Avatea

Issue 20 keeps on growing with more Incarnate content available soon!

Incarnates Ascend is the second wave of content in Issue 20: Incarnates and it will roll out more of the robust features of the Incarnates system. A brand new Incarnate trial will make its appearance and will pit you against one of the most dangerous scientists around Praetoria! You will need all your wits and skills about in order to stop a catastrophe of cataclysmic proportions to happen in the shadows of the Keyes Island Reactor!

But that's not all this upcoming update to Issue 20 has to offer. Expect new Lore pets for your increasingly murderous / powerful army! New rewards and a myriad of quality of life improvements that will make it that much easier for you to enjoy this brand new content!

Check out our Game Updates section now for more details on Issue 20: Incarnates Ascend and a guide to Keyes Island!

Patch notes for build 2010.201105131851.1.0

COMBINED

Combat Attributes

• Your effective Level Shift now displays in this window under Base Attributes.
• Influence totals in the Combat Attributes windows now display comma separators.

League

• A taskforce will no longer be able to join a league that is full, rather than break up the task force.
• Buff sending settings now properly work in leagues.

User Interface

• The effective interaction area of the pet window has been expanded to include the lower portion of the window.

Incarnate Trials

• Patch Note: Bosses in trials whose player count is less than the event minimum will now spawn with a scaling strength locked to a minimum value, rather than scaling to match the lower number of players.
• Corrected power disabling flags in Incarnate Trials, Ouroboros, and PVP zones.
  • Travel Temps, Costume Powers and MTX Powers are restored for use in Incarnate Trials.

Incarnate Trial - Lambda Sector

• In an effort to ensure that Lambda Sector's merits are more widely available regardless of whether the league is attempting badges or not, the following changes have been made to merit distribution:
  • 1 Merit will be awarded when acquiring 10 Grenades.
  • 1 Merit will be awarded when acquiring 10 Acids.
  • 1 Merit will be awarded when defeating 30 of Marauder's reinforcements (the enemies from the doors) in the final stage.
  • 1 Merit will be awarded when defeating Marauder.
  • 2 Merits will be awarded if the league completes Antacid. This is to compensate for the 10 Grenades merit this badge precludes.
  • 2 Merits will be awarded if the league completes Well-Stocked. This is to compensate for the 10 Acids merit this badge precludes.
  • 1 Merit will be awarded if the league completes Lambda Looter. This is because the league would also have acquired the 10 Acid and 10 Grenade merits.
  • Merits will no longer be awarded for gathering all 20 powers.
    • This merit is moved to the kills in the final stage to have fewer merits dependent on power gathering.
• The overall results are:
  • A standard run which gets all 10 of both powers and ignores badges will receive at least 4 Merits.
  • Any power-related badge run (Antacid, Well-Stocked or Lambda Looter) run has the potential to acquire at least 5 Merits.
  • In order to make sure that all raid sizes can achieve the new bonus merit in a reasonable amount of time, we have activated one of the two permanent doors which was previously not active for smaller leagues. This will increase the rate at which reinforcements spawn by 1 every minute for league sizes less than 10.
  • Please note that ONLY the reinforcements which follow Marauder will give credit for the counter. The pets of those reinforcements, the turrets, IDF remaining from a previous stage and the IDF guarding the containers during the final stage will not count for the merit.
• Removed Marauder's base 30% S/L resistance and reduced the duration of his Unstoppable power.
• A door blocking access to one of the lab interiors in Lambda Sector has been replaced with an openable door.

Incarnate Trial - Behavioral Adjustment Facility

• Corrected an error where the BAF occasionally would award more than one Empyrean Merit per 20 hour period.

Incarnate Components

• Added direct conversion recipes for the following:
  • Notice of the Well converts into 40 Incarnate Threads
  • Favor of the Well converts into 100 Incarnate Threads

Incarnate Powers

• Greatly reduced the probability that Ion Judgment powers will strike the same target multiple times in the same activation.
• Individual pet commands can now properly be issued to the Lore WarWorks Victoria Essence.
• Lore pet combat text has been adjusted to indicate which pet is acting.
• Rebirth Destiny powers now properly ignore buffs apart from those conferred by the Alpha Slot.
• Ageless and Barrier Destiny powers now properly accept increases to Damage Resistance, Defense Buff, and Recovery as conferred by the Alpha Slot.
• Team Teleport now works properly on Lore pets of all varieties.
• Level shifted players should not longer experience strange combat results versus very low level mobs.
• Switching Reactive Interface abilities equipped should no longer potentially result in the DoT effect being lost until zoning.
• Toggle and Auto powers will collectively only apply the effects of the Interface slot procs once every 10 seconds across all Toggle/Auto powers. Click power Interface slot procs are unaffected by this timer. Known Issue: This fix currently causes the Interface proc to only occur versus one target in a round of procs. This is unintentional and will be fixed in a future patch.
• Corrected an error which allowed players to summon more than one set of Lore pets.

CITY OF HEROES

TASKS

• The Woodsman Task Force (aka the Eden Trial) "Prisoners of Eden" will now properly start if the leader of the team is above level 41.
  • Members of the TF team above level 41 will be auto-exemplared to 41 for the duration as per standard Task Force mechanics.
• Restored missing text to "The Aura of Power" hero storyarc.

CITY OF VILLAINS

TASKS

• On Vincent Ross's mission "Learn the Source of True Power" players should no longer find themselves entering the mission into non-playable space.

Silver Mantis Strike Force

• Re-entering the the ship on the final mission will cause the player to now appear in the ship's interior, instead of falling through the world.

Mortimer Kal Strike Force

• Warrior bosses on the Mortimer Kal Strike Force now count towards the Legionnaire badge.

PRAETORIA

• Corrected several instances where two doors (one unopenable) were appearing in certain Praetorian Tech maps.
• Increased time between howls of the Moon-Crazed Dancer in Studio 55.

TASKS

Rift Enclosure - Resistance

• The nav bar text will properly update now to tell the player to enter Talos after talking with the Resistance member.

