Unshared costume pieces (A discussion not a Request per say)

[TransFemmeHero]

First let me Preface the follow by saying I am not blaming or upset with or have any ill feelings toward the home coming team as much of this is out of their control and much of the issue lie in how things where developed prior when Paragon Studio/ NC soft were the show runners, that said let me get into the meat an potatoes of  the issue:

 

More than once I have the discussion with other players about how the Masculine (Both regular and huge) seem to have more unique costume parts than the Feminine form does, and that the majority of the unique pieces the feminine  form does have seem to be stereotypically women's items and my frustration surrounding that. So I decided to go and try to count and here is what I discovered:

 

Where I was wrong:

masculine forms have ~48 unique pieces feminine do not. Not including human faces, facial hair, or hair styles

Feminine have ~220 unique pieces masculine do not. Not including human faces or hair styles

(there is a +/- margin of error that I missed something and argument can be make on some items that do have both a masculine and feminine version of the "same" costume piece)

 

So in respect to men having more this is categorically untrue... HOWEVER, it is worth noting still the lions share of the feminine options that masculine bodies did not have were as I postulated stereotypically women's items such as Chokers, Skirts,  revealing women's tops where as the masculine only items mostly felt like they could or should be unisex with a few exceptions.

 

I will also note that most of the masculine only pieces where as such when Paragon and NC soft were in charge and the relatively few  that were added by the homecoming team I believe were on NPCs of the body type that the costume pieces were given too.

 

Also for the record I am in no way saying "boohoo men get all the cool options", though there are more options that I think it is unfortunate are  for only masculine bodies get vs the number only for feminine bodies.  I also recognize the homecoming team can do little about this as they do not have someone who knows the 3d modeling program that could refit items in either direction (last I was told anyway). Also if they could refit everything for all body types I have zero issue with and in fact would encourage men getting all the skimpy tops and skirts, and more over even though I did not include man of the face options, or any hair options or facial hair options in my count I think all of those should be refitted to the other body types as well.

 

To the Devs if you read this. If some day you do get someone who know the 3d program or one of you learns it I would very much appreciate any effort to give as many options as possible to all body types (also would like to see a huge femme form but that is  a-whole-nother bag of worms which probably isn't possible for the same reasons as the costume pieces issue) however, below are some options that are unique to one body type or the other that I think something could be done about as they are I believe on the paint layer:
 

1. Occult options for the High Collar capes are masc only atm
2. the hooked glove option  is only on femme atm
3. The Barbarian leg options for both types of body

 

I also want to say I have had the discussion that sparked this rant with players of many gender identities and they seem to concur that locking pieces to a specific body type was a poor choice (again not one the homecoming team made) to begin with even if you cite the times the game was made in and the parent company as reasons to not share stereotypically gendered options across all the body types there are plenty that feel  genderless that were unnecessarily made gendered/ locked to a certain body type, /r

 

Edited December 8 by TransFemmeHero
correct grammar and spelling errors

[Glacier Peak]

Is there a list of specific costume pieces that are locked to specific genders? And would that list also have pictures to see what they are?

[The Trouble]

There are so many options on the feminine body type that would work well for a highwayman/dandy concept I'd love to make.  Also, the long hair options for the masculine types are awfully slim.  "Don't worry, we have both 'ponytail' and 'scragglechump'!"  For representation, for expanded character concepts, for the lulz... outside of the logistic work already addressed in the OP, I see no reason to keep denying me a belt with a clock on it.  <shakes an angry fist at the sky>

 

Count me in with the hopeful that HC can find someone with the time and expertise to port all textures and models to every body type.  

[TransFemmeHero]

11 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

Is there a list of specific costume pieces that are locked to specific genders? And would that list also have pictures to see what they are?

not that I am aware of and I am not sure I want to under take that task

 

[Clave Dark 5]

14 hours ago, TransFemmeHero said:

To the Devs if you read this. If some day you do get someone who know the 3d program or one of you learns it I would very much appreciate any effort to give as many options as possible to all body types

 

Co-signed.

