Super heroes! ASSEMBLEEEE!!! AKA Champions online is free

[Bells]

So, yesterday i stumbled upon Champions Online (also known as "that other Super Hero MMO" ) and saw it was free..ish. Well, most of the game features are free anyway... and i thought to myself "Hey! Why the hell not?" So... i'm in!

Now, you have less slots for heroes and costumes and less options around your powers (less customization), Premium players also have unique parts for their costumes, and a few unique powers (but i didn't saw anything game breaking in it)

Now, instead of customizing from the Group up, you basically pick a "Class" and evolve that class with a Skill tree with some branches. Seems more streamlined, really...

So, i dove in. And the character creation process is really robust. You can easily go from a Hulkering beast to George Clooney if you want... So, what i got? Let me introduce you to the best hero of all time!!

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/8985/screenshot2011020820495.jpg

IT's CAPTAIN MANHOOD!

The Mysterious Flying Marksman... that's Right... He Shoots your face with Arrows AND THEN HE FLIES AWAY... Legend has it that he stared at gravity and told it to "Fuck off" in a slow, parsed, Australian accent and that's how he got his powers. The Arrow shooting thing just came out of pure Manliness...

Let's see how was Captain Manhood's First Mission...

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/8403/screenshot2011020820503.jpg

What is this? This City is in Danger!

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8403/screenshot2011020820503.jpg

CAPTAIN MANHOOD!... TO ACTION!

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5006/screenshot2011020820572.jpg

Aliens are attacking the City? I must destroy these Infinite Respawning inert Pods for some reason! Luckily the Alies left them here close to the police barricade instead of their own command center! Foolish Aliens...

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7810/screenshot2011020821042.jpg

Hello, Puny Pasty Officer of the Law... how may Captain Manhood save you today?

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2505/screenshot2011020821052.jpg

"...your name is what?"

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/8905/screenshot2011020821045.jpg

Also, Cpt Manhood is not the only Hero in town! So is this old Library apparently...

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/6646/screenshot2011020821583.jpg

Take this Invencible Alien Spaceship!!!

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/6109/screenshot2011020822031.jpg

BOOYA!!!

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/5818/screenshot2011020822403.jpg

BOOY... Wait, what the hell!?

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/8929/screenshot2011020822414.jpg

SULK!! You defend the South, i'll Help these NPC's take the north! GO GO GO!! No time to Waste over Copyright!!

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/3959/screenshot2011020822502.jpg

Those fiends and destroyin the Town? I need something to draw their attetion....

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/7199/screenshot2011020822503.jpg

Ah! This will do!

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/8463/screenshot2011020822504.jpg

Works like a charm!

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/4236/screenshot2011020823313.jpg

Defender is Alright... he let me Fire the giant Cannon on the Enemy spaceship. But he is still a wimp. HA! Those Muscle are not even half as big as mine Manly Brawns!!!

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4329/screenshot2011020823340.jpg

What is this? A saltute for me? Captain manhood is Pleased!!!

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/2038/screenshot2011020900071.jpg

Indeed...

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/8939/screenshot2011020900093.jpg
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/3053/screenshot2011020900111.jpg

A quick Comparison of the game on Medium and Max (gives me a little lag) Graphical settings from the Highets point i could find.

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/6954/screenshot2011020900112.jpg

There is only one thing a True Manly man can do once you've come this high......

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1982/screenshot2011020900122.jpg

BASE JUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMP!!!!!

So Yeah.. Champions Online is free, it's right now avalible to download, and if you guys are looking for a fun time waster, this is it... come join the mess!

The game has some confusing keyboard settings, but you can get used to it rather quick... Missions are pretty straightforward and reading the flavor text is a huge help to your goals... it's fun, rather light and simple... i'll stick wiht it for a while!

If you make your heroes, show them here!!

CAPTAIN MANHOOD AWAY!!

[Jagos]

Dammit, Bells! Will you quit finding good MMOs? I have to study and sleep!

[EVILNess]

Oh so they changed it to a class system ehh?

