Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Additional Character Customization

I absolutely love the character creation already. There are so many options for a number of the features. I do not know how much is in the works for the final creation screen, but there are certain features I would like to see more of. 1) More tattoo options; 2) more voice options (I am sure this is in the works, but just in case, I'm including it); 3) More control over facial features (i.e. eye shape, size, location, among other features). The ability to change body features would be nice as well (height, weight, muscle definition, chest and limb size).

This sounds a lot like sliders ... Larian specificly told us that there will be no sliders. :-/

I still believe that some facial features should be possible to get by picking from list ... personaly im asking for ears for quite some time by now ...
Not sure how it would work with nose for example, that could cause some ugly colisions ...

It would be horrendously funny if they allowed choice of preset face emotives based on Alignment, but that's just something at the bottom of a wish barrel. Right now, cosmetics aren't something I care too much about considering how most of the time mods come out anyway to embellish PC creation.

I'd love more tattoos and even scars/jewlery like earrings and the like.

The ability to change body features is something I've been wishing for as well.

pretty sure we will get more character customization content when the game is actually released. More voice choices have been confirmed from data mining (8 voice choices so far). Body types seem to be a customization option as well from data mining.

I wouldn't mind Face Paint, like I would kinda like to give my character Woad.

For an additional aspect to the character creation, I would love to see an "unarmored outfit" designer. Basically where the character can create a basic outfit and choose some character colors.
I miss very much the choosing colors for our characters. I wish it would carry through to some part of whatever armor set we are wearing. That alone would make the game feel instantly more BG to me.

+1 to the possibility to edit aspect of the outfit

More faces should be nice too.

That's great. I wonder how hard it is to implement but I really wish we had something like that

I'd like the ability to pick our choice of undergarments, and/or to not have them fusion-welded to our bodies... but I'm apparently the weird one on that score, and I can begrudgingly accept that. Picking out and designing a 'Casual/unarmoured' outfit to wear would be a really nice addition that I'd support whole-heartedly. I'm a sucker for dress-ups. I played Fashion Souls, and Fashion Hunter, and Lord of the Fashion Online... I'll be super hyped to play Fashion Gate 3 , if they give me the chance...

I mean right?

I don't know how hard it would be to implement or how much it would cost, but I feel certain it would markedly improve the shelf-life, player retention, and replay for the game, well beyond whatever the initial investment amounted to.

My first thought, anytime I buy into one of these Dungeon and Dragons RPGs is... "Why haven't they figured this out yet?!" Like who's asleep in the boardroom, that they can't see how a digital fashion suite for a fantasy game would be an instant hit.

The MMOs have figured this out, but the way the MMOs typically use the concept is as a form max-level character continued engagement. Like they'll gate keep it with crafting, or some kind of trading system, such that most of the cool options are walled off, to try and make aesthetic progression take over for experience progression during the endgame. But they don't use it as initial hook. When it's like the best and easiest initial hook of all!

Nothing gets a player amped like creating a unique character look. I think what many people want is basically digital Barbie or GI Joe dress-up, but in a fantasy setting. It doesn't have to be a crafting mini-game or pay to play. They just need to open up whatever tools they use in house to do this, and make some of those available at char creation like an outfit designer. Basically what NWN did in the armor creator part of their toolset, but brought into the actual game, and put up front. Like as the first or second thing that the player sees.

I bet people would gripe a lot less about how such and such a Class isn't included yet, or how the actual game is still just like a skeleton, if they're too busy trying to choose belt buckles and decide which color leather strap looks best, or whatever hehe.

Oh here's another knock on idea that I think would be great...

Let us create our unarmored appearance AND our starting equipment in a design suite!

Many people have requested an option to select their starting equipment, and other's have replied they don't see the point. But if you got to actually design the equipment, choose basic colors and style elements, such that it had a particular look, then I think everyone would be able to see the point. Because then it becomes part of characterization.

I honestly don't think it needs to be super complex initially to do a proof of concept, but then it could be like a fun thing that they add in with new patches. Or perhaps people could create their own models eventually and continue to flesh out the idea that way? It's really something I've always wished for in a modern D&D crpg game. NWN1 had a cool concept but that was like 20 some odd years ago. and it was a feature of the toolset more than the base game. But I think something like that done modern could slip into the same role that the old painted 2D portraits used to have. Cause at least our initial avatar would have a more unique look. Especially combined with more faces, makeup tattoos, phenotypes and such.

A simple toggle, to show "unarmored appearance" would be cool for role play.

It could just overlay on top whatever you're currently wearing to show the regular clothing look or basic tunic or chiton etc that the player designs. There could even be another option to show "undergarments" where the PC can choose what kind of underduds they like best. Maybe its a slip, maybe boyshorts or bikinis, maybe nothing whatsoever as the player prefers. Start simple, some basic cuts and accessories, hood no hood, a few sashes a few belts, but with a large variety of color or pattern options for the isolated elements.

But I think the real win would be designing the actual starting equipment!