[mechahamham]

15 hours ago, TransFemmeHero said:

First let me Preface the follow by saying I am not blaming or upset with or have any ill feelings toward the home coming team as much of this is out of their control and much of the issue lie in how things where developed prior when Paragon Studio/ NC soft were the show runners,

 

This hints at something that's become a bit of a problem. It goes something like: "Group Y has given me something I really want. Therefore Group Y are good people." That's okay in and of itself, but then goes on, "I will tolerate NO CRITICISM OF GROUP Y! THEY ARE FLAWLESS! IF YOU DISAGREE, YOU ARE THE ENEMY!"

 

No. None of us are flawless, and organizations tend to compound the flaws of their members. Homecoming has done a WONDERFUL job championing the game we love and adding new content to it despite being an entirely volunteer organization, but mistakes still get made. Problems still exist. Because it's a volunteer organization, because the game is in OUR hands now, we ALL have to work to make it better. That means testing, reporting bugs, helping new players, and providing constructive criticism where appropriate.

 

If someone says 'x feature is neglected. I feel the developers are missing an opportunity to make the game better,' and the response is, 'How dare you criticize these wonderful people who've given us back the game that was taken away from us?!?!', that doesn't do a damn thing to actually make the game better, and it's not hard to find MANY examples of similar lines here on the forums, and I hear something similar at least two or three times a week in-game.

 

Now, on to the costume items:

 

15 hours ago, TransFemmeHero said:

So in respect to men having more this is categorically untrue... HOWEVER, it is worth noting still the lions share of the feminine options that masculine bodies did not have were as I postulated stereotypically women's items such as Chokers, Skirts,  revealing women's tops where as the masculine only items mostly felt like they could or should be unisex with a few exceptions.

 

Once upon a time, I remember reading from the Paragon devs (Maybe even from SexyJay or NobleSavage?) that requests for female costume parts outweighed requests for male costume parts by a huge amount, so the margin of 'stereotypically' feminine costume pieces doesn't really surprise me.

 

Over time, I've personally found my desire to make male characters at all has dropped to near zero. I want my characters to look cute or sexy or punk, but primarily I want them to look feminine. Even with that extra margin of feminine costume pieces, I'm still unable to create what is, for me, a convincing 'frills and lace' style magical girl costume. Think something along the lines of:

 

, which crosses well over into the ream of 'Elegant Gothic Lolita' fashion. (I think this person is cosplaying a character from the Touhou games, but wouldn't swear to it.)

 

We were getting there. We were getting more and more costume pieces that would allow one to create costumes that approached this style before a certain Korean company locked our art team out of their offices. Now, similar work is VERY difficult for the reasons stated in the OP. And, despite all that, the Paragon dev team was VERY resistant to feminine costume pieces for male characters and only slightly less so to masculine pieces for female characters.

 

Importantly, a costume like the above WOULD NOT be to everyone's tastes, and that's absolutely okay. Some people would prefer more utilitarian costumes. Some would prefer less sexualized or even less sexually differentiated costumes, and again, that's okay. I'd like for all of us to be happy. I'd be over the moon if we could stick a character with male geometry into said magical girl costume.

 

I'd like it if we could get there, but I'm realistic in that it would not only be a ton of work, but a ton of work for one or many volunteers using obsolete tools. And 'ton' is an understatement in the very least.

Edited December 9 by mechahamham

[TransFemmeHero]

4 hours ago, mechahamham said:

 

This hints at something that's become a bit of a problem. It goes something like: "Group Y has given me something I really want. Therefore Group Y are good people." That's okay in and of itself, but then goes on, "I will tolerate NO CRITICISM OF GROUP Y! THEY ARE FLAWLESS! IF YOU DISAGREE, YOU ARE THE ENEMY!"

 

No. None of us are flawless, and organizations tend to compound the flaws of their members. Homecoming has done a WONDERFUL job championing the game we love and adding new content to it despite being an entirely volunteer organization, but mistakes still get made. Problems still exist. Because it's a volunteer organization, because the game is in OUR hands now, we ALL have to work to make it better. That means testing, reporting bugs, helping new players, and providing constructive criticism where appropriate.

