If you haven't looked at the new Skulls, please do.

Here you go, Bloodspeaker. Just for you. Here's what I posted in the feedback thread with a few extras I'll add in after I post here just so you can see that I'm making suggestions.

First: Don't use the Pocket D hair on the males. Why? It's horrible. If you want the Skulls to look like Criss Angel, you did a bang-up job; if not, change the hair. The gang is not impressive at all with an image like this. It takes away from the "gangland" feel of Kings Row. It's derpy and makes male characters look like absolute dweebs.

Second: Get those jackets back! One of the biggest iconic symbols of the Skulls were their patent leather jackets with the white muscle tee underneath. Now they have really nice cotton vests and bomber jackets (clothing that's WAY too nice for the grit and grunge of Kings Row), and quite frankly it makes them look like spoiled rich kids, not a group of gun-toting death gangers.

Third: Not every Skull has to talk like the Heavy Weapons Guy. Cut that stuff out, it's nothing but kitsch and doesn't add anything to the backstory of the Skulls other than "LOOK WE'RE RUN BY RUSSIAN GUYS, ISN'T THAT COOL?" It's stereotypical at best and clashes with the lore.

Fourth: Clarify who Chernobog is, what his relation to the entire Skulls gang is, and where the Petrovic brothers are, or what happened to them if they're being moved aside in favor of Chernobog.

Anyway, I would love to see them just add the Skulls symbol onto their jacket backs.
As far as I know, this would need to be done as a new texture for the whole jacket (actually, each and every jacket/vest they now use) that includes the symbol, as they don't have the tech to add a decal onto jacket backs (like a chest detail symbol)... still, I don't think that's out of the question, as far as time and difficulty... unless their budget/schedule just do not allow for it. However, in my opinion, if they scheduled the time to revamp the Skulls, they should have scheduled the time to do it right and include such an iconic aspect of the gang. Yes, the skull masks are more iconic and I like what they did with those! The symbol on the back covers their iconic image from behind (when you can't see their masks).
To me, not having those symbols makes this revamp feel like a cheap player-recreation job. Some new textures put it beyond what any of us could have done with the character creator tools at hand (minus the new mask).

Also, after running around and checking them out, I'd say that the occurrence of females showing up in spawns seems a little too frequent. I encountered several female only spawns and usually at least one female in every spawn on the streets. I like the addition, but it just feels out of place to have them so equally represented.

Just my opinions.
I am not against this revamp at all. And I don't think they've swung and missed in the slightest. I don't care for the club hair and I don't care for the club jeans, but the previous changes seem more important to me.

As far as diversity and gender make up that appears to be up to the RNG. I agree they should put the logo back on but won't be disappointed if they don't.

Basically there just needs to be some dialog stating that the brothers either changed their street names for some reason or the FSBA report was wrong. It happens. Marrow Drinker and what ever could be leaders just not THE leaders and certainly not the brothers.
Besides it's not like there isn't a precedent for villains changing their names. Past Pot Pete springs to mind.

I like the new look and redesign (mostly)! As long as they don't get retconned into a monoethnic gang (which from the earlier screenshots appears isn't the case) and don't all talk like freaking Boris and Natasha, it's cool. Yes even the hair.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Electric-Knight Also, after running around and checking them out, I'd say that the occurrence of females showing up in spawns seems a little too frequent. I encountered several female only spawns and usually at least one female in every spawn on the streets. I like the addition, but it just feels out of place to have them so equally represented. Just my opinions. I am not against this revamp at all. And I don't think they've swung and missed in the slightest. I don't care for the club hair and I don't care for the club jeans, but the previous changes seem more important to me.

As someone else pointed out in response to Nalrok only seeing the white Skulls, this seems to be the random number generator at work rather than anything else.

All Skulls should use the Huge model, but each time we defeat one, there's a smaller one inside, and then a smaller one inside, and then a smaller one inside.

I have almost no problems with the changes to the Skulls. Probably the best use of the Club Hair yet. I like the new female additions. I'm glad to still see some ethnic diversity, but I don't mind the clearer focus on the Slavic background. I've long thought the Skulls, Hellions, and Outcasts needed to be more distinctive. This goes a long way toward that.

I've not really read the accents much in-game on beta (haven't been on beta much this time 'round), but from the descriptions I've read here, I'm reminded of some advice my favorite creative writing teacher gave me: deliberate misspellings and grammar mistakes meant to convey accents should be used cautiously and sparingly. Instead of informing us about the character, it can quickly pull you out of the story and into the language of the story. Too much and your reader might think you're making fun of the character's background. Choose how you convey accents carefully, and let the reader's imagination fill in the rest. And it sounds like they've already heard this one loud and clear.

So if I had one problem with the revamp, it's the lack of skulls on the back of their jackets. The one time I did run into them in beta, I thought something was off but couldn't place it, and this is it precisely. They didn't look like Skulls from behind, only from the front.

So, overall, nice job (sorry, OP). This is MUCH better than the revamp to the CoT. Dang it, I still miss those generic, robed cult members.

d

Two Skulls walk into a bar.

The third Skull ducked, then ate the soul of the staff fighter.

******ba dum tish******

What many Skulls to change light bulb?

None. Light bulb embracing inner darkness!

******ba dum tish******

A Skull, A Hellion, an Outcast, and a Tsoo are walking through Astoria. A hundred husks and chambers leap out and block the way.

"My brethren are nearby, but I dare not attempt to pass these creatures to raise a summons," says the Tsoo.

They look at the Outcast. "Hey, I make ice cream and chilled scotch. I don't do zombies."

The Hellion declares, "My soul belongs to Dormamu. I won't let these bastards feed upon it."

The Skull looks around in disgust.

"Fine," he says. "If bad tough gang bangs is fraidy-cat, then Skulls show who real vojščak.

Jumping into the middle of the zombies, the Skull sprints away. The dry husks and rotting chambers converge, hesitate, then form an aisle for the Skull to run through and run alongside him as an honor guard.

"Wow!" says the Hellion. "That is one bad-*** dude!"

"Pffft!!" says the Tsoo. "Professional courtesy."

******ba dum tish******

Thanks, folks, I'm here all week!