Champions Online

[Frag]

I'll add more info here later, but for now through Monday the 24th, you can download and try the Open Beta for Champions Online, newest MMO from Cryptic with Bill Roper heading up the project since October.

Later,
~FragB)

[roguebanshee]

I've been in the Alpha and Beta since September, so I'm no stranger to the game.

I've also tossed a bunch of money at them for a Life Time subscription, because I can see myself playing it for years to come. I didn't do that with Hellgate: London due to the state of that game, in fact I didn't pick HG:L up until I found it in a bargain bin for ~$2.

Champions Online won't be for everyone, but there are plenty of opportunities to make variants if you're interested in that. That you don't have to grind to hit 40 (the current cap) is another bonus.

[Kevin]

I'll add more info here later, but for now through Monday the 24th, you can download and try the Open Beta for Champions Online, newest MMO from Cryptic with Bill Roper heading up the project since October.

Later,
~FragB)

Sadly it doesn't seem to play well with my system. I realize it's an Open Beta, but it was very choppy, it doesn't really like my dual monitor set-up and I started to get really bad eye strain after just 30 minutes of play. Part of that I think was from lowering some of the graphic settings. The massive aliasing that my 7600 GT does not have the power to deal with was one of the issues.

I think I might enjoy the game play though I hate holding a button down on the mouse to move, I'm fine as a mouse turner in FPS games but the button holding really kills me in this and in WoW and the keyboard turning is even worse than in WoW though I could probably get used to it.

I'll have to see about settings (possibly disabling the 2nd monitor when playing as well) and give it another go. Later tonight or something. But eye strain that bad that quick is not a good sign. :(

I'm getting tired of WoW but I want something that I can do online with friends. :)

[roguebanshee]

Sadly it doesn't seem to play well with my system. I realize it's an Open Beta, but it was very choppy, it doesn't really like my dual monitor set-up and I started to get really bad eye strain after just 30 minutes of play. Part of that I think was from lowering some of the graphic settings. The massive aliasing that my 7600 GT does not have the power to deal with was one of the issues.

I think I might enjoy the game play though I hate holding a button down on the mouse to move, I'm fine as a mouse turner in FPS games but the button holding really kills me in this and in WoW and the keyboard turning is even worse than in WoW though I could probably get used to it.

I'll have to see about settings (possibly disabling the 2nd monitor when playing as well) and give it another go. Later tonight or something. But eye strain that bad that quick is not a good sign. :(

For your Mouse issues, try going into the Key Binds (under Options) and set Toggle Mouse look to Right Click (you can find that under the Special Keys dropdown).

I'm using Dual Monitors as well, but am running in windowed mode. Your graphics card is minimum spec for the game, so low settings would be recommended. The advanced graphics options can help you tweak the game to look decent while not crawling at single digit fps.

[Kevin]

For your Mouse issues, try going into the Key Binds (under Options) and set Toggle Mouse look to Right Click (you can find that under the Special Keys dropdown).

I'm using Dual Monitors as well, but am running in windowed mode. Your graphics card is minimum spec for the game, so low settings would be recommended. The advanced graphics options can help you tweak the game to look decent while not crawling at single digit fps.

yeah windowed mode works better but I have to lower my desktop resolution before doing that. I really don't like non full screen (I do WoW windowed as well, but full screen) and I can't run at the resolution that my desktop is.

Even with fiddling with advanced graphics, it still hurts my eyes. Sigh.

[roguebanshee]

yeah windowed mode works better but I have to lower my desktop resolution before doing that. I really don't like non full screen (I do WoW windowed as well, but full screen) and I can't run at the resolution that my desktop is.

Even with fiddling with advanced graphics, it still hurts my eyes. Sigh.

What about Windowed Maximized mode? Or does that run badly as well?

Is the Half resolution toggle (just above the Speed/Quality slider) set to On? If so, turn it off if you want the game to look decent. Bloom, Comic-style outlining and Depth of field should all be off as well for the game to look good (IMO).

[Frag]

Tori's laptop has the slider turned all the way to the bottom, with Chacter Textures and Appearance turned to 100% and it runs around 15fps in crowded areas which is way better than we expected. I would recommend giving that a shot and seeing how it works if you're still up for it, GG.

