Su_Lin

I'm not a fan of sleeping on the couch, that's all. XD

No problem, TA!

And in a similar vein of not forgetting, I'll just add that the lineart was done by TheDart. I colored the already quite excellent base he handed me to work with, and did the background paints.

A couple of helpful tips, from a Painter/tablet user:

Fastest way to get used to the tablet is to do the exercises included in the documentation(assuming it's not just the Intuos line that has them in there). In short, set up a 10x10 grid of straight lines, and then draw a dot at each intersection, relatively quickly. Then do the same, but X each intersection, then do a third pass in which you circle them. It takes about two minutes, tops, and if you do it every day you'll see your ability to work the tablet improve quickly. It was specifically designed by Wacom to develop tablet coordination.

Read said documentation. I dunno about the Graphire, but there's a lot of cool features in the Intuos drivers that you'll only catch if you read the manual.

Painter has a lot of awesome features. but the A-plus-number-one in my book is a command called Rotate Canvas. The shortcut is Alt-Space on Windows. I have the side-switch on my tablet stylus set to Keystroke... with Alt-Enter just so I can use it quickly with my tablet. Hold it down and move the mouse, you'll figure it out real fast. To reset the rotation, hold down the command shortcut and just click the page. It should be obvious what use it is as soon as you see it, if not, something's wrong.

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Jumping totally off topic... Su_Lin, you have one of my favourite quotes from one of my favourite shows in your sig. Only thing that'd top it off for me would be seeing someone with Vir's wave to Mordin's head as an avatar

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The fact that it's in my sig and the fact it's one of the best lines ever from one of the best characters ever is in no way connected.

Now excuse me, I must rummage in my closet for new shoes. This pair is too tight, and I've forgotten how to dance. And though whatever it is, it can't be that bad, this... this is wrong tool.

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I love Battlepope.

It's hard to believe it's the same guy writing " The Walking Dead"

I kinda see your side Hems, but seriously Anime does it the most with the butchering of relgions/mythos.

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i know, i love Anime, but when they start the norse names... it sounds so stupid... just like the random english words, and the sometimes randomly german speaking people, the japanese really likes german for some reason...

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It's not limited to just "foreign" religions tho, they butcher the crap out of Shinto'ism, Confucism, Taoism and Budhism... etc, etc...

I'll betcha good money you'll see another "A Journey to the West/Monkey King" anime within the next years or so.

Yeh, WWII really had a weird effect on the Japanese. That whole German Fetish is kinda odd.

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As a person with a degree in animation, I do think I need to say one little thing in here about anime that I don't think is widely understood. One of the peculiarities that came up in my studies of animation in general(including anime) is that when something is not understood, they have a historic tendency to explore it through storytelling. This is true of ANY artistic feild in any culture, but the Japanese seem to be a little less abashed about running with it. In the modern era, one of the most prevalent storytelling vehicles in Japan is animation. And one of the things that culturally they tend to not understand so well is the (especially western) preoccupation with our specific, myriad religions and mythologies. this is why you see so much in the way of slightly odd religious and mythological themes in anime. Because it's not just entertainment out there, whereas in the more western-thinking areas of the world, we tend to tell stories primarily for entertainment value, or at least see them that way.

One fairly good example I read about off the top of my head is Hellsing, which explores as a side note the admittedly strange and complicated relationship between Catholicism and Protestantism through that whole side-bit with Hellsing versus the Vatican.

That said, I realize this may be WAY off-base. The information I had available to study this... phenomenon, as it were, was predominately Western in origin, and we all know how often humans tend to *think* they understand other cultures when they really don't. So I'll leave room for error here. But it at least seems to bear weight against some of the interviews I've read/seen with Japanese directors and the like. As with any culture, the artists and directors and such tell stories about things that fascinate them. And often fascination in borne of a lack of understanding.

I've always known about this, really, but it's true of any art. Even acid-free archival paper and the stuff that the old masters painted on needs to be maintained in order to keep it in good shape over time. Places like the Louvre, the Library of Congress... they all have full-time restoration staffs to keep things like paintings, sculpture... the US Constitution... from degrading past the point of salvagable-ness. Digital media is no different, but that's okay-- every few years, the standard format changes, and you update all your old archived work to the new standard. I've got awrtwork that i originally saved on 3.5-inch floppies that are now occupying DVD space, and went through CD-Rs and Zip drives in-between. And when prices come down, I imagine all my work will be moving from DVD to Blu-ray, and so on and so forth.

