This summer NCsoft will be attending the Leipzig Games Convention, where players can meet the City of Heroes community team, win swag and go hands on with the hotly anticipated Aion: The Tower of Eternity. Yes, you read right… now read on to find out how.

Summer is upon us, and that can only mean one thing… the Games Convention, Europe’s biggest consumer videogames show, is almost here! Not only will this year’s show give you the chance to get together with your fellow players, you will also be able to take part in special community events, have the chance to plunder new game loot and, best of all, be among the first to play Aion: The Tower of Eternity!

The Games Convention, held in Leipzig, Germany, is open from 20-24 August, 2008. You can find the NCsoft booth in Hall 3, Booth B20, come and relax, meet the team and get your first taste of the stunning world of Atreia!

Select members of the European press will be given a private screening of Aion: The Tower of Eternity at NCsoft Europe HQ on 29-31 July, so be on the look out for the first sneak previews and in-depth features coming soon.

COMBINED

Powers

• Circle of Thorns Behemoth Invincibility toned down slightly. It now provides roughly 8% defense per target.
• Corrected animation time issues with Drain Psyche and Energy Absorption.
• Fixed a minor delay for the hit effects/damage on Martial Arts - Crippling Axe Kick
• Willpower / Rise to the Challenge will now root the player while activating. This was done to ensure it follows the same rules as other toggle powers.
• The animation used by Spine Burst and Thorn Burst will no longer prevent the next attack animation from playing.

User Commands

• Added /sync command which attempts to get the client and server back in sync when the client allows movement but it isn’t reflected on the server. (When out of sync, the player will be able to move around, but cannot see other players or NPCs, and other players cannot see them).

CITY of HEROES

Powers

Blasters

• Blasters / Defiance - Found a bug in the formula used for calculating Blaster Defiance buffs. The following powers have been altered as listed:
  
  • Fistful of Arrows (slightly weaker)
  • Rain of Arrows (slightly stronger)
  • Zapp (slightly stronger
  • Power Burst (stronger)
  • Bitter Freeze Ray (slightly stronger)
  • Shout (stronger)

CITY of VILLAINS

Powers

Corruptors

• Corruptor / Electric Blast / Voltaic Sentinel - Corruptor version of Voltaic Sentinel now benefits from Enhancements.

Dominators

• Dominator / Electric Assault / Thunder Strike: This power should no longer accept endurance modification sets.

Stalkers

• Fixed Stealth Suppression from Assassination Attacks

Tailor

• Weapon customization: Rularuu bow should now be obtainable by Villains

The Daily Mirror has announced a City of Heroes competition to celebrate the launch of Issue 12: Midnight Hour. One lucky entrant will win their very own uniquely-crafted PC featuring unique artwork hand-painted by Andrew Wildman, one of the artists from the charity Draw the World Together who regularly attends events with us! Four runners-up will receive a free copy of City of Heroes.

Entries close Wednesday, June 25th, so get yours in for the chance to win this one-of-a-kind hand-painted PC!

Combined

Powers

• Accolade / Portable Workbench accolade will no longer summon a Workbench in PVP areas.
• Dual Blades / One Thousand Cuts: Corrected this power’s cast time from being 2.43 seconds to 3.30 seconds.
• (Katana or Ninja Blade) / Sting of the Wasp animation once again returns to the two handed Katana Ready cycle after it completes
• Earth Control / Earthquake: Now accepts To Hit Debuff Enhancements and IO sets
• Some NPC weapons have been flipped back to their proper orientation
• Fixed transparency and colour for several powers icons
• Powers which accept Defense IO sets now accept “Defense Sets” rather than “defense”—text fix.

Animation

• Changed animations for Martial Arts attacks to help improve performance. New animation times are as follows:
  
  • Thunder Kick 0.83
  • Storm Kick 0.83
  • Cobra Strike 1.67
  • Crane Kick 1.67
  • Crippling Axe Kick 1.60
  • Dragons Tail 1.50
  • Eagles Claw 2.53

City Zones

• Cimerora: Fixed a hole near the Castellum bridge that allowed players to teleport under the world
• Cimerora: Fixed hole in Vespillo Pass that allowed players to teleport outside the map boundaries

Tailor (Character Creation / ICON / Facemaker)

• Change Shoulder category UI to reorder categories and clean up the list
• Change in Belt category UI to reorder categories and clean up the list

Invention

• Corrected short help text on Trap of the Hunter: Immobilize/Endurance Reduction IO enhancement. It no longer states it improves Damage.

User Interface

• Fixed the bug where tooltips displayed too small.
• Some pets summoned through control sets weren’t showing an icon in their buff tray, this has been corrected. All Tier 9 summoned pets should now have a buff icon.
• Fixed a display problem with the map compass in Cimerora.

Trial Accounts

• Trial Account restrictions implemented:
  
  • Trial Accounts cannot email other players
  • Trial Accounts may not level past 13
• Trial Accounts can only have 50k influence
• Trial Accounts can only speak in
  
  1. /local
  2. /help
  3. /team
• Trial Accounts cannot invite players to team
  
  1. Trial Accounts may join teams, but not invite other players
  2. Trial Accounts may not join SuperGroups.

CITY OF HEROES

Powers
Blaster

• Psionic Blast / Psionic Dart: This power will now have a unique icon, it should no longer be the same as Mental Blast
• Fire Manipulation / Burn: This power’s icon should now match the colour scheme of the other powers in the set.

Scrapper

• Fiery Aura / Consume: Power was incorrectly taking Knockback Sets instead of Endurance Modification sets. This has been corrected.
• Fiery Aura Consume now accepts Endurance Modification IO Sets, and no longer accepts Taunt Enhancements.
• Fiery Melee attacks no longer state they can accept Taunt IO sets.

Tanker

• Dark Armor / Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear no longer accept Taunt enhancements.
• Dark Melee attacks now accept Taunt Enhancements and Sets.

CITY of VILLAINS

Powers
Arachnos Widow

• Widow Training / Strike: Corrected Widow Strike power. It was separating damage into 2 packets, instead of a single packet of damage.

Brute

• Dark Melee powers, Shadow Punch, Shadow Maul, and Smite have had power icons corrected for Brutes and Stalkers.
• Electrical Melee / Chain Induction: Chain Induction jumping effect is now increased by enhancements and fury, and no longer jumps from confused NPCs to players. It also only strikes NPCs it has not previously jumped from. This affects Brute and Stalker versions of the power.

Dominator

• Dominator / Earth Control / Earthquake: Now accepts To Hit Debuff Enhancements and IO sets.

Mastermind

• Mastermind / Thugs / Call Thugs: This power was listing that it accepted knockback enhancements twice. This has been corrected.

Stalker

• Dark Melee powers, Shadow Punch, Shadow Maul, and Smite have had power icons corrected for Brutes and Stalkers.
• Dual Blades / Ablating Strike: Corrected an issue with Stalker Dual Blades Ablating Strike which was causing it to have critical effects against entities not targeted by the power.
• Electrical Melee attacks no longer accept Taunt Enhancements or IO Sets.
• Electrical Melee / Chain Induction: Chain Induction jumping effect is now increased by enhancements and fury, and no longer jumps from confused NPCs to players. It also only strikes NPCs it has not previously jumped from. This affects Brute and Stalker versions of the power.
• Updated the Stalker’s long help text on their Assassination inherent ability to reflect the recent changes to the Stalker archetype.
• Stalker Demoralize Effect no longer scales by level effects. The debuff and duration is fixed, regardless of the level of the target.

COMBINED

Animations

• Flight / Hover – Hover animations tweaked some more.

Badges

• Issue 12 Exploration badges should give XP.

Inventions

• Trap of the Hunter Acc/Recharge: Corrected the short help for this enhancement to read Acc/Rech and not Acc/Dmg.
• Corrected short help in Defense and To-Hit Debuff invention origin sets.  They should now list that they enhance To-Hit Debuffs and Defense Debuffs instead of To-Hit Buffs and Defense Buffs.

Powers

• Accolade / Portable Workbench accolade will once again summon a Workbench in non-PVP areas.

Tasks

• Fixed improper start location in the Midnighter’s Club mission map as accessed by the Darrin Wade story arc.

Trial Accounts

• Added a message specific to trial accounts explaining why they can’t send emails.

CITY of HEROES

Animation

• Kheldian Dwarves and other critters that share the beast skeleton should play their “Taunt” animation again.

Badges

• Issue 12 Hero Exploration badges now have the correct art.

Powers

Scrappers

• Scrappers / Fire Melee / Cremate now accepts Damage IO sets, instead of Melee AoE IO Sets.
• Scrappers / Katana - Modified Katana cast times to match new animation times. Most powers are now faster activating.

Peacebringers

• Peacebringer / Combat Flight - Combat Flight now has the correct fly speed modifier of 1 (instead of the 4 it was given during the -Fly protection tests.)

Tasks

• Tech. Naylor’s souvenir clues should unlock Rularuu Weapons for the appropriate powersets.

