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Severely disappointed by open beta
CHATTER
Member Posts: 44
I had such high hopes for this game. Alas they were dashed & my illusions were torn asunder when I was able to try the beta and really experience all the game had to offer (which isn't much).
For a MMO, it isn't very massive. The main zone for instance (no pun intended lol) has an instance cap of 100! That's it. Which is pitiful for such a large zone. Not to mention all the loading screens & having to decide instances every single time gets old fast & kills immersion.
- point 2. You change zones (say to level up) and then you go back to the zone your team was in. BUT if that zone nears the instance cap it wont let you in. EVEN IF THE REST OF YOUR TEAM IS IN IT. So you are forced to either wait for someone to exit that zone which can take a looong time, or else ask your whole team to change zones. AND IF they actually change zones, they are transported far away from the quest and have to essentially start over. Horrible system.
Broken teaming. The teaming is completely broken. Functionally you can team w/ people but there's no point as sharing quests only works 0.1% of the time.
Sloppy combat. The combat system, while it seems intuitive & refreshing for the first hour starts to show all its holes & downsides fast after that. The complaints I had heard people make about all you doing is hitting the 2 key repeatedly rang all too true. The whole "action packed moving while you fight" just doesn't exist as you cant do that w/ a PC's controls, even w/ changing key binds.
Bad responsiveness. Blocking doesn't work half the time. The response time / input lag for your powers is really bad.
Animations. While animations look next gen in their produced videos the interrupts & fluidity of them when you're actually moving amongst powers is schizophrenic. Really pulls you OUT of the immersion.
Crappy story. The quest storylines are so crappy & badly put together it feels like a lazy 7th grader did it on the school bus ride home. The vast majority of the quests are boring & uninspiring. Not to mention frustrating as they're designed in a way that encourages people to be dicks to eachother. Another problem is that because of how their designed the low low instance pop caps wont get higher as it would only make the problem worse. So they've painted themselves in a corner.
Corny voice overs. 'Nuff said. If you tried the beta you know what i mean. Bang your head on the table corny. Not funny ha-ha corny.
Ridiculous perk requirements for unlocking costume parts. With the average costume item taking 1,000 - 5,000 kills. At one kill a minute (assuming you're killing something far below you in level {for no xp btw}, at a rate of 1 a minute) that's anywhere from 17 HOURS to 80 HOURS just to get ONE costume piece. And there are A LOT of costume pieces available in this way. ALSO, they are NOT given account wide. Only per char. Add on top of that they want to sell them through microtransactions TOO. Really really destroys the whole customiziablity aspect, the ONLY decent thing about the game & they nerf the crap out of it w/ making much of the customization unattainable w/o a mind-numbing, suicide-inducing grind.
Completely lazy & unpolished. Examples abound of how the game was just slapped together. Aside from the obvious checklist of things they thought made other games popular (mostly WoW) which they failed at implementing correctly. One such would be the main contact in the tutorial zone. Chief Surhoff. He actually says that the interact button is F. It's Z, F is follow. Probably the most important piece of info in the tutorial and even that is wrong.
Colors don't match, hard on the eyes. In the costume creator if you choose a gradient you cant match it across body parts. The palette is limited & the colors themselves start becoming an eyesore after several hours. Even removing that ugly outline in graphics options doesn't help. It will rot your eyes like chewing on lollypops and never brushing will rot your teeth.
I could go on, but this is long enough for a dissatisfied rant.
Comments
Aside from your opinions on various things - the things you said that did not work worked for me
Teaming and sharing quests worked (as long as people met the requirements for the quest to be shared)
Combat was fluid and I could move around and fight fine without rebinding any keys
Blocking worked fine (and I'm in Australia so prob have a bit more lag than most people)
The guy told me Z was the key I needed - I didn't notice anything wrong in regards to quest information and general game info
Man what ever. Champions Online is fine, just need a bit of fixing on combat (range vs melee). As far as teaming and doing mission while sharing, I had no problems what so ever. Out of all the immense amount of people I played with in beta no one complained they all enjoyed CO and so did you troll stop the BS and have fun. Your beta review is BS to me and many others.
