From the very first moment I heard about superheroic MMORPG Champions Online, I had one question – could I recreate my beloved City of Heroes character The Entomologist in it? With the open beta now live (rather unhelpfully, only so long as you’re a Fileplanet subscriber or have preordered), I finally got to find out. Live, little man, live!
This is The Entomologist, City of Heroes-style: Ento to his friends, and Enty if you’re trying to annoy me.
Less than 5 foot of big stompy superpower, and gloriously ridiculous in everything he does.
Champions’ character creator is much more flexible and powerful than COH’s, but I’m not convinced it’s quite as intuitive. A lot of major stuff is presented fairly obtusely – for instance, over-the-head masks are turned on by setting Hair to ‘none.’ Too much stuff hidden in sub-menus that only unlock once you stumble across the right option in the previous menu, essentially. But it is all there, and the degree of tweakery is impressive – a raft of accessories for every body part, every major muscle group granted its own size slider, and far more options for chin-shaping than anyone realistically needs.
The first thing that hit me, though, was the sad loss of the Huge gender. I guess it’d be too similar to COH if it was kept, but the Male, Female, Huge gag never stops being funny. Miss ya, big guy.
Next: lummee. I’ll be buggered if I know what Ento’s face is shaped like. Erm. Pea-like?
Still, the option to dick around with ear-pointiness, jutting jaws and creepily close-together eyes means it’s a going to be a fine game for genuinely distinctive player characters.
The body scale stuff I was particularly fond of. Loping, simian arms, beanpole legs beneath a hulking torso, strangely tiny hands, massive feet… This is a game in which everyone will almost inevitably look at least a little ridiculous. Good thing too.
So I’ve made myself a midget muscle-man, but he still ain’t dear Ento. Costume away!
The outfit designer is fascinatingly modular – you don’t simply pick a mask style and a mask colour, but rather you assemble it from various components.
As I mentioned, haircut was part of that, as were the eyes and eyebrows. To get simply that all-over red mask took a lot of fiddling. While I remain concerned that a lot of important stuff seems shunted off into less-than-logical sub-menus, there’s a fantastic degree of flexibility there.
The trouble with remaking Ento in it is that, in his original form, his design was very simple – so I ended up ignoring a lot of the fancier options simply to stick to that. Though I did enjoy adding eyebrows underneath his mask, still visible as two sardonically-raised lumps underneath the red cloth. Also neat is that the creator remembers all the colours you’ve used thus far, saving them to a swatch you can pick from when you’re recolouring some other costume element, rather than having to best-guess fromthe entire colour pallette.
Ah, now we’re getting there. Pure black skin, antennae, glowing yellow eyes, cheerily ostentatious giant E on the chest (though annoyingly stuck in italics)… Need to do something about those clown trousers, though…
And there he is at last: undeniably the Entomologist. Welcome to the future, sir.
Sure, the cape brooches are a little different, the antennae more overtly insectoid and the robotic left arm tragically less hulking, but that’s him alright. So proud. It’s fantastic to get the cape right off the bat, too – the idea that a superhero had to perform a series of quests for a tailor (as was the case in COH) before being allowed to wear a cloak was always openly ludicrous. Now you’re the picture of the hero you want to be right from the very start.
Don’t ask me to name a favourite between Ento and Ento 2.0. I’ve stared at the two of them for hours and change my mind constantly. All I know is that when I’m playing Champions, I’m still playing as The Entomologist. I can’t think of any other game where I’ve been able to create a near-exact replica of a former avatar, and I do find this oddly exciting. Perhaps it means Champions is too close to CoH (though, so far, they seem to play definably differently), perhaps it means I have no imagination. But it means Ento still lives, and that makes me a very happy little nerd indeed.
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Alex hopkinson; the capes are found in ”back accessory” menu, quite logical, that. :P
@JonFitt
Agreed, Ento 1 has to be careful, he could poke a short person’s eye out with that if he turns around without looking.
@Alec Meer
No no! His nemesis must be the Lepidopterist!
Or is that too logical?
After having spent a bit too much time with champs char creator I thought it might help to point out that many of the colors are designs that change the way the colors look so like the knight shoulders are ornate instead of solid which makes them very different the boots depending on the second, third and forth layer choices some times give you different boots entirely.
