In defence of the Champions Online creator, it's not really that bad. There are enough options. It's just that most of them are gated behind C-store purchases, Gold subscriber status, or in-game unlocks. As a Gold player who's been with the game off-and-on since launch, I see a great deal more options in my creator than, say, MD sees in his.
I believe you can still preview C-store stuff you haven't actually bought, but unless an in-game unlock is also purchasable on the C-store, it's simply not going to show up in the creator at all...unless you have it. That includes quite a lot of stuff. I can't even blame them for that, particularly, since City of Heroes has pretty much done the same thing. You are pretty much screwed for face textures in CO, though, that's true...and there's only so much you can do with CO's face sliders. Star Trek Online, built on the same engine, has more detailed sliders...but then it can afford to, since due to the whole uniform thing it doesn't have much of a costume creator otherwise.
Gameplay-wise, the UI can be repositioned, but you need to go into a different mode to drag things around. Clicking does work, but you need to click on the interact dialogue box rather than the item itself. Low level combat is pretty much button mashing, but that does change as you level up, becoming increasingly complex. Of course this depends on your build. I do a little bit of UI-watching on my two 40 characters, since I need to look out for stuff coming off cooldown, and whether I've got debuff stacks or status affliction on my targets.
I honestly don't have huge complaints on either score. My main issue with Champions is the fact the content sucks. It was starting to improve last year, but now the significant story updates have dried up. Oh, yeah, content's being added, but it's not...major lore-based story content, y'know? That's why it's never going to be a replacement for City of Heroes, for me. Yeah, I'll play Champions if CoX goes poof. I'll even enjoy it. But it won't be City of Heroes.
-- Acyl
I believe you can still preview C-store stuff you haven't actually bought, but unless an in-game unlock is also purchasable on the C-store, it's simply not going to show up in the creator at all...unless you have it. That includes quite a lot of stuff. I can't even blame them for that, particularly, since City of Heroes has pretty much done the same thing. You are pretty much screwed for face textures in CO, though, that's true...and there's only so much you can do with CO's face sliders. Star Trek Online, built on the same engine, has more detailed sliders...but then it can afford to, since due to the whole uniform thing it doesn't have much of a costume creator otherwise.
Gameplay-wise, the UI can be repositioned, but you need to go into a different mode to drag things around. Clicking does work, but you need to click on the interact dialogue box rather than the item itself. Low level combat is pretty much button mashing, but that does change as you level up, becoming increasingly complex. Of course this depends on your build. I do a little bit of UI-watching on my two 40 characters, since I need to look out for stuff coming off cooldown, and whether I've got debuff stacks or status affliction on my targets.
I honestly don't have huge complaints on either score. My main issue with Champions is the fact the content sucks. It was starting to improve last year, but now the significant story updates have dried up. Oh, yeah, content's being added, but it's not...major lore-based story content, y'know? That's why it's never going to be a replacement for City of Heroes, for me. Yeah, I'll play Champions if CoX goes poof. I'll even enjoy it. But it won't be City of Heroes.
-- Acyl