When a new player generates a new pirate or a veteran uses the pirate appearance potion we get a random pirate generator. We have to search though random generated pirates. This process could take hours if players are looking for a specific look.
Can we get customizable options for creating a new pirate?
The basic opinions would be body type, body size, skin color, gender and scars. If we get the option for a better customization we can become more creative with our pirates
Every pirate is random. With the system we have, no two pirates will be alike and the % of you meeting said pirate who looks like you is low as the deep sea.
That makes it special.
We don’t need a crew of friends all dressed together and looking the same.
(Unless costume)
Now...how it takes an hour to find a pirate that fits your liking is beyond me. You spend majority of your day looking through the eyes of your pirate. Never seeing yourself. Until you emote
I used a potion to make a new pirate. Idea, I wanted a nice female pirate. I found one in 2min after 6 cycles and 5 fav. Why spend hour? Idk....picky?
Yes, I can agree little here tho. Maybe add choice of either female/male and/or even body type. But not a full choice set to pick. Still needs to be random.
@burnbacon while I do agree with you, the rise of tuckers has lead to a lot of cookie cutter pirate looks and im not really about it.
@captain-fob4141 said in Can we have the ability to customize our base pirate?:
@burnbacon while I do agree with you, the rise of tuckers has lead to a lot of cookie cutter pirate looks and im not really about it.
A specific character designer would only exasperate that as all the tuckers would be making the smallest, skinniest pirate they could in order to hide easier. Instead of trying to get it from the generator they'd just custom design them that way.
@burnbacon said in Can we have the ability to customize our base pirate?:
Every pirate is random. With the system we have, no two pirates will be alike and the % of you meeting said pirate who looks like you is low as the deep sea.
Every pirate isn’t as random as you think. From a programmer perspective, Rare has created 50 different pirates( I don’t know the actual number, 50 is just a guess) and put them in a pirate roster. Random generator will pull 8 pirates from this pool and you can pick one. If you don’t like any, those pirates are put back in the pool and 8 different pirates are pulled from the pool.
Let’s say that we can create our own custom pirates. Why would I purposely create a pirate to look like someone else’s pirate? With all the cosmetics in this game, even if the randomizer gave us the exact same base pirate, chances are that we would be dressed in different cosmetics. (Personally myself, I love the Silver Blade cosmetics and put those clothes on my pirate)
As for people who try and create skinny pirates for tucking, they can use the randomizer to find a skinny pirate. All my idea would do is give people the ability to add or remove certain facial features like goofy smiles or crooked eyes.
Yea its kind of crazy I mean you can customize characters in so many other games but they took the way of just making it random.
If they do not want to make it so you have the option of changing chins, jaw, eyebrows, eyes ect....
What they should do is have a system where you have a filter, with options of what you want your pirate to be based off of.
Filter list
Color of skin
Body Type + Skinny or masculine
Scars
Eyes
Head
Ect... Than you can press random with these filters in placed
Throwing my two cents in.
I both like and dislike the current character creator. I like it because it does create truly unique pirates that will be visually different to others.
Conversely, I dislike it because it feels like they could easily do more with it, while still keeping the integrity of the original design. Perhaps the biggest flaw I take with the current system is the time it takes to find a decent looking pirate, in a sea of terrifyingly ugly ones. While yes, I understand that pirates aren't supposed to look pretty, this is still a character-based game and people shouldn't be discounted for wanting to make their representation of themselves look presentable, and not a rotten potato.
My proposal would be to keep the randomized selections but add some very basic parameters, those being:
I think that these four parameters would allow players to narrow down what they are looking for, without sacrificing the uniqueness factor. The randomization of facial/bodily features (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, scars, tattoos) would and should remain the same.
I just think that the time that new players spend in the character creation menu, could be better, and allow the player to get out into the world, so they can begin their journey.
Myself I'm okay with having randomly generated bodies, but please for the love of all that is both shiny and holy - let us lock categories or even better, give us the option to have direct control over our pirate.
I heard that the reason we have this is because a Dev was annoyed that he spent 3 hours customizing a pirate and gave up.
Well, I've spent 3 days randomly generating pirates instead of playing the game - Forced random generation strikes me as disrespectful to the time of people who care about how their pirates look.
@Rare - what say you to at least allow us to add/remove scars, eyeliner, and 5-o'-clock shadow while viewing pirates with a simple "Shuffle Features" button?
@coffeelight5545 I think the randomly generated bodies are what make this game's avatars cool because no one's avatar is identical to someone else's. However a male/female body toggle would be fine in my opinion.
Every pirate isn’t as random as you think. From a programmer perspective, Rare has created 50 different pirates( I don’t know the actual number, 50 is just a guess) and put them in a pirate roster. Random generator will pull 8 pirates from this pool and you can pick one. If you don’t like any, those pirates are put back in the pool and 8 different pirates are pulled from the pool.
