State of the Game: June 17, 2009
Posted by Daeke
Greetings, heroes!
Chronomancer, here. And do I have a lot of incredible news for you today from the future. Without further delay (such as it is for a time traveler) here's what's happening!
There’s a Room That’s Filled with Danger
After talking about the UNTIL Terminals in last week’s State of the Game, we looked at what the main complaints were. Basically, it broke down into two camps. First, there were concerns over immersion and appropriateness for certain hero concepts to be telling “the man†about their powers. Second, some players felt like it was a waste of time to arbitrarily go somewhere to gain new powers without any benefit they couldn’t gain in the world at large. Within these discussions, the idea was thrown out that it would be cool if you came back so you could try out powers before committing to them.
We heard you, we listened, and we’re going the extra mile to make it happen.
We’re now making a specific location, a “Hazard Vault†if you will (no, not the final name, please reserve your comments), that heroes can access from numerous locations in the world. This common area will have test dummies set up so that you can try out new powers and see how they look and work before making them an ongoing part of your character. This is also where players will come to Retcon their powers, advantages, and so forth.
Making Your New Character’s Easier to Make
Both the character and costume creation systems in Champions Online are incredibly flexible and powerful. This has many positive effects for our players, but also presents some problems because of the complexity of the systems. We’ve been banging away at this issue for the past couple of weeks and are currently in the process of simplifying the character creation flow without losing any of the power behind the system. We should start seeing the first stages of this (power set selection) in beta next week.
There’s a Crisis Coming to Monster Island and Lemuria
Both of our new Crisis zones are in QA testing so we can get them out to beta next week. These are unlike our other areas in many ways, and will be using some cool new technology to get players grouped more organically. Speaking of which…
Get in Line, There!
We have been working on revamping our PVP queuing technology and in the process came up with a way to get players into PVE instances in a similar fashion. You’ll see this on display in the new crisis zones as you are put into the fray with other heroes entering that zone. We don’t make you sit around all day and wait until a certain number of players are ready to go into Lemuria or Monster Island, but the opportunity is now available to meet up with some like-minded heroes while still going through a highly story-driven experience.
On Patrol
We’re adding patrol missions to both Desert and Canada, and these should be in for next week’s test. Then we’re on to implementing Omega-level missions!
Where, Oh Where, Has my Nemesis Gone?
We’re putting the finishing touches on the new lower-level Nemesis content, as well as getting some new story-tracking technology AND the ability to globally shift the hue of all your Nemesis powers. The goal is to bring back your favorite foes by the end of the month in the way and place you’ll see them in the game.
But I’ve Already DONE the Tutorial…
We want players to go through this part of the game with their first character, and we’ve done a lot of work to make it both informational and exciting. But we realize once you’ve learned the ropes, you probably don’t want to go through that again (unless you’re a total perk hound) so we’re working out the details of letting players skip the tutorial with any additional characters.
That idea of the Hazard Vault is actually a really cool thing. I haven't logged into the beta in a couple weeks, but once a few of these changes go live, I might give it another shot.
Yea, there's level 1 enemies in Atlas and it takes like 5 minutes to get to 2. ChO's tutorial can easily get you to level 6. A level 1 is not going to have fun killing 7s in Canada.
Well it should dump you into a danger zone, I think that has some lower level enemies. Remember that this game doesn't have the artificial level scaling that other MMORPGs have. There's no damage or to-hit penalty for attacking stuff above your level.
It wasn't a big deal. "real" enemies/missions gave considerably more xp than the tutorial crap so you could actually get those levels faster by skipping the tutorial.
I'm a huge fan of skipping tutorials as an option. Hell, even if it took somewhat longer outside the tutorial, it's gotta be better than "speak to this NPC to learn how to speak to NPC's!" for the umpteenth billion time.
CoX made you grind -it- out. You only get one level up in the Villain tutorial. Not sure about the hero side.
