Seeing as how I just posted a peek at the character generating screen from Pirates and Traders 2, I thought it might be an idea to write a few words about it.
Players of the original game will feel that they are in familiar territory with this screenshot. I am retaining the basic character creation structure from the old game, as I’ve always been fond of defining the character through “backstory”, rather than just doing a +1/-1 skill choice. The mechanism is a classical one, of course – it was used to excellent effect in several old RPG games such as Ultima IV and Challenge of the Five Realms. I’ve never heard anyone complain about it, so I assume most of the people playing the game are OK with this as well.
A new element in the starting creation is that your character now also starts out with personality traits (as shown in the screenshot). These personality traits provide bonuses (e.g., your fearless character gains a bonus to willpower in combat – i.e., less chance of breaking) and also affect what other characters think of you (e.g., fearless characters tend to be admired by others). The traits are not equally useful, but none of them are useless. For example, being craven might seem like a bad trait (since it is a social handicap and can negatively affect your battle performance), but it comes with a hefty bonus to perception (being afraid, means that you are always attentive to danger), and the likelihood of suffering fatal wounds in battle are significantly reduced.
As a player, you should want to chose traits that fit with your playstyle, and the kind of character that you wish to play. Did I mention that you can both gain and lose traits during the game? So, e.g., if your “Fearless” character continually turns down challenges to duels and runs away from battles, people will eventually see through the facade, and you lose both the trait and the benefits that come with it.
One element in character creation that exists in the old game that disappears is the ship selection. In the new version, here, the starting ship is tied to the character template you choose. Instead, the full version of the new game will contain a number of different starting backgrounds (I’ve got 10 planned, so far) leading to a variety of starting ships.
Another difference from the current game is that the difficulty level will be customizable, even beyond the current level. I haven’t decided on exactly which parameters will be possible to tweak yet, beyond those already mentioned (i.e., wind effects on the world map). Generally, I would like to make it so that players can tailor the game to their preferences within reason.
Of course, the quick-start option will remain, for those people who prefer to just jump right into the game with a reasonable, pre-generated character.