The New Look for Circle of Thorns

Yeah, Colour feedback; lose the pink/purple. Dark red, yes, sinister green, yes. Not pink. Not good

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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.

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

My only concern now is how many costume pieces from what they are wearing will the players actually be able to purchase from the Paragon Market?

I really would like access to the butt cape and loin cloth, but I really doubt we'll be getting them, or anything the Agony and Death Mages are wearing for that matter.

I typed up a detailed list of things I liked and didn't like about the new designs, and the forum ate it with the logout bug. I'll try to give a shortened version.

I like these better than what you showed us before, but I still far prefer the original models for the Circle of Thorns. These look fantastic, but for many reasons still don't quite look like the CoT.

I like the color choices you made here (yes, that includes the Death Mage. Change the pink if you want, but please keep the purple). I like that the thorn pattern is not as pronounced on the Minion and the LT mages. I like that most of the color choices match the color scheme of the old versions of these mobs. I like that you attempted to provide robe-like stuff for everyone. I like that the minions appear to be faceless again, and have green glowing eyes. I like the Thorn Caster hats.

I do not like the degree of the spikes and extra shoulderpads. I feel it is too "extreme" and not something that fits this group. I don't like the fact that everyone shares the same pattern, but with different bolt-on parts. It looks too homogenous and feels like a custom AE group created out of a single costume set. The Boss mages look really amazingly awesome, but do not look like ancient wizards-- they look like alien overlords. The group really stands out against Orenbega, and doesn't look like they belong there-- Orenbega looks like an ancient civilization, and they look, just as you describe them, modern.

Thank you for the changes that you have made. I don't expect that you'll ever consider just updating the textures on the old models, but please be aware that I still would far prefer that to this for the CoT, and would prefer that these were some alternate dimensional version of the CoT.

The new CoT look is far superior to the outdated ones currently.

Holy COW. I went from being "ew" on this revamp to "wow!" This goes reeeeeally far to recapture the original look of the Thorns. Nice work!

WRT pink and purple: As a Victorian, Baron Zoria would heartily approve. They liked loud colors back then.

Much, MUCH better than what we saw in the first pictures. They're still a little too busy, IMO, especially for the minions; but the addition of long "coat" pieces mostly makes up for the (probably technically required) loss of the robes. And I'm glad to hear (and see) you retained the faceless look and eye auras.

I was quite unhappy about this change and the promised "tweaks", but now I am cautiously optimistic.

The only one Im not a fan of is the death mage.. other than that.. not bad at all IMO..
Id say 9 out of 10 aint bad (and you cant please all the people all the time, so....)

One measure of the success (or shortcoming) of a redesign is its suitability for the game environment in which it will be encountered. While this second iteration is very much an improvement on the SDCC version, it still looks likely to fall short in this respect.

Consider how the CoT will first be encountered in the game: in the dingy alleys of Kings Row, the shadowy woods of Perez Park and northern Cap au Diable, or the ancient ruins of Oranbega in the early "Rescue a Midnighter" mission. Will this redesign complement those locations with its generic "spiked 'n' stacked pauldron" fantasy feel? Or will it clash because of the gaudy greens, blues, violets, and purples that dominate the color palettes?

As Calibre observed, picturing this version of the redesign in their "native habitat" of Oranbegan corridors and tombs is still difficult (the result might be closer to Yogi Bare's comparison with Power Rangers baddies). Unless the CoT's signature maps are going to receive a similar update, the faction risks looking out of place even on their home (under)ground.

That said, welcome to the forums El Topo and congratulations on your first post, as well as the latest iteration of the CoT redesign. Too much perfection, as Jodorowsky's hero declared, is a mistake.

The higher level mages now have a bit of a "Witch-King of Angmar" thing going on, which is cool

Welcome to the boards El Topo! Snazzy hat, just sayin'.

So as to the redesigns. I think it was a large step in the right direction, you captured a great deal of the items many of us were unhappy with and I applaud the willingness for modification. I do love many of the pieces and appreciate the differing colours of the LTs and Bosses and will be quite glad to get some pieces off the PM later this year.

That said, I wish some shoulderpads had less layers, colours were a tad more muted and the minions didn't have the muscle tone.Overall though, I'm happy with the redesign and not gonna be bummed out if these go live as is and in comparison to how I felt about the first pass, this is a win =].

Thanks for keeping your ear open to the community's wants.

Much better.

Thanks for taking the community's comments to heart. The tweaks bring them much closer to the original spirit of the CoT, definitely an improvement.

Much, much better.

Is the center of the boss belt buckles customizable or are they all stuck on pink?

I was the only one loving the first designs...
Now I love them even more, they looks so AWESOME!

I hope the rest of the players think positively, our devs listen to us and the new CoT are going to look better than ever.
Congratulations to the art team, this cant get any better.

The costumes are still fairly busy - the low-level minions could probably use some plainer, less ornate designs. Aside from that, the robe bits and glowy eyes really help bring it back to be Circle of Thorns-like. Thumbs up.

I still prefer the old look.

I love the new look like mad, but I agree with the Death Mage being a tad too bright with the Pink, my suggestion would be to switch the color pallets of the Madness Mage and Death Mage.