Discussion: The Intrepid Informer: Galaxy's Last Stand

Do a google image search on any African American professional wrestlers. As anyone exposed to the brightest spotlights, especially when sweaty from doing any professional sport, depending on the angle, the washout can cause the same thing that's going on with BaBs in the photo.

Shadowing mixed with sweat/water/oil and an extremely bright light source can duplicate what's seen in the new loading screen.

To me, it looks as BaBs saw the attack coming where Sister Psyche was facing the opposite direction and was startled that something happened behind her.

I've been trying to resist saying this, since I know someone (possibly multiple people) put a lot of time and effort into this splash page... But the first time I saw it I actually laughed out loud, before hearing Plinkett's voice in my head saying "What's wrong with your face!" I'm not worried about BABs' skin tone or the curvature of Sister Psyche's spine, as that's just artistic license, but the faces on both of them are just... Oh wow...

Please, forgive me for criticising artistic work while possessing no artistic talent, but I can no longer resist saying this: Both of their faces are really bad. Let's start with the more benign example.

BABs' face here is weird. It's not that it's contorted in a "You are tearing me apart, Lisa!" scream, it's that his right cheek is bulging out like he has a shoe box in his mouth with teeth and a tongue painted on it. His left cheek that we can see is perfectly fine, in that it displays a straight line of tissue from the cheek bone right down to the chin, but his right cheek has this weird protrusion. There's no bone there to push the bottom of his cheek out like that, there's no jaw muscle so near the chin to bulge out, and it makes his face look either like the inside of his cheek is padded or like his cheek is drooping like that of an old, wrinkled man. Worse, it makes his face asymmetrical, which is really odd.

Then there's Sister Psyche's face, and that's just... Wow. Please, please don't take this as an insult, but it reminds me of the kind of face you'd see on Cartoon Reality, with the huge O-mouth and the exaggerated facial features. The way the lower lip droops over the chin, while possible to do and often practised by women trying to look sexy (and failing), is REALLY uncomfortable to do and not at all natural for a surprised face. I mean, BABs may look like he's constipated, but that's how people roaring and yelling tend to look, and I can tell what his emotion is - AAAAAA! Sister Psyche just looks like her face is melting.

What really does me in is that the corners of her mouth are way, way low for this to be a natural expression. Yes, there are muscles on the face which can pull the corners down, but these are more often associated with a "Ew! Gross!" emotion more than one of shock or surprise, which is what her deer-in-headlights eyes say. And - and this may just be perspective speaking, but her face looks like it's folding in half and being drawn in by the gravity created by BABs tremendous size. It also kind of looks like her nose and mouth are off-centre from the plain of her face.

All told, don't get me wrong - I like the artwork. The colouring is absolutely soling, best I've seen in quite a while, and I've seen a LOT recently. I mean, BABs' gauntlets in game are kind of dinky and low-res, but the gauntlets in this shot are simply breath-taking, doubly so since I don't actually like their design, but I like the ones here. The lighting is also excellent, with both highlights and shadows, and even the apparently controversial skin tones I find are very well done.

But those faces...

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Like where this is going.

About the Sister Psyche look:
maybe something as simple as changing her posture a bit, or her hands could convey the getting ready to respond look. Have her face be "OMG" but her fists tightening or tense to spring into action.

About loosing the original tutorials:
As others have said, apart of me likes breaking out of jail. Seems like a awesome way to begin a career.

Story wise, the original hero tutorial has its charms in that is a simple way to lead a new hero. "Nothing too dangerous, we're going to hold your hand through this, son."

This new tutorial also seems railroaded plot wise. "Something happens, and a hero rises to the challenge." Some of us choose to RP, or have a story on how we became heroes, and this arc might get in the way of that. (People have been saying the same thing about Jailbreak.)

If I had a say, I'd keep all three tutorials, and on the character creation have [Hero] [Villain] [Choose my fate], and keep the original tutorials locked from new players till they became VIP, or ran through the new tutorial at least once.

Excellent post Tetsuko_NA, as you stated, not rage, just observation..thank you!

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Originally Posted by Angelxman81 Wow, I think some people is overreacting a bit...

