El D

@Glacier Peak is right. Should've included this in my original post (beyond Homecoming's 'Players not playing as NPCs' policy) but a lot of the NPC only/Dev Edit mode costume pieces are in their own overly specific categories, attached to unfitting anchor points, and/or just flat-out broken when used in-conjunction with regular player accessible options. Given that these were the only costumes that the NPCs were ever going to have, the Live Devs basically slapped any custom pieces into whatever open anchor point/section was convenient or unused for that particular NPC. For example, the 'Sybil Robe' is a giant single piece, takes up an unfitting section (Chest Detail), and was made to work only with one equally specific belt option (hence the massive empty space where the Sybil Belt goes). If it had been made for player use in-mind it would have been broken up into multiple individual pieces composing a whole set (likely chest piece, arm piece(s), skirt section, and cape/tassels), formatted to different anchor points for each option of the set, and made without the glaring empty space that requires it to use the Belt option from the same set or look broken/unfinished. The Live Devs never considered these pieces as 'player options' and so didn't make them in a modular fashion that'd work the way everything else in the player-end costume creator does. The effort and work hours that would be required to format them into an effective player option similar to the existing costume sets is the Homecoming quality bar (as @Jimmy posted), rather than just toggling the switch and letting people run around with poorly organized, unfinished, clipping, 'not made for player use' options. Sure, as they are now the NPC pieces can be kludged together into something neat, but - and I say this as someone who'd totally enjoy playing with the NPC pieces as they are now - that would be sloppy, unprofessional, and just look... bad.

While clipping is certainly an issue with the Sybil pieces, they're already usable in the costume creator (as per Titan Icon) - they're just tagged as NPC only. Granted, this means absolutely nothing in-regard to the devs granting players access to them. Given their official policy regarding players not being allowed to play as in-game NPCs, it seem very unlikely that we'd get access to these pieces (and if we did, it wouldn't be any time Soon™).

Having tested the color customization of some of the powers (Every Prestige Travel power, the Long Range Teleporter, and the Smoke Bomb) it seems like the current crop of options work as they should. Very appreciative that these changes have been added! My Water/Ninjitsu Sentinel will enjoy the Smoke Bomb changes immensely. As for Power Customization looking to be expanded in the future, the Halloween event has me wondering - could this affect Model Replacement Costume Powers as well? Many of the models used are already color customizable (via AE, as well as various mission contacts/enemy mobs) and it'd add a lot more avenues to explore with given how many people have character concepts involving NPC factions. On the same topic, Granite Armor could totally benefit from this as well. The Devouring Earth Boulder/Bedrock model is tintable and works for default Granite, while the Lattice/Crystal Titan model could definitely work as an addition to the 'Crystal' options. As for Lava, the Magmite model from the Minions of Igneous could totally fit (though that one would take more work, as AE says it's not color customizable).

Thanks! After @Glacier Peak and @Lady Nayreia beat me to the punch the last two times, I got extra determined for this one. ^_^; Good luck to my fellow Halloween Hunters!

Which is odd, because the in-game Detective Miller looks absolutely nothing like Hal Linden and looks pretty dang similar to how Posi did when the game was running. He might be named after the TV character, but he certainly isn't modeled after him. As for changing the character model to reference the Expanse... eh. It fits the theme of Detective Contact names, but if the Homecoming devs absolutely wanted to make an Expanse reference I'd prefer they just put in a new PPD contact. Maybe in Kallisti Wharf.

Happened to notice this while I was helping a friend get badges in Bloody Bay. I could still see the green 'Healing Received' numbers from the Panacea proc pop up over his stalker's head - even when the character was otherwise completely hidden via Hide. It isn't a huge tell, but it does give away the stalker's position.

I've had this Ninja/Storm MM in my head for a while and finally decided to make him.

Seeing a lot of familiar names/forum avatars from the old days! I was @El D on the forums/in-game during live and am here as well. Originally from Guardian at launch, went to Virtue after a few years, then ended up on Protector until shutdown. Glad to be back with y'all! If you see Diabolic (my old main) or Brazen Brawler (my new main) running around Everlasting, feel free to say hi!

