Author Topic: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)  (Read 2716 times)

Rotten Luck

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A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« on: November 07, 2012, 10:15:33 AM »
Alright basically put I suck at understanding any computer code.  I'm not very good at Art, I grasp concepts, but production is poor.  Even my writing skills are limited mostly due to my mind wondering, and walking into writers blocks.

So what can I do?  Hmm I let my mind wonder and just write the random thoughts out of my head.  Welcome to the MMO traveler's log.  Like many the coming sunset of City of Heroes weights heavy on my heart.  The question now is where do I go?  What MMO/or normal game can I enjoy, but also this will be an examination of my experiences on the road.

My first stop on my MMO travels is what can only be considered CoX sister game Champions Online.  Created by Cryptic who also had a hand in City of heroes the two games have a lot under the hood that seem at first alike.  So why am I still a level 12 player?  I have yet to get hooked onto something and push it to the max. 

The first problem is the graphics.  Many have said they don't like it, others say it's fine.  But why isn't it enjoyable to me?  The best way I can say it is this, Champions is a game where a comic came to life, City of Heroes is a World of a comic.  I know some of you would say that's similar or the same, but hear me out.  Right now Comic book Movies are a big thing, but this wasn't always the case.  What changed is that Movies stopped trying to capture the FEEL or Aesthetics of a comic and focused on the core story. 

A good example of this is the latest Bat-man movies it takes batman and makes it seem logical.  The original Bat-man movie did this as well, but as the franchise grew they tried to capture the COMIC Aesthetics and we ended up with Bat-man Forever.  Bright colors, over the top villains, (God knows who was smoking what when Arnie was cast as Dr. Freeze) and inside jokes (Bat credit card).  Over all when a movie tries to capture a comic elements it fails. 

This is how I see Champions Online Graphics it's a Comic Book came to life.  Rather then a Life of a Comic book style Hero.  Some people like this so it does survive, but for others it brakes the submersion and others a strain on the eyes.  I'm in the brake of submersion side here.

So as we move forward with Plan Z we must ask.  Are we making a game in a Comic book world, or a game about a comic book World

My problem with Champions don't just end with graphics.  Lets look at Enhancements and Stats.

Champions uses a Stat system each item you get can raise or lower different stats.  This is where I miss City of Heroes system the most.  I'm getting the feeling in Champions I'm Sacrificing one stat % or another.   As I play I get a new item that an enhancement (Good move Champions not having any character appearances changes with the gear drops).   This new item boosts one of my Main stats, but to use it I have to remove the old item I'm using that boost one of my secondary stats (lets say recovery).  I don't want to loose the boost to my Recovery!  So it becomes a question of what stat I value most.  So instead of feeling glad I got this new enhancement Item I feel down because I have to A.) Sacrifice the boost to Recover or B.) Not use the new item and so not get the boost to Strength.   

CoX system was much better in my view I never felt I was loosing something when I was trying to build up something else.  The closes it came was the Invention Enhancements system  Even their it was a choice of what boost I wanted.  Either Frankenslot a Power for max ability on that power or go with a Set of IOs and get a boost to everything thought even if it's less then the single boost it affects every power.

I much prefer a CoX system I hate having to choose between Stat A (Damage) over Stat B (Recovery).

Voice acting so far... well lets say I heard better from a synthetic computer generated voice.

Well this be my first post I shall check out DCU next and see what they have to offer.  I could go into more details but... that would b nit picking and I want a more general idea of why these games don't work for me rather then (Look how bad it is).  These games are Good games and thought I have issues with Champions I have stilled open an account and gone sub for all the benefits.

Post your own views below, give me pointers on how to make these Logs more enjoyable and what I should look at in future games.  And of course WHAT games you would like me to check out and comment on. 

The way I see it the best way to figure out how to get Plan Z working is to see how other games are not Working for us.
One way or another... Heroes will fly again!

Hyperstrike

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Re: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2012, 05:34:14 PM »
In DCU, by default, equipped items show up in your costume.
You can change that though.  It's still fargin' annoying.

Rotten Luck

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Re: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2012, 10:32:40 PM »
I saddly will find that out soon.  This issue is for Champions I want to know why it works or if it don't work why from others. 

I stated my two deal breakers with the game.  This is not a Champion bash even with the flaws it's still enjoyable... just not home.
One way or another... Heroes will fly again!

