*I will be using Starcraft for the computer game*

(Starcraft is a strategy game made by Blizzard)

I know im the not the only one who is bothered by this, the fact that you can create 50 marines on a map and every single marine looks the same, talks the same, has the same quotes, and is basically the same person 50 times in a row.

So why not make every single person have their own name and voice. Just put a random name generator in the game and program different face visuals and different voice audios.

I know it would be more work and take up a bit more space and RAM to make different characters in the game, but it would make the game a million times more interesting. Imagine a game you've had for 2 years and your still hearing different voices and reading different names. I would buy the game then tell one of my friends to buy it.

It would take programmers like maybe a week to put this ability into a game. Ive read some books on programming games and such and from what i can get out of the books it would be a simple task.
-- seventhinline, Aug 06 2005

oooh imagine!!!- i play halo and grand theft auto regularly- imagine if every person on the road was completely different to the one u just met a few seconds ago!!! i like the idea, i also think that this idea is probably conceivable, as they say, the geniuses behind the technology like their consumers to wait a few years before bringing on the goods- making it that much wow!!
-- chocolateraindrops, Aug 06 2005


I wonder if a small number of face patterns could be stored and used with a morphing algorithm to create new faces from the intermediate morphing steps. I'm not familiar with the algorithms so it might take more horsepower and space to store and execute the algorithm that to just store faces.

Maybe store certain features like eyes, face shape, ears, nose, etc. then mix and match to create faces from all the combinations.

If it did make video games a million times more interesting, I might actually play them.
-- half, Aug 06 2005


//morphing algorithm to create new faces//

Download the free trial of EVE Online.
-- Laimak, Aug 06 2005


Even better than a random generator, have it dip online into a database. Anyone can make contributions to this database, and so you would get some really unusual characters - foreign speaking, religious zealots,etc. Yeah...someone might need to moderate the database a little.
-- bungston, Aug 07 2005


I have a little computer game on my phone and it allows me to insert a picture of myself (or anything else) in the place of the leading model. I am surprised your games do not offer a similar service. I know people who played DOOM with pictures of their teachers as the bad guys in a school environment, surely this is baked?
-- zeno, Aug 07 2005


There was at least one iteration of Quake where you could go to special kiosks at various locations, get your head scanned, and have a fully correct model of your head stuck on a player model, which you could then use online.

But the kiosks were rare, and the model took your head and put it on an armored uber-hulk body, making you look like some sort of freakish robotic pinhead.
-- 5th Earth, Aug 07 2005



random, halfbakery