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The Secret World announces Sidestories: The Last Pagan mission pack
The summer content drought for The Secret World is almost at an end, as Game Director Joel Bylos announced today that the game will be releasing a new mission pack "in the next couple of weeks." Sidestories: The Last Pagan will contain six additional missions to the game, including two investigation quests. These missions will all be located in or around Tokyo, and when all six are completed, they will reward the players with a teleport to Tokyo from anywhere else in the game. Bylos said that the team is also making improvements to the AEGIS system with two new skills and installing an on-screen notifications system to facilitate communication between the game and the player. It also looks as though TSW will be selling emotes, hairstyles, and makeup unlocks in the store as well as adding them as mission rewards. Past the sidestories pack will be Issues #10 and #11, the latter of which will contain a unification of the raiding experience.
The Secret World's December Game Director letter talks Filth, Tokyo, and beyond
With the holidays (and holiday events) over, eyes have turned back to the update that all Secret World fans are looking forward to: Tokyo. And December's Game Director letter assures that Issue #9 will be released within the the first quarter, so players will step into Tokyo before the end of March. Penned by Lead Designer Romain Amiel, the letter also shares that Issue #10 will introduce a new lair and Issue #11 will have a new raid. But before all that can happen, however, the Filth must be eradicated from Agartha. Amiel offers an update on The Whispering Tide event, and players may be happy to hear that the end is near; the final phase, featuring the 60-man indoor world-boss-style fight against Flappy, will commence as soon as the current gate is cleansed. Additionally, the team is working on a way to let players stream music directly through the game and player-designed outfits will be available soon. [Thanks to all who sent in tips.]
One Shots: Alien Bounty Hunters
Intrepid City of Heroes photog Matthew sent us this shot from the front lines, as he and his fellow Paragon City vets stomped all over the alien menace known as the Rikti. Within sight of the famous statue of Atlas, the heroes look to be doing a bang-up job of banging up those shifty extraterrestrials. Matt doesn't tell us precisely when this is from, but odds are this battle took place around the time of Issue 10: The Rikti Invasion. That issue really brought CoH players roaring back into the world events habit, and paved the way for the great content introduced by NCsoft in Issue 11. If you missed it the first time around, never fear! The alien invasion early warning system in has detected new fleets inbound. The next one is due to arrive tomorrow, with ships and Rikti arriving daily through the 24th. More should be arriving from June 13th through June 19th, August 1st through August 7th, Sept 26th through Oct 2nd, and November 14th through November 20th. Go out there and fight the good fight!Have you fought off any alien invasions lately? Do you have any screenshots lying around of your heroic antics during an MMO world event? Send those screenshots our way, via oneshots AT massively DOT com. The next time you save the planet, we might feature it right here in this space!%Gallery-9798%
CoX Issue 11 patch live on Test server
Affecting client version 16.20071113.3T, NCsoft has released a new patch for the CoX properties, and it's currently active on the Test server. The new patch addresses power set activation times, accolades, graphical and sound effects, Flashback missions, and global chat tweaks for all players. As well, two new costume sets were introduced: an Enforcer set and a Jester set. Attendees of last week's Meet & Greet had the opportunity to see the costumes a week ahead of time, when Sexy Jay showcased his work. Aside from the costume sets themselves, two new pattern sets for existing costume customization are also available.For this particular Issue 11 patch, Heroes will see Scrapper, Blaster, and Defender changes, as well as some adjustment done to Badge levels in Flashback missions. Villains will find some improvement to the Mastermind set, and that Snake Eggs will once again hatch. While there's no stated release date for the patch to go live on the regular servers, if you have the opportunity to so do, download and try it out on Test.
