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Hey fellow CoH expats: my experience so far...
grifvindh
Posts: 53 Arc User
I thought those of you coming from CoH curious about this game might like the point of view of another CoH'er, so I'm posting this. To give you all some perspective: I've played CoH since wave 3 of beta, and had never tried Champions Online before. So this game is pretty much a blank slate to me. The TL;DR version is after playing for two days I decided I liked the game enough to take advantage of the three month gold membership special.
NOTE: THESE ARE MY OPINIONS ONLY. I'm not claiming you'll have the same ones. I just think you might find the impressions useful while you make your own decisions.
The longer version:
The User Interface
Overall I like the CoH interface better. I'm assuming for the moment that it's because it's what I'm more familiar with... but I've found it frustrating to interact with.
There are some things I like. I like how the missions are always displayed on the right-hand column of the screen. I like how it provides access to a number of different character screens from within the map. I like that the target reticles are pretty similar to CoH -- in that case the transition was practically seamless. (one thing I like about the target reticles that CoH didn't have--or if it had it, I never noticed--was that when you target an enemy, it will display who it is targeting. Sometimes it's you, sometimes it's someone else. That's a cool feature.)
One great source of UI frustration is that there is only one tabbed chat window. In CoH I liked to have a few different windows either side by side or stacked on top of each other--so I could keep track of combat, NPC dialog, etc. without having to tab between them. I can't figure out how to do this in CO.
One thing I don't like is use of the Comic Sans font for everything. I understand why they do it--to make it look like a comic book. But comic book lettering is always displayed in all caps, and they use mixed case throughout the game which I don't like. Also, the speech bubbles they use for dialog could really use a little padding around the edges so the words don't run into the borders.
Anyway, fonts are a matter of taste, and the way they've implemented Comic Sans throughout isn't to my taste. But it's far from a deal-breaker.
In order to modify the UI in CO at all you have to press the F12 button, then the screen switches to outlines of the UI elements that you can drag and place wherever you need. However, since you can't always see the element it's describing, it's probably easier to leave it be for a while.
This is not a huge deal though. I like the UI in CoH more, but I don't really hate the UI in CO at all. It's just new and it feels a little less flexible, but it's not unplayable by any means. My only real complaint is that I really do want to separate all the tabs in the chat window into their own windows. That may even be possible, but there isn't any documentation on it so I'm assuming it won't work for right now.
Bind
The only claim to fame I have in CoH (and it's very fleeting fame) is that when the game started I published a user guide on the /bind command ("The Wholly Unofficial and Fairly Incomplete Guide to /bind") on the CoH forums. If you were used to using /bind to optimize your gaming experience, you'll be happy to know that /bind exists in CO as well. This makes sense. Both games were designed by the same people. Looking through the /bind documentation they have in these forums, it looks like /bind might be a little more robust in CO than it is in CoH, but I was never interested in doing any of the really complicated stuff so I haven't looked into it further.
Graphics
Graphics in CO are better. They're also specifically designed to look more comic bookish, which you might find disconcerting. There's a setting in the extended video controls that allows you to turn off the thick black outline around everything that will help with that. Still there are one or two things in the game that are uncanny valley creepy. For example! Scrapper Jack's eyes. Good Lord, his eyes. The default eyes on your character are huge and they blink and it CREEPS ME OUT. I couldn't find a setting to actually make the eyes smaller, so I gave him sunglasses. Overall I would compare the cartoonish style to World of ********, but shinier and more detailed, and with the advantage that Cryptic did not hire Rob Liefield to do their character designs.
The Costume Creator
So... the costume creator. I've seen some people with experience in both games complain that CO's costume creator isn't as good as the CoH one. I'm going to disagree with that overall, but I will say that there are things I prefer about both.
When you first create a character you will find the costume creator underwhelming. That's because they've locked out a lot of the options until you get your first character through the tutorial and perhaps to level 10. Once that happens, the full costume creator unlocks and you can see all the options.
So here's a basic comparison between the two:
CO has more costume areas that can be modified. CoH has more options for each of the areas it has. But only sort of--CO has different sub-categories that can modify a base object to look different, so it's a little deceptive and occasionally frustrating to set up your choices. But CoH had 8 years to build up its costume slots and add different things to them, so it ultimately just has more stuff. I'm particularly frustrated by the lack of boots. I can't find a decent motorcycle boot.
Also, a lot of the content you might want won't be accessible unless you either get a gold account or pay for it with Zen, which is the virtual money that all Perfect World games use.
