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It's time to start taking ideas from Neverwinter and STO
championshewolf
Posts: 4,375 Arc User
I think its high time we, as the Champions player base that has been patiently waiting for a meaningful update, to start actually demanding one. And I think it’s high time that all that work that was put into the other products actually start being put into Champions. While it’s great that they are redoing the tutorial, again (seriously how many times has that tutorial been reworked since launch, 9 times now?) a tutorial does not in any remote way state how serious you are about your commitment to your product. In fact, reworking the tutorial when such other issues are present seems to be counterproductive in going out of your way to improve a minute piece of the entire experience when the rest of the meal is very bitter and sour at this point.
So what I am writing up now is going to be a series of very long winded, and pointed reviews of what I think needs to be done with Champions if Cryptic is indeed serious about their commitment to actually improving Champions in the long run for their player base, as well as in an attempt to attract a new crowd interested in the genre due to the superhero boom in the media. Otherwise, this tutorial revamp isn’t doing it for me, as far as I am concerned, when it comes to all the “serious commitment” we’ve had over the years concerning the game that many of us love.
This will be part one, which concerns the scope and size of Champions. And to put it bluntly, Champions is too damn small for a game that promised globe spanning adventure. This streamlining has done more to remove things of interest over the years and has done precious little to actually inspire or even promote hope or depth of any serious commitment to the game.
So what I am going to propose in this write-up is what I will basically call a need to revamp the world itself, to stop trying to force many square miles into such condensed and small areas, and to remake world maps to invoke that feeling of scale and size that people crave and to re-introduce the feeling of superhero into our superhero game.
Issue 1: Map Size
Take a look at that map above. If you are a long time player of the PnP, you knew this much, but if not, take a look at that small thumb drive looking thing in the lower left corner of the map. That’s the actual, proper scale of Millennium City in Champions Online to the proper scale (look at the scale in miles if you think otherwise) to the real map of Millennium City that anyone can find online, or by getting the actual Millennium City book from Hero Games.
Now, you might notice several problems with this scaling system, primarily that the MC map is completely all over the place with downtown on the wrong side, Westside obviously smaller than it should be, city center and all of it condensed to maybe within a tenth of its actual size. This is a huge problem especially in that expansive feel department.
So, what is it I suggest? Well I suggest we borrow from Neverwinter and have the map redone. As an example, this is what the map of Neverwinter looks like here. Now, you might notice that the actual city of Neverwinter, ignoring the outside world for the moment, has key points that represent districts and adventure zones within the city proper without having to create this gihugic seamless city map.
So what am I proposing? Well a while ago I proposed an expand Millennium City thing which can be found in my signature still at this time. In basic, the current MC I would probably have destroyed and redone, with the Ren Center being expanded and such, and providing ample buildings and locations, and removing the whole centralized feel and actually creating a more dynamic city feel, because centralized is good, sometimes, but in a city people want to feel like they are in a city. Things like the tailor, auction house, and such should not be all crammed within the localized space of the Ren Center, but spread out over the area. Club Caprice should also be reworked to look more like an actual club instead of two random boxes separated by the faintest of hallways, and perhaps placed at the top of the blimp now and make it like a high society blimp type club, and repurpose the old Club Caprice building for something else, perhaps a proper tailor store.
From that point forward, the MC map would be developed better to match the PnP game. Downtown, Westside, and City Center would be their own zones, but additions such as Rivertown, Cultural Center, Northside, Memorial Park, Belle Island and the Theater District can be added without having to wonder how do you expand the city when the city is at its limit. This means that each map itself can be nicely sized without having to break boundaries and everything feeling so squashed in one central spot making the city feel incredibly tiny and lifeless. This is one of the major issues with the feel of MC.
Locations like UNTIL, the jet and so forth can be placed in their own location, given a unique feel such as an airport or the like instead of the current why is there a heliport right outside of the social district at the Ren Center feel. And better yet, you can actually put a proper Ravenswood Academy in the game instead of the three cramped buildings in the cramped park right outside of the Ren Center.
And look at that, with that much more added to the city itself, expansion of characters and levels and new content in old areas can be done easily. And with the city being this way, new locations can be added to the map for seasonal events, or as expansions come providing new ways to add content without, again, feeling constricted by the simple fact that MC can only be 1x3 miles before the engine apparently breaks.
Issue 2: Traveling Around the City
This issue I think can be easily solved by the following method, as long as players are within the city itself; opening up the map screen, there is a tab that gives the major city view. From there the player can institute a fast travel to a different section of the city as long as they are not at that current section of the city. This fast travel system could probably cost some resources, but not much. The jet for traveling around the world should be its own city section or near UNTIL even. It would be quick, painless and only would need to have it disabled while in combat to keep it from being abused.
Issue 3: Lack of Social Areas
Champions went down a dark road when it did this for some reason, but systematically removing areas of interest and places people can just hang out and socialize at was a serious faux pas. MMOs are social experiences as much as they are games, and removing areas for people to socialize in and RP at is seriously bad juju. So, I propose that each district have at least one if not two locations designed specifically for gathering and just socializing. Your last Superhero MMO was known for this as a great many communities formed up around the fact that it had great many social areas and places for people to get together and just hang out. Not to mention the devs coming in game and just being with those players.
We need more social areas like this, and denying these facets of the game experience just feels wrong in so many ways. So this is why I propose that each district area in the game has to have at least one social area for people to just hang out and socialize. No, I don’t mean your standard place where you buy and sell items or do your quest gathering. I mean quite literally an area designed just to be social in. Like a restaurant, or a park, or a beach location, a dance club, a bar, a library, many such areas that people can go to feel that they are in a city and can just hang out. These areas actually increase the player’s desires to stick around when they can start feeling like they are in a place that was put together with love and caring, and not just a boxed in map.
Issue 4: Cramped World Map
The world map of Champions is just as cramped as Millennium City is. Again the problem stems from the fact they are too busy, and too much in their small spaces. Let’s take the southwest desert for instance; you have Project Greenskin, the wastelands, a ghost town, snake gulch, area 51, stronghold and all manner of odds and ends all within spitting distance of each other. It creates a huge disconnect, and has a serious lack of feeling like a proper area for these otherwise interesting locations. And because of this cramped feeling the missions within these zones also feel rushed. Instead of feeling like you are exploring the mystery behind the ghost town or snake gulch, you take a few missions in and are done.
