Serious: What's the reason for the look of the NPCs? Technical difficulties?

Boringnick · Post by **Boringnick** » Wed, 10. May 17, 19:39

Was there ever an official explanation given? I think it was because of Egosoft's inexperience in facial/hair modeling, and that's why they are all bald or shorthaired.

I have no idea why they so many of them look so sick though. What was that for? Are all the scars there as an diversion, to make the faces look less perfect and thuss less robotic?

Not trolling, I am really curious at what the design-process was here.

Boringnick · Post by **Boringnick** » Wed, 10. May 17, 20:46

Also, the Teladi and Split models aren't stellar, but they are much better than the human ones. It's obvious why though: Far less "uncanny valley" with aliens.

Replaying XR the last few days I had an epiphany: The setting of the game should have been an alien sector! (protagonist could stay human for identification purposes). Sure, it would be weird at first, but the team had obviously far more talent creating alien models.

I think an all-alien cast would raise some eyebrows, but, ultimately, would have been more warmly received than the fugly human NPCs.

spankahontis · Post by **spankahontis** » Wed, 10. May 17, 22:12

For me it's not the models that bother me as i'm more about other features of the game.
But it's the lack of models that really get under my skin.. Too many clones, a lack of diversity (Asians, Sub-Saharan, Far-Eastern faces), not enough accessories (clothes, gadgets, jewellery etc.).

And the lack of interesting places to visit on Stations, too much cut and paste for hallways and rooms; simply too many factory line locations.

X4 has to at least sort these out not to mention bringing the Borons and Paranids back.. Maybe even a new Race?

Boringnick · Post by **Boringnick** » Wed, 10. May 17, 22:28

spankahontis wrote:But it's the lack of models that really get under my skin.. Too many clones, a lack of diversity (Asians, Sub-Saharan, Far-Eastern faces), not enough accessories (clothes, gadgets, jewellery etc.).

That's just one the problems with them. Some NPCs also look ultra-ugly on purpose. Unbelievable scars and blotches on the face..

Captain Borman looks as if he has last-stage AIDS.

I am really curious why THAT design choices were made. I guess to add "personality", but really.. perfect glittery faces would have been far better than the Tom Hanks Philadelphia style.

I would really love to hear a design-explanation from the devs on that. Especially since there are "healthy" looking NPCs in the game, yet the sick-looking ones are put on the forefront. The guy you and Yisha talk to when you first land on a station has that disease-look. Borman has it, the DeVries boss has it too.

The ugliest character models are the most prominently featured. WEIRD.

GCU Grey Area · Post by **GCU Grey Area** » Wed, 10. May 17, 22:53

Suspect frequency of scarred NPCs may simply be intended to reflect that there's recently been a fair bit of warfare in that region of the X universe, e.g. Albion government overthrown by PMC, continual conflict between Reivers & Canterans in De Vries, attacks by Xenon forces in Omicron Lyrae, etc.

Boringnick · Post by **Boringnick** » Wed, 10. May 17, 23:11

GCU Grey Area wrote:Suspect frequency of scarred NPCs may simply be intended to reflect that there's recently been a fair bit of warfare in that region of the X universe, e.g. Albion government overthrown by PMC, continual conflict between Reivers & Canterans in De Vries, attacks by Xenon forces in Omicron Lyrae, etc.

I get the intention, but as I said, they don't look roughed up, but more like diseased. The first guy you meet almost looks as if his wound is due some zombie attack.

The "look" clearly didn't work out. I am baffled that they still went with it, especially for some of the main characters, despite having some character-heads in the game that didn't look as terrible. That's some of the oddest design choice I've seen in a game, ever. The guards for exampe usually aren't as horrific as Borman.

GCU Grey Area · Post by **GCU Grey Area** » Wed, 10. May 17, 23:44

Boringnick wrote:I get the intention, but as I said, they don't look roughed up, but more like diseased.

Roughed up? Diseased? Didn't think of either of those things when I saw the NPCs. Just looked to me like people who had suffered severe burn injuries.

ezra-r · Post by **ezra-r** » Thu, 11. May 17, 16:55

They didn't have enough time and they wasted it on the so much criticized models.

Perhaps they should get rid of walking in stations and make a more common Elite dangerous-like interface, you dock yes, but interact through your ship computer.

Post by **Nanook** » Thu, 11. May 17, 18:52

spankahontis wrote:...
But it's the lack of models that really get under my skin.. Too many clones, a lack of diversity (Asians, Sub-Saharan, Far-Eastern faces), ....

Just one problem with that idea. This is the X-Universe, a long ways in the future. Most of the NPC's you see are Argonian. They were separated from Earth hundreds of years ago. After that many years, features and coloration would become much more homogeneous. The few thousand survivors that initially formed the Argon society would've all interbred just to keep the species going. So I highly doubt the 'present day' Argonians would have a variety of distinct racial features. Even the relatively few Terrans that are in HoL would've had to do the same thing (interbreed).

