Day Jobs, a new feature for City of Heroes, rewards players even when they aren't playing the game. It's called offline character progression and while other games have done this before, City of Heroes takes it to a whole new level. Simply put, Day Jobs reward players with additional powers and benefits when they log back in. This also gives characters greater depth by allowing them to flesh out their identities and back-stories. Our goal was to create a robust system that benefits players now as much as possible while also allowing the system to grow with future content updates.

Day Jobs and Badges

The Day Job system allows players to log out from a specific location (like a hospital or vault) and when they return to play, after an extended log out period, they will gain a temporary power or some other benefit. All of the benefits granted from Day Jobs, other than badges and accolades (see below) are temporary or have a certain number of uses before they expire. However, each time a character logs out from the same area, the corresponding benefits are replenished. Most rewards take 10 days of logged out time to reach the maximum benefit.

When characters are logged out from a designated location (consecutively or non-consecutively) for a total of 30 days they will earn a badge associated with the corresponding Day Job. This will result in additional benefits. Once a badge is earned, the rate at which characters accumulate benefits, and even the potency of them, increase!

Below is a list of most, but not all, of the Day Jobs available in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility:

Hero Day Jobs

Day Job Name	Log Out Location	Benefit
City Official	City Hall (Atlas Park)	Influence Bonus upon mission complete.
Law Enforcer	Police Stations	Experience Bonus upon mission complete
Commuter	Train Stations	Travel speed bonus.
Shop Keeper	Store Lobbies	Enhancement drop on mission complete.
Intern	Portal Corp Lobbies	Large Inspiration upon mission complete.
Caregiver	Hospital Lobbies	Out of combat regeneration bonus.
Professor	Inside Universities	Random tech salvage drop upon mission complete.
Midnighter	Inside the Midnighter's Club	Random arcane salvage drop upon mission complete.
Banker	Inside a Vault	Influence Bonus upon mission complete.
Clubber	Pocket D	Out of combat recovery bonus.
Fashion Designer	Tailor Lobbies	Coupons that will grant a discount at the tailor.
Mortician	Graveyards	XP Debt Protection

Villain Day Jobs

Day Job Name	Log Out Location	Benefit
Demagogue	Arachnos Building (Marconeville, Port Oakes)	Influence Bonus upon mission complete.
Arachnos Agent	Arachnos Bases and Arachnos Controlled areas.	Experience Bonus upon mission complete
Pilot	Near Black Helicopters	Travel speed bonus.
Smuggler	Ferry Docks	Enhancement drop on mission complete.
Crey Employee	Crey Industries Building in Nerva Archipelago	Large Inspiration upon mission complete.
Pain Specialist	Hospital Lobbies	Out of combat regeneration bonus.
Professor	Inside Universities	Random tech salvage drop upon mission complete.
Midnighter	Inside the Midnighter's Club	Random arcane salvage drop upon mission complete.
Thief	Inside a Vault	Influence Bonus upon mission complete.
Clubber	Pocket D	Out of combat recovery bonus.
Fashion Designer	Tailor Lobbies	Coupons that will grant a discount at the tailor.
Mortician	Graveyards	XP Debt Protection

Accolades

An Accolade is obtained by earning two Day Job badges that work in conjunction with one another. In other words, earning multiple badges unlock Accolades. These Accolades will grant an even more enhanced set of powers and benefits. Additional ‘charges’ can also be earned for your Day Job Accolade powers by logging off from either of the areas associated with the two badges that unlocked the Accolade. Below is a list of some, but not all, of the Day Job Accolades available in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility:

Hero Day Job Accolades

Day Job Accolade	Day Job #1	Day Job #2	Benefit
Police Chief	Law Enforcer	City Official	Baton Power: Melee Minor DMG (Smashing) For Stun.
Security Chief	Law Enforcer	Banker	Tear Gas: Ranged AoE Hold.
Scientist	Professor	Intern	Sleep Gas: Ranged AoE Sleep.
Physician	Professor	Caregiver	Ally Resurrect
Alchemist	Caregiver	Midnighter	Ally Heal

Villain Day Job Accolades

Day Job Accolade	Day Job #1	Day Job #2	Benefit
Web Weaver	Arachnos Agent	Demagogue	Web Grenade: Ranged Foe Immobilize, \-Rech, \-Fly, \-Speed
Black Ops	Arachnos Agent	Thief	Smoke Grenade: Ranged AOE Foe \-Perception, \-To Hit
Crey Scientist	Pain Specialist	Crey Employee	Sleep Gas: Ranged AoE Sleep.
Physician	Professor	Pain Specialist	Ally Resurrect
Alchemist	Pain Specialist	Midnighter	Ally Heal

Note: These are only some of the available Accolades. When players obtain Day Job badges, they unlock information about which Day Jobs to collect next in order to earn the associated Accolade(s).