 

If someone says 'x feature is neglected. I feel the developers are missing an opportunity to make the game better,' and the response is, 'How dare you criticize these wonderful people who've given us back the game that was taken away from us?!?!', that doesn't do a damn thing to actually make the game better, and it's not hard to find MANY examples of similar lines here on the forums, and I hear something similar at least two or three times a week in-game.

 

Now, on to the costume items:

 

 

 

 

You are reading into things and putting word in my mouth I never once said the homecoming team was flawless so please do not put words in my moth or infer that I meant things I did not infer, I meant exactly what I said which is that costume pieces that could have easily been unisex not being so isn't on them... The\y do not have a person who knows the 3d molding software that can do the rigging to put single sex items on the other sex. I know because a while back I started a thread about this very matter and a Dev Quashed it pretty quickly by saying "Hey we don't have anyone that can do that.

 

and I even go so far as to acknowledge at the bottom of my post that there are items that exist on the paint layer that could be easily transferred that aren't on both IE the occult pattern for the cape being masc only

Edited December 9 by TransFemmeHero
add context

[mechahamham]

16 minutes ago, TransFemmeHero said:

You are reading into things and putting word in my mouth I never once said the homecoming team was flawless so please do not put words in my moth or infer that I meant things I did not infer

 

No. That's not the case. I'm not trying to imply anything. Your statement where you disavow any kind of negative feelings toward the dev team lines up with others I've seen who are trying to avoid the wrath of the 'Homecoming team is Flawless' types. I'm calling the latter out as a problem. I'm not calling anything you said as a problem. You shouldn't have to make that kind of qualifier to your statements.

 

As for the costume discussion, I'm adding my own feelings, wants, and observations for the costume creator system into the discussion since they seem adjacent. I'm not trying to coopt your statements or classify them. It seems like you're assuming I'm attacking you or trying to take advantage of your statements. I'm not. You say I'm putting words in your mouth. What are you doing to my statements here?

 

Please don't assume malice where none exists.

 

I'm fully aware of the developers' limitations, lack of personnel, and lack of tooling. I read that same developer response you saw. If you'll go back to that thread, you'll see that I was a part of it and lamented the issues they were facing.

Edited December 9 by mechahamham

[TransFemmeHero]

1 minute ago, mechahamham said:

 

No. That's not the case. I'm not trying to imply anything. Your statement where you disavow any kind of negative feelings toward the dev team lines up with others I've seen who are trying to avoid the wrath of the 'Homecoming team is Flawless' types. I'm calling that out as a problem. I'm not calling anything you said as a problem.

 

As for the costume discussion, I'm adding my own feelings, wants, and observations for the costume creator system into the discussion since they seem adjacent. I'm not trying to coopt your statements or classify them. It seems like you're assuming I'm attacking you or trying to take advantage of your statements. I'm not. You say I'm putting words in your mouth. What are you doing to my statements here?

 

Please don't assume malice where none exists.

 

I'm fully aware of the developers' limitations, lack of personnel, and lack of tooling. I read that same developer response you saw. If you'll go back to that thread, you'll see that I was a part of it and lamented the issues they were facing.

Ah, okay I mis understood, it sounded like you were accusing me of somehow saying the Devs are flawless and I am sitting her going "I was complaining about some choices they made just the other day!" herhe

[Marine X]

Some of the limitations of porting costume pieces to other body types already exist in game. If you select a Kilt for a Huge Male character the thighs are changed to Male from Huge Male. I assume this was done to correct for clipping issues rather than redesigning the whole item, but it looks very off. I'm sure this is only one of many issues they ran into and they took the easy out to get it done. I appreciate any work put into costume pieces but also understand it's above my paygrade to even guess at the problems that can arise between the body types and scaling. 

[Bio-Link]

i am always up for more costume parts(still waiting for a rabbit foot), but i would also really like them to fix things like parts missing on robot arms, bodysuit fitting with most gloves(most are wrong texture), u know the little things

[Ukase]

This is why 10 prismatics for a pre-made costume seems like a bargain to me. I don't have to think about a thing. 

[Uncle Shags]

 

 

On 12/8/2025 at 8:52 AM, TransFemmeHero said:

locking pieces to a specific body type was a poor choice

 

Agreed! It limits options and hints at a "that's not allowed" vibe. 

