Umbral Echoes Blog

For my initial impressions, I am going to leave out issues that are obviously bugs — the game doesn’t even officially launch for 2 days, and there really aren’t that many bugs to speak of.  Far fewer than I’ve seen in most products at release these days, in fact.  In any case, this review will be pretty scattershot — a lot of 90 degree turns.  So strap yourself in.

Character Creation

First things first: the character creator.  It’s even better than the one in City of Heroes, which itself was lightyears ahead of everything else I’ve seen.  However, I say “better” with a few caveats.  The Champions Online character creator is lacking some costume basics — for example, there is only one option for an emblem on your back, no option for a trench coat, and other small things of that nature.  It’s also tough to find some of the options; they seem grouped somewhat unintuitively to me (for example, the “Shirts w/Integrated Shoulders” section has no items that have integrated shoulderpieces).  But from my experience with City of Heroes, I know that this will be fixed in time.  I think one of the things they were trying to do was avoid copying City of Heroes costume pieces.  In fact, I’d bet they went to great lengths to do so, for legal reasons.  And with the huge library of things available in City of Heroes, it will be difficult to come up with new pieces that are notably different in Champions Online.

Depth of Play

The game definitely has more depth than CoH.  Around level 5, you start working with the crafting system, in fact.  This is a little too soon for my tastes — I like to just run around and get the basics down for the first hour or two of play, myself.  Were I not already familiar with the CoH crafting system, I would probably be confused by this.  Actually, I am familiar with the CoH crafting system, and I am still a little confused by this.  The main way to build things seems to be by deconstructing items that you get (akin to disenchanting in World of Warcraft), and then using those base components to build something.  You also gain skill much faster by deconstructing things than by building things.

Speaking of level 5, you get a fast-travel power at level 5.  I have not the words for how awesome this is.

Annoyances

This brings me to my first annoyance.  Latency.  This is a huge one.  I’m not talking about real “lag,” but rather when you press W to go forward, it takes about 0.5 seconds to start going.  Same when you let off to stop.  Which isn’t even noticeable when you’re running around normally, but once you get that travel power, it can make you overshoot your target by about 30 feet.

Another annoyance is the aggro range of mobs, which is ginormous.  Actually, I like this in theory, because it seems more realistic.  Seems pretty silly that if you’re thumping some dude’s friend 30 feet away, he’s not going to come over.  However, the problem is that in most of the zones (that I’ve been in so far, anyway), there are mobs strewn about every 30-40 feet.  When you fight one small group, at least one adjacent group generally joins the fray.  This gets really annoying when you’re trying to fight a mini-boss, and/or when you’re about to die and attempting to run to a safe place.  It’s also bad because you can’t pull the camera out very far.  I like for my camera to be out to where I can see around 3-4x the aggro range around me, at least.  Can’t do that here.

Combat and Missions

This is also made more of an issue by the game’s AI, which I must say is fairly good.  If you’re using a bunch of close-range attacks, and your opponent has a ranged attack, then they will generally try to distance themselves.  Villains and sometimes even normal mobs will go out to get reinforcements.  This makes the game feel a lot more realistic than other MMOs I’ve played, and also adds a bit of challenge

The combat system is pretty straightforward, aside from one thing: blocking.  You can press the Shift key to block attacks.  This is very important in a lot of villain fights — there will be a visual indicator (starburst usually) over the villain indicating that some big attack is coming.  If you don’t block, you get walloped for a big chunk.  If you do block, then it’s not so bad.  It makes combat feel more active.  They still need to work on the targeting though; often you find yourself in the middle of a pretty big group, and tabbing through to get to that villain isn’t always feasible.

I really like the mission system overall.  It shows you on the map and minimap exactly where your objectives are, circled in the case of objectives that are in a general area.  When you mouse over it, the mission name comes up you can click on it to open a description of the mission details.  Very nice for keeping track of what you’re doing.  There are also impromptu group missions, that you don’t actually have to group up for.  For example, aliens are invading and when you come near the city defense system, you can jump in and start helping to defend it.  There are several phases to this, with different objectives (defend the cannon, get parts for it, etc.).  When you’re through, it opens up another quest for you, and it also shows you a ranking of who helped the most.  Then the mission resets.

I think this open mission system is really great, because a lot of MMO players frankly aren’t very social.  It can be tedious and annoying to get a group together.  But if you can just jump in and coordinate your efforts, then you skip all of the awkward and sometimes tedious rigmarole of forming  a group.  Plus, it’s very superhero-like to see a situation, then just jump in.

