“Who’s idea was this anyway?”

It’s pretty safe to say that if it’s not Positron’s fault… it’s mine.

Hi. I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced. I’m Joe Morrissey, some call me Hero 1. I’m a senior designer and the lead writer on City of Heroes. I’ve been on the team just over a year now, coming on during the craziness of Issue 10, helping guide the vision of Issue 11 and now laying the foundation for what is issue 12, “The Midnight Hour”. But before I get into that, let me give you a little background about myself.

I’ve been a writer/designer for about 10 years now, starting at Blizzard North working on Diablo II, the expansion and anything else us “Northies” thought was a good idea at the time. From there I went over to Backbone and learned how to roll up my sleeves and get down and dirty in design. I worked on a number of handheld games the highlight of those being Death Jr. 2. About a year ago, my wife and I found out we were going to have our first kid and that meant a couple lifestyle changes needed to occur. The main one being a job much closer to home. I applied at Cryptic Studios and apparently I “interviewed well”, a fact Positron is quick to point out anytime that I make his life difficult.

“So, why the Midnight Hour?”

The Midnight Squad takes the main focus of this issue. They’ve got some of the coolest history, yet hardly any of it has been opened up to the players. I choose the Midnight Squad because they were seriously crippled by the invasion and therefore were extremely motivated to take action against the Rikti. We did a lot with the Rikti story for Issue 10, but it was only through the single lens of the Vanguard. Now we see a second perspective, through the eyes of those hardest hit from the invasion, the Midnighters.

Rather than retreating further back into their libraries, they are stepping out of the shadows and throwing their pipes and monocles into the fight against the Rikti. The Squad has always been a group of intellects who research, discuss and analyze the world of the unknown, but now they have a purpose. They have an enemy – an enemy who thought them important enough to attack first. An intelligent man might believe there was something to that, something the Midnighters can use to their advantage. Now all that knowledge and hidden power is being turned against the Rikti.

The image I have in my head is of a stodgy old Midnighter rolling a big crate out in front of the Freedom Phalanx. The lettering on the crate reads, “The Arc of the Covenant”. With a smile, the Midnighter asks the group of heroes, “You gentlemen think you could put this dusty old thing to use?”

The Midnight Squad is recruiting and sharing their knowledge with others. Now in the world’s hour of need, the clock strikes midnight. It’s the Midnight Hour.

The Rikti and the Wonderful World of Magic

The landscape of magic and the Rikti have changed. When the Rikti first attacked, they came after magic users first. This showed their hand to anyone paying attention. The Rikti’s greatest weakness was magic. Already the Vanguard use magic in their weapons, the Circle of Thorns are working on their own anti-Rikti spells and now we see what the Midnighters have up their sleeve.

This best comes to light in Montague Castanella’s story arc, “Lost and Found”. Montague is at the University in Steel Canyon. It’s a lower level arc, from 10 – 20, but you get to face Rikti, aid the new leader of Dawn Patrol “Lady Jane”, ally with both the Vanguard and the Traditionalists as well as craft an item that could change the landscape of the game. You get mixed up with a lot of stuff in this arc, which is one of the reasons why I like it so much.

However, one of the standout arcs this issue, if not of the past three I’ve worked on, has to be Darrin Wade’s “Midnight Draws Near”. Wade’s an ex-Midnighter who sells his knowledge and stolen relics in the Rogue Isle. Now the Midnighters come to town and he doesn’t much like it. What starts out as a simple enforcer mission, ends up revealing a darker side to the Rikti and eventually sending you into the belly of the beast against the Midnight Squad. There are a couple nice twists and turns in this arc, leading all the way up to your final conversation with Darrin Wade.

Let’s talk tech: Contextual dialog

Finally, I’d like to talk about some new tech for missions we’re rolling out this issue: Contextual dialog. Contacts can now know specific things about your character or the state of the mission you’re on and give you appropriate dialog to match it. I think almost every new story arc uses it in one way or another.

For example, in the Origin of Power arcs you talk to a representative of each of the five origins. When you get to the contact who is the same origin as you, he or she will have more in depth information for you regarding your specific origin. This new tech also allows for us to make NPCs in instanced maps feel more like actual contacts in the zone. We’re now able to change their dialog depending on events going on in the mission. A great example of this is the Sybil you speak with at the beginning of Imperious’ first mission in Cimerora. She has three different dialog states depending on where you are in the mission.

This tech actually has the potential to replace our current system for handling missions. The design team has a couple of other ways we plan to use contextual dialog but we’re going to have to keep those plans locked up for now.

Thanks for your time. I hope you enjoy the issue. If not, it was Positron’s fault.

Hero 1
Stay True

The City of Heroes / Villains Development Team is constantly looking at ways we can improve the overall gameplay and “quality of life” for the users playing in the game. One set of improvements that are included in the next upcoming free expansion, Issue 12: Midnight Hour, are to the User Interface and Costume Creator used to create new characters or alter existing character’s costumes.

First, let’s look at what’s changing in the User Interface to create a new character. The improvements are tied to Issue 12’s improved implementation of the “Real Numbers” feature. In Issue 12, players will be able to view the real numbers behind all of their powers.

To allow this, an easy to use button has been added to Character Creation “Show Detailed Info” in the middle of the power selection screen. By clicking this, you gain access to view all the numbers behind the powers in the list as you mouse over it.

What’s more, you can grab the slider at the top of the Detailed Info Display and slide it to various levels to see how the power scales up as you level up! In this picture, you can see how Vengeful Slice will function at level 31.

Also, you can see how the power changes against another player target by clicking the “Show PvP Effects” button.

With the many additions of costumes over the years to City of Heroes and City of Villains, it can be hard to find all the parts and pieces of various costume “sets.” For instance, you want to make a Jester themed character using the all of the various Jester costume items.

Currently, you’d need to look through all the different categories to find each of the Jester items. Now, you can simply go to the “Costume Sets” user interface and select which set you want from a convenient pull down list.

As you can see, there are many different sets to choose from on the pull down, and they make great starting off points to develop a new character costume. Of course, you can just go with the Random button and hope for something good too!

Everyone will have the opportunity to check out these improvements once we enter the closed beta. While you may not be able to log all the way into the closed beta, everyone who configures to connect to the Training Room Test Server will be able to get to character select and character creation to check out these great new improvements! 

Hello everyone!

I, Doctor Brainstorm, have unlocked the secrets of the universe! In the coming weeks you will see a lot of powers used by archetypes who never had access to them before, and I wanted to give you some forewarning of what you can expect/achieve with this new Powerset Proliferation!

With all the coming new powersets, I know you are anxious to find out who got what, and that is exactly what I am going to tell you. I will also go into a little detail on the “hows and whys” that certain choices were made.

From a development angle Plant Control just made sense for a Controller. I mean, it has the word “Control” right in the title! Controllers also get access to Thermal Radiation, to keep those spores, trees, and fly traps enveloped in the growing warmth of their own solar powers, as well as being a good thematic match to the current Fire Control powers they have access to.

With these formerly villain only powersets now in the hands of a heroic archetype, we also find out that the opposite is now true. Brutes get access to Battleaxes and War Maces, weapon-based powersets that they have been asking for. And with Issue 11’s Weapon Customization they have all the different implements of destruction at their disposal that Tankers do. For their secondary they get access to Super Reflexes, which is very good at helping them generate Fury while avoiding damage.

Now before I go on a lot of Brute players have been asking for Ice-based powers, and I should point out that in the City of Villains beta, there were… problems… with Ice Brutes. You see, when Ice attacks land, they tend to slow down the attacks of the opponent. For Tankers this is fine, but Brutes live and die by their Fury bar. The Fury bar relies on attacks coming in on you at a steady pace, and so slowing down that pace with Ice powers is self defeating. Ice Brutes had problems generating Fury, and so they were cut from City of Villains, and sadly won’t be returning, even in this new Proliferation.

Now on brighter news, Storm Summoning was a natural fit for Corruptors who want to be masters of the elements. Nothing better than corrupting Mother Nature herself with new, evil, uses for Gale, Freezing Rain, and Hurricane. With the addition of O2 Boost, we villains now have another avenue of healing available to us as well. To couple with that, Corruptors get Electrical Blast as a Primary power set for their lightning based attacks.

