Image Designer Archive
Thread: Interface, bugs, features update
Gender change/species change/breast augmentation/reduction- I'm checking - this will be a Lucasarts decision- I have a mail sent out about it. Changing a player's species would actually change their stats, so that one is a maybe at best.
I'd like to point out that there have been several instances poeple and infact entire nations undergoing these kinds of alteratioms but they were also involving genetics thus the bio-engineers need to be involved there somewhere even if it's the image designer which actually makes the final alterations. As i posted recently there was a large proposal which many bio-engineers felt fitted the situation perfectly.
Ood_Bnar wrote:
Sorry to report that species andgender changes/breast enhancement aren't going to be allowed. (per LucasArts and Lucasfilm).
This is tangentially related at best, but I'm tired of everone having the exact same body type. Would it be possible to implement something that scales the chest/bust vs waist vs hips ratios? It'd be nice to see some more variety out there besides the pretty generic figures people have. Aside from the muscle, fat and 'chest' sliders, it seems everyone has exactly the same build.
All females are the same athletic frame with some variation in bust size. All males are upside-down triangles with more/less fat/muscle.
Would it be difficult to allow for wider hips on some people, or broader shoulders? I don't know what the polygons for the bodies look like under the textures, but it seems the there must be some multipliers that could be added to make bodies that range from the lower ratio, "waif" body type, to the more high ratio, "voluptuous" body type.
It seems like a little bit of math to me, with the ratio of chest/waist/hips scaled up or down, or ideally with three values. I.e., c/w/b = 34" : 24" : 36" = 5.6 : 4 : 6
Okay, now I'm scaring myself. Anyway, I think a lot of people would like to be able to widen their hips, or broaden their shoulders without having to add fat/mass to their entire body as a whole.
/end scary math lesson/art proposal
Ood_Bnar wrote:
Sorry to report that species andgender changes/breast enhancement aren't going to be allowed. (per LucasArts and Lucasfilm). It would have been pretty tricky, and it sounds like there is debate to whether people like it anyway.
ARGH!!! I've grown tired of being a Wookiee...So now I have to toss out 3 months of advancement soI can be a diff race...
I understand the continuity aspect that people in the real Star Wars universe couldn't be a Zabrak one day and a Wookiee the next, but I think this would definitely add something to the game.
You didn't see people in the movie running missions all day long to make money like we do. I know that's kind of a lame argument, but you get my point right?
Adding a feature like this would be great in my opinion. It'd also bring something new and cool to the ID profession. You can even tie in the BE to it, like require the ID to use items for a race change that a BE can craft. It would create a lot more demand for ID services, and make BE's feel like more than just "Veterinarians" making pet-stims all day long.
I've really wanted to try out life in SWG as a Bothan, but dread the thought of sacrificing all that work over the past 3 months to do so.
Once again, I do understand the continuity aspect as to why LucasArts gave this the thumbs-down, but I really got excited at the possibility to change my species without creating a new character. Now I'll just go back to being the same ol' Wookiee.
Thanksfor the updateMr. Rodgers!
I remember a lamenting chef talking about the lack of motion to eat or drink with. I'll pass motion capture part along, he will be thrilled! Its not silly at all, we non combats really appreciate having those extra things! Thanks!
I'd just like to be on the conference call to Lucasarts/films about the Mon Cal questions...
There's something oddlycomical about contacting said companies, about alien breasts.
I don't think that gender/species change will ever become a possibility for us. There is one thing that I base this on - character names. How many people would want to change the gender and or species of their toon and keep the original name? And thereby we run into the database issues of name change. I don't see a way around this, do you?
Faith Dyann'I
Master ID - Theed - Starsider
FOO007, that's wishful thinking, really. I love the idea of more customization for the shape of the body. I just don't think it will have the effect of making everyone unique. As a master ID I can tell you that of all the requests I get for height adjustments, 60% of them are "make me as tall as possible." 30% of height requests are "as short as possible." 70% of all breast requests are "as big as possible." 90% of all muscle requests (from male characters) are "as many muscles as possible." My experience as a master ID tells me that if there's a way to make your character big, buff, muscley, and evil-looking, everyone will have it -- except for the people who are short, fat, or comical -- and except for the very few who are trying to be true to Star Wars.
Most of our recognition of characters is in faces, though. As humans, our brains are wired for recognition. 
If I were to ask for ways to make the characters more well-defined and unique, I'd say the following could be added:
1. Eyes closer together - eyes farther apart. Primarily for human races. It wouldn't have to be much, either.
2. Head height - head width - head roundness. This wouldn't have tovary much, either.
3. Double chin, fatness of face.
4. Shape of nose profile.
5. Mouth shape -- that is, different shapes for the mouth, pouty, puffy, crooked, etc.
6. Scars and bruises-- though I hesitate to say this, because then everybody would have one because it's c001 and ub3r and l33t.
7. Mongrel eyes. (One blue, one brown, for instance.) Again, this is something that a lot of people would take, ironicallybecause it's unique and different.
8. About 30 new hairstyles that are all equally in demand. Right now, I'm applying the same 3-5 to every human because they're the only ones that look good. The novelty of that is running out quickly.
9. Forehead angle /brow protrusion.
10. More in the way of full mustaches, full beards, braided beards, and so on.
If I were really wishing for new artwork for image designers, I'd ask for the following:
11. Stat-based bonus muscles allowed. If your strength exceeds 500, for instance, your character can get bonus muscles applied by an ID to give you more of a body-builder look.
12. Stat-based bonus fat. If your stamina and quickness are below a certan benchmark, you can get extra bonus fat applied by an ID.
13. If your mind is above a certain level, the ID can give you spectacles.
And so on. This would cause howls, absolute howls, from the players who all want to look l33t and evil but are, in reality, master bartenders, but it would be one way to enable some kind of stat-specific variance. A possibility I haven't really explored yet but which has just occurred to me is profession-specific variance. I wonder what the art team's got going right now... 
Ack. I thought I was in one thread, and I'm in the other.
Oops. Now I call for an edit button, too. First we'll put the edit button on Test Center...
Escia
Ood_Bnar wrote:Sorry to report that species andgender changes/breast enhancement aren't going to be allowed. (per LucasArts and Lucasfilm). It would have been pretty tricky, and it sounds like there is debate to whether people like it anyway.
We're looking into the remaining issues..
Thanks,
Jake Rodgers
Art Director
Err... Slightly curious now.
Is the breast enhancement comment relative to some ability that ID's currently don't already possess? Or are we going to see the ability to change Female human/twi'lek/zabrak torsos removed?
Reiella wrote:
Ood_Bnar wrote:
Sorry to report that species andgender changes/breast enhancement aren't going to be allowed. (per LucasArts and Lucasfilm). It would have been pretty tricky, and it sounds like there is debate to whether people like it anyway.
We're looking into the remaining issues..
Thanks,
Jake Rodgers
Art Director
Err... Slightly curious now.
Is the breast enhancement comment relative to some ability that ID's currently don't already possess? Or are we going to see the ability to change Female human/twi'lek/zabrak torsos removed?
Many people were requesting the ability to make breasts larger than they can be normally.
Image designers changing races? That better not happen or only work once. Because all we will see is wookies running around, changing to human to get easy faciton perks, and then back to wookies.
How about allowing race change only once per character life or once every 2 month. Add like a variable to keep track of it. Because otherwise it will get abused left and right.