Non - Unique names, global etc etc

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Please cryptic, put in a big notice on the character creation screen that names arent unique in this game.

The number of times I've seen Hunnter, Raeven and stuff like that when the game even supports multiple people having these widely overused names, heck Im using one myself on my character named Twilight(no its not a vampire, rest assured).

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Well, they chose to spell it that way. Most people in, say, COH would naturally try the correct spelling first and then, when that proves taken, they use alternates. So, those people probably spelled things deliberately that way.

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i will say the only downside to non-unique names is the sheer number of some of them you see..

lilith for example..

its nice everyone can have their choice of names though, i only lucked into Shingi because Ryoku was already taken on the game i first used it on..

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Dude, I see way too many Liliths. I swear I thought I was seeing the same person.


I dunno. Some lack originality, some don't care, some THINK it is unique, and others use the name in their own way and understanding.

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Dude, I see way too many Liliths. I swear I thought I was seeing the same person.


I dunno. Some lack originality, some don't care, some THINK it is unique, and others use the name in their own way and understanding.

Well, for what it's worth I've yet to meet a single other player using a name that any of my active characters are using, and I have a LOT of active characters. It's not hard to come up with something original without resorting to something really out there. Here's my current active list.

Boytoy
Polarity-Shift
Miss Enchanted
Channelsurfer
The Grecian
Hydroxian
Dark Seven
Wither
Darivus Devilwrought
Dawnglow
Prism
Infernia
Radiance
Daybringer
Lightheart
Mr. Mysterious
Silent Sorceress

Those are just the ones I have active right now, that's not counting the countless deleted characters I've made and changed my mind on later. So it kind of boggles my mind when I see the 80th "Impact" or "Fracture" or, as has been said, "Lilith". I mean, if there's a specific character-driven reason, I can understand it, but more often than not I think it's a lack of creativity. And, in a game that allows for customization like no other game ever has, that's a shame.

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most of the lilith's i see are vampire types.

i have a tendancy to use japanese words for my character names, something that embodies the core concept of the character.

Shingi means loyalty/fidelity for example, another one of mine, Gekido, refers to rage/anger

its not something i see that often.. not the most original idea but it works for me XD

only character name of mine i see used a lot of obsidian. see a LOT of them about too ^_^

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Well, for what it's worth I've yet to meet a single other player using a name that any of my active characters are using, and I have a LOT of active characters. It's not hard to come up with something original without resorting to something really out there. Here's my current active list.

Boytoy
Polarity-Shift
Miss Enchanted
Channelsurfer
The Grecian
Hydroxian
Dark Seven
Wither
Darivus Devilwrought
Dawnglow
Prism
Infernia
Radiance
Daybringer
Lightheart
Mr. Mysterious
Silent Sorceress

Those are just the ones I have active right now, that's not counting the countless deleted characters I've made and changed my mind on later. So it kind of boggles my mind when I see the 80th "Impact" or "Fracture" or, as has been said, "Lilith". I mean, if there's a specific character-driven reason, I can understand it, but more often than not I think it's a lack of creativity. And, in a game that allows for customization like no other game ever has, that's a shame.

Very good names. "Prism" may seem simple, but I have yet to see the word included in anybody's name.

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Very good names. "Prism" may seem simple, but I have yet to see the word included in anybody's name.

Aye, I don't mind using a simple word like that so long as it isn't something I've ever seen on anyone else. And the character is a light-bender, he manipulates light and that's where his powers come from, so it seemed to fit. And I appreciate the compliment, especially from you (considering you've got some of my favorite character names I've seen in this game to date).

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Aye, I don't mind using a simple word like that so long as it isn't something I've ever seen on anyone else. And the character is a light-bender, he manipulates light and that's where his powers come from, so it seemed to fit. And I appreciate the compliment, especially from you (considering you've got some of my favorite character names I've seen in this game to date).

Thanks. I'm no Simon Cowell. I'm just easily amused. lol

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Thanks. I'm no Simon Cowell. I'm just easily amused. lol

You have managed some unique names. Well done.

