Champions Online questions

MightyUnclean

Hey guys,

I'm in the mood for a superhero game.  I asked some questions about DCUO, and wasn't really thrilled about what I heard.  Now, I'm considering Champions Online.  I have a couple of questions:

1)  How active is the community?  I need a pretty active, social player base to be happy.

2)  Any indications the game may be shut down in the near future?

3)  Is the game still in active development?

4)  What is the combat style?

Thanks!

MightyUnclean

That's OK, I almost always play good-aligned toons.  I never even tried a Warlock in WoW!

Po_gg

I added the answers in the other thread   https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/comment/7281870/#Comment_7281870
Except 4), combat style, because that wasn't the question, just the combos... but that was detailed later in the conversation as well.

CO has your 'standard' (at least before the action-mania started the takeover in the genre) MMO combat, tab target, with hotbar clicking or using the number keys. Skills has cooldown and power cost, and you have to manage that (a basic power-building skill is mandatory, even if you never use it and regen through your build). The most "action-y" element in the combat is that you have an active block. As HL said years ago: https://youtu.be/MvjW783Ynfk?t=1m34s


For the evil part, there's no other side like CoV was for CoH, but since the Onslaught was added you can play a villain - sort of. You can take control of world bosses and beat the regular players until enough of them is gathering up and they take you down.

Po_gg

Even with putting aside my... lemme say dislike ( ) towards gabe and his bloatware, I'm surprised that there's even the 200 you've found. Considering the standalone client, then later the Arc (which you can still bypass and uninstall), and all the complaints about how steam wallet and Arc don't like each other, the low numbers seem at the 'right' place.

Actually I admit I had to search for the entry date, because I don't remember the steamy launch or promos or exclusive packs or anything over the years...  hard to imagine why would anyone play it through steam.


Anyhow, I agree with you and I wouldn't call it packed either. CO has a fairly small, but active playerbase. Plenty of players around any time, queues are short (except for pvp, but who cares about pvp, right? ), chat is active, endgame is active... from a player's POV that is what matters.
The fact that you can count the population by the thousands instead of millions should only care PWE and their finances but based on the work they've put into the game during the last 2 years -few updates, small changes, nothing huge- it seems they're fine with the game's situation.

MightyUnclean

Thanks for the info, guys!  Shit I had another question...Oh yeah, is there a particular spec (paid version) that is good for solo?  Maybe a tank or something?  Is there the traditional holy trinity, where a tank actually has to do a job and maintain aggro?

Po_gg

Yep, it's an old game, so traditional with the 'trinity' as well - meaning it's not just three Healing and support are different roles, and CC is still important (at least until you are overgeared and pushing through by brute force).

For solo, mostly any approach is good, but maybe a tanky build is the safest. The group quests will still really tough to solo however, and finding a group might take some time, since most players (new or alt) usually just level through the Alerts. In the Hive video above, what he calls an 'on alert thingy'.

FreeForm (paid version ), as much as I love it and the theorycrafting as a whole, for a first-time play it might be daunting.
I'd say at first just take one of the free ATs for a test round, to see how well tanks handle, how fast they can go through the content and the fights, etc.
Both tanks that available for free are pretty decent tanks even at the endgame, you will only lose aggro to the reckless and geared to the teeth dps... It's up to personal taste to choose between ice and brawl.

But if you really want to go with a FF tank, the forum has a build section, this thread is fairly recent: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline/#/discussion/1210367/looking-for-tank-build-advice

MightyUnclean

OK, thanks!  Is the group content mandatory for progression?

Po_gg

Nothing is mandatory, nor locked behind group content. You can skip anything and keep up the progression.
The most you "lose" by skipping them is a few story snippets and some gear, which would turn obsolete pretty fast anyways as you level up. For the story pieces you can go back a few levels later if you are curious, except the last 4 dungeons at the level cap (obviously you can't outlevel those ), those were the endgame content for a while.
Now it is possible to solo those too, but you have to gear up heavily for it, which takes much more time than finding a group (those 4 are still regularly played).

