Samuel_Tow

Conjecture suggests because it taxes the server. Remember - our costumes are stored server-side, so every time someone sees you, the server has to send a ~10KB costume file to that person. It's not too bad if it's just a few people, but if you swapped costumes on, say, an old-style Hamidon raid with 100 people around you, then you force the server to upload 1MB of data instantly. I don't know what the servers' connection speed is, and I assume it's rather a lot more than that, but if you swap costumes as fast as you can click, you can easily get 10 costume swaps in under a second, and the bandwidth costs start to rise, especially when you consider that the server is communicating a lot of other stuff, as well.

I'm sure there's a very basic hardware reason for there to exist SOME timer, I just don't think that requires a timer that's THIS long.

Oh, I don't disagree with you, and I'm not saying that this shouldn't be improved just because you can work around it. I'm simply saying that you have an option in the meantime. I do agree with you.

More than anything, placing advantages and disadvantages on environment effects which have been developed for seven years with no regard for the advantages and disadvantages they pose is not a very good idea. It either requires a complete rethinking of pretty much the game's entire environment, or otherwise presents a horribly loaded choice.

For instance, if you pick an advantage for being in or over water, then you're going see no benefit for almost every environment in the game. Offices, warehouses, labs, pink caves, Arachnos maps, Column/Council maps and almost all others have next to no places with any water in them. Furthermore, picking a bonus at night puts you at a serious disadvantage, because there's no way to tell in-game time from inside an instance, Paragon City Time notwithstanding.

By contrast, suppose I pick an advantage for fighting on dry land in air in enclosed spaces. That's 3/4 of the entire game right there. Or perhaps I have an advantage for fighting in the Primal Earth dimension. There are only a small handful of missions that take place in alternate dimensions.

A system of advantages and disadvantages needs to be woven into a game's level and enemy design. To lump one on top of a game that doesn't really account for it is just asking for trouble. People keep suggestiong "buffs so small they won't matter." Well if they won't matter, they don't matter. Don't suggest buffs in the first place. If this talked about day jobs or character concept benefits of some sort, such as a special costume which only works in certain locations, I might be a lot more forgiving. But once you start messing with basic gameplay, you need to abide by meta-game design rules, and a slap-dash "Who does it hurt?" approach is not the right way.

I believe the title should be inferred to include "...and would you have a problem if the option to pay for it existed?" It's not in the title, the OP probably didn't mean to ask that, but it's an intrinsic part of the question.

But the Gunslinger Incendiary Round is a targeted AoE It's actually about on par with M30 Grenade, I believe, but I haven't looked at the power numbers, just speaking from experience. That's probably where the disconnect comes from. But, yes, swapping that for Dual Wield would probably be a cleaner option.

And again, I seriously want this Epic. I would respec Samuel Tow - my flagship character - in a heartbeat, because that's what he was always supposed to be.

I find the solution to this is to bind costume swaps to buttons with the necessary emote embedded into the bind itself. It does consume quite a bit of keyboard space, especially if you want to make anything too complex, but it's pretty reliable. If you want, I could probably try and adapt my own variable key function binds that I use for Mastermind pet controls to something of the sort.

I'm really not sure why the timer even exists. My explanation in the original post is the best guess that the playerbase could come up with way back when. As such, I'm not sure if any timer above, say, one second could be said to be "too short." Of course, I don't know the tech specifications on the problem that the timer is trying to avoid, but I'm pretty sure it's FAR more than excessive whatever those problems may be.

---

Actually, now that I think about it, if the problem is swapping costumes too many times, then I would propose a sliding scale timer that increases with each costume swap. What I mean by this is each costume swap would initiate a timer that prevents swaps for half of its duration and allows swaps for the other half, but if you swap during this "grace period," you get hit with a longer timer next time, and a longer one still after that. Say something like:

Timer for second swap: 5s ban, 5s grace
Timer for third swap: 10s ban, 10s grace
Timer for fourth swap and beyond: 30s ban, 30s grace

Yes, this is complicated, but it serves both purposes - it gives players the ability to swap costumes multiple times in quick succession, but it prevents them from doing it too many times too fast.

I have sort of a ritual when switching I use EvilLaugh to swap between costumes as I like both the laugh and the flaming costume change. When changing from dress to monster, I'll do a Howl emote immediately thereafter, sort of to signify the change in personality. When switching from monster to dress, I'll do a DustOff emote (the "I wash my hands of the whole thing" one) to signify that the dirty business is done for the moment.

