Blog of Heroes

I like Champions Online.

Not unreservedly, mind you. There are plenty of places where it is still rough, still “1.0.” My comparison is with CoX, of course, and I’ve been playing that over five years, since Issue 3. When I compare CO to that, and to rumors of what CoX was like at release, I think it fits most favorably.

CO reminds me a lot (to change point of reference) to LotRO, in terms of the graphics and the feel — except that here I feel (super-)heroic.

One point of contention on CO is the graphics, and the “cartoon” look. I like it. Margie doesn’t.

I think we both got a sense of the “console” feel of the game which folks had written of. It’s hard to pin down — just a sense that the controls have been designed around a more limited keyset. I don’t find it that jarring, and it’s no so much different from a “keyboard” feel as to cause me any particular difficulties. It’s occasionally inconvenient, but not dramatically so.

I like that there’s no AFK timeout. We both like that when you exit, you don’t go through a 30 second cool-off before it takes. Margie (and I agree) dislikes the CO “interacting” for elevators.

The proximation algorithms and mechanisms for choosing between the various things you can do standing at point X (Talk to Fred, Lift that Crate, Visit the Arms Table) are awkward. Double-clicking on something actually sometimes chooses whatever is highlighted or at the top of the list, not what you clicked on.

I miss being able to level pact. Again, as a console game, there’s not a strong sense of people playing duos that would LP. Of course, CoX only recently got that feature (and it’s still limited to new characters), so it’s hard to bitch too much.

The crafting setup is irksome. It makes a bit more sense than some I’ve seen, either the doubletalk abstractions of CoX or the folk magical industry of LotRO, but it’s still just an annoying thing to have to do. And, at least for some stuff, you sort of have to do it. (Certainly the second string of missions forces you through it, though apparently there are gadgets in the final mission — Desert side, at least — that will take care of it if you haven’t been crafting what you’ve been told you have to craft).

I’m sure there are people who will just love piecing together bits and bobs and blueprints and different foci and schools and emphases and all to make (or deconstruct, for that matter) crafted widgets. I am not one of those people.

At least, though, inventory hasn’t been a problem. So far.

Margie isn’t happy with the HUD/interface, feeling that it feels more obtrusive than in CoX. I disagree, but I do agree that the chat window is nearly useless.

While there is (Praise the Maker) a way to see what level you are at, there is no easy way to tell if you need to go and train up (i.e., you have leveled).

One serious weakness to the game starting out is that while it provides a lot of numbers, it doesn’t do a good job of explaining them. There’s a lot of info thrown at players in the first several levels, but when it’s time to go into the Power House (a great concept) to level up, there’s a tremendous amount of guesswork and shrugwork going on. Take upgrade X that gives a 20% chance of some unexplained effect occuring? Take another level of the power? There’s some great possibilities here, but without explaining in plain English what it means (with numbers to follow for those who understand the shorthand), it’s a frustration of “OMG, did I choose the wrong thing?” That’s less of a concern in Beta, but it will be moreso in the future (though respecs are not wildly difficult).

It feels more difficult to defeat foes. Even moreso solo. In some instanced missions we’ve run both solo and duo, there’s not a lot of apparent scaling going on.

I miss the character selection screen not telling me where they are (thought it does, like the main HUD, tell me what level they are!). I also miss not being able to rotate the characters.

The mission play is more episodic, at least through level 8. In other words, you are in a setting, and there are missions around that setting. Again, that reminds me of LotRO, and less of CoX (where you are In The City). On the one hand, that provides a real feeling of depth and interest and difference over time. On the other hand, there’s a whiff of railroading, a resemblance to FPS games, and (so far) less feel for what life is like in Millennium (vs. Paragon) City.

And maybe (from the limited perspective I have, only having gotten up to lvl 8 with any characters) that’s the most significant difference between CoX and CO. With the former, I’m exploring the city, doing good, pursuing different arcs, but generally acting independently. (CoV introduced some destiny sorts of stuff, but we’ll disregard that for the moment). In the latter, we’re on a series of adventures around the world. It’s a much larger palette, but it also feels more like (as I said) a FPS game, going through scenarios.

