I’m not a huge advocate of blatantly copying a registered superhero to play in game (Batmann or Wolferine, for instance), but there’s something to be said for copying the idea, the concept of an existing superhero, especially if that champion is what attracted you to the genre to begin with. So I thought it’d be interesting to look at how you could potentially recreate one of the more popular superheroes in Champions by choosing between powersets, travel powers and defensive powers.
Let’s start out by re-listing all of those, along with brief definitions:
Champions Online Power Themes
- Sorcery – buffs, summons, sigils
- Power Armor
- Gadgeteering
- Fire – location-based AOE
- Ice – crowd control, slows
- Electricity – arc-based damage (jumps between enemies)
- Darkness
- Might – powerful fist attacks
- Force – kinetics, knockback
- Martial Artist: Dual Blades – henchmen-killing/multi-mob killing set
- Martial Artist: Fighting Claws – hybrid between dual and single blades
- Martial Artist: Single Blade – single-target elimination
- Martial Artist: Unarmed – multi-mob tanking
- Supernatural – werewolves, vampires, celestial beings
- Archery
- Munitions – twin pistols, assault rifle, bazooka
- Telekinesis – throw objects with mental power, create weapons out of thin air
- Telepathy – pets, illusions, direct mental assault
Champions Online Movement Powers
- Super Jump
- Super Speed
- Teleportation
- Flight
- Ice Slide
- Burrowing
- Swinging – grappling hook/web slinging
- Acrobatics
- Rocket Boots
- “Earth” movement power
- ???
- ???
Champions Online Defensive Powers
- Resistance – absorb fast, small attacks
- Dodge – dodge big, powerful attacks
- Force Field – mitigate more damage at start
- Regeneration – regenerate more damage after a while
Superhero Concepts
- Iron Man – Power Armor, Rocket Boots, perhaps Gadgeteering
- Batman – Unarmed, Resistance, Swinging
- The Punisher – Munitions, Resistance
- Hellboy – Sorcery, Munitions, Might, Regeneration
- Iceman – Ice, Ice Slide
- Spider-Man – Swinging, Unarmed, Dodge, Acrobatics
- Wolverine – Regeneration, Fighting Claws
- Superman – Resistance, Regeneration, Might, Flight
- Nightcrawler – Teleportation, Unarmed, Acrobatics
- Jean Grey/Phoenix – Telekinesis, Telepathy, Flight
- Psylocke – Telepathy, Unarmed, Teleportation
- Dr. Strange – Sorcery, Supernatural
- Superman – Flight, Might, Resistance, Fire (heat vision)
What other superheroes / combos can you think of?
P.S. – Make sure you check out this awesome Champions Online character creation video, hosted by Bill Roper. Bonus points for realizing that when he goes to create a character named “Thunderhead”, the screen actually says this:
Bill Roper just got pwned by his own game. D’oh!
Its funny you have listed the superhero concepts possible as that is exactly how I am thinking of designing my champions, ie around my favourite existing characters.
I know for a fact three champions im definately making based on the following
Deadpool – Martial arts two handed swords, Munitions, Teleportation, Acrobatics, regeneration
Wendigo – might, claws? superjump
and as you said
Iron Man – Power Armor, Rocket Boots, perhaps Gadgeteering
I was going to try to make a Jedi-like character. I was thinking:
Martial Arts – Single Blade, Electricity or Telekinesis, Super Jump, and Dodge.
I guess I just thought that SWTOR E3 video was just way too cool.
Trying to think of a way to recreate Green Lantern, but that’s orders of magnitude difficult to duplicate I imagine. Might, Force and Telekenesis come to mind first, probably Force field for defense…I’m drawing a blank of travel.
I’d love to see something about Magnetism or Electro-magnetic fields at some point in the future. I most likely won’t be quick enough to form The Brotherhood though.
I may have to make a Punisher. that is probably my favorite type of character (Punisher/Commando).
Do we know how many characters are going to be allowed by each player?
The character creator seems like a game unto itself and I can see myself spending a lot of time there.
It’s a better idea to think of the slightly deeper reason you have for liking those characters and reimagining them for yourself and for Champions. You might ACTUALLY like Wolverine because you’re afraid of death or Spiderman because hey, there might actually be a radioactive spider that will make me more than a nerd. Think of what you’re afraid of or why you want to be powerful, i.e. who do you want to protect or what do you want to change in the world, and brainstorm from there. It might be a much more fulfilling place from which to breathe life into a character you create.
@ brian some good points there
I am actually just attracted to the idea of anti heroes and having collected comics etc in my younger days I cannot help being drawn into heavy influences.
Dont worry folks,Im not going to be running about with three claws calling people ‘Bub’
The hardest thing is coming up with names hmmmm
Hmm. I’m struggling to make Chlorophyll Kid and Stone Boy; perhaps Telepathy (talking to plants only), and Resistance combined with a lack-of-movement power…
I’m probably going to try a Power Armor character first and then maybe someone who’s just super strong. Gotta love the strength.
I look very much to making a Supernatural, Force Field, Burrower. That just sounds fun to me.
I look forward to this beta. I hope that it’s casual enough I can still enjoy the game by not playing 5+ hours a day.
Just as a comment on some of the super heros – Psylocke would mostly likely have single blade. Early on, her blades were all psychic and causes mental damage/nuerological shock type stuff. Whe she lost her telepathy and was made all telekinetic, her blades just cut you the old fashioned way.
Nightcrawler – While unarmed was a very frequent method of attack for him, it was not uncommon for him to be seen with a sword or two as well in some renderings.
Deadpool (pitrelli) – He doesn’t have a teleport power. At best he would be teleported for a mission somewhere by an outside system. He’s a crazy regenerating (think: carries an extra spleen in his utility belt that he tore out of himself, just in case), sword wielding, smart-mouth dervish.
But yeah, coming up with ideas on the templates of the heroes we grew up to love and cherish is going to be a big part of this game for me. If the CoH issue comes out with power adaptability that lets you change color, originiation, etc… before CO, I will probably poke about there for a bit as well.
/long_reply_over
Ok, the above poster beat me to this, but I too am thinking about a single blade oriented jedi character. I’m looking to CO to tied me over between LOTRO lulls and until SW: TOR comes out.
That video looks neat. But at the end, did anyone hear him say that multiple players in the game can have the same name?
On one hand, it means that you get the perfect name for your character. But losing name uniqueness seems very radical to me.
@ shadowwar deadpool does have teleportation. Granted it isnt a power and he doesnt use it like nightcrawler for example but he does have a teleportation device (his belt -made by his side kick weasel).
I’m definitely making a Deadpool character as my second:
Munitions, Dual Swords, Teleporting
For my first I’m doing a re imagining of Ironman if he was hyper-intelligent from birth.
I love the idea of being able to have whatever name you want even if someone else has it. With the single server it’s the only possible answer. Uniqueness isn’t neccessary to me, the chances of running into someone with the name will be low unless you have a ludicrously generic name.