It's kind of complex in terms of keys, but I've developed a habit of keeping the Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+0 keys bound to character-appropriate emotes and the Shift+1 to Shift+0 bound to costume swaps, so it's not THAT complex

Because no matter how minor the buff is, so long as it's a buff, it's subject to balancing concerns, and there's no decent balancing for something like this. Also, because people pay millions for a couple of percent of defence.

What I want out of a dual pistols set for Scrappers, really, is the ability to shoot single shots and shoot volleys. Anything which achieves that goal will get my pass.

Unfortunately, the above doesn't quite achieve that. We have Empty Clips, which fits the "volley" angle, but we have no simple single shot. I suspect that if you trade Chemical Rounds for either Single Shot or Dual Wield, I'd be right behind you.

P.S. The name of Empty Clips has always been funny to me, because of its double meaning. "I activate my Empty Clips power!" *click click click* "Oh, son of a @#$%!"

I think you and I agree on a fundamental level, and this is perhaps the best, shortest explanation as to exactly WHERE we agree the most. When it comes to visuals, I've always felt that artistic creativity should be left as its own reward. Unlike the same "status symbol" that everybody else has, a creative, GOOD costume is a real achievement that deserves the kind of praise good costumes usually receive. But simply using a rare piece does not make a costume better unless the resulting costume is good in itself, and you don't need rare pieces to do that.

If we need "status symbols" of any kind, I want those to be practical, in the form of powers, abilities and privileges. City of Heroes made the right call by completely segregating the artistic process of playing with visuals from the meta-game process of gameplay, and I'd rather not mix the two after the fact.

Thanks you! Unfortunately, Isabella doesn't work very well with others, on account of her tendency to eat her associates, be they human, supernatural or mechanical. Either that, or get hurt trying and disappear from history for a few hundred years Trust me, you don't need that creature anywhere near you.

Yes, the sleeves do clip, but the shoulder fur masks much of that. Also, if you make the sleeves the same colour as the cape, they look more like cape ornament than like clipping. I'm still waiting for the sleeveless jacket version, however, so I can use the Witch long gloves.

Thank you, this settles it - I need to use the Thigh High boots for my own Isabella. And possibly the Long skirt as opposed to the Pencil one. Seeing them on your character is all the proof I need.

For the dress costume, I mean. I want to swap out of her existing boots/pants combo and use the Thigh-High boots, those look best (at least to me) when paired up with the Witch long gloves, and those are unavailable under sleeved jackets. We already have confirmation that we'll get sleeveless Steampunk jackets at some indeterminate point in the future, though.

Isabella feeds on human emotion, and occasionally on humans. Generally, she feeds on emotions of either love or hatred, as generated by intrigues generated in human form, of which a powerful evil lady can make many. Usually when people see her true form, her hunger is moved on from one about emotions to one about flesh

Incidentally, the story I wrote about her on friends' forums turned out to be so unpleasant I had to scale it down quite a bit. Suffice it to say that AzureSkyCiel has about the right reaction to that "thing." And I couldn't be more satisfied with how that particular villain came out

I like the way you phrase it. And I've always felt the same way. Whenever costume items are picked as rewards for a system or a piece of content, it always feels like what gets put there is whatever happens to be rolling around the office at the time. For instance, we got wings shortly before the Inventions system, and when that came about, what inventable costume pieces did we get locked behind it? A bunch of new wings which were very likely being developed as early as the launch of veteran rewards. And when veteran rewards rolled about, what did they get? Wings and trenchcoats. Why? Well, we'd been asking for them and they wanted to put at least some costume items behind it and they had wings available at the time, so... Wings!

I actually CAN somewhat agree with Vanguard gear (weapons notwithstanding) requiring participation with Vanguard to unlock. It's the armour they wear, and that armour is not the representation of any basic concept. It's "still more tech armour," only it's what Vanguard soldiers wear. However, I firmly believe that the Vanguard armour unlocks should have been global, and they'd have hurt a LOT less if they were. Hell, the Incarnate global unlocks would hurt a lot less if they weren't multi-team-content locked, but that's besides the point.

Really, this "kitchen sink" approach to costume unlocks is getting a little absurd.

That's pretty much what I mean, yes. What's there to take pride isn't HAVING the tools, it's what you make with them. Making a decent costume that's both exactly like it is in your head AND good enough to get people to comment or at least turn heads is what's admirable. The more narrowly focused a costume set is, the less interesting it is by definition, since good costumes are made going beyond the basic pre-fab sets, if for no reason other than because EVERYONE can use a full set.

