let's say we could choose how to improve the game, there would be restrictions though, it can be huge stuff like creatingn a whole new area with a new map and a completely new storyline and lots of new quests. we know that's well beyond the team's capabilities for now.
this is more of an exercice of creativity and to see what others consider important and could help the game, this topic is NOT about bashing the game. so please stay respectful of other's ideas and the game itself.
for me, I would make some additions. make so each main area, has a clear main quest, and leave the rest as sidequests. the main quest would gety improved visuals, with some cinematics and comic like panel images (like the ones we had in the intro and in whiteout). make the main quest of each zone so we have to travel around to pick the other quests as we follow it. and make it have an intereting storyline. also make it solo friendly. so we can solo the final boss of each area without having to wait t get help from others.
another idea would be to start making adventure packs and comic series again. if there are no means to actually create new maps from scratch, we could aim for a little lower, like using existing maps with changes. for example we could first start by getting a street level hero storyline, and use parts of westside and MC, but editing them to make them look, at night, and probably dirtier or grittier. also make a good compelling storyline, CO has lots of people interested in it and not only power balance and numbers and l00t. try to have adventure packs for different kinds of heroes, street level, cosmic level, supernatural kind, etc... give variety.
Also, I don't know what others think, but I woulf gladly pay for these new aventure packs/comic series.
And I would try to add more lore to the world and make it more immersive, grant access to quest only places after accesing them the first time, even without enemies. add more stuff and story to what we see in each map, they're losing great oportyunities to keep telling stories in it.
what would YOU add to help the game improve?
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Comments
+ I would add more variety to nemesis
(Freeform, custom minions)
+ Make the zone desirable by adding dailies that require you to seek out contacts in other zones.
+ revamp the Crime Computer and contacts
(Too many hidden missions that aren't even on a mission arc)
+ Add an expansion story to the Nemesis system with sidekicks
+ Revisit the space station
+ add more lore
+ a new city zone
2) fix the targeting system.
3) remove most destructible objects from the game, or at least remove them from around contacts.
4) fix the zen store, almost everything is over priced. Getting people hooked on building characters is the key to success and so I'd do make getting a new character slot plus a costume set to $10. People wouldn't even think about buying characters at that price.
5) make cut scenes skip able, if you need them to do things behind the scenes then make them skip able after a certain amount of time.
6) More missions that don't require killing every MoFo to complete. Missions that have quasi stealth options would be a nice change from the usual kill and destroy missions.
7) Nemesis missions could be more personalized, more options.
8) Expantion of the Alert system, more Burst alerts, more locations.
9) expand UNITY, with the price hikes to Silver gear and the reduction of rewards from UNITY missions they've effectively gone from the game.
-Playable nemeses(with normal HP/power, none of that boss-level Onslaught Villain crap)
-VERTICAL TORSO SLIDERS AND NECK SLIDERS
-Super Group bases and contribution system ala STO's fleet starbases
-Water & plant powersets
-Midriff costumes
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I know, I know--it's spaghetti code.
Instead, create Nemesis: The Sequel. After completing one Nemesis set of missions, simply start a new chain of missions, written with new code.
Also, update Nemesis power frameworks to match all that heroes have.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
- Add the Leave Map button to the completion of every instanced mission
Frostbiter (Freeform Ice DPS)
Battle Hazard (Unleashed AT)
Glacial Tyrant (Glacier AT)
Silver Mantra ( Freeform Single Blade DPS)
Magnetros (Freeform Heavy Weapons/Lightning Hybrid)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My characters
Improve the nemesis system. It was a big selling point when this game was introduced and could be again if some work was ever done to it.
Waist (not the hip ones that we have) sliders for female toons.
Partial masks that we can use face details with as well as more domino masks.
Shield and Plant Control Powersets..... and maybe Spear/Polearms/Staffs seeing as this is a wishlist
Customisable SG bases.
Introduce the Star*Guard to CO with new missions starting from the space station and powers that can emanate from weapons.