I've been doing it for years, but I hadn't really thought about it til I read an article about George Lucas discussing digital film, and he mentions archival stuff and how in the end, archiving digital is not much different than actual film. In one, you have to update your movie from format to format, and the other, you occasionally have to re-print your masters because the film degrades over time.

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Whew...I was afraid I was out of line for making commentary...I tend to be of the "look, but don't touch(or comment)" mindset. I'm worried I'll get the "Who the hell are you?" look/response and might mess it up. The detail is such that I have been very impressed, and I think that's why I noticed it at all.

I feel like I'm babbling now, so....carry on!

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You're never out of line. I think most serious artists are happy to have a critique, however "bad" it might be, over a simple "I like it!" It shows us you took the time to really *look* and care.

My comments were only in regards to commission pieces, and I encourage crits even then(just suggest they be PM'ed, and praise be the public part).

Amazingly enough, @Su-Lin. I'm sure Dart will be interested, too, but I'll let him come post himself later on when he isn't asleep.

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Woah! Hang on a second *Transforms into Gamer-Geek mode*

V&V was my first-ever Superhero RPG back when I was a kid, and is still my preferred system (not that I do tabletop much anymore ). Reading all this stuff about "playing yourself as a superhero" really makes me smile inside.

Coincidentally, I've been playing my Archery/Energy blaster and have been having a blast (ha!). I think I've tried all the other blaster sets, but I haven't enjoyed any of them like the archery set. Go figure....

As for the piece....I love it. Yes, perhaps a muted red sign or banner in the background would be more unifying, but I don't really think you need it. The focus is on the figure, where it ought to be, and you notice the background second.

It also makes me remember what the editors told the artists of the old pulp magazines in the 30's: "You can use any color on the cover you want....as long as it's red."

(Ugh. Now I'm going to have to get one of Doug's pieces for myself...)

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Honestly, i'm fine leaving out banners and the like myself(though the bow comment, I'll stand by more firmly). I suppose it might have been worth saying more clearly that *if* he must get more red in there, a couple discreet background elements like banners would be the way I'd go".

that said, one of the four fundamental principles of graphic design is repetition. I don't think a little red scattered around the background, separated from the figure would fail to help... it's just unclear how necessary the help is. If Doug decides it's worth pursuing or not, there's a case either way.

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- Su Lin - That is a very insightful comment. One of the things I learned early is not to expose art too quickly to the critic. Even though they mean well, a critical word can really wreck the "feel" of a piece. I read somewhere that artists should treat new work like babies and not hurry to expose them to the "cold eyed critic". That said, I feel that as long as an artist is giving critical thought to the design of a piece, he (or she) can give three responses:
1. "I hadn't thought of that. Thanks!"
2. "I hear what you are saying, but this is the way I planned it."
3. "Uh...ok. Thanks for your time!"

In the end, I think that if the artist feels solidly about the design of the piece (and actually says so), the buyer of the piece should feel confident that they are getting a "carefully considered" piece of work as opposed to "Hey! That looks good! What do you know....".

Thanks again for the feedback!

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Absolutely, and honestly, Plas is the best sort of customer you're ever likely to get, to boot, so I wouldn't be too worried in this case. I was trained to think professionally as an artist, is all, and client happiness is a big part of reputation is a huge part of a career, as it were, big or small... and people will be people. I just think it's important, when chiming in on commissioned art in particular, to remember that whatever the artist thinks about the piece and critiques thereof, the artist isn't the only person invested in it. I do agree, however, that confidence in your work will tend to breed confidence in the recipient. Like I said... I didn't *have* to re-draw... but then there's that 'but' that didn't have to be there.

it's a tricky ol' thing, the art game.

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Yup, I htink Graver is right. I'd like to see a red somewhere welse. even if it's just a residual reflection from his uniform, it needs to be in this pic.

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Well... I *could* change the background lighting to be warmish tones instead of the blues... but I'm afraid I might lose the moonlight effect. Maybe warm tones down low by the streets and fade to blues up near the sky...

*brain-gears whir softly*

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As a fellow 3D artist, i need to jump in right here and say nononononono. If you need more red, which I'll totally agree with, hang a banner from a wall in the background, or something like that. Your key light is warm, from the city lights below, and you need the cool fill/rim light for compelling color balance, at least in this case. Plus, the background that corresponds with that fill/rim lighting is all cool-toned-- warming it up'll just pop him free of the background instead of integrating him more.