CITY of VILLAINS

Stalker Update

• Further tweaks to the class based on data mining and player feedback (and some bug fixes):
  
  • Stalker Demoralize Effect duration reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds.
  • Stalker Demoralize Effect To Hit debuff reduced from 22.5% to 7.5%, but is no longer resistible.
  • Stalker Demoralize Effect Terrorize chance reduced from 30% to 25% per target.
  • Stalker Energy Melee Energy Transfer Self Damage increased from scale 2.5 to scale 3.00. This is due to Stalkers improved Hit Points and damage capability.
  • Sting of the Wasp and Crippling Axe Kick for stalkers will now properly have a chance to crit while not in a Hide state, instead of having a chance to double crit from a Hide state.
  • Vengeful Slice for Stalkers now correctly does Knockdown once again.

Powers

Arachnos Soldier

• Arachnos Soldier / Bane Spider - Fixed Bane spider characters getting an invisible default mace when using a powers respec.
• Arachnos Soldier / Crab Spider / Longfang - Corrected help text on Crab Spider Longfang.

Arachnos Widow

• Arachnos Widow / Teamwork / Indomitable Will - Indomitable Will for Widows will no longer gain increased damage resistance when the Widows damage is buffed.
• Arachnos Widow / Widow Training / Follow Up – “Follow Up” now has a unique animation not shared by “Strike”
• Arachnos Widow / Widow Training / Follow Up - Matched cast time to new Follow Up animation.

Masterminds

• Masterminds / Thugs / Call Thugs / Empty Clips: Adjusted this power’s range down to match its radius (it was firing before enemies were within the cone of effect). Also decreased this power’s damage.
• Masterminds / Thugs / Call Thugs: Corrected typo in the summoned entity’s description.

Stalkers

• Electric Armor / Static Shield: This power’s icon should no longer disappear after a minute of activity.

Tasks

• Alan Desslock now gives a better explanation why you cannot get his final mission from him.

User Interface

• Shortened display name of Arachnos Soldiers and Widows in target window

COMBINED

Maps

• Imperious Task Force:  Fixed several holes on the Vespillo Pass map (the 3rd map in the TF)

NPC Enemies

• The formula used by Lieutenants to calculate hit points (hp) was incorrect. This resulted in Lieutenants below level 15 having more hit points than intended, and those above level 15 having fewer than intended. At level 1, a Lieutenant had 22 hp greater than they should, and at level 54, they had 55 hp less than they should. The formula has been corrected and they now have the correct hp throughout their level ranges.

Powers

Attack Powers:

• Assault Rifle/M30 Grenade: This power should now be able to be slotted for both knockback enhancements and sets. This affects all versions of this power.
• Battle Axe / Gash: Since this power currently uses Beheader’s old animation to smooth out its overall attack chain, its power name has been changed to Beheader to better suit its animation.
• Battle Axe / Beheader: Since this power currently uses Gash’s old animation to smooth out its overall attack chain, its power name has been changed to Gash to better suit its animation.
• Fire Sword: The animation for this power was changed. Its cast time was reduced from 1.67 to 1.33 seconds. This affects the power for all versions of Fiery Melee and Fire Manipulation.
• Hurl Boulder: The animation for this power was changed. Its cast time was reduced from 3.83 to 2.5 seconds. This affects the versions of this power in Stone Mastery (Epic) and Stone Melee.
• Ice Sword: The animation for this power was changed. Its cast time was reduced from 1.67 to 1.33 seconds. This affects the versions of this power in Ice Melee, Ice Manipulation and Icy Assault.
• Stone Melee/Heavy Mallet: Increased activation time to 1.63. This was done to allow the animation to return the player into the neutral position before activating another power
• Stone Melee/Stone Mallet: Increased activation time to 1.61. This was done to allow the animation to return the player into the neutral position before activating another power.
• Super Strength / Hurl: The animation for this power was changed. Its cast time was reduced from 3.83 to 2.5 seconds. This affects both the Brute and Tanker versions of this power.
• Further AI improvements for Seeker Drones and the Gun Drone power.
• Damage from Psychic Blast / Mental Blast should be delayed to sync with projectile now.

Power Pool Powers:

• Flight / Hover – Hovering Forward now has a new animation
• Flight / Hover - Hover is now resistant to -Fly effects.
• Medicine - Minor animation changes for Medicine - Aid Other, Aid Self, and Stimulant
• Medicine - Revive animation and FX should now play properly.

Status Effect / Buffs / Debuff Powers:

• Mind Control/Confuse: Added PvP Confusion suppression to this power.
• Mind Control/Mass Confusion: Added PvP Confusion suppression to this power.
• Plant Control/Seeds of Confusion: Added PvP Confusion suppression to this power.
• Storm Summoning / O2 Boost: The duration of the perception bonus portion of O2 Boost now matches the duration of the other buffs associated with the power.

Rewards

• Vanguard Merits now will display ‘Merit Awarded!’ instead of ‘Salvage Found!’ when they are awarded to a player.

Tasks

• Taskforce challenge ‘debuff players’ was only being applied to the team leader.  This has been fixed.

User Interface

• Replaced character slot store icon

CITY of HEROES

Powers

Blaster

Blaster / Psychic Blast / Will Domination: Changed the long help text to match the short help text for this power. The long help for Will Domination now accurately states this power deals Moderate damage.
• Blaster / Mental Manipulation / World of Confusion: Blaster World of Confusion endurance cost was 50 % of the correct value. This has been corrected.
• Blaster / Electric Blast / Charged Bolts: The blaster version of this power should no longer list that it takes endurance modification enhancements twice.

Controller

• Controller / Illusion Control / Deceive: Added PvP Confusion suppression to this power.

Defender

• Defender / Psychic Blast / Will Domination: Changed the long help text to match the short help text for this power. The long help for Will Domination now accurately states this power deals Moderate damage.
• Defender / Psychic Blast / Mental Blast: Damage is now delayed for projectile hit

Kheldian Epic Archetypes

• Peacebringer / Combat Flight, Peacebringer / Bright Nova, and Warshade / Dark Nova are now resistant to -Fly effects.

Peacebringer

• Peacebringer / Luminous Blast / Photon Seekers: Increased Radius on Peacebringer Photon Seekers’ explosion from 7’ to 10’, but reduced their damage slightly from Damage Scale 2 to 1.64.
• Peacebringer / Combat Flight now gives AoE defense equal to its existing Melee and Ranged Defense values.

CITY of VILLAINS

Stalker Update

• Increased Stalker Melee damage multiplier from 0.9 base to 1.0 base.
• Increased Stalker Hit Points multiplier from 0.95 to 1.125
• All Stalker melee attacks now have a chance to critical while not hidden. This chance is equal to 10% plus 3% per additional team member within 30’ of the stalker at the time of the attack. This only applies to PVE targets. Stalkers old chance to critical Held or Slept targets now only applies to PVP targets.
  
  • The Critical portion of Energy Transfer operates exactly as if you were criticalling from Hide—it eliminates the Self Damage, rather than increasing damage to the target.
• Using an Assassination attack and missing will no longer suppress Hide (though lesser stealth and invisibility powers will still suppress) if the attack misses. If the attack hits, Hide suppresses normally.
• Hide Suppression for Stalkers reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Assassination attacks now cause a demoralizing effect on PVE targets that survive the attack. Demoralized targets To Hit value is reduced, and the target may be frozen in terror.

Powers

Villain Epic Archetypes:

• Arachnos Soldiers and Widows will now properly be able to enhance Patron Power Pool powers.

Arachnos Soldier

• Arachnos Soldier / Crab Spider / Omega Maneuver: Mobs defeated by Omega Maneuver explosion should now grant rewards to the player.

Arachnos Widow

• Arachnos Widow / Fortunata Teamwork / Aura of Confusion: Added PvP Confusion suppression to this power.
• Arachnos Widow / Fortunata Teamwork / Confuse: Added PvP Confusion suppression to this power.
• Arachnos Widow / Fortunata Training / Total Domination: This power’s victim hit message was reporting {PowerName} instead of the power’s name, this has been corrected.
• Arachnos Widow / Fortunata Training / Subdue: This power now has the proper purple ring visual effect to indicate the target has been immobilized; these were not present for NPC targets.
• Arachnos Widow / Fortunata Training / Dominate: This power’s victim hit message was reporting {PowerName} instead of the power’s name, this has been corrected.
• Arachnos Widow / Widow Training: All attacks from Widow Training had their toxic damage enhanceable. This has been fixed.
• Arachnos Widow / Widow Training / Strike: Corrected animation for Widow Training – Strike.  Strike now uses intended ‘gutpunch’ animation.
• Arachnos Widow / Widow Training / Poison Dart: Long help read “Poison Dart does light moderate damage to your foe, then poisons them. The poison does toxic damage over time and reduces their regeneration rate. Damage: Moderate Recharge: Fast”. Changed to: “Poison Dart does moderate damage to your foe, then poisons them. The poison does toxic damage over time and reduces their regeneration rate. Damage: Moderate Recharge: Fast”
• Arachnos Widow / Widow Training: Animation/Activation time changes for some Arachnos Widow Claw attacks.
  
  • Swipe - 0.83 seconds
  • Strike - 1.17 seconds
  • Slash - 1.33 seconds

Brutes

• Super Reflexes / Evasion: Corrected the Brute version of this power to cost the correct amount of endurance. It previously was costing far too little endurance.

Corruptor

• The Corruptor version of Voltaic Sentinel now has Scourge effects.
• Traps and Storm Summoning for Corruptors were using the wrong value in the endurance cost calculations. This has been corrected and should see a decrease in endurance costs for most powers from these sets.

