Character Face Customization

They didn’t, as several people have pointed out. The reason is that the devs are aiming for as much realism as possible, therefore the main character has to conform to a fairly strict set of criteria in order to fit the story they’re telling. He has to be young, male and ethnically Czech, with hair and facial hair styles that would have been plausible for the time and place (no mohawks, for example); he also needs to have a similar facial shape to the voice actor, as all the dialogue will be mo-capped. In theory the devs could give us a choice of hair and eye colours, but then you’d just get players complaining that they can’t change other aspects of Henry’s appearance, like skin tone and wrinkles. So I can see why they didn’t think it was worth the bother.

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I don’t think the possibility of people complaining about not having MORE customization is a good excuse not to add something.

They said in a twitch stream that it was a possibility, certainly not that the idea of complaints were stopping them from adding hair customization.

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In all honesty they could, for customization, go with the likeness of the Witcher. Preset character, but you get choices of hairstyles and beards.

Honestly I’m happy with Henry and how he looks. But it’s not a far fetch to include a barber for such ideas since other people enjoy complaining about such things.

And he will probably look differenty in final game… or even if Beta?

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That triple negative really messed me up tho :smiley:

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Henry will look different in the final game. And yes, we think about something like a barber, where you can change your hairstyle and beard. But it is a low priority.

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I do. Adding a ‘character creation’ screen as in your typical Bioware or Bethesda game would be a lot of extra work. If it’s not going to satisfy anyone anyway, why bother?

[quote=“Wicker, post:43, topic:23609”]
They said in a twitch stream that it was a possibility, certainly not that the idea of complaints were stopping them from adding hair customization.
[/quote]Yes, I mentioned hairstyle / facial hair selection a few posts up (and DrFusselpulli just confirmed it. :slightly_smiling: ) I don’t think that’s the kind of customisation the OP was hoping for, though.

When did I ever say to add something like that? I never even referenced a character creation screen.

I’m saying that the CHANCE (you did just assume people would complain) that people would complain about there being less customization, isn’t a reason not to add SOME, specifically, the hair/facial hair thing. I know for fact no one (sane) would have an issue with that, people like little touches like changing a hair style, your point was that it’s presence would somehow make people wonder why there isn’t more.

But did that happen in the witcher, did people complain about not being able to customize Geralt further, just because you could change his hair?

Of course not.

People won’t complain if you add small customization, it would happen anyway, or not at all, either way, it isn’t a reason not to add in that small customization. Note that I’m not saying anything other than that, whenever I say something like that, people always assume I’m arguing that it absolutely must be added. Not the case.

@ Wicker: I wasn’t talking about the hair/facial hair thing in my post (the one you originally replied to). I’d already mentioned in a previous post that the devs were considering that. I was talking about a full facial customisation system, which is what the OP and various other people seemed to be asking for.

Well to be honest, I read many complaints about not being able to change little more, but yeah, it was usually from guys like OP author, which wanted completely customizable character :slight_smile:

The point is that it wasn’t BECAUSE of the small amount amount of customization. No one here has explained the correlation between having a little bit customizability, and wanting more because of it…

It doesn’t matter, my main issue was with you saying the possibility of complaints (still don’t know why they’d complain based on having more options) was somehow a reason not to add something. We know most people would like it.

Let me try again:

I wasn’t saying you shouldn’t add customisation because people might complain about it. I was saying that making a ‘face creator’ (like in Skyrim or whatever) is a lot of work, and in practice the players’ options would be so limited that it probably wouldn’t satisfy anyone anyway, so it’s not worth the effort. Letting people change hairstyles and beards is a bit different: it’s a lot less trouble to implement (I would guess), and if you make it clear to players that they’re just tweaking Henry’s appearance rather than creating their ‘own’ character, they’re less likely to complain about not being able to change skin colour or whatever.

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I totally agree. Having a customizable character is not a priority imo, while I would like to have that option, I’d prefer to see more immersion instead if there is not enough time/money to make a face creator interface, later though in addition modders or a patch can add that thing, but mimics with the customized face might cause problems.

This is the specific section I’m replying to. You weren’t referencing a face creator, simply hair and eye colors. Your claim was that the presence of these things would somehow incite people to complain that there aren’t more options. This led to your conclusion that you can see why they wouldn’t bother with adding those options, based on that.

I hate to have to spell it out, but you never seemed to accept what I was replying to. Neither of us mentioned a face creator, only small options. You WERE saying that those complaints were a valid reason not to add those small options (again, no one ever referenced a face creator, you nor I)“I can see why they wouldn’t bother”, meaning you accept that as reason not to do it.

Again, I hate to spell it out like this, but it was becoming frustrating.

To me, a choice of hair and eye colours implies a character creator - you’d have to do it before the game started, as opposed to an in-game ‘barber’ or something where you can just run a script to change the hairstyles. I’m sorry if I didn’t make it clear enough originally, but that was in fact what I was talking about. I hope we’re on the same page now.

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But in your reply you called it a “face” creator… Anyway…

All I want is an acknowledgment that there isn’t a direct link between small amounts of customization, and complaints that there aren’t more options… That’s all I was trying to say… Please answer that one thing… :sweat:

I think it depends. The problem is that if you allow players to customise their character’s appearance at the start of the game, even small things like hair colour, they’re likely to see it as ‘their’ character rather than the devs’ pre-created hero. Therefore a lot of people will want to make a charater that looks like them, or their favourite movie star, or whatever. That’s when you’re likely to get complaints about the limited amount of options.

Allowing players to change their hairstyle in-game, like in the Witcher games, is a bit different. That way the devs can say “this is still Henry, he’s just going to the barber to get a shave / a different haircut.” Inevitably some people will still complain about not being able to make their ‘own’ character, but it’s less likely to lead to confusion.

I guess in theory you could do the same with hair colour, but I’d struggle to think of a plausible in-game reason for Henry to get a dye job. Maybe as part of a quest for people who take the ‘stealth’ route? :wink:

But how can you say it would be based on on the barber, and not just wanting to customize from the beginning? What connection is there? People complain about that now, the game doesn’t even fully exist, it certainly isn’t because they can use a barber that isn’t even implemented.

You realize this could instantly alleviated by adding a dialogue box that states Henry is a set character, or that the reason you can’t change his face is because of mocap. Why wouldn’t that be a better alternative than removing something they wanted to add? (not that I know they do).

Like I said, even IF this happens, and people complain based on this, why is that a reason not to add it? People complain about everything, why is it that in this one instance, the idea of complaints should stop them from adding something simple like this?

I guess that’s my main question.

I think we are getting lost here.

Could you rephrase your question in one simple sentence?