Again, like MC, I propose breaking all these maps up to make them feel more unique to themselves. You can put snake gulch and the ghost town together and perhaps connect them through a good story of maybe the ghosts have been wreaking havoc on the machinery and wanting to drive out the living since snake gulch might have been built on an old burial ground, or perhaps VIPER has been using those ghosts.
Project Greenskin and the Wastelands should be together in their own map with a bit of expansion perhaps that has perhaps an old town where they use to test bombs at with all the remnants of said town such as burnt mannequins, blasted out homes and the like, expanding upon this to add further quests, dynamic events and so forth instead of cramming all these non-sense together in one space creating a silly set up.
And of course Stronghold can be its own thing with Area 51 also being its own thing, perhaps these areas being made special event areas that players can participate in with finding out about alien stuff, instead of Area 51 being some VIPER facility for no reason.
Vibora Bay would also be a place to undergo such renovations, and expanding upon it. Perhaps by actually scaling Vibora Bay up in size and maybe being as large as current CO MC and of course a location for the San Sabastian Swamp, since a lot lore and stories are being missed due to the fact that swamp hasn’t been added. San Sabastian Swamp can contain the likes of the sanitorium, and of course the swamp itself with its own stories of creepiness and horror.
This would help expand the map and of course create new areas for flow.
Issue 5: World Travel
This one would be solved by going to the Jet. But instead of getting all these multiple options for various locations, you instead would be given a world map (ie the world of earth) with the locations bubbled up for places like Canada, Snake Gulch, Atomic Wastes, Area 51, Stronghold, Monster Island, Vibora Bay, Millennium City and Lemuria.
Having this map also means it would probably work out easier, in the long run, for adding new locations without having to worry about this huge menu bar popping up as well as temporary locations by jet, such as when doing say Serpent Lantern you get a location for Africa on the map just for that. This method would also allow for another thing to be added.
Issue 6: The Foundry
Perhaps the biggest stickler for people is that they want the Foundry and of course tagging of items for said Foundry is only one issue, the other issue is probably locational. Well, that issue I think can helped a lot by including of such a map system in game. Players can place icons on the world map for their special foundry locations just like they do in Neverwinter, instead of being tied to a city location or limited even further. Over all a positive step in an otherwise unchanging future for the state of the game.
Issue 7: Proper Team Content and Lairs
I don’t think it’s any solid mystery that one thing Champions has been missing, in spades no less, is proper team content and lair missions. Alerts were not the answer, Alerts, as they were launched, were some half-baked method of what would evolve into skirmishes that can be found in Neverwinter now. And the Alert system that we were originally pitched sounds like what the event system in Neverwinter for each zone actually became.
So what do I mean by proper team and lair content? Well for starters, with the exception of the first two zones (and current revamps going on right now) Neverwinter had at least one dungeon per zone and one skirmish per zone. What this meant for the players was there was generally at least two dungeons, due to overlap, and two skirmishes, on average, that players could participate in.
So what are skirmishes? Skirmishes are basically events where players are either guarding or fighting off waves of bad guys. In a sense, what alerts are now. They were usually thematic for the area in question, and had enemies representing those locations. In shrot there would be way more than just simple museum heists, bank robberies and beat em ups in the town square. I think things like citizen rescues, putting out fires and other such super heroic activities would need to be involved.
The Dungeons, on the other hand, were what would traditionally be considered dungeons, which were team based content. The current iteration seems to be reducing the team size to any 3 players that automatically scale to the level of the dungeon, so if you are level 40 going into a level 15 dungeon you would be scaled to level 15 now. This produces its own negatives as it doesn’t inspire team work while playing, but I think the scaling to the dungeon is a proper answer so that high levels can assist their low level friends and of course get old items from older dungeons or lairs as they are called in game. Of course bosses would need to be toughened up, and of course there would be end level versions where max level players can test their metal and their gear in these dungeons.
The final bit is of course what are dubbed open missions. I think these should be renamed to possibly Heroic Encounters or something along those lines and include not just beating up giant robots but also putting out fires in a building, or rescuing cats or even closing interdimensional portals. They also have zone wide events in Neverwinter that is basically a mini contest; whoever does something like beat up X of enemy type Y or collect N of item Z in a certain time period is rewarded with a bunch of mods for their gear. I think these things would go a long way and could replace things like bursts in the game, and the alert system in general. Basically have that be the Alert system and each district of each map could possibly have something like it.
So what I am writing up now is going to be a series of very long winded, and pointed reviews of what I think needs to be done with Champions if Cryptic is indeed serious about their commitment to actually improving Champions in the long run for their player base, as well as in an attempt to attract a new crowd interested in the genre due to the superhero boom in the media. Otherwise, this tutorial revamp isn’t doing it for me, as far as I am concerned, when it comes to all the “serious commitment” we’ve had over the years concerning the game that many of us love.
This will be part one, which concerns the scope and size of Champions. And to put it bluntly, Champions is too damn small for a game that promised globe spanning adventure. This streamlining has done more to remove things of interest over the years and has done precious little to actually inspire or even promote hope or depth of any serious commitment to the game.
So what I am going to propose in this write-up is what I will basically call a need to revamp the world itself, to stop trying to force many square miles into such condensed and small areas, and to remake world maps to invoke that feeling of scale and size that people crave and to re-introduce the feeling of superhero into our superhero game.
Issue 1: Map Size
Take a look at that map above. If you are a long time player of the PnP, you knew this much, but if not, take a look at that small thumb drive looking thing in the lower left corner of the map. That’s the actual, proper scale of Millennium City in Champions Online to the proper scale (look at the scale in miles if you think otherwise) to the real map of Millennium City that anyone can find online, or by getting the actual Millennium City book from Hero Games.
Now, you might notice several problems with this scaling system, primarily that the MC map is completely all over the place with downtown on the wrong side, Westside obviously smaller than it should be, city center and all of it condensed to maybe within a tenth of its actual size. This is a huge problem especially in that expansive feel department.
So, what is it I suggest? Well I suggest we borrow from Neverwinter and have the map redone. As an example, this is what the map of Neverwinter looks like here. Now, you might notice that the actual city of Neverwinter, ignoring the outside world for the moment, has key points that represent districts and adventure zones within the city proper without having to create this gihugic seamless city map.
