Chase_Arcanum

Hmm... it seems so easy to hit the damage cap without one... so something like that might actually do more to marginalize certain powersets. I don't think we'll ever see such an enhancement... but I only make such predictions because I love being proven wrong by the devs

Tried. My image-enhancement-fu is old and weak... and nothing works like the crap they show on TV anyway (/em jealous).


I don't think it is. The fur and skin tones are just very close together. Looks like the only new piece is the head here. Given the big "A" on the chest, this may be just Alpha Wolf's signature character.

Interesting. That makes a lot of sense in that context and explains how you could have a "mothership raid-style event" that at the same time doesn't require much teaming.

It seemed strange to me when it was said that people who don't want to do the task force would have to wait for the trials... but in that context it makes sense.


Hmm... I know what you're going for... and the Hercules analogy is a good one.... but "Labor" still seems like such work. Let's stress the fun and call it an "Incarnate Party."

"Incarnate Party at Mother Mayhems!" is bound to get a good turnout.

So did you find it predictable... like you knew exactly where the story was going before you turned a page, or was it full of suspense and surprise?

But... imagine a mothership raid with 4 full teams!

Tis true

Slight correction.

The goal is to give us a large range of options that people will actually use. Options that aren't appealing to a large percentage of people add no value to said large percentage of people. When you've got a choice of developing something that serves ten or ten thousand, you go for the broader audience.

For that reason, its perfectly valid to express one's likes or dislikes. It lets the devs get a sense of something popularity.


For my own interests, though, I'd prefer a 'muscled' female look that was a bit toned down from the examples given here using the male abs. The shadowing in that one makes them look too cut-- the kind of thing you'd only see at bodybuilding competitions. I'd prefer more of the muscle definition you may find on an Olympic triathete.

Techbot_alpha's photo is close. I'm not a fan of the bulging vein, but the shoulder bredth would still be changable via the character creator and the rest of the muscle tone and definition is solid without being exaggerated.

Thanks for the detailed estimate. I just know enough of the industry tech to know that that would be a big deal to do... somewhere above "OMGNO!" but how much above I wasn't sure. Never thought it'd be so far into "OMGWTFBBQHELLSNO!" but ya learn something new every day.

And yes, my days developing training games for the defense industry has led me to rate all project estimates by the reaction the developer/coder/artist gives when told that he's been tasked to do it.

I hope you're referring to the "lick paw, rub face" catgirly emote like we see in another unnamed competing superhero mmo and not a... well... not "cleaning self" like my friend's old boxer used to...

Right, I threw that out there to see if anyone saw any holes in it.

... offhand, I can see a few complications, but none terribly bad: Currently, the "claws" are in the "weapon" slot, as far as color customization goes... and none of those ever use the "skin" color currently. I don't *think* it'd be tough to make claws that inherited the "with skin" as one known color (and let you select the single other color). If you can, then you can have a relatively seamless appearance, if you can't... you'll be limited in the colors that make sense.

I wasn't sure I'd like the Rogue PBAOE confuse, but it really has helped survivability on my widow. If I get in over my head, the confuse generally reduces incoming damage long enough for me to take down some strategic targets and get my footing back. Generally speaking, the damage the foes do to each other in these situations doesn't set me back any notable XP loss, either.

The hero buff, though, I'm quite happy with.

Don't have any vigilantes or villains.

Exactly. That shows how we could do a cheap "reasonable facsimile" of separate fingers and toes, but still go with the same basic mitten articulation. The trick (and expense) is getting beyond that.




Yes, it's 2011... but remember: the initial CoH art assets and the foundation that virtually everything's based on would be nearing around 9 years old. Back then, they were developing on a budget that was between 1/4 and 1/8'th its main competitors for its launch year... AND studies at that time were questioning the relevance of high-detail articulation, as most players played with cameras out beyond where such things were noticed. At the time, it probably seemed a reasonable budget compromise just so they could get the product out the door before the money ran out.

At this point in a game's lifespan (well, not many have lived to this point...), developers often look at the potential of a graphical upgrade. Indeed, we've seen them rolling out newer assets and engine improvements over the past year, so they may decide to tackle player character models at some point... ...just keep in mind that the stuff we love about the game (all these incredible costume options) are also what make it so darn costly to upgrade that part of the game's underlying tech. There's so much to revise, update, and double-check against, and NONE of us want to lose a single costume piece... or learn that the higher-res piece no longer fits with older costumes.

It can be done... it may very well be done... but it'll be a HUGE amount of resources invested to do.

