The Champions Online news keeps pouring in as we close in on the Sept. 1 launch date. Design Director Bill Roper has written his newest State of the Game address and it covers a ton of topics, from powers, to balance issues, to the addition of an in-game mail system. You'll even be able to update your Twitter while playing Champions Online using the /tweet command. You can read his full letter after the jump.

According to today's post on the Champions Online Daily News blog, it looks like the open beta will begin in the middle of August. This has not been 100% confirmed by Cryptic yet, however. Colin Campbell found this out while visiting Cryptic Headquarters and mentions work on a "secret" third project by the company in addition to Champions and Star Trek Online.

Lastly, check out the newest Champions Online trailer on Game Trailers. This one focuses on lairs in the game.

Apologies for the delay in posting, but it's been CRAZY busy here this week, and I mean that in the good way. I'll bypass the usual hyperbole and salutations (see mom, I paid attention in college) and head right into the meat of this week's update!

Telekinetic Goodness

We’re getting some last minute tech in to kick things up with the Telekinesis Power Set. More specifically, being able to pick up and throw objects in the world with your mind. This wasn’t as simple as it sounds (if that even makes sense to non-supers) but the basic mechanic is that you’ll want to increase your EGO to lift heavier and heavier objects, just like you boost your STR to physically pick up things in the world.

You should also be seeing another related (and very nifty) bit of polish in the game. Enemies and heroes that use powers which grab chunks of the world to hurl at their targets, those chunks will be representative of where they are. Concrete with steel pipes in the city, brownish rocks in the desert, ice floes in Canada, etc.

Powers Down! Powers Down!

It seems we have some very aberrant behavior in regards to certain enemies that can negate powers. The design is that certain enemies can knock you out of your travel power as a tactical maneuver, but it seems that a nasty bug has crept into the system. So not only are more enemy types than originally intended doing this, but they’re also turning off other types of powers, including defenses! We’re on it, and will have this sorted out ASAP.

That Whole Melee vs. Ranged / Air vs. Ground Thing

We are very aware of the balance issues in the game, including the disparities between melee and ranged attacks, as well as the differences in air and ground-based combat. We’re currently pushing the final major changes to the Munitions power out to QA, and then the powers team / combat team will be rolling on to overall balance issues. We are currently implementing and testing solutions internally for these issues with the intention of getting solutions out to the beta testers as soon as possible. Keep letting us know what you’re taking for builds, which powers seem over-balanced, and which ones feel good, as well!

You’ve Got Mail

The in-game mail system is live. You can access and transmit messages from anywhere in the world by clicking the envelope icon in your mini-map frame. If you want to pick up and send packages (items attached to emails) you need to go to an UNTIL terminal. They’re not reading your mail or tracking your packages, so please hold your “I don’t work for the man” comments. This is THEM working for YOU!

Making More Sense of Powers

There are many new, clearer descriptions pouring on for every power in the game right now, and we’re still working on the big UI overhaul to make the flow simpler to follow without losing any of the power and potential of the system. Some of it is in for the beta test now, and next week will see that greatly cleaned up with more on the way. We need our beta testers to let us know if what we’re putting in makes sense so we can provide the best level of communication and direction possible when you’re choosing your powers.

Monster Island and Lemuria – Let the Crisis Begin

There were a host of comments about the new crisis zones on the boards, but unfortunately the vast majority came from people who only read the tutorial on it and didn’t actually experience it yet. We know you’re probably still getting your characters up to level to get there, but I wanted to address some of the questions brought up.

Are we being forced to group for the new content?

No one is “forced” to group to do these missions as you never have to actually team up since the entire Crisis zones are crafted as huge, exciting open missions. This means that even when you are sent into a crisis area with other heroes, you can be a lone wolf as with any open mission. Also, if no one joins your queue within 3 minutes, you will launch into the map alone, so we never force you to sit and wait forever until a certain number of players arrive.

You mean I don’t need 5 heroes to launch into the Monster Island or Lemuria crisis zones?

These maps launch automatically when you hit certain plateaus (3 heroes in a Monster Island queue, 4 for Lemuria. But if you are under that “minimum” number at the end of 3 minutes from when you entered a queue, the map starts regardless with as many people as are ready to go.

I can’t repeat the other Crisis zones, but these really should be repeatable, especially since they’re such cool content. What can you do for me, Cryptic?

We’ve just finished some tech for just this, so players will be able to repeat the Monster Island and Lemurian crisis zones. Repeating them won’t get you all of the special and unique rewards from the first time around, but you’ll be able to experience them again. This was possible because they are an open mission format, which is repeatable by nature. Unfortunately we can’t go back and retrofit the other Crisis zones in the same way.

Hey, I played! What about what I had to say?

We got some really positive feedback from players that did manage to get into the news zone, with our favorite being, “It’s awesome that you’re able to rely on an Open Mission format for these crisis zones.”

We agree!

Giving Those Street Thugs Purpose

Another area we’re in process on is giving the streets of Millennium city even more life. The civilians are getting an interaction pass, meaning you won’t have to prompt them to talk to you, and they’ll care more about their environment. We’ll also be doing a pass on the various thugs and gangs and villains loitering around the town so they are committing more serious crimes than loitering.

Ouch, My Head!

We’re checking in a physics fix that should keep our super jumping heroes heads out of the ceiling. This tweaking will also make characters slide where they should, like when trying to get up a very steep slope, for example.

Do Heroes Tweet?

And in the realm of a totally cool and completely unexpected feature, you’ll be able to send status message updates to your Twitter account via a /tweet command within Champions Online! When this goes live in the beta test, we’ll give you full instructions on how to link your game account to your Twitter account and send messages.

See you online, Champions!