MartyRallner

This would be awesome indeed! It'd be nice to have "generic" factions people can use as opposed to building customs from scratch that eat up the file size. /signed

Here's a way to create a few more Veteran Reward badges: give longterm players a chance to get unlockable costume bits at level 1. Said unlockable costume bits include:

-The Vanguard Armor set, with or without the weapon options
-Winter Event goodies like the Stocking Cap, Furry Gloves & Boots, and Earmuffs.
-Valentines' costume parts like the Toga, Laurel, Sandals, and the Hearts pattern (hey, the Wedding Pack gives us Hearts Plus from the get-go, why not the original?)
-Weapons that are unlocked via defeat badges (with some exceptions)

I know these are some pretty drastic rewards, but if these were implemented they'd go to people who have been playing (and *paying*) for 7+ YEARS. If anyone's earned the right to skip the grind of earning these purely cosmetic pieces, it's them.

There's room for negotiation, of course. Some things like the Nictus Sword from Romulus should still be earned the old fashioned way, and it's possible we could add craftable costume parts to the list above. I want to open the floor to everyone and see what should and shouldn't be made available to the real diehards (Hey, that could be one of the badge names, Diehard...)

Brilliant! This calls for music! I know just the tune, too... http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00014/ (sfw)

While Manti's just not the same without his trademark mane, those are some great new looks, Kai =D

Nebaroth has great command of bodily curves, but what really makes me love him (platonically) is his expressions. They're just so damn fun.

I can only wonder if and when the Kat art train will stop, not that I'm hoping it will, at any rate...

*gawps at the t-shirt* Okay, that's it, you're entirely too lucky *plots to steal your powers*

Yes please. All of the animations just don't have the same sense of "Ooomph" when they're done single-handedly.

*cracks knuckles and wades in*

I agree that the various trainer-Arbiters need spicing up. Remove their helmets & give them faces, slot in a few women (either using the Fateweaver model or a female version of the Huntsman armor), let them use different emotes as they stand there, anything.

My best suggestion, however, would be the addition of an "About this trainer" option in the menu, and give each and every one of them a story. This would have applications elsewhere, too: when I first started I had to piece together the story behind Valkyrie, Mynx, BAB, and the rest of the blueside trainers from outside info. Having a brief bio available for the trainers would help newbies wade into the game lore.

And while we're at it, why does Vanguard have a generic, faceless soldier handle the training of its super-powered members? There's a perfect chance to slip another unique character into the game just sitting there.

Back to the Arbiters, another thing that'd add some color is to stop using them for quartermasters, too. Perhaps it's time we see what Arachnos techie division, the Orb Weavers, look like.

It'd be nice if folks were to migrate to Pinnacle, as it'd give me someone to play with over there *so lonely* Sadly most of my mains are rooted thanks to supergroups, so I can't really bring them to Virtue (Though I've already made new versions of 3 of my 4 mains on Virtue, so...)

Woke up this morning and discovered my inbox had been kekekekekekeke Zerg rushed by all the new submissions. Ah well, added all my pixel manipulations to the group, and will get around to adding fanfics too.

My one gripe is that it won't let me submit stuff from my scraps, which is where I keep all my character references and screenshots and junk. I guess I shall have to sit and wait until that gets beta'd out.

... awesomely trippy @___@

Oh yeah, saw her page recently. Think I already suggested she shoot a note over to TA to link up to The Network.

I'd just be happy with some new civilian NPC models, just to break up the sea of monotony seeing the same pedestrians over and over.

Bwahahahaha! Love it!

(Note: Before I begin, I don't exactly know if this topic should be here in Suggestions or in the general discussion forum. But since I'm making a proposal for something the devs could implement, I figured I'd start here. If this topic generates a lot of discussion on lore and so forth, I'll set up on General Discussion and redirect the debate there. Here goes.)


As a fluff/lore junkie, there's a little something that rankles me, and it has since City of Villains first launched: In their rush to get their highly-anticipated new baby out the door, the developers skimped on the in-game descriptions of most of the new antagonist NPC groups that were introduced. Thus groups like the Coralax, Goldbrickers, and certain subgroups of Arachnos all shared one description for everyone in that group. The various members of the Rogue Island Police, Security Guards, and Cage Consortium even had to make do with a one-sentence blanket description for all of them. Totally understandable, though. You can go back and fix that stuff after you get the important stuff in place, right?

Four years later...

Cut to me, in front of my computer, grumbling about how the Powers that Dev focus on shiny new content so much they never go back and tweak the already established content. But instead of just sitting there griping, I broke from Internet tradition and decided to DO something about it! Pulling up my trusty word processor and the lore-filled goodness of Paragonwiki.com, I started writing up new descriptions for old mobs, and I've decided to share my progress here:

Rogue Island Police

RIP: Working as a police officer in a 'city of villains' must be a very tough job… which is why the Rogue Isles PD is home to some of the toughest goons around. High on a power trip, these coppers will gladly teach any rookie villain to respect their authority.

Ripper: The RIP has no place for the soft or naïve. Officers are trained to be ruthless and efficient in dealing with lawbreakers, no matter how trivial the offense may be. After all, a broken bone or two leaves much more of an impression than just a ticket.

