Wheelchair as costume option?

This will no doubt be met with controversy, but here goes anyhow.

Has anyone ever thought about introducing wheelchairs as costume options?

I mean, we have hairy monster legs, we have scaley monster legs, we have naked legs, why not provide the costume options for creating 'no legs' or legs that just dont work as well as other peoples legs.


Before people jump down my throat, I am not joking.
Many comic characters have afflictions which result in their appearance being disfigured, or disabled.

Positron himself hides his form in a suit, to contain his uncontrolable power.

A certain comic character springs to mind who was also disabled from the waist down.

In terms of practicality as far as getting around goes.

1. Hover Chairs instead of wheel chairs - Hover above the ground, but still move at same rate as running.

2. Provides new concept for travel powers - Rocket Chairs, or Chair that grows wings and blasts off, teleporting chairs, bouncy chairs, the list goes on.

3. New Level Designs could be made to be ergonomically acceptable to the vertically challenged. Disabled Persons Lifts/Elevators.


Has no one else noticed that Paragon City seems to be a utopia where disability does not exist at all? If this is the case... why do they clearly have disabled toilets in the missions?

Surely we should have some sort of costume designs available to make the characters reflect how we want them to appear. Forget about potentially infringing on copyright of marvel characters, marvel does not have a copyright claim on wheelchairs so there is absolutly no issue there.

Instead think about the little disabled boy who sits infront of his computer wishing that he could have his character look like him, without legs, and still be a hero.

Thank you for your time.

Please note, although sarcasm is present here, I am totally serious in the idea that wheelchairs could become a lower body option for characters.

Granted, I cant see many brutes or tanks in wheelchairs, but it is open for creative license.

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Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor

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I mean, we have hairy monster legs, we have scaley monster legs, we have naked legs, why not provide the costume options for creating 'no legs' or legs that just dont work as well as other peoples legs.

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The reason we don't have robes and other costume pieces in the game is because some power animations would look crappy/off/odd with them.
Think Martial Arts if you want some examples.
How would a wheelchair or legs that don't work like humans do with the animations that are used by MA?

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@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity

If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.

There's a little issue with Martial Arts, Super Strength, Kick, Jump Kick, etc...

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I dunno, a flip kick in a wheelchair might look visually impressive.

Professor X in X-men Mutant Accadamy was in no way a push over on the PS2. He was very adept at slamming his wheelchair/hover chair into opponents.

Note - This is not about trying to replicate Professor X.

However, it is interesting to note that not a single npc that walks around Paragon City is wheelchair bound, and yet they have disabled signs on toilets in the missions, except cave missions, cause the toilet there is likely just behind a rock. Clearly a small oversight on the designer/creators part.

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Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor

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The reason we don't have robes and other costume pieces in the game is because some power animations would look crappy/off/odd with them.


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If this is the reason, then it is just the developers cutting corners because of difficulty.

I work for a global technology firm, and I know how acquisitions work. If your in house developers are in capable of doing something themselves, they should either buy the technology from another firm, call it their own, or buy over a failing company that can pull of what you want in order to get the technical know-how, and the staff that can do it.

Its just unacceptable to say
'Oh.. that sounds pretty hard to do, so lets not do it.'

With that attitude, the game will just devolve and fail to get any better.

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Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor

Oracle springs to mind, and I did post something about this, although I cant for the life of me remember where

I think it would be cool. For all that its supposed to be a city, its not a greatly realistic one. Which is fine if you just play it for the sake of levelling up...but that really is missing a lot of what could be awesome.
No/injured legs, missing arms, etc etc. It would be nice, and add more variety. CoXs crowning glory is one of hte best costume editors around. Surely that is something to focus on a lot?

Also, there are no disabled toilets as far as I know.
Male, Female, Huge, I think you'll find

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Could have sworn I saw disabled signs somewhere, even if the sign was for huge, I guess that means that the paragon health service is so great that they dont have a single paralyzed person.

I know there is a limit to the amount of depth that should be put into a game, but at the minute, everything looks too polished, and too shiny and perfect.

The game doesnt look like a game of comic characters, comic characters are realistic, they get injured, they have illnesses, they occasionally need a walking stick.

