Q. What is Champions Online?
A. Champions Online is a superhero-based MMO developed by Cryptic Studios, the same guys who made the City of Heroes and City of Villains games. It has an action-based battle system, meaning that you have to hold a block key to block, move to the enemy to attack, and hold in different buttons to maintain some attacks.
Q. Can I make a Villain?
A. No, you cannot make and play as a villain, but at level 25 you can make a Nemesis for your hero, which is designed using the same character creator that you used to make your initial hero. You can also pick his personality and disposition.
Q. Will characters be wiped after Open Beta ends?
A. Yes, characters will be wiped at the end of Open Beta, in preparation of the launch of the game. Everyone will be starting at level 1 from the Head-Start Program on, and there will be no more wipes after that.
Addition: There is a way to save your designed characters and costumes - when making your character or in the tailor, there should be a save button and a load button. These buttons save your character's settings and costume to a snapshot file that you can load at any time. They are local files from what I've heard, so you can keep them come launch, and they can be distributed among friends so they can load your hero's config. Keep in mind that male and female heroes use different save / load files.
Q. What are the controls for using a 360 controller?
A. Here is the control layout for a 360 controller:
Left Stick - Move your character.
Right Stick - Move the camera.
X - Use power 1.
Y - Use power 2.
B - Use power 3.
A - Jump.
LS (Click) - Travel power (hold in to charge travel power)
RS (Click) - Camera presets.
Left bumper - Shift (extra power usage, look at bar for powers assigned).
Right bumper - Target enemies.
Right Bumper + Right Trigger - Target allies.
Left Trigger - Shift (extra power usage, look at bar for powers assigned).
Right Trigger - Shift (extra power usage, look at bar for powers assigned).
L&R Triggers - Block.
D-pad Up - Interact.
D-pad Left (+X, Y, B?) - Use primary slots.
D-Pad Right (+X, Y, B, A) - Use equipped gadgets in that order.
D-pad Down - No idea.
Start - Open "Escape" Menu.
Back - Open Map.
Flight Controls:
A - Fly up (relative to camera direction)
Right Trigger + A - Fly down (relative to camera direction)
Relative to camera direction means if you are facing the horizon and hit A, you will fly higher. If you are facing the ground and hit A, you will fly forward.
Q. Is there a PvP component?
A. Yes and no. There is a duel option, as well as PvP matches that take place every so often, but there is no all-out open PvP option, and the powers right now are not extremely balanced for PvP and PvE-play. If you make a build for PvP, you may not do very well in PvE, and vice-versa.
Q. Where do I get new powers?
A. If you enter the Powerhouse that is located in areas outside the tutorial map, you can spend your power points and buy advantages for your powers. The Powerhouse icon looks like a gear with a lightning bolt in it, and it is a pretty recognizable structure (the entrance looks like an electric portal when you get close).
Q. Can I customize my powers?
A. Yes, you can customize your powers to an extent. If you hit P to open your Powers screen, you can select a color for your power as well as an emanation point. This color affects the bullets from munitions powers, beams from laser and blaster attacks, "charging" auras from chargable powers, as well as the color of ice, fire, and other such attacks. As for emanation points, the options are palm, fist, head, and chest. Want a guy who shoots purple lightning from his head? Go ahead. Want red ice from your chest? Just change it. It costs nothing to modify power colors and emanation points, and also has no cooldown when switching colors, so feel free to do it as often as you wish.
Q. Can I change my weapon skins and costumes?
A. Yes, you can. Simply visit the tailor in any area after the Millennium City tutorial zone and look for people with a mask above their heads. These guys can let you modify your current look (including height, weight, clothes, accessories, etc.) and also let you change the models and skins of any weapon-based powers you might have to some extent. The options at first are somewhat limited but more unlock as you use "power replacer" items that unlock new costume pieces. However, the type of weapon will usually stay within the same basic category - pistol attacks will only let you choose different pistol-type weapons, slashing weapons will only let you choose different slashing-type weapons, etc. Please note that you must pay a fee when changing aspects of your costume, and currently there is no way to tell what your weapons look like in the tailor screen - you must find an enemy and use them in battle to notice the new changes.
Q. What are the current subscription fees?
A. As of right now, the only "pre-purchase" subscriptions available are a 6-month plan for $59.99 USD and a lifetime subscription for $199.99 USD. If you purchase either of these before September 1st, 2009, you will also get some bonus content in-game.
More information can be found here. Monthly fees will be $14.99 per month.
Q. What are microtransactions?
A. From the look of it, microtransactions will be ways to purchase new costumes and character slots in the game. The developers have said that this content can be unlocked in-game by completing various objectives and that microtransactions will not provide an edge over other players, simply give them content that anyone can access by completing different objectives.