Margie misses Superjump being something you can just hold the keys down for, rather than having to jump each jump. On the other hand CPO Sarah loves her flying disc. Acrobats is a freaking blast. And even Super-Speed isn’t very annoying. I like the way they’ve dealt with in-combat vs. out-of-combat travel powers.

Bottom line: I think we’re going to subscribe, probably for a 6 month block. I don’t quite feel the confidence to do a Lifetime sub (even if it gives me eight more precious character slots), but I can see this as a game I can enjoy for a while. And one I can enjoy while still playing CoX, too.

Another night of running some toons through the initial invasion tutorial. (Hmmm … how are we supposed to be providing “beta” feedback to Cryptic?)

LIKES

1. I really like the Invasion environment. There’s just a lot going on. Consider the “Outbreak” environment in CoX — you spend a lot of time running down the street, but the “bad guys” are all safely off behind a fence — and, of course, in small mobs that stand there and don’t attack until you come within each of their aggro ranges. Heck, the same is true for CoX in general. On the other hand, there is stuff going on all over the place in Millennium City in CO — even the “safe areas” get groups of Qularr charging into them (with cops and soldiers shooting back). It feels more dynamic — and heroic.
2. I like the talking NPCs (limited, thus far, to two Champions). It’s a nice break from, and addition to, the voiceless dialog boxes and mute NPCs you get missions from.
3. I like that the Level 1 powers have, in many cases, different poses associated with them each time they fire. Since you use them so much, that’s important. Martial Arts is very nice, as is the Handgun. Others, there’s less difference.

DISLIKES

1. The 8-toon limit is going to drive me nuts, I assure you. I’ve already deleted off one just to try some other concepts. Bleah. I think this is an area where the “console” limits/bias of CO shows, hand in hand with a “this is how people will play” bias toward single toon players. Regardless, it irks. And if the idea is that this will be expanded via microtransactions, it had best be a very small MT indeed — on the order of a buck — otherwise it will be even more irksome.
2. The invasion tutorial is very good. I think, though, it will become long and irksome with repetition — unless the idea, again, is that folks will take a single toon (or maybe two) through to level cap completion. For altoholics (though Beta further distorts this) it’s going to be a real pain sooner or later.
3. How the attributes (Endurance, Strength, Presence, etc.) tie into the powers and abilities is not very transparent; the tutorial doesn’t tutor on it. At least, I haven’t gotten it clear in my head, aside from persona RPG experience. Nevertheless, one is asked to choose loot based on attribute increases it gives, etc. That could all use some work. As could what the different screens do. There’s plenty of good info provided, but it’s a more complex environment than CoX, and needs more explanation therefore. 

OTHER NOTES, OBSERVATIONS, QUESTIONS

1. Margie noticed last night, going through the log book for the heroes after we were done, that there were a few missions we had missed. She did some research, and discovered that, for example, Foxbat is buried under some rubble somewhere, and Sapphire, I believe, is also lurking around. We need to do a bit more exploration, but suffice it to say that you can’t just take the mission chain from one end to the other and hit all the content there. Which is a good thing.
2. If I had to characterize the feel of CO vs. the other two MMOs I’m familiar with, I’d say it has the “vibe” of CoX (through the super-hero genre) with the mechanics of LotRO (screen layout and controls, multiple trays of stuff, drops that boost attributes and sometimes require decisions about whether to use them and lose a lower-level one). It’s a nice combination.
3. I have yet to learn or have explained or figure out how the various drops work in the primary, secondary, and tertiary (I guess) attack / defense / utility trays. Loot just seems to go the appropriate points when clicked on, but I don’t know what pressing 8, 9, or 0 does (there’s no particularly visible effect or message). Are those active powers, passive ones, or what?
4. Took me a while to see how to customize the powers, but it can be done on the fly — right-click on the powers, I believe, and the list comes up with dropdowns for emanation points (where that applies) and sliders for color. Nice. And nice that it’s not a “tailor token” to do.
5. How do you toggle powers on? I’ve seen mention in a few places that the Level 1 attack power can be toggled on (to fire off whenever you select a target). That’d be nice, but there’s no obvious way to do it (though in some cases the firing seems to get stuck on).
6. There was a discussion about looting earlier. From my observations thus far, the only loot that can be kill-stolen from outside a team are the “inspiration” drops (which are immediate boosts) from kills (if you’re in melee or close blasting, you usually get it automatically because it spawns within range of you). Objects that drop are sometimes for individual heroes (the little “!” is formatted different), and sometimes for folks within the team. The team leader gets to decide on various strategies of how those get divvied up. Looting, beyond those “inspirations,” remains annoyingly manual.

