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How to Improve Champions Online
thrdstooge
Posts: 20 Arc User
As a comic book and MMO fan for many years I’ve always gravitated towards super hero MMORPGs. I’ve played City of Heroes (hands down, my favorite) DC Universe Online and now Champions Online. Unfortunately CoH is no longer in the picture, I found myself seeing more potential in Champions Online then the gear grinding DC Universe. That said, I feel like CO tends to get prematurely stagnant and I’ve been wondering why. It has way more in common with City of Heroes then DCUO. I think, in my own perspective, why this is the case. Here are a few ideas I feel may improve the City of Heroes experience.
Tone Down the Magic Storyline
Sure magic and mysticism runs rampant in comics but I feel like the story seems to go that route at any given chance. Give us a traditional Jack Kirby/Stanley Ditko golden age comic storyline.
More Token Villains
The one thing this game surprisingly lacks is the variety of super villains. We need more evil masterminds with actual super powers (no magic). Give them the sole purpose of destroying the city. Give them ridiculous comic villainesque costumes. Hell, have a contest with the community and have us design new villains if you’re fresh out of ideas. Why not have random Nemesis arch villains spontaneously pop up with henchmen in the city for all to encounter rather than just seeing them in Alerts or solo missions. Onslaught, although a ambitious idea, just isn't cutting it.
Open World B Villains
Have random B villains pop up around the city committing petty crimes such as robbing a bank, jewelry store, an old lady’s purse. Anything. Give us superheroes a purpose to leave the main hub.
Better Perm Sidekicks
C’mon, this is a given. I love the idea of summoning a sidekick but a humanoid dragon? Where are all the traditional comic book style perm sidekicks? Why not give us the ability to customize our sidekicks with mods, gear and costume. Or how about we get more superhero-ish versions to go with our personal theme.
Invasions
The one thing I fondly remember from City of Heroes was minding my own business, tweaking my stats when suddenly a siren would go off. Aliens would descend from the sky and all hell would break loose. This was an “all hands on deck” excitement we need in this game. Aliens, Mole People, Atlantians, ANYONE. Give us invasions.
These are just a few suggestions that wouldn’t require an overhaul of the game. What do you think?
Tone Down the Magic Storyline
Sure magic and mysticism runs rampant in comics but I feel like the story seems to go that route at any given chance. Give us a traditional Jack Kirby/Stanley Ditko golden age comic storyline.
More Token Villains
The one thing this game surprisingly lacks is the variety of super villains. We need more evil masterminds with actual super powers (no magic). Give them the sole purpose of destroying the city. Give them ridiculous comic villainesque costumes. Hell, have a contest with the community and have us design new villains if you’re fresh out of ideas. Why not have random Nemesis arch villains spontaneously pop up with henchmen in the city for all to encounter rather than just seeing them in Alerts or solo missions. Onslaught, although a ambitious idea, just isn't cutting it.
Open World B Villains
Have random B villains pop up around the city committing petty crimes such as robbing a bank, jewelry store, an old lady’s purse. Anything. Give us superheroes a purpose to leave the main hub.
Better Perm Sidekicks
C’mon, this is a given. I love the idea of summoning a sidekick but a humanoid dragon? Where are all the traditional comic book style perm sidekicks? Why not give us the ability to customize our sidekicks with mods, gear and costume. Or how about we get more superhero-ish versions to go with our personal theme.
Invasions
The one thing I fondly remember from City of Heroes was minding my own business, tweaking my stats when suddenly a siren would go off. Aliens would descend from the sky and all hell would break loose. This was an “all hands on deck” excitement we need in this game. Aliens, Mole People, Atlantians, ANYONE. Give us invasions.
These are just a few suggestions that wouldn’t require an overhaul of the game. What do you think?
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I take this quote from a review that I agree with.
"customisation is so linear; everyone is after the optimal dps:survivability ratio with 0 reliance on other players = autonomous gameplay... Players don't need each other anymore... which in my opinion is a bad thing."
I agree that we need another big plot from a really big supervillain. Honestly, I'd LOVE to see something fresh from Dr. Destroyer. Community contest villains wouldn't be bad either.
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I always liked that mission where you team up with Blue Jay in Millenium City. I was disappointed when I saw that she joined up with GRAB. I don't know much about CO lore. Could any of the ladies from GRAB be (maybe even Suicide Squad or :"reformed villain" style) permanent sidekicks?
