Art Poll: Signature Characters

Sister P needs to be updated and brought to match her artwork.

Also, the special named mobs in the various villain groups could use some love. By special I mean founders and leaders. As I recall, the skull founders are just two more bone daddies.

Ghost Widow is excellent, both the visual design and the backstory. Vanessa Devore is great -- creepy clown lady. *shudder* And I really like the Clockwork King. Something about the brain and googly eyes floating in the jar makes him disturbing yet hilarious (add in the possessive pedo aspect, and he's fully creepy).

I also really like Faathim the Kind and Rularuu the Ravager. I mean, you say 'floating giant in bejeweled sarong' and it doesn't sound intimidating, but in-game it totally is.

To add my own two inf to this:

First and foremost is Statesman. People can say what they like about him, but the moment I saw him on the cover of City of Heroes, I knew he was a super hero, and the kind that punched through walls, flew through the air, and created diamonds by running coal through his digestive tract.

Next up is Synapse and Miss Liberty, who are also VERY definitively superheroes at a glance.

On the villains side of things, all of the patrons are great representations of comicbook villain outfits, though I must say that for some reason, Lord Recluse has always struck me as a little 'too busy' in his appearance. Eight legs from his back, all joined to a dias on his back with Arachnos symbol, a fuzzy, feather boa that has a purple cape, all while wearing a mushroom helmet.

Now I saw this in spite of the fact that I often feel many NPcs could use Revamps in appearance and powers, including but not limited to many of those I just mentioned. But there's just one thing: I can say Statesman needs a shield, a full Corinthian Helmet, Grecian Bracers, greaves all I want, but that'll only take away from his "iconic superhero look" in the long run.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Praetorian Them selves have newer Costume pieces and Graphic Designs done to there outfits, The Primal need a Major make over with there costume, either that or much more better rendering and Graphic boost.

Also do never change Ghost Widow Outfit and looks, don't mind enhancing her look or Graphic to compare to the new stuff you got now.

CoH: Statesman, Miss Liberty, Positron, BaBs and to a lesser extent Synapse. They all have iconic looks that truly look heroic to me. Though I wouldn't mind if they got a bit of a polishing up from some texture artist. Valkyrie, Luminary and Siege get the awards for crappiest looks. Especially Valk.

CoV: I like all 4 of the Patrons a lot. They're all iconic and fitting to what they represent. My favourite is Ghost Widow. Lord Recluse, well, I like the whole spider theme and the legs on his back, but the rest of his outfit doesn't do it for me.

I love the Praeotians in general, especially Cole in his white uniform. As for the others I basicly have the same favourites as I have with their Primal counterparts since they're essentially modernised and highres darker versions of those. Tillman is my least favourite in terms of looks. I love her character as she's protrayed in the Praetorian story arcs though.

Dr Vahzilok has always been a long time favourite of mine. The look, the theme, the quite frankly, horrific concept behind it all... I've wanted to see him come back again later on in game but he's always an AV I love facing, him and his disgusting minions.

Hero side, I think the Phalanx are all looking a bit tired, especially Citadel who's begging to be updated with shiny new tech armour.


Oh and Ghost Widow. Just because she's awesome.

Rularuu the Ravager and his aspects are some of my favorites in the game. Theirs just something otherworldly about them that I can't quantify.

The Clockwork King is one of the better looking villains from the begining of the game but his look is starting to get a bit dated.

Positron's armor with its glowing lines is probably my favorite look for a hero character. I'm a big fan of Sci-fi and his armor fits that genre than any other peice in the game in my opinion.

GW is overall the best. She looks the part. She also frightens me slightly more than Recluse. Even though she is not that tier of villain, Im 100 percent sure she could make him cry in the fetal position! Plus with Darkness/Animated Hair Mastry she is by far the coolest.

Mako is Mako and is pretty much how he should be

Swan (Whos cape I want horribly) needs an update, but keep that cape...or give it to me.

Sally...could use a little bit of an update. No one mentions Sally because she is the one GM that if you one-shot for a badge, you just feel really dirty afterwords. But soemtimes right now she sort of just looks like a giant-ish green wormy thing. Nothing special and quite bland actually.

Even though Ill never kill her. NEVER!

Luminary looks good, although Id love her to be a bit more like a brighter, snappier nightstar (Who I actually though Nightstar was based off of until help channel yelled at me)

A lot of the older level up folks need some love in the graphic department. For example Aurora Borealis...Ick ick ick.

The best Ghost Widow , Sirrico ,Captain MakoAll the Praeotorians . Jack in Irons is cool.The Carnival is very good. In need of a change Manticore.

