Does custom race creation take away from the Star Trek feel?

[Fried_Yoda]

I have no problem with customizing your character. In fact, I truly hope that being able to customize character features such as face shape, nose length, eye color, body fat, etc will be implemented. But the whole custom-race idea isn't sitting quite well with me. It seems to take away from the Star Trek feel of things because people will be running around who have Vulcan ears, Klingon ridges, Bajoran noses, and Gorn eyes decreeing that they are an Ubernaught from the planet Uberia. Character customization limited to each race, yes. Race customization allowing the creation of any number of "new" races, no.

[Zyrious]

Well, there are hundreds of races within the Federation. And more being added all the time. More probably added during the 30 years between Nemesis and STO. Plus, its limited to humanoids, and i bet a lot of trek fans will be recreating humanoid races in the federation that werent included in the base selection, which i'm sure Cryptic is hoping for as well, saves them from having to make all 6 billion humanoid races, considering the differences between each one are so minor for the most part.

[r2data]

You're quite right that a mish-mashing of various race features would ruin the Star Trek feel. This need not be so though, if you restrict usage of those particular characteristics to the specific race and give players new ones to experiment with and create new, custom races. That way there won't be people "running around who have Vulcan ears, Klingon ridges, Bajoran noses, and Gorn eyes decreeing that they are an Ubernaught from the planet Uberia". This, in my opinion, would be far truer to Star Trek than simply restricting players to specific species as Star Trek is well known for its diversity.

[Exezer]

That just opens more options.....Gene splicing experiments ....better character bios (also worse ones lol) and also new races.

[Lord_Xomic]

Or course it will, just like how people running around in lite-bright Enterprises with extra nacelles will ruin the feel.

The idea that we need to be able to create our own species is foolish, and a complete misstep on the part of Cryptic. The Federation does indeed have hundreds of species, yes it does, but, shockingly, most of them look almost human; if you watch the show you'll notice very, very few Species 8472s, and it would be extremely easy to have hundreds of canon races to choose from upon launch.

total Character customization works fine for CoX or Champions, I don't doubt it, but superheroes have traditionally had outlandish character designs, were as Star Trek has not...

Personally, I'm waiting to see who makes the first *****-men and turns Star Trek Online into Porn Trek Online.

[Zyrious]

Or course it will, just like how people running around in lite-bright Enterprises with extra nacelles will ruin the feel.

The idea that we need to be able to create our own species is foolish, and a complete misstep on the part of Cryptic. The Federation does indeed have hundreds of species, yes it does, but, shockingly, most of them look almost human; if you watch the show you'll notice very, very few Species 8472s, and it would be extremely easy to have hundreds of canon races to choose from upon launch.

total Character customization works fine for CoX or Champions, I don't doubt it, but superheroes have traditionally had outlandish character designs, were as Star Trek has not...

Personally, I'm waiting to see who makes the first *****-men and turns Star Trek Online into Porn Trek Online.

Uh, you can only make humanoids. That was stated clearly in an interview with jack...no 8472...

[Phunix]

The avatar part of race creation I have no problem with but I'm a bit worried about naming such species.
It falls back to the discussion of name filtering (avatar, ship and now race...)
Not sure if I'm prepared to see IownU-ians, UbErLaNdErs, or the like.
What would prevent you from creating a race based on an Earth nationality and creat it with every stereotype or worse. That might be funny to some but others might not take it so well.
My vote goes to Cryptic making numerous species, and not include custom races.

[Dustnite]

More pointless arguing about how the sight of something ruins Star Trek. Honestly if Star Trek itself can't stay true to itself I don't really see a problem with people making their own custom humanoid characters.

[iammacgyver]

I was against it until i started reading what you guys had to say, now im fine with it. Just gives more depth into the vastness of the galaxy and the ever expanding federation.

I also like the idea of being able to make mash ups of species, because obviously by that stage interbreeding will be more evident..... who knows.... maybe a 1/4 Volcan, 1/4 Human, 1/4 Andorian, and 1/4 Klingon.... :)

[Desertcub]

This is obviously a tricky balance to have. ST:O has the potential to represent the myriad of species more "realistically" than any of the shows and films ever could have simply due to the limitations of the human actors or budgets for production. BUT, I'm the first to say that to allow completely random species to be created by players and to give those players the ability to name them whatever they want would not work for me at all. There should be the ability to have a balance so that players can create ST species by providing customization tools that are limited to work within the Star Trek cannon. I would hate to see E.T. as a captain or Jabba the Hut or something totally not ST... but who'se to say that Andorians haven't mated with Orions with a little Vulcan thrown in the mix... I hope that Cryptic makes sure that the customization they want to allow doesn't end up creating just another "alien" universe that just happens to have Star Trek ships flying around....