They needed that, a friend bought me and him a copy of the game when it released cause he thought it was DC Universe Online and while it was fun... there were... issues. The biggest issue was with pvp and how people would cherry pick all the "best" stuff and make these pvp monsters that no normal themed character could ever hope to handle.

Still, I had a Robot 1950's Housewife with a chainsaw arm power and rocket boots. So cool points for letting me make that.

[Krylo]

Oh so they changed it to a class system ehh?

They needed that, a friend bought me and him a copy of the game when it released cause he thought it was DC Universe Online and while it was fun... there were... issues. The biggest issue was with pvp and how people would cherry pick all the "best" stuff and make these pvp monsters that no normal themed character could ever hope to handle.

Still, I had a Robot 1950's Housewife with a chainsaw arm power and rocket boots. So cool points for letting me make that.

As that a big 'draw' for the game was the customization, I'm guessing that Bells just mistook the streamline choices for set classes.

Either that or only premium players get to cherry pick now (though I doubt that).

Edit: At least I hope this is the case, because otherwise the game doesn't really have anything going for it, other than flying around and making silly avatars.

[DarkDrgon]

I'm in. Drgon is a complete Iron Fist rip off, but with a red suit and no mask.

so if Iron Fist and daredevil got smashed together.... which has happened.

god I'm a comic nerd

[DFM]

Otherwise the game doesn't really have anything going for it, other than flying around and making silly avatars.

This is every Super Hero MMO game.

[Bells]

Nop... Premium Players get Custom Archetype. They can pick any powers they want.Or they can pick from the same pool as the Free players and select a few Basic Archetypes

There is also "power tinting" (picking the colors of your powers) that is Premium Only.

None of this is game breaking thouhg... the worst i saw is the amount of In game money you can Have... Free Playres can only carry 250g while premium players can carry over 200.000g

Also, this

http://www.champions-online.com/dyncontent/fightclub/uploads/advancement_table.png

And over here you can see all the Archetypes players can pick... It's really more Steamlined to styles of play, not really "class based"...

http://www.champions-online.com/node/595112

I picked Marksman because i like Ranged characters, but i didn't want to be tied down to Fire or Ice, so i Skipped Glacier and Inferno... Bow and Arrows seemed more Awesome.

[Arcanum]

Hmm I wasn't aware that Champions Online went free. I'll have to look into this after I get back from my vacation and deal with my midterms.

[Krylo]

This is every Super Hero MMO game.

Yeah, but CO does everything else really really shitty.

[DFM]

Yeah even for an MMO I agree it's pretty poor. I made a ghetto looking Punisher knockoff named Red Nixon who had ice powers that was pretty much the height of my gameplay experience.

[MuMu]

I've been playing a Soldier for the last week or so and yea, aside from the character creation it isn't much different from your every other MMO. Having an archtype to choose is actually better for the newcomers than the freeforms since there are many mistakes you can make when you have all the options. Even thought mine is a glass cannon I more-or-less solo-ed the game until my 20s(Level cap is 40) where I began dying like a fly to certain enemies. Also, just like every MMO ever it's going to be a very unsatisfying experience unless you have a fun SuperGroup(Guild), which is pretty mu my primary reason to log in.

Alas, I'm already beginning to get bored out of it.

Agent M@Samuringa in case anyone want to contact me.

Edit: Also, about premium-ship, so far the only thing that seems a bit of a dick move are the bag spaces, you need to buy them if you want to equip extra bags. What makes it a lesser dick move is that you may store ingredients in your vault and still use them to craft stuff.

[Bells]

i've been dying like crazy for those Purple bastards, and doing some Group quests here and there (where i die the most) I managed to pull a big Dexterity score, and my mean attack is ratter weak, but i have a very decent AoD attack with Sonic Arrow, and a charged Shot that one-shot kills a lot of the weaker enemies.

Also, Using Flight during battles isn't all that great. Most enemies have "super Jump" or Ranged attacks. The funny thing is that a lot of the enemies take Fall damage from that. So i tag them once, Fly out of their reach, and them watch them bounce to death... fun!

EDIT:

I forgot to comment this...

