With the release of CO (with mini-me pet and the pre-order incentives) versus the CoX loyalty incentives (closed beta/badges/subsciption offer), who's going or staying...or BOTH?
Sticking with CoH/V. Champions is no longer even in the running for me.
Played Champions a few times during beta and it didn't impress me.
Just CoX
Not going to jump on to CO, at least not right off the bat.
I like what I'm hearing about power options, not being tied to particular powersets and getting travel powers early. CoX really dropped the ball in those two areas, as far as I'm concerned. I'm interested in the Power Suit heroes and maybe trying to give some of my older concepts new life. Other parts of CO, not so much. I'll want to see reviews, get word-of-mouth, and wait until some of the bugs are out. Not to mention I'd probably need a new PC to run it. I took a long time to break down and jump into CoH and that wait paid off in a more satisfying experience than I would have had otherwise.
CoX has matured a lot and has, or will have, a lot of things that hold my interest:
- Mission Architect (This is big for me)
- Veteran Rewards
- Power FX Customization (in I16)
- Dual Pistols powerset (in I16)
- Villain to Hero conversion (in Going Rogue, mostly for the RP potential)
If Paragon Studios continues to enhance MA and gives us new MA options in the future, and if no other superhero MMO provides an equivalent feature, I'll probably stick with CoX for awhile. If they do what I suspect they will eventually do and make powerset selection a bit more flexible (a la custom MA characters), that will be a huge boost. If they ever get around to fixing the 'mandatory' Fitness selections that eat three of my power slots, that would be another huge boost.
Either way I'm not going to pay two subscription fees.
BTW, to answer my own question, I'm just going to stay with CoX, for a few reasons:
1. Time: 2 having young kids eats playtime. Nuff said.
2. Product, since time is an issue, I want my playtime, when I do get it, to be effective and worth the experience. While they work out kinks in CO, I can be happy with a very mature product.
3. Learning curve. Well, I no longer have time to get with the learning curve. I'd rather be playing something I know at this time. Sure, I do remember learning how to play CoX, and that was fun, and I'm sure I'd have similar fun learning CO, but it's not the only game in town, so it'll have to lose out in the end.
4. Community. I like having a base of friends (or at least like-minded people) to share the experience. At so it seems that the few who've already replied will be staying with CoX, I'd be happy to stay as well.
Im not sure if the NDA for Champions is still active, but regardless I am not going to be switching.
BTW, can anyone confirm if that NDA is still in effect, i havent been keeping track.
I read a post a while back on the Champions forums that said you were free to talk about CO. In fact (if I'm remembering correctly) they wanted people to say they were in beta. BUT I don't think they wanted people to talk details. *shrugs*
Besides, shouldn't CO open beta start soon?
You are correct, MJB. Unfortunately, that post was removed after there were some pretty blatant NDA breaches. However, after many months of alpha/beta testing on my part, I've come to the conclusion that Champions is not for me (in fact, it helped me appreciate CoH/V more :) ).
But opinions will vary; the best advice any of us can offer is to try it in open beta and see what you think.
CoH/V forever for me it looks like, lol.
I'll give CO a try but I'll still be playing COH as well.
I did pre-order a copy of CO.
I've been in CO since alpha and although some particulars have been interesting, I'm pretty sure that I'll stick with CoX for now. Once/If CO comes to the Xbox 360 than I'll consider it a little more. I'm tired of buying pc games that should work (according to specs) but don't.
Staying with CoX. I IZ FREAKY 4LIFE!
Trying out CO and giving it a fair chance...
... but I get bored after 15 minutes. At this point, doesn't look like I'll be picking it up.
I have to say and agree, CO makes me appreciate COH more.
RTT
I'm switching. I've been playing CO for a few months now and it is improving a lot. It needed to. The main reason I'm changing isn't because I think CO is better than CoX, it's because my friends who aren't MMORPGers want to play CO due to the nolstagia associted with the name Champions.
CO has some really neat things about it, and some drawbacks, too.
DC Online may switch me off both CoX and CO.
I've been holding back cuz of the NDA, but I have been in CO since alpha and have hated every minute of it. I saw the improvements made but to me thats just putting sweet icing on a sour cake. I actually haven't been back in a while and should give the more recent changes a chance, but definetly not switching from CoX.
Also tried the CO Beta, and quickly tired of it. I'll keep my on-and-off (lately, mostly off) COH playing for awhile.
I'm sticking with CoX!
I'll be in it startinf this wed to try it out for awhile before I decide if I like it better the CoH
Well what can I say. I'm a sucker and it's easy to get me to bite.
Quote from: MJB on August 06, 2009, 05:00:48 PM
Well what can I say. I'm a sucker and it's easy to get me to bite.
Yikes...must. resist. urge. to. make. joke.
I wrapped that up in a pretty bow just for someone to take advantage and you RESIST?!
Good gawd man, this is the interwebs! You can't pass up chances like that...
Quote from: MJB on August 07, 2009, 01:44:46 AM
Well what can I say. I'm a sucker and it's easy to get me to bite.
I wrapped that up in a pretty bow just for someone to take advantage and you RESIST?!
Good gawd man, this is the interwebs! You can't pass up chances like that...
There's still hope, Meej. You're not licked yet.
COX is just too good. I can't let go of it.
So, we got 12 CoX-lovers, 1 going to the other camp, and one bi.
I eventually ended my CoX subscription in July. I was only playing very sporadically as I was trying to get some time in with a few other games. I picked up CO and have played in the beta a little bit but once again haven't had much time with the schedule they kept.
I'll be in CO but will have to see just how much it holds my interest. I like the power build options so far but I'm not sure about the world/mission layout. It seems to be generally the open world approach with only a few instances vs. the mostly instance based CoX. I think I might have liked a little more even split between the two... but only one way to find out for sure!