On Patrol

In addition to all of the Day Jobs, every character is "On Patrol" after they log out of the game. When players log back into Paragon City or the Rogue Isles they will gain 1 bar of double experience (when defeating enemies) for every 24 hours they are logged out. A player can earn up to 10 bars of double experience this way. Double experience is shown as a blue portion of your experience bar. One thing to note is that if a player has any experience debt, the debt will be removed first before any double experience is applied.

If your character has a number of bars of double experience that exceeds the number of experience bars you need to level up, then this double experience will carry over to the next security/threat level.

Getting Started

When exploring both Paragon City and the Rogue Isles you will encounter several Day Job locations. You'll know you're in one when you see a power icon under your health bar that explains what Day Job you will work towards by logging off in that location.

Try visiting a hospital, where you will earn the Caregiver (Pain Specialist if you're a villain) Day Job. You'll notice a power icon that when moused over will state "Day Job: Caregiver." Logging out from this location will earn you credit toward the Caregiver Day Job badge. When you log back in you'll gain an out of combat regeneration bonus. Once you've logged out in the Hospital for a total of 30 days (consecutively or non-consecutively) or more you'll earn the Caregiver badge and will receive an even more powerful regeneration bonus when you log out at this location from here on out.

Once you have earned the Caregiver badge you will find a hint for how to earn the Physician accolade by first earning the Professor badge. To earn the Professor Day Job badge, you will need to log out from the University for 30 (consecutive or non-consecutive) days. After an extended log out period, the Professor Day Job will grant you a random piece of tech salvage upon mission completion. This bonus will take 10 days of log out time to earn 2 hours worth of this bonus. However, once you earn the Professor badge you only need to be logged out 8 days to earn the 2 hour benefit instead of 10.

Once you own both the Professor and Caregiver badges you will unlock the Physician Accolade. With this Accolade you will be able to earn ‘charges’ for a power that revives defeated allies by logging out from (and back in to) either a University or a Hospital. You will gain the Day Job benefits for both this Accolade and the Day Job benefit associated with the area. Nice benefits!

Parting Words

All in all, we're really excited about this new feature for our game. By balancing your time in and out of the game, you’ll get unique rewards that you wouldn’t otherwise attain. When you are ready to log back in and kick some villain or hero butt… we’ll be there waiting for you, and you’ll still be powerful enough to do just that. And with the addition of our Day Job themed costume pieces you can even dress appropriately!

Issue 13: Power and Responsibility includes a whole host of new developments. Not only are there significant new features, but there is also ongoing development to the existing game. A big part of the game is the balance of all the Archetypes, their respective power sets and how they compare to each other. Maintaining a level of equity between everything is also a continual goal. In this article, NCsoft NorCal Senior Designer Floyd “Castle” Grubb gives us the scoop on some proposed powers changes that will be in testing with Issue 13.  Please keep in mind that there is still the entire testing and revision process to go through with these changes. The team is excited to see how these refinements stand up to player feedback, datamining, and the beta process!


Introduction
For Issue 13, we have a rather wide selection of PvE (Player vs. Environment) related powers changes. These changes focus on either Quality of Life concerns or on powers which were not quite in balance with others. Below is a breakdown of what we are doing, with the aim to provide insight into the thought processes behind our ideas.


