=PRIMER= CO for CoH Players

sinister8088 · December 24, 2012, 08:38:10 AM

MANAGING YOUR HEROIC ASSIGNMENTS

Mission List: Listed on the right hand side. To make a compass point appear for them, click on the mission title in the list and in the next window, click Make Primary. A transparent Arrowhead will point you to the door while travelling. Also works if you're done with a mission and need to find the contact again. A quicker way to do this when you have multiple missions is to double-click on the Number in the Mission List to make it primary.

Intro mission: You HAVE to do the Intro on your first character. Sorry. (You are able to skip the Intro once a character on your account reaches Level 8.)

Sequence to get out of it as fast as possible if that's your preference (Mission titles to look for): Welcome Wagon (Go talk To Sgt. McAvoy), Meet Socrates, Seeding Frenzy, Millennium's Mayor, Mayor's Mementos, Mail to the Chief, Citizens Distressed, Silver Avenger Sandwich, Signal to Noise, Full Metal Jacket (if you're lucky, this mission could be almost over when you get there since it's a live in-zone event), and finally The Iron Clad Defense.

Your first character is limited to specific costume pieces and will be forced to play through the tutorial zone. Once you reach level 8, all the other free-to-play costume options unlock, and subsequent characters will have an option to skip the tutorial entirely. However, badgers take note. There are several perks and associated free XP that are lost forever if you do not do the tutorial - you cannot get Learn the Ropes, Stop the Invasion, Save the City, Ironclad Offensive, Vanquished Black Talon and Red Bug Down if you don't complete the tutorial. Plus, you get to save a kitty. (Please, someone think of the kitty.)

Don't worry about what level you are, the first time you enter The Powerhouse, you WILL be Level 6, even if the game makes you level 6 by force.

Missions after the Intro: SOCRATES (blue head icon in the Minimap, or find a glowing androgynous blue statue in any Millennium City zone) has links to missions from contacts throughout the game. Contacting SOCRATES will show you whatever missions are currently available for your level range, but you never outlevel missions in this game. Any mission you 'missed' can be obtained by visiting a contact in person. Even if the contact is level 6, and you're sitting at the level cap of 40, you can go back and finish the mission later.

Task Forces: Champions Online offers issue sequences called Adventure Packs and Comic Series (Each mission is an Issue, another CoH term that has different meaning in CO). This is their equivalent of a Task Force: a number of missions in a row, ending in a boss encounter. If this is more of your cup of tea, head to the UNTIL Building (right next to Champions HQ outside of Renaissance Center) starting at Level 11 to get going, with a jet downstairs to help you get there quickly. Just like a Task Force, a team would be a wise idea on these missions, although you can solo an AP (good luck).

The Radio/Newspaper (Incidental Missions): Next to the Mini-map, there's a red X (if you have it closed) that shows the On Alert! Panel – up to four missions available anytime, which work a lot like the Team Up Teleporter. They're fast, easy, and some give an hour-long XP Boost.

sinister8088 · December 24, 2012, 08:43:07 AM

BASIC CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT AND MANAGEMENT

Money: It's called Resources-- Global (G), National (N), and Local (L). Similar to D&D's Gold system: 100 of a lower currency = 1 of the higher ones with Local being worth the least.

Real-Money Transactions (vis a vis Paragon Points): ZEN is the real-world currency used in microtransactions (formerly Cryptic Points or Atari Points). You can buy ZEN in denominations of $10 each. $10 = 1000 ZEN. Like 96% of the F2P titles out there, there's no way to convert ZEN into cash or subscription time (not everyone is EVE Online.) ZEN is account-bound, you can't trade it between players (past the ZEN/Questionite exchange, see below).

Moreso than in CoH (in my opinion) the Microtransaction side of business in CO is very prevalent. You can play for free, but CO is not shy at all about your limits in doing so. Also, unlike City of Heroes, it seems the average transaction for ZEN is closer to the $4.00 mark rather than the $2.00 mark: this doesn't mean that there is no items available for less than $2.00, but rather that most of the non-consumable, non-item purchases are at 490 Z and higher.

