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Gerome Doutrande
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Posted - 2004.04.05 09:21:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Gerome Doutrande on 05/04/2004 15:12:08
Edited by: Gerome Doutrande on 05/04/2004 09:50:05
I've been thinking a bit about possible ways to allow players to change their avatar image without making it too easy and with maybe even adding some more flavor to the game through it.
so here's what i've come up with:
a) changing lighting, background, clothing, angle of the shot taken, hair, and clothing/accessories should be doable by player characters (maybe using a "photobox" in selected stations),
b) changing facial features however not. the ability to change this feature should require to train a "cosmetic surgery" type skill (with high prerequisites in science type skills).
the actual process of altering avatar facial features could be implemented as follows:
in order to change an avatar image, a "surgeon" (person with said cosmetic surgery skill trained) has to rent a slot in a medical facility. the slots in the medical facility work the same way as factory slots more or less, so you enter an "item" and after a given time period the item is finished. the surgeon can of course not change his own avatar features, but only the facial features of other player characters.
if the surgeon has a "patient" (a person wanting to change his facial features), the patient has to dock at the station with the rented medical facility. he is then invited to a surgery session. the surgeon now enters the patient into the medical slot (much like a blueprint into a factory slot).
now through some ccp magical coding the interface of the character generator is brought up, where the surgeon can modify the facial features of the patient, while the patient can simultaneously watch the suggested changes by the surgeon. this would have to be a part of the slot entering phase of the medical slot activation, much like setting values for blueprint research.
when he is done, the surgeon can then enter the customer into the medical slot. depending on the number or severeness of the changes selected, more "runs" will be necessary to make the desired changes, thus determining the time it takes to change the avatar features (the number of runs necessary will have to be shown in the change preview editor described above).
while the patient is being "processed", this character can not be used by the player, unless he decides to have the process cancelled by the surgeon, leaving station with none or partial changes to facial features only.
to make things more interesting, a such service could a) be prohibited in empire space and a such only be doable in 0.0ish systems outside of empire or b) require a player owned structure (e.g. research deployable or cloning deployable).
i see the following advantages in implementing this idea:
a) basically a new sub career, that of the cosmetic surgeon is introduced, with all the "real world" surgery this includes, like having to make an appointment with the surgeon.
b) pricing for using this service is handled by players, the resources (medical slots, maybe items used in the process) can be priced highly and/or be of very limited ability, thus ensuring the service is not overused.
c) in addition to possible monetary expenses, the character that is being modified is also not available to be used, thus adding a penalty for players that bother little about money cause they have all money in eve anyway.
d) the process of changing the avatar is based on the factory/laboratory slot interface idea, and as such not too hard to understand and use for players with a bit of experience.
e) it could lead to interesting twists such as a surgeon being hunted down for doing "bad work" or having black clinic services out in alliance or pirate space.
f) oh yes, and people finally get the chance to change the look of their avatars.
i think the added work of introduction of a new slot type, entering/disabling characters into it and actually making the avatar change thingy available ingame and the proposed changes visible to the surgeon player and patient player simultaneously will make sure this features will never be introduced due to the amount of work included. nevertheless i like the idea pretty much. 
any comments, rants and the like are highly welcome. my second try at actually making a worthwhile suggestion on the boards, let's see if i did better this time.
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Gerome Doutrande
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Posted - 2004.04.05 09:26:00 -
[2]
said medical slots could also be used to extract implants, using a time penalty here as well (e.g. making it take 24 hours to extract an implant).
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J'Rela
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Posted - 2004.04.05 10:12:00 -
[3]
Interesting idea.
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If violence never solves anything, you're not using enough.
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Gerome Doutrande
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Posted - 2004.04.05 19:07:00 -
[4]
what, no one accused me of wanting to turn the game into "sim eve" yet?
just wanted to add that a large-ish change of the avatar picture could also be used as a way to reduce a negative sec standing of a character (or a special feature like "dna restructuring" that fiddles the dna of the person around without changing the look) in classic hollywood manner.
and no, this is of course in no way whatsoever a weak attempt at getting this post up to the first page again.
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Kakita Jalaan
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Posted - 2004.04.14 14:11:00 -
[5]
Cool idea. I like it. Could give rise to interesting con artist looking like someone else 
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MAXIMO 2ND
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Posted - 2004.04.14 16:13:00 -
[6]
The fact that this thread is'nt getting too much response may mean that CCP will not look into this idea  . But I'm all for it. I hate the way my avator looks . I wish I could redo at least the background, hair and clothing  .
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Barth3zzz
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Posted - 2004.04.14 17:07:00 -
[7]
Id have to say i like this idea. I dont like my currently Avatar, i kinda rushed trough it just so i could start with Eve and i didnt relalise that it would be premanent.
Being able to pay someone to change my looks would be nice :D
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Whitethorn
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Posted - 2004.04.14 17:13:00 -
[8]
Same here, my avatar looks particularly naff.