Dominators

• Dominators / Icy Assault / Greater Ice Sword: This power has been renamed ‘Ice Slash’. This is to differentiate it from powers with the same name, but differing animations.

Masterminds

• Masterminds / Necromancy / Grave Night: The henchman The “Grave Knight” will now use his Necromancy Sword for all of his attacks. This should also help him cycle through all of his sword attack powers.

Stalkers

• Stalkers / Ninja Blade / Placate should no longer cause redraw with other Ninja Blade powers.
• Stalkers / Dual Blades / Assassin’s Blades – Fixed Animation

Temporary Powers

• Coral Club: This power had its activation time increased to 1.6 seconds. This was done to allow the animation to return the player into the neutral position before activating another power.

Tailor

• Crab Spider backpacks are now only available to Soldiers Of Arachnos who have specialized in the Crab Spider path. They are customizable now at the Facemaker and will be removed if you respec out of the Crab Spider path.

Issue 12: Midnight Hour has arrived on the live servers and is now open! Immerse yourself in the new Midnight Squad storyline with a host of new missions, and experience Roman-style zone environments unlike anything you’ve seen in Paragon City™ or the Rogue Isles™.

For Villains, we introduce the all-new Villain Epic Archetypes: the Soldiers of Arachnos. Powerset Proliferation brings new powerset choices for all archetypes, and the list of overall gameplay and Quality of Life improvements is, well, lengthy! To see the full list of new features, updates and other changes in Issue 12: Midnight Hour, make sure to check out the patch notes.

As the Senior Art Lead, it’s my job to figure out how to turn Positron and the rest of the team’s ideas into visual realities.  Coming from both a film and environment art background, I am always excited when the opportunity to create new settings for the game presents itself.  A Task Force inspired by ancient Greece and Rome, however, was genre-stretching territory we’d never ventured into before, and presented some serious challenges.

Could Heroes and Villains of every imaginable variety fit into an ancient, fantastic setting?  Would Cimerora feel as connected to the Hero and Villain experience as Atlas Park or Mercy Island? Would it be exciting to see super powered battles between leather and bronze clad warriors in sandals versus Heroes and Villains in tights?  I’d like to give you a glimpse into the process that took Cimerora from concept to completion! 

Creating Cimerora: The Process

1 – Genesis of the Idea
Creating Greek and Roman inspired mission content was something that we wanted to do with Issue 11: A Stitch in Time. It was always a goal of ours for that Issue to really make you feel like a time traveler by going back to ancient times and interacting with the locals there. Unfortunately, when all the art tasks for Issue 11 were estimated, it became apparent that we would not be able to complete it for that Issue. We did, however, start work on several assets that we knew we would need once we got the content underway.

2 – Mission/Zone Concept
For Issue 12, Positron (Matt Miller) and Hero 1 (Joe Morrissey) had a time traveling Task Force in mind with several fairly epic missions.  It quickly became clear that in order to truly support the Task Force content, Cimerora would need to become a place of its own. 

Taking Heroes and Villains to ancient times was a huge challenge conceptually and visually, and we felt that providing a persistent area for players to explore, team up in, and even resurrect if needed, would help make the experience feel more natural. 

Another key conceptual goal for Cimerora was to make it feel like a real place, rather than just a play space.  To make this a reality, we decided that all mission and zone content should be interconnected, forming a more continuous geographical area for players to explore.

3 – Asset Concept and Creation
While Hero 1 retreated to his cave to design the mission and story content of the zone, I drew up a rough map of the spaces we’d need and the environment artists began gathering reference and prototyping assets for the zone. 

For signature architecture and locations we turned to our fantastic concept artist, Carolina Tello Alvarado, who illustrated all of the key architecture and iconography for Castellum Quarter and the Oracle’s Island .  These illustrations, along with the advance work we did during Issue 11, helped the environment team work quickly and effectively to create and refine literally thousands of new visual assets encompassing everything from cliffs and terrain to buildings and fortresses.

4 – Environment Layout and Prototyping
Once the library of Cimeroran assets had begun to take shape, Don Pham and Ryan Roth of our environment team worked closely with Hero 1 and War Witch (Melissa Bianco) to create the map layouts you’ll find in Cimerora. Reveals and vistas were carefully planned and “white boxed” in order to ensure that the story was revealed visually as intended. “White boxing” is the process of using an easily changeable, temporary layout to make sure game play, “pathing” and overall flow is working properly. 

5 – Revision
White boxed zones often change daily based on play testing, story modifications; or simply because some ideas sound great on paper, but don’t work so well in game.  This was the case with the Castellum Quarter mission map for the Time’s Arrow Task Force. The original design of Castellum Quarter called for a high class temple district with beautiful gardens, but when the environments were created in the editor, it became apparent that the mood just wasn’t sinister and epic enough to sell the story content. The white boxed level was torn down, and a new Castellum Quarter was born as a huge fortress atop craggy cliffs , connected by soaring bridges.

6 - Population, Revision and More Revision
As the Art and Design teams reached consensus on the layouts for Cimerora and its associated missions, War Witch began drawing on the fantastic Greek and Roman inspired characters and costumes Jay Doherty created as well as the spectacular new animations and FX that Back Alley Brawler (Chris Bruce) and the animation team supplied to populate each map with dynamic spawns and NPCs.

Shortly after the maps were populated and missions were hooked up, it was time for play testing, and inevitably, more revisions! 

7- Polish and Release
During the final days before release, feedback from internal play tests as well as from closed and open beta testing is examined. Game play is tweaked, geometry holes are plugged, and textures, scene settings, music and audio are all finalized for release.  By the time you set foot in Cimerora, its final content will have been contributed to by almost every member of the Art and Design teams.

Final Words
Cimerora is one of my favorite places in the CoH/CoV universe, and is a truly unique zone that has allowed us to push the game’s visuals and level design in new, more focused and immersive directions.  I hope Heroes and Villains alike find their travels in Cimerora to be as exciting and memorable as it has been for the team to create this new zone! 

In this in depth look at the creation of the new zone Cimerora, Ken Morse takes us behind the scenes and through the seven steps that brought Cimerora from concept to completion.

Issue 12: Midnight Hour

“Now in the world’s hour of need, the clock strikes midnight. It’s the Midnight Hour.”

The Midnight Squad story arcs (Hero and Villain)

For generations, the Midnight Squad has dedicated their lives to protect the world from worldly and dimensional threats.  Now, they need the help of the Heroes of Paragon City and the Villains of the Rogue Isles to finally rid the world of Rikti.  Heroes and Villains must cross through time and journey to an ancient land to find knowledge long forgotten and battle ancient foes.

New Zone : Cimerora

Cimerora is a hub zone (like Ouroboros) with features such as:

• Task Force Contact: Imperious - who gives out the “Time’s Arrow” Task Force
• Atmosphere spawns around the perimeter and out-of-the-way areas so that players are not attacked while interacting with contacts
• Functional Contacts:  store, trainer, notoriety contacts for Villains and Heroes
• Senator Aquila provides a simple introduction story arc and Marcus Valerius gives out repeatable missions

New Task Force : “Time’s Arrow”

• Co-Op Task Force (35-50)

Character Origin Missions (Hero and Villain)

Where did Origins come from? How are they connected? How long have they existed? 

Villain Epic Archetypes:

• Arachnos Soldier
• Arachnos Widow

Hollows Revamp

The Hollows has received a game-play upgrade including:

• Completely redesigned spawn encounters (ranging from city-sized spawns to hazard-sized spawns)
• Added Meg Mason, a new contact who gives out repeatable missions
• Added stores (one at either entrance) and a trainer (Foreshadow)
• Added a mobile hospital
• Did a complete mission-door revamp so most missions should have the neighbourhood-appropriate doors to match
• Added some new Villain groups for variety and flavour

Loading Screen Tips

• Loading screen tips will now appear on the loading screens for mission maps.
• There is an option to disable loading tips in the options window.

Powerset Proliferation

While researching the energy strands that all super powered beings tap into, Dr. Brainstorm caused a massive release of energy that imbalanced the energy grid surrounding the powers nexus.

As a result, it appears that heroes and villains now have access to powers that previously were unavailable to them.

Blaster

• New Primary - Psychic Blast
• New Secondary - Mental Manipulation

Brute

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

Controller

• New Primary - Plant Control
• New Secondary - Thermal Radiation

Corruptor

• New Primary - Electrical Blast
• New Secondary - Storm Summoning

Defender

• New Primary - Cold Domination
• New Secondary - Ice Blast

Dominator

• New Primary - Earth Control
• New Secondary - Electricity Assault

Mastermind

• New Secondary - Storm Summoning

Scrapper

• New Primary - Fiery Melee
• New Secondary - Fiery Aura

Stalker

• New Primary - Electric Melee
• New Secondary - Electric Armor

Tanker

• New Primary - Dark Armor
• New Secondary - Dark Melee

Optional Character Slots Purchases

• Players can now purchase optional character slots on each server with a one-time fee, and not an addition to your monthly subscription fee.
• Players can have up to 36 slots per server.
• Purchases of a single character slot may be allocated to any single server of your choice, subject to the maximum server limit. 
• Purchases of multiple slots may be allocated to any single server or split between multiple servers of your choice, subject to the maximum server limit. 
• For a limited time, all accounts that log into the Live Servers will receive 2 free Character Slots.  This is for a *Limited* time only.
• For every 12 month cumulative period that an account has been subscribed, players will receive 1 free slot.

