Champions Online on Consoles? What's needed?

darqaura2

So there is a rumor that the powers that be are looking to get this game ready as an offering for consoles, or at least on XBOX.

What do you think is needed to make that happen?

Me:

• Liars review -- actually a total review of all non-Alerts teaming content so that it's easy to team and start said content as it to start Alerts. Basically queues where necessary.
• At least one more city or non city environment with a full mission chain even if its just 25-30 to start. (And later 35-40)
• Addition of more high level content -- perhaps tie it to Nemesis system so they don't have to start from scratch.
• Addition of at least one more non traditional gameplay option like the Onslaughts
• Borrow one feature from CoX -- Newspaper or radio missions, but make them a bit more extensive than CoX had them.
• At least 10-15 more complete costumes
• Fix the problem with the pvp queues and balance the pvp rewards in relation Justice and Onslaught Gear.

The above is just to launch on whatever Console. Ofcourse they would have to have a bit more immediately (1 month, 3 months, 5 months) after launch.

What do you all suggest in addition/instead?

EDIT: Also want to say if done right, I'd buy one of the new consoles just to play this game. I'm serious!

maatmons

A proper "what I'm pointed at" targeting system would help. The console guys will probably use shooter controls like I do.

The "closest to camera center" option will sometimes target some guy you can't see behind the guy you're actually going toe-to-toe with. I've had the guy I want to hit filling up my entire screen, but been unable to attack him because some guy 30 feet further back was apparently closer to the exact center of my screen. Particularly frustrating since I was pure melee and so just kept getting "target out of range" notices while failing to target the guy all up in my face.

The "closest within camera center" option winds up being pretty random when I'm in the center of a cluster of enemies. It's pretty common for me to attack someone directly behind me, even when someone's directly in front of me, just because he's a few inches closer.

I'd just like to have an invisible ray starting at my character and pointing in roughly the same direction as the camera. The first viable target it intersects is what I'm targeting. Does this game have hit boxes? It would probably work fine with just one giant cube for each enemy. No need to get fancy.

darqaura2

maatmons wrote: »

A proper "what I'm pointed at" targeting system would help. The console guys will probably use shooter controls like I do.

The "closest to camera center" option will sometimes target some guy you can't see behind the guy you're actually going toe-to-toe with. I've had the guy I want to hit filling up my entire screen, but been unable to attack him because some guy 30 feet further back was apparently closer to the exact center of my screen. Particularly frustrating since I was pure melee and so just kept getting "target out of range" notices while failing to target the guy all up in my face.

The "closest within camera center" option winds up being pretty random when I'm in the center of a cluster of enemies. It's pretty common for me to attack someone directly behind me, even when someone's directly in front of me, just because he's a few inches closer.

I'd just like to have an invisible ray starting at my character and pointing in roughly the same direction as the camera. The first viable target it intersects is what I'm targeting. Does this game have hit boxes? It would probably work fine with just one giant cube for each enemy. No need to get fancy.

Interesting ideas. :-)

biffsmackwell

Just one thing: Let me use my PC account.

I have zero interest in playing Neverwinter on my XBox One because I get to start from zero, without the 300 bucks I threw down on it and the money I used afterward. No mounts, no extra AD, no extra character slots, nothing. Start at level 1 without all the stuff you bought before.

I have even less interest in starting Champions all over again after all the money I've spent on the game, likely over a thousand dollars over the six years of its life, as a silver with two character slots that I can use to make Archetypes.

Let me use my PC account? I will totally support it. Segregate it like Neverwinter? Won't get an extra dime from me.​​

darqaura2

biffsmackwell wrote: »

Just one thing: Let me use my PC account.

I have zero interest in playing Neverwinter on my XBox One because I get to start from zero, without the 300 bucks I threw down on it and the money I used afterward. No mounts, no extra AD, no extra character slots, nothing. Start at level 1 without all the stuff you bought before.

