Today’s update to City of Heroes and City of Villains includes two new additions to the UI designed to reveal the numbers that drive the game’s combat systems. Programmer CW Bennett answers some questions on the new feature in this short Q&A.

Matt ‘Positron’ Miller has answered a range of questions about the upcoming “XP Curve Smoothing” changes for City of Heroes and City of Villains. Covering everything from what it means as your character levels through the expected implementation date for the live servers, this Q&A should make sure you are ready for this landmark improvement!

The world of City of Heroes and Villains is soon to be rocked by the return of the Rikti. Over at CVG you can get a glimpse of what the future holds in the first Issue #10 video, and learn more about how Issue #10 came about straight from the horse’s mouth. Well, from lead designer Matt ‘Positron’ Miller, anyway:

With Issue 10 we decided to advance the storyline. Like any ongoing game we have many unresolved plot threads and each is a great opportunity for introducing new game content. Our first thought for Issue 10 was to bring back the 5th Column, a villain group that disappeared when the Council was introduced in Issue 3. But in the end we decided to focus on one of the greatest threats to Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, the aliens known as the Rikti.

You can read the full Dev Diary over at CVG now - you’ll find a link to the Issue #10 teaser video on the upper right-hand side of the page.

As the second Rikti War draws closer, lead designer Matt ‘Positron’ Miller has been chatting to GameDaily about the momentous events that will soon shake the foundations of the City of Heroes and Villains universe:

According to CoX lore, being cut-off from their home world kept the current Rikti in check. What will keep them from overrunning the world once they have access again?

The Rikti have very limited access to the home world, and they don’t have the ability to create portals large enough to bring in their mother ships. They can only bring in their smaller destroyers, and even those portals aren’t entirely stable. They’re stealing Portal Corp technology to try to get their portals working, in addition to circumventing the magical shield that still exists between the two dimensions [from the first war]. So they have intermittent access to the home world, not the end of the world all over again.

You can read the full interview over at GameDaily - and you can try out Issue #10 for yourself on the Training Room right now.

The fifth instalment of the current series of ‘Ask a Dev’ - where you, the players of City of Heroes and Villains, get a chance to ask the Cryptic development team about the past, present and future of our favourite games - is now available on Boomtown.

First, you can read Jay’s answers to questions from players in the US and Europe about costumes and character art. Then find out more about world designer Melissa ‘War Witch’ Bianco - and submit your questions for her to answer in the next instalment.

In a week or so, we’ll collect all the questions from European and US players for War Witch, so be sure to email send your questions to Boomtown soon!

The fourth part of the new series of ‘Ask a Dev’ - where you, the players of City of Heroes and Villains, get a chance to ask the Cryptic development team about the past, present and future of our favourite games - is now available on Boomtown.

First, you can read Serdar’s answers to questions from players in the US and Europe. Then find out more about character artist Jay Doherty - yes, the one who does the costumes - and submit your questions for him to answer in the next instalment.

In a few weeks, we’ll collect all the questions from European and US players, pick the best ones and pester Jay until he answers every last one. It’s a tough job, but we really are that dedicated.

City of Heroes and Villains Lead Designer Matt ‘Positron’ Miller has been talking more about the Inventions system that will be introduced in the upcoming Issue #9 with MMORPG.com and GameSpot.

Over at MMORPG.com you can learn more about the history of Inventions, the basics of how the system will work, and see an example of one of the ‘enhancement sets’ that heroes and villains will be able to collect to give their characters new and unique abilities and bonuses:

We determined that adding mini-powers to your existing ones had a lot of potential, as the sky would nearly be the limit on what we could accomplish with these new Enhancements.

Read the full Inventions article at MMORPG.com.

GameSpot, meanwhile, has quizzed Matt about many aspects of the Inventions system - in the course of which, he reveals that the Auction system, which will make it easier for players to buy and sell Inventions and the materials required to make them, will work across servers:

The consignment houses are all cross-server. This means that someone on the Virtue server could be selling recipes and salvage to someone on the Justice server. This will result in a wealth of items to buy, and a wealth of buyers to sell to.

