- Did I mention recently that I stopped playing my main character, Arcfire, recently? I don't think so, and I've written too damn many posts about Champions to look through them all. Anyway when Arcfire hit level 29, I switched to an alt. I had done all the quests I could get my hands on, up to, but not including, the Crisis On Monster Island. Since level 30 is where the Great Content Gap occurs, I decided to avoid it entirely until Cryptic put in a fix. Wednesday's patch looks to have done the trick, so I'd better write about White Witch while I have a chance.
- First off, I'd appreciate you not giving me crap about my bad character names. I saw a guy named Spidermann last night, so I am definitely not the worst.
- White Witch was rolled up in an effort to try something completely different. She is primarily a Telekinetic, which makes her a melee fighter of all things. But she's a melee fighter with psychic swords and that makes her awesome. I sprang for the upgraded block and Regeneration since they make the experience so much more bearable.
- I also decided to try out a different travel power. This time it's the PvPers' favorite, Teleportation. This has to be the strangest thing I've seen. Your character phases out of the real world and into this phase space where you fly superfast for several seconds, then you're shoved back into the real world. From the outside, it would look like someone disappearing in one place and reappearing somewhere else. From the player's side, it feels like short bursts of flight where you don't have to deal with anti-aircraft guns. Teleporting is not so useful for AFKing like flight is, so I'll probably pick that up as my secondary travel power when I hit level 35.
- Since I'm making plans on what I'll be doing at level 35, I assume this alt will be around for awhile.
- Sadly, I haven't been playing as much as I might want. I can't even blame Warhammer Online this time. Instead I've been doing a lot of reading, so look forward to more book reviews over the next couple weeks.
© 2009 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
If you're reading this on a site other than Bullet Points, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
- Gun Work was one of those Hard Case Crime books I had to track down because I missed it in the book club. I'm glad I made the effort. David J. Schow knows his noir, updating the genre deftly to the modern world.
- Barney knows guns. He knows guns better than just about anything else. It's because of his expertise that he gets a frantic phone call from an old war buddy, Carl Ledbetter. Carl's fiancée has been kidnapped in Mexico and he needs help to get her back. And who better to help out in a desperate situation than Barney. Of course, not all is what it seems.
- Schow knows what he's doing when he turns up the tension. An extended torture sequence was so horrifically realized I had trouble getting through it. But it effectively set up the rest of the novel and was important to the characters.
- I'm sort of on this fence about this one, but I'm more likely to recommend it than not. It's a good book with some great stuff in it, but it's not for the squeamish.
© 2009 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
If you're reading this on a site other than Bullet Points, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
- I'm turning rant mode on for this post, so stand back if you want to avoid the flames.
- There is a persistent attitude in the MMO blogging community that doing the same quests as other players reduces immersion. They feel like their own efforts are for naught if the next person that comes along ends up killing the same ten rats to save the village that they just left. Those people are wrong and here is why.
- People have abdicated all responsibility for investing themselves in the games they play. They expect the computer to do all the work while they have a passive experience. As computer power and graphics have improved, people have expected more from their games and less from themselves.
- When I starting playing games on my computer, my avatar was an "@" symbol. There wasn't any color. When a kobold ran up to smack you, a little "k" ran across a field of periods and the combat animation was a sentence: "The kobold hits you for 7 points." And ASCII graphics weren't even around for earlier gamers. They had to read about that kobold running up to them. Someone had to work pretty hard to feel immersion in a game like that, but it happened.
- MMORPGs actually do a pretty good job of telling stories for their players. There is no indication in game of what quests other players are on. You don't get to read what they're reading. From the point of view of your game client, those people are just autonomous NPCs running around willy nilly, occasionally beating on the wildlife. As a player you can parse out what they are doing, but your character cannot. MMOs have also added cutscenes, instances, and phased graphics to help tell a better story. And the funny thing is that the people crying about immersion are the ones that scream the loudest when these storytelling devices are put into use.
- When I sit in front of my computer all I can see is what my character sees and knows. My character doesn't know that ten million other players have killed these very same bandits or collected those red bandanas. The least I can do is meet the developers halfway. It may be the poorest form of roleplaying in existence, but that is what we are doing when we enter these virtual worlds.
- If you're not feeling immersed in an RPG, maybe you should take a look at yourself and what you bring to the game.
- Based my Free Realms Q&A from earlier this year (and based on my desire for more random Google hits), here is a Q&A for Champions Online based on the search terms coming through to my blog. I went ahead and dressed them up to protect the inane.
- Where do I go to create my Nemesis? - Two blocks north of City Hall (marked on the in-game map) is a police station. Right outside you'll find MCPD Captain Martin, two Nemesis vendors, and the computer you'll use to create a new supervillain. For the more visually inclined, try this map!
- How do you defeat Kevin Poe? - Ouch. Okay, you guys got me. I bragged in one of my earlier posts that I was able to solo Mr. Poe and solo him I did. The only problem is I didn't exactly do it in a way that would make anyone, especially Cryptic, cheer for me.