I have even less interest in starting Champions all over again after all the money I've spent on the game, likely over a thousand dollars over the six years of its life, as a silver with two character slots that I can use to make Archetypes.

Let me use my PC account? I will totally support it. Segregate it like Neverwinter? Won't get an extra dime from me.​​

Agreed with this!!!

championshewolf

What would Champions need?

• Current Lairs reviewed and content designed for team play. Bosses in said lairs changed to requiring strategy instead of just the ability to soak massive amounts of damage.
• Several instances upscaled to lair quality; Purple Gang Hideout, Project: Awakening, Stronghold, and others that should have been multiplayer instances but were not. Just because we are in a super hero game doesn't mean there won't be bad guys that require multiple heroes to take down. For instance: Menton. He is suppose to be the strongest mentalist in the world, on a level equal to or greater than Professor X, but he goes down like a little **** without so much as an effort.
• Actual decent loot to drop from lairs.
• Endgame versions of all the lairs.
• The stat system completely revamped. Champions might not be a super known PnP game, but the current stat system, comparable to the PnP, is a mess. They should take a long look at Neverwinter and use that as a base, because in Champions there are not more than 6 stats and the spread is from 10 to 100 points. This way they can make secondary stats more viable. The scores would be Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Ego and Presence. Endruance and Recovery would be changed to auxiliary stats that people can pick up and the stat bonuses would be locked and provide increases that can be controlled.
• Block system would need to be revamped and/or replaced with dodging.
• Gear would have to be redone, again, and get rid of the fully moddable aspect. Focusing on the secondary stats, with one or two mod slots for adding additional stats. Gear that matters at the end is always pivotal in these cases, and without that no one will want to.
• A new relic system of specialty items, maybe similar to the artifact system in Neverwinter, but the love of everything don't make it level by putting items into it.
• Reduce the cool down on healing devices and increase the number they can have stacked at a time to make them actually useful.
• Epic level raid content. Just because we are in a super hero game doesn't mean threats won't require lots of heroes to take care of.
• Passives, toggles etc removed and their abilities rolled into the power sets themselves. The current combination of passives, toggles and the specialties have put things well into the overpowered arena. This would actually instigate better use of combinations and should be designed around making the power sets more synergistic with themselves.
• Power sets fleshed out more. There is a huge disconnect between power sets. Some are self sufficient others barely qualify as a power set. All power sets need to be made self sufficient and capable of multiple roles instead of forcing people to pick abilities outside of said power set to fill in the holes.
• More power sets in general. There is an entire book of power sets that are untapped for the potential of power sets that could be in Champions.
• Make a limited freeform for silver players instead of the ridiculous archetype system. You would get more money getting people to pay for power sets to make more power sets than trying to force them into subscribing. Old adage, you will catch more flies with honey, than vinegar.
• More zones. This goes without saying. One more city might sound good on paper but City of Heroes opened with around 15 zones. And more were added later. In Champions current life time, only one new zone has been added, and many more were promised for the future expansion, but were abandoned.
• Current zones need to be redesigned and expanded. Sorry to say but people don't always want everything in one central spot. They like it when the cities, deserts and so forth feel alive and unique. And Millennium City doesn't really feel like a city.
• Super Group revamps to make them more important. Adding in SG HQ's would be a start.
• Revamped Superhero Hideouts. The fact they don't do anything other than provide a place for shared accounts is rather pathetic on this feature. We need better customization and the ability to find new furniture to put in our hideouts as well. It's sad the competitor as a far better hideout system than Champions, especially when Cryptic's motto is all about customization.
• DirectX11 fixed for Champions and possible implementation and use of DirectX12. The demands of Champions system (powers, number of people in a zone, effects and so forth) DirectX12 with its design towards better resource management and draw calls specifically, this would help Champions a hell of a lot.