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Originally Posted by Tetsuko_NA And I find it amazing that honest critique, including people saying "Hmm, this looks disturbingly sexist/etc" is somehow conflated with OMG RAGE. (Citation needed) Does BAB's skin tone reflect what bright light - especially red-colored light as from a fire or explosion - look like on dark-colored skin? Is the tone of his hair, costume and gear similarly pale-shifted to suggest he is being bathed in actinic light that might wash out his skin tone? BAB looks causasian in this picture - according to lots of people looking at it. He's not. That's either an technical mistake (which I would imagine the artist would like to be informed of), or it is a deliberate altering of BAB's apparent ethnic background, which the players would like an explaination for. In terms of SP's expression, it looks less over-the-top and more asanine. This appears very much out-of-character for her, and so - once again - technical error or character alteration? More to the point, let's assume that her expression is fully justified - she truly is that horrified/angered/paniced... do you pose like that when you're frightened? I'm quite serious - cover her face and look at her pose... what about that suggests fright or horror? Or determination or strength or heroism, for that matter? The fact that poses that emphasize outthrust breasts and hips are considered action poses for female comic book characters is sexist - deeply sexist. If you don't think so, just picture BAB in that same pose. If we are making the assumption that a character specifically uses her eye-candy appeal as part of her operational toolkit (e.g.: Catwoman, Poison Ivy), that's one thing. Again, is the part of SP's established character? *sigh* I hate this argument. Being able to match an effort is not a reasonable gate for being critical of that effort. if a gymnast falls off of their equipment during their routine, I don't have to be a gymnast to recognize the error. if I'm really unfamiliar with the subject, I might ask "Did you mean to do that?". And that's what some people ehre a re doing: "Did you mean to make BABs look white? Did you mean to make SP look like a posable sex doll?" Did it maybe occur to you that feeling that you should end a post like this might just suggest you should review it for content? Unless, of course, you find the typical opinion expressed on the boards to be worthless - in which case I would have to ask why you bother posting...

Man, you said it perfectly; even the hair texture changed lol... so.... I'm hoping the collective comments ensure the integrity of the character when it comes out.. nicely stated

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Originally Posted by Zombie Man At how many lux does dark skin appear Caucasion without similarly washing out all the other colors it illuminates or illuminating all those shadowed parts facing in the same direction of the light? It's got to be *brighter* that the sun, because people of African descent don't look Caucasion outdoors at noontime. At how many lux do dreadlocks become undone? At how many lux do panels of cloth burn away leaving just the seams? Is this a wizard's fireball perhaps?

But..before I get too way off topic, I am excited that with the technology, "we" are trying a new way to keep the game fresh. I had tried CO some time ago and their intro for new players thrust you into the midst of an event as well, but I like this in that its more cataclysmic, more epic!!

If you think about it, this game has been around over 7 years, and still innovating, still competing with games which admittedly have a newer graphic engine but don't have the substance, the lore that CoX has. So while CoX continues to add more content at the beginning, and an end game, these innovations are a great way to show that in addition to content, the devs care about keeping it competitive technically as well.

A listening dev community is what keeps me coming back year ..after year...after...

Wha...huh..erm...durr.

Dang I didn't know I had to analyze a picture ........ Lol

This is not a comment about how the art looks, but I wanted to comment on the idea of Sister Psyche being overcome.

I am not familiar enough to know if she has displayed the powers of empathy, mind reading and/or any sort of telepathic link to others.

Psychics who do have such powers may be a bit overcome in such enormous situations, due to a sudden flood of panicked cries, thoughts and feelings of anguish from the large number of victims.

I am not saying anything about the pose or the face, nor any social commentary about the woman panicking and the male standing strong and resolute... I am just commenting on the concept of a psychic's possible reaction to such things. Some times, even, the more powerful a psychic is, the worse. I'm not saying that they can't compose themselves... or even keep themselves composed and functional the entire time... but they still often may have visible indicators of the emotions they are sensing from others.
It's a fun, and dramatic, aspect of psychic characters that I've seen in many works of fiction.

Anyway... just saw a lot of people scratching their heads about that specific aspect of the situation being depicted in that picture and was surprised that no one seemed to think of that angle.

I only read a little of this thread begause, frnakly, a lot of the things I read disgust me.

I don't need an ancient 1970s feminist notion of what a strong woman is supposed to look like informing the design of characters in my game. In the post-feminist 21st century women can display intelligence, strength and sexuality to any degree they choose to.