And that brings us to Psychic Blast Blasters. I know a lot of jaws dropped when they saw this was going to be a reality, but Psychic damage is one of those “all or little” damage types. It is either highly resisted, or not at all. The “newish” Secondary set of Mental Manipulation gives some moderate control options as well. This will shake up the PvP game for sure, and the developers will be keeping a VERY close eye on this powerset to make sure that it is not overpowered in the hands of Blasters.

And then there are other Archetypes we have not discussed at all before. Tankers will get Dark Armor and Dark Melee as Primary and Secondary powersets, so they have an avenue into Negative Energy damage that was previously unavailable to them. Scrappers get nice matched sets as well with Fiery Melee and Fiery Aura, another “newish” set allowing players to make better themed characters.

Stalkers get to share in their Brute cousin’s love for all things electrical with their own version of Electric Melee and Electric Armor. Assassin’s Strike and Hide have stealthily made their way into these powersets giving the Stalkers the tools they need and love.

I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss Dominators. They get access to Earth control, which of course keeps them grounded for their new access to Electricity Manipulation as well. All the villain electrical effects are of course tinted in the evil red that City of Villain players have come to be familiar with.

Finally Masterminds get access to the Storm Summoning Secondary powerset along with Corruptors. Yes, yes, I know a lot of Masterminds were looking forward to the possibility of Kinetics as their new choice, but the gods are not that crazy… yet. They will have to settle for the knockback of a well placed Gale or Hurricane instead.

Oh, I seem to have forgotten about Defenders. They now get access to Cold Domination and Ice Blast allowing them to put Ice and Glacial shields on their allies, as well as throw Ice Bolts and Freeze Rays. I always said it would be a cold day in Paragon City when Defenders would get access to Cold-based powers, and I guess my prediction came true!

There you have it, the final word on Power Proliferation… next week I will do my best to answer any burning questions you have left about these new powersets

List of New Primary and Secondary Powersets added in Issue 12

Blaster
New Primary - Psychic Blast
New Secondary - Mental Manipulation

Corruptor
New Primary - Electrical Blast
New Secondary - Storm Summoning

Controller
New Primary - Plant Control
New Secondary - Thermal Radiation

Dominator
New Primary - Earth Control
New Secondary - Electricity Manipulation

Defender
New Primary - Cold Domination
New Secondary - Ice Blast

Mastermind
New Secondary - Storm Summoning

Brute
New Primary - Battle Axe
New Primary - War Mace
New Secondary - Super Reflexes

Stalker
New Primary - Electric Melee
New Secondary - Electric Armor

Tank
New Primary - Dark Armor
New Secondary - Dark Melee

Scrapper
New Primary - Fiery Melee
New Secondary - Fiery Aura

Radio address to the Rogue Isles from Dr. Brainstorm

Ehhem, fellow super beings of the Rogue Isles, Dr. Brainstorm here.  I’m broadcasting from an undisclosed location to announce my latest breakthrough!

Many of you have inquired as to my whereabouts since I brought you the wonders of the invention system.  I have good news for you all!  Upon completion of the Hypothetical Framework the universe revealed to me a profound secret.

Late one night in my lab, as I placed the final piece of Rikti technology into the Hypothetical Framework, a glorious vision appeared before me.  The Framework revealed to me a mystical subterranean web, invisible to the naked eye.  This network represents the sacred geometry of the earth, threads of energy that converge to create vortices of power over particularly special places and even people.

Somehow my Hypothetical Framework opened an access portal onto this mystical network, an energy based control panel for super power distribution.  Knowing we must harness this newfound information, I built a monitoring system into every invention workbench.  Every time an invention is made, I am able to tap into the power network, gathering information about this mystical nexus.

Based on the information gathered through your workbenches, I have determined that every super powered being taps into these energy threads at their own resonance.  This individual frequency determines what powers each hero or villain can gain mastery over.  No matter our origin, each of us accesses our available powers in a unique way.

Since that day, I have diligently worked to alter these restrictions placed so unfairly upon us.

Using my newly built kinetic capacitor I discovered a way to alter the resonance of these energy strands.  After the er…massive release of energy generated in my lab with the kinetic capacitor, I appear to have sufficiently altered the resonance of these energy lines.  Despite the minor….mishap in the lab, I am proud to announce that I, Dr. Brainstorm, have opened the door to new powers here on the Rogue Isles, allowing new super powered citizens of the Rogue Isles to access an additional primary and secondary power to choose from!

Longbow Report on the investigation of an explosion in a Crey lab.

RE: Peregrine Island Explosion
From: Agent Crimson, Alpha-Black Unit

During a recent mission to prevent Malta raids on Crey science facilities, a hero I work with was alerted to the existence of a secret Crey lab.  I was unable to locate the lab until last week when I intercepted reports of an explosion under the streets of Peregrine.  Upon locating the entrance to a subterranean facility, I discovered the remains of what appears to have been a well-equipped laboratory.  Inside I found the badly charred remnants of a large mechanical device.

I also located a security system and was able to extract surveillance video.  This video was passed onto Dr. Advance in the science and technology division and I have included his interpretation of the video below. 

Shortly after the explosion, I began to receive reports of new heroes able to use previously inaccessible powers.  I am convinced that these are connected and will investigate further.

RE: Security Video Report
From: Dr. Advance, Longbow Science and Technology Division

This video, although highly degraded, appears to show Dr. Brainstorm activating a massive Resonance Manipulator, also known as a kinetic capacitor. Many scientists have proposed that it might be possible to create an oscillating energy field able to reach a strength of over 10,000 megateslas - roughly equivalent to a neutron star.

While this device is clearly not of that magnitude, the size and blast radius of the ensuing explosion suggests that Dr. Brainstorm managed to generate close to 2,000 megateslas.

It has long been understood that even heroes who gain their abilities through technology, nature, or science are somehow special, the pinnacle of human achievement.  Many theorize that these super-powered beings are connected into some sort of power nexus beyond our comprehension.  Although the exact nature of this energy grid is unknown, I believe that it acts as a control network for super power distribution.

I propose that this video shows Dr. Brainstorm attempting to open a conduit onto this energy grid.  By generating this massive energy field, it appears that Dr. Brainstorm is attempting to pull the earth’s cosmic balance off kilter.  Clearly he did not anticipate the ensuing explosion as he barely escaped the destruction.

The explosion suggests that this energy grid relies on a delicate balance that must be maintained.  In upsetting the balance of the earth’s geodesy Dr. Brainstorm may have caused a rift.  Although I do not yet fully understand the implications, I remind you that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Crimson tells me there are reports of heroes able to access new powers.  If heroes are able to access new powers it seems likely that the same may also be true for the villains of the Rogue Isles.

Hello there. I’m Melissa Bianco, Level Designer on the City of Heroes team, and some of you may know me as War Witch. Having worked on City of Heroes for over five years, I can tell you that we know a lot more now that we did at the beginning and zone design is a good example of that. The Hollows has been one of those zones that I’ve wanted to take some time and revisit. In the past, there have been several common complaints about it: The content is repetitive and not all that interesting, framerate is poor, enemies are too hard, players can’t solo it, and they’re forced to go there to get missions!

So I wanted to go in and make some spawn changes, and make us all a lot happier with the zone. Going in, there was little in the way of outside resources (Art and Tech were heavily booked with the Issue 11 material) available to rework the zone, and I had a small window of opportunity to get the work done in. In the end I just jumped in with both feet and started reworking the zone. I started by gutting every spawn in the Hollows and starting from scratch.

Spawns Changes

This is what I did (by neighbourhood):

Cherry Hills

This is the first neighbourhood players encounter when they enter the zone from Atlas Park.

The spawns for this neighbourhood are now like City zone spawns, not Hazard. So they’re based on 1 - 3 players. The level range is now 5 - 7 only.

I wanted to make the transition from City zone to Hazard zone less painful, especially since new players are ‘forced’ to go there by a Contact. I made this neighbourhood a standard ‘city’ spawn zone. What this means is that I made the spawns “do-able” by solo players up to groups of three, which is pretty standard for a city zone. I also kept the roads free of bad guys so that, within reason, players could get around Cherry Hills without massive difficulty.