[The only thing I don't understand is why there are Terrans in Home of Light, a core Argon sector.

]

Post by **UniTrader** » Thu, 11. May 17, 19:10

Nanook wrote:[The only thing I don't understand is why there are Terrans in Home of Light, a core Argon sector. ]

Terran Settlers from Toride or something.. read the ency about the sectors and factions of the HoL DLC

(ok, it does not explain why they are in HoL itself, but some of the moved settlers might have received HoL citizenship or something like this)

Pesanur · Post by **Pesanur** » Sat, 20. May 17, 18:53

spankahontis wrote:
X4 has to at least sort these out not to mention bringing the Borons and Paranids back.. Maybe even a new Race?

Maybe be the Terraformers of Aldrin? Can interact with then will be great.

Back on topic, worst that the humans NPC look, is that all guards are humans, regardless of the station. Guards in Teladi stations are humans instead of Teladi, and guards in Lost Colony are humans instead of Split.

Post by **Santi** » Sat, 20. May 17, 20:10

Major problem for me is few models and variations, also more emphasis in the different outfits for techs, Captains, militar or station personal.

Post by **UniTrader** » Sat, 20. May 17, 20:41

Santi wrote:also more emphasis in the different outfits for techs, Captains, militar or station personal.

well, at least some of it is present ^^ you may not notice it much but when adding the ability to assign any Employee to any job you will, like me when i couldnt find the Captain because she was origibnally a Manager - this will take some time to get used to, but i like the idea anyway

But anyway, for Battle Ships i personally would actually prefer less variance for Clothing - something like Uniforms which depend on the Employer, and where Employees will change into when hired. Maybe add some colored Highlight to their Uniforms to indicate their Job, but the style itself should be the same overall. And this of course only for the Military Arm of each Faction (if they have any) - and go wild with the Clothing for everyone else ^^

Back to topic: i remember a Post from some years ago where someone imported Yishas Model into Blender and it actualy looked pretty good. iiirc this person said that the over-usage of light sources are the cause of some NPCs looking worse than they actually are..

Nikola515 · Post by **Nikola515** » Sat, 20. May 17, 21:52

It is just possible that they didn't have much time to develop NPC's on first place. I think one of devs was saying something about adding FPS walks to XR in late development.... That would explain why some of NPC hands looks like they are made out of wood

Or perhaps it is engine limitations ???? I would love to see how they would look in XR VR ?

mr.WHO · Post by **mr.WHO** » Sat, 20. May 17, 22:10

UniTrader wrote:
But anyway, for Battle Ships i personally would actually prefer less variance for Clothing - something like Uniforms which depend on the Employer, and where Employees will change into when hired. Maybe add some colored Highlight to their Uniforms to indicate their Job, but the style itself should be the same overall. And this of course only for the Military Arm of each Faction (if they have any) - and go wild with the Clothing for everyone else ^^

Yes, faction clothings, decals an ship hull paintings (and ability for player to pick his own paintings/uniforms/decal) would be a great for X4.

Post by **UniTrader** » Sat, 20. May 17, 22:14

Nikola515 wrote:It is just possible that they didn't have much time to develop NPC's on first place. I think one of devs was saying something about adding FPS walks to XR in late development.... That would explain why some of NPC hands looks like they are made out of wood Or perhaps it is engine limitations ???? I would love to see how they would look in XR VR ?

considering this Screen from early 2012 i think they had the NPCs for a while:
https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=320565

Nikola515 · Post by **Nikola515** » Sun, 21. May 17, 01:23

That hardly looks like in game footage

I can be wrong but I heard some of mods actually looked at 3D NPC models and they look much better than in game it self ?

Post by **UniTrader** » Sun, 21. May 17, 07:25

yeah, it may not be InGame-Footage, but do you think they designed the Characters (and Interior) there just for this April Fools Joke? i would say they had both at this point and made the mockup we got there with them. Just polished up a bit specifically for this Screen.

If you look closer you notice that the Clothing on both female characters in the April Fools Screen is the same as that of the Captain/Manager i posted earlier, just colored diffrently. And their Head is basically Yishas Head with a slightly diffrent Hair Color.

Nikola515 · Post by **Nikola515** » Sun, 21. May 17, 10:51

I think they originally wanted to have something like Freelancer but changed to FPS walking. This would explain poor textures and NPC animations. But you are right they do look similar just like in game... Ill try to find that post but i think they wanted to do something with point & click for station navigations....

mr.WHO · Post by **mr.WHO** » Sun, 21. May 17, 16:53

Nikola515 wrote:I think they originally wanted to have something like Freelancer but changed to FPS walking. This would explain poor textures and NPC animations. But you are right they do look similar just like in game... Ill try to find that post but i think they wanted to do something with point & click for station navigations....

I wish they would go with Freelancer style of "walking". FPP walking was nice for first 5 minutes and then it become painfully boring and reperetive experience (in dark times of X-Rebirth 1.0)