Questionite: (This currency isn't in City of Heroes in any form, so forgive the lengthy explanation) -- An alternate currency earned in game, directly exchangeable for ZEN (and vice-versa ZEN can also be turned into Questionite). The questionite-to-ZEN rate is player-driven, with those selling ZEN being firmly in control of the market rate. Players may also, naturally, exchange ZEN for questionite, using the same system, but the exchange rate to return Questionite to ZEN is separate than ZEN for Questionite (it doesn't happen often, but if you exchange it in haste and seek to exchange it back to its prior form, you can lose a small amount on getting it back.)

Questionite ore can be earned by playing adventure packs and comic series, picking up Boxes of Questionite from defeated Super Villain or higher enemies (each box will give you anywhere from 200 to 1500 questionite ore), and can also be earned in small amounts by defeating any enemy during a Questionite Hour event. Questionite, like ZEN, is player-bound and cannot be traded past the ZEN/Questionite Exchange (you can't "gift" questionite to someone.)

Questionite must be refined from ore to be used - each piece of ore produces 1 questionite. You may collect any amount of ore you like, but you are capped to refining 8,000 questionite per day, to prevent people from glutting the market with questionite. (You can earn and keep more than 8,000 Questionite Ore, of course, and refine the balance up to 8,000 at the same time the next day.) In addition to being exhanged for ZEN, questionite can also be spent directly on purchases from the Questionite Store, which functions like a secondary cash shop to support ZEN Purchases.

Since items in the Questionite Store are available nowhere else, not even the ZEN store, there is incentive to convert ZEN into questionite, for those who have a surplus of zen and wish to make Questionite purchases, and a little ZEN goes a long way in that regard.

As explained by Kaiser Tarantula, it is possible to get a regular flow of Questionite into your account with regular play: (Click to read)

Spoiler for Hidden:

An estimated conversion rate from Questionite to ZEN is 200:1 (200 Questionite = 1 ZEN). At the time of writing this, it's 188-192, but this should help you ballpark it. Let's say you want 2 Character Slots (Non-Freeform) at 1,400 ZEN. You have 684 ZEN from a $5.00 purchase, and 184 earned from Questionite conversion. So you'll need 716 ZEN (1400-684 = 716), made from another 144,000 Questionite to unlock the slots (716 * 200 = 143200).

Mobs drop Questionite only during Questionite Hour events, and will drop questionite based on their rank (henchmen & villains 1-5, master villains 5-10, super villains and higher 10+). Otherwise, Boxes of Questionite looted from Super Villain or higher-ranked enemies, as well as mission rewards from comic series, adventure packs, APB missions, and Rampage alerts are the only way to obtain Questionite.

Powerhouse, The: This place is where heroes can go to train and develop their powers in a controlled environment. Talking to any trainer will let you spend any specification or advantage points you've earned by levelling, or select new powers if you've attained a level that offers a new power. A special note here is that any level-up selections made while in the Powerhouse are not permanent and can be changed as much as you like for free until you leave. When you leave the Powerhouse, any selections you've made are locked in, and can only be changed by paying for it. The Powerhouse also has testing environments with practice dummies so that you can see just how your powers work via live testing, as well as a raceway & gymnasium for testing travel powers (and seeing how much you can lift), and a series of damaging lasers that you can use to test defensive powers.

Levelling Up: You can go to the Powerhouse to level up, OR click on the Lightning Bolt on your Power Tray to do it in-field. At the Powerhouse, your choices can be changed until you leave the room and return to the city. Outside of the Powerhouse, all choices made concerning the following are final. (Confirmation prompts remind you of this finality.)

Powers: Are issued according to your Archetype and Build. It's not every other level, and if you use one of the 23 Archetypes they are mostly chosen for you.
Advantage Points: Are issued frequently. Saving up Advantage points between level ups is wise, since there are Skills/Abilities (additional effects you can add to your powers) that are more powerful and cost 2-3 points. Each power can only accept 5 Advantage Points to improve them, so use them wisely.
Specializations: start to appear after level 10. Each point can go to up to eight areas to improve further, with the bottom four areas needing five points before the upper areas are available.