Newer alternative mission arcs on the whole.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
here's the previous list I collected.
according to various people the game would be great if;
it had more adult missions- MA instead of T
it had more RP zones,
all missions were skull level
-had a choice of recog/resources/gear for rewards
- had 5 times(or maybe 10) the resource rewards
- all missions were repeatable at 40 for large resource reward.
all drops taken out of the game were put back
the crafting system(which people kept saying only gave crap) was put back
-the items made by the old crafting system were put in as random drops
a Foundry was put in;
-people were able to assign rewards to those missions
-people were able to make hordes of the things missions(farm)
PVE
-we get more adventure packs with 'suitable rewards'
-we got new zones
-we got new power sets regularly
-we got new story arcs
- we got a villain side
- SCR/GCR was rewards for level 40+ missions.
-Get rid of spec trees
- make all powers what they were originally
- bump up all the low powers instead of lowering the one high power
- have lots of end game gear grind(well that person is getting their wish)
- not have a load of end game grind
- have a mixed assortment of endgame activities
- players be able to have 2 passives active at once
- All mobs should have better AI's(ok that ones valid, they are pretty stupid)
PVP
-we had open world PVP including inside buildings.
-SCR for taking part
-rampage tokens for taking part
-Q for taking part
-items in the SCR store were buyable with acclaim.
Lockboxes
- were removed
- were put back in the zen store as grab bags
- items were direct purchase from zen store
- keys dropped ingame
- Gold got to open lockboxes for free(from several DCUO players. those lockboxes are different)
Silver;
-had pet skins
-power colours
-free retcon at 40
-free slot at 40(yes someone has asked for that)
-All AT's should be free
FF slots be changed to 2500, 1500, 1000, 300 zen (yes 300 and then he might save up for it)
Vehicles;
-be removed totally
- to be made a lot cheaper
- to be customisable(a vehicle tailor)
-have better weapons
Pets;
-have better defences
-have better attacks
-have better Ai's(so they don't just stand there)
- stay out all the time
-can hold aggro
-can make your characters into sidekicks, so you can have a group of 5 of your characters.
- had a lot lower energy costs
All costume sets to be 500zen or less
Be able to make mod programs (last few lines on the post: so if anyone wanted to run with infinite questionite they could)
Nemesis
- you could have an organisation as a Nemesis
- you could use someone else's nemesis(you can, just copy it)
- you could design nemesis missions(that one actually sounded ok)
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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!
great to see so many ideas. I hope/wish they devs take some notes on how to improve things, specially those ideas that don't require a lot of time and work.
Use the Ravenwood Academy's VR sim to have maps to run. Kind of like Diablo 3's Rifts or Path of Exile's Maps, except it wouldn't be about killing all the things. We basically already have that with alerts. It would be a place for one-off mini story quests. Longer than a grab, but far shorter than APs/CSs. It could even be a place to re-live parts of previous quests, but maybe fleshed out or updated a bit to be more story slanted. No this doesn't mean cutscenes. I still think they all should just be removed from the game.
Far Harbor had a small murder mystery quest. No combat even. Well, you could choose to not go around and kill things anyway. We could say it's a way to test a hero's detective skills. It's more work than a typical alert, but no where near as much as an AP/CS. Or a map style like you see in Tomb Raider Go. It's more about getting through the map and around the traps than combat. Plus, there is a bonus for finding all of the hidden crap in a chapter. The puzzles kind of get annoying later on though. Most of that has to do with how you move Lara on the map, so shouldn't be an issue in CO.
Being a VR sim means being able to go hog wild with settings. Classic noir settings? Fury of the Dragon assets? Space missions? Cowboys? Prehistoric? Victoria setting that was never finished? All of those places could be done. Hell, the Champs lore could be used for some of the mini-stories.
In fact, all mobs could be skullified and the VR system could magically be an alternate leveling route. There could even be a daily associated with it. Run 5 maps for some bonus Q, recognition, globals, or XP.
This idea would need a great story teller and presenting dialog in a significantly more appealing way. I.E. UI updates for quests and dialog. Reading text in a classic JRPG is far more visually appealing than a typical MMO. One or two sentences of larger text at a time will actually be read, while a paragraph+ of small text will be skipped. Even the new Shadowrun games are better at presenting dialog. Part of that is having better writing than even AAA games tend to have.