Mine are

Mephitidae
Rellik (Killer Backwords)
Strings

Loads of fun and original I think

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You have managed some unique names. Well done.

Mine are

Mephitidae
Rellik (Killer Backwords)
Strings

Loads of fun and original I think

My global handle is "amalgam" backwards. lol


I love making puns.

Kong Artist - monkey in disguise
Shinobee - bumble bee ninja
Hare Trigger - gunslinging bunny
Kaboom Box - power-armored radio
The Aggroculturalist - a tanking farmer
Mephisticuffs - a demonic boxer


I could go on.

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Just adding because I forgot Blaze Boy, Prince Traelys, Fangirl, Baskerville, and Sarah Scurvy. I knew I was forgetting some.

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Well, for what it's worth I've yet to meet a single other player using a name that any of my active characters are using,

Boytoy


I've seen at least one other "Boytoy" out there. Just so you know :)

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I've seen at least one other "Boytoy" out there. Just so you know :)

Perhaps not with the same concept. Boy Toy is a homosexual toy maker. Where as Boy Toy be an actual toy that is homosexual, or just a homosexual.

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Right now, I've got three characters, and a forth one pending:

Necromancer
Brother Dracoignus ((Space Marine cosplay, sue me.))
My third character who I don't play, and will probably delete, so don't remember his name. He's essentially a deadpool rip without the red and black. Oh, and different backstory.
Duresse (Intentional mispelling.)

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One of my rare posts but I love my naming skillz enough to brag about them :p.

Captain Hit-Guy (main)
B-Movie Action Hero (2ndary)
Professor Unusual
The Futurian
Cthulhu Bob
Robo-Canuck
Nibelung
Bobo the Spine-Monkey
Prime Minister (my 1st hero in COH)
I am pretty sure none of those are out there ....yet.

But these ones are when I got lazy:
Plasma Queen
Shadow Tigress
Princess Mentat
hmm I should try a little harder with my female characters it would seem :confused:.

But for some reason I see lots and lots of Crusher(s), Fracture(s), and Hulk/Hullkk/Hulkk./Bulk(s) wandering about.

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So... thread derailment anyone? :)

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Thanks. I'm no Simon Cowell. I'm just easily amused. lol

I think you should make a Simon Cowell :)

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I love name-sharing threads :)

(Not that this was the original intent of the thread, but...)

I currently have:

The Roswellian (My avatar to the left <------)
Asymmetric Allitteration (Obviously, the outfit is not symmetrical) (Arch Villain concept for this one is Prime Rhyme)
Twilight Snowfall (Dark/Ice concept)
W.A.S.P. (Weapons Augmented Soldier Program - Power armor concept)
Woolly Bully (Woolly Mammoth might concept)
Convergence (A mix-n-match power concept)
Amok Su'ten (Egyptian Set/Seth/Seteh theme)

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Might as well jump in here :)

My names tend to be kinda simple, but I like tot hink imaginative. After all, if you are gonna spend alot of time on the design, you should be creative with the name too, right? Anyhow, my list is as follows:

Katya - My main. A former demoness redeeming herself. Also implanted with cyberware to replace those pieces of her riped out by her former Demonic Master. (Celestial, Power Suit)

Hecate - Archaelogist who stumpled on a statuette of the Goddess Hecate, during a dig. Was imbued with the goddess' essence. (Sorcerer,Celestial)

Gadget Gal - Name says it all. (Gadgeteer)

Steel Vixen - My original power Suit. May delete her.(Powersuit)

Demona - Based on the character form the Disney series. Was done more as a response to a freind making a Goliath character (Supernatural)

Crystal Calabria - My joke character. The creation of a teenage boy who could make fictional things real. He took a girl from a music video and made her his plaything. She broke free and now strives to help those she can from avoiding her original fate. She looks like one of the dancers in the Destination calabria video (Force)

Foxy Brown - My 70's Blacksploitation gun bunny, complete with afro and bell bottoms (Munitions)

Those are the ones I can remember right now anyhow

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Yay me too!