I trully feel like a "noob" right now... peopel told me at the forums that there are 2 main things you can't forget to do... Buy healing items (game's fault... it's not really clear where you get those...) and using the Block Key (Shift). it's just amazing the difference the Block key does in battle. I kept dying to this Bastard "mob boss" at the Park. He was level 7 and i was level 8! Then i started to time my blocks to his more powerfull attacks, and BAM Killed him everytime! A Difference like night and day... still not great for Mobs, but the game does expect you to for teams...

[MuMu]

I haven't ever used a healing item but that might just be because the point of my class is that if the guys are still standing up when I finish shooting then I'm screwed. Blocking is indeed fundamental though.

Also, every time an enemy is about to cast a charged attack, a symbol(Usually a BOOM!) will appear after his name.

And really, after you learn to time your blocks the game is more-or-less soloable. Having a partner is still fun though.

If I'm feeling bored I could Sidekick for your folks.

[Token]

I'm currently playing as Mister Vanilla Milkshake, who yes, is a poorly made Doc Scratch. Just started playing a little while ago, beat the tutorial, and I'm in the sewers now. I'm having fun, but it's my first MMO, and I have low expectations. Tempted to make another character to test out Super Speed or Flight, but it's easy enough to use teleportation like flight.

[Bells]

Token, some tips...

Go to Canada when you beat the Tutorial (take the Super Jet there) it's a LOT easier to leevl up there. Do all quests. You can get around 2-3k XP a pop.

In the Powerhouse, you can test all options before leaving. Pick the ones you want, then test them out in the Powerhouse. If you don't like it, go back to the trainer and "undo" your last purchase, and pick again. I tested out all the powers this way. Picked Flight because it doesn't have a time limit, like Teleport does (even though it's the coolest one).

Also, Check the Auction house for some Equips... early level stuff is actually pretty cheap. And don't equipe stuff unless you know you want to use it. If you use them you bound them to you and Bound items sometiems can't be broken down to components for Crafting or Sold.

Also, Crafting is optional. You can get Good enough stuff from Loot. But it's one more thing to do anyway...

[MuMu]

Honestly, I just went the canon route(Metropolis > Desert > Canada) and did just fine. You should always prioritize equips with your SuperStats(The ones in bold yellow) and try teaming up once in a while to learn a stuff or two. Don't worry if you skip a mission or two, this is pretty much Questing Quests: The Game.

I got Acrobatics as a travelling power and it's pretty sweet, the versatility helps lots on uneven places, even more now that I achieved Lvl. 2

[Token]

Thanks. As soon as the server stops being derptarded, I'll be messing around in Canada. Pretty much my only complaint so far is that I've been booted twice today, once at school, and once at home. Other than that, I'm having fun. I'm probably gonna check out flight later, but teleportation seems to be working well for me. The time limit hasn't really bugged me, mostly because you can use it again almost as soon as it's stopped. Haven't been doing much blocking, mostly I've just been "flash stepping" out of the way, which I'm sure is going to prove to be a horrible idea soon. >_>

[Krylo]

Acrobatics was really fun to use, but not nearly as useful as flight or teleportation. The latter of which is good in fights 'cause like Token said--Flash Step.

[Premmy]

So Champions is free, huh, guess I'll try it for realsies this time. Sad to see custom frameworks gone since that's kind of the only thing it had re: Customization on CoH

[Doc ock rokc]

So Champions is free, huh, guess I'll try it for realsies this time. Sad to see custom frameworks gone since that's kind of the only thing it had re: Customization on CoH

CoH actually has the Same customization....

[Premmy]

CoH actually has the Same customization....

CoH has far better power customization and much more stuff in it due to being around a longer time.
Edit Also in Champions, apparently some costume parts are tied to equipment or some such?

[Krylo]

CoH Has far better power customization and much more STUFF in it due to being around a longer time.

CoH has worse body customization, though, and the costume pieces are generally pretty terrible, despite having so many.

Though I guess some costume pieces are premium only, so it might be equally shitty now.