So what am I proposing? Well a while ago I proposed an expand Millennium City thing which can be found in my signature still at this time. In basic, the current MC I would probably have destroyed and redone, with the Ren Center being expanded and such, and providing ample buildings and locations, and removing the whole centralized feel and actually creating a more dynamic city feel, because centralized is good, sometimes, but in a city people want to feel like they are in a city. Things like the tailor, auction house, and such should not be all crammed within the localized space of the Ren Center, but spread out over the area. Club Caprice should also be reworked to look more like an actual club instead of two random boxes separated by the faintest of hallways, and perhaps placed at the top of the blimp now and make it like a high society blimp type club, and repurpose the old Club Caprice building for something else, perhaps a proper tailor store.
From that point forward, the MC map would be developed better to match the PnP game. Downtown, Westside, and City Center would be their own zones, but additions such as Rivertown, Cultural Center, Northside, Memorial Park, Belle Island and the Theater District can be added without having to wonder how do you expand the city when the city is at its limit. This means that each map itself can be nicely sized without having to break boundaries and everything feeling so squashed in one central spot making the city feel incredibly tiny and lifeless. This is one of the major issues with the feel of MC.
Locations like UNTIL, the jet and so forth can be placed in their own location, given a unique feel such as an airport or the like instead of the current why is there a heliport right outside of the social district at the Ren Center feel. And better yet, you can actually put a proper Ravenswood Academy in the game instead of the three cramped buildings in the cramped park right outside of the Ren Center.
And look at that, with that much more added to the city itself, expansion of characters and levels and new content in old areas can be done easily. And with the city being this way, new locations can be added to the map for seasonal events, or as expansions come providing new ways to add content without, again, feeling constricted by the simple fact that MC can only be 1x3 miles before the engine apparently breaks.
Issue 2: Traveling Around the City
This issue I think can be easily solved by the following method, as long as players are within the city itself; opening up the map screen, there is a tab that gives the major city view. From there the player can institute a fast travel to a different section of the city as long as they are not at that current section of the city. This fast travel system could probably cost some resources, but not much. The jet for traveling around the world should be its own city section or near UNTIL even. It would be quick, painless and only would need to have it disabled while in combat to keep it from being abused.
Issue 3: Lack of Social Areas
Champions went down a dark road when it did this for some reason, but systematically removing areas of interest and places people can just hang out and socialize at was a serious faux pas. MMOs are social experiences as much as they are games, and removing areas for people to socialize in and RP at is seriously bad juju. So, I propose that each district have at least one if not two locations designed specifically for gathering and just socializing. Your last Superhero MMO was known for this as a great many communities formed up around the fact that it had great many social areas and places for people to get together and just hang out. Not to mention the devs coming in game and just being with those players.
We need more social areas like this, and denying these facets of the game experience just feels wrong in so many ways. So this is why I propose that each district area in the game has to have at least one social area for people to just hang out and socialize. No, I don’t mean your standard place where you buy and sell items or do your quest gathering. I mean quite literally an area designed just to be social in. Like a restaurant, or a park, or a beach location, a dance club, a bar, a library, many such areas that people can go to feel that they are in a city and can just hang out. These areas actually increase the player’s desires to stick around when they can start feeling like they are in a place that was put together with love and caring, and not just a boxed in map.
Issue 4: Cramped World Map
The world map of Champions is just as cramped as Millennium City is. Again the problem stems from the fact they are too busy, and too much in their small spaces. Let’s take the southwest desert for instance; you have Project Greenskin, the wastelands, a ghost town, snake gulch, area 51, stronghold and all manner of odds and ends all within spitting distance of each other. It creates a huge disconnect, and has a serious lack of feeling like a proper area for these otherwise interesting locations. And because of this cramped feeling the missions within these zones also feel rushed. Instead of feeling like you are exploring the mystery behind the ghost town or snake gulch, you take a few missions in and are done.
Again, like MC, I propose breaking all these maps up to make them feel more unique to themselves. You can put snake gulch and the ghost town together and perhaps connect them through a good story of maybe the ghosts have been wreaking havoc on the machinery and wanting to drive out the living since snake gulch might have been built on an old burial ground, or perhaps VIPER has been using those ghosts.
Project Greenskin and the Wastelands should be together in their own map with a bit of expansion perhaps that has perhaps an old town where they use to test bombs at with all the remnants of said town such as burnt mannequins, blasted out homes and the like, expanding upon this to add further quests, dynamic events and so forth instead of cramming all these non-sense together in one space creating a silly set up.
And of course Stronghold can be its own thing with Area 51 also being its own thing, perhaps these areas being made special event areas that players can participate in with finding out about alien stuff, instead of Area 51 being some VIPER facility for no reason.
Vibora Bay would also be a place to undergo such renovations, and expanding upon it. Perhaps by actually scaling Vibora Bay up in size and maybe being as large as current CO MC and of course a location for the San Sabastian Swamp, since a lot lore and stories are being missed due to the fact that swamp hasn’t been added. San Sabastian Swamp can contain the likes of the sanitorium, and of course the swamp itself with its own stories of creepiness and horror.
This would help expand the map and of course create new areas for flow.
Issue 5: World Travel
This one would be solved by going to the Jet. But instead of getting all these multiple options for various locations, you instead would be given a world map (ie the world of earth) with the locations bubbled up for places like Canada, Snake Gulch, Atomic Wastes, Area 51, Stronghold, Monster Island, Vibora Bay, Millennium City and Lemuria.
Having this map also means it would probably work out easier, in the long run, for adding new locations without having to worry about this huge menu bar popping up as well as temporary locations by jet, such as when doing say Serpent Lantern you get a location for Africa on the map just for that. This method would also allow for another thing to be added.
Issue 6: The Foundry
Perhaps the biggest stickler for people is that they want the Foundry and of course tagging of items for said Foundry is only one issue, the other issue is probably locational. Well, that issue I think can helped a lot by including of such a map system in game. Players can place icons on the world map for their special foundry locations just like they do in Neverwinter, instead of being tied to a city location or limited even further. Over all a positive step in an otherwise unchanging future for the state of the game.
Issue 7: Proper Team Content and Lairs
I don’t think it’s any solid mystery that one thing Champions has been missing, in spades no less, is proper team content and lair missions. Alerts were not the answer, Alerts, as they were launched, were some half-baked method of what would evolve into skirmishes that can be found in Neverwinter now. And the Alert system that we were originally pitched sounds like what the event system in Neverwinter for each zone actually became.