If anything, i think you need to shift the light colors MORE in the direction they're already leaning in- They're still awfully white, and it's lending a lot of plasticine feel to the character's clothes. Either that or broaden the highlights on his costume. The light looks fine on his skin, but it's flaring out to white on most of the fabric, and even leather doesn't hit highlights quite *that* hot.

That said, I think you're getting a lot better at background integration. Your lighting, historically, has always been a problem for your work(it's the FIRST thing I always notice), but these days, it's looking tons better, and I'm very happy to see it.

Edit: Looking it over some more, it might also help to change the color of the bow to black or something to help seperate it from the rest of him, if you can get away with it without destroying some of the character design. It's definitely getting lost against the rest of him, and It would help break up that localized red a little.

Very nice piece, in my opinion. Can't wait to see how it comes out.

On a side note, I know I've said this one before, so please forgive my short foray into grumpy artistness...

Critiques on commissions should really be given over PM. This isn't so much for the artist as being considerate to the person who commissioned them. I've learned from personal experience that it's *very* easy to de-value a piece that the commission-er was very happy about with well-intentioned critique(I've re-drawn a piece out of my pocket on at least one occasion, because despite my client telling me it was okay if I didn't, I could tell they weren't as happy when they first got it after some-- totally well-intentioned-- critiques came in).

That said, a WIP thread like this is a lot safer. I just want to caution people to be careful with helpfulness. Game on!

As often as I'll pick Super Jump, or in some cases flight...

Super Speed remains my favorite. I currently only have it on Su-Lin(because IMO *every* MA/SR should be taking the speed pool for travel, Hasten is IMPORTANT), but it still remains my favorite. Nothing quite like streaking along on a flaming trail like a DeLorean, and when you stack in quickness and Swift like I've got... DAMN that's some fast travel.

Sure, the vertical travel issue is sometimes a problem, but not so much for travel as combat. Almost every zone, the vertical movement problem can be solved by the simple expedient of knowing the zone. They all have ways up and down and fast ways through the trees-- you just have to learn them. And spend a year tooling around on your own two feet at 80mph or whatever it is... you'll learn to traverse zones *very* fast.

Plus, as a bonus, you'll never again be that one guy that gets speed boost and goes careening off into the 8-man spawn by mistake.

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You know, I have that same tablet but it's just plain white. In theory I -could- put a drawing or something under the plastic cover and do the same thing :P

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...wow wait, you can do that? o_o I didnt know that plastic layer.. lifted..or moved.. or..anything...Damn, you could TRACE pictures right on there!

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That is, in fact, what it's there for. Read your documentation.

I will also chime in and say that bigger is not better. It's persoanl preference, as with most things. I've worked on the smallest size for the last three years and the only real difference is that I use my wrist instead of my elbow. One is not better than the other, except in personal experience. If you draw from the elbow now, you likely will want a bigger tablet so you can continue to do so. One of the only advantages to the larger tablet, rally, is having the option of doing *both*, and being able to section the large tablet off into smaller virtual tablets with different settings, which the smaller tablets aren't large enough to do.

Intuos 2 versus 3... starting out, it's likely the 2 will be *everything* you need(Heck, a Graphire probably would be, but why drive a Pinto? Especially since the missing features on a Graphire will probably become noticable pretty fast. Pen tilt rocks). On the other hand, once you get into it a ways, you very quickly find yourself wanting those nice little side-buttons. I'll be upgrading to a 3 myself soon, just for those buttons. So it may be worth it to make the investment up front rather than waiting til you have a use for 'em.

Once you have a tablet, there are many things you can do to make your transition easier and quicker. FIRST, read the documentation. The tablet is simple to use, yes. But there are MANY subtleties and advanced uses you'll never know about if you don't read that stuff. Like the plastic cover being liftable for tracework. And application-specific settings. And sectioning off the tablet into sub-tablet regions. And a full set of exercises designed by Wacom to help you develop precision in using it.

That said, DO THOSE EXERCISES. In particular, there is one where you set up an image into a grid, and draw Xs over all of the intersections, and then circle each one, and then draw a dot on each one. Do this daily for a while, and you'll learn the tablet MUCH faster.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

Get used to having your eyes on the screen and your hand on the tablet. Your hand/eye coordination will adjust, just like with a mouse.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

Remember, this is digital. You can clean up messy lines easily, so don't worry if it's not smooth right at first.

