Universal Call of Champions (by Spacetime Studios, LLC)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by IzumiNowa, Aug 18, 2015.

  1. henryfakesmile

    henryfakesmile Well-Known Member

    Sep 12, 2013
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    x2 !! and yay! heroes of the storm !
    i don't know why a great game like call of champions have such small player pool, i have been queuing for an hour on solo ranked match and 45 mins for yesterday with two random guys but both of them have given up on the waiting
     
  2. Turk

    Turk Well-Known Member

    Feb 6, 2009
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    Solo ranked queue is so long because you need tier 3 or 5 (I forget) on a champion to queue for ranked. That is quite a few games for people unless they're grinding out ten games an hour for a few hours without a premium sub.
     
  3. andysmash

    andysmash Well-Known Member

    Apr 6, 2011
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    It could use some UI improvements. It should steal Vain Glory's hero select screen that allows you to see what the heroes can do and explains powers as well. Choosing a random hero for the first few rounds I played gave me no indication about what kind of hero I was, how to use the powers or what they'd do.

    I don't know. There's just not enough polish on the player experience. For being something so simple, it is a very unfriendly game. It doesn't help players understand what's happening, which is the #1 problem any MOBA has. They went so far to dumb it down, but they only dumbed down the gameplay. You still have to be an expert in each hero before you play, or you'll be worthless.
     
  4. henryfakesmile

    henryfakesmile Well-Known Member

    Sep 12, 2013
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    and the limited ranked player pool held back players like us that wanted to buy the premium membership .........its like a cycle
    this game is highly addictive . i play it whenever i can, at home / my boss went to the restroom / on the subway / waiting on my girlfriend / before cutting my birthday cake .......5,ins .. just 5 more mins i kept on telling myself
     
  5. henryfakesmile

    henryfakesmile Well-Known Member

    Sep 12, 2013
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    yes, lol... gotta play a few matches to really remember which skills for what and with what skills have associate / enhanced effect
     
  6. bhornburg

    bhornburg Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2009
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    I agree, the user experience is a bit lacking. But I know they're implementing feedback, as I was in the beta and it was much worse early on. ;) A couple of hints for the UI that don't seem to be explained, if you touch and hold over many buttons on the UI, or on your ability buttons in game, it brings up a description. Also, if you tap on the 3d model of your champion in the lobby/menu when you're not in queue, it will take you to an info screen where you can access you ability descriptions and talent tree (your abilities upgrades/perks that you unlock with XP and gold.)

    Hope that helps anyone that's new!
     
  7. Turk

    Turk Well-Known Member

    Feb 6, 2009
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    #27 Turk, Sep 18, 2015
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2015
    There are a lot of comparisons on the App Store reviews between this and vainglory, but that's unfair IMO. This game is going for a completely different experience than vainglory. This is marketed as bite size, quick, and pure fighting. And that's what it is. Vainglory tries to be a nearly full-fledged moba (depending on your definition) that recreates the feel of LoL and Dota in the palm of your hand. And that's what it accomplishes.

    But to negatively review Call of Champions because "Vainglory is better" is silly. It's a similar comparison as to when people said "Hearthstone is stupid because Magic is more complex".

    Edit: grammar nazi
     
  8. henryfakesmile

    henryfakesmile Well-Known Member

    Sep 12, 2013
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    well,:eek: i felt asleep after queuing up for 3 hours last night:eek: and when i am awake i was being removed from the group being inactivity
    glad to know there is an inactivity timer in this game ;)
     
  9. Devok

    Devok Well-Known Member

    Jul 6, 2013
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    #29 Devok, Sep 19, 2015
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2015
    Looks like many players from vainglory are already moved to another better newer moba, typical, VG will disappear like fates forever if this continues, this game is compatible to solitice area which I loved, people should start sharing this game on VG forums haha.
     
