If you missed the first Champions Online dev chat on Thursday, a user on the official forums has transcribed the chat for your reading pleasure. Since this is the first time fans have been able to talk to the devs in this type of format, most of the questions seem to focus on very general topics, such as raiding, the nemesis system, crafting, combat, and costume customization. You can read the full transcript after the jump.

If that's not enough Champions news for you, check out the new video showcasing the Stronghold PvP scenario on the official video gallery page, or take a look at the abilities you'll be able to use in the Power Armor set. You'll be able to toggle these weapons on and off, which means you can work on creating the best combos for a given situation. For example, turn on a hand weapon and a shoulder weapon and see how your enemy reacts.

<Cryptic_Daeke> If you'd like to chat during the devchat, feel free to join #talkchamps.
<Cryptic_Daeke> And now, I'd like to ask our special guests to introduce themselves, and tell us what you do for Champions.
<Cryptic_Arkayne> Hey there, my name is Randy Mosiondz and I'm the Lead Designer for Champions Online.
<Cryptic_Antiproton> Hey all, I'm Cormac Russell, I'm the Rewards Systems Designer for CO.
<Cryptic_Absinthe> WAZZUP fellow Champion freaks! I'm Christopher Chamberlain, and I'm the Art Lead for Champs.
<Cryptic_clena> I am Chris Lena and you can tell by me not having a fancy avatar name that I am a Producer and don't believe in fun.
<Cryptic_Absinthe> haha
<Cryptic_Daeke> I'm David Bass, Online Community Representative for Champions
<Cryptic_Balseraph> I'm Brian Urbanek, and I'm working on game balance WHILE WE SPEAK!
<Cryptic_Antiproton> he is, I can hear him typing.
<Cryptic_Balseraph> (er, "Systems Lead")
<Cryptic_Daeke> Is that everybody?
<Cryptic_Daeke> Awesome, let's jump in to some questions.

1.

<Cryptic_Daeke> What do you believe Champions Online brings to the MMORPG genre that other games simply have not? - Jason61991
<Cryptic_Arkayne> For one thing, Champions Online brings a more fast-paced combat gameplay where you are actively moving around, blocking attacks, and quickly recovering. Not a lot of downtime.
<Cryptic_Arkayne> We also tried to vary the exploration areas a lot more, and keep adding more with each update: cities, desert, other dimensions, etc.
<Cryptic_Arkayne> We also want to add more of a personal element to it by introducing player-customized content via the Nemesis system.
<Cryptic_Arkayne> Not to mention the fact you can mix and match different powers and themes!

2.

<Cryptic_Daeke> The Knockback system in the PnP added some fun when you hit someone really hard. ie, they would fly backwards and take damage if they hit anything along the way. Is there a simmilar system setup in CO? - Collapsingstar
<Cryptic_Balseraph> As of right now, it's not practical to link the physics simulation (ragdolling through the air) to the game mechanic effect (damage dealt)
<Cryptic_Balseraph> We've done some technical exploration, because we all are grooving on the idea of how cool it would be... but, at the moment, it's not something that we're going to do at this moment... we will be exploring it later.
<Cryptic_Antiproton> but there is a lot of knocking back, forward and up, it just doesn't cause additional damage
<Cryptic_Balseraph> At the moment, the knockback component of most powers is intended as a "light" control; an enemy who's hurtling through the air can't hurt you.
<Cryptic_Balseraph> One thing I did want to add.. while we have many enemies (such as GIANT MONSTERS) that are immune to knockback,
<Cryptic_Balseraph> your powers that inflict knockback WILL do more damage to those enemies to compensate for the "loss" of the knock componenent / effect.

3.

<Cryptic_Daeke> Darksoul - For Omega content will there be any large scale raids such as WoW with 25 players versus a series of raid bosses?
<Cryptic_clena> What is WoW?
<Cryptic_Antiproton> We've got several endgame 20 man raid bosses, yes
<Cryptic_Balseraph> (he was kidding. =p)
<Cryptic_Antiproton> we expect that part of endgame activity for players will involve fighting them

4.

<Cryptic_Daeke> Can other people see the nemesis i make and can they fight them?-LordGig
<Cryptic_Arkayne> Yup! Your Nemesis will show up and can be fought by other players and vice-versa.
<Cryptic_Arkayne> We're also looking at more integrated group-Nemesis battles... but we'll reveal a bit more on that later.

5.