Practice , practice, practice.

It can be helpful to see an experienced tablet artist work. If you get the chance, grab it.

There was one more thing... what was it.. right on the tip of my fingers... oh, yeah--

PRACTICE!

INSANE fun. Just insane.

But, as has been noted, the irritating-power-Spamming is less of a challenge and more of a drag. I was fortunate that I had Entropy sheild and teammates to pull attention away when I got hit simultaneously by *10* EMP grenades. I survived, but it sucked hard.

We also had a major problem in completing the mission. We took out our Hero in a fun little fight.... and no complete. No nothing. We weren't sure what was up. Possibly some Longbow guy spawns with the Hero that we missed, but with upwards of 30 longbow and PCPD firing at us, we sure couldn't find him before time ran out. Very frustrating to fail a good run because you can't find one guy amidst all the spawns, if that's what happened. We either need a way to see the "required" enemy targets, or it needs to be made such that you only have to take out the hero. They're relatively easy to see, even in an 8-man mission.

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Well, at least if you're making an Elec/Elec Brute, Acrobatics won't be so bad since all the Elec Melee attacks have End drain, right?

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I'm not concerned with the toggle cost. I'm concerned with how much you hve to hop outside the primary and invest heavily into pool powers.

3 powers for Acro, plus your travel pool dictated to you.
Probably 3 powers eaten up by stamina, as I'm not entirely expecting PowerSink + Attacks to be enough to keep end up. ((ED in Energy Aura can replace Stamina fine, but it cycles twice as fast as PS does)).
2 powers eaten up if you decide you need a self heal.
3 more if you want Tough/Weave, 2 for just tough(because the base resists are a bit low).

Invuln only needs to eat up three slots plus two for travel to cover gaps, for instance. Fire needs 6 for stamina and Acro, argably, but tht's still less. I don't know DA well enough to comment there. EA only really needs 2 for heals, maybe some resistance from Tough if you want.

Electric Armor gets some *sweet* stuff-- the Quickness power is gonna be NICE for Fury-- but I don't think it's enough to make up for the gaps as it currently stands. Need a higher resists, or (preferably, IMO), wider status protection to really make it worthwhile. It looks good, sure, and it's got some sweet powers, but it's lacking in fundamental areas from what I've seen so far.

Also, the power icons are all blue. But the electricity isn't. Maybe it should be swapped to red?

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No chance we can talk you guys into KB protection? Probably not with everything else this has huh?

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I'll second this. As with Fire Armor, this is making it really hard to be sold on the set. Lack of KB would be acceptable in a Stalker or a Scrapper, but it still bugs the heck out of me that ANY powerset that's expected to take the brunt of a spawn's attention, damage, mezzes, has to go to a third-teir pool power to get fairly essential and basic protection. Which isn't available for 20 levels. I'd be a lot happier if either Fire and Electric were given the protections they *need*, or if the needed effects were available earlier in the pool powers. I could live with being locked into Combat Jumping, for instance, but Acrobatics is painful on endurance, painful on build-planning, and painful on ten levels worth of a status protection gap relative to other sets,--and Hover has too many drawbacks to be really suitable as an option for most people(( IE: about a million times too slow )). Granted, it may make Elec Armor overpowered in some fashion to include this somewhere. I personally doubt it-- I think it'd put it about on the level of Energy Aura, which is a nicely-balanced set, IMO.

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May I just say how impressed I am at the various points of view that have been expressed in this thread. It's like reading a transcript of a law class (i love stuff like that).

So do we all agree that, generally speaking, Cryptic does not hold the rights to the characters in a truly legal sense, but that its such murky waters, they don't even really know what they have a right to or not? Do any rednames have anything more to say on the subject?

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I would say it like this:

NCSoft owns the *representation* of characters as they exist in-game. Essentially, anything about he characte that specifically can be said to come from CoX and is the work of NCSoft/Cryptic, they own. So your character, WITH a CoX costume/character design appearance, WITH specifics of the CoX setting/history in their background/current circumstances, weilding CoX-specific powers is owned by NCSoft. So they own the character's CoX presentation.