[Arcturus]

Yeah I think this fits in Great with Star Trek, what with IDIC and all.:)

[Vulcan_Sipho]

i just might create a whole planet of mullet wearing, gap toothed, slack jawed yokels from planet Red Neck. j/k but feel free to use my idea

[LordDave]

"Infinite Possibilities in Infinite Combination"

[marscentral]

I like the idea of creating my own alien race, but that might be my god-complex :D

Anyway, if someone wants to run around as some kind of batwinged-cyber-klingon than that's their perogative. They're playing a game, so am I and I can gloss over the fact that I've never seen anything quite like it in any episode of Star Trek, especially if I have fun teaming with them. Frankly, I'd prefer that to someone who is upset by the fact that my starship's nacelles don't fit Roddenberry's design vision...

[LordDave]

I like the idea of creating my own alien race, but that might be my god-complex :D

Anyway, if someone wants to run around as some kind of batwinged-cyber-klingon than that's their perogative. They're playing a game, so am I and I can gloss over the fact that I've never seen anything quite like it in any episode of Star Trek, especially if I have fun teaming with them. Frankly, I'd prefer that to someone who is upset by the fact that my starship's nacelles don't fit Roddenberry's design vision...

Well, they already have a planet of computer hax0rs.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Image:Bynars.jpg

[marscentral]

Hehe, I think a starship full of Bynars might be cool.

[H8Hydrant]

Two reasons Cryptic is opting for this:

1. They believe in ultimate customization, you can't do that and not allow custom races. It's one or the other. Besides, if people want to play for fun, look like idiots, and ignore canon, well they can do that. It's a right people gain with paying for the game. I agree that it might make things look weird, but honestly, lighten up. No matter how close you get the game to being Trek, you'll still KNOW that you're playing a game, whether or not Mr. UberHaXorZ from planet Pwnzia shows up. Most people don't waste time leveling up a ridiculous looking character like that anyways.

2. Simply put, if they allow people to come up with new races, it's less time and effort the Devs have to put in creating 984654654968 new races monthly . This will free them up for other projects -cough- Romulans, Cardassians -cough

[Varrangian]

Oh noes the sky is falling and I can't have my little fiefdom anymore. I can't sit in my captains chair and arbitrarily decided what makes good Trek and what doesn't. Non-Trekkies will kill my world!

[KirksOtherSon]

More pointless arguing about how the sight of something ruins Star Trek. Honestly if Star Trek itself can't stay true to itself I don't really see a problem with people making their own custom humanoid characters.

I noticed in City of Heroes that the "dumbass" players tend not to stick around anyway. They're either casual kiddies and/or trial players who get bored and wander off to the next "hot" MMORPG on release -- or else they're pathetic "look at me! look at me!" attention hounds, for whom _any_ attention (even negative attention) is sufficient. When people stop paying attention to them, they get bored and wander off as well.

As for "codpiece-men" aliens, well that would violate the EULA and they'd be reported and genericized pretty quickly. As I said in another post, Cryptic has a pretty impressive automatic player grievance reporting system, and I can't imagine why that system won't reappear in Star Trek Online. In my experience, the community does a pretty good job of policing its own. Harmless fools are tolerated, but the "usual arsehole suspects" don't last long before the hammer drops.

As for starship customization, it's been said over and over again by Jack Emmert and company that the customization options will fall within the limits of what is plausible within canon for a given faction. So, no flames on Federation hulls. No bright orange Klingon starships with pink stripes. None of that.

People may take the pessimistic view if they so choose, but it would make me less weary if they tracked their facts as scrupulously as they listed their complaints.

My opinions, anyway. No doubt many hate them already, :rolleyes:

KOS

[phazah]

i think it will be cool to allow player created races, since most aliens in star trek were close to each other on the interior, and it was the outside appearance that was varied....

I just wonder if they have any attributes associated with the species form (humans have one special feature, like jack of all trades, vulcans have logic and stronger than human norm) and each species have special powers or its the differences be strictly cosmetic...

