Champions Online - Ask Cryptic Latest Dev Blog

New information about the up and coming Champions Online Game - read our related Preview and Interview with Bill Roper for more information about the game
Are cutscenes going to be included with our quests and story arcs? (Shaolinwind)
Yes. Cutscenes appear in many locations for dramatic interludes, to give clues to players, and to setup boss fights. Each of the major zones will also have a flyover cutscene that introduces newly arrived heroes to the area and sets the scene for the mission arcs in the zone.
As a player who works a normal 8-5 job, will I feel left behind by those whom I play with that are able to dedicate more time with the game? (Realaride)
Not at all! We have a system in place that allows you to play with higher level or lower-level players by temporarily raising or lowering your level to that of the team leader. Even if your friends get ahead of you in level you'll still will be able to team up with them!
Are all powers viable in PvP or will we be seeing just a handful of cookie-cutter builds? (Sspider)
I spent a pretty good amount of time thinking about PvP related issues and believe that all our powers are individually PvP viable (some even more so than PvE viable) but that the emergence of a cookie-cutter mentality is inevitable to a certain degree. The nice thing about a non-class based design however is that we are somewhat insulated because of a la carte powers selection; most of the cookie-cutter combinations will consist of two or three powers instead of complete builds.
Will travel powers be usable in PvP? If so, what is done to ensure a fair level of balance between the different travel powers? (Sspider)
We’re attempting to make, as far as possible, all of the powers balance against each other purely on their own merits; control vs. velocity, for example. We will also be adding an energy build penalty to all of the travel powers (not explicitly a cost, simply slowing down the rate at which you can build or recover energy) which will vary between the powers based on their utility. Finally, we are also adding more travel – power disabling effects to the game, particularly to “pick up and throw” type powers, to further help “even the odds”.
Will instanced missions be on designed maps (that is, maps created especially for the mission, as in WoW or LotRO), or on generic maps (as in CoX)? (JonboyDC)
A little of both. The maps for missions that are part of directed story arcs are all created specifically for these missions by a designer. In response to beta players’ feedback that they wanted to see more instanced content, we added over 80 new patrol mission maps to Millennium City. Patrol missions are missions your hero can get from well-meaning citizens while out cleaning up the city's streets. The maps for these missions were generated from themed kits like sewer, office, high tech lab, and so on. Each patrol mission got its own unique map--you won't see the same map layout being used over and over for multiple missions. We will be adding more of these maps to other areas of the game as we move closer to launch.
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