Its official.....Champions Online is going Free to play

[Reepicheep]

I'm assuming travel powers would be an exception.

I don't mind that too much. The casual gamer can be pretty confident of not getting anything wrong. On the downside, this will make Sentryman much, much weaker without some of the extra stuff I had on him.

[BlueBard]

I've had a goal that has gone unfulfilled since CoH, and that is to accurately represent my ideal BlueBard avatar in a superhero game.  From what I was able to tell, CO wasn't going to support that vision at launch (sonic powers and damage type not that well represented) ... and certainly the F2P option won't.  So, on that point alone, CO F2P probably isn't going to hook me.  But for casual play I'm sure it will help scratch my itch for superhero action.

There's a lot of speculation on what this will eventually mean to Star Trek Online.  For now, the status quo will remain.  Looking at how characters advance in STO, it's hard to see how they could implement a limited character advancement model that would satisfy anybody.  I pointed out that nobody I knew (from here, natch) was looking at the power-selection issues in CO F2P as a positive thing.

[Valandar]

Umm, Bard, there's not really a "sonic" powerset to choose powers from in CO, either...

[lugaru]

I can talk a lot about sonics, seeing that my main character is called "The Vocalist"

Personally I used Force since it combines knockback and stun and can be projected from the characters head and looks cool enough.

On top of that I picked up a "sonic" gadget from the gadget tree of powers which I refer to as "cranking it up to 11".

Yeah, it is not a "sonic" path per se but I've never felt like "the vocalist" was severly lacking in powers.

[Podmark]

I've never had much interest in MMOs, but this does intrigue me somewhat.

[ow_tiobe_sb]

I just downloaded and installed the demo.  Patching...aaaand it does not seem to be functioning correctly on my brand new Windows 7 64-bit system (what I am assuming is a 3D model view of my hero in the character creation screens does not show up, not to mention the fact that I can see nothing but the brief Cryptic Studios and Atari logos until I CTRL-ALT-DEL while the game appears to be loading forever).  I'm wondering if my NVidia card is incompatible: NVidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 430.  The website mentions that an NVidia GeForce 7600 is required.  Am I correct in assuming that NVidia cards with a higher series number were released more recently than those with a lower series number?  If that's true, then this is a deal breaker for me.  With my limited free time, I cannot justify spending money upgrading a new machine just to play a game for free.

EDIT: I'm looking at the forums' support information now, which is still rather, ahem, cryptic with respect to NVidia card compatibility.  I am redownloading the installation files, allowing for the possibility that I did not install the version I needed for my OS.

EDIT2: From the forums

If it's a GeForce, and then a four digit number, and then some letters, then compute the second digit plus (two times the first digit). If that sum is at least 24, then you're set, and your card can run the game just fine. If the sum is 22-23, then your card can handle the game, but you'll have to turn graphical settings way, way down. If the sum is 20-21, then you may or may not be able to get decent performance out of the card by turning settings way down; Nvidia's naming scheme is a complete mess, which doesn't help here. If the sum is less than 20, then I wouldn't try running the game without replacing your video card.

So, am I to understand that the NVidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 would yield a calculation of 13?

EDIT3: Nevermind.  Short of hearing directly from Cryptic, I've largely determined that my video card will not meet the minimum requirements to run this game.  *sigh* Oh well.  I bought the new machine for other purposes (music composition, mainly, but also 2D and 3D graphic creation), and gaming was not one of them.  Have fun, lads!

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Breaker

[BlueBard]

I can talk a lot about sonics, seeing that my main character is called "The Vocalist"

Personally I used Force since it combines knockback and stun and can be projected from the characters head and looks cool enough.

On top of that I picked up a "sonic" gadget from the gadget tree of powers which I refer to as "cranking it up to 11".

Yeah, it is not a "sonic" path per se but I've never felt like "the vocalist" was severly lacking in powers.

I get you... it's just that the "force" aspect of BB's powers were always intended to be secondary to his power to manipulate emotions and to hypnotize via harmonic manipulation.  The only way I can come close to representing him in CoH is as a Sonic Blaster with the Mental secondary... and it's still not quite right.

I could probably kludge something in CO... but not without blending powersets in the way that F2P will not provide...

[lugaru]

I get you... it's just that the "force" aspect of BB's powers were always intended to be secondary to his power to manipulate emotions and to hypnotize via harmonic manipulation.  The only way I can come close to representing him in CoH is as a Sonic Blaster with the Mental secondary... and it's still not quite right.