Now, all that said, my ultimate feeling is that CO's costume creator is fine. It's main disadvantage is that it only has three years worth of content instead of eight. And it's not really fair to expect a three year game to have eight years of content.
Character Creation
First... you will never have to worry about whether or not a name is taken ever again.
Here's why. The name you choose will be the name people see floating above your character. So I named my Behemoth "Scrapper Jack," and when people see me in game they see "Scrapper Jack" floating above my character. But the full name is the hero name I chose PLUS my forum name, so... "Scrapper Jack@grifvindh".
So your name is ALWAYS unique to you. So if "Blue Dervish" is already taken, I can still use it, because "Blue Dervish@grifvindh" can only be taken by me.
This is utterly fantastic. Though potentially awkward in raids.
If you've ever played the Champions Pen and Paper game, throw all that information away now! CO is not a points-based character creation system where you buy powers, perks and disadvantages. It does seem pretty robust, though.
The default way to make a character is to choose an archetype, which is similar to CoH. But whereas AT's in CoH meant Tanker, Scrapper, Brute, Defender, etc., AT's in CO mean something else. CO has basic roles (tanking, melee, ranged, support, etc.) and AT's are specific implementations in those roles. For example, the Behemoth is your straight-up superstrength/inv tanker (and I think tankers in CO are closer to Brutes in CoH than anything else). The Specialist is a hybrid class that is higher damage but not as durable. If you choose an AT you get a simple progression of powers... there are only a few instances where you have to choose between two powers as you progress. However, you also get the chance to modify those powers by choosing "special effects" that can either raise damage output, or increase energy generation, or stun effects, etc. So an individual power can work differently among different characters.
The alternate way is to make a "freeform" character. You create a character and then you choose from every. power. in. the. game.
This is incredibly cool, but I haven't tried it yet... because you can really screw things up by choosing powers that work in diametrically opposed ways, depend on stats that don't work together well, etc. With great power comes enormous potential to create an unplayable concept and all that. So I'm saving that for later.
If you're playing at the silver level you don't get access to all the ATs and you can't create Freeform characters. You can buy a freeform slot with zen, and you might be able to purchase the ATs as well.
Travel Powers
You get your first travel power after the tutorial. You do this by teleporting into the trainer/costume area and talking to one of the trainers. This is important: nothing you select in that area is permanent until you teleport out. This means you can select a travel power, play with it for a bit, then talk to a trainer and undo your choice and choose another one to see if you like it better. Which is cool. (Later on in the game if you want to undo your choices you have to purchase the CO version of a respec which is called a "retcon" -- which for the record, I think is HILARIOUS.)
CO has more choices in the travel power department, and apparently you can have two different travel powers in game (I don't know when you're eligible to get your second, but the keybinds interface has a slot for "alternate travel power"). CoH had flight, superspeed, superjump, and teleport. CO has flight, running, swinging, superspeed, and tunneling to start with (I don't think teleport is available at the beginning). It also has a few different variations of each (you can choose different kinds of flight and running and tunneling that use different animations). It also has a hybrid of super jump and running (you don't run as fast, or jump as high, but get a bit of both) in two forms called 'acrobatics' and 'athletics.'
There is also a grayed out section that I guess has travel powers that are unlocked later in the game. I know nothing about them.
"That's fine," you say, "but what are the movement powers like?"
Well, they're OK. The superjump power is fun outdoors but kind of useless on an indoor map because you keep getting caught on the ceiling. The Acrobatics and Athletics powers are pretty generally useful in moving around and they look cool but they won't help you get to the top of a building particularly fast. The flight power is a flight power. Flight is fun. It doesn't feel as slow as the CoH version did. There are specific implementations of flight (hover disk, rocket boots) that are quite interesting.
Gameplay
I can't describe the entire game to you, just the stuff I saw. So here's what I saw.
I started out deciding to make a Behemoth. My general rule of thumb for playing a new game is "start with a tank!" because that way you get to stay alive long enough to nose around, explore, make mistakes...
... I forgot that CO and CoH were both originally designed by the same group, and the original Tanker design is "you start squishy until you hit the tipping point." Also there are some new game mechanics that I hadn't really figured out (specifically blocking. I sort of get it now, but I really don't like it.) So because I didn't really understand how blocking worked, I wound up dying over and over and over again in the tutorial, lost all those star things, and got a lot of messages about how convenient it would be for me to refill my stars, if only I had the zen.