It isn't as simple as that, either. When you change a glove, you're changing the to different "meshes" that still sit on top of that same skeleton "skeleton." That skeleton is what has the three simple mittenlike hinges in them. There isn't a way to change that skeleton "just for these hands." When you replace it, you'll be replacing it for all the character models, and *probably* need to alter all the hands in the game to that new mesh.

Then, if you want the individual fingers to actually DO something, you'll have to change each and every animation in the game... you'd probably have to touch them all anyway, as the "joints" in an articulated hand would likely not match any mapped-over old joints for mitten hands.

Finally, adding so many different joints to track will affect performance. The way many games get around this is by creating different models (with fewer bones) to be used when the model is viewed at a distance. What's the point of tracking all those animated joints in the hand when you can't really see the hand at a certain distance, after all? So, you'd need to update the models and whatever level-of-detail manager is in your engine to address that, too.

As much as I'd want it (and animated faces... which would be bunches more of LOD management) these will require a sizable investment. Its one I'd want to do, but I'd see it as a substantial character model revamp, not something that can be tossed into a single issue, let alone a booster pack.

Don't get me wrong, I've wanted REAL claws for a long time, I just recall prior discussions and my own experience with these models to know how tricky this would be. Its something they should really consider, but its much more effort than any custom powerset or effect we've seen in any other booster pack.

Doing ONLY that will make you have a closed-fist punch for virtually all attacks... which would look rather clumsy, but I guess better than nothing.

they're there for me...

Liberty always seems to be bustling for me.

As a returning player, you probably already know all about the high number of instances in the games, so you really won't *see* many people congregating anywhere... they're all in the instances, but figured I'd say it just in case.


Many people are dusting off their level 50's to gather incarnate shards. That probably makes the lower-level zones seem even less populated, so I can't stress enough how helpful the Search and Global channels are. Global channels are a far better way to find who's online, where, and what's going on. Liberty's got several that are heavily populated. I lurk in the LB and LFA ones.

If you're looking for casual social roleplaying, Virtue would be the natural choice, but other than that, I can't think of many places where you'll easily just stumble over other players to spontaneously join.

It was Phil, the temp.


Actually, he's a professional fall guy. Anytime they do anything that might be deemed unpopular, they design it, code it up, test it, and then call in Phil to actually click the button that adds the feature to the code. That way, he and he alone can take the blame. They learned their lesson after the PvP changes and put him on a retainer. They tried to get him back then, he was booked solid by both political parties (it was nearing the end of an election year).

Unfortunately, this technique is unlikely to appease the playerbase here. Us forumites set our crosshairs on rednames and rednames only. Phil will accept the blame for everything from toxic spills to economic collapse, but he has his limits. He absolutely refuses to post anything on any internet gaming forum.

I don't expect anything like that. Animations take a lot of development time (and thus, money), and the party pack proved that people don't put as much value in them. I anticipate this to be heavier in the costume bits and lighter in the animations/emotes/powers, as critter appearance variety appears in high demand.

That, or this booster's gonna have one heckuva price tag.

To be fair, that whole "zone" was something that was likely assembled rather late and hastily. In beta, Players wanted some sort of reward for "staying true" which alignment merits provided. They then needed a place to put the store.... and a few other bells and whistles (access to all the TF/SF Givers) so they cobbled together a little spot with a pre-existing map and some custom contact text. I wouldn't expect it to show the same effort of something like Studio 55.

That would work. I'd really like to see most blast sets (ice, fire, energy, etc) to have alternate item-based animations (tech-ish gun, magic wand/staff/sword/hammer, etc.)

Yep, they are.

They're also totally in sync with the popular bullet-ballet crap that Hollywood does in their heroic adventures... and the ridiculous poses that oh-so-many firearm-users are placed in the comics.

They're, for better or worse, part of the genre... along with underwear on the outside of the tights, paper-thin-transparent "secret" identities, incredibly ineffective fighting techniques, weapons the size of buicks, bulletproof nudity*, lycra-fitting armor that can stop bullets but still manage to tear in just the right places for fanservice (female characters only), mortal wounds treated as 'just a flesh wound," miraculous returns from the grave... repeatedly... yet it surprises everyone every time. The over-the-top gunfire animations should be here.


And so should energy weapons.

They shouldn't just be another weapon to tack on to assault rifle or pistol. Many of the rifle powers just don't fit the laser weapon theme.... same goes with the curving bullets of the bullet ballet. Give them something that fits the various ways they're represented in sci fi.