 

I don't want to derail, but I also think the ability to make less stereotypical bodies would be great. At some point they added (I think it was added after launch?) the female chest size slider, which is nice. Similarly, a stomach size slider, I think, is necessary in order to represent more body types. 

 

Can we get a beer gut option, please?! 

[TransFemmeHero]

11 hours ago, Uncle Shags said:

 

 

 

Agreed! It limits options and hints at a "that's not allowed" vibe. 

 

I don't want to derail, but I also think the ability to make less stereotypical bodies would be great. At some point they added (I think it was added after launch?) the female chest size slider, which is nice. Similarly, a stomach size slider, I think, is necessary in order to represent more body types. 

 

Can we get a beer gut option, please?! 

Oh I agree I think if they get the person who can rerig costume pieces then that person should be able to fodo that... I was a Huge Femme Body

 

[Clave Dark 5]

On 12/9/2025 at 11:07 AM, Bio-Link said:

 parts missing on robot arms

 

Which ones are missing parts?

[Bio-Link]

5 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

 

Which ones are missing parts?

as i said small things, like when you have only right robot arm, you dont have alot of choices on the left arm compared to not using the robot arms

[Lockely]

On 12/9/2025 at 4:13 AM, TransFemmeHero said:

You are reading into things and putting word in my mouth I never once said the homecoming team was flawless so please do not put words in my moth or infer that I meant things I did not infer, I meant exactly what I said which is that costume pieces that could have easily been unisex not being so isn't on them... The\y do not have a person who knows the 3d molding software that can do the rigging to put single sex items on the other sex. I know because a while back I started a thread about this very matter and a Dev Quashed it pretty quickly by saying "Hey we don't have anyone that can do that.

 

and I even go so far as to acknowledge at the bottom of my post that there are items that exist on the paint layer that could be easily transferred that aren't on both IE the occult pattern for the cape being masc only

 

Do we know what ancient software the game requires the use of? I know a few people who might be interested in contributing.

[mechahamham]

8 hours ago, Lockely said:

Do we know what ancient software the game requires the use of?

 

3DSMax. I dunno if there's a specific version needed or if new versions will work.

 

The problems with this is are many, though:

 

3DSMax tends to be the kind of thing you get a quote for rather than Autodesk just selling it to you.

It also tends to be the kind of thing that you can't really BUY, but can only effectively *rent*, paying for a year or a few years worth of use at a time.

The version you get HAS to be able to work with the existing CoH backend tooling. (Possible version considerations)

People who work in modern tools, even the newest version of 3DSMax, may not be proficient in the Pre-War versions of 3DSMax.

 

If you or someone you know is well versed in 3DSMax and/or has a legal license to use it, PLEASE DO head over to the volunteer thread or contact the devs in some other way:

 

If you or someone you know is able to write software that converts between the model and animation formats 3DSMax uses and the formats modern tools use, again, PLEASE DO head over to THAT volunteer thread:

 

[Lockely]

40 minutes ago, mechahamham said:

3DSMax. I dunno if there's a specific version needed or if new versions will work.

 

The problems with this is are many, though:

 

3DSMax tends to be the kind of thing you get a quote for rather than Autodesk just selling it to you.

It also tends to be the kind of thing that you can't really BUY, but can only effectively *rent*, paying for a year or a few years worth of use at a time.

The version you get HAS to be able to work with the existing CoH backend tooling. (Possible version considerations)

People who work in modern tools, even the newest version of 3DSMax, may not be proficient in the Pre-War versions of 3DSMax.

 

Makes sense! I do believe I know someone proficient in 3DSMax but I don't know if they have overlap with interest in donating time to helping out an MMO project. I know you can buy a license for ~2k/year, but yeah, pricey for a solo person to pay for. My assumption would be HC would need to purchase the license and roll the costs into the monthly donos, but that's a big ask until they have proof of it actually working w/ the modern version.

I'll poke the folks I know, no promises of course.

