AmazingMOO

Mrs. Moo found something disturbing at the health food shop.



0_o'

The blueberries may be chomping our scuggets.

I wish I'd had some time to test this when it was on the Training Room.
On Female models:

- Victorian Steampunk 01 and Classic Steampunk 01 do not show up under 'Sleeveless Jackets'.

- Classic Steampunk 01 Sleeves do not show the correct texture on the exposed arm.

For example, select the 'Desire' chest texture and 'Classic Steampunk 01' Sleeves. Desire *should* cover the model's arms to the elbow and join with glove textures such as 'Full' and 'Hooked'. However, when used with the 'Classic Steampunk 01' sleeves, the model's arms appears bare above the elbow.

- It should also be mentioned that the 'Puffy' sleeve option for Shirts and the 'Classic Steampunk 01' sleeve option for Jackets are very similar, with the exception of the lacy bits. However, you can't mix and match. This is true for all the Shirts sleeves and Jackets sleeves options.

The Steam Punk pack is a GREAT pack. The various clockwork items are cute.

HOWEVER, what really, REALLY sells this pack are the various Victorian pieces, including the jackets, sleeves, skirts, and chokers. For the first time we have really lacy items!

Additionally, they're simple enough that they work well with other pieces.

Mrs. Moo said, "You're buying this for me, right? You had me at the skirt."

Good job, artists and modellers!

I've been doing research both with my teammates and here in the forums. The conclusion I'm drawing is that most players consider to be LFG tool a waste of time.

If you want a trial league, you have to assemble one for yourself or join one someone else is assembling.

Then, because of the perception that anything other than a bursting full team cannot win on the trials, the organizers generally laboriously fill every last spot on the trial and go to the LFG queue it only when the there's a full trial team ready to go.

The Promise of the LFG Toll was that you could login, hop in the queue, fight some baddies, get a smidge of incarnate progression, and then move on with no organizational skills necessary.

This is obviously not happening. The LFG Tool is now simply the 'My league is ready to go' button.

Open Leagues look as if they're trying to address this issue by awarding players who open their leagues to outsiders. But there are a few problems here.

How open is a league with 24 members? They'll certainly leave the 'open' flag on to net that extra merit if they can, but this provides no gameplay change over how it's already works.

If you're trying to award players extra for using the queue, there needs to be a stick there to knock apart what's a painful, but successful mechanism for building trial leagues.

Instead of 'Open Leagues earn another merit upon completion,' the way it should work is reward the behavior you want and discourage the behavior that you don't want.

The extra merit for being 'open' should only be awarded when at least any leagues joining the trial compose less than half the total trial population. In other words, no extra goody for you unless you actually got at least half your trial league from folks who were using the tool.

The completely fictional 'average start times' that are skewed out of reality by reflecting the start times of pre-built leagues already drive players away from the tool. Fix the timer and fix how the awards are handed out to truly 'Open Leagues' and you'll start to see some usage.


Additionally, it wouldn't hurt to institute 'minimum night'. Every so often. Don't allow any player to start the instance with more than the minimum required. Players quickly disregarded this as a winning strategy based upon first-night impressions. Pick a day, once a week, and even give an extra Astral for participation, and turn down the limit on those trials from 16 to 8 and from 24-12.

Issue 19.5 Offered the extension of the Alpha slot and some other goodies.

Issue 20 was a BIG issue and contained the first two trials, Incarnate slots 2-5, Sutter, Mortimer, and more.

Issue 20.5 offers costume pieces, auras, and major functionality changes to powers, both incarnate and otherwise. Oh, and another trial.

I'm not certain how I feel about purchasing the new costume pieces with Empys and Astrals. I'd be a lot happier if they could also be purchased with reward merits, or if there was a way to convert reward merits to Astrals or Empys. However, the screenshots LOOK great. Costume pieces are what makes an issue to me.

It's debatable whether or not 19.5 was enough content to constitute it's own issue. If we did that, We'd currently be on issue 21, and expecting issue 22.

