incarnate-system
Latest
Issues 20 and Incarnates previewed for City of Heroes
If you were one of the lucky fans at the recent City of Heroes meet-and-greet, you were treated to a wealth of information from Paragon Studios about the future of the game. If you weren't, however, you still get a fair slice of luck with today's reveal on the official site about the Incarnate system, complete with lore illustrating the start of what promises to be a far-reaching storyline in the game. We've also gotten a look at the event's presentation on future content, which should give fans plenty to look forward to. The Incarnate system is kicking off with the Alpha Slot in Issue 19, which will be focused on wide-ranging enhancements to all of a character's powers. Unlike Enhancements, Incarnate abilities can be slotted and removed without destroying them. Each slot will have several branches that players can explore as well, allowing for a great deal of character customization. Moreover, the most powerful Incarnate abilities allow characters to improve their effective level in battle past the cap. You can head to the official site for more details on the next major system of City of Heroes -- or you can take a look at the gallery for a preview of what's coming and the slides which give us a sneak peek at a new warehouse map, new costume pieces, and the trials of Issue 20. %Gallery-107010%
City of Heroes dev diary: Dr. Aeon's Guide on How to Make a Proper Interdimensional Invasion
With the upcoming Issue 19, City of Heroes is bringing in the long-awaited Incarnate system, the first step in improving and honing the powers of characters who have already reached the level cap. Of course, that would be rather unbalancing if there wasn't something new to challenge the newly-empowered characters, but the whole invasion of Praetoria into Paragon City and the Rogue Isles should give even the new Incarnates something challenging to handle. Two task forces are being added to challenge characters that have reached the apex of power. So how exactly does one craft a new invasion in City of Heroes? We were lucky to get a brand-new developer diary from Sean "Dr. Aeon" McCann detailing how the Apex and Tin Mage task forces came into existence, from the challenges it presented in design to the result of all that hard work. Take a look past the cut to check out the diary, wherein we get a full rundown of how one launches an interdimensional war. (In the game, at least. Actual aggression against other dimensions is not covered.)
NYCC 2010: The City of Heroes Issue 19 panel
It's the end of the convention season, and City of Heroes fans on the East Coast managed to get one last treat -- another chance with the development team that had long been anchored firmly on the other side of the country. The team's panel in March at PAX East saw the revelation of several new facts about the game, including the first announcement of Kinetic Melee and Electric Control, and the panel that closes out the year at New York Comic Con contained several interesting new facts as well. Melissa Bianco, David Nakayama, and Jesse Caceres were all in attendance, with the panel overseen by community representative Tia Parurahi. With Going Rogue having been out for nearly two months, this panel focused on the upcoming Issue 19 and what the changes mean for the game, as well as how much the development team is ramping up production to improve the game all around.
City of Heroes previews the coming Issue 19
We've known about the bare basics of Issue 19 for a little while now, but City of Heroes players have just been treated to a new explosion of information about the game's next major content patch. And it promises to be quite a big update, with two new task forces, new events in Praetoria, and some alternate animations and auras that had not been previously announced. Several powers will now have a number of locations that can be used as a launching point, so you could fire your Radiation Blasts from your eyes, one hand, both hands, or other possibilities. More tip and morality missions are being added, as well as the option for characters who were not from Praetoria to enter the city. It couldn't come at a better time, as Praetoria's infiltration and invasion are the center of the two new task forces. Overseen by Apex and Tin Mage, two important lore figures, the chains have characters face off against Praetors and uniquely Praetorian enemies to keep their world safe from Emperor Cole's designs. There are also new live events being added in Praetoria, such as a mass protest that heroes can take part in or help shut down. With the previously announced first Incarnate slot and the move of Fitness to inherent (with a slight clarification of unclear wording), the update promises to be an infusion of both content and systems for City of Heroes, so take a look at the official rundown for more.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: All the news that's fit from PAX
The revelations at PAX East were pretty darn big for City of Heroes, but they had a big advantage over PAX Prime. At the time we sat down in Boston, Going Rogue was months away, and we knew almost nothing about what it would bring us. This time around, it's been out for a couple of weeks, and most of the fancy pieces of knowledge are pretty well established. It would be hard, if not impossible, for the development team to hit us with the same one-two punch. I wouldn't argue that the team quite managed that -- there's no comparison to revealing two new power sets, the endgame system, and video demonstrations of much-awaited sets -- but Paragon Studios sure did manage to drop quite a bomb on us. As I've done frequently in the past, we're going to take this point by point, with a full collection of neat pieces of news that leave me wondering just how much interesting stuff is yet to come from the development team.
PAX 2010: City of Heroes moves Fitness over to inherent powers
Big news got dropped today during the City of Heroes panel over at the inimitable PAX, the sort of thing that every veteran of the game will be interested in. Fitness -- also known as the powerset that is more or less mandatory by level 20, or the Stamina set -- is being moved from power pools into the inherent power set. That means that three of the default power choices in the game have just been rolled into every character from level 1, making builds more flexible and players very happy indeed. It wasn't mentioned specifically whether this means the powers will simply be under inherent powers or base movement speed, regeneration rates, and so forth will be increased. There has also been more information about the highly anticipated Incarnate System, with Issue 19 rolling out the Alpha Slot to start players down the road of improvement at Level 50. We'll have more on the panel as a whole and the details of the revelations, including news on the Issue 20 testing, but for now, all City of Heroes players should be happy to learn they have three new power selections to play with when 19 launches.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Community timing
Welcome to this week's installment of A Mild-Mannered Reporter, where we will not be talking about Going Rogue. Well, OK, that's a lie -- but we're not going to be doing our big analysis and in-depth look at the entire expansion. As of the time I'm writing these words, I've not actually even played the game. (This will have changed by the time you are reading the article, but that's the wonderful part about writing ahead. I'm sending messages to the future from the past!) So while there are going to be several community threads for City of Heroes in this column, there will not be any of the biting commentary you might have hoped to see. You can at least check out my first impressions of the expansion, if you'd like -- which also isn't written as of the time that I'm writing this, but will be by the time you read it. (Editor's note: Eliot's first impressions of Going Rogue launched Tuesday.) You know what, just jump past the break already -- I'm giving myself a Lost headache thinking about all the time travel.
City of Heroes returns to the Cathedral in Issue 18
We know that Going Rogue is going live for City of Heroes players in August, and that means a new major patch for the game. We know that the update will be Issue 18, followed by the much-discussed Issue 19 that finishes the Incarnate System and expands the endgame. What we haven't known until now is exactly what Issue 18 will contain other than expansion content -- and while it's unlikely that many of the game's players would be skipping out on the expansion, there's always the chance. The development team has broken that silence, however, revealing some of the additions to the game with the new update, including the long-awaited return of the Cathedral of Pain. Yes, Issue 18 will see the return of the Cathedral of Pain trial after a nearly four-year hiatus. Players can expect the trial to have been heavily rewritten while maintaining the same basic framework, the location itself being one of the core sanctums for Rularuu the Ravager. Beyond that is the addition of the Tips system, additions to Mission Architect, and the ability to trade inspirations between heroes and villains. Take a look at the official site for more previews of the next free update to City of Heroes, and take a look at the gallery for some more shots of Praetoria and the revamped Cathedral. %Gallery-97111%