With all the cosmetics in this game, even if you have the exact base pirate it’s unlikely that you would find someone wearing the exact same cosmetics as you
@coffeelight5545 That's actually incorrect there is an infinite amount of pirates. That's why it's called the "Infinite Pirate Generator". Because Rare doesn't actually create the pirates they have an algorithm that creates random ones and this algorithm is capable of creating infinite pirates.
Are you a programmer for Rare? How are you sure that you are correct? Even if you are correct there are only so many options that are programmed so there aren’t an infinite amount of pirates.
@coffeelight5545 Rare have literally stated this. They have said it is an infinite pirate generator designed to randomly generate pirates. Also even if there's not infinite there are billions. That's all I have to say. Happy Sailing!
I like the IPG the way it is, because I understand why it is the way it is and accept the way it is.
The ONLY things I would change, if I could, would be:
Give us the ability to rotate the pirate so we can see any kind of scars or markings on their back.
Give us the ability to zoom in so that we can get a closer look at their details, particularly where their face is concerned.
Give us the ability to change their pose, so that we can see their variety of expressions.
Have [AHEM] certain articles of clothing removed by default so that we can better see tattoo placement.
I actually thought about something else that'd still work with randomly generated pirates
Each time you favorite a pirate, the next generation will use similar features to the one(s) favorited, so that with each new generation and favorite, you get closer to what you were looking for - and are still open to the random pirate that'd catch your eye
@herrdave3849 said in Can we have the ability to customize our base pirate?:
I actually thought about something else that'd still work with randomly generated pirates
Each time you favorite a pirate, the next generation will use similar features to the one(s) favorited, so that with each new generation and favorite, you get closer to what you were looking for - and are still open to the random pirate that'd catch your eye
I have considered this idea too.
Random generation with a couple macros filters, and the favorite system also trying to favor features seen in those pirates would be fine for the most part. As others have said:
Scars and other things are changeable in game, and anything that can be changed in game should likely be setup to not be baked in to the model (in this way we no longer need to worry about Scars, Tattoos, etc as they can all be modified in the Vanity Chest, so just apply those at random in generation). I see these baked in features as potential pitfalls in the system, though I get why they exist since we didn't always have control over scars and such. But it should change with the times.
Those cover the most major items, and like has been said, if Favorite actually also impact further generations to favor features in the selected options it would go a long way to still giving us random (and some sense of settling on a look, just more likely closer to what we see in our heads in fewer generations).
Not that I would complain about what @Galactic-Geek mentioned with having the ability to Rotate or Zoom during this process. That would just be more like icing on the proverbial cake as it were though.
Otherwise, I really think the system is a good one for keeping diversity out on the Seas. It doesn't mean it can't be improved upon, but I also think it needs to keep it's spirit.
@redeyesith I like your summary on the scars - I think they should be handled largely like the tattoos (a bunch of default options).
Everyone has their own opinions and feelings about character creation. The "Infinite Pirate Generator" is a wonderful option for players that just want to start playing the game and don't want to devote time into the creation side.
However, it is a very frustrating process for the players that are interested in design. It's a cruel thing to know that there are multiple different features, and maybe you just want a few specific ones, but you can't seem to get the IPG to put them together.
I really hope that the claim of "no pirate will ever look alike" is false, because that means all the more attractive combinations have been reserved.
To those that complain that giving players more control would result in having too many "Barbie pirates" is just untrue. Players will still click until they find the "Barbie pirate" if that is what they want. The issue is that they may be clicking and spending more than 3 hours trying to get the IPG to create it.
In short:
There have been many great suggestions posted already.
I don't want to force players to have to spend time clicking and selecting different parameters if they truly don't care.
It should be an optional thing just to speed things along for those that will not play the game until they find a pirate with X, Y, and Z.
I don't want to suggest any one thing for the parameter filter as everyone has different priorities.
Maybe you don't care if the character is male or female but you want them to be small and tan.
Maybe you don't care about the body type but you want them to have green eyes and pink lips.
So please keep this in mind when deciding what "filtering" will be allowed and don't make any one selection mandatory before proceeding to the next.
In short:
As others said...a toggle option for male/female, more isn't needed
Anyway, I suggest you guys, to just stick with one or two things you want to have on your pirate and look for those...
At the launch of the game, there was no option to change hair-colour, so I just searched for a guy with red-like hair...still got the same one and he looks awesome
@schwammlgott I don't know dude - I only just now found a passable marine on the 4th day - did a count-up and it seems I spent 27 hours in the Infinite Pain Generator.
I couldn't spend that much time in an actual character creator if I tried! D:
