Issue 22 Preview is up!

Yes and no - it's Diabolique when she's using Mot's powers - the transformation happens on an earlier DA story arc, and the Trial is sort of the cap to the whole zone storyline.

Because she is being promoted as a big villain of this update, and all the other trial AVs have been featured on the update pages.

She didn't have to do any of that of course, but she's twice as tall because magic, lost her translucency so you can see her assets better and lost her clothing because of some dev decree that women are no longer allowed to wear pants, and her robe was too close to a cool long jacket, which women are also not allowed to have.

If it isn't Diabolique but an incarnation of Mot that's even worse. Mot is big with the scary, not with the skanky.

When I saw that picture, I had no idea who it was, so I right-clicked it and selected "View Image", and then read the filename in my address bar. It is most definitely Diabolique; the devs say so.

Literally no-one.

In reply to the bolded part: Ain't that the truth. Last truly GOOD jacket the women got was from the Wedding pack, which is just SAD. As far as the pants go, I think there have been a few pants options over the years, Resistance and Classic Steampunk come to mind.

...and as for the 'assets' comment:

I think in CoHF the comic book 'card' has been overplayed that says female characters are required to show skin other than face and hands. I'm drawing a blank trying to come up with one that doesn't - other than Numina and Luminary / NightStar, who literally don't have flesh to show.

Anyways, seems to me that griping about it NOW's kinda late. Not saying "don't gripe", just saying it's just throwing eggs at a train that left the station over seven years ago.

Fair enough. I look forward to doing those arcs already, so I'm glad to hear it's the end of a story line for the new DA.

WRONG. I have at least one or two Jewish friends who ranged from miffed to insulted to see fascists in the style of Nazis in the game, and the people back in '04 who were playing 'Nacht' this and 'Nacht' that were even more of a slap in the face.


Taking wing to the wild blue yonder,
~Raven

Most amusing complement I've ever been paid on an outfit, from @Ukase regarding my Blue Eyed She-Devil Anson Maddocs "Fallen Angel" homage:
"She gives my ex-wife a run for the money."

Is... is that a Hive Tyrant?

This is more or less the issue we addressed with David Nakayama during the fallout from the "Gunslinger" set. It seems the art team really was mired in the "men are strong, women are sexy" mindset that, while it can produce interesting material, also serves to limit what the team is able to create. I think that after the stink we raised, we may have been able to bring at least some moderation to the situation, but as with everything else in this game, it'll probably take a year before we see the fruits of our labour. For what it's worth, I look forward to having more women in this game intended to be admired, as opposed to ogled.

Though, to be fair, women with funeral pyres on their heads ARE an exception, as far as I'm aware.

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.

If not a bear, something else, I agree. Summon 3 dogs; summon 2 cats; summon ... another dog? Really? Seems like kind of a letdown. If nothing else, I'd almost rather we got summon 3 dogs (last one of which is the alpha, I notice), summon 2 cats, summon 1 even bigger cat - you know, basically the same mental model that Demon Summoning uses (summon 3 small demons, summon 2 large demons, summon the 3rd large demon).

But looking at the proposed power list for the Dire Wolf, it works just as well, conceptually, as a Dire Bear. I can hear the art department groaning about having to make and animate yet another model, all the way over here in St. Louis, but honestly, please ... a bear makes more sense for the tier 8 power.

First, I laughed.

Second (even though I know you were joking), Dark Astoria is a place not only for mythological creatures, but for living nightmares. Figures in mythology (as well as figures in many of our nightmares) are quite often walking piles of symbolism; whether that symbolism is vague or concrete depends upon the artist (and sometimes the artist's culture). Doing this has been a part of the collective consciousness for so long that it wouldn't surprise me if our wonderful artists did all of this and never consciously thought about or discussed the topic of symbolism.

So the only question then, is what the HECK THAT FIREPLACE ON HER HEAD IS SUPPOSED TO SYMBOLIZE???

That's exactly what I mean! I get that it's a striking visual and I'm sure it's symbolic of something, but... Nightmarish it ain't. Nightmares shouldn't make me chuckle to myself This is something to look out for when writing stories and doing artwork - always consider what the thing you're working on would look like if taken out of context and displayed by itself. If it comes off as infinitely goofy... Think about toning it down a little

Speaking a tad more seriously, though, I don't see Diabolique's costume as frightening or even monstrous. What it looks like is a dominatrix, primarily. The costume also makes her look significantly older, which ends up giving her more of a "matriarch" look of authority. That's actually a good thing, and sufficiently weird to look otherworldly. ... But it's not scary.

