Hi. I'm Cybersoldier. I like costumes. Won't lie, I'm no pro. But what I will say is that one of the things that made me stick to CO like a booger on a dashboard is that the costumes and character creation is hands-down the best I've ever seen in an MMO. Hell, if a fantasy or science fiction game had this same level of character customization it'd be awesome.
As it's been said before, when you first start the game- you won't see all the costumes available. This is just to give you a basic toon and put you out into the tutorial. It's PWE/Cryptic's way of saying for Christ's sake, just put on a pair of pants and GO!. You'll need to get through the tutorial, at least, to see everything. Don't sweat that. It only takes a little while and it's not very hard. I think it takes at most like, 20 minutes. So, after that- you can pop over to the tailor and check out some more stuff and beef your dude/lady up to look more awesome. Oh, and you only have to do the tutorial once with your first character and any other character afterward can skip it.
At first you may feel a bit overwhelmed with the character creation once everything is unlocked. There's a lot there. Best thing I can tell you to do is make a flexible concept, like 'dark monster', 'hi-tech assassin', or whatever. Just keep it loosely in your head and close to your archetype or freeform power choices. Maybe it'd be a good idea to write down or remember more than one. Like, if you were using a Sword-weilder, maybe say 'ninja' or 'samurai' or 'assassin'. You might change your mind when you tinker with the options.
Then comes the disappointment. You'll get in there and realize 'well, crapdoodoo- the really COOL stuff is only available if you buy it with real money and I gave all mine to a stripper!' This is kind of normal, and sort of one of the big moneymakers for this game. Fortunately, there's a way to earn Zen-points in-game with Questionite... but that is another tale. For now, if Starla at the Dirt Road Dolls Gentleman's Club is in possession of your last few bucks and you don't want to buy anything, just look for the little box that says 'show only available costume pieces'. It'll streamline it for you without throwing options you don't have at you. (Of note- you can make a 'wish list' of costumes by saving the costume that has parts in the Z-store that you have to buy, and come back to that list when you get paid again and can avoid Starla. Don't worry, I'm sure Batman had this same problem.)
Now, I always advise people to go to the body sliders first. The default body style is silly-looking to me. But the chicks default with huge yabbos, so I'm cool with that. You can also change the head dimensions here. It's best to do this because some costumes may clip and that's a problem for a few people- and body size can make some costume pieces go from 'cool!' to 'wtf?'. Sometimes you may have to flip back and forth to get that bracer, chest piece, or boot to look right. Keep in mind that chicks' yabbos can make chest accessories and stuff look weird if you mess with them, so girls need to get their honkers situated first and then go back and make some adjustments. Starla knows what I'm talking about.
CHECK BEFORE YOU SPEND YOUR CHEDDAR. This goes for Zen, Recognition points, Drifter Salvage Global/National/Local currency, and the like. Many times a costume can drop from a mob. If you are at a point where you can battle that particular mob- it might be in your best interest to go beat the crap out of them until you get it. Other times, instead of spending Zen on a whole costume pack for one item, you can also find that same item in the Auction Exchange or through achievements- sometimes. About half of the costume pieces at the Recognition Vendors drop from mobs, with notable exceptions being the 90's set (which varies from the 90's sets at the C-store), Superconductor, and the Dr. Ka sets. There may be more, I'm just giving examples here. Whatever is the easiest and most feasable way for you to get the piece is your call comepletely.
When checking the Auction house, you need to know that a search has a maximum of 400 results. You won't see everything in there with a 'Costume Unlock' search that isn't specific to quality or a name. Every goob and his mother out there seems to think he can sell the [Heavy Taiha], even though this thing drops at a ridiculous rate in Monster Island.
NOTE: If you get a drop, and the little Robin-style eye mask icon in the top right-hand corner is grey, you already have that piece unlocked. If it is blue, it's something you don't have yet. The exception to that is the Nighthawk pieces- if you got it from the C-store, the Grab Bag pieces are exactly the same-they will still show up as blue if you already have them from the C-store, but they are not new pieces.
For all but a few bugged exceptions, once you unlock a costume piece with a character- any character you make can use that same piece. So, don't think that a set of horns is useless to your ninja- you can also use it on any other character you make from this point on. They are account-wide unlocks... with only a few bugs that have been addressed.
