With Walk, Power customisation and more done, is the costume creator next on the list?

Hello all.

I was wondering about this the other day after had an opportunity to look over what's coming to us in Going Rogue, and looking back over what's been done in the last eighteen months.

Many things that people had wondered about ever being done have been; weapon customisation, the ability to walk, the ability to customise the colors of powers, some alternate animations for said powers, and the long-elusive ability to completely change from Hero to Villain and vice-versa.

I got to wondering what might be left, and given the graphical upgrades given to the game (and cleverly so, I might add), I thought the look of characters would be on this list. And by that I mean to bring them up to par with what we're seeing in Praetoria and a comparability to what we've seen in more recent games such as Champions Online.

Now, I've read plenty about the limitations of the game engine but I've also seen what's been coaxed out of it and possibly been added to/overwritten. But I also don't pretend to know what the defined limits of such things are. So what am I talking about here?

I'm talking about such things as more visually impactful costume parts as we've seen in such things as the Valkyrie, Cyborg and even Roman sets. These tend to have a more three-dimensional aspect to them and are enhanced by reflective surfaces and so on. If there was one thing I appreciated in Champions Online, it was that parts felt like...well...parts. Not just daubs of paint or patterns, but objects of substance that gave depth and complexity to the character. But how far can this go?

Hand in hand with that are such things as asymmetrical costume options. Many is the time I've been frustrated in coming up with a 'damaged' or 'incomplete' costume look only to find I must replicate portions of that look. Sometimes heroes aren't all consistent looking; sometimes you may well want that Hulk 'torn shirt' look or 'partial cyborg' look. Is this beyond the game engine?

Lastly there's the issue of the bodies themselves. When Soldiers of Arachnos became available to play, it struck me how much smoother proportioned and natural the body skeletons looked. I still jar now and then at the angles I see on our characters' bodies, even though they are still incredibly well animated. Is this an insurmountable hurdle for the game to overcome, though? I don't know enough about such things to venture a guess, though again the comparison to what we're seeing in Going Rogue suggests that this can be done.


I'd really be interested in what people's feedback is here, especially those with more knowledge on these things than me.



S.

Seeing how the devs announced the merger of the market a while back. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that a costume creator revamp/upgrade might be in the works but no idea when it will come out.

well, david"noble savage" nakayama has teased a few times in the art thread that something big is coming, dunno what, but so far he has been pretty good to his word. so my guess is, strong probability of something going on, but nothing concrete as to what.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

One example: (emphasis mine)

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Originally Posted by Noble Savage When bandwidth issues allow, we'll see what we can do about pulling in older items never designed for player use (like those Roman sandals, Mother Mayhem's boots, and other frequent requests--I should dedicate a thread to legacy requests), but for now, I want you all to know that we're spending the extra time to enable player access for a good deal of the brand-new enemy group art currently in production. With your requests in mind, we've pushed very hard to make this a priority because I know, after reading all your requests, what you want and how long many of you have waited for certain items. Will every player get everything they want right away as a result of this? Of course not, but it's another way of addressing the essentially infinite list of requests, and it'll make a dent--that's for sure. Wish I could tell you specifically what's coming, because I know many of you will be VERY excited about the additions, but it's in progress as we speak, and anyway you'll have to wait and see. In many cases, decisions have been made specifically because of things posted on this forum. 'You know, if we adjusted the concept slightly, we could make that (fill in the blank) the players have been asking about.' Down the road, when it ships, I hope you'll let me know if we've hit the mark. Cheers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

If the devs are planning to make pool powers and the like customizable, they'll need to do something to the costume creator. If.

I wish this happens anytime soon.
But I dont think a real upgrade is coming. It would be awesome to have an "Ultra mode" upgrade to actual avatars, giving all patterns and old faces a better resolution. Also, give all the metal pieces 2 options, plain and reflective, so we can mix better, and still having a dull non reflective option.
But David Nakayama said theres a lot of NPC stuff finally coming to players. They are working hard so we can have a lot of stuff requested.
I think that is a step.

The current pet issue for advocates of costume reform seems to be replacement of "color masks" with unique textures. (See Samuel Tow's post above for an explanation of the difference between the two.) If I were the playerbase (which I am, I suppose, in a way), I wouldn't get my hopes up about that.

I do, however, expect to see more and more well-designed individual costume sets, as well as more and more complaints from players that they aren't good enough.

So, no, I don't expect a wholesale costume creator revision unless the game itself is rebuilt from the ground up. That would be a sequel, not a revision.

If I were looking to update the costume creator, I'd:

• Organize current information into more sub-menus. (Chest Details, I'm looking at you specifically.)