So what do I mean by proper team and lair content? Well for starters, with the exception of the first two zones (and current revamps going on right now) Neverwinter had at least one dungeon per zone and one skirmish per zone. What this meant for the players was there was generally at least two dungeons, due to overlap, and two skirmishes, on average, that players could participate in.
So what are skirmishes? Skirmishes are basically events where players are either guarding or fighting off waves of bad guys. In a sense, what alerts are now. They were usually thematic for the area in question, and had enemies representing those locations. In shrot there would be way more than just simple museum heists, bank robberies and beat em ups in the town square. I think things like citizen rescues, putting out fires and other such super heroic activities would need to be involved.
The Dungeons, on the other hand, were what would traditionally be considered dungeons, which were team based content. The current iteration seems to be reducing the team size to any 3 players that automatically scale to the level of the dungeon, so if you are level 40 going into a level 15 dungeon you would be scaled to level 15 now. This produces its own negatives as it doesn’t inspire team work while playing, but I think the scaling to the dungeon is a proper answer so that high levels can assist their low level friends and of course get old items from older dungeons or lairs as they are called in game. Of course bosses would need to be toughened up, and of course there would be end level versions where max level players can test their metal and their gear in these dungeons.
The final bit is of course what are dubbed open missions. I think these should be renamed to possibly Heroic Encounters or something along those lines and include not just beating up giant robots but also putting out fires in a building, or rescuing cats or even closing interdimensional portals. They also have zone wide events in Neverwinter that is basically a mini contest; whoever does something like beat up X of enemy type Y or collect N of item Z in a certain time period is rewarded with a bunch of mods for their gear. I think these things would go a long way and could replace things like bursts in the game, and the alert system in general. Basically have that be the Alert system and each district of each map could possibly have something like it.
Champions Online player since September of 2008, forumite since February of 2008.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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Step 2: we take from NW and STO, the teams of Devs working on them, they can have what few we might have.
Step 3: we start on your ideas.
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http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=14501981#post14501981
However, I think that the fact that they are redoing the tutorials is a very good sign, because games only do that when they are either seeing an increase in new players or are planning on doing some advertising and expect to have new players soon. So this tutorial revamp is actually the most encouraging thing I have seen for this game in quite some time.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
I don't, honestly. Again, this is the 9th time, at least, they've revamped the tutorial. The tutorial has had more work done than any section in Champions Online, ever. The only thing that comes close to the work the tutorial has received is the Might power set. And if they are constantly telling us they are committed to doing this, then they need to commit to it properly. Because redoing the tutorial is not a good sign of anything. Redoing the tutorial is like changing the wrapper on a sandwhich that's 5 years old now, and well past molded.
The fact Cryptic owns the Champions IP, on its own, and that there are worse products in the PWE stable receiving more attention, is disheartening. Again, if they are committed to improving this franchise especially in the wake of superhero media boom, then they need to show it. Redoing the tutorial at this point is like throwing a glass of water to someone drowning in the middle of a lake.
And I really could not give two craps about something posted over a year ago. Again, if they are committed to Champions then they need to be committed. Champions needs alot of desperate work if their plan is to attract people, which means they need to put resources in to revitalizing the game if they have a hope in hell of even catching the eye of these people.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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Here is a very recent post:
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=23444921&postcount=156
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Again, does not matter. If they are committed, then they need to be committed all in, otherwise it's just words. If they are truly, seriously interested in capturing the eyes and minds of people in the wake of the superhero media boom, then they need to commit all in. Tip-toeing around and hoping things pan out without doing any commitment, beyond yet another tutorial revamp, is not doing anything.
They would be better off not doing anything at all at that point, because all that ends up doing is making them look like liars in the end when the bulk of their commitment doesn't go past a tutorial revamp. If things truly start improving and they show us that something is happening here, we will actually have good things to say, word will spread and these people they are looking for and hoping to attract might actually come. But they won't if their commitment is just another tutorial revamp.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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http://massivelyop.com/2015/03/17/cryptic-layoffs-alone-totaled-18-people/
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Again, don't care. If they are committed to Champions then they need to be committed. Champions needs a lot more than just simple tutorial work if they really, truly are wanting to actually get the interest of people getting in on the superhero media hype. Otherwise, again, it's just words saying they are committed, and just more dust in the wind people will use as a reminder of these promises of commitment that panned no where.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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You seem to think that saying the same thing over and over again is a new point, but it's not. It's actually just spamming. I was giving you some links to back up the point that this game's development is based on it's revenue generation. You may not like that, but spamming the same thing over and over doesn't change anything. For the record, I completely agree in wishing Champs was getting more development. But expecting it to get anywhere near the development STO and NW get, like you asked for in your OP, is simply not going to happen.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
And there is a lot of "Super Hero" hype right now and Champions could cash in on it. Yet it seems like PWE stubbornly refuses to.
I make suggestions from time-to-time. Mostly because it's all I can do. As players we're powerless here. We all see the potential but I'm not sure that CO's holding company does.
So for now I'm hoping someone is at least reading some of the awesome suggestions that have been posted recently. But until someone from PWE or Cryptic gives me reason to.. I'm not going to expect much.
We're the eldest child at the table begging for hand-me-downs. We're the Cinderella who likely isn't going to the ball. Some accept this. Some depart this. Some hope for more. I honestly do not think something like putting CO into a similar setup to STO with Champions Online: This Space(Pun Intended) Reserved for Snazzy Title and a Rep/AA System is too much to ask or a bad idea. Spar's suggestions on how the map systems and such work out could also be beneficial to the system as it cuts down on the previously mentioned "performance issues" when the ideas of expanding MC were mentioned in the past.
It's just the circle. CO doesn't make as much money as STO/NW for two reasons. The 1st is IP Recognition, of course. The second is the amount of investment put into the projects. One must spend money to make money to spend money to make money....aka the circle. CN put out some decent content in their time here IMO and raised the bar on costume sets which are profit but it is my opinion that if you want this game to go upwards then the focus needs to start with the most valuable of MMO resources...the newbies. You polish the experience from creation and work your way up. You iron out as many bugs as is humanly possible. You focus on the main three pillars of the game(Powers, Customization, and Nemesis) to where they are not a glaring constant reminder of "what could have been" or "so much potential but...".
