Champions Online Interview with Chris Lena

I have scored an interview with Champions Online's lead producer, Chris Lena, and I'm using it as an opportunity to announce the creation of the new "Champions Guru" blog right here on Hellforge. ChampionsGuru.com will redirect to this blog from now on, so update your bookmarks! 

We have servers up internally and we are testing the game along with a little help from our close friends and family.  

3. Will it be possible for characters to have shapeshifting abilities that grant them various different powers from their shapeshifted form (e.g. The Hulk's brute strength) 

We are not ready to reveal our full set of powers at this point.

4. Besides terrestrial areas and instances like cities, lairs and bases, will players be able to explore and fight underwater or in space? 

Having vast and varied environments to explore and battle evil is one of main goals.  Keep an eye on our website to see what we will be showing next.

5. How extensive will the customizability be for player pets and minions? In City of Villains, it was possible for the Mastermind class to have a group of minions, but it wasn't possible to truly customize them beyond a few of their abilities. How will things be this time around? 

There will be pets but that is all the info we are talking about right now.

6. Will there be any types of usable vehicles in the game? 

You can pick them up and hit people on the head with them!

7. We've known for awhile now that powers can have advantages and limitations, but can we also apply them to our heroes? For example, would it be possible to create a character with a trait that makes him take more damage from certain types of elements while resisting others? 

We are going to be focusing on the positive for Champions Online so in addition to being able buy advantages to your powers you can also purchase talents for your character.  Although we looked into "purchasing" negative traits we decided not to go with that model.  We love the original Champions game (of course!) and it is a big inspiration but at the end of the day we are doing what we thing works best for an MMO.

8. How extensive will social features like emotes and facial expressions be? Other games like Lord of the Rings Online featured not only facial expressions but also unlockable new emotes through quests and achievements. 

No plans for unlocking emotes because we would rather give those to everyone right out of the gate.  You will be able to choose your characters stance which  will determine animations such as movement.  For instance, you can move like a straight and tall hero or with your knuckles on the ground like a beast.

9. What will the depth of social interaction in the game be? Will players be able to, or even encouraged to hang out in clubs or other recreational areas for when they aren't off saving the world? 

We will have social areas in the world that players can hang out in.   The game is designed in a way to encourage players to come back to these hubs to encourage social interaction.

10.What's the extent of graphical effects or textures on costumes and skin? Will it be possible to, for example, create a character with translucent skin or glowing eyes? 

We won't have the final list of options for a little while longer but we are committed to delivering an extremely robust and varied costume creator.  It will take a team of supercomputers to crunch out all of the possible combinations.

11. Will there be back options other than capes and wings, for example quivers, jetpacks and even sword holsters? 

At this point I can't say yes and no for those individual examples but we sure do plan on more things than you will know what to do with including things like capes, wings, backpacks, jetpacks, spikey spines, etc.

12. In addition to the subscription that we are expecting the game to have, are there any plans to charge for additional individual features like character slots? 

We haven't yet released the pricing plans for Champions Online.

13. Will we be able to meet and interact with the announced characters, like Defender and Doctor Destroyer, and if so, to what extent? 

The heroes from the Champions universe will be looking for help from the players and there are plenty of villains that need to be vanquished.  Also, don't forget that you will be able to create a nemesis of your very own that will be out to thwart you every step of the way.

14. Last, but not least, what's the countdown on the official website all about