Zombies! Ghouls! Ghastly monsters! All of those things are coming to Champions Online in the Blood Moon event, and ZAM has all the details (and more!) in our interview with Cryptic's Bill Roper.

With the eerie celebrations of Halloween on our doorstep, nearly every MMO on the market is gearing up some sort of spooky event for players to participate in. One of the most ghoulish is coming to Champions Online in the form of the “Blood Moon.” Along with the details of the event, ZAM sat down with Cryptic’s Bill Roper to discuss their post launch progress and what players can expect from the future of CO.

ZAM: Can you tell us a bit about the power balancing that went on over the past month? Isn’t beta testing supposed to take care of power balancing before the game goes live? Why did you feel it was appropriate to give out Retcons rather than simply forge ahead with the new power balances?

Bill Roper: While the goal is always to have a game come out perfect on launch, balance is an ongoing endeavor. We found some egregious issues with the overall balance of the game that simply had to be addressed after the head start period when we finally had enough data to see the problems and before the vast majority of our players entered the game. It was unfortunate that we had to make a global change in the overall balance at such an early time in the game’s life, and we’ve worked hard to not make of this magnitude again.

Since the game changed so dramatically, we felt it was justified in this specific instance to issue retcons to all of our players. While it isn’t our policy to just hand them out at the drop of a hat, in this case we felt it was needed.

ZAM: You’ve already made some additions to the game where gaps in the content were located. Do you have any other areas that you’re looking at where players might feel that they don’t have enough to do at a certain level?

Roper: We filled in the content shortages in the 31-34 range with some destination-based, repeatable missions on Monster Island. Along with the Blood Moon event, we’re also adding in a series of ARGENT-themed missions in Millennium City to address the potholes in the 18 – 21 level ranges. Additionally, we’re adding the ability to for heroes to do “Crossover Missions.” This allows any player to share a special version of a mission they’re on with another player even if that person isn’t eligible for the mission - has already completed it, doesn’t meet the pre-requisites, isn’t high enough level, etc. Crossover missions have reduced rewards for mission completion compared to the primary version of the mission, but since we haven’t had this in the game at all up until now, it’s all bonus experience and resources!

ZAM: The idea of “Assist Bonuses” and “getting XP from a mission you don’t have” (while in a group) seems like a great idea on paper. Why haven’t more games thought of this concept and do you think there will be any problems with the actual live results?

Roper: We’ve worked very hard to not have this be exploitable, and while a very few other games have tried this approach; our implementation is unique as far as we know. Being able to share virtually any mission with anyone is really awesome.

ZAM: Why did you feel like you needed to create a new room to test out powers and/or one that was free from dueling? Isn’t some of the appeal of the Power House the very social feeling you get from the area? If it’s too quiet, will players feel lonely?

Roper: The creation of The Powerhouse and all the changes we’ve made to it since launch have been a direct result of the feedback we’ve received from our players. We’re now looking into having a more public dueling area that isn’t in the main lobby (that was the huge complaint people had) to make this aspect of what is definitely a big social hub in the game even more along the lines of what our community wants.

ZAM: The Blood Moon event seems really appealing, especially since it’s relatively novel to have hordes of undead roaming around super hero cities. Will there be some sort of “ultimate conclusion” to the event, or is it just a freestanding holiday that will ultimately shut off without too much fanfare?

Roper: The different events in Blood Moon happen on and off on varying schedules, so there’s always something going on. We have a few tricks up our sleeves to make it really memorable for players, so hopefully everyone is excited about this as we are!

ZAM: Should we expect versions of Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and other sorts of holidays as we continue playing Champions?

Roper: Seasonal content is something that is really fun to create and play, so we’re looking for other time frames to hook this type of content on. We’re already working on a new, special type of Lair for November and in December we have a whole winter event planned out. And next year… well, that’s going to be something very special.

ZAM: In your estimation, how difficult will it be for players to unlock the Celestial power set? Is it going to be a challenging task that only a select few will be able to accomplish?

Roper: Any hero that frees all 13 of the trapped spirits of the fallen heroes in the Dawn of the Undead Heroes event gets a perk that unlocks the Celestial Set. And of course, once the event ends, we’ll make the new power set available for all players – so those that work at it can get access to these new powers early.

ZAM: What kind of action awaits us in the new PvP map, Zombie Apocalypse? From the name, it sounds like it might be more PvE focused than PvP? Will the map be staying after Blood Moon is over?

Roper: Zombie Apocalypse is designed a survival map where heroes gain points by staying alive and protecting a cabin in the frozen tundra of Canada from being overrun by the undead. One of the heroes entering the event starts on the side of the zombies, and as heroes fall, they join the zombie side. This is an incredibly fun PvP map, and it will be available after the Blood Moon event concludes.

ZAM: In your opinion, who is more powerful, the evil Undying Lord Takofanes or Dr. Destroyer?

Roper: That’s a really tough call. Takafanes is a master of the darkest of mystic arts, while Dr. Destroyer wields incredible technology. I just know I’d hate to face either of them alone!