[SiskoBell]

Some level of customization is ok. But the degree of freedom that several posters imply Cryptic will give us is too much. The visual look of the game is just as important as the gameplay. If it weren't, Cryptic could have developed their own IP. Instead they chose Star Trek.

The species customization won't bother me that much, except where it concerns non-Federation factions. A lot of posters have expressed the desire to play in the Klingon Faction using Klingon ships, but with a Yeti as captain. Customization shouldn't break canon.

The same is true for ship customization. Some members are suggesting they'd like jet-black Starfleet vessels, or tiger teeth/flames painted on their ships. Allowing a slight tint or an unobtrusive decal is fine. Allowing STO to become a place to show off custom hot-rods is not fine.

It's great that Cryptic has a philosophy of giving its customers great customization tools. But by taking on the Star Trek IP, Cryptic also has a responsibility to respect the IP and its fans, who will also be paying to play this game. Orange melon-headed, bug-eyed aliens commanding a hot pink Romulan vessel is beyond ridiculous.

It's possible (please!) that Cryptic won't allow this level of customization. Others have suggested that simply putting in a "customization / default" switch would be the solution. I could live with that if there were no alternative. But even a switch raises problems. Would the switch be selective, where I could apply it on an individual basis? There might be many customizations that I'd enjoy seeing. I wouldn't want to have to miss out on them because I was trying to ignore the Klingon who looked like Mickey Mouse. Same goes for ships. Would ignoring one mean I had to ignore all?

Bottom line, Cryptic should be very careful when deciding what types of customizations will be available in what circumstances. They wouldn't alienate PvE players by making the game PvP FFA. I hope they don't allow players to grief others with outlandish customization choices.

[KirksOtherSon]

The species customization won't bother me that much, except where it concerns non-Federation factions. A lot of posters have expressed the desire to play in the Klingon Faction using Klingon ships, but with a Yeti as captain. Customization shouldn't break canon.

The problem is, Bell, that while you can act against offensive content in an MMORPG, it's very hard to act against something that's harmless but incredibly dumb. Sure you can put name filters in, and EULA details, so that a ship named "USS BigBoobs" won't stand, nor a captain named "Benjamin Sicko", before they get reported and changed -- but if some chucklehead decides to make a Klingon-allied captain who looks like a Yeti, that's unfortunate, but hard to act upon.

Like the old saying goes, "you can't legislate taste, and you can't force people to be smart". Just because Captain Chucklehead abuses the customizer, doesn't mean that another player won't, independently, create a Yeti-like race which is lovingly crafted to conform to canonical ideas.

The same is true for ship customization. Some members are suggesting they'd like jet-black Starfleet vessels, or tiger teeth/flames painted on their ships. Allowing a slight tint or an unobtrusive decal is fine. Allowing STO to become a place to show off custom hot-rods is not fine.

It's not going to be this way. That sort of customization is not what's intended. Trust me. Emmert has said more than once that starship customization options will fall within the realm of what's "plausible for canon".

I could cite my specific sources, but I'm too tired and too sick today to go look them up just to satisfy those posters (not you, of course) who look for things to be angry over ... if they care so frickin' much about my sources, I invite them to do the work.

It's great that Cryptic has a philosophy of giving its customers great customization tools. But by taking on the Star Trek IP, Cryptic also has a responsibility to respect the IP and its fans, who will also be paying to play this game. Orange melon-headed, bug-eyed aliens commanding a hot pink Romulan vessel is beyond ridiculous.

You'll probably get some fugly humanoid aliens in the game, Bell, but again, available starship options will fall within what could be considered plausible and canonical. The trolls certainly love to fly that "fugly starships" flag here to watch the guano take wing, but it ain't gonna happen like that.

Bottom line, Cryptic should be very careful when deciding what types of customizations will be available in what circumstances. They wouldn't alienate PvE players by making the game PvP FFA. I hope they don't allow players to grief others with outlandish customization choices.

Based on the fact that this is Cryptic, and their past actions speak for them, I think you'll find that the customization choices will not only be reviewed before they're available to players, but that any customization pieces which prove to be "exploitable" in an undesirable way will be removed from the game and replaced with a non-offensive alternative.

Thanks for posting,

KOS

[ReynoldsXD]

the universe is full of crazy ****.

