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On a somewhat unrelated note, I just want to take a second to thank you guys for being so positive and excited about this feature that's consumed so much of my life for so long. It's been a very long haul and tremendous amount of work from many people on the team. Your excitement about this feature is making it so much easier for me to continue to be excited about it, and that's making it a lot nicer to get through the final stretches of finishing this issue up and into your hands. I can't speak for the other people who've done a tremendous amount of work on this feature as well, but for me personally...it's a huge deal.
The handful of non-glowing responses I've seen have been very reasonable and more in the realm of disappointed but still understanding. For that I'm exceedingly grateful.
So thanks for staying positive and constructive, it makes reading the forums so much easier and working on this game so much more rewarding.
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Hey, you folks are awesomesauce and deserve, at least, respect for giving us nothing but what we've been whining for for the last few issues.
Kudos all Devs & Dev support staff.
@bpphantom
The Defenders of Paragon
KGB Special Section 8
srmalloy, dude, thanks for posting this. Awesome info, really appreciate you going through the effort to inform us.
--NT
They all laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian.
But I showed them, and nobody's laughing at me now!
If I became a red name, I would be all "and what would you mere mortals like to entertain me with today, mu hu ha ha ha!" ~Arcanaville
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I think it was Positron who mentioned MA as being the biggest offender when it came to animation problems with long outfits. I believe he identified it as being only one of a number of problematic issues though (there is a brawl kick animation for the bow and a kick in PPs as well). There also might be non-kick powers which are also problematic.
edit: I don't have a link for you though, and I could be misremembering things.
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I think there is some confusion with the Acronyms here. The MA which was having some issues with the customization stands for Mission Architect.
I don't remember reading any issues with Martial Arts.
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I think it was Positron who mentioned MA as being the biggest offender when it came to animation problems with long outfits. I believe he identified it as being only one of a number of problematic issues though (there is a brawl kick animation for the bow and a kick in PPs as well). There also might be non-kick powers which are also problematic.
edit: I don't have a link for you though, and I could be misremembering things.
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I think there is some confusion with the Acronyms here. The MA which was having some issues with the customization stands for Mission Architect.
I don't remember reading any issues with Martial Arts.
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Sigh. I can't find the post, which makes me doubt myself. I still maintain that one of the devs mentioned martial arts as an example of why long outfits wouldn't work, but that martial arts wasn't the sole issue. If i can dig anything up on it I will post it.
Sermon
@sermon
One of Six, Cannibal 6
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... Mastermind primaries, for example, do not show up as customizable, ...
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Now that I've seen more of the screenshots, including the one that shows what Audrey (from Plant Control) looks like when tinted? I know that BAB and the other developers are busy at SDCC this week, but can you please spare a minute to explain why mastermind minions' uniforms, for at least the original four (mercs, ninjas, zombies, bots) aren't tintable but controller minions are? I know that you have tintable color palette versions of those models available, I can see them (as allies) in Mission Architect. What's stopping you?
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It very likely has to do with the fact that the appearance of Mastermind Henchmen is the culmination of a rather very complicated combination of circumstances. You don't just change the base model for the henchman, you also have to account for the upgrades, and we're already seeing the cracks in the system with the Thugs bug where if you upgrade them while they're upgrading, the latter upgrade won't alter their costumes. It's likely coming, but I wouldn't hold my breath for anything over colour tinting like what you can do to custom NPCs in the Architect, or at most a couple of extra models sets in the same theme.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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I think I'm more excited about what this means for the future than the feature itself.
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This is pretty much where I am. I mean, I LOVE the feature, let me tell you. I've been wishing for this for the last five years, and I'll run that thing into the ground from overuse 
But when I think about what that means for the future... Man, this could be by far the biggest thing ever.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Sigh. I can't find the post, which makes me doubt myself. I still maintain that one of the devs mentioned martial arts as an example of why long outfits wouldn't work, but that martial arts wasn't the sole issue. If i can dig anything up on it I will post it.
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I can't find the post either, but I remember this too.
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Sigh. I can't find the post, which makes me doubt myself. I still maintain that one of the devs mentioned martial arts as an example of why long outfits wouldn't work, but that martial arts wasn't the sole issue. If i can dig anything up on it I will post it.
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I can't find the post either, but I remember this too.
