Ironik

Link fixed -- Abolished King

It's too small and dark to really see clearly, but it looks okay to me.

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HOLY &^$% BATMAN! Thats a lot of stuff for one issue, and FINALLY custom power trays.

I can't wait to hear what people have to complain about.

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I have a complaint: I won't have enough time to play!!

Nice. Did you draw that?

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Regarding postwork in general - The purpose behind modelling the characters as accurately as possible in 3D is specifically to avoid excessive postwork such as repainting faces. If I were assigned to create a full comic, there is absolutely no way I could do an entire issue (let alone a mini-series) where I needed to repaint every face on every panel from scratch. Thus, I'm leaning towards the comptuer-generated faces and trying to perfect those likenesses.

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So, if I have this correct, you could, for example, have a 3d with Tanks or Ms. Frost's face done up, then it would be somewhat less labor intensive to do a second piece with a different costume, background, etc.? And so, while the initial cost might be higher, follow-up work might be less expensive? For example?

Not that I'm implying anything here, just ruminating.

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Well... kinda.

Usually, the largest effort in a piece is setting up the entire environment, background, lighting, and the time it takes to render that piece. If I added a second character, I don't automatically double the cost because my computer is still only rendering a single piece of art... so the time isn't doubled.

But you're essentially correct; now that I have a 3D model of Ms. Frost done, that effort is pretty much removed from any future pieces. That assumes she stays in the same costume. However, the base cost/effort of setting up a new scene and the time it takes to render is still there.

Hypothetically, of course.

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I've long thought that if one could get enough of the base elements together, it would be a much more efficient process to create a comic with a 3D program over drawing it. Of course, the more issues you do the more efficient it becomes, since you'll build up a library along the way, effectively amortizing the investment of up-front design time.

The only problem is that currently programs like Poser aren't as good at rendering images and scenes as traditional art, at least to my mind. I think it's safe to say that you are among the top artists working with Poser, certainly of the ones I've seen (and I spend a lot of time paging through DA and CG Channel and suchlike), but even your 3D stuff pales by comparison to your traditional work.

The tech hasn't caught up to your skill, yet. Programs like Maya create better-looking finished results, but my nodding familiarity with them indicates that creating things like this scene you've just done is still far more difficult and requires a lot more rendering time.

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Regarding postwork in general - The purpose behind modelling the characters as accurately as possible in 3D is specifically to avoid excessive postwork such as repainting faces. If I were assigned to create a full comic, there is absolutely no way I could do an entire issue (let alone a mini-series) where I needed to repaint every face on every panel from scratch. Thus, I'm leaning towards the comptuer-generated faces and trying to perfect those likenesses.

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Slacker.

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I have a mean right hook!

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Nice!

I really like this layout, a whole lot.

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Just a few of mine:

I need my eyes checked

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What the heck?

Kinda looks like you're entering a dream sequence or something.

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Ya lost me at "r".

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Heh.

Very cool.

Yeah, we can do Aladdin but not Jafar. You can kind of do a Lawrence of Arabia look, except the headband will be inside the hood instead of outside.

They've been collected... by the Collector!

Also, I like it.

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Sometimes if you make the newbie experience too easy, they're not going to expect the ramping up of difficulty later on. And then you've just done a deceptive 'bait and switch' on them.

And sometimes, a harder newbie experience might just encourage grouping up, socializing and making allies. Maybe it's the Hollows who encourages newbie heroes to start teams early... who knows?

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I don't think mission doors in level-appropriate areas would be considered "too easy". Asking for level 1 and 2 characters to get mission doors that do not force them to run around spawns of level 5s and 6s seems reasonable to me, and that's all I'm requesting here.

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As I've also said, it's a reasonable request. I make a lot of alts (go look), and there are precious few early missions that don't throw you into the deep end of the pool. I have no problem with that, and almost anyone who's played CoH for a month learns to cope. But for that first-time player, there's no need.

I've been playing with a couple people who joined the game between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year, and watching them get confounded by the game has underscored the increased complexity the game has acquired over the years. The Hollows can really break new players unfamiliar with the mechanics of how this thing works. Coming off of their experiences running into purples in Atlas Park, they tend to get the idea this is the difficulty level of the entire game and get frustrated. And they're not far wrong. How often have you had to make a kamikaze run through Steel Canon or Independence Port?