Hyperstrike

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Re: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2012, 10:45:48 PM »
I saddly will find that out soon.  This issue is for Champions I want to know why it works or if it don't work why from others. 

I stated my two deal breakers with the game.  This is not a Champion bash even with the flaws it's still enjoyable... just not home.

I suggest you take Flight as your first movement power in DCU.
It's the least problematic of the movement methods available from the start.

Then, when you've had the chance to get to try it, you can start up a second character using SS or something to run up walls.
I found I had to delete my SS character because the direction of movement switches when you run on the ceiling or far enough up a wall.

The constant direction switching had me fighting the interface and was making me violently nauseous.

JaguarX

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Re: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2012, 09:57:42 AM »
yeah that is the game i moved to a long time ago, about a year.

I like it. Things I like CO for over COX is the soloing is better. In COX, you can solo but compared to teaming leveling rate, it was basically a grind as if they are "encouraging" you to team. And COX had too many forced team moments. Cant even do the main core stroyline TFs without a team. As real like heros COX is I never got why they ignore the fact that most heros in the comic books tend to work alone and only team together here and there.

Also in CO, no more having to worry about chance. I hate gambling to begin with, and the acc chance rolls, drops especially with the rares that I never been lucky to get besides pacing of the turtle. I probably still have a ton of them if I remember my account info. But most importantly was the hit roll chance. I never understood how I can have 95% chance of hitting and yet miss so much. If a doctor said a person have a 95% chance of living aftera procedure, and 2 people die, then one live then 2 more die, most people would question him on how valid is that 95% chance rate. In CO, none of that chance nonsense. You swing you hit, simple as that. I love it. 

COX takes heroics a bit more serious, with a serious playerbase it seems. So serious that it seems some forget they are playing a game and forget to have fun.

CO is like playing in a live comic book. I think the graphics work for CO in overall feel. It's a game that is about fun, not taking it too serious and the player base seems more relaxed and less serious about every task.

For teaming, COX wins hand down and if that is a person's large part of their fun factor, hey find it lacking a bit, but COX channel seems to like to team, a little bit too much. Starting to get too many blind invites. A little annoying, but no biggy. It's social enough over there on the channels.

And I definately dont miss the those blasted farm people, speed runners, and gold sellers from COX, but miss the in game channel chatter. Good times. 

General Idiot

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Re: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2012, 03:42:36 PM »
Champions has a very unique style, in part because of the pen and paper game it's based on which from what I know of it is just as over the top. But that's the thing, it's over the top. It knows its ridiculous, and it revels in it and then gets even more so just because. That's the sort of game it is, it's not serious and it makes no effort to even pretend to be serious.

Personally, I like CoH's 'semi serious but sometimes not really' approach more. I think not being based on an existing property helped a lot in that regard, as they could make everything fit where it should instead of trying to cram several editions of published source books into one videogame.


As for the soloing, yeah CO is better for soloing. But at the expense of the whole 'multiplayer' thing that should really always be the main focus of an MMO. I tell people often that I play CoH for the people, not for the game. Sure, the game's awesome. But so was WoW, and I quit that. Twice, even. But CoH I bought five and a half years ago and haven't been unsubscribed since. Because of the community, more than any part of the game itself.

I wish there was any reason to team in CO, I really do. I wish doing so wasn't unwieldy as all hell. I wish missions scaled like in CoH so taking a team into content not explicitly designed for teams wasn't less exciting than watching grass grow. But it isn't. Fun solo game, but it's not an MMO. It's missing the second M in there, and possibly the first one as well.

But then I could just as easily say that about 90% of MMOs on the market today, they all have the distinction between specific solo content and specific team content. To my knowledge no other game has ever truly embraced the multiplayer part of an MMO and made literally almost all content in the game team content AND solo content at the same time. And I wish they would. I wish that'd been a thing that caught on, because for me at least it's the best part of CoH. That I can join my friends doing whatever, whenever, with almost no exceptions rather than having to wait until I'm the same level or until we both feel like slogging through a dungeon - with three random other people because you can't do it with just two.

cptbarcode

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Re: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« Reply #6 on: November 15, 2012, 06:31:03 PM »
Hmmmm, what did I not like about Champions? Mostly the lack of instanced missions leading to too much spawn camping, which I hate, and the inability to know what missions other people in the team have. Either of those might have changed --  I haven't gone back since the first month it was live -- but I don't have enough curiosity to find out.