Of note, Super Stats are highlighted in Yellow in most of these transactions, which if raised from spending Advantage Points will also help to improve your character's energy and damage use.

Debt: Champions Online's version of Debt are Star Points. Every death means a loss of Star Points. Stars stack up to 5, and are gradually restored over time in-game if you avoid dying. You can donate in-game resources to charity (Clue: one is in Renaissance Center next to the Tailor Pavilion) to restore a star immediately, or purchase items with ZEN to restore all your stars at once. Stars aren't absolutely important - each star is a 3% increase in the damage you do and the healing you produce, maximum of 15%. If you have no stars, dying carries no additional penalty. (Like CoH, once you accrue max. debt, nothing more can happen.)

Please note that signing off WILL NOT FIX lost Star Points. Continuing to fight does.

Respec: It's called RetCon. A full RetCon of your character requires you to spend ZEN to get a RetCon token. You can, however, perform partial RetCons with in-game currency. The higher your level, the more RetCon will cost. You can remove powers one at a time, in reverse order of acquisition (most recent power first) at the Powerhouse by talking to a trainer.

sinister8088 · December 24, 2012, 08:46:33 AM

EQUIPMENT AND ITEMS

Items: Character drops must be picked up: if you forget to pick them up, they disappear. However, just like CoH, each drop is character locked when in Solo Play (no ganking). UNLIKE City of Heroes, in Teams you can choose a gank-method to keep teaming interesting (Drops can be the earning player only, round robin, or free for all just like in World of Warcraft.) The team leader makes this choice for the whole team.

Inspirations: Now they're little Power-up orbs called "Boosts" that your foes leave behind; they work immediately. You can't keep them. As soon as you touch them they're gone. Each Power-up Boost is player-locked: another player can't gank them from you. The work exactly like inspirations: a little percentage multi-stat boost that fades from 30-90 seconds later. An icon of the boosts taken appear in the upper left beneath your character portrait with a clockwise timer to show the remaining duration.

A white "mystery boost" appears from time to time, which upon collection will light your character up with a color that tells what kind of Boost it gave you. (It may grant multiple boosts... you just don't know what it will do until you touch it. Thanks to Epelesker for clarifying a vague line on the CO Wiki.)

Enhancements: Nope, you get Equipment (see below). Stats take care of your major character development, whereas Equipment (Attack, Defense and Support) provides easier upgradeable improvement of your character as you go mission to mission: separated into Primary and Secondary Equipment types, can be crafted (Fusion), Sold (Auction) or traded (Mail system). You have six equipment slots - Offensive, Defensive, and Utility, with Primary and Secondary slots for each.

Equipment comes in slot-specific varieties, and what slot they fit into really doesn't tell you much about the equipment itself - a Primary Utility could wind up boosting the same stats as a Secondary Offense. What a piece of equipment looks like doesn't matter - just like City of Heroes, your equipped items are not reflected on your character visually (that's controlled solely by your costume).

Of note, Super Stats are highlighted in Yellow in these items, which if raised also help to further improve your character's energy and damage use.

Crafting: Used to exist in a larger sense but has been GREATLY scaled back. You can still earn points in one of three Investigation skills (Arms, Science, or Mysticism), but these skills are solely used to loot specialized containers in the world that require a certain level of Investigation skills to access. Successfully opening these containers gives you Item Mods and possibly Catalysts. Item Mods are upgrades that can be inserted into a slotted item's slots to increase its effectiveness. You can also combine 5 mods of the same type and rank into a single mod of the same type of the next higher rank. Combining mods has a chance to fail. You can improve your chances of success by raising your Investigation skill, or by adding a Catalyst to the combination process.

