Champions Online Forum Tidbits

The official Champions Online website put together an overview of some of the questions answered on the Champions Online forum recently.
How do you intend to avoid Archvillain fights that are nothing more than high hit point slugouts? (Ex_Machina)

Arkayne: Excellent question, Ex_Machina! One of the things we learned from previous MMOs is that while a bag o'hit points villain is fun to take down once in awhile, you also need more interesting boss fights. As part of the Nemesis system, there will be special "Showdown" scenarios based on forced confrontations with your Nemesis and his or her minions. The scenario differs each time with different objectives so it'll keep your Nemesis fights interesting.

What will the "death penalty" be? (Hythian)

Arkayne: The "death penalty" is fairly simple, Hythian. After a player is defeated, he or she can choose to wait until another nearby player with healilng powers puts them back in the fight. Failing that, the player can choose to go to a nearby recovery point. Those points are spread throughout zones and instance maps.

Regardless of what the player chooses to do, they have to pay a small price for defeat: equipment damage. Equipment has a certain degree of durability associated with it. Whenever a player is defeated the equipment they are wearing suffers a durability loss. If the durability of an item is reduced to 0, it stops functioning until it is repaired. Equipment can be repaired for a resource cost at most hero safe areas throughout the game.