PC and NPC: Creation, Customisation and Character Development

What character creation options are there?

CGOnline:
Players will be able to create characters from a variety of classes and select starting attributes with all the depth of KOTOR. But beyond that, we're able to bring you further control over brand new game technology, by not only giving you the ability to fully customize your character's facial features and hair etc., but also giving you the ability to adjust things like the sound of your character's voice!

And

IGO:
Give us a brief overview of the character customization.
Casey Huson: Before the action starts at the beginning of the game, you’ll be able to create and customize your character. You can choose Commander Shepard exactly the way we’ve designed him and jump right into the game, or you can go into great detail in designing exactly the character you want to be.

You’ll be able to adjust the appearance of your character, right down to facial shapes, skin tones, eye colors, and hair styles. And you’ll determine your character class and set up your initial abilities. You can be a standard Soldier class, or an Adept (powerful with dark energy attacks), or an Engineer (able to do deadly tech-based attacks). And there will be other classes that combine the abilities of these three.

You’ll also be able to do some things that take customization to a new level, like making choices about the kind of experiences you’ve had before the game started, like where you were born, and the kind of military service you’ve performed.

And over the course of the game, you’ll continue to develop and improve your character – as well as each of the other characters in your squad – by adding new abilities, armor, and weapons that will make your experience in Mass Effect different from everyone else’s.

And

Preston Watamaniuk:
Just to offer a clarification: You can begin the game with a single class and then later choose a specialization that allows you to support your preferred style of play with that class. Instead of adding tech abilities to an Adept it is more like super-charging one of your pre-existing Adept talents.
Ok I am most likely going to have some people flam me for saying this, but I feel that Oblivions character creation is way to involed.

Chris Priestly:
Actually, I kind of agree with you.

In my opinion character creation should be fun and cool and really deep with thousands of possibilities and combinations that allow the user to create and extremely personalize their character. But only if they want to. It should definately not become a chore or something that you feel gets in the way of having fun with the game.

It should be there if the individual player wants to do it. I played City of Heroes & Villians and some of the most fun was creating the characters as they had a really good system in place. I know a few players who spent more time creating and recreating heroes than actually played the game. But you should also be able to turn on teh game, quickly create a good looking PC and start playing without having to go through multitudes of colors, textures, sliders and whatever.

I can't really talk about Mass Effect's character creation yet. I can say that, imo, it offers the best of both. It will have thousands upon thousands of possible combinations for those players who want to spend a lot of time and get their PC "just so", but it will also have the ability to allow for a few choices and then get you right into the game.

Hopefully, we'll have something for both groups.

Is armour changeable and visible?

IGN:
Before any fighting began, we were shown how each character's in-game appearance was entirely dependent on the gear they wore. No characters in Mass Effect have a stock armor appearance. If you equip a huge, hulking helmet, it'll show up in real time. Same thing with weapons, which appear strapped to characters' backs and legs. This allows for a huge variety of character appearances, reinforcing the game's already impressive customization options.

And

OXM:
Aw, we love it when games let us dress up. In Mass Effect, you can choose whether to clean and repair your armour, making it look brand spanking new, or not, leaving it caked in dirt, blood and scratched to buggery.

And

Drew Karpyshyn:
The armor in Mass Effect comes in light, medium and heavy variants, and encompasses a large variety of visual styles and effects, damage mitigation, environmental protection and other variables directly impacting the player's effectiveness and survivability. Armor can also be customized further via modifications found during the course of the game. The exact same thing can be said for the weapons used in "Mass Effect." Different weapon makes and various upgrade modifications will affect the look of weapons as well as the visual effect of using them.

What is Commander Shepard's background?

IGO:
Casey Huson: Commander Shepard is a veteran soldier, who's seen a lot of action in many engagements across the galaxy. And Shepard doesn't have it very easy either. Charged with the most important missions in the galaxy, Shepard is therefore authorized to get the job done at all costs – and it's up to you to determine what that cost will be. Often, something must be sacrificed to get further in your mission, and all of Shepard's decisions are important ones, where people's lives hang on the details of each choice.

But that's about all I can say for sure about Shepard, because the rest is up to you. You can create your own Commander Shepard - male or female – and then customize his / her appearance to look the way you want. And even Shepard's back-story is yours to decide, as part of character creation. Ultimately, the way you play Commander Shepard is the final piece of the puzzle, as your choices will define how your character affects the galaxy, and the future of entire civilizations.

And

The only thing I know about this, or at least what I think I know about this, is that you get to choose your backstory when you create your Sheperd character. Bob McCabe:
Yep, "Shepard" - at least, that's what it says in a reference I just found in the game (and on this website) - will have a backstory that you choose. It'll still leave a lot open to discover as you play, but give us all a good starting point.

