Design Director and Executive Producer Bill Roper has given his weekly State of the Game address to beta players, and perhaps the most noteworthy segment of his letter focuses on micro-transactions and how they will be utilized in Champions Online.

According to Roper, the game is not "based" on micro-transactions. Instead, they simply give players access to items and tools that are helpful or fun, but are not game-breakers. They should "never limit your ability to enjoy the game or reach the level cap." The majority of items you can buy are simply aesthetic, such as emblems and costume pieces, and you will be able to purchase some account tools, including one to change your character's name. In addition, any micro-transaction that has a game effect can also be earned through in-game actions.

You can read the rest of Roper's letter, which also discusses dangerous UNITY missions, after the jump.

As usual there’s lots going on around Cryptic HQ and we’re pushing like crazy to get things out into the beta test. This runs the gamut from upgrade/item and powers balancing to combat changes to re-integrating systems back into the game to… well, suffice it to say it’s a BIG list. You’ll see some of these mentioned below, and if I haven’t talked about it yet that doesn’t mean it’s fallen off the radar. It just means we’re still working on it and we haven’t got it in for beta testers yet. We’re reading what you’re all saying and are working very hard to address your concerns as best we can.

On another note, we know that some of our community is upset that even we get scoped on news sometimes. It’s an unfortunate side effect of trying to coordinate all of the PR and community efforts of a highly-anticipated game while having lots of people looking to get out anything they can on Champions. We strive to be your first, best source for information, but sometimes even our best intentions are thwarted.

Alright, enough of this jibber-jabber – let’s make with the update!

Nemesis Rides Again!

After much work, the Nemesis system has returned to the beta. Heroes of level 25 or above should see Detective Martin outside the Millennium City Police Station.

The Skinny on Micro-transactions

Champions Online will support micro-transactions, but contrary to the concerns of some people, the game is not ‘based’ on them. There are the basic tenets for our micro-transactions:

• The vast majority are aesthetic items, such as costume pieces, action figures, emblems, etc.
• A very few are account-level management tools, such as being able to rename a character
• Micro-transactions should never limit your ability to enjoy the game or reach the level cap
• Any micro-transaction that has a game effect can also be earned in the game through play

Also, it’s important to note that the overwhelming majority of micro-transactions are account-wide. This means if you buy a costume piece or an action figure, every character on your account gets it.

Finally, many of the pre-order programs that we’re finalizing now have cryptic points associated with them. This is a way for us to allow our players to choose their own pre-order reward(s) which falls into our whole customization concept for Champions Online.

The Omega System - UNITY Missions

Once a hero reaches the upper-most levels of recognition (level 40) they can begin going on UNITY missions. These represent the most dangerous operations heroes can go on, and will be even more challenging (and rewarding) for teams of heroes. Each day UNITY transmits a list of five different global hot-spots that require high-powered attention. Once these missions are completed, a sixth custom mission is revealed. Completion of these missions earns the hero commendations within UNITY that then allows them to receive special upgrades or enter into high-end team areas with appropriately high-end rewards. There are also many goals within Crafting, Nemesis, PvP, and Perks that are designed to reward long-term Omega System players. And of course, we’ll be adding more elements in this vein all the time.

How Many Characters Can I Make?

We’ve currently set the character creation limit in beta to eight (8) characters. This is certainly not the uppermost number of character slots an account can have as we’ve designed rewards in the game that open up more character slots on an account level. In short, players will easily be able to earn more character slots just by playing.

Traveling, Endurance, and You

We’ve been doing some tuning in regards to travel powers and how they interact with combat. We’ve also heard your cries and will continue to work on less pain-inducing solutions to the issues we’re trying to address. Stick with us, kids – we’re not done yet. And as always, keep up the feedback.

B.A.S.H.

A new mode of PvP is in for testing, so click that queue button and battle it out in B.A.S.H.!

Stepping up Testing

In the near future we’re having a special SERVERS UP ALL WEEKEND event, so beta testers should keep their eyes glued to the forums for a date and times announcement.