2K Games to Publish Champions Online

[gojira]

Cryptic Studios announced today that 2K Games (the publishing arm of Take-Two Interactive) has signed on to publish Champions Online MMO. (http://www.crypticstudios.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=205&Itemid=31)

"2K Games is excited to work with such a talented group as Cryptic Studios," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "Given their stellar pedigree and amazing grasp of the MMO genre, we are confident that Champions Online will deliver an innovative and exciting action MMO experience to gamers."

It looks like Cryptic will be hosting some Champions and Champions Online related (http://www.champions-online.com/node/76) events (http://www.champions-online.com/node/85) at GenCon in about a month. Is anyone going? EvAv needs a roving reporter to give us the scoop!

[Mondopest]

GenCon? Wish I was, unfortunately Comic-Con is my last event until E for All.

[J Arcane]

I've also got a story up over here (http://jarcane.info/files/cryptic-driving-champions.html) about how the MMO is driving the Champions IP now.

I still find the whole thing a bit, odd, frankly. No one cares about the Champions setting in the PnP world, only the system. Hero System is the thing, and even it's kind of a niche game thanks to it's complexity. But they're not even using the actual system AFAIK. So it's strange to see it thrust into the limelight the way it's been.

[Borthcollective]

I'm going to GenCon.

[Heretic Machine]

I've also got a story up over here (http://jarcane.info/files/cryptic-driving-champions.html) about how the MMO is driving the Champions IP now.

I still find the whole thing a bit, odd, frankly. No one cares about the Champions setting in the PnP world, only the system. Hero System is the thing, and even it's kind of a niche game thanks to it's complexity. But they're not even using the actual system AFAIK. So it's strange to see it thrust into the limelight the way it's been.

Just wait for Jack Emmert to get a hold of a new batch of players to torture with his interesting brand of game design. Everyone's powers will be reduced to pea shooters, no one will be able to solo, and a group of five will struggle with three enemies... I doubt he'll be doing the license any favors.

[AspectVoid]

I'm going up to GenCon with a number of friends this year. I'll have my laptop with me, so if I have a chance, I'll write up some updates for EvAv.

[J Arcane]

Just wait for Jack Emmert to get a hold of a new batch of players to torture with his interesting brand of game design. Everyone's powers will be reduced to pea shooters, no one will be able to solo, and a group of five will struggle with three enemies... I doubt he'll be doing the license any favors.
It's really staggering what he did to that game. I've never seen a bigger and more systematic nerf in any MMO anywhere. It's like they decided that they couldn't keep up with new content, so they'd just make everything stupid hard or something. I really don't get it. And it basically killed what interest I ever had in re-upping.

[Heretic Machine]

It's really staggering what he did to that game. I've never seen a bigger and more systematic nerf in any MMO anywhere. It's like they decided that they couldn't keep up with new content, so they'd just make everything stupid hard or something. I really don't get it. And it basically killed what interest I ever had in re-upping.

The guys who currently run it fixed it, for the most part :) Leveling is faster, enemies and powers are more balanced, and they're actually improving our odds against enemies.

Example: A couple of patches ago, they replaced the Blaster's useless "Defiant" inherent ability (which would make them do more damage at lower health) with a new version that allows them to fire the first two tiers of their primary pool, and first tier of their secondary pool, while mezzed.

[Evil Avatar]

I'm going up to GenCon with a number of friends this year. I'll have my laptop with me, so if I have a chance, I'll write up some updates for EvAv.

Bring me back a T-Shirt!

[Savok]

It's really staggering what he did to that game. I've never seen a bigger and more systematic nerf in any MMO anywhere. It's like they decided that they couldn't keep up with new content, so they'd just make everything stupid hard or something. I really don't get it. And it basically killed what interest I ever had in re-upping.
Actually it was done to make space for the new content, like Invention system.

It also made about a thousand times more sense from a design standpoint. Cryptic is the only MMO dev I've seen actually learn from their mistakes and consistently try to improve the design, for that alone they deserve love.

[J Arcane]

The guys who currently run it fixed it, for the most part :) Leveling is faster, enemies and powers are more balanced, and they're actually improving our odds against enemies.

