GSP's Halloween 2019 Brainstorming thread (AO)

As some of you may know, I collect ideas every year at GridStream parties for Halloween brainstorming. After two weeks, I curate them into a somewhat ordered list, we put them in some semblance of order, and I put a little more detail into our favorites, with reference images where appropriate. Then I send those off to FC roughly two months before the event, hopefully about the time they’re looking for ideas of new stuff to add. I’ve just started that thread again for this Halloween.

Posting the official list on the GSP forums and linking to it from the AO and SWL forums worked well last year, so let’s go with that again. On the GSP forums, I don’t have to worry about dividing the list between AO and SWL, and the post length and editing restrictions are much looser, so I can manage the list better as ideas come in.

If you have an idea you’d like to add to our list, the thread is at http://forums.gridstream.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29560

If you’re too lazy to make a GSP forum account to post it, go ahead and tack it on here. I should see it and I can just copy it over.

Once I’ve finalized the list, I’ll post the whole thing here too, but separated into AO and SWL posts.

And yes, you can always just post your own suggestion any time you want, but I find that these threads, especially the discussions of them at parties, bring up a lot more ideas and more of them actually get posted in a big pile FC can more easily find. So let’s hear it. What do you want Uncle Pumpkinhead’s billion clones to bring you this year?

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Cyborg skull shoulderpads :smiley:

afbeelding

A new BACKPACK, preferably not nodrop but nd is ok too… maybe a skull one? The mini-bull skull icon could be the visual asset for something different or just one of t-shirt skulls?

Fancy dress ball domino masks like so:

Something from/related to all the superhero movies out this year? If you wanted to go spandex the various SL Tight Armors would probably suit… (er, pun intended after the fact :smiley: )

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Well, we did get green, pink, and potentially black “Metamorphogenetic” suits last year. And grey if you count the Statuesque one. It doesn’t get more Spandex than those. And there’s always the old Champion and Heroic costumes. Got any more specific details that would be different from what we already have? Or do you just want something like those, but new?

Was there one of these for the 18th Anniversary? If so, how did that go?

I don’t usually ask for ideas for the Anniversary. I’ve brought it up now and then, but not much comes up. I’ve never gone as far as posting it, but most of the ideas come from shows, not posts, so I might have had a small handful of ideas, not enough to make a big deal out of. I don’t think I had anything to send in this spring that was specifically about the Anniversary. Halloween and Christmas are the ones that get the most ideas.

Thanks, in that case I would adjust my question and ask if its normal to request items for events and do these requests have a history of being considered by FC? Or is this just a fun hypothetical kind of thing? Legit not being negative just curious. Expectations that sort of thing.

I was just going for new but easy-ISH to make. Maybe race specific only variants. E.g., an Atrox “Mr Mundane” or Opifex “Ms Unbendable”.

I think there’s already costumes & parts from most of the classic monster movies but I don’t remember any for The Wolfman?

I’ve seen some amazing costumes IRL but my all-time favorite was the guy who came as a Dining Room Table.

I’m maybe not the best judge of what’s a normal thing to do, but these holiday suggestion lists are a thing I’ve been doing for about ten years now and I keep doing them for a reason. Even if nobody was listening, they’re fun, but I have, in the past, had an indication that someone actually was reading them.

A couple years ago, most of the new Halloween items were things we suggested. Now, considering that our lists at the time were well over 100 items a year, just for Halloween, it’s entirely possible that FC came up with new items on their own that happened to also be among the plethora of ideas we sent in. A few items here and there other years seemed more like a coincidence, but that year kinda strained the doubt.

We’re not going to get proof unless FC starts having official contests, but evidence we have.

The odds of any particular idea from this list showing up in game this year are low, but they’re even lower if you don’t suggest it at all.

Due to an unfortunate confluence of technical difficulties and otherwise cancelled shows, we’ve only got 30 ideas on the list and time’s almost up, so I’m extending the ideas collection another week. Since the difficulties appear to be ongoing as of this morning, if there are any more ideas here, please share them on this forum or GSP’s forum instead of waiting to discuss them at a show.

