Character Creator & Character Customization (Official Thread)

Hey~! This is my first post! Lol. Anyway, I'm not sure if anyone has posted anything like this yet, but I took snips from the videos they've released of the CC presets so you can see them side by side. I'm not sure if this is the thread to talk about this, but it looks like DadRyder might change in appearance based on the preset you use (similar to DA2).

BroRyder:



SisRyder:



Not sure if I did the spoiler thing right, lol. I guess we'll see.

All that is true for me as well. I'm a graphic designer by trade but also an illustrator in my free time and my specialization is character design. I'm also a HUGE social studies nerd, so... being able to make characters of all sorts of ethnic backgrounds is a BIG draw for me in RPGs. In fact, it's usually the deciding factor on whether or not I will buy an RPG at release/at all. While not always required, it's a huge, huge aspect of my enjoyment for story and character based RPGs. I almost never stick close to presets. With what I've seen with the MEA CC so far, I will not be able to do the same level of facial structure variety I've enjoyed in BioWare titles of past (Image dump under spoiler tag):


(Yes, I realize I favor darker skin/hair and beards, but I do have a wide variety of facial shapes, noses, eyes, etc They make a HUGE difference if you want to design characters of particular origins. This is what I could quickly grab from my screenshot folders)

I'm not looking for the most detailed CC ever. Just the very basic ability to choose between some nose/eye/brow/mouth shapes and tweak some details like eye rotation, nose bridges, etc. At least half of those were possible in the last several BioWare titles. I will take a slightly more stylized, sculpted head with more customization options over a more realistic face scan any day. I don't want my characters to look like a specific real life person unless I design them that way.

I'm also not looking to make pretty characters. Just unique, ones that feel like they're really mine, not a few tweaks of someone's face in real life.

To all those who like or don't mind the CC: Even if you're in the minority, there's no reason to feel bad or apologize. People are going to have different feelings about this. I'm staunchly in the "neutral to happy" camp of many divisive issues like combat myself - this is the first thing I've seen as a huge detriment, personally. I'm sure I'll be able to make a decent looking Ryder, even the Polynesian one I was going for... but they won't be mine. Especially if things like skin tone are also limited to preset shape. Argh, very frustrating. :rage:

Scott #5 looks 50 years old. So much for Ryder being 22 I guess. :S

This CC is a mess.

If you could choose the features from each preset, have better hair options (especially for the men), and choose complexions then it would be great. It hurts how they were so close yet so far. Hopefully a patch can fix this.

Some of the male Ryders look old too. It's gonna be difficult making a decent looking black guy.

Just noticed that you can't change eyebrow colour, so any hair colour change will look like a dye job too.

The hair looks great, awesome styles. The CC so far looks awesome as well. I may actually buy this game day 1.

LOL! I already decided on 8 before reading this, this would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.

I would argue it's significantly worse. While the Qunari hair incident was bad, at least it only affected hair. For Qunari. Which was, on the PC at least, fairly easily moddable, because it involved the generation of a few additional meshes and textures. This is systemic. It affects every single custom character. The CC simply lacks the options that allow for much diversity within presets. There's no interface to switch between or morph the shape of e.g. noses or eyebrows. Who knows how easy it would be to implement. Certainly it's not something that would be moddable. And I rather doubt the devs, at this point, will introduce sweeping changes.

I just don't understand how they thought this was justifiable, given how much flak they've received about CC options in previous games.

I want to be able to do this, Bioware:


I'm serious. 

See, this is why they should have revealed the Character Creator sooner, so all of this criticism could have been implemented by launch, or at least in the first week. That is, if they're actually serious about improving that mess of a CC and not just talking out of their ass. I'm still mad about how horrible it is. And when I see one of the devs tweeting about how you have hair with highlights that weren't possible in the Trilogy it just pisses me off even more, because guess what, in the Trilogy we could change the eyes, and mouth, and nose, and eyebrows. In ME:A we're stuck with those fucking awful presets only with more or less puffy cheeks and crazy eyes.

I like the one on the right more than the marketing Ryder, haircut aside.

I think people will be able to get some good stuff done once they're able to tinker.

Note, this is not mine; I won't be playing until Friday/Saturday.

They've never failed us before. Remember, these are the people who transformed beige pyjamas and gave qunari hair!

Welp, I'm going to see what I can do with female preset #9. Hopefully I can come to terms, and make her my Ryder. We'll see if improvements come down the patch pipe.

Dammit, BioWare, I want to love this game.