City of Heroes Site Update & Interview

Cryptic Studios official website has only been open for business a little over a week now, but it has quite a bit of information, screenshots & two brand new gameplay movies in different resolutions of their new fantastic-looking MMORPG City of Heroes, due in the summer of next year.

The roleplaying hub that is RPGVault also fashioned an interview with Jack Emmert, a Game Designer working on the title. Here’s a few nuggets of interest:

Q: Moving on to the player characters, what are the steps involved in creating one? What choices will players have in selecting or modifying the starting character’s abilities, gender, physical features et al?

A: First, a player selects his gender. Then the player chooses the origin of his hero. We’ve created a number of rather broad categories that embrace the essence of super hero origins. The initial seven are Altered Human, Mutant, Superior Human, Magical Powers, Mystical Artifact, Cyberware, and Gadgeteer. The choice of origin is not cosmetic; each origin comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Some origin types might be able to get more powers, but those heroes won’t be able to advance those powers to their maximum. Other origins might be able to use their powers with less effort, but those powers might also cost more for them than other origin types. We will be going into depth into each origin type on our website over the coming months.

After choosing an origin, the player chooses a specified number of powers from our copious powers list. Then comes the especially fun part: costume creation. Every player will be able to choose from hundreds of different colors, patterns and geometries; this variation will allow literally millions of possible combinations. Don’t worry if you don’t want to go that route – we also have quickstart templates for those of you who want to leap right into the game. A player may then buy powers, skills, and backgrounds to create a unique character.