However, I think the proposed 'Issue 20.5' contains more than enough content to qualify as its own issue. Call it Issue 21.

I'm hearing a lot of folks complaining about the game's lack of difficulty at 45+ due to the new powers available. Certainly the game is VERY easy at +0x1 if you have a team full of level shifts, Destiny buffs, and Judgement AOEs.

My feeling for how difficult the game *should* be is that if I make a mistake, I should have to scramble to fix it if I manage to survive... down half my tray of inspirations... run away from a fight I had been in control of... Nova and hope like hockey sticks that it gives me a chance... or PFF and run away.

I tend not to optimize my builds. I like to slot what drops and don't buy a lot at the consignment house. This means that my characters are less durable than others and that I have to make up for it with skill.

Accordingly, I tend to be happy with an energy blaster at +1x2 right now. I also have a scrapper that works at about +2x2.

Have you changed your difficulty level in response to the new powers? Are you running any TFs at higher difficulty levels?

Drill Hair.

Oh, how I hope this is not tied to the hat. Please, for the love of Drills and Corkscrew Curls, allow a hatless version of the Drills.

Does the LFG Queue work on your server?

Are you able to use it?

Do the average start times bear any resemblance to reality?

Do trial teams formed with the queue ever succeed?


On Victory, the answer seems to be a big fat 'No' to all the above. There is a perception that trial teams will not succeed unless they are full and that the LFG tool will not fill a trial team unless it has already been mostly filled by other players. This in turn leads players to not use it, creating a negative feedback loop on its use.

In fact, I've heard players swear up and down that it's broken altogether. It simply doesn't ever put them in trials, so it must not function at all.

What's your experience with the LFG tool?

The entire store had gone silent. This in and of itself was not unusual. Pet Center usually didn't have any cats or dogs to sell, and the finches and parakeets all spent a few moments staring in bird-brained wonder at the door any time someone let the cold in.

For them to stay quiet was quite another matter. It was as if they sensed a large predator.

Jordan usually took his time rushing to the front of the shop when the bell rang. The old men who bought dog food usually took their time and then felt the need to chat for a good half hour when he did finally make himself shown. This time he felt a bit more urgency. Even the rats had gone perfectly still.

He found her in the next aisle over. She was maybe ten or eleven and wore an off-the-shoulder mini-dress. He would call it a damn stupid thing to wear in the middle of winter anywhere, let alone Nome, but the girl didn't seem to show any effects from the cold whatsoever-- not even goosebumps. Her pale skin was perfectly, almost inhumanely smooth. Every hair on her head-- even her eyebrows, were an impossibly pink shade of cotton candy. Two cat-like ears protruded from her head. Jordan didn't even stop to consider that they might be fake. They swiveled to track him as his faltering steps drew him closer.

The strange child turned to face Jordan, cocking her head to one side in curiosity. Her eyes were pale blue, perfectly smooth lakes.

"C-c-can I help you, Miss?" he stuttered.

The child stared at him for several seconds as if Jordan were some kind of strange bug she'd never seen before.

"This animal... what is it called?"

He didn't realize he'd been holding his breath, but let it out as she gestured to the cage in front of her.

"Ah... that guy? He's ah... He's a Syrian hamster. Teddy-bear hamster, they're sometimes called."

The orange and white animal was standing on his hind legs. His beady eyes rolled madly in their sockets and his nose twitched furiously, insanely even.

"Is he a kind of rabbit?"

"Err... no. He's a rodent... probably closer to a gopher or even a mouse."

The girl turned her gaze back on the cage.

"No, you may not eat him," Jordan clearly heard her say after several more seconds.

"Err..."

"He costs nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. Is that a lot?"

"'Bout average," Jordan squeaked.

The girl turned her face back toward him and very slowly rotated it, cocking her head in the opposite direction. Jordan felt as if he was being twisted on the end of a knife.

He swallowed heavily. "It's about what you'd pay for a meal at the diner," he volunteered.

The child never bloody blinked. Jordan could cope if maybe she would blink like a damned human!

