Memphis_Bill

Well, I wanted to recall them a bit heroside, but I couldn't help but turn it into a... "mew" mystic. Thus the tail...

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But those accounts *would never be affected either way* so the point there, Bill, is moot.

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Z, it's not about the accounts being affected. I *know* the active accounts wouldn't be affected. What I was pointing out was that *Some* people were using (easly fooled) techniques to "prove" certain names were on "inactive" accounts, and trying to use that to bolster a position that any actual change to the name policy was needed.

It's as weak a position as me, in high school, pointing out that I had never seen a Ferrari or Maserati in real life, so those car marques must not really exist.

Anyone trying to use "Well, I never see them on my friends list and they don't reply to email" as proof that there's some sort of "naming problem" or "inactive account problem" ... well...

Essentially, what the whole name bit boils down to is that someone can't get a name they want. Some people go with a new name, others start pointing fingers. We do not have any sort of means of seeing *with 100% certainty* - heck, I wouldn't go with 25% certainty - that these names are on inactive accounts under such-and-such level. Unless the devs release a list from the accounts database (Charactername, level, last on X many days ago, account active/inactive X many days - none of which, frankly, is any of our business,) it's all someone's guess.

All we DO have to go by is the last two times the policy was enacted. The first time, it was characters under 35 on 90 day inactive accounts. That was deemed too broad, or just not worth it apparently, so we have the current "level 6 and under."

ARE there some halfway decent suggestions that would probably clear up some database clutter, too? Sure. Emails, allowing people to log in just to delete characters, deleting trial accounts (and all associated characters) that never went live past, oh, six months or whatnot... yeah, fine. But when SOME people, as happens pretty much any time this comes up, go after (a) high level characters or (b) *live* characters "just because you haven't played them in X days" (which has come up in other discussions,) it *severely* sours me on any support whatsoever.

It's me!

I have one or two other early ones... including my first deleted character (an ice/ice blaster. Died a lot... ) and if I can find it, my first 50 way back in her early days showing how things looked before ragdoll physics...

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Side note: A "finger"-type command (show user last on data) for name searches wouldn't be terribly hard to add (since we know the functionality exists due to SG-last on display) and might allow a nice way to free up names.

If I finger "Lord Soth" and find out that it hasn't been logged in for 30 months, I can petition to have the name released.

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Which is very similar to what I've been saying. Petition on a name-by-name basis. Sheesh. It's like people want to think I'm stealing babies, when what I said was, "let's give people a chance to get a name that by all appearances will never be used by its original owner again."

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All snarkiness aside, thats exactly what you are doing. Many of these toon are their creators babies, they have leveled them up and played them over many years. You come along and want to gut them.
You will not see many of the older players online. Many stay in hide on purpose. Many have so many tells and emails from friends that they delete anything from an idiot that wants their name. I would really like to see your list of awesome names. And wonder how many you cant get because they are copyrighted. or banned due to other issues.

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Again. No one is talking about characters on active accounts...except you for some reason.

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... except for the prior discussion where someone "knew" the accounts werre inactive because of the very reasons listed in the post you quoted. Characters on hide, deleting any email from folks they don't know (or ignoring email completely,) /ghide...

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Bill, I'm not saying that all names were taken at the start. I'm not saying that all of the names I've tried to track down are on completely cancelled accounts. I'm saying that a lot - a hell of a lot - either are or might as well be.


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And a hell of a lot are not. I'm not going with - who was it, Pax? Fleeting's? billion-odd per character.

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Letter combinations... if you're going to attack the validity of my arguments, please, please hold yourself to the same standards.

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???

I was saying I didn't agree that that many letter (and space) combinations was a valid argument. Reading comprehension...

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As you can see, I've come across good names as well, but there's a distinct difference between finding a good name and finding a good name for a concept you had. I build concepts around names because of how rare the truly good names are.

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I rarely have to "retry" a name. Hell, I've gotten some I tried on a lark - Clair de Lune and the aforementioned Theorum among them. And I'm a freaking altaholic.

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'Clair de Lune' is hardly the caliber of name I'm talking about. Try 'Hellfire' or 'Sovereign'.

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Oh? Why is it "hardly the caliber?" Sounds like... OPINION! Especially since it's not available on any other server. Seems popular. Also foreign for "Moonlight."

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Ok, I know I've been arguing whether or not my methods were reliable, but really, is it even relevant?


