Interview, Part Three

City of Villains Designer David "Zeb" Cook concludes the series

Here in the final part Q&A with David "Zeb" Cook of Cryptic Studios, Neil Thompson wraps up the interview with a few more questions. City of Villains is due out on Halloween.

Getting PvP where we want it to be is no small concern for us. We want to make sure it feels fun for all sides. We've taken what we've learned from building, playing and watching the Arenas and improved on it. The different PvP zones are set at different power levels, so players will be more or less equal. There are goals and objectives in the PvP zones that do and don't relate to PvP itself. And each zone has different gameplay so that players can engage in the kind of action they want.

There are 5 new archetypes -- Brute, Stalker, Corrruptor, Dominator, and Mastermind. Most of these combine existing powersets with new powersets and all have an inherent power. Brutes have their damage go up the more they fight, masterminds improve the effectiveness of their minions when nearby, stalkers use stealth for devastating attacks, dominators can boost the power of their holds, and corruptors increase in damage the weaker their foes get. Of the power sets, many are reworked -- powers come available at different levels and with a few new powers thrown in (in this case we do rename the powerset so it won't be confusing). Mastermind is almost entirely new with various henchmen to summon and powersets to buff them with, but all of the archetypes have some differences.

Every good villain sometimes has a lackey, the CoV version of sidekicks. As far as villainy goes, it's always good to have someone to abuse-- er, train. Likewise, more powerful villains have been known to tag along to bail lesser companions out of trouble. In CoV we call them malefactors. It's an opportunity to demonstrate your obvious superiority -- "Hah, I'll help you crush these fools without even using my death ray eyes!"

For me, too many of them. I'm eager to get into PvP with a full server population of villains and heroes. I want to play through every mission with all the new art, play the new archetypes like mastermind and corruptor. But what really excites me most, because I'm a designer at heart, is to start figuring out how we can take all the new things we've done in CoV and push them even further in the future.

Let's see save people or crush your enemies under your heel. Hmmm....

Let's face it, villainy is so much fun.

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