Whoever, I'd say that what they do NOT own is a seperate representation of the character. Presented with the same basic character concept, with a demonstrably non-CoX-specific costume/facial/etc design, without references to CoX's setting or history, should be okay for your purposes. Because at that point, you no longer have any of NCSoft or Cyptic's work present in your character, only your own. However, if that work of yours ends up published/copyrighted material, you can probably expect your CoX character to get generic'ed unless you arrange things with NCSoft to allow it.

Regarding the question of commissioning artists...

Generally speaking, what you pay for when you commission an artist is the *service*-- the ability to create fanart, and the artwork itself, NOT the *content* of the artwork. You pay for time, and expertise, NOT for the character portrayed. So it isn't CoX content that is being sold, simply the ability to render the art.

Now... there are plenty of areas this could fall into problems. If, for instance, you commission an artist to develop a NEW character for use in your comic book, and that artist uses the CoX character creator to come up with the design, and then draws it, the artist, at least, is in trouble, and possibly the client. Because NCSoft own the costume designs as they appear in CoX, etc, etc. If you commission an artist and then sell prints of the work, you're in a whole lot of trouble, both from NCSoft and the artist(you're then infringing on the CoX-specific content *and* the service the artist provided). If you commission an artist and they, say, drop a screenshot in as a background, or use a screenshot and just run it through a filter, then the artist is in trouble, having profitted from stuff that NCSoft very specifically owns.

Similarly, a writer can, I believe, get away with writing, say, a novel for publication about a character they used in CoX, *provided* they remove ALL CoX-specific material from background, setting, descriptions, etc, etc. Paragon City? No, it doesn't exist outside of CoX. States and company? Nope. Rikti Invasion? Nope. WW2? Fine. Rogue Isles? Nope. Powers described to work exactly as they do in-game? No. Generic ability to wield and manipulate fire? Sure. A gang of homeless guys that turn people into aliens? Very-crossing-the-line, I'd argue No, too close to CoX-specific content. Invasion by a hyperintelligent shade of the color blue? No, but not because of CoX content. A location that could be said to describe Atlas Park down to details? No, even without mention of Atlas park by name.

I think people can get the idea. As I understand it, the legalese of the EULA and all that essentially protects two things: 1. The work that Cryptic has put into CoX from being theived. This includes specific elements of character creation, setting, locations, the "look" of places, etcetera. 2. Copyrighted material belonging to other companies from being theived and replicated into CoX.

Commissioned artwork doesn't really fit into this, though it's a grey area. You don't, generally, profit from having the artwork done(or you shouldn't be), and the artist isn't selling the content of the work, but the time and effort to do the work, and the expertise. As long as that's clear, I would think that NCSoft should have no complaints. It's the difference between paying for personal *fanart* to be made, and paying for unlicensed merchandise. Most commissions around here are a *service*, not *merchandise*. If I do commissions for fanart of people's characters, this *should* be permissable. However, if I sell *prints* of my CoX fanart for profit, I am in BIG trouble with NCSoft. But all I'm doing as a commissioned fanartist, generally speaking, is selling my drawing talent. Which NCSoft doesn't own. The question comes down to what the end product is being used for and how much CoX there is in it.

I think part of the reason the T-shirt is problematic is that many companies like Cafe Press that do those services are set up with the implication of merchandise. IIRC, even if you don't intend to sell multiple copies of a T-shirt, that is what their business is set up to do, and thus the legal problems with ownerships *really* start coming in.

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NONE of these are major problems for a decently-outfitted team working together.

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Definitely true; none of these things were problematic when you had a moderately well put together team using tactical coordination. The majority of the PvP that happens in the game, though, isn't the sort you describe, it's people in PvP zones in random groups (at least on Infinity). To that end, they seem to be catering to the majority and altering the powers that can be a bit severe for random pickups to deal with if they dont' get lucky with team composition. Hurricane, one shotting, these things were never really issues to solid teams, but they care about more than solid teams, and I don't think that's unwise of them, though I also don't necessarily think it's wise either, I'm pretty ambivalent. A lot of people just want to log in and have fun without being ground into a wall by a hurricane, slammed in one hit by an assassin strike, etc.

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I think that's reasonable, but I also think it's reasonable to say that if this is your intention, you need too-- and SHOULD need to-- be at least a little smart about it. Pick your targets, keep moving, etc, etc. You won't always be able to avoid everything, but that's the way it is. I've played my very un-PvP-built Fire blaster and Fire/Kin corr in SC, and they don't do that well, but I find if I can keep moving, I don't get ased much, and as long as I'm picking and choosing who i go after, and fire at canes from range, kite the scrappers, etc I manage to have fun.

