Champions Online's user interface and its Google connection
by Kyle Horner 
Aug 14th 2009 at 1:00PM
Filed under: Super-hero, New titles, News items, Champions Online
Our experience with user interfaces have proven the simplicity-to-powerful ratio to be incredibly important. In our time with Champions Online, the powers window and its ability to sort through the huge list of powers fluidly has been a prime example of this philosophy. We already knew that someone over at Cryptic knew what they were doing with the UI, but it's good to have a name so we can say thanks to Dave. Thanks Dave!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
usagizero said on 1:21PM 8-14-2009
I was hoping there would be more screens with detail about the UI, i can't seem to find much actual info about that. Beta is coming so i'll be able to see for myself, but i'm curious.
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daniel said on 1:37PM 8-14-2009
I'm with Usagizero. The shout-out is certainly nice, but if it wouldn't have broken the NDA, an arcticle about the UI would have been nicer.
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chriskovo said on 1:57PM 8-14-2009
UI is kinda standard. Only annoying this is you can only have like 9 powers active at once. You have to keep switching customized sets of powers to use all of your powers, which is just lame. Think its a concession for console gamers when they jump the game to that platform. Probably reason i wont pick this game up, if i earn all the powers i damn well better be able to use all of them at once.
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usagizero said on 2:17PM 8-14-2009
So it's sort of like Guild Wars? Where you can only switch skills in "town"?
Hmm.. not sure what i think of that. I love the amount of crazy powers i have in CoH/V, even when i only use like a handful of them normally, it's nice to have the options.
Aganazer said on 2:18PM 8-14-2009
I am guessing that you haven't played in a while. They changed it so that you can have 14 powers on your hotbar. No more concessions. No more lameness. Now you must buy the game because your excuse is no longer valid. :)
chriskovo said on 2:30PM 8-14-2009
They changed it? Thats cool but not sure if i will get still. The superhero mmos always kinda come off as MMO lites. I mean you look cool from the beging so what do you have to look forward too. Then again you never know if Aion is lame i might try it. Well until that Warhammer 40k MMO comes out then i have to burn the Herertic, the mutants and the unclean. :P
Leshrac said on 2:40PM 8-14-2009
Well, I played this game already, its called City of Heroes?
What does this game have that CoH doesn't? From what I've seen there isn't anything really new going on here, leaps and bounds wise, from CoH.
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Aganazer said on 3:01PM 8-14-2009
If you can't answer that question for yourself then you haven't tried.
Psychotic Storm said on 3:05PM 8-14-2009
For once its not from NCsoft and that is a great bonus.
haven't played CoH, so I cannot comment on any difference or similarities, but from CoH screens I have seen it CO conveys a comic book feel CoH fails to give, that for me is a great feature.
Leshrac said on 3:29PM 8-14-2009
I've tried it, there wasn't anything new, thus my question - what is new here?
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Aganazer said on 3:33PM 8-14-2009
I guess I could go to ChampionsOnline.com and just copy the feature list for you, but I'll give some highlights.
-Classless characters
-Attributes
-Shared zone quests
-Public quests
-Different energy building mechanic
-Blocking
-Nemesis system
-End game
-Modern graphics
-Shards rather than servers
There are probably more, but those are the big ones that come to mind.
Leshrac said on 4:26PM 8-14-2009
-Classless characters = meh
-Attributes = not new
-Shared zone quests = not new
-Public quests = not new
-Different energy building mechanic = big deal
-Blocking = cool
-Nemesis system = cool
-End game = what?
-Modern graphics = not really
-Shards rather than servers = not new
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Chris said on 4:56PM 8-14-2009
If you expect every feature to be something utterly mind blowing then MMOs may not be your cup of tea.
Personally, the Nemesis system is what has me interested the most.
Arrow-Pop said on 10:16PM 8-14-2009
@Leshrac
You said it's the same as CoH.
Aganazer gave you a big list of differences.
Then you say they arent different?
Someone doesn't like to admit when they're wrong. (you)
you said
"-Classless characters = meh
Arrow-Pop said on 10:19PM 8-14-2009
@Leshrac
You said it's the same as CoH.
Aganazer gave you a big list of differences.
Then you say they arent different?
Someone doesn't like to admit when they're wrong. (you)
you said:
"-Classless characters = meh" -- that's subjective & a cop out
"-Attributes = not new" -- yes it's new. You didn't have skill points in CoX. only enhancements.
"-Shared zone quests = not new" -- if by not new you mean Hami? not really
"-Public quests = not new" -- CoX doesn't have public quests. the closest thing is TFs, but that's player arranged.
"-Different energy building mechanic = big deal" -- actually it makes how the game is played at its fundamental level much different. so yes it is a "big deal"
"-Blocking = cool" -- yes
"-Nemesis system = cool" -- im surprised you didnt say CoX has AE
"-End game = what?" -- he means it has enough stuff to do when ur at cap. Unlike CoX which has a couple TFs & Hami (which no1 does anymore).
"-Modern graphics = not really" -- for a MMO it does. facial animation. polygonal costume parts instead of skins. etc..
"-Shards rather than servers = not new " -- it's not in CoX. CoX has servers. It has been done before though. But honestly, if it aint broke...
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tw34k said on 2:14AM 8-15-2009
If you compared any new mmo to previous titles you'd never get anywhere, take the games for what they are at face value and how they play, if they arent your kind of thing so be it. You'll either like the game or loathe it.
On the surface CO and CoX seem similar if you only scratch the surface, if you actually look into the 2 games you can see they are both different.
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Deusdictum said on 5:06PM 8-21-2009
The thing that bothers me about CO is the graphics quality. I have what is probably a middling system nowadays (nVidia 9400), between the minimum and recommended specs. The graphics can be choppy and the super low detail models 30 feet away is obnoxious and ugly. If I push the higher detail models farther out, choppiness gets nasty. Some people think the UI is nice, but I found it to be annoying and lacking that "MMO feel" common to most AAA titles.
No thx. I'll take a lower detail overall and consistently good performance over choppy graphics and less than friendly UI.
I'll give it a shot again now that it's been awhile, but my hopes aren't that high.
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