By the time I finished the tutorial I was really tired of listening to the arch villain gloat about how the alien invasion was only a diversion as he killed me. A lot. But I did finally make it through, found Kodiak and started fighting gangs.
A quick browse through the forums gave me the idea that the storylines in CO were, on the whole, cheesy. And that's not exactly wrong, but I have to say that as far as things go they aren't BAD. Long-time CoH players will remember that the original story arcs in Atlas Park and Galaxy City were not terribly inspiring... and these are actually better than that. They are more obviously cartoonish, but they put you in the mix of things going on in the city and there is an actual arc to the story that goes beyond "go to these five places and fight everything and click on a few glowies as well). Right off the bat you get thrown into a story arc where you wind up having to save everyone in the city from being turned into a drooling vegetable. Yes, it's over-the-top and cartoony, but I think the comparisons people have been making between the two games are unfair so far.
Anyway, back to my Behemoth. Scrapper Jack was... having problems. He died, and died, and died died died. Some of this was not my fault, since I'm having stability issues... the game likes to disconnect from the server in the middle of fights, and twenty seconds later poor Jack would get thousands of red numbers over his head and then I'd get that cheerful message telling me I was running low on stars, and wouldn't it be great if I had the zen to refill them to get those combat bonuses?
Then I hit level 8 and got Defiance. At roughly the same time I started to figure out how to use Block in a fight.
MAN, what a difference that made. Suddenly Scrapper Jack was a tank, and he stopped dying. That's when I noticed that my tank in this game was taking down villains much faster than any of my tanks would in CoH. I thought to myself "you know, usually the tradeoff for a tank in an online game is that you get greater survivability but your damage output is significantly lower. But this really doesn't seem that bad. So what gives?"
(I found out what gives after I created my Specialist.)
I gotta say, as long as the server doesn't cut out in the middle of a fight, combat is really amazingly fun. I suspect Behemoths are one of the simpler classes to play but even with only three or four attacks it's fun to watch him fight. The animations are extraordinarily well done, and it really looks like Jack is wading in and slugging it out as he goes along.
So after upgrading to gold I created a Specialist, just to see what that was like. Two guns and two swords looked fun. So I created Curveball and had him skip the tutorial (I may delete him and re-create him to put him through the tutorial just to get the perks) and started going through the same content, thinking "OK, tank damage didn't really seem so bad, let's see what Specialist damage is like."
Holy. Cow. Things fell before I had time to switch back to the energy building attack. (as an aside, that will make it difficult to build energy in larger fights, I think.) I started to wonder why the Specialist even bothered to use guns when your third attack is an AOE power that decimates pretty much everyone around you. Curveball was definitely squishier though. At the end of every fight I'd be getting the red pulsing screen, though I never faceplanted unless I got one of those glorious server disconnects in the middle of a fight.
Overall, the game feels like it moves pretty fast. Individual fights are over fast enough that I didn't really feel like I was grinding, even on the equivalent of the "go. kill skulls." missions.
Conclusion
I don't know how useful an overview this was for you. I've only been playing since Saturday night (since it took me... um... a long time to download everything and install it.) but when the server isn't disconnecting and I'm not rubberbanding I found the experience really fun. Whether it stays fun depends on a number of factors I can't control right now, like whether or not I can start teaming, whether or not I can resolve the technical issues that are plaguing me... but overall I had enough fun in the time I spent in game to take the leap and pay for it.
Keep in mind that this isn't City of Heroes. If you come in here demanding it to be CoH, you're going to be disappointed. This is a game that shares a common history with CoH and there are some elements that are so close to it that you'll find the transition a little awkward, but it has, in my opinion, plenty of good things about it on its own merits that you should give it a chance.
Hope this was helpful to someone. Feel free to jump in and reply however you like.
NOTE: THESE ARE MY OPINIONS ONLY. I'm not claiming you'll have the same ones. I just think you might find the impressions useful while you make your own decisions.
The longer version:
The User Interface
Overall I like the CoH interface better. I'm assuming for the moment that it's because it's what I'm more familiar with... but I've found it frustrating to interact with.
There are some things I like. I like how the missions are always displayed on the right-hand column of the screen. I like how it provides access to a number of different character screens from within the map. I like that the target reticles are pretty similar to CoH -- in that case the transition was practically seamless. (one thing I like about the target reticles that CoH didn't have--or if it had it, I never noticed--was that when you target an enemy, it will display who it is targeting. Sometimes it's you, sometimes it's someone else. That's a cool feature.)