Suuuuure this might not be the most realistic approach. Sure this has been said countless times before. Sure this may never actually happen. It doesn't hurt to put it out there so long as people can both think, "Yeah, that would be nice," and "I'll take what I have and have the fun I can with it until either this happens or it doesn't happen."
CO may not be a very well known IP but it could, IMO, easily be the best thing in it's genre with probably less effort than many would think. The competition isn't exactly breaking down the walls and trailblazing into new territories with this stuff. The most buzz is coming from the "might maybe possibly remotely happen one of these day perhaps I guess" games..and they don't really exist. IMO, the ball has fallen into the CO court many times and never really been picked up for the game changing 3 pointer. Perhaps that time is now....perhaps it isn't. Once again we, the community, have two options....wait or don't wait.
In the meantime I'm just going to use what I have for some fun....but this kind of stuff happening would, of course, be more fun for me...and I suspect some of the others as well. :biggrin:
Join Date: Aug 2009 | Title: Devslayer
I understand, and it's a damn shame. Honestly, I wish they would just launch a massive advertising campaign. The game has several years worth of content built up, so if they could just get a lot of new people playing they could justify starting new content development that would be done by the time those new players actually got to max level. I would also love for Champs to get the foundry, but that too simply can't happen unless the dev team has more manpower.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
on alert march 2012(wiki)- actually it was friday the 13th april 2012,it went live
nw Beta test- feb- march 2013.
we have the live test of NW gear enchanting system- mods and fusions.
we have the live test of the skirmish system- alerts.
why set up test servers when you can use a game you already have and aren't doing anything on.
The only game of the 3 not limited by canon and we are limited by lack of knowledge of the game system.
anyone got a spare lottery win they don't want?
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Um... people haven't been demanding updates? o_O Then what's with all the posts where people demand updates?
Unfortunately it does, and that will never change so long as people demand salaries for the work they do ( and people will continue to need salaries so long as they like doing things like living in houses, drinking clean water, and eating food ).
At some point, you have to face the fact that this game is old. The resurgence is not coming. Either you're happy with the rate of updates we're getting, or you write longer and longer posts every year.
Want to do something that matters? Get a game design degree, apply for a job at Cryptic, and tell them that you'll work for peanuts ( or even free ) just to get the game some development. If you do that, try not to get depressed when reality sets in and you realize the big updates you're asking for just aren't realisticly possible even with you on the staff.
Making game content is miles apart from talking about it.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
http://www.pcgamesn.com/marvel-heroes-2015/marvel-heroes-how-gazillion-reversed-the-fate-of-their-comic-book-mmo
In less than a year it went from being a laughing stock - to becoming quite successful. That game doesn't have 1/2 the potential that CO has.
So players expressing that they love this game and want to see it succeed isn't a bad at all. It shows there is an active community here depite all the neglect.
Now the pessimistic side is -- I wish someone PWE side would see this and capitalize on it. Because then they'd have three top games instead of just two.
A chance and an investment has to be taken on this game. Or it can be allowed to just chug along.
On the same note though, a game earns as much as they invest in it.
They made a bunch of REALLY STUPID decisions with this game early on, and those stupid decisions lowered its profitability. Sadly, those responsible were not held accountable, but that's old news.
This game does have potential. However in order to increase revenue on a game you need to invest in it.
And considering superheroes are more profitable right now than they ever have been its arguably a bad decision not to try and capitalise on it while its hot.
They can leave it on maintenance mode all they want, but considering I regularly see many new players eager to try superhero games basically every day following the superhero movie boom it just seems like a very poor decision not to try and retain these players with new content.
Granted, the embittered old players who yell at them about how the game is failing don't help with retention.
And people can bury their heads in the sand and say I am not listening, to which I say you are just burying your head in the sand and hoping the problem will go away. Changing the tutorial, again, for what has to be the 9th time now, is not a good sign of anything. The "reinvestment" and "commitment" to Champions has always started with a tutorial change, and outside of a few changes to beginning content and ignoring the rest of the game, nothing major changed.
Yea, Westside got streamlined, a new look and everything, lost a lot of character in the process to because many quests got hidden behind instances and outdoor events were removed. But what about everything else? A few pallet swaps here, and a couple of new items? And because of the Alert system, majority of people rarely even see anything beyond what they need to do to reach level 10 in Westside, if that much. So Champions went from this big plan of a globe trotting superhero experience down to lobby game play with a pallet swap set of bad guys we beat up over and over in the same three instances.
Hell the whole Champions Reloaded thing, the fact we had our item system gutted and remade from the ground up, was suppose to be the doorway to not only brand new content, but a level cap increase. Yet we got the whole item revamp system and nothing really new beyond that. Even their story driven plot lines pretty much petered out. You have over 30 years of stories, events and lore to draw upon, almost 35 now, and its being wasted.
No, I am not going to accept this as the lot in life that we have to accept. Not when we are being told they are committed to Champions Online. If they are committed then I demand commitment. If they are wanting to make this the best damn superhero experience then I demand they go for it. I don't want just yet another tutorial change, with three buildings plopped down awkwardly in the Ren Center Park creating the worlds largest uncanny valley to date. I want an actual commitment and demonstration that they are actually wanting to improve and make the game the best it can damn well be.
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Fixed that for ya.
"Hey guys check out Champions Online, it has super heroes!"
"What like Iron Man?"
"No.. not Iron Man.. but they have-"
"Like the X-Men? Does it have the X-men?"
"Uuuh... no... "
"...what super heroes does it have?"
"Well I mean probably none that you've heard of but- hey, where are you going?"
You're burying you head in the sand and not listening.
From where my head is, I can see the problem for what it is, as well as that it's not going to go away.
Just enjoy the game for what it is. No need to stress yourself. They're going to make little additions and improvements here and there, and that's it - anyone can recognize the pattern by now.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
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They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
You'd do it naked and get us shut down.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
This is facts.
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!
Yea, keep telling yourself that Foxi. Bury your head that much further in the sand.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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Tutorial is being revamped. Which is an actual gameplay improvement, not just some more cosmetic items for players who are already in this game.
It's also clearly addressed at having new players.
It shows some more plans than just releasing a lockbox or two.
We shall see where it's all heading.
Marvel Heroes launch was rather disappointing, the game was revamped to the point of renaming it and now it does better.
Games can be salvaged.
I'm not saying CO will be a premiere league title, but it might see some improvement.
Which is why it's all the more painful for the knowledge - the absolute certainty - that they will not be used or even considered by PWE.