Transmuter

• Aid your Powers Division Team - The door to the roof where Reese is located has been restored.

Join us on our Paragon Studios USTREAM channel between 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (9:00 p.m. Eastern Time / 2:00 a.m. British Summer Time) and 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time (10:30 p.m. Eastern Time / 3:30 a.m. British Summer Time) on Thursday, May 26, 2011 !

Developers Nate ”Second Measure” Birkholz, Tim ”Black Scorpion” Sweeney and Keetsie ”Tunnel Rat” Braz da Cunha will be having tea and crumpets with the Paragon Studios Community team, and they may even be sharing a few things with our viewers!

So make sure you log in to the Paragon Studios USTREAM channel to watch and participate with the developers of City of Heroes!

Join in the Community discussion now!

Join us on our Paragon Studios USTREAM channel between 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (9:00 p.m. Eastern Time / 2:00 a.m. British Summer Time) and 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time (10:30 p.m. Eastern Time / 3:30 a.m. British Summer Time) on Thursday, May 26, 2011 !

Developers Nate ”Second Measure” Birkholz, Tim ”Black Scorpion” Sweeney and Keetsie ”Tunnel Rat” Braz da Cunha will be having tea and crumpets with the Paragon Studios Community team, and they may even be sharing a few things with our viewers!

So make sure you log in to the Paragon Studios USTREAM channel to watch and participate with the developers of City of Heroes!

For the third and final part of our City of Heroes 7th Anniversary Retrospective, our developers share their favourite things about Paragon Studios! And last but not least, Melissa “War Witch” Bianco and Jesse “Ghost Falcon” Caceres will also let you in on some of the pranks that have punctuated life in the City of Heroes team!

But read on for the last chapter of our tryptique!

What are some of the things you love the most about Paragon Studios?

Matt “Positron” Miller, Lead Systems Designer

“I love the fact that everyone who is working on the game loves the game with a passion. I’d love to say it’s all the after-hours gaming that goes on here, but the fact is, everyone seems to be working on making City of Heroes better in those after hours instead.”

Melissa “War Witch” Bianco, Lead Designer

“ The people – I don’t care how ‘perfect’ your job may seem, if you can’t get along with the people you work with, it’s wasted. I have such joy working with these people, they’re funny and smart and passionate and creative. “
“I go to work and I get to have posters and pictures and SWAG hanging around all over my cube and no one gets mad!”
“I love that we have events like BBQs, and Bounce Houses, and Bowling, and parties – we get to hang out socially, too, not just professionally.”
“We’ve all come to know and love Stinky, the neighborhood skunk who hangs out on occasion”
“My team, they rock.”
“I don’t love the Tetris machine anymore, but that’s only because I’m really bad at it.”
“The correspondence Wall – anytime we get a post card or a letter, it goes up there – those are always really fun to read (I love that people take the time to write them!)”
“My morning walks with Television and sometimes Black Scorpion, or whomever else we can drag out at 7:15 a.m. to go to Starbucks. I’m already on my Green Reward Program, trying to catch up to Black Scorpion who already has his Gold card. Yes, I’m an achievement type girl.”

Nate “Second Measure”Birkholz, Lead Producer

“I love the atmosphere, the huge number of very humorous and dedicated people I get to work with, and getting to work on one of my favorite games of all time. I also really love the sheer number of roleplaying games and board games scattered around in people’s cubes. When I was interviewed for the job, I did it in a room absolutely full of miniatures and games, and as an inveterate gamer (I worked my way through college in a comics and games store) I felt very much at home. “

Jesse “Ghost Falcon” Caceres, Business Manager

“The past seven years has been an amazing journey for City of Heroes. I was a hardcore City of Heroes player before joining the NCsoft publishing team in 2004. There have been a lot of good times, and one of my continued challenges is to keep the “fanboy” within me in check. Most publishers and developers work on a project, publish it, and then walk away. I’ve been fortunate to have been a fan of this game, work on it with extremely talented people, and help evolve and make it continually better. It’s great to see have seen and driven on the road that brought us to this seven year point, however I’m looking at the roadmap of the things to come, and I feel we’ve outgrown the wheels and are ready to grab our capes and fly. “

Tim “Black Scorpion” Sweeney, Systems Designer

“My favorite thing at Paragon Studios has to be the all of the smart and brave people I come to work with every day. Very “Band of Brothers” on occasion.”

Joe “Hero 1” Morrisey, Senior Designer

“The team. The studio. The games we make. I’ve always believed that Paragon is more than just the title of our studio. It’s a way of life for us. We hold ourselves to a higher standard than others and it shows. We want to be the best. To make the best superhero game out there. To create the best team culture there is. To create the most rewarding experience for us as well as the players. It’s all a part of our culture and I love it.”

Vince “The Dark Watcher” D’Amelio, Principal Programmer

“Paragon Studios manages to maintain a better work/life balance than any other game company I’ve worked at. They understand that MMO development is a marathon, not a sprint and work very hard to make realistic schedules so we don’t burn out. “

John “Protean” Hegner, Lead Missions Designer.

“My coworkers. I like every single one of them. We play D&D after hours, collect Warhammer 40k and Warmachine armies, go to lunch and geek out about geek things (like geeking out about geek things). I’m friends with a great many of them and we all “get” each other, we’re all on the same wavelength. Nothing disrupts creativity more than not liking or trusting co-workers. I’ve had more than my fair share of that sort of work environment, it’s suffocating. Paragon is liberating.”

Infamous Prank, courtesy of Jesse Caceres

Sticky notes under the mouse pad

“In 2010, Melissa and Matt put sticky notes under the optical mice of all computers in the studio. When I came in, I thought something was wrong with my computer until I looked under my mouse….I didn’t think it was a joke at the time, and thought I accidentally left a sticky on my desk, until I heard that it happened to the entire studio….”