One great source of UI frustration is that there is only one tabbed chat window. In CoH I liked to have a few different windows either side by side or stacked on top of each other--so I could keep track of combat, NPC dialog, etc. without having to tab between them. I can't figure out how to do this in CO.
One thing I don't like is use of the Comic Sans font for everything. I understand why they do it--to make it look like a comic book. But comic book lettering is always displayed in all caps, and they use mixed case throughout the game which I don't like. Also, the speech bubbles they use for dialog could really use a little padding around the edges so the words don't run into the borders.
Anyway, fonts are a matter of taste, and the way they've implemented Comic Sans throughout isn't to my taste. But it's far from a deal-breaker.
In order to modify the UI in CO at all you have to press the F12 button, then the screen switches to outlines of the UI elements that you can drag and place wherever you need. However, since you can't always see the element it's describing, it's probably easier to leave it be for a while.
This is not a huge deal though. I like the UI in CoH more, but I don't really hate the UI in CO at all. It's just new and it feels a little less flexible, but it's not unplayable by any means. My only real complaint is that I really do want to separate all the tabs in the chat window into their own windows. That may even be possible, but there isn't any documentation on it so I'm assuming it won't work for right now.
Bind
The only claim to fame I have in CoH (and it's very fleeting fame) is that when the game started I published a user guide on the /bind command ("The Wholly Unofficial and Fairly Incomplete Guide to /bind") on the CoH forums. If you were used to using /bind to optimize your gaming experience, you'll be happy to know that /bind exists in CO as well. This makes sense. Both games were designed by the same people. Looking through the /bind documentation they have in these forums, it looks like /bind might be a little more robust in CO than it is in CoH, but I was never interested in doing any of the really complicated stuff so I haven't looked into it further.
Graphics
Graphics in CO are better. They're also specifically designed to look more comic bookish, which you might find disconcerting. There's a setting in the extended video controls that allows you to turn off the thick black outline around everything that will help with that. Still there are one or two things in the game that are uncanny valley creepy. For example! Scrapper Jack's eyes. Good Lord, his eyes. The default eyes on your character are huge and they blink and it CREEPS ME OUT. I couldn't find a setting to actually make the eyes smaller, so I gave him sunglasses. Overall I would compare the cartoonish style to World of ********, but shinier and more detailed, and with the advantage that Cryptic did not hire Rob Liefield to do their character designs.
The Costume Creator
So... the costume creator. I've seen some people with experience in both games complain that CO's costume creator isn't as good as the CoH one. I'm going to disagree with that overall, but I will say that there are things I prefer about both.
When you first create a character you will find the costume creator underwhelming. That's because they've locked out a lot of the options until you get your first character through the tutorial and perhaps to level 10. Once that happens, the full costume creator unlocks and you can see all the options.
So here's a basic comparison between the two:
CO has more costume areas that can be modified. CoH has more options for each of the areas it has. But only sort of--CO has different sub-categories that can modify a base object to look different, so it's a little deceptive and occasionally frustrating to set up your choices. But CoH had 8 years to build up its costume slots and add different things to them, so it ultimately just has more stuff. I'm particularly frustrated by the lack of boots. I can't find a decent motorcycle boot.
Also, a lot of the content you might want won't be accessible unless you either get a gold account or pay for it with Zen, which is the virtual money that all Perfect World games use.
Now, all that said, my ultimate feeling is that CO's costume creator is fine. It's main disadvantage is that it only has three years worth of content instead of eight. And it's not really fair to expect a three year game to have eight years of content.
Character Creation
First... you will never have to worry about whether or not a name is taken ever again.
Here's why. The name you choose will be the name people see floating above your character. So I named my Behemoth "Scrapper Jack," and when people see me in game they see "Scrapper Jack" floating above my character. But the full name is the hero name I chose PLUS my forum name, so... "Scrapper Jack@grifvindh".
So your name is ALWAYS unique to you. So if "Blue Dervish" is already taken, I can still use it, because "Blue Dervish@grifvindh" can only be taken by me.
This is utterly fantastic. Though potentially awkward in raids.
If you've ever played the Champions Pen and Paper game, throw all that information away now! CO is not a points-based character creation system where you buy powers, perks and disadvantages. It does seem pretty robust, though.
