Champions Online Article and Media Round-up
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The new media comes at us in the form of three new screenshots and a new character creation video on the official website. There's also a "Nemesis Showdown" video on Ten Ton Hammer and a new PvP trailer on Voodoo Extreme.
Then we jump to Destructoid for a preview...
Even traveling in Champions Online is specialized. Teleportation, flight, hover boards, ice and fire slides, mechanical boards, digging, and a whole lot more are movement options at your disposal. Fun little features, like being able to do the Soulja Boy dance, aim to keep this game grounded in fun.
However, your hero isn't the only character you will create. Champions Online will force you to design your hero's arch-nemesis, a boss character with just as much customization as your hero, integral to your individual storyline. Interestingly, you can be lame like Batmen towards the Joker, and let your nemesis live after every fight. Or you can be awesome and wipe him/her out. You'd like to kill your archenemy? Well, you'll get the chance to make a new one, up to 18 in total.
...and an interview with Jack Emmert:
I noticed when you had the presentation, there was a lot of soloing, a lot of single player type content. What's the group experience going to be like with this? Can you create an X-Men-type squad with a group of friends?
Most certainly. You can create a character...one of the interesting dynamics, which I don't think we touched on earlier, is the ability to choose a role. There are roles, support, offense, defense, you can change these on the fly even. And these different roles augment or enhance your powers in that particular area. So we can group together, and I can be the offensive guy, you can be the defensive guy, the tank, for instance. Or, in the next encounter, we can switch it around, and depending on which powers we have, we will be more or less effective in that particular role. We also have guilds, and we also have large, in-depth instances called Lairs which groups can go into. We have open missions, where a whole bunch of people can work cooperatively in the persistent world. So in addition to soloing, we've obviously got a ton of group content for an MMO.
Finally, we head back to Ten Ton Hammer for a new powers interview...
Ten Ton Hammer: And what about Power Armor?
Roper: Power Armor is designed to have big impact attacks, but in a way that those are controlled through cool downs based on where the power is focused from. For example, when you get the first powers in the set, you have wrist blasters and eye beams. There's a series of attacks in the power set that emanate from the hands, and then there's a series of attacks that emanates from the eyes. Finally, there's a series of attacks that emanates from the chest.
All of those attacks are on individual timers, so basically the mechanic there is to rotate those powers and when you're using them. This makes it interesting, because you might have three different types of eyebeams that you're using. It's a bit more strategic way to play.
It's all about Power Armor having that really big punch. There are also some really heavy Power Armor selections that make the set great for tanking. It also has its own tech shield, so that when you block there's this digital projected shield look that comes up in front of your character.
...and a new PvP interview:
Ten Ton Hammer: So you mentioned PvP-based item rewards. What are these items, and what makes an item awesome for PvP in Champions Online?
James: So in low levels of a tier, you want PvE drops, in high levels of a tier, you want PvP drops, so you get this back and forth. Even if you're just doing PvP, it's still worth your time to duck into PvP for some good gear. The costume unlocks - the luchador pieces - are what you get for costume pieces.
Rob: Essentially, what we wanted to have was gear only attainable through PvP and that gear unlocking things that are only attainable through PvP. That's the luchador costume sets, and past that is vanity pets and perks. So maybe you get a thousand kills in PvP, then you get a think which you can turn in for another thing. One concept I was working with just recently was luchador action figures. I want little action figures that follow you around. (laughter)
One of the concerns from the boards was that players would have to have a set of PvP gear and a set of PvE gear. I think they're 100% interchangable. We do want you to PvE and then PvP and then go back to PvE. It's better if you do that. But there are no PvP stats, there's character stats and power stats.
James: One thing I'll mention is that Apocalypse has a lot of PvE elements. So if you're more comfortable taking on stationary enemies, you can work on the NPC enemies and turrets and let your teammates handle the other players to an extent.
