Filed under: Super-hero

Free costume parts galore in Champions Online

by Kyle Horner Nov 21st 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Patches, News items, Champions Online

Cryptic has revealed the free costume pieces in next week's Nemesis Confrontation update, which come in addition to two unlockable costume sets. Among the new free costume items are some exceptionally sweet capes, although we're sure many players will be filled with glee to see new weapons being added to the costume creator.

While these are only cosmetic costume options, they're important to players who wield specific guns or swords. It may seem like a minor issue to some, but having an outfit that makes sense -- and looks cool at the same time -- is surprisingly important to players who revel in a game like Champions Online.

You can also now put guitars on the back of your characters; something that immediately reeks of potential. We have to wonder if guitars are going to be added as visual replacements for sword based powers, enabling us to whack enemies with our musical axes. If someone at Cryptic could make that so, it would be somewhere within the vicinity of pure awesome.

Champions Online previews Nemesis Confrontation

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 18th 2009 at 10:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, Patches, Previews, News items, Champions Online

What's more dangerous than an interdimensional prison in which malevolent creatures of immense power plot the destruction of the entire Champions Online world? That same prison being taken over and used as a lair by your hero's Nemesis and the dangerous Shadow Destroyer. After hints and the surprise playtest event, the official site has unveiled a preview of the upcoming Nemesis Confrontation, which looks like an interesting jump forward in the content offered by the game.

Obviously, the Lair in question is the highlight of the update, which features combat against alien gladiators as well as a collection of powerful villains. There are other rewards to be earned as well, however -- ranging from a number of different hero enhancements to costume pieces in the vein of the enemies fought within the lair. If you can't wait to run the lair in order to get the costume pieces (perhaps you have a perfect character concept to start with), the preview promises that they will also be available in the C-Store. Champions Online isn't going to make players wait long for the event, either, as it's launching on the 24th. It should give players quite a bit to be thankful for -- when they're not battling extradimensional alien gladiators, at least.

Champions Online has a secret

by Rubi Bayer Nov 17th 2009 at 10:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, Champions Online

And they're not going to tell you! However, you can probably make a few guesses as to the secret if you haven't already, when you participate in their secret playtest tomorrow. Champions Online Community Team member David "Daeke" Bass posted this interesting piece of news today: "We've got a big feature coming out next week, but we want your help to test it before then. We can't give too many details now..."

When this super secret new feature hits the PTS tomorrow, it will not be as a timed event, so you can log in and take a look at your leisure. Don't have any speculation as to what it is yet? A few simple instructions on what to bring to the party might help. Daeke requests that you bring a 5-man team of level 40 players and interestingly, a Nemesis.

If you want to participate you can either transfer your own characters over from the live server, or level up using the contact outside the Millennium City Powerhouse.

Champions Online promises more information tomorrow -- we can't wait!

Bill Roper talks about Champions Online successes and failures

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 17th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Interviews, Champions Online

Champions Online is still wet behind the ears, but we're moving through the game's third month of operation, time enough to take a slightly calmer look at how things went at launch and how the game has been shaping up. Jeux Online recently interviewed executive producer Bill Roper regarding the game's launch and its future, which might not contain as much information on the latter as the fans would like but still contains some interesting bits and pieces.

Looking forward, the most interesting bits are the promise of an upcoming Lair in which each player's Nemesis makes an appearance, in a union of several high-level threats to face off against a team of heroes. (Shades of the Masters of Evil or the Legion of Doom.) He also discusses a bit about the upcoming winter event, which he states will not include a new powerset but will include a number of "presents", as well as a fight against a truly massive opponent. There's also discussion regarding mission instancing a la City of Heroes, PvP maps, and the ongoing task of balancing Champions Online. How the game will mature in practice is yet to be seen, but we're getting a clearer and clearer idea about the game's direction at the very least.

One Shots: Full moons bring out the crazy

by Krystalle Voecks Nov 13th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Screenshots, One Shots, Champions Online

With the last of several Halloween events wrapping up, we figured we'd put out one of the last few screenshots for the recent in-game events folks have sent in to us. Today's One Shots comes to us from Grey, who captured this bit of silliness in Champions Online. Why silly when it looks relatively peaceful? Check out the note that came along with it: Hi guys. Thought this might interest you. Here is a screenie of my character, essentially a robot, musing under the red moon (not quite Blood Red) during the event in Champions Online. As the bard, Christopher Cross said, "If you get caught between the Bloodmoon and Millennium City, I know it's crazy, but it's true..."

If you've got a bad pun lurking in relation to one of your screenshots, get it out and into an email to us. Those things can hurt you if you leave 'em unpunned too long. Email the punbomb (and screenshot) to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. We'll unleash the pun-ishment on the world and let them know it was all you.