  10. Turk

    Turk Well-Known Member

    Feb 6, 2009
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    TA game of the week! Very cool! In versus mode I'm getting nearly instant queue pops. Very nice. Been playing mostly Seraphina and she is fantastic. I'm only at their 3 with her and I'm looking forwards to ranked. Hopefully more people are there by then!
     
  11. Barak

    Barak Well-Known Member

    Mar 13, 2010
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    I respect what they were trying to accomplish, but this game is mediocre IMO. A game like Vainglory (have to compare since they are both supposed to be MOBAs) strikes a great balance between being relatively quick matches and hardcore gaming. Obviously, the VG characters are also incredibly designed and balanced (barring a few fixed glitches). In this one, everything feels so generic and low quality. I never get that sense of great plays, and I miss the "jungle" experience. The UI looks decent but seems confusing and overally opaque.

    I guess I only have time in my life to be good at one MOBA anyway, so back to the other one.
     
  12. Exact-Psience

    Exact-Psience Well-Known Member

    Jan 12, 2012
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    You're not wrong... This one is simplified to the bones. They did a great job with the game mechanics based on that, but it pretty subpar as a MOBA in general.
     
  13. Trevmayne

    Trevmayne Member

    Aug 17, 2015
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    But that's the whole point to their design, this game was distilled down (arguably to the point of blandness, though I don't think so) to fit in those five minute time slots so you can hop in and play when you don't have the time to sit down for a match in your MOBA of choice.
     
  14. Spartyfan6262

    Spartyfan6262 Well-Known Member

    Jan 4, 2015
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    Same here. For me, I want to feel like I've accomplished something in short play sessions, and this game lets you do that. Vain glory is so well-done, but it's hard squeezing a 20 minute game with kids around.
     
  15. Spartyfan6262

    Spartyfan6262 Well-Known Member

    Jan 4, 2015
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    Is there a description somewhere explaining the talent tier levels and what they do?
     
  16. Turk

    Turk Well-Known Member

    Feb 6, 2009
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    If you click on the talent tab and then click and hold on each option per tier it will give you a description of it. They're thing like "5% damage" or "10% crit chance for 2 seconds after basic attack hit". After filling out the tiers you can change how a champion plays quite a bit from what I am seeing.
     
  17. bhornburg

    bhornburg Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2009
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    I understand why people keep comparing it to Vainglory, but I think of this game as more like Rocket League (which I've been playing a ton of on my PS4 :)

    It's short, frantic matches that are almost always intense all the way through. If you snooze for a moment, someone will push up and take one of your towers, forcing you to have to take one of theirs to even the score. You have all your moves available from the get go, and if you watch the developer videos, there's a huge amount of synergy between your own 5 abilities, not to mention the multitude of strategical options when forming a team. I think people that are getting hooked, like Turk and I, see how the strategy in this game is accessible to you as soon as you learn how several of the champions powers work and having all those strategical options accessible immediately instead of having to build out items and powers over 20 minute matches.

    If you already love Vainglory and have time for the learning curve and match length and don't like bite size experiences, I don't think this isn't supposed to try and replace that. As someone who literally plays mobile games in 5 minute spurts, this game and World of Tank blitz really fit the bill.

    If you are playing Call of Champions, add me, I'm Brendar#0000 :D
     
  18. Jerutix

    Jerutix Well-Known Member

    Nov 3, 2009
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    I think you're right. That being said, I've never gotten into a MOBA for all the reasons that were cut out of this game: time commitment, learning curve, high level of strategy. I may be looking for a blander experience where I don't feel behind as soon as I start. This game dumbs it down enough to appeal to me, and I'm really enjoying it in short spurts (like, on or two rounds a day total).

    I'm not willing to commit more than that to a game of this type, so the low entry requirement and just enough personality appeals to me a lot. I like that it is much more of a level playing field, and I've felt competitive regardless of my team or who I've played. That's totally the opposite of how I usually feel in a MOBA. Plus, losing after 5 minutes doesn't make me feel as depressed or like I wasted too much time.

    tldr; The qualities that make this not so great for hardcore MOBA fans really are making this game nice for casual players.
     
