Feedback on the new Character Creator

Before I begin, please note that I am not in i16 beta. My feedback is based entirely what I've seen from publicly-released screenshots and photos from sources such as Soulie's great post which links to photos taken at Comiccon.

Breadcrumb Bar: This bar apparently allows players to navigate back and forth between the different stages of character creation so that they can adjust all aspects of their character's appearance and build before committing to character creation. It's somewhat reminiscent of the various screenshots we've all seen from the alpha character creator. This is a positive change, but there are a few glaring problems.

First off, the bar itself looks pretty ugly. It's too large and rendered in the Red Circle font which is ubiquitous on the character creation screen, but then disappears from the game. The names of the various functions squish together, and are in a slightly difficult-to-read font. It could used to be resized and separated in a more readable and visually appealing function. It's not entirely necessary to get rid of 'Red Circle', but I recommend going to a less decorative font.

They also apparently don't have any attached description of what they do for novice players. We all know what 'Origin & Archetype' refer to, but players who've only ever done fantasy RPGs are going to be looking for options like 'Race', 'Religion', or 'Class'. Popup tool tips containing short versions of the text found on the existing 'Create your Hero' or 'Create your Villain' screen would go a long ways towards helping clarify that menu.

Incidentally, the current long help for 'Origin' reads, "Origin determines what types of Enhancements your character can use and what villain groups they will face the most." That's fairly outdated, and could use to be modernized. I recommend something like "Origin determines which kind of non-crafted enhancements your character may use as well as suitability to temporary powers."


Screen names are confusing and oddly ordered: We see "Origin & Archetype", "Primary Sets", "Secondary Sets", "Body", "Costume", "Powers", and "Register".

A novice might be confused when he selects his powers in 'Primary' and 'Secondary', then builds his costume, and then builds his power visuals under 'Powers'.

I recommend renaming them in a more intuitive manner. I suggest the following:
"Archetype & Origin", "Primary Power Set", "Secondary Power Set", "Body", "Costume", "Power Visuals", and "Register Name & Bio"


The 'Check Name' button should appear on some form in most if not all of the character creation screens. At the very least, the Name and Bio screen needs to be revamped so that it allows for a non-commit version of the name check.


Same old dreary blue (or red) backgrounds: These backgrounds, frankly, suck for designing a character against. They will suck even moreso when trying to determine which colors look best for power effects.

We've SEEN screenshots that show that code exists to place different lighting effects over and backgrounds behind characters. These are mostly in dev tools, I think, but we could really use at least a basic version of these in the character creator. 'Indoor Bright', 'Indoor Dark', 'Outdoor Day', and 'Outdoor Night' would be highly useful. Letting us select from 'Cave', 'Office', and 'Lab' would also be highly regarded.


Lists should be top-aligned rather than center-aligned: It seems like this would not only look more appealing, but make scrolling and spacing more intuitive.


Show 'Detailed Info' should display a pop-up rather than replace the contents of another container: This has always felt rather tacky to me, but it's a sign of a redesigned-in-use interface. Since the whole thing is being revamped, it seems like the button should be moved to a more intuitive place, such as next to the power in question, and a moveable, closeable pop-up should appear.


Color choice is too limited: It seems like the primary reason for this is social rather than technical, since previous experiments have shown that the engine will support any RGB color tinting costume textures. I assume that the same is true of power textures. The limits imposed have been done so precisely for that reason, to limit the player's ability to make costumes that would be troublesome for support staff to deal with.

I've always felt like this is rather a slight to the player community, but I've also seen horrible abuses come out of the costume creator anyway. New and uncommitted players do stupid things.

My suggestion is to allow 2 year+ veterans the ability to access an 'advanced' color picker, with the option to type in RGB values directly. This would allow veterans who are a bit more protective of their accounts do to things like match the colors of the 'Wedding' tops to regular bottoms, and vice versa.

I like most of your ideas and I'll add a couple things.