Here’s the AO portion of the final list I just sent in. If you’re interested in both AO and SWL, it might be easier to read the combined list at GSP Forums: Halloween 2019 Ideas - final list sent in

  1. [AO] Social recall beacon adjustable via screwdriver to teleport to the different social destinations city whompahs used to go to

This isn’t very Halloween-themed, but it was the most popular idea that came up, probably because it’s the most useful. There was supposedly a “plan” to provide some alternate teleportation functionality after the open world org cities went away. Without those teleporters, there are a lot of places out there that are a lot more time-consuming to get back from than they used to be. I don’t personally have the beacons from ICC yet, but according to several folks who do, they’re better than nothing, but not good enough to make up for the missing whompahs. A bar crawl beacon for teleporting to the various clubs and bars, maybe even The Grind, would be great, even if it has a long cooldown. The lack of those teleporters is a major reason GSP never has parties in Baboons or Rompa any more.

Of course, it would be nicer if such a useful device was available all year, like the org city whompahs, not just at Halloween.

  1. [AO] Trick-or-Treat dungeons / Halloween haunted house party

The Abandoned Facility is very hard to get to at level 25, nearly impossible below that without a warp (unlikely to find folks that dedicated a couple years later), and last year’s new raid in a volcano was even more exclusive. Good old Uncle Pumpkinhead has most of the loot, but that’s a problem too. His loot table is ridiculous and the herds of them lying around after an NT passes by get picked over pretty fast so any new loot is already gone. We need an easier way for lowbies to get new social stuff.

One option I keep suggesting is to make the Halloween leets’ Shade morph work as camouflage for the Uturn Forest shades, so that even lowbies can just sneak into the facility and then turn it off. I’m guessing you still haven’t done that because there’s some catch that makes it not work that easy, so I asked everyone for other suggestions.

Every time I asked, the answer was a haunted house or halloween party, right in town. Or towns. The old Abandoned Subway locations in Borealis, Galway, and West Athen would work. Or random in-town dungeon locations would work too. Either one could spawn a QL1 Haunted House full of costumed leets and leet pets and a few of the beasties from the abandoned facility and they could be given the new / recent QL1 social stuff each year without having to spend hours combing through already harvested Pumpkinheads and sacrificing whole sets of dice to RNGesus.

If there’s a way to make it the default dungeon of the QL1 in-town misison location doors, our little lowbies could just go from door to door with our bags, trick-or-treating. If it was all QL1, higher level characters wouldn’t be too interested in it, but lowbie social alts would have fun crashing the leets’ Howleen Parteh. Making one location an open instance of that, with respawning random non-aggressive costumed leets, would make a fun Halloween Party venue. I mean, you could just have ARK fill Reet Retreat with costumed critters for the big party and hand out some goodies, but a couple hours on one night really isn’t enough for Halloween parties, is it?

  1. [AO] A translucent umbrella with LED lighting

This would be a handheld light source, like an Energy Rapier, but QL1 social. Not a picnic table-sized umbrella like the current one, just a usable size for one or two people the size of the wielder. So, it would need an Atrox Mode. Apply screwdriver to resize, as usual.

I originally thought they were referring to the umbrellas in Blade Runner, with the glowing central shaft, which would be cool, but what they really meant was a thin opaque shaft and lighted ribs, like https://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mD7oDLCej5rNoVg_iQJL5HA.jpg

Or if you want something more unique, maybe it’s a glowing version of one of those air umbrellas that someone finally worked all the batteries+rain bugs out of after 27 millennia. Maybe what that old Kick-non-starter really needed was notum and nanobots.

  1. [both] fethers

I asked Lue, the permanently drunk leet in ICC Park, what he wanted and his answer, “fethers”, prompted a couple of suggestions, most of which have been on our lists before, but maybe not recently. We do still want:

  • feather dusters
  • feather fans
  • feather bikini
  • feather samba / Brazilian festivale costume
  1. [AO] Witch leet

This is open to interpretation, but I imagine her like a gothic Cheerleet with a pointy hat. Maybe an Elvira dress.

  1. [both] hovering eyeball pet

That’s pretty self-explanatory. Rolling versions were also suggested, but I expect floating would be easier and approximately as creepy. Although… I suppose the rollerrat animations would be about right, minus the legs. No scream, though. That would be too much. Please no eyeballs with a rollerrat scream. Just typing that gives me the … the word I used was censored in this forum so … shivers.

  1. [AO] placeable jack-o-lanterns (preferably with flames inside)

We know decorations with flames are possible because there are fireplaces and campfires. Can they be made a little smaller and placed inside a jack-o-lantern? If smaller doesn’t work, make the pumpkins huge enough to fit around the fire? Preferably a couple of different faces, like SWL has.

