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Forums > Home› Champions Online Discussion

Missing Costume Pieces?

darklionprincedarklionprince Posts: 5 Arc User
edited October 2012 in Champions Online Discussion
I played Champions Online a while back, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I decided to come back, making a new account to start a couple fresh characters.

So I went into the costume creator, and 90% of the pieces are missing. Clicking randomize, I can see they're still actually in the game, they just can't be chosen. This completely killed my desire to play. What's the point of playing if I can't make a good costume? (That's what superhero MMOs are all about!)

Is there something I'm missing? Is it a bug? Unless I can get this fixed, I'm not going to bother to play.
Post edited by darklionprince on

Comments

  • lordfuzunlordfuzun Posts: 53 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    For starting character, the Tailor is limited (depending on who you listen to) until level 6 or level 11.
  • lokikinlokikin Posts: 624 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    The consensus seems to be that the trigger is getting your first character to level 10...

    Then a BUNCH of stuff opens up and is available on all characters made from then on...

    :smile:
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  • darklionprincedarklionprince Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    So in other words, you have to make some random dummy character to level up to 6-11 before they let you make your real character?

    That is a very, very strange design decision. Makes the game look very limited to newcomers, drives away all your new players. The only reason I might still play is because I know the costume creator isn't as limited as it looks.

    I'll probably make that dummy character sometime and unlock the actual costume creator, but I really don't care that much right now. Perhaps I'll come back when I finish Torchlight 2 or have a bit more time to spare between college and other responsibilities.
  • lordfuzunlordfuzun Posts: 53 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    It's more to prevent overloading a new player. The game cam have a steep learning curve especially if a Gold account tries a Free Form character first. You'll be level 6 by the time you get out of the tutorial. And reach level 10 will take around an hour at most for even the greenest of players.
  • somebobsomebob Posts: 980 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I honestly never understood why the devs would restrict one of the best things about CO. Yes, I know you can unlock the full tailor within an hour or so, but it gives a poor first impression IMHO.

    "Oh no, I have too many options to make a character with! I'm leaving now!"

    *puts on stupid confused expression*
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  • flyingfinnflyingfinn Posts: 8,408 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    It's not Cryptic Devs. It's PW. They have a thing about lvl 10.
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  • darklionprincedarklionprince Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    lordfuzun wrote: »
    It's more to prevent overloading a new player. The game cam have a steep learning curve especially if a Gold account tries a Free Form character first. You'll be level 6 by the time you get out of the tutorial. And reach level 10 will take around an hour at most for even the greenest of players.

    The only reason I played Champions Online at all the first time was because of how many options were in the costume creator. If I had started for the first time now, I would have left and looked for another game.

    What's the problem, overloading your player with awesome? Don't want them to make it easy for them to enjoy your game... gotta make 'em work a bit. I'd say this is pretty clearly a publisher decision, not a developer decision.
  • chaelkchaelk Posts: 7,732 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    from someone who has spent over an hour picking a starting costume.... erk. and that was before I bought morecostume packs and made it worse.
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  • battybattybatsbattybattybats Posts: 777 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Glad this wasn't in place when i started or i might not have found out how cool it gets.
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  • arblaquearblaque Posts: 158 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I have never been a fan of this whole streamlining as to not overwhelm new players. I say overwhelm them instead of underwhelming them.
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  • mersenneprimemersenneprime Posts: 110 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    arblaque wrote: »
    I have never been a fan of this whole streamlining as to not overwhelm new players. I say overwhelm them instead of underwhelming them.
    Apparently that's the view. New/young gamers are stupider than they were 20 years ago. :rolleyes:

    I was reading something earlier today talking about the X-Com game, and how if you were to sit a current gamer down in front of the game from 20 years ago, they would take hours and hours to figure out how to play properly, which is why they had to dumb it down with tutorials at the start for the new game.
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  • darklionprincedarklionprince Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    For what it's worth, as a counterpoint to my own argument, my girlfriend created an account and was overwhelmed by even the streamlined costume creator, much less the full one. So maybe there's some merit to it being overwhelming. This is not her first MMO or game, so it's not just her being a non-gamer.

    Still, I don't think this current setup is ideal. Perhaps there should be a toggle to go into advanced mode, displaying all costume options. It would default to off and give a warning about being overwhelmed when you try to switch it. That'd let the people who really want to go wild with the costume creator see what it has to offer immediately, without overwhelming new players too much.

    Not that there's any likelihood that my suggestion would get noticed, and even less that it would be seriously considered for implementation. Still, a change to keep the more casual and easily overwhelmed players while also keeping the obsessive detail costume creators would be ideal.
  • bydandiibydandii Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    lordfuzun wrote: »
    It's more to prevent overloading a new player. The game cam have a steep learning curve especially if a Gold account tries a Free Form character first. You'll be level 6 by the time you get out of the tutorial. And reach level 10 will take around an hour at most for even the greenest of players.

    Bad design, IMO. First impression rules, and I'm in the same boat as the OP. I re-downloaded recently to give CO a second chance after the CoH murder and I never left the costume creator because my enthusiasm was drawn down by feeling ridiculously constrained.

    I'll try again in a day or so, but it really felt... silly... and left a bad impression.
  • darklionprincedarklionprince Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited October 2012
    First impression definitely does rule; it makes the difference between keeping and losing your players. Ask any publisher. Doesn't matter if it's for books, games, movies, the first impression is what counts. Often the first sentence, the first scene, or the first ten minutes of gameplay are what make the difference between being published or not.

    In other words, you put your best foot forward. What's Champions Online's best foot? A diverse costume creator that makes you feel like you could make anything you want, and truly be whoever you want. Apparently Perfect World (or whatever the cause of this was) decided putting their best foot forward was a bad idea. Wouldn't want to look too good to potential customers, after all.


    The tutorial, on the other hand, is and always has been putting its best foot forward. Even if the missions after the tutorial are just typical rinse and repeat MMO missions, that tutorial makes you feel like you accomplished something. It even has a boss that actually feels like part of the game and a real villain, not just a tutorial dummy. The tutorial has always impressed me.

    So for those who just want Champions Online for the gameplay, this setup is good. For those who want Champions Online for the story, the setup could be good or bad depending on if they care about their character. For those who want Champions Online for the freedom of being the superhero you want to be, this setup is bad. They don't even tell you that you just unlocked multiple times the number of costume options you originally had after the tutorial. It's something a new player would have to accidentally stumble upon.


    After playing Champions Online a bunch more and getting back to the experience, it's still great. But that "streamlined costume creator" nearly turned me away. I only stuck around because I had an account before the streamlining. In other words, the streamlining would have pushed me away if I hadn't had the experience of seeing the game without the streamlining. The streamlining was almost a deal-breaker for sticking with the game.

    They could do two things at least: say "you'll unlock multiple times as many costume choices after beating the tutorial!" in the costume creator for the first time, and say "you just unlocked multiple times as many costume choices in the costume creator!" after you beat the tutorial. That would have kept my interest even with the streamlined costume creator. It might have even made me more interested, since the new pieces would be an incentive to keep going, and a reward for finishing the tutorial.
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