Atlantea

Here's a post I've made on the CO forums that I'm crossposting back over here.

This is simply concerning the Graphics and Design issues.

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I've been a COH player of 8 years and a CO player off and on since it's launch.

It is both fair and unfair to compare the two.

Let me illustrate what I think are some strengths and weaknesses of both.

TECHNICAL:

In terms of engine. In terms of graphics - I think there's no question that Champions is the more advanced. The textures and the way it renders things is smoother and more detailed. It is very pretty. City of Heroes has been doing AMAZING things with an engine 3 times as old, no doubt. But there are limits. The actual polygon counts are lower and the effects aren't as detailed in some cases.

Mind you - this is on the HIGH END settings where the comparison is made.

You drop Champions graphics down to it's lower end, and it quickly loses a LOT of it's shininess. City of Heroes retains most of its detail and look down to less optimal settings than Champions does.

In other words - drop down City of Heroes from "Ultra Mode" graphics down to "Performance" mode and you will see less difference in the world and characters than you will in Champions.

To get the most out of Champions, graphically, you really do need to run it at maximum settings more than you do City of Heroes. City of Heroes still looks like itself at lower settings. Champions starts to look very "unfinished" at lower settings.

This may be why some COH players think Champions isn't as pretty. You may have more COH players who are still running on older machines who CAN'T run Champions at a setting where it really shines. But their older machines were able to render COH at levels where the graphics - if not ultra - were still looking pretty darn decent.

Or - to use an analogy. Take two nearsighted people. Me and my friend Dave. I represent COH and Dave represents CO. I'm nearsighted, but not nearly so much as Dave. But Dave has a better more up-to-date prescription, where I have let mine lapse a few years. So my eyesight is slightly fuzzier even with the glasses than Dave's are with his.

But when I take off my glasses, I can still see reasonably well. When Dave takes off his, he's at a disadvantage.

Put our glasses on and Dave sees the world more clearly than I do.

That's COH and CO in the graphics in a strict technical sense.

Design-wise, in terms of characters, people say CoH is more "realistic" than CO. Now that's not really fair. NEITHER are realistic AT ALL.

Now it's true that Champions characters are inherently more "cartoony" than COH characters are. That was by design after all. Turn off the outlining and a lot of this drops away. But it does still tend to lean more towards a look reminiscent of "The Incredibles" than, say - Jim Lee or George Perez. With proportion tweaking, you can alleviate that. But that's where the basic templates begin.

Character creators.

I've been playing both for a long time. I really can't tell you which has more options. Which seems more versatile. They each do things that the other does not. They each have strengths and weaknesses.

In terms of tights designs and things that have a more traditional "skin tight" or fabric look. I'd say City of Heroes is undoubtedly more robust and has more options.

But in terms of layered looks and armor pieces, I'd say Champions has it beat.

It is far easier to create a robotic looking character that looks unique in Champions than it is in City of Heroes. The tier 9 mecha costume parts in COH closed that gap a lot. But most people wouldn't have access to that.

Mecha and power armor characters honestly look more like they have METAL in them in Champions than COH does. Also the ability to choose textures in Champions outstrips that of COH.

Capes look better and flutter better in COH than CO does. Hands down. Sorry. But I don't make many characters with capes in CO compared to COH.

On a more serious note:

Some of my characters predate City of Heroes. They may make the jump to CO or some other Supers MMO like DCUO. My very first 50 was an adaptation of a Champions character. So she might wind up being a good fit back in Champions Online.

Others are tied somewhat to the lore of the game. Cyberman 8 was lost (buried and deactivated) in one of the old superhero bases in Faultline. And then recovered when the rebuilding started to take place. But his origin doesn't depend solely on being part of Paragon. In fact I've made a version of him in Champions Online already that plays very much like he does in City of Heroes.

A similar situation exists with Kara Skye. Though her mutant powers and education do depend on certain assumptions about the way the world of Paragon City works, those assumptions don't preclude her showing up in another game. The main problem is that she is a controller with gravity and kinetics, and neither CO or DCUO have anything like that. The closest I can get in Champions is a mix between a Force and Celestial freeform mix. And that still doesn't get the correct feel down. Champions is not very big on crowd control and hold powers. But her basic look with the wings and White hair and pointed ears works well there. And she never really had a specific costume in COH (she's my "clothes horse" character) so making an outfit for her there is a non-issue. So a version of her exists there. But I'm not sure how much play she'll get.

But...

Then there are my Kheldians. My Peacebringer Lora'Lai and my Warshade Zmierzch.

There isn't any way for me to recreate them in another game. And they were NOT just human-form blasters with a unique special effect. No - both of them were "triple-changers", shifting and morphing from human to Squid to Rock lobster forms as needed for different roles as the situation required.

I've poked around on the Champions CC and recreated their human costumes. But I don't think they're going to be going over there. They are DEFINITELY tied too much to the Paragon Universe.

(I don't have any Arachnos Widows or soldiers, but I imagine the same thing for people who have those.)

So my Kheldians will be as lost to me as the game if/when it shuts down.

Just passing this along - a comment from another of my SG upon seeing that video:

"And just offscreen, there is a wide-eyed Hellion literally ******** his pants and handing the old ladies purse back."

31!

Which instance?

And if you read those scripts, you'll get the humor when I relate the following:

Ascendant showed up at a Cape Radio show the other night.

I kinda squeed a little myself. But I also couldn't resist:

(In reference to the Unfortunately Named Ascendant animated hour playset)

[CapeRadio]Atlantea: BTW Ascendant - How's the A-Hole?
[CapeRadio]Ascendant: Impregnable, Atlantea, Impregnable.

Hey Leandro?

In case you were not sure - you did in fact get all of his script. He did the exact same "phone convo" last week and I copied it then. I just checked.

Not to worry! We're back up again!

We're back up! Get back on!

Crash it again!

I expect to see at least 10 crashes today! LET'S DO IT!

And we're back!

Jump back on and let's crash it again!

Yes - we stressed the server. (Awesome, ain't it?)

Just keep an eye on it. Log back in when it's back up.

And then we'll do it again! LOL

Server crash due to awesomeness!!!!

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

AND SERVER CRASH #1 has occured!!!

AWESOME!!! I thought I'd get on early myself.

Last check, we're up to 6 INSTANCES of Atlas Park!!!

And we're still over 3 hours away from the actual scheduled start of the protest!!

YOU PEOPLE ROCK!!!

Nerf Now's latest comic was superhero related, but not about City of Heroes, so I took the opportunity to place in the comments this message:

This whole thread is made of epic win!!!!

I LOLed so hard I nearly wet myself.

I make happy air sounds at you! *HOORB*!

^_^

Yeah - send them to the NCSoft offices.

Or send them to the server farm guys in Austin?

Why not send them to all three places?

WHY NOT send cookies to all 3 places?

Send them in batches of 100 in your favorite Faction Badge Design. OR 600 cookies, with 100 each in the design of Hero, Villian, Rogue, Vigilante, Loyalist, or Resistance.

Find a local bakery for each place to cook and deliver the order from.

Does anyone else like this plan?

I would definitely buy this.

Just playing my characters alone would be worth purchase of the game. But multiplayer? That would rock on toast. Not as much as a full MMO. But at least we could still team!

Cyberman 8 a super android from the past.
Upgraded and updated, there're few who are so fast.

Kara Skye, her hair and wings of white a mutant story.
Gravity and Kinetics boosted teams to heights of glory.

Lily the Diamond was tough as her namesake.
Statesman and Recluse both knew she wouldn't break.