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What's worse is that these same clipping issues occur even on the default model - and that, unlike the Clockwork chest piece - these... spaz! The clipping areas 'blink' rapidly; as if the texture beneath it is alive and trying to break free. That's a horrible way to describe it, but short of taking some video.. I can't think of any good way to put it.

But the CLockwork Chest piece really does bug me, too. It doesn't ruin nearly as many outfits, though - and you can fix it by lowering the chest/physique a good ways. I'd still like to see a fix for that too, though!

All righty, so! I mentioned this in beta, but now I come bearing more telling screenshots and a theory!

Problem: The 'fix' that stopped the clipping issue with the trenchcoats and jackets have caused the first piece to clip horrendously with the Tights and Top w/skin models. The issue of having *both* pieces clip through the Magic Bolero was never resolved.

Theory: Could it be because the 'Tights' and 'Top w/skin' sections use one body model for the torso, while the 'Jackets' (and *maybe* the trenchcoat, I'm not sure) category uses the Armored body model? (Or at least one very close to it - the shoulders get beefed up while the chest and, to a very small extent, the waist - get squished in and malformed.)

Proof:

First, with my 'base' model - which is very high on all the sliders:






Not convinced? Let's try this again with the Physique/Chest minimized. Bear with me; this is going to look freaky:





And there you have it.

Shameless begging: Any chance for a Victorian Collar that's *just* the cameo and the thin band it's attached to?

Fre'em, or Free'm!

So.. many.. things.. I could say! But I won't. I won't explode in a costume-themed tirade this time. Instead, I'll say this:



Look at your pony. Now look at me. Now back to your pony; now back to *me* - does your pony look happy? No, I didn't think so.

Brush your pony before she brings out the Magic.

Mine:

Neh. I've already got *one* Southern-themed character. That's enough for anybody, I think. As for the name... 'Jumanji'? I get the feeling I've become the **** of something that went waaaay over my poor little head. I'd give her a *name*, not a movie reference.

I could! ... But none of those are really sticking with me. I might just have to do away with the blue entirely. I think I'm centered more around the "8' tall Elec/Dark Tanker" basis for the concept, now - ttrying to find some explanation for those that I'm actually *excited* to play with. So far, it's just a big ol' blank.

Edit: Ah! I think I might be on to something, finally. How about the extra-large wife of an old-time "Big Game" hunter:



... Who was, I say, whisked away by dreadful native vermin who mistook her for some sort of blasted Goddess of theirs (not that she was without the temper to match such a thing!)? ...

And then, perhaps, given/taught her powers by said tribe, who believed her to be the physical incarnation of their Storm deity - and somehow plunked into (or survived 'till) the modern age? I'll have to give it some more thought, but I think this one just might have some merit.

I don't always play Tankers, but when I do... I reroll as a Brute shortly thereafter.

Okay, okay! Lame jokes aside... I do, at least, have lots of trouble coming up with concepts for them. Part of this may be my obsession with wanting to play a seven-to-eight-feet tall meatshield. Part of it may be the odd set combinations I come up with to try and keep me interested in the archetype.

I've finally hit on something that might be a favorite, in terms of powersets (Elec Armor/Dark Melee with a cloudy hue)... but even at level thirty-five, I just can't seem to land on any one concept idea that really 'sticks', for me.




And these just in the past few levels! I've run the gamut from blue-skinned, storm-wielding alien to something a little more... brawler-ish... to something a bit more tech-based, and all the way to some sort of avian elf who had a very disturbing 'woopsie!' before being retrofitted with the latest in old-era-style cybernetic replacements for lost... parts. And all sorts and shapes in-between!

Nothing's really hitting home, though, and so I'd like to turn to the forum base and beg for some fresh ideas or input on the old ones to help me keep this one going!

Most of my thoughts on the STeampunk Booster echo what others have already said, so I want to focus on some subjective feedback for a moment - especially concerning the faces.

They're awful! So awful, they *almost* make the 'old' batch of new faces look semi-decent. Almost. Now, the texture quality itself is good - but the faces themselves share the same horrible quality that these old ones do (Female Faces 16-30)... They're dead; lifeless... doll-like. From the plain mouths to the dull eyes; they have no emotion - no expression like the original faces do.

To demonstrate, I'll take my favorite face in the game and place it next to it's equivalent from the 'old' batch of new faces and one of the Victorian faces:



The first face is excellent. You have this narrow-eyed slight-smile that shows confidence; and maybe just a hint of smugness to it. I like! The second, however, is actually a *degredation* - the texture itself is much higher quality; but the eyes have this dull, lifeless quality to them. But at least the skin tone somewhat matches. Then you have the new Steampunk face. I think that one speaks itself: note that all three of them use the exact same skin tone and make-up color/option.