Overall Impression

Overall, the game feels much more superhero-like than City of Heroes.  You can take out the mooks and minions like chaff (unless you do something dumb and really overload yourself), which is thematic.  The game has extremely customizable character aesthetics, even more so than its progenitor.  It’s a lot deeper than City of Heroes, which I hope translates to a more sustainable end-game.

This is a post for MMO gamers (and possibly comic fans). The rest of you should probably feel free to skip it, lest your eyes glaze over.

At GenCon this year, I spent a fair amount of time at the Champions Online booth. This is a superhero MMO made by Cryptic. Yes, the same Cryptic that produced City of Heroes. This is, essentially, City of Heroes+++. It was both sad, but informative, that almost every question and comment I overheard was comparing CO to CoH.

There are cosmetic improvements. The game looks a lot more comic-book-like, with the thicker black outlines and cell shading. You can customize how your powers look. Do you want that power beam to come from a jewel in your forehead instead of your fists, or maybe from your chest? You can make it so.  There are even more character appearance customization options than in CoH (an almost overwhelming amount, in fact).  There are some cool gameplay improvements — you can mix and match powersets as you please, so there are no set archetypes, for example. You get 14 total powers at max level (if I recall), and you can mix and match them from different power sets as you please.

But what I really want to talk about are the more groundbreaking aspects of this game.


Perhaps the biggest is player-created arch-villains. At level 20, you start getting clues that someone is watching you. For example, you might find some pictures of yourself during the last mission. These develop into a storyline, and then at level 25, you actually design your own arch-villain. You choose their power set (though not specific powers), design their look, determine what sort of a villain they are (mastermind, mad genius, thuggish brute, etc.), and you even design the look of their minions. You proceed along a storyline that culminates in an epic battle, and your arch-nemesis being jailed.

And then, you get to make another one. Think Batman here, putting people away in Arkham Asylum. And just like that, sometimes your villains will escape and come after you. Sometimes several of them will escape. And if you group up with people, sometimes your arch-villains will also team up against you.

I haven’t seen this in action yet, but if the implementation is as cool as the idea, this could really go light-years forward in making an MMO feel more personalized. I’m very much looking forward to it.

On a technological level, everyone is on one server (just with different instances of zones). That’s right, no more, “Oh you play too? Awesome, what server are you on? … Oh, well I guess I could maybe make a toon on that server.” All MMOs should do this, and I think in the future, I think most will.

But this brings up another issue: it is (or, can be) sometimes difficult to find an unused name in an MMO when everyone is split between servers, much less with everyone on the same server. Well, you can use whatever name you want, even if someone else has used it. You’re uniquely identified by your account name + character name. So there can be fifteen Shadowbats, or Tits McGees. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this, but I think I will like it.

There are Open Missions, which I think have promise.  As you’re flying by somewhere, there is a bank robbery in process.  You, and other heroes, can intervene.  No creating a group necessary, you just jump in and do it, and get a mission reward at the end of it corresponding to how much you helped.  This I will have to see in action, but I love the idea.  Helps a lot in making the game more… well, open.

On the marketing side, they’re offering a lifetime subscription option for $200, but I believe this is only good until the release date of September 1st. It’s ingenious from a marketing perspective (City of Heroes was also very good when it came to marketing ploys). From a consumer perspective, I feel like I’m taking a $200 gamble though. Sure, in about 14 months it’s paid for itself. But what if, once the game goes live, I don’t like it after 6 months of play? I suppose I could always sell my lifetime membership to someone else, but I’m relatively sure that would be against the terms of use.  I will note that I’ve gone ahead and ordered a lifetime subscription, and am feeling a little unsure of it even though I think this game has a lot of promise.

Overall I’m pretty excited.  There are other cool features to this game that I haven’t even touched on, and it seems like CO is doing a better job of appealing to both casual players (like me) and hardcore gamers, though still with more of a focus on the casual player.  My preorder copy is on its way, and once I get that I’ll be able to delve deeper into this game.

Yes, I hardly blog any more.  Just don’t have the drive — mostly it’s my own OCD that demands I include various pictures and so forth, which honestly just takes a lot of time.  However, a friend asked if I had blogged about GenCon, and maybe the other two of you who read this might like to see some pictures and hear about it too.  So I blog.

