Cryptic Studios answers some additional fan questions for Champions Online this week with their latest edition of Ask Cryptic. Some of the positive news includes less emphasis on instanced missions than what were found in CoX (City of Heroes/Villains). Instanced areas, instead, will be reserved for villain bosses and the like. The majority of missions in CoX took place in semi-randomly generated instanced areas that were generally lacking in variety. However, that may change in Champions Online by making them fewer and farther in between, rather than the standard template. Standard missions will take place in persistent environments, akin to WoW.

Major villains in Champions Online will have interesting background stories and feature well thought-out missions and dialog to help make each of their personalities more distinguished. Furthermore, each major villain will have something unique about them that players will be required to exploit in order to defeat them. They call this their “Shtick” and I give big ups to Cryptic Studios for this throwback to the boss fights of old school gaming.

Character creation this time around will offer a lot more variety and customization options. In addition to the thousands of costume pieces and selections, you’ll be able to tweak body shapes, tones and definitions. Even bone structures can be manipulated. CoX was known to feature a robust character creation system and Champions Online should be expected to take it to a new level.

Related Entries:

• Champions Online Dev Blog: Ask Cryptic
• Champions Online releases 3 new screenshots
• City of Heroes Issue 12: Character Creation
• A Day in the Life of a Champions Online Developer
• Countdown to New Game at Cryptic Studios