Three reasons.
Slightly/mostly discontinued is the developers wanted some pieces to remain unique - see Statesman's mask and unique pattern for example.
Older pieces for NPCs were not builtthe same as character parts, and are not compatible with player rigs/animations (Old CoT robes)
The main reason now/going forward is excessive clipping with other parts of the players costume. See the threads about the Circle of Thorns costume pieces recently released.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
What about the Praetorian police and the clockwork blasts? Are those going to get worked in, or do you think similar graphics will get worked in to future blast sets?
Power effects - no clue. Definitely more a question for Tunnel Eat (All Things Art - FX thread in General Discussion)
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
Most of the old NPC models are a complete rig, not a collection of costume parts like player models, so to make the assorted pieces available for players would require building the parts from nearly scratch.
The Devs stated... last year?... that going forward newly created NPC faction costume pieces would be made available to players where practical although not necessarily all pieces would be released for use. Also, there's been discussions about making PC versions of some of the older NPC costume bits available as time and design constraints allow.
Halloween is the big time of year for dress up and costumes, so hopefully some more bits will be released as in game unlockables in the next couple of weeks.
Dr. Todt's theme.
i make stuff...
For a long time villains groups, and heroes and AVs and Heroes and so on have had great costume pieces that for one reason or another have not made it to the player base.
My question for this is why?
Now, let me qualify this. I remember years ago I ran a D&D campaign. I got creative creating NPCs and magical weapons, and one of my players asked why do the NPCs have all this cool stuff and we don't. A number of reasons. They were NPCs. Allowed me to great tougher adventures. But at the end I thought, they're right.
So it got me to thinking. Why doesn't the same thing happen with some of the costume/costume pieces that are available to the NPCs in COH. If it's cool and not tied to an iconic character, then why can't we have it? I know some of it is animation related, but still, why?
Any thoughts. Not sure that I articulated my thought clearly. Let me know.