One thing you'll notice is that around the game, you may see some dudes/ladies wearing stuff that isn't in the default costumes or the C-store. There are places you can look:
-Drops. A lot of enemies drop costume pieces, and there's a whole list of them on the CO wiki. Slaughter enough PSI, VIPER, Vibora Bay enemies, and others and you'll get something eventually.
-Recognition Vendor. The recognition vendors sell a lot of pretty cool costume pieces as well. Be advised, some of these are available as drops and it may be easier for you to get them that way instead of spending your recognition.
-Vet rewards. You get these for being a member for a certain amount of time. Nothing you can do but wait.
-Questionite. The guys in the weird cyborg suits at the Questionite exchange building are wearing a costume that is only available through the Questionite exchange called the 'Cyberpunk' set. So far, this is the only costume set that is available through the Questionite store. No idea why others aren't there, nor am I complaining.
-Drifter. Drifter is a jerk who wants 'Drifter Salvage' for some goodies, namely four or five costume pieces. Drifter Salvage is his way of reminding you that your luck sucks when you get a grab bag with nothing of value. It is the physical embodiment of disappointment after a special event or 100 wasted Zen.
-Just plain gone. Some costumes are gone for good. These are the old crafted costume pieces and power replace costumes. A few of them are actual costumes, many of them are swords and guns. Others, like the fiery eyes were a part of the older Scourge/Cursed Grab bags and haven't been seen since, except for one small period of time at Drifter. Sadly, these are now unavailable until Cryptic figures out a way to shove them into the game.
-Not available at all. Some costumes never were available to players. You see them here and there on certain mobs, and they simply aren't available at all to players- the pistol that VIPER squad leaders and MCPD SWAT guys use, for example (WHICH IS AWESOME). Hopefully that changes soon.
-Gender-Specific. Unlike the real world, where you put on your mom's dress when she's gone, in Champions sometimes a costume piece is gender specific. It may only be usable by a certain gender, or the piece may look completely different on the opposite gender (example of each cyberpunk chest armor is only for males, and cyberpunk shirts are different for males and females) It happens, but I won't judge you far wanting to wear [Gravitar's Haute Couture] with your big hairy arms, dude.
Achievements/titles. Sometimes, doing enough of something or getting to a certain point in the game will unlock costume pieces. Best to check the CO Wiki and the list of Achievements.
The Costume Quartermaster robot dude is a worthless buffoon and has no means to sell you anything. I have no idea why this guy is still even in the game. Now, the costumes themselves drop from the appropriate mobs.
Again, if you see a player wearing something awesome- don't hesitate to ask where he got it. Usually, they'll try to help you.
Below I will write out some known issues with costume pieces. These are bugs and such, and most of them have already been addressed. If other people put them in this thread, I'll copy/paste or rewrite them here. My main reason for this is so that you don't waste money and/or time if you don't feel comfortable with these problems.
Cyberpunk Mouth Accessory is only available in metal for females, where as males have it in all three types of plastic, matte, and metal.
Cyberpunk chest accessory is only available for males.
Cyberpunk shirts are completely different for males and females.
Gravitar costume pieces are female-only.
Warlord Bracer cancels out chest wear if you try to use two of them.
All guns, power armor weapons, and melee weapons vanish if you have Hyperball active as a travel power.
Nighthawk Costume pieceswill show as new if you have the costume from the C-store, but this is not the case. Also, with the individual pieces from the Grab Bags- Hips are Pants, Pants are Hips, Chest Armor is the Shirt and the Shirt is the Chest armor. Essentially, the pieces are swapped around.
Art Deco set has a nasty 'jagged' glowing texture that should be smooth lines. The subligar for this has no glow at all, if I'm not mistaken.
Ancient Armorchest piece, when accessed from the default torso menu (Without using the dropdown to activate chest wear) has a really cool effect that makes your arms invisible. They're fixing this, even though a lot of us like it and there is a normal option for this same piece.
Takofanes belt had a bug for a while that makes it look like you have a huge boner while you're flying. I completely understand this- because I'd have one if I could fly, too.
Two submachineguns, the one that looks like and Uzi and the one that looks like an MP-7 have a nasty flaw that makes your supporting hand hover in front of the muzzle, making it appear as if you are holding nothing at all, because the weapon is too short.
The Resistance Nightstick is a melee weapon that still makes 'schwing' sounds like a sword, just like any other single-hand melee weapon. Not a bug, just worth noting.
All Irradiate costume pieces are male-only.
Superconductor Chest Armor is also only for dudes.
Is there any way to get a wrench as a melee weapon?
