HeroMachine 3 Items
One of the members of the HeroMachine discussion group wrote the following suggestions for HeroMachine 3:
I have three suggestion for the HM 3
1- create a forhead component. Cool for jewel and other piercing but also for rhino or unicorn horns and for classi mask insignias.
2 - Separate belt in two components : the belt body and the buckle. It permit to create combos. You can introduce in hM3 stuff like metallic letters buckles or other symbol bucles and combinate that with all kind of belt.
3 - Patterning : Not just propose only color but also patterns. Those patterns must be color customisable, of course. It particulary interesting for components like undershirts, leggings and masks. But we can imagine different kinds of patterns and textures for each components. But i suppose it’s less manageable.
These are excellent suggestions. The patterning is already in the plan (such as it is), but I hadn’t thought about separating out buckles.
In my head, the basic idea behind HM3 will be that each spot on the body will have multiple sets of items you can load onto it. So for instance, among the slots available to place on the Torso would be four for shirts (Shirt Slot 1, Slot 2, Slot 3, and Slot 4). I’d have a bunch of separate files containing item sets that would fit any of those four slots, probably grouped into themes, like “Undershirts”, “Overshirts”, “Bandoliers”, “Capes”, etc. so it’s easy to find the items you want. But you could choose to load all four slots up with the Undershirt items if you wanted.
One of the key differentiators between HM1 and HM2 was that in HM1, if you wanted a particular body, you were stuck with whatever components and items were made for that body. So if you wanted a big brickish looking guy, you couldn’t get martial artist weapons, or if you wanted a melee warrior you couldn’t get firearms. HM2 did away with that limitation, so all items and all components were available on any body style. But you still are stuck with, for instance, only one Coat slot. If there are two Coats you want to layer on a character, you can’t. My goal with HM3 is to do away with that limitation, so that you can basically load any set of items you want into any component slot you want.
That raises some complications when it comes to masking — for instance, fitting a gun into a hand without the lines from the gun overlapping the lines of the hand. But that’s the general idea.
December 4th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I think there should also be more options for feet. Kind of like the limbs option in the hands category. It would even be nice to have some feet to go with the limbs.
Thanks
December 12th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Is it posible to have items that cover/replaces the whole hand, ala the Borg from Star Trek: TNG? Basicly, mechanical scaners, welding instruments, alien teckn-dodads, stuff like that.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
There is one such item at least in the Expansion, a set of mech-style machine guns. And there are “handless” Expansion skins, so it’s certainly possible to have items that would replace where the hand ought to be. I don’t have plans to do so, but it’s a good suggestion. Maybe down the line.
December 16th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Might I also recommend more facial options? I was really happy with how much was added in the way of noses, eyes, hair, etc in 2.5, but we still need more! Good job and keep up the good work!
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
when will it be released?
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
curly hair would be nice. like really curly
January 25th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
You should have lobster claws
February 4th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I would like to see more options for the body. Perhaps things like Centaur bodies or giant snakes. Maype even little long necked snake things.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Thanks for the feedback, Jack. I wanted to note that there is already a centaur body in Pants, and a snake one as well.
February 8th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Maybe Add in the Option to Have Speech and Thought Bubbles to the Image, to Make the image look something like a comic panel.
February 17th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
How about an outline color option. Black is nice, but coordinated colors would be even better! Loving the 2.5 and can’t wait for the 3!
February 19th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Tentacles (2,4,6 options would be nice). Not nec Doc Oc style but from the sides and/or shoulders like the extra arms currently are.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
How ’bout a wide, full-body cape (i.e. like Batman’s)
March 5th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I think you should be able to customize your own weapons like for a sword you can choose a handle and then the blade or something like that
March 14th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Having customizable positions that the character(s)can stand in, would be nice.
March 16th, 2008 at 4:05 am
I’d suggest 2 additional poses for the characters: seated with legs together, as if at a table, in a car, etc, and seated with legs apart as if on the back of a horse, elephant, dinosaur, or other animal used for transportation.
I’d also suggest a “Vehicles” folder or module–anything from horses to horse-drawn wagons to cars to spaceships. Kinda like the “Companions” and “Backgrounds” modules now.
March 16th, 2008 at 4:07 am
I have a question about HM 2.5. The query is: When do you think HM 2.5 will be available for download? I’ve downloaded 2.0, and since it’s now residing locally on my computer it runs much faster than 2.5, but version 2.5 has some expansions and bells and whistles I’d love to have. Can you give us an ETA?
March 18th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Neck “laces” for capes (i.e. tied strings) might be nice
March 18th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
perhaps you could give a estimated release date?