Also, I didn't care for the power sets. It seemed like everybody would end up taking everything and end up the same, although I never got close enough to max level to find out for sure.

General Idiot

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Re: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« Reply #7 on: November 17, 2012, 03:18:38 AM »
The only place I tend to run into spawn camping in Champions is in Millennium City, and there's always six or seven instances of that up so swapping to whichever one has the least players is usually all it takes. So yeah, it has changed somewhat.

PsychicKitty

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Re: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« Reply #8 on: November 17, 2012, 07:04:39 PM »
I play this game on and off...as i have a lifetime subscription....

I find their travel power system annoying.....the entire....it takes time to get up to a higher speed...then a little loinger to get to maximum speed....is stupid.
I also loathe their version of teleport and stealth..

Teleport simply turns you into an invisible cloud and lets you fly fast...if anything can see past stealth you willbe shot and killed if you use this power...thus why most people dont use it inside areas with enemies much.

Stealth....was made into an active defense now..yes takes you one prescious active defense slot....and lets you use the invisibility power....that will turn off all other forms of travel abilities while its going....your character will then move slowly sneaking around....if you use any attack or travel power these effect gets turned off....recharge is like 1 or 2 minutes.....so yes....its an idiot click like ability....very annoying....

I also find their defense system stupid too.....you get a choice of basicaly damage resistance.....or regenration which works the best in most cases......to a dodge ability....whihc doesnt protect you from damage....no you just dodge thus take less damage....avoidense part of the dodge means you avoid more damage.....thus you take alot of damage when you choose defense....and then you have the forcefield effect or as i call it an extra health bar...which works ok.....but is way to slow to recharge.....anywise....there are alot of damage resiatance powers....some effect you and the entire team....some like invulnerability sound really good.....but I have noticed it got toned down alot over the years....and its kind of lame.....other powers give damage resistance and defenses of various sorts actualy have been improved slightly...lightning reflexes the used to be kind of dodge is a pale broken comparison to what it used to do....even using the click power masterful dodge isnt that great anymore......but weirldy regernation works very well....as you get hit it recovers faster....i felt more tank like with regeneration then any fo the other powers.
Lighting reflexes used to be really good when you enahnaced it and had powers like a healing powers that worked by giving more heal every time you dodged....again this got toned down alot....and i find i die relying onthis power too much.

They do have some interesting mechanics....like a block.....you dont have to use it....not using it makes the game feel like tytpical city of heroes....but using it.....lets you actualy stop damage better....getting a block power makes it even better....

They have enahcnements....on powers....i have a love/hate for this.....as its neat to be able to enhancethings to have special effects.....but to do so you sacrifice improving the power....this also lets you improve things real fast....but since they toned defense powers down....even though you might have the rank 3 of lightning reflexes you still get smacked around and killed alot.

Anywise the biggest thing i see people hate about this game is the graphics......first thing I and a few freinds found....was how to turn off the annoying things.....liekhte comic outline....youc an turn that off....you can also turn down some of the reflection stuff making you look like plastic..some fo the settings are miss leading inthe graphic portion.....as they are inthe middle....but the setting is way tooo high....like the blast flare settings.....sorry that isnt going to make my entire screen white to see a blast down the street....I use a GTX 480...so i tweeked my stuff....

And big thing i find annoying is the missions....that require more players...eventualy you run into a number of these....but sometimes you just dont feel like teaming up....its these missions that you start felling lame....even with a team....you might have maxed your damage resistance......the game tell you you can ignore 12 points of damage or lower...and that you have a 90% resistance to all damage.......you get into one of these misison like doctor detroyer's factory...adn last boss...hits you once or twice and you get defeated.....sorry....that just doesnt work for me....if your statistics say you have something...you better darn well have it...yuo are not goign to suddenly become super weak....ina  misison no matter if it says for a team...and if you are 10 levels above the enemy.....you shouldnt be getting splattered either.....but this game has that same logic hole for that too....
that was the reaosn i actualy left AION....i didnt like my level 35 Tank character getting one shot killed by a level 20 minion enemy.