That's my list of things that I feel would be needed. Champions, in its current incarnation, wouldn't do well on consoles either. It needs a veritable ground up overhaul.​​

chuckwolf

maatmons wrote: »

A proper "what I'm pointed at" targeting system would help. The console guys will probably use shooter controls like I do.

The "closest to camera center" option will sometimes target some guy you can't see behind the guy you're actually going toe-to-toe with. I've had the guy I want to hit filling up my entire screen, but been unable to attack him because some guy 30 feet further back was apparently closer to the exact center of my screen. Particularly frustrating since I was pure melee and so just kept getting "target out of range" notices while failing to target the guy all up in my face.

The "closest within camera center" option winds up being pretty random when I'm in the center of a cluster of enemies. It's pretty common for me to attack someone directly behind me, even when someone's directly in front of me, just because he's a few inches closer.

I'd just like to have an invisible ray starting at my character and pointing in roughly the same direction as the camera. The first viable target it intersects is what I'm targeting. Does this game have hit boxes? It would probably work fine with just one giant cube for each enemy. No need to get fancy.

This is the reason that while using a controller I decided to use "target nearest" on auto-target, always targets whatever's closest

flyingfinn

It would need time machine back to the 2008.​​

chaelk

read the first paragraph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_Online

---

a large well known brand name, popular with hundreds of thousands of people. who are alos interested in playing on consoles.​​

quasimojo1

What's the source for the rumor? Is there any more behind it than some gamer's wishlist?

darqaura2

championshewolf wrote: »

What would Champions need?

Great list of things Championshewolf listed

That's my list of things that I feel would be needed. Champions, in its current incarnation, wouldn't do well on consoles either. It needs a veritable ground up overhaul.​​

Good stuff. Not everything I agree with but good stuff nonetheless.

Also pulling this one out below:

More power sets in general. There is an entire book of power sets that are untapped for the potential of power sets that could be in Champions.

That doesn't just have to do with power sets. From what I've researched over the years there IS MUCH more content in Champions that they just haven't touched on in anyway shape or form. Power sets or otherwise. They should tap into that.

darqaura2

quasimojo1 wrote: »

What's the source for the rumor? Is there any more behind it than some gamer's wishlist?

Honestly not much behind it from what I've seen. But its good to let them know what WE think they would NEED to do to get it console ready. (Or picking back up the development for XBOX at least).

Greater point is that in its current state, there would be no point to even try to put it on consoles. LOTS of work needed.

If it never happens I won't loose any sleep, but if they do try they would need to do some serious investment.

nepht

Or just port it as is so you can have crossplay between consoles and PC. Thats whats needed most.

sterga

Interest from Chinese gamers. Also: Interest from US gamers. Basically, for people to know this game exists and be interested in it.

jonsills

How's it working for NW? Has it increased the player base significantly? If so, it might be useful for CO...​​

chaelk

darqaura2 wrote: »

quasimojo1 wrote: »

What's the source for the rumor? Is there any more behind it than some gamer's wishlist?

Honestly not much behind it from what I've seen. But its good to let them know what WE think they would NEED to do to get it console ready. (Or picking back up the development for XBOX at least).

Greater point is that in its current state, there would be no point to even try to put it on consoles. LOTS of work needed.

If it never happens I won't loose any sleep, but if they do try they would need to do some serious investment.

it was going to be a console game for XBOX in 2010. It was canned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_Online
and an article to go with it
http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/28/ms-foot-dragging-on-360-mmos-is-baffling-says-cryptic-boss/​​

thegrandnagus1

jonsills wrote: »

How's it working for NW? Has it increased the player base significantly? If so, it might be useful for CO...​​

Yes, it has:

http://massivelyop.com/2015/05/13/neverwinter-cracks-1-6m-players-on-xbox-one/

darqaura2

chaelk wrote: »

darqaura2 wrote: »

quasimojo1 wrote: »

What's the source for the rumor? Is there any more behind it than some gamer's wishlist?