This is a really game killer for me. Since being dissapointed by the Aion beta, I was hoping to try this game. But if what you typed above is correct I'm not even going to bother. It's a terrible system that should have no place in MMO's.
Not sure why I even bother, but...
The instancing is in place so that a) CO has one server and one server only (=no ques, no mergers, no deserted servers), b) people don't stand on each others feet but get the feeling that they are a super hero an not joe-shmoe standing in line at the taco stand.
Does the implementation have issues? Well sure, but it can be worked on.
And by the way, you dont have to pick instances every time you zone, you can let the server decide, e.g. based on which zone has the most of your friends in it. But that's just one of the things the OP apparently overlooked. Well, the other issues have been discussed in a more mature manner elsewhere. Some are real issues, others are just a matter of personal preference and others are, well, non-issues.
I always felt that Cryptic did good with their CoH. The things you've listed will no doubt be corrected and fixed.
Also, I feel the shard/instancing will help the game in the long run, no more re-rolling on populated servers or repurchasing a CO account to play on USA/EU servers should the community die out.
I actually really like the way they decided to do the server setup with the 1 server & multiple instances. Great idea, bad execution.
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
I agree with the OP. However the only game breaker is the zone/ instancing, the fans could candy this problem all they like but it's garbage. I don't care that you can see what zone your friends are in. I don't care that when you leave an instance you can select the instance your group is still in. IT'S JUST WRONG !!
If your in a major city you should be able to see the entire chat and be able to know what's going on. I had to switch servers and fly back 4 times to get help on a popular 2 man quest. I hate to use WoW for an example but I must enter at least three caves a night without zoning, this should be no big deal, but Champions uses zoning and makes them a big deal. By the way, how many deep dungeons are their like two ?
I've been playing mmo's for years and I know that most play solo for months before they take grouping seriously, So I give Champions about two months before it looses players like cray.
Fans of every mmo stick up for their games before launch to the max. no matter how bad the game is developed.
Age of Conan, Vanguard, Darkfall, Warhammer..........remember, or did you forget ?
You have few points but just a note from a other standpoint.
The instance did have higher player limits. The started with around 200 but then a outcry happen on the forums from other players that needed to wait for a quest or did spent to much time waiting for respawn. I guess teaming is so hard for some....
The even said the will change it later again, when the places are not overcrowded, including tweaking respawn...
Switching Zones, yeah I see your problem. Look at me, I like it for the point you hated because with the instance switch you travel back to the entrance point. So you save travel time to hit the powerhouse, fly to a other zone or sell/craft stuff.
You know it always gets to me how they say combats is pressing 1, and then 2 on occasion. Did you even get out of the 1st starting zone? :::sighs::
Dax.
Complaining about zoning is just silly, the gameworld itself is so small and the areas you use would too overcrowded to do any questing in. By doing shards youl never get lonely, as for fanbois sticking with the game well...
Im not a fanboy, I will buy and play this game because I think it was fun, enough said. It does what every other mmo fails to do, deliver fastpaced and fun gameplay.
I can only really give the OP two major points as accurate. You do accurate portray how the shard system works but you make it a negative. Other than some tweaking to make sure you can get back to your team I see it as a plus.
You are a super hero and you want to feel like one. MC is a huge zone (and by the way, the population cap is higher than the starting zones) and you feel like you are one of the rare supers fyling around. It keeps the supers feel to the game while at the same time giving you the tools to find your friends and superteam mates. Whenever you look at the shard list you can see if you have friends in that shard. I think the cool thing here is it is one virtual server so you will NEVER have to worry about a friend not being on the same server as you and not being able to play together.
The voice over work is over the top. I think it was to make it feel like pulp comic hero drama and it is but not so great.
I had none of the problems with blocking not working. I moved a lot with all of my characters to avoid or gain attacks advantages.
I would not call myself a huge fanboi (not even sure what that is but that is a whole other topic) but I do like the game and am tired of things being seriously misprepresented by burned out, jaded MMO players who should probably not being playing t hem anymore.
