Art Poll: Signature Characters

I think all the Arachnos patrons and their sidekicks have looks that really suit the characters, except for Ice Mistral. I find her look rather boring. Then again, she's also the one with the least developed and interesting personality.

Numina. It's simple but it works. Same with Back Alley Brawler; an actual costume wouldn't suit the character. Positron has a very iconic power armor look, but only with the helmet on. The rest of the Freedom Phalanx and Vindicators look rather boring to me. Sister Psyche has to be the worst out of all of them. The rest of their costumes at least say something about the character wearing them, hers is just generic skimpy spandex.

The Aspects of Rularuu are probably the most visually striking enemies in the game. They look powerful and alien, and yes, it's partly their size.

The Kronos Titan is also freaking sweet. Even more so than the Goliath War Walkers. See, the War Walkers have this sleek futuristic look. Someone went out of their way to make them look nice. The Kronos, as well as the rest of the Titans, are ugly and clunky. They're walking tanks, they don't have to be pretty, they just have to be deadly. Their whole design gives a feeling of weight, that this is just a huge honking war machine set to decimate everything in its path.

Nemesis. I love how his own look carries over to the rest of his army, and even his stuff. It's super-villain arrogance at its finest. A joke he may be, but he's a really sweet-looking joke. The Warhulks especially are nice looking, in that "what....what IS that?" kind of way.

Likes:
Mirror Spirit, Foreshadow, Ghost Widow, any Cimerora, Mako, Fusionette, Tremblor, most of the Arachnos goons, the Tsoo, Gold Brickers, Luddites, CoT, all Rularru, most Praetorian 'counterparts'. Synapse. DE (gross but good); Sky Raiders (borderline silly, but still cool); Knives of Artemis (great!); love what I'm seeing from I21 aka Freedom!

Dislikes:
Statesman: boring cliche
Manticore: absolutely hate his costume; suggest complete redo
Sister Psyche: yuck
Positron: the armor reads as 'fat', not bulky tech
BAB: cool concept, but again, the model reads 'overweight' to me
Citadel: yawn
Lord Recluse: hate the arms and fur
Rikti: always hated this look, even the 'new' look
FreakShow: maybe with higher res might look great
Seige: some reason you don't do hot looking guys (evil or otherwise)???
Hamidon: lack of imagination on this design
Kraken: see Hamidon above
Malta: boring
Carnival: really just stupid, man though I concede very creative

I could go on, but generally, I think most of my dislikes are due to low-res, dated graphics/art. I suppose it's a budget-breaker to redo ALL of the NPCs at once---but I'd seriously suggest CAREFULLY upgrading them all. Don't go radical like you did with CoT (cool costume pieces, etc, etc), but definitely keep your eye on them and redo as time/money allows.

Overall, NS, I like your artwork. Keep up the excellent work, please.

Cal

My tastes might not always match up with the others here, but I do have some thoughts.

Ghost Widow -- Everything that people have said so far. Seriously. Perfection here.

Scirocco -- Love everything about his look. He looks like he is the storm of the desert.

Arachnos -- As a whole, the organization has some of the best designs in the entire game, from Lord Recluse on down. Everything about this group stays within the motif of spiders and manages to be visually striking in the differences of the units and AVs as well.

Statesman -- He is the classic hero. His look is a perfect blend of everything iconic about Captain America and Superman, with the faceplate being an obvious nod to his godly power. I could see him possibly with a Magneto-style helmet, but nothing too over the top. Perfection once again.

Nemesis -- This guy is as close to Dr. Doom as we have in CoH, with his infinitely-layered plots and constant ability to leave us wondering if we've faced the real Lord Nemesis or not, and that gigantic ornate steam-powered body makes him out to be every bit the threat that he is. He's something special, and that level of ornate complexity trickles down into all his followers. Again, perfection.

Clockwork King -- He's an obsessed madman who has his brain suspended in a fishbowl mounted on a massive patchwork frame. Can't do much better in getting across that he's essentially a poor man's Nemesis for the 1-20 crowd. And that rusted, jalopy-style construction for the Paladins and Babbage make them stand out as signature pieces of his would-be army.

Banished Pantheon -- I love the look of the Totem bosses. It just screams "crazy arcane ritual ahead" when I see them.

Warworks -- The giant War Walkers are just awesome to behold the first time and are visually a massive threat.


And because almost nobody likes them, I feel the need to defend....
All of the gangs. Seriously. The Outcasts, Hellions, Skulls, Trolls, and Warriors are all street gangs. They don't need to be redone to be all flashy and amped up. They're already exactly as they should be. Their look matches their station They're a threat to the locals and a scourge of the streets in low level areas, which is where we start out. These are just barely a cut above the typical muggers and purse snatchers that guys like Batman, Spider-Man, and Daredevil started against before they moved up to taking on the big guns.

Our heroes and villains aren't ready to take on Recluse or Statesman from the start, and our lowbie enemies should reflect that. They're a little more than the police can usually handle on their own, but they're not so powerful to take down the whole city. These were designed to perfection in my opinion.

