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How do you create your Champions?
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So I've been wondering, how do other people come up with the ideas for their characters?
My ideas hit me from a different angle each time. Sometimes I start with a powerset, work out a costume and then struggle with a name, only to scrap the whole thing and start over. Other times I have a great name idea and then everything else falls into place. Occasionally I just muck around in the character creator and see if something strikes my fancy.
So, fellow Champions, how do YOU do it? Where do you start? What inspires you to create a new champion? Whether you want to spill the beans or keep your trade secrets, this is just me being curious.
P.S. Shameless Self-Promotion
My ideas hit me from a different angle each time. Sometimes I start with a powerset, work out a costume and then struggle with a name, only to scrap the whole thing and start over. Other times I have a great name idea and then everything else falls into place. Occasionally I just muck around in the character creator and see if something strikes my fancy.
So, fellow Champions, how do YOU do it? Where do you start? What inspires you to create a new champion? Whether you want to spill the beans or keep your trade secrets, this is just me being curious.
P.S. Shameless Self-Promotion
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But usually, I need at least a little inspiration. But that can be pretty much anything!
For example, many of my chars are Kamen Riders, which I am a huge fan of (as most of the forum people already know ^^). Yet I don't try to clone any of the original Rider, but create my own instead.
Many others are 90s antiheros, which I came to like mainly due to Linkara's reviews of old Image comics. The writing and artwork is meh (at best), but I do like the costumes.
After that, there's the matter of fleshing it all out with a bunch of questions. I'll supply a few samples:
-How did they come across this power?
-How do they feel about this power?
-How do the character's closest acquaintances react to this power?
-Does the character have any restrictions of his own about using this power?
There's a ton more questions that could be applied, honestly.
I am quite methodical when it comes to creating characters.
First I start with a powerset, I love to do thematic characters, makes most of the fun of the game for me. Usually I aim for a single power framework, though in some cases I mix and match.
After that, I see how the powerset feels and looks and then try to come up with an idea of a character costume that makes sense using those powers.... my main aim its to create iconic looking characters.
Then the third step its the one that varies and can be tricky. If I came up with a clear idea of what I want (a caster using X or Y pieces, etc) the costume comes up together real quick... 1 hour tops. In case its a specific theme I am not familiar with (for example one of my Steampunk costumes AKA Mary Wheelahan) I do some research on the general trends and styles that the theme uses. Though if I don't manage to get a clear idea, then its when it gets reeeeeeeally long, because I have to be mix and matching all sorts of pieces and random ideas that come up to my mind. Those usually take in between 4-8 hours... yeah its long, and I am kinda a perfectionist when it comes to costumes.
If I am not happy with either the way the character feels using those powers or how the costume ended looking up.... pretty much that costume goes to the trash, and its time to get back to step 1 or 2 xD.
I don't do bios, so thankfully I don't have to worry about that as well hahaha.
Most of my characters are built that way, there's a couple of exceptions but... usually this is the rule.
There are tons of ideas and concepts that never amount to an actual character, but I always save them for future reference or use, which is incredibly irritating because I've saved so many costumes that the game has decided to just remove a ton of the older ones from the list, so sadly a lot of my saved costumes end up lost, which really defeats the purpose of saving them.
Pretty much this for me too. I may have a personality in mind a powerset I want to try out or I'll get some new costume parts and suddenly an idea springs to mind.
Ultimately the ones that last don't come from any one direction either, and just boils down to how fun they are. Some characters go through a couple overhauls, either in powers or costume. One of my characters started out as a robot, but I found the look too boring. Two complete costume overhauls later and now I have a seriously grimdark looking guy.
I'm also quite particular when it comes to theme. If a power fits completely and is too terrible to massage into something reasonable, either from a functionality standpoint or visually *cough* Haymaker *cough*, I can and have put entire characters on hold while I see if I can salvage it with an almost-quite-theme-like ability.
Sometimes though, an old idea that lost some steam gains traction when new powers emerge. d('-' )
Otherwise, my ideas come from movies, TV, other video games etc.
I usually do a Google Image search to get some ideas and then see if I can reproduce them in the character creator.
Then, if I like the design, I try to come up with a power-set that is both effective and consistent with the theme.
