Champions Online

[BentonGrey]

I don't know if I'm too keen on a FF in game team. Especially because if you are reported they do have every right to force you to change your character. This is even grounds for closing an account. Besides, the Ant's already gone, and done quite well at that. ...although I could make a pretty sweet Tombstone.

How many people are actually planning to use their FR avatars for an FR team (and I do like "Freedom Society" a bit more, actually)? Or are folks making up different characters? I was thinking of trying to start a super sentai inspired team.

Ehh, we could even give them knock off names, if that will make people more comfortable.  I'll be using a character similar to my avatar, in that he'll be a gray skinned merman, but it probably won't be exactly like the av.  I will definitely be interested in adventuring with an FR group.  Freedom Society sounds good to me too, but I'm fairly ambivalent.

Reep, as you noted, Mentor needs a cape.  Other than that, he looks great!  You've even got the headpiece, which is pretty cool.

Awesome Tombstone, Unko!

:EDIT: It's here!  I'm going to install and update, and then I'm going to play with the character creator for about 10 hours....

@BentonGrey

[UnfluffyBunny]

does anyone else notice their friends list dissapears alot of the time?

[BentonGrey]

Hey guys, I've got a question for those of you who have used the character editor a lot.  I'm trying to make my character Ulysses, who is basically the hero Odysseus stepped out of legend into the modern world.  He should have Greek dress/armor, but I'm finding the costume thing rather hard to navigate.  Any suggestions?

[Alaric]

does anyone else notice their friends list dissapears alot of the time?

Yes. Also, sometimes parts of it disappear. I believe there are issues with the "friends" server.

[UnfluffyBunny]

Hey guys, I've got a question for those of you who have used the character editor a lot.  I'm trying to make my character Ulysses, who is basically the hero Odysseus stepped out of legend into the modern world.  He should have Greek dress/armor, but I'm finding the costume thing rather hard to navigate.  Any suggestions?

chestwear for the torso and shorts/skirts for the legs, possibly the spartan boots?

[edit]
incaser that reads weird, i mean look in those catagories

[UnkoMan]

Hey guys, I've got a question for those of you who have used the character editor a lot.  I'm trying to make my character Ulysses, who is basically the hero Odysseus stepped out of legend into the modern world.  He should have Greek dress/armor, but I'm finding the costume thing rather hard to navigate.  Any suggestions?

There are dropdown menus at the very top of each part selection. That's how you get helmets and the like. I didn't notice it for a while. You can give him a little skirt. I think there's the greek armour boots. If you choose bare hands in the gloves section you get the option for bracers in your torso section. You'll get the hang of it after a while. Some options randomly disappear on different choices though.

PS: I've had the disappearing list as well.

[Alaric]

Hey guys, I've got a question for those of you who have used the character editor a lot.  I'm trying to make my character Ulysses, who is basically the hero Odysseus stepped out of legend into the modern world.  He should have Greek dress/armor, but I'm finding the costume thing rather hard to navigate.  Any suggestions?

There's a whole series of "Spartan" costume parts. The helmet is under "Half Helmets", from the drop-down, and then "Head Wear", the chest armor is under "Chest Wear" (or whatever it's called), the skirt is under "Medium Skirts and Shorts", etc. I threw a Greek-themed costume together and saved the file- if you give me your e-mail, I can send it to you. You'd just put the file in your "Screenshots" folder, start the game, go into the character creator, get to the costume creation part, hit "Load", and look for the file that begins with "Alaric". You could then edit, alter, and/or customize the costume however you wanted. Or, you can just play around in the costume editor yourself, find all teh "Spartan" options- you'll probably learn a lot more about the costume editor doing it that way. As UnkoMan noted, each section has a dropdown menue- for heads, the default is called something like "Heads and Hair". Click on that, and you'll see a bunch of other options, including "Half Helmets", which is the one you'd want.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks guys, I finally found the Spartan armor!  I am looking for capes and cloaks, though, and I can't seem to find them.  That was really nice of you Alaric, but I think I've almost got it.

[Alaric]

Thanks guys, I finally found the Spartan armor!  I am looking for capes and cloaks, though, and I can't seem to find them.  That was really nice of you Alaric, but I think I've almost got it.

