Nemesis: Baron Samedi
My premise for my NecroRogIcon character revolves around his ability to cheat death, so when it came time to make a Nemesis it made sense he would be hunted by someone diametrically opposed to his persistence in clinging to life. I considered the Grim Reaper, an Angel of Death, or Hood, all suitable representatives for the gates between life and death. None quite as unique as my final selection however:
Baron Samedi
This Baron who haunts NecroRogIcon believes that he is Samedi incarnate on Earth, so naturally he’s quite insane. He does have some voodoo bad mojo to back up his claim, plus a host of followers all ready to dig a grave and put NecroRogIcon into it.
I first created Baron Samedi as a character, just to see him in the game world before making him my Nemesis. I spent a few minutes role-playing in the tutorial zone just because it was fun to inform other players and NPCs that yes, they were in fact doomed and that I would be digging their graves. One player named himself Death Wish, so I inquired “You wished for me?”
An idea stuck with me that I could continue playing him as a character and create his Nemesis as NecroRogIcon. That has a certain satisfying symmetry to it.
NecroRogIcon the character
NecroRogIcon is the remnant of a soul that should have escaped this plane. A body torn apart long ago, its fragile parts still somehow clinging together. Contained within a suit of metal, leather and bone.
His power emanates from a force of will. Mind manipulating matter. Yet not without limits: With every exercise and exertion of physical energy, his soul dives deeper and deeper into the recesses of his own personal void. His skin is cold and clammy, external evidence of his internal spiral into a dark abyss where warmth has been lost.
Vengeance holds him together, without it he would blow away on the wind. Vengeance brings energy up out of the dark and externalizes it, abrupt as it reaches the surface of reality, it literally explodes on contact. Vengeance made tangible and real. Painfully real.
. . .
NecroRogIcon has become my main character in Champions Online. At first I created him as a throwaway character, I hadn’t really planned on playing my blog’s namesake but I fell in love with his appearance. Once I’d started playing with the Force Powerset, I was hooked.
The above outline sunk in, the idea of a character paradoxically cold-hearted and explosive, projecting his turmoil into forceful powers. Inside he is just ether, a gust of smoke covered in a thin layer of skin and the thicker layer of his suit. Sooner or later he will literally stretch himself thin and dissipate.
His costume also works well in alternative colour schemes, convenient for different roles (Green when I’m healing, Red for balanced, Yellow for DPS):
I’m having a blast (literally) with Force. All of my attacks have knockbacks, it’s craaazy. It’s a hoot to toss mobs every-which-way, often flying them off cliffs and rooftops. I do wish it had a full set of abilities tho: Force has 10 powers, compared to say Munitions which has 17. So I’m already picking up a few options from other Powersets, knowing I’ll accumulate a total of 14 powers by the time I reach level 40.
I’m dipping a little into healing, with the premise that he’d have to be at least a little adept at keeping his worn-torn body alive inside that suit.
Less than super travel powers
Here’s my short list of travel powers Cryptic could add to Champions Online:
- Bicycle – Sakkara would like a bicycle for her gadget-wielding rodeo clown to cruise around on. She would accept that it would be much slower and less capable than other travel powers, in fact that’s the point.
- Skateboard – I think a bit of curb grinding would be cool.
- Pogo Stick – A super pogo stick that bounces as high as Super Jump would rock, so long as we could keep the contents of our stomachs.
Odd choice of Superhero #37
Standing not far from full glowing glory Jesus, is Michael Jackson hiding behind a toy robot.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a stranger thing within an online game.
Character Creation saves from Beta confirmed
Syp already covered this, it’s been officially confirmed via Cryptic CMs.
If you look inside your Champions install directory, locate the screenshots folder. If you clicked “save” in the Character Creation, you’ll find a .jpg for that character. That character’s appearance data is also saved within the metadata of that jpeg. Clever huh? Backup those saved characters you have and copy them to your new install when the game releases, then you can “load” your characters back into the game at launch.
This won’t save levels, just the visual appearance from the character creator.
Feel free to try it with Jay here. My friend Lurch sat down at my PC and for some reason his first attempt at a costumed superhero turned out to be Jay Leno:
It’s kind of like a superhero trading card.
To see how well it works, save that image and reload it into your own Champions install. =)
Watchmen, Champions
Generally when players recreate a trademarked character in a superhero game, I stop to look for a second, spot the differences and then move on. I don’t think Marvel, DC, et al should worry about it too much, it’s mostly some homage fun as proven with City of Heroes, there’s been no big detraction from the real articles.
Syp pointed this one out, posted on the Champions forums:
I took note because I’d already thought that at least Rorschach’s mask would create a barrier. Clearly this version would have a static blob, but the resemblance overall is uncanny.
Non-Persistent?
Call me picky, but I prefer MMORPG policy that ensures you keep your characters, complete with names, items, etc., even long after you’ve left the game. I realize this is a drain on resources, but data storage is cheap. When it comes to names I believe there are better solutions to name-squatting than recycling.
If my characters are not persistent while I’m gone, I feel less compelled to return.
I was a bit surprised to get a couple of emails from Blizzard earlier this week, changing some of my character names. They’re usually better at the persistence than other companies. There’s obviously been a mistake in sorting out which names were available first, because these characters were created ~2004-2005. So why am I getting “oops this name was taken” emails as if I’d just created the characters recently? What’s odd is I haven’t heard of anyone else having their character names recycled by Blizzard this way.
I filled out a gm-feedback email, but never got a response.
