TL;DR

• Races will have much diversity, and influence on a lot of mechanics in the game
• Character creator allows very detailed customization
• Character creator will be available pre-launch
• "Out of place" creations will not be possible
• Character creator is a tool that will be used for NPC creation as well

Ashes of Creation March development update was not all over the place topic-coverage-wise, but was very focused on one thing - character creator for Alpha 2. Caracter creator tool revealed puts Intrepid’s Ashes of Creation quite far up the ladder, alongside with likes of Black Desert Online, which is regarded as having one of the best character creators in MMO world.

Ashes' Races Will Influence Nodes, Armor, NPCs, Language...

The livestream kicked off with a question from community member. Considering the diversity in classes of Ashes Of Creation, the community member wanted to know if the game will provide the same for races. Already known nine races will have different cultural influences. Each race will have its own influence on gear - depending on which race player plays, visual representation of the set may differ. Additionally, node structure is influenced by race, both in visual but also NPC perspective. Furthermore, each race has its own lore, language, identity, which all ties in together.

Character Creator Reveal

Before the audience was introduced to the new character creator, Steven Sharif prefixed the video to give us some context and set expectations. The tool is in its first pass, it will be available in Alpha 2 testing, and UI part of it is not done, and a lot of features are still missing. However, to avoid setting the expectation bar too low, Steven desribed the tool as one of the most versatile and capable character creators out there.

And, the video showed just that. A character creator that looked very detailed, with loads of options, from hair color changes to individual body part changes. The character creator is not just a list of sliders players can move around to get their character to the state they want, but also allows body part changes with drag functionality.

Character Creator Segments

Origins allows players to choose character race. The livestream focused mostly on Kaelar and briefly touching Vek, with the explanation that Kaelar male model was the most basic model they could prepare for the presentation.

Appearance section contains pretty familiar customization with all the sliders for body (body type and skin), head (hair and beard), face (eyes and facial features), and “details” (nails and tattoes). This segment already gives a lot of flexibility with the creations, with the ability to age your character with wrinkles and imperfections, or with wide range of hair modifications. Hair color does not have to be one solid color, but a blend between multiple ones, with different length or highlights.

Blend is a very interesting part of character creator that, as the name implies, allows players to mix different presets in order to create a new character. This does not change the character automatically, but allows modification of parts of the character with attributes calculated from selected presets. Easiest way to think of the tool is family creation.

Sculpt is the segment that allows that next-level and more detailed customization of characters. It allows changing different segments of the body by draging it around, which can result in, for example, waist thinner, nose deformations, face bone structure change, etc. Sculpting gives a different dimension where one can really refine the character in a pretty wide spectrum.

Character Creator Will Have Limitations

In order to stay true to the fantasy theme and the general setting of the game, character creator will not allow creation of “out of the place” characters. This means that very vibrant colors, or race-uncharacteristic attributes, such as body type and height, will bi limited.

Opportunities For Character Creator

To highlight the progresss the team made, Alpha 1 character creator was very very limited with just a couple of presets. Even though this was ALpha 2 character creator, it already looks in very good state.

Good news is that character creator will be available to players before launch date, so that players can have their characters ready when the game comes out. Also, there are some contests planned for character creation.

The team also mentioned that this tool will be used not just for player’s own character, but also for any NPC they may hire (custom NPCs in freehold). The same system will also be used in systems like animal husbandry, which is as we already know one of the most exciting profressions in Ashes of Creation. If this is true, it would mean that this profession will be able to generate their own animal and mount creations. One other feature that ties into this story is that players can save character presets and reuse them later in the game for other NPCs.

Ultimately, character creator is not meant to serve just as that, but also as a general tool for other character-related work done by the team, or players.

This part of the livestream concluded with a couple of questions from chat…

Where are the female characters?

“There’s a lot of hurdles when it comes to setting up character skeleton for different genders and races. The goal with this presentation is to show the community the progress and get feedback as soon as possible, and base Kaelar base male model was used for this.” Other options will be showcased in future updates.

Why are characters not blinking?

“Blinking animation is not present in character creator because it’s not efficient to incorporate all these animations at this point.” Additionally, it would be bad user experience as those animations would conflict with character edits.

Can characters have asymmetric features?

It will be possible by manipulating individial pieces of the body or hair, or with blending segment. Asymmetry in creations will exist within certain parameters.

Can characters have piercings?

Yes, piercings will be there for races like Vek. In general, jewelry will be culture dependent.

What colors will be available? Can we have vibrant colors?

All options will be culture dependent, and color ranges will be restricted by style guide Intrepid wants to meet. Meaning, available colors will match the style of the game, and probably not allow immersion-breaking character design.

Can players upload their own images for tattoos?

It’s complicated. It’s a nice idea, but it introduces another layer of complexity because Intrepid would then have to moderate uploads, as players could upload all kinds of things. This is still up in the air.

Steven used this opportunity to also deliver a message of the level of quality that the studio is striving for. Reveals of character creatior, race redesigns, combat, etc., should give the audience a baseline on where the things should be with Ashes of Creation. Race redesigns are pretty much launch-quality characters, and it's where they want to be.

Art Update With Raid Boss And Py'Rai Concept

Art update part of the stream gave us a look at a couple of race models and concept art, but also showcased a world raid boss that “will need many many ships” in order to kill.

Check Ashes of Creation’s official livestream VOD on their Youtube channel.