The thing is, since they've added the Alerts, not many players level the good old way of playing through the zones and questing. Most of them just using the different Alerts, which is on one part understandable (much faster, easier, lots of rewards), but still a bit shame, since the stories are pretty good. The whole IP (the Champions pen-and-paper rpg) has a tongue-in-cheek undertone, mocking the superhero genre a bit.

The mechanics in the questing zones are nice too, the 'smaller' inbetween dungeons of a storyline have scaling based on the group size (so those can be soloed on-level too, with the challenge toned down), there are open encounters (pretty much what Rift did as well with the rifts, just in CO those are embedded with the storyline and not just random appearing kill-a-thons), there's an entire underwater zone (what GW2 tried later with smaller chunks of underwater combat), lots of things to do if you choose to level the old way.
At the cap there's the CS and AP stories (the 'expansions' in CO with a focus on story), there's Vibora Bay, that has a great main story too.

Or, you can just go the Alert route, and get to the cap in a week, easily

ChampionsChat

We started a Youtube channel back in November called Digitally Rebastard Network with a show centered around Champions Online. We are basically trying to draw more attention to the game from an entertaining, educational and informative angle.

We start out with a history of the game and lead into the creation process and eventually show an in depth process of the game itself.

Some of the subscribers suggested this and a few other forums to list the channel on.

We already listed on the main games forum and reddit.

If you are interested in checking us out here is the link below……

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxOz9IfBoSdRjOyOSBJKo8Q

Thanks for any support to this channel and the game itself we truly appreciate it.


Thanks for your time,

James Pendleton
DRN Public Relations

Po_gg

Watched the first two and I have to say it's really thorough and detailed. Maybe even a bit too detailed, with Warbot is a FF - I've suggested above to Mighty last year an AT as the first character for this very reason, the available customization options for FF could scare away some players...

Anyhow, great work, and a really fun format with the host and tv show. Thanks for posting it!

Deddmeat

MightyUnclean said:

Hey guys,

I'm in the mood for a superhero game.  I asked some questions about DCUO, and wasn't really thrilled about what I heard.  Now, I'm considering Champions Online.  I have a couple of questions:

1)  How active is the community?  I need a pretty active, social player base to be happy.

2)  Any indications the game may be shut down in the near future?

3)  Is the game still in active development?

4)  What is the combat style?

Thanks!

1. Surprisingly the community is pretty active given how old the game is and things like CoH etc (its still available to play)

2. It's rarely mmo's shutdown, hell UO is still going, AO is crawling along etc 

3. sort of, bits get added now and then but nothing to write home about

4. tab target, for me i prefer AoE .. I have LTS though so get to fart around with builds more

All in all it's worth spending some time on, if you don't like it fair enough, all you've lost is a bit of time

Scorchien

 Figured Pogg would hit this up and give you good info ..

 But ill add i play CO each year for 3 - 4 months since its release ( just took it out of rotation for Classic)

   But when i was playing 2 weeks ago pop was fine , the group finder was a short wait each time ..

  and community is always helpful if you have questions in game ..

 Free form is the way to go imo for sure ..

   ALways enjoy my time in CO

Po_gg

Scorchien said:

 Figured Pogg would hit this up and give you good info ..

(I did, we had a nice discussion with Mighty)

Nicely timed necro - the 10th birthday has just started

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/champions-online/news/detail/11243793-the-10th-anniversary-of-champions-online%21 

Cats stucked on trees are back (from the last year's Anniversary, so maps are available now), and there's a new "mission" as well, but the first week's task ("a scavenger hunt to find heroes and civilians throughout the game") is a tad bit plain...  a few of them have funny or charmed answers, and it can take a while if you want to check all of them.

However, you need several alts for it, there are way more NPCs than needed for the mission, and it ain't replayable.

* or, if you don't care about the flavor text, you can finish the mission in about a minute, there are enough NPCs for it around the Powerhouse... probably for new players, who can't wander off yet to different zones.