Champions Online

[pierth]

I just started last night (hence not knowing about the single server), and I'm only in the starting area so please take this opinion with a grain of salt. The character creation is awesome, and the graphics are quite a bit more polished, even if a bit odd-looking. The controls seem sluggish to me, it feels as though I'm lumbering when I "run" but it's quite possible that may change as I level and especially once I get travel powers.

Other changes I'd noticed is instead of getting the small powerups, the corpses of the mobs you kill drop little glowies that heal, or add defense. I haven't had a chance to train or gather new powers (only lvl 3), but it looks like they have an inventory where you can add "armor" pieces just as stat changes (does not alter character appearance). I like the block mechanic, and I like being able to use the environment (street lamps, trash cans, etc) as weapons.

While this far in I can't say much more for quality, it does seem to at least be just as good as CoH was about six months after their launch. I can't say this is a keeper, but trying to make visual clones of my favorite characters (currently have a pretty good representation of Age of Apocalypse Havok) and just rolling through the levels may tide me over until Cataclysm.

[Krazed]

<Negative Nancy>
Best part will be the Character selection screen. Missions will get old fast; "Raids"/Task Force will be even more dull'ish then the missions. Flavor of the month is truly going to be Flavor of the month here.
</Negative nancy>

Those that want to enjoy it will.

[Beltaine]

I built a steampunk style power-armor character in beta and had a lot of fun with it.

Haven't decided if it was enough fun to drop $50 on it though.

I threw money at Darkfall willy-nilly and got burned.

[pierth]

IMO, if I'd known then I probably wouldn't have purchased it. Even when the choice becomes do you want to go outside or log into WoW. I'll continue to play it for the 30 days, we'll see what changes then. I will say that I'm very pleased with what seems to be an exceptionally smooth launch.

[Amarant_Pally]

Wow...no...game sucks.

Is it possible to return this piece of crap back where I bought it? Last I knew, it wasn't (because of the account activation code).

[Amran20]

my g/f and i have been loving it so far. really fun game, is a nice breather from the "srs biz" world of WoW. Some of the powers are so fun to play with, and I love the characters I've created. (Except 1. I hate him.)

[pierth]

I've started to warm up to the game. It was difficult getting accustomed to it after being babied in WoW for so long. It isn't as carbon-copy CoX as I thought it would be, and it's certainly playable in its current state- although I'd like to see some of the powersets buffed (my poor gadgeteer).

WoW is certainly a superior game, but after years of the same ol, having several 80s with no useful factions to raise, odd playtimes, and a server that is dominated by the other faction- it's just getting stale.

With improvements I could see riding this one out until Cataclysm.

[Tenaka]

WoW is certainly a superior game,

That's the problem for me now whenever I try out a new MMO, I end up comparing it to the now well rounded one I've been playing for years.

How can it win?

[pierth]

There has to be, imo, some fun factor within the framework of the game that will tide you over until it is a more polished game- whatever MMO it is. "you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself."

I can settle for a less polished game in the meantime, when in the better game: not enough of my guild are online to do 10 mans, tired of grinding rep, tired of dailies. From what I have experienced, MMOs are a very social genre, and while playing solo can be very gratifying when all the content is new (not just another expansion)- once the game itself gets old it's very dependent on the player's social ties to be able to maintain the fun factor.

[Gracerath]

I've been enjoying the game quite a bit. There are a lot of powers to choose from and its fun to create characters. Its kind of interesting how when you push the random button, you get lots of hot pink with neon yellow cyborg bugs, exactly like you would in CoX!

The game tries to explain stuff in its tutorial and it does okay at doing so but a lot of stuff isn't very intuitive. Some abilities let you "charge" up an attack by holding the hotkey down to do bigger damage at the cost of more energy. That is something most MMO pc gamers are not used to. I'm used to tapping a hotkey repeatedly, not holding it down. (Except for movement and such, of course). And while in the descriptions of the abilities mention the charge effect, nowhere that I could find came right out and told you HOW to charge. I found it by accident.

One thing I really like and hate at the same time is the customization of well.. everything. Unlike CoX, you can basically mix and match any powers from any power set. If you stick with one power set, you'll get the deeper powers sooner but you can unlock them also just by having several powers total. Example, the teir 2 powers (there are 3 tiers total, I believe) require either 2 of the same power set or 5 powers total. My highest character is level 17 and I've been stuck in the powerhouse for a week cause I can't decide what powers to take. I actually started a new character instead but I'm reaching that point again and argh, just don't know what to choose.

I think they did well with that though. They encourage you to think of a hero and you can, for the most part, create it exactly like you want. CoX limited you to just 2 power pools.

I can't wait til I create my arch nemesis For those not in the know, yes, you create your own villain that you will battle over time through out your career!

BTW, I found that if you turn off the comic style outlines, the game looks MUCH better.

[Tenaka]

A WoW players guide to Champions Online

just found, half way thru reading, might be of use to some.

My copy arrived from Play a couple of days later than expected so missed out on a couple of days play


p.s. ok it didn't turn out to be much of interest at all but there are pretty pictures to look at

[pierth]

My highest is still in the teens but I certainly agree that the setup isn't very intuitive. It takes a bit to get used to, but doesn't seem to be an issue once you do.

I tried the UFC PvP last night and was completely mauled. It seems completely dominated by holds and knockbacks.

Hoping wow comes out with something more interesting in the next few months or I'll probably cancel.

[Aldonza]

I picked this up yesterday because I'm trying to hold off major burnout in my guild currently. (I think the constant badgering of my 10 man group to hold things together in the absence of our RL is doing me in.)

I really enjoyed what I played last night. I didn't stick around long in the creation screen. I just made my fire blaster hero, donned her in relatively correct style clothing and away I went. Being as I'm basing this on an old free form X-Men character, I had a good concept to work with.

But, I fucking hate Ice Pummelers and Ice Shaman.

[pierth]

I forget what the main stats are for fire- but I recommend picking up regen as soon as you possibly can. It completely changes how much you can handle in PvE. I'd also recommend the force field block replace.

For travel powers anything with flight will be easier to live with, although teleport is nice for PvP (which if you hate ice casters, will be painful for you).

[Aldonza]

I don't mind the ice casters.
I just hated those two mobs because they were the toughest to solo.

My roommate got this with me too so that "we could play together". I took 20 minutes to create my character. He spent the better part of 4 hours....

I'm going to do some research today online so I can better understand, and if necessary, I'll restart the character over today if I made some mistakes in choices.

Edit: If anyone wants to look me, I'm Alexis Carmichael@evilsapphyre right now.