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The Cynics’ Corner

City of Heroes has opened the Pandora’s Box for a plethora of avenues to explore. They proverbially uncorked a mad genie for the possibilities are endless.

Since beta, I had wanted to do this so every missing thing can hopefully be explored more. First Two Parts are Suggested Missing Elements with the Character in Costume. This is not only what is wrong in the costume generator but also a comparison between city of heroes and mutants & masterminds. I will also then explore the mysteries of Paragon.

Part 1

I will start at the beginning with the costuming.

The Head: As it is, only with Standard or Masks with Hair do you get to choose your Hair Style. It should also be included with Hats. One hair style for wearing hats, helmets or helms is ridiculous. Another thing wrong with Hats is the fact that one of the colors for your hat is the color of your hair. Isn’t separate from the hat color. There is more variety too to hats than what is offered. Feathered Headresses, Turbans, Fezes, Top Hats, Sombreros, etc. .

The Face: Glowing Eyes should be part of Face Detail 1 not in Face Selection where the color of your eyes is the face color you choose. One should be able to choose glowing eyes with any face.

The Chest: Here for the most part isn’t too bad except it needs more options in upper clothing. The most ridiculous stupid option is the Jacket. One jacket option exists and that’s a rip-off of the Family. You can’t design it, there are no additions to it, and just plain solid color just is wrong. Where’s the variety? I see no pinstripes, varicolor, or if one prefers plaid. The Tie color can’t even be a different color. The Shirt is too plain too. Needs work on this option badly.

Flack jackets are there but where are the Jumpsuits worn by airmen? Trenchcoats, Long Overcoats, or even Macintoshes are missing. Sweaters and Short Jackets or Etons are missing. Robes and Cloaks are needed. The Hood option looks kind of out of place without them. Also they gave them to the Circle of Thorns but not us. I’ll get to Capes and Wings later because they fall also into the Flight Power Pool.

The Lower Body: With certain Pants options, you end up with no Boot option. At least give us the option of choosing color on Shoes in this instance. Speaking of Shoes. There is no variety in styles. You can have Platform Boots or Stiletto Boots but not Shoes.There are no Sandals, Roman or otherwise. The Male has even less to choose from when it comes to both Hair Styles and Footwear. The Long Hair option for Men is only one and it sure don’t look that long to me. More Medium than Long.

The Overall Physique: Needs more options than just Athletic or Muscular. Having a Huge Male and no Huge Female is sexist really and where’s the Rounded or Egg-Shaped Body presented in heroes such as Bouncing Boy? Not only difference in size compared to Weight but Height is another factor when it comes to heroes. You can have Colossal Giants or Very Minuscule Beings.

Skins: We have the Bio-Organic, Chitin, and Stone Looks but there’s more. Scales can be improved for instance and come in either Fish or Reptile. Missing also are Feathered, Furred, Energy, Glassy Reflective, Crystal, various Robotic, Plant, Watery, and Astral Skins. Even a Stone Skin has different patterns.

Generally I’m giving the costume options as presented from the male side but if any female feels they’re missing clothing options, feel free to chime right in.

The Bug Thing: What is up with this? Chitin skin, Bug Eyes, and Antennae. What! No Multiple Appendages. Not saying Cryptic did anything bad with this but they have opened the door to speculation of other Animal types. Everyone probably saw this the first time and thought that eventually down the line, we will have different animal skins and heads. We have Scales but no Fish or Lizard Heads. We have Claws but no Webbed Hands or Feet. Would like to see this expanded to include popular animal types such as Wolf, Bull, Bear, Bat, Lion, Frog, Tiger, Horse, Dog, Rat, Spider, etc. Also bring in the Fur Skin. If you’re going to have Bugs, other animals have their right too to be there in Paragon. Add in the animal Ears and Snouts. Think more about Multiple Limbs.

The Demon Thing: Again, we have an unbalanced selection. Horns and Tails with the Claws added in. Where did the Angels go? No Halos or Wings. Hard to believe they can choose one without choosing the other.

Street Clothes: Sometimes a Hero just wants to hang out and not be fighting so he needs that Secret Identity. In Street Clothes, his Powers would not be able to operate making him/ her subject to the same harassment, citizens of Paragon get. He/ She would have to rely on other heroes to save them. Think it’s an interesting concept. The Character would achieve No Influence or Experience either while dressed in Civies but his Savior would for rescuing him/ her. This may bring in also the concept of getting a Civilian Job which could be used to help pay off some of his/ her debt instead of the pounding out of 50+ Villains to Remove it.

Okay,the exemplar system is satisfactory for now removing one's debts but I was going for the more realistic touch here.