Unfortunately, there isn't. The only thing that looks close is one of the Trey Kings swords, and that's only vaguely similar, in the same way a rifle looks like a spear if you attach a bayonet.
Unfortunately, there isn't. The only thing that looks close is one of the Trey Kings swords, and that's only vaguely similar, in the same way a rifle looks like a spear if you attach a bayonet.
Oh, that's too bad. Oh, well. Thanks for the reply.
Oh, that's too bad. Oh, well. Thanks for the reply.
Trust me, I'd love to see 'Carl the Wrench Monkey' lay some beatdown with a wrench.
There are whole threads dedicated to costume requests in the suggestions. Take a look at the 'all unlockable costumes' link in this thread, then maybe grab a cup of coffee and bang up some ideas. Sometimes, it happens.
There was an awesome dev post from Brad Stokan (Previous Lead Art Designer, now EP) with some really cool Heavy Weapons skins that I still hope will be released, amongst which a guitar axe, a steampunk hammer and a steel pole ripped from the ground could be found. If we're lucky, and that set comes out, maybe a wrench will be one of the skins released.
There was an awesome dev post from Brad Stokan (Previous Lead Art Designer, now EP) with some really cool Heavy Weapons skins that I still hope will be released, amongst which a guitar axe, a steampunk hammer and a steel pole ripped from the ground could be found. If we're lucky, and that set comes out, maybe a wrench will be one of the skins released.
Actually, the hammer might work for my concept as well. I'll look for the post. Thanks!
Remember, one costume piece can be used to accomplish a look you never thought of before. With this creator, thinking outside of the box can actually produce results that you were looking elsewhere for.
That's quite true, She-wolf - but I'm still holding out hope that the Guitar Axe will be released one day, and Death Metal will return! (He looked cool, even though I did have to substitute force powers for the sonic powers I really wanted to use - but a real HW axe in place of the Guitar Axe just wasn't good enough...)
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
Yeah, I've ended up back burnering ol' Rock and Roll Shark Baby ever since I saw that guitar axe.
They really need to get that one in game!
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'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.' Terry Pratchet The Thief Of Time
Is there some way that someone very good at tweaking proportions in the CO editor could do templates based on the basic (non slider tweaked) body types (male/female/huge) from City of Heroes?
I think a lot of players from CoX are put off by the proportions in CO that are given to them as defaults.
I think one of the things that the CO community could help with is provide them with a template to work from that would give them proportions for their character from the start that are as close to COX standards as possible.
Also perhaps look at the basic face sliders from CoX and duplicate those as well if possible? (Especially the female ones).
I remember one of my characters benefited greatly from one of the "kid" templates that were provided by... er... Dang. I can't remember now. I think it was Bluhman or Slapperfish? Or was it Smackwell? (I'll edit to correct this when someone tells me.)
The great thing is that such templates can be posted links to in one of the welcome threads for CoX players to pick up and add to their screenshot folder. Simple and easy to do.
Unfortunately, the one detriment to CO's character creation is in the faces. I think there are very few differences in the facial structures overall, with minor tweaks doing a bit here and there. If I'm not mistaken, CoX had a 'pick this face or that face' method, while CO is 'shape this face and put a decal over it'.
As far as the body templates, I'm sure someone here could help you out with that.
Yeah. I think the face structures work differently enough that getting a template going is going to be very difficult.
Hmmm... I wonder if anyone's ever done some pigg-diving in COH and come up with the wire-frame they use for the polygon structure? Might help to see exactly what it is we're looking at in COH without the actual face texture laid over it? Do you think that might help with proportion tweaking of faces in CO?
Thing is - CO can have a LOT of structural differences. So much so that you can easily stray into "uncanny valley" more than you do with COH. It takes some practice to make a good face in CO.
In COH you have to take things all the way out to the extreme ends of the sliders to really get uncanny valley. The degree of change is just not as much. But as you say - you get distinctive faces by choosing an actual texture which reacts to shading and lighting and the sliders.
In short, I agree that it's doubtful the face models can be templated perfectly. But maybe some kind of compromise can be reached.
I have higher expectations in regards to the body sliders. I'm pretty sure those can be templated to a decently near match to the classic COH look.
Actually I've worked with the faces extensively and you can get a lot out of them, especially if you're willing to look past the initial change, and work towards a 'look'.