And

Game Banshee:
Mass Effect puts you in control of Commander Shepard, an elite Spectre agent that you’ll be able to fully customize during character generation. While you won’t ever be able to change your name, you will be able to alter skin tone, facial features, gender, abilities, class, and background story. Background story is something relatively new to a BioWare game, and works somewhat like traits or perks in other RPGs. BioWare’s Jay Watamaniuk explained that this choice will ultimately affect how NPCs perceive you as you make your way through the storyline.

Why is Shepard's last name fixed?

IGO:
Casey Huson: Only the last name (Shepard) is fixed, allowing the player to choose the first name and everything else. This is actually a great balance, because it allows the player to name his or her character, but it gives us the benefit of being able to have in-game characters refer to you by name.

The other reason this was important to us is that Mass Effect is not a typical RPG experience, where you play a generic character that gains levels and items but never really has an identity. With Mass Effect, the level of cinematic intensity and the extreme depth and emotional impact of the story and character interactions required us to craft a very specific kind of experience for the player. It’s an experience that’s based on someone who is experienced and powerful enough to be able to make important decisions – a character that is tough enough to get to that elite level of service, and one who commands a very specific kind of respect and admiration. So your experience as Shepard is therefore a combination of a uniquely exciting character and all the things you do to make that character your own.

This approach allows us to create that kind of truly unprecedented level of intensity and cinematic power, while giving the player as much customization and role-playing ability as we’ve ever offered before.

Can you play as a female?

Bob McCabe:
Shenanigans aside (thanks Jon! ), "dawn" is a female's name, so "dawn of a new era" would imply that you can be a female - which you can.

And

Jay Watamaniuk:
Yup you can choose to play a female. I haven't had a chance to take a look at how much you can customize your character but I'm willing to bet that choosing gender is one of the first steps.

Will there be romances?

Jay Watamaniuk:
I have a good friend who is wild about the romance plots in BioWare games and she has been assured that there will be fine, fine romance plots in Mass Effect. I would find it very surprising if BioWare produced an RPG that did not have a great deal of time spent developing relationships between characters. It seems fundamental to great stories.

Will the characters be present across the 3 games of the saga?

So are you guys planning character arcs across the three games and stuff? Posted 09/25/06 23:53:59 (GMT) by Bob McCabe: Of course we are. I've looked through a lot of the plans and also talked a lot with Drew and Preston about it. I'm feeling pretty optimistic. :)

Will Mass Effect have the Good Side/Bad Side concept?

Bob McCabe:
I said it elsewhere, I think, and I'll say it again. This isn't going to be a generic good & evil system. We're definitely attempting to move further on in the direction we started with Jade Empire. More than that, for now, I will not say...

As far as your influence system, a lot of us liked what we saw in KotOR II. We'll see what we can accomplish.

And

I would like to see a more complex moral system. Bioware tried this in JE...
Bob McCabe:
There's a lot of people on the team who would like to see this as well. We're still working on it, though - and not really certain the direction that the game wants us to take. We'll see! But (everyone,) keep coming up with solutions and suggestions, or otherwise providing your opinions. It's interesting stuff, and helpful for the team when were making tough decisions.

I am a little concerned about how the artical talks about clear good/evil choices... get some clarification on this?

And

Posted 09/21/06 17:15:40 (GMT) by Chris Priestly:
Well, there are definately "good/evil" type options in the game. But I think that there are much more "shades of grey" type options and choices in the "good/evil" choices than in any of our previous games.

And

CVG: Does the KoTOR good/bad system feature in Mass Effect? If so, how have you improved it? Casey Hudson: Players will have dramatically different paths to follow through their actions. Beyond that though, we're developing the good/evil aspect into something more worthy of the highly realistic next-gen experience that represents the quality bar for Mass Effect. As Commander Shepard, you have a powerful presence and are usually involved in issues of high-level importance. So a conventional "evil" approach seemed almost cartoonish by comparison to the realism of Shepard's story. Instead, we've put your character in a position where you'll need to break rules, defy authority, and generally raise hell as you force your way towards the galaxy's darkest secrets. This means facing tough moral decisions where you can find compassionate ways to deal with problems, but are equally justified in taking more brutal or mercenary approaches.

And since you really are the leading edge of humanity's presence on the galactic scale, it means your actions ultimately shape the future of all humanity in the galaxy. This approach gives the game an epic and grown-up feel, where the realism of your choices make your decisions - and their outcomes - that much more interesting.

Can NPCs leave you?

It's going to be annoying if a cool "evil" character leaves because I'm playing a "good" character. Imagine HK47 leaving because you helped an NPC?
Bob McCabe:
HK never would have left you because you were his owner. We'll see how it plays out in Mass Effect. We'll try to keep it as cool/fun/believable and not annoying as possible.

Will you be able to level up your squad ?

James Henley:
You will be able to level your squad as you see fit, though you will also be able to auto-level them if you wish. :)

How many NPC party members are there in the game?

Bob McCabe:
As James said, there are six people in the game who can join your party. There may be the possibility to turn down one or more of them - making your pool of potential squad mates smaller.