I added some fresh blood (er...meat?) to The Hollows. There were piles and piles of Outcasts and Trolls and Trolls and Outcasts. Both villain types are kind of tough, so I wanted to add some flavour and some variety! So I added Skulls, Hellions, and Lost to the mix. Also, you may run into Paragon Police or Longbow, but since they’re allies, they’ll help you out. The heroic presence (Longbow and Paragon Police) is small, so that they don’t kill steal too much. However, gone are the canned animations of the Paragon Police. If you drag a villain back to them, now you’ll definitely get a reaction, if the Police Drones don’t get them first.

Four Seasons

This neighbourhood is also a “city” sized spawn neighbourhood. The level range for this neighbourhood is now 8 to 10 only. I’ve also brought in Hellions, Skulls, and Lost to the mix here.

Red River

This neighbourhood was pretty much vacant of spawns entirely. Not anymore. Now there are Hydra, Coralax, and some Trolls wandering around. The Trolls seem to be paying special attention to the dam. The spawns here are also for 1 - 3 players so they shouldn’t be too difficult to solo or for small groups. The level range of this neighbourhood is 8 - 10 only.

Eastgate Park

There weren’t too many changes to this zone other than to make them more standard in terms of spawning ‘rules’. No piggy backing of spawns near other spawns so that the place is lagged down and it’s a blanket of bad guys. Players should have some room to breathe again as they make their way through this neighbourhood. This neighbourhood is level 10 - 12 only. The spawns range anywhere from 1 to 5 players. It’s not a consistent city-sized spawn, there are hazard elements, but there is a ‘possibility’ of a small spawn for the solo players. Also, I always throw spawns into EVERY neighbourhood that are three villains maximum so players should be able to find something to kill as a solo player.

Vahzilok have moved into the neighbourhood, but usually only at night and in a very specific location. The Legacy Chain have a presence there too, a heroic group of mystical heroes who are there to help, not hurt the heroes of Paragon City. They want to get to the bottom of the Circle of Thorns threat as we do. There might another reason, too, but they won’t even give that up to Longbow. PPD have a small presence at the entrance from Skyway City so they’re pretty much watching the door.

Grendel’s Gulch

Now we’re getting to the pain. Admittedly, the spawns in this neighbourhood were entirely too difficult. They were even too difficult for a ‘hazard’ zone (3 - 5 players). They have been seriously toned back and the groups shouldn’t be so close to each other so that if you trigger one, you don’t trigger the one next to it, too. These have been made a bit differently. They spawn anywhere from 1 to 5 players. What this means is, you MIGHT get a big group of Igneous or you MIGHT get a do-able solo spawn size. It depends on your team size and the luck of the draw, really. Also, except for some surprises, you should see the Igneous well before they ever see you.

In the guts of the Gulch, the spawn levels are 13 - 15. However, around the perimeter (to accommodate the Talshak mission), there are a set of spawns that are 11 - 12 only. These guys are clearly defined as they are the only spawns in the entire Gulch that are face down in the ground taking a dirt nap. If players want to drop down and go deeper into the Gulch, they do so at their own risk.

The Trolls are brave (or dumb) enough to move into the Gulch. They either haven’t noticed that the rocks are deadly or they don’t care. There’s also a very small presence of Devouring Earth, in the form of some Bees, but they’re so minor and easy to kill it’s barely worth mentioning.

The Vahzilok have also crept into the Gulch, but they tend to keep their distance from the interior of the Gulch and hang back near the perimeter, where the dirt is soft and shovels are plentiful.

I made no changes to the Caverns.

Eastgate Heights

This is another combo city/hazard neighbourhood. The spawns are for 1 - 5 players. The level range is also 13 to 15.

Originally, this area was fully dedicated to Circle of Thorns, but I brought in Skulls, Hellions, and Trolls who tend to flesh out the edges of the zone, but as you get closer to the tops of the peaks, it’s all Circle all the time. There are also some Tsoo but they’re sneaky, and you never know when they’re going to drop in. Since there is such a large Circle presence, there is also a Legacy Chain presence to thwart them.

Missions Changes

Mission Doors

I pulled every single mission door from the zone and reassigned it to a specific contact AND that contact’s neighbourhood. What this means is; no longer will players have to fly across the deadly Grendel’s Gulch at Level 5 for their Frostfire mission at the other end of the zone, dodging spawns that can make mincemeat of them in a few short hits.

I’ve added mission doors to Grendel’s Gulch (caves), Eastage Park (manhole covers), and Eastgate Heights (caves, CoT) so that players continue to remain within their own neighbourhoods in which their contact is located. The exception is Meg Mason, who is located in Cherry Hills and will send players across the zone, depending on their level.

Repeatable Missions

I added a new contact to the zone, an undercover operative named Meg Mason, who has the skinny on all the gangs in the area. She hands out repeatable missions for each neighbourhood. Meg Mason is located in Cherry Hills by the abandoned water tower on the hill where the Supergroup Teleport exit point is.

Contacts

Since I gutted the entire zone’s spawns, when I went back in to populate the zone, I made a very wide path to the contacts. A very wide path. I also added Meg Mason, as I mentioned above, to Cherry Hills.

Parting Words:

Although I began this diary by listing a lot of common complaints, I’ve always felt that the zone had promise. It just wasn’t being realized! So my goal was to simplify, streamline and liven it up. Now that the Hollows is a bit of a hybrid zone (some city spawns, some hazard), I think it’ll be a lot more welcoming.  And even though I think players will miss putting their Hero on Hover while they go for coffee and wait to get to the Frostfire entrance, they’ll be happier that he’s much easier to access now.  The Hollows now fits the style of Striga, Faultline, et al in that the missions the contact gives are now in line with the neighbourhood difficulty.  Plus, Meg Mason is a breath of fresh air for people who just want to get out and do one-off missions. Once you’ve had a chance to try it out, I’d love to hear your feedback in the game or on the boards!

THE MIDNIGHT SQUAD

JOIN THE MIDNIGHT SQUAD (LEVELS 10 - 20)
The clandestine organisation of mystics, scholars and mages, known only as the Midnight Squad, seeks to rebuild its numbers since the devastating assault of the Rikti Invasion. The Midnighters hold a secret that could bring the alien assault to an end, but without the help of the Heroes of Paragon City™ it will remain Lost forever.

NEW ROMAN-STYLE ZONE MAPS (LEVELS 35 - 50)
The Midnighters hold many secrets within their walls, including a highly coveted Ouroboros crystal, enabling them to travel to the far reaches of time. There is a familiar threat in an ancient land and the Midnighters need the help of both Heroes and Villains to stop it. Players step foot upon the ancient land of the Roman Cimeroran Peninsula, where they battle deadly creatures, defend an ancient city and ultimately come face to face with the enemy of time itself. Throughout this journey players uncover the mysteries of power and the origins that guide them today.

UNLOCK ROMAN-STYLE ARMOUR COSTUMES
Through their accomplishments, players unlock the new Roman themed armour costume set.

VILLAIN EPIC ARCHETYPES

Infiltrate the Arachnos organisation from within! Upon reaching level 50, Villains unlock two new Epic Archetypes; Wolf Spiders and Blood Widows. They have their own unique storyline and missions, power combinations and costume sets. Branching powersets allow the Wolf Spider to specialise as either a Bane Spider or Crab Spider and the Blood Widow chooses from the Fortunata and Night Widow branches. Each brings with it unique costumes for your Arachnos duties, as well as your new found role as a Destined One.

POWERSET PROLIFERATION

Using his newly built Resonance Manipulator, the Villain scientist known as Dr. Brainstorm™ has discovered a way to alter the energy strands which connect every Hero and Villain to their powers. This discovery has not only opened the door to new powers for his fellow Villains in the Rogue Isles™, but has also done the same for the Heroes of Paragon City ™! Specifically, new characters of almost every Hero and Villain archetype gain access to an additional primary and secondary powerset that they didn’t have access to previously. Details to come!