See, the thing is that making something scary takes more than just just making something tall or even just making something monstrous. What's truly unsettling is the combination of something familiar and something alien, something desirable and something disgusting, it's the the expectation proven wrong and the desire perverted. Starcraft's Infected Kerrigan is a pretty good example, actually. On the one hand, she can look attractive and sexy, just because of her body shape and facial features, but on the other hand, she is a homicidal slimy insect creature covered in carapace, and it's exactly this kind of dissonance that makes her presence unsettling.

To be honest, Diabolique's "Numina look" was a bit tame and unimpressive, but that's kind of what I found to be threatening about her. She looks like a smiling, cheerful ghost girl who's not just completely rotten on the inside, but also immensely powerful. Now she's just Matriarch Benezia. Not a bad look, just a strange choice.

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.

When you worry about offending neo-nazis, you may have taken PC a little too far.

The hat is amazing, I'll give it that. Her whole head is excellent.

Actually, I think they mean it's offensive to people who don't like trivializing nazis into a game.

Word! What is all the complaining about, Diabolique is SO GORGEOUS that she's actually my desktop wallpaper right now! Every part of her is sublime! The hat! The loincloth! [and when are we getting those, developers? Since you are so kindly about to give us the Carnie sash, you can get right on this loincloth thing next, ok? and yes we will give up capes to use it] the boots! The little stand-up collar! Her makeup *swoon!*! she even has long fingernails, and its just complaincomplaincomplain.

I swear its like if we dare to see a pretty woman in this game, everyone just comes out of the woodwork with an anti-sexy rant. There is nothing more comic-book than scantily-clad bombshells, so everyone needs to just get over it. I say this as a woman myself

p.s. please include tigers in the beast mastery set, tyvm.

I've heard that they are going to remove the 5th Column from the game so it can be sold in Europe as well. True story!

A 1680×1050 pic is your desktop? I take it you're using a 16x10 monitor around the 19-20'' size range?

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.

Fixed that for you.

And...offensive? Really? It's not like you're playing one. EVERYONE, Heroes and Villains alike, pounds and wails on them. That says 'these guys are bad enough for everyone to hate them. Go punch some more'.

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.

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

Agreed.

I saw the costume and thought, "Well if Diabolique wants to be Death Incarnate I say we give her a chance and see how she performs."

The Elemental Order costume set in i22 has a unisex jacket, unfortunately you have to gamble for it.

Only since Going Rogue. Up until then, we had Swan on one end of the scale and Valkyrie on the other, with most of our female NPCs falling somewhere in between. Now we have Desdemona on one end and Mother Mayhem on the other. So I wouldn't use older NPC designs as examples of women who wear pants, it was a different time when the art lead wasn't a guy notorious for drawing Sister Psyche in a bubble bath. The only signature character who's revamp didn't involve stripping has been Battle Maiden, Nightstar being 1) not technically female and 2) naked.
Again: Valkyrie, Mynx, Numina, Ghost Widow, the Vanguard Sisters, and in the "show some skin but not all of it" middle ground we had Ms. Liberty, Lady Grey, Ice Mistral, Countess Crey, then on the other extreme there was Sister Psyche, Swan, Silver Mantis, and as an added bonus we had "scary half-dressed" NPCs like Clamor, Arakhn, and Barracuda. A nice variety, don't you think?

I'm not aware of NPC costuming being addressed in that thread, only the discrepancy between the male and female costume parts players get. If you can point me to the post where Nakayama even acknowledges that his women tend to all look like pin-up girls, let alone proposes to do something to change that, I'd like to see it.

The elemental set looks so good, so we know he can design other stuff.

I saw someone saying that they're dressed that way because they're empowered. Nyet. They're dressed like that because Nakayama designed them. It's good that you can find a story reason if you twist yourself, at least.

thanks for killing the sarcasm

since we're fighting Tyranids...it only makes sense for The Battalion to be Chaos Space Marines, right? (m0ar spiky jibbers!)

Yeah, because it was so effective before.