Character Creation

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Abharsair
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Character Creation

#1 Post by Abharsair » Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:27 am

OK, for all of those of you who didn't have experience with out kind of character creation, what was the most confusing aspect of it? Was there something you didn't understand? Was there something which could be easier? Better explained maybe?

The reason I ask is that I created recently another test character and noticed that the character creation process could probably be a bit streamlined, and I am collecting ideas for that.
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triska
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Re: Character Creation

#2 Post by triska » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:19 am

Its been a while now since I created but to be very honest I remember it being something I could do.... Now if I can do it anyone can!! I feel therefore if you altered it perhaps next time or someone like me may struggle.

The only thing I felt bad about the creation and the tutorial is the climbing tree part where there is no way you can get up that tree and eventually give up trying to climb it and go into the game wondering how much of the tutorial you missed because you could not proceed past that point. I also wonder if some give up and dont bother proceeding to the game cause they cant seem to finish the tutorial.
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ganandorf
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Re: Character Creation

#3 Post by ganandorf » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:47 am

I think that bug was reported and fixed was it not?
(note: it was viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1067)

As well, i thought the character creation was already really simple and streamlined, to be honest i dont know how it could be streamlined even more.
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Furius
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Re: Character Creation

#4 Post by Furius » Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:37 pm

The only problem I recall - and I know this has been discussed elsewhere, and in the intervening time, perhaps even fixed already - is that tshaharks are prompted for hair color, and allowed to select attributes from the hair color group. (This is the boring version of the story about how Furius got his eyebrows).

I have noticed that this doesn't seem to bother most players of tshaharks, who seem to gravitate towards adjectives like "godlike" and "beefy-armed", rather than "happy-go-lucky" or "kitten-loving."

Delmon
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Re: Character Creation

#5 Post by Delmon » Fri Jan 16, 2009 11:22 pm

I felt like I was creating a lotr ring elf, not a weak race. to me, the stats were more important to understanding and I was bothered I didnt know enough about the different races. Other than that I thought it was easy enough and fast!

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luminier
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Re: Character Creation

#6 Post by luminier » Sat Jan 17, 2009 3:58 am

im inclinded to agree with delmon a bit here. while roleplay is enforced, pvp and fighting is a big part of the game, and it's important to know who is a warrior and who isn't. generalizing here of course, not everyone wants to be a warrior.
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Arogarn
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Re: Character Creation

#7 Post by Arogarn » Sat Jan 17, 2009 1:31 pm

Easiest and most convenient way to streamline character creation as it is now:
Put a button there, reading "Create clueless 4-year-old brat" .. because that's essentially what we get, no matter if the description reads "500 year old elven herbalist", "25 year old tshaharks warrior veteran" or whatever.

There are (or at least, it is supposed that there are ..) no levels in the game - but why do we get the typical level-1 adventurer newbies like those which are goobled up by the city guard in every bad pen'n'paper rpg ... ?

I would rather like to see a character creation like in e.g. ADOM, where race, previous education and job does make a difference for the skill(level)s the char actually starts with. Would remove the need for senseless grinding and give the chars more personality.

Would be glad to help with coding this, but I only did some F77 years ago, and some TCL sometimes now and then. My experience with C(++) is limited to owning a book "C++ an introduction" ... maybe if some admin could give me some code sample, so I can have a look if there's a chance I could familiarise myself with LPC within some reasonable amount of time ...

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Delia
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Re: Character Creation

#8 Post by Delia » Sat Jan 17, 2009 2:38 pm

That is an excellent suggestion! Though players new to the game would require some documentation to read when creating a character then so they know what is what, where and why.

In one MUD there was a questionnaire with several questions which affected this and that, background options, educational choices and career/life choices which ultimately gave you your character with equipment, age, skills and stats affected by the choices you made. The only downside to it was that it kinda encouraged MIN/MAX attitude when you familiarized yourself with it, i.e. 'the perfect beginning fighter build is...'
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Arogarn
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Re: Character Creation

#9 Post by Arogarn » Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:45 pm

Delia wrote:That is an excellent suggestion! Though players new to the game would require some documentation to read when creating a character then so they know what is what, where and why.
We need better documentation anyway, so that shouldn't be that much of a problem. And it does not even need very specific info 'bout the professions, because .. hmm .. that brings me directly to ... :
The only downside to it was that it kinda encouraged MIN/MAX attitude when you familiarized yourself with it, i.e. 'the perfect beginning fighter build is...'
I think we could avoid this by
a) not giving detailed information which (combination of) education/profession gives which skills to which extend
b) introducing a certain amount of randomisation and interdependence between the various choices .. what would make charas more individualistic and not 100% predictable,
yet much more useful/useable and interesting right from the start.

And of course, starting equipment should be matched to the skills handed out as well - everyone starting with a longsword is neither realistic not very helpful in regard to the encouragement of roleplaying: It's the most valueable piece of equipment (I know the sales price is -artificially- low, but compare it to the other weapons regularly available in e.g. Arborea and you'll see that it would be quite expensive normally. Relativly speaking .. weapon prices are way to low anyway!), so newbie might figure that it is actually the most important piece as well ... and try clubbing poor Volog over the head ...

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