Congratulations to the Jalopy Collective (again)! You really took the 'group costume' prompt in a unique and totally awesome direction. Glad Everlasting had such fantastic representation. I was Manticat of the Freedom Furlanx, and the brain behind the concept. My SG and I are still surprised at how well we did, especially considering how many great teams there were. Apparently people found the 'catgirl Freedom Phalanx' idea as amusing as we did. xD Thanks CR Miss and all the judges for running the contest! Was great fun gathering help in the fight against Lord Purrcluse!

Great minds think alike! Encryption ought to have a whodunit team-up with my own green man of mystery, the atomic detective known as... Private Ion Though at first it'd probably just end up like this

That does sound a lot easier than having to kludge the existing aspects of the model into the right area. Adding new bones just lets you put them right where you want to from the get-go. Thanks for the insight!

Decided to trim some of my lowbies that I've dropped off of playing Released Names - Piratical - Tsarevna - Espionage - Mage Hand - British Lion - Abraham Van Helsing - Paul Bunyan - Ribbit - Agathion Taken - Tigerfang

@Flashtoo & @boggo2300 - Totally understand the concerns about coding issues and wanting to ensure this would work properly and play nice with the rest of the UI/character animations. Like I mentioned in the original post I don't actually know how this works behind the scenes. I was just going off of what I'd seen the Cryptic/Paragon Studios devs manage and now others accomplish. I definitely get the desire for careful consideration. No objection taken at all. ^_^ @BubbleWrap - Really appreciate your post! I figured this would get a bit of traction but never thought you'd show up. With actual working examples to boot, that aren't just half-baked photoshop jobs like mine were. <.<;;; Big fan of the content you've posted on reddit, and I'm very happy to have someone with actual experience wrangling CoX's infamous spaghetti code chiming in. If you don't mind my asking, what was the change in approach that got it working?

Thanks for the comments! And apologies for the late reply - been a busy few days. ^_^

An age-old gripe with City of Heroes has always been 'Why is Costume Piece X in Category Y?' In the Long Ago, this was a problem with Tails being located under the Belt category (thus denying all of the ancient cat girls, demons, and dragon people any way to keep their pants from falling down while fighting crime) and it's still hanging around in other categories today. My suggestion is to repeat that process and decouple some of the more specific options from the broader categories they're currently in, making them into their own detail slots. I'll admit I have no idea how labor intensive the process would be, how jumbled it might make the costume creator UI, or what issues it might give against any limit on the amount of costume details each character can have, but at least it wouldn't require the creation of new textures or costume pieces. I've edited a few screenshots to give examples of these divergent categories and what the separated choices could end up looking like. - Break down 'Detail 1' into multiple sections. For example, 'Head Details' (Horns, Antennas, Ear Muffs, etc.) and 'Eye Details' (Glasses, Monocles, Robotic Eyes, etc.) - Move Facial Hair from 'Detail 2' into its own category - Move the Neck options into their own category outside of the 'Shoulder' categories - Separate the various types of 'Symbols' from the 'Chest Detail' category There are definitely some other category breakdowns that I missed, but these seemed like the most workable examples. Also I readily acknowledge that without some specific editing of which options go into which new categories and how many of them can be selected at one time, there would probably be a few clipping issues. However, that's already present with a number of other costume pieces as is (looking at you Jackets, High Collar capes, and just... The Huge model in-general). I just figured that this would be a good way to give folks even more creative options without requiring new assets to be made.

It's from a prestige power called Team Transport - if you activate it, you click on the Longbow Chaser (or an Arachnos Flyer if you're a villain/rogue) and it teleports you to the door of your active mission. Since it's designed to work for teams of players, the model lingers for a bit after it's summoned so everyone on your team has time to click on it. As for getting it, you can buy it from the P2W Field Agent for 10 million Influence (Prestige Powers -> Travel -> All the way at the bottom of the list).

Oh no, yeah, that's completely understandable - especially now given how active the Brickstown event is and how absolutely dead the Redside tutorial is (plus the 10+ years since the badge was first put in the game <.<;). I've had multiple global friends say the exact same thing, and I barely recognized it myself at first. 'Salright! ^_^

I don't think it's a bug - that badge was originally pushed to live in November 2006 to celebrate CoV's launch on Halloween in 2005 (Paragonwiki Link). So the devs probably just put it out there this month as another way to get an otherwise unobtainable badge.