City of Heroes Interview

[GameBanshee News]

WarCry has interviewed Matt Miller & Floyd Grubb about issue 12 of City of Heroes, and more.

This tighter focus and increased budget has allowed them to do some of the things they always wanted to do, but never could quite fit into a past issue. The main one for Issue 12 is Epic Villain Archetypes.

"It's something we've always wanted to do ever since we released City of Villains," explained Miller, who served in a similar capacity at Cryptic. "They would usually be the first thing on the cutting room floor because they're not accessible to all the players."

And it's true. This is largely content for level characters in the Villains half of the game only, but it balances things out between the Heroes - who've had their own Epic Archetypes for quite some time - and the Villains. Miller directly credited the proceeds from that wedding pack they released for making Epic Villain Archetypes possible.

The expansion unlocks the Blood Widow and Wolf Spider archetypes for all villains. They first specialize at mid-career, with the Blood Widows being a lighter, martial arts driven choice and the Wolf Spiders being the heavier, shock-trooper types.

For those who go down the Wolf Spider route, they have the choice between Crab Spider and Bane Spider at level 24.

"This is the first archetype that we've designed that halfway through their career they get to choose what path they're going to go down," Grubb told us.