So...I dont play Champions as much.....I have lots of characters there....and i get tons of other players trying to tell me how to play or how they think things work....but when you have maximum level of almost all powers sets and done alot...you shouldnt really tell me how things work if you dont have the powers your self.
Like the other day....got told how great sleep and placate are from the psionic sets....psionics is kind of annoying...sleep is easily broken by all your other powers....and they stupidly put single target attacks inthe set only...with a area of effect maintain sleep effect power....boggles the mind.....as soon as you are not maintaining it the enemys start attacking....since the pwoer uses tons of energy...youc an maintain it only for a few seconds...also it only works on minions....and unless the target is inthe area or is visible...it wont work otherwise...yeah they have alot of drawback powers in champions....
The Arrow powerset is another problem child...the nsiper arrow for example...comapre it to the sniper rifle from munitions and you realize its garbage....the arrow misses alot....or has less range....and the develoeprs wonder why people dont use those power sets....

ANywie customer service and the groups onthe forums are realy active for the developer team....they give service like city of heroes did....
only thing is....on some issues they seam absolutely clueless as i think they dont know what to do about them.

So anywise....this game is alot like DCUO it has bad stuff...not as bad as DCUO....but it has good stuff....they dont force you to PVP....but people tend to do it anywise.....they have alot of telport up alerts....and PVP stuff to do....the zombie one is a lot of fun....not sun if you start as the zombie allthe time....and not too much fun if you have a good player as the zombie....but otherwise fun...(I was considered a good player as the zombie...too good...to a point...when i played alot...people would quit when i had a character i was playing as zombie..as they knew i would make everyone else zombies super fast)

Oh yes....a real good positive....not alot of cheaters in this game....though a heck of alot of farmers and sellers.....perfect world games have alot of these....it can be annoying....until you realize you can get anything you want...and the sellers and farmers are the hardcore ones who like to help you get things.....thus if they dont have them....or they dont sell them...they will help you find someone who does...

Hyperstrike

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Re: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« Reply #9 on: November 23, 2012, 06:08:27 PM »
I find their travel power system annoying.....the entire....it takes time to get up to a higher speed...then a little loinger to get to maximum speed....is stupid.

If you simply hold down the T button on most travel powers, you get a capacity bar, once it hit the top the power activates and you can travel at full speed.

I also loathe their version of teleport and stealth..

Quote
I also find their defense system stupid too.....you get a choice of basicaly damage resistance.....or regenration which works the best in most cases......to a dodge ability....whihc doesnt protect you from damage....no you just dodge thus take less damage....avoidense part of the dodge means you avoid more damage.....thus you take alot of damage when you choose defense....and then you have the forcefield effect or as i call it an extra health bar...which works ok.....but is way to slow to recharge.....anywise....there are alot of damage resiatance powers....some effect you and the entire team....some like invulnerability sound really good.....but I have noticed it got toned down alot over the years....and its kind of lame.....other powers give damage resistance and defenses of various sorts actualy have been improved slightly...lightning reflexes the used to be kind of dodge is a pale broken comparison to what it used to do....even using the click power masterful dodge isnt that great anymore......but weirldy regernation works very well....as you get hit it recovers faster....i felt more tank like with regeneration then any fo the other powers.
Lighting reflexes used to be really good when you enahnaced it and had powers like a healing powers that worked by giving more heal every time you dodged....again this got toned down alot....and i find i die relying onthis power too much.

They do have some interesting mechanics....like a block.....you dont have to use it....not using it makes the game feel like tytpical city of heroes....but using it.....lets you actualy stop damage better....getting a block power makes it even better....

My problems with the mitigation mechanics is pretty much summed up here.  I loathe the block mechanic.


Quote
And big thing i find annoying is the missions....that require more players...eventualy you run into a number of these....but sometimes you just dont feel like teaming up....its these missions that you start felling lame....even with a team....you might have maxed your damage resistance......the game tell you you can ignore 12 points of damage or lower...and that you have a 90% resistance to all damage.......you get into one of these misison like doctor detroyer's factory...adn last boss...hits you once or twice and you get defeated.....sorry....that just doesnt work for me....if your statistics say you have something...you better darn well have it...yuo are not goign to suddenly become super weak....ina  misison no matter if it says for a team...and if you are 10 levels above the enemy.....you shouldnt be getting splattered either.....but this game has that same logic hole for that too....
that was the reaosn i actualy left AION....i didnt like my level 35 Tank character getting one shot killed by a level 20 minion enemy.

