Character Customization (Visual) and Marketing Strategy...

[GreatMazinkaiser]

As we all know (I'm sure) Planetside's selection of faces for their characters is rather abyssmal (sp?), namely most of the female faces and virtually all the male faces are fabulously gay...

This being the case I suggest the following system, which has been used before, that is provided the skinners/modellers are up to the task:
* allow a large selection of faces (might need to be racially appropriate in the case of the "Mongols") that cover the major races (maybe even sub-races) of humanity.

* hair styles that come separate from the faces and in different colours (even hair-dye types)

*basic torso styles (thin, medium, buff) or in the case of females (thin, medium, busty)

*basic leg styles (thin, medium, buff) again for females (thin, medium, voluptuous)

PS really missed the mark by failing to implement the "busty female" marketing strategy. This is not terribly important to game play, but hot chicks == more subscriptions for any MMO. Thus I suggest that the new game (whatever it may be called) feature hot chicks, particularly on the coverart...

[CBF1Ando]

The problem I see with different torso sizes is that everyone will pick the thin model to get the hitbox decrease ;)

[Aftiel]

The problem I see with different torso sizes is that everyone will pick the thin model to get the hitbox decrease ;)


Kinda like all the wannabe killwhores in PS picked a female avatar thinking the same thing ;)

You have the hitboxes all the same size and problem = solved (which is what they did in PS).

[Cogburn]

What we're talking about here are basically ways to customize your avatar so you don't look like everyone else... But since its the military you do kinda need to look like everyone else. Conundrum.

The one thing that makes MMO games attractive is the ability to customize your avatar. PlanetSide allows you to do this in the following ways:

* Different Armor Colors based on Rank
* Faces
* Voices
* Helmet (on/off)
* Merits
* Outfit logo
* Gender

Alright. Let's start off by pointing out some of the bad things, then we'll go on to the good ones that we'll keep.

BAD - Hidden Faces and The Helmet
If you aren't familiar with how graphics engines work, here's a quick lesson about one aspect that applies here. When you make a model for a game, 99.9% of the time there is some process by which you remove all information that isn't necessary for the purposes of the game (things that 3D Modeling software add like Undos). This is done for the obvious speed increase. The information that is kept contains the basic geometry of the shape; specifically the vertecies and faces. The faces are required because they are the rules by which the texture (or skin) is applied. If you make sloppy models with interior faces or unbound vertecies, this creates overhead during rendering (lowers FPS) that is not needed because these are geometries the user will never see. The engine, any engine, only does what it is told. If you tell it to draw faces the user never sees, it will. There is a process called "culling" that is used to remove unseen faces during runtime, but that just adds MORE overhead than leaving the faces in. The best solution is to simply make sure your models are clean and tidy and have no hidden or interior faces.

That being said, the models in PlanetSide start as Standard Armor. There's a reason its "Standard"... It's the basis for all other models. Working with the Standard Armor, pieces were added to cover various portions. These became Agile and Rexo. Why is it they can remove the helmet from Agile and Rexo but not give it a whole new model? Because the helmet is a detachable piece that was added later. They just delete it. This leaves just the head render.

But while its the easiest solution on the modelers, it is the most PERFORMANCE ROBBING WAY TO DO IT. There are HUNDREDS of hidden faces in Agile and Rexo. Even when the helmet is "on", the head and face are STILL RENDERED by the engine in every frame.

FURTHERMORE... All those nice little details inside vehicles like the seats and the "controls" like in Prowlers and Galaxys... THOSE ARE ALL RENDERED IN EVERY FRAME IF YOU SEE THEM OR NOT. While it does make the game.... "nice" .... to look at, every single frame per second counts in those large battles. Since MOST of the FPS drop in PlanetSide is due more to the processing of incoming data streams than the actual graphics, you MUST balance how pretty your game is to the weight of those costs in rendering time.

GOOD - Everything Else but Gender
Uniqueness based on achievement is how the military does its thing. Medals, unit insignia, and cut of the uniform can tell you EXACTLY how much that a modern soldier has achieved. I believe that customization in this game (beyond the voice) should be based SOLELY on achievement. Furthermore, armored avatars should be gender neutral. Why? Because its a game not a dating service. No one cares if you are male or female only that you are damn good at your job... kinda like... the military.

Not to mention, we aren't paying our artists. If I'm already going to dictate that their armor models have as few hidden faces as is humanly possible, I'm not about to ask them to do it once with boobs and once without.

But... There's a tradeoff. ;)

What we WILL do is create weekly scaled ladders as I've outlined ad naseum in another thread. Based on the ladder, avatars will get different armor styles or access to unique weapons that have little impact on gameplay. Like what?

* Bronze, Silver, and Gold highlights on armor textures similar to "scrambled eggs" on modern uniforms. This will have the effect of making these armors appear more ornate.
* Bronze, Silver, and Gold highlights on weapon textures.
* Capes, pauldrons, and epaulets for house, company and personal achievments
* Replacing the knife with one of various swords
* Medals

Sure... If you are handy with HA weaponry you'll get a nice fat Medal. But the guy who is good with it week after week gets a gold inlay jackhammer. ;)

Boobs sell games. Right now... to be perfectly honest... after PlanetSide... I'd rather make a great game with 2,000 susbscribers at $10 a month then make an OK game w/ nice boobs and have 50,000 subscribers at $14 a month. If we get a nice solid base of 2,000 subscribers, we can talk about adding boobs cause we're making enough money to pay our artists. :)

[RebelCommander]

On the marketting thing (since that's my niche in life) I have some ideas, and I'm just waiting until we have something to sell to start advertising for anything.

So... talk to me coggy. I <3 u. gimme hawt secks0r!

[crazyduckling]

Now that Planetside has adds in the game, y dont we just advertise there??? :P

[aWarlikeDonkey]

lol why would planetside do that...ok when we go out of business go play this game...SOE would be like no and try to shut us down too

[Cogburn]

I have probably said this elsewhere.... But I've been sued by Microsoft and wrangled them into a stalemate. If my $150/hr lawyer can stalemate the $500/hr international lawyers of Microsoft, SOE doesn't intimidate me. :)

[RebelCommander]

Not to mention, we haven't officially overstepped an boundaries created by PlanetSide.

For starters, I think it was still originally listed as either an FPS or an MMORPG. Not an MMOFPS.


And Secondly, they don't really have much they could copy right. Especially since we've taken our designs straight fromt he ground up.