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Wait, I think you all are correct. I misread the previous posts. My bad. 
martial arts may have been a reason, no question there, but someone, dont know whether it was a developer or a poster who had chatted during a meet and greet had confirmed that it was part of a host of issues and just reconciling martial arts really wouldnt fix the other problems, and in jay's posts he really just says he wasnt happy with what they were able to make. now maybe under a new graphics engine(which has been hinted but is bu no means confirmed) they might have wiggle room or something different.
I know i have been following the robes/dresses thing because i keep hoping for an outfit like lau from virtua fighter for rian, but the no long robes thing kind of puts a kibosh on that.
Take a bow, man
and a rest
You are the very best animator in the business in my eyes
There is no such thing as an "innocent bystander"
No dev ever pinned it only on Martial Arts but, obviously, they would totally bork what we've got for robes right now in NPCs.
It certainly wasn't stated as the only, or even primary, reason. It was just given as an example of animations that don't work with the very limited robes we've got and, as is usually the case when a dev gives an example, that translates into "this example is the ONLY reason for X"
My Going Rogue Trailer
Virtue (blue) - Wes The Mess
Virtue (red) - Jess The Best
@Razoras
Ok, this MIGHT'VE already been answered ... but what about Pool Powers? Particularly the blurs left by Flight, Speed and Jump. I'd LOVE to custom color/brighten those. Blue Flame trails, anyone?
Shigeru Miyamoto "A delayed game will eventually be good, a bad game is bad forever."
not yet, maybe in a future passes, but pools, epics and patrons are not going to be in i16. check sm's posts, it was his second to last one in this thread, apparently this is from posi's mouth.
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... Mastermind primaries, for example, do not show up as customizable, ...
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Now that I've seen more of the screenshots, including the one that shows what Audrey (from Plant Control) looks like when tinted? I know that BAB and the other developers are busy at SDCC this week, but can you please spare a minute to explain why mastermind minions' uniforms, for at least the original four (mercs, ninjas, zombies, bots) aren't tintable but controller minions are? I know that you have tintable color palette versions of those models available, I can see them (as allies) in Mission Architect. What's stopping you?
[/ QUOTE ]
It very likely has to do with the fact that the appearance of Mastermind Henchmen is the culmination of a rather very complicated combination of circumstances. You don't just change the base model for the henchman, you also have to account for the upgrades, and we're already seeing the cracks in the system with the Thugs bug where if you upgrade them while they're upgrading, the latter upgrade won't alter their costumes. It's likely coming, but I wouldn't hold my breath for anything over colour tinting like what you can do to custom NPCs in the Architect, or at most a couple of extra models sets in the same theme.
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Color tinting would be enough. Fair enough that you remind me that there are multiple models for each minion: pre-upgrade, tier-1 upgrade, and tier-2 upgrade. And the only ones I've seen in MA have been the tier-2 upgraded models, so they may not have tints prepared for all 68 models, just the 17 tier-2 upgraded models. But when they started building i16, they didn't have tintable versions for any of the controller or dark miasma pets, either.
And actually, I should lower that from 17 and 68 down to 13 and 52, respectively, because I sort of do understand why Thugs can't be: all 7 of the Thugs minion types have multiple models. Oh, and I didn't count in however many models they created for Gang War. I understand why tinting Thugs is such a big deal. But would it really be all that time consuming to give us tintable uniforms on mercs, ninjas, or robots, and put the other two primaries' minions off for later?
I think the reason why long robes work for NPC's but not player characters is that with the long robed NPC's, their robes are actually a part of their body. They don't have the problems caused by layering a skirt over a pair of legs.
They're using a unique body model where the robe replaces legs entirely.
With body type being a permanent choice, it would not work to let us players have it- we would be stuck with the robe for all five costume slots, and few people would want that. However, with body type now being changeable thanks to the science booster, I wonder if we'll see some new body types being made available.
A (Golden Gate) Bridge Too Far- arc 299315
Crazy NIMBY's, Railroad robber barons, and kickboxing Engineers, Oh My! Go back in time and join the fight to save a San Francisco icon!
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However, with body type now being changeable thanks to the science booster, I wonder if we'll see some new body types being made available.
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I was going to say that its unlikely due to the amount of work that'd need to go into making new animations for *everything* for a new model type, not to mention porting over all the costume bits, but then I remembered what this thread's about.
