demonflame
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Behind the Mask: A long, slow, rumbling
One of the things I absolutely hate about comics is waiting. When I read Detective Comics regularly, I used to patiently wait while re-reading my old issues, wondering what was going to happen to Batman next. Eventually, I got into manga a little bit and was totally spoiled by the graphic novel format. Now I only read comics (or novel series) if I can get an entire plot arc in one shot. I hate waiting. Heck, I prefer to watch an entire TV season on Netflix instead of waiting for each episode to get released. Unsurprisingly, I played through the first three issues of Aftershock, Champions Online's new comic series, before I decided I was irritated with waiting every week for the latest issue. I was sort of put off by bugs in the first issue of the series, and I decided that waiting for the final release would give the devs time to polish out the bugs. New content is new content after all, and when it's released weekly, it doesn't get a lot of time on PTS before it gets pushed to live. Issue #6, The King is Dead, was released a few weeks ago, and the devs have put the finishing touches on Aftershock. How does it match up with the rest of CO's content?
Superheroes get a helping hand with Champions Online's weekend boost event
Even the most self-sufficient superhero needs a boost now and then from a welcome ally, which is why Cryptic's starting Champions Online's summer with a weekend of love, boosts, and free content. Starting Friday, June 17th at 1:00 p.m. EDT and running until Monday, June 20th at the same time, Champions is giving its players a weekend worth of boosts. All players will receive a triad of helpful boosts, including Triumphant Recovery, Heroic Comeback and Team XP. Steam players get a little something extra in the form of a sassy Pistolwhip Sidekick to help with the fights. On top of all this, Cryptic is making the Demonflame adventure pack free to everyone. Normally this pack is behind a pay wall, so this presents a great opportunity for frugal capes to check out the content and earn a few snazzy rewards before Monday.
Behind the Mask: Being resourceful with resources
Most of the time, we look at MMORPGs and talk about features, gameplay, community, content, and other things like that. We rarely look at an MMO's economy unless we're actually hardcore players, and almost invariably players think the economy is messed up in one way or the other. Champions Online is really no different. People complain about overinflated auction house prices all the time, about how transaction fees and auction limits ruin the economy, and how the value of certain super-rare items has plummeted. Overall, I'm very happy with CO's economy. Even though the AH interface is horribly broken (and I'm sure the devs are aware), many people use the AH and most goods are available for sale (even the elusive buttcape). Because the cash-shop items can be traded and sold, there's a certain strangeness in the market, but this is largely a good thing.
Demonflame now available for Champions Online
It was promised for this month, and Champions Online players can rejoice that the promise was true. Demonflame, the second adventure pack for the game, has just moved from the test servers to live. Following in the footsteps of the previous adventure pack, Serpent Lantern, the adventure can be undertaken by any size group from level 11 onward, scaling in both difficulty and complexity according to the number and level of participants. Not to mention that it includes new rewards for players of all levels, including new costume parts of an equally violet hue. In addition to the new adventure, the newest patch also included the pet revision, which might be even more interesting for you depending on your level and power build in the game. While there's no official list of patch notes, our resident columnist did a good job summarizing both the pet changes and the new adventure pack in the weeks leading up to their release. So if you've been holding off on logging in to Champions Online in anticipation of the new patch, now is the time.
Massively interviews Champions Online's Shannon Posniewski
Although it has been quite a while since the last big content update for Champions Online, Cryptic is moving forward with the Demonflame adventure pack slated for release next week. We previewed the adventure earlier this week, but we also snagged an interview with Executive Producer Shannon Posniewski, who talked with us about the new adventure pack. Poz also gave an enlightening view on the state of things to come in CO, as well as the development hurdles the team has to go through designing content that scales for all levels and team sizes. We also talk with him about player housing, voice acting, and the future of some old zones. Hit the jump to read more!
Behind the Mask: The Demonflame
Champions Online's second adventure pack, Demonflame, is currently available on the Test Server, and over the last couple of weeks I've done a few playthroughs at various stages of its development. Demonflame is a new take on an old organization from the Champions lore. DEMON (which is strangely not an acronym) is a magic-themed group of devil worshipers and one of the most powerful factions in the Champions universe. Prior to the adventure pack, DEMON was pretty poorly represented in CO. The villain group starred in a small series of arcs in the level 20-25 range, and the core members of DEMON's inner circle were not even given "Super Villain" status. It has been sort of a common theme for mystic roleplayers to downplay the significance of DEMON because the group is so poorly characterized. Demonflame also represents the newest surge of content for CO superheroes, and in many ways it has excelled where Serpent Lantern was lacking.
Demonflame adventure pack coming to Champions Online this month [Updated]
Ready for some new content in Champions Online? The Demonflame adventure pack is going to try to grant your wish this month with new zones, new enemies, new challenges, and more. Demonflame is the story of longtime villain Luther Black and his quest for power. He tried and failed years ago to drain and use the power of a being in another world, and now he's back to try again. The source of this power is the chaotic Qliphothic realm, so you'll be heading there to learn how to stop Luther. Demonflame will bring new challenges designed to be accessible to a wide range of players. Anyone in the 11-40 level range, grouped or solo, will be able to participate thanks to the scaling design of the adventures. Finally, Demonflame will bring new costume pieces, action figures, devices, and more. The adventure pack will be here before you know it. [Update: The Demonflame announcement came before the Champions Online site was updated, but the Demonflame page is now live. Check it out for all the details, new images, and a trailer!]
Behind the Mask: Six editions of legacy can't be all bad
Before we get into today's discussion on the merits of Champions Online's lore, I want to do a quick brief on the pet pass and the Demonflame update for those not hounding the forums. Demonflame is a little under a week away on PTS and about two weeks on live; you can get the skinny from Poz here. The pet patch is currently on PTS, and it's not bad, but it still needs some work. If you're interested at all in bashing out pets I strongly advise getting on PTS, going to the boards and dropping some feedback. A few other things have been tweaked too. This week on Behind the Mask, we're going to talk about lore. I'm not talking about the game's lore, although I'll cover some of that too. I'm talking about the book lore! I finally gave in and picked up the PDFs (you can buy them from the Hero Games website), and I browsed through a lot of the lore content. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Most of the content in Champions Online consists of parodies of comic and MMO culture, and those elements dilute the serious and interesting lore content that is available. If you've read the lore entries that you can find throughout CO, you'll find that most of them actually sound kind of cool. Unfortunately, that lore is scattered and doesn't show a lot of the big picture. Fortunately, I blew a ton of cash on PDFs (including even the rulebooks) to get a good sense of the game's lore.
Champions Online looks to its one-year anniversary and beyond
It might be hard to believe at times, but it's true: on September 1st, Champions Online will hit the one-year mark. The development team has been fairly quiet of late, but judging by the latest State of the Game address, it's just been focusing on several updates and improvements. The Summer Update, with several new costume pieces, bug fixes, and visual treats, is scheduled to go live on Monday, but there are even better things coming around the bend, including the game's second adventure pack. Dubbed the Demonflame and aimed at a late September release, the newest adventure is meant to incorporate several pieces of feedback from the Serpent Lantern adventure. The goal is to make the adventure less repetitive and easier to follow from point to point for all players. Beyond that, the team has a long list of issues they're looking into and planning to work on, starting with pet improvements and stretching to scaling instances and better difficulty slider integration. Champions Online fans should take a look at the full update, and while the first year has had ups and downs, the future seems to be on the upswing. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our one one-year retrospective of the game around the anniversary, which should be coming right around the first of the month. [Thanks Clinton and Faryon for the tip!]