[aguila432]

Im not against the customization options at all, Im more worried about the trillion Mr.Spocks, Captain Kirks, Scotties, Tpal's, Captain archers and sigh... Jean Luc Picard's and William Rikers need I go on? Id much rather people create their own unique character than run into Gordi laforges, Datas and Sulu's all day. Which Im guessing is gonnq happen without some sort of naming filter. O.o was never much for that "Iconic" type gameplay myself.

[SiskoBell]

The problem is, Bell, that while you can act against offensive content in an MMORPG, it's very hard to act against something that's harmless but incredibly dumb. Sure you can put name filters in, and EULA details, so that a ship named "USS BigBoobs" won't stand, nor a captain named "Benjamin Sicko", before they get reported and changed -- but if some chucklehead decides to make a Klingon-allied captain who looks like a Yeti, that's unfortunate, but hard to act upon.

Like the old saying goes, "you can't legislate taste, and you can't force people to be smart". Just because Captain Chucklehead abuses the customizer, doesn't mean that another player won't, independently, create a Yeti-like race which is lovingly crafted to conform to canonical ideas.



It's not going to be this way. That sort of customization is not what's intended. Trust me. Emmert has said more than once that starship customization options will fall within the realm of what's "plausible for canon".

I could cite my specific sources, but I'm too tired and too sick today to go look them up just to satisfy those posters (not you, of course) who look for things to be angry over ... if they care so frickin' much about my sources, I invite them to do the work.



You'll probably get some fugly humanoid aliens in the game, Bell, but again, available starship options will fall within what could be considered plausible and canonical. The trolls certainly love to fly that "fugly starships" flag here to watch the guano take wing, but it ain't gonna happen like that.



Based on the fact that this is Cryptic, and their past actions speak for them, I think you'll find that the customization choices will not only be reviewed before they're available to players, but that any customization pieces which prove to be "exploitable" in an undesirable way will be removed from the game and replaced with a non-offensive alternative.

Thanks for posting,

KOS

KOS, excellent reply. I trust what you say about ship customization. No need to dig up sources. My primary concern on that topic is that Cryptic will listen to posters who have asked for silly color schemes. It's not likely, but having seen the SWG Devs change their game design before they even went to Beta based on Forum posts, I just want the Devs to know others hold different views.

As with the aliens, like I said, I'm not to concerned about the customization in general. I assume offensive or otherwise inappropriate names and designs will be handled by Cryptic. My main concern is allowing customizations where no should exist, such as commanders and crew of iconic Faction vessels.

I can swallow allowing only Klingons to serve on Klingon ships, but also alllowing other races to serve in the Klingon Faction, using their own ship designs. Faction benefits such as being able to attack Federation ships, and perhaps use cloaking technology would be open to the Klingon allied alien races. But again, through using their ships only. There's no need to allow players to place non-Klingon aliens on Klingon vessels.

[iammacgyver]

I would hate to see E.T. as a captain or Jabba the Hut or something totally not ST...

Definitely, totally agree. They will have to monitor it. Does anybody think an approval system will be used?

[Trekkie]

I think that the ability to create custom races will work in the game because it is set in a different timeline, meaning new species would naturally have been discovered as time passed.

[Dext]

I think Not but that is just me

[Yaggaz]

I have no problem with customizing your character. In fact, I truly hope that being able to customize character features such as face shape, nose length, eye color, body fat, etc will be implemented. But the whole custom-race idea isn't sitting quite well with me. It seems to take away from the Star Trek feel of things because people will be running around who have Vulcan ears, Klingon ridges, Bajoran noses, and Gorn eyes decreeing that they are an Ubernaught from the planet Uberia. Character customization limited to each race, yes. Race customization allowing the creation of any number of "new" races, no.

I agree %100. Star Trek already has OVER A HUNDRED ****** races. We do not need non-Star Trek, player made crap races. Customisation for preset races, yes. New races players can make, heck no. I can just see the garbage that will be produced by the griefing types.

Please remove player made races.

[Yaggaz]

I think that the ability to create custom races will work in the game because it is set in a different timeline, meaning new species would naturally have been discovered as time passed.

No it's not, it's not set in that lame JJ "I want to make Trek into Star Wars" Abrams timeline. It's the classic "prime" timeline.

[RookActual]

I'm amazed to see this many people opposed to having options because someone may create something you don't like. There are plenty of canon races I find ludicrous, but it was never quite enough to get me to turn off the program. What is or is not 'Trek' to each person is different.

