RIFT’s barbershop is now available for player testing on the PTS, and we have a brief guide and preview for you! The barbershop is very simple to use, and is basically a direct copy of the character customization screen. It’s currently possible to change your character’s facial features and structures, hair, height, eye color/structure, makeup/facial hair, skin color, and markings. The only aspects not changeable seem to be race and gender. Basically, Telara’s stylists know not only how to pretty up hair and apply tattoos, but they’re plastic surgeons of sorts as well. Pretty nifty!
Unfortunately, the only options currently available are those present in the actual character creation process. Hopefully in the future (hello, Storm Legion!) we will see new hair styles, facial features, markings, and colors that we can experiment with. But for now, change is just what the doctor– er, plastic surgeon/stylist– ordered.
The stylists can be found in Sanctum and Meridian, in new little tents that have been constructed for their shops. Pictured to the right is the Meridian barbershop. The tents even have the familiar little candy cane striped barbershop signpost posted in the front. When mousing over the stylist NPCs, a barbershop signpost icon also appears.
Here are the locations for both of the barbershops (click on the images to bring up larger versions). For Guardian players, Filippo is the NPC you’re looking for. In Meridian, it’s Alexa:
Now, as to the actual stylizing process. The barbershop UI, as I said, is a direct copy from the character creation menu and is simple to understand. Everything costs a bit of cash, naturally, but the prices vary based on what features you’d like to make changes to. Under each section is a section cost total, and at the very bottom of the UI is a grand total for all the changes you have made.
It’s easy to go back and erase changes before they’re officially made thanks to the little round “undo” buttons with arrows located in each section. This also makes it easy to track the costs of the procedures. There’s also a handy “reset” button that resets all changes.
Here is what the entire UI looks like (click to enlarge!):
Oddly enough, it doesn’t seem like the barbershop UI displays character models exactly as they appear normally. This is likely to be tweaked before the feature launches.
As far as costs go, the cosmetic changes that structurally alter body and facial features cost more than simple hair color and style changes. I guess our, uh, stylists charge more for surgical procedures! The costs seem to be the same across all character levels, which is interesting, and is something that I suspect may change in the future. Here’s a handy list with all the current procedures and their corresponding prices:
Face:
Facial features: 4p 26g 34s
Facial shape: 5p 91g 1s
Eyes:
Eye color: 14g 46s
Eye scale: 1p 13g 2s
Eye rotation: 28g 39s
Eyebrows: 14g 46s
Nose:
Nose size: 1p 13g 2s
Nose tilt: 57g 29s
Mouth:
Mouth size: 2p 6g 32s
Hair:
Hair base color: 7g 97s
Hair highlight color: 5g 5s
Hair style: 28g 39s
Markings:
Markings – color: 7g 97s
Markings – style: 28g 39s
Makeup/Facial hair:
Facial hair style/Makeup style: 14g 46s
Makeup color: 7g 97s
Body:
Skin color: 57g 29s
Height: 14p 70g 45s
As you can tell, some big differences between prices. Luckily, the changes that most of us probably want to alter (hair styles, markings, etc.) are all on the inexpensive side. It’s pretty nice to see the structural options in place. Many other MMO stylists do not contain those.
RIFT’s barbershop, overall, offers a good amount of customization options, and I can easily see more added to it in the future. It’s an awesome and welcome addition to our list of upcoming 1.9 features to be excited about. Fear no more, RIFT players, your flame-red ugly hair styles and pea-green facial tatoos can now be extinguished (I may be guilty of the first on my Dwarf)!