Well, this is what I found to be out of place with the Costume Generator and this future update doesn’t even address it. Anything I might have overlooked, please feel free to add in.

This set of options is more difficult for the Devs to accomplish. Takes more time than just changing Costumes. Both these options require more detail to animation as well as graphic elements.

Capes: As for costuming, this is just an add detail to the Chest. Call it Detail 1 for Chest. Capes can be Short, Medium, or Long. High Collar or Low. A pattern option to the detail would provide either solid color or lacey even if you choose cheetah. Same patterns would be used that are there for Chest as a whole but would give you separate expression in designing your cape. Under Flight Power is where the real animation takes place. Otherwise it’s a simple flow of the folds when you run or just stand there. Don’t see capes billowing even when a hero is running unless they add in weather conditions to Paragon.

Weather Conditions or Climate is very extremely difficult to get just right in an online game and the effects showing up on your character. Games call it the Fog of War sometimes. Calls for some interesting particle effects that would have an impact on your character and villains alike. Wind, Rain, Snow, Fog, Dust, Sand, and other weather phenomena that doesn’t come from your individual power would be difficult to implement in this game.

In Flight, Capes don’t have to be complicated in their animation either. The Short Capes practically have no movement at all in flight. The Longer the Cape, the more animation of the Folds. I do like the way they have addressed the cape issue and now even cloaks have been addressed somewhat by this.

Wings: This option is harder than just Capes. The Animation being more difficult to accomplish just right. There are different types of wings. Animal Wings such as Birds, Bats, Bugs, and the Webbed Gliding type seen in Flying Squirrels, Lizards, and Fish. Angel or Demon Wings can be from Short to Long . Feathery or Stiff. Mechanical Wings used in Gliding or Robotic Forms. Other wings I can think of are Fiery, Icy, Plasma, and the Rock-style seen in Gargoyles. This makes Costuming almost as difficult to choose as the animation. A lot of Detailing to be sure.

In Costuming, the Wings would become a permanent feature of your character but there is an option to have Retractable Wings.

Retractable Wings would be possible under the Flight Power Pool. That way if you want Wings but not all the time, you choose it as an option later on. The Animation of Wings in Flight is a difficult dilemma since not all types behave in the same way. Just getting the up and down movement of a bird in flight involves more frames than the capes did. In Flight, it doesn’t matter too much because it’s a travel power, most wings are swept back in a streamlined fashion. It’s when one Hovers that the action is more readily visible.

Mechanical are the easiest. They’re Stiff and Unresponsive. Practically only Decoration unless they serve a function in a Particular Power (ala Sky Raiders). Birds are the second easiest. Just the Soft Flapping of the Wings.  Bats and Bugs have a Fluttering which is Faster and would use even more frames. Demons and Angels could be just patterned on the same animations used for the Spectral Demons. Allowing for Retractable Wings is only one option for the Flight Power Pool. The other being Flight’s Cousin.

The Glide. This power could be used either for Wings or Capes or if you chose the Web Glide Skin Costume Option. Some of the Animations are already in game but only thus far for the Villains. The Costuming is more involved than the Animation possible but doable.

Part 3

Here we have three areas that are not really needed. Why are they there? Have no idea what the E-Mail Option in the Chat Window is supposed to be there for in the first place. Most people communicate through the boards anyway if they don’t know someone and also isn’t that what we have the Chat Channels for in the first place? It is totally useless and just takes up space.

Under the Target Window we have an Action option. Is this really necessary? We can see what the villain or hero is doing by just targeting them. Why we need this is anybody’s guess. The Chat Window also gives us details of what is happening during a fight.

The Request Channel isn’t needed actually. Most requests can be accomplished through Broadcast and Local Channels. Maybe add it as a subcommand to the Broadcast and Local Channels. In the area currently occupied by the Request Channel, I would suggest a Private Channel for Role-Players.

Currently there exists no way for the Leader of a Supergroup to change things without disbanding the whole supergroup and starting from scratch. Chest Details and Colors that don’t look right are stuck to your Supergroup. A Leader should be able to change these things without tearing apart the whole structure. There should also be the option of choosing from the entire Full Palette (160 colors) not be limited in Colors.

I’ll start with the Task Force Missions. As far as I know, only one needs a lot of work to make it more enjoyable.  We all know what it is. The very first one given by Positron. The Mission is overly too long at something like twelve separate missions. There is practically no story to the whole thing either. Just a bunch of gangbusting missions til the end which also makes no sense. It’s called The Rule of Three. It starts out talking about some dam we never see.

At the end, there is no guarantee of getting a reward. Automatically after the last villain is defeated, the reward is handed out and woe be it to the person on the team who doesn’t have a free slot. Somebody on the team jumps the gun and enters the mission before everyone is in the same zone can screw up the experience and influence besides.