"No, I don't think he's a meal," the child said after almost a minute. "Not for you," she whispered.

"Y-you'd also need a cage," Jordan said too quickly. "And some bedding, and maybe some food. The starter costs forty dollars," he said, gesturing with a shaking hand. He realized he was pointing at the aquariums. It was all he could do to get his elbow to bend enough to point at the appropriate package near the girl.

The child smiled. "I wish to purchase him. And the starter."

The hamster squeaked in defiance the entire time it took for Jordan to wrestle him out of the display cage and into the cardboard box. He shoved an entire newspaper inside with the rodent, mumbling something about the cold while doing so. He didn't really remember taking any money from the girl, but a close inspection of the till from his register showed that exactly the right amount had been added.

It took Jordan almost an hour to calm down. Afterwards, he remembered a time when he was a little boy. He was eating dinner with his grandfather at the diner when a huge brown grizzly bear wandered down the street, looking for all the world like one of the bored truckers who sometimes went through town. He didn't seem at all interested in his surroundings. It was merely something that had appeared along the way of his trek across the tundra.

His grandfather, who was county sheriff, and a few other men in the diner very quietly and calmly loosened their holsters. For a few tense minutes they drank coffee, smoked their cigarettes, and waited for the bear to leave town.

This was worse, he thought. There was no bullet in the world that would hit the pink-haired girl if she decided to go on a rampage.

"You poor *******," he thought of the hamster when looking at the empty display cage. "But better you than me."

---

The Electric Hamster, Stripey Kitty, and The Kawaii Evil are characters on Victory

A Dictionary for Trials

'Gather for Destiny buffs and Auras' means 'No more buffs this run, period.'

'Soandso pull Siege' means 'Soandso cannot POSSIBLY pull Siege. We need YOU to do it instead. Everyone's counting on you. Now's your chance to shine!'

'Let Siege get close to Nightstar' means 'ATTACK NOW! BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!'

'Slow on Siege' means 'I hope you've got your best attacks on autofire, and don't even THINK about dismissing those pets.'

'Send two Blasters, Controllers, or Dominators to the spawn area' means 'Energy Blasts, Bonfire, Gale, Hurricane, and Wormhole to the spawn area ASAP! Especially if you've also got AV-killing debuffs!'

'AOEs and Judgement on adds' means 'Adds?'

'Follow your team leaders to the glowies' means 'CHINESE FIRE DRILL! STAT!'

'Use acids on doors' means 'Scrappers dogpile Marauder!'

Likewise, 'Please check your temps' means '... ... <tumbleweed> ... ... ... <cricket>... ... ... ...'

'Someone use a grenade on Mikey' means 'There's PLENTY of time on the clock.'

'We're going to attempt a master badge run' means 'Scrappers ASSEMBLE!'

'If you die and are not rezzed, go to the hospital' means 'There are needles in the hospital. And spiders. And clowns. They're in the sewers, after all.'

I've certainly complained a lot about Issue 20, probably more than my fair share. However, there's a lot to love about the issue as well.

- Admiral Sutter's TF I haven't had a lot of time to play my villains since issue 19 in general, so I haven't gotten to Mortimer Kal's SF. If it's anywhere near as good as Sutter's TF, I'm certain I'll enjoy it. This whole TF is golden. I love the maps. I love fighting the AVs. I love the Air Support Arrows of Death. I even love the cognitive dissonance that you get from realizing that the IDF has fought a bunch of Vhazilok and Lost under Talos. I especially love the Michael Bay-esque Disaster Movie sense of shock you get near the end.

- Complex Trial Mechanics In another thread, I complained about the size of the teams required for the trials. What I do like about the trials are the complex mechanics necessary to win them. In particular, having to have both Molecular Acids and Pacification Grenades in the fight against Marauder, having to play the 'Keep the Loonies on the Path' game, and having to time Nightstar's and Seige's defeats in the B.A.F..

