Whether you're strutting your stuff in skin-tight spandex outfits or
dominating the world in your mecha-suit, the heroes in
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are one in a million. Due to the small amounts of information that have
been released concerning the game, the developers at Cryptic Studios
have been putting together a whole string of Q&As depicting the
ins-and-outs of their upcoming game. The staff at Ten Ton Hammer has
nabbed their most recent question and answer session, and we have the
information posted for you to examine! Enjoy!
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Advantages and
lmitations to powers are available relatively early in Champions Online.
When you say that any
character can pick any powers the phrase "jack of many master of none"
comes to mind. My question is if I choose a power outside of my
"archetype" (for lack of a better word) will it just be a waste of
points because I'll be spending at a premium to get a substandard
version of a power? Or will my brick's fire blast be just as good as
the energy projector's? (Shofu)
question, Shofu. Choosing an "archetype" gives you bonuses with certain
categories of powers, not just powers listed under your archetype. For
example, if you choose Brick as your focus, any defensive powers you
choose are more effective because you're a Brick. Using your fire blast
example, Bricks are just as effective as Mentalists when it comes to
fire blasts, but Energy Projectors gain a bonus when using them because
that's their focus.
The best way to look at it is that a player can select any power
framework – they just get bonuses with certain types of
powers depending on what type of archetypical hero they choose to be.
Bricks are better at soaking up damage, Energy Projectors and Martial
Artists are better at dishing out damage, etc. That doesn't mean Bricks
never take offensive powers or Energy Projectors never take defensive
powers – just that a player can't be the best at everything.
The "archetype" abilities aren't set in stone yet as we still have a
lot of balancing and testing to do, but this should give you a general
idea of what we're looking at in terms of bonuses granted by a chosen
archetype.
Will you be able to add
an advantage and/or limitation to a power at first level? (HeroArkham)
and limitations are introduced relatively early in the game so players
who want to start min-maxing their powers won't have too long to wait!
But we won't be throwing power advantages/limitations at players at
first level; there are a lot of concepts we're going to be introducing
to players at character creation and we don't want to overwhelm them
with too many choices.
How varied will the
inhuman (beast-man, alien, etc.) costume piece/character looks options
be in CO? (Amadaeus)
of "inhuman" costume pieces and customization options is really
impressive already! So far I've seen various beast-man heads (rats,
cats, bears, wolves, stag), insect heads (with different mandible and
antennae options), and various monster heads (undead/alien/demon with
different sizing, horn/bone options, etc.). Additionally there are a
number of different "stances" players can choose from (bestial stance,
for example) to complete their "inhuman" look.
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Overweight characters
are available, but none as big as the Blob.
What about overweight
characters? (Allison)
will allow you to make "chunky" characters, but nothing on a massive
(Blob-level) scale. There's a limit on what looks good in body scaling
without adding a lot of additional costume parts to support the
variance.
Will there be any
"in-house" resource for the players to showcase our characters and
their backgrounds, and perhaps superteams, bases, and so on? Something
similar to the CREY threat pages, or the City Vault that NCsoft is
planning? Can we get a larger amount of space (character limit) for
in-game character background/biography? (Starhammer)
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Starhammer. We're currently making plans for our web integration with
the game. We're looking at the best features from previous MMORPGs,
community-driven data sites, social networking apps and anything else
that's cool online, and we're putting together a plan to combine those
features to create a useful and fun site where you can connect with
your friends and show off everything you do in Champions Online.
We're planning to have everything you've come to expect from an online
game's web presence, and then some. Character pages, superteam sites,
game info – it will all be here! We will start rolling out
these features throughout the game's beta phases, so people will have a
chance to check them out and suggest what they want to see.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Champions Online Game Page.