Sometimes I'll have an idea that's been brewing at the back of my mind for a while.
Often it's just some odd combination of looks that sets off a train of thought. Like my main, Sister Steel, a whole backstory idea just came to me from stumbling across her helmet ...
And then sometimes I might read about a power combo or a build that sounds cool that sparks off an idea.
Or at other times I might play around with a power I haven't tried before, but feels like a comfortable combo to use, and will create a backstory and concept around that.
Arguably my most iconic and memorable character is Megaton, who was born form me discovering how to do glowing heads, that was it. The rest is a thinly veiled tribute to Dr. Manhattan. Granted I barely use the character anymore since I'm struggling with a good radiation build that's also fun to play and the fact that he has become so ridiculously powerfull that roleplaying him is pretty boring.
Unless I'm mistaken, but your costumes should be saved in your Champions' directory, as a screenshot... If you have too many in there, you can move them to another directory, and even view what the costumes look like without having to go into the game; just have to set the folder to thumbnail view.
Ontopic... I'm sucker for detailed pieces and glowy bits. Though sometimes I just hit random until I get something acceptable.
I noticed the same thing. After some detective work, I discovered they switched directories on my at some point or other.
My older costumes are located in
C:\Users\Public\Games\Cryptic Studios\Champions Online\Live\Screenshots
Newer ones are located in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Cryptic Studios\Champions Online\Live\Screenshots
I just copied/pasted the old ones into the new directory and they were visible again
I'm running Windows 7, 64 bit so the directories may be a little different from your own.
Hope this helps!
Some of them are original characters that I've been hashing out over time, in my own universe. Others are original characters from DC or Marvel, that I've adapted to the game.
Others have themes that I tried on the spot. Super Sentai came into being after a local chat discussion and forum browsing when it comes to Power Ranger themed heroes, And I created Princess Rose when I looked at stereotypes in the Magical girl anime theme. Steampunk came into fruition when I watched a steampunk themed movie.
Yeah sure, a couple of them I created them out of spite... but I enjoy them just the same for other reasons. Overall, it depends on my mood.
Then proceed to spend a few hours in the costume editor poking around as ideas come to me...
By the time I'm happy with the outfit I usually have a general theme in mind for the character.... Go off and find some music which I think fits that theme, and use it to inspire my writing as I work out their bios...
My biggest nemesis, however, is the OFKIN character limit on the bio screen....it can sometimes be tough to condense the story down to where it fits
Or ya know whatever I'm sort of inspired to do at the time, it varies.
I've noticed that barring folks who just press the randomize button or outright copy an existing character, a lot of CO heroes tend to be built around the power set, as opposed to traditional comic heroes, which tend to have their powers molded around their character or story. I mean, think about a traditional hero like Cyclops, and very little about his origin or personality suggests a "natural" fit for having eyebeams. Or, for example, Matt Fraction's "Triumph Division", a group of Filipino heroes. Instead of deciding what each hero can do, Fraction drew the inspiration from Filipino culture and history, then molding their powers to fit the theme.
I think that's in part due to CO being a game, and the fact that you choose your power set before any other decisions in character creation. This "powers-first" philosophy, especially after Archetypes were introduced, leads players to naturally gravitate towards making characters and personalities that suit the way they play, rather than letting the character determine the style. A player who picks Glacier or Devastator won't survive long trying to play their character like a Soldier or Mind, so their character's lore evolves to fit the mechanics.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it does illustrate some of the differences imposed by CO's nature as a game.
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As for my process, I tend to follow more of a theme, then picking an archetype (I'm a silver and can't use freeform) to fit the theme. If an archetype is unavailable, I try to pick something similar.
And my favorite theme? "Weird Robots".
I love robot superheroes, at least in concept. I want chunky robots that do heroics because, frankly, it's weird for a robot, or at least a robot that acts robotic (rather than an android that acts human) to be a superhero. I want chunky robots that look mechanical and not like more dudes in tights with metal bits.
As for the "weird" part, I try to pick powers that don't fit with the "robotic" idea. I love technological robots that do non-technological things, or robots that look robotic but don't act that way (I prefer the former if I can swing it).
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