Curse

T1Cybernetic · Jul 31, 2007, 12:42 PM // 12:42

I wish i could change my character's hair's and appearance's too but i dont see this happening

shame too as it would be a welcome addition to the game.

LobsterMobster · Jul 31, 2007, 07:45 PM // 19:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by RSGashapon

Oooh, I didn't read that all the way through the first time. Oops.

Yeah, seems it would be fairly easy to do then. So why haven't they done it?

Perhaps it's not so easy. Maybe instead of changing each character's stats in each area, they just swapped around the art asset files in those cities. They've already shown that they can make location-specific appearance changes, like at Rollerbeetle Racing.

Faceless Pyrus · Jul 31, 2007, 07:58 PM // 19:58

I think it would be fine as long as it's only limited to hair. No changing height, skin tone, face, etc.

Also, make prices relative to how they are in real life. It would cost less to change your hair style than your hair color. And maybe it would cost more to get an exotic style (i.e. a Tyrian character getting an Elonian hair style.)

guildwars101 · Jul 31, 2007, 08:46 PM // 20:46

i agree and i wonder by changing appearance if they could make it so you could change any aspect of your characters like gender hair face height after the character is made cuz i wanna change someof my PvE chars but i cant

NeHoMaR · Jul 31, 2007, 10:33 PM // 22:33

Remember hats? Believe it or not, hats are actually HAIR, yes hair, try to put the head of any character under water and you will see it without hair, he/she just have a hole in head for the hair or hat; When wearing a hat, hair is removed and hat replace it using exactly the same spot of the hair. Right now all characters are able to wear everything in head, including all hairs obviously, even for other gender and professions, that is already implemented in game; Just a minor develop is needed for professionally add the feature to game, for example fix hats/hairs for don't overwrite helmet stats, add all hairs as hats if needed, preview window for hats/hairs, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LobsterMobster

Perhaps it's not so easy. Maybe instead of changing each character's stats in each area, they just swapped around the art asset files in those cities.

Hmmm! that look too hard for a fool day joke.

Lady Lozza · Jul 31, 2007, 11:08 PM // 23:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by LobsterMobster

Perhaps it's not so easy. Maybe instead of changing each character's stats in each area, they just swapped around the art asset files in those cities. They've already shown that they can make location-specific appearance changes, like at Rollerbeetle Racing.

I'm imagining the April Fool's Day worked something like this:

female hair001.var (--->) male hair001.texture
...

And so on for the entire list of options available.
Just an extra little reference file to give us all a different look, a file which once removed would turn things back to normal.

It's not the same as what people are asking to be done.
I'm not going to claim how much more difficult the task may be, because honestly I've no idea how or where they store all the character variables. I would be taking a wild guess if I said that writing only occurrs to the game (specifically the character) DB on character creation (presumably for security reasons) and therefore it might very well be "impossible" for them to implement a (permenant) hair/face/skin changer without "breaking" the "security" of their DB.

DarkWasp · Aug 01, 2007, 12:07 AM // 00:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faceless Pyrus

I think it would be fine as long as it's only limited to hair. No changing height, skin tone, face, etc.

Also, make prices relative to how they are in real life. It would cost less to change your hair style than your hair color. And maybe it would cost more to get an exotic style (i.e. a Tyrian character getting an Elonian hair style.)

Lets just hope if it's added, they dont make it require some rare object that is hard to obtian and driven WAY up in price by eBayers.

Dashface · Aug 01, 2007, 01:03 AM // 01:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eldin

Jora's hair suggests the Norn are in possession of some epic hair salon.

I'm of the opinion that Jora's hair suggests that the Norn haven't seen hairdressers in a considerable time.

Rhedd · Aug 01, 2007, 10:07 AM // 10:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Lozza

I'm imagining the April Fool's Day worked something like this:

female hair001.var (--->) male hair001.texture
...

And so on for the entire list of options available.
Just an extra little reference file to give us all a different look, a file which once removed would turn things back to normal.