Honestly not much behind it from what I've seen. But its good to let them know what WE think they would NEED to do to get it console ready. (Or picking back up the development for XBOX at least).

Greater point is that in its current state, there would be no point to even try to put it on consoles. LOTS of work needed.

If it never happens I won't loose any sleep, but if they do try they would need to do some serious investment.

it was going to be a console game for XBOX in 2010. It was canned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_Online
and an article to go with it
http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/28/ms-foot-dragging-on-360-mmos-is-baffling-says-cryptic-boss/​​

Yes I know. But apparently this new rumor came up because they are suddenly hinting at starting to focus on heavy development on this game again and because NWO just went that way.

thegrandnagus1

darqaura2 wrote: »

chaelk wrote: »

darqaura2 wrote: »

quasimojo1 wrote: »

What's the source for the rumor? Is there any more behind it than some gamer's wishlist?

Honestly not much behind it from what I've seen. But its good to let them know what WE think they would NEED to do to get it console ready. (Or picking back up the development for XBOX at least).

Greater point is that in its current state, there would be no point to even try to put it on consoles. LOTS of work needed.

If it never happens I won't loose any sleep, but if they do try they would need to do some serious investment.

it was going to be a console game for XBOX in 2010. It was canned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_Online
and an article to go with it
http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/28/ms-foot-dragging-on-360-mmos-is-baffling-says-cryptic-boss/​​

Yes I know. But apparently this new rumor came up because they are suddenly hinting at starting to focus on heavy development on this game again and because NWO just went that way.

Actually, at the end of 2013 Perfect World created a new division entirely devoted to consoles. It includes both new titles that have not come out yet, and converting some of their *existing* titles to console:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/19/5227704/perfect-world-entertainment-new-division-console-games

Regardless of what plans fell through when this game launched, Perfect World can do what they want now.

darqaura2

thegrandnagus1 wrote: »

darqaura2 wrote: »

chaelk wrote: »

darqaura2 wrote: »

quasimojo1 wrote: »

What's the source for the rumor? Is there any more behind it than some gamer's wishlist?

Honestly not much behind it from what I've seen. But its good to let them know what WE think they would NEED to do to get it console ready. (Or picking back up the development for XBOX at least).

Greater point is that in its current state, there would be no point to even try to put it on consoles. LOTS of work needed.

If it never happens I won't loose any sleep, but if they do try they would need to do some serious investment.

it was going to be a console game for XBOX in 2010. It was canned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_Online
and an article to go with it
http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/28/ms-foot-dragging-on-360-mmos-is-baffling-says-cryptic-boss/​​

Yes I know. But apparently this new rumor came up because they are suddenly hinting at starting to focus on heavy development on this game again and because NWO just went that way.

Actually, at the end of 2013 Perfect World created a new division entirely devoted to consoles. It includes both new titles that have not come out yet, and converting some of their *existing* titles to console:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/19/5227704/perfect-world-entertainment-new-division-console-games

Regardless of what plans fell through when this game launched, Perfect World can do what they want now.

Interesting . . .

nepht

Still wont happen , but hey I have muffins so its all good.

mrhinkypunk

When asked they said "maybe" but to be honest there would be so much to do for it to make it as solidly made as NW for example that it's a question of will it really be worth it to them. They'd clearly be aiming at xbox despite the constant failures to do so in the past but they would find it hard to compete with DCUO on PS4. If they manage to get atleast a fair bit of the big issues fixed I'm sure that they'd be able to at least get it close to a viable release however they'd need to sparkle it up and make it shine on the face first.

championshewolf

darqaura2 wrote: »

More power sets in general. There is an entire book of power sets that are untapped for the potential of power sets that could be in Champions.

That doesn't just have to do with power sets. From what I've researched over the years there IS MUCH more content in Champions that they just haven't touched on in anyway shape or form. Power sets or otherwise. They should tap into that.