I wonder about CO. I visited their website recently and saw their ad for lifetime memberships.
I'll stick with my Cities of Heros and Villians -- unless CO makes such a tsunami of a splash in the gaming world.
I'm planning on getting the CO lifetime membership deal, just so I can play iut when I feel like it, not when I HAVE to as dictated by timecards etc.
However, I have prepaid COX about two years in advance, so I can't see myself ever quitting it, especially not with some of the changes and powerset proliferation of I16.
I want both!
Are we allowed to publically discuss CO beta at this point? I can't be bothered to read the whole EULA.
I think so; it's in open beta now. Closed beta is over.
Yes, we are free of the NDA. So feel open to discuss.
I've been playing the Champions beta for about 5 days now and I have to say that the game is amazing!
At this point I don't think that I'll stay with Cox
I'll shuffle around my 15$ to both games - I'll probably play Champions till CoX #16 then play that 2 months then switch back to Champ till issue 17 etc... - let the good times roll Heroes :blink:
While I'm certainly not completely giving up on CoH just when I16, and later GR, are coming out, the fact is, I'm fundamentally bored with CoH combat. It's the major reason I keep losing interest in the game after getting back into it. CO has a more comic-booky, and, better yet, noticeably different style of combat- that, plus the ability to choose the powers I want for my characters, and a whole game full of new content (I've only tested it up to level 17, so there's still a lot of completely new stuff waiting for me) will likely keep me with CO for a while.
The main real advantages CoH has over CO for me are 1) more character slots, to satisfy my alt-itis (though the devs say it will be easy to get new slots in CO, and I can understand them not wanting huge numbers of unplayed characters in the database- maybe we'll unlock additional slots through game play, in some way) and 2) even more importantly CoH/CoV has a strong community of FR-connected folks already thriving. I noticed in my "socials" tab that at some point I had missed tells from a couple of FR people, and I once sent someone a tell, but I haven't actually encountered any FR folks in CO as yet. In fact, I've pretty much entirely been soloing. Still, as compelling as both of those are, they don't change the fact that I'm really, really bored with the game. Time to try something new, at least for a while.
How many character slots do you get to play with in CO, anyway? Just one?
Mind and ears are still open... I have no immediate plans to switch but I'm going to rely heavily on word-of-mouth.
Quote from: BlueBard on August 24, 2009, 03:20:55 PM
How many character slots do you get to play with in CO, anyway? Just one?
Mind and ears are still open... I have no immediate plans to switch but I'm going to rely heavily on word-of-mouth.
8, to begin with, at least. However, there's only one server. CoH at launch allowed 8 per server, with 11 servers, for a total of 88 slots.
Yea, its setup as basically 1 shard or whatever you want to call it. Though they do make heavy use of instances. Its just like when certain zones in CoX get heavly populated and it generates another instance of the zone. Its just that they always have a number of these instances active to keep the cluttering down. Though I think they may still be working on the population numbers.
You only have 8 slots to start with for characters but its not locked to a specific server - for good or bad. One of the reasons I didn't end up running as much with the FR crowd as time went on is because a couple friends of mine that got into CoX had slow computers and stuck to the less crowded servers (ie not Freedom). So playing with them I wasn't on the main FR servers as much. With the way CO is doing it that wouldn't be a problem... but there is always something!
How does this one server/dozens of shards system effect teaming up?
I've found that a bit of communication goes a long way. Before you change zones you get a list of shards (much like the O portals in COH). Whenever a team I'm on is changing zones, the leader just tells us which shard he/she is picking. No one has clicked the wrong one yet.
Quote from: Carravaggio on August 25, 2009, 08:11:54 AM
I've found that a bit of communication goes a long way. Before you change zones you get a list of shards (much like the O portals in COH). Whenever a team I'm on is changing zones, the leader just tells us which shard he/she is picking. No one has clicked the wrong one yet.
I would've thought that they would have found a way to keep teams on the same instance. Silly me. But there could be some honest gameplay/technical reasons why it doesn't work that way, and CoH doesn't do any better.
Thanks for the answers about slots, Alaric. If I could really bring to life 8 of my best ever super hero concepts, I could probably live with that. Part of my CoH alt-itis has to do with experimenting to find the most satisfying experiences. Power selection is crucial and P-proliferation aside that's still one of CoH's weak points. Endurance drain is another, and CO's charge-up scheme makes a certain amount of sense.
(Stamina Tax: Arrgh! :banghead: )
That said, last night I played some really neat Architect missions in CoH. One of which was an absolutely hilarious spoof on sewer teams. For me, Architect gives me darn near infinite replay.
But I'm still interested in hearing people's opinions about CO. I might make that jump someday.
I tried checking out CO but it didn't work out. My computer with its old ATI Radeon 9200 series video card (yeah, the one where you have to turn of geometry buffers in order for it to work in Grandville) wouldn't run it at all, not even at the lower graphic option. :doh:
Then I tried reloading it to my laptop which runs CoX smoothly despite its integrated video chip. And while it ran under the lower graphic option the graphics were so bad that the character creation screen looked like a "color by numbers" set. :rolleyes:
Still, I enjoy reading about your adventures with CO here, and your opinions about it.
Most of the things I like about CO are purely cosmetic. The fact that I can make a werewolf (!) with a bushy tail (!!) and a trenchcoat (!!!) who runs around on all fours (!!!!) and has a travel power that makes him bound and backflip all over the map (!!!!!) has made me seriously consider getting this game.
And that's after only five hours of gameplay.
I also like that CO has the WOW option to duel, unmolested by passers by, at any time. No more switching zones to find an arena.
I'm not positive but I think I remember seeing a comment next to a zone that had a friend or a party member in it when the zone listing pops up for transfer. Don't quote me on that though!