Draugadan

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Here's that close up I promised.

Close Ups 2

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So cool... can't wait to see Red Shadow up close.

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Yay, finally got the first pass of colors done! Now to go back and put in some shadows, highlights and stuff! The hard part is done, now for the fun!!!!

base colors done!

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That looks great.

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Okay I was hoping to get the first round of colouring done by oh the New Year, but it's gone and past I'm oh so close! Note Gamma is not in there yet, but I'll squeeze her in there, probably to break up all that black in the lower right!

First Update of 2007

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Wow... really cool to see Red Shadow in color... to quote others in the thread... Squee!!!
So very cool... One small note... (Doc_Kro got away with it... )
Red Shadow's cape has red on it. See his Cape here
Or look in the Signature for more pictures.
But... still... so cool... thanks... thanks...
Oh... and... umm... Squee!

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Red-Shadow for Draugadan.

I'm not entirely happy with this one. Black skin, black highlights, black hair... it's hard to work with that and get any kind of detail. If I figure out another way to do it, I'll redo this one.

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Is cool. Love the claws... :-) If you make one even better... wow...
Thanks.

Woot...

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Red-Shadow added

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Wooo Hooo... I can't wait.

wow... 10 pages.

The drawing is looking good.

Wow... these are cool... Can I add Red-Shadow to the list? If so linky in the sig.

Looks great... can't wait to see it when your done.

This has been debunked many times. Not sure why this rumor wont die. I have a friend just came back from almost 3 years in Germany. Avid CoH player... There are a lot of wierd laws with video games (and just wierd laws in general)... but... There are tons of games with Nazis in them in Germany. The limitation is that the Nazis are required to always be the bad guys.
So... all the WWII video games with Nazis are sold in Germany.
The packaging of said game is limited... nothing Nazi on the outside...
I actually believe the Devs on this one that the whole Council take over from the 5th Council is all part of their Super Secret Story Bible, and was planned from the games beginning.
I like this theory... because... it leaves a chance that the 5th (my favorite group... I love smashing Nazis)... will come back.

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Ok, so after 20 minutes of waiting for Photobucket, I got it re-uploaded. I used the wrong file last time :-/


Here it is! The updated Key!

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I think (I hope) that the circled Hero is Red-Shadow.

Red Circle

I think I see Red-Shadow... How very exciting... Looks fantastic so far.

I'd love to have Red-Shadow's name in that hat. I took several shots just in case. See below:

In Action

From the Character Select Screen

From the back

His Face

His Pointy Ear

Thanks,

Draugadan

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Favorite Villians? The 5th. I miss my Nazis

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Me too. My favorite mission of all time was a stop the 5th column mission that had banners everywhere, and some hitler like voice giving a speech in what sounded like german. Raised the hair on the back of my neck... I loved pounding the Nazis in that mission...

Draugadan

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OK, seems that Statesman knows that bases aren't as popular as he wanted. The situation is simple, what you have is maybe 1 or a few people designing the base. It becomes exactly what they'd want for a personal corner of the CoX universe and then everyone else in the SG simply gets to borrow it. So you have a whole SG paying for someone elses dream.

If you wanted a comparason, its like placing a maintainence cost on your costume. However 3 other players on the game cannot choose what they're character looks like as they are only allowed to look like you. On top of that fact you and these other 3 people have to keep playing the game in a state which brings them some personal loss in order to maintain their costume or have it revert to something generic.

Thats the problem. Bases aren't actually for every player, they're for those who start SGs and have admin rights.

The solution is simple. Personal player housing through SG bases.

The concept is that you're allowed to have a personal plot starting with a 4x4 room however in order to own that plot you need to join an SG. Once you join one the SG will have either doors or portals which you can enter to walk into your personal plot or other players personal plots. Inside a plot the owners has almost complete access to what the base designer tool offers but only in that room. They can make it look anyway they want and because its isolated from the main base it doesn't have to clash with the SG base's design. Prestige is generated almost as normal with one exception - all prestige goes right into a personal bank account. You can then choose to donate an amount to the SG or use it on your personal plot.

To keep things interesting though the player cannot add any functional items to their personal plot. No telepads, no medibay, no work stations. These are SG base only items. Additionally if the rent isn't maintained on the SG base as a whole then when the base shuts down the personal plots are shut down as well meaning its in everyones best interests to keep the prestige donations coming.