Infamous Pranks, courtesy of Melissa Bianco

The Bertie Bot Bogus Flavor Bowl

“One of the things we’ve always done at work on City of Heroes for years, is bring in food and leave it in the kitchen for everyone to share. Sometimes we bring in cookies, candies, and fruit from the trees in our back yards, etc. This is also where edible presents from Players or vendors are put.

On this particular day, I had a bunch of Bertie Bots left over (I’d eaten all the good flavors) and only the icky flavors remained. So this co-worker, who shall remain anonymous, took a bowl of the gross flavors and put them in the kitchen. A few people got nailed by some really disgusting flavors, constantly eating one after another hoping to get the bad taste out of their mouths. Unfortunately, they never got better! Barf, dirt, booger, ear wax, grass, you name it – it was there! (I kinda feel guilty, but not super a lot, since I had to clean up the Tootsie Poo.)”

The ‘WHAT Did They Eat?’ Bathroom Caper

“I don’t know what the deal is with game development and/or guys in particular, but bathroom humor was really popular in the early days. On this particular occasion, someone placed a device in the men’s bathroom (the doors were painfully thin, by the way, one cough and you could hear it down the hall) so as people went in, after a few second they’d trigger that WRETCHED NOISE. Well, you can guess what it sounded like. Again, it was the highlight of the day. Grown men giggling like girls. Honestly.”

The Shock Pen Scenario

“This one was my fault and the joke was kind of on me. When Matt ‘Positron’ Miller and I were at GDC in San Francisco a few years ago, I discovered a joke shop and picked up a shock pen. The problem is, I’m a really crummy liar, so when I’d offer up my pen for people to try I’d start giggling or making these wretchedly obvious faces so few people actually fell for the joke. And if they DID, I absolutely lost it. It was totally ridiculous and I should never play practical jokes for the same reason I should never play Poker. I give EVERYTHING away.

Oh, and a year later, that pen was still sitting in my pen case and I grabbed it (utterly forgetting it was there), went to use it, shocked myself and screamed in the middle of a work day. Yeah. Great joke.”

The Case of the Missing Cereal

“Most of our cubes come with a cupboard. My particular cupboard houses several boxes of cereal, some snacks, etc. – just in case we have a global emergency, I have food for the entire studio. So I went to grab some cereal for breakfast and pulled out the first box (I had four) and it was empty. I kind of did a mental, ‘Nice going, Mel. Can’t be bothered to throw away your cereal box?’ and then picked up the next box. I may be lazy, but I’m not THAT lazy.

Someone had poured out all of the cereal and put the box back (empty bag inside). Then I grabbed the next box. And the next. All gone. To this day, no one will fess up to it. I’ve accused both Second Measure and Positron, but neither will cop to it. Some have tossed Television in as a possible suspect, but he hasn’t admitted anything. The case remains unsolved. I had to go out and buy some more boxes of cereal.”

The YouTube Video

“This was utterly ridiculous, only because it’s been caught on tape forever and ever. I was sitting in the Art Department going over some changes to the environment of Shadow Shard (or maybe it’s Eden). I’m in the middle of a biiiiig stretch when I feel a blast of air and I turn my head. Right then, another artist uses one of those blow horns you use at a hockey game in my face and I’m caught on tape forever making this horrendously ridiculous terrified face (in slow-mo no less) for ever. And ever. I was so scared it was either pee my pants or start laughing. My family still laughs at me when they watch it.”


Join in the Community discussion now!

For the third and final part of our City of Heroes 7th Anniversary Retrospective, our developers share their favourite things about Paragon Studios! And last but not least, Melissa “War Witch” Bianco and Jesse “Ghost Falcon” Caceres will also let you in on some of the pranks that have punctuated life in the City of Heroes team!

But read on for the last chapter of our tryptique!

What are some of the things you love the most about Paragon Studios?

Matt “Positron” Miller, Lead Systems Designer

“I love the fact that everyone who is working on the game loves the game with a passion. I’d love to say it’s all the after-hours gaming that goes on here, but the fact is, everyone seems to be working on making City of Heroes better in those after hours instead.”

Melissa “War Witch” Bianco, Lead Designer

“ The people – I don’t care how ‘perfect’ your job may seem, if you can’t get along with the people you work with, it’s wasted. I have such joy working with these people, they’re funny and smart and passionate and creative. “
“I go to work and I get to have posters and pictures and SWAG hanging around all over my cube and no one gets mad!”
“I love that we have events like BBQs, and Bounce Houses, and Bowling, and parties – we get to hang out socially, too, not just professionally.”
“We’ve all come to know and love Stinky, the neighborhood skunk who hangs out on occasion”
“My team, they rock.”
“I don’t love the Tetris machine anymore, but that’s only because I’m really bad at it.”
“The correspondence Wall – anytime we get a post card or a letter, it goes up there – those are always really fun to read (I love that people take the time to write them!)”
“My morning walks with Television and sometimes Black Scorpion, or whomever else we can drag out at 7:15 a.m. to go to Starbucks. I’m already on my Green Reward Program, trying to catch up to Black Scorpion who already has his Gold card. Yes, I’m an achievement type girl.”

Nate “Second Measure”Birkholz, Lead Producer

“I love the atmosphere, the huge number of very humorous and dedicated people I get to work with, and getting to work on one of my favorite games of all time. I also really love the sheer number of roleplaying games and board games scattered around in people’s cubes. When I was interviewed for the job, I did it in a room absolutely full of miniatures and games, and as an inveterate gamer (I worked my way through college in a comics and games store) I felt very much at home. “

Jesse “Ghost Falcon” Caceres, Business Manager

“The past seven years has been an amazing journey for City of Heroes. I was a hardcore City of Heroes player before joining the NCsoft publishing team in 2004. There have been a lot of good times, and one of my continued challenges is to keep the “fanboy” within me in check. Most publishers and developers work on a project, publish it, and then walk away. I’ve been fortunate to have been a fan of this game, work on it with extremely talented people, and help evolve and make it continually better. It’s great to see have seen and driven on the road that brought us to this seven year point, however I’m looking at the roadmap of the things to come, and I feel we’ve outgrown the wheels and are ready to grab our capes and fly. “

Tim “Black Scorpion” Sweeney, Systems Designer

“My favorite thing at Paragon Studios has to be the all of the smart and brave people I come to work with every day. Very “Band of Brothers” on occasion.”

