So regarding Body shape, I think we need a minimum of 4 phenotypes otherwise they're just not covering the bases at all. I'd prefer more myself, but at least 4.
These should not just be stretches or compressions of the same standard shape, but actually differently shaped bodies. To put it another way, I don't want the bodies to look like generic muscle suits or body balloons that are simply being inflated till they pop or having the air let out, but where the distribution of the weight and the overall impression of the shape is more distinct.
I recognize that there are some limits here to what will still be recognizable during gameplay (ie ISO at Max zoom out), but because there are so many cinematic cutscenes and dialog views, having every body look the same is pretty disappointing.
I would like 4 or more builds for each Fantasy race, and for height I would like a range with 4 or more heights where there is no overlap. Put another way the shortest Dwarf, should still be taller than the tallest Halfling. Right now they are basically reusing the body models way too much. For example the current BG3 Halflings and Gnomes are basically identical, with only the ears to distinguish them. What I tried to do above with the re-scales, was to make sure that each race (and particularly the shorty races) would be standing a head taller/shorter and with different proportions (skull size to body, or overall body shape) so they are not identical and are unlikely to be mistaken for one another at a glance. The 3 figures looking straight forward in the line-up above, the Human, Tief and Half-Elf, all have the same phenotype at the same height. I'm ok with that, because Tiefs are very distinct from Humans in the visualization, and Half-Elves are essentially just Humans with pointy ears (least in the BG3 conception) but for everyone else, we should have a different visualization/height to make it easy to tell them apart. This isn't just for the PC's own benefit, but also to make the gameplay better with the enemies easier to recognize by type. You know, so you're not casting Sleep on a group of Elves thinking they're Humans or whatever. It's as much for that as just satisfying the desire for a unique visualization in the abstract, although I admit the latter is why more why I'm here haha.
I understand why they are doing it the way they are currently, because it makes it very simple to reuse the same art assets/models/animations for everything, particularly armored appearance, but I think that is a mistake, because it makes BG3 look like pretty much every other generic fantasy RPG out there, and gives the impression that they really took the easy way out in the art department.
D&D is supposed to be about characterization and all the nuances there. Also, because there are no more portraits and such, the Avatar really needs to fully assume that role here, offering enough variety to at least capture the essence of a character concept. So if the player has in mind a featherweight Dwarf who is the tiniest he can be, or a very tall and portly Dwarf with a big ole gut, there should be a way to visualize that during character creation, at least on some level.
I don't think this is a situation where the one thing is necessarily more important than another, but there should be some degree of parity. Meaning if you're going to give us 60 haircuts and 100 skin tones with like 1000 possible color combinations, that's great, but if there are only a handful of faces, and a single body phenotype the result is still going to be very limited.
If they don't do any more work, I think we are likely to see just 3 Phenotypes at launch, Standard, Thin and super Buff (where Thin looks like the current male Githyanki body, and Buff looks like Halsin) but they need one for Thick/Heavy-Set that doesn't just make the PC look like a truck. Something that actually changes the shape there. I'm not a 3d modeler, so I can't provide a ready example of what a Dwarf with a belly should look like compared to their standard barrel-chested look, but I'm sure one could imagine. You know, a Bombor, or that shirtless Dwarf with the big gut drinking from his mug in Durin's hall during that scene in RoP ep 2, basically. You're not mistaking him for the other Dwarf he's standing beside, because they made an effort to visualize him differently. BG3 needs to give us more of that in Char Creation, so our creations can feel unique.
ps. quick follow on, but for the actual humans, for the phenotypes I think should include 6, showing one with gigantism and dwarfism, but make that look totally realistic e.g. show me Fezzik and Willow for that. I think that would be cool. I feel like there are enough Fantasy movies to justify doing this and it would be a nice nod. Andre the Giant or Struycken shouldn't have to be Half-Orcs is what I'm saying, and the Time Bandits and Tyrion should obviously just be human as an option too. I guess that's more of a moonshot, like right now we only have the one body type, so pushing for 6 is maybe a stretch I'll grant. But that's kinda my general theme for BG3, so why not. I'll make an inclusivity argument for that one, if it gets us two more. You know I pine for the party of 6, and chances are good that 6 is better than 4 whenever I can think of a reason. So there ya go lol.
Last edited by Black_Elk; 15/09/22 09:39 AM.