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ANywie customer service and the groups onthe forums are realy active for the developer team....they give service like city of heroes did....
only thing is....on some issues they seam absolutely clueless as i think they dont know what to do about them.

I haven't really found this to be the case.  Their forums are actually fairly stagnant.  You keep getting referred to old archived posts.  And the devs just aren't around that much.  I had a question about posting something and was worried about it from a forum moderation standpoint.  It took almost 3 weeks for someone to notice it and get back to me.  Their forum is moderated by an unpaid volunteer.  And their development team is small and not particularly active.  The game's essentially on maintenance mode.  New stuff does get introduced, but most of it is stuff they're selling to you in the store.  Crap, not content.  Yes, the last update included some content too.  It was basically "a bunch of vehicles and this one adventure meant to let you use vehicles".


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Oh yes....a real good positive....not alot of cheaters in this game....though a heck of alot of farmers and sellers.....perfect world games have alot of these....it can be annoying....until you realize you can get anything you want...and the sellers and farmers are the hardcore ones who like to help you get things.....thus if they dont have them....or they dont sell them...they will help you find someone who does...

Not really interested in paying some sweatshop worker's boss because PWE/Cryptic has gated stuff behind "Are you insane?" prices.

Tenzhi

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Re: A MMO traveler's log issue 1 (Champions Online)
« Reply #10 on: November 24, 2012, 06:57:59 AM »
I also loathe their version of teleport and stealth..

I much prefer their version of Teleport.  None of that having to target it nonsense - just bamf out, go where you want, and bamf back in.

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Stealth....was made into an active defense now..yes takes you one prescious active defense slot....and lets you use the invisibility power....that will turn off all other forms of travel abilities while its going....your character will then move slowly sneaking around....if you use any attack or travel power these effect gets turned off....recharge is like 1 or 2 minutes.....so yes....its an idiot click like ability....very annoying....

"Stealth" comes in the form of a Slotted Offense called "Night Warrior" or some such that gives you access to a Stealth toggle rather than an Active Defense, actually - and the aforementioned toggle doesn't have a lengthy recharge that I noticed.  It also gives you access to an Assassin Strike type of ability that is far more effective than what Stalkers get.  I cannot confirm if it works with other travel powers, but it certainly works with Acrobatics as I am constantly running and flipping around with my stealthy boomerang throwing character named Tosser.

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I also find their defense system stupid too.....you get a choice of basicaly damage resistance.....or regenration which works the best in most cases......to a dodge ability....whihc doesnt protect you from damage....no you just dodge thus take less damage....avoidense part of the dodge means you avoid more damage.....thus you take alot of damage when you choose defense....and then you have the forcefield effect or as i call it an extra health bar...which works ok.....but is way to slow to recharge.....anywise....there are alot of damage resiatance powers....some effect you and the entire team....some like invulnerability sound really good.....but I have noticed it got toned down alot over the years....and its kind of lame.....other powers give damage resistance and defenses of various sorts actualy have been improved slightly...lightning reflexes the used to be kind of dodge is a pale broken comparison to what it used to do....even using the click power masterful dodge isnt that great anymore......but weirldy regernation works very well....as you get hit it recovers faster....i felt more tank like with regeneration then any fo the other powers.
Lighting reflexes used to be really good when you enahnaced it and had powers like a healing powers that worked by giving more heal every time you dodged....again this got toned down alot....and i find i die relying onthis power too much.

I find all the defensive abilities save Regeneration to be far more effective than they were at launch.  One of the reasons I didn't stick with Champions was because characters felt too squishy to me, and if I was going to have to deal with that I was already comfortable doing so in CoH.  I'm not sure if Lightning Reflexes got boosted and then nerfed down along the way, but in those first few months it didn't seem to boost survivability at all, and while I'd still call it the weakest of the Slotted Defensives I've experienced I find it makes a noticeable difference.  On the whole, I'm finding my characters to be almost universally sturdier in Champions now than they ever were in CoH.

The chief issue I'm having with Champions at the moment is the sparse number of slots combined with the rather high cost of more slots.
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