There is roughly thirty years of content from the Champions PnP that is untapped. When people say they've only skimmed the surface, they've literally only skimmed the surface. There are hundreds of villains, groups and so forth that are still untapped, many of which were the obvious inspirations for many of the prominent villains of City of Heroes, that have yet to be tapped into. Baron Nihil was an obvious inspiration for Requiem, Crey was inspired by ARGENT (though for some reason, or sadly, Crey is more like how ARGENT should have been than what was created in Champions Online) and of course some could even say that Doctor Destroyer inspired Lord Nemesis (Doctor Destroyer is nearly impossible to catch, because even if you think you have caught him, it's almost always a duplicate or clone, Doctor Destroyer isn't into magic and actively despises it as inferior science, and even if you beat Destroyer's plans, that defeat was part of his plans all along and The Book of the Destroyer even has variants for using him in other settings besides Heroes).

Now while some may argue that Champions had no such influence on CoH (even though it did and has been stated that CoH was inspired by the original developers sessions of Champions) there is a lot that remains to be tapped, and it startles me at times that so little has actually been done with the universe. It's like when Whiteout was added, I was baffled because we still have yet to flesh out the Champions world itself, let alone trying to stretch into the universe as a whole. Not to mention the annoyance, for many, that too much slapstick is being tossed around for humor. People don't mind a good reference, but they hate it when everything is a reference. They want things to feel organic and are flowing from the narrative.

It's just so much untapped potential and it's being wasted. I am hopeful for what they might be trying, but I remain skeptical that it will be as big as it should be. And if they have plans to go to the console, they might as well buckle down and get ready to make a complete redo of Champions, on the level of developing a brand new game, because this game needs a ton of fixing before it would be ready for the console, let alone capable of competing with DCUO on the console (ignoring the other console based MMOs and just focusing on DCUO).

Unknown

This content has been removed.

darqaura2

bluegrassbeast wrote: »

CO made me look into the lore of Champions..

..there's so much good stuff to use, or better utilize... Eurostar comes to mind as a way to make a push toward more SG teams, f'rex...

Yeah I have a pdf of one of the source books. Sooooo much stuff!!!

championshewolf

darqaura2 wrote: »

bluegrassbeast wrote: »

CO made me look into the lore of Champions..

..there's so much good stuff to use, or better utilize... Eurostar comes to mind as a way to make a push toward more SG teams, f'rex...

Yeah I have a pdf of one of the source books. Sooooo much stuff!!!

There are several of Doctor Destroyer's lieutenants not even mentioned, and at least two of Shadow Destroyer's Lieutenants not even in the game. The poor Brain Trust was reduced to throw away villains in Canada, and that isn't even getting into one of the best horror based villains you could add, Freakshow, is not even in Champions though he is based in Westside of Millennium City. Imagine a guy that runs around waiting to scare people after they leave a horror movie.

It just makes me sad of the wasted potential, so far, and actually upsets me when magnificent villains, like Mechanon, are given such poor treatment in this game. This IP deserves better and I damn well know that Cryptic can do better than this.

sanguineviper

A new game built with a new engine where the code doesn't degrade over time by itself via some sort of reality defying nonsense like the current cryptic engine does.

Basically.

spinnytop

A control scheme that doesn't make the average casual gamer ragequit.

reiwulf

what would it need? way too much, basically a revision of the whole game.
I don't think it'll ever happen. but I would be glad to be proven wrong.

raighn

I agree with the assessment of requiring a complete rebuild from the ground up... and before anyone sais that's not possible, or that we'd all have to start from level 1 again... not true... another smaller MMO that I played for many many years underwent a complete rebuild several years back and was able to retain all the progress everyone had from the original game. And their development team wasn't any larger than Cryptics.

In today's market Champions won't survive a console release in its current state or with it's current design. Champions claims to be an action game, but in reality it's a long shot from what is accepted as an action game by todays standards.