Joe “Hero 1” Morrisey, Senior Designer

“The team. The studio. The games we make. I’ve always believed that Paragon is more than just the title of our studio. It’s a way of life for us. We hold ourselves to a higher standard than others and it shows. We want to be the best. To make the best superhero game out there. To create the best team culture there is. To create the most rewarding experience for us as well as the players. It’s all a part of our culture and I love it.”

Vince “The Dark Watcher” D’Amelio, Principal Programmer

“Paragon Studios manages to maintain a better work/life balance than any other game company I’ve worked at. They understand that MMO development is a marathon, not a sprint and work very hard to make realistic schedules so we don’t burn out. “

John “Protean” Hegner, Lead Missions Designer.

“My coworkers. I like every single one of them. We play D&D after hours, collect Warhammer 40k and Warmachine armies, go to lunch and geek out about geek things (like geeking out about geek things). I’m friends with a great many of them and we all “get” each other, we’re all on the same wavelength. Nothing disrupts creativity more than not liking or trusting co-workers. I’ve had more than my fair share of that sort of work environment, it’s suffocating. Paragon is liberating.”

Infamous Prank, courtesy of Jesse Caceres

Sticky notes under the mouse pad

“In 2010, Melissa and Matt put sticky notes under the optical mice of all computers in the studio. When I came in, I thought something was wrong with my computer until I looked under my mouse….I didn’t think it was a joke at the time, and thought I accidentally left a sticky on my desk, until I heard that it happened to the entire studio….”

Infamous Pranks, courtesy of Melissa Bianco

The Bertie Bot Bogus Flavor Bowl

“One of the things we’ve always done at work on City of Heroes for years, is bring in food and leave it in the kitchen for everyone to share. Sometimes we bring in cookies, candies, and fruit from the trees in our back yards, etc. This is also where edible presents from Players or vendors are put.

On this particular day, I had a bunch of Bertie Bots left over (I’d eaten all the good flavors) and only the icky flavors remained. So this co-worker, who shall remain anonymous, took a bowl of the gross flavors and put them in the kitchen. A few people got nailed by some really disgusting flavors, constantly eating one after another hoping to get the bad taste out of their mouths. Unfortunately, they never got better! Barf, dirt, booger, ear wax, grass, you name it – it was there! (I kinda feel guilty, but not super a lot, since I had to clean up the Tootsie Poo.)”

The ‘WHAT Did They Eat?’ Bathroom Caper

“I don’t know what the deal is with game development and/or guys in particular, but bathroom humor was really popular in the early days. On this particular occasion, someone placed a device in the men’s bathroom (the doors were painfully thin, by the way, one cough and you could hear it down the hall) so as people went in, after a few second they’d trigger that WRETCHED NOISE. Well, you can guess what it sounded like. Again, it was the highlight of the day. Grown men giggling like girls. Honestly.”

The Shock Pen Scenario

“This one was my fault and the joke was kind of on me. When Matt ‘Positron’ Miller and I were at GDC in San Francisco a few years ago, I discovered a joke shop and picked up a shock pen. The problem is, I’m a really crummy liar, so when I’d offer up my pen for people to try I’d start giggling or making these wretchedly obvious faces so few people actually fell for the joke. And if they DID, I absolutely lost it. It was totally ridiculous and I should never play practical jokes for the same reason I should never play Poker. I give EVERYTHING away.

Oh, and a year later, that pen was still sitting in my pen case and I grabbed it (utterly forgetting it was there), went to use it, shocked myself and screamed in the middle of a work day. Yeah. Great joke.”

The Case of the Missing Cereal

“Most of our cubes come with a cupboard. My particular cupboard houses several boxes of cereal, some snacks, etc. – just in case we have a global emergency, I have food for the entire studio. So I went to grab some cereal for breakfast and pulled out the first box (I had four) and it was empty. I kind of did a mental, ‘Nice going, Mel. Can’t be bothered to throw away your cereal box?’ and then picked up the next box. I may be lazy, but I’m not THAT lazy.

Someone had poured out all of the cereal and put the box back (empty bag inside). Then I grabbed the next box. And the next. All gone. To this day, no one will fess up to it. I’ve accused both Second Measure and Positron, but neither will cop to it. Some have tossed Television in as a possible suspect, but he hasn’t admitted anything. The case remains unsolved. I had to go out and buy some more boxes of cereal.”

The YouTube Video

“This was utterly ridiculous, only because it’s been caught on tape forever and ever. I was sitting in the Art Department going over some changes to the environment of Shadow Shard (or maybe it’s Eden). I’m in the middle of a biiiiig stretch when I feel a blast of air and I turn my head. Right then, another artist uses one of those blow horns you use at a hockey game in my face and I’m caught on tape forever making this horrendously ridiculous terrified face (in slow-mo no less) for ever. And ever. I was so scared it was either pee my pants or start laughing. My family still laughs at me when they watch it.”

For this second part of the City of Heroes 7th Anniversary Retrospective, we'll be telling you what our developers told us about their favorite COH video, their most memorable moments at Meet & Greets and Conventions, as well as what they did on the day City of Heroes launched all those years ago!

Read on for a little walk down memory lane by the makers of your favorite super powered MMO!


What was your favorite COH video?

Matt "Positron" Miller, Lead Systems Designer

"It's a tie: The Soldiers of Arachnos video (Issue 12) and the Rikti invasion newscast (Issue 10). I wrote both of these and the final results were exactly as I had envisioned them."

Melissa "War Witch" Bianco, Lead Designer

"The "Official Trailer." I remember sitting around the lounge back at Jury Court in San Jose with the rest of the CoH team (not a big team at the time, mind you) and watching OUR game as a CG video up on the screen with professional titles, music, and SFX and everything and thinking to myself, 'This is real. This...this is amazing. This is so awesome!!!' I had goosebumps! You can't recreate a moment like that. It was my first job in the industry, my first MMO as a dev, and it was the first promo video for the game. I'll never forget it."

Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer

"The winner from our first Fan Video Competition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF5lg41L11I"

Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres

"My favorite COH Video is still the "City of Heroes Opening Cinematic Trailer". It was a call to arms for players to create their hero character in the wake of an alien invasion. When I saw it, I was hooked. I was thrilled when I got a job with NCsoft in October 2004."

Joe "Hero 1" Morrisey, Senior Designer

"Is it wrong to say the Captain Dynamic videos? I just loved the personality that those had. So much humor."

Vince "The Dark Watcher" D'Amelio, Principal Programmer

" I liked the original launch video from City of Villains. It had a good fight scene and of course Synapse being tossed around (because it became something the players laughed about...). And then the marketing vid for Invasion. It was different, using the new reel point of view, and I enjoyed the fact that I had a lot to do with that issue, particularly in the invasions themselves, so it was cool to see it get front billing in a launch video."

John "Protean" Hegner, Lead Missions Designer

"The Going Rogue launch trailer. This video hit the nail on the head for me about what Praetoria was all about. There is a scene very early on where you see Emperor Cole surrounded by cheering loyalist citizens and several of the Praetors, and he's giving a speech, and then the camera zips down underground and you see the tunnels choked full of Resistance fighters cheering and Calvin Scott is giving a speech. It set the stage for the entire rest of the video."

What are some of the most memorable moments you had at Fan Events/Conventions?

Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer

"At PAX Prime last year, Matt Miller, Melissa Bianco, Eric Johnsen, and I all had a whole lot of fun with our panel. We got to laugh a lot and we had great questions from the crowd. I don't think any individual moment from the panel stands out, the entire time was a lot of fun. At Hero Con 2009 I was brand new at the studio, and doing the live event was extremely memorable, as well. "

Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres, Business Manager

"The best PR-related event I ever attended was the City of Villains Launch party on Alcatraz in San Francisco. NCsoft invited press people from all over the world. Many of us spent weeks and days leading up to the event creating characters, setting up a local shard (Alcatraz does not have Internet access), and getting a stable build together. "

"At the end of the day, the island was closed for the exclusive use for City of Villains. One of the rooms was transformed into a demo area with a stage, and other cells/rooms were transformed into private PR meeting rooms. We had a woman dress up as Ghost Widow, and we had special lighting and fog machines set up to create an eerie atmosphere."

Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney, Systems Designer

"At HeroCon 2009 I stood around for several hours holding a hula hoop on behalf of the OCR team... that was probably the strangest moment I experienced that year."

Joe "Hero 1"Morrisey, Senior Designer

"My first Hero Con was awesome. I felt like I finally found my Super Group. I met people who actually cared about what I wrote. People who wanted to know more about the stories I was working on. It was great to take of my mask and just be a nerd with all these guys (and a few girls)."

Vince "The Dark Watcher" D'Amelio, Principal Programmer

"Going to the first M&G and not having an official Paragon name tag. They wrote one up for me, but it looked like all the attendee's name tags so no one believed that I was actually a dev."
"Attending the press launch party for City of Villains on Alcatraz. We took over the dining hall of the prison and turned it into a secret base for Arachnos. We even had a costumed version of Ghost Widow escort the press into the prison and welcome them."

John "Protean" Hegner, Lead Missions Designer

"Well, at the 2009 HeroCon I got to play Flux during the Live Mission Event. This illustrious role landed me right next to the pool on a beautiful Autumn day in California with a cold beverage in hand and Joe "Hero1" Morrissey to keep me company while I awaited the troupes of players to find me. As the refreshments were consumed the players and I started to have way too much fun performing the in-game emote "Come get some" to win gold stars. Ladies, you know who you are. Team leaders who selected the ladies to perform "Come get some", well played."
"Also at the 2009 HeroCon, on Sunday morning, I got to participate in the Praetoria Story Panel: Utopia, at a Cost. I think Bruce "Horatio" Harlick did a wonderful job as an unbiased interviewer while, Matt "Positron" Miller, Joe "Hero1" Morrissey, and myself (as well as an unsuspecting Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz), managed to stay in Loyalist character for almost the entire panel, praising the works of the illustrious Marcus Cole, questioning Bruce's dedication to the Empire, and defaming the pitiful mewling insects that called themselves "The Resistance" as if they were some Boogieman that could ever pose a threat to the mighty PPD. The audience caught on quite quickly and by the time Q&A came around the players were hailing Marcus Cole as their Emperor and Savior and doing their best to display their loyalty to the Praetorian meritocracy. It was this panel that convinced me that we had to take Praetoria and its Loyalist vs. Resistance story to 11."

What did you do on the City of Heroes launch day?

Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer

"Unfortunately, I didn't play at launch. My first day in the game was a few months after launch, and I spent it street sweeping in Brickstown with the Super Group made up of my old Tribes clan. To this day, I still spend time in Brickstown faceplanting prisoners and Freakshow whenever I want to grind out some XP in my 30s."

Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres, Business Manager

" Working on the publishing and development side of City of Heroes has prevented me from participating on "launch" days, because I was primarily focused on back-end operations or development live support. While I was not part of City of Heroes in April 2004, I was present for City of Heroes launches in Europe and Korea. I was lucky enough to be among the first group of players logging in, and while I sometimes created characters on shards that I couldn't speak the language of, it was fun to ride the waves of a CoH launch."

"With the launch of Going Rogue, I created a character, raced through the Tutorial, and parked
my character in front of Praetor Duncan in Nova Praetoria with the emote "sign" of "1", and left the character there for hours."

Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney, Systems Designer

"On launch day for COH I remember purchasing a digital copy off of the NCSoft store because my housemates who had wisely been following the game pre-launch and had pre-ordered were showing it off ... and I just had to experience it for myself. I think I hit level 14 with my Mind Control/Empathy Controller within about a day. I very distinctly remember gleefully teleporting around Perez Park, amazed that I was finally playing a game where I could teleport around like a madman."