  1. [AO] leets dressed up as stars of classic rock

Bob Marleet is already hanging out in The Grind. How about a few more? Maybe put them in the Howleen Parteh / Haunted House mission or let them wander about town, handing out invitations to the party?

There are plenty of leetable rock stars to choose from.

  • the Leetles: John Leeton, George Leetison, Leeto Starr, Paul McLeetney
  • Freddie Merculeet
  • Leeton John
  • Jimmi Leetrix
  • David Bowleet (at least 12 different looks for that one)
    Or whoever your own favorites are.
  1. [both] crime scene tape / police evidence bikinis

A bandeau top and Brazilian-style bottom made of police (or Omni-Pol) crime scene / evidence tape. There’s a surprising scarcity of reference images for this, but the idea is straight-forward enough. Might be some regulations about actually doing that on RK4.

  1. [both] “Miss Pumpkinhead” outfit

No cloth, just black ink spilled down the front. And a little in back, if necessary. It should be a chest and legs outfit, but compatible with a pumpkin hat.

See https://www.facebook.com/imaginativeimagestudios/photos/a.934180806635142/1854072761312604 - Imaginative Image Studios on FaceBook for a series of photos of this idea offered as suggestion.

  1. [both] animated armor with glowing flowing lines

Like something that might remind you of Tron if you haven’t seen it in 20 years and aren’t a lawyer. Like PanOptic Core for AO, but preferably in more than one color. And while we’re at it, how about other colors of it for SWL? Purple and orange maybe, for Halloween, and leave the white for the achievement.

  1. [both] lit torches

AO’s had torches forever, but they’re just clubs. Flaming hands is a Martial Arts nano effect, and the wedding ring effect can do that on just one hand, so fire in one hand is possible, but can that be offset to the end of a torch? Might be a bit of FX tweaking, but it would be pretty cool if you could make it work.

  1. [both] gothic burlesque corsets of black lace and silver, purple, or red taffeta or velvet

There are plenty of good examples of that. Burleska Corsets ( https://www.burleska.co.uk/ ) has whole categories. The one that most caught my eye was
https://gothicandamazing.tumblr.com/post/162981150670/modelmuaphoto-threnody-in-velvet-corset

  1. [both] broken doll costume

A grey jumper with detached-looking shoulders, ragged looking hems, cracked porcelain mask/makeup, loose/missing buttons, etc.
maybe something like https://www.halloweencostumes.com/adult-broken-doll-costume.html

  1. [both] superhero/villain costumes

Superheroes are very popular lately, so several superhero-related ideas came up and I’ll just throw them all together here. Of course, any specific superhero is already copyrighted, but making up your own or giving us parts to mix together to make our own should be fair.

AO already has the Champion and Heroic outfits, as well as Captain Anarchy, but they’re rarely used, possibly because they’re expensive or time-consuming to get and/or hard to mix and match with anything to personalize them. More spandex-looking items in enough varieties to mix up, even matching with the old ones, would help. Something like Shadowlands Tight Armor but less exclusive and rare.

Another option for AO would be breed-specific super (villain? hero? normal?) costumes, such as:

  • Atrox - “Mr Mundane”
  • Opifex - “Ms Unbendable”
  • Nanomage - “Cerebrex”
  • Solitus - “Florida Man”

And Captain Anarchy needs a nemesis and a sidekick at least, maybe a teammate named Online?

Both need accessories to turn the Morph / Metamorphogenetic suits into sentai suits. Gloves, belt, and helmet should do it. Maybe some glowing and/or shiny chest logo kind of things, perhaps as neck or back items?

  1. [both] flamenco dresses

Low cut in front, even lower in back. Sleeves optional. Higly asymmetric hemline, very red, and extremely ruffled. I know AO can’t make a dress down to the ankle on one side and up to the thigh on the other, but what if it was just the color that was asymmetric? Like this one: https://www.everythingflamenco.com/shop/malaga-flamenco-dance-dress/

  1. [AO] flaming pitchforks

Once upon a time, Uncle Pumpkinhead dropped plastic pitchforks for Halloween. That was 12 years ago. They made a brief reappearance as replicas, but when the rest of the old replica items returned to the annual Halloween loot tables, Halloween Pitchforks, The Splat Shirt, and the Grinning Devil t-shirt were left out. It would be cool to see those come back, but even better if you could combine the pitchforks with the “lit torches” idea and have flaming pitchforks. I mean, let’s face it, it’s not easy to gather a whole angry mob in AO lately. In order to reach both a critical mass of torch and a quorum of pitchfork, we’d each have to have two of each, so, flaming pitchforks are a must.

