Why I feel Champions Online needs a rework.

Hi there I am here to talk about some things I feel things game needs reworked and why. So let me give you some back ground on my self. I am 46 years old I have been a gamer almost my entire life at the age of 6 I was gaming on commodore 64 and Atari, At age 8 I got introduced to table top rpgs one of my favorite types of gaming. Then when consoles became main stay I started with Sega master system then Nintendo or nes and have been gaming ether on console, pc, or tabletop till now. I have years of experience playing these games. I am a huge gaming fan and love most types for table top I like Shadowrun for a dystopian future type game, For fantasy Dungeons and Dragons, Champions for super hero and Star Wars for SiFi and that's only because the Buck Rogers table top has never been updated. Console games I love fighting games from Street Fighter to Marvel Vs Capcom. I also love the Super Hero games for console, the classic turn based Shadowrun games and PC I am an MMO Gamer playing many mmo's but by far Champions is my favorite Super Hero one and here is why.

You know Burt Jackson in Lower West side Central City is based on one of my favorite cult classic moves Big Trouble in Little China, Or Juryrig and his Oscillation Over thruster taken from another one of my favorite moves Buckaroo Banzai. Champions has it hero's and villains but when you can pull from other content you can create some amazing stories even if you have to alter it just like the table top my old champions table top character was based on a classic comic version of the TMNT or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle character were they wore red bandana's not blue and so further but was Raphael and you know why I could make him. Champions Online does this so well its like bringing table top to the virtual space.
So why do I think Champions Online needs a rework on alot of the systems in the game are just old and out dated. Combats cluncky, storys and questing is super out dated for this day and age, leveling and gearing is just bleh, and the world is not used hardly by anyone other then to get to level 10 to open alerts. Other then that the graphics and world design is not bad in fact its some of the best parts of the game and feel very comic book along with the character design system its strongest aspect. See with a little bit of change this game could be a great Super Hero game no pun intended.

So how do you fix all the things I listed. Well combat needs to be updated to fit this day and age and just changed to be action combat. A mix of fighting game with powers to use DCUO/DC Universe Only did a great just with it but it felt like to much and hard to learn for many. ESO/Elder Scrolls Online did an ok Job with the mix of skill and light attack weaving but got to many people playing the same combo rotation it was boring. So I think a good way to do it is a mix of both those with the energy building this game uses would work wonders and create a fast and fluid combat system that uses energy building in-between skill use allowing players to create there own rotations no matter there role giving you that epic feel of being like Superman using your brawling to build up energy to use your heat vision then combo again to build energy to use my haymaker to hit multiple enemies in the fight. See a fast and fluid combat system that feels good has smooth blocking with a dodge and sprinit feature can make combat more fun and engaging.

So to do this combat rework you would have to create a system were they energy builder was a one button press repeated or charged by holding with a tool bar for skills that use the power much like the game is today but it would be more action involved. This new system would create a two part choice in character builds were you choose an energy builder or fighting style. This would be dual swords to energy blasts and would listed as melee and ranged fighting styles. And then your power set your power set would be Magic, Summoning, Super strength and so on. Power sets would have 3 skill line Damage, Control and Support.

Control Skills: Are skills that have ether a negative debuff, stun or knock up/back types of skills.

Damage skills: Do damage ether single target or area of effect and that includes damage over time.

Support skills: group buffs and heals that can be like damage single target or area of affect with some having over time effects as well.

Each power set will have 5 skills per line with 4 of the skills being regular powers and one being an ultimate skill. All skills use a certain amount of energy but ultimate's you have to build through using combos and once its maxed out you can use your ultimate power.
Energy builders also have a skill line with 4 skills and an ultimate. All these skills will have ether damage control or support effect depending on the fighting style you pick.

All these skills are unlocked at level one so you do not have to unlock the skills as you progress instead you level skills with ranks that would work similar to gear systems work they start of base at white then at rank 2 they become green in strength and then blue, purple and then gold. Pretty much like this.

Rank one beginner
Rank two novice
Rank three expert
Rank four master
Rank 5 champion

Each of your skills will have to be leveled up by playing the game and with each rank your skills grow in effect but not by huge amounts but like 2% per stage and at max rank they are 10% stronger then they were this is to make your character play in any content easier from the start which I will explain later why. Also all skills do damage with an effect related to what role the skill is attached to making them work all around.

Now your wondering his talked about skills that are active what about passive skills well they come through specialization and all players have the same ones and they are listed as such damage, control, support and Champion. So just like your other skill lines your specialization passives are only active when your in that specialization role of damage, control and support and these passives are the same for every one no matter what and these rank up like skills but the whole line does based on the role you play so if your playing control your passives affect your control skills making them stronger and same with the other role specialization lines. What about champion this unlocks when you get all your skills and specializations all to rank champion and then your character only has one role that of a true champion making all specializations open with out the need to set as a role.

