Exclusive: City of Heroes Q&A Feature

Already released in the States and winning awards left right and centre, this Massively Multiplayer RPG is certainly a game like no other. City of Heroes allows players to create a super-powered hero and battle villains in the online fictional world of Paragon City and is due for release in Europe early in the New Year.

The feature list, ideas and inventive ways within City of Heroes will certainly appeal to a large number of gamers, even those who have not traipsed into the world of online gaming. Choose from hundreds of different powers and design your own unique costume. Confront super villains, aliens, madmen, criminals, and other fearsome foes. Take on personalized missions and rid the city of several different evil organizations and hundreds of individual enemies. Band together with other players to fight evil and become the premiere hero group in the city! Explore the skyscrapers, slums, sewers and streets of Paragon City, a sprawling online metropolis that offers unlimited adventures and countless objectives and this is just for starters. Derek dela Fuente spoke with Jack Emmert, Lead Designer on City of Heroes, about the game.

TVG: Tell us some interesting facts about Cryptic Studios.

The inspiration for the name derives from a pen and paper RPG product called Cryptozoology. It was the first RPG product (of many) written by two of the founders.

When Cryptic first formed, Silicon Valley was in the throws of the dot com boom. This meant that office space was extremely expensive. The best value we found was a small octagonal building in the middle of an industrial park. Our neighbours were welders, auto part dealers and various other metal industries.

TVG: What is your core expertise and what have you created before?

City of Heroes is the first project done by Cryptic Studios. Its employees, however, have worked on many arcade hits, such as Gauntlet, San Francisco Rush, War: Final Assault, and Mace: the Dark Ages.

TVG: What are some of the goals and objectives for City of Heroes, are you pleased with its US success and do you hope to mirror that in Europe?

We couldnâ??t be happier with our current success. Being the top selling game in the PC market for four months running is a big accomplishment, and to top it off weâ??re an MMP! No other U.S. MMP has come close to that level of success. We would be thrilled to see the same reaction in Europe.

TVG: Can you detail a little of the game set up and of the heroes classes on offer and their skills/powers?

There are five basic Archetypes that cover the full gamut of comic book heroes.

Scrapper â?“ a melee specialist. This Archetype is the most devastating hand to hand combatant. Tough enough to take even the strongest blows.

Blaster â?“ The offensive juggernaut with a glass jaw. A Blaster is basically a normal person endowed with incredible abilities. Sure, a Blaster can devastate foes from afar, but once hit a Blaster goes down quickly.

Tanker â?“ Another Melee specialist. A Tanker doesnâ??t do the damage of a Scrapper, but heâ??s far more resistant to attacks. Usually, heâ??s the last one standing in any fight. Itâ??s his job to keep the enemiesâ?? focus on him, rather than his teammates.

Defender â?“ Specializes in helping teammates. A Defender protects his friends â?“ or debuffs his enemies â?“ better than any other Archetype. In addition, the Defender has some long range punch to whittle away at the enemy.

Controller â?“ His primary focus is affecting the enemy AI. He controls their behaviour, freezes them into place and puts them to sleep. Many Controllers additionally can summon additional help to fight by their side.

TVG: Cryptic has gone big time into customizing. What are some of the innovations on offer?

The number one City of Heroes innovation is our character creation. Since every hero in the comics is unique from his creation. No two costumed heroes ever look alike. In most MMPâ??s, however, characters tend to be quite similar in the beginning. The player must â??earnâ?? the right to a unique look by defeating tough monsters and earning a lot of currency. We decided to toss that MMP idea out the window and instead create a game where people could be the hero of their imagination from the very start. There are trillions of possible colour, geometry and pattern combinations. Itâ??s unlikely that a player will ever see or meet another player that looks like him.

TVG: Playing a super hero is a great idea. Would you take us through some of the early basics of creating a career and the kind of progression the game offers?

Every player starts out with super powers â?“ fighting street gangs that have their very own powers too. We wanted to make players feel like heroes from the start; so you wonâ??t see any of the â??rat killingâ?? in our game to level up. The beginning missions allow players to save the city from these street gangs. And thatâ??s within the first hour of playing. As time passes, a hero gains more powers and tackles villain groups that are more of a danger to the city and the world.

TVG: Itâ??s hard to get to grips in being able to fly like a super hero so can you tell us about some of the enemy faction and the kind of diversity offered!?

Weâ??ve drawn our villains from numerous comic book, movie and mythical themes. Iâ??ve wanted City of Heroes to be as much about storytelling as it is about combat. In the course of various story arcs, players will learn the secrets behind all of the evil organization and the city. Theyâ??ll delve into the ancient secrets of the mystical Circle of Thorns, unravel the conspiracies of the Crey Corporation, and struggle against the immortal menace of Rularuu the Ravager. Thereâ??s something for every hero.