Q. How many character slots will we have?
A. From the look of it, everyone will have 8 character slots available to them from the start with the exception of people who prepurchased a lifetime subscription, they will have a total of 16. More slots are said to be unlocked through microtransactions. It is currently unknown if you can unlock more slots through in-game actions.
Q. When do I get a travel power? Do I get a second travel power?
A. You get your first travel power upon reaching level 5 and visiting the Powerhouse for the first time, and you get a second upon reaching level 35.
Q. Where can I see what powers I get and when?
A. Here's a handy link to a guide someone made that shows exactly what you get and when, up to level 40.
Q. How do I take a screenshot? Where do they get saved?
A. Screenshots are taken by hitting the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard, located right above the Insert key. Screenshots are then saved to a folder in your Champions Online installation directory - I believe the exact path is <Champions Online directory>\Live\Screenshots, but I could be wrong. To disable the UI, press "Alt+F12".
Q. What are builds? How do I use a build?
A. Builds are unlocked upon reaching level 8, and just like the name implies, they are used for setting up different power configurations or "builds" for your character. With each build, you can assign which powers, equipment, devices, costume, and role you use for each build, as well as the name of the build. With this, you can have build 1 be an offense role build, with a focus on damage-dealing powers, a passive buff that activates in offense mode, and equipment to help you tank enemies. Build 2 can be set up as your defensive role, where you have buffs that work to increase regeneration rates, powers to assist others in taking down enemies, and a costume to match your new role as "team medic."
Q. Is there anything that I can miss in the tutorial?
A. Yes. There are two perks that you can miss in the tutorial, and if you're a bit of a completionist like myself, you want to make sure you get them before you leave to tackle the "Homestead Defense" mission. The first is the perk "Save the City," and is completed by finishing all the quests in the tutorial, including some of the hidden ones. To play it safe, the ones most people miss are:
1. One perk is called "Red Bug Down," and you can get this by climbing the crashed alien ship by the mayor. Find the crashed ship just to the north of where you go for the "blocking" tutorial, jump up to the top of it, and run off the front (north end) of the ship.
2. One quest is located just outside the window from where you get one of the two items for the "Mayor's Mementos" quest - the quest giver is a blonde-haired lady in a blue suit standing in a doorway across the street from where you jump out the window. If she isn't there, just wait a minute or two, as someone else may be escorting her back to the mayor's side. This is a good time to learn how to invite people, as the more people who do this quest at once, the better everyone's experience will be.
3. The "Reggie's Owner" quest - across the street from where you go to accept the quests from Griswold and the cop, there is a cat carrier down an alleyway. After examining the carrier and picking up the cat, use the cat in your inventory to accept this quest.
4. The "Batter Up" quest - Not far from where you got the cat for the "Reggie's Owner" quest, you should see a fountain, some Qularr attacking people, and Foxbat trapped under some rubble. Remove the rubble from Foxbat, talk to him, and accept his quest. He runs off after accepting the quest, so you may need to wait for him to respawn.
5. The "Save Kinetic" quest - Even further down the road towards Silverback, you should come across a police car that's being attacked by a Qularr Bugkeeper (the larger than normal guys). Interacting with the car will give you a quest to save Kinetic. Follow the marker to where he is being held, and attack the cage door to let him out. My personal recommendation to make things easier on everyone is invite anyone nearby to your group, so you can all complete it at once instead of waiting the three minutes or so for Kinetic to respawn - it's nice, it makes things easier for everyone around, and it helps build your reputation as the kind of guy who uses his head.
6. Perk "We Are The Champions" - Complete the Battle of the Ironclad open mission, talk to Sapphire at the start of the tutorial area (near the mayor), complete the Save Kinetic quest, talk to Defender during the Homeland Security quest, and talk to Witchcraft before moving to a Crisis zone.
Special note about Ironclad: Several people, including myself, have found that he's not "checking off" as you talked to him. My suggestion is this - target him at some point during the open mission, try to interact with him (you can't, no matter what), stay near him for a little bit (I'd say maybe 10 seconds or so), and stick around the area until the next open mission begins again. If you get there late, like when the mission is in the "defend the cannon" portion, I'd say stick around for another run to play it safe - you'll get more XP and items at the very least. As long as you talked to everyone else, you should be good.
Remember, he will not check off the perk list.
If anyone else can think of any other newbie-style questions, or just any kind of general "good-to-know" knowledge, feel free to post it, along with any suggestions on how to make this little guide look a bit better. Thanks.
08-19-2009, 06:28 AM
New Player Guide (Check Here First) - Basic Q&A
