Creating a New Hero/Villain

I'm curious, when people (all of you out there) make a new hero/villain, do you have a concept in mind and tailor the power selection to that, or do you just go for the powers that maximize the hero/villain to the best.

Me personally, I build my hero based on concept, and then select powers around that. Just curious to know.

it depends for me. Generally I willcknow what power sets I want to use.

ocassionally I will have a concept in mind. for instance although its cliche I knew my demon summoner was going to be a young school girl for laughs.

however more often than not I will simply see where the costume creator takes me. 90% of my characters use the magic origin.

Although as of late i'v e had a few technology ones fit in. Never (i dont think) used science, natural once... excluding HEATS and VEATS etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoodooGirl [*]Watching out for the Spinning Disco Portal of D00M!*

I usually start by thinking of some sort of odd powerset combination I could try, usually on an archetype that I haven't played one or both of those sets on yet. From there, I try to think of an interesting concept on how that could work, and a very rough idea of their backstory. Then comes a name, and only then for me do I work on the costume. As I play them, maybe months later, I fill out their background more.

Occasionally I swap a step (the name is the last step sometimes), but that's how it mostly goes. Sometimes I ignore the 'make sense of their sets and backstory' step until I've played them for a while. Especially when I was new at the game, I tended to just make a costume, pick powersets that seemed cool, a random name, and an origin at random. Only later did I try to figure out how the hell any of it could make sense. On characters that grew to be my favorites, I ended up with some very cool, detailed backstories to explain all the random choices I made.

Often I start with a name and go from there, but sometimes it's a concept, or costume, or powerset combo that gets things started. It's different every time.

For me it usually goes in this order:

1) Power combinations
2) Name
3) Costume
4) Backstory

For me, I have a concept, and then I build my hero. I take whatever powers I want, still experimenting to this day, lot's of powersets I haven't tried, sometimes I even start over, lol. But it all has to tie in for me. I pretty much am exclusively Mutant origin. Having said that, I have one of each, except Magic, doesn't really work for me in CoH. I have all the ATs covered, except WB and PB, don't really like em. Need to start Redside, cuz I want a VEAT with all the arms!!!

There is always an origin though, never skip that.

I usually base my toons off of cartoon characters or video game characters. For example, my toon Neksis is mostly based off of Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden. My second toon Sirory is a Saiyan, based off of Dragon Ball Z (literally all his costumes are based off a Saiyan character from the series; Royal Saiyan, Goku, Turles, Bardock). My newest toon is based off of Uncle Iroh and Fire Lord Ozai of the Fire Nation from Avatar: The Last Airbender. LOL

I even tried making a toon that resembled the Gundam Wing Zero bot from Mobile Suit Gundam, never got him up and running. Also made Link from The Legend of Zelda in 4 different forms (green tunic with master sword and hylian shield, red tunic with biggoron sword and hylian shield, blue tunic with master sword and mirror shield, and young like with kokiri sword and wooden shield for when i get the superscience pack)

I keep all these costumes saved in case I find the time to finally run them =)

For me character creation usually falls into one of three categories:

1) Character becomes one of the Slipper Sisterhood. Normally when a new powerset comes out I'll make a new Slippersister with that powerset. This is my default char creation process as it really requires the least thought on my part since all the Sisters are identical save for the color of their starting outfit.

2)Dream inspiration!. This occurs when I have a dream with a char in it that I then try to recreate in the game. Most often brought about by eating a few ham sandwiches before bed.

3)Friends toss names. Slightly more common then dream inspiration, this is when friends ingame (teamed, global, global chat) toss names at me to drive me crazy. Often one will stick and I am then forced to go to the char creator and make a char to fit that name or else my head asplodes, which can really put a damper on my day.

Usually I'm inspired from something I've recently read, seen or even heard ("Father Christmas, give us your money"). Heck even the current crop of Radio Shack Christmas commercials with their "holiday heroes" have given me costume ideas.

Sometimes it's a pun or other play on words for a character name.

While I pretty much always formulate ideas before ever logging in with the character...
The order and methods of working everything out are sometimes different and can bounce off of each other (a bit of back and forth in the creation process, where one decision changes/affects a previous decision and that can cause a few chain reactions before the final concept is ready).

