Champions hands-on - Page 2

Roper moved on to the topic of travelling; we'd already seen the sleek surf board method and the sneaky burrowing but nothing on flying. Characters can fly through their own powers, or they can get themselves rocket-propelled boots or a rocket back-pack. These have their pros and cons; engine-powered equipment can go faster than conventional flying, but push it too far and it will red line and burn out. Roper recollected a couple of developers racing each other, only to see the one with the rocket boots, until that point in the lead, plummet to the ground after pushing his equipment too far. Don't worry though - fly high enough and players should be able to get the rockets fired up again before meeting a sticky end. Another way for heroes to get around is teleportation. Characters slip into the netherworld and zoom to a far off point. To other players and enemies, the hero appears to simply disappear and reappear somewhere else. And let's not forget the recently-revealed 'Swinging'. Roper confided that this was fast becoming the favourite way to move around the zones. For those of you who haven't seen the video, Swinging is the preferred method of transport for well-known superhero, Spiderman; Characters shoot ropes, vines, webs or whatever you decide, from their hands which attach to nearby buildings, allowing them to swing past before attaching themselves to the next fixture. Once players become familiar with Swinging they can perform tricks, such as loop the loop and mid-air acrobatics. We asked Roper what other methods of transport Cryptic would like to add to the game, and he mentioned that vehicles for superheroes without travel powers were another option that didn't quite make it in time for the release, but it's something they are looking at adding after launch.

“We talked about how we would do it, we just didn't have time to get it in before launch, but we'd also like to do vehicles. If you're a character who doesn't have super powers, but uses a lot of gadgets and tools, you could have a motorcycle that you could cruise around on. It does need a lot more art resources, we have to work in animations etc., so those will have to come after we launch, but it's something in the pipe.”

Talk then turned to the game's professions. Champions Online does not have any form of universal currency such as credits or gold; Instead, players will trade with resources which can be used in the different professions which are currently Science, Arms and Mysticism. Characters can use the upgrades created from these professions to change or empower their abilities.

"The idea is that you're creating these upgrades for your characters, we call them upgrades because they can be intangibles, they can be magic spells, they can be martial arts manoeuvres they can be super serums," explained Roper when we pushed him on the subject, "Basically they are things you can put in your equipment slots that enhance your character."

However, Roper went on to explain that the physical upgrades such as body armour and plasma pistols can be tailored to appear however the player decides. If a player likes the look at their katana because it fits in with the martial arts style if their character, but they like the stats from the broad sword they just created, they can keep the appearance of the katana and the same goes for armour.

One major bugbear for players in some games is the death process. What happens when a character dies? Do you have to run back to your corpse, does your equipment take a lot of damage or do you lose valuable experience points? Roper was keen to point out that in Champions, when your character dies there is no huge penalty, characters simply re-appear at a nearby spawn point. He explained that as characters progress through the game they earn stars, heroic commendations if you like. There are a maximum of five stars to earn, and having these stars gives characters extra benefits such as increased power, added defences and so on. When a character dies, it temporarily loses a star, making it slightly less effective than before. Physical upgrades also degrade over time.

"Probably the biggest detriment is if you're far away from a spawn point you have to travel back, but travels pretty quick so it's fairly forgiving in terms of death penalties."

Roper revealed that each major story arc in Champions will end in a major event that will require a Super Team, or five players, to complete. He also confirmed that the Champions world is dynamic, meaning that if someone decides to pile a few cars up while practising their super strength, they'll stay there. He also confirmed that an armory system is in the works, for players to show off their characters outside the game.

On the topic of PvP, Roper talked about the lore reasons behind superheros fighting each other. PvP will be seen as training missions or contests. There will be a 5v5 arena with rewards including titles and costumes. In the seedy west side of Millennium City, players can take part in 'Bash', a free for all event. There's also apocalypse maps, end of the world scenarios that play something like DoTA, where players can take on the role of either the good guy trying to prevent a villain escaping from Stronghold Prison, or the super-powered bad guy trying to escape. As well as all these options for pitting player against player, there is good old-fashioned open world dueling too.

Champions will have plenty of support for guilds, including a ranking system, guild chat and guild banks. Guild headquarters are something that Cryptic hope to add to the game at a later date.