Consolidated Power and Weapon Customization Thread
By
Aett_Thorn,
Posted on: 2007-09-08 16:38 in Suggestions and Ideas
Not to mention there are illegal mods out there that violate the EULA of this game...which defeats the purpose of having real power customization coming from the devs
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Why should we let it drop? so they can sweep it under the rug and "forget" how important it was to so many people? No thanks. I would rather them remember, and be reminded constantly that we want it and how bad.
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The point I was making is that they already know how badly we want it. People wanted capes and wings just as badly, and they didn't need to be reminded daily about that. Hell, they even managed to give us wings in a *far* better manner than they initially thought.
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User created content works best when people can pick and choose what they want to download. Take a look at a user supported gaming site like kongregate.com or a site that hosts user created mods for games like Half-Life. 99% of it is really bad. People play that 1% and tell everyone else to play it, so the good stuff rises to the top while the loads and loads of bad content is just ignored.
For a game like this, that wouldn't work. They couldn't add a user created Lemur tail to the game for everyone to use without doing a significant amount of work. Not only do they have to go through all the bad stuff to find the one thing that really works, but the also have to check for any bugs that the player might have missed. In the time they've done all that, they could have built something themselves.
Maxis had to hire full time people just to look through all the stuff posted on their Sims site and remove everything that was questionable. They weren't even trying to maintain quality, just keep it clean.
So user created content really doesn't work for this type of game.
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You are correct a protion of user content is crap. But I was not suggesting that the every item the players create would get reviewed, cleaned-up and added to the game by the Devs we all know that would never work. I was suggesting giving the players a means to create content, post it to the forums, let other players try it in test if they wish and if it is good enough the devs might pick it up. Heck there could even be a bounty in game time, badges, etc. for getting a piece of content in. Later maybe even mission maps and story arcs. The idea is to start simple, document the process, improve the process, and organically grow the system until you have a community of content developers and players eager to try the next hit of content.
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Why should we let it drop? so they can sweep it under the rug and "forget" how important it was to so many people? No thanks. I would rather them remember, and be reminded constantly that we want it and how bad.
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The point I was making is that they already know how badly we want it. People wanted capes and wings just as badly, and they didn't need to be reminded daily about that. Hell, they even managed to give us wings in a *far* better manner than they initially thought.
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I ahve said pretty much the same thing in other threads. I guess I am just tired of seeing the under dogs get picked on 
I do think they are working on it, human nature (mine anyway) is if something is hard for me to work at it harder. I am sure we will see it in time, I have said as much. I just don't see anything wrong with people posting on it.
I would prefer all of those posts to be in ONE thread, but it is not always going to happen that way.
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I just want to throw White Fireballs...is that so hard to ask devs? :P...and White Nrg Melee?
Any one know why the changed the game so model and skin mods would not work? It is a serious question, no scarsm intended.
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what are those Zyphoid?
those = the mass of new posts on PC.
Would just be alot better consolidated in one thread.
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yeah i see kitty krusader started a flame war about it (sigh)
and here i was trying to make a decent thread 
For the sonic sets, I would like to have a selection of sounds to choose from rather then different colors. The current sounds really annoy me.
Sound customization might be a good idea for martial arts and super strength, as well. Since they don't have any colors to change. Grunt like an ogre or scream like a ninja, type of deal. 
And while it doesn't really belong to power customization, it would be nice if we could pick footstep and breathing sounds for our characters as well.
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For the sonic sets, I would like to have a selection of sounds to choose from rather then different colors. The current sounds really annoy me.
Sound customization might be a good idea for martial arts and super strength, as well. Since they don't have any colors to change. Grunt like an ogre or scream like a ninja, type of deal.
And while it doesn't really belong to power customization, it would be nice if we could pick footstep and breathing sounds for our characters as well.
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Hehe.. you reminded me of a friend of mine who stated that he would not play CoH until the game would play a "personal theme song" for him. Something like hearing the old school Justice Legue title music upon entering a mission. I then agreed he should never play the game as hearing that song more than twice in one day might cause me to.. well... lets not get into that.
