Love the game.... BUT.....

[Gerlak]

Ok guys come on all we want is a few words now and then servers up down, blah, blah, blah its not that hard. I love the game really do BUT this is getting old in a hurry, up/down every few hours weekends are my big time to play. I am sure most of your customers feel the same about now.

Your worried about new content / bloodmoon and we still have massive imbalances in some powers not mention PVP. MELEE is all but useless in most cases, with some trees nearly unplayable. Lets fix the existing problems that are driving ppl away in droves before making a set of all new ones?

Again I love the game and would stick around BUT..... I having trouble justifying staying when things don't seem to be improving and the customer service is ummmmm....... lets just say NOT GOOD.

[ArmageddonX]

I'll Bite. This topic could get interesting if everyone remains constructive.

I love this game. I don't want to cancel. I desperately do not want to cancel because the game is fun.

BUT:

1. There is just barely enough content to get to 39. 39-40 is pure grind.
2. No endgame.
3. No incentive to Teaming.
4. Poorly organized "Lairs".
5. Last two zones are extremely lackluster; especially Lemuria which is my least favorite "area" in any game I have ever played in the last decade. I wanted to play a superhero game. The last two zones are too similar to fantasy games.
6. It's a Single Player Game with a Chat Line.
7. The game has 30 days worth of content.
8. No reason to re-roll a new character; it's the exact same content over again because there is so little of it to begin with. If I want to experience the different power-sets its $12 away. So why bother re-rolling?

Graphically and game-play (mechanically) wise Champion's Online is amazing fun. The action-oriented game-play is awesome! Its the content and zone department that ruined this game for me.

I'm not willing to wait 3-6 months for a complete game. It should have been complete at launch. That's not an unreasonable expectation when you drop $50 for a game. It should be a complete experience and the truth is at launch Champions Online wasn't, and still isn't, a complete package. It was rushed. That was a mistake.

Fix those things above. I'd gladly return and even buy a lifetime sub. Champions Online has a solid base but need large problems fixed fast. By fast I mean like yesterday. There are other games coming Q1 2010 and if Champs doesn't fix the issues before then I'm afraid it'll miss the bus.

That would be a shame. Because it's a good game. But I cant justify staying.

[lurk]

I love this game BUT:

1. I wish there were more instanced door missions (similar to the ones temporarily being put in for bloodmoon that you can play on the server) as the ones that exist are completed usually in minutes (30 minute timer is often enough time to cross the zone and complete the mission with 20+ minutes left).
2. We need more cities to travel to. I like MC and all, but there should be city-based content for every level of the game and more of it than just one zone at one time. Most of the super hero comics I read have at least some ties to the city or suburban-ish life. The other zones are flavor and fun but they're more like cameos than anything.
3. Power replaces are the worst idea ever. You're never better off replacing valuable stats with a glowy effect and a low chance of a small proc. They really should be a separate item slot in and of themselves.
4. Unlockable costume pieces on items are 90% swords. I have made and plan to make 0% sword characters. I'm bad at math but I think that Venn diagram is just two lonely circles desperately in need of a hug.
5. Needs more Grond. Grond makes the desert awesome. When he lands on or near you it's an "OH MAN" moment that I feel the other zones (haven't seen Lemuria yet) lack. What about a cosmic spaceship flying around abducting things in Canada, and, well, some more giant monsters running around Monster Island. And MC could use a zone-wide repeatable event.
6. Crisis missions are a mixed bag. I dislike that my 30 can't help my boyfriend's 28 through the MI crisis so that he can play with me just because I've already done it. They are some of the coolest content in the game, but it makes it so that I have to go back and he can't go forward yet.

I'm sure there's more. Overall I think the game just needs more content and that will come with time.

[quixotic1]

Without making this a debate thread:

Originally Posted by ArmageddonX

There is just barely enough content to get to 39. 39-40 is pure grind.

Is simply not true. I have a toon nearly to 37 and haven't even touched the Lemurian Crisis. I was impressed by how far I was able to get with the missions available. It's definitely much easier this time around, more than a month later.

The complaint then could be made that there isn't enough content to allow you to get through without repeating an awful lot, but I imagine that will change in the months to come.

[mygamingid]

I love the game, everything from the visuals and audio to the open character system and the setting. However...

1. Teaming is terrible. AOC is known far and wide for teaming fail and CO uses the same system (by choice). Until it is thrown out, teaming will continue to suck.

2. Difficulty needs to scale by player choice, with experience rewards scaling to difficulty.

3. Mission sharing needs to be absolute. The idea that getting a mission is a reward in and of itself has failed. It's okay to move on now.