Oh huh. It's been awhile I guess. I was thinking you got to 3 or 4 in the tutorial. Ah well. My point still stands that I'd still rather grind it out than go through another tutorial. But if there's no content for it outside then yeah, that would suck. But if they're allowing you to skip it they must have some plan, either put in some lowby content or just bump you to 6 if you have a character at a high-ish level already.
Oh huh. It's been awhile I guess. I was thinking you got to 3 or 4 in the tutorial. Ah well. My point still stands that I'd still rather grind it out than go through another tutorial. But if there's no content for it outside then yeah, that would suck. But if they're allowing you to skip it they must have some plan, either put in some lowby content or just bump you to 6 if you have a character at a high-ish level already.
LOTRO does neither, it just gives you one vaguely decent weapon and god speed. It's kind of rough, but it is totally manageable.
DunxcoShould get a suitNever skips breakfastRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
So... Shall we start pre-emptively thinking of a group/guild/whatever-the-fuck-they-call-it name? Cause I see this drawing in a fair few people here. Good people. Fun people.
How much detail can you give on telekinetic or mind control like powers without breaking NDA, Pony? >:
They exist?
There's telekinetic powers (largely composed of psionic bolts and psionic blades) and telepathic powers (which are mostly debuff/control stuff) and there's also the Force framework, which is all about force blasts and shields.
I made a character who is a "telekinetic" in concept but I never touched the actual telekinetic framework, wasn't a fan of psi-blades and stuff. Instead, I took all Force, and I had a lot of fun with that.
Not all frameworks are created equally and are good at the same things. Some frameworks are oriented around a certain style of play. Might, for example, is pretty much all attacks and doesn't have much, if anything, around support or control. Contrast that with Telepathy, which is almost entirely control, or Sorcery, which has a pile of support.
Which, I mean, makes perfect sense. A guy who has superstrength and punches the bajeezus out of everything isn't going to be as much of a controller as a guy who reads minds.
So really, for a telekinetic guy you could snap anything in there. Take stuff from Might so you have "tactile telekinesis" like Superboy. That kind of thing. Do what you want. While the powers are in particular frameworks, it doesn't mean you have to stick to that framework or can only take powers from that framework if that's your concept.
Like, for example, Eye Beams is in the Power Armor framework. I have taken Eye Beams on characters who are not in power armor. It doesn't matter, it's all in your imagination.
So, for telepathy and telekinesis, if you want to play a telekinetic or telepath but the powers in that framework aren't exactly your fancy, branch out and take what you want.
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited June 2009
I like how this thread, when I first got into it, was like, "This game isn't gonna be that great man it kinda sucks," and then Pony starts posting and people start reacting more positively in general.
Whereas I have been playing every playtest day for pretty much the entire playtest time.
On fridays I pretty much play for the full 12 hours the servers are up with as minimal an interruption as possible.
Recently, with the ability to use /retcon at any time to try different powers out, I've been really going over the different frameworks and build opportunities with a fine-toothed comb.
Obviously that's something they're just doing for beta and when it goes live you'll have to pay in-game fun-moneys for retcons, but until then wheeeeee!
SO are they wanting to do monthly subscriptions or micro-transactions for this?
Honestly I like subs more, I always find that micro-transactions are a hassle.
Subscriptions.
And you won't need micro-transactions for server transfers, because the game is "shard-less" and everyone is playing on the same world, at the same time.
There will never be an issue of you playing on the "wrong server".
If you meet a dude at work who plays the game, you are playing the same game and can actually team up, especially because the game has the same Sidekick system as CoH.
Pony on
0
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited June 2009
This "one server for all" thing makes me slightly nervous. I haven't played any games that have done it yet, so I'm used to servers being known for something or other.
This "one server for all" thing makes me slightly nervous. I haven't played any games that have done it yet, so I'm used to servers being known for something or other.
Well, outside of dueling/arenas, there isn't PvP in this game, so it's not like you have the ability to be famous for faction imbalance (like some WoW/WAR servers).