They could do it up super cool, with like a selection of base armor and weapons models, with say half a dozen components each, and then half a dozen options for those. The boot designer alone hehe, I mean can you imagine? Different colors for everything. Like for the patterns on the armor or the leather grips on the weapons. Different dyes for the linen cloth components, or different tints for the metal components. The key is to have a large variety of modular elements which can each be colored independently. Sure there are some compromises to be made between modular and overall cohesion, but even working with some pretty basic stuff, color can go a long long way. Slap a new coat of paint on the old thing, and its made new again. Same concept, but in this case for the threads. I said design suite, but I really mean something rather simpler and serviceable for a game of this kind. Something with drop down presets for the basic models, multiple choice style essentially, but with a color wheel or pattern tiles so that the player can tweak the various elements on the fly to suit their tastes - all while cool music plays in the background!

You know everyone would hold onto their first set of wizards robes or chainmail or that longsword with the rad hilt too, just because it would be extra special like that. Even if it's just the unenchanted regular stuff, they'd be the one's you made, so everyone would love it. That would be an instant win, for a studio that leaned into it, since it really indulges the players creative side. The same way a race or class selection, or choosing certain abilities or skills engages, but on the aesthetic front along with the faces and hair and all the rest.

Doing it at the beginning of the game would be novel, since usually this kind of stuff is reserved only for the very end of a crafting tree, but I'm saying we should have an upfront version for the regular clothes and ideally for the basic starting equipment too. Just cause that would be way too cool and nobody is really doing that for a game like this these days. You could still have crafting in the game, but I mean attaching something like this to the Character creation process.

Pre-game, as it were. It should launch as like the last step of character creation. The fact that it's regular clothing or unenchanted stuff, means it wouldn't have to complete with the +1 or +2 equipment, or compete with crafting within the actual gameplay, which might yield yet more options for better equipment, but it would still give players so much more to work with in designing an overall look for their character. I think people would love it! They'd spend hours upon hours in the character creator. It would be like choosing a custom portrait or Major and Minor colors in BG1, but the totally next level version~ haha!

ps. I feel like game studios always do the same thing, the player starts out looking lame in intentionally lackluster regular equipment, and they then have to develop their "badass look" over the course of the entire game as their reward for playing. Like when they get that super cool loot +5 and the curtain falls on their ultimate look. The problem though, is that someone in the art department might think one sort of look is the absolute best thing ever and which everyone will surely want, but perhaps very different than what the player has in mind for their specific character. By allowing the PCs to create an unarmored appearance at the outset, or a basic set of standard equipment that defines their overall look, I think that would go a long way towards making everyone's character feel truly customized.

But they should do it at the very beginning, while the player is still creating their character ideas, not like 10 hours or 100 hours into the game. Do it at the outset, so the players can get all excited and invested in the character they are about to play. Someone should really do it. A D&D game that had such a feature from the getgo would be very successful I think.

Imagine if, when you're in the big city, and you go to a well established merchant, and you select to buy a brand new suit of 1 studded leather, you have the *option* (not required - you can take the off-the-shelf default if you want) of opening up a tailoring screen where you can set out the way you want your purchase to look; pick some colours and highlights, and from a few design options, etc., all things that the well-established merchant smith can customise for your purchase. Loot you find while adventuring might not suit your aesthetic, sure, and beggars can't be choosers when you're putting your life on the line... but when you are buying it direct from a producer in a city, or when you're back in town after an outing and you can get things tweaked or customised... I'd love that. Can't battle evil if you don't look cute.

Hehehe I remember building exactly that for a NWN1 PW way back when. It was by far the most satisfying project that never got fully completed, mainly because the script was too tricky and there were no real crafting systems I don't think until Mask of the Betrayer was released. But the workaround was to do dialog options that gave access to different wardrobes with just a massive inventory. It was in a single district, but you'd have a tailor and a milliner and a cobbler all on the same street. Then via convo prompt you could be like yeah, "I want to see what you have in..." 1. knee highs 2. ankle boots 3. sandals. 4 battle stilettoes. 5... You know stuff like that. Which then just had every color and style combo the tooslet made available. So the characters could deck out in their unarmored duds in pretty much any combination.

On the other side of town, you had the armorers and weapon smiths doing much the same, but only with the standard equipment.

That was like the tradeoff, and the way to still maintain a level of aesthetic progression over time within the campaign world for the enchanted stuff. You could choose your look pretty completely, but only at the entry level, for regular unenchanted stuff or unarmored appearance (e.g robes).

It just came down to a little gold and one's imagination, and of course the number of preset-models the game provided at the time, which was actually pretty impressive for its day, and even still. I think each equipment model had at least 3-6 modular components, of which one could color like 3 different aspects. So a sword had a blade hilt and pommel, each with their own options and colorable surface. It's easy to imagine the types, the standard ones from movies and cartoons basically. Some serrated, some curvier, some more or less so, pointed pommel or round, banded hilt or metal with various swoops. All great stuff. One can spend hours just doing that, and it makes everything about the gameplay more rewarding when your avatar actually looks cool. The way you picture the character in your head.

For a starter proof, they could just use the exact armor models that are already in the game, but isolate the elements on each into like 4-6 separate fields that could then be colored independently by the player. Later they could develop more modular designs, but for now, just playing with the colors would yield a lot I bet. In BG2 the player could only control 2 colors on their avatar and often equipment would override stuff regardless, to go from something like that to BG3, where you could color that suit of chain or ringmail or leather any way you wanted to, would be pretty major.