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Champions Online 'ambitiously' re-itemizing the game
As the groundhog pops up to see his shadow, so too do the devs of Champions Online pop up with their monthly UNTIL Field Report, dishing out the plans and proposed future updates for the game. This month's report is rather lengthy and kicks off with a promise about upcoming "ambitious" re-itemization of all items and rewards in Champions. Currently in testing and on deck for the near future is a '90s Iron Age costume set, alerts, zone balancing, and a look at why them women folk walk so dang funny (apparently arms and legs are moving out of sync on female characters). Players also have a new travel power -- Distortion Acrobatics -- and specialization trees to look forward to. There's also some good information in the report as to why some features and concerns have yet to move from low to high priority, such as the "lukewarm" feedback of team duels and the difficulties of balancing XP gifting. As the next update for Champions Online nears, Cryptic promises a more in-depth series of dev diaries detailing the changes.
Cryptic posts Champions Online's November state of the game
Cryptic Studios has just uploaded its most recent state of the game letter for Champions Online, and the post begins by reinventing itself. Rather than focusing on "answering all the questions about future development plans and the status of top issues and player concerns," the Champs team aims to use the SOTG to reveal what the team is working on right now. Long-term plans and feedback will be addressed instead on the forums as part of the UNTIL Field Report. The SOTG covers the pair of new archetypes, the Halloween event, new costume sets, and the archetype roation promotion before briefing players on the upcoming comic series 2, called Whiteout, which will "take your Hero on an adventure that is unique and exciting." The (apparently still growing) team is also working on the Alert system, the Winter event, two new frameworks (Earth and Wind), and tweaks to the Infernal framework and the Nemesis. And as promised, this month's UNTIL Field Report fills in the details of these development nuggets and more.
Champions Online's September Ask Cryptic: Introducing the UNTIL Field Report
It's time for Champions Online's September edition of Ask Cryptic, and as always, it's packed with delicious Q&A goodness. Many questions are related to new content, new powersets, and when players can expect either. The answers vary but for the most part seem to be variations of "we're working on it, but we can't give you a date yet." The same goes for the Nemesis system, though players who were hoping for theme-specific story arcs seem to be out of luck. Costume change animations are also requested, and the team says that such animations are in the works but will likely not see the light of day until further down the line. If you're more interested in what's coming to the game in the immediate future, though, Cryptic has you covered there as well. The team has introduced a forum feature known as the UNTIL Field Report. These Field Reports will be posted every other month alongside the State of the Game letter and will provide players with a status report on many fixes and upcoming features. It's important to note that the Field Reports are not intended to be comprehensive, but rather are meant to give players an idea of what they can expect to see in the near future and to give them a single place they can go to voice comments or concerns. For the full, meaty Ask Cryptic article as well as the premiere UNTIL Field Report, head on over to the official forums and take a look.
