Feedback:User/Dealaka/Hero Customization

I was looking at the Anatomical Engineer Llye, and thinking you know it'd be really cool if my heroes had an appearance that I wanted them to have. Now I know that people would be screaming "You can't change the heroes appearance, their names and appearances are for the cut scenes" but here's how I think things can be changed.

When you go to a hero stylist, instead of having a Jora, in your roster it is listed as Female Norn. This female norn allows you to change the face of the hero among available current hero and player faces. This means that my heroes are unique and look different from other heroes, so I know who's doing what on the battlefield.

I propose this, because in addition to disorganized hero lists (one of my pet-peves) I've never felt that the heroes are really following me. Everyone has the same looking Jora, the same looking Olias. It's boring and to me breaks the game. If there are sixteen hundred Joras running around in game, which one is the real one? The person who unlocked her first? Or is it, oh they're with you as the main character.

You could even go as far as to say, during cut scenes instead of a customized character, it reverts to the current original hero. It shouldn't be necessary since players appearance doesn't affect cut scenes at all, but it subtracts some of the difficulty for a quicker implementation. People can choose whether they stick with the current hero appearance or go the new route. Decide in six months if people are interested before adding more.

The technology is there already. If you have more then 1 Jora in a party the other becomes 'norn warrior'. We could have rather then named heroes that everyone uses, their be a generic hero template you unlock and can then customize. Could be something cool to spend zaishen coins on. Heroes become interesting and collectible like mini-pets then. They reflect the player's individual style.

In time, if this is successful, we could introduce customized heroes players can build using hero templates. They could have armor dyed effects, etc. And even have 'nicknames' for our heroes much like players. Then heroes become something really interesting and add to Guild Wars. Players could end up having 3 female necromancers, or 3 female elementalists, or 3 male dervishes.

Several of the heroes to me are hideous. Especially male characters. I won't use them because I don't like looking at them. I have heard other players tell me the same. Customization should always be a goal in a mmo. Especially in regards where an individual can express themselves and it requires little time and effort. I can't imagine much it hurts in the game. Are there really people whom say;

"No, you can't have a customized Koss because he's Koss." and even if someone did, the idea I propose allows me to change "my" Koss that I unlocked. He's not Koss he's a 'Sunspear Warrior' that I found in my pursuits (^_^).

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Dealaka 6:10, 31 October 2009 (UTC)