Thank you for even listening and giving us feedback on this, it’s greatly appreciated! An in-game system would be the necessary start, but the editor itself is also very very limited and would need to be reworked. I will try to give my impressions of it here.
The pre-made faces are in my opinion neither beautiful nor rich in detail, they seem rather lovelessly modeled and are for the most part really ugly. There should be a slider system or something similar here, so that you can design the face the way you like it. The body would also need sliders or something similar, because currently everyone looks the same in terms of stature. One is more masculine, the other more feminine, and that’s it. More muscular, fuller, more masculine, more feminine, a little smaller, a little bigger, of course everything within limits, would be a good improvement.
With the hair and beards it looks unfortunately not different. Neither beautiful nor fitting to the timeline and the lore. Personally, I’m not a fan of the bright colors for beards and hair and the beards for women even less, especially with the setting of New World. If everything was at least nicely designed, then maybe you could overlook it, but unfortunately it’s not. More beautifully designed hair models, more natural colors and possibly, at least in the openworld, animated hair would be a clear improvement to the current state. Adjustable for players with weaker computers of course.
The eyes are “ok” at best and could use a little more life through more natural colors. In-game, the faces already look very lifeless anyway, as they have no facial expressions or idles. Possibly this would freshen it all up a bit.
There are very few scars and tattoos and they are either not pretty or out of place as you can’t place them where you want. Makeup options for female characters are completely missing and should be added. This would make the faces even more different. Tattoos and scars for the body would also be nice to see.
Maybe it would be possible to choose between different idles or animation sets. How the character idle, for example, noble or warlike. How his movements look like, for example more masculine or feminine. Further or even more individual sets could possibly be offered via the store or via events, like the emotes.
Identification with the character is currently almost impossible in various ways, especially if you care about detail. In my opinion, identification with the character in an MMO is crucial for long-term motivation. These changes could make a difference, because you’re currently only content with what you have, but you’re not really satisfied with it.