Granted, on Virtue, we see a lot more team-based PvP, a lot more of what i think the Devs actually had in mind initially. And sure, we're one server and I know that. But it'd be a shame to lose it anyway. It'd be keen if we could somehow instead get incentives beyond "better experience" to promote team PvP play.

Another point I neglected in my first post, is that the Call is a relatively low-level zone, and the builds thee are immature, whether by natural level or EX/MAing. I weep for the nerfed 'cane when it hits Warburg where the really heavy melee damage comes into play, or worse, when Recluse's Victory hits, where even *before* the nerfage, most everyone worth their salt'll have a couple decent ranged attacks from patron pools, and maybe a hold or a pet to help them out. it'd be tough without this change, just watching for that many more ranged attackers, but toss in having to worry about all the melee in the zone at the same time, I think is going to make the prospect an exercise in pain. Especially for defenders. I'd be a lot more optimistic if this change could be somehow restricted to the zone itself, I suppose. As it stands, I'm kind of expecting a lot of stormies to just get frustrated. Pinning aside, Hurricane was a lot of safety for Stormies trying to support a team, and it's going to be somewhat trivial at this point, I think, though I need to get my current stormie up-level enough to give it a serious testrun still, so I can't swear to it. But if it's bad enough that a stormie can, say, catch all the squishie villians in an AOE hold for the team, die, and that's the extent of their practical support ability? Ouch. We'll see, I guess.

My only problem with all this, Castle, is sort of a general concern with the state of PvP now and in the future.

CoX PvP has seemed to me-- and it seemed to me the devs were implying it to be true in the past-- that CoX PvP is balanced around TEAM PvP, not Solo work. This seems to me to be just the latest in a line of changes that slowly chip away at that to make the game more fun for people that want to solo-pwn every one and everything.

Maybe it's just me, but I LIKED the fact that intially, there were ATs/powersets that could chew up another AT for breakfast, but stand no chance against another one. Stalkers, one-shotting, Hurricane-pinning... NONE of these are major problems for a decently-outfitted team working together. If a Caner pins you, You get a Corr or Blaster to blast the heck out of them, problem solved. If the caner's team provides better support than yours does... well, clearly the more organized, better PvP players have won. If you're solo... well, better rethink your strategy. Heck, Hurricane... there's lots of ways to deal with it, if you bother to team. Corrupters, masterminds, Dommies all have range, Dommies can just hold the Stormie and shut off the cane so you can beat the tar out of them, and /EA brutes, at least, and maybe /EA Stalkers can just wade right through the Repel to beat the heck out of them. ASes can be dealt with with Tactics and /SR scrappers and so on, massive damage can be turned by taunting tanks that can take it... point is, there's a lot of ways already existing to deal with these problems without taking the teeth out of sets.

Anyway. My concern here is that we're slowly moving away from the team-based nature of PvP balance that actually makes it FUN for a lot of us that don't usually enjoy PvP, and putting it back in the hands of the soloist "I pwn j00 all" mentalities. I worry that changes like this end up just frustrating people that take the sets, and they leave PvP, maybe at best roll a character "better suited" to PvP, and the experience slowly funnels down to a bunch of Stalkers and Brutes and a bunch of scrappers and maybe tanks beating on each other all day. What fun *that* would be...

I'm not saying it's going to happen. But I think it could, with the direction PvP changes have been going.

PS: I am a soloist in PvP who occassionally teams. I find the teams the most fun, but I like the challenge of solo work. I expect to get my butt handed to me on a platter regularly. And yes, i do prefer it that way-- it gives me something to hone skills against. I'd rather find ways around Cane pinning than remove it, as it ultimately makes me a better player, and happier for the PvP experience.

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I know I don't post in here very often, but I thought I would share something that fits the topic - and to just let you guys know I do pop in here a lot to read, watch, and admire all the amazing talent we have in the community.

Here at NCsoft we share an office with Destination Games, the development house working on Tabula Rasa, and I often run into a concept artist who spends a large portion of his time drawing concept art for the game in a common area of our building. People will often walk by and gawk at some of the most amazing pencil drawings they have ever seen and chat with Brad as he casually fleshes them out. The thing I have heard him say over and over again is the same as some other people here have mentioned, "almost anyone can draw decently - if they are willing to work at it."

