**Official** Champions Online: Free Play Weekend 10/30 thru 11/02

[SunnyD]

Champions Online

10/24/09 Update:
Free play weekend coming up. From Friday 10/30/09 thru 11/2/09 Cryptic will be opening up the servers for a free play weekend! They will be celebrating their first free content addition (sorely needed), Bloodmoon, which will feature a Halloween event involving zombies, werewolves and a large PvP event which will unlock the newest "Celestial" powerset.

Enjoy!

Generic Info
For any of you that are playing that would like to get together in-game, feel free to post your @global handle and I'll update the OP with a list of "friends". I'll start things off... feel free to message me if I'm on!

SunnyD = @Miralenwan
Chronoshock = @Chronoshock
TheNoblePlatypus = @captainblarg
Gothgar = @gothgar



The powers that be have granted me a beta key for Champions Online. While I'm sure anyone that has been really following this game is already in the beta (due to pre-orders), I'm the kind of person who doesn't PAY for beta access, particularly after the Stargate Worlds fiasco.

Anyhow, keep an eye on this space for information, whatever I can provide at least. If there's any questions or anything in particular that anyone would like me to look out for, let me know. I'm personally interested because I have rather lofty standards for a superhero MMO, particularly because I spent so much time playing City of Heroes/Villains (The TRUE CoH). Given Cryptic was the original designer of CoH, I'm hoping to feel what was CoH before it was sodomized by the nerf bat repeatedly - that is actually playing a game where I truly feel like a super hero.

Anyway, keep an eye here for any info I can give you.

8/27/09 Update:
The beta is officially over after a brief "stress test" last hurrah last night. Champions Online is scheduled to officially launch 9/1/2009. As of 10AM PDT, Cryptic will be opening up the LIVE LAUNCH servers allowing those with preorders to get logged in and start their characters.

See you all in game!

8/17/09 Update:
If you happen to have a preorder key or existing beta key, the open beta officially started at 10:00am PDT today.

In other news, I'm horribly disappointed to announce that Atari and Cryptic have announced that Champions Online has gone gold. I had the pleasure of being in the closed beta for the last few weeks, and while it was fun - it was nowhere near complete. They were constantly making changes, and I'm talking huge 300-500MB patches. As it stood, last day of the closed beta there was still a lot of placeholder text even in the UI screens, and they even completely changed parts of the UI in the second to last playtest.

This is shaping up to be another early launch mess. Hopefully they can pull it off.

8/19/2009 Update:
Well I hopped on last night for the Open Beta. MUCH more refined. I tried hopping in on monday... the login server was hammered. Took about 30 minutes to get a response from the update server, then about an hour to patch. Last night was better.

Open Beta featured a character wipe, and with that I had to retool my characters. I made my Ironman clone by the name of Gear. After playing around with the character builder, now that I'm familiar with it, I came up with something that resembles Ironman quite a bit. Picked the starting powers (both out of power armor, though in retrospect if I really wanted to theme it better I should have taken the energy builder from the brute melee set). Got him to level 8 in a couple hours of play, and explored some more of the powers.

I'm really getting pleased with the game, though I wasn't sure I would be. The art style (comic-style cell shading) is growing on me, at first I thought it was hideous. They made a few aesthetic changes which I'm not terribly fond of - there is no targeting reticule now. Instead your target is outlined in a bright red or green depending on whether it's friendly or not.

All in all, the pacing still feels a little slow, but I'm sure it will ramp up as things progress. I just wish I had a spare $199 to spend like it was water for the lifetime sub.

 

[SunnyD]

Well, it took me this long to realize that I won't have access until next week. Anyhow, the beta opens up on 8/14/09. Also, Champions is currently offering a lifetime subscription option to current preorder holders. Price is $199.99 for the lifetime subscription, and will include:

* Access to the Star Trek Online Closed Beta, beginning later this year!
* Exclusive Art Deco costume set
* Exclusive Retro Future costume set, available only to lifetime subscribers
* Unique Mirror Universe outfit for Star Trek Online, available at the game?s release
* Exclusive in-game Foxbat action figure, available only to lifetime subscribers
* Eight additional character slots!

There's also a 6 month subscription tier:
* Saves $29.95 USD (33% off!) over regular monthly subscription!
* Exclusive Art Deco costume set
* Access to the Star Trek Online Closed Beta, beginning later this year!

As you can see, the lifetime subscription gives you a good bit of perks, particularly the 8 extra character slots. Both tiers however... STO beta invite. Both are worth their weight in gold supposedly.

 

[ViviTheMage]

You should edit your title, you little chamion, you!

 

[coloumb]

Been playing in the beta for awhile [daily beta's they have every now and then] - lots of work still needs to be done to the game unfortunately.

 

[SunnyD]

Updated - TenTonHammer is giving away beta keys. Hop on and have fun.

 

[GaryJohnson]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Updated - TenTonHammer is giving away beta keys. Hop on and have fun.

For non-premium members:

Sorry, we're out of keys.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: GaryJohnson

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Updated - TenTonHammer is giving away beta keys. Hop on and have fun.