PWE doesn't give a damn anymore. They just don't.
Have you seen that parody commercial on youtube - the one by the funny or die guys called "Comcast doesn't give a F***". Seen that? Just do a search for it. It's easy to find. Watch that.
Replace "Comcast doesn't give a F***" with "PWE doesn't give a F***" and that right there - that is the reality of the situation.
I would bet that there's more than a few people at Cryptic who would love to implement ideas like yours.
But it's not THEM we have to convince. It's THEIR bosses.
And THEY don't give a F***.
And that's all that's going on and it's freaking embarrassing as a fan of this game to be paraded out every now and then for the PR department to say "look, we are working on all our games". So I will say again, either truly commit to this game, or just pull the plug. If you aren't going to commit because there is no license behind Champions, then embarrassing the fans and community constantly with these token committal speeches only serves to make the player base more bitter.I'd personally rather the plug be pulled and at least some modicum of dignity given than continue this farce. I know many won't agree but that's my opinion of it.
This is the best possible chance for a superhero experience for an MMO out there, and nothing is being done with it. And it's annoying and I am tired of watching friends log in and say the same crap always which boils down to *sighs* "Nothing has been done again, time to log out for another 6 months."
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Quoted for truth.
These ideas are great, I honestly don't think there's much to say aside from the fact that an investment into Champions Online needs to happen, there's no way it can get better if a chance isn't taken.
I'll wait and see what happens with our new development team...if they do manage to fix up the Variable Robot set, to match the costume concepts and listen to player feedback on the tutorial...I will be impressed and direct them this way.
But yeah, great ideas!
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With the exception of "Level Cap Increase" I pretty much agree with this. I'm also willing to give this game a few more months past this tutorial thing(BTW, if I'm not mistaken Westside has been redone more but yeah, it rarely ever goes beyond that) before shifting into militant mode...but that does not, in any way, mean that discussions like this shouldn't happen. Even if I disagree with someone on the forums I'd rather hear suggestions and points from PLAYERS than these random doom-sniffing Bitter CoXers who only show up when there's the blood of negativity on the ground so they can "help" us realize there is only doom and we should just quit. At least threads like this and other by the community, agree or not, stem from a desire to see this game rise up to it's potential as opposed to just closing it's doors.
This having been said, however, there pretty much is no arguing against the new tutorial. It's on PTS. It's coming. The best we can hope for is to make it as good as is humanly possible in the hopes it doesn't need to be revisited in 6 months or less....or turn out horrible and be left there for years as some kind of a reverse lighthouse to drive new players into the rocks. This much is, IMO, undebatable. It's just going to happen.
Join Date: Aug 2009 | Title: Devslayer
So the question is, how do we increase this game's revenue generation? Well, the main way is getting MORE people to play the game. That means people who are NOT currently playing. And there are 2 types of people who are not currently playing:
A) People who have NEVER played before.
Ideally, we want to attract both of those groups. However, one group is actually more profitable than the other, at this point in time. Can you guess which? It's the ones who have never played before. Why are they more profitable?
Well, for starters, they don't have anything from the game store yet. The people who have played before and left have already bought the stuff they wanted at the time, and aren't going to be rebuying those same things again. Sure, there may be some new things they would like, but people who have never played before don't have ANYthing yet, meaning they are more likely to spend more money at this point than people who used to play.
There is another reason people who have never played before are going to be more profitable: because the entire game is brand new content to them. If you add a new end game mission, someone who has played before may come back to play that, but after they play it, they leave again because that's it. On the other hand, someone who has never played before has the entire game to play through before running out of "new stuff", meaning they are probably going to stick around longer than someone who came back just to play the latest new mission.
All of that said, I'm NOT saying Cryptic shouldn't try to get people who used to play to come back, because they should. However, I think their first priority at this point should be to do some major advertising to get as many new people who have never played the game before to try it out. And once that happens, and the money starts coming in, they can justify having a larger development budget and work on more end game content, which will attract back some of those people who left.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
2. There have been multiple threads where people have out and out volunteered to hit up stuff like Youtube and the request for Cryptic to get involved in this via the forums, contests, and other such methods.....<crickets>.
2b. Champions needs to get out to other websites. Massively is kind of hit and miss but regardless of the job they do on their reporting if you look in the comments a CO Article is like honey to the Bitter CoXers so the comments section of any of those articles will go negative toxic almost immediately(despite the efforts of some of the bigger voices of this community and the old CoX community stating points to the contrary).
So, you want more players...it's the circle again but at this particular stage I believe it's more focused. While Costume Sets, UI Tweaks, Bug Fixes, Revamps, and blah blah and so on are nice....Cryptic needs to come out of the gates swinging with actual perminant replayable CONTENT with desirable rewards that are medium difficulty LvL X(Min Req 15 for balancing mechanics) and that progress the storyline(or at least tell a nice self-contained story). Heck, while we're at it make this new stuff have longlasting changes. Blow up some of MC. Wreck some buildings. Leave a marker in the game so when people go,"Whoa, what is that and where did it come from?" someone can reply,"Oh that's part of X. You can run it now if you like."
At this stage in the circle all the warm feelings and well wishing the community can generate obviously would not be detrimental to the process but they can only have so much impact. CONTENT needs to happen....then, profits permitting and not going to STO/NW/Project 4, we can look at all that happy previously mentioned stuff.
The ball is in their court and all we can really do at this point is discussions while we wait to see what happens after the tutorial...aka Time is The Fire in Which We Burn.
Join Date: Aug 2009 | Title: Devslayer
Okay. I'll also keep being right year after year.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Rehash parts of Millennium City with new content Mini Zones over time. Expand and apply greater detail to these mini zones so they are fleshed out and brimming with content. Then eventually when all of Millennium City has been redone as expanded mini zones, phase out the old gigantic Millennium City. The new pieces will have the old and new content properly entwined and contained in their own areas that can be managed.
This seems the best way to get a redo of the whole game as smaller pieces rather than a big project.
Much like the "Landing party" in STO They would only be available for instances that require 5 team members. And wouldn't be usable if you were on a pre-made team.
2. Friends List?
:biggrin:
Also, NW Companions are pretty much, for the most part, useless in my experiences. At best you get a lil HoT that follows you around. At worst you get,"Hey big monsters, come over here and say hi to my boss!"
