Sigium

ITT: Troll'd people.

FanTASTIC!

It's almost unanimous that Mission Architect has been a paramount milestone in the progress of further developing City of Heroes. Some may argue that it got people into the game for the wrong reasons (The 'A.E. Babies') and many claim that this caused Power-levelers to abuse the game with an undeniable lack of common sense to even the most basic of mechanics behind Archetypes, Powersets, and so forth. While I cannot deny this claim entirely, I can argue that I don't think the principle of Mission Architect was really about leveling or playing non-stop. I'd like to think that the principle behind Mission Architect was to tap into the creative collective of the playerbase via the custom creations.

Between Developer Contests, Hall of Famers, and so much more, I'd like to think the devs have, to an extent, backed me up on such a claim, as would the community, but I'm trying not to look before I leap.

The point I'd like to make is that the developers have seen what their community is capable of with us, and I think that those same developers should extend this trust of creation with us with additional features to Mission Architect: Fashion Architect.

If you haven't already guessed, Fashion Architect would be a program that would allow you to create costumes/costume parts, rather than missions. A program that allows the player to tap into further resources that have been made by the developers to be more user-friendly, rather than an independent graphics studio that JLove/BABs and the art community may use; just as Mission Architect is more user friendly (I can safely assume) than what the developers use to make their official content.

Now, I'm a mind-reader, so allow me to address some concerns;

1. What would this program DO?
A: Fashion Architect would allow the user to select the piece of clothing/costume that he/she would like to modify/create, and then work first with the bare polygons of the model. Modifying the polygon count would tag the model as a 'Custom Model', in which it would determine the data needed to store this, and give you a limit, just as Architect Entertainment gives you a memory limit on the data per arc.
Once you've achived a successful base model for your new costume piece, would could apply a skin/texture to it. This texture can be uploaded from your computer, or selected from a variety of different default textures provided in the Fashion Architect program. Adding a custom skin will tag the model as a 'Custom Texture', and will be categorized as such.

2. What use will this program have?
A: Your character will wear these custom pieces/textures, and they will also be available for three-dimensional display at any Fashion Architect hub, along with the submissions of others.

3. How will the playerbase ALL wear their own, custom pieces without insane lag?!
A: This is the tough part, I must admit. Allow me to elaborate at how you can essentially 'test' your costume pieces:
Step 1: You go to the Fashion Architect terminal and cycle through different costume pieces until you find something that you like.
Step 2: You can select a number of different pieces, so long as you only have one costume piece per area (1 shoulder, 1 Helm Detail 1, etc). These pieces will be listed to be worn by your character through your A.E. arcs.
Step 3: Whenever you enter into an A.E. arc, the pieces you've selected will take the places of your costume wherever you'd selected them to. These pieces will only be visible to yourself and your current team, and ONLY while inside the arc.

4. Why do we need this?
A: We don't 'need' it, of course. We don't even NEED costumes, but we like it- hell, we love it. The allure of creating your own custom costume is something that we continously find ourselves unable to pass up, and with Mission Architect's debut, the stream of creativity was springboarded past everyone's expectations to produce both quality and originality. Fashion Architect would extend these two characteristics into one of the game's most pivotal aspects.

5. This system seems ripe for abuse!
A: The system could, in theory, be used for abuse, and I will not deny that. People are perfectly capable of uploading their own particular images onto textures that are either offensive or pornographic, or simply create models offensive to people! I wouldn't be surprised to find some jerk making a swastika helmet decoration every blue moon or so.
But that's reality, and the system of checking and flagging is different; developers won't have to investigate a story arc, nor would they have to differentiate between farming and just an odd storyline and/or a story about a farm! Checking things just involves a simple scan of the eye; check for nudity, check for offensive textures/modeling, and it's done.

6. I don't want (my children/self) to be exposed to any pornography or offensive images!
A: Then I'd like to suggest one final option: Toggling things OFF.
Yes, you heard me; turning the entire thing off for selective players who are worried about the content of custom modeling/textures:
This toggle would simply replace any and all custom models with the original models the character was wearing on his/her costume to the player who has toggled it off. Thus, if some teammates have the option toggled off, they will see the characters in their default attire, while those who have Fashion Architect toggled on will be able to see these custom jobs.

Finally, we have all witnessed the success of Mission Architect; both it's value to the community and to the developers. Why should we stop there, when we've got so much ahead of us in the field of player-generated content at the game's core?

Thank you for reading this.

tl;dr: Let me make boobie costumes![/badjoke]

/signed.