The problem for most of us is that we honestly don't want it bad enough to do the work needed to achieve it. Other things in life are more important to us than learning how to draw - so we do those things instead of drawing.

But boy, oh boy - are we impressed with those of you who DO draw.

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Cuppa gets it. I am pleased. So very pleased.

Not because Cuppa gets it, but just that one more person does. Because it's AMAZING to me that so many people don't. That so many people will throw the fact that it takes work to get good at art away so vehemently. It's not that I don't understand why-- I've studied enough psychology to understand why. It' still, just amazes me.

Annoys the hell out of me, too. I've been drawing since i was old enough to hold a crayon. I'm on my eighth year working with 3D rendered artwork. I've spent the last two years working myself sick(literally four or five times) absorbing everything I can in an art degree program. I haven't been on CoH at all in almost a week because I've spent all that time on commission and personal work and trying to nail down some techniques I've been wanting to learn.

And someone wants to tell me, after all that, that it's TALENT that got me here? They want to deny me the blood sweat and tears that got me here? The only answer I can possibly think of to it is "Yeah, well, CENSORED you, too." I wrote that as CENSORED because I think that what i really wanted to say would have broken the filter for sheer force of venom.

I believe talent has it's place, because i know I have it. Speaking as a talented individual and knowing what it's taken me to get to where I am, however, I feel qualified to state that talent has a place in ability and it's a very small one, comparitively speaking. Period.

Anyway, Rowr, Dart already mentioned this, but I want to underline it and maybe expand on it a bit. When you hit a plateau, you do something else to raise yourself over it. A more apt metaphor might be that when you hit the glass ceiling, you shimmy over sideways and climb around it. You've topped out on drawing? Work on color. Play with learning to animate. Learn some 3D. Buy some watercolor and just slap the paint around on a page(you don't even have to try and do a recognizable painting, though that's also an option, of course). When you've hit a limit on the work, do different work. Change your tools. Jump to writing for a week. Make a collage. Fiddle with print design. Create a website. Read a physics book. Take photos of neat stuff. Do sidewalk chalk. Learn to program. Get ahold of training videos by awesome artists and watch how they work. Whatever. Bottom line, when you feel you're not going "up" anymore, move sideways. Art, to me, is like a pyramid. Whatever you start with, you can only get so high before you need to expand the base to get higher. Moving to another medium, another activity, another... anything, really, will force you to think about things differently. Then you return to the work you started with with more ideas than you had before, and you go up. This is part of the reason art is so much work. To me, it's why it's so much fun. But I like knowing stuff, so having an excuse is awesome.

Awesome guide. And i know a couple people it's actually helped in dealing with me and my scrapping brethren.

*raises hands* Domesticated MA/SR and proud of it, with a wild side and proud of that, too.

I'm what I might call a Focused Domesticated Scrapper. If noone bothers to ask me to deal with something specific(assuming I don't disagree and debate the tactic if they do, anyway), I take a moment to tab through the spawn and identify priority targets, like sappers, bosses, Sky Raider engineers, that sort of thing, and work the list in a top-down fashion. When I run out of them, I indiscriminately slaughter anything within reach and rarely feel bad if a blaster torches whatever it is.

I second the above specialty note regarding the care of MA scrappers. If I crane kick it away from me and I care, I'll immediately jump right after it(because with Hurdle, jumping covers the distance faster and time's a-wastin') If I don't, then I've reached the wanton slaughter phase and i could care less who kills it-- I'm probably standing back-to-back with the tank killing anything in reach.

I'll also note that in the case of the Domesticated Scrapper particularly, it's very effective to pair them off with tanks(if you have enough). Scrappers are very territorial, especially to their own kind. Nothing's a thorn in your paw quite so much as some guy with a katana smacking *your* boss around, like you're not doing more damage than his fancy-pants green-glowing alleycat bootie ANYWAY.

Also, my favorite activity is loping along just behind the tank, so I can jump into the mass of bodies that start crowding up for a nice Dragon's Tail. I rarely dive in first, just to save my team the worry, unless it's necessary.

I'll grudgingly take that SK, if the team *really* needs me to have it, but I've built myself to work without it. I'll know if I need one, and I'll ask for it immediately when I do. Please don't make me try to explain that it's compltely frivilous, yes, I know they're +5 to me, but you don't need me to tank, so don't sweat it.

