Sneak Peek at retro SciFi

The backpacks look pretty retro sci-fi to me. What you're suggesting kind of doesn't. It seems more high-tech and wouldn't fit well with retro. Not only that, these work well for golden age concepts, and are simpler in design, which is always good. As to preshading, Dink already said there is none. The helmet really doesn't need a new base, and that actually is a new base they're creating. There are only so many ways one can make a ventilator-type costume piece without them looking similar. The female outfit is just fine. It doesn't need to be space-prostitute and have a space corset and thigh highs. No brainslug is a pretty tiny thing to pick a nit over.

It isn't what you wanted. A number of people in these forums have expressed incredible delight in the way these costume pieces of shaped up. And considering the concept behind these costume pieces was actually created by the fans themselves, and then voted on by those same fans, I'd say the fans are getting what they want.

And that is how the set looks like.

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.

Look up at the thread title and you'll notice it says "retro SciFi." This isn't "the jetpack," it's a retro sci-fi jet pack. It has to fit within the retro sci-fi style. An F15 is not retro or sci-fi. It's contemporary technology, which is about as far removed from retro sci-fi as it gets without involving magic.

Frankly, the Think Tank was itself a perfectly serviceable fish bowl helmet, and I would not have batted an eye if they just gave us a version of that with a real head inside.

You're calling a sci-fi neglegee "androgynous?" Really? Seriously, I don't get that. I guess you could put a man in that, but... Why would you? I suppose if you dig Armstrong's imaginary sister I could maybe see how it would be androgynous, but to me, it's a dress and entirely female-specific.

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.

Personally, I feel that City of Heroes has no real, set genre. Super Hero comic books are just one source of inspiration, but the game really is supporting of many, many other concepts that aren't common to American comics. I've always been of the opinion that while "It's in comic books" may work as an argument FOR something, "It's not in comic books" can never work as an argument AGAINST something. The only thing that's really decisive here is whether a new look can fit within the style and fictional universe of the game, and with as broad as those are in City of Heroes, pretty much anything already can.

I mean, consider what we have right now. We have a "Prussian Prince of Automatons" whose troops dress like 19th century parade cavalrymen, we have 1920s mobsters who dress up in fine suits, we have ghost pirates who dress like pirates, we have faceless corporate agents who dress like the Men in Black, we have wizards in Fantasy wizard robes, we have ninja in corny Hollywood face masks, we have medieval-looking knights that dress in helmets and plate mail, we have circus performers that dress like clowns and sideshow members, we have a guy in a Nazi uniform, we have aliens in power armour, we have vampires and werewolves and ninjas and wizards and pirates and walking plants and zombies and robots and ghosts and demons and angels and gods... What, really, is there that doesn't fit a fictional universe with a style this abstract?

*edit*
On point - is it possible to make the Bubble Helmet a separate head type so that we have control of face, hair and facial hair all at the same time without having to give up a category for it? It can have a complete copy of everything under regular Heads, plus all the options for Full Masks.

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.

Just for clarification - what are you asking for different than what they are providing?

Bubble helm + Detail 2 options.
Currently the bubble helmet IS a detail 2 option, so you couldn't use it with any mask, beard, etc etc.

Give me a space zone and it might change my mind, Shadows shards don't cut it, I've been breathing fine there for years without the need for a spacesuit.

Ah, thank you, now I understand.

Detail 2 for Males is where facial hair is. You can't have a bubble-helmet-wearing man with a moustache, for instance, which for a retro sci-fi set just seems... Backwards? What self-respecting retro man DOESN'T have a moustache?

Seriously, though, I know a lot of Detail 2 facial hair would probably clip with the bubble, like the King of the Seas long beard, and probably a fair few gas masks, especially the ones with the large disk filters, but that's where the ninja masks are, as well as some of the chin guards. I'd really like to have access to this category from inside the helmet.

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.

You might have been, but my character from Chryon can't breath earth's atmosphere.

You'll likely breath fine in a space zone as well, even without a spacesuit.

I'd like to give feedback on the "sizing" of the rocket packs here, since this is the first time we've seen them "in context" of being in the costume editor.

The single rocket pack appears (to my eyes, anyway) to be "oversized" for its intended purpose. What I mean by that specifically is that due to scaling and positioning, just looking at these pictures makes me *feel like* the aggregate has become too "top heavy" for comfort, raising the body's center of gravity into a place that is too high and unstable. This proprioception sense (on behalf of the models, mind you) is caused by the height and size of the single rocket backpack model as shown. Note that this vague sense of "that shouldn't work" is NOT present with the twin rocket backpack, since the center of gravity of that piece seems/feels to be lower down on the back and not quite so far behind the back of the spine.