I don't ever worry about power efficiency (as I am not convinced there is a much need in this game to worry about such things... even if there were, I likely would still not worry about it).
However, I do sometimes choose powersets first as there may be some that I want to play or have never tried and I think I'd find it fun/interesting.
That never takes me as far as making a character (Well, nothing more than a temporary side jaunt to level 4 or 6 on an alternate server).

Right now, for instance, I want to make a Stalker... Likely Ninja/Ninja.

I haven't found the right character for it yet though. I've been percolating some for a while and am almost ready, but it hasn't hit me with enough inspiration to burst through the No alts unless you really want to Boundary yet.

I spend inordinate amounts of time in the costume creator and save save save tons of costume files (If they had a weight, it would be several tons, I am sure).

I also have several fully realized concepts and costumes ready to go, if I feel the desire/inspiration to actually use up a character slot and play them.

For the most part though, I have enough characters to enjoy myself and don't see that changing any time soon.

Umm... did that answer anything?

I take one of two paths:

Name ---> concept/powers ---> backstory.

or,

Concept/powers ---> name ---> backstory.


I rarely, if ever, make up a new character based soley on a combination of powers that I've heard is amazing (i.e. flavor of the month). Sometimes I'll think, "Hey, I don't have a character with xyz abilities," and I'll try to come up with a concept for them. More often though I think up a cool name and if it's available, I'll try to build a character around it. I don't always succeed.

I just wing it.

Most of the time, I start with a name.

Then powerset.

Then I decide whether it fits a female or male character.

Body and backstory.

Then costume. It takes me several tries sometimes to get the costume just right. Thankfully, I have my vet costume bonuses and 50% off tailoring sessions!

And then sometimes, I just get a power combo that I want to try, go to Lee's Useless Super-hero name generator and wing the costume and ta-da! - playing in no time.

Usually I'll start with a concept and tailor the powersets to fit it.

Once in a while I'll choose powersets I want to play (mainly because I've never played them before) and then come up with a concept to fit them.

I started with a group (10-12) characters made around ideas I have always had, or ideas that a particular powerset combo inspired me. Then I started creating a backstory and I found a couple heroes here and there in my bunch would combine into a themed type team, which inspired more heroes to jump out that would fill out some of the themes. I also had a one-man SG and two accounts at the time so I decided to make heroes utilizing all the powersets at least once, etc and fitting them into the theme teams, then started fitting characters to them.

Now that I have come back to the game and can have villian AT's heroside, I have updated my plan to include them.

My plan now calls for 86 heroes (yea I will have to get a third account, darn :-p ). Broken down into 12 7-man themed teams and my main hero and his signiciant other.

Each team has three support toons (Controller, Defender, Corruptor, or Mastermind) each has debuffing and some healing included. Each has a tank or a strong brute, etc.

Each of the themes has a backstory and a connection with my main (some more fleshed out than others). Only 50 of these characters have actually been MADE yet. Some have names/ideas of them but have not been made, and some are just powerset combos that need a lot of fleshing out yet.

Here are some pictures of some of my original teams (Which have since been modified and changed alot). I have not updated Virtue Verse since 2008ish so these are old versions.

Night Force: Elementals
http://www.virtueverse.com/index.php/The_Elementals
Night Force: Justice Squad
http://www.virtueverse.com/index.php/The_Justice_Squad
Night Force: Teen Squad
http://www.virtueverse.com/index.php/Youth_Squad
Night Force: The Sideshow
http://www.virtueverse.com/index.php/The_Sideshow

Let me try and explain this another way...

There are super birds...
And super bees...

Half of the time, I decide on a powerset that I want to try, the I have to come up with a name. The othe half of the time, I come up with a name and try to match powers with something I want to play.

Most of my character names are puns or some other kind of joke that I find amusing for one reason or another. Sometimes, I'll extend the same joke across several characters, just to see which one "sticks." For example, when the Electric Control set came out, I used the name "Ohm Depot" on characters on 3 different servers -- one was an Elec/Rad controller, one was an Elec/Fire Dom, and the third was an Elec/Shield scrapper. The scrapper made it to 50, and the Controller is in the mid-30's. Then I simply HAD to make a Plant/Elec Dominator named "Ohm and Garden." Then I re-made the Elec/Fire Dominator on a different server, and named her "Ohm Cooking."

When Shield came out, I ended up making "Bull Shield" and "Shield Happens." I also made a "Shield for Brains," but that one got deleted.