After getting nailed to the wall a few times by the fiend, I decided to pull out all the stops so I used one of the summoning devices you occasionally pick up. I don't exactly remember if it was the demon or the gunbot. Whatever it was did the trick. And I do mean trick. After deploying my pet, I charged in and started blasting away. Kevin Poe started blasting too, but at me instead of my pet. Gah! Down again I went. Only this time when I revived Poe did something strange. He must have still been in combat with my minion because pretty soon the villain ran all the way out to the revival point. With only 45% of this health left, I was able to finish him off and complete the quest. I'm not proud.
Of course this was in the days before Force Shield and Regeneration. Maybe with a good build I could do it the right way this time.
- What's this about a Crime Computer? - Crime Computer! Great question! (Thanks for changing the topic!) Never used it once. Maybe once.
See, the Crime Computer is an option at the bottom of your Mission screen. That's the one that comes up when you hit "J". The purpose is to point out quest givers in the various zones that you may have missed. Champions already does a really good job of leaving breadcrumb quests for you, so I've never been that lost. But if you really aren't sure where to go next, the Crime Computer will point the way. Maybe even several ways.
UPDATE - The anonymous MM in the comments reminds us that there are a few quests that become available in the Crime Computer in the level 20ish region. No idea why they ended up there. No real story to it. Just another way to dump missions on you. So take a look because you definitely don't want to miss extra XPs.
- Where is the tailor in the Southwestern Desert zone? - I feel sorry for this poor guy. It seems like no one even knows where to find him. The guy you're all looking for is named... logging in really quick... Supply Officer Thompson. You'll find him by the tents down on the grassy area of Project Greenskin, east of the Powerhouse and northwest of the landing pad. There's not much reason to go down there, so it's no wonder people don't find him easily.
If you're looking for the donations guy so you can buy your hero points back, he's right there too.
- Where do you find the half-mask option? - This one took me a while, too. Let's see if I can remember. From the Head costume tab, first choose Heads & Hairs. That's the default, so it's hard to miss. Then select the Head Type option on the left. The first drop-down menu on the right side is Costume Piece. Click that menu and you'll find Partial Mask is the second option down. You can change the look of the mask from the Pattern drop-down menu.
I think the partial masks look better when you put an Eye Accessory mask option over the top. The whole thing has a better texture that way. Be aware the using a partial mask removes any makeup options for your characters. This is a small pet peeve of mine. I can't make the perfect Batwoman until they fix this (and two-sided capes.)
Also in the interest of full disclosure, I didn't remember any of that. I had to look when I checked for the Desert tailor.
- Do you unlock a costume slot at level 50? - Maybe. However since the level cap is current forty, let's go with the ones we can obtain at the moment. You get extra costume slots at levels 15 and 30 as well as a bonus slot for joining a Super Group. Since you can invite your own characters to a group, there's no reason not to bring alts in and get your free costume.
- Rubberbanding in Champions? - I must have missed that power framework. Sorry.
- Champions Online vs. EVE? - What do you want them to do? Fight? What the hell is wrong with you?
- Can you solo in Champions Online? - For the millionth time, yes! I'm sorry, okay. I was wrong. Can't we just let it go?
- Can Champions Online be played offline? - Oh, forget this. I'm through here.
© 2009 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
If you're reading this on a site other than Bullet Points, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
- When we lived in Seattle, she worked for a large high-tech company and I worked in a record store. There were real vinyl records there, though most people came in for the CDs. That's how we met. She said that even though she works with technology all day, she thought music was better before it went digital. I might have professed my love for her right there, but I didn't want to come across as that creepy guy.
- We stayed in Seattle for two years until she got a better job opportunity in San Jose. None of the music shops were hiring, so I ended up at the gym where she works out. It was nice to have her around while I worked, though she had to stop working out in the evenings after a few months. I think her boss was keeping her late with too much work, so that was disappointing. He was pretty rude when I told him stop pushing her so hard. Lucky for him I kept my temper or he would have spent longer than a week in the hospital.
- San Jose only lasted about 15 months. I don't think California was right for us anyway. We ended up in Boise next. I don't really know why she chose there. We didn't stay long either. I had only just started at the Cheesecake Factory when it was time to move again. Not that I minded; those cheesecake eating jerks didn't tip for crap.
- There was a pretty big mix up after that. She forgot to tell me we were moving to Minneapolis, so it took me five months to find her again. I went to her apartment to let her know I finally got here, but things got a little heated. I felt pretty bad about it and tried to apologize about her windshield, but some moron called the cops and I didn't get a chance.
- Now that we're in Cleveland, I'm trying to give her some space. I know I rushed things, so taking it slower can't be bad. I still think we have a connection, so I'm not willing to give up on us yet. She has a very nice apartment and a new job. I think she's happy here. I think we'll be happy here. As long as that neighbor of hers keeps his hands to himself. Otherwise I'll kick his teeth in.