Speaking of UI, it needs a massive face-lift. Slim it down. Let people remove the damn portrait frames. Bring back and enhance the raid frame. It's sad that there are better user made UIs for WoW than what we have in CO.
Adding more maps to the basic alerts would be nice too.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
Any defensive other than PFF + Aura of Radiant Protection.
Using 2 defensives at once would have to be never allowed.
Plus this sorta thing dilutes diversity.
Personally while new powersets to choose from would be nice, I would probably add more power to choose from within each powerset to allow for a little more diversity. Then add more advantages to the individual powers themselves other than the simple rank 1 and rank 2, while removing rank 1 and rank 2 options to allow more personalizing.
The story arcs in the game might actually be interesting if they weren't just walls of text. Had to tell what's pivotal and what's kill 100 rats.
Now I fully support trashing ATs (or at least leaving them in as build templates) and opening FF for everyone, but before that becomes reasonable, something has to be done about the respec system:
As a bonus, remove Rank 2/Rank 3 from all powers. All powers are now Rank 3 by default, except perhaps stacking self-buff forms, which nearly everyone leaves at Rank 1. This makes abilities look more impressive and makes them more effective at low levels. It may require giving players fewer advantages points though, which is fine since it makes advantages points seem more meaningful.
Free time machine in order to read the forums five years ago, too. You'll find little to guide you through character building around here these days, post-nerf hammer.
ATs need to be modernised so that they fit they template of what a reasonable build should be today, that's all - the lower number of powers, lack of role switching and sub-optimal specialisation choices will keep FFs on their perch.
Ignore experienced high-end players and their views on anything except content intended exclusively for high-end experienced players.
now what I would like to see is the free ATs rotation, where you could like explore with a lvl 40 everything an AT could offer, just plugging in some heirloom here and there and voalá
This is a big journey, so far if you're reading this, wish you a good day
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
I have talked to many a person on this game ranging from experienced to new person. Some are pleased with new additions, some are not. That is expected with anything. But all who I haved talked to agree on one common thing.
We want missions.
Now some will say we got that with new zone and yes there is, but let me be very specific on my description.
1) Non Alert attached (see Nighthawk event)
2) Non PvP attached
3) Non Cosmic/ Epic setting (See Telios Ascendant)
4) Non Open area that requires 50 player cap on zones (see cosmics and special events)
5) Non Rampage attached (see Vigilance)
6) Not needing to do things some people hate to get the great gear ( see Rampages for Justice and Onslaught for Onslaught gear)
7) Can do alone or a team
8) Has a plot/storyline
Now why would I ask for mundane missions? It's simple.
1) It attracts new players as well as casual players who dont have the time and/or the patience to grind and grind and grind.
2) Lately especially during cosmics i seen admitted new people confessing to have no clue what to do be reported for screwing up the cosmic run. This doenst build up community feeling nor game participation
3) Some play for the story and once Vibora Bay (if going per level building) is over their fun is done.
4) For the ones with all the gear and all the toys, a nice break so the reform of cosmics etc happen.
5) Can link other stories together either finishing or linking possible situations
This doesn't have to be limited to regualr missions. New adventure packs would be greatly appreciated.
Now I know this takes time to make the plot, set up the field and so forth. If I may, I have what seems to be a popular suggestion.
We all know the mysterious benefactor in Whiteout is Mechanon, We also know the Steel Crusade. Have Steel Crusade be the start of the secondary protocal (see ending of Whiteout) Beginning plot,: Mechanon tested the virus and goes to Canada to break out the captured alein. His soul purpose is to infect the alien. The virus mutates and takes the heroes on a mission to stop the alien and the mutated virus.
Now if that is acceptable:
:
1) add an epic/ cosmic setting to difficulty meter therefore the ones with all the toys are happy.
2) Have it bounce in zones to continue therefore those who been stuck in Ren Cen powerleveling with alerts experience the game
3 ) have it end with the final battle needing to go to space station
4) In space add vehicles needed.. A nice change of pace.
5) Have it so must do Whiteout AND Steel Crusade to get to new adventure pack. Perfect continuity setup ergo a full storyline/plot.