The default way to make a character is to choose an archetype, which is similar to CoH. But whereas AT's in CoH meant Tanker, Scrapper, Brute, Defender, etc., AT's in CO mean something else. CO has basic roles (tanking, melee, ranged, support, etc.) and AT's are specific implementations in those roles. For example, the Behemoth is your straight-up superstrength/inv tanker (and I think tankers in CO are closer to Brutes in CoH than anything else). The Specialist is a hybrid class that is higher damage but not as durable. If you choose an AT you get a simple progression of powers... there are only a few instances where you have to choose between two powers as you progress. However, you also get the chance to modify those powers by choosing "special effects" that can either raise damage output, or increase energy generation, or stun effects, etc. So an individual power can work differently among different characters.
The alternate way is to make a "freeform" character. You create a character and then you choose from every. power. in. the. game.
This is incredibly cool, but I haven't tried it yet... because you can really screw things up by choosing powers that work in diametrically opposed ways, depend on stats that don't work together well, etc. With great power comes enormous potential to create an unplayable concept and all that. So I'm saving that for later.
If you're playing at the silver level you don't get access to all the ATs and you can't create Freeform characters. You can buy a freeform slot with zen, and you might be able to purchase the ATs as well.
Travel Powers
You get your first travel power after the tutorial. You do this by teleporting into the trainer/costume area and talking to one of the trainers. This is important: nothing you select in that area is permanent until you teleport out. This means you can select a travel power, play with it for a bit, then talk to a trainer and undo your choice and choose another one to see if you like it better. Which is cool. (Later on in the game if you want to undo your choices you have to purchase the CO version of a respec which is called a "retcon" -- which for the record, I think is HILARIOUS.)
CO has more choices in the travel power department, and apparently you can have two different travel powers in game (I don't know when you're eligible to get your second, but the keybinds interface has a slot for "alternate travel power"). CoH had flight, superspeed, superjump, and teleport. CO has flight, running, swinging, superspeed, and tunneling to start with (I don't think teleport is available at the beginning). It also has a few different variations of each (you can choose different kinds of flight and running and tunneling that use different animations). It also has a hybrid of super jump and running (you don't run as fast, or jump as high, but get a bit of both) in two forms called 'acrobatics' and 'athletics.'
There is also a grayed out section that I guess has travel powers that are unlocked later in the game. I know nothing about them.
"That's fine," you say, "but what are the movement powers like?"
Well, they're OK. The superjump power is fun outdoors but kind of useless on an indoor map because you keep getting caught on the ceiling. The Acrobatics and Athletics powers are pretty generally useful in moving around and they look cool but they won't help you get to the top of a building particularly fast. The flight power is a flight power. Flight is fun. It doesn't feel as slow as the CoH version did. There are specific implementations of flight (hover disk, rocket boots) that are quite interesting.
Gameplay
I can't describe the entire game to you, just the stuff I saw. So here's what I saw.
I started out deciding to make a Behemoth. My general rule of thumb for playing a new game is "start with a tank!" because that way you get to stay alive long enough to nose around, explore, make mistakes...
... I forgot that CO and CoH were both originally designed by the same group, and the original Tanker design is "you start squishy until you hit the tipping point." Also there are some new game mechanics that I hadn't really figured out (specifically blocking. I sort of get it now, but I really don't like it.) So because I didn't really understand how blocking worked, I wound up dying over and over and over again in the tutorial, lost all those star things, and got a lot of messages about how convenient it would be for me to refill my stars, if only I had the zen.
By the time I finished the tutorial I was really tired of listening to the arch villain gloat about how the alien invasion was only a diversion as he killed me. A lot. But I did finally make it through, found Kodiak and started fighting gangs.
A quick browse through the forums gave me the idea that the storylines in CO were, on the whole, cheesy. And that's not exactly wrong, but I have to say that as far as things go they aren't BAD. Long-time CoH players will remember that the original story arcs in Atlas Park and Galaxy City were not terribly inspiring... and these are actually better than that. They are more obviously cartoonish, but they put you in the mix of things going on in the city and there is an actual arc to the story that goes beyond "go to these five places and fight everything and click on a few glowies as well). Right off the bat you get thrown into a story arc where you wind up having to save everyone in the city from being turned into a drooling vegetable. Yes, it's over-the-top and cartoony, but I think the comparisons people have been making between the two games are unfair so far.
Anyway, back to my Behemoth. Scrapper Jack was... having problems. He died, and died, and died died died. Some of this was not my fault, since I'm having stability issues... the game likes to disconnect from the server in the middle of fights, and twenty seconds later poor Jack would get thousands of red numbers over his head and then I'd get that cheerful message telling me I was running low on stars, and wouldn't it be great if I had the zen to refill them to get those combat bonuses?
