Champions Online

[Geez3r]

So Champions Online has been available for a really long time, but on the 25th, they are making the game Free to Play. A free to play character has to use one of 8 archetypes and your free to play account only has 2 character slots. You otherwise have full access to the entirety of the game with the exception of certain costume sets. You also don't have to buy the game either. You can download the demo off of Steam for free, and when the game launches on the 25th, you will automatically be upgraded to a Silver Player (what they are referring to as a Free to Play member). You can also likely download it from other sources, but I can't confirm that personally. Be forewarned however that they just released a pre-patch for the F2P launch and the patch is 1512MB, along with any other patches released since the game went live, plus the game itself. In short: it's a big honking download.

But if you feel fancy, you can go make your character, find a nice secluded spot somewhere on the server, crank the graphics to max, hit Alt + F12 to make the menus disappear (hit it again to make them reappear) and take a screen cap to have a new custom made character portrait. Oh, and I guess you could play the game too.

For additional details: click here

List of Characters:

Grue Atlas@Geez3r - Level 40 Behemoth

Heretic@Geez3r - Level 34 Soldier

Scorch@Geez3r37 - Level 35 Inferno

Maxima@Geez3r37 - Level 27 Mind

Teilmak@Geez3r43 - Level 17 Blade

Magnus@Geez3r43 - Level 11 Grimoire

Hawk@GranspearZX

Crusader@GranspearZX

Astro Man@GranspearZX

Master Bowman@GranspearZX

Saber@GranspearZX

Dark Born@Blayden (Fox's character)

Mindtrap@Blayden (Fox's character)

Doktor Archeville@Dr_Archeville

Dead Head@Dr_Archeville

@ Venomire (Sorus's Character)

Riff@Darksider44

Wattage@Raveled

Catalyst@Aoiroo

[Raveled]

Indeed. Both Ironclad and Glowstar have been 'modeled' using this. Personally, I prefer CoX's art and character designs, but a monthly fee is a bit much for just the character designs. Now, if they'd release that software as a stand-alone... :argh:

[April]

I believe the game just went Free-to-Play today.

[Geez3r]

Indeed it did. Downloading the latest patch (1534MB) right now.

[Darksider42]

I have managed to make something close to Rift in Champions. Though I have no success in making Lady Winter (They have no long fur coats!)

I'll try and get a pic for Rift, though I have no idea how to get screen shots.

[Geez3r]

Grue Atlas@Geez3r

[GranspearZX]

If anyone's interested, I'm on @GranspearZX. (Hawk, Crusader, Astro Man, Master Bowman, or Saber. Kinda depends on my mood. )

[Fox]

I've been poking around CO over the last couple days - @Blayden (Dark Born or Mindtrap).

[Dr Archeville]

I got this (took about 6 hours to download) and started playing; both chars are around level 6 now. (This is the first time I've ever played an MMO.) Made versions of Doktor Archeville (Grimoire Archetype, Flight) and Dead Head (Behemoth Archetype, Teleportation). @Dr_Archeville

[April]

If it helps, I'm @Venomire

[Darksider42]

I'm @Darksider44

I either play Rift (Riff in the game. A mentalist before Free to play kicked in and turned him into a custom, Flying Disk) or my mainstay on all Superhero MMO's I play, Detective Gears (Brawl and some gun powers, Super-Jump)

[Limos]

You can find me at @Limos1590

[Dr Archeville]

There's a CO discussion thread at the ATT, here. There's been a recent post by one of the F2P beta testers.

Also, word on the CO Wiki is that two more Archetpyes are in the works: Devastator (Heavy Weapons) and Inventor (Gadgeteering + Summon powers).

[Geez3r]

I'm just waiting on them to make a F2P power armor set. I doubt that'll happen though. The recent "new" archetypes (savage, specialist, void) are only available through micro transactions for the F2P crowd. I understand why they're doing it of course. Without the F2P kicking in something from the micro transactions we're just a cost to them. Though we do fill out their (previously dead) servers.