I could probably kludge something in CO... but not without blending powersets in the way that F2P will not provide...

Actually there are a couple of powers in the game that are perfect for that. I consider the vocalist to be a blaster BUT to fill out his powers I got Soul Mesmerism that not only stuns foes but also "Your target begins speaking in tongues. Nearby foes take sonic damage over time and have a chance to join in the chant. 20% chance per tick to apply a secondary Soul Mesmerism effect to nearby targets." so not only is it a cool sonic power but you can force groups of foes to fall into a chorus. There are also telepathic and mystic attacks to put foes to sleep, confuse them and so on.

[Valandar]

I get you... it's just that the "force" aspect of BB's powers were always intended to be secondary to his power to manipulate emotions and to hypnotize via harmonic manipulation.  The only way I can come close to representing him in CoH is as a Sonic Blaster with the Mental secondary... and it's still not quite right.

I could probably kludge something in CO... but not without blending powersets in the way that F2P will not provide...

Actually there are a couple of powers in the game that are perfect for that. I consider the vocalist to be a blaster BUT to fill out his powers I got Soul Mesmerism that not only stuns foes but also "Your target begins speaking in tongues. Nearby foes take sonic damage over time and have a chance to join in the chant. 20% chance per tick to apply a secondary Soul Mesmerism effect to nearby targets." so not only is it a cool sonic power but you can force groups of foes to fall into a chorus. There are also telepathic and mystic attacks to put foes to sleep, confuse them and so on.

Yeah - but you can't do that in the upcoming F2P. Archetypes only.

[lugaru]

Oh yeah, but as I said previously... that might depend on how much people harrass Cryptic. They caved on charging for Vibora Bay as an expansion, if people point out that being locked into Archetypes is pointless well that might also go by the wayside.

Lastly they said that archetypes will be based more around imitating specific heroes rather than being locked into one class, so hopefully some archetypes will straddle power sets in an intelligent way (martial arts guy guy for example).

[Lord Elcorion]

the biggest problem i see with the archtypes is the fact that, at launch of the FtP, they will have 8 archtypes, each representing an individual powerset. haveing fiddled with the demo, i see 20 powersets in total, so not only are the archtypes going to forcefeed free players what is effectivly a pregenerated charecter, but they are also cutting free players off from over half the powers *in the game.* of course, they do say they'll add more as they go along, but how long might it take before they get an archtype for each powerset, if they continue with the "simplified" builds as represented by the current 8? they have also mentioned eventually building archtypes that will span two or more powersets, but i get a sence that these might end up being the "gold" archtypes mentioned in the features matrix.

all this aside, as a way for me to get a free fix of superhero action, i can live with the archtypes, it saves me the headache of wondering "is this a viable combination of powers, or have i just nerfed myself into pathetic loserdom with this charecter?"

if i had full acess to the game, i'd end up building my charecters almost exclusivly within one powerset anyway, with only minor variations here and there for thematic or practical purposes, such as combining darkness powers with a couple of the dark sorcery powers to make a necromancer type charecter, or mixing and matching various single blade, two blade, and hand claw powers with martial arts to try for an ultimate ninja type.

my biggest desire is somewhat petty, i really hope they add a powerarmor archtype fairly quickly, since that's one of the powersets i'd like to explore. the others i'd want to play with are all already there for the most part, so i'm content otherwise.

[Valandar]

the biggest problem i see with the archtypes is the fact that, at launch of the FtP, they will have 8 archtypes, each representing an individual powerset. haveing fiddled with the demo, i see 20 powersets in total, so not only are the archtypes going to forcefeed free players what is effectivly a pregenerated charecter, but they are also cutting free players off from over half the powers *in the game.* of course, they do say they'll add more as they go along, but how long might it take before they get an archtype for each powerset, if they continue with the "simplified" builds as represented by the current 8? they have also mentioned eventually building archtypes that will span two or more powersets, but i get a sence that these might end up being the "gold" archtypes mentioned in the features matrix.

all this aside, as a way for me to get a free fix of superhero action, i can live with the archtypes, it saves me the headache of wondering "is this a viable combination of powers, or have i just nerfed myself into pathetic loserdom with this charecter?"

if i had full acess to the game, i'd end up building my charecters almost exclusivly within one powerset anyway, with only minor variations here and there for thematic or practical purposes, such as combining darkness powers with a couple of the dark sorcery powers to make a necromancer type charecter, or mixing and matching various single blade, two blade, and hand claw powers with martial arts to try for an ultimate ninja type.

my biggest desire is somewhat petty, i really hope they add a powerarmor archtype fairly quickly, since that's one of the powersets i'd like to explore. the others i'd want to play with are all already there for the most part, so i'm content otherwise.

