A few things I don't appreciate about character creation

[auricbond]

Here are a few things I question about character creation:

1. Forced randomness of star signs. In every other aspect of the character, it acknowledges that some people prefer to leave everything hanging on a die roll, while others prefer to customize, but it forces the randomness for star signs--why? It just leads to people scumming the signs.

I really hope it's not just so this feature can be placed behind a pay-wall (faq says it's a feature of the deluxe/steam versions). I'm assuming it's part of the ethos of game design but why then not force random gender, race and class? Just seems like a contradiction.

It wouldn't be so bad if every star sign was good, but there is a clear tier list for star signs. I personally think the game is better when a choice comes down to "What am I in the mood for?" rather than "Which are the good choices?" In other words, everything should be as appealing as candle & raven.

I'd like the star signs to all have more extreme effects to push more diverse play-styles. None of them should make you go "bleh", regardless of what kind of character build you have in mind.

2. # of starting talents is a big factor and is very random. I think it should be a bit more equal. It's setting you 3, 6, 9 or 12 levels behind/ahead in terms of talents.

3. Some talents are really not good. I think it would be interesting if the steam version could gather stats on people's choices, it might be an eye-opener. Example: I think the stat boosting talents should grant +2 to the stat and +2 to the potential as well, to even be tempting to select for reasons outside of unlocking other talents. Stats are generally too transient to want to squander a talent point on unless the bonus is significant.

Maybe if you could actually see your current stats in a character sheet whilst chosing your talents, it might be easier to make an informed decision as to what talent path to choose.

4. The questions!

I feel like these fail on both possible purposes.

If they are there for roleplaying and to immerse yourself in your character, it seems counter-intuitive in a game where characters have such a low life expectancy to get invested in them and fill out a bunch of questions. Eventually one would get tired of doing that.

If they are for helping you optimize your stats, the effects they have are too obtuse from the description, and often don't affect the things you think they would. With the already existing randomness in stats, figuring out the exact numbers is beyond the average player, requiring bot stat gathering or code-diving, meaning you have to be spoiled, possibly 'illegitimately' spoiled, to really use them for min-maxing. The impact on stats may as well be shown up-front in that case, and save me the extra step of loading up a guidebook or wiki.

[gr3ybird]

I agree with all of this, but I think we are at a point where pretty much no RFE's are getting implemented anymore. It will be a very long time (if ever) before we see needed changes like this.

[auricbond]

I agree with all of this, but I think we are at a point where pretty much no RFE's are getting implemented anymore. It will be a very long time (if ever) before we see needed changes like this.

Not sure why you came to that conclusion. Thomas said he'd be looking at RFE's after the steam release in his latest blog update.

[Blasphemous]

I agree with most of these ideas, especially the allure of better starsigns.
The problem here that I see is candle and raven offer features that cannot be replicated in the game.
Candle grants extra talent but that's just the added bonus.
Candle healing stacks with regeneration and healing skill which makes it active always and useful always.
Raven offers the chance to get trident at a stage in the game where it actually matters a great deal.
Plus it adds 10 points of speed, an attribute that is otherwise very difficult to increase directly.

Each starsign would have to offer some desirable feature that would be impossible to replicate without it and at the same time be useful to only a few classes, to avoid ending up like the universally useful candle.

The weapon marks reductions are of lesser desirability because for characters that already use melee, there are either no penalties or there are class bonuses.
Together they make leveling up weapon marks fast and easy. That extra 10 or even 20% isn't much, especially compared to all-round passive bonus of candle.
Why would a duelist for example ever need a sword starsign? They advance in weapon marks so fast and get such amazing class power bonuses that candle is a much better choice.

It's all difficult to balance of course but certainly possible.
There could be starsigns to enhance existing class powers that are from a relatively similar area, like archers and assassins that both have class power related to missile combat.
Starsigns that would act like food preservation skill (at 80, not 100, a similarity with candle giving roughly the same regeneration as healing at 80) or those that improve the quality/amount/reduce time to create stuff - for smiths, archers or any class that wishes to use smithing.
Another starsign could provide extra bonuses to DV and dodge, maybe even double or triple modifiers in very defensive and coward modes with shield equipped.
Some playstyles would benefit from that greatly.