[Major_Decoy]

On 12/9/2025 at 3:07 AM, Marine X said:

Some of the limitations of porting costume pieces to other body types already exist in game. If you select a Kilt for a Huge Male character the thighs are changed to Male from Huge Male. I assume this was done to correct for clipping issues rather than redesigning the whole item, but it looks very off. I'm sure this is only one of many issues they ran into and they took the easy out to get it done. I appreciate any work put into costume pieces but also understand it's above my paygrade to even guess at the problems that can arise between the body types and scaling. 

 

The thighs do change, but not to Male. The kilt and skirt options for both Male and Huge both have skinny little thighs. You don't notice it so much on Kilts, but Chainmail Dull and Shiny and the Roman Singulum make a character feel kind of scrawny. I end up avoiding those costume parts on Male and Huge characters. Female characters do also have thigh reduction but it's shaving off the front of the leg, so you only really notice it from the side view and starts midway up the thigh, so it's a lot less obvious.

[Snarky]

It gives the same protection 

[CoeruleumBlue]

On 12/8/2025 at 10:31 AM, The Trouble said:

There are so many options on the feminine body type that would work well for a highwayman/dandy concept I'd love to make.  Also, the long hair options for the masculine types are awfully slim.  "Don't worry, we have both 'ponytail' and 'scragglechump'!"  For representation, for expanded character concepts, for the lulz... outside of the logistic work already addressed in the OP, I see no reason to keep denying me a belt with a clock on it.  <shakes an angry fist at the sky>

 

Count me in with the hopeful that HC can find someone with the time and expertise to port all textures and models to every body type.  

 

Yeah and there are lots of things that should be on the female body type too that are just nonsensical, for example, the skulls cape mantle in Occult that's only for masculine. Maybe it does look relatively more masculine than the other option, but you can already have gigantic shoulderpads on female characters, some kind of voodoo wizard cape is way less overkill than that and I actually wanted to use it before. That one seems especially silly since it doesn't even involve making a new model, it's just a pattern. 

[CoeruleumBlue]

On 12/11/2025 at 9:25 AM, Bio-Link said:

as i said small things, like when you have only right robot arm, you dont have alot of choices on the left arm compared to not using the robot arms

 

Yeah can't they just flip them around? Though I really want flipped versions for the Fire and Ice Arms, get some more lava and crystal arms for my 30 whatever rock characters who will probably be forced into a joke group called the 30 Rocks now (Jk.) 

[CoeruleumBlue]

On 12/10/2025 at 7:30 PM, TransFemmeHero said:

Oh I agree I think if they get the person who can rerig costume pieces then that person should be able to fodo that... I was a Huge Femme Body

 

 

Personally the Huge one isn't even called Huge Male even if that's what it is in practice, so just have a Female Heads and Male Heads is my opinion. That also makes it easier just to make giant robots, rock monsters, plant monsters, etc. and not imply that they're all men just because they're giant, they don't need the Female Heads or Male Heads. (They might have genders or might not depending on whether it's a giant monster or just a robot, but it's very silly to imply a giant robot or giant monster with a thick wide body is automatically a dude when I can already just make a giant metal thing, giant rock thing, or giant plant thing and give it no face or an unreadable and nonhuman face.) 

[CoeruleumBlue]

On 12/9/2025 at 3:29 AM, mechahamham said:

 

No. That's not the case. I'm not trying to imply anything. Your statement where you disavow any kind of negative feelings toward the dev team lines up with others I've seen who are trying to avoid the wrath of the 'Homecoming team is Flawless' types. I'm calling the latter out as a problem. I'm not calling anything you said as a problem. You shouldn't have to make that kind of qualifier to your statements.

 

As for the costume discussion, I'm adding my own feelings, wants, and observations for the costume creator system into the discussion since they seem adjacent. I'm not trying to coopt your statements or classify them. It seems like you're assuming I'm attacking you or trying to take advantage of your statements. I'm not. You say I'm putting words in your mouth. What are you doing to my statements here?

 

Please don't assume malice where none exists.

 

I'm fully aware of the developers' limitations, lack of personnel, and lack of tooling. I read that same developer response you saw. If you'll go back to that thread, you'll see that I was a part of it and lamented the issues they were facing.

 

Let's go get all the young adults and maybe some of the kids who are being exploited by ROBLOX, recruit them, and pay them fairly!