Dicebagging

This year GenCon was a little different for me.  In previous years, I’d gone with Lydia and Dustin, and awesomeness ensued.  The picture at left has a brief story behind it, for example.  First night of GenCon, and our room was making a ruckus.  A random passer-by (who we now know as Frank) with an amazing beard and mustache popped his head in and said, “You people sound like you’re having fun; mind if I join in?”  Of course we invited him in.  At some point a few minutes thereafter, someone (I think it was Frank, but I can’t remember for sure) suggested the idea of dicebagging.  Like the geek version of teabagging, you see.  I jumped up, and proceeded to dicebag the hell out of Lydia — what a great sport she is!

This is just one example, and Lydia and Dustin seemed to be co-catalysts to many fun and zany moments such as this.  This year, neither were there — Lydia because she is doing noble things with the Peace Corps in Swaziland, and Dustin due to monetary issues.  There were other awesome cohorts there, sharing hotel space, but they tend to do their own thing, as do I, and our paths cross at irregular intervals.

So, lacking my Dustin and Lydia, I did more work-oriented things this year.  There were several sushi dinners, and things of that nature, but I’ll just hit the notable points.

Thursday night was BeerCon (yes, I said BeerCon), hosted by OneBookShelf and Goodman Games, held at The Slippery Noodle.  On the downside, I had to miss True Dungeon to do it.  there was a small SNAFU at the door — apparently it was a blues night with a cover charge, whcih caused some confusion.  Also, the BeerCon event was quite popular, and the downstairs room we were in was packed to the gills, and pretty noisy.  On the good side, there were cool people there, and I got to have a few drinks on the company (as did everyone else).  Talked to Eddy Webb at White Wolf, my coworker Sean Fannon — no wait, that’s Sean Patrick Fannon.  He really should introduce himself that way, a la James Bond.  “Sean Fannon.  Sean Patrick Fannon, at your service.”

Brave New World concert

Friday night was the Brave New World concert hosted by Reactor 88 Studios and Matt Forbeck, featuring some video previews of the movie and a live performance by Makeshift Prodigy.  The band was decent, but the lead singer actually had a pretty good set of pipes (in my admittedly unprofessional opinion).  After that there was a get-together at Subterra Lounge.  It was a trendy club, pretty small, but the drinks weren’t too expensive, and the bartender was good about getting drinks.  For me, anyway — it helps to tip well. 🙂  Got to talk to some old acquaintances, like Will Hindmarch, former Vampire developer for White Wolf.  He’s doing some independent projects right now, which seem to be getting a fair amount of traction.

After that, we (my boss, Will, and a few others) went and had some drinks at a cigar and scotch bar with the White Wolf crew.  I had some Oban, which is a single malt scotch that I remember being very smooth.  What I was given at this place did not taste smooth, to the extent that I wondered if it was Oban at all.  It tasted more like a Jameson, or maybe even Laphroaig, but definitely not Oban.  I managed to pace myself to avoid drunkenness at least.

Here you might note that so far, I haven’t mentioned playing any games, or anything other than drinking or carousing.  Well, that’s because I pretty much drank and caroused all weekend long.  I played one game, the card game Munchkin, on Saturday for the first time ever.  That was the only gaming I did.  However, that was quite fun, and I got some random swag from it due to a passing-by staff member who was giving swag to whomever was currently winning games.  I played with hotel room-mate Mark, and his friends Paul and Alix.  We had lots of fun with it, though we didn’t have long because of the weekend’s big event: the White Wolf party.

Alix and Me

Yes, the White Wolf party.  The highlight of GenCon.  The night where the drinks are free, the hot goths are out, and inhibitions are hiding in the corner curled up into a little ball.  Within the first five minutes I was groped, and had my ass critiqued by a group of people whose goal in the night was to get their friend laid.  I try to stay away from former coworkers though.  Except Chris McDonough.  If you’re reading this Chris, you know I always reserve the manlove for you.

The club had two floors, various beds and sofas, and a dance floor on each level pumping the goth/industrial/new wave/whatever.  I think I’m developing a tolerance to Captain and Coke, because after 5 of them (not lightly poured, either) in fairly quick succession, I was barely feeling buzzed.  I mingled, drank, and dragged Alix onto the dance floor.  Okay, she was willing, but it sounds better if I say I dragged her onto the dance floor.  Caveman style.  Our friend Mark was apparently having a rough night, but I’ll be damned if I let anyone not have fun around me, and Alix and I managed to cheer him up some.  Kung Fu makes everyone happy, I’m just sayin’.  I also forced Paul to chug water.  He doesn’t drink, he is skinnier than I am, and he was tore up.  I knew he’d be hating himself the next day, and sure enough, I got some profuse thanks for practically forcing the water down his throat.