The other thing is your primary color should never be 100% black because you are not going to be able to see any of the details in the shadows which is way the COH is 80% black with a strong specular highlight. Your Ento would probably look better if you go up one or over one on the palette.
One last thing there may be robotic arms since I’ve seen people running around with robotic legs I can’t find in there.
Guys, “NDA Repealed? Taking no chances” is right. The game is designed for a pad, and feels unnatural. I hope a interface for we, PC owners, is designed.
Another problem… with the beta, is that even with a zillion instances ( maybe more than 10) theres billions of heroes everywhere. On other games theres 1 mob every metter, on this one, theres another player. You travel to a mission area, to kill 3 “whatever”, only to find on that spot theres already 10 players around. The problem is not spawncamping, the problem is that is dificult to distuinguish the horde of players from the mobs.
My suspension of belief has hugue problems with this game.
Is a nicelly done, awesome game, but also grotesque.
I’ve dipped in and out of the Champions Online beta but it hasn’t grabbed me as much as CityoH did in its early days. Needless to say, it was fun recreating my giant horned but shy superhero GoatBoy(*) in glorious cel-shaded animation.
(*)Yes, I’m a Bill Hicks fan….
P.
I’ll give an eventual trial a go to toy with the creator, but I don’t think any of my existing online chums are liable to take interest, so the only way I’m likely to give it a proper go is if there’s some some of group of RPS folks getting into it.
Ack.
*some sort of group
I wouldn’t mind getting this if only to see how crazy I could make someone
Any idea how the combat/world is?
@Heliosicle
Combat is absolutely amazing, its not that balanced at the moment (but that will change). On the whole its an awesome combat sysetm.
The environments didn’t strike me as something i wanted to stop and look at, but upon closer inspection the worlds are pretty intruiging.
/Radman
The interface is in no way designed for consoles, it’s ideal for PC. In no way is the combat designed for consoles. The major differences in combat to normal MMO’s is the fact you can actually block with shift, and abilities that would have a casting time in any other game can be charged up as much or as little as you want here. This means you can fire off a light knockback ability quickly or charge it for more damage and greater chance to knockback.
Also the powers are in no way just variations on a theme, each set is unique. There is no way you could call the force set just a variation on gadgeteering. Practically every ability has secondary affects, like fire abilities burning, force abilties knocking back or generating extra energy, darkness powers fearing, or martial arts building ‘momentum’ for stronger attacks.
Sorcery set gets magic circles that give bonuses as long as you and your group stay in its borders, gadgeteers can create attack toys and medical drones, and power armour abilities can be toggled on, all at once. Every set is different, and you can mix and match!
Also, laser eyes.
The new Entomologist has a much less defined crotch.
Is there nothing you can do for the package?
“The interface is in no way designed for consoles, it’s ideal for PC.”
The ubiquitous “press Z” lists at the bottom are hardly ideal for PC. They’re horrible and unresponsive – not to mention that it’s yet another developer using the Z key and not switching it for non US-Keyboards.
The Powersets utility powers are different, that’s true – however the main combat powers, the things you’ll be using in every single fight are parctically identical.
You have one energy building power going automatically at all times, and you fire off a charge power whenever you have energy. And that’s the same for every powerset, whether it’s Gadgeteering, Martial Arts or Sorcery.
Plus the Close Combat Powers all look incredibly stupid, with the user hovering in midair and switching comic-frame attack stances every half-second.
I ported my CoH character to Champions Online as well and had similar results. Look at his pictures and you’ll see the Champions version of Transwarp at the top of the page and scroll down toward the bottom for the way he originally appears in City of Heroes.
Another problem with the “Z” menus is lag. Often you click and click and click. You have like 3 options, but you don’t know what one activate Z, since are the 3 grayed out, so you click, click, nothings happends. In background the game is already querying the server, but you don’t know, because theres not feedback you have clicked one of the buttons.
