issue 19
Latest
City of Heroes developer diary: Going Rogue, new powersets, new enemies, new problems
As of right now, City of Heroes is in a state of flux. Like any game with a new expansion, the superhero game boasts features that are changing and endgame structures that are being disrupted, and the changes of Issue 19 promise to introduce an actual endgame into a game that's long lacked one. But it all started with the most recent expansion, one that gave players the chance to switch sides back in August -- Going Rogue. Much like Rome, the foundation for the expansion wasn't laid in a day. We were granted an early look at a developer diary by Floyd "Castle" Grubb, longtime veteran of the Paragon Studios team and lead designer for the Powers and Entities team. Take a look past the cut for his diary, explaining the various ways in which the powersets of the expansion were developed and fine-tuned, as well as highlights the new additions for both enemies and players.
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.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Because of reasons!
It's weird to say it, but City of Heroes feels like it's still on the cusp of a storm. Going Rogue was a fine expansion, but it doesn't have the sense of breaking that built-up tension, that feeling of something major just over the horizon. Or perhaps it's just me, perched out on my metaphorical porch and loudly proclaiming that this next one is going to be the big one, as I puff on my metaphorical corn-cob pipe and look across the metaphorical skyline of rural Metaphorbraska. OK, that one kind of got away from me there, but what I was trying to get at was that it's time for another question-and-answer session for City of Heroes and that I don't think I'm the only person feeling like Issue 19 might hold some great secret. We'll know soon enough, although right now it's time for Issue 20's super-secret beta, which even I don't know about just yet. I'm very curious. On to the questions!
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.
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%
A video retrospective of City of Heroes
We're still not done celebrating six straight years of City of Heroes, and likely won't be entirely done until July. Even that's largely because we'll have something else to celebrate... but we're getting ahead of ourselves. While we here at Massively took our own look back through the changes in the game over the years, the Samuraiko Productions team has put together something well worth spotlighting: a visual walk through the changes, additions, and updates the game has had over the years. The six-minute walk through history starts out at the very first build, complete with now-archaic UI elements and some questionable fashion choices, and heads straight on through to the upcoming Going Rogue and Issue 19. While there are occasional anachronisms, the video itself gleefully plays with those slight discrepancies, focusing instead on the broadening and expansion of the game. There are also little in-jokes and cameos here and there throughout the film. Whether you're an old fan, a new player, or just want to see a tour through history, take a look past the cut for this excellent trip down memory lane for City of Heroes. [Thanks to Samuraiko for the tip!]
PAX East 2010: City of Heroes panel reveals many things
Unpacking the City of Heroes panel at PAX East is a big deal: there were huge amounts of information being thrown around, and a lot of new pieces of information to process. For that matter, there was far more than anyone expected, with information about the full spread of new issues up to Issue 19 and the reveal of Matt "Positron" Miller's heretofore unrevealed new endgame system. The panel as a whole featured a huge breadth of information about the game from concept into the future, and was filled with people long before the official start time, with fans vocally professing their adoration for the team the whole way through. We had the good fortune to be front and center at the theatre, and once we started taking notes we didn't really stop until the event was over. At the panel were lead designer Melissa Bianco, former lead designer and current lead system designer Matt Miller, art lead David Nakayama, and development producer Jesse Caceres. They opened off with a discussion of the game's history from launch back in 2004 to the present. The changeover from Cryptic to Paragon Studios was discussed in brief, mentioning that four of the major launch employees (Miller, Bianco, CW Bennet, and Brian Clayton) were still with Paragon even after the change.
