{"id":1520,"date":"2010-02-01T18:30:07","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T01:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/?p=1520"},"modified":"2010-02-01T18:30:07","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T01:30:07","slug":"co-ending-my-co-dependency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/2010\/02\/co-ending-my-co-dependency.html","title":{"rendered":"CO: Ending my CO-dependency?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I’ve been thinking — really thinking — about Champions Online.\u00a0 And whether I’m going to play it any more.<\/p>\n

Having been back with gameplay the past few days, I’ve done some CO solo … some CO in a duo with Margie … and some CoX in a duo with Margie.<\/p>\n

Duoing with Margie is fun whatever the game.\u00a0 But I really had a lot more fun playing CoX.<\/p>\n

There are things I like, really like, about CO.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The graphics.\u00a0 The look.\u00a0 I know this is hardly a unanimous opinion, but I really like them. They fit the genre.\u00a0 The characters also, for the most part, move well.\u00a0 And I think the stance stuff is a great further differentiator (Beast stance ftw!).<\/li>\n
  2. I like that many powers have multiple actions associated with them, esp. in the martial arts \/ swords categories.<\/li>\n
  3. Acrobatics is a great-looking “travel” power.\u00a0 Especially in Beast Stance.\u00a0 And Teleport is handled well.\u00a0 And I like all the flight\/TK variants.<\/li>\n
  4. I like the idea behind a classless system.\u00a0 It promises flexibility to play the way you want, and create the character you want.\u00a0\u00a0 You can make your concept character with minimum interference from the game.<\/li>\n
  5. The physical scope of the game is also neat.\u00a0 No War-Walled neighborhoods.\u00a0 Tundra, jungle, desert, urbanscape, etc.<\/li>\n
  6. I like the power-building mechanism, and, yeah, I think blocking is a cool thing. The concept behind the way powers in combat are handled is a serious step above the attack-chain-ridden CoX.<\/li>\n
  7. The shardless setup is also cool — no name contention, easy to join up with friends, no “deserted” servers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, lots to like.\u00a0 But it’s mostly lots to like in the concept, the idea, the presentation.\u00a0 The actual execution continues to cause me fits.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The execution of the classless system sucks. Powers and power sets are grossly unbalanced.\u00a0 If you decide to go for a simple class … well, you’re crippling your character from the get-go.\u00a0 Melee and ranged characters have differ severe disadvantages.\u00a0 Figuring out what a power actually does is like pulling teeth — copious notes online with poor explanations.\u00a0 And the complete flexibility of the system means it’s impossible to find a decent guide (assuming you can find anything on the boards).\u00a0 As a result, I always feel like whatever choice I make at each step is probably a horrible mistake that’s going to cripple my character.<\/li>\n
    2. Which I feel like.\u00a0 Honestly, I feel weak in any of my toons, solo or duo.\u00a0 Objectively, that may not be true, but I feel like too many battles (esp. solo) are life-or-death, and that the balance point can be tipped way too easily. I don’t want the game to be trivially easy by any means, but when I play a super-hero I would kind of like to feel … heroic.\u00a0 Is it build? Is it balance? Is it improper expectations?\u00a0 I have no way of knowing.<\/li>\n
    3. Acrobatics is the coolest-looking thing on 2-4 feet, unless you have to actually climb up anything.\u00a0 Sniper on the rooftops?\u00a0 Sorry, Kitsune — try the fire escape.\u00a0 Add the instant slow-down as soon as you get aggroed by someone (inevitable as you lope at ground level through the city), and travel is a real drag.<\/li>\n
    4. Trainers and stores (assuming one must have them) are annoyingly centralized, meaning you have to travel to them. (See above, though it’s an annoyance regardless of the travel power.)<\/li>\n
    5. I’d have explored a lot more of the system if I weren’t limited to 8 toons, total.\u00a0 Sure, I can buy <\/em>more, but … no.<\/li>\n
    6. It’s not the limited content I mind so much, as that the content doesn’t do a great job (after the intros in both zones) of guiding you to it.\u00a0 What should I do next?\u00a0 Everything? Or a few things?\u00a0 Hit every contact you find, and it all starts to blur, story-wise.\u00a0 Just take a few at a time, and you discover that you have to re-clear zones because of mission overlaps.<\/li>\n
    7. The landscape maps may be War Wall-less, but the layout is as silly sometimes as a D&D dungeon module.\u00a0 Take the desert.\u00a0 You have a big research fortress next to a wasteland of radioactive mutants next to a haunted ghost town next to a camp of bad guys next to a bunch of lakes full of radioactive mutants next to an amusement park next to a missile silo next to a prison next to … There are no War Walls, but it’s still pretty goofy when the entire setting changes just because you went through a pass over over a ridge.<\/li>\n
    8. And goofiness is not restricted to geographical proximity.\u00a0 There’s a lot of damned silly writing.\u00a0 A bit of silly writing — well, that’s just witty.\u00a0 Too much, and it makes sure that it’s difficult to take the game itself seriously.\u00a0 Which I’d kind of like to.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      So … lots of cool stuff that I desperately want to love.\u00a0 But some massive key frustrations that keep me from doing so.<\/p>\n

      Frustrating.<\/p>\n

      The question is, am I going to keep playing? Especially if I’m still playing CoX and start playing STO?<\/p>\n

      Decisions, decisions …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I’ve been thinking — really thinking — about Champions Online.\u00a0 And whether I’m going to play it any more. Having been back with gameplay the past few days, I’ve done some CO solo … some CO in a duo with Margie … and some CoX in a duo with Margie. Duoing with Margie is fun … Continue reading “CO: Ending my CO-dependency?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6,5,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-champions-online","category-character-design","category-gameplay","category-mmo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1520"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1522,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions\/1522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}