And there is, thus far because it's the beta, no "mega-events" that a server can be famous for doing before everyone else or something.
Instead, when there will be "mega-events" you will have individual player characters and super-groups famous for things.
Isn't it more bad-ass to be the guy who did a certain thing, rather than just being the guy who did that first on your server?
Someone who gains fame for something in Champions Online gains fame for it in the whole game, not just in one server community.
Ive been pretty surprised how much Ive liked logging in lately. I played some back in the spring when I first got in to beta and was kind of underwhelmed, but Im really digging it now. Although it does kind of highlight the fact that my computer is needing an upgrading.
This "one server for all" thing makes me slightly nervous. I haven't played any games that have done it yet, so I'm used to servers being known for something or other.
Well, outside of dueling/arenas, there isn't PvP in this game, so it's not like you have the ability to be famous for faction imbalance (like some WoW/WAR servers).
And there is, thus far because it's the beta, no "mega-events" that a server can be famous for doing before everyone else or something.
Instead, when there will be "mega-events" you will have individual player characters and super-groups famous for things.
Isn't it more bad-ass to be the guy who did a certain thing, rather than just being the guy who did that first on your server?
Someone who gains fame for something in Champions Online gains fame for it in the whole game, not just in one server community.
To be fair, pony, you get fame for both being the first people to do something EVER as well as the first on your server in WoW.
Undead Scottsman on
0
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited June 2009
It's not necessarily the "SERVER FIRSTS!" that I'm talking about. It's things like, "Yeah this server is full of a bunch of furries" and "This server has a super aggressive Horde side despite being outnumbered."
Even still, it's pretty cool to be playing "all the same game" with everyone else who plays.
When I played WoW, it was pretty annoying to run into WoW players at my workplace and we might as well be talking about a single-player game because we're all on different servers.
With Champions, if I find out a buddy of mine has the game, it's "Oh, what's your account name?" not "Oh, what server do you play on?"
It's not necessarily the "SERVER FIRSTS!" that I'm talking about. It's things like, "Yeah this server is full of a bunch of furries" and "This server has a super aggressive Horde side despite being outnumbered."
You consider that a good thing?
I guess it gives each of the servers "character".
But really it's just much better, in my opinion, to be one community playing one game.
I won't actually level the character, I'll just stand around the central hub and yell at them and get them started, then go play my real character, and that'd definitely work, and I wouldn't even really give a damn, it'd just be fun tormenting people
the servers full of super aggressive furries are the ones you have to watch out for
Does a werewolf character count? I've always wanted to make one in CoX but aside from not being able to get a look I thought was cool, I couldn't help but think people would get the WRONG IDEA.
Like the time I logged onto one of my female villains and the first thing that happened was someone smacked my ass at Fort Darwin.
the servers full of super aggressive furries are the ones you have to watch out for
Does a werewolf character count? I've always wanted to make one in CoX but aside from not being able to get a look I thought was cool, I couldn't help but think people would get the WRONG IDEA.
Like the time I logged onto one of my female villains and the first thing that happened was someone smacked my ass at Fort Darwin.
Does CoX have a /slap or /bitchslap emote? I would totally hotkey that one if I were to play a female character.
the servers full of super aggressive furries are the ones you have to watch out for
Does a werewolf character count? I've always wanted to make one in CoX but aside from not being able to get a look I thought was cool, I couldn't help but think people would get the WRONG IDEA.
Like the time I logged onto one of my female villains and the first thing that happened was someone smacked my ass at Fort Darwin.
Does CoX have a /slap or /bitchslap emote? I would totally hotkey that one if I were to play a female character.
It does and I've been on many a pug where people would do nothing but run around slapping each other.
Me, I prefer /e victory after every minion fight.
Hey Pony, have you tried the web-slinging travel power? Is it awesome?
Swinging? Yes. It's awesome and easy to use and fun and quite swift.
However it's not really web-swinging. You have a handheld grappling hook, ala Batman.
