The New Look for Circle of Thorns
By
A Musing Mage,
Posted on: 2011-08-08 10:57 in Developers' Corner
Could definitely go with slightly more muted colors, especially on the "glowie" bits, but otherwise outstanding. Nice work guys.
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These are pretty horrible imo.
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*picks self off ground after laughing for a very long time*|
Originally Posted by Angerdog
First off, I want to say this is not an attack at the devs, or anyone else.
I will state, again, as I think I have stated already, that while I think these are step above the look that was seen at comic-con, I still feel they don't fit the way I've come to see the COT over the years and are just a touch too liefeld an McFarlane. That said, this little rough doodle only exists thanks to a few comments made by some posters that would not keep my mind quiet, as such, I had to do this.  That said, if this is the COT we get, then I suppose I can live with it. Beyond that, very nice of the devs to listen to the fanbase, hope things get resolved in a way that makes everyone happy. Ok back to my life. |
Love it. Just love it.
These are a nice change from the previous shots we saw, at least as far as I can tell. The images are too small to really tell anything definitive.
But they still aren't the Circle of Thorns to me. Too flashy, too busy, and still too pointy.
Seriously, how are they supposed to navigate twisty tunnels and the Cake Room with those huge pointy things on their shoulders?
It's nice that you made a change, but some of us still don't think it looks right for the CoT.
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Better. MUCH Better. SOOO Much Better.
Now this is how you re-vamp an iconic enemy group!
Kudos to the team taking player feedback and applying it to the group.
They are a bit better but...still don't particularly care for the new look.
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That is a really good point, and one I hadn't thought of. While I'm pretty sure that wasn't what the art team had in mind, I can fit that into the superhero world. Instead of a "scary, mysterious cult," they are now "weird guys from beyond." I will pretend they are wearing the Funky Collar of Dormammu, the Pants of Pantoom, and the Chest Detail of Ch'Hooognthn, and I will probably like them a lot better. (My dad is a big fan of Dr. Strange, so I'm familiar with this stuff...)
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Originally Posted by Obscure Blade
Actually it reminds me of the kind of guys who showed up in Doctor Strange comics. Impractically fancy outfits with multiple layers and parts sticking out all over.
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Ok, that City of Forums comic was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time...
Now, let me start by saying that I absolutely love the dev response here and the way they really, truly bend over backwards to make us happy, when a lot of the time we can be ungrateful jerks.
Honestly, though, my exact first thought was: "Oh, that's awesome! They devs have a great sense of humour! They're making fun of themselves and took the time to make these phony costumes! Ha ha ha!"
This was followed by "oh... it's for real?" and a facepalm. I was stunned that virtually everyone likes the new new designs. Of all of them, only the Energy Mage holds any real appeal for me. Maybe the Life Mage, too. The hats are just crazy and the green-and-brown Thorn Caster in this particular shot makes me think of something out of Chinese mythology for some reason...
I absolutely, positively love the effort that went in to the designs and consider it top-notch work, but it still doesn't say "Circle of Thorns" to me. If the goal was to make them look more evil, then it's a fail, sorry. They looked considerably more evil before. These look kind of like aliens or cosmic beings. I guess I'll get used to it in time, but the designs by Blast_Chamber were superior, in my opinion.
Anyhow, to end this on a positive note, I will reiterate that the devs are amazing and their work and desire to please the fan base is commendable.
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Yeah, the turnaround on this seemed to be a little quick. Also, I find it hard to believe that anyone "fell in love" with the prior design. I don't generally buy into grand conspiracies but I'm making a tin foil hat, just in case.|
Originally Posted by Tenzhi
So, this is what the change was going to be all along, right? And the prior version was just to make the real change look better? With the added bonus that the devs got to pretend to listen to the players?
 It just seems more plausible than the prior version actually being deemed acceptable.  These new designs look good, though. |
I lean towards simple designs myself and these definitely look a little flashy to me but I can roll with them. They may look better in game.
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Can't read all the responses, but I'll just post my own thoughts.
Initally: WOW. SO much better than that other attempt.