Then I hit level 8 and got Defiance. At roughly the same time I started to figure out how to use Block in a fight.
MAN, what a difference that made. Suddenly Scrapper Jack was a tank, and he stopped dying. That's when I noticed that my tank in this game was taking down villains much faster than any of my tanks would in CoH. I thought to myself "you know, usually the tradeoff for a tank in an online game is that you get greater survivability but your damage output is significantly lower. But this really doesn't seem that bad. So what gives?"
(I found out what gives after I created my Specialist.)
I gotta say, as long as the server doesn't cut out in the middle of a fight, combat is really amazingly fun. I suspect Behemoths are one of the simpler classes to play but even with only three or four attacks it's fun to watch him fight. The animations are extraordinarily well done, and it really looks like Jack is wading in and slugging it out as he goes along.
So after upgrading to gold I created a Specialist, just to see what that was like. Two guns and two swords looked fun. So I created Curveball and had him skip the tutorial (I may delete him and re-create him to put him through the tutorial just to get the perks) and started going through the same content, thinking "OK, tank damage didn't really seem so bad, let's see what Specialist damage is like."
Holy. Cow. Things fell before I had time to switch back to the energy building attack. (as an aside, that will make it difficult to build energy in larger fights, I think.) I started to wonder why the Specialist even bothered to use guns when your third attack is an AOE power that decimates pretty much everyone around you. Curveball was definitely squishier though. At the end of every fight I'd be getting the red pulsing screen, though I never faceplanted unless I got one of those glorious server disconnects in the middle of a fight.
Overall, the game feels like it moves pretty fast. Individual fights are over fast enough that I didn't really feel like I was grinding, even on the equivalent of the "go. kill skulls." missions.
Conclusion
I don't know how useful an overview this was for you. I've only been playing since Saturday night (since it took me... um... a long time to download everything and install it.) but when the server isn't disconnecting and I'm not rubberbanding I found the experience really fun. Whether it stays fun depends on a number of factors I can't control right now, like whether or not I can start teaming, whether or not I can resolve the technical issues that are plaguing me... but overall I had enough fun in the time I spent in game to take the leap and pay for it.
Keep in mind that this isn't City of Heroes. If you come in here demanding it to be CoH, you're going to be disappointed. This is a game that shares a common history with CoH and there are some elements that are so close to it that you'll find the transition a little awkward, but it has, in my opinion, plenty of good things about it on its own merits that you should give it a chance.
Hope this was helpful to someone. Feel free to jump in and reply however you like.
I was @Curveball in City of Heroes.
Post edited by grifvindh on
0
Comments
I have to say that the sliders are one of my favorite features so far about the game is that single thing. I made sure on my first character to play with them as much as possible. Probably won't go so overboard next time!
Heroic Roleplayer @epelesker | PRIMUS Database Moderator | Brigade Advocate
Tailor, second to last tab adjusts sliders for things, click 'show face sliders.'
Eye size is covered by the scale named 'Eyes' in the middle upper bit. You can go from GIANT ANIME EYES to tiny peepers.
The one basic difference between COH and CO character design is that COH relies on textures way more while CO tries to rely more on modeling (though obviously still has textures). This has advantages and disadvantages -- I find human faces in COH have more character and emotion, but I prefer the wider range of weird sh* in CO (since I rarely make humans).
Also, the texture-reliance in COH is vulnerable to basic graphic settings.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
You don't have to pay RL cash to refill stars, goodness no. There may be an option to do so, but... don't.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
Seriously, the big default eyes creep me out.
I was @Curveball in City of Heroes.
Though that was something else I overlooked. Apparently in the CO universe we've returned to the gold standard, since it's gold/silver/copper (it looks a lot like EverQuest II, actually). So in this world, Ron Paul wins. :biggrin:
I was @Curveball in City of Heroes.
My first 50 in CoH was a stone/stone tank, and I played CoH from issue 2, though issue 12 or 13. I quit just before the architect system came out. I started playing CO in beta, bought a lifetime sub, and was in the head start. So I know both games pretty well.
One of the biggest things people will need to get used to in CO vs CoH is how combat works. In CO there's no such thing as an attack chain really, because most of the powers don't have a cool down. So there's no reason to work on the attack chain. It also makes life a whole lot easier at lower levels. You don't have to wait until lvl X before you finally get an attack chain that works.
