Well, just use your imagination, come up with a backstory and give your character a "voice". Then use that "voice" when speaking with other players. Everything will evolve from there.
Sometimes these things don't come to you right away. Don't sweat it! Make several characters (there's 12 default slots per server for a reason), and figure out what sticks. Play normal story arcs and see which NPCs backgrounds seem interesting or compatible with your character ideas.
-Aside: Heck, my current main (and absolute fave) I didn't have totally fleshed out until around level FORTY. I left her background ambiguous so that when I started fighting the Crey Corporation (who have a penchant for cloning heroes) and finally went up against Countess Crey (who my hero very closely resembled, both in looks and powers), 2 and 2 added together and viola, I decided that my character was a runaway clone of the Countess herself. Only took a year and a half of play =P /aside
What you might want to do is make a mental list of traits. Happy-go-lucky? Easy to anger? Unlucky? Slightly crazy? Honorable and Dependable?
From there, figure out your character's motivation. Is he searching for something or soemeone, and his career path (hero/villain) is simply a means to an end? Does he have an innate desire to see good done? Does he just hate the world? Mix it up: Maybe he's a sociopath who's a hero because it means he gets to beat the crap out of people without getting in trouble? (Which, btw, is a fairly common character type, the Heroic Sociopath)
Whatever you decide, you'll have to back up his traits and motivation with a bit of history, and make sure things mesh. Which isn't as hard as it sounds. Someone who loses their parents to violence when they're young might decide to embark on a quest to see evil abolished, or maybe decide that no one is allowed to be happy and turn into a villain... or they might eventually get over it. Someone who gets super powers in a freak accident might decide to become a super hero like the ones they've always idolized, or perhaps greed will set in and they'll take whatever they can. (As an aside, a very good X-Men character played both sides of this... she was a teleporter, and used her powers to steal everything she wanted... but she did so quietly, because who wants the Avengers comming to kick their butt? However, she realized life was now boring because there was no challenge in anything, so she returned everything she stole, and became an X-Man)
Only YOU know what you'll find interesting. Like I said, roll a few characters, try a few different career paths (roll a Praetorian or two, a hero, and a villain just to see all the early content and get a feel for the various NPC groups) and just go with whatever interests you.
-STEELE =)
Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)
Welcome back!
Don't say I'm out of touch with this rampant chaos your reality
Evilly Yours, Fey Bot/Trap MM
Well, i did some thinking while at work today. The concept is, in my mind, very cliché, but I thought it might lead somewhere. The tutorial builds a foundation for my character and I thought I'd run with it. Tell me if this sounds a too drab or unoriginal.
I was going to take a stab at a dark/dark corruptor. Using the PPD costume as a starting point (as I am a member of the powers division). This is where the cliché part comes in. I don't know much about how the netherworld works, but I'm assuming that is the origin of my powers (magic?). If anyone has an article on it, that'd be great. The Wiki's don't say much. So here goes the Cliché part, not totally fleshed out, need to fill some stuff in:
Suffering a near death experience n the line of duty (that I may or may not remember) I return to consciousness and the first image my eyes perceive is the visage of the heroic Marcus Cole. While recovering I suffer from recurring night terrors and what what I believe is vivid dreams (but what I later find out is a trance like reality state). Returning to the force, with the help of Powers division, I learn to harness this new terror into a force for "good." I now serve My savior, Emperor Cole, and vow to dispatch those that would stand against our utopia and slander the name of Cole.
There is no set way the nether world works as far as I know. You get to make one up for yourself!
Welcome back.
Heroes : Angrem (50 Stone tank), Exo Inferis (50 Fire blaster), Exo Proteus (50 ill/emp), IceVengance (50 cold defender)
Villains : AtomBomb (50 Rad/Kin corruptor), Aleks (50 SS/Inv brute), StoneLethal (50 EM/Stone brute), Davroz (50 Bots/Dark mastermind)
Quote:
Ahahaha, my main's three years old and I'm still fleshing out and filling in.|
Originally Posted by EmperorSteele
-Aside: Heck, my current main (and absolute fave) I didn't have totally fleshed out until around level FORTY.
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I'm also only level 47, but meh.
Ice/Ice Blaster. Dedication to concept is an ugly thing.
Claws/WP Brute. Sex without the angst.
Every CoX character lies somewhere on this spectrum.
I just wanted to pop in and say hi again. I'm back, hopefully for longer this time. I had a short lived career as a MA Scrapper and got burned out rather quickly. Of course this was in the time of AE Farms. I began to feel like a one dimensional smash bot, so I went on my merry way.
Fast forward to 2011. Drastic hour cuts, no Summer School... Boredom begins to set in... but what's this? A glimmer of hope in the from of a Complete Collection box. I figure what harm could there be in trying out all the spiffy new stuff that came while I was gone. I can't wait to bust through the new tutorial. It's killing me, but I don't want to spoil it until I get a character I can sink my teeth into for awhile.
This has led to a bit of a dilemma. I haven't even made it to the game yet. I've spent the last two days in character creation scrolling through powers, costumes, and what have you. I grabbed some of the new packs just to look at the cool stuff. Back when I was last here all we had was Magic and Cyborg.
My main goal here is to create something I care about. Which is harder than it seemed at the time. This server seemed like a good place to start this journey. While I'm not exactly looking for a fully developed character I did want to try and take the game a little more seriously and see where it goes. Stop worrying so much about missions or experience and take a look at what's going on, and build a character than can fit into this world, and have some fun while doing it.
I started to do some reading and tried to put myself in the shoes of someone in this universe. I got some interesting thoughts going. Maybe Emperor Cole isn't such a bad guy after all. Somebody should deal with these terrorists. While not full blown RP, I wanted to dig into this a little more with my new character. See where he ends up. I've got a little black book for logging character notes, It'll be interesting to see where I am in 6 months... a year... but in order to do that I need a starting point.
Are there any hard and fast "guidelines" to outlining character concepts and getting a barebones structure down? I'm looking into either a Blaster/Corruptor if that helps. Figured I'd get as far away from scrapping as possible. I'm just afraid I'm going to end up where I was long ago. Blasting nameless mobs into oblivion for no apparent reason other than some guy telling me to do so in exchange for rewards.
On another note: Nice to see the Cape is still alive. Viva la radio!