At some future point they might add a web-swing or chain-swing power, though.
OK, sweet.
Oh god I have so many ideas for characters right now, I'm not even sure I would like playing the game as much as I would just like to run/fly/swing around looking awesome.
Posts
Posted by Daeke
Greetings, heroes!
There’s a Room That’s Filled with Danger
After talking about the UNTIL Terminals in last week’s State of the Game, we looked at what the main complaints were. Basically, it broke down into two camps. First, there were concerns over immersion and appropriateness for certain hero concepts to be telling “the man†about their powers. Second, some players felt like it was a waste of time to arbitrarily go somewhere to gain new powers without any benefit they couldn’t gain in the world at large. Within these discussions, the idea was thrown out that it would be cool if you came back so you could try out powers before committing to them.
We heard you, we listened, and we’re going the extra mile to make it happen.
We’re now making a specific location, a “Hazard Vault†if you will (no, not the final name, please reserve your comments), that heroes can access from numerous locations in the world. This common area will have test dummies set up so that you can try out new powers and see how they look and work before making them an ongoing part of your character. This is also where players will come to Retcon their powers, advantages, and so forth.
Making Your New Character’s Easier to Make
Both the character and costume creation systems in Champions Online are incredibly flexible and powerful. This has many positive effects for our players, but also presents some problems because of the complexity of the systems. We’ve been banging away at this issue for the past couple of weeks and are currently in the process of simplifying the character creation flow without losing any of the power behind the system. We should start seeing the first stages of this (power set selection) in beta next week.
There’s a Crisis Coming to Monster Island and Lemuria
Both of our new Crisis zones are in QA testing so we can get them out to beta next week. These are unlike our other areas in many ways, and will be using some cool new technology to get players grouped more organically. Speaking of which…
Get in Line, There!
We have been working on revamping our PVP queuing technology and in the process came up with a way to get players into PVE instances in a similar fashion. You’ll see this on display in the new crisis zones as you are put into the fray with other heroes entering that zone. We don’t make you sit around all day and wait until a certain number of players are ready to go into Lemuria or Monster Island, but the opportunity is now available to meet up with some like-minded heroes while still going through a highly story-driven experience.
On Patrol
We’re adding patrol missions to both Desert and Canada, and these should be in for next week’s test. Then we’re on to implementing Omega-level missions!
Where, Oh Where, Has my Nemesis Gone?
We’re putting the finishing touches on the new lower-level Nemesis content, as well as getting some new story-tracking technology AND the ability to globally shift the hue of all your Nemesis powers. The goal is to bring back your favorite foes by the end of the month in the way and place you’ll see them in the game.
But I’ve Already DONE the Tutorial…
We want players to go through this part of the game with their first character, and we’ve done a lot of work to make it both informational and exciting. But we realize once you’ve learned the ropes, you probably don’t want to go through that again (unless you’re a total perk hound) so we’re working out the details of letting players skip the tutorial with any additional characters.
See you online, Champions!
Well it should dump you into a danger zone, I think that has some lower level enemies. Remember that this game doesn't have the artificial level scaling that other MMORPGs have. There's no damage or to-hit penalty for attacking stuff above your level.
Oh huh. It's been awhile I guess. I was thinking you got to 3 or 4 in the tutorial. Ah well. My point still stands that I'd still rather grind it out than go through another tutorial. But if there's no content for it outside then yeah, that would suck. But if they're allowing you to skip it they must have some plan, either put in some lowby content or just bump you to 6 if you have a character at a high-ish level already.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Then later its "hey they fixed it"
Heroic people.
And a repulsors like iron man! :P
totally do-able
there is a repulsor blast power that actually pushes guys back as you blast them, it's a lot of fun
They exist?
There's telekinetic powers (largely composed of psionic bolts and psionic blades) and telepathic powers (which are mostly debuff/control stuff) and there's also the Force framework, which is all about force blasts and shields.