- Power Crafting While there are some downsides to the Incarnate power system, I particularly like that you have to craft your powers

- Inf Sink The costs associated with converting certain incarnate components are not overwhelming, but they are significant. This is already starting to have an effect on the economy, draining some of spiraling inflation we've been subjected to lately.

- Power Customization Thank you, developers and artists, for allowing the Incarnate powers to be customized, at least to some degree. It would be nicer, certainly, if all the aspects of the set could be customized (like the debuff auras on enemies added by Interface), but it shows that, at least for a little while, Power Customization is not dead.

The point of bringing up the 'Statesman made a gaffe during i6' problems and then following it with the comments about i20 were specifically to draw a comparison between the two situations.

With issue 6 and issue 20 we have a very similar, at least to my mind, chain of events.

- Major changes are being made to the game
- Players are commenting on those changes, both positively and negatively, and bringing up very important questions.
- Delays between issues are starting to grow larger
- The development team has been unusually silent
- Questions about upcoming changes aren't being handled in a terribly transparent fashion, specifically as they pertain to power balance and team/solo balance and game features.

The big difference between the two situations so far is no one is or has made statements that are at a wild difference from reality. I say that because I desperately don't want to see it happen again.

It believe that it's fair, if not realistic, to ask for honest answers to questions with the 'I've been lied to before' addendum. I think that calling someone a liar is one of the harshest things you can say about an individual. I don't think that our current dev or marketing teams have earned that by any means, but the parallels make me worry that history is about to repeat.

I also believe that it's fair to ask seriously about the future of the game. If you subscribed to a cat magazine that suddenly started running dog articles, it's fair to want to know if they were going to continue running cats at all or start becoming dog-centric.

This has been something that Cryptic and NCSoft have never been very good about. Parts of the game get implemented and then neglected for a very long time. Occasionally there's a push for them, but the teams have never been very clear about how much effort they're going to expend on a development direction. It took a LONG time for the admittance that City Vault wasn't going to happen. It was only very recently that we heard confirmation that the Gladiator system was more or less dead.

That kind of quiet is a disservice to the players.

Who remembers the Issue 6? Way back in October of 'ought 5. It came with some massive changes to the game (Villains, Red Zones, PVP zones, Enhancement Diversification). Some people were happy, but some were very unhappy. I'm certain there are a few of you who still feel quiet rage over ED.

My own personal pet peeve with Issue 6 was that it came with a slew of new costume pieces that were only available to villains, even if you had both City of Heroes and City of Villains. I complained about this on the board, and I very clearly remember the response a certain Mr. Emmert gave. I don't happen to have the post saved, but it went something like:

'We had no idea that heroic players would want these costume pieces.'

It was the first time I realized that this individual was willing to say things that weren't in the best interest of his customers. He's gone on to solidify a certain reputation.

However, he and others promised that they were looking at the situation and would implement a fix, if possible, SOON(TM).

*cough* *cough*

Issue 7, which contained a fix for the costume issue was released SEVEN MONTHS later.

(There was however, a rumor circulated a bit before of a certain command switch that one could activate that would allow heroes to wear the 'villainous' costumes. It came with dire warnings.)

Issue 7 did not, noticeably, contain much content for heroes. Heroes would have to wait until Issue 8 to get any kind of new PVE content. Issue 8 was released in November 2006, more than a year after Issue 6.

The delays involved were frustrating, to say the least. Afterwards, things changed, mostly for the better.

So here we are in 2011, four or five years later. Issue 20 was WEIGHTY in the amount of new systems that came with it. There's been a five month gap since issue 19. As expected of any major release or mechanic changes, a lot of players are upset about many different things.

Given the duration of issue 20's extended beta, most of these concerns have been stated before, so a statement of 'we didn't know you guys wanted X' isn't going to be really very believable.


Players know that NCSoft has limited resources and time. We understand that unforeseens pop up and that schedules slip. I think most everyone understands that nothing is written in stone. After all, many of us are still here after Issue 6.

That being said, I think it's fair to ask the following questions:


What is the current timing for Issue 21? Should we expect another five or six month delay?