Ok, this may be a LONG post

Humm...I realise this should be about signature characters...uhm...damn, I put groups too. Oh well, will throw this up as well, eheh.

Good:

Arachnos. Like, all of them. The entire group is worth mentioning here as having both aesthetics and function. You look at them and 'Evil's glares back at you. Recluse really wasn't scared of saying 'To hell with you, this world is MINE, and THESE will be the bad boys and girls to take it from your cold, dead hands!'

Recluse himself has an awesome design, as do all the patrons. Fairly high-res models, lots of detail. The Patrons lackeys, Ice Mistral and Silver Mantis, are a little bland compared to the more visually striking Barracuda and Wretch, but not too bad. Mistral comes off the worst. Still, that said, they are all very clear, solid designs.

The IDF and PPD. Power-armoured enforcers with highly detailed and HD rendered kit. Simple but striking.

The Resistance. Mish-mash armour, cyber-punk neon and wacky hair. All in glorious HD (notice, High Quality helps a LOT on models). You see the symbol and the blue glow, you know exactly who you're dealing with.

Praet Clockwork and Warworks. The deadpan, inhuman faces. The bulky armour and smooth lines. The exposed circuitry making it clear they're only mimicking human shapes. Pure awesome.

The Rikti. What's not to love? High tech power armour, that unique body shape (I still want a Rikti body type, or costume parts >_> ) and the curved, alien tech-look that makes it instantly clear you're fighting something inhuman here.

Bad:

Hamidon. Look at me, I'm the most powerful threat in game, and IM A GIANT JELLY! /trollface
Honestly. Hami isn't scary. At all. It's...kinda pathetic, actually. Whereas the new Praet Hami GMs look awesome.

Skulls, Hellions, Trolls, Outcasts and Warriors. Dull. Bland. Samey. They look like carbon-copies of each other. The Skulls masks look like cheap papier mache. The Trolls just look like someone painted them green. The Outcasts have NO destinguishing features aside from the different jerseys. The Hellions and Warriors have some ok details, but they're far too low-quality to really notice and appreciate.

Tsoo. Specifically the Ink Men. The Enforcers are all unique and awesome. The bosses are massively varied. So WHY do the bread-and butter minions have nothing more than a palette swap? They should have something unique to mark each type out aside from the colour of their trousers. Not to mention 0% distinction between 'animal' types above Enforcer rank.

Sky Raiders. I love the designs. I hate the lack of variety. Assault Raiders should pack heavier armour, Inferno Raiders should be black-clad, gas-masked pyromaniacs, Officers should have epaulettes and showy medals, Engineers should have tech-harnesses with all their kit on. Keep the distinctive helmets, gauntlets and jetpacks, but build on it.

Devouring Earth. Dear god, if anyone is guilty of palette swap its these guys. No variation at all, bar colours. DE are boring to look at after a while, especially as you level.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Ghost Widow.

The characters that "click" with me are the ones that look like they "mean business".

The Back Alley Brawler is the epitome of this aesthetic. Jim Croce would have been singing "You don't mess around with Mike".

Statesman and Ms. Liberty use it well, from a costumed hero standpoint. Likewise, The Dark Watcher, who has the whole Shadow thing going on.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have Swan,the Super Victoria's Secret Angel. I can't take her at all seriously when her uniform so clearly says "I want you to fantasize about 'dating' me". I honestly don't understand how Swan even made it into the game, never mind as one of the signature heroes.

I'm not against T&A - I think that Doc Delilah runs a good balance between "I've got things to do and my outfit reflects what I do" and "Don't you just WISH you could have some of this?"

I really like the costumes of the W.I.S.D.O.M. crowd, and I'll qualify to say that I mean Foreshadow's original Korean incarnation as well as his current, sleeker look. From the standpoint of an anime hero, his original modern-biker style of outfit said "I'm fun, but I'm also a force to be reckoned with". Especially that visor - I'd love to have that visor.

Oh, and to the "Statesman should just get a helmet already" folks - Statesman HAD a helmet at conception. If you can find "issue zero" of the comic, it was an introduction to the game kind of thing and Statesman was depicted with a full helmet. It was changed to a faceplate early in development to avoid accusations of ripping off Magneto. (Not that it stopped Marvel from suing in the long run.)

I'll add my vote for Ghost Widow being the favorite in looks. She's also probably among the most interesting and compelling character story-wise in my opinion.

Ice Mistral is also very cool looking, even though she isn't particularly exclusive on costume design.

Recluse is also up there for me, except for his frilly cloak that looks like it was stolen from the grave of a dead ancient King of England or something.

