Bill Roper, the Design Director / Exec Producer for Champs Online gives out some CO info:
Q1) Since this is a super-hero game, will players be able to have a side kick?
The side-kicking system in Champions Online allows younger, less experienced heroes to temporarily increase the effective levels of their powers to be able to adventure with a more experienced hero. Conversely, those superheroes with greater powers can “tone things down” to play on an even level with their less-powerful friends.
SK and Mentoring. Got it. Okay, nothing new here vs CoX, but certainly something necessary — with the special twist of having a single server to play on.
Q2) How soon will players get their travel abilities?
Heroes gain their first travel power at level 5, right after helping resolve the crisis in Millennium City. In order to allow for more flexibility in character design and role-playing, heroes have the chance to gain a second travel power becomes available at level 35!
I’m glad CO is starting from the beginning with a low-level travel power. CoX has mostly gotten around that, but it can still be a hassle in some cases (and if you don’t do bank missions).
Q3) If I make a melee character without a flying ability, will I be screwed in PvP when fighting someone that can fly and has a ranged attack?
We’re doing a lot of balancing right now to avoid just this sort of issue. Melee classes have attacks they can use at range (such as ripping up hunks of the ground to throw at enemies) – most of which knock their target out of their travel powers. This is especially nasty when used against a flying opponent.
Not interested in the PvP, but this is a good thing to know re Melee powers.
[…] Q5) How will XP be divided amongst healers, tanks and DPS character? Will it be based off the amount of damage done only?
We not only track the amount of damage done and damage taken by a hero, but we also track how many points of damage a hero heals – both on themselves and on others. We make sure that proper credit is given to supportive heroes in both PvE and PvP in this regarding, making the choice of playing a hero that focuses on aiding others just as rewarding.
Very good to hear. Though that makes it unclear whether XP is given (on a team) for different things or what.
Q6) Since you get to create your own Nemesis, why wouldn’t I just create a really weak one?
The powers for your Nemesis are drawn from defined, balanced power sets. This ensures that players can’t “game” the system and make a weak arch-enemy. Nemesis is designed to be the biggest challenge a single hero can face, so we want the villain you create to live up to that standard.
Hmmm. I’m curious to see how this works. I don’t want lame Nemeses — but I don’t want paper cut-out ones, either.
Q9) Why can’t I be a villain?
We wanted to focus on the heroic side of things with the launch of the game. The missions, interactions of citizens, and so forth are all directed to your being a hero. There are so many stories to be told, justices to be upheld, and worlds to be saved that we’re excited to bring those chances for good to life. We do let you design a villainous foe with the Nemesis system, and some day we might even delve into the darker side of superheroes.
I’m sure there has been much analysis about why (or whether) the CoV side has been less fun (based on population) than the CoH one. I don’t see a reason to rush into this on CO’s part.
Q10) If I’m a superhero, why do I need to craft things? I’m already super.
Not every hero has powers that come from within. Many have lots of wonderful toys they use to fight crime. This is just the type of hero that will be crafting new goodies in the Arms school of crafting, which also has non-physical elements such as fighting styles. And our crafting system goes far beyond the creation of just physical items like guns and armor. There is the Science school where things like mutagens and serums and nano-bots are created. Mystical crafters design new spells or arcane artifacts. We’ve spent a great deal of time and effort to allow players to experience crafting while staying true to whatever the concept of their hero is.
I’ll believe it when I see it. Yeah, clearly Batman crafts all the time. Superman? Not so much. Ditto Mr Fantastic vs the rest of the FF.
Well, I’d argue that Reed Richards crafts all the time, without his crafting the FF wouldn’t have half as many adventures as they do.
That said, I, so far, despise the crafting system. It’s non-intuitive and intrusive.
That said, it does more closely parallel the game experience from games like WoW, which is where I think CO hopes to draw audience. But I don’t think that CoH playesr will find it ‘better’ that the Invention system in CoH.
My parallel construction there was unclear. Clearly Reed crafts to excess. The rest? They let Reed hand them already-built IOs. 🙂
Unfortunate that it’s not an improvement in CO over CoX. I do crafting there, but only because otherwise seems a waste, and it’s a relatively easy way to get rich.
I did Droid Engineering in Galaxies. Now that’s crafting! It’s still one of the best, if not the best, crafting systems for any MMO ever made. More recent MMOs are going much more casual with it, for better or worse.
I’m reminded of a silver age Supergirl story where she dug up some minerals and formed them into a sleep (I think it was sleep, it could have been a freezeray, though) gun.
But yeah, some characters I would prefer to avoid crafting altogether if possible. Others, the tech guys, I’d have crafting all the time.