Biff, a barbarian idiot.
Kain, a super secret spy guy.
Major Justice, an American hero.
Offender, a guy who's the opposite of Defender. And he offends people.
Nerfbat Man, retired, waiting for a name change and a retcon :)
Elle, random person.
Captain Creepy, just like the name states. He looks creepy.
Biff Smackwell, my current main, your friendly neighborhood brute.
Angelynne, random person.
Deadbolt, disco lady archer extreme supreme.
Groot, a Gadroon.
Cornelius, a karate monkey.
Rocket Dog, a tiny dog man with a rocket pack.
Biclops, nothing like Cyclops. Promise. I don't keep promises.
Foxbait, sexy Foxbat fan.
Airen, uh... power armor bounty hunter? :D
Ember, celestial nun.
ROBO. Robot.
Punchline. He punches people and has smiley faces on his costume. Probably also tells jokes sometimes.
Iron Spider Hulkerine America. Definitely does not look like Iron Man, Spider Man, Hulk, Wolverine, and Captain America. Promise.

I need more character slots. I have some funny names I want to use but nowhere to put em.

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I never understood altering a name, if you couldn't have the properly spelled one.

Like swapping out a "i" for a "y" or adding numbers or symbols to the name.

If I had an idea for a name in the past, and it was already taken, I'd jolly well go and think up a different name.

I don't think I could stand running around as "Xx_CoolNameHere_xX" or "Ryghte0usDo0d_23752".

It's just soooo lame.


-np

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You people are so creative! This will make me look bad, but here it goes:

Rossington- Always the first toon I roll in an MMO. Usually winds up being really gimp by the time he hits max level, but I just can't bring myself to ever delete him.
Longhorn- munitions. Former Texas oilrig worker that got bored and decided to become an adventurer.
American Force- might/force. All American super hero.

I try to work in names that would be regional for my area, so at some point i will have The Polecat and Crawdaddy.

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I never understood altering a name, if you couldn't have the properly spelled one.

Like swapping out a "i" for a "y" or adding numbers or symbols to the name.

If I had an idea for a name in the past, and it was already taken, I'd jolly well go and think up a different name.

I don't think I could stand running around as "Xx_CoolNameHere_xX" or "Ryghte0usDo0d_23752".

It's just soooo lame.


-np

I'm the same way. I HATE having things misspelled.

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I don't think I could stand running around as "Xx_CoolNameHere_xX" or "Ryghte0usDo0d_23752".

It's just soooo lame.


-np

I hate that more than everything.

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I never understood altering a name, if you couldn't have the properly spelled one.

Like swapping out a "i" for a "y" or adding numbers or symbols to the name.


Occasionally I add or swap letter intentionally to change the name slightly.

For example, Duresse is going to be pronounced a bit different from its root.

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Name/backstory sharing is fun. I always like to have really simple names, ones that really give the character meaning while somewhat trying to be unique. I do like the odd joke here and there, but I usually can't get into the character when I have a silly name.


Ultraviolescent - Only because Ultraviolet was taken in CoX and it IS a movie/character. She was born with albinism and she can control ultraviolet light. Sadly, the game mechanics/power replacers currently don't let her play like I hope she would. Totally put on the back burner until further notice.

Elemental - Fairly typical name, but her concept was that she was imbued with the power of elemental avatars, each giving her the ability to use their powers, but augmenting her apperance to resemble the avatars when doing so. Fun concept, but sadly game mechanics don't let it work very well.

Medea - Although the name is based off a woman in greek mythology, I used this name because I had a friend on a MUD I played on YEARS ago that had this name, and I really liked it. She's a sword swinging, arrow-shooting warrior.... Yeah not much else. Currently my highest character and made as an attempt to see if melee and defiance is as bad as everyone claimed it to be. No complaints here.

Pearl - A simple name for my healer character after celestial was made available to us. Kind of a play on the "Holy" spell in the Final Fantasy franchise, which was also known as "Pearl" in some of the games and she has a somewhat similar look to White Mages in the franchise.

Scarlet Samurai - Simple as well, as is the look. Haven't really brushed the dust off of this one.