I see Fleets forming in the other forum that have names I could not imagine the Federation would ever approve of, for example. I would even go so far as to say many of them are absolutely ludicrous. However, that is how that group intends to enjoy this game. You have to accept that you're part of a diverse community, and while no one should force you to accept things, you still must tolerate them, or at least just ignore them. We'll all be paying the same subscription.

If you can't handle that, unfortunately, I'd have to say this game is not for you. There will always be people who do things you do not approve of, no matter how flexible the game is designed. I believe if any community deserves the benefit of the doubt in regards to gaming maturity, it should be Trekkies. I'm sure you may do something in the game in the future that another may perceive as ridiculous, too.

[Draighwulf]

I agree %100. Star Trek already has OVER A HUNDRED ****** races. We do not need non-Star Trek, player made crap races. Customisation for preset races, yes. New races players can make, heck no. I can just see the garbage that will be produced by the griefing types.

Please remove player made races.



considering the size of the federation there's hundreds of races that we've never seen, along with ones from comics or the animated show that never made the films or series so they've had more of a limited viewing

I always thought a big reason so many of the alien races we see in the shows being near-human is basically budget constraints. If anything player made races will make the game more Star Trek, because of a wider diversity of races working together. Yes you'll get some that are just silly but the majority will be well thought out races. You can be fairly sure that there will be a website (either cryptic or fan run) that people can post their creations to along with how to make them, so that we'll see more than of a given race.

Who knows? maybe along with fleet sites we'll start seeing the more popular player made races have their own race sites so players can work together on their history and culture

Sure with the possibility of all that creativty creating a more Trek feel a few easily ignored "silly" creations isn't to much of a price to pay?

[RookActual]

Who knows? maybe along with fleet sites we'll start seeing the more popular player made races have their own race sites so players can work together on their history and culture


Most every Trekkie I've ever met has his or her own ideas about Trek. Things they would love to see, or do. Technologies they believe could be present, stories that have not been explored. Races they have imagined that have never been onscreen. Cryptic is doing a wonderful thing by allowing the player to feel like they can have a little piece of Trek all to themselves if they'd like.

[Kazzy]

Infinite diversity in infinite combinations

[ndat]

I quite like it, it's one of the features I am most looking forward to.

[iammacgyver]

I was a little hesitant at first, but now i think it will just give more depth to the game

[The.Grand.Nagus]

I have no problem with customizing your character. In fact, I truly hope that being able to customize character features such as face shape, nose length, eye color, body fat, etc will be implemented. But the whole custom-race idea isn't sitting quite well with me. It seems to take away from the Star Trek feel of things because people will be running around who have Vulcan ears, Klingon ridges, Bajoran noses, and Gorn eyes decreeing that they are an Ubernaught from the planet Uberia. Character customization limited to each race, yes. Race customization allowing the creation of any number of "new" races, no.

In an infinite universe, there are infinite varieties of species. Regardless of what someone declares themself, that really has nothing to do with you. If you arent keen on the idea of a custom species, then dont make one. Those that are, will. And unless you plan on paying their subscription each month, you really have no say in what they should be able to do.

[WinterPark1701]

How many times have we seen a race just once or twice then never ever again? That along with the interbreeding of races I'd say that I don't see a problem with custom race creation.

[sam242424]

i dont know..... but for now ill say bad idea.

[dieuwe10]

Let me get one thing straight:

THIS IS A GAME FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. FUN COMES FIRST, STAR TREK SECOND. IF YOU ALL WANT THIS TO BE A BORING GAME KEEP MAKING TROLLING THREADS LIKE THIS.

I think it's a great idea.

[Galv]

I'm really looking forward to the custom race feature, i'm atleast going to make one race that looks ridiculous to be part of my bridgecrew and why not nothing wrong with having a laugh at star trek. But then what would be wrong with making a vulcan with klingon ridges anyway , last time i checked there was plenty of cross species loving going on, wasn't Worf's first mate half Klingon and half vulcan? And then not to mention genetic alterations as in the Klingon smooth heads.

[Paulo999]

Uh, you can only make humanoids. That was stated clearly in an interview with jack...no 8472...

...at launch :P

[marscentral]

Just a reminder, the OP was last August.

[xarb]

Star Trek had a plethora of aliens. While you easily can have the core races for each faction, I see no harm in allowing different looking toons for the character to play, to add to the true uniqueness of a players character and game experience. Far too often in MMO's you're stuck with cookie cutter looking toons, or in some cases, just cookie cutter toons. Its nice to add some element of diversity to the game.

