So Long and Thanks for all the Heroes?

[Dragonflight]

I understand the feeling. I made Sihouette in Champions today to see what it would look like, and I had mixed reactions. ("God, this costume creator is so LIMITED!" being just one of my reactions. Another being, "What? No stiletto-heeled boots?")
That said, you can get a major movement power like superspeed or flight pretty much right out of character creation. Between the online store and what you start with, it's possible to build similar builds to CoH characters. And you can turn off the annoying comic line-art outlining around everything in the menu, so it plays more like a game instead of a comic book.
It's got a bit of WoW feel to it, with the side-loading mission screen, and the xp and money rewards tacked on below them. Also, the fact that you don't get XP for taking out villains means you cant engage in random goon hunts for xp. But they drop money, which feels vaguely disturbing in a superhero game. ("Let me get this straight... It's not cool to give us XP for stopping that mugger, but it's okay to riff through his pockets looking for loose change?")
The power trays look less useful, as there doesn't seem to be a lot of customization. Any given character set has predetermined powers, which you pull from a list and slot into your trays as you want. But I'm just starting. It might have more variation than I thought. And I think I saw an option somewhere for customizing your personal powerset so you can pull from every power in the game. Not sure if that's a paid-only ability or if it's one you can get from the store. The ability to create totally customized heroes would be a major step forward, if so.
So... It's got detractors. It's not the same game. It isn't CoH. But it's not a bad substitute if CoH does permanently go away.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Sofaspud]

I'll be honest, Wire; I'm taking it better than I thought but not as good as my rational side says I should.  ("It's just a game, get over it." vs "BWAAAH I'LL NEVER KNOW HAPPINESS AGAIN!")

I've been seriously considering firing up every network sniffer I have and playing the hell out of CoH for the next few weeks to try and capture enough traffic to reverse-engineer the server protocols.  Then I look at my real-life workload and put down the crack pipe.

Anyway... :/

I've installed Champions.  I must say, I'm not impressed with their setup.  Also, their launcher does *not* play nice with DisplayFusion; if you (like me) use DF, add Champs to DF's compatibility list and don't let Champs access the DF hooks.  Champs tech support is lacking at best.  The clue came from another user on the forums.

I haven't had a chance to play it yet.  Just getting it installed was a trial, though admittedly, if you don't have a setup like I do, it might go smoother.  I'll be back later with first impressions of Champs gameplay.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Ransan]

I dunno. I tried Champions back when I was in "OOH! Shiny new laptop!" mode earlier this year. I think I played for about 24 hours. I got around 10 levels, and I just stopped. I didn't like the story, I didn't like the UI. I didn't like the powersets, I didn't having to BUY 90% of the powersets, and the Character Creator was kinda half-assed to me.

All in all, I'd rather spend my time on The Secret World.

[Logan Darklighter]

Guys? If it helps you any, in regards to Champions? I know lots of things that will make that CC sing for you.
The main problem is the menus. Once you figure out how to look through them for what you need, you can make a lot of things you wouldn't think were possible at first.
HOWEVER.
I have heard that if you are FTP at the start, a LOT of options are locked off. Not even VISIBLE to a FTP person. Which might be one reason why it feels much more limited.
Tell you what - I'll see if I can re-up my own sub soon. (this week maybe) and then I'll have access to gold so I can do some tutorials if you like.
Also - if you post a pic of your COH character. I can do my best to approximate it. Sometimes I can hit it dead on - sometimes I have to "interpret".
But trust me - if you're paid full up, or even running a lapsed Gold account, that CC of theirs is VERY flexible.
CO is in reality as flexible as COH in it's own way. It does some things better, while being balls at others.
Just a heads up in case you are discouraged, ok?

[Sweno]

I've been poking around at CO, and I found the power choices rather limited. Nothing like what I'm used to with COH (you want to be a support class toon? you chose between two power sets >.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Logan Darklighter]

Edit: It occurs to me that big pictures of CO characters is not what this thread should be about. I'm making a different thread for it.