Energy Aura
Let’s start with Energy Aura for Brutes and Stalkers. Energy Aura has had a poor reputation from the start. While it is “balanced” with the other protective powersets using the original metrics, it has been shown that those metrics did not take certain key factors into consideration - namely Regeneration and Healing effects. Energy Aura lacked any sort of mechanic which could increase the Health or Regeneration Rate of the character and did not have any active method of restoring Health to the character using these powers. Additionally, the set had more protection holes than others. To address these issues, the following changes are being made:

• Energy Protection: This power gained a 1.25 scale Toxic damage resist attribute for Brutes and a 1.00 scale Toxic damage resist attribute for Stalkers. Energy Aura, being a typed defence set, had no protection against these types of attacks unless they were ‘packaged’ with a lethal attack of some sort.
• Energy Drain: Added a 2 scale self heal to each target affected by this power. Un-slotted, the player will recover 2% of their maximum HP per target affected.  This can be enhanced to up to about 4% per target. This change was made to offer the power set some minor healing abilities to increase their survivability but not offer an overwhelming heal.

Invulnerability
Invulnerability has a few issues, mainly stemming from lack of special resistances and “weak” power choices. Here are the changes that are being made:

• Unyielding: We removed the Defence Debuff from this power. While we still believe it fits thematically, the impact on low level characters was more severe than desired.
• Invincibility: Reduce per target Defence Buff to from scale 0.15 to scale 0.1. The overall result of this and the Unyielding change is, if you have the maximum number of targets in this power’s radius, you have the same protection as from Issue 12. However, if you have fewer targets, your net defence is higher.
• Resist Physical Damage: Added 25% Defence Debuff Resistance. Increased damage resistance scale from 0.75 to 1.00.
• Tough Hide: Added 25% Defence Debuff Resistance.
• Resist Energies: Added 25% Endurance Debuff Resistance. Increased damage resistance scale from 0.75 to 1.00.
• Resist Elements: Added 20% Movement Slow Resistance. Increased damage resistance scale from 0.75 to 1.00.

Kheldians
Peacebringers and Warshades, as Archetypes, have an interesting history and reputation among players. It seems as if no one is neutral about them—they are either loved or hated. This isn’t much of a surprise; they were always meant to require more player decision making and compromise than the base Archetypes. However, certain technological restrictions combined with the “facts” of high level play ultimately proved that the Kheldians were even harder than originally expected. With Issue 12’s introduction of the Villain Epic Archetypes, we took some time to re-evaluate where the Kheldians were and what we wanted to do with them. Here is what we are planning:

• Cosmic Balance: This power now functions while shapeshifted—Dwarf and Nova forms gain the same benefits as human form.
• Dark Sustenance: This power now functions while shapeshifted—Dwarf and Nova forms gain the same benefits as human form.
• Gleaming Bolt, Glinting Eye, Gleaming Blast, Luminous Detonation, Shadow Bolt, Ebon Eye, Gravimetric Snare, Shadow Blast and Dark Matter Detonation: Increased base Range to 80’.  This makes Human form Kheldians ranged capabilities more useful overall.  The 80’ range meshes more evenly with other Ranged AT’s capabilities.
• Peacebringer AT Multipliers: increased Human form Melee Damage multiple to 0.85, increased Human form Range Damage multiple to 0.8 and increased Dwarf Form Melee Damage multiple to 1.0.
• Warshade AT Multipliers: increased Human form Melee Damage multiple to 0.85, increased Human form Range Damage multiple to 0.8 and increased Dwarf Form Melee Damage multiple to 1.0.
• Dwarf Form: You may now shift into Dwarf Form even while Held, Slept or Stunned.

Toggle Powers
One important additional piece of development to mention that is especially relevant to Kheldians and their toggle powers is: in Issue 13, toggles are no longer shut off due to Hold, Sleep or Disorient effects. This is a major gameplay change, and it is not restricted to Kheldians, but instead applies to all non-offensive player toggles. As part of changes in Issue 13, when a player is affected by a hold, sleep or stun, any toggle power they are running will continue and will still draw endurance from the character. However, some or all of its effects may be suppressed until such time as the hold, sleep or stun is removed. For example, if you are held while in Black Dwarf form, all of your Damage Resistance values, your recovery bonus and knockback protection are suppressed, while your hold, stun, sleep, immobilise and confuse protections remain in effect. Monitoring your stats with the “Real Numbers” tool is a good way to check which aspects of a toggle are suppressed and which are not.