On that same note, the charge and maintain powers are something you need to get used to. Charge powers do not need to be fully charged to be useful, sometimes tapping them is the best way to go. Other times a half charge or full charge is best, some powers behave differently depending on the amount of charge, doing knock back rather then knock down, or leaving a persistent effect like Pyre. But this is something very different from CoH.
Maintain powers are also something new, but they're easy. Just hold the button down until what ever you are attacking is dead or you're out of power. But again it's not always ideal to use the full maintain, sometimes just a tick or two is all you need.
Block is something completely new, and nothing like you had in CoH. It's fairly easy however once you get the idea.
When ever you see a bad guy have a icon appear over their head, that means they're going to be using a big attack, either a big AoE, or cone, or something. When you see that hit Shift (or what ever you chose to bind it too, I use mouse 4) to block. Typically there's 3 stages of the icon and you just need to block when the attack lands. But that's really the only time you need to worry much about the block ability.
As far as survivability goes most characters are pretty good at staying standing, if you use block when needed you don't really need a defensive passive. You also don't really need a block power, although they're nice to have.
Also one of the issues I'm having, because I'm still adjusting to this much, much, faster form of combat, is that at some point I'll lose track of what I'm doing and find myself mashing button after button, at which point I'll realize "hey, I need to block here" but the game will still be processing all that other idiotic stuff I was doing a few seconds earlier.
I was @Curveball in City of Heroes.
They're called G-lobal, N-ational and L-ocal Resources - but they work just like Gold, Silver, Copper, that's true.
Personally, I'm really hoping CoH refugees find it to their liking here. I've been following CoH since 2001, played it for *years* after launch, and only quit when I found Champions Online, which has been my favourite MMOG (and I've played lots!) ever since.
It's a darn shame what they're doing to CoH though - but honestly, the freeform character creation here just beat everything CoH had to offer for me.
Here's hoping you all find your new superhero-home here.
Right click on any tab you see. A window will appear. Press the NEW button.
Give it a name, then check the channels you want to be included.
It does. Block without any sort of block enhancement power reduces the damage by %200, and it goes up from there with block powers.
IIRC, when you block it will cancel anything else you were doing, even if you don't see the animation for it, it still counts.
Also and this is simply part of the learning curb... when you see POW icon you'll have some time before the power actually fires. So if you keep your eyes on that you should have enough warning to use block. But that's something you have to get used to.
For me, when I'm playing other MMO's I find myself blocking and wondering why it isn't working.
I think that people do grow accustomed to their initial positive game experiences and always end up comparing new games to the old, usually to the new game's detriment. So, thanks for approaching CO with an open mind.
Oh, and once you get freeform, if you want a different scrapper experience, experiment with a Quarry build with the Fair Game advantage, stack dodge/avoidance, take Bountiful Chi Resurgence with Resurgent Reiki advantage from martial arts, and watch mobs really melt.
I been a long time leaving but I'm going to be a long time gone.
Willie Nelson
T.U.F.K.A.S. (the user formerly known as Scarlyng)
Wrong on the CO forums since November, 2008
Thank you thank you thank you!
That was, of course, the one thing I didn't try. Right-clicking in game never produced the menu of options that CoH had, so I eventually I stopped doing it...
I was @Curveball in City of Heroes.
LIFETIMER since 23/01/2012 || Join Date: Sep 2009
Can be reached in-game as @PoochieHellhound
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I was @Curveball in City of Heroes.
Same thing freaked me out when I first played CO
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!
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Good post, OP.
I don't care for Comic Sans in general (though I'm not as anti comic sans as some on the net) but I can easily live with it. I do wish they'd fix the white space around the speech bubbles though.
I was @Curveball in City of Heroes.
Yeah, it took me a while to figure that out too.
The first day I played, to me the menu system was horrible. Everything was scattered and hard to reach. My chat box was filled to the brim with everything.
But, in a day I've finally whittled it down into something manageable. Every chat this its place, everything is well sized, and every menu has a hotkey now (or I just learned what the key was).
Pretty much every nitpick I've had so far has been solved by some pretty thorough tweaking and editing, so I'm pretty pleased so far.
Now, if only we could do something about all the comic sans.....
Yeah, that actually just broke. Like just days before you guys came over. I hope it gets fixed soon.
Seriously, for anyone coming over from CoX, give yourself a shot with a gamepad for combat and movement.
