finally hanging up her obsidian armor and settling down to make some sort of family, 3 of my characters share a similar end name I guess you could call them her great-great-great grand daughters.
p.s now I spend a few minutes on the log in screen just spinning them around for no apparent reason or purpose, they must get quite dizzy in there.
(edited by aerial.7021)
Yep! Although usually I have a character planned out to the tee (either in my mind or from previous character creation “doodling”).
Sometimes I’ll create it, see how it looks in the world and then delete it and try again. I’m now not to bothered if I’m not completely satisfied with a character- from BL chests and achievements I’ve received a few make-over kits.
If only I can be so lucky :P
Usually I take forever creating a character (especially the ones with billions of options, like sylvari), and then I end up buying a makeover kit anyway after 40 levels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
heh… i cant say i spend that long on the creation screen.. though i admit when i use a makeover kit to perfect the look of my chars it MIGHT take 2 hours or more and often results in aborting, recolouring the armor and trying again with the makeover kit till im 100% pleased XD
Not quite that long, but I do have a google-doc planning out my next several alts. =P
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632
I do tend to take a while. I try to remember to take a series of screen shots of the sliders once I’m satisfied, a leftover habit from beta when I knew I’d be remaking several alts come launch. That can also be useful if one wants to “multiclass,” ie make the same character with a similar name but a different profession (roleplayers will do such things if it fits their story).
I have to say, the more options in creation, the longer one takes. In games like CoH, AoC, and AA, I’ve just had to be aware my creation time would be over an hour. Though I dislike much about AA, I do love the creator (and especially that you can save your design as you go — GW2 would benefit from a “save settings” in creation, imo).
Does anyone else do this?
It took me literally 20 minutes just to pick a GLOW color for my sylvari.
Twenty minutes!!!!
Usually I don’t spend more than 10mins if that, but I get in game to see how the toon looks, especially with sylvari, then I may end up remaking 2-3 times before satisfied. However, I have completely stopped making alts, I have levelled and equipped 17 toons, cycling through and remaking some, deleting some, I have 11 now and with the new levelling system, screw that PITA.
smack..Wut?…smack…smack…
Or a “save favorite”, lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
Spend all that time picking out glow, fur colors/patterns, tattoos. Then cover it all up with armor so it doesn’t show and no or few options to get it to show. :/
Been there. Done that.
A few people I know and I sometimes go into a game’s char creation screen without the intention of actually creating a character to play. Sometimes we have contests. I remember the burliest-manliest asura contest we did in the 3rd beta weekend.
It’s truly sad that it’s necessary to jump through hoops to get all of the options in GW2, due to the stuff added exclusively to makeover kits.
It takes me quite a long while to pick the names
Names aren’t so bad for me because I find it much easier to work on them in my head. I’m not a very visual person (I think more in words), so choosing the way the character looks is much harder. I have to see it before I know I like it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
Not in the character creation screen, maybe 15 minutes on a character I’m making. But before I make a character I spend 30 minutes to an hour planning their Fire Emblem character cosplay
I do! I’ve lost so many hours to the character creation screen… Then you get in game and before you know it, you’ve lost an entire day to the wardrobe!
I spend whole beta weekend to create perfect look:-D
Tekkit’s Workshop
And I thought I was a character junkie :P Yeah I spend forever in character creation, then test play, delete and recreate… And then I change my mind about something at level 25 and delete and recreate again (more fun replaying than getting a make over kit and anyway it’s usually the name I want to change!)
Most time i spent in character creation was in Perfect World .. after that Aion .. the options in GW2 sadly are not that great.
If i had any intentions to play Archeage i think i could also spent quite some time in that editor .. wish we had something like that here.
Best MMOs are the ones that never make it. Therefore Stargate Online wins.
And I thought I was a character junkie :P Yeah I spend forever in character creation, then test play, delete and recreate… And then I change my mind about something at level 25 and delete and recreate again (more fun replaying than getting a make over kit and anyway it’s usually the name I want to change!)
I’ve changed names twice so far. Once by completely recreating the character (though I forgot his fur pattern!) and the other I decided to get a name change.