War Mace
An ongoing project over the last several issues has been bringing War Mace up to performance par with other powersets. The last set of changes got us close, but still not to where we want to be. Here are the new changes:

• Clobber: Reduced Recharge Time to 16 seconds and altered damage scale and endurance costs to match using the standard formula. This now means it is a pretty hard hitting attack, with a damage scale of 2.29 and a base endurance cost of 15.18. Since this is now classified as a Damage power rather than a control power, the base duration of the Stun effect was reduced from scale 10 to scale 5.
• Shatter: Reduced Max Targets Hit from 10 to 5.
• Crowd Control: Increased Max Targets Hit from 5 to 10.

Misc
There are numerous smaller changes going into Issue 13. While you will all get to see the final details in the patch notes, there are a few other changes I want to let you know about now.

• Fiery Aura Temperature Protection: Now provides 20% movement reduction protection.
• Dark Melee Midnight Grasp: This power has been rebalanced to provide the majority of its damage as a front loaded sum (scale 2.21), followed by a shorter, small damage DOT. Overall damage has increased, as has the amount of damage done on a ‘Critical.’
• Energy Melee Barrage: We have increased the effectiveness of this power by increasing Damage per Activation. We increased Recharge time from 2 seconds to 6 seconds and changed the damage and endurance costs accordingly. The smashing component of the damage is now 2 hits of scale 0.5 damage, and the energy portion is now 2 hits of scale 0.16 damage for a combined scale 1.32 damage.

These are the highlights, and there are several other changes which are still in a state of flux (stalkers Claws, for instance). I hope you all like the changes. We are really looking forward for this all to hit the Training Room so you folks can bang on them and tell us how the changes feel! Your feedback is, as ever, critical for these and other changes that we make to the game. 
Floyd ‘Castle’ Grubb

Issue 13: Power and Responsibility

Day Jobs (Offline Character Progression)
Scholar? Caregiver? City Official? Now when players log out of City of Heroes / Villains they’re just getting started! A character’s day job is determined by the actual in-game location from which he or she logs out. If players log out from a University their day job is considered to be a Scholar. If they log out from City Hall they’re a City Official. The benefits are thematically appropriate to the location. For example, a City Official earns extra Influence, a Scholar is granted Salvage, a Caregiver is granted Health Regeneration Buffs, etc.

Once characters have accumulated the required amount of time for each Day Job, they are rewarded with the appropriate Day Job Badge and Title, increasing their “earnings” for that job. Multiple Badges can be combined to unlock Accolades and the ability to accumulate additional new rewards. Almost every location within Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™ has an associated Day Job, resulting in a wide selection of jobs and rewards!

Multiple Builds
Another character customisation option and City of Heroes innovation, Issue 13 delivers the ability to have two different build-outs for each character, including which powers are selected and which Enhancements are slotted. With this feature it will now be possible for all characters to diversify their game experience by visiting any Trainer and switching the entire build of their character to an alternate one. You can use this separate build for whatever you like: if you wish to use different power selections for soloing and groups, you can do that. This even makes it possible to have different sets slotted for PVP and PVE. This new system gives characters the added depth and flexibility to tackle any challenge! 

New Powersets

• Shields – Heft a Shield for Heroic or Villainous Ends!  This new powerset brings a classic power to City of Heroes: Shields!  Now, you can arm Tankers, Scrappers, and Brutes with a powerful shield to protect both themselves and their allies.
• Pain Domination – Villains can now bend the power of pain to serve their own ends!  Those playing a Corruptor or Mastermind have access to this new powerset.  The antithesis of the Hero healing powerset “Empathy,” Pain Domination brings parity between Heroes and Villains with a distinctively evil flair.

Leveling Pact
A new innovation to MMOs, this system allows you and a friend to create new characters and have your XP permanently in sync, whether both characters are online or not. You will always be the same level, even if your friend plays ten times more often than you do! It’s sort of like “Extreme Sidekicking.”

The Merit Rewards System
A new game system that allows players to earn tokens by completing Trials, Task Forces, Strike Forces, Raids, etc. The most challenging and time consuming tasks grant the most reward tokens, which can be redeemed throughout Hero and Villain zones for recipes, enhancements, salvage, costume pieces, badges, inspirations and other game items.

Villain Patron Power Respec
Villains level 40 and above can respec (re-select) their Patron Powers, offering the same flexibility that heroes are afforded with Ancillary Powers. 

