Body Progression System? : V - Skyrim

» Sun Dec 26, 2010 11:41 pm

about the bodies, idk if I trust the first batch of eye candy. However, I will say the faces seen so far are very pleasing. They have a very realistic quality. They arent doll faces and they arent oblivion monsters. Two good things so far.

I really like how the faces look. You didn't really had too many good looking faces for the NPC's in Oblivion but the Barmaid's face in Skyrim looks great and very realistic.

» Sun Dec 26, 2010 9:58 pm

Body Progression is bad, it's one of the main reasons why I don't have Fable 2 anymore. Hopefully we'll be able to choose from a a couple of preset body builds because I think it's going to be hard to have a complete custom body because of Meshing with the Armor. I think certain Mods in Oblivion could do it successfully and the technology has gotten better in the last 5 years. Still I have concerns and if a piece of Cuirass Armor type isn't done right then the Body Mesh won't match up, for example your character is really skinny but if you wear the armor and the body meshs aren't working properly you would revert back to normal size or if your a female character and you have a certain chest size the body mesh could make it smaller or bigger then what it should be. I'm hoping that this form of customization in character creation is further explained in the upcoming months.

Another game not running on the Creation engine (obviously) had scalable bodies using a slider interface similar to what the facegen system was in Oblivion. The armor meshes were then rigged to the based mesh and the slider modifiers affected each component of the body and would adjust accordingly. There were definitely some interesting things if you made particular parts to big or small, but it worked quite well. So it definitely is possible.

» Mon Dec 27, 2010 1:48 am

Highly unlikely that it has anything to do with anything other than part of customization, because we can now also be (possibly) fat.

» Sun Dec 26, 2010 3:57 pm

Highly unlikely that it has anything to do with anything other than part of customization, because we can now also be (possibly) fat.

This is, at the moment, my assumption as well. Considering the nord was in what looked like starting gear, its unlikely his STR stat is high enough to buff him up that much. However, pre-release screenshots are really just PR pictures so his gear may have nothing to do with it.

Still I agree its highly unlikely, but you never know. This game is in tight wrapings atm.

» Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:32 am

I'd like that idea! Was one of the features I liked most about Fable

» Sun Dec 26, 2010 7:52 pm

I like the way Fable did it. I'm not saying I thought Fable's appearance system was particularly realistic, but it makes sense to me to have your character look like how you play.

» Sun Dec 26, 2010 7:56 pm

Such a system does only make sense if you can get weaker too when not exercising.
Else you would get stronger and stronger and then you're looking like a body builder.

So I don't think it will be in Skyrim, nor do I think such a system would generally work in a video game.

» Mon Dec 27, 2010 5:07 am

Yes, I believe that was mentioned, that's why I spoke of different body types.

I guess they use sliders for muscular or fat like in sims 3, as the game will use body morphs for body type, and it's little reason to have only 5 then you can have 100 steps of muscular and fat.
And no I don't think they will link it to attributes/ stats of multiple reasons, fist you would have to start out extremely bony as your stats are low.
Second it you will max it and look like a bodybuilder if you max strength related skills, you might not want it, even less if you play a female elf.
And how do they handle fatness? depending on that you eat?

» Sun Dec 26, 2010 7:54 pm

I guess they use sliders for muscular or fat like in sims 3, as the game will use body morphs for body type, and it's little reason to have only 5 then you can have 100 steps of muscular and fat.

Did they say body shape would be via slider? I'd figured it would be "pick build: thin/normal/large". It all depends on how they do the armor, really - either by just having each armor modeled in each of the specific sizes, or by having the armor models conformable......

» Sun Dec 26, 2010 11:01 pm

It was said that we would have freedom of customizing body shape. But appearance changing depending on stats is something completely different.
They had it in the Fable games, no reason why it shouldn't be here.

» Mon Dec 27, 2010 3:32 am

Hopefully it will be be customizable enough to encourage modders to make clothes for it. That way various clothing and armors and such work with more than limited body types.

I must say that the bodies with Morrowind's better bodies mod, scaled really well with weight changes.

» Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:51 am

I really, really don't want a stat based appearance. . . my character in Fable looked [censored] by end-game. It'd be hard to keep a female character looking pretty.

» Sun Dec 26, 2010 10:01 pm

Not wanting to buck the trend at all, but I'm gonna go with a stats based progression. The reason for this is that stat increases equals rewards (in your abilities and performance etc) and I like to think there would be a visual reward as well. Also, I'm not comfortable with having a character with the equivalent of 100 Strength, without the body mass to match it, but that is just my personal choice, I know others differ. However, It seems unlikely to me that the morphing body will occur, and thus, if Beth implements a body choice option I will be over the moon!

I absolutely hated this in Fable. People seem to be ignoring an Assassin character. If I have a stealthy Dunmer who is good with a bow and blade, then why does he have to have gigantic muscles by the end of the game, just because I used Blade and got my Strength up to 100? I always played as an Assassin in Fable 1, and the Assassin outfit looked like complete **** if you had your physique all the way up.

» Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:48 am

Body progression would make more sense if it followed character skills imo. If the skills are still divided between stealth, magic and combat, it would be easy to set the progression based on which skills you raised most.

I don't really know what they could do about magic progression though...

Fable called, it wants it's really bad idea back.

» Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:32 am

Soul caliber 4 did body type customization well. I also would like to be able to adjust my height.

» Sun Dec 26, 2010 9:40 pm

It would be kind of nice to be able to see your character getting stronger.

» Sun Dec 26, 2010 9:34 pm

You know, if there is no body progression and its just selecting body types, you could certainly mod this in lol