Dev Blog 2: More Character Customization

By Pinpointerror @ January 25, 2013 at 6:00am

54 Comments »

• freerunmagi @ May 6th, 2013 9:47PM

  I feel like besides appearance, there isn't much customization. One of the things I love most about D

• freerunmagi

  Most about D

• madblooddoll @ Feb 9th, 2013 6:28PM

  I don't like we can't customize our armor/clothing right from the start. The game really is a step-back from other cryptic games. I would rather play DDO since I can do a bit more. Also the eyes in Neverwinter look cross-eyed at times. I kind of wish they'd have gone another direction with the art. Also, the camera you can only control after pressing B. It's really all disappointing. In the cg trailer the characters look good, but in the game it's some other artstyle entirely. Also the developer told me straight out on twitter everything could be solo/duo'd but he lied.

• kharov @ Feb 7th, 2013 7:37AM

  and please PLEASE... dont let the game look like a manga anime rippoff from wow. I cherished the "norse european look" of the neverwinter world, the tinge of dark mythology and the certain flavour of rough.. lets say, slightly barbaric world ala conan. if it looks like a COMIC, the whole concept is broken. make it EPIC, not funny. if you need funny, make another game alltogether: COMIC ADVENTURES or such (with real TOON looks. but dont make neverwinter funny. part of its charme IS the impending mystery and doom cliche.

• kharov

  and back to my wererats idea... how about give the beasts a kind of "call ally" ability, like swarm of rats, or wolves pack, or a swarm of bats, as crowd control/summoned allies with a certain flair of skittering, squeaking and growling animals. anbother cool idea would be.. spells you can make yourself, if youre a mage type. like... generic bolts or walls or blast radius effect with a certain power level (as per level) and an elemental power linked (locked to it once made, perhaps including alchemy to make "symbols, runes, foci" or such. the runes especially would fit the norse background of the neverwinter nights. how abbout some RUNE MASTER spell class who needs to craft runes and such to cast spells? like some viking shaman type with animal furs and chainmail (kinda norse priest with limited spells but good combat ability). ok thats it for me now. no more ideas at the momenrt. hope I wasnt walking on yer nerves. (and get me WERERATS as player race... so I can make minions of some npcs and found my own pack and clan or such.)

• garamhella

  Absolutely agree, this is D

• kharov @ Feb 7th, 2013 7:28AM

  It would be fantastic if the WERE CREATURES (wolf, rat and perhaps bat (for flying)) would be available as playable races/classes, or at least added like "get bitten by them and choose then if you go for a cure or become one of them". perhaps one coulde do both, like bornb shapeshifters and infected as two pathes to the same powers. I would like the werewolves look like "van helsing" werewolf, and the wererats like those nasty skaven from "warhammer". real beasty and such. not the bigheaded comic reliefs they seemed to be in many games like original neverwinter nights 1.

• kharov

  I forgot: perhaps the were beasts can be linked in as quest gained... a werewolf encounter in a dark wooded land area, or a wererat encounter in the sewers (while rescuing someone or retrieving stuff the reats stole). perhaps that can even be built up to a "secret society" thing for future quest lines. just mentioning. the possibilities of shapeshifters as intrigue figues are great. like the "charming rogue who helped you around a while" turns out to be a nasty rat traitor, or in turn betrays the evil guy in the end and frees the characters from a lethal trap. something like TWIST PLOT, TWIST again. and offers to make them "part of his pack." like linked to the local thieves guild.

• razmaximus @ Feb 5th, 2013 11:07PM

  Hope theres a good option to heavily create the look you want. Alot of games never give enough options to make a unique character look leaving many characters looking very similar. Really cant wait till The 8th to see what the game has to offer! Its going to be very exciting!

• mok33

  It would be nice if they removed the NDA on the 8th.

• scruffyfox14 @ Feb 5th, 2013 5:59PM

  I use amazing a lot more than I should.

• scruffyfox14 @ Feb 5th, 2013 5:59PM

  Also it'd be frikkin epic if you guys could include the stories of Drizzt and Jarlaxle and etc.... Like somehow we meet them in the game, or interact with them or the same environments or something, that'd be amazing. I've read every Drizzt book starting from The Dark Elf Trilogy up to Gauntylgrym, and thats what im currently reading. If you guys included the background of RA Salvatore and Drizzt and all that that'd be amazing!