I made a character who is a "telekinetic" in concept but I never touched the actual telekinetic framework, wasn't a fan of psi-blades and stuff. Instead, I took all Force, and I had a lot of fun with that.
Not all frameworks are created equally and are good at the same things. Some frameworks are oriented around a certain style of play. Might, for example, is pretty much all attacks and doesn't have much, if anything, around support or control. Contrast that with Telepathy, which is almost entirely control, or Sorcery, which has a pile of support.
Which, I mean, makes perfect sense. A guy who has superstrength and punches the bajeezus out of everything isn't going to be as much of a controller as a guy who reads minds.
So really, for a telekinetic guy you could snap anything in there. Take stuff from Might so you have "tactile telekinesis" like Superboy. That kind of thing. Do what you want. While the powers are in particular frameworks, it doesn't mean you have to stick to that framework or can only take powers from that framework if that's your concept.
Like, for example, Eye Beams is in the Power Armor framework. I have taken Eye Beams on characters who are not in power armor. It doesn't matter, it's all in your imagination.
So, for telepathy and telekinesis, if you want to play a telekinetic or telepath but the powers in that framework aren't exactly your fancy, branch out and take what you want.
I am def trying it out, he is usually a good game judger
On fridays I pretty much play for the full 12 hours the servers are up with as minimal an interruption as possible.
Recently, with the ability to use /retcon at any time to try different powers out, I've been really going over the different frameworks and build opportunities with a fine-toothed comb.
Obviously that's something they're just doing for beta and when it goes live you'll have to pay in-game fun-moneys for retcons, but until then wheeeeee!
Honestly I like subs more, I always find that micro-transactions are a hassle.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Subscriptions.
And you won't need micro-transactions for server transfers, because the game is "shard-less" and everyone is playing on the same world, at the same time.
There will never be an issue of you playing on the "wrong server".
If you meet a dude at work who plays the game, you are playing the same game and can actually team up, especially because the game has the same Sidekick system as CoH.
Well, outside of dueling/arenas, there isn't PvP in this game, so it's not like you have the ability to be famous for faction imbalance (like some WoW/WAR servers).
And there is, thus far because it's the beta, no "mega-events" that a server can be famous for doing before everyone else or something.
Instead, when there will be "mega-events" you will have individual player characters and super-groups famous for things.
Isn't it more bad-ass to be the guy who did a certain thing, rather than just being the guy who did that first on your server?
Someone who gains fame for something in Champions Online gains fame for it in the whole game, not just in one server community.
To be fair, pony, you get fame for both being the first people to do something EVER as well as the first on your server in WoW.
When I played WoW, it was pretty annoying to run into WoW players at my workplace and we might as well be talking about a single-player game because we're all on different servers.
With Champions, if I find out a buddy of mine has the game, it's "Oh, what's your account name?" not "Oh, what server do you play on?"
You consider that a good thing?
I guess it gives each of the servers "character".
But really it's just much better, in my opinion, to be one community playing one game.
Unless you're into that kind of thing.
Does a werewolf character count? I've always wanted to make one in CoX but aside from not being able to get a look I thought was cool, I couldn't help but think people would get the WRONG IDEA.
Like the time I logged onto one of my female villains and the first thing that happened was someone smacked my ass at Fort Darwin.
Does CoX have a /slap or /bitchslap emote? I would totally hotkey that one if I were to play a female character.
It does and I've been on many a pug where people would do nothing but run around slapping each other.
Me, I prefer /e victory after every minion fight.
Swinging? Yes. It's awesome and easy to use and fun and quite swift.
However it's not really web-swinging. You have a handheld grappling hook, ala Batman.
At some future point they might add a web-swing or chain-swing power, though.
Oh shit yes.
And they plan to add more in the future. I've seen three added just in the time I've been playing the beta.
OK, sweet.
Oh god I have so many ideas for characters right now, I'm not even sure I would like playing the game as much as I would just like to run/fly/swing around looking awesome.