Actually, as far as I can tell, the archetypes aren't bound to a given powerset. They'll have bits and pieces of other powersets in addition to primarily following one set.  However, it is true, there will be certain powersets almost completely unavailable to the FTP players.

Hey, yet another reason to keep paying, eh?

[Lord Elcorion]

Actually, as far as I can tell, the archetypes aren't bound to a given powerset. They'll have bits and pieces of other powersets in addition to primarily following one set. 

well, this is true, but the "bits and pieces" near as i can tell are mainly in regards to what passive and/or block power any given archtype build has available. all of the major attacks and such are drawn from the primary powerset the archtype represents.

[Figure Fan]

Welp, they've announced the release date for free to play - January 25th

http://champions-online.com/node/595135

[Lord Elcorion]

i also noticed that they've traded out the savage for a bow oriented shapshooter

[77]

The F2P players (Silver) will be able to make archetype characters, They will not be able to choose powers at all. The powers will come automatically at set levels.

http://www.champions-online.com/node/595109

[Valandar]

Ayup. Along with many other limits.

Me, I think I'm gonna keep on paying...

[Lord Elcorion]

honestly, i think that was their true plan all along, F2P makes it easier for people to get into the game, and then once they've played a while and decide they want more flexibility, they start either paying subscription, or pumping money into the microtransactions. i don't think criptic expects to many of their subscription players to drop their subscriptions in favor of the restrictions placed on free players.

[Figure Fan]

I don't mind archetypes. I'm not a super gamer zombie, so some passive fun with the character creator and in the game (and a full game at that) is great. Plus, you can buy extra archetypes, costume slots, and costume pieces as you go. That way you don't have to pay an obnoxious $15 every month for content you might not even use.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. I'm really excited.

[Lord Elcorion]

i'm honestly rather the same way. it is a little irritating that i can't customize my power selection even a little bit, but given how much time i spend broke, having a free game is a good thing for me. and of course anyone could always shell out $300 for a lifetime subscription if they have it to drop. in a little less than two years, you'll have gotten the full value of your money, and after that, it's all effectively free again.

[BlueBard]

The F2P players (Silver) will be able to make archetype characters, They will not be able to choose powers at all. The powers will come automatically at set levels.

http://www.champions-online.com/node/595109

Ah, well... those Silver Archetypes don't grab me at all.  They're pretty heavy on the weapon users.  No power suit stuff?  No Energy/Force projector types?  (Not counting the Inferno).  I could see me maybe playing a Mind as it's closer to my preferred gaming style.  The Blade looks like it might be fun, too, at least for a change of pace.

I'll be interested in seeing what the Gold archetypes look like.

As far as subs go, I'm sticking with STO.

[Lord Elcorion]

the glacier is also an energy projector, just with a different role focus than the inferno. and yeah, power armor is one that i was hoping to see that hasn't made it yet. mabe it'll be one of the gold archtypes, or another silver archtype that will be released later. it still irritates me that they cut the F2P players off from over half the powers available in the game. but then again, other than power armor and maybe gadgeteer, most of what i want to play with is there, fire, ice, mystic, might. shadow would have been nice for makeing a dark mage type. i wonder why they decided to switch out the savage for the marksman at the last minute though, did they decide it was too similar to the might build, perhaps?

[Valandar]

The F2P players (Silver) will be able to make archetype characters, They will not be able to choose powers at all. The powers will come automatically at set levels.

http://www.champions-online.com/node/595109

Ah, well... those Silver Archetypes don't grab me at all.  They're pretty heavy on the weapon users.  No power suit stuff?  No Energy/Force projector types?  (Not counting the Inferno).  I could see me maybe playing a Mind as it's closer to my preferred gaming style.  The Blade looks like it might be fun, too, at least for a change of pace.

I'll be interested in seeing what the Gold archetypes look like.

As far as subs go, I'm sticking with STO.

You mean the buyable archetypes?

Because a full Gold player has no archetype limitations at all.