For non-premium members:

Sorry, we're out of keys.

As is Massively. Oh well... I tried.

 

[Koudelka]

I could care less what supposed 'perks' any lifetime subscription has.

The quality of MMO's being pushed out the door in the last couple years has literally shaken me to the core. Nobody in their right mind would purchase a lifetime subscription at launch for ANY MMO.

You'd think developers would catch on to the simple fact of the last dozen MMO's failing utterly because of shoddy launches and just piss poor gameplay.

MMO's are unique because they only get ONE chance to prove themselves to customers at launch before being permanently labeled.

 

[Newbian]

Getting into beta testing is usually easy enough to do where you don't have to pay a dime and is usually a waste of money if you pay for it.

 

[Arglebargle]

Main interest I have with Champions Online is whether the Cryptic guys have learned from their mistakes in CoH, or are they going to continue to straightjacket you into what they think 'fun' is.

CoH had lots of problems and misquided ideas early, and the Cryptic crew holds a lot of responsibility for it. I was going to check it out in Beta myself to see whether it was worth it. But they are packaging the beta as a pig-inna-poke, so I am less likely to bite.

Am interested to hear reports though. Maybe it will be real good....

 

[SunnyD]

Looks like I might get a chance to hop on tonight!

 

[sactoking]

Originally posted by: Arglebargle
Main interest I have with Champions Online is whether the Cryptic guys have learned from their mistakes in CoH, or are they going to continue to straightjacket you into what they think 'fun' is.

CoH had lots of problems and misquided ideas early, and the Cryptic crew holds a lot of responsibility for it. I was going to check it out in Beta myself to see whether it was worth it. But they are packaging the beta as a pig-inna-poke, so I am less likely to bite.

Am interested to hear reports though. Maybe it will be real good....

Agreed. If this is Jack trying to make 'his' game again it will be a complete and utter failure.

 

[Arglebargle]

Originally posted by: sactoking

Originally posted by: Arglebargle
Main interest I have with Champions Online is whether the Cryptic guys have learned from their mistakes in CoH, or are they going to continue to straightjacket you into what they think 'fun' is.

CoH had lots of problems and misquided ideas early, and the Cryptic crew holds a lot of responsibility for it. I was going to check it out in Beta myself to see whether it was worth it. But they are packaging the beta as a pig-inna-poke, so I am less likely to bite.

Am interested to hear reports though. Maybe it will be real good....

Agreed. If this is Jack trying to make 'his' game again it will be a complete and utter failure.

Yeah, there was so much that was broken technically in the early game, and in the concept as well. I will be interested to hear the reports...

A lot of the 'I want to feel Super again' (Sorry Sunny ;-}) stuff was just broken archetypes, the classic too-powerful characters. If you weren't an Invulnerability or Fire tank, Fire or Assault Rifle blaster, or an Emp or Rad defender, you weren't worth snot in the early going.

Perhaps they have learned something, though, and it will turn out great. Though beta leaks don't seem to point that way. At least they did realize that a super-cool character builder, from the get go, was a strong attractor.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Arglebargle

Originally posted by: sactoking

Originally posted by: Arglebargle
Main interest I have with Champions Online is whether the Cryptic guys have learned from their mistakes in CoH, or are they going to continue to straightjacket you into what they think 'fun' is.

CoH had lots of problems and misquided ideas early, and the Cryptic crew holds a lot of responsibility for it. I was going to check it out in Beta myself to see whether it was worth it. But they are packaging the beta as a pig-inna-poke, so I am less likely to bite.

Am interested to hear reports though. Maybe it will be real good....

Agreed. If this is Jack trying to make 'his' game again it will be a complete and utter failure.

Yeah, there was so much that was broken technically in the early game, and in the concept as well. I will be interested to hear the reports...

A lot of the 'I want to feel Super again' (Sorry Sunny ;-}) stuff was just broken archetypes, the classic too-powerful characters. If you weren't an Invulnerability or Fire tank, Fire or Assault Rifle blaster, or an Emp or Rad defender, you weren't worth snot in the early going.

Perhaps they have learned something, though, and it will turn out great. Though beta leaks don't seem to point that way. At least they did realize that a super-cool character builder, from the get go, was a strong attractor.

See, I beg to differ. It wasn't broken... it was just right. I started with a fire/fire blaster, and by god I enjoy running around independence port and alpha 2-shotting groups of 15 minion class +1 mobs at a time. That's what super heroes did. Minions = paper. By the time I came back, they nerfed it so bad that I couldn't 2-shot more than a handful of minions after waiting for every single buff I had to recharge. That wasn't fun.

Let's recount the nerfs shall we? Perma-hasten, gone. Multiple singularities - of that was a bug and was never intended (so why did it persist for some 2 years?) - gone. ED? Yup, synonymous with erectile dysfunction imho.

Granted some of the nerfs were somewhat warranted - invuln tanker rounding up the entire instance for example, that was just classic. Abusive yes, but anyway.