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Given you're using it as "proof" that these people are inactive and "squatting on the good names," I'd say yes it is.

Edit:

And as far as that list of names - even the copyrighted ones that made up a chunk ofg that list - why not do something *just* as classic and add another word? You know, like a color (see also Green Arrow, Green Lantern) or some other descriptor (Stellar Champion, Aztek Avenger?)

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This is my "most wanted" list (incomplete, have other lists elsewhere with hundreds more names)...

Adventurer
Almighty
Amplifier
Aztec
... etc


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Hate to break it to you, but quite a number of the names on your list are not only "taken" in the game, they're taken in real life, too. DC and Marvel and Image (among others) are squatting on your names, the dirty bounders.

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Thanks for proving my point even more. Apparently, those are some of the best comic names around... and yeah, I don't check for copyrights unless it's a blocked name. Blocked names aren't on the list (so, those are apparently all valid in-game names).

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"Best?"

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Bill, I'm not saying that all names were taken at the start. I'm not saying that all of the names I've tried to track down are on completely cancelled accounts. I'm saying that a lot - a hell of a lot - either are or might as well be.


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And a hell of a lot are not. I'm not going with - who was it, Pax? Fleeting's? billion-odd per character.
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As you can see, I've come across good names as well, but there's a distinct difference between finding a good name and finding a good name for a concept you had. I build concepts around names because of how rare the truly good names are.

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I rarely have to "retry" a name. Hell, I've gotten some I tried on a lark - Clair de Lune and the aforementioned Theorum among them. And I'm a freaking altaholic.

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But the point is, it can't really hurt. Ok, I know a good handful of people who've taken breaks for a year for one reason or another. None of them lost names to purges, and none of them had names that would have been tried by players even if they had been purged. None of them would have really minded if they lost the name of a level 12 character. Ok, now let's name some people that have come back after two years. Got a couple? Maybe a few? Ok, name some that have come back after three years. Probably not that many, right?

Then ask yourself if they had any names that would have been highly sought after in the applicable level threshold. I'm guessing they wouldn't.

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Aren't you contradicting yourself here? "The people who have been gone have practically all the good names" to "Think of people who have been gone a year or two, they probably don't have any good names."

Which is it?

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Addressing another point, you can't tell me that the moment beta hit, people weren't snatching up names like 'Warlord' or whatever. The basic stuff. The stuff you first think of when you think of what a character is like. With that huge influx of players at the beginning, it's not at all accurate that they could have nabbed a majority of the simpler names?

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"Leech"
"Hex Girl"
"Mantid"

And who says "simple" names are what people come up with for a character? Especially in a comic book genre, where "Mysterio" (not a real word) or "Project Rage" is just as likely a name?

Hell, I'd almost like to see the "list" you have.

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Yes, I will assume that point, because it's the most reasonable assumption. If the names never appear online, do not seem to belong to any person who appears on the forums, or in SGs, or in chats, if it's a simple name, yes, I will assume that it is likely on an old account, which may have been deactivated for some time. I don't think that's unreasonable. Of course all of them aren't, but like I said - it can't really hurt.

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1. "Do not appear online" has been beaten to death in this thread already, even if you don't care to accept it. (Oh, you also cannot befriend an enemy... even though that does give yet another place these names could be used.)

2. "Do not seem to belong to any person who appears on the forums" - The devs have told us maybe 10% of the playerbase is on the forums. I'm a regular. Other than my forum name, I think you might have seen, oh, 10 of my character names mentioned at one point or another. Heck, I'll give it 15. Some of which have been deleted. That's an even worse indicator of if a name is on an inactive account or not than "I sit AFK watching a friends list."

3. SGs or chats - How many SGs publish their member lists? None? Same with chats - globals use a global name, unless someone' sset up a bind. Broadcast? I don't always say anything. If you were watching chat for Memphis Bill on Pinnacle, you'd have had very few chances to ever see me.

That character, too - especially when I hit the mid 30s and started getting farm invites (Fire/* tank) spent quite a bit of time on hide. Using your own "system," your assumption would be that that character was on an inactive account.

And you'd be wrong.

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Bill, I think you're missing the larger point (and there's no need to get angry, either).

I'm just pointing out ways in which I watch to see if names are in use. Of course they're not 100% accurate. Still, you didn't explain why they wouldn't respond to polite global tells, and consider that yes, I have afk'd for days at a time and watched to see if any of these names (a full friends list of them) came online, to no avail.