Inventory management, chat, some mission stuff etc, you may still be better off with KB+M, but if you look the action-y feel, try a gamepad and make sure to mess with the options for controls to get it how you like it, like melee can ignore targeting which is WONDERFUL, and turning off always face forward - for a speedster this means you can now literally run circlies around your oponents while looking for your next target, running up to them, bashing their face in and moving on, and blocking feels much much much much more natural, along with a much faster twitch response for those "oh ****" moments.
Good to know!
When XP earnings during a Double-XP Weekend still feel like I'm underperforming,
there's something terribly wrong with the reward system...
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Original Join Date: Feb 2010.
Every single mmo I've ever played has been with a gamepad. Makes getting **** done sooo much easier.
If there had never been a COH there would never have been a CO. :cool:
I was going to say the same thing.
This game was originally going to launch on 360 so it was build with the 380 controller in mind. This game is so fast paced a controller just feels more natural IMHO.
PVP is starving without rewards
1. Please give us Daily PVP missions that reward Questionite.
2. Please give us an exchange rate between Acclaim and Recognition so that PVP has access to all "On Alert" PVE rewards.
The last series of patches and add-ons really introduced a number of problems and bugs. Some of this is still slowly being ironed out. Normally the game is generally fairly stable and lag free.
Every few months or so, they add code to the core engine and the next few weeks it seems all heck is broke. Sadly we are in one of those phases. The natives around here tend to get a bit grumbly during these times, and rightly so.
Despite the complaints and the general forum moaning. Things will eventually get ironed out.
I noticed that you mentioned the Super Jump travel power in your first post. It's true that it can be a little cumbersome indoors, but there's a little trick you can use to help with that.
The trajectory of your jump depends on how long you hold the button. The longer you hold the button, the higher the angle of your jump. Tapping the button will give you quick forward hops with lower height. It looks a little funny (more like Super Skipping than Super Jumping :biggrin:), but your ground speed will be much faster, and you won't get hung up on low ceilings.
Also, +1 to the gamepad suggestion, it's a great way to play Champions if you enjoy using one.
Anyway, I hope you and everyone else from Paragon enjoy yourselves here. If you have any questions, I'm @Sky_Ranger in-game, but there are others here who are on a lot more and are far more knowledgeable than me. I'll be happy to help if I can, though.
Also, something I did when I started here during the beta:
I adjusted the sliders to proportions I was comfortable with, and then saved the costume template. I try to use that template as a starting point for my characters, and I think the results are easier on my eyes at least.
1. At start, teleport is available.
2. Superspeed and mach speed are the same power, the first with arms back, ninja run, and the second with a Flash-like fast run.
3. Likewise, acrobatics and athletics are the same power, the first with the arms back, and the second with arms more like a standard run.
4. Starting players can choose jetpack flight, but you only see the jetpack effects if your costume actually, you know, has a jetpack (chosen from the back menu of the costume editor).
5. Gold players (subs) can also choose cable swinging, tunneling, jet boots, ice sliding, fire flight, earth-levitation flight, hover disk, and rocket jump as travel powers.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
It's basically 'stutterwarp' : You get a burst of insubstantial flight, and then float for a moment as you phase back in.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
Bat Flight turns you into a cloud of bats
Scarab Flight/Scarab burrowing turns you into an insect swarm that either flies or burrows
Ooze Tunnelling turns you into a blob of ooze that slides along the floor
All of these can be earned VERY quickly, without any grinding, just by doing the low level missions and defeating low level mobs for MCPD Recognition!
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'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.' Terry Pratchet The Thief Of Time
Bat Flight is a bit harder, or at least slower, to unlock than the others as you need, I believe, 40 UNTIL recognition for it.
But it is really cool looking. Worth every minute I spent farming Monster Island for it.
A few comments, the second travel power comes at lvl 35. You receive a nemesis at lvl 25, an enemy who sends minions at random against you who sometimes drop clues leading to special missions involving your nemesis. The actual nemesis you get to create the look, similar to how you choose your own costume but the power selection is limited to categories, such as fire. Well worth playing the nemesis missions as one of my favourite missions of all is 'Bunker Buster'. Plus you can get good gear from nemesis tokens.
Hopefully all ex-CoX players enjoy CO and we can expand the community even further. Sadly many are joining at a time when the last patch broke many things, but hopefully they will fix the remaining ones soon. Be patiant and just ask in game for help. The wiki, here, is also invaluable, if not fully up to date.
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Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's