Cryptic's Bill Roper on balancing powers in Champions Online
When news came in of the Champions Online launch being delayed to September, a few of the writers at Massively were despondent. It's always better for a game to launch once it's solid rather than release in a buggy state, though. While we wait for the re-scheduled September 1st launch, we're keeping up with the news and interviews surrounding the upcoming superhero title. In fact, we've just come across an MMOCrunch interview with Bill Roper, executive producer of Champions Online you might be interested in.
Roper gets into how some of the game mechanics in Champions Online will play out, and explains a bit about how travel powers like flight and teleportation can be countered by those without such capabilities. (For example, how does a ground-based melee character engage a kiting opponent in flight?) He also touches upon the game's sidekick system, which will allow newer players to temporarily boost their powers to keep up with higher level friends. Alternately, the sidekick system will give advanced characters the ability to tone their powers down to the level of their appallingly weak lower level buddies.
Roper also addresses criticism of the heroes-only approach to Champions Online by saying, "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." Whether they'll one day allow you to play a villain is still far from certain, but on the topic of villains in the game, Roper adds, "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!"
Have a look at what Bill Roper told MMOCrunch about Champions Online and see if you agree with him.
