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Exclusive Dev Diary: Designing the task forces for City of Heroes Issue 20
City of Heroes traditionally packs quite a lot into its large content patches, and Issue 20 looks to be no exception. Aside from the two new Incarnate Trials meant for endgame players, the update is going to see two new mid-level task forces added for players between levels 20-40. With one force for heroes and another for villains, everyone will have a chance to enjoy some new storytelling about the war against Praetoria outside of the earliest invasions. But of course, new task forces don't just materialize out of thin air. It takes some hard work and a solid set of design principles to make them rewarding, something that Paragon Studios has been steadily improving since launch. John Hegner, Lead Mission Designer for City of Heroes, took the time to share with us what went into the construction of these new task forces and what they should mean for the player, so click on past the break for our exclusive developer diary on the design of the new content.
PAX East 2011: Shipping up to Boston with City of Heroes
It's only fitting that PAX East 2011 would see another panel for City of Heroes, as last year's convention was the first time the team from Paragon Studios had been to the east coast. While this year's panel didn't see the many announcements and surprising new reveals of last year, it's good to see the team making the trek out to Boston once again in what fans can only hope will be a regular event. As always, the line to get into the panel was gargantuan, with players lining up an hour before the panel doors opened for a seat in the relatively small theater. Once players had filed in and the room had settled down, it was time for a look at the past year or so for City of Heroes and at what players could expect for the near future, as well as the usual lively question-and-answer session.
City of Heroes offers an Issue 20 overview and development journal
PAX East is just around the corner, and it marks the second east coast appearance of the Paragon Studios team. Last year the developers had an upcoming expansion to preview, but this year nevertheless promises to still have plenty of revelations for the City of Heroes fans, starting with the new Issue 20 overview page available today. Aside from the two known Incarnate Trials, the page also previews two new task forces for characters in the 20-40 range as well as more respec trials available for heroes or villains who change alignment. If the overview alone isn't enough to get you fired up for the upcoming Issue 20, the latest installment of the Intrepid Informer previews one of the new areas designed for the patch: a fortress made of lashed-together ships. Gilbert Martinez, one of the game's art leads, explains the process that led to creating an evocative new piece of scenery. City of Heroes players have plenty to look forward to in the near future, not the least of which being an upcoming patch with some pretty interesting content.
City of Heroes launching the Strike Pack in February
City of Heroes has been firing on all cylinders for this month's announcements, promising a great deal to come in the next few months. One of those promises was an addition to Issue 19's list of feature in a smaller update, and now that's been both dated and expanded upon. The Strike Pack is due out in early February, and it promises to give players both a chance to improve Incarnate abilities even further and more opportunities to gather the all-important materials for same. According to Black Scorpion, starting with the launch of the Strike Pack, a single co-op Task Force (or a Strike Force and a Task Force) will be designated as a Weekly Strike Target, with characters earning double merits and a special Incarnate item for the first completion in a week. The Incarnate item is the key to unlocking the upper tiers of the Alpha Slot, which apply an effective level shift to your character, allowing said character to count as level 51 for purposes of hitting, missing, dodging, and so forth. Special badges are also promised for running the Weekly Strike Target multiple times, which should help keep City of Heroes active for everyone.
Spy with the best: Join Massively for Global Agenda's launch! [Updated]
Readers, we're contacting you through an encrypted channel right now to deliver some very important information. Agent Schuster and Agent Brennan will be on deck for the launch of Global Agenda, ready to fight the Commonwealth at your side. Come Monday, log into Global Agenda and team up with Sera and Shawn to fight the good fight in both PvP and PvE strike teams. The dossier is still sealed on this mission, but keep an eye on this post and the encrypted T-Feed (@massively on Twitter) for the full information on how to link up with Apoc and Archangel on the day of the launch. We'll announce our play times and character names come Monday by updating this post, so just place a bookmark here and get your game all patched up. Take advantage of the early start while you're at it and get your characters leveled up for launch. This way our enemies will never know what hit them.
