Today we got a deep dive into the updated character creation coming with WildStar’s drop 6.

One of the interesting tidbits from this deep dive, is Carbine has listed what their ‘core improvement’ goals for the revised Character Creation Experience:

• Make character creation easier and more intuitive with a new look and flow.
• Offer three starting options based on your level of experience with WildStar so you only play as much of the tutorial as you need.
• Make changes to arkship layout and content to reduce the risk of getting lost and keep you moving in the right direction.
• Revisit the rollout of tutorials in the first ten levels so you’re getting the most important lessons at the right times.
• Add new effects and animation to draw attention to tutorials players were easily missing.

I’d say they hit those goals, though, in my opinion, they went to far in the ‘make changes to arkship layout and content’ one.  I talked about this briefly when the PTR first went up here.  Essentially, I feel they cut too much of the lore, and ‘backstory’ out of the new experience.

I do think that the revised experience is much more straightforward, quicker to go through, and very well done though.  The three starting “levels” of the character creation are a brilliant idea, and they’ve got them divided up pretty well.

One “bonus” benefit of the redesign, is that if you skip the Arkship completely, you’re no longer missing out on TALES keys, data cubes, and some journals.

The Deep Dive does touch on some of the content that was moved from the Arkships to the starting zones:

Focusing the arkships on a few aspects of the game meant we had to look beyond just the tutorial zones. There wasn’t space for some of the topics we used to cover in arkships, so we moved some tutorials to the next tier of zones (levels 3-6). You’ll encounter Path content, equipment, and loot for the first time on the surface of Nexus. You’ll see revised, level-appropriate tutorials throughout Wildstar, many sporting new text and images. We’ve also added new quests in level-6 hubs to encourage you to give your class’s support role (tank or healer) and abilities a try.

Make sure you read the whole Deep Dive, and if you haven’t already, sign up for the WildStar F2P Beta here.  Get in there, test, and give your feedback to Carbine.. let them know what you don’t like..but make sure you also tell them what you do like!