I’m still so, so tempted to un-pun my main character’s name. >_>
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632
Usually it takes my husband like 2 mins max to make a character.. Then he goes afk waiting on me for an hour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
I take forever and a day when I create sylvari. Other races? Eh, maybe a little long with charr or something. But all my salads have to be PERFECT or they end up getting deleted and remade half a dozen times before I’m content. >:I
I personally don’t think character creator has enough options-you’ll see alot of female sylvari, diff skin colors but same face- no matter how you edit a face, it will look exactly the same as the other person who uses it. I’ve always thought we should be able to add makeup, change eye/nose/lip shapes but presets available who don’t need or care for a real character creator.
I used to love doing this.
Soraya Mayhew – Thief
Melissa Koris – Engie – SF for Life!
I don’t spend very long on char creation usually (though sometimes I do). I spent most my time on a name though haha
I personally don’t think character creator has enough options-you’ll see alot of female sylvari, diff skin colors but same face- no matter how you edit a face, it will look exactly the same as the other person who uses it. I’ve always thought we should be able to add makeup, change eye/nose/lip shapes but presets available who don’t need or care for a real character creator.
I really like that one sylvari face with the tree in the middle… but it’s ruined because that one looks sad all the time.
So… I used one of the 3 most used faces. Oh well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
While I get frustrated with the options in GW2’s character creator, I still think it’s the best I’ve seen. Why? Simply because the end result tends to be the best looking character in any game ever.
I love having options, I’ve played so many games with sliders and such. But the end result is usually just taking something that looks “alright” and making it look “decent.”
GW2 is more of a taking something that looks “very very good” and tweaking in uniqueness.
I give credit to presets. We’re not all stuck at the exact same starting point. Granted, there are many situations where all of the presets tend to miss the specific things we’re looking for. I still find it better and more diverse than so many other games.
Well I come from wow, and if people haven’t played that, then let me tell you: there are NO sliders. You pick your face, your hair, hair color, jewelry/facial hair, skin/fur color, horns/ears/etc. and that’s it. It’s really quite bad :P
Also there are very few options as far as most of the above goes, as well. XD
So I’m pretty impressed with GW creation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
Guilty as charged.
…that moment when you spend half an hour perfecting a look and then realize after creation that you never checked the look with the lighting turned off and now your skin tone just doesn’t look right at all.
I wish they would tell me what the undertones are for each skin color option LOL. It is a chore sometimes trying to figure out what I’m working with.
Tha was the character i spent most time on .. and from time to time i always tried
to make her a little better since you can save and load the appearance there
Best MMOs are the ones that never make it. Therefore Stargate Online wins.
Guilty as charged.
…that moment when you spend half an hour perfecting a look and then realize after creation that you never checked the look with the lighting turned off and now your skin tone just doesn’t look right at all.
I wish they would tell me what the undertones are for each skin color option LOL. It is a chore sometimes trying to figure out what I’m working with.
Ugh I do that all the time with sylvari. I get all the way done, enter the name and go, and then it’s like……. forgot to choose a glow color.
I wish I were one of those people who, at that point, could just look at their character, shrug, and say, “meh, glow looks fine” and move on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
It pays off by taking your time on the Character Creation Screen.
For example:
- The Sylvari can be a challenge to get the glow and colors right, especially if you consider possible future armor looks.
- Hair style is also rather important. My Human Necromancer has long straight hair…which unfortunately clips horribly through many chest and shoulder armor types.
- Norns…can be gruesomely proportioned, I found that it helps to spend some time matching head size options along with body types to allow for a more “human” looking character. I cringe when I see these bulky Norns with heads too small for their bodies.
- Noses, brows and eyes! If you want to avoid being a clone, take roads less traveled and change default faces by adjusting eye, brow and nose options.
- Names are very important to me, I spend a lot of time on them, there’s simply no excuse not to be satisfied with a name before finalizing the character creation process. For those that need help, there’s a plethora of name generation sites on the web:
http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Names
(edited by Kuldebar.1897)
During the Beta... I literally lived in the character customization. My first main character took almost 2 hours to finish it, and then make up a name that I would not regret after a while etc. etc... :P
These days, I use same face, body size, haircolour, eye colour - just different hairstyles, to all of my characters.