Deadly Ripper: The Rogue Island Police force frequently finds new recruits among paramilitary forces, people whose desire to inflict harm far outweighs the desire to uphold law and order. Deadly Rippers are often semi-retired mercenaries, as bullying civilians is downright cushy compared to their former careers. Plus, here they get pension!

Coralax

Coralax Green Hybrid: The Coralax are humans who have been infected with living coral. Stories persist that there is an entire society of coral creatures in the seas around the Rogue Isles, but how these unfortunates became their servants is unknown. What IS known is that these things have manufactured nasty weapons using coral and sea life, and are not to be taken lightly.

Coralax Blue Hybrid: In the Coralax’s color-coded chain of command, blue seems to be an intermediary position. In addition to using sea life as weapons, these hybrids are able to manifest the chill of the ocean depths, giving them several dangerous cold attacks.

Coralax Red Hybrid: The apparent leaders in the hybrids’ attacks on the surface world, the red hybrids are cunning and merciless. On top of having the same gear and abilities of their lesser counterparts, reports indicate that reds have supernatural strength and even psionic talents. This makes them versatile and deadly enemies of all who live above the waves.


Goldbrickers

Rocketman: The Goldbrickers are high tech thieves who operate in and around Cap au Diable. They are lead by a notorious crime lord known only as King Midas. Their high success rate and surprisingly advanced gear has given them the belief that they’re the island’s true masters, and will not look kindly to meddling amateurs like you in their territory.

Bombardier: Goldbrickers who manage to pull off multiple successful heists are promoted to Bombardier status. Armed with high-power sonic weaponry and strength enhancers, Bombardiers often lead heist operations and scouting trips. Many are also accomplished hackers, able to find holes in the tightest of firewalls to harvest sweet, profitable secrets.

Boomer: Reporting directly to King Midas, many Boomers worked with the King before he founded the Goldbrickers. They emulate their leader’s appearance with advanced nanotech coatings, which provide solid protection and boost the wearer’s strength significantly. How the Goldbrickers acquired such powerful tech is still a mystery.


Scrapyarders

Enraged Miner: These poor chumps think they've got a chance against the Cage Consortium. Sure their working conditions are atrocious. If most of them weren't former criminals and other troublemakers maybe they could have found better jobs in St. Martial or Grandville instead of this dump. Still, you can’t underestimate the destructive power common tools can have in highly motivated and extremely angry hands.

Demolitionist: Working with dangerous explosives day in and day out takes guts. Using those explosives to fight the Cage Consortium takes even more guts. Taking on a super-powered villain like you requires even more guts than that. Too bad guts don’t equal brains.

Foreman: Just because you’re born with super strength doesn’t automatically mean you don a cape. Some people with super-powered abilities actually try to apply them to a civilian life, probably due to a crippling lack of ambition. Not only can these guys lift trucks, but their ability to rally their fellow Scrapyarders make them a formidable challenge.

---

Obviously I had to make a few educated speculations (especially in trying to explain the Foreman's super strength), but I tried sticking to the lore as much as possible. Sadly, this is just the tip of the ice tanker. The list of other groups that have a single description include Security Guards, Cage Consortium, Snakes, Wailers, the many subdivisions of the PPD, Luddites, Rikti troops, Rikti drones, The Family (Marcone and Mook), Slag Golems, Vanguard Sword & Shield, and several subsets of Arachnos (like Crab Spiders and Tarantulas).


If the devs want to implement these descriptions or modifications thereof, they're free to do so. Don't have to give me credit for it, either. I just want to see old placeholders get replaced, and thought I'd save the devs some time by doing it myself.

Any thoughts, folks?

http://jerome.galica.free.fr/ is a French site that is packed to the gills with little pixel microheroes, but sadly they seem to have stopped updating.

In any case, your stuff rocks!

Oddly enough, I was recently thinking about Paragon Colony (my name for all of us art geeks on CoH) as a whole and wondered if there was a way to get us better organized. Must be my mutant clairsentience flaring up again.

In any case, http://zerry.deviantart.com/ is my home, my icon is legend, and I would like to jump on this particular bandvagen.

While we're at it, why do the Legacy Chain keep dropping tech enhancements? I can understand Luddites dropping Gadgets because they're Natural DOs, but an order of magic users dropping cybernetics? I don't follow.

I like the overall idea, and heartily approve of the thought you've put into the animations.

The one thing when it comes to spears/halberds is that they get the shaft (pun wholly intended) when it comes to modern heroic literature. They're weapons firmly associated with the rank-and-file infantry, not the lone, exceptional hero (with the exception of various Chinese martial art styles, but that's less known in the general conciousness). Personally I'd love to defy that stereotype and use a powerset like this, but I doubt there'd be much demand for it. A quarterstaff powerset borrowing from this idea would probably go over better with the general playerbase.

Still, seeing a powerset proposal with thought and effort put into it gives me the warm fuzzies, so you earn major props from me =D

Kid, I like your style. While the phonebooth idea has been tossed around for a long time (predating official costume change emotes, I think), the datastream one sounds quite nifty (in a pinch the devs could use the contact hologram model from the MA building). Personally I've wondered why they haven't tossed the Forearm Panel Activation animation (from Oroborous and Targeting Drone) in as a cheap extra CCE, too.

And hey, welcome to the game!

You and me both, Pwn_...