The "unique snowflake" argument applies here. You don't make players feel "unique" by giving them the same one best look that everyone else will be sporting. You make players feel unique by giving them the tools to create something uniquely their own. And, really, one look at the Best Costume Designs thread reveals that everyone can do it.

I won't like it, but it'll be better than what we have now. That or a paid pack. I'd definitely buy that. After all, I got the Party Pack and I don't regret it.

---

OK, let me turn this thread into something positive, if possible: Could someone who has the Rularuu Claws show me either a video or some pics of the Claws animations with them? I worry that because the claws are mounted to the forearms (why, by the way?), that they'll look odd with the actual in-game animations similar to how Vanguard Claws look awkward without the right gloves.

However, because the game hates me, I can't try it. I can't check power animations in the Architect editor and I can't use Vanguard Claws on any of the characters I have, so I really have no way to know if I'll even LIKE the things.

Doh! Of course, that's a good point that I should have been the first to point out considering how many times I've been burned: Cool, shiny new items only show up for the most basic costume slots most of the time. Remember how many times we had to ask before we got Animal Fur on boots without a heel? Notice how it still doesn't exist on Large or Banded boots? Consider this the same thing.

If I have Digitigrade legs, what Incarnate armour can I use? If I have Monstrous or Large hands, what kind of gloves can I use? If I have wings, how can I use the Incarnate cape? And a lot of my characters are like this. I have probably as many Monster Legs ones as I do human-leg ones, and I'm already running out of ways to not make them look so dang barefoot. Remember all those boots that Monstrous Legs have access to? ... Neither do I.

I actually kind of like the Ascension Armour pieces, especially the boots. But Ascension Armour is "A" set, not "THE" set. There are a lot of things it doesn't represent, a lot of character themes it doesn't look good on, a lot of current costumes that it just doesn't have pieces for and so on. This is where my explosive amazement originates when it comes to this set. Yes, it's a GOOD set. But it's not a SPECIAL UNIQUE set. It kind of looks like Valkyrie, in fact.

Thank you! I needed that

I want to expand on something here - I firmly believe that City of Heroes isn't a place devoid of a sense of pride and achievement related to costumes. Hell, the game runs on it! However, here the sense of pride and achievement comes from what you are able to create, not from what you are given for killing 100 Kobolds. I have had many, many moments of almost sinful pride in my costumes when I've spent so much time working on a costume I was sure couldn't be made, only to finally come up with something AMAZING! I'm given even more pride when I post a costume here on the forums and people congratulate me, then proceed to ask for the costume code. I'm not sure if it's justified, but THIS is where pride and accomplishment from costumes should come from.

Inversely, I've never felt more shame or humiliation than when I'm forced to use an entire kit costume and end up running into someone else using the exact same costume. If someone else could have replicated what I made so precisely completely by accident, then it means I've failed in character design. I have no ill will towards people who pick a pre-made costume from the Sets dropdown and go with that. To each his own. But I have no sympathy for such a person asking to feel pride and accomplishment regarding his costume. If you didn't put in a single artistic thought in your design, you do not deserve to feel proud for it.

I'm going to scoff at every person I see wearing a full set of Ascension Armour, just the same way I scoff at any person who wears a full set of Enforcer armour or the entire Samurai set or the entire Organic Armour set and so forth. They don't deserve to be credited for that creation. They're simply using the work of professional artists without a single bit of input into the final costume. This is not praise-worth.

This reminds me of the arguments players made for why goading badgers who hated PvP into PvP zones to collect badges was a good idea, as it brought in more people to PvP with. I asked then the same thing I ask now - are those the kinds of people you want to involve? Are you so desperate for participation that you're willing to go the extra step and outright bribe people to do it?

Though, to be fair, in the case if iTrals I can kind of see it. Since the entire system is based around multi-team raids, you NEED lots of interest for the system to work. It exists on a self-perpetuating circle of circumstances - people run trials so there are people to run trials with so people run trials so there are people to run trials with. Once that chain breaks, the Trials DIE, at least for the most part, and I can kind of excuse the developers for gedging their bets by goading all types of players through the system. I don't know if it will work and I know it's not working for me, but I can at least understand it in THIS case.

All that said, I still can't see emotes and auras as part of the Incarnate system. I'm willing to shut up and just accept the Ascension Armour pieces where they are the same way I accepted the Vanguard pieces (which is to say, by pretending they don't exist), but emotes and auras are just... Silly.

