1. Introduction to the COH Guide

2. What qualifies me to give City of heroes /COHcostume advice
3. Coming up with a concept for your hero
4. Lesson on good coloring
5. Specific Do's and Don'ts
6. General Tips for City of heroes /COH costumecreation

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5. Specific Do's and Don'ts
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To Creating an Awesome City of heroes /COH costume,
DO...pls !
-Start with a character concept in mind
-Start with a plan
-Get a friend to critique your City of heroes /COH costume
-Stick with 3 or less main colors
-Make sure the colors you pick are complementary (use the color wheel)
-Go with some "character type" design rules, ie: Born from evil? Use darks and some skulls.
-Make your design congruent. For example don't do sleek tights up top, tattered jeans and motorcycle boots below.
-Go to the tailor often and play around with tweaking a color here and there or an outfit piece here and there. Sometimes the best results come from experimentation.
-Use colors specific to your City of heroes /COH characters power, ie: Ice blaster, blues, purples, white. Fire controller, reds, yellows, oranges.

DON'T...
-Use too many colors, less is more.
-Use clashing colors
-Use multiple patterns. Checkerboard pattern on the chest combined with lightning gloves and flames on the legs is a no-no.
-Overdo the complex designs. Subtlety is nice. If you are an electricity blaster, lighting patterns on every costume piece with an electricity aura is overdoing it a bit.
-Fill every category with something. It is ok to use "Detail 1" and leave "Detail 2" and "Detail 3" blank. You do not have to use something everywhere.
-Ignore people's advice who plays City of heroes /COH for many years.

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6. Ten Tips for City of heroes /COH Costume Creation
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1. Choose a nice mixture of tight and loose - If you are going to do tights, I would suggest using some loose elements like flared gloves, folded boots, padded shoulders etc.
2. Make your aura subtle - Most City of heroes /COH characters will have a toggle that  can serve as an aura even from low City of heroes /COH levels. When picking an aura make it simple, glowing eyes, light rocky crumble, etc.
3. You don't have to have a cape - Only certain types of City of heroes /COH characters need capes in my opinion. Would Wolverine ever wear a cape? I think not.
4. Dont overdo spikes, chains, leather buckles - That stuff is fine for your character just dont put it on every City of heroes /COH costume piece. It makes a costume too complex.
5. Stick with the design rule KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid. Don't over-complicate your costume.
6. Let your friends critique your outfits. Even though I pride myself on good City of heroes /COH costume creation I ALWAYS get people to critique them, often times during "Outbreak" I will ask others.
7. If you are in a Supergroup play around with Supergroup colors. There has been many times I've used Supergroup colors on my outfit just to play around with some different things and often have gotten some really impressive results.
8. Use some comic book heroes for inspiration. Do not COPY their outfits but look around and see what works for some City of heroes /COH characters, whether its a concept, color scheme or otherwise. Remember, creative people hide their sources the best! For example, my inspiration for Crashfreeze was Raziel from the Soul Reaver video game series.
9. Avoid monsters. I'm sorry monster people, there are some very good monstrous outfits out there and I would even say use them for alternate outfits but throughout comic book history no "monster" character really goes onto greatness, they are always teammates and never great stand-alone heroes (with the possible exception of Beast).
10. Ultimately, do what you like. ..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

These are just tips, if you want to hit the random button and go with that, it's cool, go for it. You play the City of heroes /COH game to have fun and if your idea of fun is an insane, in your face outfit then that's what you should do!