Joe "Hero 1"Morrisey, Senior Designer

"I was working at Blizzard North at the time and we got a copy at work that I quickly 'borrowed'. I played it at home and at work for a number of hours. It was fun and my first real MMO experience. Regretfully, real life caught up with me."


Join in the Community discussion now!

For this second part of the City of Heroes 7th Anniversary Retrospective, we'll be telling you what our developers told us about their favorite COH video, their most memorable moments at Meet & Greets and Conventions, as well as what they did on the day City of Heroes launched all those years ago!

Read on for a little walk down memory lane by the makers of your favorite super powered MMO!


What was your favorite COH video?

Matt "Positron" Miller, Lead Systems Designer

"It's a tie: The Soldiers of Arachnos video (Issue 12) and the Rikti invasion newscast (Issue 10). I wrote both of these and the final results were exactly as I had envisioned them."

Melissa "War Witch" Bianco, Lead Designer

"The "Official Trailer." I remember sitting around the lounge back at Jury Court in San Jose with the rest of the CoH team (not a big team at the time, mind you) and watching OUR game as a CG video up on the screen with professional titles, music, and SFX and everything and thinking to myself, 'This is real. This...this is amazing. This is so awesome!!!' I had goosebumps! You can't recreate a moment like that. It was my first job in the industry, my first MMO as a dev, and it was the first promo video for the game. I'll never forget it."

Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer

"The winner from our first Fan Video Competition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF5lg41L11I"

Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres

"My favorite COH Video is still the "City of Heroes Opening Cinematic Trailer". It was a call to arms for players to create their hero character in the wake of an alien invasion. When I saw it, I was hooked. I was thrilled when I got a job with NCsoft in October 2004."

Joe "Hero 1" Morrisey, Senior Designer

"Is it wrong to say the Captain Dynamic videos? I just loved the personality that those had. So much humor."

Vince "The Dark Watcher" D'Amelio, Principal Programmer

" I liked the original launch video from City of Villains. It had a good fight scene and of course Synapse being tossed around (because it became something the players laughed about...). And then the marketing vid for Invasion. It was different, using the new reel point of view, and I enjoyed the fact that I had a lot to do with that issue, particularly in the invasions themselves, so it was cool to see it get front billing in a launch video."

John "Protean" Hegner, Lead Missions Designer

"The Going Rogue launch trailer. This video hit the nail on the head for me about what Praetoria was all about. There is a scene very early on where you see Emperor Cole surrounded by cheering loyalist citizens and several of the Praetors, and he's giving a speech, and then the camera zips down underground and you see the tunnels choked full of Resistance fighters cheering and Calvin Scott is giving a speech. It set the stage for the entire rest of the video."

What are some of the most memorable moments you had at Fan Events/Conventions?

Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer

"At PAX Prime last year, Matt Miller, Melissa Bianco, Eric Johnsen, and I all had a whole lot of fun with our panel. We got to laugh a lot and we had great questions from the crowd. I don't think any individual moment from the panel stands out, the entire time was a lot of fun. At Hero Con 2009 I was brand new at the studio, and doing the live event was extremely memorable, as well. "

Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres, Business Manager

"The best PR-related event I ever attended was the City of Villains Launch party on Alcatraz in San Francisco. NCsoft invited press people from all over the world. Many of us spent weeks and days leading up to the event creating characters, setting up a local shard (Alcatraz does not have Internet access), and getting a stable build together. "

"At the end of the day, the island was closed for the exclusive use for City of Villains. One of the rooms was transformed into a demo area with a stage, and other cells/rooms were transformed into private PR meeting rooms. We had a woman dress up as Ghost Widow, and we had special lighting and fog machines set up to create an eerie atmosphere."

Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney, Systems Designer

"At HeroCon 2009 I stood around for several hours holding a hula hoop on behalf of the OCR team... that was probably the strangest moment I experienced that year."

Joe "Hero 1"Morrisey, Senior Designer

"My first Hero Con was awesome. I felt like I finally found my Super Group. I met people who actually cared about what I wrote. People who wanted to know more about the stories I was working on. It was great to take of my mask and just be a nerd with all these guys (and a few girls)."

Vince "The Dark Watcher" D'Amelio, Principal Programmer

"Going to the first M&G and not having an official Paragon name tag. They wrote one up for me, but it looked like all the attendee's name tags so no one believed that I was actually a dev."
"Attending the press launch party for City of Villains on Alcatraz. We took over the dining hall of the prison and turned it into a secret base for Arachnos. We even had a costumed version of Ghost Widow escort the press into the prison and welcome them."

John "Protean" Hegner, Lead Missions Designer

"Well, at the 2009 HeroCon I got to play Flux during the Live Mission Event. This illustrious role landed me right next to the pool on a beautiful Autumn day in California with a cold beverage in hand and Joe "Hero1" Morrissey to keep me company while I awaited the troupes of players to find me. As the refreshments were consumed the players and I started to have way too much fun performing the in-game emote "Come get some" to win gold stars. Ladies, you know who you are. Team leaders who selected the ladies to perform "Come get some", well played."
"Also at the 2009 HeroCon, on Sunday morning, I got to participate in the Praetoria Story Panel: Utopia, at a Cost. I think Bruce "Horatio" Harlick did a wonderful job as an unbiased interviewer while, Matt "Positron" Miller, Joe "Hero1" Morrissey, and myself (as well as an unsuspecting Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz), managed to stay in Loyalist character for almost the entire panel, praising the works of the illustrious Marcus Cole, questioning Bruce's dedication to the Empire, and defaming the pitiful mewling insects that called themselves "The Resistance" as if they were some Boogieman that could ever pose a threat to the mighty PPD. The audience caught on quite quickly and by the time Q&A came around the players were hailing Marcus Cole as their Emperor and Savior and doing their best to display their loyalty to the Praetorian meritocracy. It was this panel that convinced me that we had to take Praetoria and its Loyalist vs. Resistance story to 11."