Romulus from the ITF looks awesome both before and after the Nictus takes over him. Emperor Marcus Cole/Tyrant is also very compelling looking (in and out of costume).

I can't really lie though, I've never found any of the in-game models for any of the Freedom Phalanx characters particularly compelling. A lot of the ART that's been done of Sister Psyche is awesome, but her model is about as bland as they come.
As far as those characters themselves go, I really love Sister Psyche, Numina, and Infernal. On that note though, I'm not a big fan of Numina's model and Infernal's looks pretty dumb.

Foreshadow's original look was cool too, but his ingame costume is kind of generic.

As for characters that I find aesthetically displeasing, the Statesman is my number one. The 'Star Spangled Guy' is so overdone, and his costume isn't even interesting looking in that narrow scope. He should be much more interesting and unique. Hero 1 (as done in the artwork) is a cool looking Patriotic Hero.

Black Scorpion also looks very 'generic crazy robo guy' to me.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

Good: Ghost Widow, Doctor Vahzilok, Sirocco, Numina, Vanessa DeVore, Mirror Spirit, Foreshadow.

Bad: Black Swan (nothing iconic about her), Bobcat (very bland in-game), Tolls, Outcasts, Skulls, Hellions.

Ok Here is my serious top list, costume and story wise.

Ghost Widow - Simple, intimidating, beautiful, ethereal. Ghost Widow became my first favorite character in CoH/CoV. Her hair is captivating! Psychic+++ too!

Kalinda - Her being Psychic+++ is so awesome. Her back story is very good.

Goddess Hequat - I love her costume, and she is one of the female characters that represent people with colors! She has Psy+++ powers!

Mirror Spirit - Her costume and her powers are amazing! Empathy/Psy abilities+++

Vanessa DeVore - She's so powerful, and also a Psychic+++!

Belladonna Vetrano (Praetorian) - Love her costume! Not sure is she has Psy powers...

Countess Crey - I lover her outfit, also a Psy+++!

Silver Mantis - She has a great background story.

Ice Mistral - I just love that she is the Ice Queen version.

Swan - Her costume is very unique and she is a Psy+++!

Sis Airlia - Her costume is just amazing. I want!

Pretty much everyone in W.I.S.D.O.M. looks awesome, even the concept art for the guys not in game.

AVs and Signature characters
Stheno
Adamastor
Ghost Widow
Mako
Requiem
Statesman (Just for his cape)
Dr. Vhazilok


As far as Villain groups, I like CoT, Carnies, PPD Awakened, Seers, and Goldbrickers best.

Confining myself to individual signature characters, rather than factions, some characters whose looks I like include:

Captain Mako- He's an anthropomorphic shark who enjoys eating people, and that's exactly what he looks like. I particularly like his rendering in the "conceptual art" book that came with the CoV DVD edition.

Hero 1, as portrayed in the "fan art" and conceptual artwork- That flowing, multi-tiered Union Jack cape conveys plenty of things at once: classic hero, British patriot, classy mystic. I always imagine him using its strands to trip and entangle villains as he battles them with Excalibur. I wish the spirit of Hero 1 seen in the hero cape mission had a cape that beautiful. As it is, the in-game model seems overbalanced by his helmet; it makes his head look too big. The Honoree doesn't have these issues as much, both because his cape is in tatters (a great touch) and because he's more muscular than the original Hero 1.

Nemesis- I love the idea of steam-powered automata, but the Fake Nemesis/Nemesis design also conveys several great character aspects: imposing power, both literal and figurative, from the size; a certain regal demeanor, from the gold color, the sceptre-like weapon, and the elegant scrollwork on the armor; and a sense of another time, just because it's hard to imagine a modern techno-mastermind bothering to put a belt buckle or a humanlike face on his armor. Despite the fact that we see this look all the time because a generic boss uses it, it's still instantly recognizable as Nemesis and no one else.

Scirocco- Despite having a rather fussily elaborate costume, his look displays a good sense of mysticism. Also, apart from the character, I just like the design.

Lord Recluse- Another extremely busy design that still works well. He has a cape and a fur chapelet and spider arms and heavy armor and a helmet, yet instead of clashing, they combine to suggest an overwhelming physical presence. Those arms enable him to loom over even very large ordinary characters, and his blank, recessed eyes suggest an inhuman, implacable evil (the classic CoT minions do this for the same reason). I consider it a success of Recluse's design that every time I see him, I find myself trying to imagine what he looks like without the helmet.