It would be nice though to have a handfull of voices to pick from for male, female, and huge.
Good idea siska lets add "sound customization to the discussions here"
well the sonic sounds work for my character whirly bird...she shrieks...and the sonics have a shrieking sound...but they do sound male oriented..whirly bird is a female character
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For the sonic sets, I would like to have a selection of sounds to choose from rather then different colors. The current sounds really annoy me.
Sound customization might be a good idea for martial arts and super strength, as well. Since they don't have any colors to change. Grunt like an ogre or scream like a ninja, type of deal.
And while it doesn't really belong to power customization, it would be nice if we could pick footstep and breathing sounds for our characters as well.
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Also there needs to be more female sounds 
http://community.livejournal.com/cit...s/2279128.html
and I found another one from statesmen that talks about customization..but it feels like its missing something
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/city-of-heroes/611236p1.html
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"We took a costume customisation tool that offered an almost unlimited number of costume options and added to it by geometric proportions," said Jack Emmert, City of Heroes lead designer and creative director for Cryptic Studios. "One of the achievements we are most proud of is that players know that they can play City of Heroes and may never see another player with the same costume. The updating of custom options also expands our ability to reach more players who are fans of Anime or Manga."
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"players know that they can play City of Heroes and may never see another player with the same costume"
But can almost always see another player with the same powers...and feel like they arent any different..
i know the argument to this is "take different powers within the powerset"
But that still wont allow me to stand out and be unique and create a concept that I see in my head and let the rest of the world see it within the game....
is that fluff to some? sure but not to me
http://archive.gamespy.com/e32002/pc/cityofheroes/
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Just assembling the right outfit can be a delightful, if monumental, task of its own. "We've got 2.44 times 1024 combinations in creating heroes," said Cryptic's Jack Emmert. You can pick masks, backpacks, torsos, heads, body types, cybernetic enhancements, boots and more, all in a rainbow of colors. While Cryptic is taking special care to leave out copyrighted trademarks and looks (you won't see a city full of Supermen, for example), you should still be able to create any kind of look you want.
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Sorry Mr. Emmert But it seems that I cannot create any kind of look I want.
Yea, I read all of those articles too, thanks for linking them LemonLass.
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Ok i think that the best way for this to work is to come at it from the angle of the Aura Effects and/or the Invention system
THE AURA EFFECT METHOD:
This one would be for the art department. In effect what you would be doing is attaching the aura effect to the power as well as the costume. Instead of changing the powers of the powersets back to grey scale. Ok now your level 30 and you have unlocked the ability to add an aura to your costume. Now you should then have a Powers Aura Mission to unlock aura effects for your power. This would involve taking existing aura effects and extending them or attaching them to the existing power....wrapping the power with the aura. So since I'm an energy blaster I want my blasts to come out... with a yellow aura. Now after I do the aura mission I would be able to go to the tailor and have an extra button that says:
<ul type="square">[*]APPLY THIS AURA EFFECT TO YOUR POWERS?[/list]
At this point you could select yes or no and from that point on all your powers will have the desired tint color wrapped around your existing costume and powers. If you selected NO it would simply just affect your costume.
Another way you could do this is have it come in a separate mission for the tailor (at 20 you get a cape) (30 costume aura)
and maybe (35 Power Aura) not sure about the levels but it would be one way to reduce the amount of server lag for adding some color effects to existing powers. This would work on all weapons too...they would glow with the tint of the aura effect.
THE INVENTIONS SYSTEM RECIPE METHOD:
What this would entail is a rare recipe that could be found at any level that would simply change the color of your power entirely...what would happen here is that it would be an extremely rare recipe and once found it sends a message to a art developer that you've unlocked a color choice or effect for your power set. At this point the game would tell you:
<ul type="square"> [*]YOU HAVE UNLOCKED 1 COLOR CHANGE FOR YOUR POWERSET...YOUR CHANGES WILL TAKE EFFECT WHEN THE ART AND CODING TEAM HAVE CHANGED IT.[/list]
So in effect as of course more and more people find the rare recipie....little by little colors to powers could be changed over time without effecting any new issues from coming out. I mean imagine 1st that you have to get the rare recipie....2nd it would mean that artists/programmers would not be working on all color changes at the same time. Now this may not be feasible but then heres the other idea.
