Customizable Characters / Camera View

[Gunter Severloh 3970]

Hey Fellas,

I did a search about 2 months back in the forum here and found nothing related.

Customizable Characters / Camera View

Something i find interesting, but there was an Arma2 video not a trailer, but like a walk through vid I seen over the summer, and

the narrator of the vid was discussing the features of Arma2 and so forth, and mentioned that The character is a actual character not a

camera mounted in a certain position like u see in some Fps, hearing that it got me thinking, not like I didn't know that already but when

someone else says it it kinda of says alot more I guess.

Well Since OFP we have had the ability or I should say feature to customize the head part of our profile character, which is kinda of cool,

but I'm finding this very limited, I mean I wish to be able to choose from an assortment of clothes/uniform styles if you will, hats, helmets,

glasses, even for the rest of the body, like pants, boots, ect.,

In a way this sounds CODish I guess but i dont play those games, I used to play RPG style games all the time like Oblivion and other games

where you have character customization, and you could sit there for like an hour or 2 just creating your character's face.

I dont know about you guys and maybe some can relate or like this idea, but the spinning head, and the 100 similer faces that only change

in color and a slight variation, and some glasses is really getting old, I dont really see the point of having the head spin so fast, or at all

when the guys face only changes so much.

If the character is supposed to be a character then lets update the character Profile to a small editor where you can customize your profile.

Shape, hair, actual facial hair instead of some painted coloration on the face. tattoos, lol I think this would add some personality to one's game.

For the Camera,

Also there might be a code, or something already for a camera view, but what I'm asking or like to suggest is a new control, something

like that in Oblivion where if you hit a key you can see the whole front view of your character. I mean why not, we have 1st, 3rd, rts, and

whatever else mode, why not expand it.

About all I have in mind for that, any elses thoughts, and ideas are welcome.

[enad 11]

Oh god this would be so awesome.

+100 to this.

I would absolutely love some character customization. Nothing crazy though like changing camoflauges and stuff or crazy colored hair. Just some cool facial decals and things to go on your unit, backpacks and stuff like that.

[Gunter Severloh 3970]

Nobody else wants to customize their character? I mean the game already does this, except its very limited.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Backpacks or headgear (or any gear for that matter) does not belong as a profile thing. Not even glasses really. Custom faces is more than damaging enough already. Personally I'd like to see it gone. We're supposed to look like soldiers, not a freak show of a circus with skeletons and miss piggies. Sun glasses at night is also for me something I actually manage to get annoyed over.

I guess I wouldn't mind a personalized facial skeleton with colorization based on sliders or whatever. Even BMI and height controls, but! I'd like to be able to take control in the mission. I wouldn't want everyone to make themselves tiny and thin to present the (least) best target in a PvP setup. There should be a profile page also within multiplayer where player can change the parts I allow him to change. Even if his profile is setup with sunglasses, I might remove those for a night mission and he shouldn't be able to put them back on. He might look thin and tiny, but randomness in the mission dictates him as tall and fat. Does he prefer a hat? Sorry, mission says he is to be equipped as a soldier, and wear a certain type of helmet, as he's part of a squad now.

Once people can choose to do whatever they feel like, it just becomes ridiculous, as the custom idiotic paint jobs already has shown... It doesn't mix well with realism and immersion.

@Günter Severloh:

Both yes and no. I'm a big fan of RPGs (the game type, not the weapon, lol), where I can spend hours just designing my character. Just recent news on upcoming TESV wants me to reinstall Oblivion just to make a character. :p However, in these games you do play this character. In our game you really don't. In campaigns you play a predefined character that may not have any sort of customization, nor should it, as you may be part of a pre-rendered video sequence. And in multiplayer, if given too loose a leech, it'll end up looking like you're in the funny farm or something.

Edited December 12, 2010 by CarlGustaffa

[Gunter Severloh 3970]

Customization would be specific to what one would actually wear ingame, I'm not talking the kiddie, or the funny farm crap character

builder where each person looks like something out of a scifi movie, circus freak show or something retarded, I'm talking about miltiary

gear, uniform ect., something realistic and immersive for the player, to give the impression of military simulation.

The profile is there, but in a way other then one's name on there the profile is almost meaningless as you never see

your own character face or uniform anyways, it isn't like Oblivion, and obviously not meant to be but point being its not

like an rpg where you are able to see your character.

But Carl a good point you made considering we are playing a simulator game if you will, the character doesn't actually

improve on in skill, or character attributes, like being stronger, faster,able to cast this or that.

Arma2 doesn't do that.