While I was testing the new character creator at Comic Con, i was bothered by trying to turn my character around, so I could see his powers go off. I can't remember if they put this feature in at Comic Con, but there should be a way to click the color bar again and have it roll up, leaving wide open space to see the power FX.

Also, maybe use a (+) (-) labels so people will know that the menu's expand or collapse. Maybe an up or down arrow might look better.

And as for the coloring option, I was so excited when they let you save costumes as a text file. First thing I did was edit the RGB values on my Cop and gave him beige pants and shirt, so his uniform is nearly identical to the California Highway Patrol. Then they put out a patch that invalidated the RGB values that weren't part of the palette and I was a Sad Panda I think I let my sub go inactive for a few months after that.

Anyway, the only thing I disagree with is giving the advanced color options to vets. Maybe just unlock them again when the costume loader goes to validate RGB values. I don't think a new player would go to the trouble, or even figure out how to give themselves flesh toned colors.

We need Orangish reds, super light golds, slightly green or purple blues. It would make costume possibilities 100x better.

Oh, I read that completely wrong!

Just stop with all this vet nonsense. 6 months or even 9 months are more than enough to make sure the player is not a complete newbie and will pay attention to his account. I agree vets should get some little perks but nothing really useful other players shouldn't get. That's just annoying and irritating when you can't do something because you're not there for 2, 3, 4 or more years...

Between account trading, very casual players, players who just never close their accounts even if they're not playing, having all the vet badges doesn't mean much. I can count on one hand the 3 years + veteran i've met in game that were acting like... well, veteran. That's just some way to be elitist while not doing anything to be in the said "elite" except being there for a long time, which proves nothing about the quality of the player.

Dude, you can make nude caucasian characters as is, I've seen someone in one of my SG's do it across multiple toons. That's yet another beef I have in that we can't use true white costumes with skin. We look like we just left a wet tshirt contest.

I'd fully throw in my lot with a true RGB color picker for all, veteran status be damned. If someone makes something inappropriate then they surely knew what they were doing and that there would be consequences. One of my biggest issues making costumes is trying to find a shade that matches just right to my vision and ending up having to settle for less. Same could go for powers, within the limitations that the devs are wanting to impose, like earth tones for stone powers.

Anywho, this is all just based on the color ideas. Frankly, the new creator looks perfectly fine to me, I see no reason to nitpick it till I see it in action.

Eh I'm not really nitpicking the new I16 character creator directly.
I'd like a way to get access to a full range of RGB colors regardless.

Turns out there was a time when we could apply true skintone colors to costume items. But that was changed in one of the very first patches to CoH just weeks after the game launched back in 2004. The ability to do that again was "leaked" out during the beta that gave us the costume save/load feature, but that was quickly nerfed long before the Issue went live. No matter what happens with this color situation I doubt the Devs will ever allow skintones on items that enable nudity again.

I think there are many valid reasons why we should be able to have access to RGB colors that have nothing to do with questionable uses like nudity. I think there are ways to prevent the bad uses and allow the good uses happen. The Devs have shown us that Power Customization is possible so maybe better access to colors in general will be too.

Does no one remember the great nipple nerf of '04?

Well I just love the irony that if our Devs hadn't tried to "save our collective gaming souls" by nerfing those body parts for us then no one would likely ever mention them in these forums. They'd be taken as a given of human anatomy and no one would think twice about it.

As it is now there's always going to be someone like The_Norm to keep that pot of silliness stirring.

Here's a good example image showing why we NEED the ability to select a direct RGB value for costume tinting.

This character is using the 'Desire' top with 'Sleeve' wrists and the 'Disco' bottom with 'Heel 2' boots. The model's skin is a mid-range tan color, and all costume pieces are tinted with the same top-right white color in the pallette.

Note the color discontinuity between the 'Desire' and 'Sleeve' and 'Disco' and 'Heel 2'. The 'Tops with Skin' and 'Bottoms with Skin' options are slightly blended with skin color whereas the the boots and sleeves are not. It's distracting and takes away from the costume.

This could be corrected, or at least matched more closely with a better color picker.