HOLLOWS ZONE “GAMEPLAY MAKEOVER”

Significant changes have been made to the Hollows zone to make it more fun! NPC encounters have been rebalanced, including new spawns, new villain groups, mission door improvements, and a mobile hospital has been added to the entrance of the zone.  Additionally, Meg Mason, a new contact, has been added to give out repeatable missions.

MAJOR GAMEPLAY IMPROVEMENTS

• Eight configurable new power trays let players customise their User Interface by placing them anywhere on the screen.
• Contact display redesign: Contacts are now listed separately as Active and Inactive, and players can sort contacts by a range of criteria including Name, Zone, and Level Range.
• Inspiration Conversion: Right click an inspiration to convert three of that kind into any one inspiration of another kind.
• Level Up Boost: Upon reaching enough XP to level up (at all levels), one of each type of large inspiration is immediately cast upon your character, and health and endurance bars are immediately filled.
• Chat improvements: Right click on character names in chat window to ignore, add to friends list, invite to team, etc. Drag any item (enhancement, inspiration, salvage, etc.) into the chat window so that you and others can click a hotlink to view the complete info box.
• More Real Numbers: Players can now display stats on powers before they choose them enabling more informed power selection and new temporary powers allow players to display enemy stats.

It’s been a very busy last four months or so for us since NCsoft acquired the City of Heroes franchise and we formed the NorCal studio in Mountain View, California. We offered everyone who was working on the game at Cryptic a position within our new studio and were thrilled when they all accepted employment. This meant that we could all work on the game we have loved and laboured over in a brand new studio, which is fantastic.

NCsoft NorCal has a great start-up feel, but the fact remains that most of us have worked together on this same project, for years beforehand. It’s a very unique situation, and a lot like forming a brand new company with a collection of people that you have worked well with in the past. There is a very social and fun atmosphere here in the studio that suits our close-knit family of designers, artists, engineers, and producers extremely well. Great ideas are bouncing off the walls here, and all the new hires we have added in the past couple months are very excited to be working for such a vibrant team.

Things have not been standing still in City of Heroes. In February, we were able to host a very special event on Valentine’s Day; a live, in-game wedding between two of our major characters, Manticore and Sister Psyche, controlled by Sean and Jennifer Dornan-Fish respectively. I controlled Positron and other developers took over other signature characters. We executed nearly ten run-throughs of the wedding throughout the day, and about a thousand players were able to witness the event. It was very exciting, and we feel like the hard work really paid off for our community.

We also held a Double XP weekend in February during which we saw some of the highest server concurrencies ever in the history of the product. This was possible in large part due to the hardware upgrades we made in the beginning of 2008.  We were able to get more players playing, rather than lagging out, during the exciting weekend.

As Lead Designer on the project, I have had a lot of control over what happens in the City of Heroes game, but in the past I still had hurdles to get some great ideas actualized. With the new studio, a lot of ideas that we had that couldn’t take hold under the old management are being implemented into the game with outstanding results.

For instance, in February we launched a “between Issue” patch that added a lot of quality of life features to the game. For the first time you can see the real numbers behind your characters and their powers, what they mean, and how City of Heroes uses them. You can now see the exact details on how your character stacks up against another by simply looking at the numbers behind how your powers work. Another quality of life feature is the smoothing of the levelling rate in the game. We have done extensive data mining showing us where the problem levels were, and how long players would tend to be “stuck” there. With this, we were able to alter the defeat rewards of the enemies in the game so that the problem levels were less of a problem. In general the overall speed of levelling was increased by around 25% so players can expect faster results in a typical play session.

Of course that’s not entirely where our development efforts have been going; we have a lot of long-term goals and we have been diligently working toward them. We are excited about the possibilities that a single owner brings to the table. Being “under one roof” is affording us more flexibility than ever before and it’s fun having direct contact with all of the different departments here at NCsoft working hard to continue the game’s success. And with our new studio we can confidently plan for Issue 13, 14, and beyond, and hire the people that will make those Issues and goals happen.

For the immediate future, however, I am pleased to announce “Issue 12: Midnight Hour” for City of Heroes, which will be going into closed beta testing soon. “Midnight Hour” brings with it a slew of exciting new features including the long anticipated Villain Epic Archetypes, which will be available to anyone who achieves level 50 in City of Villains. The current Hero and Villain Archetypes will benefit from Powerset Proliferation, where we took over twenty existing powersets and gave them to Archetypes that didn’t have access to them before. If you ever wanted to play a Controller with the powerset of Plant Control, now is your chance! Psychic Blasters are now a reality, as well as Axe and Mace wielding Brutes. With Powerset Proliferation players now have even more character combinations to choose from.

We’ve overhauled the difficulty of the Hollows, one of the first additional zones that was ever published for City of Heroes. Gone are the days of players skipping the zone because it was simply too hard for them to get around in, as they will find the enemies are much more manageable while soloing or in small groups. We have even added a bunch of repeatable missions for characters to play in this newly configured zone.

Additionally, there is the Midnight Squad. This organization has always been in the lore of City of Heroes, but never realized in the game itself. The Midnight Squad takes the limelight in Issue 12 with missions that explore the origins of superpowers, as well as using Ouroboros (the time-travel organization introduced last Issue) to pop back to the Cimeroran peninsula of the ancient Romans. There players will uncover a mystery that has been festering for over two millennia, as well as unlock the awesome Roman Armour costume set for their characters.

Finally, I should note that Issue 12 also includes a number of quality of life and gameplay additions for our players. We built upon the recently added “Real Numbers” feature by adding in the ability to see the numbers behind your powers. We’ve also improved the User Interface by adding new power trays that can be placed anywhere on the screen. There are several more of these cool additions that you can read about on our Issue 12: Midnight Hour Game Update page. 

Issue 12 is shaping up to be a great issue but that’s just the start of things to come. Issue 13 and beyond are going to be huge additions to City of Heroes, introducing new systems as well as a ton of new content for all levels of play. We couldn’t be more excited about the journey ahead for City of Heroes and I look forward to giving you more details this year!

By Lead Designer Matt “Positron” Miller

One of the things that players have constantly been asking for has always been a way to earn unlimited Respecs for their characters. When we first introduced the concept of Respecs (Respecializing your character), it was in the form of a not-too-easy Trial that forced you and your team to use some pretty sound tactics to beat a difficult Task Force. This Trial could be repeated two more times by the time you reached level 50, so your character could Respec three times in the course of their career.

Unfortunately at times we made some significant adjustments to a variety of powers, forcing us to give players a free “respec” for their character when those adjustments made it to live. For many players, their characters simply didn’t play the same way as they did before the adjustment came, so we needed to give them a way to change their character without having to run the Trial. We also decided that at most, a character could hold one of these “Freespecs” at a time. When we gave out more, they would not stack. It was a use-it-or-lose it proposition.

With the game nearing it’s fourth year of live operations, many high level characters have wanted to respec their characters to take advantage of new systems that we have added, and they have long since used their three Trial-earned Respecs, and any Freespecs they may have had. We knew that we always wanted a “repeatable” Respec, but were stuck going over exactly how to implement it.

Our first idea was to simply allow you to pay Influence or Infamy for your Respec, with an increasing scale in price. The first one costs X, the second one 2 x X, the third 4 x X, the fourth 8 x X, etc. However, even if we put in decay (the price goes down if you don’t buy one in a while) the prices would still gate some users from accessing the content, while not being any sort of hindrance at all to very rich characters.

The next thought was to “tax the rich”. Respecs could cost 10% of your “total worth”. This would mean that no matter how rich the character was, they would each pay 10% of their total unspent Inf. to get a Respec. Of course, this was immediately exploitable as players could just temporarily hand all of their Influence off to another character, pay for the Respec, and then get all their Influence back. Tada! Cheap Respecs for those players with more than one account, or trusted friends!

With Issue 9 and the Invention system, we really struck gold. We finally had a real economy in the game, with proven commodities and supply and demand. We also had a system that could be used to hold onto Respecs that are unused (much like the three Trial respecs) with Recipes.