Join Date: Aug 2009 | Title: Devslayer
I definitely don't want a companions system. I'd prefer a proper pet class before that. At most, I would want a system like in STO where we send out sidekicks or whatever they are called for resources, if we had a crafting system, but we don't.
Dungeons should be affairs that take teams of real players. The dungeons should also scale players to their levels, and they should actually present a challenge. After all they are places where super villains lie. It's the lack of team content that drove off many early adopters to Champions from the get go, followed by the constant nerfing of the difficulty of the game, making things too easy. A number of what were suppose to be dungeons were made into solo instances instead for no reason other than Cryptic didn't want to bother. It's time Cryptic fixed this and introduced more dungeons and team based content to the game and started putting in rewards people want to go after, like costume pieces and the like, as well as gear. But we need to fix the current gear issue anyways, and stat issue.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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I'd also like to see our Vehicles treated in the same fashion as Starships in STO - since the ship replaces the character, it has its own powers and its own customizable appearance. On the Starfleet side, you can usually select parts from three classes of the ship variety you choose - for instance, the starter ship defaults to a Miranda-class light cruiser, but can use some or all of the parts from the Centaur and ShiKahr classes as well. The choices are more limited for KDF and Romulan Republic characters, and don't exist at low levels unless you've bought some C-store ships, but they're there. You can also recolor the ships to a certain extent, and even apply different patterns to them. It would be nice if our vehicles could have similar visual customization applicable - a Fire Ant in blue with a nice racing stripe, for instance, or a Hawkwing in red and gold.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Ships don't have their own powers in Star Trek. The powers of a starship are determined by your crew, and what slots you place them in. The only thing a ship determines is how many power slots you might have available for a particular department.
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First and foremost, the reason I am suggesting all of this is because every time they talk about adding a new zone, they don't want to do MC, because of reasons such as the city zone size is at its limit, or that it would be too weird having a second MC, or other such things. At one time there was discussion of a Hell's Kitchen type of zone, but the last time we heard anything about that was around when Reloaded launched, so yea. With these changes I propose, not only could add zones for MC as future city content, because people love the city, they can theme each section with a proper main hero, villain groups and so forth. This also means that they don't have to commit to making dozens of new zones right away and can add them later, IE avoiding the City of Heroes effect where there were 15+ useless zones, while the main adventure zones were already there, and avoiding them being having to redo them later for future content.
The next thing that this would offer, pretending that there is enough commitment and forward thinking going on to add the Foundry, players will now have better tools to add Foundry missions to the city itself or to other locations in the world and not be limited because of the overly crammed section of MC that is currently there. Take a quick stroll and you see how much is actually crammed into a tight space in MC and how little actual room to breath there is.
I can tell you, besides the fact the game is often lauded as too easy, one of the major issues with the game I often hear about is it is too small and MC doesn't feel like a city. These are huge issues that will have to be addressed. They can't be ignored or swept under the rug as if they don't matter. It's like how they completely redid sector space in Star Trek Online. It now feels like space over there, and they need to do the same here to make the world feel bigger and more like the city and world they wanted to create. After all there were way more plans for way more zones than we have now.
Rennaissance Center
If you look at the actual profile of MC from the top only, and ignore everything, you can see Cryptic was trying to go for some semblance of a street layout of Detroit. The only problem, again is how condensed and squished everything is. But let's start with the Ren Center. Now above you can see the actual Detroit Ren Center which is where GM hangs out. Ironically, even though Millennium City is suppose to be the city of tomorrow in Champions, the Ren Center in the actual Detroit looks more futuristic and city of Tomorrow-ish than what we have. This, to me, has always been a problem with the Ren center, it doesn't feel natural, it doesn't feel like a social hub, or even a place to go to hang out and shop. If we want the Ren Center to feel that way then it needs to be changed up to look that way. I say make it more mall like and less like it was designed only as an MMO hot stop. After all, in the world of Champions, magic is still only thought of as just another form of super powers by the mass public and I doubt magic people would just be hanging out. Dress the shops up to look more like modern shops and such instead of all this sterile looking stuff we are currently dealing with. Aesthetics go a very long way for helping people feel at home, and if your central hub/social area doesn't feel aesthetic or homey it detracts even more from their experience.
Basically get rid of the giant bowl and make the area feel more like a small mall city in a way. it would be more aesthetically pleasing and would feel more like a place that can be lived in instead of a giant, weird open air bowl that really has no flow to it.
Another thing I would do, is correct the fact that the Detroit River is no where near that horizontal to the city. Make it at an angle like it really is.
Finally, I would add El Lines (aka above ground subway like in COH) and such to fill out the skyline some more, since they are actually a part of Detroit as a whole and mentioned quite a bit in the MC book. This would help fill in the city more and give it that nice city feel because keeping the city barren feels weird.
Keep the floating signs of course because they do add to the super hero atmosphere, but the aesthetic needs to be fixed.
Club Caprice
Alright, this one is probably going to get a lot of eye rolling but I say move the club. The image above would be a lot better, but move Club Caprice from it's current location to the Blimp since it has no use anymore, close off its interior and make it look more like the picture above. A sort of exclusive mile high club deal for super heroes as it were. The current Club Caprice is, frankly, terrible. It has no flow or design, no aesthetic, or anything. The lounges are so separated from the whole as to make no sense, and I know I would actually love to hear the old Pocket D music instead for Club Caprice with maybe some better tunes, because the current Club Caprice music is... bland. here's a link as to a reminder of what you guys at Cryptic use to create here.
Another issue with the current Club Caprice is size limit. Radio stations and DJs originally tried to host events there, or do their typical parties, but because of the clubs size limit it was frustrating. This needs to be upped to at least 50 people or even 75 people per instance.
Homestead
This one might be a stickler, but honestly, Homestead being right next to the Ren Center doesn't really work. Homestead is on the corner of Metropolitan and Woodward Avenue which is due north by northwest of the Ren Center, not right next door. So, with this proposal, I actually propose that Homestead be made its own zone and perhaps the UNTIL building moved next to it instead of Homestead. This way the big events for attacks on Homestead can be in a separate instance away from people in the Ren Center that just want to idle and be left alone.
As stated this would have the benefit of clearing up lag in the main central hub of the Ren Center during specific events and also allow players to more readily find instances to join and be apart of for those events.
Handling Old and New Events
Currently as old and new events go, they ended up causing lag for a lot of people because of the condensed maps and attempt to centralize everything. With this suggested change the events can be more spread out through the city and given a proper flair and special event zones can be created.