It's easiest to not bother, really, that's the sad part. I made a character with large black claws, I got used to using a character with large black claws and I no longer have enough motivation to go out of my way for a look I may or may not like. and Rularuu claws are anchored at the forearm, not the wrist, too, so I'm not even sure if they'll work for me.

Whenever, whatever. Technician Naylor isn't going anywhere. I'm just disappointed, is all.

The Retro jacket sleeves are old, yes, and I saw what you mean - no arms underneath. However, this appears to have been a change done at some point along the way, because it wasn't always like this. We actually had an entire thread talking about clipping issues between things like a white undershirt and dark sleeves, until I think the developers just took the smart option and removed the upper arms from the jacket sleeves since you couldn't see them anyway. At the time when this must have been done, we had no short sleeves on the Jackets torso, however, and this seems to have carried over to the Day Jobs jackets.

I can easily see not having an arm under a full sleeve - there's no point and it just causes more clipping. I cannot see not having an upper arm under a short sleeve since you get to see your upper arm bright as day, and it's always skin. This needs to change, but it's probably something for David's All Things Art thread, instead.

I actually remember Kheldians (back when anyone played those) doing that to new players. I've seen numerous instances of, say, a Bright Nova flying through City Hall and a newbie going "Oh my god! What was that? I want one!" Of course, when I explained that they had to get a character to 50, their disappointment was almost palpable, but the point remains - putting these things on low-level characters is a great sell for new players.

I don't actually mind that it's unlockable so much, myself, specifically because I'm a big fan of account-wide unlocks. I've been asking for this for years (even if I find the email-me tokens system to be ungainly and cumbersome). What I mind is that on top of an unlock, this also has a level gate. It's like being able to unlock auras at level 30 but only use them at level 40. Why? If it's a sense of achievement, then the achievement is already there - you unlocked the armour, and it's not exactly an easy thing to do. Why put it behind an unlock AND a level gate?

This has been the linchpin of my argument for years: "What makes THIS costume piece special enough to be gated?" Sometimes I've been told that these are prestige items and that they look better, which is a load of puppies and baby hippos. It's simply not true because there is no objective scale on which to judge costume pieces. You make a good argument that pieces very specific to a certain in-game established concept could conceivably be locked behind interaction with that concept, such as how Vanguard gear was tied to Vanguard. I could kind of see that, even if I'm not sure how much I'm willing to agree with it.

But the problem is exactly what you point out - "Incarnates" are entirely very abstract. We have no solid definitions of what their powers are, what their powers look like, what the origin of the Well is, what the Incarnates themselves look like and so on and so forth. Incarnates are about as strictly defined within the context of the game as super powers in general are. An Incarnate could be anyone. An Incarnate could have any kind of power. An Incarnate could look like anything he or she wants to. An Incarnate could draw on any origin, backstory or explanation he or she fancies. There is no one, single Incarnate aesthetic to which you can link a piece of costume and say "THIS is what Incarnates are like, so you have to be an Incarnate to look like THIS!" I'm really not sure it's a good idea to do so, either.

And so we're left with "THIS" - Lineage II armour with glowing auras on it. It's cool, certainly, I don't want to take that away from the development team. I have no complaints with the actual armour visuals. But it doesn't say "godlike" or "Incarnate" to me. It says "High Fantasy" and possibly "energy." So what more physical Incarnates, the ones who fight with swords, guns and rifles? Should they look like Thanos, too, when they may want to look like Megatron, instead? Or like Vilgax, maybe? But the Incarnate armour pieces? They look cool, but not godlike. Even if we go with literal gods, I would consider togas and greek armour to be more godlike, because that's what most gods in real religion are usually depicted as. Hell, Hequat - a literal goddess - walks around in a sash bikini, an awesome rasta crown and face paint.

We already HAVE an example of what gods are supposed to look like, and Arthas Sr. is not it. In fact, this take on Incarnates reminds me of Last Action Hero's take on Hamlet, in a sense, or Dragon Age 2's take on the original Dragon Age's take on the Witch of the Wilds (or whatever she was called) - it takes a concept that might have been much more subdued and turns it into something completely different and much more "edgy," both literally and figuratively.

I'm honestly not sure if THIS is what I want Incarnates to represent... In fact, I kind of sure this ISN'T what I want them to represent. And that's kind of my problem with the Ascension Armour - it's a very specific take on what Incarnates MIGHT look like that I don't find to be a good look to aspire to on the one hand, and isn't really based in anything at all, other than that power glows.