Capes are the first two entries under "Back"- although, come to think of it, I don't think they allow capes for characters wearing anything bulkier than tights on their upper bodies.

[UnkoMan]

Yeah. Like I said some costume parts disappear. And a lot of them seem really silly. I can't have a cowl with a monster head? I can't have all those side face options? I just want to make a space ape. So silly!

[GhostMachine]

Its probably going to be a while before I pick this up, but I definitely plan to. I was just wondering if any of these exist, as far as costume pieces/weapons go, since I plan on doing a new version of GhostMachine that's more accurate to my own character concept than what I did with him in CoH:

A duster hat similar to the one in CoH, or a slouch hat similar to what The Shadow wears. (For a Golden Age/pulp version of the character) A fedora won't work.

Guns with shoulder holsters.

A scythe - regular or energy type blade.

Any type of bladed weapon other than a really long sword with a serrated edge.

Shields.

And have they ever said anything about free trials yet? I can't afford to pick up the game for about another month, but I'd love to try it out and was too busy to play when open beta was going on.

[BentonGrey]

Well, I've been playing it most of the afternoon now, and I wasn't terribly impressed at first.  I think that this character creator is certainly not all it's cracked up to be.  I have had a devil of a time creating the kinds of characters I want, and I don't think that what I'm looking for is that outlandish.  Even the Rogue, who I was able to make pretty well in COH seemed to be beyond this one.  Still, I did finally find something that was decent for him and Ulysses.  The gameplay wasn't what I was hoping for either, or at least that is the impression I got when I first started.  It pretty much felt like any other MMO, but with the 1,2,3,4, etc. mapped to my gamepad.  I got that familiar sensation, that the game was pretty much playing itself, and my involvement was purely inconsequential.  However, I also created Man 'O War, and when I played him I got into the gameplay a bit more, and found a better rythm.  It was a lot more fun.  Being able to use objects as weapons and such is pretty awesome, and MoW is a blast to play.  I'm not so sure about The Rogue, though, 'cause I found the fact that every press of the button for the default attack sent him on a 10 second long flurry of swipes.  It would be more fun if the default attacks could be comboed and such like MUA.  Anyway, I'm going to call it a night, but I'm going to try and get Rogue, Ulysses, and MoW out of the training area tomorrow.  If anyone is up for some low level FF action tomorrow, I'd be in.

Ohh, I've got a question for the old hands here.  I've heard that you can customize things like what weapons your hero holds, effects of powers, etc.  How can you do that?  The Rogue looks terrible holding a katana.  Also, is there any way to keep the sword out all the time?  

[Alaric]

Its probably going to be a while before I pick this up, but I definitely plan to. I was just wondering if any of these exist, as far as costume pieces/weapons go, since I plan on doing a new version of GhostMachine that's more accurate to my own character concept than what I did with him in CoH:

A duster hat similar to the one in CoH, or a slouch hat similar to what The Shadow wears. (For a Golden Age/pulp version of the character) A fedora won't work.

Hmm... Two different kinds of fedora (the "fedora-large", or whatever its called, may be pretty close to what you're looking for, actually), about 7 kinds of cowboy hat, one "clown hat"... I think that's it as far as brimmed hats like that go...

Guns with shoulder holsters.

Holsters are parts of costume pieces, not actually connected with the guns. There are some belt holsters, couldn't find any shoulder holsters.

A scythe - regular or energy type blade.

Not that I know of. It way exist as a power replacer, I guess.

Any type of bladed weapon other than a really long sword with a serrated edge.

There are two different bladed weapon power frameworks- single blade and dual blade. They both allow you to customize what your weapon actually looks like to some extent. I haven't tried the dual blade set, but the basic possible weapons for single blade include a katana, a Medieval broad sword, a mace (yes, blunt weapons are included as "blades" in this game), I think there's a rapier, and maybe one or two others (currently, you can't customize your weapons until you get to a tailor, which you can do right after the tutorial, but apparently the next patch will allow us to customize out weapons in the character creator), and you can choose the colors on all of them. In addition, the game features objects called "power replacers", which change the way your powers work. Weapon power replacers include new weapon appearances, and you can choose, if you want, to use the appearance but not the effect, or vice versa (or use both). For example, there's a single bladed power replacer which is a radioactive battle axe. If a character with at least one Single Blade power acquires this item, the player can choose to a) simply keep using the normal version of the power, b) completely replace the normal version with the radioactive axe, c) use the normal version of the power, but have the blade look like the axe, or d) keep using whatever blade appearance was already being used (sword or whatever), but give it the game effects of the radioactive axe.

