MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller posed five questions to Champions Online Senior Producer Chris Lena about the state of the game as it moves closer and closer to launch. These questions were submitted prior to the beginning of the open beta.

MMORPG.com:

At this time, if an MMO player has not heard of Champions Online, how would you describe the game to them?

Chris Lena:

Champions Online is a super-powered action MMORPG with an unparalleled level of character customization. Hmm, maybe I should go into marketing.

Read the One Month Out Q&A

Chris Lena:
"The feedback has been really great. By taking both the feedback from the beta testers and combining it with our data mining we are able to make a lot of tweaks to mission flow and power balance (the kinds of things that having a lot of data makes much easier). For instance, we may see comments that indicate users didn't know where to go after finishing a particular chain of missions. That gives us a starting point where we can begin asking other questions... Is there an unexpected bump in the time it takes to get to the next level? Are the missions giving the expected rewards? Is there some sort of signpost that helps players get to more missions? Answering these types of questions helps us smooth out the play experience.

Another big role feedback plays at this stage is balancing powers. Are characters with a particular group of powers leveling faster or slower than others? Does every winner in PvP have the same specific power or set of powers? This is another area where beta players combined with data analysis is allowing us to make well informed tweaks to various powers."

How close is the release and shouldn't these issues already be well covered?  Im sorry but I don't see their code monkeys having time to adjust these things.  Word is not sounding good either.  I hope it turns out to be a good launch.

 Little bit of frustration with the open beta.  After springing for a life time membership and pre-ordering the client I was also forced to subscribe to FilePlanet in order to download the beta.  Not such a huge deal, except that the initial 2 GB download was faulty.  Many of the data files weren't unpacked into the approriate directories.  This resulted in another download process of the entire data set at first.  

This error combined with unanticipated numbers of open beta users (can Cryptic not count?) caused some serious download issues.

Eventually Cryptic did upload a fixed version to FilePlanet, but simply moving the data files into the correct directories manually fixed some of the issues.

I expect download problems on the first day of open beta.  That is what open beta is for.  But the error with the FilePlanet download was plain sloppy.

Originally posted by JYCowboy

Chris Lena:
"The feedback has been really great. By taking both the feedback from the beta testers and combining it with our data mining we are able to make a lot of tweaks to mission flow and power balance (the kinds of things that having a lot of data makes much easier). For instance, we may see comments that indicate users didn't know where to go after finishing a particular chain of missions. That gives us a starting point where we can begin asking other questions... Is there an unexpected bump in the time it takes to get to the next level? Are the missions giving the expected rewards? Is there some sort of signpost that helps players get to more missions? Answering these types of questions helps us smooth out the play experience.

Another big role feedback plays at this stage is balancing powers. Are characters with a particular group of powers leveling faster or slower than others? Does every winner in PvP have the same specific power or set of powers? This is another area where beta players combined with data analysis is allowing us to make well informed tweaks to various powers."

 

How close is the release and shouldn't these issues already be well covered?  Im sorry but I don't see their code monkeys having time to adjust these things.  Word is not sounding good either.  I hope it turns out to be a good launch.

Realistically, these are issues that the dev team will have to adjust for the life of the MMO.  Things like PvP balancing, mission flow, and power balancing are constantly being adjusted in all MMOs.
 

And the release is September 1st.

Originally posted by JYCowboy

Chris Lena:
"The feedback has been really great. By taking both the feedback from the beta testers and combining it with our data mining we are able to make a lot of tweaks to mission flow and power balance (the kinds of things that having a lot of data makes much easier). For instance, we may see comments that indicate users didn't know where to go after finishing a particular chain of missions. That gives us a starting point where we can begin asking other questions... Is there an unexpected bump in the time it takes to get to the next level? Are the missions giving the expected rewards? Is there some sort of signpost that helps players get to more missions? Answering these types of questions helps us smooth out the play experience.

Another big role feedback plays at this stage is balancing powers. Are characters with a particular group of powers leveling faster or slower than others? Does every winner in PvP have the same specific power or set of powers? This is another area where beta players combined with data analysis is allowing us to make well informed tweaks to various powers."

 

How close is the release and shouldn't these issues already be well covered?  Im sorry but I don't see their code monkeys having time to adjust these things.  Word is not sounding good either.  I hope it turns out to be a good launch.

Actually, thats what I was saying (as well as many others) in CB.  They made immense changes up until OB... their combat mechanic was changed suddenly and not overly tested the very last  CB scheduled patch day before OB.  Then suddenly all the Enemies had been over tweaked and half the population wiped on the tutorial multiple times, nor could they complete many missions in the crisis zones either which disheartened some of the CB community.

I think cryptic is just dead set on release...  eventhough some of the community wanted it pushed back a bit longer...  They didn't even start trying to balance mobs, powers, and items until the last 2 weeks of beta (sufficiently 2 patches worth of "major" changes)  and it seems that its all cryptic thinks they need.