The combat system is awesome. Outside of the tutorial if you build a character that only uses two attacks that is entirely your fault. I've said it before and apparently I need to say it again, CO character creation system is a sandbox; the developers give you a bunch of tools and trust that you'll use them to create the character you want to play.
I enjoyed the beta but have decided to wait a few months or more before playing. I think many of the issues folks had with the game will be worked out by Christmas. Till then I will just follow the game forums to see how things progress. I am sure that they will have a free trial sometime next spring and that might be the time to start.
I was expecting Champions to be a super COH and its not, they have a lot of things in common, but Champions is its own game and has its good points and bad.
I get what the OP is saying.
The characters are too... shiny. Even after tweaking the video options, they are either way too bright, or way to dark. Not enough "gray" so to speak. But they do move well and have good animations.
Except for different power types. For example, using the energy building power with Munitions and autofiring that, then using the first electrical attack.... does not always work, and can get frustraiting as hell to use. The two different animations don't flow with one another.
Respecing is a pain in the butt too. You can only respec a certain number of powers back. Once you hit that point, you are forever stuck with what you have. This includes not only powers, but the stat increases and power increases as well. I found this out the hard way when I hit 11 once that I couldn't respec my first 2 powers. This means you have to some extreme planning beforehand. Not only for your powers, but your stats, your power perks, and all that jazz.
I don't like the instancing. Hate it in fact. One can use all kinds of justification for it, but I think it is cause they dont have the hardware/coding to support one server. Not enough mobs to kill for the quests? Make the area bigger. Too many heroes flying around? Make the zone bigger with other points of interest to have them hang out at. But that's just me.
I did find out though, that this will be the first game ever I dont have to Name Farm at launch. Because of how they handle the name system, you can name your guy just about anything. Rock on! You can have 500 people named Iron Man just cause that's how the system is set up.
Speaking of which. Cryptic really flipped off marvel with this game. You are able to create reasonable likeness of a lot of your superheroes from Marvel. Spiderman, Iron Man, The Thing, Hulk, Cyclops, Nick Fury, Firestar, Storm, Ice Man, Human torch, Mr Fantastic....... the list goes on and on.
Not only that but most have the same powerset combos to make those characters. Want to make Ghost Rider? Pick up the Chain Lariat. Iron Man? Too easy, they have the Power Armor powerset. Spiderman? Pick up web grenade, the force energy builder, Lightning reflexes and the swinging power. It won't be exact, but pretty dog gone close.
There are TONS of little pop culture references. Like there was a quest called "Fought the Law" and when you finished, "the Law won". I thought that was funny.
You save Foxbat in a side quest and he goes crying about seeing a GM to get a different respawn point. I mean yeah the dialog is over the top, but Hello... your main Super Hero , Defender is like 8 feet tall with Arnold Muscles on Steriods times 100. The whole thing is over the top.
Is the game perfect? Hell no.
Is it fun? Hell yes.
You may not have this game being your main,,, but as a game on the side, it wins.
Hope you find they fixed what btohered you before then Mistmouse.
Slim26, I do not see that big of a deal with ranged vs melee. There are obvious issues that can be overcome through crafting and power choice that do not require you to choose powers outside of your melee powerset and are still viable in combat.
I have listed what I used with my set that has made me fairly decent in PvP one on one or in groups but, does not do well against multiple or free for all PvP. Others tend to gang up on you when you are the only or one of only Mell targets in areas. I do not want to list it again ( kinda like my uniqeness there ) but, a combination of crafted items and powers in one group and I can really take out others as well as ranged.
It is not as easy as ranged, I will give you that. However, if you are looking for a challenging PvP go melee!! You can make Batman Proud! hehe. Geek, I know.
Say hello, To the things you've left behind. They are more a part of your life now that you can't touch them.
Two things I'd like to point out. The zone cap is set at 100 to prevent overcrowding and spawn camping. Its not a technical limit. As players level up and spread out, it will be closer to 200 per zone. They set this number based on what feels right for the size of the zone and the current density of players. Don't worry, you'll run into just as many players in CO as you would in any other MMOG. In fact, you'll run into more of them because all players will be on the same server.