Cheers,
~Frag

P.S. Probably do a slew of updating in the next 36hrs or so when Open Beta ends.

[Kevin]

Tori's laptop has the slider turned all the way to the bottom, with Chacter Textures and Appearance turned to 100% and it runs around 15fps in crowded areas which is way better than we expected. I would recommend giving that a shot and seeing how it works if you're still up for it, GG.

Cheers,
~Frag

P.S. Probably do a slew of updating in the next 36hrs or so when Open Beta ends.

The eye strain is actually from all the texture "popping" with settings turned down. Whole chunks of background will just pop in, characters, especially if they use the "armor" type clothing will come in as base sims then everything else pops onto them. That is where a lot of the issues are coming from. It's not that things look bad or that it's unplayable, it's that with how I process visual information, it just tires my eyes out quickly.

I tweaked some more stuff since my last post and I played for about an hour and a half continuous yesterday evening, but my eyes were unhappy after that time. There have been a few other games that did stuff like that to me as well. Dunno, I doubt I'll have any more time to test.

It played better than warhammer did on my system as far as smoothness and actual gameplay goes, it just has some visual issues that I need more time than I'll have with the open beta, to tweak before I can really evaluate it.

[roguebanshee]

The eye strain is actually from all the texture "popping" with settings turned down. Whole chunks of background will just pop in, characters, especially if they use the "armor" type clothing will come in as base sims then everything else pops onto them. That is where a lot of the issues are coming from. It's not that things look bad or that it's unplayable, it's that with how I process visual information, it just tires my eyes out quickly.

Sounds like you want to play with World, Terrain and Character detail levels then. They modify how far out you see the high detail version.

Also, under the Troubleshooting section (you have to first click on the heading, then scroll down), disable both Framerate stabilizer and Auto-enable framerate stabilizer. If they're on, you can expect a noticable amount of fps loss and they'll degrade the visual quality if your fps fluctuates.

[Kevin]

Sounds like you want to play with World, Terrain and Character detail levels then. They modify how far out you see the high detail version.

Also, under the Troubleshooting section (you have to first click on the heading, then scroll down), disable both Framerate stabilizer and Auto-enable framerate stabilizer. If they're on, you can expect a noticable amount of fps loss and they'll degrade the visual quality if your fps fluctuates.

Yeah I was messing with those texture levels. Hadn't looked in the troubleshooting section yet though I'll try and poke at it (assuming the open beta is still going, I was little confused and haven't looked more closely) on how long that is running.

I do appreciate all the tips from you and Frag as it saves me time on digging around. :)

[Frag]

(assuming the open beta is still going, I was little confused and haven't looked more closely)

Beta ends tonight at 11:59 pm PST, there's an end of beta event going on from 10 am PST. Hit me up ingame (@Fragalicious) or on phone/mumble and we'll see if we can't team up.

~Frag

[roguebanshee]

Beta ends tonight at 11:59 pm PST,

Seems like they decided to do extend it a bit.

We’ve EXTENDED the hours of the Open Beta to Tuesday, August 25th – 5PM PDT so we can make sure all of our European heroes get a chance to get in and bring down some giant robots!

[roguebanshee]

And a further test just before the headstart.

http://forums.champions-online.com/showthr...9520#post839520

That’s right, folks! We’re standing the Champions Online live environment up for a few hours. Go ahead and enjoy some quality time with your characters from Open Beta one more time.

[Tamorrax]

Anyone still playing? Frag? We got the game on launch day and so far I've only gotten to lev 7 and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the mechanics. My head is small and not very stretchy and it's only been two days so this has been mostly unsuccessful so far.

I'm PsychoKnitter, Jenjan is ModusTollens. Say hi!

[roguebanshee]

I'd be playing right now if the servers weren't melting.

If you have any specific questions about the game, don't hesitate to ask them here.

[Frag]

Yep, still playing. Just bought it today and waiting for the servers to come back up. Your first names won't help find you ingame, as everything is based off of your 'public' name that you picked. I'm @Fragalicious. Toons I'm playing atm are OGRE (25), SAYTR (5), NYMPH (8?) and Burgandy (14). If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up ingame or here, despite the veneer there are a lot of subtleties and 'tricks' to making a toon. One bit of advice that's always true is make sure you look at all the passives available and pick one that works with your toon as that will determine how effective your character is going to be.

