Burnt Matchstick Project

I wasn't exactly sure what would be the best forum to put this in. It's mostly just a thread for myself, though you're welcome to post comments, thoughts, and suggestions. I picked this forum because I'll be posting a lot of screenshots and costume designs. There will also be some story and character progress.

Anyway, if you're reading this and are curious, I made a character concept that I really liked called "The Burnt Matchstick" which I made as a fire/fire male brute character, one of my first male characters that I made as I typically create female characters. The concept is basically taking the fat stripe pattern and the mostly featureless helmet to create what looks like a burnt matchstick. It wasn't long before I was curious how that costume concept would look on a female character, which can be made much thinner than the male model, and thus more sticklike. But I didn't want to delete my Brute, so I remade her as a fire/fire tanker with the same name on a different server. I've now got the name saved on every server except for Freedom, and I play several versions on at least a second tier alt rotation (whatever that means).

So I wanted to create a thread to showcase and keep track of my progress. I like using the forums for this instead of a local program... uh... just because. Each Burnt Matchstick that's not a placeholder is a different AT with a variation on the costume, and a different origin. I'm also planning on creating bios for each one that ties into their own origin and hopefully interconnects in some way.

Also: If you think you have a different take on the character, please share it. I love to see what others can add to this concept.

Index

Brute on Liberty

Tanker on Pinnacle

Blaster on Virtue

Controller on Guardian

Scrapper on Champion

Dominator on Triumph

Matchstick Women #3369 MA Arc

The Burnt Matchstick, a Children's Story Illustrated by Wassy, written by Bubbawheat

Last updated: 1/09/10

Level 50

Server: Liberty

Origin:
As I mentioned in the first post, this is the origin of my Burnt Matchstick Project, and I really enjoy playing him. He was the first one to hit level 50. I enjoy the Brute concept of Fire/Fire, even though he can be a bit squishy. I'm early in the process of IOing him out, working on getting him some melee defense, and he has one Knockback IO which works well on most normal PvE, though he still gets knocked around a bit in AE with some powersets.

Costumes:

Costume 1:
His first costume, pretty close to the original if not completely the original costume, except for the addition of the smoky aura around his head when he hit level 30.





Costume 2 (and bio):
His second costume. Even though his name is Burnt Matchstick, I wanted to give him a costume where he was a lit match, with a red head and the fiery aura around his head, although his fire armor toggles are usually on all the time. But it does make the flames around his head that much brighter. I really like how this posing on the flames turned out in this shot, though I have updated his bio slightly to advertise my Matchstick Women arc.



Costume 3:
His third costume. I liked the pumkinhead when it was introduced, and I like how it looks on him.



Screenshots and Art:

Newest art I got a little bit ago from Lady LoveDie in her art thread here in the forums, she offered up some free sketches and noted she was in the mood for some Chibis, so I thought Pumpkinhead Brute would look good in chibi form, and I think I was right.



He's in there somewhere (from Guest Author arc Quest for Magic)



This is a sketch done by Images By Alex. He did this as part of his 98 sketches (number might be wrong) that he made as tribute to his grandfather's birthday, who sadly passed away towards the end of this project.



Another sketch done by Eddy Swan while he was doing a sketch a day, I believe this one happened to come on my birthday, or at least pretty close to it. He also picked the second costume, I guess that's the general favorite.



Update 1/09/10: And yet again proving all the sketchers love the second costume, ChristopherRobin made a great sketch of his second costume for his 40 sketches in 60 days New Years resolution. And I expanded my limited coloring skills to color it. Here's the original uncolored sketch



Updates:

update: 10/13/09

This was the character that got the most play during double XP weekend, and he's reaching distance to level 50 now. Ran through most of Ghost Widow's second and third arcs, and will hopefully complete her third arc to hit 50 soon. Did color picks on his powers. The first costume I went with a white/orange for most of his fire attacks and toggles to accentuate his smoke aura. The second costume has a bright yellow/orange flame for most of it. And the third costume has a dark red/purple/blue flame which I think looks pretty sweet.

