Is there a crafting system? And how much will characters depend on objects and not their base powers?

You We have a Skill system in Champions Online that allows players to focus in a particular discipline: Arms, Science, or Mysticism. Skills allow you to do multiple things: mess with Skill objects in the world (ex. shut down security systems with Arms), get rid of hazards (ex. banish evil spirits with Mysticism), and create Upgrades and Devices.

Upgrades are different ways to augment your character and his or her base powers. Upgrades can be specialized gear, fighting techniques, special training, radiation exposure, mystical imbuement, etc. – basically anything you’ve read about in comic books! The majority of a character’s efficacy comes from their base powers but it’s always helpful to augment them with Upgrades to stay in peak fighting form.

Can you go into a little bit about how character advancement works?

As a character levels in Champions Online they gain access to a number of different advancements: Power Points allow you to gain new powers, while Advantages allow you to rank up and expand existing powers in different ways. Super-Stats give you a large focused increase in a Characteristic, while Talents give you smaller increases across one or more Characteristics.

The world you have designed is huge – how will players go from Millennium City to other areas?

There are a number of transport points where players can jump into a super-transport vehicle and travel to the hotspot locations around the Champions Online universe. We want players to stay in the action as much as possible!

Can you discuss how the world will evolve? Most MMOs are fairly static – how are you getting around that?

It’s very difficult to “get around” static worlds when you’re dealing with a large player base, persistent environments, and varied storylines! We do have some areas in Champions Online where player efforts to battle villainy changes the environment to reflect the reduction of crime on the streets. But our main world evolution will come through the planned frequent game updates where we continue to expand the storylines in the game to bring in new villains, environments, powers, and game-play. Champions Online will start an epic superhero saga that will take many years to tell.

OK, I have to put you on the spot: do you have a favorite power?

Sorcery! I love blasting foes with Eldritch energies and summoning mystic creatures to attack my enemies! Although I do like augmenting it with some Supernatural and Martial Arts powers – another great thing about the Champions Online power system!

Finally, for someone who plays City of Heroes or is devoted to any other MMO—why should they invest the time and money into Champions? I think getting people to try the game won’t be too tough, but so many new MMOs start with these huge subscription numbers only to see them drop off in six months. What is the trick to keeping them?

The trick is to give them more of what they want; we have a very active fan community that’s full of great ideas. If the beta-testing feedback for Champions Online is any indication of what players love about our game we’ll be providing even more customization options, super powers, villains and environments, game-play variations, and super-heroic action! What’s more is that we have an incredibly talented team and powerful tools necessary to make it happen. Cryptic is constantly trying to push the envelope on what we can do with MMORPGs – expect great things!

We'd like to thank Randy for taking the time to chat with us. Champions Online is set for a September 2009 release. For more info check out the game's website .

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you .