Overall impression is favorable. It’s time to take some characters to the Desert and to Canada, to see how those environments play, but at the moment I am overall content with the game.

Well, with the Open Beta ostensibly started, the NDA for the Closed Beta is turned off, and folks are indeed commenting.

The comments at Champions Online NDA has dropped – Massively have a lot of the initial impressions. Not surprisingly, they consist of (a) “Ew, it’s lame, it’s console gaming, it’s buggy, it’s icky, Cryptic blew it, nobody will ever play this” and (b) “Zowee, I love it, I’m signing up for a lifetime subscription.” 

As Mark Twain put it …

It is not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that make horse races.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar (1894) 

Specific comments of substance seem to be:

1. The character creator is awesome.
2. There’s a shortage of original content of an epic, thematic nature — though, of course, it’s the start of the game. I’ll be trying to get a feel for this as we start playing.
3. There’s little to encourage grouping. Which is the opposite of some concerns I’d heard of previously (and doesn’t particularly bother me).
4. It feels to much like a “console” game. This seems associated with doing lots of key presses to build up and use powers, plus movement within combat, plus repetitiveness of combat. Not sure how that is all that different from CoX. The “controls” are described as console-like. I’m not quite sure what this means (I suppose I will find out — but, honestly, it’s not clear to me what in the
5. Power balance is off. Well, that’s often a matter of taste, and is always something true in betas and the early versions of any game (cf. CoX).
6. Powers are too much the same. Which is the risk of balancing power sets too much, the flip side of the previous item.
7. Servers instance too much, reducing city population in any instance excessively. Again, something to watch out for, and something Cryptic can adjust if need be.
8. A lot of debate (pro and con) over the reduction of roles — tank, healer, etc. — in the game. Again, I think some of this is gameplay expectation and some of it will be play style. I look forward to getting a better sense of it.
9. Some concern about non-instanced missions and drawbacks to that (boss camping, kill stealing) that I’ve seen in other MMOs. Again, to be watched for.
10. Some folks hate the look of the game. Other think it’s da bomb. The former tend to be more of the “I don’t like it, therefore it is an abomination before Man and God,” which is tiresome in politics, let along in gaming.
11. Micro-transactions suck. Well, they can suck depending on how they are applied. I don’t think they are intrinsically sucky (I’d rather have everything covered by the monthly cost, but …). They can easily be abused, though. Most discussion of this, though, is on a binary Evil/Not-Evil basis.

An interesting comment was made that, once the Xbox console version comes out, we may not see much in the way of big content patches. I have no idea how updating on the Xbox works; if it cannot handle large content patches (new zones, etc.) or even new game system mods, then that would in fact be a concern.

Massively did give their reviewer beta impressions, too. What’d we think? Staff impressions of the Champions Online beta – Massively. By and large, while touching on some of the above, they were pretty positive.

Comments there don’t touch on anything new, other than “Cryptic sucks!” “No, you suck!” “Nuh-uh, CO sucks!” “Nuh-uh, WoW sucks!” “You suck for saying I suck for saying CO sucks!”

Also, there are plenty of folks who seem to think the game sucks (or will suck) because of the cluster regarding the downloads last night. While the problems may be indicative of Cryptic’s ability to support the system, they don’t have much to do directly with whether it’s a good game or not.

I’m looking forward to actually playing this … albeit maybe sometime tonight. Or maybe over lunch …