Supergroup Base Repricing
Base Salvage is being replaced with Invention Salvage and all Base room and item prices are being adjusted to more accessible levels. Remaining base salvage can be traded in for invention salvage, or can continue to be stored in base and personal storage.

PvE and PvP Powers Rebalancing
More details to come shortly, directly from Powers Designer Floyd “Castle” Grubb.

New Cimerora Missions
New Hero and Villain story arcs expand upon the history and lore, and delve into the players and politics of Cimerora.

Other features include new Invention Origin Sets, new Costume Sets, Zone Refinements, and more!

Issue 14: Architect

Mission Architect
First the City of Heroes Character Creator set a new standard for player creation and customisation. Now, Issue 14 takes another giant step, allowing players to design their own missions and story arcs to share with the entire City of Heroes community. Using an intuitive interface similar to the game’s detailed Character Creator, players can create missions from the ground up. Players will determine details ranging from environments, mission objectives, and enemies, to written fiction and character dialogue, giving their stories nearly infinite depth and personalisation.

Among other rewards, authors and architects who create the most extraordinary content will garner acclaim and reputation. Community feedback will be paramount and some missions will elevate in status unlocking new rewards and benefits for their creators.

More details to come!

Issue 13: So big it can’t be contained in a single update!

Issue 13: So big it can’t be contained in a single update!

Good morning! When we announced Issue 13: Architect a couple weeks back, we were overwhelmed by the positive response. Much of the feedback was centred around the Mission Architect system which allows players to create their own missions and story arcs. We have been actively following forum threads and private messages about the feature, and have even discussed it with players in person at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle.

It became apparent that you guys really want this feature, but in order to fully realise your dreams of writing your own missions you need creative control in one more key area: The ability to create “customised” characters to fight with or against in your missions. Adding custom characters has always been on our Mission Architect feature list, but we had considered it a “stretch goal.” That is, we could launch the system without this feature because our confidence was high that the rest of the system was incredibly robust.

But after listening to you guys, we realise that this feature simply must be in at launch. You have convinced us that it is an integral part of the Mission Architect, and we have reworked schedules and timelines to accomplish this. Rather than push the launch of Issue 13 out completely for one (albeit really cool and very complex) feature, the Mission Architect is going to see a slight delay. What is not going to be delayed is the rest of Issue 13. To that end, the previously announced feature set for Issue 13, together with new features that we are announcing today, will become Issue 13 and Issue 14.

Issue 14 will take on the name “Architect” and contain the Mission Architect feature along with other features we’ll announce at a later date.  We are planning Issue 14: Architect to be released Q1 2009.  Issue 13 is now called “Issue 13: Power and Responsibility” and will be launched this autumn. 

Issue 13: Power and Responsibility

Issue 13: Power and Responsibility will contain the bulk of features we’ve announced previously, including:

• Shield and Pain Domination powersets
• Merit Reward system
• Day Jobs (that include a suite of new costume pieces)
• Additional Cimerora and Midnight Squad mission arcs

In addition, we have some other new exciting features to reveal that will be included in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility. These include:

• Levelling Pact
• Multi-Builds
• PvE & PvP Powers rebalancing
• Villain Patron Power Respec
• Supergroup Base Repricing

Over the coming weeks we’ll be providing more details about the above points, but let me give you an overview of some of them now.

The Levelling Pact: A new innovation to MMOs, this groundbreaking system allows you and a buddy to create new characters and have your XP be permanently in sync, whether both characters are online or not. You will always be the same level, even if your buddy plays ten times more often than you do! It’s sort of like “Extreme Sidekicking.”

Multi-Builds: Another innovation to City of Heroes, we are delivering the ability to have two different build-outs of each character, including which powers are selected and which Enhancements are slotted. This will now be possible for characters who want to take advantage of it. By visiting any Trainer you can switch the entire build of your character to an alternate one. You can use this separate build for whatever you like. If you wish to use different power selections for soloing and groups, you can do that. This even makes it possible to have different IO sets slotted for PVP and PVE. It’s up to you.

PvE and PvP Powers Rebalancing: Floyd “Castle” Grubb and the powers designers have been hard at work in finding ways to strike a better balance between the many powers in the game.  The scope of what they are doing is too broad to go into details here, but we’re very excited and we’ll share more information soon. Suffice to say we know that you don’t want your PvE powers adjusted because of how they play in PvP, so we’re taking a new tact in power balancing with Issue 13.

