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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.
Behind the Mask: High-tech Snakes and Ladders
VIPER is one of the most misunderstood villain groups in the Champions lore. This isn't entirely the fault of the players; the fact is that almost everyone who has played Champions Online for any length of time has beaten the snot out of dozens of VIPER soldiers, if not hundreds or more. VIPER is a complex, multinational organization bent on world domination. It's one of the single most powerful organizations in the Champions lore, second only to big hero organizations such as UNTIL. VIPER's web of intrigue extends even into the first-world governments. The snakes are literally everywhere and have their hands in everything. One of the troubles in producing a superhero MMORPG is creating large numbers of bad guys for heroes to beat down while also keeping true to the lore, which paints most of the villain groups as less overt, operating in the shadows outside of the world's public eye. When VIPER's air transports cruise the skies above Millennium City unmolested by the military or local police, we have to wonder whether the interpretation was... a little off.
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: An anniversary well-spent
Over the last week, I've been spending a lot of time playing Champions Online's anniversary event. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it rekindled my enjoyment for the game. While I've been playing CO, here and there, I think like many players, I suffered from a little burnout. The anniversary event itself wasn't really what cured my ills. The extra things involved in the event were just little fun add-ons to the game. The main tasks in the game were still there for me: run Serpent Lantern, run NemCon, maybe level an alt, mess around on PTS, and roleplay. Even the "big bang" Destroid attacks were only a decent diversion for a half hour or so. What really got my excitement going was the increased socialization. A lot of people claimed "the zones are empty," but that couldn't be further from the truth. I logged out one night in Millenium City #7 and logged in the next afternoon to Millenium City #20, with most of the lower instances completely full. That's close to 2000 players in just MC alone. I participated in a lot of roleplaying and hung out with the CORP guys during their RP event. I added over 10 people to my friends list last week. The main reason my burnout was cured? I gained an optimistic look at where the game is headed.
Behind the Mask: Play nice with others
If there's one thing everyone here at Massively enjoys, it's playing MMORPGs with other people. Teaming with people makes almost anything fun. I have friends who play EVE who somehow claim that even mining can be fun, if done with friends. Unfortunately, Champions Online has a big problem with team play. It's hard for a team to share objectives, and the rewards for teaming are otherwise horrible. It feels a bit like World of Warcraft, yet much worse. WoW has real incentive to get into teams and run instances at the lower levels, and although many of these dungeons are skippable, WoW's focus on loot advancement encourages players to team up and get the best stuff they can use at any given level. This is just not true for CO. Many players just skip lairs entirely, even though lairs give great rewards. There are no "random missions" like there are in City of Heroes, either. Still, lairs are fun, because you get to play with other people.
Shannon Posniewski on the development of Champions Online's first adventure pack
It's been a quiet couple of weeks for Champions Online -- at least, from the news side of things. Players have had plenty to do in the form of the recent Serpent Lantern adventure, offering an experience for players of nearly any level and any group size. Shannon Posniewski sat down for a recent interview in which he detailed some of the work that went into the adventure pack, from the challenges in design to the lessons learned. The overhaul of the perks system and the changes made to VIPER are both cited as elements that the development team was working on without the adventure pack, both of which dovetailed nicely with the new content. Posniewski describes the biggest hurdle as the scaling issues, however, which doesn't simply translate to adding more hit points to higher-level enemies. It's part of what contributes to the four-month design turnaround he describes in the interview. If you've been enjoying the new adventure, it's well worth a look at the interview for a peek at what makes Champions Online's development tick.
Champions Online's Serpent Lantern goes live
Cryptic Studios has officially launched the first Adventure Pack, entitled The Serpent Lantern, for their superhero-themed Champions Online MMORPG. What exactly is an Adventure Pack? Well we're glad you asked. It turns out that it's not quite an expansion, but it's also a bit more meaty than your average patch. "The Serpent Lantern is our first Adventure Pack, a selection of themed content designed to plug seamlessly into your Champions Online play. Adventure Packs will feature new story lines, new locations and new rewards for you and your friends to enjoy. Think of them as a new story arc for your favorite comic book, only you're the hero in your own adventure," Cryptic says in their press release. Whether you're level 11 or level 40, you'll find something new to do thanks to the new content. Check out all the details over at the official site.
Illuminating answers about the upcoming patch for Champions Online
The first adventure pack for Champions Online is due out this month, although we don't know quite when just yet. But there are a lot of things coming along with the new pack, such as the promised return of Blood Moon and the addition of a difficulty slider. If you're curious about what all of this means from a gameplay perspective, you're coming to it at the right time, as the most recent Ask Cryptic has just been released, covering most of what players might be wondering about. The difficulty slider will be responsible for improved drops, but costume pieces are likely to remain just as frequent (or infrequent) as they currently are. Players who have watched the development of Star Trek Online might be saddened to know that the resistance bonuses and such coming with the Accolade system in that game will not be copied for Champions Online's Perks system. But there's also the prospect of expanding smaller regions into full-sized explorable zones, and some details on the next few adventure packs heading down the pipeline. It should be good news for the game's players, and it certainly helps keep the interest stoked for the coming release of Serpent Lantern.
Behind the Mask: Lighting the Lantern
This week, we're covering Champions Online's Serpent Lantern mini-expansion, currently available on the Public Test Server. Hot on the heels of the Super Power Pack, the Serpent Lantern added in a new story arc dealing with the international crime syndicate VIPER. As an additional perk, VIPER agents received a massive facelift and are now more interesting and challenging opponents. PvE in general had a few exciting changes. Teaming with friends got a moderate experience buff, and players can now set their mission difficulty to afford even tougher challenges while in instanced maps. Also updated in the new patch are the game's energy-generation mechanics, which have been heavily changed. Energy-per-second from attacks has been standardized, and energy gain from blocking was significantly altered. There's a lot of things to go over this time. Hit the jump and we'll get started.
Serpent Lantern info goes live for Champions Online
It's easy to write VIPER in Champions Online off as just being another group of armed-and-armored mooks along the lines of, well, Cobra. But that's neglecting the fact that the only thing keeping them from having a serious impact on the world is the lack of internal unity... something that the upcoming Serpent Lantern adventure pack is set to address. With the buzz for the free add-on having been tossed around for some time, Cryptic has unveiled the official information page for the globe-trotting adventure. As previously stated, the adventure scales for both level and team size -- a party of five characters at Level 40 or a single character at Level 11 can both take part. The pack will also include new unlockable VIPER-themed costume pieces, action figures, and perks. And if that weren't enough, the update is also slated to include the recently-discussed difficulty slider for missions, a new set of costume pieces in the C-Store, and veteran rewards for the longstanding player. Due out in June, the full page contains more information on NPCs as well as a trailer for the next major Champions Online update.