Ghost Widow- In my opinion, hers is the strongest of the Silver Age/spandex designs in the game. Her costume is simple and memorable. The coattails suggest a skirt, making her outfit look feminine yet still believable as something someone could wear while fighting. The two-color look has a strong visual impact; she's always looked kind of like a photographic negative to me. And, like Recluse, she makes good use of the "looking into the abyss" villainous blank eyes.

Noble Savage- His lopsided, haphazard design suggests that despite his tremendous size and strength, this is a character who's been a victim of something in his past. The cat-like face is the perfect addition to suggest "savage" in the sense of animalistic fury.

Statesman- I like everything about this design except its most unique part, the faceplate. This is odd because I love the faceplate on the redesign of Tyrant's armor. Perhaps the plate just needs a slight tweak.

Malaise- I include him because I consider him to have a great spandex/Silver Age design. There are no huge armor pieces or special monocles or funny capes, just tights, hair, and an eye detail. Yet the strange color ("mauve and lavender?" I hear his fellow characters thinking), the wavery pattern, and the long hair all go together to imply that this guy has mental powers, that he's got an unusual "vision" of things, and that he might not be wrapped too tight.

Characters whose designs I find unsatisfying:

Sister Psyche- Not because her design is "old" or "low-res," but because it leads me to think in a different direction from the design team's stated intent on the character's personality. The in-game material on this character seems meant to show that she is a wise, all-knowing guide to us mere mortals. Aside from the fact that I don't much care for such characters, that isn't the impression made by her outfit. The outfit is just "a superhero costume." Nothing about it says "psychic" or "immortal being." Indeed, in some renderings, it seems meant to suggest "body paint." I remain unclear on why a character who's so easily offended by people thinking about her body (according to more than one piece of game-related fiction) wears such a revealing outfit; the combination of her explosive, easily-offended personality and the overexposing outfit suggest to me that she might not be the most mentally balanced character out there. For a much better treatment of this kind of character, consider Sister Solaris, where the numerous floating veils suggest a kind of ethereal serenity, which is what I think we're meant to get from Sister Psyche.

One thing I do like about her outfit, though- nice colors.

Positron- This is a tough one. I want to like Positron's outfit, but it just doesn't live up to its promise. I get the impression that the idea here is the armor panels themselves are meant to fade into the viewer's mental background, with the eye drawn to the glowing lines surrounding the plates, suggesting the raw power contained within. I've seen some renderings of the character that accomplish this, but I have yet to see it work in-game. I also find the fact that his face, the only unarmored part of him we ever see, is so bland and ordinary-looking. Nowhere do I get the impression that this man is a genius with the ability to manipulate the fundamental particles of the universe. Good conception, not the greatest execution.

Infernal- Though a very minor character, I think Infernal could be much improved with a "signature" design. He wears armor made out of living demons! Yet it's simply the Medieval costume set, colored black. I'd like to see some suggestion that the armor is not just otherworldly, but alive. Perhaps a unique texture could be applied to it, or the armor could periodically change shape slightly as the demons try to break free.

Frostfire and Odysseus- I class these two together because they suffer from the same problem: they look just like ordinary members of their factions. That's fine for characters like Director 11, whose faction is meant to be "faceless" anyway, but Odysseus is portrayed as a master schemer, while Frostfire is the centerpiece of the "tip arc" and has his own, time-hallowed mission. Despite these things, Odysseus looks like an ordinary Warrior with a fillet, while Frostfire is essentially another blue-skinned Outcast. A change as minor as different facial hair could be used to make these guys stand out as "special." (For a "unique" rendering of Odysseus that uses only non-signature costume parts, see AE arc #175660, "The Heart of Talos." The Art subforum has already done a "redesign Frostfire" thread, too.)

Mother Mayhem- Her costume simply has too much going on. Long jacket, cutouts in the tights, chains on the shoulders, highlighted ... attributes ..., streaked hair, all crammed together in a design without a particular theme, unless it's "Eighties band member."

That's all for now. Hope you found that helpful, or at least interesting to read.

Ghost Widow most definately. Best thought out look, story, concept in general.

I agree that the Freedom Phalanx and their Praetorian counterparts and kind of meh...

I really like Statesman's look - it's totally classic, and the ancient Greek style faceplate really tied him into the game world with all the references it has to classical mythology.
Ms. Liberty also has a great patriotic red-white-and-blue look, and I like the pattern on Sister Psyche's outfit.
For the Villains, Recluse has an insanely over-the-top look, which is awesome
Mother Mayhem's outfit and Tyrant's day job suit are also pretty awesomely evil.

The hands down best costume is the PPD Hard Suits.

In terms of signature characters, I like War Witch and the Honoree.