Cheers,
~FragB)

[Tamorrax]

Yep, still playing. Just bought it today and waiting for the servers to come back up. Your first names won't help find you ingame, as everything is based off of your 'public' name that you picked. I'm @Fragalicious. Toons I'm playing atm are OGRE (25), SAYTR (5), NYMPH (8?) and Burgandy (14). If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up ingame or here, despite the veneer there are a lot of subtleties and 'tricks' to making a toon. One bit of advice that's always true is make sure you look at all the passives available and pick one that works with your toon as that will determine how effective your character is going to be.

Cheers,
~FragB)

Yeah, those are our public/account/display/handle names. @PsychoKnitter, @ModusTollens. The character I've played the most is Victoria (12), who started out with Gadgeteering. I've now picked up Empathic Healing from telepathy. No passives yet since I use my support build more and there isn't any support passive that I've been able to pick up yet. Not sure how much I like Gadgeteer... picked it because of character concept.

One question: How important are the starting innate characteristics. Take the recommended Fire starting build. It picks Incandescent as an innate characteristic, which is +12 Presence and +12 Recovery. Is there a reason those two stats were picked as fitting with Fire? Is it better to just decide I want some fire powers but my character is going to be more like a tank, so I should get the one with more con?

Oh, and what is your advice for making characters that work well together?

[Frag]

Yeah, those are our public/account/display/handle names. @PsychoKnitter, @ModusTollens. The character I've played the most is Victoria (12), who started out with Gadgeteering. I've now picked up Empathic Healing from telepathy. No passives yet since I use my support build more and there isn't any support passive that I've been able to pick up yet. Not sure how much I like Gadgeteer... picked it because of character concept.

One question: How important are the starting innate characteristics. Take the recommended Fire starting build. It picks Incandescent as an innate characteristic, which is +12 Presence and +12 Recovery. Is there a reason those two stats were picked as fitting with Fire? Is it better to just decide I want some fire powers but my character is going to be more like a tank, so I should get the one with more con?

Oh, and what is your advice for making characters that work well together?

The starting stats were picked by a dart-monkey, mostly. (Str/Dex for melee dps will leave you with no survivability AND lower damage because your crits will do crap for bonus damage w/o Ego) I really like Gadgeteer personally, though I haven't used it much since release and them kinda borking the pathing of pets. Anyway, 'mis-picking' your innate statting means a loss of 7 out of whatever you swap it to. It's not going to make/break a character unless you're really a min/max artist. As to the specific question, those two were picked for fire due to the -threat% from Presence and the +Energy Builder / +Equilibrium (those arrows on your energy bar). As Presence doesn't really work, or how it does we don't understand, I'd suggest SuperStatting (Those two "Characteristic Focii" you pick at.. 5 & 13) Intelligence and one of the energy stats Endurance or Recovery, with Endurance being more universally useful for pure-dps, or Constitution for a lot less squishiness. As for 'tanking' at the moment, for whatever reason healing is like auto-locking the mobs to you, you will never ever lose aggro if you're healing, so most tanks build themselves to heal and block alot. Wonky, hrm? B)

Cheers,
~Frag

[Tamorrax]

As for 'tanking' at the moment, for whatever reason healing is like auto-locking the mobs to you, you will never ever lose aggro if you're healing, so most tanks build themselves to heal and block alot. Wonky, hrm? B)

Gaaaah! So that's why I kept getting squished whenever I tried to heal JJ's character last night. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Interesting. I'm wondering if they'll change that. They should, it doesn't seem to make much sense. I hope they offer free respecs soon.

[roguebanshee]

As to the specific question, those two were picked for fire due to the -threat% from Presence and the +Energy Builder / +Equilibrium (those arrows on your energy bar).

Fire also has PRE and REC as recommended stats due to Fire Form, which scales the Damage bonus to elemental attacks with Presence and Resistance with Recovery.

Note that Ice Form has the same Damage bonus to elemental, but that scales with Endurance instead. So if you're after efficiency instead of concept, Ice Form tends to be better for either Ice or Fire. Be aware that Electricity is Energy damage and not Elemental, so Electricity attacks won't get a bonus from Fire or Ice Form and Fire and Ice attacks won't benefit directly from Electric Form.