Edit@Prem, not really but kind of. You can find unique weapons that, when equipped, make your sword or gun or whatever look different. Obviously you can only equip those if you have powers that use swords or guns or whatever.

After finding them you can access a weapons panel of your character customization thing, and set that appearance for the weapon as the default, so you can still roll a giant hell axe on your melee weapons dude, even when you outgrow the stats on the giant hell axe item.

[Doc ock rokc]

CoH Has far better power customization and much more STUFF in it due to being around a longer time.

also the fact that the same company intentionally made the code crossable to their CoH just incase Champions tanked (which it has) and also opened Campains to be viable via the community...damn it now You got me wanting to play CoH again.

[Premmy]

CoH has worse body customization,
Yeah, true
though, and the costume pieces are generally pretty terrible, despite having so many.

I don't think so, myself, I feel Like Champions decided on a style that I can't enjoy as much as something more realistic, granted this makes me sound like a "Real is brown" type, But It's actually more that the cell-shading irks me when used in anything not Completely Cartoony or Extremely Stylish, Them trying to hit the middle ground doesn't work for me..
also the fact that the same company intentionally made the code crossable to their CoH just incase Champions tanked
I've never heard this before
opened Campains to be viable via the community

I Guess you're talking About The Mission Architect there and yeah, that is a big deal.

Edit:
@Prem, not really but kind of. You can find unique weapons that, when equipped, make your sword or gun or whatever look different. Obviously you can only equip those if you have powers that use swords or guns or whatever.

After finding them you can access a weapons panel of your character customization thing, and set that appearance for the weapon as the default, so you can still roll a giant hell axe on your melee weapons dude, even when you outgrow the stats on the giant hell axe item.
Ah, So just like CoH Acheivment Unlocked or Craftable weapons/costume parts.

[Krylo]

Yeah.

They have unlocks and craftable costume parts TOO, but yup.

[Premmy]

I kinda hate unlockable And craftable costume parts in general in my super-hero MMOS but I hate them less than stat-related costume parts which I thought Champions had.

Edit: I can tolerate them when they're like, Super-specific and have a more generic option available without crafting/Unlocking and/or are related to in-game groups and stuff the way most of them are in CoH.

[Krylo]

The statted weapons generally sucked last time I played, but that was in beta so I couldn't say now.

Mostly I'd just equip them to unlock the look, and then maybe stick it on my character if I liked it, after unequipping the shitty weapon and equipping one that had no effect on how my character looked... and probably better stats.

Edit: Not that I'm trying to convince you to try it. The game still pretty much sucks and taking away the free form builds makes the free version just suck more because you can't just think of any random concept and run with it. You're stuck with the six or whatever concepts they have made for you.

Like my favorite character was a japanese school girl looking character with sword and pistol skills. Going all anime trope shit up in that bitch. Can't do that now, because you can only be guns and only guns or sword and unarmed. Can't cross them on a free account.

And it'll also probably result in a lot of the archetypes running around playing exactly the same, instead of in the old game where everyone had unique character sets and concepts. Except the PVPers who were all the same, but fuck those guys.

...Well and the dudes that copied comic book characters, who receive about half a 'fuck you guys'. Some of them put twists on the concept just enough to be amusing. Others did it so well to be impressive. Most just sucked, though.

[Premmy]

...Well and the dudes that copied comic book characters, who receive about half a 'fuck you guys'. Some of them put twists on the concept just enough to be amusing. Others did it so well to be impressive. Most just sucked, though.
This is always true, I think, If you want to be Batman/Spider-man that bad there are Games where you can ACTUALLY be Batman/Spider-man.

[Aldurin]

I'll try this and see if it's more fun than mass murder with a level 12 lich shroud drow elf wizard.

[Bells]

BTW just met Token Yesterday ingame. sorry about taking so long to respond!! I still get confused around some of the quests (the descriptions are all too Open Ended sometimes) and had to check a youtube video while playing to complete one.

Thing is... you really need to get used to using the Zoom on the map, in and out to actually see the zone you need to go to complete some of the goals. Also, Flight allows me an "Aerial view" fo an area, so i can see where the hell i'm supposed to go (since most Objectives Glow).