So, maybe.
Current Published Arcs
#1 "Too Drunk to be Alcoholic" Arc #48942
#2 "To Slay Sleeping Dragons" Arc #111486
#3 "Stop Calling Me"
Woops threw my wallet right into the NCsoft parking lot.
Woops.
lol
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Now, the animation customization may not be all that much, but look at the kind of potential it brings. Not only does that mean that, with time, more powersets and more powers could have alternate animations made for them, but these alternate animations could work their way to picking WHERE you shoot powers from. I mean all it takes is an alternate animation that, instead of pointing your hands to shoot a fire blast, causes you to peer forward and shoot it out of your eyes. So animation customization, and possibly even a power emanation point customization. To me, this is one step removed from letting us shoot our powers out of devices of our choice, provided BABs wants to give every dang powerset a weapon choice
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Theoretically, this is already possible. If BaB is really clever, he could try to design the animations so that the weapon barrel ends right about the same point in space that the player's hands end up at the moment the blast fires, which would make the two animations interchangable (for the purpose of projectiles). Then its just a matter of doing some text-file jockeying to make the appropriate PFXs that call all the combinations**, and you have fire blast with hands, fire blast with rifle, energy blast with hands, energy blast with rifle, with the minimum amount of work.
There is a point where this becomes too cumbersome, but in the interim it opens lots of possibilities in theory.
** Read BaB's power customization FAQ, then add these words: powers can now have selectable arrays of PFXs. The end.
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
i would love to see energy/freeze "guns" for science/tech blasters or wands for magic themed ones, emanations are really the only thing that i want thats not being done, and it certainly seems like babs has made sure the new system is very flexable.
TBH I would like my arm to have a blast gun on the end and thats where my powers come from...
like this but not so clunky... more streamlined...
and thats where my fire, energy... ice... whatever could come from...
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On a somewhat unrelated note, I just want to take a second to thank you guys for being so positive and excited about this feature that's consumed so much of my life for so long. It's been a very long haul and tremendous amount of work from many people on the team. Your excitement about this feature is making it so much easier for me to continue to be excited about it, and that's making it a lot nicer to get through the final stretches of finishing this issue up and into your hands. I can't speak for the other people who've done a tremendous amount of work on this feature as well, but for me personally...it's a huge deal.
The handful of non-glowing responses I've seen have been very reasonable and more in the realm of disappointed but still understanding. For that I'm exceedingly grateful.
So thanks for staying positive and constructive, it makes reading the forums so much easier and working on this game so much more rewarding.
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We've been told it was gonna be extremely tough, that there was a possibility it would never happen, that it would take immense amounts of manpower and time...
And you came through for us. Everyone who worked on this, who had a hand in it, it looks simply amazing, and I can't wait to see it in action. Thanks. Truly, thank you for all your hard work, to all of you who did this for us.
119088 - Outcasts Overcharged. Heroic.
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I interpreted "off-color customization" more literally, i.e. the ability to turn it off and see all original colors in their "default" settings, at least as they appear on other players, if not on oneself.
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That is something that is being considered, probably as a configuration toggle.
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
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the interesting thing to me is that it seems to show that you can select the powers during creation, meaning that those of us who dont get into closed beta can still futz around with it, i appreciate that because my work schedual makes the time commitment required by beta testing unfeaseable and as such would not make a good beta tester. but now i will be able to at least try it out when it hits cb in a limited capacity.
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Yes; you will be able to customize all the powers (at least, all the ones that are customizable -- Granite Armor, since it replaces the character mesh completely like the halloween costumes, is not customizable, and powers that are already customized through weapon customization like Archery and Assault Rifle -- Flamethrower, Ignite, Blazing Arrow, and Explosive Arrow -- are queued behind powersets that didn't have any customization at all) in a powerset at character creation, not just when the character acquires each power.
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
I think it was Positron who mentioned MA as being the biggest offender when it came to animation problems with long outfits. I believe he identified it as being only one of a number of problematic issues though (there is a brawl kick animation for the bow and a kick in PPs as well). There also might be non-kick powers which are also problematic.
edit: I don't have a link for you though, and I could be misremembering things.
Sermon
@sermon
One of Six, Cannibal 6