Champions Online

Being able to fly is all well and good, but why fly through the skies unaided when you could sit safely inside the chassis of a heavily armored warplane? That's the idea behind the new vehicle system coming to Champions Online later this week, which will offer players a variety of new rides and ways to enhance those same rides. After all, you deserve to give your legs a rest. Or your arms. Or whatever muscle you flex to fly with no visible means of propulsion.

The vehicle system will start off by offering players just two choices -- jets and hovertanks -- but more will be available in the future. Each vehicle chassis offers a certain set of base stats, which can be further improved by slotting in vehicle equipment from the new vehicle missions. Players can also apply a variety of skins to each vehicle chassis, ensuring that you can make the ride feel unique even around your friends with a similar machine.

Vehicles continue to roll into Champions Online, and Cryptic has a tantalizing peek at the next stage of this invasion. The studio recently revealed two more vehicles as well as a special mission designed around superpowered rides.

The first new vehicle is the hover tank. This tank is much more stable than the Hawkwing fighters players previously piloted, and offer a brute-force approach to combat. Cryptic is also working on two versions of grav bikes, which serve up support and DPS respectively.

Vehicles get a lot more fun when there's a reason to use them, which is why the studio is preparing several missions based around this new technology. One of these missions is the defense of an UNTIL flying carrier, which tasks players with engaging in a dogfight while the carrier is repaired.

The hover tank, grav bikes, and carrier defense mission will be coming later this year to Champions Online.

I have two big announcements today. The first is that Jukebox Heroes is switching from a bi-weekly to a weekly schedule, which should delight my 30 readers and cause an epidemic of indifference elsewhere. The second is that we're going to take a week off examining specific soundtracks to have a little fun with how silly MMO studios can get.

If you haven't figured it out already, this column is kind of a not-so-subtle outlet for sharing my MMO music collection with you. I don't have any firm method of collection other than I just acquire tracks that my ear tells me I'd like to hear again. So along the way, I've acquired a few oddball pieces that you probably won't find on any OST but that are notable enough to share.

In some cases, these tracks represent studios' attempts (successful or otherwise) to let down their hair and be humorous. In others, these songs are parodies or one-time special events. So let's take a sidebar to look at the whimsical and odd songs of gaming.

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With Champions Online reaching its third anniversary this month, the team at Cryptic Studios is pulling out all the stops to make it one for the scrapbooks (because superheroes totally scrapbook and don't let anyone tell you differently).

Starting next week, players can enjoy rewards such as legacy gear and vanity pets as well as an upcoming concert starring Sapphire. Don't get too complacent with the festivities, however, as rampaging robots will be trying to crash the party. These machines are part of Dr. Destroyer's army from 1992 and are building up to a full-on invasion of Millennium City later this month.

Get a jump on the party with an exclusive listen to Sapphire's anniversary song and a sneak peek at a trio of new comic book-style loading screens that are coming soon to the title!

Has it already been three years since Cryptic Studios launched its second superhero MMO? It must be because Champions Online is riding high on the smell of birthday cake and fun events.

Cryptic has several anniversary activities planned for the next couple of weeks, including a leveling contest that's running from now until September 6th. Every character that you level up to 40 during this period will give you a shot at several prizes, including a $250 Amazon gift card and custom art. The studio's also collecting Champions fan art in exchange for special unlocks and Facebook publicity.

Further anniversary events in September will be announced at a later date, but Cryptic did hint that there will be giveaways, community hang-outs, and big sales.

You're kind of a big deal in Champions Online. No, don't be modest. You've beaten up tons of criminals, arrested countless villains, and schooled a variety of ne'er-do-wells. So why are you still stuck walking from one mission to the next like some kind of animal? You need the very latest in personal transportation, a symbol of your power, prestige, and love of engineering. In short, you need a totally sweet ride.

It's no secret that the game is adding vehicles, but we have a first look at some of this hardware as well as the new hero Nighthawk. Vehicles are kind of Nighthawk's bag because he's also kind of a big deal, so the two previews go together like peanut butter and a spoon to hold your peanut butter. Check out the trailer just past the break, and keep your eyes peeled for more information about how you can get your own lowrider of justice in the game.

[Source: Perfect World Entertainment press release]

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Ah, livestreaming. It's not for the faint of heart. Streaming a favorite title requires knowledge of technology, a solid internet pipeline, and the willingness to have your noobnessocity pushed live for all to see. It's not a thankless job, however. We livestreamers get to show viewers our favorite titles or titles that the audience might not have seen before. For me, it's a challenge to find new and interesting games, while the other streamers tend to enjoy showing off classic titles or new parts of modern hits. Variety is the keyword when it comes to our livestream lineup!