I haven't personally seen any really long swords with serrated edges in the game.

Shields.

No shields in the game, at this point. Of course, they may add them at some point.

And have they ever said anything about free trials yet? I can't afford to pick up the game for about another month, but I'd love to try it out and was too busy to play when open beta was going on.

I haven't heard anything about free trials yet.

[Alaric]

Well, I've been playing it most of the afternoon now, and I wasn't terribly impressed at first.  I think that this character creator is certainly not all it's cracked up to be.  I have had a devil of a time creating the kinds of characters I want, and I don't think that what I'm looking for is that outlandish.  Even the Rogue, who I was able to make pretty well in COH seemed to be beyond this one.  Still, I did finally find something that was decent for him and Ulysses.  The gameplay wasn't what I was hoping for either, or at least that is the impression I got when I first started.  It pretty much felt like any other MMO, but with the 1,2,3,4, etc. mapped to my gamepad.  I got that familiar sensation, that the game was pretty much playing itself, and my involvement was purely inconsequential.  However, I also created Man 'O War, and when I played him I got into the gameplay a bit more, and found a better rythm.  It was a lot more fun.  Being able to use objects as weapons and such is pretty awesome, and MoW is a blast to play.  I'm not so sure about The Rogue, though, 'cause I found the fact that every press of the button for the default attack sent him on a 10 second long flurry of swipes.  It would be more fun if the default attacks could be comboed and such like MUA.  Anyway, I'm going to call it a night, but I'm going to try and get Rogue, Ulysses, and MoW out of the training area tomorrow.  If anyone is up for some low level FF action tomorrow, I'd be in.

The game's a lot more fun after you get out of the tutorial. As for the costume creator, it definitely could use some more options, but I've found it can do some pretty amazing things- remind me to post some pictures of what I've created with it at some point...

Ohh, I've got a question for the old hands here.  I've heard that you can customize things like what weapons your hero holds, effects of powers, etc.  How can you do that?  The Rogue looks terrible holding a katana.  Also, is there any way to keep the sword out all the time?  

Customizing what your powers look like and customizing your weapons are two very different things in this game.

For power effects, it has nothing to do with costume editing. While playing, you click on your "powers" tab (a lightning bolt icon to the left of your various power icons). You'll see a list of your character's powers, Some of these powers will have a colored square next to them. You can change the power's color by clicking on this square. Certain powers (mostly energy blast-type powers) will also have a drop-down menu below the color box that you can use to change where the power emanates from.

For weapons, currently, you have to wait until you're out of the tutorial and can get to a tailor. Weapons are considered part of your costume. In the costume editor you access from the tailor, there's a "weapons" tab, which you can use to choose your weapon, and choose what colors it is. Supposedly, the next patch will allow us to customize our weapons in the character creator, before we start playing.

[Alaric]

Spending so much time answering questions that I almost forgot what I was going to post- Do to general bugginess, I've lost admin privileges for the "Freedom" chat channel I created. That means someone else is now the admin for that channel (while I kind of think we should all be admins, I don't know if it can actually work that way). So, look at your chat channel settings- one of you runs the channel.

[Uncle Yuan]

Also, anyone with more tech smarts than me care to hazard a guess on how it will do on my lap top?  My CPU is a Intel Core 2Duo 2gightz.  Video card is NVIDEA GeForce 8500.

Can anyone chime in on this?  This will determine how quickly I get on board.

Apparently the XBox version won't be available until March '10.  But if I can't have a good experience on my comp I don't want to get into it until the console version comes out.

[DMenacer]

So is there a Freedom Reborn guild started in CO yet? One of my toons in COX is in the Spartans SG so I've joined the Spartan guild in CO also awhile waiting to see if or when FR is going to be started there also.

[BentonGrey]

Also, anyone with more tech smarts than me care to hazard a guess on how it will do on my lap top?  My CPU is a Intel Core 2Duo 2gightz.  Video card is NVIDEA GeForce 8500.