I'll try and get some screen shots later, but for example;
I have a feline toon who doesn't have the animal faces, but looks feline in by a combination of head shape, eye size and eye shape, a bit of tweaking with the other bits and she looks 'cat like' without a rubber stamp face.
I have many many female toons who look very different, just because I've been willing to play with the face sliders a lot.
I personally prefer that over the 'rubber stamped' faces from CoX.
I think the main thing that gets old CoX users is there isn't an instant difference of set styles of face. You can't just look at a toons face and go, oh yea that's not the face I'm wearing, it's face #5.
Here we are now going to the West Side
Weapons in hand as we go for a ride
Some may come and some may stay
Watching out for a sunny day
Where there's love and darkness and my sidearm
In game as @forgemccain
They used to have some fairly decent preset faces and bodies in the creator. For reasons unknown they were removed when the system got streamlined for new players.
I will say that the one thing that I find troublesome about the masks in CO is that there is only one faceplate, and that comes with the Iron Age costume set. I honestly thing we need more faceplates, or at least one with variable patterns (one eyeslit, two eyslits; with different eye cuts/shapes and patterns on the mask).
There was an awesome dev post from Brad Stokan (Previous Lead Art Designer, now EP) with some really cool Heavy Weapons skins that I still hope will be released, amongst which a guitar axe, a steampunk hammer and a steel pole ripped from the ground could be found. If we're lucky, and that set comes out, maybe a wrench will be one of the skins released.
I found the original news article with the picks of the concept art. I'm still waiting for that guitar-axe for my heavy metal themed toon, I finally leveled to 40 this weekend.
I found the original news article with the picks of the concept art. I'm still waiting for that guitar-axe for my heavy metal themed toon, I finally leveled to 40 this weekend.
I found the original news article with the picks of the concept art. I'm still waiting for that guitar-axe for my heavy metal themed toon, I finally leveled to 40 this weekend.
You know, looking at that.. I think we got.. like maybe two of these? Nonw of the really cool ones.
Here we are now going to the West Side
Weapons in hand as we go for a ride
Some may come and some may stay
Watching out for a sunny day
Where there's love and darkness and my sidearm
In game as @forgemccain
Everyone knows I don't do people costumes. So that about narrows it down. :P
How do we know if that's true now that we can no longer check? You could have deleted ever animal based hero you ever created and replaced them with childish creations. Wait - I forgot. { slaps forehead } All your heroes ARE childish creation. :eek: { with voice of Emily Latella } Never mind.
You know, Slap. I seriously miss being able to see what silly CO thing you are creating now. I REALLY miss the My Character pages.
One day recently in Canada, I spotted a penguin hero a with electronic gear all over it's body called - Technical Fowl. I thought of you. Plus it had been a while since I had spotted such a great pun name in game. I love it when the body of and the name of a hero causes me to do a double take.
I personally prefer that over the 'rubber stamped' faces from CoX.
Those "rubber-stamped" faces from CoH have character, personality, and look nice. The "rubber mask" faces of CO are the weakest point of character creation.
My wife has little to no interest in CO in part because of the faces in comparison to CoH. She likes the fact that her CoH characters can be pretty; the best she can hope for in CO is passable. CO went for a more cartoony, caricatured look. That's their design decision. Some folks like it, some don't.
I was a beta tester for CO and currently have a F2P account. I'm working toward level 10 to unlock the other base costume options to get a better view of what is available. That plus playtesting may help determine whether CO will suffice as a fallback after CoH closes down.
Those "rubber-stamped" faces from CoH have character, personality, and look nice. The "rubber mask" faces of CO are the weakest point of character creation.
My wife has little to no interest in CO in part because of the faces in comparison to CoH. She likes the fact that her CoH characters can be pretty; the best she can hope for in CO is passable. CO went for a more cartoony, caricatured look. That's their design decision. Some folks like it, some don't.
I was a beta tester for CO and currently have a F2P account. I'm working toward level 10 to unlock the other base costume options to get a better view of what is available. That plus playtesting may help determine whether CO will suffice as a fallback after CoH closes down.
Honestly, I don't think you are using the face sliders at all. Pardon me if I'm wrong, but the variety of faces, and shapes you can create with it is pretty amazing.
I feel confident that I have created some very pretty toons, it just takes a little time and practice with the sliders. I see a ton of new toons in game who are using the default face with a some really great costumes, which tells me that they simply haven't explored that portion of the tailor.