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So they could, oh, possibly, not be logging on for those few days?

I've got a friend with an active account. He's moving, getting married, etc. I haven't seen him in game for a month.

Going to AFK for a month?

Also, *again,* thanks to the RMT jerks, /hide is very popular, so you won't tell if they're on. It's also a good reason people are going to be wary of global tells - aside from just flat out not seeing them.

Not 100% accurate? I wouldn't even give it 10%.


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But the larger picture is, it's pretty obvious that these names are on old accounts, and many, many old accounts are inactive.


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you assume.

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The 'good' names were mostly taken by the beginning players.


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Again... you assume. I bet quite a few *crappy* names were taken, too. Maybe we should be thanking them for forcing people who would take those crappy names to rethink them and get a better one.

Frankly, I play with many people, both in SGs and on PUGs, who come up with good names *still.* So no, "The 'good names were mostly taken by the beginning players' is patently *false.* In fact, some otherwise-good names were mangled by the earlier character limits.

You make far too many assumptions about name availability, the names that are "taken" and the status of those accounts... as does seemingly everyone who comes up with this topic, every single time.

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But a LOT of times, those names ARE NOT taken by active accounts...

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How do you know this?

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1) Send e-mails to the character.

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"Who the hell is this?" *delete*
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2) Friend the character, see if they come online.

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You're going to be on 24/7/365, with the character friended on ALL your characters on one server? Watchign JUST for them to be online? And hoping they aren't hidden?
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3) Ask around, find the character's global, try to friend the global, send global tells, etc.


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And if they don't accept the global friend *from someone they don't know?* I know I've had GFriend requests pop up from out of nowhere. No way in hell am I accepting that. And just because your little circle you ask around in doesn't know the character doesn't mean squat. Apparently _Rose_ is active on Freedom. I took a character to 50 (and have several others there) and have never met, nor did I ever hear her name. I've never seen (nor do I care to) JMan. What does that prove? That they don't play? ... wait, they do.

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Tried this with most of the good names I've come across. Not one has been active (although, I did previously know active players with good names, so I did not try with those, obviously). But from what I can see, the vast majority were taken by players that are no longer playing.

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Your experiments mean jack, for the reasons given.

In fact, here's a real world example with a name someone might want.

I have a dark/psi on my second account named Theorum. Lowbie, I think he's level 8. Logging into him is almost a *guarantee* that someone on Victory or Liberty (villainside) on one of my SGs is going to start a team. I don't think I've gotten more than half an hour at any point with him at a stretch, and haven't logged into him in months, mostly from working on villains.

Now, say you do what you say:

*email Theorum*
*delete email with the rest of the RMT spams since I dont' recognize the name.*

/friend Theorum

Well, I'm on hide, thanks to the RMT folks. Even if I'm not, what are the chances you'll be on THAT server, on a character you have that name friended on, at the exact same time I, with 130 or so characters, am running around on him?

/gignore theorum, snatch the global, /gfriend.

The /gfriend is getting refused if I'm on, since I don't know who you are (and it would show up on *any* character I'm on.) If I'm not on, I don't believe it goes through at all.

Ask around. "Who's Theorum? Who's @secondaccountname?" (no, I'm not giving out my globals.) Guess what... since that character's not played much, nobody knows, and very few people know my globals.

Am I inactive? According to what YOU think it means, obviously I'm inactive and "using up a good name." Do I intend to play that character? Yes. I like his look and backstory and think the power combo could be interesting. Do I *get* to much? Nope. But I'm obviously active (with two accounts.)

Your "checklist" and your assumption you draw from it are flawed.



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Then, once again, how do you design a name purge system that narrowly targets the never-come-backs without getting the may-eventually-return-agains?

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Allow me, good sir, to redirect you to my earlier post.

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1 Year Inactive: Level 12
2 Years Inactive: Level 24
3 Years Inactive: Level 36
4 Years Inactive: Level 48 (or 50)

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Never touch the higher level names. If the *initial* experiment came up with "Nothing really freed up" so they used the lower limit now... maybe it's not worth jacking up the level.

NO.

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It's just not a good idea. Don't make me Jranger you!