CoX costume token, free respec delay
As astute players may remember, the City of Heroes team had promised to offer a free respec and free costume token to coincide with the release of Issue 11, which hit servers yesterday morning. Those expecting the free goodies were probably a bit distraught, and are probably curious just what happened. Counting ourselves among this group, we headed over to the official City of Heroes forums and found the answer from the esteemed community manager, Lighthouse.Turns out that they couldn't quite fit everything into the patch that they had hoped, and among the things that ended up slipping through the rungs were the aforementioned respec and costume token. But fear not, because they were only delayed, not canceled. The free costume token will be assessed to all active character accounts during the usual morning maintenance period tomorrow, Friday the 30th. As for the free respec, you'll have to wait a bit longer, as that won't be going active until December 7th. The timing seems a little strange, since the respec is supposed to compensate for all the balance challenges put in Issue 11, and letting people respec a full week and a half later is just... curious.
CoX: Mender Silos has a puzzle for you
"Old Man Stauf built a house, and filled it with his toys. Six guests all came one night, their screams the only noise." So began The 7th Guest, lo these many years ago. Now NCsoft provides the residents of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles with an equally intriguing time-related puzzle in the new trailer for Issue 11, provided to us by the mysterious Mender Silos, the founder and visionary of Ouroboros. Aside from showcasing some of the powers and regions accessible in the new chapter, tantalizing hints of a puzzle -- and of the game's future direction -- are revealed.Who is our greatest enemy, how will we be able to set aside our differences with our current foes, and what is causing all of the temporal anomalies? We have the questions, and now we need the answers: if we don't find them, then our world -- our future -- is doomed. Discuss amongst yourselves the mysteries. What are the secrets hidden within Issue 11: A Stitch in Time? Only time will tell.
CoX Issue 11 videos: Samuraiko Productions
Professionally-made trailers and videos are designed to dazzle and to glow. More and more, however, fan-made videos are achieving the same level of quality and professionalism, and are shaping up into astounding works of art in their own right. As our own Moo Money noted, machinima artists such as Baron Soosdon are looked up to because their work is incredibly evocative and remarkably well-crafted.In that vein, the head of Samuraiko Productions has been striving for -- and, from what I've seen, achieving -- top-notch quality in all of her work. Her latest piece, an homage to NCsoft's Issue 11 expansion for the City of Heroes/City of Villains properties, continues her path in the quest for perfection. The music is well-chosen, the transitions are seamless, the text and graphic overlays are layered perfectly ... my only complaint is that it wasn't long enough. Although I'm unable to embed the video here due to the artist's request, it is available for viewing on both You Tube and the Samuraiko Productions web site. Be prepared for buffering the first time you play it off the web site, but the level of detail in the non-compressed production is well worth the wait.
Issue 11: patch notes and known issues
NCsoft has released both the Patch Notes and the Known Issues lists for CoX's Issue 11 expansion, and both lists apply to November 28th's live game version 16.20071113.3T. Please remember that support issues should go directly to the Support Center, and that bug reports for newly-discovered concerns can be filed while in the game itself by using either the "/bug <text>" command or the Support option from the Menu dropdown.
Issue 11 launch maintenance
NCsoft has announced that the North American game servers for the City of Heroes/City of Villains properties will be coming down on Wednesday, 28 November, for extended maintenance prior to the launch of Issue 11. The server downtime is expected to run approximately six hours, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Will we see Issue 11 live when the servers come back up? Naysayers point to the upcoming Prestige grant and Debt wipe on 10 December; however, even though the event is mentioned in relation to Issue 11, NCsoft stated explicitly that it would take place after Issue 11 launches. So let's keep our fingers crossed, folks: we'll know the outcome in less than 24 hours.
CoX Issue 11: First Impressions
The newest expansion for City of Heroes and City of Villains, Issue 11 has been in open beta for a couple of weeks, and -- so far, at least -- it's proven to be a hit. As with all other releases, there have been the inevitable tweaks and adjustments to make sure that levels are being balanced and that powers are neither too strong nor too weak. Still, all things considered, it's been a phenomenal step forward in the elegance of the game.It's hard not to squeal with delight when I think of the changes that have been made since I first created my account in June of 2004. Whether we were peering Through the Looking Glass or fending off an Invasion, NCsoft was always pushing to give us new features, and to make sure that the play was as balanced as possible. As far as I can tell, they've done a phenomenal job of continuing that trend. %Gallery-9980%
Weekend reading: flavors of the month, yea or nay?