That's bad design, pure and simple. The tutorial is very easy. The early missions go from "easy" to "OMG WTF just happened?!" as newbies get ganked by purps.

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I don't pay my girlfriend a monthly fee.

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Oh yes you do.

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The game has gotten a lot more complex since most of us who have been around from the beginning started out. Really, at launch, the game was very linear in terms of content progression; now, new players are given several choices fairly early on, and some of these choices are clearly not as newbie-friendly as others. I'm looking at you, Wincott.

Back in the day, we dealt with a lot of frustrations like frontloading and bosses in standard-difficulty missions (since there was no other kind!), but I really think that they were preferable to the current newbie experience. The Hollows is a neat zone, but players should be referred to it by their second 5-10 contact, not the first one. By then, they probably understand that they can work for more than one contact at a time, and they'll be exposed to King's Row and know that they have a viable alternative to Wincott.

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All good points. Plus, all of us were in the same boat in the early days, going through everything together. And there were more of us, to boot, so we always had a ready supply of teams to join, which lightened the load. Nowadays I can tear through the early content in a matter of hours because I know where all the early missions are (and which ones I like) and I'm adept at avoiding trouble I can't handle.

Not true for newbies. Plus nowadays they don't have the old trick of "door heal" when the trouble does get heavy.

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My only complaint with Veteran Rewards is attaching costume options to them. It's stupid that a brand new player is not permitted to make a Samurai, wear a trenchcoat or a kilt, cannot be a boxer, etc.

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I've always been against that, too, but c'est la vie.

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Very good analysis, InfamousBrad. I agree with it completely. The devs greatly improved the newbie experience in CoV. It's too bad they won't do the same for CoH. It really is pretty mediocre in comparison.

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This is something that I think a lot of us old timers forget: it used to be so much harder way back when. We really did have to be determined to play this game. Even though CoH is much easier to play than most other MMOs, that's not really true of the early levels.

While I understand the rationale behind having people run through higher-level mobs to get to a mission door -- learning the safe aggro range and how to keep out of trouble -- that is definitely something that should be saved for later levels. I think that simplifying the initial experience to make it even easier isn't a bad idea. Smooth it out, then throw the newbies into the deep end.

Revamp the first contact and the initial story arc, add some more explanation as players experience that stuff (such as, "You don't have to do the Hollows missions if you don't want to") and *then* unleash a new marketing campaign to bring in new players.

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Do you make your own costume pieces or is there a pack? BTW although all are incredible.......... Hawkgirl is freaking awesomeness.

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No packs. In fact, I think my reliance on pre-made pieces is coming to an end. In the case of Hawkgirl, I modelled her helmet completely from scratch, and that's the peice that really brings her together.

[/ QUOTE ]When my brother finally brings my Poser back to me, I will probably beg, pay, provide my first born to try and get a Warface body parts pack from you. That way I can endlessly pose him and have him chase around naked models in a comic strip

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There's a solid reason right there not to give Warface such a model set.

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OOo nice arts! Very pulpy!

And your name tickles me. XD

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...I don't think you're playing chess right.

Is good.

Grats on the baby bump aka sidekick.

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>_>

<_<

Ooooh, favorite screen shot thread, I love these ^_^ Time to break out some golden oldies...


*Nearly kills photobucket by clicking "View All"*

Hmm, I need to organize these >_>

The mystery under Peregrine Island Arena...I loved this room...should have left some one down there with teleport just so I could trap people down there...wonder if it is still there >_>

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That's awesome. I don't think I've ever seen that before.

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And it was before enhancement diversification too. Woo, six slotted knock back powers!

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Hilarious! I used to love doing that, too. Ah, the good ol' days...

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I really liked those Milk =)

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Word.

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Hey, can we actually view these videos? Because I click on those links and after a brief page load delay, I see waht looks like a video player interface, but nothing works. No buttons, no buffering, nothing.

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I've never been able get the woot site to work. Tried again just now and I get the same result. So yeah, I pretty much give up. Not worth the hassle.

I should add this one while I'm at it.