Any City of Heroes/Villain players thinking about switching over to Champions online when it goes live? I am, at least to give it a try. CoX is enjoyable enough, but from what I’ve seen on the CO official site it looks pretty good. CoX also has the burden of not doing a few things that hopefully CO will do. (Like stop using the same 2 or 3 maps for every mission in a building or cave or warehouse; come up with a few new missions for both villain and hero starting areas; fix the random mission door generator from giving me a mission to stop a bank robbery that has an entrance thats a sewer drain)
Still, CO could easily not be any good, so I’m waiting. Age of Conan was supposed to be da bomb when it came out and it really sucked.
I played CoH and CoV for quite a while. I really enjoyed the character customization in both games, and it looks like they’ve cranked that to “11” in CO.
The thing that drove me from CoX was, as you mentioned, the lack of original missions- how many of enemy X do I have to defeat THIS time, and in which random building?. I’m hoping that’s going to be fixed in CO. I’ve signed up for the beta that’s being released on August 1st, so I’m waiting 'til I’ve gotten to play it a bit before I preorder it.
They are doing a few things I really like, for example, the name registration system. In CoX, I’d come up with a great character, give him powers that would be fun to play, make the perfect costume (seriously, I spent HOURS doing that alone), and then found out… the name I need isn’t available. In CO, names are not unique- the game could any number of SuperCoolDudes. Yeah, it’s annoying that someone might have the same name as you, but I think it’s a small price to pay.
The powersets look interesting- or, more specifically, the customization of those powersets. I’ve been wanting to pick-and-choose my abilities and then change the colors on them for years now.
Considering how CoH suffered from Mr. Emmert’s “vision”, and the distinct lack of any mob aggro radius in the gameplay videos, I’m adverse toward giving the latest incarnation of his vision a try.
More options for power personalization are coming in I16.
Color-changing --and limited selection of alternate animations – is coming to COH/V too, and soon.
Meanwhile, the ability to pick your own powers freely is only theoretically in CO, in the same way it was theoretically going to be in COH/V. We’ll see if it reaches release. The history of superhero-genre computer games is littered with vaporware, some of it abandoned after substantial investment.
It would be great if CO lives up to its potential! But in comparing games, I give games in actual release vastly greater weight than promiseware.
That’s pretty much my attitude towards CO, and games in general. I’ve seen far to many impressive claims about game features never materialize to take them seriously until the game is out the door.
As for trying CO; I’m pretty much waiting on word-of-mouth after it’s release to make a decision.
Put it this way. Emmert, the lead for CO and the former lead for City of Heroes, is one of those people who honestly believes that he could make an awesome game if it wasn’t for all those damn players.
He essentially tried to run CoH like he was a DM, or whatever the Champions equivalent. Anything that he didn’t feel would fit into his gameworld, like the flashback system that was added after he left, got dismissed as not being part of his vision. His vision also was for each player to stack their builds toward DPS/accuracy/other stuff like the manual suggested but typically they aimed for just DPS instead, resulting in everyone pretty much being forced into the former.
And his dismissal was patronizing. Paraphrased “I know best how people should have fun playing my game.” Every time he opened his mouth in a way that I couldn’t ignore, I felt like I really wasn’t interested in giving him money so he could insult me. Fortunately, I don’t spend time on the CoHs boards, so for the most part I could ignore him - and more fortunately, he’s moved on.
Yeah, Emmert wound up giving me the impression that he was a total dick. His “balance vision” post was an exercise in really, really poor PR. Sadly, it’s been archived off the CoH boards, because it would be an interesting read for potential CO players.
In essence (IIRC), Emmert thought that the way that “his” game was being played (and enjoyed) was wrong. Things were not going as he intended, and he imposed a set of changes on the game that were not well-received. Yes, he was the creative director, but when a big chunk of your playerbase tells you that they don’t like your changes, the best method to appease them is probably not to write a long post telling them all the ways they are stupid, shortsighted, infantile and wrong.
On topic: probably not going to try CO. Some things look cool, like being able to assemble powers from different sets, but the overall art direction is very cartoony, and it looks more action-oriented than I think I want.
Plus, I’ve never liked the Champions universe - it seems really derivative. Seriously, Dr. Destroyer? Bleah.
From what I understand, it is extremely action-oriented. It’s being designed to be playable on the X-Box, so they’re going for an arcade-style game rather than a traditional RPG. Based on that, I suspect it won’t be a City of Hero killer just because it’s a superhero game; the gameplay and therefore targeted demographic will be too different to really be in competition. That’s assuming it doesn’t fail, anyway.
I’m pretty certain, too, that the roleplayers, of which there is a substantial population in City, will not move their roleplaying to Champions. City has a very robust chat system, and unless Champions improves on that (and considering it’s aimed at console players, that seems unlikely), there won’t be much incentive to move.
Wish I could say more, but my current evaluation is that I’m going to give it three months because I owe them that much cash in return. Then I’m probably going to quit it.
Former CoX player here. I’m definitely going to check out the beta. I’ll make my decision to subscribe or not off of that.
While I understand why some people do, I don’t hold grudges against game developers. I’ll make a decision about CO based on what it is, not who is making it. Everything I’ve read so far about CO looks good to me. Except for one thing–apparently they have level caps on missions. Unlike just about every other MMORPG out there, you can’t go back and low-level missions, even if it’s for no gain. CoX had that originally, until they put the time travel system into the game. I hope they give a similar mechanism; I hate having to intentionally avoid advancement in order to see everything on one character.
The design of the powers looks good. Every character will have a power that builds endurance, so there’s always one attack available. The way defensive powers work seems interesting. A travel power will be available as you leave the tutorial. And the custom framework means you can choose powers from any set. That will make balancing both harder and easier.
Of course the costume customization looks to be superb. Being able to choose a name regardless of how many other players have it is very good. And having only one server will make it easier to connect up with friends and avoids problems with empty servers.
The big question will be if the game is fun. All the features are meaningless if I don’t look forward to playing the game. That’s ultimately why I left CoX; it stopped being fun.
I don’t have a grudge against a game developer. I have a customer service issue. I don’t go back to restaurants if the waiter patronizes me - at least not until they get rid of the waiter. I got rid of my country club membership when they could never get my name right. I walk out of car dealerships when they suggest I consult my husband. If I’m going to pay you, I expect that you actually pretend to respect me in exchange for getting my money. Emmert never managed to give me the impression that he respected his CUSTOMERS - you know, the people who were paying him to make and run a game. Had I not had a subscription, I probably would have dropped back then, but since its a money thing - I don’t give money to people who don’t respect me - I was going to get my money out. And by the time my subscription was over, my problem was gone. But I’m not hiring the guy to make and run a game again - hell, I wouldn’t hire a guy who treated his customers like that to mow my lawn.
E-Sabbath, is there any hint when the NDA will be lifted? I assume it will be by the time the open beta starts in mid August. Maybe it will lift for the early August beta? Of course, if you discussing the NDA violates the NDA, nevermind.