It's not the same as what people are asking to be done.
I'm not going to claim how much more difficult the task may be, because honestly I've no idea how or where they store all the character variables. I would be taking a wild guess if I said that writing only occurrs to the game (specifically the character) DB on character creation (presumably for security reasons) and therefore it might very well be "impossible" for them to implement a (permenant) hair/face/skin changer without "breaking" the "security" of their DB.

So you think it's more likely that they changed the reference on every PC art asset in the game, all bazillion of them, instead of just swapping the byte that determines whether your character is male or female?

Somehow I doubt it.

I'm not one of the people saying that hairstylists are so easy they have no right not to do it, but I certainly wouldn't expect it to be impossible.

LobsterMobster · Aug 01, 2007, 02:27 PM // 14:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhedd

So you think it's more likely that they changed the reference on every PC art asset in the game, all bazillion of them, instead of just swapping the byte that determines whether your character is male or female?

Somehow I doubt it.

I'm not one of the people saying that hairstylists are so easy they have no right not to do it, but I certainly wouldn't expect it to be impossible.

I don't know how they've structured their art assets, but it could be as simple as moving the contents of one directory to another, serverside. I'd agree it'd be easier to just swap the gender if that's all that happened, but it wasn't. They also changed hair and skin tones. Maybe male and female colors aren't parallel?

If they let people change their gender and height, maybe they should force them to have their armor remade, since the logic behind armor being untradeable is that it's custom fit for each individual.

Lady Lozza · Aug 01, 2007, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhedd

So you think it's more likely that they changed the reference on every PC art asset in the game, all bazillion of them, instead of just swapping the byte that determines whether your character is male or female?

Somehow I doubt it.

I'm not one of the people saying that hairstylists are so easy they have no right not to do it, but I certainly wouldn't expect it to be impossible.

Rhedd, that is also possible. I don't know how each section of the character model is generated. Could be a number of ways:
1) head = ..., body = ...
2) gender = ..., head = ...

You are right in that if gender is referenced in the character build, AND it effects which skins the head, body, and armour show, which would honestly be an easier system, then they would have had basically one line of code.

My point however, was that it would have been one line/one file or both. What people are actually asking for is for DB changes, which are another matter altogether. If people want their "stats" changed for good they would have to go into whatever DB they use for storing character properties.

It can be said almost for certain that the DB work with a character reference number. Anymore than that would be a wild guess. I would GUESS that face choice, height, skin tone, hair, hair colour, and name are all stored in a table somewhere on the server. It wouldn't suprise me if they were all stored in the SAME table - afterall they have (up till now) been the attributes that couldn't be changed after creation. My GUESS is that, for security reasons, this DB is only writable DURING CHARACTER CREATION. Which would make it difficult (not impossible) to change. And might make it "impossible" WITHOUT BREAKING their system.

As I've said a number of times when discussing the various technical aspects that some players seem to think are "sooo easy", I honestly don't know how their system is set up - I can only guess at how, and I can only guess why it is that way. If my basic premises are correct, I can see a work-around, somewhat similar to what I suspect they did during April Fool's day, however I imagine it would take quite a bit of modification to implement.

Hairstylist impossible? No. Easy? Not necessarily. Do I want one? Yeah, it'd be pretty cool, but I'd like it to stop at hair. Plastic surgeons and tanning salons are not needed.

Radioactive Panda · Aug 02, 2007, 01:11 PM // 13:11

Here's an idea:

If you don't like the hair stylist, don't use it.

LobsterMobster · Aug 02, 2007, 01:32 PM // 13:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radioactive Panda

Here's an idea:

If you don't like the hair stylist, don't use it.

oh noez but then the n00bs that want a haircut are still on my intarwebs using all my bandwidth!

Age · Aug 03, 2007, 09:41 PM // 21:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faceless Pyrus

I think it would be fine as long as it's only limited to hair. No changing height, skin tone, face, etc.