This is a game of action figurings, they should just scrap the City of heroes comics, since the game resembles nothing comic like at all. Even the hair on characters resembles action figurings. The more I think about it, this game is more like Toy Soldiers than a comic game, there is an idea for a mission architect arc.

Buzz-Lightyear = Sky-Raider
Mr Potato-Head = Banished Patheleon Totem.


What If I want my mission giving npc, to be seated in a wheelchair.... Thats a VALID reason to get wheel chairs in as a costume piece. Even if its just for npcs.

I seriously think the City of x series needs an overhaul on realism, to get away from the plastic looking world. Textures are just ugly. Its like they designed everything with the computer systems of 7 years ago in mind.

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Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor

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Its like they designed everything with the computer systems of 7 years ago in mind.

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They did.

But it still manages to look less plastic than CO.

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I really should do something about this signature.

If they where going to devote resources to adding new skelletons and animation sets to the game, I would rather see animals added than wheelchairs.

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I really should do something about this signature.

Did you consider theres no such thing as what we would consider a phisical disability in the world of CoH there medical tech is clearly far more advanced than that of the real world.

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Just think of the amount of healing we can do in this game, obviously the hospitals of Paragon employs an empathy or two each. Of and btw, position was ‘healed’ after his amour was cracked and the energy his body was made of dissolved, next to that healing someone in a wheal chair so they can walk sound kind of small.

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fllying wheelchair yesss

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If they where going to devote resources to adding new skelletons and animation sets to the game, I would rather see animals added than wheelchairs.

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What about animals in wheelchairs?
Haven't you ever wanted to make that disabled kung-fu master zebra you've always dreamed of?

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@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork

This idea is worthy. I feel guilty to be playing a game where it is not implemented.

And besides, I've got an elderly wizard in a bathchair toon concept circling in the back of my mind.

Does that make me a bad person?

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Atomic Boy Scout
(a) definition of a casual gamer - 3 years in game and first fifty still only on the horizon.

How about walking sticks then.

Make it a prop for scrappers and stalkers.

Instead of a sword... a stick.

No matter how advanced their medical tech is, I still havent seen any elderly people being carted around npc wise.
Or limping with a walking stick.

Its like they have implimented my
'anti recession burn the old people scenario'

Burn them when they are no longer useful to society, use the heat generated to boil water, make electricity, and scatter the ashes as fertilizer.

What do you think powers the war walls around Paragon City. ;-)

Lack of old people in the city... coincidence? I think not.

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Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor

In all seriousness.
Some players like to create toons that reflect them.

Im not saying that every disabled kid wants to envision their alter ego as also a vertically challenged person, however the possibility exists that a player who is disabled, might want their disability to be part of their characters history/costume.

Good writers often draw from their own lives, and now that Architect is going up soon, I think its kinda unfair that the creators limit peoples creativity by having such a limited view on what should be in the costume selections for npcs.

Maybe I wana make a mission where a player has to rescue the wheelchair bound npc.

Or maybe I wana make a new villain group that composes of completely disabled npcs.

The Free-Wheelers they could be called.
Attacking with rifles like longbow weapons, with secondary attack power called 'Shin Shredder' where their wheelchair pretty much rams into the players shins causing crushing damage.

Note - I cant remember for sure.. but I think I remember seeing either wheelchairs or medical beds in the hospital in paragon city.

Not sure.

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Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor

To be crude: It's not worth it.

For characters to be bound to weelchairs the devs will have to create new character skeletons and redo every animation in the game. That's a whole lot of work for something that's, most likely, only going to appeal to a small fraction of the player base.

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@True Metal
Co-leader of Callous Crew SG. Based on Union server.

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Its just unacceptable to say
'Oh.. that sounds pretty hard to do, so lets not do it.'

With that attitude, the game will just devolve and fail to get any better.

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sorry but this is the craziest thing ive heard, saying that they'd say 'its hard lets not do it'
you think making the MA for I14 was easy? no! its because players wanted it and they wanted to take the game to the next level.
adding in wheelchairs to the game wouldnt make it any better, it'd just give heartless children a cheap laugh and probably end up getting CoX sued for making indecent content...because lets be honest, lots of people will take it in the wrong way, even you had to emphasize many a times you were not joking, imagen what they'd have to do

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Same for NPCs only. Skeletons would probably not have to be updated, but the animations and models would.
Then they'd have to be fitted with the -jump effect so they can't jump with their wheelchair over a railing or a box or what not. So the player rescueing them would have to lead them with a lot more care about where to go.
Would stairs have to be updated to be inaccessible?