User Interface:

• Character slots in the character selection screen can now be reorganized by dragging and dropping. The sort order is stored in a file on the client, but only if “Remember Account Name” is checked on the Log-in Screen.
• Added Hide Delete Recipe prompt option to Options window.
• Added option to display a rating from a Player Note above the players head in the options window.
• Added option to disable loading tips in the options window.
• The mouse scroll wheel will now affect scrollbars when the mouse is over a scrollable area. This can be disabled in the options window.
• Missions’ headers now show the level of the mission.
• Auction house inventory now shows count of slots used/slots total.
• Kicking a member from supergroup or removing a global friend via button-click will present a confirmation dialog.
• Disable Camera Shake Option Added (found in options window)
• Contact List Improvements
  
  • Contacts can now be sorted by the contact’s name, name of the zone, and contact relationship.  All contacts that are active will appear in the “active” tab.
  • Added Broker Tab for Villains and a Detective Tab for Heroes to Contact User Interface.
  • When sorting Contacts by Zone, contacts in the current zone will always appear at the top.
  • In all sorts, Contacts with missions you are currently on will always appear at the top.
• Fixed a rare bug that could cause the main “health bar” window to vanish.
• A couple small additions to help improve performance for dial-up users:
  
  • Added Option to disable combat numbers on power buff icons
  • Added Option to disable sending buff information altogether

Email

• Added “Spam” Button to email window. It will ignore the sender as a spammer and delete the email.

Power Trays

• Eight additional power trays added which can be accessed by clicking the “+” sign on the upper-right of the Power Tray Interface or via commands (/show tray1, /show tray2, show tray3, etc).
• These trays have no jelly to click on, but can be dragged about by clicking on non-occupied slots or dead space.
• These trays are deformable.
• Added command /clear_tray which will remove all non-macros from all power trays.

Player Notes:

• You may now rate players and write notes about them.
  
  • The notes are stored by global name.
  • The note list is stored locally on your computer and will bring up the same notes for any character you play with.
  • It can be invoked by typing /playernote or by clicking “Add Note” on context menus.
  • There is a new option to display the rating you’ve given a player above their name.
  • Additionally, you can enable private message logging to store private message logs on a per global name basis.
  • Only you will see the Player Notes that you write and ratings you give.  Since these notes are stored locally on your computer, other players cannot see your notes and ratings. 
  • Conversely, you will not be able to see any Player Notes or ratings that other players may have written about you.

In-Depth Power Information

Detailed Power Information is now available at Power Selection, Level up, Respec, and Enhancement placing screen as well as a new tab in the info window. This information shows the powers basic data along with every effect the power has.

• There is a slider to see the effect of the power across all levels.
• There is a class selector to see how the power would perform for each class.
• There is a PvP toggle to see how powers will change in PvP.
• Powers that spawn pets will show all powers the pets use and their effects.

Improved Character Creator

Players may now select a costume set theme from the new “Costume Sets” drop down menu in the Character creation process, the Tailor (for Heroes) or Facemaker (for Villains). 

The Costume Sets revolve around existing and new Costume sets.  Some Costume Sets are unlocked through gameplay achievements, Veteran Rewards (i.e. the Boxer set) or by Costume Pack purchase (i.e. the “Good Versus Evil” Justice and Sinister costumes or the Wedding Pack).

Local Settings

Most user options can now be saved to file and loaded from file. If a default setting file is saved, all newly created characters will use the default file to set initial options. The options window has buttons added to save and load default files. Non-default files can be saved and loaded via slash commands.

General Options

• /option_save, /options_save_file
• /option_load, /option_load_file
• /option_set
• /option_toggle
• /option_list - Lists names allowed for /option_set and /option_toggle
• /bindload, /bindloadfile /bindsave /bindsavefile display confirmation messages
• /bindloadfilesilent and /bindsavefilesilent do not display confirmation messages

Window Configuration

• Window names are now all exposed, and you can now see a list of valid names with the /window_names command
• Added commands /wdw_save and /wdw_save_file to save your current window configuration.
• Added commands /wdw_load and /wdw_load_file to load your window save file.

Chat Tab Configuration

• /chat_save and /chat_save_file save chat settings locally
• /chat_load and /chat_load_file load chat settings on current character

Chat System Revamp

Player Names are now clickable in the chat window, which brings up a menu you can use to:

• Chat
• Invite to Team
• Add Friend
• Get Global or Local name
• Ignore
• Ignore Spammer

Clicking the channel name of a global chat channel will give these options:

• Send Message
• List Members
• Set MotD (Message of the Day)
• Set Description
• Leave Channel
• Set Color - allows you to set your global channel display colours.

Right-Clicking a players name in a global chat channel that you are a moderator of will give additional options:

• Silence/Unsilence
• Kick

Powers, Enhancements, Recipes, Inspirations, and Salvage are now linkable in chat:

• You can drag/drop those items on to the chat window to create link
• You can type the name (if you know it) of an item inside a pair of square brackets, for example: [Luck]
• Clicking the link will bring up the info window for that item
• Many powers/items in the game have the same name, in those cases additional information is added to the link

Under the chat options section, there is new item “Individual Name Colors” which will display each name in the chat window its own colour.

Pet combat messages are now sent to the pet owner. Added channels Pet Damage Inflicted, Pet Combat, Pet Damage Received, Pet Healing Received, Pet Healing Delivered, and Pet Hit Rolls. Newly created Masterminds will have a “Pet Combat” tab added.

Global Chat Changes

Global Names and Local Server names are now transparent.  The invisible wall between global and local identities has been removed, so that if you know another player’s Local Server Name, then you will be able to find out their Global name by using the following commands:

• /get_local_name
• /get_global_name

/hide and /ghide will now bring up an option dialog where you can separately choose to hide from Global Chat Channels, Global Friends, Server Friends, Supergroup, and Searches.

In addition there are commands to individually set each of these options:

• /hide_sg, /unhide_sg - Makes you appear offline in supergroup window
• /hide_search, /unhide_search - Prevents you from appearing in the looking for group window
• /hide_friends, /unhide_friends - Makes you appear offline to server friends
• /hide_gfriends, /unhide_gfriends - Makes you appear offline to global friends
• /hide_gchannels, /unhide_gchannels - Prevents you from appearing in global channel lists
• /hide_tell, /unhide_tell - You will still receive tells, but the sender will get error message as if you were offline
• /hide_invite, /unhide_invite - All invites will be blocked as if you were offline
• /hide_all, /unhide_all - Sets all hide options on or off

Changed /ignore and /gignore functionality. Using either command will ignore that user on all global channels as well as all local characters and any new characters they create.

Increased Max Friends to 200

Ignore list size had been increased to 200.

Players are now allowed to have 10 Global channels.

Zone Event System Message Channels

• There are two separate Zone Event System channels, the Hero Zone Event Message and Villain Zone Event Message channel.
  
  • Warnings will appear in the appropriate event channels for the Clockwork Paladin, Giant Octopus, Ghost Ship, Croatoa Battle, Troll Rave, Hellion Fire, Miner’s Strike, Arachnos Flier, Caleb and Deathsurge zone events.

Inspiration Improvements

You can now combine 3 inspirations of the same type and strength into a different inspiration of the same strength, this is accessible via the context menu for qualified inspirations.
Also added slash commands for inspirations:

• /insp_delete
• /insp_combine

Leveling Up Bonus

Levelling up will refill health and endurance!

In addition to restoring the player to full health and endurance, levelling up will now greatly inspire the player.

Combat Attribute Window Improvements

Added commands to add or remove attributes form the Attribute Monitor:

• /monitor_attribute
• /stop_monitor_attribute

Per player request, added new fields to the Combat Attribute Window.

• Experience to Next Level
• Current Experience Debt
• Last Hit Chance (from a click power)
• Endurance Consumption (total from active toggle powers)
• Influence
• Healing Bonus

Power Trays

• Added command /clear_tray which will remove all non-macros from all power trays.

Trial Account Limitations

Trial Accounts now have the following restrictions.  Characters on Trial Accounts may not:

• Hold more than 50,000 Influence/Infamy
• Join a Supergroup
• Use any chat other than /local, /team, or /friend.
• Invite characters into a Team (although Trial Account characters can join a team)
• Use In-Game Mail
• Level up past level 14
• Enter any PVP Zone

Combined Notes

User Interface
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented selecting a shared mission

Fixed a rare bug where the camera would always switch to first person mode when the player’s character entered a zone.

Powers

Accolades

• Accolades - Reduced the To Hit bonus provided by the “Geas of the Kind Ones” and “Force of Nature” accolades from +200 to +25.
• Accolades \ Force of Nature – should now work when exemplared, like other accolade powers.

Attack Powers

• Corrected Activation time for Whirling Hands and Spin. These times did not accurately reflect the duration of the rooted portion of the animation.
• Normalized attack times for PBAOE powers that share the twirl animation, such as Fire Sword Circle, Whirling Sword, and Whirling Axe.
• Fiery Melee / Scorch: This power now uses a shorter casting time to go along with its new shorter animation.
• Near ground attacks (like fossilize) will no longer be foiled by continuous jumping
• All versions of Lift, Propel, Levitate, Repulsion Bomb and Force Bolt now suppress properly versus players.