COMBINE IDEAS #1 AND 2
Now this would be the same that you need the recipe instead of doing a mission to get the aura effect wrapped around your existing power. This would also allow art/coders to create the aura wrapping for each power set at a slower pace and hence get more content done for other ideas. I'm not sure if any of this can work but I just thought of these 3 ideas. if any of it sounds doable or if anyone has some changes to this idea to suggest or work around etc. Please feel free to add your input.
God Bless and thanks for reading
Good job getting this stickined. That has some interesting information in it. I'm a little disappointed that we've lost a lot of developer posts in the several purges, however, as those held some interesting information.
One thing I recall was the talk of weapon customization and why that is/is not any more viable than all the other types of customization.
The other such post that I recall far better was Positron posting for someone from the art department. Could even have been BaBs before his name spontaneously turned red. We'll never know. The meat of that post was about customizing animation and was in response to a thread about letting us walk instead of running everywhere. That post spoke about how every new animation added had to flow seamlessly from and int the several different states that our characters can be in. The states I remember were neutral (the way you stand when not in combat), ready (the stance you take when priming an attack, rifle up for Assault Rifle for instance) and combat (the stance you take when running around after an attack, rifle down for Assault Rifle). A new running animation, say, would require to flow seamlessly into all of these, lest it look really ugly. The other problem here was that the engine did not (then) have the ability to select an animation for a power or for a basic action.
That's entirely off memory.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
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NerfedAgain:
Ya know, some people will argue against what I think and others will claim it just won't sell... but honestly, I think its about time for a paid expansion. Everyone likes their free updates and some people will rail against spending more money on an MMO that's 3 years old already. I think the added benefit of more budget to work with would get a lot more features & content into one big update rather than a little here and there over time.
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I would pay for an expansion/extensive update. I would pay for all of my friends to have this update. I will donate money to the studio for higher salaries for the people that make this game. Why? They put a TON of effort into it, and the comminity only wants more. I would be happy to share my income with a game that I spend a large amount of time on and enjoy.
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I wonder though how difficult or possible it would be for the DEVs to write up a guide and mini tool set that would allow the more artistic in the comunity to create their own custom emotes, power animations, and costume pieces for injection into special "custom" powers/emotes/costume items that are availible only on the test server for customization users. The tools would basically alow you to "clone" a existing animation/object as the basis and inject your art in place of the default art on your test client. (Everyone else would see the normal animation/object)
This would not solve the programming side of the fence but it might give the comunity a chance to particpate. My concern is it may not be worth the time if there is not enough volunteers. So maybe if the devs surveyed the community beforehand. And if they can get enough skilled people willing to help. And if the tools necessary are easy enough. We might see some interesting content, rather than having endless discussions over when if ever PC is going to happen we might actually be voting for/against Lemur's new ringed lemur tail costume piece or YellowLass' bananna colored powerbolts.
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User created content works best when people can pick and choose what they want to download. Take a look at a user supported gaming site like kongregate.com or a site that hosts user created mods for games like Half-Life. 99% of it is really bad. People play that 1% and tell everyone else to play it, so the good stuff rises to the top while the loads and loads of bad content is just ignored.
For a game like this, that wouldn't work. They couldn't add a user created Lemur tail to the game for everyone to use without doing a significant amount of work. Not only do they have to go through all the bad stuff to find the one thing that really works, but the also have to check for any bugs that the player might have missed. In the time they've done all that, they could have built something themselves.
Maxis had to hire full time people just to look through all the stuff posted on their Sims site and remove everything that was questionable. They weren't even trying to maintain quality, just keep it clean.
So user created content really doesn't work for this type of game.