Champions Online: The No-NDA Merged Edition

[Koyasha]

The original design was to not have autofire on the end builder. After all it was one of their promotional claims that there was no auto-attack involved. However a lot of people in the beta pointed out that spamming 1111111 got old fast. It was sufficiently obviously right that they eventually relented.

I'm fairly sure the "never cancel" option on the end builder will still not autotarget. It just means that as soon as you do have a target you start auto attacking.

It does autotarget, depending on what other options you select.  Mine automatically targets and begins firing on anything in front of me as soon as the last target is destroyed.  If I leave it on after a fight (i.e, after everything in front of me has been destroyed) and I'm just running/flying around, as soon as I move in range of something in my frontal cone it'll lock on and start shooting.

Also, it's cute that anyone thinks a manual will be useful in this day and age.  I haven't seen a manual that covers even the complete basics in a long time, much less one that gives proper documentation on everything.  Hell, these days there's a good chance a manual isn't even included (except for a leaflet covering a few default controls).

[Lantyssa]

With things still in flux, a manual would also be quite useless even if they did make one.

[ezrast]

I must say, this game is growing on me. Millenium City is less overcrowded than Canada, and advantages bring a layer of depth to the power system that isn't readily apparent at first. The in-combat mobility is great, and it doesn't hurt that for once I can play a support role (telepathy) and still feel badass soloing.

Scenario PvP grants XP, by the way. Not enough, but it's there. I have no idea how the PvP gear compares to the PvE stuff. If this part of the game pans out well, I may end up subbing.

[Ghambit]

I gotta say, I'm starting to get bored.  The game so far is way too easy.  Granted, I've only put a few days in, but I just dont get that feeling that I'm being challenged in any way.  Sure, the npcs are beefier, but the whole premise of killing them is just... bland.  And the magic of multiplayer gaming is largely missing in this game.  Just not enough reasons to group and when there is you can blast through the content lin 30 secs.

I mean, does it get better?  Yah, I'm feelin the grind now... but it gets better right?  Please tell me there are some "epic" 5-mans in there somewhere or at least a mission or 2 with some real depth.  Please tell me there's a part of this game that will make me sweat.  'cause I aint feelin it so far.   (the chargen funness has worn off, now it's time to get serious)

For christ's sake, the missions in Tabula Rasa were more compelling and challenging than this game.  Matter of fact, the only time I felt challenged was when our entire group was hit with the health-regen bug during the Fight Club mission.  But, no worries!  Just die and respawn right at the beginning down the hall  No corpse run. No real penalty of any kind!   
(I wouldnt mind if it was fun, but it wasnt)

[ezrast]

I should clarify, the game has only grown from "pretty meh" to "sort of fun." I wholly agree that the grouping situation is pretty dismal; there are supposed to be "lairs" you can take on as a group that aren't tied to quests, but I haven't found any yet.

As for the combat not being fun, I don't know what to say beyond 1) do missions that are higher than your level and 2) use a varied powerset like supernatural or gadgeteering rather than a straight-up offensive one like martial arts. If you're already doing those, then this game is probably not for you. That's okay, it's probably not for me either! Since I have serious doubts about the PvP balance working at all, ever.

Disclaimer: I'm only level 13 and I reserve the right to switch to a completely contradicting opinion at any time.

[Modern Angel]

It's growing on me, too, a little each day. For one, some of the powers are pretty fucking neat. My Might guy isn't so interesting and I'm not sure I like the feel of melee combat. My Magic guy, however, is fucking awesome. I chose zombie raising last night when I dinged but I could've chosen one of a few summoning circles that summon critters from beyond, what are essentially summonable mystic minefields, channeled heals... there some others but it's early. Buffs and stuff. Anyway, some of the powers were pretty nifty.

[Draegan]

I still can't get past that I feel like I'm running in quicksand and the reaction and timing of just turning, moving and jumping.  To much of a delay.

Whoever said the uninstall feature is awesome was right.

[Sky]

Sorry, Mr BW, forgot to upload the pics I took last night. Not sure what you're looking for, it's just an outline on models.

Dunno, I find the game fun. Maybe my expectations aren't what you guys have, maybe I don't put enough time in to see it suck. It's a fun game. Rolled up Mike Tyson for some punchy action (named Ear Biter) and a magic succubus. Saw some great new characters, some totally   That's the fun of a good character creator, freedom to make something great or ridiculous. I think it's fun just watching what people come up with. Saw a perfect Storm (hur), made me want to re-roll the Man of Iron (and Captain A-Hole!). I imagine they'll crack down like mofos again after release. Also rolled up something like my villain Captain Croaker, a guns guy, but was 1:30am so I had to go to bed before I got to play him.