In Issue 11, we created the Respec Recipe. This recipe, which is a rare drop off of defeating enemies at any level, allows players to grant themselves a Freespec. This Freespec is used immediately upon crafting the recipe. Now this is an item that any character in the game would be happy to have. The ability to change their power selections and slotting at any time in their career is powerful. We expect these to be highly sought after items. Even though they are not as rare as the new Very Rare Enhancements put into Issue 11, they may very well demand a higher price.

Dev Digest: By Matt (“Positron”) Miller, Lead Designer of City of Heroes / City of Villains

One of the most often requested features for the “City Of” games is power customization. We already offer some of the most extensive costume customization of any MMO on the market, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg for what our players desire. They want the ability to customize every single bit of their character, including how their powers look.

Unfortunately, the animation and effects system that City of Heroes was built on didn’t lend itself well to customizing power blasts or altering the color of the fire attacks. Numerous powers have baked-in elements that would require a nearly insurmountable effort to get power customization to work at the level our players have come to expect. When faced with this fact, we decided that we would much rather devote the animation and effects time into new powers and new effects than going back over older powers and giving them a purely cosmetic facelift.

When it came to adding new powers to the game, Jack Emmert, the Creative Director at Cryptic Studios, suggested that we poll the players to find out what they wanted in the way of powers. We knew we wanted to do a melee set and a defensive set so that the melee archetypes (Tankers, Scrappers, Brutes, and Stalkers) could get some much needed love. When we reviewed the results of the polls, the defensive set that the players wanted the most was Shields.

The players wanted it, but we were pretty sure that the players all had different ideas of how it would be implemented. We did a straw poll within the dev team, and everyone had a different idea of what the “shield” should look like. It was so varied in responses that we didn’t think we could make a shield that would satisfy even a quarter of the people who wanted the set. That’s when the animation team did some investigation on the way our weapon powersets were rigged up.

The team came back with very promising results: they were able to swap weapon geometry fairly easily and still keep the animations intact. With this hurdle cleared we just needed the UI time to get the costume creator working with the new weapon altering abilities and we would be able to let players choose their own shield graphic when they were working on the costume for their character!

Alas, the actual animation time involved in getting the Shield set done was too much for Issue 11’s schedule, so the powerset itself was shelved for a later issue. However, we decided to use this functionality with any and all weapons that were currently available in powers, and with Dual Blades as the new melee powerset in Issue 11, it was only logical that players could alter the left and right weapons for powersets that used both hands.

The initial tests were very promising; using models ripped from the game, our development team was rediscovering existing powersets with new graphics. Although it was strictly a cosmetic change, no alteration of damage type or the like, new weapon models really made some of the older sets feel different and breathed new life into them! Choosing a Warhammer for the War Mace powerset doesn’t alter any of the powers, but does give your character a lot more distinction. And since these are chosen on a per-costume basis, characters can have different weapons for their different outfits, if they so desire!

The goal was that every weapon power would get their default weapon, an archaic or mystical version of the weapon, and a high-tech or more modern take on the weapon. We succeeded in this area with many powersets, and even were able to add a bunch of weapons that we had in the game already so the players could further customize their characters.

We then decided that certain weapons should be “unlocked” as rewards for achieving milestones. These would be the weapons that were closely identified with enemies in the game; the Thorn sword from the Circle of Thorns, the Red Cap’s daggers, Rikti swords, etc. These “prestige” weapons are earned through normal play so that archetypes that use them could further customize their character.  Additionally, players who obtain these exclusive weapons could be seen, at a glance, as having overcome these opponents.

All in all we are very pleased with the implementation of Weapon Customization. We are always happy when we can give players something they have been asking for. Players can expect to see more and more weapons added to the costume creator as the game moves forward!

Following is a list of powersets and their respective weapons that are currently planned for testing in Issue 11.  This list may well change during the testing process.

Assault Rifle Assault Rifle Merc. Assault Weapon M-14/M-380 Tactical Assault Weapon Tommy Gun Council Assault Weapon Council Sub-Machine Gun Nemesis Rifle Vanguard ‘Redding’ Rifle Axes Battle Axe Pickaxe Hatchet Shovel Rikti Axe Dual Blades Scimitar Longsword Falcata Khopesh Gladius Redcap Dagger Faer Dagger Dragon Dagger Katana Wakazashi Ninja Blade Tanto Sai Rapier (Right Hand Only) Main Gauche (Left Hand Only) Bows Recurved Bow Arcane Bow Compound Bow Claws Hero Claws Villain Claws Fury Claws Talsorian Blades Shadow Blades Katanas Katana Ninja Blade Fantasy Blade Maces War Mace War Mace 2 Flanged Mace Studded Mace Warhammer Sledge Hammer Baseball Bat Club Shillelagh Skull Club Bone Carnival Mallet Shovel Tech Mace Fantasy Mace Pistols Semi-Auto Revolver Magnum Revolver Revolver w/Laser Sight Match Compensator Tactical Sidearm Flintlock Mini-Uzi Pulse Rifles Pulse Rifle Crey Pulse Blaster Rikti Blaster Rikti Rifle Retro Rifle Broadswords Broadsword Flamberge Shadow Bane Cutlass Thorn Blade Tsoo ‘Katana’ Rikti Sword

Issue 11: A Stitch in Time reveals that all that is and was is not as it should be! The mysterious Ouroboros organization, a group of beings from the ends of time, enlists the aid of Heroes and Villains to rewrite the past. Heroes and Villains are able to travel through time using the new Ouroboros System, which opens the gates to both new and existing content for players. Issue 11 also unleashes two brand new power sets: Dual Blades and Willpower, giving Heroes and Villains a slew of new power options. Additionally, Dual Blades offers Weapon Customization – taking the “City of” Character Creator to the next level! And the Inventions system is enhanced with new “Very Rare” Purple invention sets.

OUROBOROS SYSTEM

Through the mysterious Menders of Ouroboros, players gain the ability to “Flashback”, that is to travel through time and relive major events from the history of Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™. Heroes who travel back in time will embark on missions such as preventing the Circle of Thorns from unleashing a devastating demon on a defenseless world, a story originally presented in the City of Heroes comic book. Villains who journey through time will get the chance to assist Lord Recluse™ in his initial campaign to conquer the Rogue Isles, and much more.

Heroes and Villains also use the Ouroboros System to return to story arcs that they may have missed and replay hundreds of missions from earlier in the game. Players will even get to set mission parameters for these missions to earn special badges. Heroes and Villains will be auto-exemplared to the appropriate level for each story arc to ensure the challenge level remains constant.

WEAPON CUSTOMIZATION

Sometimes an assault rifle just isn’t the right tool for the job, or character, especially when he or she should be using a sniper rifle instead. Players can now change their weapons in the same way that they change their costume parts! From within the costume creator and tailor screen players select the new “Weapons” region. A number of new options are now available for appropriate power sets. Current power sets that benefit from this upgrade include Assault Rifle, Mercenaries/Assault Rifle, Bow, Broadsword, Claws, Villain Claws, Dual Blades (see below), Katana, Ninja Blade, Mace, Robotics/Pulse Rifle, and Thugs/Dual Pistols.

TWO NEW POWER SETS

The City of… universe expands with two new amazing power sets: Dual Blades and Willpower.

DUAL BLADES

With a flashing blade in each hand, the Stalker made quick work of the Coralax hybrids guarding the shipwreck.
Now Heroes and Villains can wield paired weapons to devastating effect! Use the new Weapon Customization interface to choose from several types of weapons. Dual Blades also uses a brutal new Combo system, where the order of your strikes can create new advantages for you to take down your foes! Dual Blades is available to Brutes, Scrappers, Stalkers and Tankers!

WILLPOWER

Available to Tankers, Scrappers, Brutes and Stalkers, the Willpower set offers a strong mix of resistance, defense and regeneration powers. This is the perfect power set for those characters who have the mental will and determination – the willpower – to ignore pain and press on through insurmountable odds!

NEW INVENTIONS

Issue 11 brings with it new invention sets including “Very Rare” Purple sets, as well as brand new invention sets for Taunt, Buff and Debuff powers, among others.

Two new features are now available to all subscribers to City of Heroes and City of Villains:

• Character Transfer will allow customers to move characters from one server to another
• Character Rename will allow customers to rename a selected character.