Now many are wondering what about the roles of the trinity like tank, healer, damage dealer. Well one your a super hero there is no tank, healer or damage dealers in Super hero games no just kidding this is were gear comes into play in the form of Augments. Like now you will have 6 gear slots 2 offence, 2 defense, and 2 utility slots and will become augment slots and will work more like this.

Offence slots = damage increase
Defense slots = defense and control increase
utility slots = support increase
And each augment will haves the 3 roles of damage control and support types attached to it. So to explain here is an example.
Tank = Controller role
Damage dealer = damage role
Healer = Support role

But once at champion specialization role its your gear that sets you to your role of the trinity from Tank, Healer and Damage Dealer get filled. Augments will have a set type of enhancements on them from crit chance to crit severity on offence and on defense you have defense and control with utility having healing increase. But augments also come in types with damage type which has other increase to things like skill damage or fighting style damage increases. The same works for control and support they will effect your stuns and debuffs for control and you the effects of your heals and buffs.

Augments will have a quality system to them like they do now but all augments drop in white in the game do to how the augment upgrades work. The way that works is you will have to find the augments you want to use on your character in the role you want then find more to deconstruct to get the materials needed to upgrade it. When you deconstruct a piece of gear you get 3 items a augment frame this just says were its for next is the enhancement and then the material. The way you upgrade you gear is you will go to a augment station in the game and it will have 4 options in what you can do upgrade frame, upgrade enhancement and upgrade material. it will take a certain amount of each thing to upgrade to the next level so frames will take 4 what frames to make a green frame and then 6 green fames to make a blue frame and so on. So every upgrade takes a certain number of things to make an upgrade to it then the final option is make augment which takes the 3 items to make an augment and all players can do this to get the gear in the role and slots they want. Each augment has a primary slot and a secondary slot. Primary offers more from its enhancements then the secondary one does.

What all this does is makes leveling a none thing cause everything works off a quality system, skills rank up through use and gear is upgraded through quality meaning no levels needed its all there just done a different way. Now I know many are wondering about stats well that's built into the underlying stuff I mentioned already with all the roles and gear so here is a simple break down.

Controller role: Any one built for control with skills and gear depending on all your enhancements get a treat generation for every thing you do along with your controlling skill debuffs and control effects.

Damage role: Anyone built for this role gets greater damage increases in everything you do.

Support role: Anyone built for this role gets greater support effects allowing greater healing and buffs effects.

See when I said were Super hero's we are not tanks, healers or damage dealers we are all though things in one but we specialize to be a one with all the above still in our tool kit so we are hybrids when we are Champions.

Content in this game is so out of wak its like its there but no one really does it cause there's no reason. This is mainly story/overland content and pvp so what needs to be done to fix this. Well first off the story content needs a complete rework kill quests and fetch quests are a thing off the past story and fun is where it is today. And players want to be villains that's true so why not add that cause it can make for some fun times in the game adding a new element called domination. Make the nemesis system worth while not just a one shot thing. So what do I think this game needs reworked in PvE and PvP well all the things above and I will start with PvE.

PvE content is the staple of a game its were the story, the fun side missions, boss encounters and all that happens. Well how do we fix the problem by making more of it. First fix the tutorial to have both a hero and villain side and to do this they are working together cause there's a new danger in the world and that's your nemesis. So in the tutorial it will play out with you training to use your fighting style and powers to give you a good understanding of each of its roles and how things upgrade with skills. After that your nemesis attacks and you have to fight off there henchmen and them to get to the other stories. So that's the start now you go to your respective leader ether Defender for Hero's or Doctor Destroyer for villains who will offer you a host of areas to start fighting against your nemesis.

As mentioned above levels do not exist so the world is completely open to you after you complete the tutorial making the world an open ended game.

Each location they offer have the same instanced quests but with hero or villain stories. These locations will have a person who runs the missions at the start of that area for both hero and villain. Every location comes with a 3 comic adventures that tell a different story with different hero's or villains you fight based on what side you play on as a way to introduce you to the villains and hero's of the game with a 4th comic adventure opening up after you complete the other ones this leads you to a lair of a major enemy in the story. There will also be side missions you can pick up or you can do what's called terminal missions.

Side missions are what they sound like they are missions you can do on the side of the comic stories giving you something to do. These are missions you find in the world and can happen like they do now at random. These could be recover the stolen art work which has you go to areas to fight certain enemies to get and item that takes you to a fight against a mini boss. Side missions happen in the open world.
Mission terminals offer missions that are like alerts are now but there instanced based missions that in stead of fighting a main villain or hero they have you fight what's called a champion at the end this is like a elite henchman. These can range from ware house robbery to bank heist and so on.
Alerts are going to change as well and become a world boss encounter and there not instanced so what ever location your in an alert can happen were ether a super villain or Super Hero of that area shows up or one of there second in command will show up and you have to fight them.
All 3 of these things mentioned above are on a rotating random generator for that location so side missions can happen any were at any time but are rotating the mission terminals work the same and so do the alerts. All these can be done solo or with a group and this includes the comic story's as well. Alerts its recommended you have a full group for and easier fight.

