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Posts tagged City of Hero
City of Heroes: Power Set Proliferation – Issue 16
Aug 13th
The folks from NCsoft have provied us with this developer journal focusing on Powerset Proliferation in the upcoming Issue 16 update to City of Heroes. The journal is written by Senior Designer Floyd Grubb.
For Issue 16: Power Spectrum, we wanted to proliferate more powersets; at least one per archetype. In looking at which sets to shift around, there were a number of considerations that had to be examined. There wasn’t a specific rule, it was more the circumstances of development which really guided the decisions. As the art team was busy with Powerset Customization, we tried to stay away from sets that required too much animation or FX work. We also wanted to fill in matching Themes where we could, like with adding Assault Rifle and Traps to Defenders. In other instances we wanted to fill in highly requested options, such as adding Claws to Brutes. In the end though, there are just far too many aspects to cover individually, but I’d definitely like to highlight some examples.
Read Power Set Proliferation – Issue 16
City of Heroes: Announcing Hero-Con 2009
Aug 12th
The 2nd annual Hero-Con event has been announced on the official City of Heroes website.
Hero-Con is an annual event for City of Heroes/Villains fans, and will feature a number of activities including:
- Developer Panel Discussions
- Live Mission Event and Contests
- Social Events with the Dev Team
- Banquet Dinner including live entertainment and awards ceremonies
- LAN center activities
- Community Address and announcements presented by Matt "Positron" Miller, and Studio Head, Brian Clayton
- Special ’Pre-Con’ activities the night of Friday, Oct. 23rd.
In addition, the event has been extended from a single day event, to a two day event this year. Hero-Con will take place from October 24th to October 25th, 2009 at the Doubletree Hotel in San Jose, California.
Tickets will set you back $79.00 and are being sold by Brown Paper Tickets.
Fans will receive an assortment of goodies for their ticket purchase as well, and they include:
- Goody Bag (which includes an Official Hero-Con 2009 T-shirt, a digital in-game item, and more!)
- Entrance into the Welcome Address and Grand Banquet Dinner/Awards Ceremony
- Direct interaction with Dev Team and Community Relations Team Members.
- Access to the City of Heroes® store (which will include items ONLY available at Hero-Con!)
- Attendance at Development Team Panel Discussions
- Opportunity to participate and win prizes in the following competitions:
- Gaming contests
- Official Costume More >
City of Heroes: Color? Or Colour? Armor? Or Armour?
Aug 7th
The City of Heroes forums have been completely overhauled. As a result, the forums are all centralized in one location, with the various languages receiving their own set of boards. While French is French, English is not always English. The American forums and the European English forums have now merged, and quite hilarious results were sure to follow.
One such example is the thread "It’s COLOR and ARMOR!" by forum-goer PhiloticKnight:
NOT "colour" and "armour".
Wuith aull thouse extrau YOUUUUS in your wourds, you daumn Brits sound FRENCH!
And I KNOW how much you love THOSE guys.
Just figured I’d get that out there early before the merger and before DOOM!
The thread goes on for at least 16 pages as of this writing, be sure to check it out.
So then…Which is it? Color? Or Colour? Armor? Or Armour? Let us know in the comments! My vote? Color! Armor! Can you guess where I’m from? :)
City of Heroes: Why City of Heroes Should Be Worried
Aug 6th
In a feature over at MMOSite, writer Cecil Adkins examines why the folks at Paragon Studios should be worried about their upcoming competition in Champions Online.
The article breaks down the reasons into a few points:
- Champions online is new and shiny
- The issues surrounding the implementation of the Mission Architect has left a bad taste in many users’ mouths.
- City of Heroes PvP is still "a mess".
- Cryptic Studios has had the opportunity to utilize hindsight in their development of City of Heroes to hopefully not repeat the same mistakes in Champions Online, as well as directly cater to the needs of new players who aren’t getting what they want out of City of Heroes.
- The Nemesis System.
- Updates to City of Heroes have been slow-going.
For an insightful read, check out the full piece over at MMOSite.
City of Heroes: Overcoming the Impossible
Aug 6th
NCsoft’s Matt "Positron" Miller, the Lead Designer for the five year old City of Heroes MMO, writes this developer journal discussing the Powers Customization system that will be available in Issue 16.
Ok, maybe "impossible" is overstating it, but "Overcoming the Boat Load of Work" just doesn’t have the right ring to it. You see, when City of Heroes was made over five years ago, customizing the look of your powers was never considered. When the art for the powers was done, the colors for the powers were "baked in," in such a way that it would be impossible to tint them to a different color later. It wasn’t until we had our first feedback from outside the company that we realized the corner we had painted ourselves into.