[Peteromir]

I agree with the sentiment that its fine as there were hundreds of race that we never met that supposedly bellonged to the federation. I suspect as its humiods only we'll not manage to create anything to odd for star trek, especailly given some of the fuggly wierd beasts we met.

I'm personaly more worried by the potential for daft starships (hopefully customisation may well take into account your in the military now).

[Tribbler]

Naaah.

It gives more of the Star Trek "Feel".

Just about every episode had a new race in it.

Carry on.

[SpectreDelta]

Star Trek has always been about exploring the galaxy and specifically seeking out new life and new civilations, what kind of MMo would it be if they excluded this. Given though there should be a limit however for the most part custom races just puts a new perspective on how big the galaxy really is

[Archangelwoghd]

I have no problem with customizing your character. In fact, I truly hope that being able to customize character features such as face shape, nose length, eye color, body fat, etc will be implemented. But the whole custom-race idea isn't sitting quite well with me. It seems to take away from the Star Trek feel of things because people will be running around who have Vulcan ears, Klingon ridges, Bajoran noses, and Gorn eyes decreeing that they are an Ubernaught from the planet Uberia. Character customization limited to each race, yes. Race customization allowing the creation of any number of "new" races, no.

No. Almost every episode of every series featured a new alien species, in fact the star trek aliens prolly outnumber the total number of episodes. look at some of the star-trek cantina scenes, they are FULL of aliens. Ever since "Journey to Babel", the franchise has given us hordes of aliens to enjoy. I would say it gives the game MORE of a StarTrek feel.

I think it's a great feature, one of the things I'm looking forward to.

[cocoa-jin]

I have no problem with customizing your character. In fact, I truly hope that being able to customize character features such as face shape, nose length, eye color, body fat, etc will be implemented. But the whole custom-race idea isn't sitting quite well with me. It seems to take away from the Star Trek feel of things because people will be running around who have Vulcan ears, Klingon ridges, Bajoran noses, and Gorn eyes decreeing that they are an Ubernaught from the planet Uberia. Character customization limited to each race, yes. Race customization allowing the creation of any number of "new" races, no.

Well I guess they might as well let us do it...because Genesis probably already has, "people running around who have Vulcan ears, Klingon ridges, Bajoran noses, and Gorn eyes decreeing that they are an Ubernaught from the planet Uberia."

[mistharm]

Shields up, red alert! Thread necromancy detected!

(The original post is from 2008 >.>)

[Mavolent]

Shields up, red alert! Thread necromancy detected!

(The original post is from 2008 >.>)


IMO a necro-post is better than starting up a whole new thread on an existing topic...

[Bedlam66]

I'm looking forward to creating my own unique races for the game.

[polysyllabist]

Who are you to say I can't be a mixed race from mixed unions? Why shouldn't I be 1/3 Klingon, 1/3 Vulcan, 1/3 Andorian?? Why Not? Because genetics doesn't allow for such proportions? ...pfft. Science FICTION my friend.

On a serious note. Some people will create silly races. You'll roll your eyes on away missions at the "Yoda" character and not group with that fool again. And then, when you go on an away mission with someone who has painstakingly recreated a race you forgot about you'll be all like "DUDE! A Tamarian!! Awesome!" and forever be thankful the system exists as it is.

Probably

[Sirjohn45]

well since I have been watching star trek since it first came out, I do not see Cryptic putting every single race in the game. I agree with the customization and that is should be looked over carefully. But people have a right to make their own unique character up or alien within reason.
No matter what is added not everyone will agree, I say wait till game day and go from there. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and relax........4 1/12 months to go..things will change I am sure.

[Sinclair]

Nope, I dont see any problems with customization of character appearance, to answer the OP. My two cents anyways.

[Replica]

Nothing in the character creator is going to make anything more ridiculous then Neelix. :eek:

As for the blend of parts, Bajorians with Vulcan ears, who's to say what intermarriage would do with that many distinct races. Heck even here on Earth we do occasionally get combinations like someone who looks entirely Asian, except they have naturally blue eyes. I don't think mix and match parts will be too terrible in STO. I doubt many will look closely at faces once they are out of the character creator anyhow. When is the last time you zoomed in and studied a player avatar's face in an MMO?

