Rykage
Superhero
Valar Morghulis
The Mad Hatter.
Posts: 161
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Post by Rykage on Nov 18, 2011 12:41:29 GMT -5
I would like an honest and unbiased review of the gameplay as a strictly Free To Play game. Assuming that I do not plan on spending a single dime on the game, how good/bad/disappointing/unfair/fun is it going to be for me?
The lack of freeform characters for silver accounts is already a kick to the groin, seeing as freeform characters are -so- much stronger than AT's. I'm guessing, for high level raids/instances, freeform characters are obviously given priority over AT's, seeing as AT's are horridly underpowered comparitively (this I have gathered from my own personal observation, as well as interaction with various gold and silver members I have come across in the game)
So is it honestly worth spending time over a silver account to be stuck with an AT character if I don't plan on upgrading to gold (or buy any adventure packs or costumes or w/e basically not spending a single dime on the game)? Or should I just find a new game?
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Post by KenpoJuJitsu3 on Nov 18, 2011 13:16:25 GMT -5
I would like an honest and unbiased review of the gameplay as a strictly Free To Play game. Assuming that I do not plan on spending a single dime on the game, how good/bad/disappointing/unfair/fun is it going to be for me? The lack of freeform characters for silver accounts is already a kick to the groin, seeing as freeform characters are -so- much stronger than AT's. I'm guessing, for high level raids/instances, freeform characters are obviously given priority over AT's, seeing as AT's are horridly underpowered comparitively (this I have gathered from my own personal observation, as well as interaction with various gold and silver members I have come across in the game) So is it honestly worth spending time over a silver account to be stuck with an AT character if I don't plan on upgrading to gold (or buy any adventure packs or costumes or w/e basically not spending a single dime on the game)? Or should I just find a new game? 1) You can play the game from start to level cap and beyond without spending a dime and without being hindered in your progress at all. 2) If you PvP in the archetype only PvP you can have an enjoyable experience. 3) If you PvP in unrestricted you will be hopelessly outmatched most of the time by experienced gold players with the advantage of freeform characters you can't get for free. 4) There are no high level raids/instances that ATs can't do. Not one. Also, almost no one discriminates against AT players so there isn't a priority or anything such as "oh you don't have X powers, kick from team" 5) The only thing you miss out on by not having adventure packs are some costume pieces to unlock (these can be bought with in-game currency from the auction house) and easily farmable elite gear (that can also be purchased from other players with in-game currency).
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Post by Jaxton Dragoon on Nov 18, 2011 13:30:38 GMT -5
Feel free to take this with a grain of salt since I am a Gold player but I play Archetypes almost exclusively. I played the game roughly till June and felt no limitations by the Archetype system except the lack of an innate heal for most. I have three level 40s at present and will have a 4th soon. All 4 are Archetypes though one has since been retrained to freeform. Of these I have solo'd a great deal of content with only minor issues (see healing comment).
As for the comment that freeform characters ARE so much stronger, check this forum, I know I've read about ATs scoring quite high in open missions even with the disadvantage of a fairly fixed build. For example I recently tackled Mega Destroyer with an Archetype hero in the mid 30s and a friend came along with a level 40 AT we both scored fairly high in the rankings despite many of the others obviously being freeforms.
In the end its obviously your call whether or not the game is worth it but from what I've seen Champions is one of the least restrictive F2P games. The cash shop is not stocked with 'pay to win' items, players are not artificially locked to a lower level cap, and there are only 3 missions that free players cannot access (Serpent Lantern, Demonflame, and Resistance) with all future similar content (Aftershock, Whiteout, etc) available free to all.
So far the game I've seen come closest is DCUO and that is due to its age. Free players are still locked from expanded content of which only 1 is live now but since more will be added the free content available will "shrink" as new paid content comes out.
Thanks Kenpo, you reminded me of something with your comment. As I said I primarily play archetypes, this means that when I team often I am the only one and the majority of the time I hold my own with the team. I've even run damage control for a freeform as a brawler archetype.
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Rykage
Superhero
Valar Morghulis
The Mad Hatter.
Posts: 161
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Post by Rykage on Nov 18, 2011 14:26:57 GMT -5
Okay so with the exception of Serpent Lantern, Demonflame and Resistance, Silver players can access all other dungeon/instances for free (even future releases)? If that's the case, and judging from your response about AT's not being discriminated against for high level content, it might not be so bad playing a silver character. Now the only issue I have left is my horrible latency and frequent "Couldn't connect to server" messages when I play. Yay for my Indian internet connection Thanks for the prompt response! Cheerio~
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Post by Jaxton Dragoon on Nov 18, 2011 14:33:04 GMT -5
That happens pretty much everywhere unfortunately. Check around though you'll likely find a tweak to get you set up.
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Post by supercollide on Nov 18, 2011 15:11:43 GMT -5
I had every intention of staying silver but frankly one thing got in the way, envy. I still don't think I 'need' anything than going gold or spending cash got me but now I'v egot then I'm not gonna give them up in a hurry.
So yeah soon I 'needed' more character slots, then costume slots, then costume sets and soon realised going gold via gamecards was much cheaper for me!.
As it is I still run a silver account and play ATs as well and here's my advice.
1/ alienware have a promption - Serpent Lantern, Devastator AT anA Viking Costume for free (what out claiming them - use the bonu stab on the ingame c-store) - get this!
2/ heals - yeah everyone will warn you about that!. You can vendor buy or craft these but yes only 2 free ATs have 'decent heals and that will niggle .
3/ ATs are pretty much based on the trinity of DPS, Healer, Tank so you are better of teaming, but that's no bad thing in my eyes.