Fortunately  i suppose everything is okay... the balance issues that are left and the mission problems and power problems are all parts of "polish" as they are very minor.  I still may not agree with a number of other things they did in this game, but at this point theres no use in complaining.... its too late to change them.

Originally posted by silicnsmiley

 Little bit of frustration with the open beta.  After springing for a life time membership and pre-ordering the client I was also forced to subscribe to FilePlanet in order to download the beta.  Not such a huge deal, except that the initial 2 GB download was faulty.  Many of the data files weren't unpacked into the approriate directories.  This resulted in another download process of the entire data set at first.  

This error combined with unanticipated numbers of open beta users (can Cryptic not count?) caused some serious download issues.

Eventually Cryptic did upload a fixed version to FilePlanet, but simply moving the data files into the correct directories manually fixed some of the issues.

I expect download problems on the first day of open beta.  That is what open beta is for.  But the error with the FilePlanet download was plain sloppy.

Why did you need to subscribe to File Planet?  You just needed to be a member if you already had an OB key from your pre-order...They were "testing" the launcher.  That's what the OB is for....testing.  It may have been rough for a some people, but mine downloaded in about an hour, and I was able to get into the game.

Yeah, not sure why you had to subscribe.  I pre-ordered, was sent a key, that key was recognized by FilePlanet, and I got to download the fubar client.

Speaking of fubar clients, I'm not sure Crytpic understands how important a 0-issue launch is to the success of an MMO.  The list of MMO's that launched poorly and never recovered the users is long and distinguished, and even more of a threat in this day of MMO's being released monthly.  People get a bad taste in their mouth when they pay $60 for a client and can't play the game.  The pre-orders being cancelled can be heard around the world.

People naturally (if not logically) connect how well the beta launched with how well the game will launch, and if Cryptic can't manage a handful of Open Beta users, how will they handle the "masses" of new, paying customers when the game goes live?  How well the launch goes is a direct contributor to how many people flip the free 30-days into a recurring subscription.

Time to step up to the plate, Cryptic, because more mmo's swing and miss than hit home runs in this market.

"The feedback has been really great. By taking both the feedback from the beta testers and combining it with our data mining we are able to make a lot of tweaks to mission flow and power balance (the kinds of things that having a lot of data makes much easier)."

This just cracks me up, the beta forums have been FILLED with people talking about how bad the game is. Complaining non-stop and being totally ignored by the developers.

I plan on checking back on this game about 1-2 years post release. Maybe by then they will have fired most of the people now working on it and fixed the game. But I would not bet on it.

This game should do GREAT for about 3 months, and then they will start to run out of new people and the game will crash.

What makes me say this? The same group of people who I beta tested CoX with all quit this beta because it was so boring. All 5 of us just could not make ourselves even log into this free beta... Somehow I don't think any of us are going to pay for it.

Originally posted by Slackerboy

"The feedback has been really great. By taking both the feedback from the beta testers and combining it with our data mining we are able to make a lot of tweaks to mission flow and power balance (the kinds of things that having a lot of data makes much easier)."

This just cracks me up, the beta forums have been FILLED with people talking about how bad the game is. Complaining non-stop and being totally ignored by the developers.

I plan on checking back on this game about 1-2 years post release. Maybe by then they will have fired most of the people now working on it and fixed the game. But I would not bet on it.

This game should do GREAT for about 3 months, and then they will start to run out of new people and the game will crash.

What makes me say this? The same group of people who I beta tested CoX with all quit this beta because it was so boring. All 5 of us just could not make ourselves even log into this free beta... Somehow I don't think any of us are going to pay for it.

Ok i can agree with this, Even though i find CO fun i have began to loose interest, though i atribute that mostly to Zone Malize. With all the player wipes in Closed Beta i never got out of Real Milinium city (14+) and played the tutorial melinium, crysis desert, real desert, crysis canada and real canada so much i could do them in my sleep. Hell on one of my toon i neever died once till i reached real millinium.

Ok i got to chime in.  The first day of open beta was less than desired but being a member of multiple betas that is to be expected not one of them goes perfect especially the open beta closed one was smoother in this case.  As far as the game goes i created 8 characters in closed beta and got them up to at least 18 and not once did i get bored with it sure the missions ware the same but the different character builds offered different experiances.  I just have to say IMO its a fun game and i can't wait for the official launch day.  But on a side noke to enjoy the game you have to be a comic book and superhero type of game fan.

 FYI if you are having toruble with the fileplanent beta i just torented the thing, look for my id NekoLLX in the coments.

It's the file stright from fileplanet and installed fine for me so should be good for everyone else.