Weighted Companion Bot - Aperature science. We do what we must because we can. A small, pink/grey robot with a heart emblem! I want to unlock the robot chest piece (still waiting on that patch Cryptic!) before I give her a serious go.

Black Hole - I know I've seen a few of these around already. Kind of nixed the idea as the look/powers doesn't do the concept justice as it did in CoX.

Stealth - Even though I haven't seen anyone named this, I know it is SO TYPICAL and I hate it. Made as a tribute to the female "ghost" characters in Starcraft to go along with a buddy of mine's Firebat character and I couldn't think of a better name fast enough.

Vox - Shortened from Vox Artis on CoX meaning in latin "Shared Voice" or something like that. In CoX, she was a Sonic/Empath defender - here, she is mostly a force user, but I don't like the concept in CO's world.

Escaped Test Dummy - With the look. Was originally going to level this to 40 and leave her in the powerhouse and perform a full retcon so that I have a character to test powers with, but the PTS has given us the option to get to 40 automagically.

Icicle - Made after I had a discussion with someone complaining about dying constantly while playing an ice character. So far I've played her in avenger role with an offensive passive since level 5 and she's made it to 16 so far with not very many deaths. I took the name because I haven't seen anyone with it and I think its rather cute, much like the character who dons full body light-blue tights with some white highlites and small darker blue gloves and boots.

Plasma - A mutant who has the ability to ionize air and shape it into weaponry (yay ego blades!). She's almost fully black apart from the bright blue lines provided by the rock skin texture, full-blue eyes, and blue highlites in her hair. Her ego blades are bright pink, in attempt to imitate the look of a plasma ball. Simple name, great look.

Toxic - Not too sure how common this one is, but I haven't seen it. A woman in dark-green scaley-textured tights, with a biohazard symbol on her cape with a yellow gradient behind it. Honestly, I think she is one of the best looking heroes I've made so far, but I can't come up with a good concept behind why she has toxic powers, and there isn't many toxic-looking powers to begin with other than fire powers.

Neucleonica - Trying desperately to come up with a good hero name for a radiation superhero and this is what I came up with. Dark green/light yellowy-green costume, with a big radioactive symbol on her chest and dark grey/yellow gloves and boots. THE best designed hero of mine in my own opinion.

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Ultraviolescent is a fantastic name, though. Screw Ultraviolet. lol

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Ultraviolescent is a fantastic name, though. Screw Ultraviolet. lol

I like that name too.

Oh, and School Buster as well. Classic.

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So here's a picture of all my stupid Champs.

Top row, starting from the guy with the halo on the top left:
Nerfbat Man, Ember, Iron Spider Hulkerine America, Captain Creepy, Elle, Groot, Deadbolt.

Front row, starting with the girl with the wings and horns:
Angelynne, Biclops, Punchline, Offender, Biff, Biff Smackwell, Kain, ROBO, Airen, Foxbait.

And from left to right, the two animal men:
Rocket Dog, Cornelius.

The only ones I've really spent any time with are Biff Smackwell, Offender, Nerfbat Man, and Kain. I really need more spandex up in there. :) Captain Creepy and Iron Spider Hulkerine America will probably be the first to go. Unless I buy another four slots. Sigh.

http://imagehosting.smackwell.com/champions/smackwellchamps.jpg

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We comparing names? Mine aren't all great, but here goes.

Has a Rocket. Guess what he has strapped to his back. now if only I could change rocket-jump's emenation point.
Gremkin Elite. A green short high tech gun wielding psychopath
TankMonster. (yeah, not the most original name), my attempt at building an "ugly" character as well as a tank. even has a larger version of himself as a costume just so i can RP as enraged.
METAL. A very shiny female robot
Nether Wytch (spelled that way intentionally), a girl with high dex and fire and darkness powers that have the colors swapped just to see how they looked. turned into a solid character once I tossed LR on her.
The Charged Mamba. A snake eyed, electric themed, asian inspired classic superhero (complete with a cape, and some memorable one-liners to shout at villains).
Frostech Lass. A young girl with winter gear on who ended up in the desert for some reason.