Can anyone chime in on this?  This will determine how quickly I get on board.

Apparently the XBox version won't be available until March '10.  But if I can't have a good experience on my comp I don't want to get into it until the console version comes out.

Sorry UY, I'm not entirely sure, but I DO know that my own loadout is not too dissimilar.  Dual Core 2.5gightz, 2 gigs of Ram, and a GeForce 8600.  I can run the game fine so far, but I don't know what that difference in processor and video card might do to you.

Thanks so much for the help Alaric!  It makes me feel a bit better to know that I can edit those things once I get out of the tutorial zone.

Ohh, and I almost forgot:

[detourne_me]

Jeez! you guys are gonna complete the FF roster before I get a chance to make one!
I call dibs on umm, Quetzocoatyl!

[Tortuga]

Also, anyone with more tech smarts than me care to hazard a guess on how it will do on my lap top?  My CPU is a Intel Core 2Duo 2gightz.  Video card is NVIDEA GeForce 8500.

Can anyone chime in on this?  This will determine how quickly I get on board.

Apparently the XBox version won't be available until March '10.  But if I can't have a good experience on my comp I don't want to get into it until the console version comes out.

I have similar specs, UY.  I played in CO alpha and beta and if I get CO, it'll be when the 360 comes out.  It'll be much smoother and easier to control.  Plus, nothing beats sitting back on the recliner when gaming.

[BentonGrey]

My attempt at Mentor:



I can't believe that you can't have a two-tone cape.  They even have an option to color the two sides differently, but it doesn't work!

And here you can see the trouble I had with the Rogue:


He's just sorta' boring.  He's supposed to look like this:
http://sjhftac.comicgenesis.com/freedom/rogue.html

But the game didn't have any jerkins or decent collars.  I'd also REALLY love a scabbard....

[JeyNyce]

Champions Builder:

http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=29997

[Alaric]

I can't believe that you can't have a two-tone cape.  They even have an option to color the two sides differently, but it doesn't work!

The two-sided cape thing is currently bugged. There are, however, plenty of multi-colored cape options available. When you select either of the two basic capes for your character, a new "cape" category appears directly under the "back" category. You obviously noticed that, since that's where the two-sided cape thingy is. Different cape multi-colored patterns are under the "pattern" option, the third of the options under "cape" ("costume piece", "material", "pattern").

[Reepicheep]

I think you chose a better green to me. And you have to tell me where those cuffs were, for the life of me I couldn't find them.

Mine does have a cape. I'm not sure why its missing in my screenshot. I'd be a fool to have forgotten that. Though, yes, I too am annoyed by the two-colour cape bug.

[BentonGrey]

Yeah Reep, the bracers are another case of options disappearing.  If you go to hands and you click the list at the top, where it says long gloves, you'll have an option for bare hands.  If you chose that, you can select bracers under the chest category.  I actually used yours as a guideline while making mine, so you did all the hard work for me.

Unko, C6 and I are going to try and put together an FF team game in an hour or so.  We're shooting for meeting in the desert section after the Millennium City intro at between 2:30 and 3:00 Central.  Anyone want to join us?  I've got Man 'O War, Unko's got Tombstone, and C6 is making an Iron Ox.

[electro]

I made Sky King & is really fun to play with - So far him & armadillo are the only tribute toons I have & now i'm out of slots - I like the random pictures of your heroes on the sign in patcher - Now i never have to decide who to play with again

Spoiler

[BentonGrey]

Ohhh, that's a nice one Electro!

[electro]

Thanks - His arch nemesis will be Kill-a-Rilla & i'll give him Beatdown & Lash - Not sure if you can give your nemesis a travel power but, if you can it will be acrobatics

[BentonGrey]

Haha, shouldn't his nemesis be Blitzkrieg with kill-a-rilla henchmen?

[UnkoMan]

You can't customize henchmen. Also you can only pick from a power set for nemesiseseses.
It's disappointing, but I am sure the system will be updated eventually. Hopefully they will even get a mission builder like CoH.

This is why I got a lifetime subscription.


PS: Quick question. Is CO getting it's own little forum area? Under the CoH section?