If you really want to free up names, maybe a better idea would be a voluntary retirement system for active accounts like so:

Joe Gamer has an active CoH/V account. He has a billion alts spread over many servers. A lot of them are under level 6. After 90 days of inactivity, Joe Gamer will get a prompt:

Character [Name X] is below level 6 and has not been accessed in 90 days. Would you like to release the name of this character so that another player may use it? This will only remove the character name, it will not affect the character in any other way. If you choose to release the name, [Name X] will be issued a free character rename token the next time you log the character into the game.

YES, I will release the name of character [Name X]
NO, I would prefer to keep the name of character [Name X] for now


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*Hell* no.

Yes, I have lowbie characters... heck, I have a grav/kin I created back when we could still get the Malaise pants and original "Pointy ears" head, who's all of level 9 right now.

Getting those would be *irritating.*

BUT, you have the kernel of an idea.

Inactive account, just a few characters.

3 months - "You haven't been active, here's an offer to come back!"

6 months - Offer to come back, or "Please let us know if you don't intend to return."

Repeatd at 1 year and at 18 months.

If any of those get a reply of "No, I'm not coming back," they get one more email to verify - "Are you sure?" which lets them know that, if this is done, the entire account is wiped. Account (billing and game) names, characters purged, the works.

"Yes, I'm sure" - happens immedately.

No response - happens in one month.

"No, I'm not" - still a valid email, continue on the email notices, etc.

Also, they should be able to log on to the PlayNC site and opt to have their characters purged. ("I no longer have the client, I'm inactive and will not be back" or something.)

All of which keeps it in the players' control.

I'll throw Moonbeam and Life Drain into "play style." There are times Moonbeam's been very useful to me, honestly - and Life Drain I consider an attack that has a self-heal component to it, not a heal that does damage. Approach it that way and it's a bit more useful. And yeah, it does scourge. It's rather fulfilling to kill off the COT Spectral that just tried healing from you by Draining it.

As far as PVP - no, it'll never be a FOTM. Yes, it's a support build - but the immobs can elp, and don't forget every Dark attack has a ToHit debuff. With your quicker attacks, and the debuff lasting 6-10 seconds each (7.5%) it can add up. Plus, honestly, Scourge can be nasty - even from a Dark/Therm. You will, however, be a prime target for the other side because *of* the buffing and healing. Running in Siren's, I had people who I know full well could see the Stalkers lining up on them going after me anyway.

... plus there are some procs that work with them to debuff further. (Deflated Ego, I believe,) if you want to try for Recovery debuff as well.

Um - Life drain does do damage. hell, I've Scourged on it and finished enemies while topping off health. Moonbeam's great for when you neer dto keep something busy - especially with hover.

And nobody needs a "Healer." Don't be a "Healer," be a Corruptor. I rarely, if ever - as emp or thermal - have to be "pounding away at the heals," even in a busy team-vs-team zone PVP setting.

yes, I find lines like this:
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You are a Thermal first! if you drop a power like this, you don't deserve to be the team healer.


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lol-worthy.

OK, being nicer.... you seem to get that you can buff. In fact, that most of the set is up for buffing and debuffing - but you slide into the "healer" thing too much. With rare exceptions, no, you shouldn't be constantly healing. Past low, low levels, it just shouldn't be needed with even a mildly competent team.

Buff and balst, heal what comes through.

A few ylnotes:

1. Availability -

The way the devs have said things in the past, if you paid extra for something, it will never be given away. If you did not, it may be made available at some point to the playerbase at large.

So, pre-order sprints (as we've seen) and the preorder helmets, which you didn't pay *extra* for, might not be so exclusive later. Collectors edition type items will not.

2. The Hero Gear Kit, as I recall we were told, wasn't just "the exact same" as the COH CE DVD... it *was* actually boxed versions of that.

3. The helmets coming to the VEATs don't look exactly the same 9from what we've seen in the announcement screenshots) as the preorder, especially the Fortunata. (VEAT - flat top, Preorder - round.) Of course, they may not have shown us all the parts, too.

Just for the sake of completeness.

He (?) lives!

And brings arts!

Nice work

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Strange, because I get hardly any lag in Grandville.

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I have one of the most powerful computers at a job that is... let's say "computer based".

I get lag when I play it there. We're talking a computer that runs The Orange Box on highest settings without a hiccup. That just aint right.

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The Source engine is the new UT(original Unreal Tournament). It can run on just about anything.

Soon we'll see HL2 and Portal on Cell phones

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*redownloads Portal, determined to home computer, determined to get it to run*

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Dear lord... stop everything else and play it! It's short(ish) but so incredibly worth it.