[Terrenceknight]

Mm as a Gold (Subscriber) you get access to freeform builds. It really helps. Like..really..really helps. Being a ftp is painfully limiting but being able to pick and choose powers from all the different sets makes me happy. However to be fair its probably not surprising that I'm primarily Might on Terr with a few dabbles from other power Tree's.

[Sofaspud]

Okay, I just ran through the intro and tutorial, plus the 'sort out your powers' bit, on a character rolled up as a direct port over from CoH.  I chose Emerald Blast.

The good bits:
* Recreating her costume was surprisingly painless, once I determined how to reduce the HYUGE hands, monkey arms, and giganto-boobs.  ProTip: the proportion sliders are in a different tab completely than the thing they affect.
* The combat is fairly fun.  I'm not sure about the controls, but the combat is fun.
* Ripping a mailbox/bench/light pole out of the sidewalk and hurling it at a baddie is surprisingly entertaining.  Never mind that Rhea doesn't have super-strength.  Maybe she's been taking lessons from Terr.
* ASYMMETRICAL COSTUME BITS.  HELL.  YEAH.

The bad bits:
* What.  The.  Fuck.  You have to rapid-tap a key to get free of holds?!
* Hold spam.  See above.
* Man, these graphics are horribad.  I've been spoiled by CoH Ultra Mode.

The Bwuh? bits:
* Tunneling travel power?  Grapple hook travel power?  I don't even what.
* Foxbat.  What the frellin' I don't even get away from aarrrgggh.
* So the Rikti -- I mean, the Qularr -- are invading the city, and Statesman -- I mean, Defender -- has called on all heroes to repel the invasion.  Paragon City -- doh, sorry, sorry, I meant Millenium Falcon, er, City -- is depending on you!  And a giant gun firing the worlds slowest hypervelocity bullet.

The @#$(@$ bits:
* No shoulder pets.  Apparently there's a city ordinance against them or something.  She's keeping Whiskers in a belt pouch for the time being.
* BLOCKING IS FUCKING LAME.
* For the love of -- look, target-of-my-target is NOT difficult!  If I fire off an attack at an ally, don't buzz at me; shoot his target!  This will let me, y'know, play my role as a SUPPORT CHARACTER, so I can keep the tank targeted and healed and still do something useful while he's smashing bad guys.
* So let me get this straight.  My combat effectiveness depends in part on these 'stars' things.  If I die, I lose stars.  I have to kill baddies to get stars.  If I lose stars, I can't kill baddies.  This is pretty much the opposite of good game design.

Also: my geriatric grandmother could run faster than you let us run, and she was bedridden.  Srsly.

Summary: 
It's not City of Heroes.  But we knew that.

The story is ... clumsy.  More so than CoH has ever been.  The writing is painfully bad, there are typos everywhere... it doesn't feel professional.  But the combat is slick (except for the bits noted above), and there seems to be plenty to do and lots of folks to do it with.  I saw some active RP in the time I was there, and quite a bit more variations on gold/equipment selling, but it looks like I can filter most of that out.

I haven't yet begun to explore further.  If I were soloing, I'd probably stop here -- the 'press Z repeatedly to NOT DIE' bits are infuriating beyond belief to me (but then, I froth at QTEs in console games, too).  But I'll keep visiting Millennium City to see what else is on offer.  As a potential harbor for CoH refugees... well, I saw a lot of people talking about being from CoH.  It looks like folks are already shifting over.

I have no idea if we can reproduce a base, in any form.  Will investigate.

If anyone has any particular requests for me to peek into, speak up and let me know.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[ECSNorway]

Is there a Mac client for CO yet?
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Logan Darklighter]

OKAY LISTEN UP. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Okay - I was NOT aware of this as I have long had an account there with most of my characters well above level 10. So that explains MY confusion, but this poster from the CO forums explains a LOT about why the costume creator seems to have shackles on it for new players.

