Posted by Damion Schubert:

Making an alien race fully human playable is a huge amount of work, at least if you want to give players the level of customization options that they have come to expect. It takes a lot of work to make all of the customization options work together and look good, while still ensuring people still can find looks that are unique to each other.

 

The Togruta provide a unique problem in this regard, in regards to the tentacles. Yes, the Twi’leks have tentacles too, but they are typically behind the player, whereas the Togruta’s canonically drape across the front of the character. This means that they struggle to work with the existing animations and gear without clipping — indeed, the first screenshot you see for Ashara if you google her is one with her chin ridiculously clipping through her tentacle. While this may be acceptable for a companion who is frequently offscreen while fighting, or NPCs who we can dress and pose carefully, its much more problematic for player characters who need to be able to wear anything and perform any animation and still look good. (The Twi’leks clip somewhat as well, but much art was tweaked to make this a lot less prevalent than it otherwise would have been)

 

I’m not trying to pour cold water in the species discussion. Quite the opposite – if the Cathar do well, I hope to expand your options even more, and we should know the answer to that ‘soonish’. I just don’t want anyone to think that just because an alien is currently in the game as an NPC, that it is trivial to turn it into player art — it’s a TON of work to do that, and do it well.

TL: DR, maybe, possibly. They keep saying that adding more species depends on how well the Cathar do. They know Togruta are popular so I think they would overcome design issues and work on them next.

i would love to have such race, i really like the look of them and colors etc..

besides they would make a good looking Jedis.

No disrespect to the Torgruta but, Tortuga is spanish for turtle and is just as funny as Admiral Akbar being Calamari! Mmm fried calamari...

Um...Spanish for turtle is TORTUGA

lol

Edit: Oh wow, so the OP actually spelled it Tortuga in the title, LOL

Just curious if it will be a possibility because having Ashara as my companion just doesn't quite compare. :S

This is one suggestion I fully support. Togruta's is a Must.

I really hate how they do races in this game. In Star Trek Online, one of the few things they ever got RIGHT, is the fact you can basically pick any race or create your own.

Hell i'd PAY to be able to create my own so i could have a zeltron.

I really hate how they do races in this game. In Star Trek Online, one of the few things they ever got RIGHT, is the fact you can basically pick any race or create your own.

 

Hell i'd PAY to be able to create my own so i could have a zeltron.

MMMMMM Zeltron.....

for those of you who don't know, Zeltron are the species that twilek entertainers/dancers wish they could be.

Easiest way to explain,....

TWILEK = The hot guy or girl at work or school you can't get with.

ZELTRON = perfect 10 supermodel with the voice of an angel, that would mean all Zeltron males look like Spartans from 300.

Zeltron are classified as a "near human" species with skin hues ranging from pale white to blood red and all tints of white/pink/red inbetween. The average Zeltron has pinkish red skin, looks like the spend too much time in the tanning bed. They "leak" pheromones which they use to influence others into enjoying their performance or to comply to their diplomatic measures. Why all politicians in the SWU aren't Zeltron can only be explained by the fact that the Zeltron, like the Twilek are also completely enslaved by the hutts.

So those of you who hate barbie and ken dolls you wouldn't like the Zeltron, those of us who do love the Zeltron.

My information was taken from the Star Wars Role Playing Game Ultimate Alien Anthology D20 system.

I really hate how they do races in this game. In Star Trek Online, one of the few things they ever got RIGHT, is the fact you can basically pick any race or create your own.

 

Hell i'd PAY to be able to create my own so i could have a zeltron.

Star Trek Online’s character creation system wouldn’t work in a game like TOR, or anything that has heavily scripted cutscenes for that matter that involve a lot of framing.

The character creator that Cryptic built for their games offers a wide range of customization, however none of their games have a bunch of cutscenes with tight shots on character’s faces or anything to that degree. If you look at the cutscenes in City of Heroes, Champions Online, or Star Trek Online you’ll notice that they almost are always these very wide shots that show everything in frame. This is because their character creation system allows you to adjust your character’s height and width to degrees that would be impossible to frame in close up shots due to the amount of variances that players could/would have.

Basically the more flexible you make your character creation system the less freedom you have you when making cutscenes.

Given that Bioware’s games have always had a heavy focus on story, and conversations, they can’t really ever have a really elaborate character creation system. Somebody would basically need to create some sort of “smart framing” program or script before that could happen, ie something that adjusts the framing on the fly based on your character’s dimensions, but even then there would still be a lot of problems.

Aside from just the framing there’s animation problems that would be an issue. For instance the mounts/speeders in the game, how would the ones that currently exist in the game work for something that was the size of Yoda or a Jawa? The fact is that they can’t because they’re not designed with those body types in mind, and if you look at Cryptic’s games, you’re not seeing your character getting in and out tight spaces like a car for instance. Height is one of the things you generally have little control over in character creators due to all the issues it can cause within a game world, especially when it comes to things like cutscenes and vehicles.

I want Togruta, that's all. After doing that I could take almost any species but I prefer Voss over Nautolan or Kel Dor, so

Togruta>Voss>Rest