Champions PvP Details Released

ThomasN7

Details of PvP play in Champions Online have been unveiled by executive producer Bill Roper. Speaking at a press event in San Francisco last night, Roper and various members of Cryptic’s senior team showed the game’s progress, with a strong emphasis on Player vs Player action.

Roper talked about how the game’s dueling system works as well as the three main elements of PvP. 1) Unsanctioned ‘Bash’ all-on-all arenas. 2) Sanctioned televised fighting contests for single or team-play. 3) Break-out scenarios between two large teams attempting to defeat each others’ leaders.

Here’s the full transcript from Bill’s PvP presentation

How can you do PvP in Champions Online? Heroes don’t fight other heroes, right? Actually - totally covered in the Champions world. As an homage to the creators of Champions, a company called Hero Games, we have…The Hero Games. It’s basically an umbrella framework of sanctioned and unsanctioned hero versus hero combat and it’s scoped from head-to-head play all the way up to big team tournaments.

So we have to make sure the player can go where they want [and duel] So you can select dueling, a giant rocket lands [actually. crashes on the ground in front of you], a forcefield appears around you, and now it’s ON between the two heroes.

It works a lot like a sumo match, but you don’t have to throw any salt or be fat. What it means is that if anyone steps outside or is forced outside of the dome they lose, or if your health is reduced to zero you lose.

The idea is we want players to go anywhere in the world and if they want to test their skills against the other players you can throw down and you can duel.

It’s a lot more difficult than it seems technically because we have to make sure that other players are locked out from helping you or hurting you. But it’s really fun. Since you can duel anywhere you can pick where you want to fight like a safer area or you can pick a dangerous area.

But dueling is just the first step in what we do for PvP. There are actually three different types of PvP that we focus on. Bash is set in a district outside Millennium City called West Side which is kind of the scary not so nice part of town. It’s total free for all. Every hero goes in there for themselves. It’s set in a place that also has NPCs so you can be hitting those NPCs trying to get boosts and different item drops to help you out. But it’s not just the other heroes there that are dangerous.

Bash is an unsanctioned event outside the Hero Games. We know that there are some heroes who like to mix it up in a down and dirty street fighting way and that’s where they go.

The second thing you would see is the Millennium City Ultimate Tournament of Champions. It’s sanctioned, it’s televised, it’s got sponsors and that is designed as a really cool thing for players to go in singularly or you can go in as a team of five, already set up or just joining a queue and pop in.

We want to allow players to join in PvP from anywhere in the world. We don’t want to make you have to go anywhere to do that so on the frame around the mini map you’ll see a fist and when you select that you go into a queue and that allows you to join in on any kind of map. Then it just comes up and says ‘hey you’re ready to go in now’ which is really friendly and easy.

There is also an entire reward system specifically designed for PvP. As you go through you’ll earn by defeating other heroes in the arena or on Bash or other maps. This gives you a different type of resource economy which you can spend to get different items, some of which are pretty sick and showy.

We wanted to make PvP a real option for players and not leave their character growth behind and so they can PvP before they hit their maximum level. You can gain experience by playing PvP. If you are gaining experience in the world you are learning that same stuff by fighting other heroes.

The last map is called Apocalypse. The concept behind Apocalypse maps is they are getting you reedy for some type of end of world scenario. One side is the heroes, one side plays the villains. The heroes are trying to stop a break-out [from the Stronghold prison]. There are ways to activate heroes [and villains] to help you, different guns and reinforcements located throughout. You can use different elements of the world. You are trying to take out the two leaders of the other side, using different ways of attacks.

After Bill’s presentation, assembled journos broke up to scoff tasty treats before engaging in some PvP action themselves, in an attempt to win a Champions Online snowboard.

Source: championsonlinedailynews.com/pvp-details-released/