NPC attractiveness is a rare commodity in the Elite Universe.

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

You forgot all the ones from Star Trek Discovery!
runs

There are a lot of good looking humans in Star Trek Discovery. That's the thing with actors, they are usually very good looking.

On topic:
The system to generate NPC faces in ED is very limited. It's not just "ugly" or "not attractive" it has serve limitations in the way non caucasians are generated.
And then I think that FDev hasn't looked into portrait photography and viewing angle. Considering their very liberal use of anamorphic lens flare throughout the game I get the impression that the finer aspects of lenses and perspective is not their strength (all portraits look like taken with a wider angle lens from a too close distance).

 

[BDelacroix]

Just get the rights to the AI generating these faces on https://www.thispersondoesnotexist.com/
Bear in mind, the AI isn't good at facial blemishes. It gets weirder the more profile the face generated and last I looked it gets downright alien when doing partial faces nearby in the image.
It seems to have limited the number of 3 front teeth and single front tooth generations.
It seems to be having a terrible time with rimless glasses today.

 

[CMDR Carbo]

Face generation of NPCs in ED demonstrates one of the main gripes that I have with the development of the game. Something gets announced as amazing, flexible, expandable, and then as soon as it is released, it is dropped like a hot potato and never touched again. Instead of keeping a few developers on the task to improve it, the whole team is put onto the next new "amazing" thing.

When NPC Crew members first came out, I thought well this is rather crude and simple but a good stepping stone, surely they will polish the algorithm to generate the faces in the future, at the latest when we can see NPC Crew members occupy the other seats in the cockpit. But nothing ever happened. They are still as ugly as the day they were released. They can be seen in two different angles, that's it. No NPC cockpit crew.

Unfortunately, this goes well along with other features. Like Multicrew. Buggy release, "We will fix / expand it if people will use it". The Thargoid story, great start, impressive Thargoid structures, interesting quest-line, then suddenly forgotten. Or the latest example, the FSS (although I haven't given up on it completely yet). Basic and buggy implementations that look easy to improve but take forever to fix (or never get fixed).

 

[Iucharbius]

It's a struggle to find any NPC in this game who doesn't look like a victim of the protomolecule, honestly.

 

[TheSisko]

Forget attractive, I just want someone who looks.......human.

 

[GoryDamnPixie]

It's a struggle to find any NPC in this game who doesn't look like a victim of the protomolecule, honestly.

Forget attractive, I just want someone who looks.......human.

The problem is the rise of the SJW movement in the early 21 first century. A new mandate for all future generations of spacers was decreed and all offspring had their DNA's modified to embrace the new era of social communism. The normal and beautiful people who refused to adhere were unfortunately hunted down, order 66 style and very few remain in hiding, it was a very dark time it elite's history. Thus began a new era where being normal was unacceptable. Everyone is now born ugly with the exception of the upper class.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

Some of the guys look pretty good, but the ladies pretty much all look like olympic shotputters. This is the standard for modern videogames, and a lot of that has to do with the watchful glare of videogame journalists.

 

[Chaparral]

You never see these bozos on the bridge, so they really should be any rainbow unicorn avatar you choose them to be.
I strongly urge FDEV to let us drop one of our holome portraits on the npc slf pilot portrait thumbnail. That would have entertainment potential.
I also urge FDEV to let us select the voice set (or toggle it off), since that is another arbitrary feature (I've had the male sets flip from British accent to American for the same pilot).

 

[Sebastian Rooks]

Someone finally said it, I'm glad. At this point I would settle for unattractive but not weird looking NPCs, because right now many of them just look flat out strange. I'm telling you right now that ED doesn't hold a candle to Star Trek, we need to fix this!

Many of have been saying it right along. I remember there was a rep for an anarchy faction in CD-72 190, that had long blonde corn rows, dark five o'clock shadow and named Gloria Ray. The slf pilots aren't a whole lot better. You get your choices of Romulan, Klingon, Alice the Goon or Popeye the Sailor.

 

[GoryDamnPixie]

You never see these bozos on the bridge, so they really should be any rainbow unicorn avatar you choose them to be.
I strongly urge FDEV to let us drop one of our holome portraits on the npc slf pilot portrait thumbnail. That would have entertainment potential.
I also urge FDEV to let us select the voice set (or toggle it off), since that is another arbitrary feature (I've had the male sets flip from British accent to American for the same pilot).

You don't have to see them for now I suppose, but when and if space legs drops you may have to come face to face with the abnormal horrors on your ship . I'm curious to see if the npc crew avatars actually translate into their 3D selves, if so, it would be a good idea if Fdev let us customize our crew members via holome.

 

[Steyla]

Took me about 15-20 hire and fire for each.

If they just could sit next to me and have their own escape pods. Oh well, perhaps in the future Fdev will have mercy with them.


Fly/land safe.

CMDR Steyla

 

[Commander Biscuit]

You never see these bozos on the bridge, so they really should be any rainbow unicorn avatar you choose them to be.
I strongly urge FDEV to let us drop one of our holome portraits on the npc slf pilot portrait thumbnail. That would have entertainment potential.
I also urge FDEV to let us select the voice set (or toggle it off), since that is another arbitrary feature (I've had the male sets flip from British accent to American for the same pilot).

I've had this happen too. Seems like when you first hire an NPC they'll have one voice, and then after you restart the game their voice will have changed, but remains that way permanently. Hopefully that's the extent of the bug anyway.

Took me about 15-20 hire and fire for each.

If they just could sit next to me and have their own escape pods.

Only 15-20 hires for some 5 out of 10s with mannish hairstyles? It's not as bad as we thought.

 

[Steyla]

Only 15-20 hires for some 5 out of 10s with mannish hairstyles? It's not as bad as we thought.

They are fighters, not models, for crying out loud.

Should you ever come to Phoenix Harbour in Centralis you can her tell yourself. Hunter, thats the middle one, lives in the biggest building at the 12th floor. Just go down the hallway to the right. You'll find her in the Apartment 1238 that has sign on the door which says 'Hunter Bowers - Elite Commander - Think twice before you knock'.

Fly land safe.

CMDR Steyla

 

[GoryDamnPixie]

They are fighters, not models, for crying out loud.

Well you could have fooled me bud, they do all seem to be posing after all. Also nice picture, didn’t know you could view your crew mates like that.

Only 15-20 hires for some 5 out of 10s with mannish hairstyles? It's not as bad as we thought.

You will prob need to do 300 plus to find an 8/10 in elite. That or just randomly stumble upon them, which does occasionally happen.

 

[Steyla]

Well you could have fooled me bud, they do all seem to be posing after all. Also nice picture, didn’t know you could view your crew mates like that.

You can't. It took a few hours of photoshop.


Fly/land safe.

CMDR Steyla

 

[Commander Biscuit]

They are fighters, not models, for crying out loud.

But that wasn't your argument. Your argument was that it didn't take long to get a reasonable looking wingman.

 

[Hullreaver]

I must be going to the wrong stations. This is about the best I can get for a wingman...