4. Mission XP rewards need to scale to character level. Complete something above your level and be appropriately rewarded (capped at +5). Complete something more than 3 levels below your own level and get nothing but perk fodder.

5. You should be able to speak to contacts without having to go all the way back across the zone

6. You spend a huge chunk of your early game in two zones, take a breather in MC, and then end up right back in those two zones for quite a while. Seeing the dreary tan of the desert or the bleak white of Canada can weigh on a player.

7. Powers aren't balanced. This was apparently completely ignored in beta, both by the devs and the testers and it'll take months before this gets worked out. It's an open system, so each power has to be balanced according to tier and availability and, well, they haven't done that. AOEs are far superior to ST attacks. Melee is way behind ranged in effectiveness. Martial arts are sad - pity the players that choose from those sets (except those using STC, but they're not likely taking anything else).

[Shingi]

I love this game, but...

1 - the forums currently suck. its almost impossible to locate actual useful information to help create better synergy between powers from different sets because anything that relates to the actual game is buried under pages of complaints, demands and whines. its a shame because there are those doing the maths and spending time gathering information and its not getting to the players because of this.

2 - world server != "always prime-time", actually its more like "its always someone's downtime", i see posts in the forums from people i think would be pretty fun to play with, but as i'm in GMT and they're not, i'll never game with them, SG's will be regional because you'll recruit people from your approximate time zone and the community will always be somewhat divided because of this. Not to mention someone's primetime will always get shafted with maintenance, which puts us back at point 1.

3 - /zone needs to be used more. A cross-instance /team channel would be good too.

4 - better incentives for teaming are needed, and while they're coming it needs to be implemented soon. the way it stands at the moment its actually detrimental to levelling to team up long-term and thats hurting the game

[Aesirgard]

I enjoy this game ("love" is too strong a word) but...

1) The content issues need to be addressed: I don't mind going through the same content with all my alts, to an extent - it lets me test out builds against scenarios I'm already familiar with - but I can definitely see where the reasonably linear progression can grate. Going through the exact same progression multiple times turns the game into a repetative grind very quickly, and not every player is going to appreciate being able to attempt it with multiple character types the way I do.

2) There needs to be much more transparency in the mechanics: I understand that tooltips for powers are a minor thing, but many of those in the game now are uninformative, incorrect, or just plain missing. Having a much more easily understood description of abilities would make determining what powers to take a great deal simpler, as well as the process of testing them out, both for the players' sakes, and for the sakes of those who wish to assist in the testing process, such as on the PTR. Transparency, however, does not mean lines like "enables power_returnmode" - telling us the function or state is both too informative and not informative enough, in that we don't really need to know what the name of the function or state is so much as what it's supposed to do; don't make us guess based on what the engine calls it.

3) The endgame is, frankly, insufficient as it currently stands, consisting of UNITY missions, Nemesis missions, and Perk grinding, all of which can be extremely repetative as well. UNITY missions in particular are problematic, as the rewards are low, and the actual equipment is substandard, particularly in light of how many UNITY missions are required to acquire them; I understand that part of the point of the UNITY missions is to give the player the feeling that their character is fighting against evil on a global scale, but as the missions currently are, they feel more reruns of previous episodes.

4) Missing or broken quests, especially prerequisite quests, need to be fixed: again, this is a minor issue, but there are several quests that are necessary for earning Perks which, until the quests are fixed, cannot be earned. This is very much a situation where players cannot earn something they can see in the game, not because it is too difficult, or because of a lack of skill or desire to make the effort, but because they are impossible due to situations beyond the players' control.

5) Last but not least - the forums need help. I'm not saying "lock out anyone who disagrees with me" or "lock out anyone who trashes Cryptic"... but I am saying "lock out those without active subscriptions". This single thing would cut about a 1/4 of the useless, disruptive and derogatory noise, while allowing those with constructive commentary, positive or negative, to feel as if they can share their views without immediately being attacked, by the pro-CO or the anti-CO zealots. Neither group of extremists are likely to be useful contributors until given incentive to calm down and act like rational adults... and those who do not, on either side of the fence, should not be allowed to post. I say this knowing I might very well be among those getting infractions or similar, but if that's what needs be done, so be it.

[Scallawag]

I'm going to have to ... disagree with you there.. yeahhh..

Signature block.

[ArmageddonX]

This has been in a Single Page the most productive and constructive post I think I've ever read on these forums.

Awesome info guys!

[xShonuffx]

Originally Posted by ArmageddonX

This has been in a Single Page the most productive and constructive post I think I've ever read on these forums.

Awesome info guys!

Well it's better than the "how to lose a loyal customer thread." It's like these things pop up every weekend.