What did you do on the City of Heroes launch day?

Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer

"Unfortunately, I didn't play at launch. My first day in the game was a few months after launch, and I spent it street sweeping in Brickstown with the Super Group made up of my old Tribes clan. To this day, I still spend time in Brickstown faceplanting prisoners and Freakshow whenever I want to grind out some XP in my 30s."

Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres, Business Manager

" Working on the publishing and development side of City of Heroes has prevented me from participating on "launch" days, because I was primarily focused on back-end operations or development live support. While I was not part of City of Heroes in April 2004, I was present for City of Heroes launches in Europe and Korea. I was lucky enough to be among the first group of players logging in, and while I sometimes created characters on shards that I couldn't speak the language of, it was fun to ride the waves of a CoH launch."

"With the launch of Going Rogue, I created a character, raced through the Tutorial, and parked
my character in front of Praetor Duncan in Nova Praetoria with the emote "sign" of "1", and left the character there for hours."

Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney, Systems Designer

"On launch day for COH I remember purchasing a digital copy off of the NCSoft store because my housemates who had wisely been following the game pre-launch and had pre-ordered were showing it off ... and I just had to experience it for myself. I think I hit level 14 with my Mind Control/Empathy Controller within about a day. I very distinctly remember gleefully teleporting around Perez Park, amazed that I was finally playing a game where I could teleport around like a madman."

Joe "Hero 1"Morrisey, Senior Designer

"I was working at Blizzard North at the time and we got a copy at work that I quickly 'borrowed'. I played it at home and at work for a number of hours. It was fun and my first real MMO experience. Regretfully, real life caught up with me."

Hi all! We are thrilled that you are given this opportunity by our very own Tunnel Rat but we would also like to remind you not to compare or contrast with other games, however tempting it may be. It would be a lot more useful if you could elaborate on your suggestions and give us details on how you suggest they would work in City of Heroes. And don't forget to keep in mind Tunnel Rat's Guide to feasible Suggesions at all times!

Thank you all!

Due to a mismatch between the announced WST and the WST on live servers, we have changed the WST to include both Rule of Three and Dam Hero. Completeing either of these will provide you with the usual reward but only ONE Notice of the Furies even if you complete both!

Due to the extensive work that will be performed on the City of Heroes servers in order to enable Global Server Access, we anticipate that the City of Heroes forums will be taken offline between 10:00 a.m. PDT / 1:00 EDT / 6:00 p.m. BST / 19:00 CEST and 4:00 p.m. PDT / 7:00 p.m. EDT / 12:00 a.m. BST / 1:00 CEST in order to complete the work necessary for our official forums to work within the new Global Server Access system.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you and invite you to join us on our Paragon Studios UStream channel in order to get live information about the progress made on the forums from us at Paragon Studios!

Thank you all!

Please be aware that there will be a publish on all live servers to enable Global Server Access on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 starting at 4:00 a.m. Pacific / 7:00 a.m. Eastern / 12:00 p.m. British Time / 13:00 Central European Time for a scheduled end at 4:00 p.m. Pacific / 7:00 p.m. Eastern / 12:00 a.m. British Time / 1:00 Central European Time.

During this downtime and from 10:00 a.m. Pacific / 1:00 p.m. Eastern / 6:00 p.m. British Time / 19:00 Central European Time, please join us on UStream live with representatives of the Paragon Studios team!

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience!

Please note Global Server Access has now been reschedule dto May 10th!

Please note, Global Server Access has now been scheduled for May 10th!

Further confirmation of an imminent Praetorian invasion has been secured from our team of scientists and mages lead by Dr. Keyes.

Heroes of Paragon City, Villains of the Rogue Isles, it is time to set aside your differences and unite against a perilous threat for the common good of humanity. We can't stress enough that, should Emperor Cole and his troops succeed in subjugating our planet and its inhabitants, the foundations of our society and liberty will not only be at stake, they are likely to collapse and plunge us into an era of darkness and fear.

The times when the dimensional barriers are at their most vulnerable have now been identified. Those times are when intrusions into our dimension are most likely to happen. Be watching for announcements in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles at the following dates and times!

Please note that as a gesture of appreciation and recognition, a special account wide badge will be given out to everybody taking part in the Freedom Protection effort on Friday, May 27th!

And if we manage to get more than 2500 heroes and villains to join in our effort that day, this badge of valour will be extended to citizens of all other European and North American servers who will log in to their home server between May 28th through May 30th! For more information on this, please read Second Measure's post below!



Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. British Time
Server: Union

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Virtue

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. British Time
Server: Defiant

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Justice

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Time: 19:00 - 22:00 Central European Time
Server: Vigilance

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Liberty

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Time: 19:00 - 22:00 Central European Time
Server: Zukunft

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Champion

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Triumph

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Guardian

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Infinity

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Protector

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Victory

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Pinnacle

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Freedom



For the future of Primal Earth!

Further confirmation of an imminent Praetorian invasion has been secured from our team of scientists and mages lead by Dr. Keyes.

Heroes of Paragon City, Villains of the Rogue Isles, it is time to set aside your differences and unite against a perilous threat for the common good of humanity. We can't stress enough that, should Emperor Cole and his troops succeed in subjugating our planet and its inhabitants, the foundations of our society and liberty will not only be at stake, they are likely to collapse and plunge us into an era of darkness and fear.

The times when the dimensional barriers are at their most vulnerable have now been identified. Those times are when intrusions into our dimension are most likely to happen. Be watching for announcements in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles at the following dates and times!

Please note that as a gesture of appreciation and recognition, a special account wide badge will be given out to everybody taking part in the Freedom Protection effort on Friday, May 27th!

And if we manage to get more than 2500 heroes and villains to koin in our effort that day, this badge of valour will be extended to citizens of all other European and North American servers who will log in to their home server between May 28th through May 30th! For more information on this, please read Second Measure's post below!



Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. British Time
Server: Union

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Virtue

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. British Time
Server: Defiant

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Justice

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Time: 19:00 - 22:00 Central European Time
Server: Vigilance

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Liberty

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Time: 19:00 - 22:00 Central European Time
Server: Zukunft

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Champion

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Triumph

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Guardian

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Infinity

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Protector

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Victory

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Pinnacle

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Central Time)
Server: Freedom



For the future of Primal Earth!


Join in the Community Discussion now!

We've been sharing pretty exciting information with you about upcoming content through the previous issues of the Intrepid Informer and while this is definitely a great platform for that type of communication, we also wanted to be able to introduce you to members of the Paragon Team whom you wouldn't have heard a great deal about but who have nonetheless contributed in great lengths to making City of Heroes what it is today.

Without further ado, we have the pleasure of introducing you to Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha who has been working her magic in the game for a couple of years already by creating all sorts of striking visual effects for powers, auras, environment props and more!

Introduction
by Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha

Hello, fellow CoHers!

My name is Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha and I've been working with Paragon's VFX department for just over two years. I've had the pleasure of meeting many of you at previous Meet & Greets, and of course, hero-ing with you anonymously on the streets of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, so I'm very excited to start up a more direct line of communication with you on the forums!

For me, getting into VFX was a sort of happy accident. I'd known since high school that I wanted to pursue an artistic career, but I'd always thought it'd be as a concept artist. I enrolled in an animation and illustration BFA program and spent many sleepless nights drawing and animating. It wasn't until my final year, though, that I attempted my first FX test. And then I never looked back! I spent my senior year traditionally and digitally animating smoke columns, fires, Molotov cocktails, explosions and splashes, and fell in love with the unique challenges effects animation presents. I managed to get my first gig with a game studio up in San Francisco. A couple years later, I applied to Paragon Studios looking for an easier commute, without ever imagining how attached I'd become to the City of Heroes project. Within a couple weeks, I was a CoH addict, and have been logging on almost nightly since. It's incredibly fulfilling to work on a project I'm passionate about, and exciting to be involved with the developers and community supporting it!

We've been sharing pretty exciting information with you about upcoming content through the previous issues of the Intrepid Informer and while this is definitely a great platform for that type of communication, we also wanted to be able to introduce you to members of the Paragon Team whom you wouldn't have heard a great deal about but who have nonetheless contributed in great lengths to making City of Heroes what it is today.

Without further ado, we have the pleasure of introducing you to Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha who has been working her magic in the game for a couple of years already by creating all sorts of striking visual effects for powers, auras, environment props and more!

Introduction
by Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha

Hello, fellow CoHers!

My name is Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha and I've been working with Paragon's VFX department for just over two years. I've had the pleasure of meeting many of you at previous Meet & Greets, and of course, hero-ing with you anonymously on the streets of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, so I'm very excited to start up a more direct line of communication with you on the forums!

For me, getting into VFX was a sort of happy accident. I'd known since high school that I wanted to pursue an artistic career, but I'd always thought it'd be as a concept artist. I enrolled in an animation and illustration BFA program and spent many sleepless nights drawing and animating. It wasn't until my final year, though, that I attempted my first FX test. And then I never looked back! I spent my senior year traditionally and digitally animating smoke columns, fires, Molotov cocktails, explosions and splashes, and fell in love with the unique challenges effects animation presents. I managed to get my first gig with a game studio up in San Francisco. A couple years later, I applied to Paragon Studios looking for an easier commute, without ever imagining how attached I'd become to the City of Heroes project. Within a couple weeks, I was a CoH addict, and have been logging on almost nightly since. It's incredibly fulfilling to work on a project I'm passionate about, and exciting to be involved with the developers and community supporting it!

As a continuation of the City of Heroes' 7th Anniversary initiatives, a few of our developpers wanted to share a few things with our community.

Here is the fist part of the triptyque, prefaced by Brian Clayton, Paragon Studios General Manager and Executive Producer:

As a continuation of the City of Heroes' 7th Anniversary initiatives, a few of our developpers wanted to share a few things with our community.

Here is the first part of the triptyque, prefaced by Brian Clayton, Paragon Studios General Manager and Executive Producer:

Good to hear! We're already hearing a few people getting a better connection to our forums, hopefully this'll be it!

Patch notes for build 2010.201105021815.1.

COMBINED

• Resolved a database issue which could cause a server crash under certain circumstances
• Resolved a crash which could lead to an abrupt exit to the start of Incarnate Trials.

League

• Removed the filtering of league-wide buffs from Patch 1 which was causing additional server processing.
• An optimized filter of league buffs will be addressed in a future patch.

Updated with information on renaming Trial Account Global Handles and Account Reactivation!

Last week we announced that our next Reactivation week would be starting on May 3. Unfortunately we are no longer able to proceed with it this week and instead will be delaying it by a week.

Here are the new dates and times:

Starts: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (9:00 p.m. Eastern Time / 2:00 a.m. British Time / 3:00 Central European Time)
Ends: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (2:59 a.m. Eastern Time / 7:59 a.m. British Time / 8:59 Central European Time)

During that week, all inactive accounts in good standing will once again be given access to City of Heroes and its many dangers and thrills!

With all the recent additions made to the City of Heroes universe, there's never been a better time to log in to your City of Heroes account!

We hope to see many of you back into your spandex suit or nefarious attire!

Join in the Community discussion now!

Last week we announced that our next Reactivation week would be starting on May 3. Unfortunately we are no longer able to proceed with it this week and instead will be delaying it by a week.

Here are the new dates and times:

Starts: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (9:00 p.m. Eastern Time / 2:00 a.m. British Time / 3:00 Central European Time)
Ends: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (2:59 a.m. Eastern Time / 7:59 a.m. British Time / 8:59 Central European Time)

During that week, all inactive accounts in good standing will once again be given access to City of Heroes and its many dangers and thrills!

With all the recent additions made to the City of Heroes universe, there's never been a better time to log in to your City of Heroes account!

We hope to see many of you back into your spandex suit or nefarious attire!