Captain customization?

[MajorD]

The male/female choice strikes me as a bit silly if there is no other customization. Think about it, the character is still probably written as a man, so you have a woman thinking and acting nothing like a woman. It makes the use of a woman's appearance purely superficial. It's different if there are womanish choices, to express female- [renegade interupt]- *take a knee to the groin, and fly out the window.*

[John]

take a knee to the groin, and fly out the window.

I'd say that's pretty rare behaviour for both men and women 

[sman789]

The male/female choice strikes me as a bit silly if there is no other customization. Think about it, the character is still probably written as a man, so you have a woman thinking and acting nothing like a woman. It makes the use of a woman's appearance purely superficial. It's different if there are womanish choices, to express female- [renegade interupt]- *take a knee to the groin, and fly out the window.*

Not that I pretend to know the game's story or anything... but I can't imagine it will involve a terrible amount of interaction with other characters on a personal level where gender would matter. Interactions as captain should not really vary if you're a man or a woman, except for your being addressed as maam as opposed to sir.

Example - on how many of Voyager's 100+ episodes was there even a short moment where you couldn't have substituted a male for Kate Mulgrew and still have the lines make sense. There were some, of course, but very few that I can remember. I'm obviously excluding "sir" and "maam" again here

I think your last sentence implies you were interpreting "woman" to mean stereotypical teenage girl as oppose to highly trained Starfleet officer, though I'll admit I'm not totally sure of what you were trying to say. Aside from TOS and some of TNG, women and men don't behave that differently in Star Trek, minus the attractive characters who act like that to sell the show

[AdmiralKathrynJaneway]

I agree with the idea that gender wouldn't matter at all in terms of story etc, but I think I'd like to have the choice whether to play as male or female and have there be differences, even if they are miniscule. If it helps the individual player feel they can immerse themselves in the game more and isn't necessarily too much extra work, I'd be in favour of this option. Of course, as has been said before, someone could easily make a mod.

[Maxi]

Maybe diferent character traits? (is that posible?)

In the series every captain had diferent behaviors to confront the same situation. Picard was more on a diplomacy and adventure aproach, Kirk on "cowboy" like style, Sisco was the most "normal human", and Janeway had a strong character in command and was the most obstinate and stubborn.

[sman789]

Maybe diferent character traits? (is that posible?)

In the series every captain had diferent behaviors to confront the same situation. Picard was more on a diplomacy and adventure aproach, Kirk on "cowboy" like style, Sisco was the most "normal human", and Janeway had a strong character in command and was the most obstinate and stubborn.

The captain has your personality... you are the Captain There was a thread in Project Discussion about how the story could branch according to the decisions the player makes.

[Maxi]

The captain has your personality... you are the Captain There was a thread in Project Discussion about how the story could branch according to the decisions the player makes.

I'll seek that thread. 

[Josh F]

The player character has a set identity, with a set background and personal history (including career events) that shape the game story as experienced by the player.  Whether or not we will have a great deal of flexibility in terms of tweaking this set character identity in one direction or another has yet to be determined, but it's safe to say that we have a very specific story we wish to tell through the eyes of a new character in the prime Star Trek universe.  Moreover, Excalibur has never been an RPG, so expecting a vastly customizable character is a bit unrealistic at this point.

I can't confirm anything, but it is possible that the planned "Freeplay" mode would have a greater deal of flexibility when it comes to the player character identity.   


~Josh F. 

[Maxi]

The player character has a set identity, with a set background and personal history (including career events) that shape the game story as experienced by the player.  Whether or not we will have a great deal of flexibility in terms of tweaking this set character identity in one direction or another has yet to be determined, but it's safe to say that we have a very specific story we wish to tell through the eyes of a new character in the prime Star Trek universe.  Moreover, Excalibur has never been an RPG, so expecting a vastly customizable character is a bit unrealistic at this point.

I can't confirm anything, but it is possible that the planned "Freeplay" mode would have a greater deal of flexibility when it comes to the player character identity.   


~Josh F.

Thanks to answer.

So that means that what was previously mentioned about playing as male or female would require a second personal  history, second background, etc...and it's not feasible at this moment.

[Mark]

More importantly it would require recording the player's dialogue twice over and finding two top notch voice actors instead of just one. We are going to go for quality over quantity on this one.

[sman789]

So that means that what was previously mentioned about playing as male or female would require a second personal  history, second background, etc...and it's not feasible at this moment.

Elite Force gave the male and female player character an identical history - even the same name (Alex Munro). So do most games with such an option.

But Mark's post makes sense, especially as finding a good female voice actor is probably even more difficult than finding a good male one (and even that is tough). I guess this will just have to go on the huge and growing list of mod ideas we all keep coming up with here

[Maxi]

More importantly it would require recording the player's dialogue twice over and finding two top notch voice actors instead of just one. We are going to go for quality over quantity on this one.

quality over quality...sounds great. 

[hnewberry99]

I think that you should go the SW:tOR character customization route. Not in the sense that its an awesome RPG, but with the character creation. Be given a few options so the person doesn't feel restricted with 2-3 choices, and they don't feel confused with 40+ choices.

BTW. Star wars rocks!