You see, we had given players the most customizable character creator ever seen in an MMO. In a genre where individuality was sometimes very hard to come by, yet desired by nearly everyone who played, we offered your heart’s content of custom options for your look even before you logged into the game. Or so we thought we did. We had not considered the fact that everyone’s Power Blast looked like everyone else’s. More >
City of Heroes: Loyalty Rewarded with Going Rogue Beta
Jul 30th
Paragon Studios is looking to reward their loyal customers. Subscribers who keep their accounts active from August 15th, 2009 through November 15th, 2009, will be rewarded with access to the closed beta program for the upcoming City of Heroes/Villains expansion, Going Rogue.
In addition, players will also receive a badge for their loyalty. Heroes will receive the "Vigilant" badge, while villains will receive the "Determined" badge.
There is a bit of a catch to the loyalty program though, as the beta access will be distributed through a three-tier system. Details below:
* Going Rogue Closed Beta Access will be granted using a three-tier system:
o Tier One: City of Heroes Veterans with 60+ months of paid time. o Tier Two: Loyalty Program players o Tier Three: Players who Pre-Order Going Rogue (Preorder details to be announced at a later date)
For additional details on the loyalty program, check out the official Loyalty Program site here.
City of Heroes: Going Rogue to Bring Graphics Upgrade?
Jul 29th
Face it, City of Heroes/Villains is growing long in the tooth when it comes to the game’s visuals and it is long overdue for a graphics upgrade.
Is one such uograde coming with the Going Rogue expansion? This latest interview on Issue 16: Power Spectrum and the Going Rogue expansion over at TenTonHammer seems to hint at it:
Ten Ton Hammer: Will the graphics be revamped?
Matt: I can’t officially say anything… but I’m not saying no.
Make of that what you will.
The full interview is available here.
Do you think a graphics upgrade or overhaul for City of Heroes will help the game stay afloat? Let us know in the comments below.
City of Heroes: Issue 16 Comic Con Interview
Jul 29th
While at Comic Con, MMORPG.com’s Carolyn Koh caught with with Matt Miller and Joe Morrisey of Paragon Studios to talk about the upcoming Issue 16 update to City of Heroes.
Joe Morrissey, Senior Game Designer and Matt Miller, Senior Design Lead at Paragon Studios are just great people to talk to and we joked around as they waited for a "Marketing Watchdog" to come by before we could start the interview at Comic Con. "Just a mindful presence to keep me from saying too much," Joe quipped. 23
"Shhh! Don’t tell her about the Ninja Space Monkeys?" Matt hushed him. "Are you sure they weren’t Pirate Space Monkeys?" Joe responded "The space expansion? What space expansion?" They chorused, deadpan.
Build 16, which goes into open beta in two weeks, is a response to player requests and primarily consists of the Power Spectrum, which is the ability to customize the colors of your character’s powers. A new interface has been created with tabs across the top so that players creating new or tailoring old characters can easily switch from the different customization screens to adjust each of the customizable features of their characters.
Read the Issue 16 Comic Con Interview
More >Return of the Rikti
Jul 9th
A daunting alert was sent out on the official City of Heroes site. An old danger reenters the game world:
"A shadow passing overhead…Fire and destruction raining from the sky…
A warlike adversary returning to menace Paragon City and the Rogue Isles once again…
The Rikti are returning.
Starting Friday July 17th (11:00 AM Eastern / 10:00 AM Central / 8:00 AM Pacific) and lasting through Sunday July 19th (11:59 PM Eastern / 10:59 PM Central / 8:59 PM Pacific)
The Rikti will once again renew their assault. Every hero and every villain’s services will be required to repel these vicious invaders if our homeland is to be safe from their murderous invasion.
Everyone will be called to action, will you answer the call?"
Are you brave enough to show up? Probably. It is just a game, after all.
More Story Space
Jul 7th
For all the clay-molders in City of Heroes, you’ll be overjoyed to hear that NCsoft is now selling additional story slots for game accounts to hold more architect projects.
Just can’t stop designing Mission Architect game play masterpieces? Well now you can increase your repertoire! Additional Mission Architect story slots are available for purchase (1, 2 or 5 them for $5.99, $9.99, and $19.99 respectively) up to a maximum of eight slots per game account.
So no more excuses as to why you can’t fit in another masterpiece.