  1. [both] red and black harlequin costumes in various levels of skimpy

I considered throwing this in with the superheroes and villains ideas, but that might be a little too specific, possibly even identifiable as a particular character. If you know who I mean, that’s obviously the problem. How about separate parts of a generic diamond pattern outfit, with mix and match leggings, tunic, arms, bikini, booties, pennant skirt, gloves, and jester hat, in a couple different color combinations, and leave assembling the costume to us? Then if we want to cosplay with it, it’s our own imagination.

  1. [AO] skeletal silverhorns

  2. [AO] furniture costumes
    like the cardboard box hologram you hide in for one lowbie daily mission, but for refrigerators, couches, tables, etc

  3. [both] Consecratrix costume / glamour
    no, Medusae aren’t close enough; some folks aren’t into the tentacles

  4. [AO] masquerade ball / Venetian carnival / domino / lorgnette masks

  5. [both] pink and gold and black candy skull print Day of the Dead dress

  6. [both] sugar skulls that summon appeased ghosts
    and sugar panties that summon satisfied pervy ghosts? Some Atrox facial expressions are about right.

  1. [AO] skull shoulderpads like Cyborgs have
  1. [both] nose bridge shades like Morpheus wears
    optionally with googly eyes, or bloodshot wide eyes, painted on

  2. [AO] skull backpack, maybe a minibull skull

  3. [AO] a leet in a candy corn outfit so nobody will eat him

  4. [AO] werewolf mask - with just one head, like the one SWL has

  5. [AO] new candy item that randomly morphs you into one of the Halloween social pets

  6. [both] black thorn/vine applique on mesh fabric bralette
    https://www.etsy.com/listing/712604759/gothic-bralette-with-thorn-design-on

  7. [AO] Duckyboat - a Mr. Squeaky water vehicle

  8. [both] giant Carmen Miranda-style fruit hats

  1. [AO] zix-in-a-pumpkin pet
  1. [both] frog costume
    https://images.fun.com/products/22233/1-1/deluxe-frog-adult-costume.jpg
    or a salamander or lizard morph, or anything more frog-like?

  2. [AO] Dead Zix-in-a-box wearable as a cardboard box hat
    or a broken robot zix worn as a hat, like a Half-Life headcrab

  3. [both] medieval costumes, like knights, troubadors, jesters, courtiers, etc.

  4. [both] faceless mask

  • white porcelain
  • matte black with glowing red eyes
  • silver and reflective
  1. [AO] Engleet Knnnighit pet with a mild elderberry scent
  1. [AO] tank spanker - like a placard, but instead of the square sign, it’s a giant hand on a stick
  1. [both] whip that can be equipped off-hand with a pistol, just for looks

  2. [both] Animated sword costume
    a fancy shiny broadsword that makes the rest of you invisible so just the sword remains visible

  3. [both] myrmelk - google it

  4. [AO] a clown monster that randomly summons either a Swiftwind-sized Mr. Squeaky or a dozen Mr. Squeaky-sized Swiftwinds
    That could be one of the boss monsters of the haunted house.
    …Which would you rather fight?

  5. [AO] doll-sized mutant decorations, like undead lawn gnomes

  6. [AO] a silver hand mirror, broken because AO can’t reflect

  • when repaired, the broken glass is replaced by a black screen and a “low battery” icon
  • apply batteries, like a couple of energy bullets or notum chip or something, and it becomes an error message, “device not found”
  • attach a personal camera and the error changes to “no temporal signal”
  • then if you combine it with something retrieved from the Temple of Three Winds, like the wine maybe, it finally works, but it will only show you what you will look like the next time you die. And you can’t see enough around you to avoid it or tell when it will happen.
  1. [AO] ghost ship vehicle

  2. [both] pets and costumes and other assorted merchandise from Mutant Year Zero

  3. [both] velociraptor mask

  4. [both] assorted underwear wearable as a hat

2 Likes

Haha this is brilliant :smiley:

Wow, kudos to Jezebelle for all that work!