Champions Online

The game is an action-oriented role-playing game inspired by popular massively multiplayer games. Successful attacks and blocks increase a power meter which can then be spent to unleash more powerful actions. Death and defeat is handled in a similar manner to City of Heroes, in which a player may choose to be revived by a teammate or respawn at a neutral site. Players may sometimes gain the services of computer-controlled sidekicks and NPCs. The game does not make use of functional armor or weapons, unlike most MMOs. Instead, clothing is chosen by the player, and damage and other stats are based on the character design, advancement, and gear. While some gear items may grant temporary powers or equipment or have a special visual effect, most simply provide stat enhancements without a visual representation. Reflecting the game's original design as a console game, characters also possess much fewer skills than other early MMOs; however, each skill can be customized with a variety of player-chosen "Advantages." The game features an "orb system" where enemies defeated by the player may drop orbs that temporarily benefit the hero's powers, life, or energy. Additionally, it includes basic non-combat crafting skills, based on Science, Arms, and Magic. Characters are granted at least one travel power, including a choice of swinging using grappling hooks, flying, rocket boot jumping, hover disks, super jump, super speed, teleportation, and acrobatics (fast running, leaps, and flips). Various power and cosmetic choices can be unlocked, either through gameplay or through lockboxes. Lockboxes are activated by keys that can be bought with game currency using real world money. Endgame content is available when the character reaches the level cap of 40. Locations The action takes place in the Champions universe, featuring Champions characters as NPCs. Regions include urban sprawls, a dinosaur-infested island, underground ruins, and underwater lairs. Each region in the game is composed of several "instances" with up to 35 players per instance at any one time. This allows the game to run on one huge virtual server and for players to travel freely between instances to join with other players, rather than the game being fragmented into different servers. Many missions take place within smaller instances created especially for a team entering them. These instances are reset if the player leaves and returns. It is possible to revisit the same region to redo some missions again and again. A special region called "the underground circuit" allows player vs. player competition. The player may also edit the colour and firing position of their powers, such as changing a power's energy animation from red to green or changing the animation to fire from the head instead of the palms. Another difference from most MMOs was the original elimination of any character class or archetype system; characters can take any skill or power. However, since the launch of the "Free for All" version of the game, freeform character creation was limited to Gold members (or free players willingly to spend a substantial amount of Zen, the game's premium currency) and several archetypes were introduced for both Gold (subscriber) members and Silver (free-to-play) members. The game also supports solo play throughout a hero's career if desired. Archetypes Fifteen archetypes are available for free to all members of this game, in addition to a bonus archetype that can be unlocked by reaching the level cap for the first time with any character. The game also features premium archetypes that can be obtained via the game store. Certain premium archetypes can be acquired without cost through participating in various game events, wherein players can earn event currency during specific times of the year such as Halloween or Christmas. At level 25, players can create their own custom Nemesis along with their minions using the same character creation system used to make the player's character, with added selections specifically for the Nemesis. The Nemesis's minions will then ambush the player's hero, providing clues and information leading to Nemesis missions and eventually a showdown with the player's Nemesis. After the player character defeats their nemesis, they put them in jail and are allowed to make more nemeses until they reach the limit, which is 18 nemeses. ==Development==