Second: Man, I can see these, they kinda fit the idea pretty good. Thorny costumes. That Death Mage's back 'wings' though are... interesting.
Third: I'm gonna miss the old CoT look.
Fourth: I'm good with it. Really, I am.
While not as ceremonial as the old outfits, and I'm not terribly pleased with the non-cloak look overall... These are acceptable, and should scare the **** outta me when I round the corner and smack right into about 4 Death Mages...
...as long as they lose the magenta, I mean honestly... NOT getting the 'why' of that color on them...
/Really, though, I'll be ok with this.
//Still think they need full robes and not the half ones they got now.
///It's about the animations, methinks.
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I'd find it difficult to believe that anyone prefers the old designs in favor of those presented here... if I didn't accept that other folks have opinions that differ from mine... *raised eyebrow*|
Originally Posted by Attache
Also, I find it hard to believe that anyone "fell in love" with the prior design.
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Still need that tinfoil?..
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I tend to agree, and is probably why I enjoy the new look as much as I do. Used to read Dr Strange a lot, before Marvel stopped printing it in the 90s (|
Originally Posted by Obscure Blade
Actually it reminds me of the kind of guys who showed up in Doctor Strange comics. Impractically fancy outfits with multiple layers and parts sticking out all over.
|
). Were I able to remember the names of certain short-term opponents who also had very "organic" outfits, I'd have linked some images.
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Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
Quote:
Sure, I could maybe see Posi coming off a bender or something and declaring the other designs great but if I recall correctly, it was stated as a collective 'we' as in 'we fell in love with the new design.' I take that as meaning that a fair majority of development looked at the old new designs and were vocal in their support. If there are that many 'yes men' running around Paragon Studios, I'm slightly worried about future re-designs.|
Originally Posted by Bloodspeaker
I'd find it difficult to believe that anyone prefers the old designs in favor of those presented here... if I didn't accept that other folks have opinions that differ from mine... *raised eyebrow*
Still need that tinfoil?.. |
Also, I was and am posting with my tongue a little in my cheek. Still, it does seem like an awfully quick turnaround on this. Positron's post in the Circle of Warcraft was less than 2 weeks ago. Something may be rotten in Mountain View.
I'm still going to make that tinfoil hat but I'll use enough to do a proper CoT Death Mage conical cap. How does that sound?
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Great, now I have the hiccups from laughing so hard.
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Originally Posted by Angerdog
First off, I want to say this is not an attack at the devs, or anyone else.
I will state, again, as I think I have stated already, that while I think these are step above the look that was seen at comic-con, I still feel they don't fit the way I've come to see the COT over the years and are just a touch too liefeld an McFarlane. That said, this little rough doodle only exists thanks to a few comments made by some posters that would not keep my mind quiet, as such, I had to do this. That said, if this is the COT we get, then I suppose I can live with it. Beyond that, very nice of the devs to listen to the fanbase, hope things get resolved in a way that makes everyone happy. Ok back to my life. |
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Yeah, that's the first part of his post made me go a little "wut" when I saw it.|
Originally Posted by Attache
Sure, I could maybe see Posi coming off a bender or something and declaring the other designs great but if I recall correctly, it was stated as a collective 'we' as in 'we fell in love with the new design.' I take that as meaning that a fair majority of development looked at the old new designs and were vocal in their support. If there are that many 'yes men' running around Paragon Studios, I'm slightly worried about future re-designs.
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Coming from this team, that has made a LOT of incredibly awesome designs... I just
couldn't believe more than one or two people actually thought they were acceptable
for CoT. It just didn't make any sense. Artists tend to forget that "their" concepts are
adopted by the public mind when they get popular, so I could easily see Noble doing it
and just not realizing the trouble until people started screaming. But that the dev team
saw them and likewise went "BAM OUT OF THE PARK"...?
That's a creepy disconnect, unless they didn't ask anyone who wasn't new to the
company, and thus didn't have the attachment to the game and its intricacies that the
vet devs have.
Or the PR crew was holding them at gunpoint, and forcing them to voice their support
OR ELSE.
