Yes, full agreement.
Character Import/Export could be a whole game unto itself in my view.
The character creator is a major part of Baldur's Gates' appeal. Character customization including custom Portraits, Voices and scripts is what set the Original Baldur's Gate apart from other similar cRPGs at the time. I'm sure there are many things people could point to as 'the thing' at the beating heart of BG, but to me it was always that. In other games you were limited by the assets included in the game, but BG allowed you to really bring yourself into it. It was the first game I can recall where you could customize a biography and feature complete enough that you could port a Table top character into the Forgotten Realms. Sure still with some limitations, but it was pretty flexible and gave the player a very long lead to get out of it what they put in.
Aesthetic progression, for how the character is visualized or voice coached or scripted, those were a big deal. Like that was always the coolest part of the game to me, and why it was replayed more than others. In recent times we've seen where this sort of idea has been mmo'd (for lack of a better verb) but to see something like that done up as a primarily Single player or small group experience with a cool campaign or series of interconnected modules.
What I want is basically a Hall of Heroes. Perhaps after beating the game with a character, or at least once, the player then gets options to start building out their catalogue. I think a fun MP experience might be a Hero run, where certain encounters are rescaled based on the number of players, or different difficulty settings, new ways to keep your high scores, to make that more engaging over the long haul. But at bedrock, you need a way to do that import/export Character thing, to save out those ideas so they're available at the ready.
I honestly think they should take half their budget, give to the VA and Mocap peeps and just go absolutely to town on the customizations for the Tavs and those would be zots very well spent. That's what I want most out of BG3, and it could work in tandem with building out a library of NPC character archetypes that have certain qualities in their read or gesture, or the same deal for the MM. Basically brining the emotive stuff we see on display for some of the best NPCs and Companions and making that available to the custom character in spades. Main wish for a continue Baldur's Gate that keeps continuing into the new era.
Last edited by Black_Elk; 03/10/23 03:46 AM.