I remember one of my characters benefited greatly from one of the "kid" templates that were provided by... er... Dang. I can't remember now. I think it was Bluhman or Slapperfish? Or was it Smackwell? (I'll edit to correct this when someone tells me.)
Honestly, I don't think you are using the face sliders at all. Pardon me if I'm wrong, but the variety of faces, and shapes you can create with it is pretty amazing.
I feel confident that I have created some very pretty toons, it just takes a little time and practice with the sliders. I see a ton of new toons in game who are using the default face with a some really great costumes, which tells me that they simply haven't explored that portion of the tailor.
The current slider system is *infinitely* better than it was back in beta, to be sure. We can make far better looking faces than we used to. But they are still fairly caricatured in style by design. Sliders give us more flexibility for certain.
I personally strongly prefer the flexability of the CO facial sliders as opposed to the CoX "pick a face" option...
If there's one place the CO facial system leaves me a bit disappointed is the mouth slider. Mouths tend to either look like a broad gash across the face or puckering up for a kiss. But I've found choosing my Mood before messing with the face can really help in getting the look I want...
Originally Posted by mijjestic: Ultimately, though, MMO players throwing stones at each other in this fashion is basically one nerd pointing and laughing at another nerd whose glasses are thicker.
Those "rubber-stamped" faces from CoH have character, personality, and look nice. The "rubber mask" faces of CO are the weakest point of character creation.
Oddly enough I found the COH faces to be lacking in character and personality, and to look absolutely terrible.
One of the reasons I left the game really.
To each their own.
I don't think that the faces in CO are great by any stretch of the imagination, but pretty much anything would have been an improvement over what was available in COH.
I definitely wish CO had a few additional 'base' face geometry setups to work with, though. There's only so much you can do with the sliders, especially when it comes to the eyes and mouth(which are the most important things to alter) that it would just be a lot better if we had some other basic face types to work with. Just one or two would enhance variety greatly.
________________________________ @kelpplankton
Oldschool CoH player, Lifetime CO and STO subscriber, animator and artist.
One hidden goodie that I haven't seen mention is glowing bits. Each costume piece can potentially have sections that glow. There aren't always well documented. To see if an item has colors which can glow look at the 4 color selections when you highlight the costume piece. If one or more of the color selectors have a wide, white border around the selector, that means that they can glow.
By default the glow of the costume piece is off. When you click on the selector to change the folow, the color selector will have a slider at the top of the window. This is the brightness slider of the glow. Slide it to the right to increase the brightness of the glow. And you have to unlink the costume pieces colors to make the change. A small price to pay.
I did say that not all costume pierce glow, but everyone has access to a default costume piece that goes have a glow. Eyes. Eye actually have two auras. The eye ball itself has an aura, and you can have an inner glow through the pupil of the eye as well. You can recreate the old COH Supernatural Face 13(?) Eye glow. Or the glowing red pupils of 'The Evil Under The Bed Monster'.
Oddly enough I found the COH faces to be lacking in character and personality, and to look absolutely terrible.
You're entitled to the opinion that CoH's face options look "terrible", but the first half of your statement is objectively false. The range of faces available in CoH offer a multiplicity of personality (from happy to grim to super duper grim) and character (heroic, supernatural, animalistic, robotic, etc)
I don't like the art style of CO, but the costume editor here compares fairly well with CoH in terms of options. Faces are one of the few areas it simply fails.
You're entitled to the opinion that CoH's face options look "terrible", but the first half of your statement is objectively false. The range of faces available in CoH offer a multiplicity of personality (from happy to grim to super duper grim) and character (heroic, supernatural, animalistic, robotic, etc)
I don't like the art style of CO, but the costume editor here compares fairly well with CoH in terms of options. Faces are one of the few areas it simply fails.
That was a matter of opinion, since the majority of people always ended up choosing the same few face options and ignoring the rest. I rarely saw many female characters that weren't using young number 5, I believe it was, during my tenure, and they possessed the same dull expression all the time.
I wouldn't call it a range of emotion since the faces were just painted maps that you really couldn't alter to your taste.
The thing bothers me in CO faces is, the Partial Masks. One, there's still too few of the masks. Second the skin part showing under the mask is, bland. No real facial features of any kind, you can't make old man in mask, or rugged face. Only facial feature difference is the facial hair one....which looks like someone took a black magic marker and draw some lines ones face...Thing in CoX had, the number of different masks ofcourse, was that you could slap the masks over any face, be it ugly, old or pretty.
