The Dragon's Neck Dev Update
First, enjoy the read/visuals to some excellent music from Bruce Ashbey for the TDN OST:
PC Appearance Editor Overview
PC Appearances on TDN are intended to be as authentic as we can reasonably make them. With that in mind, we needed to craft a system that allowed for players to flex their creativity and fashion-sense and develop some really phenomenal character appearances. A few things to note:
- PC Appearance customization will take place entirely in NUI (images below).
- We've crafted entirely new Palettes for TDN.
- These palettes are fully selectable in the NUI, meaning that clicking the color in the image will assign that color to the selected object.
- One of the many benefits of how we've crafted this system is that parts of armor will accomodate skinmeshing, which will allow for cleaner movement and less rigidity on various clothing options.
- As always, a monolithic shoutout to Goldberry who has handled all of these visual updates for PC Appearances over the last few years.
- This preview is targeted at getting the technical explanation/details available, I'm certain we'll have better screenshots in the future rather than my 'show the thing' approach.
New Palettes!
Skin:
Hair:
Eye/Lip:
Cloth1/Cloth2/Leather1/Leather2:
Metal1/Metal2:
Editor Details
Part Index accepts both "Next" and "Previous" as well as "Manual Entry":
Modifiable Parts:
Note -- Some of these are subject to change / renaming, launch product will look a bit different.
* Helmet, Cloak, Weapons & Off-Hand/Shield require those items equipped before editing.
(Example Dwarven Visuals)
Below is a small snapshot of options available to players at launch. Dwarves, Elves and Humans/Halflings/Gnome/Half-Orc will have different armor options available to them.
Shoulders:
Sleeves:
1/2/3 all represent different color channels:
Gloves:
Torso:
(each number represents a Color Channel that is adjustable):
Q&A
- Q: The previous system allowed for the very precise movement of accessories, hats and more. Does this new version allow for that?
- A: No, it does not. We made the intentional decision to remove the functionality for a couple reasons:
- VFX (which is what those were) Colors are not controllable to the same degree that armors or creature parts are. Additionally, from a design perspective, controlling ridiculous 'creativity' is challenging when trying to anticipate how a user might use different forms of accessories.
- Engine Explanation: When rendering VFX, colors are reset on the VFX whenever you come into view of someone. This means that the VFX will default to whatever color channel the Armor Torso currently has selected. (Cloth1, Cloth2, etc etc). So if Player A sets Metal1 on their necklace to dark red, but then sets their Metal1 for their torso to Orange. Whenever an observer comes into view, the observer will see Player A's necklace as Orange and not Dark Red.
- A: No, it does not. We made the intentional decision to remove the functionality for a couple reasons:
- Q: Is there a world where VFX Accessories returns? Other servers have these options.
- A: Yes! Post-Launch we intend to iterate on our existing system and if it makes sense to add a feature similar to what was available before, we will include it.
- Q: I don't see an option for Right versus Left on the armor editor, why is that?
- A: In an effort to give more options for PC appearance, we made the design decision to have visuals apply to both right and left (where applicable), while making room for some preferrable alternates (such as one Shoulderpad). This change gives us greater flexibility with the system at the cost of mismatched shoes/gloves/etc.
- Q: Will this system (not the assets) be made available publicly?
- A: No, with a couple caveats:
- Our system completely guts traditional NWN Armor Appearances. Attempting to use this system with traditional armor sets (like CEP, or 99.99% of the content on the Vault) would result in a complete mess.
- Interested developers that want to understand the behind-the-curtain magic are welcome to reach out to Aschent_ for details as to how the NUI was crafted and the methodology behind the design.
- A: No, with a couple caveats:
Courtesy of Lestat, Spooky (and otherwise interesting...) Creature Upgrades!