It's a game about super heros. You're supposed to feel... well... SUPER. My brother-in-law and I got into this argument several times. It doesn't matter... if I play a comic book super hero game, it's because you're supposed to feel like a super hero 90% of the time.

 

[Drift3r]

I've read this game was going to be a item mall type game. Is this true?

 

[sactoking]

I agree with SunnyD. To me, most of the egregious 'Jack moments' came well after release. ED had to have been the worst. To completely alter the landscape like that was semi-NGEish. To offer the reason of "Well, we never thought that people would put 6 damage or 6 recharge in a power. We always tested everything internally with no more than 3 slots of any type in a power. So, we've been playing and balancing the game this way for years. If you don't like it, tough because that's the way we want our game." was just downright insulting. To expect the playerbase to accept the excuse that you were THAT clueless two years and 5 or so issues after release is unfathomable. I played for a while after ED, and things did get better after Matt was put in charge, but by then Jack had run it so far into the ground that it was hardly a game anymore.

 

[GaryJohnson]

My problem with CoH was the "Enhancement" system. If you were a blaster guy, you couldn't go out and find a better blaster. You can only "enhance" it with some meta-game abstract nonsense. Each new enhancement provided very minor improvements over the previous enhancements. Collecting them was tedious and not fun, but they were basically "requirements".

 

[SunnyD]

Well without being specific, I can say it's sufficiently enough different from City of Heroes to merit a look. It's definitely more arcadey, button mashing goodness (not like your typical MMORPG either, you literally MASH buttons repeatedly).

I'm not certain I like the graphical styling. The cell shading is alright, but it's either too much or not far enough, I can't decide. It's like they went comic book, but didn't quite hit the bar. There are still a good bit of bugs to work out. And while it playing like an arcade masher, it still feels rather slow. Can't quite put my finger on it (yet).

 

[Arglebargle]

Champions Online has a chance to be good, if these guys have learned their lessons. Because they made lots of mistakes early. CoH was done preWow, and the Cryptic guys were newcomers, not an experianced game company. They really were goofing things up. Remember when they were nerfing regeneration, because their internal test server was off by a factor of something like a hundred? It's quite believable to me, that at a certain point after they started, they looked at things and went, 'Crap, we painted ourselves into a corner.'

And personally, while it might have been fun for you as a fire blaster or burn tanker to mow down hordes of foes, it was pretty boring if you were any other archtype. Also as I recall, Singularities weren't even in the original Grav set, and when they first appeared, they were stationary. So they got boosted a lot before being cut back. I do remember the Fire Controllers with their packs of 12 fire imps. That was monstrous! I think a lot of the early folks got used to very unbalanced situations, and didnot care the changes. However, if you were originally playing a dark defender or dark scrapper, or the equivalent, the changes were wonderful.

Anyway, it will be interesting viewing on how the CO setup compares, to see what they figured out and did right as well as what they might be still clueless about. Although I already do not care for their Beta setup. We will see. Or rather, some of you will see and let us know!

 

[kaiser02]

You'd think developers would catch on to the simple fact of the last dozen MMO's failing utterly because of shoddy launches and just piss poor gameplay.

 

[SunnyD]

Two words: Needs work.

Lots of little polish things need to be done to make it even look like a release product.

 

[Arglebargle]

What did you think was the split between gameplay issues and 'look and feel' problems?

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Arglebargle
What did you think was the split between gameplay issues and 'look and feel' problems?

20/80 I would say. Gameplay seems pretty much solid. There was one almost showstopper - a targeting glitch that would keep you shooting away at a dead target until you physically stopped or the target despawned, they fixed that fairly quickly.

To be honest, I don't think 20% would be an honest assessment right now, but again I've only had a total of about 8-10 hours to look at the game, starting from level 1. There are a few glitchy things from character creation onward. But the good news is I find myself somewhat fascinated by this game. I like the pace of it, though at least for now, it doesn't seem as "epic" as CoH... yet.

 

[AlgaeEater]

Me and my girlfriend are REALLY looking forward to this game, so I hope they get some kinks worked out before launch. We both absolutely loved COH/COV for being quick jump-in MMO's that you could play in small bursts or all weekend. When we both graduated college and got full time jobs, the ability to play games dropped out significantly.

I'm kinda torn if I want to jump the gun and purchase two pre-orders so we can start on the August 17 Beta test. I've been reading this topic in the hopes I could get more info, so any more thoughts on the game would be great SunnyD.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: AlgaeEater
Me and my girlfriend are REALLY looking forward to this game, so I hope they get some kinks worked out before launch. We both absolutely loved COH/COV for being quick jump-in MMO's that you could play in small bursts or all weekend. When we both graduated college and got full time jobs, the ability to play games dropped out significantly.

I'm kinda torn if I want to jump the gun and purchase two pre-orders so we can start on the August 17 Beta test. I've been reading this topic in the hopes I could get more info, so any more thoughts on the game would be great SunnyD.

If you have ANY plans on playing Champions Online for any length of time - preorder it. With the preorder you have the ability to get either the lifetime subscription or a significantly discounted 6 month subscription. Either way, both will get you playing and both will end up letting you into the beta of STO later on too.