And the comments about combat are hilarious. If you can't move and use powers at the same time then you really need to L2Keyboard or better yet, get an X-Box controller or a Belkin n52t. Just because YOU can't move and press your powers at the same time doesn't mean everyone is as handicapped as you are.
I've been playing this game for 5 months now and combat hasn't gotten boring to me yet. Repeating the same zones 30+ times, now THAT is getting boring.
The biggest selling point on this game for me is the customization. I'm not just talking about in the character creator, but in abilities as well. Unlike CO which in my opinion had a rather boring combat system, CO is fast paced and you can mix and match any powers from any power set. I know that some powers right now are better than others, but at least there is a chance for a completely unique character.
Whereas some of the items he mentioned are way off base "Colors don't match"? really? Wow. If you were trying to match skin color to a full body suit to make a naked character then maybe that would be true...
Anyways, as always, the truth is a cool medium between the two posts above me. One overly critical, the other making light of how it really is. Yes you can actually go through the game with very few power choices ( I totalled the need for 5 powers altogether, 1 end builder, 1 charge attack, 1 AOE attack, 1 passive and 1 heal) potentially only using 3 powers, but if you really wanted to gimp yourself using your end builder and AOE only is passable if you love to torture yourself.
Teaming is an issue with sharing quests, mainly in the major quest chains where people ask for help are the ones that are absolutely not sharable. All missions should be able to be shared, even if you've already completed that mission or if you haven't completed the prerequisites for the mission. If you are helping on the mission you should get the credit, not the small XP amount from killing the mobs.
The type of it being F instead of Z, isn't really a typo, it was just changed, to pick up items and talk to NPCs used to be F, now it is Z, that was changed RIGHT before OB, so obviously they didn't get to change all the dialogue. Bug it.
Blocking actually goes into effect the moment you hold it down, blocking has 2 stages, 1) the actual moment you start trying to block, and 2) when the block has actually been held for a sufficient amount of time. I've tested this in the powerhouse many times. You haave 2 stages of damage... when you just hit block, just barely, you do get a damage reduction, but not nearly as strong of a reduction if you've made it to stage 2 of block, this also works after block has been released. You will see a number of powers that say that block will continue to hold for a few seconds after it has been released... this is true, but again it is not a true block. You will have reduced damage after you release block, but you still take roughly 30% more damage then had you kept block held.
Anyways, not gunna respond to all of it, just pointing out what I've seen.
Like you said "as long as people met the requirements". Well, 99.99% of the time they don't. If you randomly invite some1 chances are very high you cant share a quest w/ them. Unless you spend every waking minute w/ the same person doing the same quests at the same time the "requirements" get disconnected VERY fast.
You can not move around AND fight at the same time, apart from just moving around while ur energy builder is on auto. Not unless you have 3 hands.
It's not the lag that is broken for blocking it's the input. Though lag would make it even worse. If you think blocking is working because your hitting it when u see the charge up 3-4 seconds before the attack. That is not responsiveness. I played on a 50Mb fiber line, trust me lag wasn't the cause. Though lag was really high considering the line i played on.
And no, I played it on the very last day of open beta. Chief Surhoff does say that the interact key is F. He probably will even say it when the game goes live. Just read it.
It's only trolling if i dont mean what I post. But i certainly do. Enough so that i canceled both of my pre-orders. Also this game, like i said, has painted itself in a corner by the fundamental design decisions they made. They cant fix them w/o completely changing the core of the game. So it's screwed. Watch and see. I give it a year, 2 max.
Oh, I understand why the instancing is there. But it's still capped way too low. If they wanted to prevent griefing they should have made the zones bigger and provided multiple locs for each quest. The fact that they think that they cant run multiple servers because most will be ghost towns doesn't exactly show much confidence in their game either IMHO.
Also, if you let the server pick zones for you; it STILL wont let you into zones near cap, EVEN IF YOUR WHOLE TEAM IS IN IT. Doesn't change the problem at all.
I hope you're enjoying your time with SOE. I'll be interested in reading the quests your writing.