Defence Powers

• Dark Armor/Death Shroud: Increased this power’s activation time from 1.17 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matched its rooted time.

Buff / Debuff / Status Effect Powers

• Boost Range - Removed stacking from all versions of Boost Range.
• Dark Armor / Soul Transfer, Set untouchable timer to 15 seconds. Removed a small delay before the untouchable portion of power activates, and added an “Untouchable” float text.
• Dark Melee / Soul Drain: The Tanker and Brute version of this power stated that it could be slotted with to-hit debuff enhancements. It has no to-hit debuff component. This has been corrected.
• Dark Miasma / Black Hole - should now see “Black Hole” Float text when target is made intangible.
• Fiery Aura / Rise of the Phoenix - Removed a small delay before the untouchable portion of power activates, and added an “Untouchable” float text.
• Force Field / Detention Field - Should now see “Detention Field” Float text when target is made untouchable.
• Gravity Control / Dimension Shift - should now see “Dimension Shift” Float text when a target is made intangible.
• Power Boost - Reduced strength of all versions of Power Boost by 33%, removed Knockback boost and removed stacking from the power.
• Radiation Emission / Choking Cloud: Increased this power’s activation time from 2.03 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time match its rooted time
• Radiation Emission / Fallout now targets only dead Teammates.
• Sonic Buff / Sonic Cage - Should now see “Sonic Cage” Float text when a target is made untouchable.
• Storm Summoning / O2 Boost - All versions of O2 Boost now grant a Perception bonus to the target.
• Thermal Radiation / Power of the Phoenix - Should now see an “Untouchable” float text when target is made untouchable.
• Normalized Debt protection in all rezzing powers in powersets to 90 seconds. Sets affected: Tanker and Scrapper Fire Aura, Willpower, Dark Armor, and Regen. Controller and Defender buff sets Empathy, Radiation, Dark and Thermal.
• Powers that do not cause aggro will no longer suppress stealth.
• Powers that could only affect players on the ground will now affect all players above them as well as standing on them. This is to fix a PVP exploit making ground based powers ineffective. Powers fixed: Tar Patch, Bonfire, Ice Patch, Ice slick, Quicksand, Caltrops, and Volcanic Gasses.
• Added an enforced 60 second period in which Phase Shift powers cannot be reactivated after a previous activation of the power.
• “Caging” powers (Sonic Cage, Black Hole, etc) now follow standard suppression rules in PVP.
• Added Phase suppression to the Phase Flight temporary power
• Knockback is now affected by suppression in PvP, in the same way as Hold, Sleep and Disorient.  This change has been applied to many powers that can cause knockback.  Any player affected by a knockback will become immune to further knockback attempts for 10 seconds.  The affected powers have been noted in the appropriate detailed Archetype powers sections below.

Travel Powers

• Leaping / Acrobatics - Reduced Knockback Protection of Acrobatics from 100 points to 9 points. Note that this means there are certain critters who will occasionally overcome the protection provided.
• Leaping / Acrobatics - Now accepts Knockback enhancements. These will increase the protection to knockback attacks, however only 2/9ths of the protection is enhanceable.
• Teleport / Teleport Self - Adjusted the target location code for Teleport Self to reduce the likelihood of getting a red failure reticule.

Veteran Reward Powers

• Decreased knockback on Prestige Nemesis Staff (from 9 to 4)

Values Changes

• ToHit was not actually being clamped to max class value and now is.

Status Effect Changes

• Confused players will only be able to harm teammates.
• Repel resist in Break Free and Emerge inspirations improved
• Increased Disorient Magnitude on Awaken and Bounce Back inspirations to 5, in order to prevent it from causing Rest to fail in conjunction with villain epic archetypes’ status protection.

AI

• Pets should no longer become terrified and run in terror when their owner’s Oil Slick power fades.

Arena

• Changed timing between scheduled arena match rounds from 10 seconds to 120 seconds (where it was supposed to be).

Bases

• Robo-Surgery will now attach to Base Reclaimator

Emotes

• Added /emote ReadBook
• Fixed the Boombox emote animation for ‘Beat’ so that it loops properly.

Game

• Fixed a crash where pressing the Left/Right keyboard arrows or numeric keypad 4 and 6, while viewing the auction window, would cause the client to crash.

Graphical Effects and Animations

• Fiery Aura / Blazing Aura - Activating Blazing Aura while moving will now transition properly into moving animations once the rooting period is complete.
• Fiery Melee / Scorch now has a different, slightly faster animation than Incinerate.
• Fiery Melee / Scorch: This power now uses a shorter casting time to go along with its new shorter animation.
• Fixed the rooting problem where certain buff toggles were activated before they were ready.
• Knockback animation should now play correctly on non-flying targets that use the male, female, or huge models.
• All of the projectiles in the Flares power Graphical Effects should be killed off at the proper time now.
• Knockback / Knockup animations will no longer play faster or slower based on the scale of the character.
• Knockback / Knockup animations for flight mode have been flagged similarly to non-flying versions
• Corrected error for all powers using the ‘ground summon’ animation. The duration of the portion of the animation flagged as ‘can’t move’ was significantly longer than the reported Activation Time.
• Modified Mitochondria visibility/targetability.  Mitochondria should now be visible form a greater distance away during Hamidon Raids.

Inventions

• Added suppression to Invention temp power Ethereal Shift.
• The debuff from Achilles Heel: Chance for Resistance Debuff will now properly fade after 10 seconds, rather than lingering until a player was defeated or zoned.
• Kismet: Increased Accuracy Invention Enhancement was giving a scaling bonus based on the level of your target. This has been corrected—it now gives a flat bonus.

Rewards

• Characters will no longer stop earning Influence when playing in Supergroup mode after level 34.  Players level 29 and up will now earn 50% of the influence they would have received when in Supergroup mode.
• Fixed a long-standing bug with Experience Point and Influence distribution in teams with a large range of levels.
• High Level Family entities have had their reward scale lowered to be commensurate with the risk involved in the encounter.
• Salvage drops changed to more closely match the villain groups.

Sound

• Fiery Aura - Fire Shield & Plasma Shield. Looping sounds will now fade out after a short period of time.

Store

• Adjusted price on Rez inspirations to equal 3 regular inspirations.

Tailor

• Unlockable weapons for some weapon-based powersets have been added to the game. 
• Users can now choose to pay with influence or free costume token at the Tailor.
• Standard HeadDetail 1English Monocle added to male, female and huge characters.
• Many new chest details have been introduced:
  
  • Alien 1
  • Alien 2
  • BullsEye 2
  • Cyber Eye
  • Health
  • Lion
  • Mantis
  • Nuke
  • Power On
  • Question Mark
  • Recycle
  • Skull 3
  • Star 10
  • Star 11
  • Star 12
  • Star 13
  • Star 14
  • Swirl 3
  • Symbol 8
  • Symbol 9
  • Symbol 10
  • Tech Hole
  • Trash
• New Body Patterns sets
  
  • Arctic
  • Perplex
  • Thorn
  • Vandal

Tasks

• Flashback missions that do not allow players to leave immediately on completion will no longer fade to sepia upon completion.

CITY of HEROES

Powers

Accolades

• Decreased Geas of the Kind ones and Force of Nature defence debuff from 20% to 10%

Blasters

• Blaster / Archery / Explosive Arrow now deals full damage to players.
• Blaster / Archery / Blazing Arrow: Removed text in the long help stating that this power is less accurate than other Archery attacks. Blazing Arrow has the same accuracy bonus that the other Archery powers have.
• Blaster / Cold Mastery / Hibernate - Changed short help to indicate this power is a self hold, not a foe hold.
• Blaster / Devices / Auto Turret - Auto Turret for Blasters is now ‘Gun Drone’—it will fly, follow you around and fight at your side, much like Voltaic Sentinel. Note that enemies who use Auto Turrets have upgraded as well.
• Blaster / Devices / Cloaking Device - Removed the +DMG from the short help for this power. It offers no damage boost.
• Blaster / Devices / Smoke Grenade - Added combat spam text for both the attacker and victim.
• Blaster / Electric Manipulation was missing knockback suppression on several powers. Added to bring in line with powers available to other archetypes.
  
  • Havoc Punch
  • Lightning Clap
  • Thunder Strike
• Blaster / Energy Blast / Nova: Added Knockback suppression vs players.
• Blaster / Energy Manipulation / Total Focus: corrected to do smashing damage vs players.
• Blaster / Ice Manipulation / Chilblain unresistible damage was activating far too often. Changed to a normal 2 seconds.
• Blaster / Ice Manipulation / Ice Patch - Increased this power’s activation time from 2.03 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time match its rooted time.
• Blaster / Ice Manipulation / Shiver - was generating Defiance per target hit. This has been corrected and it now gives a Defiance buff only once per usage.

Controllers

• Controllers have always had a 20% chance for a critical hold. Critical Holds will now display a pop up combat message of “Overpower” to let you know they happened.
• Controller / Force Field / Force bubble - Added Knockback suppression for players.
• Controller / Ice Mastery / Hibernate - Changed short help to indicate this power is a self hold, not a foe hold.
• Controller / Sonic Debuff / Sonic Repulsion - Added Knockback suppression for players.