Both features, Character Transfer and Character Rename, carry a reasonable transaction fee of GBP 5.99 / € 8,99 each per use. Should a Character Transfer have a name conflict on the destination server, a free Character Rename will be made available to resolve the conflict and rename the moving character.

These new features exemplify our commitment to improve the quality of the City of Heroes experience. We feel the price of these features is enough to prevent potential abuse, but also reasonable enough to not be prohibitive for those who want to improve their gaming experience by moving servers or changing a character name.

To explain the use of these features we have created walkthrough tutorials for each feature as well as Frequently Asked Question pages.  To view these, make use of the links below.

Tutorial Walkthroughs

• Character Transfer Tutorial
• Character Rename Tutorial

Frequently Asked Questions

• Character FAQ

If your questions were not answered by the above information, please don’t hesitate to make use of the PlayNC Support Center and the “Ask a Question“ option to reach our Support Team.

IMPORTANT! Customers who are interested in taking advantage of the Character Transfer service should know that it is possible in the future that we may make changes to the game that would remove the need to Transfer servers. One example of such a change would be a “server-less” game configuration where all players can group with anyone, without the restriction of which server they play on. We are not committing to this “server-less” configuration, and in fact, at the time of this posting, there are no plans to implement a “server-less” environment the 2007 calendar year.  However, because we are charging a fee for these services, it is important that our players understand that the possibility exists. We want to be very clear in this regard so that those who do decide to make use of a Server Transfer understand that they may not need it in the future.

Turning Literature Into Content

Developer Diary by Matt ‘Positron’ Miller

With the decision made to use the Rikti for Issue 10, and bring Vanguard into the limelight, we knew it was the perfect opportunity to bring Hero 1 back from the Rikti homeworld, albeit a little changed.

[[WARNING: City of Heroes Spoiler information follows!]]

In the late game of City of Heroes, you learn that the government of the United States is hiding a secret about the Ritki. That secret is that the Rikti are highly evolved human beings from an alternate dimension, and not ‘aliens’ as the public perceives. This is tied directly into the Lost that populate the lower level zones in City of Heroes. The Lost are the Rikti attempting to turn Earth’s humans into Rikti mutants. Many heroes with the ‘Omega Level Clearance’ souvenir know all this information.

[[WARNING: Issue #10 Spoiler information follows!]]

What they don’t know is that it’s not just the Rikti on Earth that know how to mutate humans, but those on the homeworld do as well. Hero 1, the leader of the Omega Team that ended the first Rikti war, was never heard from again and lost in the Rikti home dimension. Way back in City of Heroes development it was decided that Hero 1 was captured and was undergoing ‘Lost-like mutations’ while in captivity. We had no opportunity to reveal this information to the players until now.

With the ‘big reveal’ decided for the Task Force, that being the unexpected return of Hero 1, I needed to decide how to get there. How do I tell this story and have the build up that a Task Force of this magnitude deserves? I wanted an apocalyptic storyline, and what better place to look than the Apocalypse itself?

There are many ‘end of the world’ myths out there, Ragnarok is one, but we never really had a strong Norse theme in our universe. I looked at the Book of Revelation for inspiration as it has always been a subject of interest for me. There is a lot of poetry in that book in the Bible, which leads to a lot of different interpretations of themes and images.

Interpretation is where a designer can really get to play. I did a quick refresher on the Book of Revelation on Wikipedia, and grabbed a few key concepts: The Four Horsemen, the Dragon, the Beast from the Sea, the Abyss, and the false Prophet. I then looked at the Rikti and figured out where everything would work out.

For the Four Horsemen, I wanted a group of Rikti Elite Bosses that had powers that played off one another. We had the Rikti Heavy Assault Suits that we could modify with the necessary powers and make our own version of Famine, War, Pestilence and Death. The mission itself plays out fighting one, then two, then three, and finally all four at the same time.

The Dragon was modified into a Rikti boss called the Dra’Gon, in fitting with the Rikti theme. I basically wanted the Rikti war to be coming to a point where the Rikti were trying to bring their best generals and soldiers from the Rikti Homeworld through semi-stable portals. Dra’Gon is one of those generals.

For the Beast and the Sea the choice was nearly obvious. We already had a ‘sea’ zone with a Revelation-esque name, called The Abyss… And in this Abyss resided one of the biggest beasts the game has, Hamidon. In order for a team of at most eight characters to even have a shot at defeating Hamidon, we needed a weakened version of him. I decided that the Rikti were stealing Hamidon’s power with their pylon technology, and thus leaving a weakened version of the Hamidon for the players to defeat. Upon defeating Hamidon, the characters are granted the Power of the Hamidon, which would allow them to fight the Rikti commander known as the Honoree in the final mission.

The Honoree is actually the Lost-mutated Hero 1 (Honoree being an anagram of Hero One), this makes him the symbolic ‘false prophet’ and must be defeated in order to stop the Rikti from establishing a powerful foothold on our planet. While bringing such a popular hero back as an unredeemable bad-guy may seem like a bad idea to some, we stand by the decision and when this Rikti war moves into its final stages in the years to come we hope to give some really good closure to the character and the storyline… The end of the Task Force is not necessarily the end of the story.

So there you have it. While it doesn’t follow the original source material to the letter, it does draw inspiration from it. Some players were quick enough to deduce the origin of the Task Force during beta and were very happy with how we pulled it off. It’s definitely not blatant (and I didn’t want it to be), but I wanted those who knew the source to be able to recognize and appreciate the homage.

In the year 2002, we learned that we were not alone.

On May 23, 2002 – a day that will be forever remembered for its wicked barbarity – the world was suddenly and deliberately attacked. A thousand points of light lit up the sky across America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. And each light was a gateway into hell.

The Rikti declared war on all of us.

The Rikti attack was well-coordinated and clearly planned out months or years in advance. Tens of thousands of alien invaders poured into our world, bent on our destruction. Only the heroes of the world banding together in a desperate effort finally turned the tide. The cost to Earth and her heroes was immense, but finally the back of the Rikti army was broken by Hero 1 and Omega Team’s sacrifice.

Cut off from their homeworld, the Rikti cells that remained retreated to the shadows, fighting a guerilla war for their continued existence. The rebuilding began, and veterans spoke of the Rikti War as a thing of the past.

Then the signs began again, but we did not see them.

Strange anomalies and seismic activity on the moon caused catastrophic tidal surges on Earth, causing the Overbrook Dam to burst and flood sections of Faultline in Paragon City. Satellites transmissions were interrupted by ‘space static’. Contact with the moon base and space station became spotty, and then silent.

There were warnings from Vanguard, but we did not listen.

Once the United Nation Security Council’s elite super-powered hero force, Vanguard has struggled to rebuild and rearm. The survivors made up a skeleton force and their dire warnings were ignored in the joyful days after the war, written off as scaremongering and paranoia.

Today the skies over Paragon City are filled with dark grey thunderheads. It is the same in the Rogue Isles, Europe, and across the globe. Small ships dart through the heavy weather… And there are so very many of them.

The Rikti have returned.

Rikti World Invasion

Issue #10 will begin with a World Event that spans numerous zones in both Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, as the Rikti return in devastating waves. They are armed with new, brutal weapons and seek to establish a beachhead on Earth, presumably to save their lost brethren and to finish what they started the first time… The destruction of Earth!

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Rikti War Zone (Levels 35 – 50)

The site of the crashed Rikti mother ship has become a War Zone. Pylons of unknown purpose have appeared around the mother ship, and Rikti presence is extremely heavy.

In an attempt to contain the Rikti from breaking out of the area or launching their ship, the government has quarantined the zone, allowing only select agents access. Government officials have turned the region over to Vanguard, and given them the authority to recruit forces from across the world. This zone is open to both Heroes and Villains, in their combined, desperate struggle to hold the front lines against the second Rikti Invasion.

New Threats

Rikti Pylons are multi-purpose warning and attack devices that surround the crashed mother ship. It takes a concerted effort to take one of these pylons down, but once enough of these are destroyed, access to the ship may be granted. UXBs (unexploded bombs that arm, power up, and detonate if not stopped in time), provide a constant threat. Rikti destroyers zip through zones dropping troops, UXBs, and Rikti Assault Suits.

