A /cry State of the Game 9/15/2009

Today I am going to focus on my PC video settings for Champions Online and a quick tip for fighting NPCs. Pay attention to what icon is appearing over the NPC, it will give you some information on what kind of attack it is -- Cone, AoE, etc... If it is a cone, you don't need to block, just rotate to the side and keep figthing. Champions continues to show how deep it is, while looking like a simple beat'em up.

My PC Hardware: Windows 7 RTM 64bit, ATi Radeon 4850 (catalyst 9.9) 512MB, 4GB of RAM, AMD Athlon II X3 710 CPU (2.61 GHz)

To see your Framerate, type in /showfps 1 in the chatbox while in game. I average about 40 to 45 FPS in game, with a few dips into the lower 30s.

I have included my own settings, and you can Click Here to Continue Reading

A /cry State of the Game 9/10/2009

Time for another /cry State of the Game. These posts are mainly to give our impressions of the game, ranging from what we have experienced personally, upcoming news and forum hot topics, to random rants and complaints that we cannot fit on the weekly Podcast.

The game has been officially released one full week, but there is a surprising amount to talk about.

The main topic of discussion for this post is going to be a very well written post on the official CO forums from user NeoTron, titled "Devs: Level 1 to 40 - my personal experience"

NeoTron leveled one guy to 40, 28 levels during the Headstart Program, and started a second guy who is currently level 20.  He had a lot of great criticisms, and the ones I will focus on (and add my own opinions) are those that I believe most people will have have experienced, mainly Leveling, UI, and PvP.

Leveling Experience

I leveled all the way to level 40 without grinding. With that I mean I never had an empty quest log. I did open quests and some PvP on the way but a majority of my time was spent doing normal and patrol quests. The most important things to note is that I often did quests that were 2-3 levels above my level, and I basically had to do every single quest to make it to 40. This to me indicates that the amount of quests is a bit lacking. To solely quest from 1 to 40 you basically need to do every quest out there.

As for post-nerf, I see people saying they are out of quests at 16. That's just not true. I also clearly state in the comment you quoted, that more quests are needed.

A lot of complaints on the forums post official release concern the experience nerf.  As emphasized above, you can level without running out of quests (debunking the whole "forced to grind" myth), but there is no margin for missed quests which is poor design.  In part I think the designers may have also understimated how much content players will avoid using travel powers, specifically killing mobs to get to an objective....you can basically travel from objective to objective without having to fight one mob if you like, which unfortunately will gimp your leveling.

In my experience I agree with this.  I have leveled to 16 and have just finished the Desert and Canadian Wilderness quests (not one Millenium City quest). While I have yet to experience a problem, I am very surprised that there are not more quests available as I started MC and can see that this can eventually be problematic and very tight as the XP required to level becomes larger than the XP from quests.

Basically more content, specifically quests, needs to be added before anything else.  Another recommendation I would add would be to have a hint (mini-map or message) point to a quest hub after you've completed one.  I don't feel its necessary, but if you can't miss a quest than you need all the help you can to keep you on track.

 Click here to continue reading...

A /cry State of the Game 8/31/2009

HeadStart Program

Cryptic has been very busy gearing up for the launch and providing the Headstarters with special content.  So far the Headstart IMHO has gone smoothly.  There have been two patches and yes there are still bugs, but so far it has been better than WAR.  I am level 14 as of writing.  I have just been making my way through content and enjoying the game -- I am not racing to 40 like many. 

Overall I have been happy with the Headstart.  The biggest issue has actually been between Gamestop and Cryptic.  Gamestop sent out an email letting PreOrder customers know that the Headstart has kicked off and that they would get all of their preorder goodies now, instead Cryptic has had to wage Information Warfare and let people know that the goodies are tied to the retail key in America, not the PreOrder key.

No new Content Info, but a Leak!

Well two weeks ago there was word on the Cryptic boards from a team member that we would get word about the content patch this past week.  Sadly that doesn't seem to be the case -- though I will cut them some slack this time; getting the game ready to launch is more important than posting about content updates.

However I gues they wanted to give players something -- so they leaked info about an upcoming Framework (powers).  Massively has the info along with a screenshot.

Celestial sorcery is the power of the angels and heaven.

Sounds nice.

Launch Week

The Headstart has gone well, but the real test will be Tuesday when the floodgates open to everyone.  Lets all hope it goes smoothly and remember this is launch week -- there will be problems, things to continue to balance, etc...

I hope Cryptic over the next month continues to add information to their site.  I would like to see more information on powers, crafting, PvP Maps, Zone maps and lore, etc...  I know Cryptic has their framework posted, I also think they should group powers by type -- offensive, defensive, heals, buffs, debuffs, etc... 

Also remember Slashcry Champions Online Podast Episode 2 will be posted this Wednesday.

Headstart Screens:

A /cry State of the Game

Beta Comes to an End

I hope everyone enjoyed the beta.  It was a lot of fun, but certainly not without its glitches.  From reading the various boards -- lots of bugs were found, many fixed, some people learned they would like the game a lot, while others found it not to be for them.  The strangest of complaints were people complaining about options -- such as "I hate Bloom" or "Man the Character creator is so complex".  Champions allows people to turn Bloom (a graphical feature that adds a glow or lots of light to objects) off and Character customization is what Champions is all about -- finally a game where not every level 80 looks the same. 

Beta Event

Like the beta itself -- the End of Beta Event was a lot of fun, but also had some problems.  At first the servers couldn't keep up with demand so there went off line for whatever reason and then Cryptic came back extending the Open Beta one more day.  The End of Beta Event was pretty cool with Dr. Destroyer attacking Millennium City.  He sent in small attack forces and mega robots that remind me of Sentinels from X-Men.  It was pretty cool to take part in the event.