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Or... after a bit of a conference, everyone involved decided this was the best route to pursue, even if not everyone was 100% behind the idea at the time. Happens all the time in any art design project I've ever been involved in where input was gathered from multiple, even moderately authoritative, sources. I usually refer to it as "design by committee". Rarely a good thing, in my book, but I'm not the "lucky" one tasked with getting a consensus from them. |
Originally Posted by Attache
Sure, I could maybe see Posi coming off a bender or something and declaring the other designs great but if I recall correctly, it was stated as a collective 'we' as in 'we fell in love with the new design.' I take that as meaning that a fair majority of development looked at the old new designs and were vocal in their support. If there are that many 'yes men' running around Paragon Studios, I'm slightly worried about future re-designs.
|
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| Also, I was and am posting with my tongue a little in my cheek. Still, it does seem like an awfully quick turnaround on this. Positron's post in the Circle of Warcraft was less than 2 weeks ago. Something may be rotten in Mountain View. |
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| I'm still going to make that tinfoil hat but I'll use enough to do a proper CoT Death Mage conical cap. How does that sound? |
Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
The devs paid attention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These are SO much improved over the original concept, it goes off the Richter scale!
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Looks like I'm late to the party, and I don't usually post in this sort of thread, but I have to chime in this time: I love the new look!
I like original one, but it IS a little bland and this new one, for some reason, looks very super-hero comic-y to me (then again, I stopped buying them in the late 90's, so my opinions may be outdated).
I liked those so much that I had to send the picture to a couple friends who left the game, but should be returning with Freedom.
Then, of course, I had to send that comic strip too. It made me laugh hard.
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They're *magic* robes, silly!|
Originally Posted by Texas Justice
Seriously, how are they supposed to navigate twisty tunnels and the Cake Room with those huge pointy things on their shoulders?
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Originally Posted by Attache
Yeah, the turnaround on this seemed to be a little quick.
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Noble Savage has mentioned that newer costume sets are now likely to be made in two layers: An under layer of form fitting tights, and an outer layer of armor (Defense and IDF). Or an under layer of armor and an outer layer of glowy and drapey bits (Ascension and Ascension Radiance).
So, for the new CoT, you have the tights with the thorn pattern overlay as the under set, and the shoulder pads, leg flaps, backpack thorns as the over set.
I'm guessing all those bits were already in the system and the big overlays were going to be just for the main bosses.
What was seen at ComicCon were level 10 CoT in just the tights underlay. And yes, it was disturbing. As well as the lack of hoods and facial mufflers and blue men.
And so when we complained about that, it was relatively easy for them to extend the overlay to all the members of the CoT and no longer have low level tights-only guys. When Posi said that the Devs thought the new CoT were fantastic looking, they were right because they knew what the big bosses were wearing.
And the genius of using the player models for the NPCs is that they can easily mix and match pieces to cover up all the members of the faction, just like players can do in the MA. They didn't need the costume makers to fashion new pieces -- that would indeed have taken a few months.
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Hmmm... the costumes are a bit... loud... and busy.
But, other than that, they do a LOT of things right. And almost everything about them is better than the previous re-design. For the most part, this appeases me (not that that was necessary for the Dev team ).
Yay! MUCH improved! Thanks for listening, devs! Posi's "subtle tweaks" message had me a bit concerned, but this? Joygasm 
.
Clearly from some of the posts in this thread, it's impossible to please everyone. But this version is much improved over what we saw from the pics in the other thread, and this version of the revamp looks and feels like the Circle of Thorns.
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Man, those look pretty damn cool. Well done!
The newest picture looks much better than the first proposition with one caveat.
The Death Mage should loose the superfluous spikes on its back. They are the only non-Demon bosses you'll run into post-45 so I don't see why you need to visually differentiate them when there is no chance at all of mistaking one for anything else.
Other than that, I will enjoy murde- I mean 'testing' these new Circle of Thorns with several of my characters once the Beta is Open.
Now THOSE are some AWESOME NPC costumes! And I LOVE that you guys changed them based on player feedback!
Standing ovation from me!