The Good (designed well, fits well, and looks good):

Numina's outfit design is excellent. It's elegant, unique without being too visually busy, and really speaks to her mystic theme.

Ghost Widow is both very identifiable and appropriately ghostly. The long hair in particular really works for her because most other widow NPCs, even Kalinda, are all wearing full head covers.

Black Scorpion's armor is great, especially considering his background and personality. It has a very 'used' and 'modified' look to it, rather than being a pristine slick and sleek design - fitting someone who's a fighter, not a scientist.

Wretch's look is perfect to his personality and backstory. He looks as tragic as he is.

Arbiter Sands. Most Arbiters wear full helmets, the fact that he's wearing sunglasses and has long hair speaks volumes about his being an unusual specimen in Arachnos.

Marauder, specifically his gloves. The junk-wrapped 'jury rigged' power gloves really tie in to his backstory roots from before he became a Praetor, and they say something strong about his personality just through the visual, especially because they contrast with the slick, clean high-tech look of Praetoria and the PPD and IDF. He could stand to lose that big, goofy-looking grin though.

Emperor Cole in his IDF uniform. A formal military uniform is a classic dictator look, but the fact that his is white also speaks to how he thinks he's the good guy.

Foreshadow has a great overall look, in my opinion. He combines a unique, identifiable but sleek headpiece with equally sleek and classic-looking spandex. His look is simple and very comic-booky, but there's no mistaking him for somebody else.

Mirror Spirit has a lot of visually busy unique pieces, but makes it work well enough. I think her hairstyle is especially complex, but her robes balance it out.

Doctor Vahzilok. He looks disgusting. Excellent work.

The Clockwork King. Classic brain-jar, an excellent look that ties in perfectly with his powers and background.

Captain Castillo. The 'Fabio in flame-accented jumpsuit' look goes so, so well with his personality.

The Honoree. He looks exactly as tragic as he is too.

Jade Spider. Very unique, very cool, very creepy looking. Also very big.

I'm a big fan of the Zeus Titan boss NPCs and the Kronos Titan monster/giant monster. Who doesn't dig giant robots?

The Rularuu are a very visually interesting group, but the Overseer type bosses really take the cake, eat it - with their eyelid teeth(!) - and then come back for seconds. I don't think there's any other enemy in the entire game (or even in many other games) that screams 'weird, inhuman monstrosity' so loudly and so well.

The Bad (just... bad):

Sister Psyche, IMO, looks absolutely nothing like someone who was supposedly born in the '20s and was thus growing up during the Great Depression probably would look. Her costume is way too sexualized for her background and on top of that, it doesn't even look that good. Plus - redheaded psychic in a sexy green outfit? I think I just watched her win at EVO last weekend...

Manticore's look seems dated and badly textured to me. He could use some accessories to indicate he's an archer, at least, even if he doesn't lose the leather sonic the hedgehog suit.

Citadel... just looks off. He doesn't look like a robot or android, he looks like an alien. In weird tights. And he looks nothing like the Mek-Men or Wolfpack robots that supposedly are being made from the same technology.

Most of the Vindicators are showing their age pretty badly IMO, and none of their costumes really impressed me much to begin with. Specifically I hope Ms Liberty gets a makeover along with Atlas Park; notably she's wearing Excalibur and it looks like it's the size of a butterknife! Given her complexion there's almost no contrast in Swan's appearance at all, making her extremely bland despite the fact that she's wearing only slightly more than tissue paper. Mynx is very generic looking and while I assume she's wearing tights she looks way more like a naked catgirl than any signature character should. Luminary is also very generic-looking and made from generic pieces.

Mother Mayhem has been mentioned. Her belt buckle really, really gets me though. Every time I see her in the BAF cutscene I wonder how she hasn't disemboweled herself on that thing yet. The hair, the bust, I could deal with that if it didn't seem like she would commit accidental seppuku by picking something up from the ground.

Clamor. What's up with the fishnets safetypinned to her legs? I get that she's freakshow, but that's... ugh. And her face looks like she's either a big fan of Hellraiser or she was going in for plastic surgery and then left after they drew some guidelines for the incisions.

Requiem doesn't have enough contrast in his look, especially the head. Which is smoking in the same color as all the rest of him and really, that smoke completely obscures how his head looks in gameplay, giving him nearly a 'headless horseman' effect IMO. A sad example of black not being the new black. His very elegant military uniform could have worked so well.

Arakhn's look meanwhile... I don't know how to describe it. She's ridiculously angular in design - the unique thigh boots that come to a point, the deep V cleavage, the 'finger in an electric socket hairdo,' the big collar. But the angles go against each other and make it look like her outfit's all over the place, thrown together rather than crafted as a whole.

Serafina... yeeeeeeah. Just look at her. It's self explanatory.

The Ugly (could be good, but something's wrong):

Captain Mako has a great look... except for the part where he's kinda small and generally hard to see ingame. For reasons besides the way he turns invisible as one of his powers, I mean.

Sirocco's face looks dead. The racoon eyes, his complexion, his expression... he looks like a zombie. That's the only problem I have with him. I can understand him looking haggard or regretful or troubled. But he wasn't Left 4 Dead.