Will there be an issue 20.5, similar to Issue 19's staggered release of Alpha abilities with 'Issue 19.5'?

What kind of changes, if any, are being planned to the way that solo or single-team players progress through the Incarnate system?

If any changes in this direction are planned, what's the timeline for them?

Right now, does the CoH development and management plan to focus on multi-group 'Raid-centric' content in the future?

No new 'free' costume pieces or patterns were released with issue 20, probably due to the sheer bulk of the new systems going in. Can we expect any new pieces or patterns in the near future?

Other than the Vanguard Pack, is there a paid Super Booster planned any time for the near future?

Please be honest with us, even if the answers are unpleasant, like, 'We don't have time to x and y at the same time and right now we're focusing on x'. Please be honest with us about timing, even if that timing may slip.

The other thread seemed primarily about the 'Should/Shouldn't' argument rather than what steps should be taken to make Incarnate content more accessible to single-group teams.

First of all, I'm going to take for granted that the devs want to reward players for playing in the largest groups they can. Bearing that in mind,I have a few suggestions to tweak the current rates so that players who don't partake of the Lambda Sector and Behavoiral Adjustment Facility trials still have a reasonable way to progress.

First I suggest that the shard to thread conversion be tweaked. Rather than a straight 1-1 conversion, shards should trade 1-2. Add a five to ten conversion that can only take place once every 20 hours. The 10 to 10 conversion should be the 'often as you want' conversion.

It costs about 94 threads to completely unlock a slot and put a t1 enhancer in it. If a player completes both trials in one evening and meets all the objectives to get Astral Merits, and is willing to break up his Empyreans for threads, there's a good chance he can earn 94 threads worth in that time.

By comparison, a player who runs a taskforce (or equivalent) a night might see between 5-7 shard drop each time. It'd not be unreasonable to think he'd have five each day. If he converted 5 each day, then he'd be able to unlock the slot of his choice and put a t1 in it while depending solely on Shard drops after 9-10 days.

The second suggestion I have it to place Astral Merits and Empyrean Merits on the reward table for level 50 TFs at a 50% appearance rate as well as being subject to diminishing returns -- They should only be able to win 1 of each on existing level 50 TFs. Thus, if a player runs four 50 TFs a day, he'll have a pretty good shot for earning the equivalent of 24 threads, but only once a day. That'd shorten the time it takes to unlock and slot a t1 to about 3-4 days.

The last and most important suggestion is a design suggest for future incarnate trial content.

Attempt to include in the mix of content released at least one trial for which the max number of players is 8. Additionally work on changes to existing content so that if you enter them with fewer members, the encounter's mechanics also scale. Say if you only have 8 league members, there will only be five active doors in Lambda facility.


I am certain that others have better ideas than I do, and I'd like to hear them.

Also, please use this thread to discuss the 'how' rather than the 'Why' or 'Should/Should Not' issues.

And moderators, please feel free to merge the two if necessary.

'Teams' top out at around 7-8 folks for me before faces start blending into a crowd. The Five Man Band is PERFECT for having every person stand out yet still be a team. I feel like most CoH teams that don't REQUIRE 8 do best with about 5.

The Fellowship of the Ring was 9 guys. Everyone familiar with the story remembers what they did, especially when they had to break down into smaller groups. Even then, Pippin and Merry don't really get to stand on their own as characters until they split off from Frodo and Sam.

The Sailor Senshi break down into two teams of 5, and are frequently at odds with each other. (Mamo-kun usually solos or trolls for under-age mini-skirt.)

Power Rangers typically come in groups of 5 or less, as do Pretty Cure teams. There are 5 members of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (G-Force). I'd have to check, but I think there were 6 Go-Lions (Voltron)

Away Parties are usually five or six-man teams. Kirk, McCoy, Spock, two of whichever of the other officers are needed for the plot, and Ensign Rickey Redshirt.

The Millennium Falcon seats 4 comfortably and starts getting REAL CROWDED by the time you crowd a princess and a couple droids into it.