After some hours playing Darkfall, I have not problem with the Darkfall control scheme (described as “a turd” by most sensible people). I also have not problem playing Dwarf Fortress. But I don’t see having fun with this “Z” control scheme never ever. Often theres 2 or more npc’s in a area, or a door and a activable item, tryiing to figure out what the Z will activate is a mystery to me. This Z control scheme is like your hand in a bag with 8 letal snakes with one snake that is not letal.
I have had no issues so far with the Z interface, I run up to something and double click it, 3 people next to each other I was unable to reproduce what your talking about. Also I’ve done Martial arts, munitions, and single blade so far and am very pleased with the animations / difference in abilities. With the sword its all about setting up a bleed to trigger your momentum, and with swords you get a special attack if you use your one sword chop 3 times in a row, which plays a wonderful left slash, right slash, spin slash animation. By the way check out the munitions close combat attack, it reminds me of gun kata from equilibrium munitions has awesome animations for pistol wielding mad man! So besides secondary effects, alot of powers have optional ways to use them, as well as the big thing the advantage system. Maybe you didn’t get high enough but you get points to add new features to your powers, you can choose to change your basic punching to be drunken brawling with neat effects, or just pump its damage, or increase energy gains, and this is throughout your powers, including travel powers so not only do you build your class, and your look, and how your powers look, but you get that extra mechanical level deeper that really sets it apart.
Anyone wanting a key for this but not wanting to subscribe to fileplanet should know that the german site pcgames.de, has 10,000. You have to register and it is in german, but i dont speak a word of it and managed to muddle through.
Linky is here: http://www.pcgames.de/?menu=license_key_mailing&lk_product_id=213771
Thanks Lemming!
“Not seen arch-enemy stuff yet, but I suspect his nemesis will be The Antimologist.”
I suggest The Etymologist just for the sheer confusion factor.
“He fired the complete Oxford English Dictionary, all 20 volumes, blindly into the crowd. It was chaos, bedlam, pandemonium, and turmoil with fits of rage, ataxia, and apoplexy [1350–1400; ME apoplexie < LL < Gk, equiv. to apóplēkt(os) (see apoplectic) ] mixed in for good measure…"
This whole debate over the “Z” key is really dumb. When u press z and u have multiple choices u do realize u can use your up and down arrow keys let u choose which option to activate. I know im not the only one that noticed this.
The clicking one thing and activating another is not true at all. I have never ever had that happen. Character creation is awesome, just take ur time you can quite plausibly make any superhero you could ever imagine. I have enjoyed this game alot. I have had problems with it but that may be on my part or because its in beta. I am looking forward to this game, really. I am a longtime CoH fan and player I was confused when cryptic seperated but now I understand. The only resmblence between this and CoH is that its a superhero/Comicbook world MMO. The custimization in both games is wonderful but the choices in Champions is just more complex than CoH but in a good way. Its just refreshing. I play a blaster in CoH but he has alot of close range moves, Energy/Elect build, and I like that, I am the same in champions mostly. I am working on recreating my Main Hero from CoH but I have sooo many costumes with him I can’t decide which one to create. *sigh*
And I understand your love for your Ento. It is hard to choose between the two. Just one of the reasons one I have yet to recreate my hero…. the indeniably awesome Overlord of Twilight. Maybe i wil do that today since i have the next two days off.
I like the origonal Ento better personally.
@”NDA Repealed? Taking no chances” and everyone else who’s been complaining about the controls…
Have you people even tried rebinding things? Everything is absolutely infinity customizable. If it’s not already set that way, you can go in and bind “interact with whatever is under my cursor” to a double click (or a single click, a click and hold, a click and drag, you get the idea) Play around with the binds until you get something that works for you. It *is* possible.
cheers lemming
I found this interesting, as I will be doing the same. Simple forest range Walker Bohhnen tried to help, as best he could–armed only with major courage and a flair gun–to try and stop armored freaks tearing up his beloved groves. That’s when he gets knocked unconscious and believes he is staring at Gaia; the Mother Earth herself. She needs a champion of the Earth, one who will not be afraid to muscle humans around, should they hurt nature too much. So Brother Nature (no, he’s not an African American) is born. I can’t wait to make him truer to my vision, here on Champions.