The profile really has no function at all, I mean sunglasses dont do anything, unless your playing ACE and you put the

tactical glasses on and it changes the view of thing, thats what id prefer.

spectacles dont do shit it dont make your vision better ingame, only thing I can see possibly functional is a camou face,

which would help you blend in more, but with the AI seeing everything even through grass when you cant see them,

whats the point.

Ya and fix that too, Ai see through the dam grass.

Either enhance or update the character profile or remove it, and have a spot for the name, again even if you do create a face,

you yourself cannot see yourself, only people seeing your face is your friends or other players on a server.

[ray243 11]

If it actually happens I'll make my character 200 kg.

[vilas 474]

Nobody else wants to customize their character? I mean the game already does this, except its very limited.

what for ? when playing as mil-sim with commanding/tactical play it is useless

when i play, i play SP in tactical missions when planning mission is neccesary, but the only thing i see is sight of gun, not face of character , so for me it is useless in terms of mil-sim Arma

[Armalite 10]

Not everybody plays in 1st person ...

I would too love to see small customisable features like hats, helmets .. i hate wearing helmets in some games and would love the option to swtich to say a boonie hat or skull cap instead without the only way being to change units in say an ACE style game.

and as for looking like Soldiers and not clowns, granted and understandable .. but think about it .. when boiled down .. Arma is a game like anyother and as such should include fun little features like customisable options if available.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Isn't this just a feature to increase the Narcissism and to distract players from other game issues?

Player 1: "One - Ready!"

Player 2: "Two - Ready!"

Player 3: "Three - Ready!"

Player 4: "Hmm... should I take the small eyes or those big eyes?"

Player 5: "pff the long hair makes all the difference!"

Player 6: "ssszzZZ the latest fashion trend are those pink backpacks!"

30 minutes later player 1-3 shot those fashion victims unintentionally down...

:D

[Laqueesha 474]

Isn't this just a feature to increase the Narcissism and to distract players from other game issues?

Player 1: "One - Ready!"

Player 2: "Two - Ready!"

Player 3: "Three - Ready!"

Player 4: "Hmm... should I take the small eyes or those big eyes?"

Player 5: "pff the long hair makes all the difference!"

Player 6: "ssszzZZ the latest fashion trend are those pink backpacks!"

30 minutes later player 1-3 shot those fashion victims unintentionally down.

One, target Four.

Two, target Five.

Three, target Six.

One, Two, Three: Fire!

Oh, no Four is down!

We lost Five.

Six is dead.

[Jockson 10]

I'd love to see more character customization options. Out of so many immersion killers present in the game, people get annoyed over someone wearing sun glasses at night? Seriously?

[nkenny 1051]

I think that offering more customization options for player avatars would be a great thing. Obviously the implementation would have to be tasteful and reasonable authentic-- no mohawks or ridiculous slider settings-- preferablyonly limited to certain factions/units as well.

Having a customized appearance GREATLY aids soldier recognition which in turns speeds up organization and reduces the need to use HUD elements.

Arma2 is already devoid of bodylanguage-- having one more visual cue to help us recognize individuals would be a great feature.

-k

[Gunter Severloh 3970]

Like I said earlier the profile is already established its been there since OFP, why not upgrade it.

But upgrade it so that the game dont turn into a freak show, keep the facial, uniform ect,. military based and sim related.

Even if you play in first person and with your friends online even on your own server like myself, you still need to look like something,

other wise whats the sense, might as well be invisible with just a camera and a gun on front of the screen if your going that route,

theres already plenty of games that do that, because the makers are to cheap to make an actual character you control,

and a camera with a gun out front kills the immersion.

Nothing like looking down at your cough** feet Oh I dont got any legs WTF is that all about!?

The point being we have a character why not personlize him alot better then a slight change in color, of hair,

or add some glasses or shades that dont do nothing.

What I'd like to see is the head to stop spinning, and the player themselves, rotates the head so we dont have to

wait til the head turns face forward before we can see what the next face looks like.

my 10c for now.

[johncage 30]

customize gear always in game. want to now wear combat goggles, not ugly tacticool glasses. thank you

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Disagree that glasses should be a personal item that doesn't do anything. These things could be normal items in the game that the mission maker provides, and they should absolutely do something, like:

Sunglasses: Reduce glare from sun and reduce specular reflections on water (more transparent due polarized).

Tactical glasses: Similar to sunglasses, but to less extent. Also slightly shading.

Dust glasses: Reduce blur due to wind in a sandy environment.

I'm not a fan of items without usage.

[Gunter Severloh 3970]

Glasses that already do something are in ACE2, ones im talking about that dont do anything are the ones

in the character profile, they are more for facial decoration to make one look cool

for what purpose who knows that dont do nothing.