Update 10/18/09:

Made it to 50 last night playing MA arcs. One down, nine to go.

Last Updated: 08/21/11

Level 50 + 3
Tier 4 x 5

server: Pinnacle

Origin:
This was created shortly after my Brute as the first female body type. All the rest have been female as well, though I might change my mind and make all the villains male. I like the tanker version of the fire/fire melee, and it plays very differently from the Brute. There is an extra PBAoE with Combustion, which makes it feel like there are a lot of AoEs compared to the Brute, especially at the lower levels where tankers get more attacks slower than Brutes.

Updates:
08/21/11:
Have taken a break from this one lately to do some more levelling on my other Matchsticks. Though in the meantime I did manage to get her all T4'd out, and even switched over from Warworks Lore to Phantoms Lore pets.

05/03/11:
This has pretty much become my main lately, especially with the new trials, and she has unlocked Alpha (Cardiac), Judgement (Pyronic, naturally), Interface (Reactive, naturally), and Lore (Warworks, Victoria).

Costumes:

Costume 1 (with bio):
This is not her first costume as it was originally made as an extremely basic version with basic tights. My wife actually made the finishing touches on this costume.



Costume 2:


Costume 3:



Screenshots and Art:
And I went back to this character again for my first commission... really. Foo advertised some "quick colors" and I decided to go ahead and jump on it. And again, the concept was all mine, and after a couple tweaks it turned out pretty well - Anne showing off her welding skills:



I went out and got my first commission... kinda. After reading the thread about art for inf, it brought my attention to Heroid who did some great work for me. This was the first time asking for a pose as well, all the other freebies, I just had the artist do what they will with them, as they were freebies, or gifts in many cases. He delivered in spades, and I got a bonus pic out of it, as he wasn't sure if he liked the character better with or without her helmet. The pose I asked for is the one with her holding her helmet. Link to dA page for bigger versions.



This was done by Kheldarn as part of his Horrible Birthday Avatar Sketch project for my birthday. Link to dA page.



This was created by Psygon as part of their City of Cute project. And I added a flame aura to the small version for my current avatar.



Update 12/26/09: Got another commission through the ever generous Caemgen from the ever awesome Foo. I told him he could have free reign on which character he picked, and he went with this one. Check it out! (click for larger version)



This one was created by Temerous Nox as an experiment in a new style of chibis for them, I really liked the look and did my best to add the flame in her hand in the same style to finish it off.



This one was a quick sketch commission sale by someone I caught wind of from SenseiBlur - Dio aka Delta India Oscar on deviantArt. Not a player of CoX (yet, though he seemed interested in trying out the game) he took the spirit of the character and gave her more practical looking flamethrower gloves which I *wish* were available in-game.

Neat concept, and cool costume designs. The bios are also well thought out, too.

Fantastic idea, Bubbawheat!!! I love what you have posted thus far, so I will definitely be keeping my eye on your thread!

Last updated: 03/22/11

Level 50 (+1)

Server: Virtue

Origin:
My fire/fire blaster was originally created on Protector, with the same basic costume as the first one for my Tanker. She made it to level three then sat for a couple months. Then one day, I decided to see for myself what the RP crowd was really like as I had never ventured into Virtue before then. So this was the first Burnt Matchstick that got a bio, and a more significant change. Instead of the full, sleek, tech helm, I went with the much more minimal Cyborg mask. This left me the question of what to do with the rest of her head that was still showing, so I decided to see what I could do to make a scarred head. I went with no hair and a black and red camo pattern to be my best recreation of a bloody scar.

As far as fire/fire blaster playstyle, it's obviously very different from the Brute and Tanker that I've become used to. I find myself having a harder time soloing, especially now that I've gotten to the mid levels, but on Virtue I tend to play her on teams quite a lot and once I got myself hooked up with SOs, she is a damage machine, an absolute blast to play.

