Roper Leaving Cryptic

So this little bit of news just came across my Twitter feed: Bill Roper is leaving Cryptic (or the Champions version). It was only a few weeks ago that Craig Zinkievich resigned as well. Does this mean bad things for Cryptic?

Of course there’s a lot of speculation about an exodus of people from Cryptic, and what it might mean for the company’s future. So far, I think all of the personnel changes have been very positive. I’ve been much happier with Champions since Shannon took over, and while I was happy with Zinc’s tenure at STO, I’ve been even more impressed with Stahl.

Like anything that happens within a private company, we’ll probably never know for sure. Personally, I’m much less concerned by this than I was by Zinc’s departure. First, Roper left his position as Executive Producer of Champions back in March and Shannon Posniewski has (for whatever reason) done a much improved job. Second, Bill has been a lightning rod for bad press since he started as Cryptic. A lot of that is fallout from the failure of Flagship Studios, but the launch day nerf and Vibora Bay announcement also contributed a lot of bad PR. So, while his departure may impact whatever Cryptic has in development, I don’t see it having any impact on their released games. Deserved or not, Roper’s name comes with a lot of baggage attached, and it can only help Cryptic not to have to deal with that anymore.

Millennium City Summer

As Anjin noted recently, Cryptic has been very quiet about Champions Online since the Serpent Lantern update last month. I don’t mean that I was expecting another update, but just that it would’ve been nice to have an idea of where the dev’s were focusing for the next major patch to the game.

Thankfully Poz has released a State of the Game that outlines the planned Summer Update for August 17th and a sneak peak at the next adventure pack, The Demonflame.

Summer Update

  • Super Groups are getting a revamp of their UI that looks very similar to the Fleet screens in Star Trek Online.
  • The Renaissance Center is being remodeled to provide better feng shui for social activities.
  • New emotes (20+) and a better UI screen.
  • C-Store UI update, there were no screenshots included but I’m betting it’ll match the recent update in STO.
  • Costume creator will have more tights options in the costume creator (something I’m looking forward to) and more high heeled shoes and boots for females.
  • A new difficulty setting above Very Hard, I vote for Are You Happy Yet?

Like the recent melee powers update that took place, Cryptic is also working on a revamp of the pet systems. This includes a more explicit way of controlling pets, an increase in the damage they do, and a new mechanic for keeping them powered.

I’ve not played with the pet powers at all, but I’ve heard that there are also problems with the pathing and having to resummon all pets when one dies. Hopefully these changes will help with those problems as well.

The Demonflame

Scheduled for the end of September, The Demonflame focuses on DEMON similarly to how The Serpent Lantern focused on Viper. We’ll be going to the Qliphotic realm and battling a new monster group. Check out the screenshots on the site.

Bullet points provided courtesy of Anjin, Inc.

Silver Hunter and the Serpent Lantern

Serpent Lantern, the first Adventure Pack from Cryptic Studios for Champions Online, came out last week. I’d been looking forward to trying out the new content, even though my level-capped Silver Hunter still has quite a bit to do in Vibora Bay. I’ve been spending more time in the Alpha Quadrant and Middle-earth than Millennium City, recent and I was looking to SL to reawaken my interest.
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Poz on No Prisoners, No Mercy

I listen to a lot of podcasts. One of my favorites is No Prisoners, No Mercy hosted by two nuns (not kidding), Sr. Julie and Sr. Fran. The Sisters have had a lot of good interviews with MMO developers in the past, including Bill Roper, Paul Barnett, and Richard Bartle. Their most recent is with Champions Executive Producer Shannon Posniewski, Poz on the forums.

It’s a great listen if you want to figure out how to pronounce his name and find out a little more about him, which I did enjoy. There’s also some interesting information in the interview about the Revelation expanion and the communication issues from the first part of this year. Go check it out.

No Prisoners, No Mercy #59 – Meet “The Poz”

Evolution of the Silver Hunter

Making a character in City of Heroes and Champions Online is a creative endeavor for me, if I had any talent for art at all it would very much be like creating a comic book. I don’t just throw together a random set of costume pieces, pick an available name, and charge into the game. Sometimes, a hero name will spark my imagination, sometimes it’ll be a power, but usually it’s a specific costume piece.

