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In Ship of Heroes, you can create your character to exactly fit its story, your story. In this update, we create four very different characters and demonstrate how to use just a few of the features in the character creator.
Physical Appearances, Costumes, and Powers are Independent
This gives players complete freedom to create unique avatars. Ship of Heroes’ character creator offers a fantastic degree of customization, especially for an MMORPG.
Character creation typically starts by selecting one of the 114 presets for the physical appearance: all of them can be used as-is, or massively edited through body morphs that aren't normally accessible to players. Adjustments to the body shape include height, measured in inches or centimeters, shoulder and arm width, body width, musculature, and more…The second character illustrates some of the possibilities, while the last two are mostly recolored. Nothing complicated.
Several hundred costume pieces can be mixed and matched interchangeably and will adjust to fit the unique body you create. They can be recolored as well. They are not locked in sets, though sets are available. All costume options are included in the price of the game.
Write a Backstory for your Character (optional)
And of course, players can write a short backstory for every character they create; try reading the stories of heroes you see in the game some time. It’s fun! (Link to our unusual story)
Let’s look at how the four characters in the example are created.
The first character, Gadaphia, is a cyborg. Her cybernetic implants are similar to those of female Prometheans, but unlike them, she became a cyborg voluntarily. In the 25th century, people can transform and alter themselves in many ways. Even regrowing limbs isn't much harder than changing clothes.
She's proud of her beautiful human eyes and chooses to wear her vision-enhancing cybernetic implant only on one side. She adjusts its color to match her outfit.
Gadaphia decided that only one cybernetic arm would make it hard to get clothes that highlighted her single cybernetic arm but kept her other arm warm. Besides, how could she resist the lure of two gleaming metal arms immune to breakage? Definitely a plus for a dedicated Martial Arts practitioner!
For her lower body, she had to decide between cybernetic feet only, or whole legs. Choosing just the feet would have made it harder to employ her famous kicks. Besides, the lighted legs are so cool, and their color can also be changed on a whim! Getting dressed is greatly simplified, too.
All in all, Gadaphia is very happy with her selection of cybernetics.
Next is Ryzali, a fierce alien warrior with a savage look. You don’t want to get on his bad side. What side would that be? He's not telling - not before going into attack mode. His build is strong and imposing, thanks to some adjustments to his body morphs, like larger hands and feet. No shoes for this tough dude.
Another hint at his savagery comes from the bloody scars running over his brown body – the costume has been colored to nearly match his skin, suggesting they are one and the same.
For his head, preset #6 has been edited, starting with a pronounced back tilt of the face. His glowing lavender eyes have been sunken in with the eye depth slider, while his bushy eyebrow have been made as prominent as possible, lowered over his eyes, and given a striking light blond glow. A frown is his default expression.
While a bald crane or a mohawk also would have been effective choices, a wild hair style in red with hints of flaming red completes the fierce look. Pointy ears only emphasize his extra-terrestrial origins.
The next alien is nearly the opposite. Rainbow Angel has a sweet personality and a slightly ethereal quality suggested by her wispy aura.
The heart shape of the female #9 preset face was perfect to convey Rainbow Angel’s sweet disposition. All it took was adding ears and recoloring of skin, hair, eyes, eyebrows and lips to create her look. The pink tone of her skin pairs with her soft blue hair and calls for a soft turquoise and yellow-green color palette for her costume. Her delicate, feminine, but impractical silver shoes confirm what we suspected: she does not expect to fight.
Our third alien is also a formidable warrior, but quite different from the scarred one. He is part of a strong and disciplined fighting force whose role is to defend his group. Everything about him says “disciplined,” from his confident posture to his boldly colored breastplate.
His species is humanoid but characterized by a prominent external spine and the location of key organs in his upper thoracic cage, higher than in humans.
His helmet protects his face without being too heavy and lets his colorful mohawk stand straight as a sign of bravery: he is not afraid to have his skull bashed. The color of his mohawk advertises the elite force to which he belongs.
This character could be made by replacing the hair style of any preset with the mohawk. It is all about the costume.
We hope these examples inspire you to create your own unique character, or two, or three, or… Whether fanciful or realistic, human or humanoid, you'll be welcome aboard the FHS Justice.
Note: If all this seems too much, you can see how to make a good looking character quickly using presets and randomizers.