If you're like us, you can always use some good reading for a lazy weekend, and we here at Massively are always happy to oblige. We stumbled upon an interesting point of contention on the City of Heroes forums this weekend, one that has given us serious pause. The question at hand? Are so-called "flavors of the month," classes or specs that are made popular by patches, gear, or just by chance, bad for MMOs, or are they just a harmless side effect of a ever more alt-happy subscriber base?For my part, I think the flavor of the month classes serve a necessary, if completely unintentional, part in the development and balance process. From what I've experienced, the most prominent reasons underlying most flavors of the month, as in the case of the dual blade scrappers in Issue 11, is that players want to try out new content for themselves. There's no better advertisement for a build than seeing it in the patch notes, and there's no better way to test the new builds for balance than by having thousands of players jump on it on patch day. For all the headaches the FotM crowds cause, I think their contributions are worth more to the greater community.So what do you think, flavors of the month, yea or nay?
One Shots: Question Manticore
Our own Jonathan Northwood offers this shot of high-end City of Heroes content straight from the pages of Issue 11. Jonathan brings us up to speed on the story (yes, these could be spoilers for some of you):The concept is drawn from the Trading Places storyline in Top Cow's City of Heroes comic (Issues 10 – 12), when Manticore is kicked from the Freedom Phalanx, and winds up teaming with the Vindicators for a short while. He apparently defects to Recluse's side; however, in the dénouement, it's seen that he took these actions in order to get more information on what Recluse is doing. The mission this screenshot is from was the fourth in the Mender Silos Task Force: your team and some of the Vindicators (Swan, Ms. Liberty, and Mynx) are sent to Siren's Call to find out what's going on with Manticore, and wind up being tasked with taking him down. For tomorrow's One Shots, we're turning the reins over to all of you -- what game do you want to see featured? Let us know in the comments!Do you have a screenshot that shows off a memorable moment or an amazing view in your favorite MMO? Send them to us at oneshots@massively.com with a description (including game name and location) and you may see it posted here for tomorrow's One Shots. %Gallery-9798%
70 new badges in Issue 11
A full listing of the new 70 new badges available in City of Heroes and City of Villains is available on Badge-Hunter.com's site. While Issue 11's new badges are split into Exploration and Achievement areas, the vast majority seem to be focused on the new Ouroboros-based missions. I'll even give you a hint on where to find the Chrononaut badge: it's placed in a similar location to two of the badges found in Atlas Park. And don't forget that you can change or clear your badge title at any time. After all, why be known as a Keeper of Secrets when you can be perceived as Justice Incarnate?[Via Kill Ten Rats]
Issue 11 adventures in beta
Omnitron of the Central Nexus spent some time the other day to give us his thoughts and experiences in the Issue 11 beta for CoX. He gives us some great insights into what we can expect when the update hits. First of all, he lets us know that Willpower is awesome. Every brawler and scrapper out there is going to want to pick up that power set. A note of interest I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is the 42-month veteran reward he found on the test server. Rather than simply getting the Fervent badge, players now receive the Assemble the Team power, which summons your entire team to you once every 30-minutes. If that isn't an incentive to keep your account active, I don't know what is. He lets us know that there's some potential weirdness down the line with the time travel Ouroboros missions. It seems that since you are deleveling down to say level 9 and are running around Paragon City weak as can be, turning in the mission could be challenging, since you have to get to a special island to do so. You might need to be sidekicked or something in order to complete your task. It sounds a little weird, and hopefully it will get ironed out before the Issue pushes through to the live servers. As Issue 11 nears, we'll keep an eye out on any further information and let you know.
