Image Designer Archive

First: IDs lurking around should check out my post here : http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=in_testing&message.id=44058&page=4 ..consider it a sort of "head's up" as to what the cantina environment is going to be like if/when the current low-skill/no-timer change hits live servers. Might also be a good place to discuss it, or use it as a springboard to start a thread here in ID forum.

But that's not really what this post is about.

This post is about looking cool.

"Image" is a lot more than just how you look. It's how you look -to others-. That's your hair and your skin color and your muscles, sure, but it's also your clothes, it's the way you walk, facial expressions, a bunch of stuff. This starts getting a little weird, though, because Star Wars Galaxies is primarily a combat-and-exploration game, like most MMORPGs. I mean, it's Star WARS. We're in the Galactic Civil WAR. This is -not- a gripe, it's just saying, "Hey, here's the game we're in."

So let's think about combat imagery.

New Branch: MARTIAL ARTISTRY

Martial Artistry teaches the image designer how to teach someone else how to be impressive while beating the stuffing out of, say, gnorts. Or storm troopers. Or krayts. In a statistical sense, what this does is adds a new kind of low-level Intimidate, Warcry, or similar "psychological" bonus/penalty to the character/opponent(s). It's one thing to punch a guy and lay him out flat. It's entirely ANOTHER thing to jump over his head, rebound off the wall, float in the air for a few seconds, and then come down with a dropkick. The damage might be -exactly the same- but the guy with the cool moves is sure a lot more memorable.

So besides just the basic bonus, this would allow IDs to grant -new animations- to players when they're fighting. These would be your "signature styles" and you could have one at a time; another option would be allow you to "attach" one signature style per combat tree, i.e. you could attach a style to Brawler and to Swordsman.

New Branch: MOMMY, I WANNA BE DARTH MAUL

Okay, so the name needs some work. What this branch would do is allow the ID to modify clothing and armor to have certain styles: Menacing, Attractive, Everyman, Inspiring. A Menacing look to your clothes might add rips, buckles, or shiny chrome; applied to armor, it could add spikes or severed droid heads. It, like Martial Artistry, would work to give you a psych edge in combat -- at least, against NPCs smart enough to realise you DO look scary, and not just some stinky guy in a suit. An Attractive style might negate some faction penalties, maybe let Dancers and Musicians heal a little more. Everyman styles would just let you be -blank- as far as factions are concerned; he's just some guy, you know? Nothing to make him stand out. An Inspiring look would be the bold, follow-me-unto-the-breech-et-cetera types; probably a big market for this to Jedi and Squad Leaders.

These styles would come undone after a couple days if you didn't do much about it; it'd come off immediately if you changed what you're wearing, and come off faster if you're really active (combat, et cetera). Lots of touch-ups needed. And it wouldn't have to be -complicated-. It might just be a slight retexture in a lot of cases.


Soo.. them's my thoughts on making the Image Designer profession an -image- designer profession, instead of the walking "character creation station" we kinda are now. Anyone else have ideas for this kind of thing? Might be fun to just talk about where else the concept can go.