I'd like to be able to make some changes to improve his looks a little, even if its just changing the clothes and hairstyle.
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Gerome Doutrande
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Posted - 2004.04.15 09:48:00 -
[9]
 Quote:
Cool idea. I like it. Could give rise to interesting con artist looking like someone else
hehe. that might just happen indeed. would be funney too.
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Tyrion Nydaerin
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Posted - 2004.04.15 14:55:00 -
[10]
great idea
-=Fountain Alliance High Council Member=- |
Gravy Goat
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Posted - 2004.04.17 13:00:00 -
[11]
I think one of the reasons CCP don't like this is players store the pictures (portraits) of one another. Either no one will see your new picture, or CCP will have to program something that tracks versions of your face, checks stored versions, etc. OR they would have to rework the client to automatically delete the portraits, which will require more stuff to be downloaded every time.
Personally I would like to see something more like an avatar that moves around the station and the other people who are docked there. No matter how many people I see in a chat channel, EVE is a very lonely place.
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Cindy Goodwill
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Posted - 2004.04.17 15:50:00 -
[12]
will you also be able to change your name? that would make it VERY interesting :)
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Watch my leet everchanging dynamic signature \o/
http://www.games-on.nl/~cu2moro/evesigphp/icon.php?blaat=.GIF |
Atansa
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Posted - 2004.04.17 19:58:00 -
[13]
I want so very bad to change my clothing look at him... look like a poor little dirty mminer WELL I AM NOT POOR! yes dirty miner sure but not poor.
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Gerome Doutrande
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Posted - 2004.04.18 11:13:00 -
[14]
Quote:
will you also be able to change your name? that would make it VERY interesting :)
hehe you wish. don't think that is a good idea though to be honest.
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Kalhystia
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Posted - 2004.04.18 14:48:00 -
[15]
Yeah good idea. I wish I could change my old character face myself.
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La mort nous sourit Ó tous.
Tout ce que l'on peut faire,
c'est sourire Ó la mort. |
Tibor Ferenc
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Posted - 2004.04.18 15:00:00 -
[16]
How could it be possible to improve on such a handsome specimen as myself??
Tib.
http://mmogcenter.com/tiborsig.jpg
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Star Nove
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Posted - 2004.04.19 17:07:00 -
[17]
very good idea, i'd love to change the clothing of my char, and if they would add more clothing to the game, you could for instance change clothes when your gonna go mine, go fancy when your on a corp meeting or sum, be fun to be able to interact more with the avatar :P
cosmetic surgery i wouldn't mind, although this is such a beautiful girl i have that i'd never use it 
-nove
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The great comic WDA |
Kakita Jalaan
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Posted - 2004.04.19 18:50:00 -
[18]
Quote:
I think one of the reasons CCP don't like this is players store the pictures (portraits) of one another. Either no one will see your new picture, or CCP will have to program something that tracks versions of your face, checks stored versions, etc.
All it would take would be a checksum that's connected to your picture. The client checks if your currently stored pic has the correct checksum, if not -> download the new pic. The currently stored pics could get the checksum 00000000 (or something) via a hotfix, they'd automatically be outdated as soon as someone chagens his look.
From an in-character perspective, it is perfectly possible for someone to wear different clothes than the last time you saw him... at least one would hope so. Being a decently fancy gallente, I change my clothes at least twice a standard day. Same applies for plastic surgery.
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Whitethorn
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Posted - 2004.04.22 18:37:00 -
[19]
Edited by: Whitethorn on 22/04/2004 18:38:58
I'd like to be able to change my portrait. The one I currently have was created quickly when I first started Eve - I wanted to start playing the game so didn't spend the time I should have creating my avatar. As a result, I have a really crap portrait, and pretty much anything would improve it.
Simplest place to implement would be the character selection screen, taking you through the existing character creation process up to the point where you finish creating the image that will be used for your character. That shouldn't be too hard to implement since the functionality already exists to create the image.
As far as updating the image cache is concerned, why not just have the client re-request the image if the one in the cache is more than a preset number of days old? Or have an image checksum stored on the character details.
Suggestion for implementation:-
1) Have a small number of NPCs that offer plastic surgery as an option. There are probably existing NPCs that would be suitable, so just adding an option to their menu instead of creating new NPCs. The NPCs for some of the corporations like Quafe would be most appropriate.
2) Pay them for the surgery, which then unlocks an option to change your portrait on the character selection screen the next time you select that character (or give that option all the time but only allow it to be permanent if you have paid). Flag that payment against the character on the database. Charging will provide a low-level money sink which people would be happy to use.
3) When you finish changing your portrait, the new details get sent to the server. If the database doesn't show that you have paid, the changes get rejected and you keep your existing portrait (this allows you to provide a free option to experiment with your avatar if you wish, and prevents people bypassing payment for permanent changes). If the changes aren't rejected, store the new avatar image on the server and remove the payment flag from the database.