No what about instances and raids and such like most mmo's have well these are getting updated as well. You will now have epic encounters and lairs. Epic encounters will be your dungeons while lair's are your raids. Remember the 3 comics you played well the last part of each one becomes the epic encounter and the lair you go to in the last comic become your raids. Each epic encounter rewards you with a chest that offers gear related to the difficulty you do. Difficulty modes are laid out with story being the comic story, this unlocks Normal mode in your group finder and other difficulty's open when you have all your skills and gear at certain levels. So here is an example of difficulty and rewards.

Story mode offers you white and green gear.
Normal requires you to beat the story mode first then the rewards offered you are green and blue gear.
Veteran offers you blue and purple gear.
Champion offers you purple and gold gear.

The others require you to be at or above a certain power level that is based off your skill and specialization ranks to play veteran and champion level difficulty's.

Now is were things get weird cause you here all this and wonder with out levels how do enemies get harder to fight. Well let me explain enemies in the game will have a flat scale to them based on the content your doing. Story content is there to be fun so the overland enemies have a flat difficulty to them but will come in 5 forms of enemy ranks. Then in the epic encounters and lairs they get boosted up in power by a certain percentage to be more in line to your power giving you a challenge rank to do more challenging content.

And now lets talk about the only part of the game both hero's and villains truly fight together in PvE and that is the Cosmic encounters and would work much like they do now except they can happen on any map and have a rotating cosmic encounter enemies starting with like 5 with more to be added over time.

Moving onto PvP now you know the alert that has you fight in the arena in the horde made thing that is the new pvp arena system called the Galactic Games in this there will be different arenas from all over the world and universe that offer 3 game modes deathmatch, capture the Flag and keep away with 2 teams of four mixed both hero's and villains. The Galactic Games will also have PvE modes as well. With a horde mode and a galactic champion mode were 4 players fight against a galactic champion at random.

Now a mode I mentioned above is called Domination. What this is is a PvPvE mode of game play. So mission terminals will also offer domination missions for the location there in and this will allow ether hero or villains a way to fight for control of a zone on the map. Like Central city will have 6 zones your side can fight for control of and these missions will be both PvE and PvP with one mode being PvPvE. The PvE missions are called camp clean outs so in every location we have onslaught which has camps through out the map these camps will now have ether hero or villain's in them and in the camp clean out each team can do a daily to clear out camps of enemies from the opposing side. Then there is a PvP mission called bounty hunter and this is you hunting down a known PvPer in the area for a bounty. Then there is the PvPvE mode called Capture and Control so each side has a quest hub and that quest hub can be captured and controlled by ether hero's or villains for a certain amount of time and anyone who enters that area gets there PvP flag turned on. These modes allow each side hero or villain to earn points for there side and after 30 days the side with the most points gains control of that area of the map this then gives that side a bonus to all exp earned, higher drop rate on gear and currency earned for the next 30 days. This is just an example and times for the capture of an area could be more or less.

Another type of PvP mode includes League vs League or super group vs super group called invasion. What this does is it allows you to raid another super groups hall. and is an 8v8 pvp mode. This is a hero vs villain fight and the winner gets a reward chest at the end with gear and money.
Another thing that I feel need to change is the guild system other then playing with other it need to offer more and this is were hero halls and villain halls come into play much like the hidout system which I think also needs a rework. The halls will have certain things to them that have to be upgraded over time by the guild. This gives guilds a way to builds bonds and friend ships by doing activities that play into there reward of upgrading the hall.

The Hideout system is cool but it need to be part of the game not a cash shop item you can have some in there but not all. Make it something you get when you complete the tutorial a reward for your help in that fight.

Now lets talk about the one thing that this game does and no other does the nemesis system this is an enemy that should have more propose and that is why I said above they need to be the evil mastermind behind everything working the strings and should also be the main villian for a majority of a players story. Now they are not always going to be pulling the strings or will they????

But truth be told I am just a fan of gaming I love running around in games and stuff and my biggest complaint with most mmo's is never being able to really play with my friends and family and guild mates in the games we play to do that in cause we are always super separated do to time to play. Alot of the things above in my opinion make the game more fun and enjoyable and the power gap between a new player and veteran player should not be 500% but more like 20% to 25% So this way everyone no matter there power level can enjoy the game together and having fun and that's what I see with this idea is fun and engaging stuff for players to do and many will agree this game needs ether a sequel or needs a rework of old systems and this does that well. Now I am not saying I will quit the game but I will be more likely to look at other mmo's if they have a better experience to have and its one of the reasons so many of us play like 5 mmo's at a time. Well at least I do. So tell me your thoughts on this and there is more I would like to see done but who knows.