For instance, during the Blood Moon, zombies are filling the streets of MC proper, but a new, temporary zone is added and the 12 fallen heroes spawn throughout in special heroic events that players can deal with, and Takofanes spawns every hour or so. new items and such for these events can be created specifically for the players.
The same could be done for Christmas and any new holiday, like the 4th of July celebration and such. This way the lag will be cut down and players who want to idle in the Ren Center won't feel like they are being forced to be apart of the event.
Respawn Points
One thing that always irked me in Champions is the generic respawn points. In City of Heroes the respawn points were the hospitals. I am not suggesting that for Champions, but I am suggesting that respawn points be emergency locations like with a EMT and gurneys and such to add to that feeling or even the front of hospitals as the big respawn point. It adds to the feeling of the city, and we want the city to feel like a city.
Yea, what I am asking for is a big endeavor, but again, if Cryptic is committed to Champions then this is the type of work that needs to be done. This is the best damn superhero game out there on the market, we can't let it stagnate anymore and if Cryptic creates the world then we would definitely get the word out about how much Cryptic actually is turning everything around.
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I agree on the architecture, though. Maybe if I wasn't a CoH vet, I wouldn't mind, but Paragon City felt lived in, and Millennium City just misses that feeling.
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
There's a supreme difference when things are compressed to eliminate dead space and things are compressed because they tried to cram every last aspect of the city into one space and it lost its flow. MC is such a place where they tried to do too much with one area and it ruined the whole experience.
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What was that Star Wars MMO where you spend hours walking from place to place. That game was a good lesson on why "video game scale" is the right way to go.
Btw, next time you go to work at your job, I have a long list of extra stuff I think you should do. I'm not going to pay you or help tho.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Are you referring to that same SWTOR that reported surpassing $100 million in revenue last year and also was second behind WoW as far as MMOs were concerned? That the one you are talking about? The same SWTOR that is boasting $165 million in revenue this year?
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So, talking about something completely different from the idea. Sounds about right for Foxi.
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The point was that having larger zones sometimes sounds good on paper, but in practice just ends up being a flaw and a pain in the butt.
I don't really have an opinion on whether Champs needs to be bigger or not, but my experiences with Galaxies went from "Wow, huge zones!" to "Nope, never again," real quick.
Edit: I just read the first part of your post to see what the actual point was. I kinda agree, I've often thought about how the game would be cooler if westside and downtown had their own maps, in neighboring districts, but this is a scope that the game probably will never see. Kinda shooting for the moon. Not really something you try to do in post production. I dunno, I guess it's no different than adding new zones, so maybe that's not quite accurate.
Would be nice for city center to "expand" to take over the whole map, with all the destroyed parts rebuilt and prettified. Now that the Qularr invasion is going to just be a simulation, we could show some actual forward-progress, story-wise, putting the actual invasion further in the past, and finally - literally - put out some fires that have been burning for six years, and finish the reconstruction in Downtown. Map changes make the game feel more alive, so it would be pretty neat to see.
And the opposite is happening here where the zones are small,a nd people take very instant notice of this simple fact. I am not asking for some huge gigantic, seamless city to get lost in, far from it, but more of what they are doing in Neverwinter or what they did in City of Heroes. They can't properly convey Millennium City in that 1x3 space as them cramming in Ravenswood Academy painfully shows. No, it's not good, it looks half-assed and people are going to call it out, even new or returning players. We haven't had a new zone in Champions since Vibora Bay (that's over five years for those keeping track), and the last time we were promised this was when they said they were going to be making a new player experience in a Hell's Kitchen style a few years ago. Constantly saying "this is good enough" when it's obviously not is not going to help capture the attention of new players looking for a good superhero experience. It's going to just keep them away. If you think it's good enough, then you're just lying to yourself.
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You really shouldn't insist this kind of thing on other people. Other peoples' standards aren't yours to decide.
Anyway, I amended my post up there because I previously hadn't read your first post (which is why the only reason I jumped in at the point that I did).
The problem with Ravenswood looking "off" isn't because there's no room for it. It's because the person building the thing was given very little time to do so, or they are inexperienced. A good designer would be able to make it fit, and fit in.
Now, I'm no doctor, but my first red flag was where it was plopped down. Sandwiched between a jet and a crime-laden neighborhood. Instead, how about between Renaissance Center and Champs HQ or UNTIL HQ? A better fit for "having access to advanced tech" and whatnot. Second, it needs some aesthetic love to make it feel natural. Where do the faculty and students park? Why is there no common area for the students to hang out between classes? Where's the sports field? Why is it all flat, with no elevated areas? Is there a sign with the name of the school on it? (I've only glanced at this thing a couple times, these are some things that stood out, or didn't notice). The buildings are also just straight-up rectangles. They need some additions to their sides or roofs, to make it not so boring to the eye.
my standards are considerably tame compared to most gamers out there. And considering the reaction people had to the variable robot outfit and the reaction people are having about the Ravenswood Academy branch, I think it's fairly spot on. Saying it's good enough is often what leads to things like Watch_Dogs, and Assassins Creed: Unity.
You can't make a campus school that isn't even the size of the tiny Westside High School fit in an area that wasn't meant to have buildings. Time or not, the buildings are too small, they don't fit the aesthetic of the area, and they stick out like they don't belong.
And you already run into your first problem. Where would you put them? you have even less room near the Champs HQ and the UNTIl buildings, unless you start removing stuff. And since the building to the north of the Champs HQ is an actual mission door for Nemesis, moving that would be no small task either. So you are trying to cram them into an even smaller space there. You can't use the south side near the UNTIL building because that big door is actually the entrance to the Hangar of the UNTIL base.
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I'm just saying, don't be arrogant about it and people will take you more seriously.
It's not the entire school, though. We know that for sure. The UCLA extension in Westwood is a single building crammed between a Jamba Juice and a Quiznos if my terrible memory serves. It's smaller than the three of these buildings put together.
The architect who designed them could easily opt for them having the aesthetics of the mother school, so I don't think the visuals themselves are to blame. It could purposely be different. Nobody complains that the area around Little Italy looks un-Italian.
Parking is easy, make it underground. Hell, connect that to an underground Gym facility. Maybe it could have a door that transports you to and from the Movement Testing area of the Powerhouse, since we know it's connected already. See? What problem?
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