Pattern Ghost

Re: Costs of Champions Cryptic hasn't released those numbers yet, but we can speculate. Most MMOs have a base cost of about $40-50 for the game itself, and a monthly fee of $14.95, with various discount steps for buying more than one month at a time. After the game matures a bit, the price for the base game sometimes goes down. Expansion packs are usually a step down in price from the original game, and typically include the core game and any prior expansions, either as an option or as part of the price. I'm going to guess it'll be $39.99 for the PC and $49.99 for the 360 on release, with a base monthly of $14.99.* Most MMOs offer the first 30 days free. Even if they ask for billing info, you won't be billed until the 30 day trial period is up. Champs Online seems to be doing this as well. For example, World of Warcraft has been out for five years, and is in its second expansion pack. The price for the "battle chest" that includes the base game and both expansions is $39.99 (less on Amazon), and the monthly subscription is still based on $14.99/month, which steps down to $13.99/mo. for three months, $12.99/mo. for six months. Lord of the Rings Online is currently on its second expansion, and the combo with the original and both expansions is $19.99. (The game originally was $39.99 on release, I think.) However, I just got a special that was $9.99 for the game and expansions, and down to $10/month for a three month subscription. The base price per month is $14.99 going one month at a time. LOTRO also offers discounts for a year sub and for a lifetime sub. Lifetime subs are generally $299.99 and sometimes go on sale for $199.99, which is a heck of a deal if you plan to play for a few years. *And this guess would be wrong: http://www.amazon.com/Champions-Online-Pc/dp/B0024FA6EY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1248722481&sr=1-1 Looks like the game itself will be $49.99 MSRP for the PC.

Re: No presence at San Diego Comic Con? They seem to be taking a very low-hype approach to the marketing of the game. I hope not too low.

Re: In game art for the NPC's Yeah, the giant D-bot looks to be part of a mission. There's some play footage of it in one of the videos, I think the Lairs one.

Re: Altered POO I had an Altered Vector after eating some Mexican(ish) food last night.

Re: Bloody? Wait... you're telling me you're not supposed to eat the shell???

Re: Sixth Edition Showcase #4: Deflection, Reflection, And Range Looking at 4th and 5th, it seems to me that the defaults lean toward the super heroic or cinematic, rather than the realistic. In this context, it's consistent with the rest of the rules for it to be the default. Adding complexity and layering in "realism" tend to go together under the current system. I do think that there should be, at least by way of an example, a very clear alternate case for more realistic campaigns.

Re: Champions 6th version

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game It's been mentioned quite a few times, not an NDA issue at all. There will be a global chat handle, and it will be appended to the character name as necessary. For example, you may have six Knight Hawk's on your friends list, but they would also have their global chat handle attached, such as Knight Hawk@shnar, Knight Hawk@Celt, Knight Hawk@Lemming. However, you won't see those @___'s appended to people just walking around, unless there happened to be two of the same name near each other. I'm presuming that's another circumstance where the appended global chat handle might apply. The system hasn't been laid out in great detail, but that's the gist of it as I understand it.

Re: Champions 6th version Not unless the words have fallen out of the old editions.

Re: In game art for the NPC's Actually, I saw some in game footage from the starter mission that was leaked on YouTube, and Defender doesn't look too bad in game. I prefer the 5th Edition look, but it wasn't a bad character design overall. I'm hoping the storyline for Dr. D has the original come back with a look more like 5th edition, too. The Dr. Fate look doesn't quite do it for me. I'll just keep telling myself this is a Destroyerbot or clone gone out of control and the bad fashion sense is clone copy degradation or a glitch in the programming.

Re: In game art for the NPC's I don't think I'll ever get used to Urkel-Menton.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game The account was inactive. I quit, and came back for CoV, to find my characters' names gone. Cryptic can bite me too, actually. At least they're doing non-unique names in CO.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game No, just poor phrasing, I guess. Back when they first decided to free up names, they put a level 35 requirement to have a character being safe from having its name made available for use. So, characters who were my main alts, well into their 20s, and more than halfway to the level cap, had their names made available. I bought CoV when it came out and decided to try it out, but ended up losing my names on my two high 20's characters and a few that were around 20. Kind of annoying.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Hmm, Electric Melee. I can finally make Kid Dynamo as an Electric tank instead of an Energy melee tank. No, wait. I can't. His name was taken back. Bite me, NCSoft.

Re: Microtransaction (Cryptic Bucks) Info Up Well, there's a lot less paranoia over here than on the CO boards. I'm getting mostly a "wait and see" vibe here, as opposed to the frothing at the mouth going on over there.

Re: Microtransaction (Cryptic Bucks) Info Up I don't see any paranoia. In fact, the post you quoted has the same reassuring tone as yours.

Re: Duct Tape Cosmic VPP. Duct Tape is powerful stuff. It's holding my keyboard drawer on my desk as I type this.

Re: Microtransaction (Cryptic Bucks) Info Up

Re: Microtransaction (Cryptic Bucks) Info Up I'm not betting on it either. More wishful thinking.

Re: Microtransaction (Cryptic Bucks) Info Up I'm in wait and see mode as well. Kind of dampens my enthusiasm a bit, but if it means a lower monthly, then I could get on board with that.

Cryptic finally made a substantial comment on the issue: Update 7/22: Bill Roper interview on TTH. Haven't read it yet, it went up today: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/71536 http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=23349 Inserting quote: Update: The new State of the Game has more on them: http://www.champions-online.com/node/92892

Re: Marvel to HERO /agrees with the butting

Re: Who lives in these quarters? Hero #2 I've got a couple of ideas for this one, haven't been lucid enough the last couple days to write them up properly. I will see what I can do tomorrow.

Re: Cool Guns for your Games The ten key pad to the right of your normal keys. It doesn't work if you use the number row above your letter keys.

Re: New Metarule