I think thats all my current ones, but I did have a few others that never took off:
Matakong - a gorilla shaman.
Chumara - a fire themed mystic shaman (hey, I liked Populous).
Pack-Man - an all yellow guy with no useful powers
Brave - a shirtless martial arts guy with no distinguishing features.
WISE FWOM YOUR GWABE: a were-bear. much fun.

And smack, some of yours are good, but maglama takes the cake.

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Now that we have access to Champedia I can report there are roughly 576 characters called "Anubis" on the server. That's 36 screens with an estimated 16 entries per screen.

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Somebody else has a blader by the name "Glamurai". Whether they copied me or not cannot be defined, but I admit I am pretty upset. My character names mean everything to me.

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Some of us like commonplace one word names.

Inertial, Glacial, Alloy, Eclipsed, Spellbound. They just have a ring to them.

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Well I used Champedia only to find out that another person has a beautiful blader named Glamurai. I can't call shenanigans, but it is somebody I know of.

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Somebody else has a blader by the name "Glamurai". Whether they copied me or not cannot be defined, but I admit I am pretty upset. My character names mean everything to me.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," etc. We all know you had it first.

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"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,"

Thank you. That actually does make me feel better.

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I'm not even remotely clever with names.

Snowdown: Genetic engineering gone horribly wrong. Wears a power suit, shhots ice, acts like an idiot. Oh, and if he takes the suit off, everything in a 5 mile radius freezes. So yeah.

Zoey Statik: Punk chick, angry, shoots pink lightning. That's it.

Hex: The Scarlet Witch meets the Wicked Witch.

Deviant: A guy in a hoodie and leather jacket who looks exactly like Alex Mercer but isn't Alex Mercer. Actually a demon possessing a remarkably well-preserved corpse. Hits things really hard.

The Mockery: His powerset doesn't really matter. The intent is to lampoon popular heroes with him. He'll likely be an FoTM build. Currently dressed like Rorschach in clown makeup.

Redeemer: Generic vigilante type. Dual pistols, a sword (yes, just one. And no teleport!). Looks a lot like Moon Knight.

Red Rayne: Red Riding Hood with two giant axes and a penchant for skintight leather.

Vendetta: Family was killed during the Qularr invasion. Wears a hollowed out Qularr endoskeleton (now with more spikes!). Also, insane.

Mind you, most of these toons are still level 1. So some or all of them might get sacked.

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And smack, some of yours are good, but maglama takes the cake.

Yeah, I tend to go for characters that would appear in older comic books. Namely, tights-wearing heroes. I know I'm in the minority when it comes to this. Most people really like the flashier, anime style characters, which you seem to be a fan of as well.

I get excited when I see other people running around looking like classic super heroes. Mine may not be flashy, but I like how they look compared to the flashier, kitchen-sink characters I've seen. This is by no means a jab at Maglama, the characters are good, and the use of color is excellent. I wish more people had Maglama's color sense!

The only characters I really play out of my 20 are the ones that look like classic comic book heroes. The rest were mainly made out of boredom, like the ones with wings, Captain Creepy, Iron Spider Etc Guy, the animals. Others are spoofs, and ROBO was a character I created about 10 years ago. I saw the shoulder pads and had to make him. :) I think I'd play other characters more if I'd made them classic looking.

Anyways, that's a rant!

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Now that we have access to Champedia I can report there are roughly 576 characters called "Anubis" on the server. That's 36 screens with an estimated 16 entries per screen.

That's a whole lot of flattery for Anubis. :)

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I love this thread. One of the greatest parts of the character is the name, in my opinion at least, and I thought I'd share some of mine.

Ohmward Bound - My main, dealing with all things electrical. Name is a play off of the fact that Electrical powers often break the laws of physics by forcing electrical current to travel along the path of greatest resistance, being ohmward bound, and that the character loves the disney movie with the talking animals. A foxgirl.

Nellis Winchester - My munitions character, teaches Krav Maga as an instructor. Name is play on two other names, Elliot Ness, and Winchester. The second being more obvious.