Gallery: One Shots

Get your Kung Fu on in City of Heroes

by Kyle Horner Nov 12th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, News items

Do you sometimes wish that when everybody is kung fu fighting they didn't all look so alike? NCsoft seems to feel the same way, because they've now made available the City of Heroes Super Booster IV: Martial Arts for ten bucks. Yes, now when you're fighting foes with malicious martial intent you'll look "spiffy" and whatever other adjective you feel like tossing into the equation. The booster comes with more than costume pieces, however. It also contains ninja-theme costume change animations and a ninja running power. There's also two new emotes for roleplayers, who tend to be the biggest emote fans.

This makes the fourth booster pack since the original (or microtransaction bundle, if you like) for City of Heroes and you can bet there will be plenty more as long as these continue to sell. Our guess for the next addition? Mutants would be a safe bet; mutants or zombies.

Mission Architect contest launched in City of Heroes

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 12th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Contests, Events, real-world, News items

If you like creating content, the Mission Architect system in City of Heroes offers a lot of venues for your creativity, and it's certainly one of the most-touted features of the game. Now, you might be able to get more than just the joy of having other people play through your creation as a prize. There's a new contest on the official site that promises to be the first in a series, allowing a lucky designer to receive a special title and possibly even the coveted Designer's Choice award for their mission.

Sound like your sort of contest? There's a single catch -- you have to work within a given theme. In this case, the mission arc has to involve a hero doing evil for the greater good. That's a theme so ripe for exploration that we're all but certain several people came up with mission arcs just reading the line, so if you're firing on all cylinders take a look at the official rules and then get cracking. The contest ends on December 7th, plenty of time for crafting whatever story you think is best -- and considering City of Heroes: Going Rogue will be out before we know it, the submissions may wind up being more appropriate than you think. Considering that... well, who knows what winning might do for your future? Best to get to work.

Champions Online to hold public playtest today and tomorrow

by Rubi Bayer Nov 11th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Bugs, Events, in-game, Champions Online

Champions Online has another round of bug fixes ready to go out, and will be asking their players to put them through their paces on the public test server for a few hours today and tomorrow. If you haven't participated in a public playtest before and are interested, it's pretty simple. Just log into the Champions Online site, get a public test copy of your character and head over to the public test server to see how the patch holds up. The patch notes are here, and CO will want your feedback in the public test server forum once you're finished.

While it's always fun to be in the know a little ahead of time, Cryptic is throwing in a few extra goodies to thank you for your time. All participants will receive a (very apt) crash test dummy head costume piece. Even better, Foxbat is going to be there for a costume contest. He'll be jumping instances to judge the costumes, and the winner in each instance gets a Retro Destroyer action figure.

All the information, including specific times, can be found on the Champions Online site.

Champedia launches for Champions Online

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 11th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Betas, Super-hero, News items, Champions Online

As MMOs become more and more complex, there's an increasing need for information regarding the game at a player's fingertips. Especially since most of them are being played while on the computer, so a quick search of information is just an alt-tab away, no matter what the situation. Champions Online has stepped up to the plate with their own official offering: the Champedia, a database of every superpower, mission, super group, and character currently in the game. It's fully searchable at this point, although it's still in beta.

There have been debates in the community about adding on currently-played characters into a publicly accessible database, but Champions Online also includes the feature for guild masters to manage their organization directly from the site. A quick log-in allows the group leader to do everything from changing the message of the day to handling promotions without ever having to enter the game. It's not perfect yet, of course -- the Mission section, for instance, includes nothing but the basic mission text -- but if properly managed it could be a great asset to the community looking for information straight from the official source. Now if only it included wiki functionality...

Where in the Champions Online world is Carmel Santiago?

by Rubi Bayer Nov 10th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Contests, Culture, Champions Online

That is the big question in Champions Online. Ring any bells? Community member Mr. Funsocks began this contest yesterday and plans to continue it on a weekly basis, offering up a pretty nice prize in exchange for your time. Just meet up at Club Caprice at the appointed time and pay your 50n entrance fee. The money goes into a pot along with an additional 5g from Mr. Funsocks. The first person to find this strangely familiar person wins the pot. There are a few rules, including "no excuses", that you can read in the forum thread along with details on where, when, and how.

The contest thread sparked an interesting discussion exploring copyright, fair-use, parody, and Cryptic's wishy-washy policies regarding these issues. It will be interesting to see how that conversation plays out, but in the meantime big thanks and kudos to Mr. Funsocks for creating what looks like a great community event.

The systems of battle in Champions Online

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 10th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, Game mechanics, Endgame, Champions Online

We've been getting a generous look under the hood of Champions Online courtesy of designer Brian Urbanek, with the second part of his system-focused developer diary now available. The first part covered the progression and improvement of a player's heroes, while this diary focuses on the mechanics of that ever-present diversion in almost every game -- combat. As one can imagine, with a game whose systems are based on a tabletop roleplaying game dating back more than twenty years, there are a lot of numbers and expressions to be thrown around.

