millenium-city
Latest
Ask Cryptic: Champions Online gets an April encore
The first round of Ask Cryptic: Champions Online for the month of April was a bit on the short side, at least compared to its Star Trek Online counterpart. Happily, Champions producer Rob Overmeyer is back with a second segment that is quite a bit longer than its predecessor. The encore covers a wide range of superhero-related questions from the free-to-play title's fans including the next power set revamp (telekinesis), feedback acknowledgment and pricing adjustments regarding the controversial costume slots, and some interesting bits about the last 10 levels of the game (as well as future level cap increases). "In order to increase the level cap we need to update how itemization and rewards work post-40. This is something that we are actively discussing now. Revamping rewards is a huge task and there are no quick solutions," Overmeyer explains. There's a lot more interesting Champions info to be found in part two of this month's Ask Cryptic, so head to the official website and see for yourself.
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.
Behind the Mask: A community guide to Champions Online
Behind the Mask is the new Massively column devoted to everything you might want to know about Champions Online. Fortunately for Massively readers, the guys at UNITY have given me the go-ahead to declassify my stories as a super-powered operative. As a result, we'll be giving you the down and dirty facts that you'll need to make it in the superhero world, as well as bits of news you won't hear anywhere else. Behind the Mask will cover issues related to life in Millennium City as well as detailed info about criminal hotspots around the globe. Our first column will be a community resource for Champions Online. While there were a fair number of community sites at launch, most of them have suffered from a lack of new content in recent months. The ones that continue to be updated are the best of the best -- ranging from community hubs for roleplayers to detailed info on the game's many missions. If there's one thing to be said about the fans of Champions, it's that they are devoted to their game and eager to put out new content for it.
Champions Online launches new demo program
So you're interested in Champions Online, but you lack a friend playing the game who could give you a trial code. You've missed out on the free weekends the game has offered, and you're not quite adventurous enough to drop the full price of the retail box sight unseen. What's to be done? Well, as of now, the proper answer is to give the brand-new demo program a try. Following in the vein of Warhammer Online, those interested in Millenium City's superheroic population can now create two different characters and enjoy romping about in an unlimited free trial of the starting area. The opening area, in which players defend the city from an alien invasion, introduces most of the game's core mechanical concepts and allows the player to start brushing shoulders with the big names in the game's lore. The only real limitations are the number of characters, and the hard limit of level 15, which itself takes quite a bit of work to reach in the starter zone. While it's not quite the rush of the various free-to-play weekend within the game, it keeps things nice and accessible, and should certainly help anyone curious about the gameplay get a firmer handle on Champions Online. The fact that it's on Steam as well is just icing on the cake. [ Thanks to Edward R. for the tip! ]
Reminder: The destroids are invading!
Citizens of Millenium City, take up your arms! Dr. Destroyer is attacking the city once more, but this time he has sent in legions upon legions of robots, including new Mega-Destroid! The robots are all over the city, but the Champions have been dispatched to fix the crisis, along with countless other heroes!If you want to get in on some Dr. Destroyer smashing action, then you have to act today! It's the last day of the Champions Online beta test, and they're going out with their usual bang. All you have to do is log in, visit Millenium City (available from the Canadian or Desert helipads) and then speak with the cop on the helipad who's waving his arms about in the air. Once you do that, you'll be leveled up to 40, given all the powers you ever wanted, and you'll have a shot at taking down some Mega-Destroid. Destroids will be attacking until 3 AM ET, 12 AM PT this evening, when Cryptic switches off the lights.Those who take down the Mega-Destroid will be given a special perk for their accomplishments (although the perk is kinda borked right now) and a special Mini-Destroid action figure for the live game! Kinda cool, and cute, in a destructive kind of way.
Happy New Years video from Champions Online
Many of the Massively crew have been hoping for more Champions Online updates, waiting with bated breath. Of course, Cryptic loves to tease us with little tidbits of information - and this video is certainly no exception. Starting out with a news reporter on the scene, the video gives us a quick peek at Monster Island and Force Station Steelhead, then winds up in Millennium City (Champions Online's eventual Atlas Park?) where a countdown to midnight is captured and celebrated. While it's certainly not the most in-depth piece we've seen, it does give some tantalizing flyover views for those hungry for more. For those curious, you can check out the low-res version behind the cut, or download the higher-res version from the Champions Online site. In either case, Happy New Year, future heroes!