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Here’s a suggestion for HM 3: Give us body types or some other way to indicate characters’ ages: kids and teens (useful for sidekicks), adults, and older people (mad scientists, prominent citizens, and helpless old folks just waiting to be rescued by OUR HERO! Also, while we’re talking about old people, please consider adding a “bun” to the feminine hair choices (useful for kindly little old ladies like Martha Kent or Peter Parker’s Aunt May). Love the site!
April 9th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
STAR WARS STUFF LIKE BOBA FETTS ARMOR AND HELMET WHOULD BE AWSOME!
April 10th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Your idea for the shirt slots sounds good - will you also apply it to leggings?
The ability to create more flexible colour designs by combining combinations of shirts/pants would be great. Also, ensuring continuity between pants and shirts would be appreciated - so that stripes and designs could be carried accros the whole body.
And the extra arms still look a little clunky - can they be refined a bit - perhaps by making them add to shoulder bulk to form an extra joint?
I’m all for tentacles in the wings slot
Also, how about a shirt option that actually adds heaps of muscle bulk, for creating characters similar to Guido in X-Factor. Or would that require a whole new body form?
April 11th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I think you need a skin option for fur. And maybe head too. make it look furry.
May 11th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
It will be cool to build Cars for our heroes like a Batmoble type of thing
May 25th, 2008 at 7:42 am
If I may suggest one more idea, it would be good if gloves and sleeves were competely separated, and some new sleeves added.
To the dresses: there are too few long dresses. Some crinolins would be nice.
Yours sincerely
Inspector Javert
June 20th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
If I may suggests some ideas. It would be good if you pick Gambit’s gloves and Gambit’s head wear. Have cape that has Vampire’s cape collar with the Batman’s cape bottom.
Weapons Have judge gavel. More Backgrounds. More Animal parts for legs and arms and faces.
You could also have two images at the same time. One image would be label Idenity and the second image would be Label Super Hero/Heroine. At the bottom oft both of them. You could create your own Super History.
June 24th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
More poses? (please)
June 28th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Hey, I am a huge fan of Hero Machine and love the multiple versions of it, but the one thing i think that could be improved would be if instead of all adult builds i would love to see a build of a child figure, possibly between the ages of like 10-15 years old. because there are tons of young heroes, Batmans sidekick Robin for example. i just think it would be interesting to see multiple body types besides adults in amazing shape. And possibly more poses but that kinda corralates with the whole child figure thing.
Also possibly more options for eyes because the eyes of someone really allow you to try and evaluate what person is thibnking even if they’re not real. i would suggest some with more distinct features like anger, concentration, and sadness. there already a lot of happy and neutral eyes so i thought adding more of the previously mentioned would even the ballanced.
Otherwise I think you do an amazing job with your Hero Machine program an I will continue to be a fan for a long time to come.
-Eric
June 29th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Several suggestions for HM 3:
1.Give us body types or some other way to indicate characters’ ages: kids and teens (useful for sidekicks), adults, and older people (mad scientists, prominent citizens, and helpless old folks just waiting to be rescued by OUR HERO!)
2. Also, while we’re talking about old people, please consider adding a “bun” to the feminine hair choices (useful for kindly little old ladies like Martha Kent or Peter Parker’s Aunt May).
3. Speaking of ladies’ hair, I’d like to see more styles that look longer, or suggest they are longer–going past the woman’s shoulders. I really like the “tousled” option for women’s hair. I’d like to see more styles that frame the face like that one does. Marvel’s superhero generator has a feminine hair option in which the hair flows over one of the character’s eyes–very sexy! In short, longer hair that frames the face.
4. I’d like to see more poses: seated, or in a fighting stance, for example. Did the hero just throw a punch? Let’s see it!
5. I’d like to see vehicles for our heroes: horses, cars, airplanes, spaceships, etc.
6. On the coat menu I’d like to see a jacket from a military style dress uniform that has rows of ribbons on the lapel. just look at General Petraeus or one of these big Pentagon guys the next time they’re testifying before Congress or something.
I know these are a lot of suggestions and you probably can’t implement them all, but I hope you’ll think about some of them. I still love HeroMachine! Thanks!
July 4th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
First, I want to say that HeroMachine is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!
Keep up the good job!
And now, for some suggestions:
1. I like how you thought of getting 4 slots for Coats & Shirts where you can select e.g. 4 Coats. I assume there will be such a system for all other clothing types? I suggest: Torso (4 slots), Legs (~3 slots), Feet (~2 slots: Boots & Socks), Neck+Shoulder (~2-3 slots), Arms+Hands (~3 slots: Arms (like, robotic arms etc), Hands, Bracelets), Head (~Many slots
: Eyes, Eyebrows, Nose, Mouth, Moustache, Beard (I suggest separating those 2), Mask, Headwear, Headwear 2, Hair, Head Aura (like, flame/energy/psy-waves etc emitting from head - like the Energy types in the Hands selection)).
