Kheldians and the forms

[Ukase]

If you play on Excelsior in the afternoon/evenings, you'll eventually come across Goddess Laucianna or Queen Maya, or Whisper or any other number of what seems to me to be predominately Kheldian players. And you'll also be aware that everyone is encouraged to make one, play one and become a kheldian. 

I have never been a player to get too distracted about a costume for my characters. I often just use the RNG and adjust from there. Sometimes, I'll use the SG costume of Cosmic Council and change the colors and the disturbingly bad hairstyles they have. And since I have no shame, I will admit to going to the discord of other CoH servers, looking in their costume threads and trying to copy some of the more interesting looks. 

One of the things that's held me back from a kheldian was the appearance of the forms, and the lack of status protection if you wanted to go as a human only form. 
So, before I make the suggestion that's probably already been made, is there a reason why the dwarf form can't be colored red or something? And the nova form also take on a different shade than the default? 

It's also a 10 prismatic loss that led me to discover the form changes over-ride the costume toggle. The toggle remains on when you switch back, which is better than nothing, but sorry - the nova form is pretty gross. And the dwarf form isn't much better. I'm sure that's just me, though. 

I caught wind of something about a "Red Hulk", like the Incredible Hulk we all know of, but I've never come across a Red Hulk. Which is what led me to think of a Red Dwarf. (as opposed to White Dwarf and Black Dwarf) I'm sure someone up on the lore could come up with a reason why a dwarf form shouldn't be Red, or any other color than the default white or black. But aside from lore, do we know of a reason why the dwarf and nova forms can't be adjustable? 

 

[Seed22]

56 minutes ago, Ukase said:

If you play on Excelsior in the afternoon/evenings, you'll eventually come across Goddess Laucianna or Queen Maya, or Whisper or any other number of what seems to me to be predominately Kheldian players. And you'll also be aware that everyone is encouraged to make one, play one and become a kheldian. 

I have never been a player to get too distracted about a costume for my characters. I often just use the RNG and adjust from there. Sometimes, I'll use the SG costume of Cosmic Council and change the colors and the disturbingly bad hairstyles they have. And since I have no shame, I will admit to going to the discord of other CoH servers, looking in their costume threads and trying to copy some of the more interesting looks. 

One of the things that's held me back from a kheldian was the appearance of the forms, and the lack of status protection if you wanted to go as a human only form. 
So, before I make the suggestion that's probably already been made, is there a reason why the dwarf form can't be colored red or something? And the nova form also take on a different shade than the default? 

It's also a 10 prismatic loss that led me to discover the form changes over-ride the costume toggle. The toggle remains on when you switch back, which is better than nothing, but sorry - the nova form is pretty gross. And the dwarf form isn't much better. I'm sure that's just me, though. 

I caught wind of something about a "Red Hulk", like the Incredible Hulk we all know of, but I've never come across a Red Hulk. Which is what led me to think of a Red Dwarf. (as opposed to White Dwarf and Black Dwarf) I'm sure someone up on the lore could come up with a reason why a dwarf form shouldn't be Red, or any other color than the default white or black. But aside from lore, do we know of a reason why the dwarf and nova forms can't be adjustable? 

 

Nothing in lore says anything about the makeup of the species to that depth so there isn’t even a lore reason why it can’t be made red.

[Laucianna]

You can colour the forms slightly 💛 as my forms have a golden glow to them (Granted not as prominent as I would like). I was made a rave costume that had every hue in the attacks which worked wonderfully for that rainbow effect 😄

But if not liking the forms is a big barrier you can either go changeling which sees the forms for less then half a second if at all (And is currently the most effective playstyle) or you can go Human only 💛 All Kheldians are loved in the family no matter the playstyle, even if you want to be a healing human only Peacebringer!

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

Which is what led me to think of a Red Dwarf. 

[Wispur]

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

I caught wind of something about a "Red Hulk", like the Incredible Hulk we all know of, but I've never come across a Red Hulk. Which is what led me to think of a Red Dwarf. (as opposed to White Dwarf and Black Dwarf) I'm sure someone up on the lore could come up with a reason why a dwarf form shouldn't be Red, or any other color than the default white or black. But aside from lore, do we know of a reason why the dwarf and nova forms can't be adjustable? 
 

(Wispur, not Whisper)  😂

As far as why the "physical" forms themselves can't be changed, it's basically the same reason Mastermind Pet colors can't be changed.

They are complete models unto themselves.  And there's no code/structure in the game to allow entire models to be recolored, which makes sense, even nowdays, tech like that is rarely used for most games. 
They either swap out the models entirely, use a special material (texture with code built in basically) or they do what CoH does for it's character creator, all of the pieces are seperate with transparency layers and the engine "Builds" your character each time you login.  Your 3D character doesn't exist on the servers, but rather the recipe for your character exists on the server.

CoH could in theory use transparency layers to color the models, but again, there's literally no structure for that in the game, they'd have to actually rebuild large chunks of the game's code to allow that I believe. Because when you change forms, it'd have to pull in not just the 3D model, but the color variations too. And that's not a small change.

ie, something well outside the scope of what the current team could do.
And even if they did, the tech would only really be useful for Kheldians and Masterminds.
Those resources probably have better uses elsewhere. (I say as a Kheldian player who would love to recolor her forms)

Edited October 21 by Wispur

[tsoper]

A human PB does have status protections. You will need to build for perma light form though. It is a power you get later on, not for early levels though.

 

Copied from the HC wiki:

When you activate Light Form, you become pure Kheldian energy and are extremely resistant to most damage. You are also partially protected from some Disorient, Immobilization, Hold, Sleep, Knockback and Repel effects. Endurance recovery is also increased. Light Form costs little Endurance to activate, but when it wears off you are left exhausted, and drained of Hit Points and Endurance.

 

I am not at home right now, so i don't have the links, but Laucianna, Wispur, or Maya could direct you to discord or Laucianna's guide for more help.

 

I play a human PB myself.

[Ukase]

30 minutes ago, tsoper said:

You will need to build for perma light form though.

Sadly, I'm not a fan of the crash. If your end isn't up, bad things could happen. I've built a PB before, and it's possible to get the resists up to cap for several attributes, but without lightform, no status protection. It's odd. I don't have a problem with other end crashes on other ATs. Probably says more about me than the AT. 
I have my current PB on the back burner; with the new sheer willpower accolade, there may be a case to be made for bringing it out. Time will tell. 

[Ukase]

1 hour ago, Wispur said:

Wispur, not Whisper

I knew it wasn't the proper spelling of Whisper, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember the proper spelling of your handle. My apologies. 

[Kaika]

59 minutes ago, Ukase said:

Sadly, I'm not a fan of the crash. If your end isn't up, bad things could happen. I've built a PB before, and it's possible to get the resists up to cap for several attributes, but without lightform, no status protection. It's odd. I don't have a problem with other end crashes on other ATs. Probably says more about me than the AT. 
I have my current PB on the back burner; with the new sheer willpower accolade, there may be a case to be made for bringing it out. Time will tell. 

With a changeling build actually this is not really a big issue, since you aren't really reliant on toggles for anything, and you can slot +end procs into your form shifts, and with the changling play-style you shift forms multiple times a second. Light form can be made not just perma but to the point where it overlaps a bit, so even if you bottom out on end when it falls off you still have it active and can take some time you get your end back before it needs to be reactivated. You also get conserve energy, which you can't get perma but you can have up about 50% of the time and basically removes endurance as a mechanic

 

As someone who played PB back in the day and just recently picked up the changeling playstyle, its a entirely different monster.

[VioLight]

I just want that look for my non Kheldian characters!