No real penalty of any kind!

Here we go...

[Malakili]

Sorry, Mr BW, forgot to upload the pics I took last night. Not sure what you're looking for, it's just an outline on models.

Dunno, I find the game fun. Maybe my expectations aren't what you guys have, maybe I don't put enough time in to see it suck. It's a fun game. Rolled up Mike Tyson for some punchy action (named Ear Biter) and a magic succubus. Saw some great new characters, some totally   That's the fun of a good character creator, freedom to make something great or ridiculous. I think it's fun just watching what people come up with. Saw a perfect Storm (hur), made me want to re-roll the Man of Iron (and Captain A-Hole!). I imagine they'll crack down like mofos again after release. Also rolled up something like my villain Captain Croaker, a guns guy, but was 1:30am so I had to go to bed before I got to play him.

No real penalty of any kind!

Here we go...

They are already cracking down a little, though I can't imagine they care all that much with these crop of characters being wiped in a week anyway.  That being said, I do know a couple people who have costumes changed, and received a mail from cyptic that said something like "your old costume was bad, heres a new one!"

[Draegan]

I want to see the bad ones.

[Lantyssa]

I find it very much a game to pick up when it's $10.  By then they should have the problems worked out if they don't follow in Mythic's footsteps.  If not, then I wouldn't feel that ripped off.  My tolerance for just a 'meh' game which offers more of the same is near zero though.  If it isn't nearly flawless in execution, it's not worth my time unless it offers something very different from everything out there.  (Thus why Fallen Earth doesn't annoy me like ChampO.)

Forgot about the Advantages in my initial write-up.  It is another thing which is nice about the power system.

[Ashamanchill]

I find it very much a game to pick up when it's $10. 

I'm sold.

[Ghambit]

No real penalty of any kind!

Here we go...

Well, I mean cmon.  If the extent of their mission design is essentially:
1)  Make a square/linear level
2)  Put squishy generic henchmen inside
3)  Make a healing-bug to make it harder
4)  If PCs are wack enough to die Goto 1)

Perhaps penalty is the wrong word.  There's just no tension, no real heroics.  It's part of the reason earlier in the thread I surmised they'd have a problem with this theme of supers - it's just not gritty and witty enough both in mission design and character balance.  Dont get me wrong, I still somewhat like the game... but it needs some tweaking.  (errr, maybe it just gets better down the road - i hope)   Regardless though, I like my supers darker, more squishy, with more interesting lives.  ChampO is just plain cheesy technicolor easy.   Maybe I gotta start goin out looking for trouble to challenge myself, as Sky says.

Has ANYONE betaed to endgame yet?
And... do we have a damned f13 Supergroup?

[Sky]

Regardless though, I like my supers darker, more squishy, with more interesting lives.  ChampO is just plain cheesy technicolor easy.

Dude.

Are you just pissed that 52 pick-up is not a powerset?

[Modern Angel]

Certainly Champions Online lacks the gravitas of comic books.

[Lantyssa]

Are you just pissed that 52 pick-up is not a powerset?

I wanted such a power set so I could have made a furry in a zoot suit named Card Shark.

[Ghambit]

Is there a bo-staff somewhere in the game?  Maybe a costume upgrade?

[Valmorian]

Is there a bo-staff somewhere in the game?  Maybe a costume upgrade?

It is possible that "retarded" could be added as a powerset.

[Signe]

People are assholes in this game.  Even more than in other games.  And I don't like it when I kill all the baddies in an area and some one runs off with my quest target and I have to wait around and kill all the baddies again.  This game is too griefy.

[Hayduke]

It's absolutely criminal that they put in bowler hats but no umbrellas.  My John Steed fembot feels incomplete.

[Kageru]

Has ANYONE betaed to endgame yet?

Yes... sort of. They put the end-game content into the beta about two weeks before the beta-wipe. It was also buggy and they ran very short testing sessions around that time (US working day, my sleep time) so it hasn't had much testing.

Effectively at max level you get five daily instances which were obviously woefully unfinished. Featureless and linear maps with a sprinkling of mobs. At level 40 I could pretty much clear them without having to stop. Indeed it often took longer to find the instance entrance (damn caves plus z-axis in lemuria) than to complete it. Each one gave 1 unity credit and 5 of them were meant to give access to one more daily (was broken). You can spend the unity credits on purple gear which I didn't need because it wasn't like it was hard or their itemisation made any sense. You can also buy power replacers which I didn't need because I like the default pistols the most. You could also buy keys to two 5 man instances for 8 credits but you'd make more back if you completed it. I didn't get to do these. Apparently there was also a randomly spawning resource for the top level of crafting in these instances.