The Devil in the Machine - My messed up... tanking... thing. Cyborg character, a testtube human grown around a device known as the Devil Drive, so named because it is said to produce more energy than the Devil himself. The name is a play on the phrase "The devil is in the details," a reference to her backstory on how she escaped her crazy creator, and the machine she's grown around.

Long Walk Home - A chaste, repentive demoness trying to gain ascension to heaven again. Starting from hell, the road to heaven is one long walk home.

I have more, but those are the three main ones.

... four, four main ones. AH HA HA.

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I love all the creativity this game provides in names, concepts, and costumes. It is fun to see everyones names with some bio attached. Now that we have Champedia it is even more fun (and discouraging when I see mine...though my concept is better :p ) to see all the names and their associated toons.

My fav list:

Dr. Chrome: Main, Electric, DPS squishy nuker. Product of an experimentally alloy production run gone awry. Channels electricity like nobody's business.

Gumbercules: Might tank. As flexible as Gumby and as strong as Hercules. I love that guy! (All you Futurama fans out there will know this one)

Monkey B.O.I: Mix tank/DPS. My very own Bionic Organic Intelligence monkey unit. Everyone should have one of these. Monkey is a robot with fake fur on just the face, chest, and shoulders.

Lady Devastation: Power Armor DPS. A princess with a secret identity. Spends all of daddy's money on suit upgrades.

Elara: Supernatural (may retcon to celestial). A angel that was seduced by the dark powers. Killed millions in her quest only to come to the realization that the power was not worth the cost. She now strives to redeem herself.

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Yeah, I tend to go for characters that would appear in older comic books. Namely, tights-wearing heroes. !

This is the one of the flaws I have in making heroes. I can't make Golden Age or Silver Age heroes (or any tight and cape-wearing heroes) that I enjoy for myself. I'm a Neo-type person, so you can expect robots, supercops, and aliens from me. If I were to enter a Golden/Silver Age-themed contest, I'd lose.

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How are you guys getting images of your characters that you can use in the images you've made? Using the green screen in the WCOC building or something?

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Well, since we're sharing names, which makes this thread so amusing with all the good names out there.

I've got..
The Lucanidae: Prehistoric Stag Beetle experimented on by aliens, and simply laid dormant for years'n years.

White Shark: (Lame I know) Based off Peter Benchley's novel of the same name.

Warner: A character I made for a Marvel RP once. Mutant whose main powers branch off of electricity, but the energy grows too much for him to handle, and his flesh, organs and all are turned into a sort of invisible energy dealy, leaving just his skeleton. Likes to wear suits, because he's just that classy.

Crisis: Haven't worked it out all that much yet.

Incendia Glacialis: Speaks for itself!

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How are you guys getting images of your characters that you can use in the images you've made? Using the green screen in the WCOC building or something?

I normally use the white backgrounds on the Giant weights in the Powerhouse dummy range rooms, or the tan/beige stone wall surrounding Ren Center. I use GIMP and use Magic Wand to have it select the background. It won't be perfect since the backgrounds are never COMPLETELY one color, but it helps.

I then proceed to use the Eraser tool to eliminate any residue and debris left behind the Magic Wand's work. SO basically it is a cheap way of green screening, since I never actually found any background close to a green screen. lol

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There are certainly a whole lot of fun names in this thread. I have a few that I think are good, and a few that are admittedly lame. Mostly I like to try out the various Travel powers, so some characters were created just so I could get a specific Travel mode. So here they are.

F.O.R.C.E - (Field Operations, Reconnaissance and Combat Exoskeleton) Powered Armor character, Rocket Jump. I ran into another character with the exact same name in the tutorial, but since I made this character in the original Champions RPG back in the 80s, I'm keeping it.

Watt - Electric character, Fire Flight. Another one from the old RPG days. Not very original, and I don't play him much, but I keep him around anyway.

Mass Driver - Might character, Super Leap. Named after the SciFi weapon. In concept he is able to control his own density and the density of inorganic things around him, allowing him to take an object, condense it down to a solid ball of mass and throw it at someone.

