The newest Ask Cryptic segment answers a ton of questions about Champions Online, from PvP and stats to instances and spammers. Cookie-cutter builds in PvP are always inevitable "to a certain degree," but the fact that the game is based on powers instead of classes should help foster creativity. As far as travel powers in PvP are concerned, the dev team is focusing on options such as more travel power-disabling abilities to help "even the odds."

As for instances, more than 80 new patrol mission maps, which are tasks you get from citizens, have been added to Millennium City in response to beta feedback. Players can help ban spammers by reporting spam, and players can also restrict their email and chat to only talk to friends. The Q&A also gives details on the eight stats, or Characteristics, for each character: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Ego, Presence, Recovery and Endurance.

The Ask Cryptic segment covered a bunch of other topics, and you can read all of the answers after the jump.

Are cutscenes going to be included with our quests and story arcs? (Shaolinwind)

Yes. Cutscenes appear in many locations for dramatic interludes, to give clues to players, and to setup boss fights. Each of the major zones will also have a flyover cutscene that introduces newly arrived heroes to the area and sets the scene for the mission arcs in the zone.

As a player who works a normal 8-5 job, will I feel left behind by those whom I play with that are able to dedicate more time with the game? (Realaride)

Not at all! We have a system in place that allows you to play with higher level or lower-level players by temporarily raising or lowering your level to that of the team leader. Even if your friends get ahead of you in level you'll still will be able to team up with them!

Are all powers viable in PvP or will we be seeing just a handful of cookie-cutter builds? (Sspider)

I spent a pretty good amount of time thinking about PvP related issues and believe that all our powers are individually PvP viable (some even more so than PvE viable) but that the emergence of a cookie-cutter mentality is inevitable to a certain degree. The nice thing about a non-class based design however is that we are somewhat insulated because of a la carte powers selection; most of the cookie-cutter combinations will consist of two or three powers instead of complete builds.

Will travel powers be usable in PvP? If so, what is done to ensure a fair level of balance between the different travel powers? (Sspider)

We’re attempting to make, as far as possible, all of the powers balance against each other purely on their own merits; control vs. velocity, for example. We will also be adding an energy build penalty to all of the travel powers (not explicitly a cost, simply slowing down the rate at which you can build or recover energy) which will vary between the powers based on their utility. Finally, we are also adding more travel – power disabling effects to the game, particularly to “pick up and throw” type powers, to further help “even the odds”.

Will instanced missions be on designed maps (that is, maps created especially for the mission, as in WoW or LotRO), or on generic maps (as in CoX)? (JonboyDC)

A little of both. The maps for missions that are part of directed story arcs are all created specifically for these missions by a designer. In response to beta players’ feedback that they wanted to see more instanced content, we added over 80 new patrol mission maps to Millennium City. Patrol missions are missions your hero can get from well-meaning citizens while out cleaning up the city's streets. The maps for these missions were generated from themed kits like sewer, office, high tech lab, and so on. Each patrol mission got its own unique map--you won't see the same map layout being used over and over for multiple missions. We will be adding more of these maps to other areas of the game as we move closer to launch.

If you had to pick your favourite power in the game at the moment, what would it be? Could you tell us something about it and why it's your favourite? (MrMotivator)

We'd have to say Power Armor, not only is it visually impressive (lasers, rockets, micro-missiles, etc.) but it allows you to lock down multiple targets with different weapon systems! Great stuff!

How are the regions separated for CO? I live in the US for example...am I able to play with people that live in Europe, or do we each need to collaborate on buying the same copies? (mintut0182)

We plan on Champions Online to have only one great big shard worldwide. There should be no need to make sure you all get copies from the same region, you can all play together.

What is Champions Online's philosophy regarding releasing additional power sets after release? Is it definitely something that will happen? Is there a timetable of how often you would like to release them? (Spiritbrand)

We know that the super powers are always something that fans want to see more of, and we want to give the community more of what they want! We plan to regularly release new groups of powers every few months.

What will be the limit to the number of characters that can be created per account? (Damonta)

As in every MMO, we will have a limit on the numbers of characters per account. We haven’t set that number yet, but when we get to those last details, we’ll be sure to let you know.

What measures will be taken to prevent spam/gold farmers from getting in the way? (Gerzel)

Our customer service and billing teams have a variety of tools (both automated and manual) for trying to control spammers and gold farmers. Players can help ban spammers by reporting spam in both chat and mail messages. Players may also restrict their email and chat so that they can only receive communication from friends and supergroup members. Of course, you can also ignore individuals who you find vexing, even if they aren't spammers.

It’s been mentioned several times and hinted at, but what are the "stats" for our champions and how do they affect us? (LonewolfXIII)

Champions Online has 8 “stats” that affect your champion. In order to stay true to the Champions universe we’ll be calling these stats Characteristics. Over the course of your champions adventures they will receive a small number of major boosts to those characteristics and a bunch of minor characteristic boosts. We’re still tweaking the number and size of these boosts so there aren’t specific numbers we’re prepared to give out just yet. The 8 characteristics for your champion and their function are:

• Strength – This improves the knockback abilities, knockback resistance, ability to break out of tangible holds, and affects what items your champion is able to pick-up and throw.
• Dexterity – This improves your champion’s chance to land a critical attack and increases their chance to avoid attacks.
• Constitution – This increases the health of your champion.
• Intelligence – Increases the damage done by any combat pets your champion has, modifies the cooldown speed of powers, improves stealth detection and affects the energy cost of your champion’s powers.
• Ego – Increases the damage your critical hits deal, improves the strength of hold powers, and increases the ability to break out of intangible holds.
• Presence – Affects the amount of threat your champion generates and the amount of health your pets have.
• Recovery – Determines the energy equilibrium for your champion and affects the rate your energy generating attacks grant energy.
• Endurance – Determines the maximum energy of your champion and affects the rate your energy generating attacks grant energy.