<qr>

Well, having just had to halve the RAM in my machine, I'm going to emphasize the "Get rid of extra geometry!"

Goign from 2 Gb - which is decent performance, only the occasional hiccup, other than that ONE SPOT in Arachnos lab maps that seems to send a ton of data over and lags everyone - to 1 GB means I'm going from "No problems" to "Hey, I died while I was lagging. Again."

Given that I'm trying ot level a MM and a Dom right now (not in anticipation of the VEATs, already have two redside 50s) it's exceptionally frustrating. And don't bother touching the BM - unless it's the wee hours, I mapserv.

Nice!

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So when is this power proliferation suppossed to take place? when does it take effect?...

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Hmmm....

Now, this is PURELY a guess on my part, made of nothing but the reading of entrails and consulting snails who have consumed strange herbs, but possibly in issue 12.

I tink people are ignoring the big issue here...

Are we gettign bandages in the "heads" section of the costume creator now?

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Check the stickies in the Virtue boards, theres one there.

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Many parenthesis keys gave their lives for Virtue RP... >.>

Big order... Don't know that one's around, and there's so many different *kinds* it'd be hard to really write "a" gudie, I think.

Part of it depends on the crowd you're with, too. Some get ((really snippy)) if you don't ((seperate out of character, or OOC)) comments or whatnot, others are perfectly casual - a character ends up developing a "personality" that gets played when you're with them.

All in all, it's a rather... complex bit to try to write a guide about.

(Which, fo course, means I'll probably try tackling it :P )

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I'm sure I'll get a lot of that, but other colors on my characters really don't suit my personal style...normally I don't make all black characters, but one is a ninja archer and the other is just...well Dark. I did use a lot of white though, but I like how it looks. I did try to make all of my characters look fairly unique, but I used similar helmets in a few of them, or similar shoulders.

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While I don't really have a problem with all one color (though I rarely use it,) you may still want to break it up a little. Make the pads on the archer dark grey, say, just to break up the solid expanse. Or use a dark blue or some such.

Couple of reasons.

1. Visual interest. A solid expanse of black is... well... just black. You're a person shaped hole running around.

2. Camoflage-wise, if that's what you're thinking? Yes, I know "camoflage" means nothing in-game - the NPCs don't care, and if you PVP, players just use a targeting box. But a solid black makes you... well, what I said in #1, a person-shaped hole. The purpose of camoflage is not really to help you blend in (well, not entirely) but to break up the human outline into something not as easily recognizable.

Look at our troops over in Iraq. Look at their *current* camofalge. Note how it's mostly tan, with the very occasional brown squiggle? There's a reason for that - before, it was much like the woodland camoflage with multiple tan/brown patches. The problem is - that made at hem a human-shaped patch of tan and brown in a mopsotly tan environment. The current look helps in that specific environment. Even "woodland" camoflage, though, while it blends some colors, breaks up the edges of the shape. It's not so much about matching your background as breaking up your shape.

3. Materials and wear. This is part of the visual interest. Materials dye differently and wear differently. (And I don't, for clarity's sake, mean "wear" just in the sense of "wear like clothes," but wear down.)

Looking at your swordsman, you've got pads - which will likely take more of a beating than the cloth underneath - and a cloth "mask." I'd definitely discolor those from the solid black. They'd quickly get scuffed, after all. Straps and such would also wear faster, as they're constantly handled and adjusted.

White ... isn't as bad, from what I'm seeing. (I'm not saying the all black is, either, if you're happy with it.) It's mostly the same material and would be seeing the same wear. But you may want to back off from "pure" white - I know I normally go a notch or two farther left. Think of what the things are made of, and se eif they'd be worn, replaced more often (whiter or darker) or the like. Even something that's all metal - well, go look up some 50s military aircraft (many natural metal - note some were painted with aluminum paint, though.) You'll see differences in metal from heat and grain.

Also, some of the whitest "whites" are mixed with a light blue... just something to consider.

Just giving you some things to think about to add a bit of definition and visual interest.

I'm not sure I can carve marble that fast... >.>

Maybe a fresco?

Gratz!

Round 2... even though the lighting's bad... Viperian.

(I'm going to get some better shots aIt some point... some of that *really* disappears.)

Howdy to both of you!

<.<

*starts rolling shiny things around to distract Mynx*