Thas is jut an example.
People who know the Champions lore would love a furthering and additions to it. Grinders get new thing do , Rp'ers can act out the mission. New and casual players can have soimething they can do without mutlideath and/or feeling of harrassment or pressure to do something they can't or won't do. the only area would be if people like the story or not. Again I quote the old adage, You can't please all the people all the time.
I would love to see other opinions on this. Hopefully positive and if negative please be respectful. I put a lot of effort to add all kinds of players on why it would be good.
I want better story telling in general.......Star Wars Online comes to mind.
oh god, I hope not. I couldn't stand 'Cutscenes Online.
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I don't think some of you understand my comparison to PoE. It's a game that has so much going against it and succeeded anyway. Build complexity and minimum knowledge level of that game make CO look like amateur hour. Respecing a character in PoE basically means delete and re-roll because full respecs are not even remotely feasible. Not having ATs by itself does not hurt a game's popularity. Terrible business decisions, lack of vision, and failing to make coherent plans are what hurt CO.
Dumping ATs is about giving CO proper focus to be that game about customization instead of trying to be everyone's BFF. It has nothing to do with who is or isn't a vet player.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
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!
*ok read that three times through edit* If the space section played like Starfox id play the f(*& out of that O_O
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!
There's a place for that in the game, for sure. But it's not the only thing. And that would be the thing I would want most from CO in the future - pitching things at all the various ways people want to play the game. Solo and team content, events with two Tier reward systems so that casual players get some stuff and a chance of a rare drop, but people who play the events to death get the bigger rewards. There's a sense of fairness which has gone out of the game of late - things like lockbox drops which give +1 skill increase, ffs - and it's turning people away.
But - given all the time in the world - what I would really like is....
1. A "Synergy" view in the Power Window so that when you're building you see which powers link together best; and don't get lost in the maze of which passives work with which, or which debuffs/buffs your form works on, etc, etc.
2. The ability to train for Supervillain/Q zone level battles in the Powerhouse. I hate Level40 retcons caused by dev power changes because I can't try the resulting builds out against anything resembling the actual Endgame. Even firing up a team of 5 tough villains doesn't do it... the end result is an endless cycle of irritating, expensive, tweaking.
3. Ravenswood Academy as a the hub for a "simulation" start up for new toons. Instead of being dumped into Westside you go from levels 6-10 in a series of simple intro missions, similar to the tutorial, that showcase all the zones of the game. A little more focus on training people up and whetting their appetite for the game would go nice.
4. Alternate quest givers at Ravenswood so that no matter what level in the game you are, they always have something for you to do which is immediate and level-appropriate (and which isn't an Alert).
5. Rework Unity and Rampages to give a mid-end game. Make Unity a hero guild. Move it back to Ren Cen, and make membership available at level 35. Put Unity currencies back in the game and make earning them worthwhile. Superheroes join a guild to pool resources and form ad-hoc groups to counter threats, so that's what Unity becomes; members get:
a) a range of Unity devices - premium items like heals, shields, weapons, all of which require Unity currency to use (like the Phoenix's Tear device) and one-shot devices like Backups! for special missions. Unity gear, too - moddable secondaries (distinctive rewards for completing lots of missions are never a bad thing).
b) the ability to rank up skill levels and device power through oodles of Unity currency
c) access to a public board of Unity missions - the old Unity 1/Unity 2 missions for solo players (which drop Unity currency and SCR) and "Unity Crisis Response" teams - queueable links to Sky Command/Lemurian Invasion and the current high-level Lairs, Adventure Packs and a "Vigilance" style mission to complete all the Open Missions in the game.
Finally, make Rampages a set of instanced hero team vs Single supervillian smackdowns, removing Sky Command and Lemurian Invasion from the rotation. Not trinity based, not Cosmic level, new in-game villains similar to Gravitar and F&I. Roll out a new one every 3 months over the next year; no-one cares if you re-use scenery so take those great bits of the map which aren't being used, let the Community suggest the characters, costumes and fighting style, leave the complex stuff for the Epic levels, and let the fun begin...
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
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Spectre beats Eido in an SG run: VIDEO HERE
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!