New Inventions

The Vanguard base contains a special Vanguard Workbench that will allow for unique costume pieces (tied to Rikti War Zone recipes). Vanguard Support Machines can be requisitioned using Special Salvage (unique to the War Zone). These ‘Heavies’ function as powerful pets.

New Missions

The first missions in the Rikti War Zone are for characters level 35+. The characters meet a new contact, Levantera, who introduces them to the UN security force, Vanguard. They’ll also meet Borea, who sends them on several repeatable missions in the zone. From there, characters meet contact Serpent Drummer, Gaussian, and also talk to the Dark Watcher and learn one of the darkest secrets of Paragon City.

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Rikti Co-op Task Force

The Rikti Co-Op Task Force is available for both Heroes and Villains. It is for 6 to 8 players, level 45 – 50. The mission is given out by Lady Grey, leader of the Vanguard. Co-operative missions create a new layer of depth and story as heroes and villains work toward a common goal.

Redesigning the Hamidon

By Christopher Bruce, Cryptic Developer

The Hamidon was once a zealous scientist named Hamidon Pasilima. Using hideous dark magic and his own genetic genius, he transformed himself into the god-like monster that would spawn the Devouring Earth and threaten the entire world. Time and again, hundreds of heroes from Paragon City have banded together to defeat the Hamidon whenever it arises.

When we first created Hamidon, we started by making a trial that was, for all intents and purposes, impossible, save for one strategy designed by Geko, our lead powers and critters designer. Because the Hamidon would spawn a Mitochondria bodyguard for every character in the cytoplasm when reduced to 50% (and 25%) health, Geko’s plan involved the players coordinating their tactics so only a minimum number of characters were actually inside the cytoplasm, effectively reducing the re-spawn to a manageable level. Also, since the Mitos were immobile, characters could perform a multi-pronged assault so that when the Mito re-spawn occurred, they could force the Mitos to spawn on one side of the Hamidon, leaving one side undefended.

Of course, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and in this case the players never tried (or succeeded anyway) with the above strategy. Instead they found a different way to take down the Hamidon, and soon entire ‘Hamidon Guides’ were available on the Strategy Guide forum, allowing all servers to replicate the optimal strategy involved in taking down the Devouring Earth’s greatest threat.

The New Hamidon

While we were scoping out the features we wanted to work on for Issue #9, “Hamidon Revamps” showed up on the list. Hamidon has had a long history of buff after buff to close exploits or loopholes that made raids too easy to do, and it’s evolved well outside of the bounds of its original design. We weren’t really concerned that players had figured out a way to beat Hamidon beyond what was originally designed, but their methods required many fixes on our end to try to balance the risk of the raid to the reward that could be gained. As Hamidon evolved, the player’s strategy evolved with it, becoming leaner, more effective, and at the same time easier. By this point Hamidon raids had become something that players could do by rote. Most servers were using the same strategy, which utilized a very effective combination of powers and a very small number of teams who did the majority of the work. Everyone else was pretty much just along for the ride and the free Hamidon Origin Enhancements (HO). Hamidon was long overdue for a revamp.

The Problems

Most of the players we talked with in game generally said the same things about Hamidon raids. We used those common gripes about Hamidon to compile a list of top issues we wanted to address:

• Hamidon raids are repetitive and tedious
• Hamidon raids are laggy and very taxing on systems (low FPS)
• Hamidon and Mitos often disappear during the end phase of a raid
• Hamidon raids are a hotspot for griefing
• Hamidon raids reward leeching
• Certain AT/Powerset combinations were viewed as critical while others felt they had no real purpose
• Hamidon raids take too long and the reward is often viewed as not being worth the time/effort
• There’s no ability to choose reward
• There’s no way to recover from a mito spawn (if it happens, it’s game over)
• Hamidon raids are only available to heroes

This list gave us a good starting point to start thinking about ways to directly address those common complaints. We created a design document that outlined several different ideas for revamping Hamidon. They all shared a similar core of things we knew we had to fix, but otherwise ranged from not really changing the encounter much to completely redoing everything. We finally agreed on the middle ground solution. This design gives Hamidon raids a new spin without drastically changing the core of what a Hamidon raid is today. There were obviously some good qualities to Hamidon raids if players were doing them on a daily basis.

The Solutions

We wanted to address as many of the common complaints as we could, and also wanted Hamidon raids to be much more dynamic and require a lot more coordination. The Hamidon should represent the pinnacle challenge in the game. We’ve designed the Hamidon raid around one general strategy, but there should be many different ways to accomplish it. We want everyone involved in a Hamidon raid to be fully participating and not on auto-pilot, following another player around with a power on auto-cast.

The first change we made was negating the effectiveness of holding Hamidon. We originally planned for Hamidon to be immune to being held, but this was impossible to implement based on the way the engine worked. By the time we had the tech needed to achieve this, Hamidon had gone through numerous buffs to counter that very strategy. We couldn’t implement this change without redoing everything else to maintain the balance. During our revamp, this was one of the first changes we made. Holding Hamidon is still possible, but it won’t render him completely defenceless as it has in the past. We’ve also changed the way Hamidon spawns Mitochondria to protect himself as he’s damaged. This change will prevent a raid from ever reaching the dreaded sea of orange names or ‘yellow dawn’, which also greatly reduces the impact of rogue players attempting to grief a Hamidon raid.

We also wanted to open Hamidon raids to villain players, so that we would have a true parity between CoH and CoV. Since we were adding Statesman’s Task Force for CoH, as a direct counter to Recluse’s Strike Force, it only made sense to allow villains a shot at Hamidon. We briefly considered just creating another instance of The Hive that villains would access via an Arachnos Flier, but we decided that it would be much cooler if CoV received an entirely new, exclusive zone. The Abyss was created to house Hamidon in the Rogue Isles.

The second big change was to ensure that every player would feel like they have a meaningful role. We have 3 types of Mitochondria and 1 Hamidon to play with, so we’ve redesigned their powers to have better synergy with each other. They each have a particular strength against certain ATs as well as a particular weakness to other ATs. These vulnerabilities are partially negated by the other Mitos in the Cytoplasm. We’ve attempted to balance these in such a way that there is no particular power set or single power that is absolutely required to defeat Hamidon. Since Hamidon can also now be raided by villains, we had to make sure that these same strengths and vulnerabilities also applied to the various Villain ATs and power sets. Once players discover what these weaknesses are, and how best to exploit them, they will have unlocked the secret to raiding Hamidon.

The Devouring Earth monsters that roam in The Hive and The Abyss need to be defeated in order for Hamidon to spawn. This is the only limitation on Hamidon spawning, so once he’s defeated, he can be immediately respawned at any time. This gives players who would normally miss out because of timing conflicts a chance to stage their own raids. We also introduced a new kind of inspiration, The Essense of the Earth. These provide a great deal of temporary protection to players who are raiding Hamidon. While these aren’t completely necessary to a successful raid, they are tremendously helpful.

We recognize that Hamidon raids are a big social event as well as a PvE encounter. They’re a unique opportunity for a lot of players to congregate in one place and fight one common enemy. Because of this, we chose to not go with an instanced trial. However, to address the concerns with lag, low frame rate, and disappearing Hamidon and/or Mitochondria the number of players that can be in these zones at one time had to be reduced. So the player cap in The Hive and The Abyss has been lowered to 50 players. This lower cap also means that other instances of The Hive and The Abyss (The Hive 2, The Hive 3, etc) will open more often.

We’ve also added a reward table at the end of a successful raid, similar to what you might see at the end of a Task Force/Strike Force or Trial. Even if you don’t think HO enhancements are worth it, Hamidon raids will be one of the few places in game that you can receive a rare invention recipe as a reward. Since there’s no longer a minimum time period before Hamidon will spawn again, a 24 hour timer was added to the rewards table. You’ll only be able to get 1 HO and 1 rare recipe in a 24 hour period by raiding Hamidon.