It's weird though... quests give me 5k Xp right about now. WAY more than i can get by fighting at my current level... So, it's "questing quests" all the way.

Just got a new power at lvl 11. An "Spread" of arrows that cause -very- nice area damage. I'm one Shooting a lot of the basic enemies, and even small groups (just One-shot a group of 5 Ice Zombies WOOT!)

[Kurosen]

Been playing ChampO since it went free. I meant to be playing it since release, but my PC was more or less in storage for 2010.

I loved CoX, but I'm digging Champ even more. Not sure why! It might be solely due to having done EVERYTHING in both CoH and CoV, so Champ still has that new MMO smell. But, whatever, I'm having fun.

[Token]

Y'know, with all the questing I've been doing, I really should have more money, jegus fuck. On the plus side, I'm having a lot of fun. Going to have to downgrade my Primal Sigil though; having 2 stackable ones is nice and all, but I've found it much easier to teleport right up to an enemy, use the basic spell to summon five sigils, then teleport away and start blasting.

[Grimpond]

You can find me playing as Fabulous.

E: OR Krokenskorscesi

[Bells]

Hey just so i can get an average here... right now i'm at lvl 12 and my 3 main stats are

DEX 78
CON 43
INT 75

And i can pull around 400~500 dmg with my best shots, And 90~150 average

How about you guys?

Also... everytime i'm starting to get my stars back, i seem to step on a area filled with higher level enemies and BAM there goes my last star again.... *sigh*

[Grimpond]

On as krokenskorscesi if anyone wants to hang out. level 11

[Doc ock rokc]

now I really want to make a character named Professor Fisticuffs! make him incredibly small in a suit with a top hat and monical!

[Azisien]

Working on downloading this now to try it out. Is it all one server?

And boy the download is taking a really long time. I'm assuming its either over capacity or torrent based and either way it's crappy right now. Downloading all night and at about 25%.

[Grimpond]

yeah, it took me forever to download as well

[Doc ock rokc]

maybe we should all get together and be like the superfriends...but with more explosions.

[Token]

maybe we should all get together and be like the superfriends...but with more explosions.

If I didn't suck so much, I would be totally down for that.

[Azisien]

Okay I got the setup downloaded in like 6 minutes with another downloader while the 25 hour one was sitting around 90%. Just patching and I should be trying this out soon.

[Bells]

Hey, don't forget to post some screencaps people!

Also, i must say i really like the "penalty system" for death... you have 5 stars below you character's portrait. everytime you die, you loose one. If you have 2 yoru character works at 100%, below that he works with penalties, and above that you get perment bonus untill you loose it. It takes a LONG time to get a star back, so you need to be carefull, while at the same time you get reward to perform well

[Token]

Okay, slight dilemma. Came up with a design, can't think of an archetype I want to use.

http://i53.tinypic.com/5miwz5.jpg

Suggestions?

[Aldurin]

Use fire, fire and more fire.

[Azisien]

I'll post YOUR screencaps.... HAH!

[Doc ock rokc]

Its probably to late but my choice would have been sword or fists

[Azisien]

Okay I finally managed to patch and get online. Beware the fiery Hobo!

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a128/Azisien/ChampsOnlineScreen1.png

[Token]

A shitty picture, but Lagann (who uses Archery because fuck everything you guys say <3 ) ran into Miles Edgeworth and Phoenix Wright the other day.

http://i52.tinypic.com/2z6w4kh.jpg

[Premmy]

OK WOWWWWW

I finally got to download the patch. So I had tinkered with the free trial of CO twice before and found it okay, but none too impressive, Now it's just plain HORRIBLE!

Back before it went free, There were these things called "Frameworks" which were what passes for Archetypes now. And at the bottom was the custom Framework where you'd pick and choose based upon certain fairly reasonable parameters.
But there were far more frameworks. For some dumb-ass reason(money) they cut the number of powers in half and left me with the most generic(and limited) things in their list.