• scruffyfox14 @ Feb 5th, 2013 5:54PM

  Please please please please have customization options such as Champions Online, I believe that that'd really make this game stand out from the others. I get tired of walking around with the same armor as everyone else, I wanna be unique. The customization in Champions Online was amazing, if they could pull the same thing off but with the Dungeons and Dragons background, it'd be amazing!

• solkanis1 @ Feb 4th, 2013 1:47PM

  Please have it so we can Customize what our clothes and Armor look like. It has yet to be done on the scale of champions online in a fantasy game. Being able to create the look of the armor, robes, etc that my character wears has great appeal. This was an awesome feature in champions (never played STO). For Example a Fighter whose left arm has a Plate Pauldron, a plate Rerebrace, plate Vambrace, and plate Gauntlet. A Chain Shirt for his Chest and just a Bracer and leather glove on the right arm....etc. You get the idea I hope. Finding cool looking magic armor in game is awesome. But lets use that dreaded game WoW for an example. You have 100 people that are playing the same class and all get that armor. Now you have 100 people with the exact same look other than hair, face etc running around. I don't know about you but I stop feeling like I'm running around in a magical world with a unique toon. What has always been missing in a fantasy mmo is completely designing how your character looks. If Someone doesn't want to go through all that trouble they can for example pick a Control Wizard and then hit random for the clothes. In my opinion this would set this mmo far ahead of any other fantasy mmo out there.

• whiterabbi9999

  I second this. It would make Neverwinter the best MMO out there in my opinion

• sylatra @ Feb 1st, 2013 6:17PM

  This game is to make it different from all the other MMO games out there..I've played EQ2 and based on what you say by altering your look is like making this much like EQ2. This MMO is suppost to be seperate from that. I am sure you will not be disappointed by how the avatars look once this game is released.

• ravenblood82 @ Jan 29th, 2013 2:23PM

  Give me beta, I'm going CRAZY!!!!

• amazingproton @ Jan 28th, 2013 3:35PM

  I really hope you guys fix some of the hair on this game... The floating strands are not cool.

• amazingproton

  Champions online had a good selection, but not always the right selection, and there were clipping errors a lot of the time

• amazingproton

  Floating strands as in Clipping.. like pieces of hair entering the body or armor, and fragments floating out from bits and pieces of armor or body.

• remykat @ Jan 27th, 2013 8:22PM

  Amazing, simply amazing. Pinpoint, thank you for the wonderful update. To the people complaining keep something in mind. If you want to play Dungeons and Dragons, pull out your books and enjoy. Or maybe pick up DnD Online and get your fix that way. I haven't touched tabletop since 2nd Edition and I'm proud to look forward to this game. Why? Because it's bringing to life, in splendid detail, the world of Forgotten Realms. So the character customization looks like other games, i guess that's the price we have to pay for being able to play in this absolutely phenomenal realm. And for those looking for lore, I beg you to take a look at the dozens of books already surrounding this name. Hey look, here's a link to help you on your way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels ; So instead of shooting our Devs down and showing them glaring disrespect, how about some constructive support hmm? Good job, and keep up the good work Devs!

• neuroelf

  probably the gameplay/lore etc is amazing. but i would have so much loved if they would have been able to translate the d

• neuroelf

  the dungeon and dragons 4th ed rules into a realt time mmo format. i just feel reading this blog that they didn't care (because they put no effort into it) to keep it as close as possible to the pen and paper ruleset, like baldur's gate and other games by these devs did many years ago and were probably the most successful dungeon and dragon games ever.

• remykat

  To be honest, you may be right, but this is also just starting to go into beta. Changes can and, more than likely, will be made. Who's to say this customization system won't be played with by the devs? Before thinking these guys don't care, it might be more feasible to take the blogs with a grain of salt and see the system for itself before you make that judgement. I could very well agree with you on their apathetic attitude if I were at all predisposed toward that train of thought. Luckily, I'm not, so I will sit back, hope I get into the Beta, and see exactly how things play out for us. As far as 4th Ed is concerned... 3rd Edition ruined Tabletop DnD for me but then, being a 31 year old classic gamer might be the only reason for that.

• ravenblood82 @ Jan 27th, 2013 2:57PM

  All the info I have heard so far makes me very excited. C'mon beta!!!!!