Read the full Q&A at GameSpot.

The third part of the new series of ‘Ask a Dev’ - where you, the players of City of Heroes and Villains, get a chance to ask the Cryptic development team about the past, present and future of our favourite games - is now available on Boomtown.

You can start by reading the Q&A with Jack ‘Statesman’ Emmert based on the questions submitted in the previous instalment, then head over to this page to learn more about Cryptic Producer Serdar Copur, the next dev in the series, and email in your questions for him.

In a few weeks, we’ll collect all the questions from European and US players, pick the best ones, then tie Serdar to a chair and shine a bright light in his eyes until he answers every single one. Actually, that last bit about the chair and the bright light probably won’t be necessary, but you get the general idea.

Tuesday, 31 October marks the one year anniversary of City of Villains. Launched on Halloween of 2005, City of Villains finally answered one of the players’ top requests - to be the bad guy. To commemorate this first annual milestone, we conducted our own Q&A with Cryptic Lead Designer Matt ‘Positron’ Miller…

Wondering what’s coming next to the world of City of Heroes and City of Villains? Over at GameSpot UK they’ve been asking Cryptic’s Lead Designer, Matt ‘Positron’ Miller exactly the same thing:

Well, first off, we did a major overhaul to the City of Heroes zone Faultline. It includes new contacts and missions, as well as a better street-hunting experience. We also have brought the randomly generated missions that we had in City of Villains (which villain characters got from the newspapers and brokers) to hero characters. The City of Heroes version is called “police band missions”, and these can lead players into safeguard missions where they must protect Paragon City from vandals and stop major crimes in progress.

You can get more information about the upcoming Issue #8: To Protect And Serve by reading the full interview.

This year’s Player’s Choice Awards in the US saw the American City of Heroes and City of Villains community vote Legion of Valour as the best Supergroup and Fallen Legion as best Villain Group. Amazingly, both SGs were set up and run by the same player, Tony Ellerd, who has now been interviewed by GameDaily.

For more information, see the City of Heroes site.

The second instalment of MMORPG.com’s five-part interview with City of Heroes and Villains Lead Designer Matt ‘Positron’ Miller takes a closer look at Ghost Widow, one of four Patrons that high level villains will be able to choose betwen in Issue #7: Destiny Manifest:

MMORPG.com Is there a common theme to the powers that Ghost Widow bestows?

Matt Miller: Her powers are best described as Soul Mastery. You tend to use the souls of your victims, past and present to create effects and powers to make more victims of your carnage. It’s kind of like the circle of life, only completely opposite.

You can read the full article here, and MMORPG.com also has some exclusive new shots of the powers bestowed by Ghost Widow, which can be seen here and here.

(If you missed the first part of the interview, you can read all about it in our earlier news story.)

The chaps at MMORPG.com recently conducted a comprehensive interview with Matt ‘Positron’ Miller, Lead Designer of City of Heroes and City of Villains, which will be published in five parts over the coming weeks.

In the first chunk, the questions focus on the new Patron system for high level villains that’s a major feature of Issue #7: Destiny Manifest:

MMORPG.com: What exactly is a patron power?

Matt Miller: A Patron Power is a power in a power pool that is granted by one of the four lieutenants of Lord Recluse; Ghost Widow, Scirocco, Captain Mako, or Black Scorpion. They are themed power pools that tie directly in to the backstory and powers of the person who grants access to the pool.

You can read the full article on MMORPG.com by clicking here.

As the might of Arachnos continues to grow, Statesman’s lackey Positron is attempting to warn the world of the threat we will pose when the next majopr update to City of Heroes and City of Villains is released.

Issue #7: Destiny Manifest will allow the villains of the Rogue Isles to progress to Level 50 and face the cursed heroes of Paragon on equal terms. For more information, see the list of interviews with Matt ‘Positron’ Miller over on the City of Heroes site…

Over at Boomtown, Jakob Paulsen has been asking Jack ‘Statesman’ Emmert, Creative Director of Cryptic Studios and Lead Designer of both City of Heroes and City of Villains, about what the future holds. Click here to read the interview.