New Character Creator Update

Character Creator Update

Player feedback has shown us that there is a lack of clarity in the portrait creation stage of the new character creation process. In particular, it is not clear enough:

i) which of the four available portraits will be used in-game,

ii) that players are unable to come back and adjust their portraits once they proceed through character customization and into the game.

Changes to the portrait creation UI to make the process more clear

We are implementing UI fixes that we hope will resolve the above two issues.

Change 1: Change the "Save" button to "Finalize". "Save" implies that it is possible to go back and make adjustments later. "Finalize" is just more... final.

Change 2: When players click "Finalize" they will be presented with a dialogue box like the one below. The dialogue box shows the portrait snapshot that the player currently has selected. It makes clear that this is the portrait that will represent the character to other pilots in game and that once the player clicks "YES", no further changes will be possible. However, if a player clicks "NO" they will be returned to the portrait creator and can continue working on their portrait.


A chance to recustomize

We understand that many players proceeded into game under the impression that they could come back and make adjustments later; whilst other players didn't end up with the portrait they believed they had chosen.

We want to ensure everyone has the portrait of their choice. So now that we have made the UI clearer we will give all characters who have already completed character customization a chance to recustomize. This will be a one-time recustomization to be used during the grace period.

Characters who had yet to complete customization for the first time will not need this recustomization as they will see the improved UI on their first run through the customization process.

When will these changes happen?

Testing is still underway and if all goes well you should expect to see the changes outlined in this blog in the game before the weekend. We will confirm the timing when we know for sure.  

Grace Period

There has also been a little confusion about what exactly the grace period is. For the next several weeks, we are allowing players to enter the game without having to proceed through character customization. This grace period was introduced in response to players' concerns about being forced to rush character creation if they needed to log in to the game to change skills, deal with a science and industry job or jump into an urgent fleet op. We think that a few weeks will give players a chance to take their sweet time in designing the best character they can. For all the power gamers with multiple alts there is always the randomize option to speed things up.

The grace period does not mean that players will be able to design and redesign their characters as many times as they like once they have accepted their portraits.

We currently plan for the grace period to last for about a month from the initial deployment. We will announce the closing date with plenty of notice when we know when it will be.

The Future

We will be introducing the ability to repeatedly recustomize characters in a future release. The current plan is to introduce this at the same time as we release tattoos, scars and piercings so players can take advantage of these new assets. We are still in the early design phase, so we don't have any more details at present. Expect a devblog explaining more in the coming weeks.