This idea solves both problems in one go. Everyone gets a 'base' that they can expand and develop for themselves which others can wander into any time you allow them in for a look plus you have the need to join an SG base and need to develop an SG base which provides a unified goal to the members.

Thoughts?

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First thought is that people wanting to make things for their rooms are dependant on 1 or 2 people making work tables. As has been said in another group some SGs don't maintain worktables so that none "admin rights" players can't put personal items in the base.
Maybe a personal space would come with a built-in worktable.... and things made would not be able to be taken out of the room... and nothing functional could be made. Just decorative.

Draugadan

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Good in theory, not so much in reality.

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Bingo. That pretty much nails our design on bases. We're slowly but surely making additions and changes based on feedback & data. We'll get there...I think bases are a case study where a design didn't mesh well with actual gameplay! For some odd reason, some posters have thought my Serious Games speech blamed the players; heck no! Bases are 100% a DESIGN problem. Not a player problem.

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Dunno if anyone else said it, but for me, the very idea that I had to purchase CoV after having been a CoH subscriber to get bases left a VERY bad taste in my mouth, and as such, bases, from the get go, were doomed for me.

The other issue for me is that they exist "outside" of the "regular" CoX world and cuts you off from contact with the virtual world. It's not integrated into the world, so why bother?

Just my 2 cents.

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Again a great point. I remember the rampant speculation on the forums when we were told bases were coming. Specifically I remember a thread topic on Where will you put your base? Most people assumed that bases would be in buildings around town. So that the Darkity Dark SG would have their base in Dark Astoria. Zones have flavor... and SG's could further have flavor by knowing exactly where the base is.
And... no reason that this couldn't be used in at the same time as the current base portals and teleporters.
First time you enter the base you have to go through the "front door", maybe? Use a base portal from any zone with one... or... if your in the same zone as the base... well... then go in the door.

Draugadan

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My second concern would be the use of global handles. Quite frankly, at no point in time would I want everybody that joins the SG to get my global id, and I think many others would like to see that privacy ensured as well. If this is done, I hope that the option of creating a SG ONLY chat handle will be included.

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There would be ways to group SG Membership by global without actually showing the global.
There would also be ways to communicate to someone globally without using the gobal chat. (For example, I think email should be received by the account, regardless of what character you're on.)

but I think the real solution would be to adjust a SG Permission. Ability to see a global would be given out as a permission. That way you don't have to let any new recruit see who you are.
Now, does a new recruit have to reveal their global? Maybe have a personal setting to hide it. Maybe a loss of a bit of anonymity is a requirement for joining a particular SG - just go find a different SG that doesn't ask for it to be shown.

my point is: you have valid concerns. I hope they are factored in to the improvements instead of letting them hold back SG improvements.

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I love the Mail idea... Yes... global... And... make the mail button turn red only when there is mail that is unread. I hate that read mail saved in the inbox keeps the Mail button red. This is terrible. It should only change with new stuff.

Draugadan

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I just hope they do it right, in one aspect:
Add a column that also lists a players global address in the sglist.

Hell, even if they never get the 75 person cap "fixed", I'll still love to see that added.

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I do not want that... or make it optional. I would hate to log on with an alt... and have members of my main's SG wanting to know why your on with a different character. There can be joy in anonymity sometimes.

Draugadan

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Jack was never exactly in tune with City players, at least after launch. Before then, I have no idea ... wasn't in beta. Posi seems to care a lot more about what we want than Jack, who focused on what he personally enjoyed. The latter point is nearly indisputable.

The article was interesting on the subject of bases, though. I had never thought of the design as being sort of "collectively individual," but that explains the whole "Add Personal Item" concept. They made a few mistakes, though. Lots of people, maybe even a majority, don't care at all about base design. I didn't until I inherited ownership of two of them. Although the systems aren't exactly complicated, it's formulas and junk that just doesn't interest a big segment of the City population (just like PvP raiding, actually).

Then there's pricing. Fabrication costs salvage and placement costs prestige, so sg leaders tend to keep base permissions as tight as they can. Base construction is kind of a tight thing. If too many people drop rooms and objects, the result can get incoherent and dysfunctional very quickly. F.ex, my bases have zero decorative rooms; none. Another guy wants a big meeting hall with a huge conference table, though ... just to have it. Never mind it consumes footprint, serves no functional purpose, and we'd never meet in it. We have different priorities.

