As of now, we know virtually nothing of the new engine. We know it's new, and that it looks very good.

I started pursuing the inner topic of Character Creation in my mind, recently.. and I've got a LOT of anticipation and worry for this change. If they've developed a new engine, then the way characters are made could very well be entirely different. With Fallout 3, they showed us that adding facial hair was a definite possibility in the newest game, that's what we all relied on to believe that there would be. But now... for all we know that could be the one thing that slipper their minds...

However if Beards simply slipped the minds of any person when contemplating a world of Viking-like people, I'd probably assume that they aren't the sharpest tool in the shed...

We have no idea what could be possible now. They could have eye-color sliders, they could have sliders that allow different types of face parts that you can edit to your liking (think DA:O), or they could have done the unthinkable and completely gotten rid of any form of face generation and let us choose from a very few number of faces. In Morrowind, it was fine... but nowadays... if a game doesn't have face customization then you're probably playing a game where you're in the shoes of a definite character with a predetermined story. Game creators have caught on that most people like creation, and that they get much more positive response when they allow people to visually alter something. Pre-sets work in the way of choosing a bunch of faces, which is what many games use as a safety net for people who simply want to choose a face that fits, and move on.

But I can't help but wonder, where will Bethesda stand compared to current video-games that allow character creation/customization? What's your speculation on it? How good do you think it'll look?

Examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE_Ake-mh4U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URvicAiDtCY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw8mu7hmNQk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3P7cu4ekuY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02f9QyuOHAE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WhOTrc5554

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KDmYuJpgP8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVvAIBK23aI

My main concerns:

• Unique Features (like scars, make-up, etc.)
  
• Age (Having different races for different ages doesn't work so well, which is what they did in Fallout 3. The old people all looked more wrinkly than my great-grandpa who smoked a pipe his whole life and died at age 101)
  
• Facial Hair
  
• Being able to choose body type (or sliders)
  
• Voices (If they're going to have them for reactions (being hit, power attacks, etc.), they might as well give us a variety with some options... maybe even including a pitch slider)
  
• Face-Morphing in general (Will making the jaw wider also make the eyes go farther apart?)

Honestly Aion is a horrible example, Though I think it will be very extensive. STO and Champions have the most robust system out now I suspect it will be as good as them or close to.

I hope it's similar to Mass Effect 2's character creation engine

When was Aion mentioned?maybe I missed it since I'm on my phone O.O

It was example 1 in the OP.

I personally will be happy with anything better than Oblivion; the EVO online example looks great.
I think Bethesda will do a good job, they improved hugely on OB with FO3.
^_^

Aion's just one that came to mind. :shrug: I chose it for the versatality in it's options, without going super-detailed because we don't know what Beth has up their sleeve yet.

I completely forgot about that one!

:) I do too, I've got faith in them. The only thing with FO3 was that we had less of the options, and the options didn't effect the faces as greatly. You usually came out looking like your preset.. I think they made a huge jump up the Uncanny Valley, they've just gotta hike their way to the peak.

You haven't seen character creation before you've seen this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WhOTrc5554
APBs tool allows you to customize size, tatoos, scars... everything! Customize your own hairstyle.
Forget all old tools for character creations this is the future, today. Can't even imagine a better system.

I'm hoping its like EVE's new Carbon Character Creator.

While that would look phenomenal, that would take an insane amount of time to make and would be hard to do, especially when the system can't only focus on graphics. It also has to worry about AI, Physics, Gameplay Settings, Quests, Scripts, etc.

That'd be amazing, but it's fairly unrealistic.

I'm hoping its something like apb, but that would be a pretty high expectation. I'm expecting something more similar to Eve's new one.

APBs character creation is amazing.Had a mate who played it while it was up, I spent literaly 3 hours customizing my character.

I don't expect body sliders and adding stuff like scars (this one might be possible). Body sliders won't happen simply because it would mess with the animations (unless it's procedural animation) and the meshes.

But I hope Bethesda creates a new character creation system instead of using Facegen. That thing is dated as hell.

Strange I preferred Oblivion's Character creation by far.

Oblivion's was about as good as it gets for me. You can change it to look like absolutely anything, unlike Fallout 3. I do agree on the body mods and the facial hair though. Facial hair should also have a length slider!

I think it's probably because I svcked at it, rather than the way it worked.
:P

People have made custom skeletons that change the shape of the body without actually changing any animations or anything for Oblivion, so I'm assuming it isn't impossible. *fingers crossed*

As for FaceGen, I think that if they can do better, then they should. But they shouldn't break away from it if they're just going to be jumping into something they don't have much knowledge about.

Yeah Fallout's was easier. :tongue:
Way more limited though.

I get fed up quickly and end up putting a helmet on anyway and play in first person. It add vey little in my game. It probably has more impact in FO3 where you are not wearing a helmet until later on in the game

I suppose, I was just happy that my character wasn't blindingly ugly like they often were in Oblivion.
^_^

Hopefully Skyrim will be a good mixture of the two.
:)

It can add more personality and distinction to a character, imho.

As long as they don't remove the random option, and add Beards, I'll be fine with whatever they do to it.

As a Poser artist, I have high hopes for versatility--but it won't be the end of the world if it's not. Coming from Morrowind, anything is a step up.

Facegen is OK to me, but I want full sliders like standalone products(such as Facegen Modeller) if they're still using Facegen SDK. And, facial hairs and some features(scar, tattoo, facepainting) that can be overlayed, if possible.

Frankly, I want there character creation to be completely unique and stand out.

I think one thing that they should do, regardless of the actual characterization options, is make it easier for people to share custom content with others (if nothing else, letting you save faces, etc. as a code that you can enter -- this is how it was done in Mass Effect 2, and it worked like a charm. Going through the game as [insert famous celebrity] is a trip).

But in terms of options, I vote for AFB. They should also not be shy about letting you update your appearance after character creation whenever you want, using the appropriate NPCs, who should be reasonably common. Clothiers can customize clothes, armorers can customize armor, barbers can customize beards, hairdressers can do hair, etc, all for a very modest fee.

They should also let you have woads and tattoos (though I suppose removing tattoos would require Restoration magic and be a little more pricey).