4) Use an image checksum on the character details to see if a fresh portrait needs downloading, but only check it if you go to the details window for the character or specifically request it. It should be easy to come up with a generic routine for generating a checksum for the image in the cache directory that can be compared against a checksum returned by the server. That will keep any network overhead for implementing this down to a minimum.
I'd like to see this facility available. I'd use it to sort out what my character looks like, and would be happy to pay a fair chunk in ISK for the privilege
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Danton Marcellus
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Posted - 2004.04.22 19:22:00 -
[20]
What did you do now Gerome as to warrant a witness protection program type deal? 
I'm waiting to renew my pilot license, what is it, every five years?
Convert Stations
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Gerome Doutrande
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Posted - 2004.04.23 12:14:00 -
[21]
well i know "certain people" that are heavily involved in drug sales and the like, danton, so i thought i might offer them a way out of their evil ways.
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Adalente
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Posted - 2004.04.27 08:38:00 -
[22]
I rushed through my character creation because I wanted to play the game so much!
Once I realised that I was stuck with it it was too late for me to change without losing alot of skillpoints by creating a new character. I really wish there were plastic surgery facilities out there that we could use.
Thoughts:
1. It should cost a lot of Isk. A few million Isk to make the change would deter people from changing every day. Just like plastic surgery today people have to think long and hard about what they want done.
2. It should only be available from a few select stations.
3. No sex change operations. This would just be too confusing :P
4. No name changes. This would screw up my contacts list.
5. The player should not be allowed to use the character for the duration of the surgery. 1-3 days should be a decent time for a facelift.
6. There shouldn't be anything to force players to download new pictures of players. Who cares if they see the 'old' you. Only you really care what you look like. People clear their cache regularly so over time everyone will have your new pic anyway.
7. You should control your own plastic surgery operation. Having someone else decide what you look like would create too many problems.
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Gerome Doutrande
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Posted - 2004.04.28 11:28:00 -
[23]
Originally by: Adalente
7. You should control your own plastic surgery operation. Having someone else decide what you look like would create too many problems.
if you make it a player profession i would actually like to have those problems in, would be funny to have someone chasing his surgeon for messing up his face.
what do you think about the "player driven" idea btw? would you rather see an npc service?
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Katya Detia
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Posted - 2004.04.28 17:18:00 -
[24]
Originally by: Gerome Doutrande
said medical slots could also be used to extract implants, using a time penalty here as well (e.g. making it take 24 hours to extract an implant).
Should not be able to train any skills, while the implant is being extracted
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CEO: Black Sea Industries
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Adriana Silvosse
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Posted - 2004.04.28 22:33:00 -
[25]
How about a sex change? ;)
_______________________
Hail to the king, baby! |
Tripp Orsam
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Posted - 2004.05.07 16:57:00 -
[26]
if bandwidth is the concern then who knows, maybe one day when CCP becomes uber rich (which does not seem too far away considering thier well deserved success with EVE) they might move all downloadable content like avatars and corp logos (if we were allowed to submit our own corp logos /wink) to seperate servers thus lightening the load on the actual game servers. I think some MMOGs have seperate servers for chat channels for this reason, I think AO does, not sure about EVE.
With this method your idea might be doable.
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EVE Online perfectly strikes all your free time wrecking your 1994 marriage. |
Jade Alexander
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Posted - 2004.05.07 17:13:00 -
[27]
i like thiS ideA! 
thOugh i wOuldN't Need it, cOS i lOOk SO cOOl!
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Shimrod
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Posted - 2004.05.11 12:25:00 -
[28]
Originally by: Gerome Doutrande
Originally by: Adalente
7. You should control your own plastic surgery operation. Having someone else decide what you look like would create too many problems.
if you make it a player profession i would actually like to have those problems in, would be funny to have someone chasing his surgeon for messing up his face.
Have the "customer" design his new face, but there is a chance that the operation can go wrong based on the skill of the surgeon. This could lead to "I said Johnny Depp, not Johnny Carson dammit!"
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Gerome Doutrande
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Posted - 2004.05.14 12:39:00 -
[29]
Originally by: Shimrod
Have the "customer" design his new face, but there is a chance that the operation can go wrong based on the skill of the surgeon. This could lead to "I said Johnny Depp, not Johnny Carson dammit!"
adding a chance of "failure" is also a nice idea.
originally i had thought about the surgeon being in charge of the process because of the fun dialogues you might get: "no no a SMALLER NOSE DAMMIT!", but that might be to impractical and "exploitable" in the end.
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Mariarchi Desperado
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Posted - 2004.05.14 19:42:00 -
[30]
I think that implants should change the character picture. Would it be feasible to have a section on the forehead where a peice of technical looking metal is put for the intelligence implant, or the metal wires of the willpower booster? (I look really, really stupid, and want to look different)
Obviously, some people would not want the implants to take up their nice pretty picture, so an option to install it 'under the skin' could be implemented...
This could also open up the sale of jewellery and accessories like that...
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