Are you sure that’s not captain planet?
anyone else ever notice Captain Planet and Nuclear Man from Superman IV are very similiar in their abilites/weakness department? They both get their power from the sun, fly, are super strong, and can shoot sun beams or whatever :P
But Captain Planet is summoned by little kids with power rings.
And far from the interface being designed for consoles, I couldn’t imagine controlling the game with a gamepad. I guess it must work somehow, but I can’t imagine it being anything other than awkward.
Most times when I start up Champions it fails to load up on some stage or another. I have to set my firewall to ‘learning’ mode just so it doesn’t hang on the ‘retrieving characters’ stage and require me to reboot. No programs are coming up and asking for permission to get through ZoneAlarm, it just refuses to work if I have it on the normal protected mode.
I’m really trying to enjoy the thing because I’ve already paid for it. If I’d waited 2 more days, Fileplanet would’ve extended the beta to ‘all users’ and I wouldn’t have had to sign up to anything or pay a dime. I’m feeling a bit frustrated about that.
I’ve started multiple characters but the gameplay isn’t much different no matter what I pick. The tutorial goes on way too long and is a bit like pulling teeth the second/third time. Meh. I’ll try a sorceror or something.
The character generator is pretty neat and allows for a lot of variety, though it lacks certain key things. For instance, all the clothing is form-fitting, I guess because if you had puffy pants and kneepads it’d clip through the pants and look bad. Bit unfortunate. There’s a lot of accessories to spice it up with, but I’m missing a lot of the options that CoH had.
Really I think it’s when I compare it to CoH/CoV that I get depressed about my purchase, because compared to that it’s limited in many ways. Taken on its own, it’s not so bad. I’ve certainly played better, but I have to play it anyway just to get my money’s worth. Direct2Drive made it very clear there is no refunds on this purchase.
@ Stromko If you use the drop down menus at the top, you will find that not all the clothing is form fitting and you can indeed have puffypants and kneepads. The character creator is a bit anti-intuative at times but the sheer amount of options is amazing.
Just tried it. The cell-shaded look turned me off at first, but it’s not so bad when you turn off the comics-style outlining. The power sets or whatever they call them here are interesting, and some are clear improvements over City of Heroes (as a friend of mine said, the force set is what CoH’s force fields could and should have been). But I just can’t get over the sluggish controls. Everything just feels slow and unresponsive, like UT3 did when it first came out and hadn’t been patched at all. I would imagine cranking my visuals down would fix that, but the game doesn’t really look THAT good relative to how much it taxes my hardware. Age of Conan looks better IMO, and performs much better on my machine.
And what’s with the female characters? I understand that the wasp waist thing is a comic book thing, I get that. But this is ridiculous, the tininess and the bizzare angle of the women’s waists and the colossal size of their chests and asses is up there with Liefeld trying to draw feet. It’s that ridiculous looking. Why, God? Why?
I’m going to fool with it some more later this weekend, but my first impression is not good.
Lemmings: You’re right, a lot of the options I was expecting (and then some) were hidden in those drop down menus that I hadn’t even noticed my first three times through the character generation system (actually I didn’t notice at all until someone pointed it out like you did).
I was rather concerned about the lack of power variety my first few tries, but finding that post-creation once you get to a power house there’s more variety. It seems like the starting choices from each framework are roughly the same, but there’s other tier-0, tier-1 powers that vary from framework to framework.
I hear the pet classes are really screwy(unpredictably flaky AI), gadgeteers are nerfed, etcetera, but aside from that I guess it has all the bases that I’d expect covered as far as power variety goes.
The addition of statistics (Str, Int, etcetera) and many ways to specialize these stats (power-stat choices, talent choices, equipment) adds more variability between characters, and they’ve even got equipment you can loot or (more often) acquire from missions now, so you can chase greens and purps while you’re leveling up your champion. It’s a game that’s very simple on the surface, but (I think) has more potential depth. I’m not totally convinced it hangs together well enough, but at least they’re trying.
so far i have seen
rosharch
tick
many many ironman copies
tigershark
2x wonderwoman
vaious justice league members
various deadpools
its not so much the charecters looking the same its the fact that they have ripped the names right off
Looks like it might be fun. I think i’ll be a mentally unstable wizard with a nemesis called ‘The Archchancellor’