Character Customisation

[eharper256]

Hi, heard about this on RPS, and am interested in the EA when it goes live tommorow, but want to know about the character customisation.

I see there are classes with a bunch of skills: is this in a tree-like system, or is it linear? What level of customisation is there within this (i.e. do you just have class skills, or can you hybridise if you like).

Basically, want to know if there are many builds you can try in the game (it's a personal bugbear of mine when games offer useless choices when other things are clearly superior).

Also, whilst I'm looking at customisation: do we get to alter the characters sprite at all? Things like hair and clothes etc?

[lagmite]

> Also, whilst I'm looking at customisation: do we get to alter the characters sprite at all? Things like hair and clothes etc?

Something I've noticed is there are no male avatars in this game. Personally, I think it's pretty cool you're always playing as a female. I wouldn't complain if things stayed this way, though I can understand why they'd want to draw some male sprites in the future, too.

[zircon / Impact Gameworks]

There are a few ways you can customize your character right now. When you start the game you select your job (there are 9 right now; more to come) and two "feats" which give you some active or passive bonuses across the board.

Your job slightly influences your core stats, and gives you one or two passive abilities right out the gate. For example, Budoka (martial artists) gain unarmed fighting proficiency. Brigands gain a chance to cause bleeding with sharp weapons.

Each job then has a set of skills which can be learned in any order using JP. This is modeled after games like Final Fantasy Tactics. You can get cheap skills early on or save up and get expensive ones first; the order is up to you. As you unlock skills you will also unlock more passive bonuses ("Advanced" and "Mastery") unique to your job.

My intention at first was that people mix and match jobs, just like some of those classic FF games I mentioned or newer ones such as Bravely Default. You can change jobs for a fee, or if you find the right item, so it's not difficult to create your own combination of abilities and passive skills that you like.

However since "pre-early access" went live about a week ago I've seen that some people really like the style and feel of specific jobs and they want more options within those jobs. Once EA launches for real I'll be working on and unveiling ways you can further 'specialize' in a single job.

--

As for visual customization, we have a lot of animation for each job with much more planned (such as directional sprites) and these take a long time. I think we can offer some level of color scheme adjustment but probably nothing like hair styles... at least not yet...

[eharper256]

Thanks for the swift reply.

As an RPG designer myself, it's nice to see someone pay attention to both multiclassing and specialisation, so good on you for that! One of the best ways to key off that, in my experience, is to have 2-3 obvious themes in the class, and have specialisations continually improve those 2-3 themes, allowing you to be real good at that specific thing. Whilst, when you multiclass, being able to take say 1 out 4 passives with you so you can keep one specific aspect of a class you like and still have it moderately strong (or perhaps, combine the effects of two selected passive, alchemy style).

I realise making modular sprite sheets is also a serious pain in rear, so I can understand this as well, although its a shame and I hope you can spare some time to consider it. Pallette swaps like Etrian Odyssey would be something at least.

[CoalWhite]

Ya, I see gender and hair/outfit customization as something that should be waaayyy down on that list. This rogue-like has incorporated movement for the sprites as you said, so the amount of work we're talking for a new dress, or hair or gender is insane. Pallette swaps and no more please, so much else that needs to be done to expand on the game-feel and mechanics.


IMO, multiclassing is something players make up as they go (the dev simply enables it), whereas specialization is the domain of the dev (planning out diverse and vast skill-trees with intricate dynamics and abilities for the individual class/job) - it takes a lot of time and thinking.


Also, 10 hours or so left right...?! :D

[Bastet]

I don't want to play as a girl :'(