I don't think personality has a corellation with interests, at least not in CoE. I know there is the RL stereotype of introverts being the artistic and/or intellectual type, and extroverts being the sporty and pyhsical hands-on type, but I think it unlikely that they'd carry these stereotypes into CoE, and if they do it'd be in a way that you could either;

a) ignore them for your own pursuits without penalty,

b) are able to encourage your children towards the personalities, and also pursuits, you want them to have.

c) have the personality as part of the customisation settings that are open to you between lives, even if you are constrained by the parent personality genetics when doing so - making it very important factor to consider when making child-contracts (actually, I do believe this last one is the way it is planned as I seem to recall choosing and adjusting personality traits being mentioned in the dev journal about starting a new character).

Having said that, i have often mused that it would be amusing watching the disparity in personality between the PC and the OPC. Imagine the jovial happy-go-lucky PC you adventure together with turning into a crotchety bull-headed OPC whenever they log off.

In this case, I would assume logging off would be considered as afk "always f*ing krochety."

I see it less as wanting to learn a different skill set and more of not wanting to interact with you or people you usually interact with, in the case of an OPC.

So if this is done during character creation, when we posses an NPC for this first time, we essentially change their personality, potentially making them less compatible with their parents or children as we did not form the child contract with them.

You will always be constrained between the variables of that NPC's parents. This is true for your first Character you enter as well as to any future child-heirs you enter in future - which is why who you choose to child-contract with is important. So no, you wouldn't be making them less compatible than their parents, as you can't change them beyond their parents range.

As to children, that's another matter. At that stage you are talking about taking over a NTC, a non-traditional-character, and NTCs are non-customisable (no changing of first-names, appearance or anything else) for the very reason because they already have families and are established characters in the world. It one thing for a teenage character to change, a whole other for an adult one.

To clarify, character creation isn't making a whole new character from scratch. It's the character customisation screen when you pick your next character to reincarnate into, be it the first time or your tenth. You will go there even when you choose to reincarnate into a child-heir (note you are not restricted to reincarnating into your descendants, it's simply just likely that you would prefer to), and there is when you get to fiddle with the sliders between the parent genetics to finesse how your character looks like, and if I remember correctly their personality as well.

Posted By Sharielane at 07:55 AM - Mon Mar 06 2017

At that stage you are talking about taking over a NTC, a non-traditional-character, and NTCs are non-customisable (no changing of first-names, appearance or anything else) for the very reason ..snip...

Source?

Not to nitpick but everything I've seen has said yes you can change their first name. You cannot change their surname but first names are chosen when you take over. It's called a "naming day" when you take over a child but works the same for NTCs.

I'm also pretty sure you can change their looks within the same genetic constraints as a child.

I stand corrected. When we first join via exposition we can change names and looks but not for future generations.

Design Journal #5 – Families & Family Selection

Non-traditional Characters

The choice of Ward isn't for everyone and fortunately it isn’t the only way to avoid starting the game as a fifteen year old. We have a little saying, 'every NPC has the potential to become a player'. If you select a starting age over 18 years old on the Birth Date selection screen you have the opportunity to start the game as a 'non-traditional character'. Think of these as the opposite of Wards. You have significantly less control over your character, as their look, name, skills, and abilities are all pre-determined based on the life the NPC has lived up until them, however you can begin the game with an established business, as a reputable adventurer, or even as an existing nobleman. Note that you can change your name through legal means once you enter the game.

Happy?

Not to nitpick but I have never seen it said that an NTC gets a "naming day". I don't know about anyone else but "legal means once you enter game" sounds a lot like the Elyrian equivalent of changing your name by deed poll in RL.

Well, also this is one of the earliest design journals, before they decided to limit the information released to only what is for sure going to be in the game.

Regardless, the naming day is for children under the age of 18.

"When selecting a family you take over the life of one of their children. In order to maintain continuity, the lore establishes what’s called a “Naming Day”. That’s the day a character less than 18 years old chooses their new name - one that more closely describes who they are than the one they were born with. A player always takes over on their character’s Naming Day."

Source is Dev journal 6

also I am not getting what you are trying to say

Posted By Sharielane at 08:55 AM - Mon Mar 06 2017

You will always be constrained between the variables of that NPC's parents. This is true for your first Character you enter as well as to any future child-heirs you enter in future - which is why who you choose to child-contract with is important. So no, you wouldn't be making them less compatible than their parents, as you can't change them beyond their parents range.

As to children, that's another matter. At that stage you are talking about taking over a NTC, a non-traditional-character, and NTCs are non-customisable (no changing of first-names, appearance or anything else) for the very reason because they already have families and are established characters in the world. It one thing for a teenage character to change, a whole other for an adult one.

I understand that customization of the child is important during the time of conception now, but it seems that you can set your personality sliders to be incompatible with your parents, causing excess strain on your relationship and potentially alienating you from inheritance.

Also with the mentions of not being able to change NTC's, this also seems to present the case for not being able to modify personality traits and potentially causing the OTC gameplay personality to be something that isn't RP for the payer.

If you can change the NTC personality traits, the NTC is considered to be established, so suddenly affecting the personality may affect their OTC setup as well.

I understand that customization of the child is important during the time of conception now, but it seems that you can set your personality sliders to be incompatible with your parents, causing excess strain on your relationship and potentially alienating you from inheritance.

I don't understand what you mean by customising a child at conception (unless of course you've heard something about our being to adjust the look of our children at birth, which would be neat thing, but would still be separate from the character customisation that occurs when taking over a new body). When you die and enter your child-heir is when you customise that child. Same is true if you gave one of your children's child-code to a friend and they enter that child. Despite it being YOUR offspring they will get to choose the child's new name via the name day ceremony, as well as to customise the child's appearance and such, constrained by the genetics of it's parents - you and the babymomma/daddy.

The only thing important at the time of conception is choosing a co-parent with genetics that you find favourable and could even, if possible, improve the appearance/stats of your child to something even more to your liking. Thereby allowing you to over generations breed your ultimate character from the vast variety of genepools Elyria has to offer.

Also with the mentions of not being able to change NTC's, this also seems to present the case for not being able to modify personality traits and potentially causing the OTC gameplay personality to be something that isn't RP for the payer.

Well that is up to the player. If they don't want to play a character with a certain type of personality they should just not choose to play that character then. It's like saying because there is an Orc option in WoW someone who doesn't want to play as an Orc is going to be forced to do so. No. Just choose a character that's not an Orc.

If you can change the NTC personality traits, the NTC is considered to be established, so suddenly affecting the personality may affect their OTC setup as well.

We've already established that NTCs are fixed, so this is a moot issue.

Posted By Malais at 12:03 AM - Tue Mar 07 2017

I stand corrected. When we first join via exposition we can change names and looks but not for future generations.

No, you can always change the name and adjust the looks of any "traditional" aged character you enter, even future generations, just not NTCs.