TVG: Please tell us about how you can join with other superheroes and what if anything is the drawback in teaming up?

Thereâ??s several ways to team up in City of Heroes. The first, and most common, way is the ad hoc team up. One player meets one or more players and they decide to do something together. A maximum of eight people can team up in this fashion; an XP bonus is given for every person in the team.

The most innovative team up method in City of Heroes is our Sidekick system. A high level player can â??sidekickâ?? with a low level character and artificially raises the Sidekickâ??s level. This means that one friend whoâ??s been playing awhile can talk his buddies into starting the game â?“ and they can all still adventure together! This was a frequent problem I personally had in other games. By the time that I became interested in the MMP, or been convinced to play by others, my friends were on levels so much higher than me that I really couldnâ??t enjoy playing. Our Sidekick system solves this issue.

In addition to our Sidekicks, we recently added the â??Exemplarâ?? system. This is the converse of sidekicking: a high level character can lower his level to match another player. This means that a high level character can help his lower level friend on beginning quests. It also means that the high level character can go back and content that he may have missed the first time.

Lastly, thereâ??s our Super Groups. Players can form permanent teams with up to 75 other members. Super Groups possess their own chat channel so that members can find one another quickly. In addition, Super Groups can have their own costumes with group colours and insignia. In the forthcoming City of Villains, Super Groups will be able to build their own headquarters.

TVG: Are there plot lines and an evolving story running through the game and how did you go about creating Paragon City? It must have been an immense task to do this, and how often can you update the city!

Much of the early work was done by one of the founders, Rick Dakan. Heâ??s also the author of the City of Heroes comic book that US subscribers are enjoying so much. His imagination inspired much of what would become the storyline of the game today. There are 500 or so individual missions that slowly reveal the hidden history of the city and its denizens. Today, we have Sean Fish guiding most of the storyline. With each free expansion, weâ??re adding to the gameâ??s rich mythology and slowly moving the story forward. In fact, Issue 3: A Council of War is all about world changing events that will affect every single hero in Paragon City.

TVG: What has inspired the game and why do you think no one has ever done this, great idea, before online?

I think the inspiration is pretty obvious: comic books. After all, who among us hasnâ??t read a comic book? Since childhood, most people have dreamed of having at least one super power. The game seemed like an obvious good idea.

There are two major reasons why no one has done it before. First, MMP games are VERY expensive (at least ten million U.S. dollars). Publishers, who fund development, want to make sure that they make their investment back, plus a reasonable profit. Thatâ??s all quite fair. But the cost, and the development time, already presents huge risks. When you look at sales, fantasy RPGs and MMPs are a known quantity. Thereâ??s little risk involved on that end. A publisher, already dealing with huge costs, doesnâ??t want to venture into a brand new genre.

Secondly, superhero games are associated with comic books â?“and thus are further associated with â??childrenâ??. The previous generation disdains comic books as a form of literature and entertainment â?“ and these were the very people making the decisions at the big publishers. Now this attitude is changing. The success of the X-Men and Spider-Man movies has demonstrated that comics arenâ??t just for kids â?“ theyâ??re for everyone. People can see that a super hero product can sell in the mass market.

TVG: Apart from the great idea and customization what other aspect do you believe you are adding to the online community?

I think weâ??ve challenged a lot of commonly held beliefs about massively multiplayer games. Weâ??re stretched the medium a bit so that the term â??MMPâ?? and certain game mechanics arenâ??t interwoven. Up until City of Heroes, the MMPâ??s essentially offered the same game experience. It was almost like a checklist of features. But City of Heroes has succeeded not by following a particular recipe or formula; it seeks only to be fun. And thatâ??s worked well for us. Hopefully, other developers will follow suit â?“ and the MMP medium will cease to have a strangehold on the game design.

TVG: Will you be making any changes for the European audience and what have you learnt already from its US release and have you any surprises in store for the next 6 months pertaining to the game?

Aside from language localization, the game is going to be exactly the same for Americans and Europeans. Paragon City is a metropolis for not just a single nation, but the entire world. The heroes of every country are needed to battle against the forces of evil. In the coming months, players will start seeing Paragon Cityâ??s threats becoming more world spanning â?“ and heroes themselves will be going across the globe to protect humanity.

TVG would like to thank Jack Emmert for answering our questions and providing a glimpse into the world of City of Heroes.

City of Heroes is scheduled for a European release in February; weâ??ll have more on the title soon.