[johncage 30]

exactly i don't want some ghey polarity glasses or tacticool sunglasses, i want actual goggles. so far, they have never provided real combat goggles from arma to arma 2 to oa. very frustrating.

[Cyteless 10]

I don't like the high level of customisation mentioned. I think facial structure would need to be extremely limited, and there'd need to be pre-set colours for heads, eyes and skin, ie. shades of blond, brown, black and red for hair.

Regarding extra kit, like glasses or chest rigs and camo, I'm against that.

[PuFu 4598]

exactly i don't want some ghey polarity glasses or tacticool sunglasses, i want actual goggles. so far, they have never provided real combat goggles from arma to arma 2 to oa. very frustrating.

I consider everything you have posted on those forums so far spam, including the quoted one.

If you are so frustrated, why don't you go ahead and play something else, where you can customize your avatar the way you like, or do something about it, especially since you have been told it is possible?

You do realize that the use of googles are very hard to represent in a computer game, where you don't have dust, wind etc coming out of your monitor screen, don't you?

____________________________

The first thing one uses for recognition is the overall size and shape of a body.

What would love is the ability to change the weight and height of the avatar (available in vbs2 - i was looking for the command in the comref, but was unable to find it)

Edited December 14, 2010 by PuFu

[Gunter Severloh 3970]

Lol if you want googles so bad then there in ACE2, they have tactical glasses, masks and other things.

I'm really aiming for stock Arma2, and well Arma3 if thats in the works.

keep with the military simulation if anything.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

@pufu:

I have working dust goggles (overlay) in Domino, reducing blur (postfx) when facing dry wind (weather with high wind and no rain) causing an increase in dust (particle fx). What I can't do (in an MP mission, but works using multiple IDs in SP missions), is to select that dust goggle to be visible on the character.

Or did ACE solve that ID problem? So yeah, I'd very much like the possibility to set not only glasses, but any part of a units identity with a script command, and if possible coupled with actual items just like in ACE. Multiple entries of Face and Glasses in the .rpt indicates to me that something is in the works.

As for sunglasses/shades, I think only BIS can create these well enough. We don't have access to surface shaders (fresnel) where it could be applied, and I've only had unsatisfactory results with using post processing (interferes with others). Maybe shading only via post processing, and the rest via something like what the NVG does? Don't know, just thinking out loud here...

The VBS commands you're looking for (which I want too) are setBMI and setHeight.

[That guy 10]

"character customization" has no place in this game. as others have said, stupid custom faces and sound in multiplayer fuck things up when you want to play a good serious game. it would be worse if people have MORE to screw with

if you want to play dress up this should be more to your taste

its great success!

[Gunter Severloh 3970]

has no place in the game yet BIS since the start of OFP has a profile setup where you can customize your character.

all I ever stated was if your going to have the profile then update it, other wise lets make everyone look like everyone

else in the game, boy that would make for an interesting and fun game. I know alot of guys dont care for it because they

may play 1st person all the time, as do I but on occasion play 3rd person.

The profile creater or what you want to call it is there, and has always been there. think of it this way just because you

have a gun and some bullets dont mean you have to use it, it is an option, just like the post processing effects that make

your screen blur when you turn around, personally I found that most unrealistic and annoying, because your vision dont blur

if you turn your head, so I used my option and turned it off.

Bis games are very open ended,and you can do anything with the game, be it scripts, mods, addons, ect.,

Im aiming for more way of a more immersive military simulator.

if you want to play dress up this should be more to your taste

its great success!

Ever hear of the saying dont be a dick, well follow it cuz your coming across as one, if you read any of the posts, especially

mine you would have read that aint no one hear wants to play dress up, like i said before either remove the profile or expand,

it but expand it with functional things.

I'm not looking to dress the character profile up with a guy with spiked hair, or flaming boots, or some RPG, or crazy

scifi apoctolyptic type fps shooter game.

If you dont like it then simply dont use it, their should be an option included in the profile to have a simple dopy soldier look alike,

that you cant change the facial features or do whatever. Personally I dont really care but to me if you got something like we do I find it limiting.

If a camofladge feature for one's face helped one to be more hidden from AI or players in the bush then well I'd say it would be

worth it if you used that option.

Everyone is entiltled to their opinion, or ideas, if another dont like it then instead of mockery or idiotic comments,

one should point out why it would or would not work. Options can be turned off, so add that to the profile so that if you dont like it turn it off,

then all you need is your name and thats it.

nuff said.

[That guy 10]

i wasnt tiring to be a dick, that was a valid recommendation. battlefield heros is a great game. (even with out me being a dick, you should try it)

and you were suggesting clothing and things like that, so my comment was valid.

letting people choose custom things is nice until they inevitably abuse it (the stupid face textures and custom sounds).