Understand that I group because I like playing with people, It's honestly not that I need to. Frankly, I can probably earn twice the XP per hour if I go solo, but I like fighting on a team, it gives me warm fuzzies. I will honestly get impatient if there's excessive waits, afks, hold-ups, and so on, and eventually, I'll get bored. Then i'll either leave, of make my oen entertainment. Not good.

Please understand that I have a good appreciation of what people should be capable of. I've played every AT at some point or another, even though I don't like all of them due to my scrapper sensibilities. I've even played most of the powersets. I expect you to do a better job at what you do than I could in your place. Do me the favor of doing so. Mind you, I'll probably be fine if you don't, but it offends my delicate demeanor and i turn to the wild.

If the group is comprised of clearly enough Omph to tackle what the mission throws at a dead run, and you insist on pulling to be safe, I'm probably going to go find some stuff to piss off. I'm going to get wild. We've got two tanks, a defender, a controller, and a pile of damage. They're +2s. You want to pull? Come ON. I'll be polite about it at first, but it's not going to last, I promise.

All bets are off when I pop that joyous button to the right of my toggles, though. Yes, Elude. Elude sends me right into Feral/Wild roots like nobody's business. That button is pure, uncut, unadulterated catnip. Boost me, Shift, me, Fort me if you really wanna. but let me loose. You'll like it, promise. I WILL use that 3-minute godlike power to its full extent. The full extent might be destroying this 8-man spawn that almost team wiped us, followed by that patrol over there, and if I've still got thirty seconds, maybe I'll take a shot at those guys at the foot of the stairs for kicks and giggles. I'm very sorry for the worry this puts you all through, but if you were on an Elude high, you'd understand.

I play and have always played a scrapper, ever since beta. it's colored my perceptions of the game compltely. I attempt to play ever AT with the scrapper philosophy, tweaking out builds so I can ride that razor's edge. It's no surprise my second-favorite powerset is Storm summoning, the "I can't believe you just did that!" set. Perfect for a scrapper. It's also no surprise that my Secondary is that ultimate of knife-walking dice-rolling, Super Reflexes. Don't feel bad if you couldn't save me, dear Empathy. It wouldn't be fun without the thrill of danger, the knowledge that you're god right now and untouchable, but the random number generator may make you its B***h at ANY moment. What a way to feel alive.

I will jump into a spawn of +6s to help my group without a second's hesitation, I'll pull a +5 boss off a defender three levels higher than me without blinking an eyelash. I will sometimes fall, but I will always get back up and jump back in with only pause enough to switch my toggles back on. I will take a shot at a +10 Paragon Protector just to see if I can hit it.

I am The Daring Death-Defying Su-Lin, and I earned those titles.

I am a Scrapper.

( I am also easily amused. )

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From my perspective she was a Claws/Get-Mauled-By-Brutes Scrapper.

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I think that's just about every hero's Secondary in CoV. >.> <.<

My brute's got like, 30 notches on her belt from Infernal alone, by now.

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There's nothing in the animations that prevents a shield strapped to the non-weapon arm?

There is also nothing in the animation that currently does this. You would have to produce new animations for all these attacks/defensive powers with both sword and shield drawn.

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That is not *entirely* true. It's largely dependant on how the game engine treats weapons. Either they're an integral part of the animations(which seems pretty unlikely), or they're just attached to the skeleton as it runs through the animations(which seems more likely given the behaviour when you draw or sheathe weapons while on-the-run, jumping, etc-- and this is how most game engines I've worked with modding as an artist work).

In the latter case, all you have to do is leave the sheild/mace/sword/whatever attached to it's connection point on the hand. It seems unlikely to me as an animator and ex-programmer, given the visible behaviour of weapons in-game, that they'd be using the first option. The second option is a little more complicated, but a lot more flexible and efficient. It would also account for the way my TA defender sometimes ends up with her bow "stuck" to her hand for an hour or more. I sincerely doubt they did a full set of emote animations with the bow out-- it's almost got to be attached to the skeleton. Also consider any of the temp-power jetpacks. They've got to be simply attached to the skeleton with a normal set of flight(and aerial-attack) animations running.

That said, it would make 'pinning' a sheild to an arm not a very big deal at all, in comparison to the assumption that they'd have to re-animate everything.