I also think it would be neat if we got a temporary 1 hour Powerhouse Trainer sidekick upon graduation from Ravenswood Academy, with a permanent version also in the store.
Blue Jay has always been a member of GRAB. In fact the reason you do that mission is you basically catch her in the act of robbing a place. So, her being your sidekick is unlikely, since well, she isn't a sidekick. At best a team up and only rarely when your interests combine.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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-Shadow Destroyer arc (including Resistance and Nemcon, but also other bits sprinkled throughout the 27-40 quest line)
-Kings of Edom (Demonflame / Aftershock / Nightmare Invasion arc)
-Lemurian Arcs (Bleak ones and the excavation on MI are all pretty much magic-driven)
-Vibora Bay
The last major 'tech' related storyline is Viper from 30-35 and their Moreau teamup. Neither the Argent hunting lodge nor the Viper Omicron tech stories really get enough development to be major stories (nor do they deserve to be, and that ends by 38 and is followed by a similarly developed magic story with the Elder worms and Slug. Both are pretty much contemporaneous with the clearly magical end-Canada arc with corrupted bigfoots and demons, and Moreau is preceded by Neruul).
Serpent Lantern is kind of a joke of an adventure pack with little narrative, and the narrative that it does have is also magic (Viperia).
Whiteout was a promising start for an extraterrestrial storyarc, which then got dropped and has never been developed. It's not the only extraterrestrial hook in the game either. The Qularr sidestory in MI could have hooked into something bigger, as could the Gadroon storyline in Canada.
So the 35-40 and endgame is dominated exclusively by magic. There's a little bit of tech, but not that much. And traditional comicbook villainy is pretty much non-existent from 30 on. Heck, we don't see any human organizations except Viper or Argent after 30 that aren't completely steeped in magic. (To the degree you can call Vibora Bay gangs human organizations).
Probably also worth noting that Dr. Destroyer only really shows up as a victim you save from Shadow Destroyer. He doesn't even have a real story arc of his own, or any real presence at all (unless you want to count Sky Command).
You also forgot the Cybermind storyline. It is only three missions long, but it's done well, and many folks do the special Alert connected to it.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
Definitely, but those are sort of like Nick Fury S.H.I.E.L.D. missions where the hero or team travels abroad. I'm more thinking of a local threat. Imagine if you were on a flyby and you hear an alarm from a bank go off and a B-level villain storms out with a group of henchmen. Or what if you were running around the city, minding your own business when suddenly the ground shakes, a tunneler bursts from the ground and a bunch of mole people come flooding out terrorizing the civilians. Of course it doesn't have to be exactly like those examples but you get where I'm coming from. That'll be loads of fun. Most players would head out of the main hub just to patrol the city like actual heroes. It's totally doable. At the moment the city is riddled with portals (magic theme *sigh). Just tweak the design of the mobs.
*sigh,...I wonder if the devs even read this stuff...
Most Super Humans in The Champions PNP are a result of the magic gene so magic will always be a major part of Champions Online and that is not going to change anytime soon.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Keep in mind, the Role Playing Game from which this game comes from was created as an alternative to market filled with dungeon crawlers.
For example, we currently have the Nightmare event going. It's yet another magic theme. I'm more than certain the next event like this will be magic as well. Being this is a comic book inspired MMO why not have an event where B villains are stealing components through out the city in order to make a super weapon and you have to stop them.
Here's how that could be done. Simply re-skin those nightmare mobs with one main villain and a bunch of their henchmen.
Champions has a few of these in game already, by the way.
West Side: open world has minibosses for Maniacs and Cobra Lords (bikers), plus Iron and Gold from the Red Banner
City Center: Viper X
Downtown: Mega Destroid
Desert: Escaped supervillain prisoners (named unique ones)--there are five or six of these, that you must search for; you even get a perk for finding them all (not required for a mission)
Diamondback (snake humanoid villain)
Hanging Judge (ghost town)
Lairs: prison (Menton)
Canada: Riktus (undead, open-world)
Lairs: Necrul, Teleios, Mechaniste
Monster Island: Zarn (in the Lava Temple)
Lairs: Vikorin, manimals/moreau, Viper, elder worms temple
Lemuria: ghost pirates, robo pirates (open missions)
Lairs: Mandragalore
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
Still, the main use of B villains in Champs is for Nemesis missions and UNITY missions. If you don't run these missions, you won't see these villains, and there are a couple dozen of them, at least.
Oh, I forgot the Crocodile Rock open mission in Vibora Bay, as well as Supernatural Potporri (which brings out Bloodhound).