• Open up more pre-existing content, both things that we already have access to but which are locked into certain slots (i.e. Bolero's fur shoulders), as well as things currently only available to NPCs (i.e. sashes & butt capes).

• Open up more back options, even if they aren't attached to a traditional node, but instead wherever the current backpacks/wings attach. I did expect some movement toward this to be included with GR, but that appears to have been silly wishful thinking at this late date. It's kind of tragic that after 6 years and with a second new game/expansion is on the way, we've still not heard if we'll ever have this option.

• Revisit the philosophy of "lockable costume parts." Since unlockable parts don't show up in the costume creator until you earn/craft them, it looks to new players that our game doesn't have some real super hero basics -- no capes, no wings, no trench coats. I'd unlock those three at least, for everyone at character creation. If the Dev position on unlockables doesn't change, then we need some explanation in the Costume Creator itself that certain costume basics must be bought or earned at a later date.

• Expand the choices of colors available for both skin and costume parts.

If we get a new feature that allows us to have separate glove or boot colors, (like a red glove on the left and a blue glove on the right )I could then die that same day, and I would die happily.

Giving us some Piston Gloves to match our Piston Boots would not be a bad idea either, and they don't have to look like Back Alley Brawler's gloves.

If nothing else, I'd like to see the giant scrolling lists of doom in the costume creator broken up into shorter sub-menus that work more like a conventional GUI such as in Windows or OSX instead of this weird 'click the arrow at the top or bottom and scroll forever!" interface the game uses now.

It would also be nice if there was some kind of search box for long lists so you could start typing the name of the item and have it immediately pop up to the top.

There are lots of little tweaks that would make the costume creator easier to use, beyond the idea of adding new tech to costumes/characters themselves.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Camper If the devs are planning to make pool powers and the like customizable, they'll need to do something to the costume creator. If.

This is also a good point. Currently there is no way to preview pool powers at character creation, let alone customize them.

I would love to be able to choose different gloves for each hand and different boots for each foot as well as a different should piece for each shoulder.

Edit: Of course, maybe they'll hold off on anything really dramatic for. . .


*shifty eyes*


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City of Heroes 2

Two things I would love to see for our avatars..


1.) Better looking faces... Our faces worked fine years ago, but of all the bodily features in this game, they have probably aged the worse (that or the Lego hands). Every time I come back to this game from some other game, the first thing I say is "damn, our faces look terrible, you can tell its just a texture". They really look like something from the PS1 era of gaming, and I think they could use an overhaul.. Adding in facial geometry instead of relying solely on textures would probably be a step in the right direction. Perhaps even letting us choose our eye color etc.

2.) Optional reflective surfaces for near anything.. I read that this was going to be implemented with "Ultra Mode" and I was extremely excited.. Turns out its only pre-set reflected surfaces for a few of the tech costumes.. Which is still pretty cool, but I would prefer the option of choosing if *any* of my costume pieces would be reflective. Much like we can with the Valkyrie gear, and a few shoulder pads/belts.

hehe... lego hands..

anyway, I do feel like certain unlockable costume pieces should be available at day one. Specifically capes. I found it very strange back in 06' that I couldn't wear a cape until 20. Many new people (and trial accounts) won't (can't) get to capes due to them either having more fun making a bunch of toons in the form of altitus or trying to find the perfect character for them or they simply can't get to 20 due to the trial account.

I agree with Sam, new people coming into a super hero game only to find out that they can't use capes right off the bat is a big mental downer. It's like playing a game of cards only to find out you don't get your hand until 10 minutes into the game. A strange analogy but it makes you question the intention of such a rule.

Anyway Capes are the biggest gripe. Everything else is 'meh' to me, although as equally important to others I'm sure.

Maybe we will see more zone upgrades, which make them look better. Perhaps the zones that are in line with what we might see in the new expansion. Atlas Park and Grandville, maybe.

What is the last zone upgrade this game has dad? Faultline? Has there been other zones since then?

I'm beginning to feel sorry for Mr. Nakayama. Already, people are reading his last post as, "We're getting existing enemy costume parts and backpacks!" This is how rumors, then disappointment, then public disaffection and cancelled accounts get started. The recent flap over the Mutant booster pack not consisting of animal parts comes to mind.

I'm not saying that I'm not confident that we'll continue to get excellent costume releases in the months to come. I am advising people, just as a general matter of principle, to rein in their expectations. Just because something good is coming doesn't mean it's the good you expect.

Personally, I try to look forward to good, new developments in general without having any specific expectations in mind. Of course, this is just as hard to do in the context of costume parts or other game features as in any other area of life. I know I often fail at it. However, the serenity it brings you when you can do it is well worth the effort.

Maybe after the costume creator, we can get them to look at the demorecord feature?

*looks around*

What? It's important to ME, isn't that enough?

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite