Five Things You Need To Know About Champions Online

ThomasN7

Last night, Cryptic Studios held an event that was all about the player versus player combat in its upcoming massively multiplayer online superhero game, Champions Online.

The basic need-to-know info about this game is this: it's City of Heroes, only bigger and better. And, no, Marvel and/or DC Comics won't be suing anybody anytime soon over it because the developer is scrupulous about original intellectual property. Not to mention Cryptic has plenty to work with from the pen-and-paper game on which the game is based.

That just leaves these five things you might not know—and probably should—before diving into a superhero-centric world.

1) Player customization will consume you

The player customization system isn't based on classes and doesn't require you to adhere to any pre-set superpowers. In other words, if you wanted to a be a gadget-using, fire-and-ice based golem or a scantily-clad dark magic cowgirl elf, you could make it happen—and no armor pick-ups or costume limitations would mar your mental image of what your hero is supposed to look like. There are default superpower sets you can choose from and a randomization option for body type and costume that let you get your character going that much quicker. Even better, you can lock certain options while clicking random so that you can keep a color scheme you like but try different body types, etc. And if you decided you liked one but clicked "Random" too soon, you can click "Undo" and go back to it.

This will probably occupy my first three and a half hours of gameplay.

2) Yes, there is PvP

Player versus player belongs in a superhero game. What do superheroes do besides flying around clobbering people out to destroy a city? Sure, they have girlfriends, sidekicks and drama with alter-egos – but Champions Online is an MMO, not a dating sim. Ergo, we need PvP.

PvP in Champions takes place both in the world and in special maps. The incentive to PvP (aside from satisfying your inner jerk) comes from very rare item drops (which are not subtracted from the loser's inventory) and experience points awarded for victories.

We were shown the dueling system that you can activate in the world by selecting a hero and challenging them to a duel. Once the other player agrees, a force field goes up around both players, preventing all other characters from interfering in the fight. From there, fighting game rules apply: first one to lose all hit points or get knocked out of the ring loses.

The PvP-centric map we saw was a five on five "prison break" level where five heroes are on the red team (trying to bust out of prison) and five were on the blue team. Both teams had two leader characters – the goal of the other team was the kill those leaders and take over as many turrets and hack as many computers as possible to make things difficult for the other three players to cross the prison to find the leaders.

3) The Nemesis System is like the Buddy System, only evil

What would a superhero be without a nemesis? A spandex-wearing Good Samaritan maniac, that's what.

Cryptic works in every hero's own private nemesis by letting the player customize their own evil villain who will then constantly try to destroy the player. The nemesis' visual appearance is determined with the same menu as the hero's character creation screen – but there are four "Nemesis Details" the player has to fill out in addition to the crucial costume and gender choices. First you pick the fighting style, which determines if they're a cold-hearted mastermind or a crazy savage. Then you choose their superpowers, which are like yours, but they have to use one of the presets – also, unlike regular enemies, a nemesis can use all powers within a power set instead of only a few. Next, you choose their minions (robots, ninjas, etc.) and a smaller power set for the minions.

Once created, a nemesis will encounter the hero randomly in the world. Additionally, optional "popcorn" missions will appear where the hero takes on his or her nemesis in a special map. When a superhero encounters their nemesis in the world, other players can join up to defeat him or her (and they don't die – they just go to jail or whatever); but the popcorn missions are solo instanced. We only saw one of these and it was mostly about "go here, clobber this, go there, rescue that non-playable superhero so he can join your party, etc."

According to creative director Jack Emmert, there's more to most maps than this (like "how do I get out of here?" puzzles), especially when it comes to nemeses. Also, he says, at higher levels, you will get the opportunity to put your nemesis away for good and choose a new one.

4) It may be action-flavored, but it's still MMO combat

I hate to be cynical, but a lot of MMO developers claim that their combat is somehow different than the usual click-click-cool down-click-click. Cryptic is no different, claiming that the frenetic pace of combat is what makes their MMO more action-y than most, despite still having to click on attacks, charge up certain attacks and do the cool-down thing. However, in the lone five-on-five prison break map we were permitted to play, I'm not sure it felt all that different than, say, World of Warcraft. Also, it may have something to do with the powers your character has. The ranged lighting chick I played felt like WoW because I just clicked and sat still while she shocked the beejesus out of the targeted enemy; but the brawler kung-fu guy I tried probably would have felt different in up close and personal melee (if I was continually getting him killed by ranged characters, that is). Definitely something that warrants a more thorough study.

5) There are no limitations besides the level

To me, what makes a good comic book superhero is the drama that comes from superpower limitations. The best stories are not about what Superman or Spider-Man can do; it's about what they can't. Champions has no limitations like these. There are no two superpowers that won't go together and no vulnerabilities to anything that comes from items, enemies or powers. The only limit is the level – you gain more superpowers as you level up (capped at 40 for now), so at lower levels, there might be things you can't do… but there's never any drama to any of it.