Urbanek explains, in detail, how the team set up values for stats and durability with some baseline assumptions. They knew what they could expect for an "average" player to do in terms of damage-per-second at high levels, and they had some idea of how long they wanted each fight to last (the time cited is twenty seconds). From there, the diary goes into the balancing and scaling factors needed to ensure that players and enemies both are dealing reasonable damage and surviving for the preferrable amount of time. If you like numbers and systems, or just a clearer picture of how Champions Online works, this diary should be perfect for you, with promises of still more to come down the pipeline.

Champions Online's Bill Roper talks about the future of CO

by Rubi Bayer Nov 5th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Interviews, News items, Champions Online

Bill Roper is the Executive Producer and Design Director for Champions Online, and he sat down with Techulous this week for a talk about how things are going for the game so far and what he sees in its future.

He talked about about the players, their feedback, and what's been happening in Champions Online so far, then Techulous got down to the big question: what's next?

Champions Online has big plans for the next few months, including some new content for all levels of players. He mentioned the two brand new mission chains for levels 18-21, and promised different development paths for new heroes as well as more endgame content for higher level players in the future.

Roper wrapped up the interview with some interesting information on what to watch for in the future: "We have a lot of things in the pipeline, including a new Nemesis-centric lair in November, a Winter Event in December, and something really big in the first part of 2010."

It sounds like Cryptic isn't finished adding to Champions Online by a long shot - you can read the full interview here.

Anti-Aliased: It pays to be paranoid

by Seraphina Brennan Nov 5th 2009 at 5:30PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Champions Online, Anti-Aliased

Blame Shawn Schuster. No, really, it's applicable this time and I'm not just pulling your leg.

Many of you were wondering why we hadn't talked about the Champions Online failures this past weekend -- The "Blood Moon Blunder." Well, it was because pretty much the second we started getting reports from you guys about the client not working on Steam, or subscribing players complaining of the lag that the servers had over the weekend, Shawn turned to me, slapped the story on my desk and said, "All yours for Anti-Aliased."

And I sat there, smiled, and politely responded, "Oh crap. This is going to drive them all up the wall even further than last week's article. I'll do it."

So was the Champions free weekend a failure? Absolutely, but not for the reasons you may think. Come on, follow me after the break, and we'll go into yet another (and hopefully the last for a while) opinion column on Champions.

NCsoft responds to City of Heroes speculation

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 5th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Business models, Interviews, MMO industry, Opinion, Rumors

A couple days ago, we had a post detailing some speculation on what City of Heroes: Going Rogue meant for NCsoft West, City of Heroes, and the future of the entire branch of the company. Ryan James, director of corporate communications for NCsoft, took the time to issue a direct response to us regarding that post. We also got an opportunity to ask him a few questions regarding NCsoft's current and future direction, which helps provide some context and some behind-the-scenes information to offset the speculative nature of the aforementioned post.

The official response is as follows:

"We wanted to respond to your post from November 2 on City of Heroes and clarify a few points for you and your readers. In short, the piece offers a rather sensationalist view of NCsoft West and our success thus far.

We're very proud of what we've accomplished here in the West – we have several major MMO franchises, including City of Heroes, Lineage and Guild Wars. And our newest addition to the NCsoft portfolio, Aion, has just seen a very successful launch here in the West. As you point out, we have had to make some tough portfolio decisions, but this is very much par for the course for any major game publisher today. That being said, we remain extremely proud of the Paragon team's accomplishments with the City of Heroes franchise. City of Heroes is still the world's most popular super-powered hero MMO. Even with an increasingly crowded landscape, City of Heroes remains the gold standard for comic book-inspired MMOs – it has stood the test of time and we're excited to be bringing Going Rogue to players next year.

As you note, the author of Vicarious Existence is indeed 'alarmist' in his assessment of NCsoft West and our future. We couldn't agree more. On the contrary, we're optimistic about our future."

Following the statement, Mr. James took the opportunity to answer a few questions about the company's game portfolio and future plans. Take a look at the questions and responses after the break.

A look behind the systems of Champions Online

by Kyle Horner Nov 5th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, News items, Champions Online

If you're good with numbers or would like to obtain some understanding of Champions Online's various systems, then this new systems dev blog is right up your alley. There's plenty of math happening here, so when you start to feel confused don't worry so much -- you're not alone.

Actually, the basics of what systems designer Brian Urbanek discusses aren't too convoluted. At least, the part where he explains the percentages of what influences a character's power isn't too bad. As it turns out, equipment makes up for 42.5% of your overall power, while talents take up 15%, "base" is 2.5% and super stats fill the rest at 40%. What that essentially means, is that your leveling choices in super stats and talents (which effect stats as well) make up a large part of where your character excels. This is all shortly followed by equipment, but creates a slightly bigger focus on how you design your superhero.

Soon Brian will be discussing combat, which is sure to be a hot topic within the Champions Online community. Until then, we're going to re-read this first entry in the hope that someday we can grok it.