2. Screw new body poses
It would be too much work for you and add too much size to the program.
3. Instead, please make 6 new body types: a Teen male/female, an Elderly male/female, and an Obese male/female. The Elderly ones may be crooked a bit - useful for those wacky scientists! And I strongly suggest making Obese a separate body type, with the corresponding clothes etc. That Obese extra in the Skin section and the fat-belly Overshirt just aren’t enough.
4. Maybe you could do even 2 more body types: the Skinny male/female. E.g., the Normal male is Superman - with his muscled build, wide chest, biceps etc. And the Skinny male is Spiderman - not so muscle-ey, just an ordinary guy with superpowers. With women it can be similar: compare Power Girl and Catwoman. The first has a bigger build, more developed muscles, bigger… AHEM, okay, you get the drift
and the other is more slim and petite.
5. It would be awesome if you make more elements taken from existing superheroes. Now, I understand that including the Superman logo or the Spiderman mask could get you in legal trouble
But… you’ve already got “Wolverine’s” claws and “Batman’s” cape, so you get the drift. I’ve just tried recreating some existing heroes’ uniforms, and sadly coudn’t get all the right details 
6. More types of hair & facial features, as many people have commented, are very needed. More insignias are needed too! (e.g. a Saturn insignia may be very helpful for space heroes, and a skull insignia - for Puni… ahem, some badass types
).
7. I’d suggest a new selection for Torso slots - Sci-Fi Armor. There are already some fine examples of it, but more are needed - of New Gods/Galactus type, and of Liefeldian 90s type (heh. just thought how awesome a Liefeldian HeroMachine may be
), and of modern robotic type.
8. Is there an option to make a wheelchair-bound hero (like Prof.Xavier)? If there is, and I missed it, sorry.
9. More “civilian” boots! My Kingpin-type villain doesn’t have any assortment to choose from!
OK, I know, too many suggestions already
Anyway, as I said, you do a great job!
I just hope some of my suggestions could be of help.
August 5th, 2008 at 5:37 am
just like to say u guys have done a great job and i think the 3rd will be another step…. good job =]
the only thing is i dont know when it will come out so i can be one of the first to start creating=] thanx
August 16th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
first, i’d like to tell you how much i and the people around me appreciate your work on heromachine. then my suggestions:
1. items: everybody loves’em!
generally speaking, it’d be great to see more items of specific types / ages /genres… for instance: there’s not a lot of cowboy equip (hats, marshall’s star, guns, pants, boots) - very unfortunate for those of us using HM to create their rpg-chars for games like deadlands.
speaking of deadlands: more cyber- and steam-punk elements would be awesome - ares predators as one gun-option for instance or a steam-powered backpack (or anything like that). a bigger set of items for pirates and victorian/fin de siecle age and support items for games like “cthulhu” or “dark continent”
the same is valid for military uniform sets. it’s rather difficult to create US civil war soldiers, high rank officers and the like.
oh - and of course more hair, facial hair and eyebrow options! the step with the pre-made faces was right (and it like’em), but please give us more options to build faces and heads ourselves.
2. poses/body types: the six existing ones usually are sufficient. however, i’d like to support the idea of an additional pair of poses for children/adolescents, elder people and obese - you’d usually find them in most contexts - from comics to rpg.
together with that, more options for mutations would be great (tentacle arms! claws! mayhem!)
3. the new layer idea sounds great - combine it with patterns and colours for each layer and you’ll have the perfect build (however, i do not want to think about the size of hm3 if that’d come true)
4. additional to the face-creator, have you ever thought of a weapon-creator? several categories (staffs, swords, axes, rifles, bows, pistols) with several modules and layers to create a superweapon worthy to be held by superheroes / rpg-chars
again, thanks for doing this for all of us - we will never forget or stop using HM!
besides, when’s hm3 coming out?
August 16th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Thanks Mr.Wolfe. More items and poses would be nice. Hopefully the ability to move, rotate, and scale body parts in HM3 will suffice for the more poses thing. A child body is not going to happen any time soon.
I brought up a weapon creator to UGO before but they weren’t interested.
No date on HM3 yet. I have a meeting with them on Monday, hopefully that will help make the coming priorities clearer for me.
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 am
Please add more swords, blades and axes.
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:10 am
I would love to see this get Licensed by Marvel and DC.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:08 am
any news on the date for hm3 yet? looking forward to it already!