Something I was wondering about with Icon ...

[Little David]

It's been a few months since I've been around last (by the way--good news on that dead hard drive thing, I was able to recover my files from the dying games drive! So I have all my CoH screenshots, demo recordings, and logs again ... whew!).

So I was thinking about something. Costume pieces worn by NPCs, like, say, the jetpacks used by Longbow, Sky Raiders, and Goldbrickers ... can they be made available for messing around with via Icon? They're treated like costume pieces and not temporary powers by NPCs, right?

[The Fifth Horseman]

The Raider one is. Don't see any for Longbow and Goldbrickers.
Keep in mind not all NPCs are built off the player model (I think that only started around COV).

[Arachnion]

You can use NPC pieces with Icon, yes.

See this post http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,7288.msg92693.html#msg92693

The info from the above will activate NPC Mode, just make the shortcut and run it, tada.

:)

[Little David]

Oh! I didn't know about the NPC mode! I just took a look at it ... man there are a lot of costume pieces we never got to use that would've been awesome to have.

I saw the Raptor Pack like The Fifth Horseman said, but I don't see the Goldbrickers' or Longbow's jetpacks. Aren't those groups built off of the player model? I mean, we could use Longbow Eagle and Goldbricker jetpacks as a temporary power (... well, okay, the Eagle jetpack was a Christmas reskin but still!).

Would it be possible to get Icon to include models like that?

[Arachnion]

Oh! I didn't know about the NPC mode! I just took a look at it ... man there are a lot of costume pieces we never got to use that would've been awesome to have.

I saw the Raptor Pack like The Fifth Horseman said, but I don't see the Goldbrickers' or Longbow's jetpacks. Aren't those groups built off of the player model? I mean, we could use Longbow Eagle and Goldbricker jetpacks as a temporary power (... well, okay, the Eagle jetpack was a Christmas reskin but still!).

Would it be possible to get Icon to include models like that?

You'd be best off asking Codewalker, as he knows the technical side of things very well.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I saw the Raptor Pack like The Fifth Horseman said, but I don't see the Goldbrickers' or Longbow's jetpacks. Aren't those groups built off of the player model? I mean, we could use Longbow Eagle and Goldbricker jetpacks as a temporary power (... well, okay, the Eagle jetpack was a Christmas reskin but still!).

Would it be possible to get Icon to include models like that?

It's possible as you said earlier - that these jetpacks are part of the power's FX and unavailable otherwise. COH Codex appears to confirm this:
Maintained    ENEMYFX/V_GOLDBRICKERS/TEMP_POWER_GB_JETPACK.FX
Maintained    POWERS/LEAPING/JUMPPACK.FX
Maintained    V_COV/ITEMS/HOLIDAY_ROCKETPACK/TEMP_POWER_HOLIDAY_ROCKETPACK.FX    
Maintained    V_COV/ITEMS/IR_GOGGLE/TEMPPOWER_IRGOGGLE.FX    
Maintained    V_COV/ITEMS/PATRIOT_ROCKETPACK/TEMP_POWER_PATRIOT_ROCKETPACK.FX

This means they still can be edited into demos, even if you can't use them in Icon. :)

[Little David]

Alright. I decided to fiddle around a little. Using the NPC Mode of Icon, I made a version of my character with a Back Slot costume part equipped, saved it as a new costume, then used a text editor to take a look at it. This is what I found:

Code Select Expand

CostumePart ""
{
Fx Capes/Backpacks/Huge_Retro_SciFi_02.fx
Geometry none
Texture1 none
Texture2 none
DisplayName P213071247
RegionName Capes
BodySetName "Back Packs"
Color1  77,  97,  49
Color2  183,  135,  40
Color3  0,  0,  0
Color4  0,  0,  0
}

The way it's set up actually looks a bit like the files The Fifth Horseman posted. So I tried replacing the back slot FX with one, and this is what I got:

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=adultimum.net%2Fstudio%2Fcityofheroes%2Fblog%2Flittledavidwjetpack.jpg

It almost worked!

[The Fifth Horseman]

*facepalm* Haven't thought about that. Makes sense tho.

[Little David]

If only it would actually show up in the costume editor! NPC Mode lets you bypass a number of restrictions on parts but in this case, even though the jetpacks will appear on a character while browsing costume files, they vanish if you load them.

Maybe it requires actually making an entry in some costume part database, or something.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Probably could be viewed in demos though. Demolition, anyone?

And yes, the costume editor does automatically "fix" certain combinations. I ran into this trying to recreate one of the concept art versions of Ghost Widow's costume, and two things I did involved editing the costume file to use a texture not normally available for the gloves geometry I picked and a male tights pattern. Both show in costume preview, but the gloves get reset to default geometry and texture when loaded.