Update 5-09-10: Been playing a lot of TFs recently with the art forum folks, and have made it up to level 46. The one problem I've been having lately is that I forget about my APPs (Bonfire and Fire Shield) and Hot Feet.

Update 5-30-10: Continuing on the weekly TFs that are a lot of fun, even if they mess up my costume slots (or improve them in one case. But I got them all sorted out last night, and am up to level 49! I should hit level 50 if I make it next week. I also won an 80's TV trivia contest held by Juggertha and got some more free artwork!

Update 6-05-10: I just hit level 50 last night. The Dr. Kahn TF didn't quite get me there, but we ran a few more missions and that did it.

Update 3-22-10: She's still kicking, my one level 50 that still gets a lot of playtime with the weekly TFs. Made it up level 50 (+1) with a rare alpha slot. Still haven't tried the new Incarnate TFs yet.

Costumes:

Costume 1 (for references):





Original Costume (With bio)





Wooden Match Costume:
Update 1-9: Up to level 39 now, and I picked out a third costume that I like pretty well thanks to Thirty-Seven's costume help thread. It's something different as the first one without the stripe down the middle. It's based on more like a wooden pattern.




Dark Smoky Costume:
Update 2-26: Went out and grabbed another costume slot the other day. Since the last one was a more typical wooden match costume, I made this one into a completely burnt matchstick, complete with smoky head. All the fire powers are dark black with a hint of red here and there.



Hooded Embers Costume:
This is from another costume help thread, this was a contest to redesign Burnt Matchstick for a Corruptor. This is based on the second place design from Mariner. The fireflies aura tinted red looks great as floating embers.



In The Mood Costumes:

Roman Theme:


Screenshots and Art:

Another great commission from Camille Thompson here on the forums, or mvmarcz on deviantArt from a great bust sale. (click for larger version)



A great commission from Taclobanon which I got by winning Caemgen's random number commission contest.


A great piece I got from Juggertha which I got by winning his 80's TV trivia contest he held late night on his dA page. I got the 7th and last question right after being too slow on Qs 3-6. The question was "What do you do on Jump Street?" Jump.




Taking a ride on Sally


Posing for a bit with one of Lazarus's Nagans


The final ding

Last Updated: 3-23-11

Level: 21

Server: Guardian

Origin:
My fire/thermal controller's costume deviated a bit from the previous in that I added more prominent decoration on her head and arms. I added the crown of horns and the fins on her head to simulate a crown of fire, since this was the first non-fiery aura character that I gave much playtime to. I also really love the eye starburst, especially when it's high contrast. I did create the blaster first in her original incarnation, but I didn't re-create her on Virtue until after I made this one. I enjoy the controller playstyle as well, using her in melee quite a bit with her held enemies, using Air Superiority and Hot Feet. This is the first character that I really checked out dual builds in any meaningful way as well. Since I am typically a soloer - I don't need the fire shields or the heal other from Thermal, but I also wanted to be able to use them when I did play on a team.

Costumes:

Costume 1 (with bio):




Screenshots and Art:

Dr. Destiny on deviantArt asked for some character references to do some free pieces for. And he picked my character as the last one, and it turned out great.


A nice piece done by Cami for being the first to post after a request for references. (click for dA page)



A stick figure sketch made by Eat Me on the forums, during a quite popular run on occasionally drunken stick figure sketches.



A sketch made by Tartyrsauce who called it "The Perfect Match" which I loved and used the name in my Matchstick Women arc as the regular boss name. - click for the larger version.


Another sketch from Tartyrsauce around Christmastime, click for DA page.