See Screen Shots from the Beta Event by looking at the post below.

Revelations

Thanks to the beta I have seen some of the positives and negatives of the Champions instance design, the one server and system performance.  The one city mirrored (multiple instances) is pretty cool it allows everyone to take part in these events -- instead of everyone heading to 1 Iron Forge, there are an infinite number of Iron Forges so people don't have to worry about lagging out.

The one shard idea is also finally being accepted by everyone as a really good idea.  Not once during the beta did people have to pick a server, did I have to worry about picking the right server, will I have to worry about people an under populated server -- no there is 1 server and 1 community. 

System performance -- Champions is a CPU heavy game -- so if you don't have a good CPU; look there and then Video card and RAM.  My understanding is Champions will take advantage of Dual Core CPUs, but not X3 nor X4 CPUs.  For me, for the most part the game ran well even during the major battles using the recommended settings that Champions setup.  I did however eventually disable AA and set Shadows to low to improve performance.  I am also messing with Bloom -- turning it on and off to see which I like more. 

I also learned more about Unity vs Lairs.  I don't think Cryptic has done a good job explaining their end game.  Unity is more casual raiding found in WoW -- you take Unity quests which are quick instances (under 20 minutes) and you earn Unity coins which can buy you gear.  If you prefer 5 man raid content you head to the Lairs which are repeatable instances.

Future of Champions

Right now it is hard for me to predict the future of Champions.  I think the game will have a good launch and right now is the #2 most popular MMO on TenTonHammer.  The game has a great dev team backing it and a fairly strong community.  It will be most interesting to hear about the upcoming content patch.

I suspect they will hit their 100,000 mark with ease and hopefully slowly grow and maintain.  The game doesn't need 11 million players like WoW, but I do hope it keeps over 100,000 users to ensure a strong community.

Headstart

If you reserved from Gamestop or Bestbuy the headstart begins this friday.  See you there!

Our first real Podcast will be up Wednesday!

A /cry State of the Game

Open Beta has Started:
Welcome to the Champions Online Open Beta.  As a member of the closed Beta for the past several months I hope you enjoy your visit.  The Open Beta will let you explore the complete game – nothing is off limits.  The key thing to remember is that your character will be wiped; so spend more time having fun and trying out combos, don’t spend it making your character or trying to acquire loot.

Tips:
Learn about Champions Online’s mechanics.  The game is a lot deeper than it appears.  There are several stats to worry about, gear, powers, no classes, and power modifiers.  It is an incredibly deep and flexible system.  The best place to learn is TenTonHammer.com/co and of course Champions-online.com. 

Read up on what each stat does:
STRENGTH: Governs ability to knockback enemies, knockback resistance, lifting objects, throwing objects.
DEXTERITY: This stat governs your hero’s chance to critically strike an enemy, as well as the amount of damage avoided when you successfully dodge and incoming attack.
CONSTITUTION: Like in most RPGs you’ve played constitution determines the amount of hit points you have and also your hit point recovery rate.
INTELLECT: Intellect’s a little different than in other games. Instead of just giving you more mana to cast spells with it reduces the cost of all powers, increases your ability to detect stealthed enemies, and can significantly boost your pet DPS if you have such powers.
EGO: Here’s a stat you don’t often see in your online games. Ego is just how much swagger your hero has. It governs the severity of your critical hits, how well your snares work, and your own ability to free yourself from enemies’ snares.
PRESENCE: Threat or agro is big deal in just about any MMOG, and it’s no different in Champions. Presence determines how well you can tank in an offensive role, and conversely how well you can keep away from acquiring agro in a defensive role. Also, it can increase the effectiveness of buffs and your pets’ HP.
RECOVERY: This stat will help your hero withstand knockdowns, help them get back up when they are knocked down, and the amount of energy your hero generates with attacks that are intended to do so.
ENDURANCE: This stat increases the amount of energy your hero has in total, and increases/determines the amount of energy generated by your fighting attacks.

How the game works – every MMO is a little different.  Champions borrows a bit from WoW, WAR and City of Heroes while providing its own unique flair. 

Don’t spend time making your character.  Once the game retails; spend a lot of time making your perfect character.  Spend the Open Beta learning how to play.

Learn how gear works.  You get to equip 9 items that modify different stats.

Particpate in the Forums:
If there is something you like, don’t like, want  added or need changed the place to voice that is the forums.  These developers are listening.  During beta you could only have 7 active powers, because of the vocal community you can now have 14 active powers.  I of course would prefer you keep your requests reasonable – they can’t do everything; there are limits based on time to implement, cost, technology, etc.. Just think about your request and then type in a reasonable explanation – not just “this power sucks remove it” or “add this now or no buy”.  The developers are reading, but it has to be constructive.
Use the Dev Tracker.  One of the coolest features of their forums is the Dev Tracker – click on that to see what the developers are saying and get an idea of what is getting their attention.

Online Account Management:
One of the cooler features of Champions is their online account management via the Champions-Online website.  Using the website you can add friends, update your characters bio, watch threads you friends have replied to, and view their stats and perks.  It is like Xbox Live and WoW Armory combined.  You also get a decent screen shot of your character.

Over Soon:
Enjoy the Open Beta and remember to explore the game, hang out in the powerhouse, but don’t rush the content too much.  Your character will be wiped, so you will have to repeat the quests again.  I hope to see you in game and am looking forward to 9/1/2009.