And then, CO has the Luchador masks. Thats how the partial masks should work in here. The Luchamasks go over any face you make, be it old, rugged. I even made suggestion way back to give couple basic masks to Luchas.
End of rant.
MORE MASKS!!! The sequel to MORE TIGHTS!!
CHAMPIONS ONLINE:Join Date: Apr 2008
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The thing bothers me in CO faces is, the Partial Masks. One, there's still too few of the masks. Second the skin part showing under the mask is, bland. No real facial features of any kind, you can't make old man in mask, or rugged face.
Well, actually, I've had some success with tweaking the detail on that - you can indeed select "Aged", a rugged look, even "Geometric" or "Zombie"...
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
The thing bothers me in CO faces is, the Partial Masks. One, there's still too few of the masks. Second the skin part showing under the mask is, bland. No real facial features of any kind, you can't make old man in mask, or rugged face. Only facial feature difference is the facial hair one....which looks like someone took a black magic marker and draw some lines ones face...Thing in CoX had, the number of different masks ofcourse, was that you could slap the masks over any face, be it ugly, old or pretty.
And then, CO has the Luchador masks. Thats how the partial masks should work in here. The Luchamasks go over any face you make, be it old, rugged. I even made suggestion way back to give couple basic masks to Luchas.
End of rant.
MORE MASKS!!! The sequel to MORE TIGHTS!!
I agree with you Finn. And while we're at it, we could do with partial masks that cover the hair on the side of the head (like these...http://photobucket.com/champions-partialmasks), instead of hair that grows on top of the masks.
I realise that the best way to do this would be to give us some 'Hair for Partial Masks" options. Some people may argue that we have a couple of options for this, but really we only have one real hairstyle that works for this and it's not great.
It would also be nice to have the options of ears sticking out of the masks like 3 out of the 4 images I posted above.
I've said it before, I'll say it again- we need more faceplates with designs/patterns for them. 'Tights over the face' are not something I consider a 'mask'.
I've a question that hopefully someone more knowledgeable can answer; I've got a number of characters, and for each of those characters, I've got a number of different costumes.
In the course of working with the character creator, I would often save changes I would make to costumes as I modified them.
What I've discovered is that when I now go to the in-game tailor with the idea of creating a new costume, if I want to start with a previously-made costume as a baseline, I can choose to load one from within the tailor.
Unfortunately, my aforementioned practice of saving costumes frequently has created a situation where I'm presented with a very lengthy, unmanageable list of costumes when I try to load them at the tailor.
So my question is: where are these files stored in the game directory so that I can go in via the filesystem and manage (move/rename/delete) the costume files that appear in the list when I visit the tailor?
I've a question that hopefully someone more knowledgeable can answer; I've got a number of characters, and for each of those characters, I've got a number of different costumes.
In the course of working with the character creator, I would often save changes I would make to costumes as I modified them.
What I've discovered is that when I now go to the in-game tailor with the idea of creating a new costume, if I want to start with a previously-made costume as a baseline, I can choose to load one from within the tailor.
Unfortunately, my aforementioned practice of saving costumes frequently has created a situation where I'm presented with a very lengthy, unmanageable list of costumes when I try to load them at the tailor.
So my question is: where are these files stored in the game directory so that I can go in via the filesystem and manage (move/rename/delete) the costume files that appear in the list when I visit the tailor?
they are in the screenshots folder on your computer. you delete the corresponding picture there and you delete the costume. however dont change the name or edit the picture with any program or you cant access it anymore from the tailor (it wrecks the embedded info.
space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence
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If you're looking for a specific unlock
All Unlockable Costume Pieces
Oh, that's too bad. Oh, well. Thanks for the reply.
There are whole threads dedicated to costume requests in the suggestions. Take a look at the 'all unlockable costumes' link in this thread, then maybe grab a cup of coffee and bang up some ideas. Sometimes, it happens.
LIFETIMER since 23/01/2012 || Join Date: Sep 2009
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Actually, the hammer might work for my concept as well. I'll look for the post. Thanks!
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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They really need to get that one in game!
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'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.' Terry Pratchet The Thief Of Time
Is there some way that someone very good at tweaking proportions in the CO editor could do templates based on the basic (non slider tweaked) body types (male/female/huge) from City of Heroes?
I think a lot of players from CoX are put off by the proportions in CO that are given to them as defaults.
I think one of the things that the CO community could help with is provide them with a template to work from that would give them proportions for their character from the start that are as close to COX standards as possible.