Merits: These are known as Recognition Medals. There are 4 kinds of recognition medals. MCPD Recognition (6-14), PRIMUS Recognition (15-30), UNTIL Recognition (31-40), and Silver Champions' Stars (specific Lv40 content). Each functions kinda like reward merits in CoH. You can earn them from defeating field and mission mobs, and you can select recognition medals as a reward from doing missions that would otherwise offer you a gear reward. Recognition medals can be spent like a currency at Recognition vendors and can also purchase costume piece unlocks and travel power unlocks that are available nowhere else.

Badges: CO equivalent is called Perks. Some give XP, and there is no physical marker on Exploration Perks: some perks have requirements that involve more than one location, such as walking the length of a pipeline. At the bottom of the Perk window are Perk Points: In the past, perk points had a purpose... a number of updates later they are all but useless – Ignore them, except as a de-facto "Badge Count".

sinister8088 · December 24, 2012, 08:49:42 AM

ERRATA

Right-clicking: mostly does not work except for mouselook. No idea why—it does on Star Trek Online, Champions' sister title.

Qularr: They're the same as Rikti. And there's other species... apparently Detroit/Canada is overrun with aliens.

Camera: In the Options Screen, choose "Chase" if you want it to behave like it does in CoH. Otherwise, pressing and holding the left mouse button spins without reset, and pressing and holding the right mouse button spins both you and the camera in the method we all know fondly as mouselook (just like CoH, you can mouselook to turn and just use W and S to move forward and backward).

Supergroups: Champions HQ, which you get a brief look at in the Intro Mission, is the central point to form a Supergroup in Champions Online. You need at least 5 people in a team to form the group. Once you have the team, enter the HQ and talk to the Registrar at the front desk.

UNTIL: This is what City of Heroes had that was called Fort Trident – A central place for all Task Force contacts and a single way to access them (The Jet.) This is where all Adventure Pack/Comic Series contacts are located.

PvP: The Arena in this game is known as Hero Games. There is information on PvP at a Kiosk outside of the Jet Landing Pad in the upper NW corner of the Renaissance Center. PvP Events are accessible in your menus through Queues, or just head to Renaissance Center and wait long enough in the Plaza for an invite. Like World of Warcraft, players can challenge each other to a PvP Match in a city zone (especially at the Plaza) without affecting/involving non-interested characters.

Cutscenes: Champions forces you to sit through most of them. You can press ESC on a few of them, but the majority won't listen.

Playing a Villain, Vigilante, or Rogue? Sorry. Right now, Champions Online is a hero-only title. Forget about morality, you're all heroes. There are "Reformed Hero" Costume Pieces, as well as costume sets for the Alien Species in-game, but you're still fighting the good fight.

Find people/join teams? Press O to open the Social window, where you can search for players, teams, supergroups, etc. On the last tab, you can choose your search preferences such as no teaming, open teaming (anyone running the same mission when you enter a mission map automatically joins you), or closed teaming (behaves just like CoH: no invite, no team.)

Stop getting invites? To block team invites, click on the button to the right of the chat field, and choose Toggle Team Invites in the little popup menu.

Find a Global Name for a player? Click on them, then in the upper left, right click their portrait next to your stats and choose Info. The same context menu blocks a player or reports them on abusive behavior. Also, the global name of a player is always displayed in chat in the form of "charName@globalName". The Global name is always on the right hand of the @ sign in the full handle.

Kaiser Tarantula · December 24, 2012, 10:32:32 AM

Some small corrections I just noticed. Most are minor.

The proper term for what you call a "sustain" power is a "Maintained" power.

Regarding the Qularr, they aren't quite the same as the Rikti. Rikti are transformed humans from a parallel Earth (Rikti Earth.) Qularr are genuine aliens; I'll go into them below.

In regards to aliens as a whole in Champions Online, there are several noteworthy species.

The Gadroon: The Gadroon first appeared on Earth in 1984, attempting an invasion of the planet, but were repelled by the combined might of Earth's heroes. They would later try again in 1997, with the same result. Today, they are currently invading Canada, having established a significant outpost in the Canadian Wilderness. There, they are attempting to terraform the tundra into an alien subtropic 'grassland,' presumably similar to their homeworld.

