Champions Online: The No-NDA Merged Edition

[NiX]

Am I the only one incredibly underwhelmed by the TenTon Hammer video?

[Hutch]

Bill Roper joins the Champions dev team.

I guess he needed the work.

[Trippy]

Like Hutch said he needs a job. Also he probably wants to stay in the Bay Area.

[Hutch]

I was wondering about that too. If they needed a "design director", at this stage in the game's development, why didn't they already have one?

I think they just needed a warm body, another pair of hands, if you will. And hey, he's got industry experience. In fact, he's got both the best and the second best kinds of industry experience!

[Trippy]

If they needed a "design director", at this stage in the game's development, why didn't they already have one?

[Ghambit]

Frak, who WOULDNT want to work for Cryptic right now?  I mean cmon, we all know what types of personalities generallly make up this industry (both dev and player).  Give them the chance to work for a company that's producing both Champions Online AND Star Trek Online and corduroy pants are immediately jizzed in.

Hopefully Roper can lead them back more towards the realm of real-time combat rather than the direction they seem to be going. 

[UnSub]

I think they just needed a warm body, another pair of hands, if you will. And hey, he's got industry experience. In fact, he's got both the best and the second best kinds of industry experience!

It's this. Cryptic needs experienced people to pull off the kind of plan that gets ChampO out early 2009 and STO later on. I've go no idea what the status of their funding must be, given that they are an independent studio who sold off their major revenue stream (although CoH/V still licenses the Cryptic Engine from Cryptic, so they'd be getting some cash in from that).

Roper failed in the management of HGL, but a lot of the design worked. ChampO is meant to be an action RPG, so he can add a lot there (potentially) in enhancing that experience. If he's learned his lessons, he won't be building things from scratch (and probably wouldn't have to, given the alleged systems in place within the Cryptic Engine Mk II).

[Ghambit]

(sarcasm detector has gone off)

Alrighty, well... besides Blizz which studio (if any) would you like to be a part of?
I'm just saying dork nirvana's capital will be Cryptic in '09.  They've got IPs that represent the bookends of that market; comic-oriented superheroes (via tabletop gaming) and Star Trek.  You cant tell me it wouldnt be at least mildly entertaining to work for them.   Shyt, I'd have a field day in that place.

[UnSub]

Apparently those in ChampO alpha / beta can say they've been in the ChampO alpha / beta, but nothing more.

I've been in the ChampO alpha / beta for several months now.

And now, my opinions: 

[Trippy]

Don't do that.

[UnSub]

Until they drop the NDA, I'm not saying anything else. If you are interested, sign up for beta.

[Nevermore]

I signed up for beta the first day.  I've yet to hear anything from them.

[Ragnoros]

I signed up for beta the first day.  I've yet to hear anything from them.

This.

[UnSub]

ChampO wishes everyone a Happy New Year

*sigh*

[WayAbvPar]

ChampO wishes everyone a Happy New Year

*sigh*

1997 called and wants its website design back.

[shiznitz]

ChampO wishes everyone a Happy New Year

*sigh*

1997 called and wants its website design back.

So does CoX.

[eldaec]

ChampO wishes everyone a Happy New Year

*sigh*

1997 called and wants its website design back.

1997 called again, and wants its meme back along with that website design. The whole year is starting to sound pissed at us.

[ezrast]

Guys, I keep trying to maintain hope that this title will be awesome.

You're ruining it.

[Arnold]

How can you possibly fuck this one up? Jesus Christ.

You made a super-hero MMO that basically let you play as Marvel characters. That's why you GOT the license in the first place. Just take the same game, reskin it slightly, make Wolverine a quest NPC, fix the most glaring flaws and call it a day.

This is like blowing an open dunk.

Speaking of blowing open dunks, I'm still waiting for my basketball MMO that lets me play in a league with my "team" (guild), or pickup games (random pking), build my mansion and pimp out my ride (house/vehicle customization), or design my own shoes (guild crest).  Seems pretty fun, simple, and way easier than trying to do the same thing for football, baseball, or hockey, since basketball only has 5 players.

Motor City Online, eat my ass, NBA Online could definitely make a profit.

[eldaec]

Guys, I keep trying to maintain hope that this title will be awesome.

It'll be exactly as awesome as CoX in its day.

Which is to say, moderately awesome, and will have sidekicking. Plus they seem to be including some other stuff that wasn't in EQ.

If more than a couple of mmogs in the last five years had been even moderately awesome, and had sidekicking, and had at least one other feature missing from EQ, the genre wouldn't be such a fucking farce. So... reasons to be hopeful.


I'm looking forward to this - but not expecting it to be anything more than a place to take vacations from EVE.

[Arnold]

They were talking about the arch nemesis, at level 30 (game will release with 40 levels--subject to change though) you get to set up the arch nemesis for you.  You will get to decide what he or she will do to you, from ambushes, trying to screw up your missions, breaking into your base, stealing your gear, etc...

Umm, how about something much cooler?  Why not select a REAL arch-nemesis from a lineup?  Computer opponents are just plain retarded.

[eldaec]

Why do you need a game mechanic to do that?

Just pick someone and agree to fight them a lot.


The point of nemesis system is to add flavour to co-op pve missions. Which I suspect is the core of this game. If pve is 'retarded' don't buy games focussed on co-op pve.

[NiX]

Yeah, I think the point is that at any given time your Arch-Nemesis could show up and you'll have to fight him/her. It would be very annoying to have to show up randomly to be someones Arch-Nemesis. Plus, NPCs aren't douchebags and won't grief me "for teh lulz."

[Bokonon]

Some in-game footage from an msnbc story on the game:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28627999#28627999

Seems rougher than the DCUO vid from CES.

[Triforcer]

Huh.  Some of those scenes looked very rough, a couple were decent.  Not sure what to think. 

[Nevermore]

It really does look just like CoX 2.0, only with that crappy cell shading.  There was that one shot of someone picking up some object and throwing it, but it was hard to tell if there was really interaction with the environment like with DCUO.

[Nebu]

CoX with more interesting environments. 

Should be like the original: First month with the costume creator. Second Month finding a build I like.  Third month getting bored with the leveling grind and quitting.   

[UnSub]

That's a bit of an old video, since Sporkfire (Victor W.) has moved on to another company.

Here's a newer one. Both use some of the same footage. Run and gun is the term being used for the ability to attack and move at the same time with most powers.

[Venkman]

Everyone else just calls them "instants" 

[eldaec]

I think he actually means you can move during cast time, not cast time = 0.

[UnSub]

That's it - run and attack at the same time. No stopping for the most part if you want to keep moving while attacking, much like Tomb Raider or God of War.

[Venkman]

I think he actually means you can move during cast time, not cast time = 0.

Yea, I was just being snarky ;-) Honestly, it's something I've wanted more of in these games. To date though we mostly only get run and gun when it involves an actual gun in that type of setting. More spells-while-moving please.

[UnSub]

Any other F13ers in yet? If enough have, it might be worth having a separate sekret beta board. We can make a request for one, apparently.

[Trippy]

Not worth a separate board

[Numtini]

Ah, I hadn't caught that you could say you were in beta, the NDA itself is kind of unclear. I just got in last week.