Except for Sylvari and Charr characters - All of them are different.
Yeah, it’s mainly the sylvari and charr. Earlier I created a human and it took me maybe 5 minutes total (I already had the name).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
Yes,I spend a lot of time on character creation ,result?
All my human female characters uses the same face.
The minor changes,like eye color,nose bridge,etc..unfortunately are not noticiable,so…Unfortunately everyone looks the same to me. The only major change is the face,for example,I’ve never seen that granny human female face on anyone,but all the other ones are equally used,and there are 2 faces that are the most used ones,which is the one I use for all my female characters.
Ugh I do that all the time with sylvari. I get all the way done, enter the name and go, and then it’s like……. forgot to choose a glow color.
I wish I were one of those people who, at that point, could just look at their character, shrug, and say, “meh, glow looks fine” and move on.
Haha, I know, right? I’ve already used a makeover kit on a human female toon because I couldn’t get over how barbie she ended looking. It was like looking at a doll, for real.
And the norn faces… gah. I have so much trouble with their hair/face combinations.
All mine are Cosplay, once I have an idea for a character the modeling is fast, but picking/finding the outfits and what cosplay characters are good or not doable can take 40-50hrs.
ofLegends: it seems I took my character creation to a whole different level.
I am from a paper and pencil RPG background where your character creation was of paramount importance to the rest of your gaming experience. What you started out with, you were somewhat stuck with, so making a character took quite a bit of time.
Are you ready for this one? It took me Over A Year before launch day to create the 5 characters that I use today. As soon as ANet posted the proposed rules on how to create a character, I started planning.
By mid August pre-launch, I had 5 completed spread sheets with each step of the creation process filled out and ready to go.
At Zero-hour Head Start Launch Day I blew thru the creation process for all 5 characters in an hour and a half. I got slowed down a bit due to 2 of my names being already taken, luckily I had back up names for my Asuran and Sylvari, as they were only single word cannon names which I expected would get taken quickly.
Oh I am sure that the 10 minute, race to 80 types think this is nuts but hey, when I started gaming… Even the gods weren’t level 80.
So there you have it, over a year for character creation. Do I win the cookie?
P.S.
Since launch I have only made one change to any of the 5 characters. Bought a hair style kit and changed the tint of one hair color one shade box brighter.
- Names are very important to me, I spend a lot of time on them, there’s simply no excuse not to be satisfied with a name before finalizing the character creation process. For those that need help, there’s a plethora of name generation sites on the web:
http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Names
Agh, names. -_-
I’m usually pretty good with it (aside from a weeaboo lapse on my elementalist that I corrected with a contract…), but Sylvari and Asura have such pathetic naming schemes.
Especially Asura. You show me a college professor who publishes only by his/her first name, and.. well, I’ll be bloody surprised.
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632
Well, I always name my character non-lore names anyway, so, for ME at least, it’s not so hard. It’s just finding one that isn’t taken. I named my sylvari “Ettenmoor” and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t fit the lore at all, but it COULD technically be a “real name” if only nobody knows what it actually is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OWwwqPxDI
Names take the longest for me in GW2. The most time I spent on a character’s looks was on my male sylvari necro. I deleted and rerolled that one probably a dozen times before settling on a look.
City of Heroes – hoo boy. I could (and often did) spend mass quantities of time creating characters there.
Yes, I’m terrible about this. I refuse to play video games without character customization because I can’t immerse myself without feeling like the character is my own. I’ve bought so many makeover kits since I started playing this game I could probably buy another computer with the money I’ve spent on them. I’ve put so much work in to the little details of my characters faces that others probably don’t notice.
The names though.. I usually put twice as much time in to naming my character versus creating them. It’s not always the case because sometimes I can settle for names that sound alright. But generally, I can spend days trying to come up with a name for a character before actually creating them |: The name I came up with for my main character took me almost a week and it’s not even amazingly pretty sounding. I just love the meaning of it and how well it suits the lore I came up with for her.
Champion: Phantom, Hunter, Legionnaire, Genius
WvW rank: Diamond Colonel | Maguuma