Champions Online

[SpiritWarrior]

Alright Luvian, you win. I caved. As I passed by EBgames today, and reminded myself that I "was just going in to have a look". Well, as if by magic, I suddenly was in my car with a newly bought copy of Champions Online. Definite hax going on or something.

Anyways, I can't log on atm, seems servers are down for maintaneance (what luck!) so I have yet to play it. But, as always I am willing to give a new MMO a try so I just need to wait.

Tell me, do we share servers with Xbox and PS2 players? I heard and kinda feared this, as I hate kiddies and have enough of them in WoW to deal with.

[Luvian]

Yeah they took the server down to update the patcher. They just went up again.

The console version isn't out yet as far as I know so we can't tell yet. But there is only one server with multiple instances of each zones so there are chances they might be.

You might want to get the Champions Builder program to help make your builds. It doesn't clearly tell you the pre-requisite of powers so you should check it out ingame first to get an idea of the system.

[SpiritWarrior]

Ok I will check that out.

Hey, what kinda FPS you getting (and what system are you running with)? Mine is surprisingly low, not sure if it is my hardware or an actual optimization of the game engine issue.

[Luvian]

From my xfire profile:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Hard Drive: 580 GB Total
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
Monitor: 19 inch LCD
Speakers/Headphones: Creative HS-1200 Headset
Keyboard: USB Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech MX500
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)

I have a good processor but my graphic card is at least 3 generations behind. I use slightly tweaked recommended settings and in big areas like open city zones I get 25 fps. In smaller areas this goes up to 40 or so.

The game seems to take more out of the processor than it does out of the video card, although the card is what's holding me back right now.

How are your performances?

[SpiritWarrior]

Terrible, considering my rig.

3 ghz Pent. Dual Core
Nvidia 8600gt x 2
2g ram

Lows of 20fps highs of 35 - maybe 40 but only if i'm rendering hardly anything. With every single setting turned down to its lowest I am still tumbling into the 17's, 18's and 19's in cities or when there's a few NPC's or PC's around. If you try that "half resolution" setting which makes the game so ugly it looks like Runescape, you will notce that your FPS doesn't really improve at all. This is almost like a troubleshooting setting in of itself, and they recommend to use it to rule out the GPU as an issue. So, we're left with CPU and then finally, game engine.

Since my CPU and ram are more than sufficient, I am inclined to go with some kinda engine optimization problem. Tons on the forums seem to experience the same thing with very powerful rigs. I will wait though, it is semi unplayable for me in this state, as the FPS plummets randomly and I can't enjoy it to its fullest. Still, they seem to be already acknowledging the issues on the official forums so this is always a good sign for a develepor. I have hope.

Otherwise, it is definately an interesting game so far. Combat seems fun and there is alot more content than CoH ever had to begin with. Can't say too much atm really, as I was mainly trying to troubleshoot my technical issues for most of my time there.

[SpiritWarrior]

Sorry this is the thread with an official (albeit short) response. http://forums.champions-online.com/s...d.php?p=888789 I may try this workaround they are suggesting.

The jist of it is that the CPU is taking 100% of the load and the GPU is doing pretty much nothing, resulting in choppy, low-end gameplay. They suggest to turn of AA, AF and Vsync in-game, and force them on in your Nvidia panel, thus forcing the GPU to get to work. But some are saying these settings don't stick and the in-game ones override them, thus making this useless. Still, worth a try.

I am impressed by their commitment to communication though, seems they learned that players can deal with delays and problems once they are honestly informed about them.

[Luvian]

Suck to hear about your problem. I know my P4 3GHZ single core with a 512 megs vid card was only getting 12 or so FPS when it should according to the mimimum specs be able to run the game. I hope they fix the CPU overuse soon.

[SpiritWarrior]

Latest patch (coming tonight IIRC) seems to help, to the point where I can play it and enjoy it at a somewhat low-settings level - tried it on the Test server, see. Just happy to get in there and play at this point. You are right though, there is quite a bit of content in this game, so far I am impressed with all the stuff.