The July 1, 2009 'State of the Game' letter has been released by the Champions Online team. As the beta continues, these letters show off the changes made due to player input. Keep reading:

I wanted to address a couple of questions from the beta boards this week, talk about a couple of new features in the beta build, and tease some upcoming additions and re-introductions. So, without further ado, here's the skinny.

Energy... Rising...

In most comic book fights, there are exchanges of blows leading up to the biggest attacks. Sometimes, heroes (and enemies) lead in with a huge strike, and then follow it up with other powers that take less of their personal reserves to accomplish. We've designed the combat system for Champions Online to reflect this idea. Different powers have different energy costs associated with them, and some are designed to increase the amount of energy have in reserve so you can employ impressive alpha strikes. By focusing on certain characteristics and types of items, players can design characters that rely less and less on the concept of using smaller attacks to lead to bigger attacks. We're really starting to dive head first into the balance and pacing of this to make sure it's both a good game play mechanic and also really fun. Our beta players will be seeing a lot more direction and outreach from the powers and combat team in the near future to really get this action-based system honed.

Translations, Anyone?

We're currently getting all of our new power descriptions translated into French and German, so hang in there, EU players! We're a US-based team, so we obviously do all of our work in English first. We haven't forgotten about you - it just takes a little time for localization to catch up.

Head to the link listed above to read the rest!

Fans can also read about the latest profiled superhero, Amphibian, HERE.