Character Customization and Appearance

[proudfoot]

From what I've gathered so far, the only character customization choice available to players at this point is gender. There is a stock model for males of each class, and a stock model for females of each class.

I would love to see even some minor character customization available in this game. Picking a face and a skin color would not be difficult for them to implement--it wouldn't require them to redo any of the armor textures as picking a height/weight would. I just think it would add a lot of identification to the characters.

Without a bit of minor character customization, you get the Diablo 2 situation where you are identified only by your name and your equipment. This isn't so bad, but it could be a lot better, in my opinion.

Plus, if you can pick a face and skin color then you can wear town clothes and stand out a little bit! Yay!

[lionheart]

So ur fantasy is to make somebody look like u and then go and kick some ***? :P

[Dimmu]

I don't really care much for character customizations. I just find them tedious and annoying in most of the games i've played that have such a feature.

And like people have said it won't matter if you're wearing a full suit of armor. But on that topic I think it would be really cool to have dyes and some kinds of customization on gear, but not without a cost.

[Angel_of_Wrath]

I dont think char customization fits in with Diablo. The Diablo series has the player assume the role of one of several predefined heroes of a specific class or background. The hero has his own voice and characteristics. It's more of an MMO thing IMO.

[CarsV]

I'd love to see some character customization. I'm sick of the clone wars of Diablo 2. It's Diablo 3, new engine, 3d graphics, lets bring some new things to the table.

[mephiztophelez]

i like the idea of more customisation in character appearance.

[JohnnyDeath]

I think it would be great. It would help me identify with my character. It's such a simple aspect of design, I don't see why they couldn't do it.

I dont think char customization fits in with Diablo. The Diablo series has the player assume the role of one of several predefined heroes of a specific class or background. The hero has his own voice and characteristics. It's more of an MMO thing IMO.

It's implied that many heroes stepped forward to fight the Burning Hells. IMO looking around the screen and seeing a variety of faces would help this idea. Character customization is an RPG thing. Look at Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights, Dungeon Siege...they all have this system and aren't primarily MMOs.

[sneakytails]

I also like the idea of some form of character customization.

This issue has been raised before in a older post and the arguments against it were rather weak at best.

-The main argument against such a feature is that by making the feature available you would force people into something that would hurt their gameplay. But by making the customized feature optional and thereby skippable by some, all would be happy. If you dont like it, skip that part. Simple really.

And secondly, the fact of the matter is this can be done without making outlandish deviations from the lore of each type of char.

I am pretty sure that in a tribe of barbarians each barb will look basically the same as custom says they should, but you would also see each barbs personal touches on his/her equipment. Small things like tassels, tattoos and other interesting tidbits.

These small things, these personal touches that each player will add can only increase the immersion factor into the game and add to the overall enjoyment for most players. Not to mention the depth and lore of the world.

[JohnnyDeath]

I also like the idea of some form of character customization.

This issue has been raised before in a older post and the arguments against it were rather weak at best.

-The main argument against such a feature is that by making the feature available you would force people into something that would hurt their gameplay. But by making the customized feature optional and thereby skippable by some, all would be happy. If you dont like it, skip that part. Simple really.

And secondly, the fact of the matter is this can be done without making outlandish deviations from the lore of each type of char.

I am pretty sure that in a tribe of barbarians each barb will look basically the same as custom says they should, but you would also see each barbs personal touches on his/her equipment. Small things like tassels, tattoos and other interesting tidbits.

These small things, these personal touches that each player will add can only increase the immersion factor into the game and add to the overall enjoyment for most players. Not to mention the depth and lore of the world.

Exactly. Just because you can customize your character doesn't mean they can't still fill in their niche. All we're talking about are variations in skin tone, facial structure, hair, maybe height/weight.. Maybe barbs could have a choice of warpaint styles. This feature has been in games for a long time. Honestly it was kind of annoying to look around and see 3 identical sorceresses and 2 twin paladins.

[proudfoot]

Mythos has a pretty simple character customization setup that would work well in D3, IMO. No height/weight sliders, just face, skin color, hair style, hair color, and facial hair. Simple, but it makes a world of difference in character identification.

[Leugi]

Character Customization is obviously an idea taken directly from WoW, so it should be removed.

Now to my real commment, it will be great to have that in D3

[pinefi]

Character Customization is obviously an idea taken directly from WoW
Wow.. (no pun intended) you really think world of warcraft was the first game to have customization?

Anyways.. I would not mind a bit of customization, but seeing barbs jumping in pink thongs is not something I want to see. Leave it to wow, let d3 be more serious.

[Rhiana]

A simple character customization would be to have a height slider, several choices for hairstyle and color, skin color and some faces. Not much harder than what there already is in D2, and VERY much possible. No need for the elaborate stuff like Oblivion. Since I don't think D3 will have a HUGE number of online players, this will help prevent the "there are clones of myself running all over the place" feeling.

I can see this interfering with the cutscenes, though. If they're premade movies and not zoomed in scripted voices and emotes then they're not going to allow a gazilion choices for our characters.

[Corius]

In one of the interviews they said something about "getting people to the action of the game right away" without wasting time in customization.

I think the action can wait a couple of minutes if I can change the face or beard or piercings, etc a little bit. In D2 it already took me a couple of minutes coming up with a decent character name anyway.

[Leugi]

Wow.. (no pun intended) you really think world of warcraft was the first game to have customization?

Don't worry kid, I was just being sarcastic.