Also perhaps look at the basic face sliders from CoX and duplicate those as well if possible? (Especially the female ones).
I remember one of my characters benefited greatly from one of the "kid" templates that were provided by... er... Dang. I can't remember now. I think it was Bluhman or Slapperfish? Or was it Smackwell? (I'll edit to correct this when someone tells me.)
The great thing is that such templates can be posted links to in one of the welcome threads for CoX players to pick up and add to their screenshot folder. Simple and easy to do.
As far as the body templates, I'm sure someone here could help you out with that.
Hmmm... I wonder if anyone's ever done some pigg-diving in COH and come up with the wire-frame they use for the polygon structure? Might help to see exactly what it is we're looking at in COH without the actual face texture laid over it? Do you think that might help with proportion tweaking of faces in CO?
Thing is - CO can have a LOT of structural differences. So much so that you can easily stray into "uncanny valley" more than you do with COH. It takes some practice to make a good face in CO.
In COH you have to take things all the way out to the extreme ends of the sliders to really get uncanny valley. The degree of change is just not as much. But as you say - you get distinctive faces by choosing an actual texture which reacts to shading and lighting and the sliders.
In short, I agree that it's doubtful the face models can be templated perfectly. But maybe some kind of compromise can be reached.
I have higher expectations in regards to the body sliders. I'm pretty sure those can be templated to a decently near match to the classic COH look.
I'll try and get some screen shots later, but for example;
I have a feline toon who doesn't have the animal faces, but looks feline in by a combination of head shape, eye size and eye shape, a bit of tweaking with the other bits and she looks 'cat like' without a rubber stamp face.
I have many many female toons who look very different, just because I've been willing to play with the face sliders a lot.
I personally prefer that over the 'rubber stamped' faces from CoX.
I think the main thing that gets old CoX users is there isn't an instant difference of set styles of face. You can't just look at a toons face and go, oh yea that's not the face I'm wearing, it's face #5.
Here we are now going to the West Side
Weapons in hand as we go for a ride
Some may come and some may stay
Watching out for a sunny day
Where there's love and darkness and my sidearm
In game as @forgemccain
I found the original news article with the picks of the concept art. I'm still waiting for that guitar-axe for my heavy metal themed toon, I finally leveled to 40 this weekend.
| ME | A "Guide" Book" | | I, have a "DREAM! | ( Member since Feb 2008 ) ... ?
[SIGPIC]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b132/AngelOfCaine/STILLS/Misc/CO-Sig_01e.png[/SIGPIC]
You know, looking at that.. I think we got.. like maybe two of these? Nonw of the really cool ones.
Here we are now going to the West Side
Weapons in hand as we go for a ride
Some may come and some may stay
Watching out for a sunny day
Where there's love and darkness and my sidearm
In game as @forgemccain
How do we know if that's true now that we can no longer check? You could have deleted ever animal based hero you ever created and replaced them with childish creations. Wait - I forgot. { slaps forehead } All your heroes ARE childish creation. :eek: { with voice of Emily Latella } Never mind.
You know, Slap. I seriously miss being able to see what silly CO thing you are creating now. I REALLY miss the My Character pages.
One day recently in Canada, I spotted a penguin hero a with electronic gear all over it's body called - Technical Fowl. I thought of you. Plus it had been a while since I had spotted such a great pun name in game. I love it when the body of and the name of a hero causes me to do a double take.
Those "rubber-stamped" faces from CoH have character, personality, and look nice. The "rubber mask" faces of CO are the weakest point of character creation.
My wife has little to no interest in CO in part because of the faces in comparison to CoH. She likes the fact that her CoH characters can be pretty; the best she can hope for in CO is passable. CO went for a more cartoony, caricatured look. That's their design decision. Some folks like it, some don't.
I was a beta tester for CO and currently have a F2P account. I'm working toward level 10 to unlock the other base costume options to get a better view of what is available. That plus playtesting may help determine whether CO will suffice as a fallback after CoH closes down.
Honestly, I don't think you are using the face sliders at all. Pardon me if I'm wrong, but the variety of faces, and shapes you can create with it is pretty amazing.
I feel confident that I have created some very pretty toons, it just takes a little time and practice with the sliders. I see a ton of new toons in game who are using the default face with a some really great costumes, which tells me that they simply haven't explored that portion of the tailor.
You're a lunatic with a mad man's dream of a milk proof robot!