I've been on the fence about this game... at times really wanting it, then that feeling subsiding.. but now hearing about the Nemesis thing.. I really like that, and may actually go ahead and get it.. I had some fun with CoH/CoV so I'm sure this'll at least be as good, if not alot better. 

Its Great, its amazing!

I don't know why MMORPG.com bothers with PR speak releases like this. Check the Champion forums on this site to get a feel for the pros and cons of the game. Yes you have your fanboys and eventually you will get the anti crowd, but between that you get an honest impression.

Originally posted by MacAllen

 

Speaking of fubar clients, I'm not sure Crytpic understands how important a 0-issue launch is to the success of an MMO.

Can't be that important since Ive never seen a "0 issue launch" of an mmo, ever.

Nice publicity piece. However, this game is for the superhero crowd, and I doubt between the stylized graphics and the way the game plays (think VERY console friendly) it's going to sway a ton of people outside of that particular sphere to pony up.

Add in microtransactions (read: you've been roperfied!) and you have something that a lot of us western players that aren't superhero nuts don't care for: it should either have an optional sub AND MT's, or just a flatout rate. Not a manditory sub AND MT's.

I understand some companies want to explore what the market will tolerate, and yes I've tested this game. Mob balance is very peculiar.  A mob lvl 3 may hit 3x less hard than a mob lvl 4, and the same type of mob may vary in how hard it hits and the likelihood you will die depending on where it spawns.

If you enjoyed CoH/CoV I have no doubt you'll love CO.  But if this is your first foray into a superhero mmo, CoX might be better, I really don't know.

Just my two plat, take it for what it's worth, it's just an opinion and nothing more...

-Cym

Couple of things... first... "handful of testers"? They have 50k fileplanet keys, plus there were some french sites(from canada) giving out keys, plus they invited 10k people into closed beta a couple of weeks before the OB, plus all the pre-orders.

second... read the boards if you want to know how the game is? Look, you go to the boards you are going to see a LOT of people whining or complaining. Why? cause the rest of us are too busy playing it and enjoying it.

third... "This just cracks me up, the beta forums have been FILLED with people talking about how bad the game is. Complaining non-stop and being totally ignored by the developers." Ok, see my second point. Also, just cause you don't like how a power works, or feel that someone else is too strong, or anything else, does not mean that you are right. You want to make a case for it, take some metrics. Spreadsheet it, chart it, post it up. Otherwise, I am going to have to assume that they know more. In every game I've been in, you have the people who start screaming nerf on the forums and then the company nerfs it and then you have the people who complain about the nerf and blame it on the "whiners". Just because you want them to nerf something, doesn't mean it needs to be nerfed. Just because you don't want it nerfed, doesn't mean it shouldn't be.

Lastly... Its really had to tell where it is going to go yet. Partly cause of the constant wipes(a LOT of people never got to hit nemesis or unity), and partly because of people's mentality in beta. I had one guy trying to start a supergroup(read: guild) yesterday and everyone in global chat started telling him not to bother cause its just beta and we will be wiped anyways. A lot of people aren't bothering to group up or connect with people because of this as well. (Just as a side note, I wound up having to tell him how to start his SG, cause people got so caught in the "why should we bother, this is just beta" convo that he couldn't get any info).

The game is a lot of fun, and once we hit release, it will be a lot more fun.

The game is turd.

Been in beta now for ages.  While it has good points its nothing amazing, nothing addictive and is mainly button mashing due to the fact that its designed for a console.

I expect a Conan style fall out with this one.

Be warned.

Game is excellent fun. Suggest everyone tries this one.

Ive never really been big on asian style mmorpgs but if its CO with p2p & Mt's & DC coming out very soon, I think Ill try out some Aion.

Originally posted by JYCowboy

Chris Lena:
"The feedback has been really great. By taking both the feedback from the beta testers and combining it with our data mining we are able to make a lot of tweaks to mission flow and power balance (the kinds of things that having a lot of data makes much easier). For instance, we may see comments that indicate users didn't know where to go after finishing a particular chain of missions. That gives us a starting point where we can begin asking other questions... Is there an unexpected bump in the time it takes to get to the next level? Are the missions giving the expected rewards? Is there some sort of signpost that helps players get to more missions? Answering these types of questions helps us smooth out the play experience.

Another big role feedback plays at this stage is balancing powers. Are characters with a particular group of powers leveling faster or slower than others? Does every winner in PvP have the same specific power or set of powers? This is another area where beta players combined with data analysis is allowing us to make well informed tweaks to various powers."

 

How close is the release and shouldn't these issues already be well covered?  Im sorry but I don't see their code monkeys having time to adjust these things.  Word is not sounding good either.  I hope it turns out to be a good launch.

Seeing as invulni was nerffed and pff was buffed and more i think this is not as big of a deal , the real issue is the lack of group content before lvl 27.