Weapons scaling in CoX Issue 11
Amongst all the other cool things we're seeing in Ish 11, Cryptic is adding weapons scaling to the customizable weapons toolkit. Weapons when you choose them will now scale according to how big and beefy or slim and tiny your character happens to be. Dave on Blog of Heroes says this will help a lot of characters, but says females still have the trouble of tiny, tiny hands.Scaling the weapons is great, and something that players have been clamoring for. But the female model's hands are so small that any amount of weapons scaling won't help. What we need, Dave suggests, is a slider for female hands, since male hands are already oversized for the scale of the models. I know I have a female tanker, and her hands look too dainty to do the amount of punching and bashing she is capable of. It ruins the feel of the character. So on this one I'll have to agree with Dave, but what do you think? Will the weapons scaling solve the problem of the infamously slender hands? Related Story
CoX: the issues respecting respecs
City of Heroes lead designer Matt Miller (who was interviewed not long ago) has emerged from the shadows of the official forums to give us the low-down on Cryptic's efforts to include a balanced respec utility in the game. As veteran players well know, you're given the opportunity to run a Trial three times before you max your character out to earn a respec, and of course, they're also offered any time they make significant adjustments to powers. Problem is, the game is in its fourth year of operation. Many characters have been sitting at 50 for a long time now, and it's entirely plausible that they'd want to switch up their builds a little bit, without having to go through the trouble of rolling an entirely new character.Their solution? In Issue 11, they'll be rolling out the Respec Recipe, designed to take advantage of CoX's budding (i.e. since Issue 9) economy and invention system. It'll be a rare drop, presumably dropping off of mobs at any level, and Miller expects it to demand a fairly high price at auction, probably higher than the Very Rare Enhancements also making their debut in Issue 11.Here's hoping it's slightly less rare than he makes it out to be - we'd hate for it to be the commodity only the richest players could afford. Give us lowbies a chance too![Via Warcry]
A stitch in beta time
If any of you are as excited about Issue 11 as I am, then I have good news my friend. The beta for Issue 11: A Stitch in Time has opened up on the Training Room server, letting players have a whack at Oroboros missions and customizing their weapons. The current beta patch notes are available, and it looks like things are running fairly smoothly. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see my Stalker waiving around twin katanas. I feel some new character creation coming on! Grab yourself a spot in the Issue 11 beta today.
CoX veteran perks revealed at long last
City of Heroes lead designer, better known as Positron, has lifted the curtain on the new 42 month Veteran reward going live in Issue 11. I know the suspense is killing you, so we'll defer to Positron himself. "We are going with a 'Recall Team' Veteran power, usable once every 30 minutes. We like this as a Vet Reward because it is a nice perk we can give our Veteran players that shouldn't make players who don't have it feel left out. The power can be used only once every 30 minutes, and this can't be reduced by Hasten or other recharge reducing methods. This makes it very handy in certain situations, but obviously not required by any stretch of the imagination."There we have it! We'll find out more about the 45 month reward after Issue 11 goes live (which shouldn't be long, it's already pre-loaded) and we get closer to the actual 45 month mark.
Issue 11 preloading now
The 74.2MB content update for City of Heroes/City of Villains free expansion Issue #11 is streaming to players as we speak. Issue #11, called "A Stitch In Time" features new power sets, time travel, new inventions, dual-weapons, weapon customization, and did I mention time travel? As usual, the download will trigger when you exit a game session. You can cancel it any time, and let it resume later. You know you want to grab it before Issue 11 opens officially and the update servers get slow.
An in-depth look at Issue 11 power sets in CoX
Floyd "Castle" Grubb sat down recently and recorded a video explanation of the upcoming power sets available in Issue 11: A Stitch in Time for City of Heroes/City of Villains. Since the video is only available as a download, we'll give you the complete rundown here on Massively of what we can expect from the two new power sets being added into the game. The first thing Castle mentioned was the fact that these power sets were added to the game because they were what the players asked for most. When asked, the players most requested Willpower for a defensive power set, and dual blades for an offensive set.
