Topic: Character Creation, Races, and Professions.

[Morgul]

Right now I'm not sure about most of the terms I'm going to be using here, but the concepts and the ideas are what's important.

When a user goes to create a character, what's the process going to be like? I've been asking myself this question for a while, and I decided I should answer it myself, and see what you think.

The first thing a user needs to do, is pick thier race. I've decided that we're goign to have more than Humans, but what ones we're going to have, I'm not sure of. However, let's assume that we have more than one option here.

After a user picks thier race, they needs to pick thier appearance. I would like the ability to add tattos, change eye colors, pick from a few sets of heads, arms, legs, etc... and the option to choose to be missing certain body parts... (like no left hand, no left eye, no right leg... w/e.)

After they've done that, and picked out a basic outfit, they need to pick a profession. The player should have this figured out before they pick thier appearance, so maybe we want to change the order, and put this before appearance, but we'll decide that latter. however picking thier profession also determins what factions they can be members of.  Here's the list I can think of, with the possible factions attatched. (Note, *RaceX* is a race who's name I've not decided, but they're going to be a *small* power that minds it's own buisness, and doesn't bother the Terrans, or the League.)

o Military (Terran, League, *RaceX*)
o Mercinary (Freelance,Pirate)
o Smuggler (Freelance, Pirate)
o Trader (All)
o Civilian (All)
o Pirate (Freelance, Pirate) ***

*** (Seems odd, having the 'Profesion' Pirate have the option having of being of in the faction 'Pirate', however that faction is really going to be a list of different pirate groups... where as you can be a freelance pirate and create your own pirate faction.)

Now, each of these professions would have 'specializations' that are like sub professions. For example:

o Military

- Army

x Sniper


x Tank Commando


x (etc.)

- Navy

x Fighter Pilot


x Starship Captain


x (etc.)

Now, don't get confuse... 'Navy' isn't a specialization... it's just for organizational purposes, making the specializations easier to find.

After this, the player would change thier stats, and then decide thier home planet, and starting planet (Or base). Pretty simple, I think.

--Chris

[contingencyplan]

The first thing a user needs to do, is pick thier race. I've decided that we're goign to have more than Humans, but what ones we're going to have, I'm not sure of. However, let's assume that we have more than one option here.

I like the additional race idea.  As I've said before, I'd still like to see >2 major human factions, but that's up to you - it's your story.  :-D

After a user picks thier race, they needs to pick thier appearance. [...] and the option to choose to be missing certain body parts... (like no left hand, no left eye, no right leg... w/e.)

The ability to choose appearance is a given - I like the ability to choose missing limbs.  Tossing back to our discussions on cyborgs a while back, I'd also say that in addition to missing parts, why not have the ability to choose cyborg parts to replace those?  Perhaps we should save that for in-game, and let the Player buy certain replacement parts (** thinking of the arm cannon on the T-X in Terminator 3...  oooh **).

After they've done that, and picked out a basic outfit, they need to pick a profession.

Personally, I'd rather leave that up to the Player to decide once they are in the game. This would be influenced by a number of different aspects - if you are living on a planet that is under League control, you likely will sign up with the League, rather than the Terrans.  Further, you shouldn't be stuck in one particular group for the entire play period - you should be able to defect from one group to another (though not without difficulty).  That's not to say you can just bounce around, but you can at least leave a particular group and join a different one.  You might can leave the Pirates of the Caribbean Nebula (** tips hat to Johnny Depp and Jerry Bruckheimer **), but don't do so flippantly - they have a nasty habit of... erm, getting even.

Furthermore, I don't think we should have the Player commit to one particular area of the military they join when they create their character. As I described in another post, I'd rather have the Player join in general, and receive training towards one area or another.  I've been working on a post about Soldier types, and I'll post that in a minute.

~Brian

[Morgul]

Well, here's my thinking... we need to have them pick where they want to go with a character when they make it. Think about D&D... you have to build your character to be a wizard... same character is gunna make a piss poor fighter. So, pick your character before hand.... and the sub professions are what you'd like to train for... not what you start out as. That's *very* fluid. (think of it as just a question on the military application.)