Dr Aeon in his labcoat is pretty cool, but his gloves clip soooo badly. Meanwhile his power armor is just too bland looking.

Barracuda's look just doesn't quite work for me. It fits her background and it's unique, but it just doesn't look good IMO.

Ice Mistral is a little too spikey and way too blue all over.

Nightstar looks far too much like a Victoria robot, especially since she has the smokeyhead that I assume is a reference to her drawing on star powers or something. As a named 'signature' Praetorian, she shouldn't be faceless. I think IVy is a much better example of how a 'unique Praetorian Clockwork' should work.

Siege also lacks a very unique look, being basically a repainted warwalker, and the look he does have is kind of goofy for a signature enemy with his slouching posture and the 'fridge logic' of 'how does he get through doors?!'

Countess Crey has a unique, sexy dress that does sort of hint at her story and personality, but it's really not appropriate at all for corporate work and doesn't have the kind of 'power and money' look I'd have given her.

Maestro has a very classic comic/cartoon magician-like villain look to him (he looks like he'd fit into an 80s fantasy B movie perfectly!)... which is entirely out of place in the high-tech Council lab he's encountered in.

Primal Colonel Duray has a great face... but why oh why is his uniform purple?! It doesn't look militaristic at all that way!

For me, the Fake Nemesis really click in the looks department, by extension, same with the AVs that use that model too.

Freedom Phalanx I like: Statesman, Synapse, Back Alley, Sister Psyche, and War Witch.

Freedom Phalanx I'm iffy on: Manticore (the headpeice), Positron (to me, he needs hair on head and / or face), and Mynx (what is up with the blue-white tiger stripes?).

Oh, and the post above reminded me, Ajax and Primal Duray need armor that does not suck in the color department.

* * *
Praetors I like: Bobcat, by head and shoulders above all other Praetorians. Duncan screams Dominatrix with her outfit, well done there. Marauder, Warrant, Neuron, and Cole in his white suit. Also, Noble Savage, I would kill to have the ability to use the cybernatic-implants from you're avatar!

Praetors I'm iffy on: Cole in his bling outfit, Mother Mayhem's outfit's a bit, shall we say, 'of the profession.' And again Chimera and that headpeice. Honestly it reminds me of Marvel's Morph and his old huge purple hat .

* * *

Patrons I like: All of them. Except for Ghost Widow's thumbnail picture where she looks like she has snake-eyes, this crew looks perfect to me. I actually would say I like Black Scorpion and Mako more than the other two. Also, Dr Aeon.

Lord Recluse looks great but the color seems a bit washed out. I know his deific patron is Hades, though, so that makes absolute sense, so not iffy here.

I'm not familiar enough with the non-patron SF contacts, so I can't say one way or the other there, except for Barracuda. I'm not a particular fan of the Coralax look, but it does get the 'coral is growing on me' message across.

* * *

As for other Boss lvl+ enemies from the game, I can't think of any I dislike, so I'd consider the rest to be ones that are ok by me. A few that I would also put in the same rank as the Fake Nemesis though, are Rularuu, Rikti, Crey / Paragon Protectors, Sky Raiders, and Freakshow.

CoT Boss Mages are great as-is, but I might be one of the few who like the new look almost as much. Perhaps the new look will grow on me once implemented, but I'll miss the old. Not on-topic so I won't say more on the Thorns, except to mention that the Bat-zuul demons from the Tarikoss SF look pretty dated, and they look like evil hairballs my cats might 'summon'.

Praetorian Boss-lvl enemies are all pretty kick-butt looking. Can't recall anymore 'likes' so I'll end it here.

@Raven Lord

Rather than add to my original post. Again.

*ahem* KoA bosses are wonderful. They're in my top 3 liked designs. Perfect fit for their lore. Nice backpacks..and one heck of a sword that used to have an aura emanating from it's tip. Oh and bring on the trops ;Makes pretty patterns lemme tell ya.

I wanted to support what one of the early posters mentioned:
"Sister Solaris (or any of the sybils) - never fails, run an ITF, at least one person will say how they still want the outfit. "

I remember setting the Kronos titan come over hill the first time to launch missiles at me for doing the Malta arc. One of my best visual experiences.

Jack-in-Irons has great detail, almost too much if you have to melee him.

Mirror-Spirit has a nice look and details. Also, the Tsoo, I wish more high level content was around for them. They look cool and fighting them at time felt like fight another superteam with the variety they have in terms of powers.

In the going rogue I did like the Syndicate. Kinda look like from Matrix but interesting look and variety.

Celtic Fist
victory

I love Positron without the helmet. This is what I picture what he would look like in real life.

Positron should give you 10000 Paragon Points when the store goes live as a reward for that awesome photo NeoSaturn!!@!!

I also have to throw in Dark Watcher, Serpent Drummer and Black Scorpion along with my earlier post. What you see is what you get there.

HAWT:

1. Foreshadow
2. Mirror Spirit
3. Ghost Widow
4. Vanessa DeVore
5. Praetorian Nightstar

Yeah, Hamidon is so... Pretty. It's like a murderous rainbow.