Champions Online Executive Director Bill Roper has published a new State of the Game address that covers numerous topics, from new repeatable mission chains on Monster Island to new additions to the teaming system. Graphics performance should be better overall for players and a big mail fix should be hitting the live servers soon. The team is looking into how to make powers black and white and will adding information on the upcoming Celestial power set to the official site in the near future.

Roper also addressed the issue of balance in the game, which has been a touchy subject for players. "Our top concerns are what are concerning you as players. We're working as fast as we can to address issues, work on the overall balance of the game, and be as responsive to possible," Roper said. You can read his full letter below.

There’s a lot to cover this week, so let’s just dive right in like Armadillo tunneling his way into a bank vault.

More Content!

Monster Island has three new repeatable mission chains to help bridge our content gap there. These are unlike any of our other missions in that they’re designed as destinations you’ll revisit and will change over the course of several missions. Here’s a sneak peek!

The Hidden Base

Heroes discover the entrance to a secret base in Well’s Pass. None of their contacts know anything about the entrance so it’s up to the hero to check things out. What secret project lies deep within the VIPER base?

The Lost Caves

A series of lost caves has been discovered by the intrepid Paleontologist and television personality, Professor Plummet. His early reports have come back, stating that Elderworms have also found a way into the labyrinth of caves, and are using them as hunting grounds. Contact has been lost with the professor, and help is needed in finding him.

The Manimal Lab

A group of Manimals are behaving strangely and are guarding a nearby cave complex. Further investigation reveals a hidden laboratory that also acts as the prison for a highly intelligent rat Manimal named Professor Ratso.

We anticipate these mission chains will make their way to the Public Test Shard next week and we’ll need your help making sure they’re ready for release to the live servers.

Adding Some Meat to Team

We’re working on several new additions to the teaming system. We’re currently testing new UI that allows players to see the state of team missions even if they don’t have them. Upcoming additions (in development) include showing your team members’ current objectives on active missions and adding rewards for heroes that assist on missions, even if they don’t have the mission themselves.

Do You See What I See?

Graphics performance should be better overall for players. Some high-end users have experienced what appears to be a reduction in performance. But this is actually due to us fixing a bug where sliders that were set all the way up in certain categories weren’t actually providing that level of increase. Players with top-end graphic cards should retune their settings for maximum performance.

The Mail That Ate Sheboygan

Many fixes to our mail woes have already been pushed to the live servers, but one big one is currently on the Public Test Shard and will be pushed to the live servers ASAP. We also currently don’t have a way for players to send resources to other heroes. This is a known issue, and requires a tech solution to implement. I don’t have an ETA, but it’s on the list. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

The Balance of Power

We’re currently making passes on all the powers in the game and will be making changes designed to not just bring aberrant powers into line, but increase the effectiveness of those that need it. We’re also examining the best ways to inject more resources into the economy. Our top concerns are what are concerning you as players. We're working as fast as we can to address issues, work on the overall balance of the game, and be as responsive to possible. Keep hitting the forums with solid, constructive comments and we’ll keep working to make the game better and more balanced in both the PvE and PvP arenas.

Powers Aren’t Black / White – Yet…

We’re big fans of being able to shift the hue of powers into the realms of black and white. The issue is that these aren’t hues, but tints. This means that with the current way our color system works, you would see pure black or pure white colors as opposed to the grayscale subtleties required to give you the look you actually want. Basically, it requires some new engine technology, but we’re looking into how to make this happen.

Celestial Power Set

Along with some incredible events and rewards, there’s a new power set coming out with the Blood Moon event. The Celestial set is designed to provide assistance to allies and destruction to enemies. The power effects are amazing and the versatility of the set makes it both compelling as a single-focus set and also as supplementary powers to other builds. We’re going to be doing a special feature on the website in the upcoming weeks showing off the powers, so stay tuned for a detailed look.

Tutorial? We Don’t Need No Stinking Tutorial!

While it sounds simple, there are few things we had to design out to allow players to be able to skip past the tutorial if they’ve already done it once. It’s next up on the list for our content lead, and we’re hoping to have this onto the Public Test Shard as soon as next week.

Where the Duels Are(n’t)

We’ve heard your requests for our more social areas like Club Caprice and The Powerhouse to be duel-free zones. Both our content and programming teams are combining efforts to get this in as soon as possible.

A Room of Danger in the House of Power

We’re designing a new room for the Powerhouse where you can try out your powers against automated enemies. We’ll be sure to inform you when this moves to the Public Test Shard so you can help us test it out!

See you online, Champions!