I brought this up with Jack Emmert because he's a comic book fan who knows what I'm talking about. He seemed really intrigued and is already talking about plans for patches and expansions to build out the role of the nemesis. So there may be more to this idea yet to come – but for now, no drama. Only superpowers.

All in all, I really like what I saw with Champions Online. It looked great, played decently enough (although two PvP matches really isn't enough time to be completely sure) and it's about superheroes – one of my favorite things in the world next to unicorns. If my computer can stand it, I'll definitely have to give Champions a try when it launches seven weeks from now.

 

 

Source: kotaku.com/5312161/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-champions-online

SolidScape

Nice information. I'm not really looking at Champions Online personally because I'm mostly so-so with the superpower theme, but I do admit the info you posted piqued my interest a little -- especially the part about the nemesis. Thanks for the post.

ThomasN7

I never played a super-heroe type game before and when I saw Champions it really caught my attention when I started seeing the combat and how graphically appealing the game is. Plus, this game is not fantasy which will be a plus. We have a ton of fantasy mmos out there already, time for something different.

Praxus1874

 The PvP information for this game really needs to get spread around, since noone seems to think it exists.  Below is an article from the Champions Daily News Site (championsonlinedailynews.com/pvp-details-released/)

 

Details of PvP play in Champions Online have been unveiled by executive producer Bill Roper. Speaking at a press event in San Francisco last night, Roper and various members of Cryptic’s senior team showed the game’s progress, with a strong emphasis on Player vs Player action.

Roper talked about how the game’s dueling system works as well as the three main elements of PvP. 1) Unsanctioned ‘Bash’ all-on-all arenas. 2) Sanctioned televised fighting contests for single or team-play. 3) Break-out scenarios between two large teams attempting to defeat each others’ leaders.

Here’s the full transcript from Bill’s PvP presentation

How can you do PvP in Champions Online? Heroes don’t fight other heroes, right? Actually - totally covered in the Champions world. As an homage to the creators of Champions, a company called Hero Games, we have…The Hero Games. It’s basically an umbrella framework of sanctioned and unsanctioned hero versus hero combat and it’s scoped from head-to-head play all the way up to big team tournaments.

So we have to make sure the player can go where they want [and duel] So you can select dueling, a giant rocket lands [actually. crashes on the ground in front of you], a forcefield appears around you, and now it’s ON between the two heroes.

It works a lot like a sumo match, but you don’t have to throw any salt or be fat. What it means is that if anyone steps outside or is forced outside of the dome they lose, or if your health is reduced to zero you lose.

The idea is we want players to go anywhere in the world and if they want to test their skills against the other players you can throw down and you can duel.

It’s a lot more difficult than it seems technically because we have to make sure that other players are locked out from helping you or hurting you. But it’s really fun. Since you can duel anywhere you can pick where you want to fight like a safer area or you can pick a dangerous area.

But dueling is just the first step in what we do for PvP. There are actually three different types of PvP that we focus on. Bash is set in a district outside Millennium City called West Side which is kind of the scary not so nice part of town. It’s total free for all. Every hero goes in there for themselves. It’s set in a place that also has NPCs so you can be hitting those NPCs trying to get boosts and different item drops to help you out. But it’s not just the other heroes there that are dangerous.

Bash is an unsanctioned event outside the Hero Games. We know that there are some heroes who like to mix it up in a down and dirty street fighting way and that’s where they go.

The second thing you would see is the Millennium City Ultimate Tournament of Champions. It’s sanctioned, it’s televised, it’s got sponsors and that is designed as a really cool thing for players to go in singularly or you can go in as a team of five, already set up or just joining a queue and pop in.

We want to allow players to join in PvP from anywhere in the world. We don’t want to make you have to go anywhere to do that so on the frame around the mini map you’ll see a fist and when you select that you go into a queue and that allows you to join in on any kind of map. Then it just comes up and says ‘hey you’re ready to go in now’ which is really friendly and easy.

There is also an entire reward system specifically designed for PvP. As you go through you’ll earn by defeating other heroes in the arena or on Bash or other maps. This gives you a different type of resource economy which you can spend to get different items, some of which are pretty sick and showy.

We wanted to make PvP a real option for players and not leave their character growth behind and so they can PvP before they hit their maximum level. You can gain experience by playing PvP. If you are gaining experience in the world you are learning that same stuff by fighting other heroes.

The last map is called Apocalypse. The concept behind Apocalypse maps is they are getting you reedy for some type of end of world scenario. One side is the heroes, one side plays the villains. The heroes are trying to stop a break-out [from the Stronghold prison]. There are ways to activate heroes [and villains] to help you, different guns and reinforcements located throughout. You can use different elements of the world. You are trying to take out the two leaders of the other side, using different ways of attacks.

After Bill’s presentation, assembled journos broke up to scoff tasty treats before engaging in some PvP action themselves, in an attempt to win a Champions Online snowboard.