[Stalazon]

Have to agree with the folks who like the option of having the race creation option. Otherwise we'd be limited to what Cryptic has time to implement, and even with a generator, the players always have more time, collectively, then the dev staff has to make the multitude of ST races look good for launch, not to mention the need to pull them from other tasks.

[Interdictor]

No. Almost every episode of every series featured a new alien species, in fact the star trek aliens prolly outnumber the total number of episodes. look at some of the star-trek cantina scenes, they are FULL of aliens. Ever since "Journey to Babel", the franchise has given us hordes of aliens to enjoy. I would say it gives the game MORE of a StarTrek feel.

I think it's a great feature, one of the things I'm looking forward to.

Agreed - the series and movies haven't even scratched the surface in regards to the number of species in the Trek universe. An alien creator is certainly appropriate for this game.

[JacobFlowers]

Popping in here at the 6th page where NO ONE will read my post.

But nah... the character creator I feel is within the bounds of 'Star Trek'. Who knows what you'll find out there!

But the ship customization on the other hand I have a problem with. Frankenstein ships make the game feel less trek, espescially when there is no visual characterization between classes (which there was in the series'). Now you can make a Miranda class ship look like a Soyuz... but nope... it's not REALLLY a Soyuz :P Just looks like one.

Meaningless.

[Zepath]

I read your post ... :)

And I agree, and even think I said the same thing somewhere in those 6 pages.

[zanderj]

ive expressed my concerns about this fact aswell... In my opinion, custom races will break the "lore" of trek. It would be much better if our custom races would just be "race mixes" where we'd be "part klingon, part cardassian" You'd still be called a Klingon (or cardassian, depends on wich racial features come out more).

In this world, you aren't called a Belgerican if your mother is a Belgian and your father is American. You are Belgian or American. Depending on what you prefer or where you live. Same should be done with STO.

Just my two cents.

and shucks, I fell for the necromancy :(

[FelFox]

I don't understand why everyone is so worried about this mixing stuff. I mean Romulans have pointed ears and funny haircuts, but they aren't Vulcans (yes yes I know technically but they still aren't) Or like Klingons aren't the only people with headridges and crazy hair, the Naussicans and those funny rock hair people from voyager (vaguely remember what they look like so i could be wrong) also had them.

Point is, we're given -features- and it's up to us to put them together to make them interesting! A bolean is blue, and so is an Andorian, doesn't mean they're a mix some how. Cardassians are scaly, but they aren't related to gorns in anyway either heh.

Point is, a system like this gives us -thousands- of things to put together to make something totally new or try to remake something of old. If I wanted to make a caitian, I'd need ears on my head, a slightly altered face, digigrade legs, a tail and fur. If someone wanted to make a bolean, they'd need blue, a crazy ridge thing down the front of their face, and some markings if I recall. If someone wanted to make a Kzinti, they'd need most of the caitian stuff anyway. Can't seem to think of any specific aliens at the moment but I think the idea is clear.

Cryptic can only do so much, they were nice enough to make nearly a dozen races for us already, each one can be changed a bit too so that everyone who plays a klingon won't all look exactly the same. They then gave us a huge list of extras so that we could make something unique as well. If they were to take away the custome thing, then we'd be stuck with said 10-12 races... human, bajorian, vulcan blah blah on federation, klingon, orion, gorn, blah blah klingon side. So anyone who didn't want those classics, would be out of luck. The reverse is that Cryptic spends months and months trying to recreate each and every race, but we can't change how we look because they put all their effort into making lore exact races...

There will be morons, but for everyone, there will be a really good, unique race, or lore specific race that someone remembered from an old show that cryptic totally overlooked.

[RoydEris]

Two reasons Cryptic is opting for this:
Most people don't waste time leveling up a ridiculous looking character like that anyways.

You dont play mmos too much, are you?

[CapnBludd]

Tng was alien of the week, we saw tons of new races all the time, but you want to limit it to just races you like?
Seems to me that the custom races is a lot more Trek than just a few well known ones.

[FTWinston]

If (say) Cryptic have not added Boleans to the game, and I created a Bolean race ... would there be the option (after some approval, maybe) for other players to use this same race, without having to recreate the Bolean race? If, then, players didn't have the option to create infinate numbers of new races (eg 1 'new race' per captain, or it cost to create BOs with a custom race) ... I think that would go at least some way to stop trashy new race spamming, but still give it that IDIC feel...

[coldflow]

I like customisation if they are putting racial bonuses in.