Mark and Cate

Overall this year’s party was more tame than in previous years.  There was no impromptu photo shoot like last year, wherein I was told to get my ass over there, take off my shirt, and pose with random goth girl.  There were no antics with kickballs and street signs that had been drunkenly torn up out of the street, nor breaking into hotel swimming pools and proceeding to breaking the pool.  There was, however, an afterparty for a limited number of people in the penthouse suite at the Omni, which was fun but crowded.  A couple of friends I brought with me designated themselves as bartenders, and apparently were very well-liked for that — also, they got a fair chunk of change in tips.  Broken bottles notwithstanding.  The suite was well-stocked with alcohol and mixers; these people are professionals.  Nothing of note really happened there, other than it being packed like sardines, and security being called for the noise disturbance and breaking up the party.  Oscar Garza has a psychic sense about these things — a few minutes before the pigs came, he said, “I’m leaving before the police get here.”

Sunday, as per usual, was pretty low-key.  People leaving early, checking out of hotels, some farewell dinners and so forth.  It was sad to say goodbye to friends both old and new, but several of them will be at DragonCon.  And that, my friends, is where the real party is at.

Featuring our beloved PhotoGnome.

• 17:26 @dr0idness Welcome back! Sorry to hear L.A. didn’t work out. #
• 17:26 Company is looking for a freelance PHP coder. 10-20 hrs/wk, osCommerce experience is a +. Anyone interested, or know someone who might be? #

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• 19:08 At the Brickstore Pub. Wish you were here! snipurl.com/ai4xz #

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As some may notice, I tend to post sporadically. I could make excuses, give reasons, whatever. Basically what it comes down to is that I blog when I feel like writing in this format, and it’s mostly for myself anyway (it’s not like I have a readership to speak of). Hence why the vast majority of my posts lately have been Twitter repostings. I’m actually going to turn that off, and possibly delete all of those entries. I haven’t decided for sure yet.

Anyway, today I was actually given hope for the world. I’ll do this in a nutshell as best I can. Got a letter from a trash company saying, “Hey, we’re taking over for your current company in 2009. Here’s a bill that will cover your services for a year.” I probably should have checked, but I didn’t — I just paid the bill. Well, I notice the old trash company is still coming. Curious. Then I get a letter in the mail from the old company saying that they are still around, and that if I paid a bill to this other company, I should call and ask for a refund.

So I call and ask for a refund.

Amazingly, I get it, with absolutely no hassle.

The woman on the phone was like, “Yeah, we were originally awarded the contract with the county in 2009, but some other companies have filed in court for their right to continue with service. So it’s sort of in a state of limbo right now. I can issue you a refund if you’d like.” That’s right, they offered a refund before I even mentioned it. This pretty much floored me. I called expecting to have to squeeze it out of them like wringing water from an old rag in the desert, expecting about as much success.

This actually makes me look forward to working with that company in the future, if things get worked out and they do become the service provider. More so, I’ve been amazed by the friendliness and helpfulness of companies that I’ve dealt with recently. Maybe it’s some alignment of the planets or something. I ordered my new bed just before Christmas from a company that does price-matching. I showed them another website that had the same platform bed for about $600 less, including shipping. They looked it up, confirmed, and matched the price with no hassle. If you ever need a bed, I highly recommend Online Store, Inc.  Delivery and setup was included in the price, and the setup was very appreciated. It took two professionals with powertools about an hour and a half to set up that bed. I can only imagine what a hassle it would have been for me. But it is spectacular, and huge, and I love it.

In other news, I’ve been under the weather lately. Nothing serious, just the typical cough/sore throat/stuffiness/headache bug. It was bad enough to cause me to not be able to break in my bed properly, and also to miss out on a party Friday night and two events Saturday night — one of the latter events being attended by a couple that I haven’t seen in almost 6 months. Quite annoying. I spent the time resting… in front of the computer, and playing World of Warcraft enough to get my deathknight his flying mount. This will cure about 90% of my deaths in that game, which are from falling. I tend to do point-to-point marches, and generally dislike moving in anything other than a straight line.  Hence, cliffs are hazardous to my health.

• 16:24 With sufficiently cool friends, even grocery shopping is a fun adventure. #

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• 14:26 It’s sort of nice to only have one house to go to instead of three today. Why see 4 Christmases? I’ve lived it! snipurl.com/941g1 #

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• 14:27 Just ordered a platform bed and memory foam mattress. For the first time in about 7 years, I will sleep on an actual bed. #

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• 23:54 Only Chris McDonough can get the strippers to tip him. #

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