Now, if we cover the eyes...




The new faces actually look a bit better!

But if we just cover the mouths...



The new faces are *slightly* improved; but not as markedly as they were when the eyes were hidden. So it's definitely something with the eyes, I think.


Now for another issue: This time with the new jackets! I don't know if all jackets do this, but I suspect they might: but the body model beneath the new jackets uses the 'Armored' shape - which looks *very* strange on a top that shows so much torso. Observe between a bikini with no jacket; and a bikini under the steampunk jacket:



Wierd! And both of them do this.


Finally, someone mentioned the corset beneath the trenchcoat idea... I *love* the potential behind the combination... buuuuut...



Whether you're maxed or minimized, the clipping is *atrocious*. I don't normally mind clipping; but this could at least fit under the trenchcoat on slimmer settings!

And.. that's more or less all I have. I like almost everything else about the booster - but if none of these issues are addressed, then how about a pair of arm-length gloves to match the new thigh-high Victorian boots?

I've always been a strictly NA player - but I am very much looking forward to the chance to visit some of the EU servers and play with new people during the NA off-hours of the night/morning.

Ooh. Just found this thread.

I ran in a streak of 11/11 BaFs today; 10 of which I led myself. This may not be the best way to do it, but I'll share we were doing:

For the Prisoners: Bear in mind, you don't actually have to *kill* them to succeed - you just have to prevent them from running. You can mez the minions; but not the LTs. Thus: Mezzers focus on holding minions while damage-dealers hunt down the LTs - or any Minions who managed to slip through. It's critical to watch the sidewalk for them. We had 0 escapees twice in a row working like this; and only one or two the other times due to lag. Combined with the chokepoint idea, I think this is a sure thing.

For Siege/Siege+Nightstar: Now, this is going to depend a lot on the make-up of the League - but we managed this whether we had 12 people or 28 (the thing bugged and gave us extra people one raid, I think). The most important bit is to make sure the 9CUs don't stack up. To this end, we split the League into three teams; trying to make the best balance of control/buff/damage/sturdiness we could in each team - but most importantly for Team 1 and Team 3. Team 1 and 2 would handle the AVs, while Team 3 stayed at the North door and handled the adds that came in. Anyone who had two warnings from the AVs would fall back and assist Team 3 until the warnings wore off. If the adds were finished before the next group was ready to spawn, then Team 3 would come back to help against the AVs for a few moments. We had no trouble, there - but like I mentioned, it does rely on having two teams capable of handling their respective ends.

And that was really about it! We stuck to those strategies, and often had the last fight finished well before the 10-minute mark on it.

It helps, though, that we all started out as a PuG League - and folk stayed on from each until we were at the point I didn't even have to say anything anymore.

My only regret is that my gals cannot have such astounding assets! Balloons that make any non-tights costume piece look awkward are *not* the same.

A conniving, vengeful Villainess just isn't complete with her Most Important Superpower! Where do you think Mother keeps all her -love- for her -children-?

Just something I noticed while running a few more BaFs today:

You don't have to *kill* all the escapees. You simply have to prevent them from escaping. We know that trying to mez the LTs is pointless; but minions? Why, you can hold them right at the door all day long and they won't cause a lick of trouble. This frees your damage dealers up to chase the LTs. Even better: if the door spawns an entire mob of minions, and you hold it at that door without killing any of them - they won't spawn any more from that door.

As of yet, I havn't had the kind of coordination I'd like to truly test this out. The one half-attempt I did manage to get resulted in only one escapee slipping through... with only seconds left, obviously.

Another thought: Don't the 9CUs (the bane of any Trial) all spawn from the same door? I wonder if, perhaps, it might be less trouble to have a small detachment guard that door and hit them when they're at their weakest - preventing them from causing trouble to the main group in the first place.

Another thought: Phase... just... phase. I'm seeing a lot of spots where those enemy-locking powers so many love to hate might actually be quite useful.

For the record, I have my Uncommon Interface, Uncommon Lore, and Common Judgement thus far. Working on my next Lore, now. While I havn't been on a successful Lambda yet - I've been on mostly-successful BaFs. Due to the game having some sort of wicked sense of humour, I've wound up leading most of them.

I'll chime in with some evidence! This is the result of running mostly BAFs for the past several hours. I've done a few Lambdas; just to get the Interface experience high enough to do some reasonable thread-to-xp conversion.

This is with... about a 60% loss-rate.