Defenders

• Defenders level 2 to 49 were using an incorrect multiplier for Damage and Defense Debuff powers. The base value for these effects should now be 25% greater than previously experienced.
• Defender / Archery / Blazing Arrow - Removed text in the long help stating that this power is less accurate than other Archery attacks. Blazing Arrow has the same accuracy bonus that the other Archery powers have.
• Defender / Archery / Explosive Arrow - Added knockback suppression vs. players.
• Defender / Dark Blast / Torrent - Added knockback suppression vs. players.
• Defender / Energy Blast / Nova - Added knockback suppression vs. players.
• Defender / Force Field / Force Bolt - Added Knockback suppression vs players.
• Defender / Force Field / Force Bubble - Added Knockback suppression for players.
• Defender / Radiation Blast / Electron Haze - Added knockback suppression vs players.
• Defender / Sonic Attack / Shockwave - Added knockback suppression vs. players.
• Defender / Sonic Debuff / Sonic Repulsion - Added Knockback suppression for players.
• Defender / Storm Summoning / Gale - Added Knockback suppression vs players.

Peacebringers

• Peacebringer / Luminous Blast / Bright Nova / Bright Nova Blast: Added PvP knockback suppression into this power.
• Peacebringer / Luminous Blast / Bright Nova / Bright Nova Detonation: Added PvP knockback suppression into this power.
• Peacebringer / Luminous Aura / Restore Essence: Increased the Debt Protection from 60 to 90 seconds.
• Peacebringer / Quantum Flight - Removed the escalating Endurance cost from Peacebringers’ “Quantum Flight” and added the 30 second timer common to other Phase Shift type powers.
• Peacebringer / Quantum Flight - Quantum Flight’s 30 second Phase Shift’s cut off has been changed. The Flight aspect of this power will continue, and only the Phase Shift aspect cuts off after 30 seconds.

Scrappers

• Scrapper / Broadsword - Attack times for the Broadsword powerset have been normalized to eliminate pauses between attacks.

Tankers

• Tanker / Battle Axe / Gash and Beheader – Animations and Graphical Effects for Gash and Beheader have been exchanged.
• Tanker / Battle Axe – Attack times for the Battleaxe powerset have been normalized to eliminate pauses between attacks.
• Tanker / Fiery Aura / Blazing Aura – Activating Blazing Aura while moving will now transition properly into moving animations once the rooting period is complete.
• Tanker / Ice Melee / Ice Patch: Increased this power’s activation time from 2.03 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matched its rooted time.

Warshades

• Warshade / Umbral Aura / Orbiting Death - Increased this power’s activation time from 1.17 seconds to 2.03 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matches its rooted time.
• Warshade / Umbral Aura / Shadow Cloak - Was missing defence to Area of Effect attacks. This has been added.
• Warshade / Umbral Aura / Stygian Return - Increased the Debt Protection from 60 to 90 seconds.
• Warshade / Umbral Aura / Stygian Return - Set untouchable timer to 15 seconds, Removed a small delay before the untouchable portion of power activates, and added an ‘”Untouchable” float text.
• Warshade / Umbral Blast / Gravity Well - Adjusted damage and frequency of damage tick of Gravity well to match Peacebringer / Incandescent Strike, and reduced damage tick time.
• Warshade / Umbral Blast / Quasar - Added PvP knockback suppression to this power.

Powers Text Changes

Note: All Heroes’ Powers text underwent scrutiny and many changed to correct typos, and to reflect consistency and accuracy.  The power effects, duration and recharge have not changed, only the description and combat log messaging has been updated.  All secondary Knockback, Stun, or other status affects will now be noted in combat logs when the effect occurs for all powers.

NPCs

• Fixed an issue which would cause Blue Wisps in Croatoa to run out of endurance
• Chimera from the Praetorian villain group should no longer auto-hit players with his bow.
• Reduced Duration and strength of Captain Mako’s ‘Elude’ power.

Tasks

• Cutscenes have been added to the Frostfire and Dr. Vazhilok story arcs
• Dr. Vazhilok must now be defeated to complete the Vahzilok Plague story arc.

Trial

• The Sewer Trial, “Descent to the Hydra” now functions like a Task Force where all high level party members (41+) will exemplar down to the Level 40 Trial cap.
  
  • Mairenn MacGregor is the NEW Sewer Trial contact and is located in Atlas Park next to the Sewers.  The Rikti kill task for Mairenn MacGregor has been lowered.
  • The OLD Trial contact, Maren MacGregor (in Founder’s Falls) will complete any old Sewer Trial missions, but will not give out any new ones.

Zone Events

• Trolls in Skyway will now disappear after their party is over.
• Waypoints will appear on the zone maps for the Troll Rave and Hellion Fire events.

CITY of VILLAINS

Giant Monsters

• Only one Deathsurge will appear at a time.

Zones

Grandville

• Arachnos workers who fall off the web will not be stunned into not moving.

Powers

Brutes

• Bonus Fury generation for Brutes when fighting in PVP or against Archvillain or Giant Monster class critters now works properly.
• Brute / Dark Armor / Death Shroud: Increased this power’s activation time from 1.17 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matched its rooted time.
• Brute / Dark Armor / Soul Transfer - The target after being revived should be truly invulnerable for 15 seconds. Additionally text should pop over the revived target stating that they’re untouchable.
• Brute / Dual Blades – Added PvP knockdown suppression to all powers and combinations that had a knockdown effect.
• Brute / Electric Armor / Power Surge - When this power’s hold effect is triggered when the Power Surge wears off the hold effect should show up in both the user and the target’s chat log.
• Brute / Electrical Melee / Jacob’s Ladder - Will now drain endurance from player targets as well as NPCs. Removed erroneous negative energy message from the sleep portion of this power.
• Brute / Electrical Melee / Thunder Strike - Added an endurance draining component to this power.
• Brute / Fiery Aura / Fiery Embrace - Allowed this power to improve toxic damage the user deals.
• Brute / Fiery Aura / Rise of the Phoenix - The target after being revived should be truly invulnerable for 15 seconds. Additionally text should pop over the revived target stating that they’re untouchable.
• Brute / Super Strength / Hurl was not set to allow Knockback Invention Sets. This has been corrected.

Corruptors

• Corruptor / Assault Rifle / M30 Grenade: Added PvP knockback suppression for this power.
• Corruptor / Cold Domination / Benumb: This power was previously granting endurance to a target in PvP instead of reducing it. This power should now correctly drain the target’s endurance.
• Corruptor / Dark Blast / Torrent: Added PvP knockback suppression to this power.
• Corruptor / Energy Blast / Nova: Added pvp knockback suppression into this power. 
• Corruptor / Radiation Blast / Electron Haze: Added PvP knockback suppression to this power.
• Corruptor / Radiation Blast / Atomic Blast: Added PvP Hold suppression to this power.
• Corruptor / Radiation Emission / Choking Cloud: Increased this power’s activation time from 2.03 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matched its rooted time.
• Corruptors / Sonic Blast / Shockwave: Added 10 second PvP suppression to this power like all knockback powers.
• Corruptor / Sonic Resonance / Sonic Repulsion: Added PvP knockback suppression to this power.
• Corruptor / Storm Summoning / Gale - Gale: Added 10 second PvP suppression to this power like all knockback powers.
• Corruptor / Storm Summoning / Hurricane – This power’s repel effect is no longer irresistible.
• Corruptor / Thermal Radiation / Power of the Phoenix: The target after being revived should be truly invulnerable for 15 seconds. Additionally text should pop over the revived target stating that they’re untouchable.
• Corruptor / Traps / Poison Trap: Decreased the frequency in which the hold portion of this power was being triggered from once every quarter of a second to once every second, but increased the chance the effect would actually trigger slightly.

Dominators

• Increased Target cap for AoE control powers for Dominators from 10 to 16 to be comparable to controllers.
• Domination - PvP targets will now build domination at the appropriate rate. Previously powers in this set wouldn’t generate additional domination when fighting PvP targets.
• Dominator / Energy Assault / Power Boost - This power no longer enhances knockback, knock up and repel powers.
• Dominator / Energy Assault / Power Boost - Power Boost will no longer be able to stack with itself.
• Dominator / Energy Assault / Power Boost - The overall potency of this power was reduced from offering a +100% bonus to all secondary effects to granting a +66% bonus to these effects.
• Dominator / Fiery Assault / Flares - Increased this power’s range from 60 to 80.
• Dominator / Fiery Assault / Fiery Embrace - Allowed this power to improve toxic damage the user deals.
• Dominator / Fire Control / Smoke - Added combat spam text for both the attacker and victim.
• Dominator / Icy Assault / Power Boost - This power no longer enhances knockback, knock up and repel powers.
• Dominator / Icy Assault / Power Boost - Power Boost will no longer be able to stack with itself.
• Dominator / Icy Assault / Power Boost - The overall potency of this power was reduced from offering a +100% bonus to all secondary effects to granting a +66% bonus to these effects.
• Dominator / Mind Control / Telekinesis – Removed the ability to repel players in PvP with this power.
• Dominator / Plant Control / Carrion Creepers - This power’s effects will affect targets that are not on the ground, but within the radius of the power’s effect.
• Dominator / Thorny Assault / Ripper - Added PvP knockback suppression for this power.
• Dominator / Thorny Assault / Thorntrops - This power’s effects will affect targets that are not on the ground, but within the radius of the power’s effect.