  19. Adams Immersive

    Adams Immersive Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Dec 5, 2008
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    #39 Adams Immersive, Sep 19, 2015
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2015
    Seems clever and polished in some ways, and I hope I come to see the fun at some point. (I'll play 7 days to get my free hero before I rush to judge!)

    But having played for a few days, the fun is not there yet! I have never enjoyed a moment of it; never felt any sense of achievement or victory. And weirdly, I was able to get into Vainglory far more easily despite that being my first MOBA and much more deep/complex. And a year later, I'm still on the low end of VG players—a more stripped-down MOBA sounds right up my alley!

    I would not be surprised if Vainglory has become VERY newcomer-unfriendly by now, just because there are now SO many heroes to learn to counter. So I can't recommend one over the other to a newbie. But Call of Champions definitely feels newcomer-unfriendly.

    - I never feel like I have much control over the outcome—it feels like Hungry Hungry Hippos. "A bunch of stuff happens and some players die for some reason." The visual chaos makes a nice trailer, but it doesn't teach new players WHY something happened. Why should I pick one ability over another? What hero is that enemy, and what do I have to watch out for from it? Who knows—there's no time to stop and observe or learn.

    - You're supposed to understand FIVE special abilities for each character--not just your own, but your allies' and enemies' as well. That's way too much to cram into someone's brain quickly in a useful way. In Vainglory, you only have ONE ability to figure out per hero at the start of the match, growing one by one until it's three. But also, knowing the nuances of those abilities isn't the whole game--there are more things to do and try. The ball thing is neat, but success/failure is still entirely based on succeeding in combat with enemy heroes (as opposed to the more-varied tasks of Vainglory). With Call of Champions, it seems like 95% of that success is using (and avoiding) the bazillion abilities. (With 5% being grabbing the powerups, but there's no clear feedback whether they were really worth it. I'll just assume so and keep going for them!)

    - The leveling up makes it seem like all players are not on an equal footing, the way they are in Vainglory. Am I missing something? Do you only get matched with people of equal level?

    - The game does far too little to teach the player. Sink or swim. It's understandable that you might have to do some online research on your own to master a game—but more of that know-how should be there in-game. (And the nine hundred types of currency/XP/whatever? No clue what's happening there. Feels like work. It tells me I earned a level up, but then shows all these things about what it will cost me... I guess? So I don't level up, not yet understanding whether it would be strategic to do so or better to spend my stars? coins? something? elsewhere in the game. Vainglory seemed to let me get a little farther before I had to hit the books and read wikis.)

    The mechanics are there, but the fun is not--for me. When I win a fight, I get no sense of "I used that ability just right!" the way I would sometimes in Vainglory even as a newbie. When I die, I get no sense of "I see what went wrong there!" Feedback is lacking, which makes the learning curve more of a wall. (Why is that? I'm not sure, but maybe it's a combination of the rushed nature of the game--no time notice or remember abilities you see used--coupled with the massive number of different abilities that can appear, which means that whatever you DID see, you may not see again for many games, so learning the significance of what you saw is difficult. Too little repetition/reinforcement of game know-how.)

    I'm sure, from what fans say, that it DOES get fun if you "pay your dues" and climb that curve and memorize 5 abilities times umpteen heroes, and know them so well that you don't have to stop and think about what to do. But if a game isn't fun WHILE you are learning, I probably won't come back any time soon. Even so, I'll likely return in a month or three and see how it has evolved.

    I like the intention (better served by TWO abilities per hero maybe?) and I hope it succeeds! I can tell it gets fun for those who stick with it! I certainly don't see it competing with Vainglory or vice versa—they are really different genres, and there's room for both.
     
  20. Spartyfan6262

    Spartyfan6262 Well-Known Member

    Jan 4, 2015
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    Great. Thank you.
     

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