Does it give the option to essentially 'gimp' a build? Yes.

By the way, maybe allowing access to tier 1/2 of Power Pools upon character creation, too?

How many Hellions does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Six. One to change the bulb, and five to sit around a pentagram, proclaiming it's Satan's beacon.

How many Goldbrickers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Four. One to get rid of the old lightbulb, one to steal the materials for a new lightbulb, one to insist that the bulb be made of gold, and one to actually buy a new lightbulb when not in uniform.

How many Sky Raiders does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Depends on how conductive those jump bots are that day.

How many Longbow does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Fifty one: One to change the lightbulb, and fifty to help dispel public rumors that the lightbulb was screwed in with 'unnecessary force'.

How many Rikti does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Two: One to attempt it two hundred times, and another to realize that U'kon Grai might not be best-suited for the job.

How many Hamidon Buds does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
One, and aren't those electrolytes shiny?

How many Shivan does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Two: one to screw in the lighbulb, and one to unscrew it once they see how damn creepy they look in the light.

How many Peacebringers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
"Are you kidding me? Do you think I call it my LUMINOUS Aura to sound cool?!"

How many Custom AI mobs does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
One, and duplicated 10,000,000 times.

How many Rularuu Brutes does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
One for every jewel on Ruladuk's vestment.

How many Klingons does it take... Wait, what?

I love this thread... So much...

I was lucky enough to haul *** JUST quick enough for a Gold Medal on the amateur slopes.

It involved using Ninja Run and Sprint... I only used NR for the Superjump qualities, however.

This thread is approved by Siggy Stardust.

It's a public. Forum... Public.

The Suggestions & Ideas forum is one of the more heated places to go because it's a trial by fire; as it should be.

People can and WILL deconstruct your idea down to the bare fundamentals, take the idea's biggest flaw and insecurity, and shine the world's brightest spotlight on it until someone suggests a change that makes it more tolerable.

Why? Because CoH is a great game, and we don't want to see the developers taking on every half-thought decision by someone who never bothered to think about AT balance, or otherwise.

As for Stickies? This forum has a whoooole bunch. Guess how many people typically read? Do you think that number would improve if there were more? Of course not. People would rather ask for forgiveness than permission.

My personal beef, however, lies in the attitude of many players, who are so very against any change to pre-existing content whatsoever; a small change to a costume piece is enough to cause some uproar in the community, and that, to me, is ridiculous. I'd love to see a big attitude adjustment, but it's not exactly my place to ask for such a thing.

I say, Remove Group Fly altogether. It's slow, uncomfortable, and it's a HUGE griefing tool.

Replace it with something else... A toggle, perhaps, that would give protection against Stun/Hold/Knockback powers. Aerobalance?

I'll be the first to admit that while I love our Character Creator, it needs a lot of work.

Polygons need to be smoothed out. I was once suicidal at some point in my lifetime and thought about cutting my wrist with my character's cheekbone.

We need armor and generally all manner of clothing that doesn't look like body paint. I'll admit, Champions Online did the 'Chest Layer' thing exceptionally well, despite having so few attractive layers to work with.

Eye features. This was far more engaging than I thought it would be; being able to color my own eyes, or give them different, odd textures. Think of Supernatural Face #13.

/unsigned

If they'll be selling pets, I'd rather it be some more-tame pets: Outcast Leads, Bone Daddies, Damneds, Malta Gunslingers, Carnival Mistresses, Sky Raider Jump Bots, Boomers, etc.

Small-time criminal gangs who wouldn't be above renting themselves out to the highest bidder. Yes, some of them are higher-ups, but mercenaries nonetheless. Nothing like HVAS, or things that are already available for other means of currency.

It looks about average in terms of performance, but the concept, so far, seems to ungodly boring. Power Armor isn't something that struck me as something 'awesome' to begin with, and without any names or descriptions to entice the reader? Snore.

If a Stalker wants to improve their stealth capability, they should be allowed to, and encouraged to, take the Concealment power pool. Hide shouldn't instantly put you at the Stealth cap, because it's got it's own advantages to it; like being able to use Assassin's Strike and not costing any endurance and so forth.

/much signed

As for the Witch Hat, I'd suggested it be added into my Isla de los Muertos zone concept. >.>

I'd honestly just like a tiny timer. I don't always want my program to lag up because I chose to press the Start key.

As for a wristwatch? Water damage took that out of commission.

I know it's a lazy thing to ask for, but why can't we just get a teeny, tiny little display right on our map time? No bigger than the one used for WoW.