Say I want to make a Human science captain but Vulcans get a large science bonus.

Then I just go to the character creation screen take the Vulcan science bonus anyway and make something that looks human - job done.

[syberghost]

I have no problem with customizing your character. In fact, I truly hope that being able to customize character features such as face shape, nose length, eye color, body fat, etc will be implemented. But the whole custom-race idea isn't sitting quite well with me. It seems to take away from the Star Trek feel of things because people will be running around who have Vulcan ears, Klingon ridges, Bajoran noses, and Gorn eyes decreeing that they are an Ubernaught from the planet Uberia. Character customization limited to each race, yes. Race customization allowing the creation of any number of "new" races, no.

Not everybody has fun the same way you have fun. The game shouldn't be about preventing fun.

[Geist06]

I like customisation if they are putting racial bonuses in.

Say I want to make a Human science captain but Vulcans get a large science bonus.

Then I just go to the character creation screen take the Vulcan science bonus anyway and make something that looks human - job done.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe people will have the option to pick from a few "racial traits." This way, you could even play Human or Klingon that is not the typical style: ie, 1/2 betazoid (but still appearing 100% human) or...perhaps more famous then 1/2 betazoids... Khan, or a Klingon who has passive racial bonus of humans instead of Klingon's (to indicate they're 1/2 klingon, but look full... or something)

More options enables me to play the way I would like, and feel some ownership of the game rather then just the time put into leveling / getting loot.

[Osias]

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Category:Species

Enough said.

[Gideon]

If (say) Cryptic have not added Boleans to the game, and I created a Bolean race ... would there be the option (after some approval, maybe) for other players to use this same race, without having to recreate the Bolean race? If, then, players didn't have the option to create infinate numbers of new races (eg 1 'new race' per captain, or it cost to create BOs with a custom race) ... I think that would go at least some way to stop trashy new race spamming, but still give it that IDIC feel...

They've said that we will be able to share the templates for our custom species. Champions has something like this and the way it works is you save a file and then send it to someone or post it and they can import it into their game. So, if you don't want to share you don't have to but it doesn't stop someone from copying a character you have by creating it from scratch in the character creator. Since CO and STO use the same engine I'd think they'd work in a similar way. There has been no mention about limits to the number of custom species you can create and I'd doubt Cryptic would put this in either since it's basically free content for them.

[bjwalle1]

I think in the end having the charactere options will only add to the flavor of star trek. Not take anything away.. Star Trek is the foundation of this game and nothing will change that. every thing else will just be a toping. Everybody likes differnent things so this will absolutly be good for STO. :)

[Jamisicus6]

I have no problem with customizing your character. In fact, I truly hope that being able to customize character features such as face shape, nose length, eye color, body fat, etc will be implemented. But the whole custom-race idea isn't sitting quite well with me. It seems to take away from the Star Trek feel of things because people will be running around who have Vulcan ears, Klingon ridges, Bajoran noses, and Gorn eyes decreeing that they are an Ubernaught from the planet Uberia. Character customization limited to each race, yes. Race customization allowing the creation of any number of "new" races, no.

What about Hybrids?

[CapnBludd]

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Category:Species

Enough said.

Don't forget this list will be much larger since STO is further in the future and who knows how many more would be
added. Huge list gets ginormus. 8')

[Macrotus]

Personley Im joining the Klingon side as soon as i can but am not keen on the way Klingons live their life, but i do love their ships. So i intend to create a race and hopefuly i can give them a good reason to be there. I.e. a conqured race or whatever in a mini bio.
It will help my immersion.

[Thirdoffive]

"To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations"

[Geist06]

And besides... it isn't like Star Trek has borrowed any ideas from any other IPs before:

Breen (http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/8/83/Breen2372.jpg) vs Star Wars' Boushh (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/File:Boushh_SWE.jpg)

[SpectreDelta]

even in canon new races are discovered constantly and noone ever makes fun of how they look or anything (with the exception of the hoorta) not to mention if one could make any humanoid they wanted as funny as it would be i doubt anyone would make a Vulcan, Klingon, B'joran, Gorn, thing. It would really add to the whole vastness of the galaxy to see hundreds of new (and already existing thought to be new) races roaming the galaxy as oppose to only the ones Cryptic gets around to making, though I do agree there should be some degree of control over it i see nothing wrong with the concept or how it will ruin gameplay experience.