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Yep they're right here: http://imagehosting.smackwell.com/champions/ChildTemplates.zip
Bluhman I think also has a version of these that look more "normal" and less "heroic".
The current slider system is *infinitely* better than it was back in beta, to be sure. We can make far better looking faces than we used to. But they are still fairly caricatured in style by design. Sliders give us more flexibility for certain.
I think my CO face looks great. :<
My CoH face when I played it for all of six levels looked... not so good.
If there's one place the CO facial system leaves me a bit disappointed is the mouth slider. Mouths tend to either look like a broad gash across the face or puckering up for a kiss. But I've found choosing my Mood before messing with the face can really help in getting the look I want...
M-O-O-N, that spells @Rhyatt
Originally Posted by mijjestic: Ultimately, though, MMO players throwing stones at each other in this fashion is basically one nerd pointing and laughing at another nerd whose glasses are thicker.
Laws yes!
Oddly enough I found the COH faces to be lacking in character and personality, and to look absolutely terrible.
One of the reasons I left the game really.
To each their own.
I don't think that the faces in CO are great by any stretch of the imagination, but pretty much anything would have been an improvement over what was available in COH.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
@kelpplankton
Oldschool CoH player, Lifetime CO and STO subscriber, animator and artist.
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I know some prefer not to use them, but IMHO it adds alot of depth to the faces.
You're a lunatic with a mad man's dream of a milk proof robot!
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By default the glow of the costume piece is off. When you click on the selector to change the folow, the color selector will have a slider at the top of the window. This is the brightness slider of the glow. Slide it to the right to increase the brightness of the glow. And you have to unlink the costume pieces colors to make the change. A small price to pay.
I did say that not all costume pierce glow, but everyone has access to a default costume piece that goes have a glow. Eyes. Eye actually have two auras. The eye ball itself has an aura, and you can have an inner glow through the pupil of the eye as well. You can recreate the old COH Supernatural Face 13(?) Eye glow. Or the glowing red pupils of 'The Evil Under The Bed Monster'.
You're entitled to the opinion that CoH's face options look "terrible", but the first half of your statement is objectively false. The range of faces available in CoH offer a multiplicity of personality (from happy to grim to super duper grim) and character (heroic, supernatural, animalistic, robotic, etc)
I don't like the art style of CO, but the costume editor here compares fairly well with CoH in terms of options. Faces are one of the few areas it simply fails.
That was a matter of opinion, since the majority of people always ended up choosing the same few face options and ignoring the rest. I rarely saw many female characters that weren't using young number 5, I believe it was, during my tenure, and they possessed the same dull expression all the time.
I wouldn't call it a range of emotion since the faces were just painted maps that you really couldn't alter to your taste.
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And then, CO has the Luchador masks. Thats how the partial masks should work in here. The Luchamasks go over any face you make, be it old, rugged. I even made suggestion way back to give couple basic masks to Luchas.
End of rant.
MORE MASKS!!! The sequel to MORE TIGHTS!!
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And playing by myself since Aug 2009
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They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
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You are completely mistaken.
Unless you can show that I didnt find them to be so lacking, as stated in the post that you quoted, of course.
I found the very examples you give to all be lacking.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
I agree with you Finn. And while we're at it, we could do with partial masks that cover the hair on the side of the head (like these...http://photobucket.com/champions-partialmasks), instead of hair that grows on top of the masks.
I realise that the best way to do this would be to give us some 'Hair for Partial Masks" options. Some people may argue that we have a couple of options for this, but really we only have one real hairstyle that works for this and it's not great.
It would also be nice to have the options of ears sticking out of the masks like 3 out of the 4 images I posted above.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
In the course of working with the character creator, I would often save changes I would make to costumes as I modified them.
What I've discovered is that when I now go to the in-game tailor with the idea of creating a new costume, if I want to start with a previously-made costume as a baseline, I can choose to load one from within the tailor.
Unfortunately, my aforementioned practice of saving costumes frequently has created a situation where I'm presented with a very lengthy, unmanageable list of costumes when I try to load them at the tailor.
So my question is: where are these files stored in the game directory so that I can go in via the filesystem and manage (move/rename/delete) the costume files that appear in the list when I visit the tailor?
they are in the screenshots folder on your computer. you delete the corresponding picture there and you delete the costume. however dont change the name or edit the picture with any program or you cant access it anymore from the tailor (it wrecks the embedded info.
http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=116274
Old program, yes, but it still works fantastically.
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