There was once a power framework called "supernatural" It was a mixture of chain attacks, claw attacks and spooky magics. When I came back the second time, they were nice enough to split this crazy-varied framework into two thematically different ones. Supernatural: Chains & Supernatural:Beast and because they had the same source, if you were in one framework, you could still take powers from it's Sister set. the "Martial arts" Framework worked the same way, allowing you to take any of the other "Martial Arts" powers which included Single Blade, dual Blades, and Fighting Claws. I also think some others were similar but can't remember which ones

When I heard about the archetypes I just assumed they took out the custom framework or maybe had Archetypes with focused power choice parameters but the option to vary. The first was cool with me because of the aforementioned linked frameworks, the latter I viewed as an actually superior character creation system. But this is WAYYYY worse. There aren't even linked frameworks to make slightly different characters. And Holy shit did they jack up their costume creator. No thanks, sorry to ruin everyone's fun by coming in and talking shit, but since I was chatting it up with Krylo here about it, I figure'd I'd give my final opinion after giving it a look.I'm sticking with my CoH.

[Token]

Still enjoying this. Can't really explain why, but I am. Lagann ended up breezing past Mister Vanilla Milkshake, mostly because I made a lot of stupid choices with him. So, I ended up dropping MVM, and created another character. Interestingly enough, yet another faceless creature in a suit. That's right...

http://i56.tinypic.com/152cklx.jpg

Meet the Operator.

http://i51.tinypic.com/13z7rd2.jpg
He'd say "hi," but he doesn't have a mouth.

http://i51.tinypic.com/eliz8.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/nleb8l.jpg
(I probably should have given him superspeed, but I like the offscreen teleportation idea more.)

http://i56.tinypic.com/dfuaom.jpg
We should probably leave him be.

Yes, I know, I'm entirely unoriginal. But seeing as pretty much EVERY THIRD CHARACTER is an already established character, I figured I could do someone a little more disturbing.

[Premmy]

I gotta give it points, though, Champions Led me to create the Street Mystic, and by extension his crazy form of city-magic, so there's that... picture forthcoming.
edit: @premmy and yes I see how I'm full of shit

[Bells]

Weird but cool, there is a Wiki for the players

http://www.primusdatabase.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

As in, you trade tips and you actually add your character and super teams to the Wiki, with personal lore and everything... nice!

Also, i like how this game has the best auction house i've ever seen on a MMO... money is really easy to come by and i keep having surplus. So i'm always buying new stuff and improving little by little my stats...

So, i have Endurance 14, but intelligence 104

Glass cannon indead!

Also, i'm getting closer to lvl 25, 16 right now. At lvl 25 you get to make and battle your own Nemesis!

[Premmy]

Weird but cool, there is a Wiki for the players

http://www.primusdatabase.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

As in, you trade tips and you actually add your character and super teams to the Wiki, with personal lore and everything... nice!
finding the club,running in and seeing people standing around with actual character bios in Champ O led me to believe it was substantial enough to have a 'verse wiki.

[Bells]

Hey have you guys tried the "Heroes Games" ? It's not really the main PvP instance of the game, but there is some cool features. There is a Team Vs Team, but you get assigned to a random team, so if your team is not very good you will loose because there is also a couple of morons that think it's a great idea to Rush and Melee a 3 person group alone...

But there is also the "Team Vs Zombie" thing, really fun. You are part of a large group of heroes and you have to battle a increasing horde of zombies, the longer you survive the more points you get, but it only ends when all heroes die. Thing is, when you die youy come back as a Zombie and have to kil the other players. It's really fun to play with, it gets pretty hectic too

[Arcanum]

Started playing the other day. I made a generic fire dude, got bored, then decided to create Bro (yes from Homestuck). I'm sure it's been done before but I don't care, it's a blast running around and sword-murdering things as a Bro lookalike.

One question though; I accidentally got rid of the quest updates list thing that's on the right side of the screen under the mini map and that tells you your progress towards your current quest. How do I get that back? I've looked around in the menus and stuff and couldn't find anything.

[Bells]

You will find a small triangle button right next to the right of yoru minimap that wil bring your Quest log back on screen.