By the time Luke's part of the force of fighters against the deathstar, you don't remember people unless they die horrifically. Everyone remembers Porkins 'Stay on target--- AARGGHGHG'. Luke, R2D2, Han, and Chewbacca don't get to shine again and become the Heroes of Yavin until they're the only guys left.

For me, CoH has always been a game about single groups. It's been accessible to soloers, duoers, and single teams.

With a few exceptions, the vast majority of the content for City of Heroes fits this rule. Every issue before issue 20 has made a point of NOT tying progression or character customization to raid content.

Even with the most difficult, trial-like content, the point of the game has been to work well together in small squads rather than huge armies. This is even written into the game lore in various places. (Alpha and Omega teams, anyone? Marcus and Stefan ditched their small team and DUOED their way to the Well of the Furies.)

With Issue 20, Paragon has embraced warcraft-style raid instances. I didn't have a lot of time to try to beta i20, so I got to experience this at launch with the majority of other players. What surprised me most is how tied the new advancement is to the raid content. You *can* very slowly and expensively convert solo progress into new progression and customization, but the issue has made quite clear that the PREFERRED method is to raid for it.

This sucks. I burned out on raiding before I ever came to CoH. The feeling of being part of an army is not really fun for me. Even with very fun people I like, the feeling of being in a raid leaves me cold. I'm a faceless minion that could be replaced by anyone rather than an important member of the Five Man Band. I'm either a cat to be herded or an inhuman general to be kvetched at because I don't know how to lead well.

It's not 'Super' at all. I19 captured 'Super' so well, having you fly into Praetoria while all the other heroes of Paragon City were holding the line. It felt really awesome to defend the PPD against a legion of warwalkers.

I20 has you two-shotted by Marauder and his band of Warwalkers again and again. Not so super. 'Oh, here's a little progress on your bar. Surely if you keep at it, you and 15 other random heroes will eventually be able to put him down.' No, that's not very super at all.

The difference between the two is requiring multiple groups to succeed at the content.

Worse, to progress in anything LIKE a timely fashion through the new abilities, you MUST raid. The alternative is at least a 5x timesink grinding shards.


After COMPLETING both raids with talented parties composed of people I like, I'm starting to see that there's not a lot in i20 for me.

I'm pretty disappointed.

There's a lot that needs to be done with issue 20 right now. Disconnect bug needs fixing. UI lag is... stunning. I'm personally very disappointed with the lack of new costume pieces. The game needs them right now, and not just new armor pieces. We also need more of the basics-- patterns for tights and with skin.

However, the piece of i20 that is most frustrating to me is the various colors associated with the new features.


- As Sam Tow mentioned... Green on Green names for the 'classic' *cough* team interface. Really? Who's brainfart was that?


- Bright green for non-selected teamates. Bright green for selected teammates with a little white ring around them that tends to become invisible if you scale at all. Also, it's pretty hard to see against bright yellow (Again?), pink, and cyan for the raid management screen.


- Green for Team Members, very slightly darker green for league members. Screw you, Colorblind people. This one's actually the least objectionable choice for me. Now if only League CHAT was the same color. Why is it light blue instead? It gets confused with Cutscene dialogue (medium purple-blue), NPC Chat (dark blue), Captions (medium aqua blue), and Broadcast (medium grey.)


- Help-status titles are the same yellow color as Temporary prestige titles.


- They're also the same yellow color as 'Helper' Names. To me, despite excellent color vision, yellow means 'risk of danger'. I see yellow names and immediately think that enemies are thinking of attacking me... like the Yellow-named NPCs in Praetoria who defend themselves.


- Purple names mean 'Roleplay' to me, due to my time in EQ. Another popular use for them in EQ was to say 'Leave me alone' since flagging yourself as a roleplayer hid your class and level, so you'd have the pleasure of introducing yourself in character. This is a personal thing, but I know I'm not the only EQ refugee.

