Champions Online – Character Creation

Hello all! My name is Cole “Paygan” Ritchie; I was recently hired by MMOSanctuary.com to correspond for Champions Online. My MMO background began in Star Wars Galaxies, then I moved on to World of Warcraft a year or so after the “Nerfed” Game Enhancements (NGE). After growing tired of World of “Raidcraft” I now game on Champions Online, you can find me in game as Paygan@Paygan! Paygan is my werewolf, with Bestial Supernatural framework. Well, enough about me; let's get to it!

Having only played Champions Online (CO) for about a week prior to starting as correspondent for MMO Sanctuary, I had spent at least two or three hours making my first character and that doesn't include picking his framework. After reading all of the 18 juicy framework options, and toying around in the custom framework, I decided that I would make my character first, and then pick a framework that was right for his style and what I wanted to portray my character as. I am going to highlight the ups and downs of picking which framework you want to play with. To be honest, when I logged in and saw 18 bubbles with 20+ words, I was a little frazzled. I had no idea what framework did what and which were ranged and which were melee. I'm not going to lie; I didn't read the descriptions for all of them either. I read just the ones that caught my eye.

There are six different types of framework categories (Energy Projector, Gadgeteer, Martial Arts, Mentalist, Might, and Mystic). They are organized in the game in that way; but it really does not help or tell you that there are six different categories during character creation.
 

The first four power types/frameworks (electricity, fire, force, and ice) are grouped into the Energy Projector category. Handy for blowing the bad guys up at a range, with some pretty heavy area of effect (AoE) attacks. The next four (archery, gadgeteering, munitions, and power armour) are grouped under the Gadgeteer category. I find these useful for (once again) making the bad guys go boom! Also it is a lot of fun running around shooting guns and lasers at your enemies.

The next four (dual blades, fighting claws, single blade, and martial arts) are grouped up in Martial Arts. I have not had a chance to try these four out yet. I have seen a few people slicing and dicing bad guys to bits; stew anyone? The next two are paired together for their ability to play with your mind. Telekinesis and Telepathy are two unique frameworks that are a lot of fun. With Telekinesis you can actually wield energy swords for melee damage, or you can stay back and confuse enemies with Telepathy powers.

Then there is Might, all by its lonesome. You can literally be a brick wall in front of your enemies, to protect your friends from getting hit. The last five frameworks (bestial supernatural, celestial, darkness, infernal supernatural, and sorcery) are also very unique. I said before that my main character is a Bestial Supernatural werewolf of face ripping power. I thought about using weapons but I would rather rip them apart with my own claws. Celestial is one of the healer frameworks, with your main energy generating ability being an attack AND a slow heal. When I read that, I thought right away "what an amazing idea!” heal and get back your energy at the same time? Brilliant!

As for Darkness, you can expect to do the opposite of the light Celestial. That's right, drain health away until there is nothing left. Infernal Supernatural, I tried out a few abilities on my werewolf when I had some points to spend for new abilities. There is a lot of toxic poison damage going on, and some health drains for good measure. Sorcery is the last framework that I am going to cover. As a Sorcerer you can heal your friends, and blast some baddies. Something that is very unique to Sorcery, they conjure "circles of power". You stand in said circle, and you get really cool buff. One of them is a self-resurrection.

If you really want to have some fun and make your character completely custom, you can make your own framework and choose your own Innate Talent. Every character has certain attributes (strength, intelligence, etc.) that they want to focus on or "stack". By picking your own Innate Talent you can choose which attributes to stack. That is it for my summary of the framework and abilities for CO; Now on to creating your custom champion...
 

Whether you like your character to be a tiny gnome or a seven-foot tall wall, you have the option! I have taken screen-shots of the customization options for your face, and your body. We all love sliders in our MMO, they shape our character just right. If you really don't like sliders when you're making your character you can always go back to the basics, and choose from several pre-set alternatives for your face and body.
 

I decided to make a Power Armour character to show you just how cool the creation process is; I wanted my character to be a big mech looking type of person to fit the Power Armour role.  I made him rather... BIG. His head is rather... tiny though, I should have changed that before I took the screenshot… Oh well, with all the different armour and clothing options you won't even notice his head after I am finished. I went with yellow, gold, and black not only because I like the colours together, but I also haven't noticed many different colours for Power Armour characters (no offence to those with Power Armour toons).
 

Now you can see why I wanted him to be big, those huge shoulders are pretty intimidating, and he has soul. With certain pieces of armour you can actually add a "glow" to them, making them glow brightly in the dark. Very cool. After you have picked your armour and body/face type for your character, you have an option to pick their facial expression and their stance.
 

Yup, he is big, and nasty. You can see the bright yellow imprint on my armour; those are the colours that you are allowed to use the "glow slider" on. You can change each piece of armour’s colour individually; you can pick up to four colours per piece of armour. You could have one really colourful character on your hands. Believe me, I have seen them. Also looking at the screenshot of my Power Armour, I see that I did not change the material of the gloves. You can change each piece of armour’s material to Cloth, Leather or Metal (for that beautiful shine). Finally, I completed my Power Armour character. Took me less than hour this time. I am getting better. Not as much drool this time, that's for sure. After naming my character, I decided to call him Armored Paygan. Not only can you use spaces in your name, but you can also use numbers.
 

Time to see my Armour in action!

There are a few things about the character creator that I would like to see in the future. I noticed that you cannot see your feet entirely in the creator. Not really a big deal, kind of annoying when you want to see all of your new boots. I think a custom colour option should be in order with a colour wheel, and maybe a RGB input or a hex code input?

Am I asking for too much? You tell me at MMOSanctuary.com!