Art Poll: Signature Characters

Are custom weapons (and shields) considered costume pieces ? They are under costume in the tailor screen.

This shield model:


Has an animated texture where the glowing lines brighten and fade. The same tech could also be used for custom weapons at least. And probably "normal" costume pieces.

Many possibilities with that.

Awesome! Have there been discussions of leather and chain armors too? (I've recreated a few of my D&D character in City..)

I'm working on it! <grumble grumble>

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Options are great, and I think everyone's made a good case for a non-reflective Metallic-type set. Best I can do is to pitch it as a Quality of Life improvement addition for a future issue, but I will do that.

About a hypothetical new medieval set: So my personal artistic taste would be to go a little less reflective on "period" outfits. I feel like the full-chrome look makes more sense on modern and futuristic costume sets. But really, this is a decision that'll be made by the character artists.

I agree. I like his old costume from the books. This one...makes him look....I don't know, just not right for me.

That and standing all day in that spandex and helmet HAS to get hot.

I figured as much. Too much Tron. I guess less is more.

----- Union's finest underachiever -----
Farewell CITY of HEROES
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Mother Mayhem!

Mirror Spirit and Foreshadow.

Ghost Widow really is my favorite. My second favorite would have to be Scirocco. I know his backstory and could see him redeem himself, not even having to change his outfit much if at all. And man, do I ever want to see him succeed in redeeming himself. I'd be grinning from ear to ear like an idiot if he ever became a Hero.

I have to second this. Solid work on both these characters. Now, if we could just meet the other pair.

Him... or Scirocco get my vote.

Other than streetwalker in red light district you mean?

Favourite male: either Noble Savage (I just love his cute leonine face) because there are few therianthropes in game and Scirocco because it just completely evokes who and what he is.

If GW must be the absolute favourite female, I still think Swan is very good. Again, minimalist simplicity can be beautiful sometimes.

Emperor Cole in his white suit for iconic look, Dr vahzilok for cool (sewing yourself in a flesh suit is just awesome.)

Ms Liberty for iconic look, Mirror Spirit for cool.

Yeah, David, I have to side with the others here - "metal" isn't always synonymous with "reflective." Off the top of my head (and with the help of about 60 seconds of Google image search), I can come up with the following examples of non-reflective metal: an M1A2 Abrams main battle tank, a Komatsu D575A superdozer, a ye olde wood stove and a run-of-the-mill shipping container. What you have to remember here is that you're not just making brand spankin' new shiny tech that just came out of the spray booth. Some of these metal armour suits have been through hell and back and would be scratched up, dinged up, dirty, rusty, dented and otherwise worn out. Not all of them have to look like they stepped out of an art deco paining.

Also - and please understand that I say this with the utmost respect to you, David - I feel that you are a bit too focused on literally and figuratively "shiny" new costume additions. Whether we're talking actual shininess and reflectivity or just general complexity of detail, striking visuals or anything else that turns heads and catches the eye, you seem to all too easily neglect the simpler, stylised, basic costume elements that make characters great. Ghost Widow comes up in your poll again and again not because of her flowing hair rig or the shiny tights or the high-resolution textures or whatnot. She comes up because her design is simple, elegant and memorable. I get the feeling that the mentality around the studio goes along the lines of "Why have metal armour when we can have reflective, shiny, bump-mapped, glowy, ornamental, decorated metal armour?"

Sometimes, less is more. Sometimes, simpler designs without overbearing fancy effects are the most appropriate thing. Sometimes, simple flat colours work better than complex textures. I mean think about it - when was the last time the art team produced metal armour comprised of large smooth plates without some kind of abstract ornamentation to them? The last one I can thin of, really, is Armour Plate from back in 2004, possibly Techbot from 2005. Enforcer only partially counts, since only the chest is flat metal plate, with everything else being ornamented.

Please don't take this as a putdown. It really, really isn't. And don't take it to mean I don't want new fancy costume items. I LOVE the glowing wings tech. I LOVE the reflective Valkyrie pieces. I LOOOVE the glowing resistance gear. But that's not all there should be. Simple, stylised, basic costume pieces cannot be put by the wayside or, worse still, taken out of the game. People cling on to their old pieces not because they're great (most of them aren't even good), but rather because they represent something that the current art team doesn't seem interested in making more of - simple things. Just an easy example: While I appreciate the glowing, spiky, detailed, ornate Ascension shoulder pieces, I still want "just medieval shoulders." Do you remember Romulus? Do you remember what shoulders he uses? Slightly touched-up Gladiator shoulders, only he uses the big shoulder on both sides. Far more than the Ascension shoulders, THAT is what I want - just a simple big Gladiator shoulder on both shoulders. It looks cool, it looks big and I could SO use that, but we've never had that in the game, I assume because it's not fancy enough.

Please don't put a lower boundary that "Your piece must be at least this---> awesome to be made." Not every piece you make has to turn heads.

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.

I can actually answer that, albeit with fairly subjective reasoning. Ghost Widow is far better designed than Sister Arilia for one simple reason - her colour scheme is much stronger in its delivery. Ghost Widow is almost entirely black, just a big, solid, uninterrupted silhouette that stands out and is so simple that your eye can take her entire look all in one go and your mind can keep it stored as you look. Where white details appear, those too are predominantly drawn in large, monolithic shapes, like her big white hair growing out of her ghostly white head, or those big uniform shoulders. This is pretty much the very definition of stylised design.

Sister Airlia, by contrast, is complex. VERY complex. You have the black and white belt, the-black-and white bracelets, the black-and-white gauntlets, the black-and-white choker, all with fine, intricate designs, all distracting from the character's overall look. When you look at Ghost Widow, you see a woman in a black catsuit with white flowing hair. When you look at Sister Airlia, you see a jigsaw puzzle, a mish-mash of shapes, lines, contours and images. You also see a lot more of her white skin contrasting with her black clothes, so a lot of the simplistic stylised design is lost to what I can only describe as patchwork contrast.

This is a design pitfall I've fallen into many times before, giving every piece as many colours as it can hold. Here's a simple lesson I had to learn the hard way - just because a costume piece CAN be given two contrasting colours, it doesn't mean it SHOULD be given two contrasting colours. Sister Airlia's design would be far, far, FAR superior if her gear were all black, instead of black and white. This would have given a stronger contrast of the black clothes against her white skin and made her design simpler to look at. And, no, black-on-black pieces don't compromise detailing. You'd still be able to see the engravings on her boots, gloves and belt because they're all bump-mapped, so they'd have shown up regardless.

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.

Foreshadow does look really cool.

For a favourite male design, I'd have to go with Requiem. He's pretty much the archetypal villain in a simple military uniform. The faceless mask helps tremendously, as does the burning head, but what makes him stand out the most to me is that he's so ordinary. All the other super villains have to attach random junk to themselves or grow big and ugly, but Requiem just dons a mask, puts on a uniform jacket and proceeds to kick PANCAKEPANCAKEPANCAKE with the best of them. In a game of absurd and obvious archvillains, the one that looks ordinary is the one that stands out. Plus, Requiem looks the most sinister of them all, I think.

My second favourite would have to be Lord Recluse. I love how well he pulls off that complex design, and the way he manages to combine class with menace. This is an exquisite example of combining two disparate themes in a single character without making it look juxtaposed. Recluse is both threatening in a brutish way, in that he looks like he could rip you in half, as well as threatening in a sinister way, in that you've already fallen into his spider's web and you don't even know it.

Those are my top two votes for males.

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.