Updates:
Update 9-27-09: Ran her on a radio team for a while, getting her another two levels. I don't tend to play many buffers, so I kept forgetting to shield my teammates early on. I got the hang of it after a while though - keeping the shields on the tank at all times, and checking/shielding everyone between spawns. Though I kept thinking that my targetted AOE stun was my AOE immob and was wondering why it took so long to recharge. I also went with a mostly orange/white theme for her powers, with touches of red here and there. I think I like bright red for every incarnation of Rise/Power of the Phoenix. Also wrote up her bio while standing around in a costume contest which I didn't place. Got finalists on my tanker and blaster, though I do feel this is one of my weaker costumes. I like parts of it, but I think it's time for a tweak. I should get another costume slot on my next time 'round.

A claws stalker on Triumph - this one's probably got a long wait for fiery stalkers.


The original blaster on Protector (not infinity as I earlier thought)


My dominator on Victory, I like the alien/robotic look on this one.


Fire/dark corruptor on Justice - been wanting to work in the "burnt" part of Burnt Matchstick somehow - this is also the same costume I use for my EB in my Matchstick Women AE arc - who has a villainous version of my blaster's bio.


Defender on Infinity - would love to see a Thermal/Fire defender soon. Also - the Burnt Matchstick that currently shows the most face, and has hair.

Wow you sure like fire

When I14 came along, my first inclination was always to create an origin story for my Trick Arrow/Ice Blast defender - Cerulean Archer, who I had written a few pages of an origin story already. But instead, what ended up drawing my attention to making an arc for was my Burnt Matchstick. I really liked the bio I came up with for my virtue Burnt Matchstick, Emily Metzer, as well as the real name. But I didn't want to do a hero origin story, so I changed it a little bit and made her become a villain instead, and not only a villain, but the leader of a hellions/heaven's gate type cult of women arsonists. I use even more subtle variations on the Burnt Matchstick costume for all the custom minions - 2 minions, 2 lieutenants, 1 boss, and Emily Metzer as the EB. None of them are named "Burnt Matchstick, but Emily is referred to as "Burnt Matchstick" once in dialog, and the souvenir is a matchbook with a single burnt matchstick left in it. Also with I15, I used the standard critter recoloring feature to add longbow flamethrowers and carnie senechals. I couldn't get the match pattern, but I made them mostly black with some orange highlights. Many people don't even realize they are standard enemies and not customs.

It's gone through many revisions and it's currently at a point where I'm pretty happy with it, though I might elaborate a bit with an extra mission at some point in time. Now's a good time for the arc details:

#3369: Matchstick Women
3 missions
level range 25-50


Your contact, a mysterious flame.




Believe it or not, the two on the far left are Longbow Flamethrowers.

I was playing around with the free character creator for Champions Online. I wasn't too impressed with the style - I thought most of the costume pieces were too big and blocky. And the women stick out their chest way too much. But I did like the asymmetrical options as well as the body sliders. Here's what I came up with:

Last Updated: 11-15-09

Level: 16

Server: Champion

Made this one a while back, I believe it was actually shortly after fire got ported to scrappers. I wanted to make her a little bit differently from my brute and tank, so the main thing I'm planning is holding off on Blazing Aura for quite a while, and focusing on the single target attacks as much as possible, which is pretty much a given until the later levels anyway. I played her for a while today running on a PuG in the Hollows and decided to make another change, I made her stripe and most of her flame powers a bright red, and her healing flames and consume a light blue.



original costume - though the only change I made was the orange stripe to red and the X to orange.


Posing with some mannequins on The Cheshire Cat's arc Signal:Noise


Sketch by Christopher Robin for my 30th birthday


Sketch by Technic Dragon who I believe I just came across on Deviant art and saw that they took free requests. I forgot about it for a long while then on a whim I searched DA for "Burnt Matchstick" and found this. - Click for larger version.


And I just decided to try my hand at coloring it the other day.

General update 9-27-09 and bump:

Played my controller on Guardian for the first time in a long while and got her a couple levels on a radio team I formed myself. Yes, I'm sure all of you here know this, but the servers are not dead, and it only took me a couple missions before having a full team. After playing her for a bit, and realizing all her enhancements had gone red, and I hadn't visited the i16 tailor yet, I called it a day, then shortly afterwards moved to my blaster on Virtue for a full team from the LiveJournal channel which had a fairly thinly veiled Wolverine clone. He was different enough to fool some people, but he was claws/regen with a yellow and black costume that strongly hinted at Wolvie's costume, though his head was different.