I think I missed a quest chain at some point with Atlas. I'm level 36 atm, and all the quests I'm coming across are level 37+. Either that or there really isn't that much "end game" content.

[Dr Archeville]

One complaint I've repeatedly heard is that there isn't much content, period.

[Raveled]

My alt-itis is in full effect with CO and I run several characters, but my highest level one is Wattage, an Electricity Blaster-type.

[Limos]

One complaint I've repeatedly heard is that there isn't much content, period.

I've had people tell me that, and on one point I agree. There aren't enough repeatable quests. If you don't feel comfortable changing areas then you will find long stretches with nothing to do, with only two or three repeatable quests that will get tiring to grind. However if you keep an eye on the crime computer you will find that there are more than enough missions to fill your leveling needs. For instance, from Level 6-10 you have the early Millennium City quests as well as the Canadian Crisis. From level 10-15 you have the Gang quests in MC as well as the lower Canada quests, at 15 you get the Desert Crisis. From 15-25 there are plenty of quests to be doing in the Desert as well as mid-game Canada quests and yet more Gang quests in MC, as well as the beginning of the Argent and Psi questlines.

From 25-30 you will be hopping areas a lot as you do the Alien questline in all Canada, also the Demon questline back in MC, and the Snake Gulch questline in the desert. At level 30 it's time to move on to Monster Island Crisis and then the Monster Island itself, which should keep you more than occupied until level 34 where you now have access to the Lemurian Crisis. Which should get you the exp until you level up enough to start doing the higher Monster Island quests. All together it continues until you hit level 40.

The biggest problem with the quest selection is that there is a big gap from level 20 to level 30 where there is very little to do in Millennium City until you get Dr. Destroyer's Factory missions, and then after you are done with them it's back to going everywhere else because MC is empty.

[Sandman XI]

It this still a graphics card eating monstrosity?

[Griffalo]

It definitely kicks my laptop all around the room, if that's what you mean.

[Dr Archeville]

Works surprisingly well on my comp (and it couldn't run City of Heroes, Mass Effect, or Overlord). Only oddity I've noticed is that when my guy picks something up, the object he's lifted becomes invisible.

[Geez3r]

Yeah, that's an oddity I run into myself. For usual soloing or general faffing about, I can run the game fine at the second best default setting. Or if you prefer numbers, 1 being the crappiest, and 4 being the best, I usually run at 3. If I do a major group battle like the mega-destroid or something to that effect, I usually lower it down to 2 just because I usually play the tank, and I want to avoid missing a block. I can usually do a boss battle on 3, but I play it safe. I can play on setting 4, though it does have the occasional frame rate issue.

And it turns out I did miss a quest chain. Specifically the Qullar one on Monster Island. But yeah, other than joining a guild and repeatedly fighting the Teliosaurous, I don't see there being much end game. The mid game (levels 20-30) seemed to be the most grindy IMO.

[GranspearZX]

I actually hadn't touched Monster Island a whole lot. By 35, I started hanging out in Vibora Bay instead. Sure, everything's at least 2 levels higher than I am, but somehow it doesn't matter.. and I usually have the difficulty setting at Hard. (Hawk is freeform, mostly Might powers with a few random others thrown in like Howl, the Power Armor shield, and Indestructible as a passive defense.)

[Geez3r]

Is Vibrona Bay available to Silver Members? I'm 37 and I haven't seen it yet. I'm was doing a few "demon" missions in Millenium City that mentioned the Bay, but I stopped once I realized I had missed the Qullar chain in MI. Do I just do a few of those missions and then get to go to the Bay or what's the deal?

[Aoiroo]

I've started playing, I'm Catalyst(Martial Artist, Acrobatics) @Aoiroo.

[GranspearZX]

Nah; I checked the points store and there's no Vibora Bay in there. The demon missions in Millennium City, if I have this right, lead into the Vibora Bay Crisis.