For the single rocket, I *definitely* think you've made the right choice in not allowing the exhaust nozzle to cross the belt line at the bottom of the rocket. However, I think that the tip of the nose cone has been place too high, causing (via proportionate scaling) the entire rocket to become "too large" in all three dimensions. The shaping of the geometries is fine, it's just scaled up too big. I believe that the twin rocket backpack places the "nosecone tips" (ignore the antenna extensions with rings for this comparison) at exactly the right height, and exactly at the same height that the single rocket backpack should be placing its nosecone tip at (and rescaling the rest of it to "fit" between that height and the belt line down below). From the front, this would put the tip of the nose cone on the single rocket around the level of the hairline on the forehead on the male model you've chosen, as a point of reference.

I also find the fact that you've got a rectangular "window" on the back of the single rocket, and a large octagonal area on the back of the twin rockets VERY interesting! Might I suggest designing these pieces in such a way so as to leave yourself the OPTION in the future to *repeat* a wide variety of Chest Emblems in these spaces so as to give a unified "front and back" sort of look. Another possibility that immediately presents itself for this is something involving Das Blinken Lighten that would almost certainly require the work of Tunnel Rat and/or Honey Badger as an animated FX which you could put into "displays" on these areas of the two backpacks. Clockwork 01 ... what can I say? Your people inspire me to make Feature Requests ...

Dink?
I *very much* like the emphasis of the seam(s) visible along the sides of the chest, where the material changes beside the studs. I don't know if that shadow on the seam is part of the texture mapping, an artifact of the interaction of the pose and the lighting, or what ... but that strong seam line there on the right side of the male chest (front) looks like it is done really well! However, the "strength" of that seam line doesn't seem to carry over into other parts of the model (arms and legs especially). On the chest, the impression is of an "over/under" overlapping of materials, but elsewhere on the model there is a sense of two materials being joined/glued together at the edges. This makes the costume pieces *look* very "flat" everywhere except the chest (the legs especially), and the rivet studs on the legs do nothing to improve this visual interpretation (yet). If that's because the leg texture maps are "incomplete" at this stage (as they appear they might be, since the rivet studs don't look the same on the legs as they do on the chest) then all I'd ask is for you to be "aware" of that as something to keep in the To Do list as you finish things out.

I also think that the knee pads are looking like they're shaped well, but since they don't look (yet) like an *extra* layer of protection on top of the suit they feel too "flat" and forgotten as a detail (at this stage). Giving them a Glow Outline using the secondary color would help define them better, but for the variant that isn't glowing, you want the knee pads to look like an overlay of an extra layer of material. Can you make that happen?

I absolutely *LOVE* what you're doing with the silver lame look on the suit, and even the "not lame" portions along the sides of the body/arms for flexibility. The glowie bits look unmitigatedly AWESOME even at this stage! Even the tucks and folds of fabric on a "skin tight" suit look this are amazing to see! Now I want to know what the underside of the boot treads looks like(!) since you can see those when running around. I personally love the details put into the soles of old pieces like Sneakers and Stealth Boots so I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with a glow/not glow boot tread pattern!

And all I'll say about that Belt is that it had better NOT be restricted to a very limited set of Tops! I want that belt for Tops w/Skin, Jackets, Robes, Trenchcoats ... (voice continues rambling on as it gets farther and farther away)

Again, I don't know if this is an artifact of the unique circumstances under which you took these screenshots or not ... but it appears to me that the glows on the rings are not of uniform "strength" in these pics. The head rings and shoulder rings and detail on the belt buckle don't *appear* to be as bright as the glowing rings on the skirt, creating a slight mismatch of intensity. I presume that the rings on the legs are not glowing, as are the gloves in the second pic.

It's hard for me to tell in these pics, but are the not glowing rings on done with the new cube mapping to make them reflective surfaces or not? You might want to consider the possibility of including matte and reflective non-glowing rings as options ... with the matte ones looking rather "plastic like" to fit the Retro SciFi theme. Another possibility that presents itself is the option of transparent clear (color tinted?) plastic or glass for non-glowing rings. You'd probably need to be using the colors on the right hand side of the color palette to achieve this, where you aren't saturating the colors in the rings so as to make them opaque plastic.

And I know those shoulder rings would look good with Sleeveless Jackets. Can this happen?



And yes, if you haven't figured it out already Dink ... your work on this is already LUDICROUSLY AWESOME™ even at this unfinished stage.

More please.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

I think you are commenting on the fact that:
I think glow is turned on for some and off for others as an example, but I could be reading/seeing it wrong.