<Cryptic_Daeke> Generic_Redshirt - Thanks for taking questions. Will you be able to sell or trade items you make in crafting or is it only for your personal use?
<Cryptic_Antiproton> Yes, the Research and Development system allows you to create both things you use yourself and things you can trade, sell or gift to other players.
<Cryptic_Antiproton> We've intentionally abstracted 'crafting' so you can make things like Techniques for Fighting Styles that you can give to a friend to represent having trained them in how to fight
<Cryptic_Antiproton> in addition to traditional sort of crafted things like making a piece of powered armor for your personal use.

6.

<Cryptic_Daeke> What will you be able to craft? Will you be able to alter abilities/powers? Or will it be more along the lines of crafting? - SaucyPirate
<Cryptic_Antiproton> You can craft a variety of different things: Upgrades for all slots on your character (These can be physical objects, like a mystic hammer that makes you mightier than normal, or conceptual like the aforementioned combat training). Generally those raise your stats. There are also crafted things that attach to your existing powers and enhance them.
<Cryptic_Antiproton> We also have consumables like damage shields and health restoring devices, and non-combat pets.

7.

<Cryptic_Daeke> I've noticed that certain Power Frameworks have ways to gain extra energy back. Like how Fire gains some for being around fires. So my question is this: Do you get these bonuses if you build a custom framework?
<Cryptic_Daeke> If so, how is it determined how much you gain? Do you gain energy from multiple power sets at the same time at the full rate? If so, how are chars that delve into multiple Power Sets not going to be severely OP? – Flak
<Cryptic_Balseraph> This was a good question. The secondary energy mechanics are explicitly built to require that you change your game play to work. For example, to get the most out of Fire’s “Thermal Reverberation”, which causes you to gain energy by absorbing ambient heat… you need to keep your enemies up and fighting after you’ve lit them on fire, since once they’re defeated, the fires go out.
<Cryptic_Balseraph> The final answer is that you can take multiple 2ndary energy builders, but it’s very, very hard to get the benefit of more than one at a time.

8.

<Cryptic_Daeke> Hello, I was wondering, how will the combat be in champions online? Will we aim, or will we have to click on someone and the attack is directed to them? - Angelyne
<Cryptic_Balseraph> Champions Online is an RPG first and foremost. Your hero’s ability to hit enemies is dependent on your hero’s skill, not yours. Targets can be manually selected, and if you have no enemy selected when you try to activate a power, our system will automatically select one for you (though it won’t attack him until you try to activate the power again). So, “click on someone”, only we made the clicking optional

9.

<Cryptic_Daeke> Darksoul - I've seen that you can earn unlockable costume parts through elements of the game, is it safe to assume that you can go back at anytime and change your costume, and will end game content drop costume parts as rewards?
<Cryptic_Antiproton> Yes, you definitely can go and alter your appearance during the game
<Cryptic_Antiproton> there is a tailor for doing costume changes. Likewise you can assign different weapon models to gun and melee powers, both from an initial open list, and unlocks you gain in various ways
<Cryptic_Arkayne> A lot of the weapon replaces a VERY cool.
<Cryptic_Antiproton> there are costume unlocks as part of the endgame crafted Upgrades, the PVP sets all unlock costumes, etc.
<Cryptic_Antiproton> The nemesis system and even perks can unlock costumes.
<Cryptic_Antiproton> Suffice to say you get lots of ways to keep customizing your character.

10.

<Cryptic_Daeke> No MMO (that I know of) has shipped with all of the features that the developers/creative team wanted to have in the game at launch. Other than new zones and new B.A.S.H/UTC maps (because we all know those are coming), what is your top priority feature/component that you would like to get in to the game, post-launch? - DocAmp
<Cryptic_Arkayne> That partially depends on feedback from the community. There's lots of things that we wanted to get based on feedback from the fan base but couldn't due to time or resources.
<Cryptic_Arkayne> New powers, costume options, more varied zones, new gameplay options are all things that we really want to put in upcoming updates.
<Cryptic_Arkayne> Secret IDs is a big feature we wanted to get in at launch but had to push out until post.

Goodbyes.

<Cryptic_Daeke> And with that, it's time to wrap up! I want to thank everyone for joining us today. If your question didn't get answered, we apologize. We'll be having more devchats in the near future, so hopefully everyone will get a chance to ask a question!
<Cryptic_Daeke> I feel like I'm forgetting something....oh yeah! Beta keys! We've randomly selected three people to receive beta keys. Congratulations to Cowbell, LordGig, and Darksoul! I'll be in touch in a little while.
<Cryptic_Daeke> Thanks again, everyone!
<Cryptic_Arkayne> Thanks folks!
<Cryptic_Balseraph> <waves>
<Cryptic_Awen> Thanks guys!