Howdy all,
Willbonney here, going to make an attempt at making a "Character Creation" Guide, based off of what I have found creating characters, and playing the game. If anyone see something that is incorrect, please let me know, so I can fix it. I do not know everything, but have figured out quite a lot. I won't tell all the "secrets," but hopefully will have a good enough guide here to get people started and headed in the right direction. Watch out for my next guide "Survivor's Guide to Xsyon and the Galaxy" ( a New Player Guide).
So first off, let's discuss character creation. You must create a character to enter the Xsyon game server, so let's see what it looks like: (I will insert a screenshot of the character creation page here.)
Looks
As you can see, you can adjust many of the physical details for your character. It's age, weight, sex, and height is all adjustable to your tastes. Facial Features, hair style, hair color, beard (for males), and eye color you can choose from a template. Next, you can adjust skin tone and skin color to what you prefer. All of this you can tweak and adjust to your preference for your character.
There is no advantage, of any size, for one over another, though some have a feeling, if you're taller, and have a longer arm, your weapon reaches further. Then again, if you're smaller, you have a "smaller" hit box/zone, so are harder to damage. I haven't tested this enough myself to see a difference, but it very well might be true, find out for yourself 8).
Stats
Every stat shown can be adjusted any way you want. There are 6 stats, each affecting different in game skills and functions. They are Strength, Fortitude, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Spirit. You can raise, as well as lower, all the stats on this list, as far or high as you feel like, but you start with a set amount of "pool points." You get 100 bonus points, along with every stat at 50. You can decide to leave the stats at 50, and just spend your bonus points, or take away from the stats at 50, reducing them, and then add those points to other stats. It's your choice. The effects of stats can be found in the game manual, but for ease, am copying it here:
Attribute------------Primary Skills Affected--------------------------------Secondary Skills
Strength------------Carrying Capacity, Combat Damage,-------------------BoneCraft
--------------------Logging, Terraforming
Fortitude-----------Energy, Stamina, Hit Points, Resistance
Agility--------------Combat Speed, Jumping, Swimming, Climbing
Dexterity-----------Basketry, ToolCraft, WeaponCraft,---------------------Logging, Fishing
--------------------BoneCraft, LeatherCraft, WoodWork,
--------------------Tailoring, Cooking, FireBuilding
Intelligence---------Poisoning*, Healing*, Architecture,--------------------Scavenging, Foraging,
--------------------Reading*, Religion*-----------------------------------All Crafts, Stealing
Perception----------Cooking, Fishing, Scavenging,
--------------------Foraging, Hiding, Detection, Stealing,
--------------------WoodWork, Fire Building
Charm---------------Animal Taming, Tribal Leadership*,-------------------Hair Dressing*
---------------------Religion*, Fail*, Luck*
Spirit---------------Healing, Cooking, Animal Taming, Faith,---------------Architecture, Basketry
----------------------Religion*, Experience*
*All Skills marked here, I am not sure if are in game, or will be game. If a Guide or Dev could respond and let me know which of these need modified or changed, please let me know. I know religion was "changed" of sorts, but am not sure if there was something that took its place. Please let me know. So I can make this Guide better.
Starting Skills
Next, you get to choose your Character's starting skills. These are the skills in which will be skill level 25 at the start of the game. All other skills will start at 5, and slowly decay to 1 if you don't use them at all.
Combat Style - this is your primary combat style, Armed Combat (1-handed), Unarmed Combat, Dodging, Parrying, and later a type of 2-handed combat, and "Ranged Combat," when they add that to game. (There are plans for Bows in the works, but will be after launch.)
Combat Weaponry - These are Axes, Blades (knives, not to be confused with crafting tool style knives), Clubs, Pikes, and Polearms and Staves. Neither Polearms nor Staves are currently in game at this time of the Beta. I do not know when/if they will be added, but the skill is present.
Two General Skills These are mostly "gathering" type skills, to get resources. They are Gathering (plants), Scavenging (pick junk up off the ground), Fishing, terraforming (change the shape of the ground around tribal zones), Logging (chopping down of trees), Hunting (this is not the skill to hunt animals, but to skin, debone, decapitate of killed animals and humans), Hiding (the ability to hide yourself, works best at night, higher skill level lets you hide better), Jumping, Swimming, Running
Crafting Skill - you primary crafting skill, this skill is the craft that you will be best at, and able to learn patterns through "grinding," or practicing your craft. Build stuff and you will learn all patterns of this craft, eventually. You will also start with "some" of the patterns of the other crafts, but you will not be able to learn all of them through "grinding," you must find or trade for "books" found from scavenging, that are then read to learn that one pattern. The crafts are
Toolcraft - make all tools, tools are needed for every "pattern" crafted, different tools for different patterns, there are many different types of the same tool from "Scrappers" all the way to "Crafter's" and "Pioneers."
Weaponcraft - weapons, obviously
Bonecraft - Bone-type armor and accessories
Basketry - Grass armor as well as "bags/backpack" storage, personal on you, and "vault" storage by placing on the ground and setting permissions of who can open
Leathercraft - Leather-type armor, jackets, clothing, and accessories
Tailoring - Cloth-type clothes, accessories, and armor
Architecture - buildings and structures
There is also Fire Building, Masonry, and Woodworking crafts, but I'm not sure if you can start those as starter crafts, I'll need to check. I believe everyone starts with the ability to learn all of the patterns in this "crafts."
Finally, you get to decide between a few different articles of clothing-pants, shirt, and shoes. You will want to replace these as soon as possible, they aren't very great.
Once that is done, you need to set your character name, and finally choose a starting zone. There is no game map, so I cannot tell you where to start and you'll end up where. I haven't mapped all the starter zones, and I personally think you should figure it out for yourself 8). I can't spoonfeed you forever.
Once you've created your character, you may enter the world of Xsyon and officially become a Survivor of the Apocalypse. You will begin with 3 or 4 tools to start with, at random, but they are usually types of tools that are suited to the choices you made in character creation. No two characters usually start out with the same exact tools, it's all random (so yes, in a random world two different characters could in theory start with the same tools, I understand this and do not need it explained to me). You will also start out with a random set of "patterns" or "recipes" in each of the crafts. You will also have a weapon type, normally of the type of weapon you decided to "specialize" in, or I believe a "Blade" if you chose Unarmed. The skills that you chose in the character creation will all be 25, and all other skills start at 5. You should look in your skills tab to check over them, and make sure you chose the ones you wanted, and didn't screw up.
I will be modifying things as stuff changes in the Beta, and I receive more information. I will also change anything I find out is "wrong" in this guide, to keep it accurate. Finally, please keep an eye out, as my next guide will be "You've Survived, now what? - A Guide to Get You Started"