Gazelle - Speedster/Martial Arts, Super Speed. She is thin and tall with very long, strong, legs. She looks a lot like a super model. She runs fast and kicks people.

Frostina - Ice character, Ice Slide. Made primarily to play around with Ice Slide and the ice powers.

Katana - Single Blade/Martial Arts, Acrobatics. I am surprised I don't see more characters with this name. Acrobatics may not be the best travel power, but it is fun to just jump around and do flips and stuff. Also an old Champions RPG character.

Pink Dragon - Telepathy, Teleport. Based on a Chapions RPG character, but changed a bit. She took her name from the D&D chromatic dragons, but chose her own, unique color.

Soul Blade - Custom Supernatural character, Flight. I wanted to make a winged character because I thought the animation of winged flight was cool. Primarily the Supernatural set, she uses the lazer sword from the Powered Armor set as her Soul Blade.

I have a few others that I'm not very attached to, and a few more concepts that I would like to try, but that's enough for now.

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Oh can I play?! Can I play?

These all are part of the Freakshow Carnival.
Hero
Nemesis

Death Jester: A several hundred years old jester in His Majesty's Royal Court who was cursed by a gypsy to wander the earth until the end of time(and the curse also made the flesh of his skull fall off). Since he is effectively immortal, he has no qualms about running into hordes of baddies wielding his guns in blazing glory.
Madame Sevoir: A mad scientist and owner of the Psychotic Circus that hunts Death Jester to try and extract whatever gives him his immortality, so she can create a youth serum to keep her young and beautiful.

Speedbolt: A young man tragically involved in an accident, gaining the ability to alter his mass and anything he touches as long as he is in physical contact with it(Might+Invul)
Speedbolt: Fate somehow had a hickup or a glitch and created an exact match to Speedbolt's accident, at the same time, under the same conditions... in Japan. The result was a maniacal schoolgirl losing her mind and seeking to destroy the "other" self, the guy in Millennium City calling himself by "her" name...

Merveille Technologique: Gadgeteer...Daughter of Madame Sevoir and Dr. M. realizing what her parents are doing to the world and trying to put a stop to them.
Dr. M. Egal-o-Mania: Darkness mastermind, father of Merveille..

Flammenwerfer: German pyrotechnician, working at the Carnival and helping out best as he can with his pyro gadgets.
(No nemesis as of yet)

Etc etc etc, all of the toons I care about all have backstories and original names, which is fun. I always compliment others when randomteaming if I see original names and concepts, especially if they've actually written a backstory, however short. :D

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This is the one of the flaws I have in making heroes. I can't make Golden Age or Silver Age heroes (or any tight and cape-wearing heroes) that I enjoy for myself. I'm a Neo-type person, so you can expect robots, supercops, and aliens from me. If I were to enter a Golden/Silver Age-themed contest, I'd lose.

The fact that the tights patterns are extremely limited can't help, either.

How are you guys getting images of your characters that you can use in the images you've made? Using the green screen in the WCOC building or something?

Ffor these I went the cheapo way because I didn't feel like spending much time on them (I do professional masking work so my work here could be better). I took all the pictures in the character select screen (that's why they're not doing anything interesting). Then I used the magic wand tool in Photoshop (77 tolerance most of the time) to select the city behind the character, the white rooftop parts, and the metal hatch they're standing on. Then delete, clean up the leftover black outlines, and clear the rest of the stuff out.

This is not a very precise method, as the Magic Wand tool pretty much sucks for masking (without getting into anything too involved, you're better off just erasing the background with the eraser too (make sure you're working on a Layer, not a Background)l, or using quickmask).

When placing into the group picture, there was a lot of garbage pixels around the ouside of the characters' outlines (thanks again, magic wand) so as a quick fix, as a layer style I added a 2 pixel black stroke (set to Center instead of outside) that would cover any straggling pixels with no fuss.

You could also use the Pen tool to trace around the character and cut them out, but it's a little more involved, and slower to do, unless you're familiar with what the modifier keys do while working a path.