I just realized now that I finished a bio for my Magic origin fire/thermal controller, that I need to have a character with a mutation origin to complete that part. Looking back through them, I feel like I did do a pretty good job at matching the bios to their origins. Not sure what I'm going to do for mutation though. I guess I'll just have to think of one during a costume contest like I did with the last two. Although tech/science/natural do kind of have similar sources of power, though I like to think that they are a bit different in their own ways.

Ya... But which one you getting the artz for???

added pics for Matchstick Women, they're the ones I'm using for the Mission Architect contest. Wish me luck!

Last Updated: 08/21/11

Level: 50

Server: Triumph

Origin:
Yep, it's that time, I created yet another Burnt Matchstick to start playing. This one was created in response to Wrong Number's MA team on Triumph, dedicated to having a team to play MA arcs. From my earlier post on lowbie placeholders, I mentioned really liking the alien/robotic look of the dominator, so I decided to recreate her on Triumph, with a few updates. Her powers I went with a combo bright red/bright blue. which gives a nice red/blue/purple mix to it, though the red dominates the color scheme for the most part. I also found a hairstyle that really looks great with the stripe, especially from the back.

Costumes:


Costume 1:


I mentioned that I liked how it looks from the back, so I might as well show it off.



Costume 2:



Screenshots and Art:

The ding moment



A nice gift sketch from Lady Judgement after I just missed another offer from the generous Caemgen. I love how he made her face look more womanly, but still kept touches from the alien face. - Click for larger version.



Posing with Sister Flame in her arc Sibling Rivalry



Updates:
mini update 10/30/09: Been playing this one quite a bit with the other MA arc supergroup-ers. This costume is really really growing on me. I think it's become one of my favorites already.

update 11/15/09: Still enjoying the MA Arc team, a lot of good people there, and playing a lot of good MA arcs. It's been fun. Adding a few more screenshots here too.

update 12/23/09: Haven't been playing quite as much, but did get a second costume with a different color scheme from any other Matchstick so far.

update 3/9/10: She reached level 32 during double XP weekend, even though I was running AE arcs without double XP. She became my first character to get recharge intensive pets. And so far, I've always been on a team with some +recharge so they've been perma out of the box. I'm so spoiled.

update 4/3/11: Hit level 43 earlier today with the MA Superteam slowly getting closer to 50, and it's pretty much been solely with AE arcs... non-farm ones.

update 08/21/11: And I reached level 50 during some tip missions in Peregrine Island. Yep, she also became a Rogue in the meantime, though I've been doing both Villainous and Rogue tips in the meantime. She's still a little villainous at heart.

Short update: My Brute on Liberty made it to level 50 last night! No special ding event, just playing through MA arcs nominated for my Player Awards.

Just got to view the finished version of my commission that I won from Caemgen's contest from Taclobanon. It looks really amazing. Thank you so much again Caemgen, it turned out awesome. Check it out here, and on my blaster's post above.

Totally great! I am thrilled it came out so amazingly! Who knew the threat or being burned to a crisp could be so tempting??

Glad you like it and no thanks neccessary, running the contest was a ball.

Grats on the new arts BW - it looks great! Taclobanon did a great job!

Time for a short update: Been playing my dom the most lately, with a few brief stints on the scrapper and tank, I'm really enjoying the MA teammates. Added some screens to the dom and scrapper posts.

Saw a thread about people writing letters in character as if they were part of the Omega Team. i.e. the suicide team that stopped the Rikti in the first invasion and put their letters in the time capsule that was recently opened. I wrote one as my Blaster Burnt Matchstick - Emily Metzer (not the one from my Matchstick Women arc). Here it is.