Hamidon Evolves

The trickiest thing about designing a raid like this is we don’t have the capability of fully testing it ourselves. We simply don’t have enough people to attempt every possible permutation internally, so we can’t fully test how things are working out until Issue #9 goes up on the public Training Room. There’s already been some measure of success on the closed beta test, but those players are still a long way from figuring out a way to beat Hamidon in his latest incarnation. We’re very eager to see Hamidon arrive on the Training Room and then the Live servers.

Moving forward, we also want to periodically re-examine the state of Hamidon. Since Hamidon is an incredibly powerful, sentient being, it only makes sense that it (he?) should evolve from time to time. If players discover a critical flaw that makes raids too simple or monotonous, expect to see Hamidon evolve again. We want Hamidon to be one of the pinnacles of challenge in the game that requires a lot of coordinated effort to defeat. The best way to do this is to keep an eye on the tactics that players are using and adjust to them appropriately. That should keep Hamidon raids fresh and challenging.

Issue #9: Breakthrough, the next free expansion to the City of Heroes universe, introduces an entirely new level of depth and gameplay. Players acquire and invent new items and have the option to buy and sell them using the new hero and villain auction houses. Along with Issue #9’s other great features, this brand new system results in a wealth of new options for heroes and villains alike.

Invention System (Heroes and Villains)

Using the highly anticipated Invention system, players acquire and collect valuable resources in the form of Salvage and Invention Recipes. These will be used together to invent powerful new enhancements, costume pieces, new powers, gadgets, and more. This creates a world of new possibilities, rewards and even greater character evolution!

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Auction Houses (Heroes and Villains)

Where better to buy and sell all of these new items than in the new auction houses! Wentworth’s Fine Consignments have sprung up throughout Paragon City, while the villains prefer to do their dark dealings alongside “black-market” trucks placed throughout the Rogue Isles.

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Statesman’s Task Force (Heroes only)

This high-level PvE content allows eight heroes to team up in order to face and defeat Paragon’s greatest enemies! Completing this difficult challenge will earn some of the game’s rarest rewards!

New Hamidon Encounter (Heroes and Villains)

Not only do villains get their own end-game raid encounter with the “Hamidon,” but the new experience is also brought to the Heroes side where players must use new tactics to bring down one of the city’s greatest threats.

Introducing Veteran Rewards

In conjunction with the release of Issue #8: To Protect and Serve, NCsoft and Cryptic Studios will launch the official City of Heroes Veteran Rewards program. This program rewards our fans for their time spent supporting and playing City of Heroes and City of Villains.

For every three full months with an active account*, players will unlock valuable in-game items and bonuses that will come in the form of costumes, powers, badges, and more! The program will be applied retroactively by game account and rewards will be applicable to all characters on each respective account.

Rewards have been determined for the first three years of play and will continue to expand indefinitely. For details of the the rewards themselves, see our new Veteran Rewards page. You can also download some teaser movies here that will give you glimpse of what you can look forward to.

Veteran Rewards Program FAQ

What do I have to do in order to receive my rewards?
If you have an active account*, you don’t need to do anything except log into the game. After each three-month milestone, the rewards will be added to your account(s).

What is the specific start date of the Veteran Rewards program?
It will begin with the launch of Issue #8: To Protect and Serve. We are projecting Autumn of this year, 2006. The rewards are retroactive for the number of months accrued with an active account*.

Where can I find out how many months I have played with an active account*?
Visit the PlayNC Account Management page at http://eu.plaync.com/ and sign in using your PlayNC Master Account username and password. (If you don’t remember them, visit our Knowledge Base for assistance.) Veteran Reward Time can be viewed by clicking the ACCOUNT DETAILS button listed for the game account you wish to view it for.

Can you explain how this program is retroactive?
If, at the launch of Issue #8, you have had your account with City of Heroes/City of Villains for the past 10 months, you will have 10 months of Veteran Reward time already on your account. You will immediately receive the 3-, 6-, and 9-month rewards on your characters when you log them in. If you had let your account lapse for 2 months during this time (i.e. you didn’t pay to keep it active), then you would only have 8 months of Veteran Reward time and would get the 3- and 6-month rewards.

City of Heroes launched in Europe on 4 February of 2005. If you have been with us since the beginning, and have never let your account lapse, you will have 19 months of Veteran Reward time as of today, 20 September 2006.*

My account is no longer active. Can I still receive my rewards?
Yes. All you need to do is reactivate your account via credit card or game time card and the appropriate level of awards will appear for your characters. Just log in and they will be waiting for you. Remember, however, that the time that your account was not active does not count towards your rewards.

If I paid for some of my months using game time cards, will that still count towards my rewards?
Absolutely! Players will be rewarded for their number of months with an active account, whether they were paid for via credit card or game time card.

Can I pay for a certain number of months into the future in order to receive my rewards now?
No. The rewards are for the number of months with an active paying account and this only applies to time spent, not future time.

I have had an active account from the launch of City of Heroes in Europe. Will I be rewarded for all 19 plus months?
Yes, of course! Rewards have already been determined for the first three years. We will continue to add them so there will always be new rewards waiting for our most loyal players.

I participated in the City of Heroes and City of Villains Betas. Do those count towards my rewards?
No. Remember, the rewards are for the number of months with an active account (see definition below).

I play both City of Heroes and City of Villains? Do I get double the number of Veteran Reward months?
No. As someone who plays both, you only pay a single subscription fee, and rewards will be awarded as such.

Does the free month that was included with my game purchase count towards my reward time?
Yes.

I have multiple accounts, some newer than others. Will my rewards for my oldest account apply to my other accounts as well?
No. Rewards are specific to each account.

If I transferred from the North American servers to the European servers, does my time on the previous servers count towards Veteran Rewards?
UPDATED: This functionality is currently being tested on the Training Room. If all goes well, previous US time will be counted for US to EU transfers at the launch of the Veteran Rewards program.

*Active account time includes 1. the free month of game time included with the game, 2. free trial time, and 3. payments by credit card or game time card. Payments by credit card or game time card only include the paid time already incurred, not future time.

From the soaring skylines of Paragon City to the savage slums of the Rogue Isles, there is only one thing that joins these two warring sides - the eternal battle of good and evil between them. Rise to the challenge as a hero or sink into the criminal underworld as a villain in a unique online game played with thousands of other players. The battle has only just begun…

Which side will you choose?

Be a Hero… and Crush Crime

Craft your ultimate hero, join forces with other players and together wage war on crime.

Destined for Great Evil?

Hatch your plans for world domination by masterminding heists, kidnappings and raids.

Heroes and Villains Collide

Meet your arch enemy head on and battle for domination in four player-versus-player zones.

Two massively multiplayer online games - One subscription fee!

This Combined Edition Includes…

• Exclusive in-game bonus items!
  
  
  • Jump Jet Prestige Power
  • VIP Card Teleport Power
  • Exclusive Hero and Villain Costumes
• Full versions of both City of Heroes® and City of Villains™
• First month of play included
• Exclusive two-sided Paragon City/Rogue Isles map
• All content updates including Issue 7: Destiny Manifest
• Issues 1-6 of Top Cow’s City of Heroes comics (PDF)
• Collectable Game Activation Card

Release

The Good vs. Evil Combined Edition box will be available from 29 September.

New bonus items!

The new combination box comes bundled with some exclusive in-game bonus items!

Jump Jet Prestige Power
This high-velocity Jump Jet will blast you into the skies and beyond! Use it alone, or to enhance existing travel powers

VIP Card Teleport Power
This VIP pass will teleport you directly to the Tiki Lounge, an exclusive VIP only area of Pocket D.

Exclusive Hero and Villain Costumes
A brand new set of costume pieces added to the wardrobes of both Heroes and Villains.

Existing players!
Buy bonus items online.

If you already own accounts for either City of Heroes or City of Villains then fear not!  These exclusive bonus items will be made available to purchase online for a one-off fee! More information coming soon.

Issue #8: To Protect and Serve is the eighth free expansion since the launch of City of Heroes in April 2004, and introduces a host of innovative features, gameplay improvements and player programs. Issue #7: Destiny Manifest allowed villains to wreak havoc in the PvP zone Recluse’s Victory and physics-filled Mayhem Missions. Now it’s the Heroes’ turn