Masterminds

• Mastermind pets made pushable.  Masterminds will no longer be blocked by their pets. Players on the same side as the mastermind will be able to move pets out of the way significantly faster. Enemies’ ability to push pets has remained unchanged.
• Mastermind / Mercenaries - All pet powers that inflicted a status effect should now have PvP suppression.
• Mastermind / Ninjas / Call Genin – Henchmen’s Crane Kick power: Added PvP knockback suppression to this power.
• Mastermind / Ninjas / Call Jounin - Henchmen’s Soaring Dragon power: Added PvP knockback suppression to this power
• Mastermind / Ninjas / Call Jounin – Henchmen’s Golden Dragonfly power: Added PvP knockback suppression to this power
• Mastermind / Ninjas / Call Jounin – Henchmen’s Blinding Powder power: Added PvP confuse suppression to this power.
• Mastermind / Thugs / Call Thugs - Power no longer accepts Defense Debuff sets. The thugs’ powers did not actually debuff their targets Defense in any way, so this was purely an extraneous entry.
• Mastermind / Thugs / Call Thugs - This power will now be able to slot for knockback and knockback sets.
• Mastermind / Thugs / Dual Wield - Added PvP knockdown suppression to this power.
• Mastermind / Thugs - All pet powers that inflicted a status effect should now have PvP suppression.
• Mastermind / Robotics / Pulse Rifle Blast - Removed the ability to slot this power with knockback enhancements, it doesn’t have a knockback component.

Stalkers

• Placate - All versions of this power should no longer suppress hide.
• Placate in weapon based sets will now play the correct animations, which include drawing the weapon if not already in hand.
• Stalker / Claws / Focus – Added PvP mez and knockdown suppression
• Stalker / Claws / Shockwave – Added PvP mez and knockdown suppression
• Stalker / Dark Armor / Soul Transfer: The target after being revived should be truly invulnerable for 15 seconds. Additionally text should pop over the revived target stating that they’re untouchable.
• Stalker / Dual Blades - Knockdown PVP Suppression - Added PvP knockdown suppression to all powers and combinations that had knockdown effects.
• Stalker / Super Reflexes / Evasion - Added radius to Evasion allowing its taunt effect to draw the attention of nearby foes.

Patron Powers

• Patron Power Pools: Added PvP suppression for all powers that inflicted a status effect. Several powers previously didn’t have these attributes.
• Mace Mastery: Arachnobot Blaster’s Energy Blast was previously dealing smashing damage, and will now correctly deal energy damage

Accolades

• Force of Nature accolade should now work when malefactored, like other accolade powers.

Graphical Effects

• Brute / Invulnerability / Invincibility now uses the correct Graphical Effects
• Customized Arachnos Assault Rifles should no longer load the default texture, then change to the color-tintable version every time they’re drawn. Also note that the 1 and 2 have been swapped.

Powers Text Changes

Note: All Villains Powers text underwent scrutiny and many changed to correct typos, and to reflect consistency and accuracy.  The power effects, duration and recharge have not changed, only the description and combat log messaging has been updated.  All secondary Knockback, Stun, or other status affects will now be noted in combat logs when the effect occurs for all powers.

Local radio stations from the Big City network are now offering free trials to City of Heroes and City of Villains. This is the biggest ever free trial offer for the UK, so it has never been easier to get started on a career as a Hero in Paragon City or a Villain on the Rogue Isles!

Read on to find out how to get yours, or one for a friend…

In conjunction with the trial offer, Big City's stations are running a competition to give away copies of the City of Villains Collector's Edition and City of Heroes or Villains T-shirts. The Collector's Edition includes some great extras, including an exclusive art book and all seven custom-made City of Villains® and City of Heroes® HeroClix® figures.

To get your trial key and enter the competition, make sure to visit your local station at one of the below links:

Trial and Competition - Rock FM	Trial and Competition - Radio City
Trial and Competition - Key 103	Trial and Competition - Radio Aire
Trial and Competition - Hallam FM	Trial and Competition - Viking FM
Trial and Competition - Metro Radio	Trial and Competition - TFM Radio
Trial and Competition - CFM Radio	Trial and Competition - Clyde 1
Trial and Competition - Forth 1	Trial and Competition - Cool FM
Trial and Competition - Downtown	Trial and Competition - Tay FM
Trial and Competition - Radio Borders	Trial and Competition - Northsound 1
Trial and Competition - MFR	Trial and Competition - West FM
Trial and Competition - South West Sound	Trial and Competition - West Sound
Trial and Competition - Wave 105

The Midnight Squad is featured heavily in the next free expansion coming to City of Heroes and City of Villains - Issue 12: Midnight Hour. Make sure you know their history and goals before Issue 12 launches by watching the latest teaser trailer.

After much anticipation, the latest free expansion for City of Heroes / Villains is now entering its final testing phase. Issue 12: Midnight Hour Open Beta started this Tuesday on the Training Room and you can try it now! Please follow the instructions in this thread on how to download and play on the test server.

Also if during your testing you encounter bugs, please use the /bug command in-game to report them. Finally, you are welcome to give your feedback about the beta on our forums.

The full patch notes are available here

Enjoy!

The Student Zone is currently running a 2-weeks free trial for City of Heroes / Villains starting today! Please visit this page to get started on your journey to Paragon City or the Rogue Isles.

“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

City of Heroes Lead Writer Joe Morrissey has put together a developer diary telling us about the Midnight Squad, a group of heroes that has appeared in past lore. The Midnight Squad makes their first appearance in Issue 12. Here’s a brief clip:

“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.

Click here to read the full article.

Four years.

I will say that again in case you misread it.

Four years.

I am pleased beyond all belief that this game continues to prosper four years into its life. Our community is stronger than ever, the game as a whole is stronger than it ever has been, and the future for the game, as well as the franchise is extremely bright.

When I look back upon the game that we shipped in 2004, I can’t help but look at all the things that were missing from it. Things we added immediately, and things we added recently. Badges were not in the initial launch. Heck, level 41 to 50 were not shipped with City of Heroes! As the game has progressed, I think we have added more free features with our updates than any other MMO on the planet. Multiple zones, missions, features and systems have been added to the base game over the past four years, making the game better and better with every update.

Every time I visit the Tailor in the game, I say to myself “Heh, I couldn’t even change my costume when City of Heroes launched.” Every time I Exemplar down to play content with my lower level friends, I note that this too was not a feature in the game four years ago. Now I actively seek out Inventions and Recipes both in missions and on the Black Market. The Invention System worked out very well for both City of Heroes and City of Villains, and was not part of the plan when we were finishing up CoH in the first quarter of 2004. Just over this last six months we’ve also added our Ouroboros Flashback System, Weapon Customization, and more quality of life features than the game had ever seen (until Issue 12).

That’s not to say we haven’t been without our missteps. We’ve implemented a couple things imperfectly (Epic Archetypes and Enhancement Diversification come to mind), which caused a lot of headaches for us down the road. I can’t promise that we will never make mistakes, but I will say we will do our best to ensure that we don’t repeat them.

I can’t tell you how excited I am for our game’s future, and although we have some major announcements yet to be made, one of the things I can talk about is a feature that we are planning. Similar in concept to our character creator, it allows you, the players, to create missions and story arcs for your characters and others to participate in. You’ll be able to pick the map, villain group, and objectives, as well as write the dialogue and any clues needed for the missions. When you are satisfied with it, you can upload it and have other players across all servers play it and rate it. Fame will come to the players whose stories rate the best overall. It is features like these that we never dreamed of including when we first shipped, but are excited to be able to offer players very soon.

In the end I just want to send out a thanks to all of the players of City of Heroes and City of Villains. Everyone, from the veterans who have been with this game since it launched (and even earlier for some beta testers!) to the users who just subscribed last week, have made this the most fun game to work on in my seventeen years in the industry. I look forward to reviewing our accomplishments this time next year when we celebrate our 5th anniversary!

- Lead Designer, Matt Miller (Positron)

Read on for some Fun Facts highlighting four years worth of City of Heroes!

Fun Facts

To highlight the four years of City of Heroes gaming, we bring you some fun facts about the game.

Since City of Heroes launched:

• More than 32 million characters created – that’s 4 times the population of New York City!
• Players have spent a combined 292 centuries playing City of Heroes and City of Villains
• More than 100 million items have been traded through the consignment (auction) houses since they were launched in 2007

Additional items of interest include:

Most Popular Origins
Mutant (25%)
Magic (24%)
Natural (21%)

Most Popular Archetypes
Hero: Blaster
Villain: Mastermind

Most Popular Travel Powers
Fly (34%)
Super Jump (30%)

Most Traded Item (via Consignment House)
Base Salvage:  Alien Tech Salvage

Most Wealthy Archetypes
Heroes: Scrappers
Villains: Brutes

We’ve teamed up with HEXUS.gaming to offer a free 14 day trial of City of Villains. If you don’t have an account yet, visit Hexus now to get your trial and discover Paragon City before Issue 12: Midnight Hour is released. There’s only 2000 trial codes available, so be quick!

Issue 12: Midnight Hour includes the exciting new Villain Epic Archetypes, called the Soldiers of Arachnos. To find out more about the Soldiers of Arachnos, head to our movies section and watch a video report from Longbow high command outlining the new threat from the Arachnos Villain organization!