Your average Gadroon is a stocky, frog-like humanoid. They're typically no more than five feet in height, but can measure three to three and a half feet across the shoulders. Their legs are short, but their arms are long and thick, often trailing down to the ground. Their skin is usually green, with lighter tones closer to yellow- or tan-green on their lower jaw, chest, and abdomen. Gadroon are physically stronger than humans, and can adapt to a wide variety of climates, but have poor senses. Gadroon DNA is apparently incredibly complex compared to humans. The Gadroon themselves are skilled geneticists, capable of using their own DNA to carry information, such as encryption keys for their technology to ensure that other species cannot access it. Most Gadroon encountered will be either warriors or Gravitic manipulators, and as such they are typically equipped with blocky, thick metal armor, sometimes with a light-orange bodysuit underneath it. Most Gadroon protect their lower arms with translucent energy shields that vaguely resemble glass, oddly enough with no visible emitters. Gadroon weapons are often attached to the knuckles of one of their arms, poking out in front of the energy shield.

The Gadroon use brutal and unsubtle tactics, often utilizing their gravitic technology to decimate planets from orbit before dropping a large standing invasion force to subjugate any natives. By their own words, they typically use methods such as "clear-crushing", "flash-burning" or "cavitating" a planet to eliminate threats and prepare a planet prior to taking it over. The latest invasion, however, is different. The Gadroon are actually using subterfuge and espionage tactics, something they've never done before. On the infantry level, most Gadroon use energy blaster weaponry and their own raw physical might in combat. Adepts and Shapers also use field projectors that allow them to surround enemies in a bubble of force, rendering them helpless until they can break free. Gadroon wear high-tech armor, the most distinguishing feature of which is the translucent solid energy shields that cover their otherwise-unprotected arms. Most Gadroon attack squads are backed up by a simple, poorly-armed robotic drone called an Observer.

The Qularr: In May of 1965, the Qularr first attempted an invasion of Earth by genetically-engineering creatures that would later go on to populate Monster Island. After these creatures were subdued or destroyed, they attempted a conventional attack, but found themselves outnumbered. They would later attempt a second, localized invasion centered upon Millenium City, drawn by beacons set up by Dr. Destroyer's Destroid Robots, lead by Black Talon. The tutorial in CO covers dealing with this second invasion.

The Qularr are a race of insect/crustacean humanoids. They have a spoken language, but it's unpronounceable to a human mouth (though a human can learn to understand it). Compared to humans, the average Qularr is somewhat tougher and stronger owing to their exoskeleton/endoskeleton hybrid body structure, and they have a better sense of hearing and touch at the cost of weaker eyesight. However, Qularr are not shy about engineering themselves to better suit their purposes, and Qularr leaders are typically much larger and more formidable, physically, than their underlings. A Qularr Swarmlord can easily measure ten to twelve feet in height.

Qularr use a mix of energy weapons and organic technology, including purpose-bred combat organisms such as their Firebugs and Swarms. Qularr are also adept at stealth technology - Qularr ships are typically hidden from sensors by cloaking fields until just before they attack. Versatile and adaptive, Qularr have used an absolutely dizzying number of tactics in their skirmishes with Earth and its heroes, ranging from giant monster attacks in their initial invasions, to body-snatching, brainwashing, persuasion and manipulation, and even conventional infantry attacks. It's rare to see the Qularr use the same tactic twice, almost as though they are 'testing' approaches on Earth.

It's known that the Gadroon and the Qularr are at war with one another.