Good in theory, not so much in reality.

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And your point is exactly the main problem with bases. You might have 75 people paying for the base... but typically only 1 or 2 that get to spend the "money" and "build" the base. One of the two things (and only two... ;shudder) I liked about Star Wars Galaxies was the housing. It was wonderful to walk into a buddies house and see how it had been decorated and layed out. That housing had no ingame function other than storage, and yet players spent a massive amount of time and resources on the house. This is the problem with bases... And one of the points he made in the speech. Players in CoX don't have ownership of the base. In two SG's I have characters in (one hero one villain) there are fully operational bases. Fully operational to me means that there are Teleporters to as many zones as possible. And that is the only thing a SG does that I see at the moment. I get nothing else out of them. (Game function wise).
I think the answer is simple... use the design of the base building tech to give players individual housing. At a base portal give a choice Base or House... I think players would be very excited even if the individual player housing didn't have a single function.
RP wise? Batman might be part of the JLA... but he still has the batcave. Sups has his fortress of solitude... ect.

Draugadan

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I didn't reread the transcript, though I do remember the interview distinctly...but here's my take on bases:

They give players their own property...not exactly new ground for MMP's...however, they do offer an unprecedented level of customization.

Clearly, that customization, as well as the several gameplay benefits that the base provides hasn't been perceived to be worth the cost (i.e. Prestige/time played)...hence, Posi and several others (including myself) have taken a spin at making bases more accessible at an earlier stage.

It isn't the popularity of bases so much as the fact that our programming & art team did a phenomenal job of allowing players to generate their own lairs. Maybe not enough players have experienced this content to comment on it, though hopefully Posi's changes will help.

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States, "Not worth the cost" to me for a number of reasons.
First I don't give a rats about PvP. If I want PvP I play a FPS. (My 2 cents worth… I know others are excited about PvP and base raids)
Two the base doesn't "do" anything. It just looks pretty... except for the zone teleport beacons which is the only base function I currently care about.
Three a large SG is needed to get a base that is worthwhile... I played with the base editor in CoV Beta... they are great. Lots of fun to mess with... However, only a few people in a SG get to play with the base editor (for obvious reasons). So... What percentage of the CoX population do you think actually gets to mess with the base customization stuff? Have you even thought about that? Part of the reason people don't care about bases is that (WAG) less than 10% of the CoX population ever get to make a base. It is not content that everyone gets to play with.

“did a phenomenal job of allowing players to generate their own lairs.”

I think that is why people were so psyched about having their own apartment in addition to the SG base. Saying you made things cheaper so that a one person SG can afford a base didn't solve that issue. I believe it was more I want to play with the cool editor thingie and make my own space... than I can't afford this cool stuff if I am a SG of one.
That really needs to be “allowing certain few players to generate their own lairs.”

Yes... I realize that with the lowering of cost that we can make an Alt... level them to 10... and make our own single toon SG... but... that doesn't work if you have a main character in a SG you enjoy.

Sorry.... bottom line is that SG bases (at least the base editor) while cool... are just not something that most players get to experience.

Think of it this way. The costume creator is one of the wonderful aspects of this game. The base editor is very much like that. People make alts for many reasons, one of the reasons is that it is so much fun to make a new costume. Would this game be as popular if only a few people got to mess with the costume creator?


Draugadan

I heard in another thread that they moved here:

http://www.badge-hunter.com/vidiotmaps/downloads.php

Draugadan

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I'm looking to see if anyone has a link to printable maps for CoV. I bought the game online and would like to be able to see city maps that I can hold and use to get an idea of where I am or need to go. Can anyone help me out on this?

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www.vidiotmaps.com

Draugadan

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PPS: anyone going to put up a mirror somewhere so that guy stuck in the Sands can see this? I hope? I wish I could. Though I disagree with our boys and girls being in the Sands, as it were, I still will do anything I can to help em out.

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I think I hooked him up.

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Yes you did... thank you very much... lots of cool stuff.

Draugadan

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Linky to the Mayhem Mission Trailer on 1Up for your viewing pleasure. The streaming link seems to be a bit hit-or-miss but the downloads appear to be working.

~Awry

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Umm... Can someone post this somewhere else? I am deployed (somewhere with sand) and that site is blocked... I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks

Draugadan

Brilliant...

/em golf clap

;-)

Draugadan