Champions Online Interview

Computer Games Romania had a chance to sit down with Cryptic Studios’ Bill Roper and quiz the design director about the team’s superhero-themed MMORPG, Champions Online.

Locke: How hard will it be to reach the level cap? And how do you strike that balance between (get in there as much content as you can) and “experience grinding”?

Bill Roper: Character progression is mostly mission-based. This means that there should be little to no grinding required to get to the initial level cap. With over 900 hand-crafted missions available at launch, there’s an amazing amount of story to enjoy and things to accomplish. Even though our combat is definitely action-oriented, we’re definitely providing a deep, rich MMO experience for our players.

We also know that many players love collecting and spending a lot of time building towards long-term goals. There are a huge variety of rewards for characters as they grow in experience. New powers and associated advantages, a huge array of new areas to discover and explore, hundreds of perks and achievements, origins, talents, items, crafting, super stats, PvP, and the Nemesis system where players make their own arch enemies. And there’s more going in all the time. Some of the longest-term perks have fabulous rewards but will take players many hours to achieve, so we’re hoping we have something for both the casual and hardcore player.

Locke: On the same note, almost every MMO player knows that hitting the level cap usually means just the start of another, bigger chapter in that game’s lifespan. What kind of high level experience will Champions Online offer?

Bill Roper: We’re creating what we call the Omega System for our heroes that have hit the current level cap. This is a combination of solo and team missions, as well as massively long-term goals that have their own rewards. We’re going to constantly be adding to the Omega system in every way and will be working directly with our players to give them what they want.