City of Costumes

One of the coolest things about CoH is being able to design your own character’s appearance. The character editor is wonderful — indeed, it begs for copyright/trademark abuse just because you can do so many classic characters with it. But it’s so wonderful that the places where it doesn’t quite work are all the more irritating. Things that are missing:

1. Huge Females: You can be Female, Male, or Huge. The Huge characters are actually Huge Male characters (judging from the lack of mammaries), which makes hulking female characters difficult to do — you simply end up being beefy-but-statuesque.
2. Kids: Kids (and teens) are not simply short adults — except that’s really the only option you have. Inspired by a classic side-kick? Sorry, old chum.
3. Just Plain Folk: Every Male is cut. Every female is highly-bazongaed (as Jade points out). Want someone not quite as heroic in stature? You’re out of luck, except to the extent that a costume (e.g., the business suit) may drape those bulging pecs.
4. Civvies: You can make pretty much every kind of costume you can imagine from the classic spandex set — but only from the classic spandex set. Try to go for more ordinary clothes — a baggy sweatshirt, or an untucked tee, or something like that — and the choices are much more limited. Granted, that’s part of the whole Silver Age vibe of Paragon City (and it’s amusing, when I’m in the sports-jacketed Psi-clone how many supers come by to “rescue” me as if I were a civilian), but a lot of comic book costuming since, say, 1985, has been much more casual, streetwear sorts of stuff. I mean, you can do some of that — a business suit, jeans, a tank top or form-fitting T — but it’s still a lot more limited compared to the cornucopia of other uniform effects.
   So, for example, K-Two has cargo pants and a black t-shirt, which isn’t bad, except that the shirt looks more like a wetsuit top. Sister Chinook has as close to a sweatshirt as I could manage, which wasn’t very close.

5. Accoutrements: The game lacked capes when it was first issued (and even now they’re a lot more limited, though there’s good game-story reasons). I’m sure it’s because they add a lot of complexity to rendering, and that’s probably why two other obvious heroic accoutrements — jet packs and wings — are also missing, along with some of the specialized weaponry and gimmicks of the comic world — Cap’s shield and the Silver Surfer’s board and Gambit’s staff are good examples.
   For that matter, weaponry other than guns, axes, swords and katanas is missing. It’s a bit goofy that the bad guys can go after you with baseball bats, and the cops flip around night sticks, but you can’t have either of them.

6. Chest logos: Okay, there are a zillion of them, but wouldn’t it be cool if you could submit designs yourself (requiring human vetting, natch). Or if NCSoft approached some organizations (sports teams and colleges come to mind) to see if some of those logos could enter the game? Heck, even if they had to charge, I’m sure there are plenty of sports buffs and alumni that would pony over to have their favorite team’s logo on their hero.
   The game could use a bit more flexibility with how the chest logos can be placed. Each top has defined for it the size and placement, which can vary dramatically. In some cases this makes sense — for the business suit, the chest logo becomes a small blazer patch on the left breast above the pocket. In other cases, though, it doesn’t Dealing with women’s breasts seems to be a particular problem, as at least some top designs shrink the logo and place it just under the neck (e.g., Sister Chinook’s maple leaf). It would be great if you could set, as a “detail,” both the logo size (small, large) and its placement (either breast, centered, high, bicep).
   Finally, you can put letters and numbers, but how about short words? Athletic department shirts, for example. Or a character name or trademark (“Fair Play!”). You could, if you want, enforce the obscenity filter, and I’m sure some folks would be “inappropriate” anyway, but I think those things could be worked around.

None of these are deal-killers by any means, of course. More of a wish list, along with the ability to make a (subtle, perhaps) costume change each or every other level.