I can imagine a system where the B villains are randomly spawned in various zones, and then proceed to find NPCs to attack or objects/property to destroy. They wouldn't have to be on long timers, nor would they have to grant any special rewards (aside from perks for defeating them). Would add some spice to the game.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
Nemesis is awesome, but could use content updates badly, and more divergent plotlines for the different nemesis personalities. (And probably a magic/tech/crime choice with divergent plotlines - that your magic nemesis builds a deathray is pretty silly). This would be amazing.
Its not all magic though there are some foes and heroes that don't have the magic gene and there is plenty of content that reflects this. Whiteout is one example. Some more "non magic gene" content would be welcome as their are plenty of alien races that have not been fleshed out in this game yet.
Dont get me wrong I like a huge chunk of your ideas its just your really going to have to accept some serious spooky **** is going to happen in Millennium City often. Its what gives Champions its feel. Its a game of Super Heroes VS Wizards.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Most people's reference for the superhero genre includes substantial non-magical elements, including sci fi tech and genetics explanations that, while effectively magic (in that they don't correspond to anything we know about real science), are presented as grounded in non-magic science.
And since there's like 20 people in teh world who know anything about Champions lore, the game has to appeal to people who don't know and frankly don't care - they want a world that's close enough to Marvel or DCs that the familiar (to them) explanations make sense. And since that's who most of your players are going to be, that's who you need to appeal to.
And even if Cryptic does maintain the magic gene lore, there's a difference between overt obviously magical and 'could be imagined to not involve magic, even if it actually does'. No one would actually care if all viper's tech suddenly ran on etherium produced from the tears of orphan child mages - it still looks like tech and creates tech-like storylines as long as said orphan child mages don't come up. (Although I'm also sick to death of viper storylines).
Cryptic was also inspired to make City of Heroes due to the Champions PnP...oh and would you look at that a big chunk of that games plot also centered around magic.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Magic-themed enemies are easy. For every characterful wizard-like character, there are endless hordes of acceptable targets you can kill. It's why most of the non-magic themed enemies are either paramilitary organizations like Viper or alien species like the Qularr - endless mooks are endless. (The aliens never even get a proper named supervillain anywhere, unless you really want to count Ludwig, who only has an alias because he's a nameless alien who appears outside the presence of any other aliens).
Outside the nemesis system, there's very little four-color material. Especially late game. Calling it a 50-50 split is kind of laughable. And on my hypothesis (it's all about allowing standard MMO mission design) this makes sense - four color content is harder. Because Jack Kirby designed dozens of new character looks *every month* for 9 years to give Marvel a decent cast of villains, and even then we had things like early X-Men which defaulted to Magneto stories in something like 50% of the issues Kirby drew. Unlike early Marvel, Cryptic was *never* willing to put that kind of effort in, nor have they shown any inclination to use player nemeses even though it's basically free content that the ToS says they own.
Same could be said about you two "block heads" incapable of seeing changes despite the possible positive outcome just for your own selfish selves. Once a new Superhero inspired MMORPG surfaces that appeals more towards the comic fans, you two can quietly chat amongst yourselves about your precious magic lore. Won't be hard to find each other being you'll be the only two on the server.
Also, people said that DCUO would kill CO, it did not, so, regardless of if CoT (CIty of Titans) is any good, there will be a good number of people that will continue playing this game. And, its not about incapable of seeing changes that bring about positive stuff (which in reality, the shift away from the pnp lore would not, sorry to bust your bubble on this one, but it will not bring more people in), its about preventing the game from losing its lore and path.
But, we could always use more things to do, for thats the true number one killer (lack of content), so we could use more to do, just as long as it fits the lore. Be it magic or otherwise.
tell that to human torch, electro, and subzero...pretty sure none of them can use their elements as a result of magic
Missed the part how Champions Universe works?
....
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
guess again, idiot...there are ALREADY ingame examples of science-based elemental manipulation
and i don't need to check ANYTHING, because unlike YOU, i actually play the game and have seen ingame examples
Sapphire: As expressly stated in her lore description, her powers are the result of a Genetic MUTATION. Sure she uses Force powers, but the fact that a mutant gene for "energy manipulation" exists, opens the door for possibilities of mutant genes for just about anything, including fire throwing.
Well, I'm glad someone found that. Better than arguing. But, no where in comic book history does it state that such mutations are not magical. Nor does anything state that they are. So, mutations are iffy, especially in this game.