A previous alert regarding expected Rikti Invasion Force incursions indicated a probable attack between April 25th and May 1st. Warning systems now indicate that the Rikti have brought forward their plans a week, with the full fury of the Rikti Invasion Force set to descend upon Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™ starting on Friday, April 18th and continuing through Thursday, April 24th.

For details or to discuss this event with fellow players, please join us on the Official City of Heroes Message Forums.

As we previously announced, we heard the request for a system to allow more characters on a single server and this is our answer.  City of Heroes is a unique game that offers many playstyle options; options that are growing in a large way due to Powerset Proliferation and the addition of the Villain Epic Archetypes in the next free expansion, Issue 12: Midnight Hour. Read on for the full details!

To accommodate playing more characters on your favourite server, we will be including the following features in Issue 12:

• All current subscribers will receive 2 free character slots, each of which can be used on the specific server of their choice. This is to help you make new characters to take advantage of the new features of Issue 12, even if you already have maxed out your “home” server’s character slots.


• 1 free character slot will be granted retroactively on a yearly basis through the current Veteran Reward system.  Every 12 months that a subscription is maintained will unlock an additional free character slot that the user can apply to the server of their choice.  Thus, existing players will be eligible for up to 4 additional character slots at the launch of Issue 12. This will continue into the future for Veteran Rewards given out every 12 months, so you get another slot for 5 years, another one for 6 years, etc.


• Additional Optional Character Slots will be available on a purchasable basis. These are one-time fees, not an addition to your monthly subscription rate. The additional slots can be had at the following price points:
  
  • 1 Optional Character Slot for a one-time fee of £3.49 / €4.99
  • 2 Optional Character Slots for a one-time fee of £5.99 / €8.99
  • 5 Optional Character Slots for a one-time fee of £11.99 / €17.99
• Players can have up to 36 slots per server, with an update to the character selection screen that lets you re-organize your character list by Drag and Drop, as well as easily flip between up to three pages of characters available on that server.  All customers benefit from these great new User Interface features included with the revisions for Optional Character Slots.

The above features are planned to be made available at the launch of Issue 12: Midnight Hour, which is currently in closed beta testing.  Be sure to check out this feature, along with the rest of Issue 12 when we enter the open beta testing period that should be starting in several more weeks.

Following on from today’s press release announcing that Optional In-Game Advertising will be introduced to City of Heroes, we have further details of the reasons behind this new feature and what you, as a player, can expect to be seeing should you opt-in to the service. Brian Clayton, NCsoft NorCal General Manager, explains that all advertising will go through an approval process aimed at ensuring all ads are contextually relevant and appropriate, while also pointing out the opportunities available to use the system in support of the community.

Bringing Optional In-Game Ads to Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™

By Brian Clayton, General Manager, NCsoft NorCal Studio

Today we announced our partnership with Double Fusion to provide optional in-game advertising for City of Heroes. I wanted take some time to share some details beyond those in the press release.

In-game advertising is something that we have carefully considered ever since the initial release of City of Heroes in 2004. From our perspective it always came down to a few fundamental questions: Will this technology make our game experience more immersive or less immersive? In other words, is City of Heroes an appropriate environment for it? In-game advertising in other MMOs has sometimes been received as an unwelcome addition, so could we actually find ways to make this a significant win for our customers? And with the plan of reinvesting all the revenue that we make from this, how much will this single (optional in-game advertising) initiative actually allow us to grow our development team?

These are complex questions that can’t necessarily be answered with 100% certainty, but after discussing this for a number of years we believe we’ve found the right partner to bring ads to the game while being sensitive to our community’s needs. I want to make it very clear that we are not “forcing” in-game ads upon our players. Thus, the word “optional” is of key importance. None of our players have to change their game experience in any way if that’s what they prefer. All that you need to do is opt-out via the Options menu in the game.

Having said that, I should make it clear that we are extremely protective of our City of Heroes game experience. Only contextually relevant ads or branding that the development team approves will go into the game. We will be very careful not to break the immersion and feel of Paragon City or the Rogue Isles. Additionally, we are a Teen rated game by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) and we will not be displaying any “mature” ad content like alcohol, tobacco, etc. (Note for Europe: PEGI ratings of 12+ for CoH and 16+ for CoV.)

So, how far do we plan to take these optional in-game ads? Initially, we are limiting ads to the exact same fictitious billboard placements that are already in the game. To get a better idea of this, check out these screenshot examples.

(Current on left, examples on right)

We estimate that this will go live some time this summer. After that, what are our plans? We are definitely looking at how this feature is received by you, the community. If it makes sense, and keeps the same level of quality and immersion we believe the initial implementation does, we may look at other avenues in the realm of optional advertising. There are a whole lot of really fun ideas to consider, but the core game development of City of Heroes is by far our highest priority. Another interesting opportunity that the optional in-game advertising technology presents us is dynamically displaying other billboard content. We can swap in new signs that we create much more easily, and we can even display player-created content! This provides a cool new area for community contests, recognizing great player art, etc.

So beyond all of this, what benefit does leaving optional in-game advertising “on” bring to the players? Why should you not opt-out? All ad revenue dollars go directly to the further development of the game, which means more great content than ever before! As we have made it pretty clear lately, with the acquisition of City of Heroes from Cryptic Studios last November, we are entering a major phase of reinvestment for the game (and brand). Our development costs are ramping up in a major way as we look to literally double the team this year to accommodate big plans for the short, medium and long term. Optional in-game advertising is another revenue stream that helps us to accomplish all of this at no additional expense to our players. Ultimately, we leave it up to you, the players, to decide which experience you prefer. 

In a press release just issued we have today announced a partnership with game advertising provider Double Fusion to implement optional in-game advertising to City of Heroes. Click through for the full press release…

NCSOFT SELECTS DOUBLE FUSION AS GAME ADVERTISING PARTNER FOR CITY OF HEROES

Brighton, England (April 3rd, 2008) – Leading independent game advertising provider Double Fusion has entered an agreement with NCsoft®, the leading developer and publisher of online computer games to represent the successful comic-book inspired massively multiplayer online game, City of Heroes®.  Double Fusion will provide the technology and sales force to bring brands into the popular online role-playing game which takes place in a modern urban setting, an ideal environment for unobtrusive in-game advertising. 

Double Fusion and NCsoft are focused on providing value to the players through this advertising partnership.  While real world ads will lend realism to the urban world of City of Heroes, NCsoft also plans on taking advantage of Double Fusion’s technology to display player-created content within the game. The publisher will dedicate all advertising dollars it earns to fund further game development for the online title, yet still allow players to opt out of advertising in order to provide flexibility to community members.

“Our partnership with NCsoft is a clear showcase for two of our guiding philosophies: bringing value to the player through appropriate use of advertising spaces and bringing new business models to the marketplace by creating new revenue streams that can help fund game development and community support” said Jonathan Epstein, president and CEO, Double Fusion. 

”City of Heroes is a key property for NCsoft and we take great care to grow and nurture our player community,” said Brian Clayton, General Manager of NCsoft’s Northern California studio.  “We are pleased to work with Double Fusion on City of Heroes, as they have demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of our community and fundamentally understand how advertising can bring value to the players when executed gracefully, and in the appropriate context. In addition to allowing any of our players to opt-out if they so choose, their flexible technology will not only allow us to bring brand messages into the game but also provide a fun, new platform for displaying player-created materials.”

The addition of City of Heroes to the Double Fusion network demonstrates the company’s commitment to offering their advertiser and agency partners a wide array of in-game advertising opportunities, to maximizing revenues for its publisher and developer partners and to building a portfolio of top titles among retail PC and console games, massively multiplayer online games, social networks, casual downloadable games, advanced online games and virtual worlds.

About NCsoft Europe
NCsoft Europe (NCE) is headquartered in Brighton, United Kingdom and is wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation, the world’s leading developer and publisher of online games. NCsoft operates publishing offices within North America, Japan, Taiwan, China and Thailand and has development studios in Seattle, Austin, California (North America) and Seoul (Korea). NCE recently announced the formation of the first European development studio, based within the UK.

NCE began operations on 1st September 2004 and serves as a central hub for all NCsoft sales, marketing and distribution operations in Europe, via its European distribution network. The company has successfully launched multiple online titles and continues to support its franchises, which include Lineage II (November 2004), City of Heroes® (4th February 2005), Guild Wars (28th April 2005), City of Villains® (31st October 2005), Guild Wars Factions (28th April 2006), Guild Wars Nightfall (27th October 2006), Guild Wars: Eye of the North (31st August 2007) and Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa® (2nd November 2007). More information about NCsoft Europe can be found at http://eu.plaync.com

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, Tabula Rasa, PlayNC, Lineage, The Kamael, The Chaotic Throne, Hellbound, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, Guild Wars: Eye of the North, City of Heroes and City of Villains and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About Double Fusion
Double Fusion is the game advertising expert. The company brings together the leading in-game ad serving technology, the broadest network of games across a wide variety of genres, and a sales force that has helped create and evolve the in-game advertising industry.  Double Fusion provides marketers and their advertising agencies with the broadest range of in-game, around-game and web-based solutions with which to engage and sell the valuable and hard-to-reach gamer demographics.  Double Fusion is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Jerusalem, London, and Tokyo.  More information