Avatar personalization
(how to make the person you play more individual)
I realize that MCO will make in the future some new features about avatar personalization like: custom faces, selectin gender and MCO account history, but I had some other ideas about that when testing.
All of them will make EVA suit change a little:
First of all: selecting a native country. It's quite understandable reely. Mars missions will be international in reality, and MCO players will come from all around the world. Basicly what I propose is that when player creates his avatar, he would sellect his country. That countrys flag will appear on EVA-suit. There could be a flag of USA, Romania, UK, Australia, etc....I'am from Poland so my custom avatar's EVA would look more like this: http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/5417/newsuit.jpg (http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/5417/newsuit.jpg)
What good besides personalization would that do? Just by entering the game and looking around you would see from what countries are the peeple you play with. :-)
(http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/4112262/2/istockphoto_4112262-world-flags.jpg)
More flags icons: http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/flags/flags_preview_large.png (http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/flags/flags_preview_large.png)
2) Selecting a colour. In EVA-suit everyone looks the same. Thats why they should be coloured. By using a combination of 3 colours there is more permutations than possible players. The colour stripes should be located at shoulder high, and legs (they can be seen at any time from various directions and angles). The 2-nd colour (the middle one) should be distinct from the first one.
3) Gender logo. In EVA-suit everyone looks the same - like a big robot :-) . Why not make a distinction by placing a gender logo on the chest?
(http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4128/genderlogo.jpg)
4) Space program badges: some countries have a space program. Player could chose to which space agency he/she would work for. There could be even some imaginary-futuristic agencies (like Moon Society Space Exploration Agency - MSSEA). [list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_agencies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_agencies)]
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/be/CNSA.svg/150px-CNSA.svg.png) (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6d/Csa-asc_logo.svg/227px-Csa-asc_logo.svg.png) (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Roscosmos_logo_ru.svg/150px-Roscosmos_logo_ru.svg.png) (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/UNOOSA.svg/150px-UNOOSA.svg.png) (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/NASA_logo.svg/140px-NASA_logo.svg.png)
5) Archievements badges. For instance - when you complete a training mission you gain a badge that you have on your suit: (http://www.hyperkat.com/Images/MarsICO.png)
If you succesfouly played continously 500 of simulated days without a death you gain another badge: (http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/3401/physfitbadge.gif)
If you are in some sorf os society in MCO the leader could also create a formal group, select a badge and grand them to members that they would carry-on with them to another servers.
For instance: good friends created a colony that they named "Aicor base" - the leader created a badge and gived it to them. Now when they join other server they will still have that logo. Other players would be able to gaze upon that logo, and check out they'r base.
Other possible badges: MCO tester, MCO admin, MCO society member, etc..
6) Name on EVA-Suit. Shoulden't there be an astronaut name on the front and the back of the suit? I know that the name's hovering above. It would just be a graphical-candy detail.
7) And of course, mentioned earlier: custom faces, custom avatar height, various EVA-suit types, acount and avatar history.