City of Heroes/Villains Interview

GameSpot had the opportunity to sit down with Cryptic Studios’ Matt Miller at this year’s GDC to learn more about the team’s upcoming changes to crafting and trade in City of Heroes and City of Villains.

Q: How will the invention system be different than other crafting systems that have appeared in other online games? How will it be better?

A: For one, our system concentrates on the collecting aspect of the game; most everything about it is a collectable of one sort or another. We already have a very popular collection system in the game with “badges.” We don’t restrict crafting to certain skills or professions either. Everyone can craft if they want to invest the time into it. We also don’t force players to “skill up” their inventing skill to make specific enhancements they might want. You can just make it as long as you have all the ingredients.

We feel that this is better than trying to retrofit other games’ crafting systems into our game. For one, adding the system in after initial product launch means that everyone starts off on an equal footing. The fact that nothing is level restricted or skill restricted means that no one should feel that they should have been “skilling up” their entire career.