Positron should be called or visited by the leader after the last mission before any reward is handed out. Would give everyone a chance to unload slots. Nobody just wants to dump the extras either. They want to sell them for the influence which makes more sense. You’re fighting these enemies, your slots fill up fast and sometimes in one mission. Going through seven to nine hours on this task force and getting nothing for your efforts is not right by anyone’s standards. The time is so long and even if you do get the SO enhancement, it’s only one for all that time spent. Not even worth the effort, but to not even get any is worse.

Another thing I have to say about missions is for them to take out the Automatic Timed Missions. These are the ones like the Auction Mission where after you knock down fifteen Outcasts, you’re given the Timed Mission which involves retrieving four artifacts too without decision on your part. If you happen to be soloing, forget it. Might as well let the timer run out. This Mission is also not without its bug. One may get the Temporary Power of Ring of Pain Permanently. It may also Double Up too where you have two of them. This part they have recently changed so you're aware it's a timed mission now and the temp powers do disappear unless you have them already which they can't remove, they say.

As far as variety in missions, I’ve seen some pretty good suggestions already on the discussion forum.  I have some of my own to offer here.

 New Indoor Levels or Even Villain Hideouts                           Villains  

jewelry store Clockwork,Hellions,Skulls,Outcasts,Warriors,Lost taverns (includes saloons,alehouse,and pub) Hellions,Skulls,Outcasts,Warriors
restaurant (includes diners,fast food,pizza joints, and coffeehouses) Clockwork,Hellions,Skulls,Outcasts,Warriors
bank Hellions,Skulls,Outcasts,Warriors,Crey,The Family,Malta museums Circle of Thorns,Banished Pantheon,Tsoo,Praetorians art galleries Circle of Thorns,Banished Pantheon,Tsoo,Praetorians libraries Circle of Thorns,Banished Pantheon,Tsoo,Praetorians monasteries (includes shrines) Circle of Thorns,Banished Pantheon,Tsoo,Praetorians
shopping mall Lost,Clockwork,Hellions,Skulls,Outcasts,Warriors
research center (bio,tech,etc.) Freakshow,Vazh,Skyraiders,5th Column,Crey
laboratory (drugs,genetics,etc.) Freakshow,Vazh,Skyraiders,5th Column,Crey
casino The Family,Carnival,Malta,Crey                         meat packing plant Vazh,Freakshow,The Family amusement parks Freakshow,Carnival,The Family pawn shop Clockwork,Hellions,Skulls,Outcasts,Warriors,Lost                                  food processing plant (Soylent Green ala Vazh) Vazh           military encampments 5th Column                              cemetaries Vazh,Crown of Thorns,Devouring Earth              zoos,aquarium houses,aviaries Devouring Earth,5th Column,Carnival
UFO (Think the Rikti Crash Site covers this though) Rikti,Lost Observatories Rikti,Lost                                      Aboard Ships Kraken & his followers,the Hydra
other dimensions ???

New Outdoor Level

Talos Island is there so why not another island that suddenly appears one day only to be volcanic. New enemy would inhabit this island and be at the higher levels. A god perhaps with his followers, higher bosses of the Pantheon. Any mythos could be chosen for this. It would make sense for the Pantheon to be worshipping a real god anyway.

Unlawful experiments carried out on animals have produced intelligence on a par with humans. The people of Paragon wondered what had become of the animals. Occasionally the screeching of birds can be heard over Perez Park yet nobody sees these flying observers of mankind. The attack comes unexpectedly from the west. Apparently the animals have set up their own little kingdom in a neighboring city.

There’s a new villain afoot. When everyone thought moving the children away from Paragon would be safe, they didn’t know they trusted the wrong man. Now it’s up to heroes to find the missing children and the notorious villain. The location first must be found where he took the children. Following clues left at various places, the task gets tougher as when they find the children, it’s up to the heroes to convince them to return. You see, this villain is crafty. The children are in a virtual paradise as they see it. Their minds twisted to believe that what’s around them is their heart’s desire. In actuality, the place they’re in is desolate and hidden from outside view. Like the fairy tale, it is within a mountain, our heroes will find them. Last but not least, our heroes must then find the villain himself. Watch out for his underlings, the dreaded Ratmen.

The Kraken gets bold and takes the battle to his turf. Getting tired of Paragon’s heroes having the upper hand in Perez Park knocking out his Spawns, he brings the action down to his city beneath the waters outside Paragon. This Kraken will definitely be higher level than his counterpart in Perez.

Using the D20 game, Mutants & Masterminds as guide plus other resources, I’ve done some comparison shopping in the power department.

M&M                               CoH                             M&M                  CoH