My deepest sympathy for the loss of CoH. It was THE trailblazer for superhero MMO's and will be sorely missed.
Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of Champions Online!
Just a little heads up I mention to all new and returning players:
PWI have neutered the Character Creator for new players. You will
need to level 1 character to around level 10 (you can do this in between
1 and 5 hours depending on how much time you spend enjoying the
scenery). At that point the entire character creator will unlock with
all of your options enabled, depending on Gold or Silver membership.
Hope this helps.

Another poster in the same thread claims that it's not lvl 10, but you have to complete the tutorial ONCE, log out of the game and then log back in again.
I can't test this on my account for obvious reasons. But if someone wants to start a new account and character and try either method, let us know how it goes?

[Logan Darklighter]

Is there a Mac client for CO yet?

Er.. don't know? Tired and need sleep now. I'll check in the morning. Nite. *CLONG*

[Sofaspud]

I had a character on CO before, from almost two years back (675 days, according to the game client).  I'd completed the tutorial with that one, but that was back before it went free to play, so... I'm not sure if I got costume bit unlocks from it or not.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Foxboy]

Iunno, I'll give it a look once my client *emphatic swear* stops patching.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Matrix Dragon]

If I keep playing this, I'm turning voices off. Completely. Jesus that's some bad voice acting.

[dark seraph]

*starts downloading CO* Let's see how this plays.

[mephron]

No Mac client, no known plans for one.

Because we Mac users don't plan games, don't you know?

(I was told that during the beta for SW:TOR on their forums. my reply was "that explains all the WoW players on Macs then.")Brazil has decided you're cute.

[Star Ranger4]

Hmm... last time I played CO.

Was before I got the new computer. Know the files are there, but doubt all the settings survived the port process. Shoot, if I'd realised that I'd have had it start the reinstall and patch process yesterday during the time I'd decided to sleep all day. (I expect it was a deep seated depressive reaction to CoX news that never reached the concious level though)
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Logan Darklighter]

If I keep playing this, I'm turning voices off. Completely. Jesus that's some bad voice acting.

I understand. Unfortunately, some of the cut-scenes in some signature missions do not have bubbled text. That's pretty rare though. On the other hand, even though the HUD will be blanked out during a full cutscene, the dialogue is still posted in the NPC text. So what I do is set aside a separate tab for "NPC Chatter" just in case I need to catch something important. (I did that for COH too.)
I will say - some of the voice acting is INTENTIONALLY bad/parody.
(There is ONE mission with Foxbat taking over a TV News network where you might want to turn on the voices just to hear it the first time. It's goofy and a total parody of a recent Will Farroll comedy about a TV News Anchor.)
But yeah - if you prefer reading the text - then for the most part, turn off the voices.

[Star Ranger4]

Foxbat has alwasys been like that, even in the early pen and paper incarnations of the game. When I played said arc I was laughing my arse off!
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Foxboy]

Foxbat is essentially a 1960s Batman-as-a-villain. Especially as a foe for late 80s, early 90's POUCHES EVERYWHERE! "heroes."
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Logan Darklighter]

Yes - he very much is - and although his voice now in-game is pretty decent (in a wacky way)... I can't help but think of the vast comic potential if they had hired oh.. that guy who did Booster Gold's voice in the DC animated Universe Justice League Unlimited.
Or Adam West. Now THAT... would have been AWESOME. ^_^

[Dragonflight]

Sort of like how he voiced the Furious Ferret in a few episodes of Kim Possible?
Oh, btw, how does one add people to the friends list in that game?
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Sofaspud]

The only way I've found for friend management is:

Click the chat bubble icon in the chat window.
Hover over Friends to expand the Friend side-window.
Click the "Show Friends Window" button.

From there you can then add friends using the global handle, so it's just like CoH in that regard.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Sweno]

Another annoyance about CO, they automatically shove you into a SG. That took me a while to figure out.

have we created a legendary group/channel yet?

and are there membership limits on SGs?
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Ankhani]

We have a Custom Channel "TheLegedaryCO" I dunno how you can join though, It might be Private. I'll have to check.
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI