Makeover the Freedom Phalanx and win influence! 2.1 billion in prizes!

The Virtue Server Costume Makeover Contest

Introduction

With the Going Rogue expansion, many of the Praetorians are getting updated looks. While that's great, it leaves the Original Eight, the Freedom Phalanx, looking rather dated. I have never been crazy about the way some of them look. In particular, I've always hated how Sister Psyche has an ampule belt combined with the strappy top and somehow that's supposed to make her look like a mutant psychic. Manticore's outfit is also pretty bad in my opinion. None of them have great outfits and there is plenty of room for improvement.

I have tinkered around a little on my own in creating an updated look for the Freedom Phalanx, but thought that it would be neat to solicit the Virtue community, have some fun before Going Rogue and award some prizes at the same time.

Prizes (Updated 2/23/10)!!! 2.1B in total influence prizes.

1st Place - 600 Million Influence
2nd Place - 400 Million Influence
3rd Place - 300 Million Influence
4th Place - 200 Million Influence
5th Place - 100 Million Influence
6th Place - 100 Million Influence

50 Million for the best individual costume for each Freedom Phalanx member. Eight (8) individual prizes available.

Other prizes may be awarded at my whim or discretion.

The Contest

The object of the contest is simple. Revise at least three of the current Freedom Phalanx costumes and post your new updated looks to this thread.

The current Freedom Phalanx members are Statesman, Sister Psyche, Positron, Back Alley Brawler, Manticore, Numina, Synapse and Citadel.



Rules

1. To be valid, a participating entry must be posted on this thread. I strongly advise you to post good looking screenshots with the best resolution your computer can muster. If you don't have a great computer, have a friend take a screenshot for you and post it on photo bucket or imageshack, so you can link it for your entry.

2. Entries must include at least 3 members of the Phalanx which have been made over. Entries can include more than 3 members. Each of the costumes must show off the full body shot of the new look. A picture featuring a costume from the waist up or pictures that purposely obscure key parts of the costume may invalidate the entry. Entries *MUST* label each costume so I can tell which hero is being referenced.

3. Pictures posted on this thread must be of a reasonable size. Please try not to post extreme wide angle pictures. As a guideline, try to keep entries smaller than the picture of the Freedom Phalanx I've included.

4. Each participant can enter up to five times. Yes, it's possible to win the entire 850 million all by yourself. However, each entry must have at least three new costumes. Also, deliberate attempts to spam poor quality entries will automatcally disqualify you. Please make sure that each entry is a quality work!

5. Costumes from the various booster packs, unlocked costume pieces and veteran rewards are allowed. However, please note that I think that some of the booster pack costume pieces only look good when combined with pieces from the same set and not when combined with the more generic pieces that come with the original costume creator. This isn't to say that you shouldn't use the booster pack pieces but I wanted to make sure you were aware of this bias and that entries that simply feature Statesman in the full magic booster costume pieces won't win.

6. My SG mates from the Legion of Freedom and the Moirai are not eligible to participate. Sorry guys.

7. Contest starts as soon as you see this post. The deadline for participation in this contest ends either on March 4, 2010 or upon the receipt of the entry of the 50th participant. Each participant can have up to five entries, but only if they are entered before the entry of the 50th person. Entries received after 11:59 Pacific Time on March 4, 2010 or received after the 50th person has entered will not be considered. On March 5th, I will begin the judging phase and announce a winner by Wednesday, March 10th. I will then contact each winner and award prizes.

8. Prizes will be awarded in influence only to Virtue server characters. If you want infamy, you'll need to get someone willing to exchange your winnings for infamy. I won't be facilitating any exchanges. If you want a character on another server to have the influence, it is your responsibility to arrange for a transfer or move.

Judging

As the person who is putting up 100% of the prize money, the buck literally stops with me. I will be the final arbiter of who wins this contest.

However, I will heavily take into consideration forum reader feedback. Entries which solicit a lot of positive feedback *will* influence my final decision. So, if you have friends and colleagues, don't be shy with having them drop by this thread and cheer for your entry. It *will* help you.

Optionally, each participant is encouraged to add a small write up with each entry they submit explaining the concept behind their makeover. Such optional write ups will be viewed favorably!

Good luck everyone!

ooo fun fun

This looks fun. ::gets to work::

A couple questions, though: Are we allowed to change the gender/Origin of the character? And are multiple entries valid?

I got a PM on rule #7, so I thought I should answer it here because I bungled writing it. I've revised it because I didn't write it carefully enough and it implied that I would only take 50 entries, which wasn't my intent. The revision is below:

I like this idea. I'll get to work ASAP

I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with

I take it the submissions are limited to CoH screenshots? The only "problem" i see with this contest is that each of the signature heroes (excpet Sister Psyche) has at least one part of their costume that isn't reporducable in teh costume creator and helps make them stand apart.

My question is, can a more artistically inclined person be allowed to draw a costume?

Shes asking for a makeover, not to keep parts of the costume, but its welcomed.

UGH! I'm at work this weekend! I bet I miss this...

I know the rules said 3 FP members per person, but I had a interesting idea.

Could 8 members from a SG re-make the FP in their own image, and then one person post the entire group and if they win, the money could be split?

Ok, got me an entry:



(sorry if it's a touch big, if it is, lemme know and i'll shrink it)

With this contest, I figured that it's not a simple matter of giving a hero a new wardrobe: it means completely redesigning them from the ground up. With that in mind, I essentially made all new characters based loosely on their signature counter-parts.

I'd hope it's easy to tell who's who, but I'm sure there are some people who'd mistake Swan for Nemesis if you changed her color scheme, so, without further ado:

Citadel. He underwent the least amount of thematic change, basically gaining an armor upgrade. He almost looks like Apocalypse or something o_O

Next is Synapse. I de-aged him a bit and selected costume pieces that just shouted "SPEED!" or "ooh, shiney!". I figured a crash helmet would be a good idea for someone who runs around at the speed of light. And you can't really see it, but I gave him a goatee. He's supposed to be one of the younger phalanxers iirc and so i wanted him to seem like he was in his late teens or early 20's (even if he's actually supposed to be older than that. The comics make it pretty clear that he isn't in the mood to grow up and be an adult).

Finally there's Sister Psyche. I had two goals with her: One, actually make her LOOK like a "mutant", and two, play with her name a bit. Turning her skin pink (the usual color of psi powers) and getting her hair out of her face was the easy part. After that, I tried to give her a hint of a nun motif while trying to keep with her original "Striperific/Ms. Fanservice" design. Not easy, and I'm not sure if I succeeded in showing that. I normally loathe usign the trenchcoat, especially in black, but I think it fits what I was going for.

I may or may not try some of the others. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread!

Here are all eight original members of the Freedom Phalanx. The design philosophy in general was as follows:

I was designing the costumes as if I were the NPC designer at launch (with current costume options, of course.) I did try to incorporate some of the original elements, whether colors or costume pieces, where I found it possible.

Statesman - The helmet he wears just needed a total makeover.

Sister Psyche - I chose to play up the more mystical aspects of her mental powers.

Positron - Just an armor update, and the grey and green gives a hint as to his radioactive powers.

BABs - Darn near perfect as he was (and I wish we had those piston gloves as an option!) - Just gave him a little edgier look.

Manticore - Brought the hair under control, brought in more of a commando crossed with ninja feel... and night vision goggles.

Numina - Almost didn't make her over because I love her original costume. I went with the all white costume to play up her more ethereal aspects.

Synapse - When I think of electricity, I think of light blue and white; his personality lends itself to a simple, Silver Age style costume.

Citadel - Tried to play up the robotic aspect more. The Vitruvian Man symbol is to play into the synthetic life portion of his backstory.

Alright, I spent a few hours this morning working on these. I really like how Statesman and Back Alley Brawler turned out. Those were the easy ones, it took a bit longer to come up with costumes I liked for the others. Also, sorry if the pictures are too big. I wanted to make sure it was easy to see all the details. Anyway, witness the new and improved Freedom Phalanx!

Statesman:



Sister Psyche:



Positron:



Back Alley Brawler:



Manticore:



Numina:



Synapse:



Citadel:

Once again, here are all eight original members of the Freedom Phalanx.

This time I went with a Steampunk style universe. I did try to keep the general feel of each character within that limit.

I think the only one that really needs additional explanation is Synapse. I felt a Frankenstein's Monster motif would work well with his background and powers.

Hmn...Siberian's is actually very impressive.

I vote for Matt's FP >_> Hes awesome at costumes.

I gotta say, Siberian_Spring's Steampunk Freedom Phalanx is looking really good.

That Steampunk Phalanx is beyond epic. I am jealous I hadn't thought of it before I started working on mine! Very well done mate

While the steampunk costumes are nice, I gotta go with Matt King on this one so far. I enjoy the clean looking design. You can see an evolution from classic to these new costumes.

I have to say Matt King's entry is the best so far, those costumes are amazing! I especially like Manticore, Positron, and Synapse, Wow!

I vote for Matt King as well. Teh Oober! ^^