Also, make prices relative to how they are in real life. It would cost less to change your hair style than your hair color. And maybe it would cost more to get an exotic style (i.e. a Tyrian character getting an Elonian hair style.)

Why not the height as well as I wouldn't mind changing some of my char height?

White knight lord · Aug 03, 2007, 11:22 PM // 23:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by White knight lord

I personally think it would be dumb, just another NPC waste of space as I see it,and if they do this you know someone will want to change their chars face (aka plastic surgery in r/l),skin color(aka tanning in r/l),or size (working out or dieting in r/l),its just a game folks its there to play not to change your chars, if you want to change your char go play the SIMS.

Many people are predictable

DarkWasp · Aug 04, 2007, 12:20 AM // 00:20

This happens every time.

We got the people who like their characters who say... Why would I need to change me hair?

Then we got the people who don't like their characters and are willing to kill for a new cut.

And if you aren't debating on that matter, you're probably debating how hard it would be to implement.

--------------
Well heres what I gotta say
--------------

I like my character's and think I gave them a fine choice of hair, all of them. However, I REALLY want to see a stylist added to the game.

1. Because I realise that i'm not the only person playing
2. Because I like new things
and
3. Who knows, maybe i'll like their options better

And i'd like to appolgise in advance to all you haircutter-haters... I'm sure it'll hurt when you trip over that one extra NPC on the way to your storage.

Oh, and in the high def ign game demo video, is that another new style on that paragon?

NOW! As for adding it! How many of you have ever programmed? Raise your hands

In almost all cases, developers try to make the source code as easy as possible to modify. Example: HL2, has Valve Hammer. Sure it's for modders, but the developers used it to map for the game, it makes things really easy.

I imagine they made our characters all nice and editable too. They probably have record of creation date, appearance, unlocks, items .etc all in the same file or segment or whatever.

Programers also use a lot of variables to simplify things. They can tell the source to change the hair model on the character to, lets say "Hair Style 2", every time the command "Changehair2" is ordered.

Basicly, you set the situations and what to do with each one (If-Thens) into one command and the computer follows orders and changes everything. Otherwise, April 1st would have taken weeks of preparation.

Just remember that the hair stylists only have to be created and tested once, then they can be repeated. Not saying it'll work for sure, but they wont have to write a whole program for each and every one.

In short! ("Finnaly" Right?) With the resources they already had, hair stylists should be one of the easier projects. Not only easy but simple. The number of players isn't a factor either.

Perfected Shadow · Aug 04, 2007, 01:02 AM // 01:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Lozza

Plastic surgeons and tanning salons are not needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faceless Pyrus

think it would be fine as long as it's only limited to hair. No changing height, skin tone, face, etc.

Why not? If they're going to implement editing of a character feature, why not implement editing of all character features? Being able to go back to the char creation screen to edit existing characters would be ftw. As said before, if you don't want to change your height, skin tone, face, etc, then do not. I don't see a reason to prevent others from editing things that you don't want to change.

stiffler · Aug 04, 2007, 05:51 AM // 05:51

Lol I think I have more of an issue with the name I gave my Warrior rather then the look I gave him. Why not add a NPC to change your name (birth certificate). What I'm getting at is this is a can of worms best left closed, this is a little to much freedom for characters. If its just limited amount of options for hair alone then I can live with that, but whole body changes is probably taking it to far IMO.

RavenGT · Aug 04, 2007, 07:23 AM // 07:23

Just to let you guys know, the new World of Warcraft expansion -- Wrath of the Lich King -- is going to have a hairstylist. Yeah. Good frigging game.

Perfected Shadow · Aug 04, 2007, 10:25 AM // 10:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by stiffler

What I'm getting at is this is a can of worms best left closed, this is a little to much freedom for characters. If its just limited amount of options for hair alone then I can live with that, but whole body changes is probably taking it to far IMO.

What's wrong with the freedom of being able to change your character? And why is it taking too far? You don't have to use the option you know.