All that said, I think Maglama's method is probably the easiest way to go, especially if you're doing just upper body shots.

[Archived Post]

Ooh, ooh, can I play?

I always think about my names from the point of view of the person creating the name ICly. Sometimes, that's the character himself/herself (I've got these powers, I get the spandex, now what do I call myself), other times, that's from the point of view of an agency (We created this crime-fighting person/machine, what name should we sent him out into the world as)... Some characters, like aliens, wouldn't necessarily have any 'superhero' style names at all, IMO (they might, but it's not always likely) ..

Then, of course, you have your standard droid-type names/designations. Names a HUGELY important to me, and this is the first superhero MMO I've ever played. I've lived firmly in the fantasy realm up until now, and it took a few mis-starts for me to really get into the groove of how to name a character in a contemporary superhero setting, rather than a fantasy setting. Luckily, I used to play a lot of the Shadowrun PnP, and I find that Shadowrun-style names work well for superheros, even Golden Age style ones.

So.. Here's the current list.

Vanquish - British SAS Supersoldier. So named by the MOD, because they made him. They wanted a British-sounding name that implied power and strength. I oscillated over Dreadnought, but decided to go with the Aston Martin in the end.
G-94 - Standard combat droid, so named because he's the 94th iteration of the Guardian series of combat battledroids. His nemesis is (appropriately) G-93 :D
Caliban - Street thief turned hero. Caliban is his real name (or at least the one he's been using for so long it might as well be.) This character was an import from another game where he had the same name. I felt the name was still contemporary and appropriate enough to keep it
Hardcase - Just your typical down-on-his-luck film-noir grumpy Private Investigator. I may never play this guy again.
Kr'zk'xk - Full on alien, with appropriately unpronounceable name.
White Lightning - Proper four-color spandex and cape golden age superhero with appropriately cheesy accident-in-a-lab backstory.
La Bruyere - The only one that breaks my rule. Bru is named for OOC personal and sentimental reasons, not IC reasons
Raphael - Probably lots of these since the Celestial Powerset went live. Raphael is the archangel of healing. My character has him as a sort of patron, hence the name.
Doctor Divergence - A proper doctor (of philosophy, not science) who acquired force powers from a subject he was researching. Self-named, like White Lightning.
Iceblade - Singleblade/Ice (of course) .. After making this character, I found it very difficult to create a costume that -didn't- look like Sub Zero from Mortal Kombat. He may end up being deleted because of that.

I have no idea whether or not anyone else has those names, hehe

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As many have said, I'm loving the originality and fun spirit of many characters' names and designs. I think my favorite name to date is "Tex Arcana" - I utterly wish I'd thought of it.

Most of my names are just goofy, though I they they're at least comic-ish - Ptomeh the Uncanny, Typhoon Idol Alpha, Vance Telstar, and Captain Firepower. When I realized I didn't yet have a vanilla spandex hero I created Delta V (that's "Delta Vee", as in "change in velocity", not "Delta Five"), a speedster with the Force power set. Considering how hard it is to think of a decent name for a speedster, I'm pretty happy with that one.

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I normally use the white backgrounds on the Giant weights in the Powerhouse dummy range rooms, or the tan/beige stone wall surrounding Ren Center. I use GIMP and use Magic Wand to have it select the background. It won't be perfect since the backgrounds are never COMPLETELY one color, but it helps.

I then proceed to use the Eraser tool to eliminate any residue and debris left behind the Magic Wand's work. SO basically it is a cheap way of green screening, since I never actually found any background close to a green screen. lol

I use Photoshop and the Quick Mask tool to paint the background out and just leave me with my character. It tends to be a lot more time consuming than the Magic Wand, but it's also a lot more precise.

[Archived Post]

I use Photoshop and the Quick Mask tool to paint the background out and just leave me with my character. It tends to be a lot more time consuming than the Magic Wand, but it's also a lot more precise.

That's pretty much it. The cuts that the magic wand tool makes are ugly. Using a standard, 100% hardness brush is the way to go.