The Roin'esh: Where the Roin'esh are from and what they're doing on Earth is largely a mystery. What is known about them is that they are a race of bipedal roughly-humanoid aliens with potent shapeshifting capability. Roin'esh are capable of dissolving into a gooey, slimy liquid form, looking like nothing so much as a mobile oil slick, affording them rapid movement and resistance to harm, although they seem incapable of attacking in this state. Roin'esh "technology" mostly consists of organic extrusions of their own bodies, shaped into whatever weapon or implement that they need for the situation. Roin'esh have been known to fight with energy blasts, toxic sprays, bladed limbs, or simply snaring a foe in sticky, gooey strands of their biomass and then hauling him into close combat.

The most frightening capability the Roin'esh have is their shapeshifting. An adept Roin'esh shapeshifter can mimic a human being to the point of being visually indistinguishable from the real person, and can also mimic a person's voice near-perfectly, with concentration and effort. Roin'esh have also been known to lie in ambush by disguising themselves as boxes or crates or other innocuous items, or simply spreading out their biomass into a thin film on the walls or floor, and then changing their coloration to camouflage themselves. It takes thorough knowledge or advanced detection technology to ferret out a disguised Roin'esh. Most terrifying of all, the most skilled of Roin'esh shapeshifters can even duplicate a superpowered being close enough to utilize that being's powers, albeit usually in a limited fashion.

In its 'native' form, a Roin'esh looks like a jet-black humanoid, standing 5-8 feet tall, with a smooth, chitinous carapace shaped to resemble armor. Their faces typicaly have glowing green eyes, or sometimes a glowing blue-green 'faceplate'. Generally, Roin'esh of higher rank have thicker, more elaborately-armored appearances, while their underlings are typically smooth-bodied and thinner. Particularly high-ranking Roin'esh may shape a red 'loincloth' out of their mass, and wear red accents, to further set them apart from their inferiors. Roin'esh typically have humanoid hands, unless they've temporarily reshaped their limbs into weaponry or tools.

Elder Worms: Tens of thousands of years ago, humanity was ruled by a species of ancient extraterrestrial psionic annelids. The Elder Worms are the descendents of these creatures, hunting for the relics of their ancient culture in order to re-enslave mankind. Elder Worms look like nothing more than giant, fang-mawed smooth-bodied worms. Typically, they wear power-armored suits that provide them with arms and legs, jet propulsion, and potent defenses. They primarily attack with telekinetic or telepathic powers, and are adept at summoning "Mind Worms" - psychic annelid projections that cannot move, but attack with vicious telekinetic bites.

Malvans: Does not make a physical appearance in CO, but are referenced numerous times. The Malvans are an intergalactic race of what are apparently slave-traders. Numerous species, including the Roin'esh, were once slaves of the Malvan Empire. The Malvans apparently enjoy gladiatorial games - Drogen Lar of Dorvala, known to the people of Earth as Ironclad, was once a Malvan gladiatorial slave.

Mandaarians: Does not make a physical appearance in CO, but are referenced in it. The Mandaarians are one of the few peaceful alien races to have made contact with Earth. They are apparently very similar to humans, but are slightly shorter and more delicate of build, with pointed ears and catlike eyes that come in colors outside the human norm. Not much other info is available in CO about them. Mandaarians apparently have a large number of psionically-active individuals, and like humans, have been known to manifest superpowers.

Thunder Glove · December 24, 2012, 02:58:08 PM

Silver Champion Stars are also given out before level 40 by completing Alert-related missions. Not the Alerts themselves, mind you, but once a day you can get a mission that requires you to complete the "Alert of the Week" - at the moment, the one with Hi-Pan and the dragon - and completing that mission (by completing the Alert) will give you a choice between a Silver Champion Star and a box of Vehicle parts as part of the reward.

So you can start collecting Silver Stars as soon as you're out of the Powerhouse for the first time (though I'd recommend not diving into Alerts that early, not until at least Level 15 unless you really know what you're doing)

Mothers_Love · December 24, 2012, 04:56:43 PM

Some Champions-lore which may help you in-game;

Places and Things

Heroes, Villains and Organisations

JaguarX · January 06, 2013, 02:10:22 AM

good stuff here.

Lily Barclay · January 06, 2013, 02:13:21 AM

Another sticky? Pushing too many yet? ;D