Summary
Issue 13 was so big we had to turn it into two releases, Issue 13: Power and Responsibility and Issue 14: Architect. Issue 13 will be going into beta soon and launching this autumn. It will include most of the previously announced features of Issue 13, and then some. Issue 14: Architect will include the full-featured Mission Architect and is scheduled to launch to the live servers in Q1, 2009. I am really looking forward to getting Issue 13 into your hands as soon as possible, and starting off a kick-ass 2009 with the release of Mission Architect.

Good morning Players!

I wanted to be the first to let you all know that the primary Feature list for Issue 13: Architect  is now live! That said, I’d like to take this opportunity to talk to you about some of the new features in more depth.

First off is the issue name, Architect. I liked the correlation that the name has between some of the improvements we are making to bases (in the way new things are purchased for them) and to our Mission Architect feature. Players can now be architects of their own story arcs that other players can play. When I first mentioned this system in the 4th Anniversary post, I had no idea how wildly popular that single concept would be. The thread that followed that post had a plethora of ideas of how such a system could, and should work from a player’s perspective.

With virtually no information to go on, some people very much underestimated what would be possible with the Mission Architect. Some got it spot on, and some people wanted features that were simply impossible to get into the system at launch. Even so, we are very proud of the system as it stands. Players can make their own story arcs using a customised version of the tool used by our mission writers, in some cases rivalling our own internal tools in ease-of-use. I am really looking forward to playing the stories you all create with this amazing tool!

I should probably take this moment to talk about what the Mission Architect is not meant for. It is not meant for “easy levelling”, “badging” or “farming”. Those are things that we specifically wanted the Mission Architect NOT to do. This may be a disappointment to some, I know. The goal was to give creative minds an outlet to tell the stories they have in their heads. We didn’t want the system clogged with Farm missions, so actually finding someone’s story that they lovingly crafted became more a chore than it was worth.

To that end, the Rewards in the Mission Architect are something we, ahem, discussed with raised voices time and time again. How much was too much? How little was too little? What limits needed to be put into place to stop farming? Should we even have such limits? Etc. In the end, we made a system that we believe is best suited for what the Mission Architect was made for, and made sure it cannot be abused. Time and testing will tell if that is really the case though. Like the Invention System, there will be many iterations on the Mission Architect to make sure we get it right before it goes to the Live servers.

Next I want to talk about Day Jobs. This started out as a kind of “secret identity” system, but we wanted to save the term Secret Identity for a system that fit that name better. Day Jobs works well because it is “what your character is doing when not being a Hero or a Villain”. It’s their “day job”. A character who logs out in the Hospital is assumed to be working in a medicinal capacity, and they will receive a themed bonus when they log back in, that sort of thing.  We even made it possible to have your character’s Day Job to be “On Patrol” or “Committing Crimes”, just in case you couldn’t envision your character having a “normal life” while you were not actively playing them.

There are plenty of other features in Issue 13: Architect as well, like the new powersets, including the much requested “Villainous Version of Empathy” called Pain Domination. We’re also adding some great new missions to Issue 12’s Roman Zone “Cimerora,” as well as a brand new reward system that will hopefully see the end of “necessary” Task Force farming trying to get that one specific Recipe you have been dying to get.  The Issue 13 Feature List explains more about that.  We’ll be announcing more specifics of each of these features between now and the beta testing for Issue 13.

Finally, I want to tell you about two “Booster Packs” that will be available in a month or so. Many players have requested the ability to buy the 30 day temporary jetpack that comes with the new City of Heroes Game Cards. Once the retailer exclusive period ends next month, we are making the same jetpack available for purchase for £2.99/€4.49. We are also excited to launch our Super Booster I: Cyborg Pack for £5.99/€8.99. This pack has an awesome set of costume pieces, emotes, auras and a power. We’ll be sharing all of the details shortly.

So thank you players for the enthusiastic support! I can’t wait to get these new features into your hands and to answer your questions about Issue 13 over the coming months and at Hero-Con in October.

Happy hunting!

Matt “Positron” Miller
Lead Designer, City of Heroes/Villains

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! 

“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 determ