HOWEVER, most folks playing CoH see purple and think 'Danger! Do not approach without a team!' I don't think many people see a purple name and immediately think 'Help this guy out.'


- Neither 'Helper' nor 'Help Me' names are the same medium blue as the Help chat channel.


- Orange and Red text for objective animations and warning animations are seemingly assigned at random to events. I won't mention the various missing font styles because Arial is a bit easier to read that Red Circle. Also, with all the battle spam happening on screen, like orange explosions caused by the many, many war walkers in the trials, they tend to disappear into the background.


(Incidentally 'Use Acid on Doors' -> 'Use grenades on Marauder' -> 'But Only on Tuesdays' -> 'Except where prohibited by law!' -> 'Reinforcements Incoming' is really, really hard to pay attention to, especially when you're also trying to pay attention to league chat and group chat, especially at the same time a paragraph of instruction mixed with exposition is streaming by. I read at around 1k words a minute, and its *still* hard to see it all. Pity the poor dyslexics who'd like to play CoH.)


- And last, but not least, in the longest-standing eye-stab to the colorblind folks, Hitpoints are Green everywhere in the 2D display and Red in the 3D display reticules.


After you guys have addressed the SERIOUS issues plaguing i20... could you PLEASE have a look at either reorganizing the UI colors or allowing them to be player-set? Right now, like the rest of the UI after I20, they're a mess.

Let's talk about the Costume Creator. It is, in my opinion, the most important part of the game. It's what immediately hooks players and keeps them coming back. The lure of spending time in the Costume Creator, lovingly crafting a new character keeps the game fresh and new.

But, let's be honest here. The last real change to the functionality of the Costume Creator was the ability to save and load costumes, back with issue 13, back in 2008.

It's arguable that the changes to the Character Creator interface, including Power Customization, are also important changes since they affect the way a character can be customized. Even so, those happened many moons ago, back in September, 2009. We still have yet to see any further changes in that direction either... such as customization for pools or epics. With BaBs gone-- who was apparently the primary champion for Power Customization despite being the guy who's job it was to tell us over and over again how difficult Power Customization was and how unlikely it was that we'd ever see it-- we may never see more.

We do get new costume pieces from time to time. However, as time goes by, the pieces we get tend to not work together very well. It's much more difficult to mix, say, the Martial Arts pack pieces with the Magic pack pieces than it is to mix the basic pieces we got with launch, or with i6/CoV.

However, the basic functionality of the costume creator is getting pretty darn dated. The way we can mix and match costumes to create new looks hasn't gotten any real improvements for QUITE a while.

I'm not saying it's not a great system. It is, but it's getting old. Players have been making functionality requests and suggestions for years and the vast majority of them seem to fall on deaf ears. Some of these requests are things we know the engine will support... such as custom colors. Some of these requests have been implemented in other games-- like positionable decals for 'tattoos' or the like.

On top of that, there's BASIC stuff that's been granted to NPCs that player characters just don't get... like the ability to affix a logo to a cape or the back of your costume.

So let's hear about where the Costume Creator is going. Players, share your requests and suggestions for functionality, rather that costume pieces. Devs, share your plans for future updates to keep the CoH Costume Creator on top as the crown jewel of MMO customization.

Here, I'll get you started with some feature requests--

- As mentioned, Custom Colors

- Positionable decals, possibly including the existing Chest Detail images.

- Better control over character geometry so that players can create a broader array of characters... from childlike to otherworldly.

- Cutouts to make parts of existing costume pieces invisible

- Asymmetrical costume design.

- An 'I'll deal with the clipping issues. Just let me have both these pieces at the same time' mode.

- Animation bones for hair and head details so that players can better control the appearance.

- Animation bones for lengthy costume pieces, such as skirts, shorts, capes, tails, etc... so that players can better control their appearance.

- A transparency slider for costume pieces.

My partial understanding is that the using the real names of people, especially when they are still living, is somewhat offensive to the Japanese. (I don't understand the specifics, so please feel free to correct me.)

I don't really understand how they feel about the flag imagery.