WIP models / concept art / creature system

[Cervator]

Nicely done!

Quick solution options for gender:

1. Tweak the model to make two versions and expose a gender option on the player config page, pick accordingly. Default random?
   
2. Model quick-shave

Later it would be nice to expose more choices on the player config page (or in-game during game startup like the nice L&S faction selection box) but that is probably a fair bit more work. Especially if we'd want a preview of your model options - based on which active modules?

 

[manu3d]

By the way, not wanting to open a big discussion on such a difficult topic here, but recently a did some reading on the concept of Gender Binarism and if we wanted to be really progressive we should have at least a genderless character for those that do not identify with a specific gender: on a global scale they are quite a few and artistically it'd be an interesting challenge.

 

[glasz]

here's a new dwarfy with dwarfette :

The idea is to have a base for customizable character, so hair moustache, helmet, colors and textures could be choosen by the player, among other options.

A gender neutral character should be possible too, as long as we provide gender neutral options to choose from.

I'll keep thing as simple as possible polygonwise, so it'll be easy to add options and stuff. But it should make a nice starting point for maybe more elaborate character style...

 

[glasz]

some tests, suggestions welcome :

 

[Cervator]

Pretty neat alternatives, @glasz, and nice male/female set

I'd say lets do a dwarf without pigtails or beard and have four options: female / neutral / male / random (mixing up the order a bit too, default selection to "random").

At that point we're "covered" for basic gameplay (so engine scope, really). Any customization beyond that opens up a big can of worms - at some point we probably get into equipping items (yay hat!), putting models into modules instead of engine, making a more advanced character customizer in the menu, etc. We could totally throw a dozen different dwarf variants in a character picker independent of the gender selector (and if you want to spend the time making the models @glasz feel free to go for it!) but don't really need that yet, and it would require more code to support (like a menu preview)

Later on I'd love to expand on it further. In my old MMOG notes (every budding indie game dev has a binder full of notes for that MMOG they're totally going to make one day, right?) I have a bunch of races with non-binary genders along with sets of related cultural challenges. Very solid topic, and on point these days.

 

[manu3d]

Very cute models, in particular dwarfette. I guess it could also be interpreted as a male with long hair. Should she be made more explicitly feminine?

Regarding the neutral model, baldness is generally associated with males, so I'm not sure a hairless dwarf would do the trick, but a quick search on google didn't lead to anything I'd intuitively consider gender-neutral. It is quite an artistic challenge.

 

[Cervator]

Very cute models, in particular dwarfette. I guess it could also be interpreted as a male with long hair. Should she be made more explicitly feminine?

Regarding the neutral model, baldness is generally associated with males, so I'm not sure a hairless dwarf would do the trick, but a quick search on google didn't lead to anything I'd intuitively consider gender-neutral. It is quite an artistic challenge.

Helm! All dwarves enjoy a good helm. Which can hide hair. Seems a good neutral option

I like the slight hair diff between male/female. Yup it could be a long-haired male. Heck, dwarf females even grow beards in some mythos. I'd be cautious about feminizing / detailing any deeper, easily becomes a slippery slope

Later on when you can actually remove the helm (and other items) we'll probably be at a point where we can offer a vastly deeper set of options for customization and leave it up to the player how they want to look.

 

[Blockman-77]

I'll take this concept, and improve detail. Exactly what I wanted. I realize my concept and show you my idea (until Sunday). Thank you