• nitchin @ Jan 27th, 2013 9:12AM

  Kind of disappointed I guess I expected to play dungeons and dragons not another fantasy MMO with swords and spells. I could be wrong and I do hope I am wrong but with this post and some of the others it looks like they are falling into the same ole same ole

• nephiac @ Jan 27th, 2013 9:08AM

  Considering that this is a free game (with pretty good graphics and gameplay footage for being free) I ad definitely excited for all of these options (granted they seem a bit standard, but I wouldn't expect anything less) especially since it's put in the Forgotten Realms world. I wan't to be like Drizzt or Jarlaxle so they better have similar gear in this game!! >:D

• kcforce68 @ Jan 27th, 2013 9:05AM

  This dev blog entry on character customization is weird and makes me concerned about the direction of the game. I thought is was going to be built based at least roughly on 4e DnD what is the stuff about stats like Recovery, Defense, and Deflect none of which have anything to do with DnD of any version.

• lokiare @ Jan 26th, 2013 9:54PM

  Gotta say this is looking more and more like a WotC money grab, like most of their current line up. I'm sorry but this is sounding like a generic MMORPG with the neverwinter artwork slapped onto it. Probably buggy like crazy too. We'll see when it comes out...

• zadenados @ Jan 26th, 2013 8:45PM

  i just can not wait for this to be released. it combines all the aspects of a great mmo with the fantastic lore of an exceptional book series. it keeps the old aspects of the original D

• mjollnorson @ Jan 26th, 2013 6:12AM

  Although the description of the stats reminds me of Guild Wars 2, it also reminds me of Champions Online. In both cases the character stats are affected by gear. I would anticipate that the player has the option to keep a particular look of armor, robes, etc. one it's been found. This is something Cryptic does with Champions Online and it would fall in into their game design scope. The thing that excites me the most about what I've seen so far is how the avatar interacts with the equipment their wearing. I have yet to see any clipping of shoulders through shoulder pads. I've seen this occur in Guild Wars 2. I look forward to seeing more of how pretty the environment looks and how well made the avatars are.

• galdor302 @ Jan 25th, 2013 11:01PM

  Although I'm still interested in this game, it doesnt feel like Dungeons and Dragons to me, it sounds more like WoW. That being said, I could be looking at this wrong way. I'm not a huge fan of the 4th edition ruleset so that can be clouding my judgement, I am still going to happily try this game, being a big fan of Forgotten Realms. Good luck to the development team and keep the info flowing to your fans :)

• jimhon @ Jan 25th, 2013 6:59PM

  Yeah, maybe I'm being too harsh. I mean its not like the stats system is and wont work. It's True Neutral, maybe. Or is that term gone :P It should still be awesome fun. Great dungeons, great action gameplay, well balanced, engaging encounters. I'll be too busy having fun playing to worry about silly stat issues. :)

• jimhon @ Jan 25th, 2013 5:57PM

  I feel trolled after reading this blog. What world does this guy live in? Yeaaaah, let's pretend Neverwtiner is the only game that exists and talk about standard RPG features like they're inovation in customisation. This "Item Level" system, seen in every single MMORPG after Ultima Online, offers you no customisation at all. What am I going to do; take INT or CHA on a fighter in order to be unique? With class and level restriction on items I doubt that would even be possible. All guardian gear will have guardian stats. If its stronger in crit it's balanced by being weaker in another area all within the ilvl limits. It's like putting a square peg in a square hole. You pretty much get a little scale between "more crit" and "more power" that work out to about the same damage. People will make an addon to work out "gearscore" based off level requirement and rarity text colour and start requesting it before allowing people to join groups. Pretty soon all your gear, all that "customisation", will be accurately represented with 1 number. Why not just say it like it is? Oh, cos it sounds boring and like every other game? World of Warcraft's success has been the worst thing possible to happen to MMORPGs evolution as a genre. Everyone just copying the cash cow. Safe, market researched emulation posing as design.

• neuroelf @ Jan 25th, 2013 9:23AM

  i know whats the forum bug now! you cant write the "and" symbol between D "and" D. its jamming everything. nice!

• mok33

  Ampersand is the devil.

• runamonk @ Jan 25th, 2013 9:13AM

  It's maybe time to beef up the marketing department a little bit.

• neuroelf

  could be helpful! but hey ruined it a lot for me by going so far away from the d

• neuroelf

  forum bug again; ...from the D and D 4 ed ruleset. its looking like gw2 now.

• neuroelf

  forum bug again; ...from the D and D 4 ed ruleset. its looking like guild wars now.