So what did we show off this week? Well, let's start with MJ running through The Secret World and EverQuest II, followed by our favorite little Piggy taking on an hour's worth of Champions Online. Mike followed up with an hour in his favorites World of Tanks, EVE Online and Drakensang Online. I steered into worlds unknown by streaming some Vendetta Online and followed that up with an exclusive (first!) livestream of Pirate101, KingsIsle's soon-to-be-hit.

Check it out, but be sure to bookmark our livestream page so you don't miss a thing going forward! Feel free to add suggestions in the comments section while you're here. We get a lot of our ideas from readers and always love to hear more.

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Look up in the midnight sky! It's a stealth bomber! It's an owl! It's... Nighthawk!

Today we welcome to the show Champions Online Executive Producer Brad Stokan, who's got the inside scoop on superheroes and their secret identities. Then we've got earth-shattering news to cover and an avalanche of listener emails. Prepare to have your eardrums blown, for this is Massively Speaking: Epic Edition!

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!

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Read below the cut for the full show notes.

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When Perfect World Entertainment first acquired Cryptic Studios, it was a rather unusual situation. Both Champions Online and Star Trek Online already had functional microtransaction system, complete with a unified currency for both. That currency is going away as of Thursday, when both games convert to using PWE's ZEN currency instead of unique systems. It's another step toward integrating both games into the same framework as Perfect World's other games, something that's been a steady process throughout this year.

A small FAQ details the process of converting Cryptic Points to ZEN, which is fairly straightforward. The dollar value of Cryptic Points will be converted to the same dollar value in ZEN, both for pricing in stores and for player funding. This also means that players may see a slight increase in their wallets; existing Cryptic Points will be multiplied by 1.25 and converted to ZEN, and any fractional results will be rounded up. If you're playing CO or STO, it's probably a good idea to take a careful look at the whole guide to ensure that you know all there is to know about the game's new currency.

Whoa, what a week! It's possible that this last week of livestreaming was the greatest week of all of time! OK, sure, that's open to interpretation, but it is possible that you might have missed the greatest stream ever and never knew it. Luckily for you, I have collected some of the last week's highlights and assembled them into an easy-to-digest pill. Just to be sure to take them on an empty stomach and rest afterward.

This week we have some Champions Online and EVE Online action with Mike; Star Wars: The Old Republic PvP with Psykopig; and adventures in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, EverQuest II and Age of Conan with MJ. I round it off with a livestream of Divina, a new free-to-play Anime title. Be sure to bookmark our livestream guide so you'll never need to ask "What game is this?" in the chatroom again!

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Account Guard is not the name of a two-bit villain in Champions Online or a featured episode in Star Trek Online but instead a new security system that Cryptic Studios is installing for its games and websites. The system promises to track which computers you've logged in from and block unauthorized access to your accounts.

If your account is compromised, the system will slam the doors closed on your games and send you an email with all of the details. The email also contains a one-time unlock code. This code allows players to open their accounts in the event of a mistaken intrusion.

This system sounds very similar to Trion Worlds' coin lock mechanism. Players have a choice whether or not to participate in Account Guard, as they can opt out of the service through the account page. The studio has posted a FAQ with more answers to particular scenarios.

Lifetime subscriptions get a lot of flak in MMO comment threads (likely including this one), but they do occasionally feature fringe benefits. In Cryptic's case, one of those fringe benefits is a beta invite for its upcoming Neverwinter title.

If you're a lifer for either Champions Online or Star Trek Online (or both!), look for an invite via the email address associated with your account, as Cryptic will be doling them out "over the course of the test."

Neverwinter is a new MMORPG set in the Forgotten Realms. It features traditional fantasy combat as well as Cryptic's Foundry player-generated content tool suite.

Every cape worth his, her, or its salt knows that without a snappy fashion statement, all of the powers in the universe won't be able to make you a cool superhero. That's why our current trifecta of superhero MMOs place such a premium on giving players tools to create a unique, memorable, and suitable outfit for their comic book star.

But this being Leaderboard and all, we can't just allow the three costume creators to co-exist peacefully. Nay, we must throw them into the DoomSphere™ and spin that puppy around until only one good-looking candidate remains.

Will it be the grand-daddy of them all, City of Heroes? Or Cryptic's follow-up with Champions Online? Or perhaps the upstart, DC Universe Online? Vote for the best costume creator after the jump and help to pulverize the competition!

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