Example: A couple of patches ago, they replaced the Blaster's useless "Defiant" inherent ability (which would make them do more damage at lower health) with a new version that allows them to fire the first two tiers of their primary pool, and first tier of their secondary pool, while mezzed.
For me, the single thing that impressed me most, and made COH fun back when I first played it, was that you really felt like a damn superhero. Unlike a lot of other MMOs where you start shitting a brick if you have to fight more than one mob at once, in CoH, you could take on whole waves of thugs and such without hardly breaking a sweat. It gave a very different, and appropriately superheroic feel, compared to any other game I'd tried at the time.

Then of course they nerfed the shit out of it, so when I last came back to play, thesame character who could take on 8 even-con mobs and kick their asses, was now suddenly behaving like a WoW character, and winding up in the hospital after 3.

If they ever bring back the old feel, then maybe I'll come back to it, but from everything I've heard, they're at best still working on that.

[gojira]

What type of character was it? I have characters that have killed 10 even con enemies in one blow, and I'm not talking about level 50's or tricked out with rare or expensive stuff. I'm talking about a level 20 squishy, my Corruptor.

'Course, I don't stand up to them. I pulled, hid around a corner, droped some debuffs on them, and then opend up with a decent attack chain. It requires planning and a bit of luck, but it's still doable. If things go bad, I can hit Fly and be at the top of the skybox safely 90% of the time.

Tankers and scrappers play similarily for me. My Brute is a monster. 10 even con mobs are "goody! more XP" for my Mastermind. Etc. If you haven't tried the game recently, you should.

[Deadend]

CoH was so fun at launch. Yeah, powers were imbalanced, but instead of making say Lightning blasters suck less... they just gimpled fire and assault rifles.

[BitterCupOJoe]

What type of character was it? I have characters that have killed 10 even con enemies in one blow, and I'm not talking about level 50's or tricked out with rare or expensive stuff. I'm talking about a level 20 squishy, my Corruptor.

'Course, I don't stand up to them. I pulled, hid around a corner, droped some debuffs on them, and then opend up with a decent attack chain. It requires planning and a bit of luck, but it's still doable. If things go bad, I can hit Fly and be at the top of the skybox safely 90% of the time.

Tankers and scrappers play similarily for me. My Brute is a monster. 10 even con mobs are "goody! more XP" for my Mastermind. Etc. If you haven't tried the game recently, you should.

I agree. I haven't played in a few months, because I burned right the hell out on the game, but that's was a "familiarity breeds contempt" sort of thing, NOT a "this is a bad game" thing. From level 1, any character I had could wipe the floor with 3-5 even cons, and by 25, they could take on 7+ without breaking a sweat. Hell, the "scrapper challenge," a sort of skill/character build test, is to take on a hazard zone-sized group of enemies that con +3 or higher, without inspirations, and live. That's usually about 10-13 enemies with 2-3 bosses and 4-5 lieutenants. Admittedly, that's the top end of things, but a hazard zone group of same level opponents, even without inspirations, isn't a big challenge to a lot of characters.

[Xerxes]

Hell, without MS publishing this, it might actually make it.

[ZeroType]

What I enjoy in a MMO, any MMO, is a character outside the mold. I was a Tank Mage in Ultima Online, before Tank Mages were popular. I was the best healer on ANY sized raid, as a Paladin, in cloth, on WoW. In CoH (not V) I was a Regen Tank. I loved that fact I could do it, it took me a bunch of Hami'Os and a lot of trial and error, but I got it down to where I could solo pull anything, even Carnies and Malta, line them up, and kill them. Not as fast as my AR/Dev could, but still, solo.

Then Cryptic decided I was cheating and more or less deleted my character. When I attempted to repeat it on a different account, I found they limited the amount and effect of Hami'Os in one power. Without ever putting it in patch notes.

My Regen Tank concept was dead. This saddened me, and I quit.

Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Sl1pstream]

What bothered me about this.

*Champions Online for Xbox 360 is not yet concept approved by Microsoft

I don't want to buy this on PC. I get the whole "MMOs should be played on pc" crap, but out of all current MMOs, CoX seems to be most suited for consoles. I'm not going to buy a new pc, just for this game.