Anyways, GTA San Andreas technically has something like character customization, perhaps they could make it that way so it wouldn't interfere much with the cutscenes.

[vdzele]

Will these new characters have big child eyes like we see in cartoons? If so, this game is dead for me.

[Leugi]

Will these new characters have big child eyes like we see in cartoons? If so, this game is dead for me.


Aight, now, where did that came from?

I mean, we have already seen the witch doctor and the barbarian and they don't seem to have those.

Well unless you mean that they give the possibility of doing that, in which I totally agree with you.

[UberDeath]

I can't see customization of facial appearances mattering that much. I mean it would be nice to have a little variation, but the big difference here is that every piece of armor is viewed when equipped. This means that we will hardly ever see the characters face, and when we do they will all be wearing different gear.

On a side note, it would be a nice feature, I just don't think it would be a game breaker for me.

[skorpiostouch]

I want to be a pale-skinned, long white haired witch doctor.

[NKlint]

There'll probably be a Unique called Skin of Bones or something esoteric like that, which will turn your Witch Doctor into a pasty old man with a mullet.

[5zigen]

I don't want customizable characters, unless it's only very slight customizations.

As funny as it would be to see a pudgy witch doctor and anorexic female barbarians, it just wouldn't fit imo. There's enough character diversity if they can do a good set of diverse items.

God knows, you spend 90% of most games with your character covered up by armor, seems to me that all the time spent picking a face, haircolor and all the other tiny differences is pretty silly.

[a brick]

I'm fine with both, but the customization does need a cap. Like you can't adjust the WD's skin color so much that he looks like an albino. He's a tribal man that lives in a tropical environment = slightly darker than the color of an kid who sits inside all day's skin.

For the barbarian i think things like beard length, hair length, skin color (to a degree), and paint would definitely be cool. But even that in unnecessary it seems cus the armor is gonna be flamboyant i believe. Like the WD in huge masks, not much opportunity to see much more than the back of their head :P.
I don't think they'll do it tho. Blizzard's idea of being able to customize your characters has to do with items and skills. We'll have to wait and see, you never know.

[Sein Schatten]

Blizzard must license http://www.facegen.com/ :D

[hankhenry]

yes we need more customization, its great that there will be a choice in gender. But we need more options like height, faces and so on. Sick of everyone looking the same

[Chard]

Customizing the appearance takes away time that could be spent killing things playing the damn game.

[Sein Schatten]

Customizing the appearance takes away time that could be spent killing things playing the damn game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTwgNhX4BSo
This is you playing Diablo? :P ;)
It takes a few minutes to create a character. I am sure you have the patience for that. ;)

[5zigen]

yes we need more customization, its great that there will be a choice in gender. But we need more options like height, faces and so on. Sick of everyone looking the same

I find this ironic, coming from someone who has a WoW avatar. A game with excessive character customization options, yet everyone grinds and grinds for the best gear so that they can all look the same.

I could go for the "adjust beard / face / etc" but not much more than that, I would consider it anti-immersive.

That said, when it comes down to it I really don't care.

[Telzen]

Isn't WoW just pick a face and a few other things? Didn't really have that much to use when making a character. I don't think its really needed in D3, and from the looks of it they don't plan on doing it.

[Sein Schatten]

Isn't WoW just pick a face and a few other things? Didn't really have that much to use when making a character. I don't think its really needed in D3, and from the looks of it they don't plan on doing it.

What has WoW to do with this topic?
No, you had horns/tusks, jewelry, face, skincolor... 5 options. I forgot the others. (well, of course race, class, sex but 5 options after those. ;))

[Dwovar]

I think skin, hair, and face would be just enough without being too much.

Really, it's only going to show up in the multiplayer party face box, although maybe you'll see a little of the skin color even in armor. I always thought it was irritating when my different character looked like every other pale dark haired barbarian with a blue tattoo over his left eye.

If there were just 5 skin tones, 5 hair colors, and 5 faces, you'd have 125 subtle variations.

(alternately, having only 3 of each nets you 28 variations. Thats a decent amount too.)

All of the sudden, finding an identicle character is fun, not frustrating.

[Telzen]

What has WoW to do with this topic?
No, you had horns/tusks, jewelry, face, skincolor... 5 options. I forgot the others. (well, of course race, class, sex but 5 options after those. ;))

Someone said that WoW had a lot to customize, and I was saying that it really didn't. 5 things is nothing, go and look at Age of Conan, now that is a lot. As for D3 I don't really think its neccessary since characters are small on the screen and it'll just be covered up by the armor anyway.

[NKlint]

It would be neat if we could customize our characters like you do on EA sport's "Game Face".

[stormcrow]

This is very disappointing. I expected improvement over the previous game where everywhere you saw people standing around in town with the same old shaftstop/shako/stormshield whatever combo. I dont see how difficult it is to implement a little customization eg. hair, face etc. They can use the same models without losing the distinctive look of each class.

[NASE]

The points is, if every is going to wear shafttop, shako and stormshield, they are all going to look the same no matter what colour their hair originally was.

So It's useless - and therefore, not worth the develop time.

[DemolitionSquid]

More body customization is not required.

Diablo is not an MMO. You are not creating your own story. The story is set, and you are merely controlling a character in that story. The plot will advance in one direction regardless of what skills you choose and gear you wear, and it certainly won't be impacted by the bridge width of your nose.

You are not the hero of D3. You were not the hero of D1 or D2. You were/are the invisible force behind the characters. Diablo is not about skin tone. It's about what skills you feel will let the hero you chose kill Diablo and his minions the best.