4/ storage space - you can get by without buying bank slots or inventory bags or similar, you can even make your own SG and use it's vault for storage. But storage will be an issue so you will have to be ruthless.
5/ Currency limit - 250G is not a lot. you can buy crafting materials that keep their value so store up cash, you can also store globals in the SG vault I mentioned but for Auction house purchase you will always come up against that silly limit. This will likely grate the most.
Fortunately the new 'random' bags in the c-store have make of these things liek character slots that will make their way to the auction house so you will be able to buy them in ingame currency but these are new and sadly they may be sold at or close to the 250G limit, we wait & see...
My silver account has only two purchases on it, Character slots purely for convenience and Resistance because it's very useful as well as a great misssion chain and really I could live with that and still enjoy the game.
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Post by Lantesh on Nov 18, 2011 15:45:57 GMT -5
I'm a Silver player and have been since F2P launch. I have not spent any money on the game at all since then. I do have a few C-Store items that I bought with my pre-order tokens from the original CO launch, but haven't spent anything since it went F2P. There is nothing wrong with AT characters at all. ATs are more like traditional MMO classes, so it's not that they're horribly underpowered, it's just that they're more specialized. I also find that I have no problems holding my own against freeforms either. On my Blade AT I can even outscore them sometimes. ATs are also capable of doing all the content in the game. Also as stated earlier, there's no discrimination in game towards us AT users. Well, I haven't seen any anyways. I've even been able to clear Therakiel's Temple (end game raid/dungeon) on my AT. The trick is to find the AT that best suits your playstyle. Play around with a few of them to see which ones you like. The inventory and cash limits can be a bit annoying, but it really isn't that bad. Travel powers make it easy to get back to base and empty out your inventory. I usually run 1 mission chain, head back to base to empty out, go for another mission chain, back to base, rinse/repeat. It's not horrible honestly. The short of it is, you can play the game just fine without spending any cash. Some people out there gripe about the limits, but I've been playing this whole time just fine. I would say go for it, after all it's free.
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Post by williamgeorge on Nov 18, 2011 18:35:17 GMT -5
Even the ATs that everyone claim are "squishy" can play the game just fine assuming you find out what works and what doesn't for them. There are some very helpful guides here, so look 'em up.
And you can do 99.99% of the game's missions with those ATs solo. And the ones you can't solo can be done with whatever team you join, or flat out ignore if teaming isn't your thing.
As for in-game money: I always have far more than I need and wind up spending it on costume re-dos.
But, if you're a game player who feels they should kill everything every time and never ever have to suffer through the shame of failing until you figure out the trick to winning... Well, I've never played a game that lets you do that.
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Post by Jaxton Dragoon on Nov 18, 2011 21:34:25 GMT -5
So true about squishy-ness. My three level 40s are, in order: Blade, Behemoth, Marksman. Of those three only the Behemoth is particularly not squishy and yet I've had the easiest run with my Marksman even breezing through missions my Behemoth had trouble with. I'm currently running a Disciple, again potentially squishy, and she's doing fine too.
As William said its learning the game and what you can, or can't, do.
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Rykage
Superhero
Valar Morghulis
The Mad Hatter.
Posts: 161
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Post by Rykage on Nov 19, 2011 3:19:27 GMT -5
Squishiness was never a concern for me, mainly because there is virtually no death penalty other than a blow to your ego. My primary concern was AT's being underpowered in PvP and in high level content when paired with Freeforms. But judging from all your responses, it's clear that Freeforming is more of a luxury rather than a necessity. Thanks to everyone who replied! PS : Seriously, I'm having horrible latency issues. I haven't been able to log in from yesterday, the patcher autoupdate keeps giving me some error. And while I'm in game, I frequently get a "Server not responding (timeout seconds)", and this lag ranges from anywhere between 5s to 80s, following which I'm kicked to the login screen. Anyone else having the same issues?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2011 4:53:31 GMT -5
The one advantage you can have as a silver player is --- to play better.
Not every plays well, silver or gold. You will be amazed that there are actually inept freeforms you run into because they don't pack heals and such relying solely on their self heals and overpowered builds, and don't ever think to go defensive with block or pull back.
You get all sorts of players with random PUGs, so there's no guarantee of a gold doing better in your team over a silver who knows what he's doing.
So feel free to go gold or make purchases in the C-Store if you enjoy the game, but there is no content that a free AT cannot handle.
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Post by PoochieHellhound on Nov 19, 2011 7:05:20 GMT -5
paari1: Have you tried changing your proxy in the Options menu on the Launcher? I've had experience with horrible latency issues because I had the wrong proxy active.
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Rykage
Superhero
Valar Morghulis
The Mad Hatter.
Posts: 161
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Post by Rykage on Nov 20, 2011 7:59:59 GMT -5
Ever since the new patch, I can't even open the launcher. First it gave me an error saying something along the lines of "something sent a message while the launcher was in an unresponsive state". Now it gives me the error "Could not connect to the update server. Please make sure you're connected to the internet."
Everything else runs fine, I can browse, play WoW or COD without any problems.
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Post by williamgeorge on Nov 20, 2011 9:12:20 GMT -5
I've been getting horrible lag and sever unresponsiveness for the last week or so. Today has been particularly bad. It's not you.
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Post by Jaxton Dragoon on Nov 20, 2011 10:07:23 GMT -5
Same here. Its especially bad in Ren Cen, kind of reminds me of when F2P launched. It showed up with the last patch so assuming its widespread it would people another reason to complain about the new map.
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