Character Creator & Character Customization (Official Thread)

Salarian plastic surgeons.

On another note, the only things I'd really like for sure outside of the face is 1) Tattoos and 2) Body Hair.  I know we won't see them very often, but when we do see the characters shirtless, it can be a little jarring.  Not to mention the 1st one could be a big part of your PCs backstory.

Oh, no offense taken! I know it's hard to tell tone through text, but truly - I was not bothered at all. If anything, I was amused. I often joke about my overbite myself and have called it ridiculous names but not in a self-demeaning fashion. I've found if I embrace it as a quirk, often it adds to my charm with other people rather than detract. I'm often told by people I have a have a lovely smile. I just figured I'd provide a real life example and my contrasting experience with it, though I appreciate your clarification. In fairness, while I'm from the US, I am of mixed Western/Central European ancestry - but mostly English/Scottish. And in my own experience, the "English Teeth" (ie large overbite with large front two teeth like me) stereotype is one for a reason. It's hardly rampant in the UK, but I did notice it over there more often than other places I've been to. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it's a genetic trait more common in certain regions of the globe. At the end of the day, I'm happy to have a wide variety of mouths/teeth for Ryder.

And I agree, a bit more variety is often good, especially in character creators. I didn't notice the overbite issue myself (probably because my main dwarf had a very ever so slight overbite, nothing like mine), but I do think the ideal would be a strong range of: big overbite > less overbite > no distinguishing bite misalignment > less underbite > big underbite

It's usually hard for me to create myself too, not just for the teeth - I have a very oval face, weaker chin, etc - and a large nose. Like, I've yet to see a BioWare female face I could get just right if I wanted to make me. One of the reasons I find the female faces a bit lacking in variety at times in general. The closest I've gotten was with a female dwarf in Inquisition because their faces were more round and noses were larger than the humans. Go figure. At least I'm short to boot. But yeah, I definitely understand the frustration of not being able to properly make yourself - or a particular look you're going for. As someone who likes making PCs of wide varying ethnicities, I've found the CCs are often sorely lacking for features found in in Asia, south Pacific, large parts of Africa and South America... it's definitely got more of an Anglo/Caucasian baseline, though recent games like Inquisition have been better about this. I'm hoping Andromeda is another big step forward there.

See, it's the opposite problem for me. I find my men often look better and my women look generic. Not ugly per se, just that I find it harder to make them distinct from each other.

There is the plastic surgeon like option as mentioned, but that non-reaction will always be an issue, yes. I agree it's too useful to leave out though. In-game changes to look are common enough in games nowadays and it's a 4th wall I don't mind breaking for the convenience of not having to completely restarting to fix a few issues with the face that will otherwise drive me bonkers. Sometimes it's something small I don't even notice until hours in, so the mirror was really, really helpful in Inquisition.

Changing your looks completely in game would be weird without reactions and a good reason, but a more limited cc could be amazing. You could have different looks for the battlefields, a casual night in with your squadmates, or an outing with your LI by having a bathroom mirror where you could change a few cosmetic things. You could change hairstyles to be different ones of the same length or shorter, adjust your makeup, and maybe even change your hair and eye colors.

Frankly, I don't care for explanations or reactions based on if I chance my character face/hair/makeup in game. I just want the option.
I usually have very few reactions in RL if I change hairstyle or put on makeup anyway. Maybe I can have a friend comment if I make some coloured streaks in my hair, but usually not even that. And frankly, I would not care for any of the companions bugging my characters for something like that. Expecially if my character doesn't have a certain relationship with them.

having the chance to change appearance in game would actually give me a big chance of roleplay options. Adding scars after a big battle. Giving a slighly darker skin tone after stayng on a very hot and sunny place. Changing an hairstyle to sign a change.
I had one of my Inquisitors, a female elf who romanced Cullen, starting with the ponytail: she later during the romance started leaving her hair down, because se was more relaxed and liked to feel and seem less severe when with her lover.
Another one had his hair grown up during the game, and than cut those off post game for the final DLC, so I had even more a feeling of the passing time.

THIS THIS! I remember going through the entire character creator thing and getting it looking good but when the character's face actually starts to move or goes in a different light it looked horrible. And that meant going over it again and again. That is a really good piece of dlc.

Probably similar to the mirror fron DA2 and DAI. One of the species (Salarians most likely) is puttering with looking into alternate realities or different dimensions. They say their work hasn't panned out at all except to make, like, a pretty light or something, and invite you to check it out. Looking at it brings you to the Character Customization screen, and, when you exit the screen (looking completely different), they say "See? Just a silly light that won't go away."

That's how I'd do it, anyway.

I love the idea of a bathroom mirror where we can make minor changes. Something that bugged me about default mShep (yes, I used default maleShep lol) in ME was that I couldn't edit little things between games. I rather thought that, in ME3, after spending 6-months confined to quarters his hair might have grown out a little since he wasn't on active duty. I would also love to add scars after large battles and things like that; I do something similar in FO4, scars for large battles; blemishes after going into odd areas; burns after massive radiation exposure. It's great to have little things to edit to show progression, even if it's only to yourself.

I like the body type they had for Shepards, both male and female in ME2/3. I would not mind refined hair textures, and better shorter/wavy hair. I don't like how long hair looks in video games, they are always looking like wigs or they clip. So, honestly, a bit of improvements on ME 3 will be nice, but it was pretty good imo. Scars and tattoos would be great too.

I think it does yes there's room for improvement but you can say that about everyy game out there. The only thing lacking for me with DAI's CC was decent hairstyles other than that it looked pretty spot on.For me it looks like thisis something they've looked to remedy a bit in Andromeda however we won't know for sure unti lthe game releases but the styles that Scott  and Sara have aer certainly better than what we got in DAI so I'm hopeful.

Ah, but that wouldn't work in ME; you can't have customizable bodies, or the sex scenes wouldn't work.

The secret to CGI sex scenes that look so natural, indistinguishable from the real thing, is pre-made bodies.

Sure you can. You just have a few preset options for the body rather than a slider.