MMORPG Games & MMO News - MMOCrunch: Champions Online Interview

I recently had a chance to ask Bill Roper, the Design Director and Executive Produce of Champions Online, a few questions about the upcoming superhero MMO.  You can find the Champions Online interview below.

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.

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!

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.

Q4) How will teleporting work in combat, PvP and PvE. Seems like a very powerful power.

All of the travel powers are powerful in their own right, so every travel power has what we call “gears” associated with it. Heroes move fastest when they are completely out of combat, slower when being attacked but trying to escape, and slowest when actively participating in combat. Teleport has limitation on how far you can teleport and how frequently based on which of these “gears” the hero is in.

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.

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.

Q7) Can other players participate in my nemesis fights or is that strictly solo?

You can invite your friends and allies into any Nemesis mission you have. This is one of the reasons we’re excited that Nemesis is the first of our ways to allow players to generate their own content. We also are going to be expanding the Nemesis system in the future to accommodate multiple Nemeses on a map, which will completely kick things up a notch!

Q8) In PvP, Tournament of Champions, B.A.S.H and Apocalypse, can I join these events using the PvP queue?

Absolutely! The queue system is designed to allow players to get in line to jump into PvP while still adventuring and saving the day until another Hero Game is ready to go.

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.

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.

City of Heroes / City of Villains: Additional Mission Architect Story Slots On Sale Now!

Just can't stop designing Mission Architect game play masterpieces? Well now you can increase your repertoire! Additional Mission Architect story slots are available for purchase (1, 2 or 5 them for $5.99, $9.99, and $19.99 respectively) up to a maximum of eight slots per game account. Note: Existing rules applicable to inherent story slots also apply to purchased story slots. Having one of your published stories awarded with Dev's Choice will free up one of your slots but getting one of your published stories suspended will result in that particular slot being unavailable for the duration of the suspension. What are you waiting for? Put those creative juices to work! Login to the character select screen and click on the "Enter Store" to buy additional story slots and then share your new design creations with your City of Heroes® brethren!

Loyola University professor drives City of Heroes/Villains players crazy, all for sociology

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Culture, PvP, News items, Academic, Virtual worlds

Twixt was one of those names on the Freedom server of City of Heroes that would just drive everyone nuts. He was a PvPer who would find some of the craziest ways to annoy the heck out of his opponents, such as teleporting them right in front of the Longbow agents at the hero base in PvP zones. A year ago, however, the man behind the keyboard finally drew back his mask to reveal a sociology professor from Loyola University outside New Orleans.

Now his study on City of Heroes/Villains is finally coming forward, revealing a controversial look at how defying the cultural rules of a population can turn a person into a social outcast. The study's goal was to play only by the developer's rules, ignoring any extra rules that might be created by the population. For example, the concept of "kill stealing" and "fair fights" are thrown out the window as they are created by the population, not the game. Think of it like EVE Online -- if the game allows it, he does it.

While the study is intriguing in the fact that it covers the "new frontiers" of virtual worlds, it also brings into question some of the ethics involved with working undercover in a population, such as causing undue stress via what we consider to be griefing.

For a full report, check out the story as reported by The Times-Picayune.

[Thanks Petterm, Scopique!]

Loyola University professor drives City of Heroes/Villains players crazy, all for sociology originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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System requirements revealed for Champions Online

Filed under: Super-hero, New titles, News items, Champions Online

Cryptic today revealed the minimum and recommended specs for Champions Online and they contain some happy and interesting surprises. Happy, because the overall requirements are fairly low, especially if you're the kind of person who plays MMOs on any sort of regular basis. Interesting, because for a game coming out a little under two months before Windows 7 hits retail, there's strangely no mention of support for the new Microsoft operating system.

We know that the current beta runs on Windows 7, but that's true of many older games released in the Vista era. Given the low upgrade prices currently being offered and the positive buzz surrounding the new OS, there'll probably be a decent amount of early adopters come October 22nd. Still, beyond that small curiosity, we'd have to say the required and recommended specs for Champions Online are definitely good. As an added bonus, this makes another delay beyond September highly unlikely -- as does the announced open beta, we suppose.

Check out the minimum and recommended system requirements after the break.

Continue reading System requirements revealed for Champions Online

System requirements revealed for Champions Online originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively: A Fortnight of Freedom...

I sometimes get restless in my MMO gaming and even in amiable circumstances, where a currently played title still retains my interest and has done nothing wrong itself, I still like to explore, to play the field and keep tabs on how much greener the grass is elsewhere. The list of currently available and active MMOs is a surprisingly large one, so there are always alternatives I've yet to try.

So every now and then, I hit the free trial circuit, picking my way through a list of increasingly commonplace 14-day MMO Free Trials. These fortnight trial periods are generally intended as tasters, samples of what might be in store for the gamer if they decide to proceed with the commitment of a long-term service contract with the MMO publisher in question. But do these two week try-outs serve the purpose, or is it impossible to preview a multi-month gaming experience in just fourteen days?

Continue reading A Fortnight of Freedom...

Filed under: Business models, Culture, Opinion

A Fortnight of Freedom... originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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