Silver Hunter in the Paragon Age

The City of Heroes version of Silver Hunter was inspired by the head texture you see pictured below. The name, the powers, and the back-story all came afterwards. The texture made me think of a combination of the Vision, the Martian Manhunter, and the Silver Surfer.


click on the images above for larger versions

Silver Hunter in the Champion Age

When Champions Online launched, the Silver Hunter was the first hero I made. I originally tried to duplicate my CoH costume but couldn’t find any matching textures. Instead, I focused on the concept of an alien sentient android and started over. It took a few iterations, but I’m very happy with how the CO version turned out.


click on the images above for larger versions

Back-Story from CoH to CO

You can also see that the Silver Hunter’s back-story has changed quite a bit when you compare the short description I banged out for his Hero Registration card to the full story or the summary I’ve written for his Champions bio.

click on the images above for larger versions

Meet the Silver Hunter

The Silver Hunter appeared during the recent Qularr invasion in Millennium City and has since become a well known hero, culminating in his recent induction into UNITY.

Silver did not come to Earth to be a hero. His real name is Trissan Daan, and he is an alien known as a Nayrees. Nayrees are silicon-based lifeforms, sentient androids, native to the Andromeda Galaxy. Trissan is a Warden for the Precis Alliance, which function roughly similar to a United States Marshall. Wardens handle security for Alliance officials, protection of witnesses during Adjudication, and the tracking and retrieval of escaped prisoners. This last duty was the reason Trissan was passing through Earth orbit when the Qularr launched their invasion.

Daan was hunting an escaped scientist known as Dr. Mechan. Mechan was a radical scientist convicted of Crimes against Sentience for performing illegal and torturous experiments on hundreds of non-organic sentients. He had tracked Mechan to the Sol system where the scientist was hiding on the darkside of Earth’s moon. Mechan’s ship bolted from its orbit when Daan entered normal space and was lining up for a jump when the Qularr invasion fleet appeared. The Andromedan ships were assumed to be hostile and fired on by the Qularr, severely damaging both and forcing them to attempt emergency landings on the planet.

Daan landed in Millennium City and suffered only minor injuries, but his ship was completely unsalvageable. Even temporarily stranded, Daan’s first priority was to find and capture Mechan, but he could not ignore the Earthers plight during the Qularr attack on Millennium City, so he helped with the defense. The recognition Daan received for his heroics gave him the idea of becoming the Earth hero, Silver Hunter, both as a way to draw Mechan out of hiding and as a way to develop contacts and resources to assist in hunting the escaped scientist.

Mechan was less lucky and skillful in his landing. He was severely injured in the crash, his legs and arms crushed and most of his major organs damaged. He would have died except the automated systems he had rigged to conduct experiments while he fled Precis controlled space survived mostly intact. These automations allowed Mechan to rebuild his body with synthetic parts; his pathological obsession with artificial and non-biological life culminating in his transformation into the synthetic being known as Necromechan.

Since the defeat of the Qularr invasion, the Silver Hunter and Necromechan have met and fought several times. Each time, the battles have ended with Silver frustrating Necromechan’s plans and the villain either escaped or captured. Unfortunately for Silver Hunter, Necromechan always seems capable of escaping incarceration. By Precis law, Warden Daan must either be certain that Necromechan is permanently incarcerated or get permission to take him back to the Precis prison world before he can return home, so for now the Silver Hunter will remain a hero of Earth.

Max Level Hero

A few weeks later than some and much later than others, the Silver Hunter reached the level cap in Champions online last night. This is only the second game where I’ve hit the level cap, with LotRO being the other. Unfortunately Twitter sharing didn’t seem to be working so the level advancement wasn’t broadcast. Good thing I have a blog then.

I also finished the Vibora Bay crisis mission last night. Until now, the Monster Island crisis has been my favorite mission in the game, but Vibora Bay’s blown it away. This is one of the few times I’ve ever wanted to finish a mission arc just to see how the story comes out. I’m very much looking forward to exploring the zone proper now that I’ve completed the crisis.

Now that Silver is max level, I also have access  to the Unity missions and Nemesis Confrontation, and I’m looking forward to trying them both out. Plus, I really should finish up the character post about Silver that I’ve been working on forever.

DAW: Cryptic Studios

“MMO forums: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”

Okay, so that’s not quite how Obi Wan cautioned Luke, but it’s no less accurate. Of course that makes this thread all the more impressive. It is a 46 post, 5 page, (as of this writing) thread started by a community member asking the devs to post a surprising fact about themselves. Quite a few of the Cryptic staff have posted and nearly all the player posts are on topic and respectful. There’s one person asking about a problem but the they were very apologetic about derailing the thread, most surprisingly no one followed up to troll them for it.

So my thanks and today’s DAD go to the Cryptic Studios staff (community and dev), for their follow through on their promises of better communication with the community. It’s made the last two months of Champions Online much more enjoyable.

If you haven’t already, go checkout Scarybooster’s Developer Appreciation Week posts, and if you’re doing any yourself please send me and Scary a link.