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
Instead of nerfing the rewards and xp gains, I would look into revamping the endgame so that all those lvl 40s could keep having fun.
In evaluating what endgame content to revamp I would prioritize the content that could support the maximum number of players - open world missions like cosmics - that could support entire zones full of people. I would also do lots of events to bring people back to the game and create incentives for them to participate.
I would have very limited resources so would have to very carefully plan and prioritize what gets my attention and time. I would be unable to work on a lot of the stuff I wanted to even if I knew that it should be better.
I would make tons of changes to powers and game balance because I know the game absolutely needs them to survive. Even though lots of changes would always result in lots of complaints, I would still do it because I could look at my own game's stats and see that in the long run more people are playing due to the changes.
The changes would also enable me to release new content which everyone, myself included, has been wanting.
I would revamp the tailor because it's so important to so many people. And I would even squeeze in time for small quality of life improvements in the UI.
Even though I have way way less resources than the game has had ever before, I would work really hard and release more updates and content than it's seen in years. Because I just love the game that much.
Oh wait..... that's already happened.
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Spectre beats Eido in an SG run: VIDEO HERE
But one tiny point bosskipz you missed out that you would break Bloodmoon.
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!
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
It would look awesome and add a moment of dramatic emphasis.
We need a destructible environment, the world of Champions Online is static and lifeless. Just add more debris particles like the earth power set but with environmental materials like brick, concrete, metal, glass, or burning/molten debris. to start off. If we blow up a truck , leave some tires and engine parts behind instead of poofing them out of existence. Have costume parts like guns, helmets, gloves or boots blasted off enemies as they perish instead of just flopping to the ground.
Speaking of flopping, give all the enemies a death groan of their very own and vary the sound of their death flop according to their size and the material of their costume.
Give large enemies big footstep sound effects instead of ninja stealth booties.
Include the bank and the auction house in the user interface, turn the buildings in Ren Cen into Onslaught targets or something along those lines,
Maybe a free for all fight club with a nearby respawn point instead of Mercy Hospital which is a dead dull boring location.
There is no fast access list and/or pages about the archetypes or power sets on the website, everything is buried in a blog post in the news section.
Include some kind of pre-made demo record files that people can easily insert their own characters into that allows everyone to produce something cool, like the intro to a Superhero TV show. Allow access to this feature from the launcher or character select screen.
Move a limited character editor into the web browser, get people's attention and let them RP in a chat window in the browser, get people hooked without a download and installation.
Get into the 3D printed fashion business
Yup. And it's not as if trailer music is expensive to licence, either; I can think of a few companies who would be delighted to have their trailer tracks in a game....
As for the other suggestions some of the others have made so far, one thing I noticed is some are too grandiose. It would be nice to keep things within the means of the current status of CO and the team handling things (the devs, particularly). Sweeping changes/improvements are unlikely, but gradual ones are plausible.
I know progress might come slow, but hey, if "outdated" games like Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, Cabal Online, Maple Story, Ragnarok Online, Tibia (since 1997!) can keep chugging along with updates, I'm sure CO can continue to do so as well.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Yes, it could end up being a load of crêpes.
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."
also, I agree with spinnytop, that they should resume work on already existing systems. the mechanics are already there, so it's easier. hideouts are there, why not add more to the list? a detective apartment, maybe a submarine base, etc... also the NEMESIS system! beats my mind they don't want to add to it. why not make alerts use nemesis more often? Also alerts, why not create more smash and grabs?
all these systems are already in game, it should't be too hard to just add things to them.
Also I'd really like if the devs could inform us on what's coming, like you know, they do in most other MMOs, it gives something to wait for. and know wht to expect.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
New Game Engine.
This game already has a great foundation just transition it to a new engine. IF you really want to be ground breaking.......remove levels.
Remove quests. Makes events that are constantly happening and changing requiring heros to participate. Heck let the world get outta hand when heros aren't participating requiring a larger call for heros.
While the Cosmics are what they are...........Lets have "Legendary/Cosmic" events that require all sorts of things to be completed all over the map. Boss battles require multiple groups to do multiple things/ other than attack the bap of hp.
But that's just a dream we will never see.