A multitude of players would be rather annoyed to have to do the extra bother for just an other random NPC like any other, mission wise.


So, yes, for players it's likely not possible to have a wheelchaired character and still be fun playable (Rock armour's Rooted is a mobiliy hinderence, I find that I have to teleport or shut it off to get where I want to go). For NPCs it'd be a work for something that might appeal to a minority, but no doubt create a (minor or major) annoyance for the majority of players.


Personally, I'd like dragon mounts, that's be so cool to fly around on. Maybe even just in one zone, where they're used to... play a game like Harry Potter's quiditch. Still, it's not possible in the current game (mounts/vehicles don't excist, the skeleton could probably be fudged). And it'd cost too much to make it possible for the gain it would give.

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@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity

If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.

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Just think of the amount of healing we can do in this game, obviously the hospitals of Paragon employs an empathy or two each. Of and btw, position was ‘healed’ after his amour was cracked and the energy his body was made of dissolved, next to that healing someone in a wheal chair so they can walk sound kind of small.

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So, the Vahzilok don't run a business promising to cure desperate people of cancer and the like, and other untreatable things?
In other words, thats what they DO.

Although given how stupidly powerful some player characters obviously are, why am I not too surprised?

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You can have a robotic arm, a pegleg and a pirate hook. How much more disabled do you want to be? While it's used to good effect in X-men and Ironside, I think I'd rather devs spent time doing making another Super Booster that I won't buy.

Oh... hang on!

[edit]Challenge: Let's face it, the devs aren't bright enough! They couldn't do this, they don't know how!

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Please fight My Brute: http://2hero.mybrute.com

Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.

Wheel chairs in game? That's so wrong on so many levels.

Anyone that thinks it's promoting equality for disabled people is doing nothing but displaying a staggering level of naiivety.

No. Just, no.

/unsigned.

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@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat

Even if we move away from the idea of wheelchairs for players, you have to admit that it permits role play opertunities if npc's could have it.

Whilst models might have to be made for it, and animations might have to be made, I think it would provide an overall boost of realism in a plastic universe.

Other games such as Spiderman Web of Shadows - Has limited scenes of wheelchairs in use, its just ignorant to assume that having wheelchair use shown in gameplay is offensive to everyone. There are valid story lines, and story telling reasons to have the ability to give your npc's maladies, and illnesses, and disabilities.

Mission Giver - A Hero who got paralyzed by a curse from the Circle of Thorns. (hes in a wheel-chair)

Mission: Please go retrieve this magical crystal, and return it to me so I might regain the use of my legs.

Next Mission: Paralyzed hero miraculously can walk, and actually shows up at end of mission, as an ally.


Providing wheelchairs wouldnt be any more harder than providing female, male, and huge body types.
Or just making a new lower body option for npcs.

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Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor

It's a bit niche really.

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Providing wheelchairs wouldnt be any more harder than providing female, male, and huge body types.


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This is probably true. In other words it would be quite hard indeed. It's not easy at all providing and developing for the various body sizes already. Cossies need to be made, adjusted and tested for excess clipping. Animations ditto.

For such a tiny niche as wheelchairs it's simply not worth it.

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Other games such as Spiderman Web of Shadows - Has limited scenes of wheelchairs in use, its just ignorant to assume that having wheelchair use shown in gameplay is offensive to everyone.

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Nice straw man there - no one here's actually claimed that would be offensive to everyone.

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There are valid story lines, and story telling reasons to have the ability to give your npc's maladies, and illnesses, and disabilities.

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You can give npcs maladies and illnesses just by giving them a funny skin colour, and having them mention it in dialogue.

If you want mobility disabilities, put them on a bench with a sit animation and have them say they needed help getting there.

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Providing wheelchairs wouldnt be any more harder than providing female, male, and huge body types.

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I bow to your detailed knowledge of the inner workings of the CoX costume/model/animation system.

Actually, devs have specifically stated that they won't be doing "fat" body types any time soon because it would require major reworking of so many costumes. And that's just a "looks different" version of existing body types, rather than something like a wheelchair that would need big animation changes too.

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