End result is the end-game is two 5 man instances.

[Sky]

People are assholes in this game.  Even more than in other games.  And I don't like it when I kill all the baddies in an area and some one runs off with my quest target and I have to wait around and kill all the baddies again.  This game is too griefy.

If the game lets people be assholes, they will be assholes. This game lets people be assholes. This has happened a couple times to me...IN THE TUTORIAL. Not a good sign.

[Malakili]

People are assholes in this game.  Even more than in other games.  And I don't like it when I kill all the baddies in an area and some one runs off with my quest target and I have to wait around and kill all the baddies again.  This game is too griefy.

If the game lets people be assholes, they will be assholes. This game lets people be assholes. This has happened a couple times to me...IN THE TUTORIAL. Not a good sign.

How is this different than well.. almost any other MMO I can think of?   Especially in an open beta or just post new content environment because everyone is still a low level and all trying to do the same content at the same time.  I mean, I agree it sucks, but whatcha gonna do?

[Modern Angel]

I did that. I take mobs with a vengeance. You should all get out of my zone

[Signe]

Well, first off they could make the quest dude spawn faster.  He goes off with the asshole who stole him from me for ages.  Last thing I want to do when I'm playing a game is sit around and wait for some guy to pop suddenly pop into existence.  That is NOT a modern game concept anymore!  I just want them to fix the stupid shit bits that I don't like.  I'm pretty sure everyone doesn't like the exact same bits. 

I don't have a second off.  Sorry. 

[Trippy]

This is the sort of thing you figure out in closed beta. I remember when LotRO moved from Alpha to the first Beta (or was it first Beta to 2nd? anyways...). There are objects you need to pick up off the ground for one of the "intro" quests. With the influx of people these things weren't spawning fast enough, though given that it was a closed Beta people weren't being asshats and so long long queues formed at the spawn spots. It was quite amusing, actually.

[ezrast]

Objective stealing is annoying but I can't get worked up about it because if everybody steals objectives, it all balances out and you end up saving as much time as you lose. Just think of yourself as doing a kind favor for that guy clicking the glowy while you're getting shot at by the mob spawn, a favor which he will return the next time the bastard is doing the same quest as you.

I am at least half serious.

[Ghambit]

It's been my experience that sharded games generally dont give a shite if you sit in a spawn-line.  A GMs response will be "just switch to a less populated shard."

[ezrast]

More keys:

Open Beta is now OPEN!
Posted by Daeke

Starting right now, anyone can head over to FilePlanet and get an Open Beta key! These keys are limited, and are being distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. The Open Beta will continue through 11:59PM, August 24th, so you can play for free all weekend. Once you have your key, check out this thread for instructions on where to activate your key, as you may need to enter it in multiple places. See you in the game!

...yeah, I can't figure out why either.

[Kageru]

The objective stealing is multiplied by a couple of design decisions. They've chosen to make mob XP worth next to nothing and upped mob hit points to slow progression. Result is that anyone rushing to the level cap (eg. 90% of the player base) will do everything in their power to avoid fighting mobs unless that is the quest objective.

[Trippy]

Edit: NM I finally was able to get past the login screen

Is the server down? I'm trying to get in using the above FP download (thanks ezrast) and the launcher is not doing anything when I type in a password. It just clears the password field and doesn't say anything (and why the FUCK does it STILL not support the fucking tab key?).

[Hawkbit]

I had to enter my key into three different auth pages before I could get it to recognize servers and patch after I installed it.  The server is likely up, but you need to go to accounts and add your key again.  and again. 

[Sky]

Hey I finally got a guy to group rather than try to snipe the objective last night!

It's still a design flaw that should've been caught.

[Lantyssa]

This is the sort of thing you figure out in closed beta. I remember when LotRO moved from Alpha to the first Beta (or was it first Beta to 2nd? anyways...). There are objects you need to pick up off the ground for one of the "intro" quests. With the influx of people these things weren't spawning fast enough, though given that it was a closed Beta people weren't being asshats and so long long queues formed at the spawn spots. It was quite amusing, actually.

Things didn't spawn fast enough in closed beta, much less when there is an influx of people.  Apparently some of the starting quests are still broken, too.  This launch is going to be worthy.

[UnSub]

Allegedly some sort of proportional spawning code is in place, as are mobs that call for reinforcements. Allegedly.