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In our second ViDoc, the development team behind City of Heroes Going Rogue™ reveals the secrets behind the Going Rogue system. Now you can craft the story of your own character through moral choices that finally allow your Hero or Villain to shape his or her ultimate destiny!

Join in the community discussion here.

In our second ViDoc, the development team behind City of Heroes Going Rogue™ reveals the secrets behind the Going Rogue system. Now you can craft the story of your own character through moral choices that finally allow your Hero or Villain to shape his or her ultimate destiny!

Find Zebidiah the Zombie hunter either in Dark Astoria or St. Martial tomorrow, Thursday, July 1st at 4PM Pacific (7PM Eastern) and help him find the love of his life before she succumbs to her captors.

This is not for the faint of heart so be sure to bring along your anti-Zombie equipment / abilities and team up with high level heroes or villains if you want to stand a chance!

Find Zebidiah the Zombie hunter either in Dark Astoria or St. Martial tomorrow, Thursday, July 1st at 3PM Pacific (6PM Eastern) and help him find the love of his life before she succumbs to her captors.

This is not for the faint of heart so be sure to bring along your anti-Zombie equipment / abilities and team up with high level heroes or villains if you want to stand a chance!

WW = War Witch
BS = Black Scorpion
C! = Castle
DN = David Nakayama
GF = Ghost Falcon

Super Booster V: Mutant

Q1 “What is your favorite feature in the Mutant Pack?”

WW: The glow on the Bioluminescent costume set. I like sparkly things. Especially sparkly things that glow at night.
BS: I'm not sure how I got through the day before I had the rapid boil costume change.
DN: The new glowy tech's a lot of fun, but I'm really partial to the emotes our Animation Department cooked up for this set--definitely some of the coolest we've ever done.
GF: I love the costume change emotes because they allow my character to switch costumes thematically with my character's "concept".

Q2 “What was your inspiration for the Mutant Pack?”

DN: For the Bioluminescent costume set, it was a mix of actual self-lighting creatures from nature and two James Cameron movies: The Abyss (organic shapes) and Avatar (war paint/tribal markings). Organic Armor is primarily an homage to the work of Japanese illustrator Yasushi Nirasawa, but it reflects some of his disciples' creations as well.

Q3 “Now, we know what the effects of the power are and believe it or not I'm kinda stoked about the random chance to turn into a monkey. All I can say is emmm vengeance bait . My question is with this ability, on average how likely are you to get the Rikti Monkey ability?”

C!: Except for the Devolution Effect (which is what turns you into a Monkey), all the effects have an equal chance. Devolution is extremely rare, however -- one of our players posted they had cast it 70 times without the effect happening. And, if it DOES happen, don't worry, it only lasts a minute and instantly recharges Secondary Mutation so you can try again.

Alignments

Q4 How many times can we change alignments? How long does it take?”

GF: There are no limits to the amount of times that a player's character switches alignments. Regarding how long it takes to change an alignment, we are currently monitoring feedback and alignment switching progression in our Going Rogue Closed Beta. Our current goal is that a "casual" gamer should be able to switch their alignment in a week or so. A "hardcore" gamer should be able to switch their alignment significantly faster.

Q5 “What exactly is the reward for Heroes not switching to the Rogue Isles and Villains not switching to Paragon City?”

GF: We will be providing Heroes and Villains benefits for reinforcing their respective alignments. Those benefits will not be available to Vigilantes and Rogues. As we get closer to launch, more details about these rewards will be revealed.

Q6 “How will SG’s function when you switch to a Vigilante or Rogue?”

GF: Characters who are Vigilantes or Rogues will continue to enjoy the same access as their previous alignment (i.e. Vigilantes/Heroes and Rogues/Villains). Once a character moves from Hero to Vigilante to Villain (and Villain to Rogue to Hero), the character will not be able to enter their base.

Q7 “When a character changes his alignment, will he/she be able to use that alignments epic pool powers? such as a Stalker that goes Rogue/Hero can use Scrapper’s Ancillary power sets or a Defender that goes Vigilante/Villain and can earn the Patron power sets?”

WW: All characters will have access to the ancillary power pools for their AT. For ATs without ancillary power pools before I18 the powers are not exactly the same as the existing AT pools, but are very similar. Patron pools require running a patron arc to gain access to them, but once that’s been done once you always have access to the patron pools, even if you go to hero.

Q8 “What is your favorite feature of the Alignment System?”

BS: All of the alignment missions are structured based upon a single event, but the missions you can take go in completely different directions based upon which path you decide. The aspect of choice is something really new to the game, and I'm excited for where we can take it.

Praetoria and New Content

Q9 “What is the most exciting thing you never expected to be able to get into the Going Rogue expansion pack that you were able to include and what excites you about it?”

WW: The degree to which the world of Praetoria came together. Months and months ago, when Hero 1 and I were talking about what Praetoria would be like at the most highest of levels, I sketched out this (admittedly amateurish) drawing on paper. I had a rough idea of how it would all fit together. Joe came up with the “utopia at a cost” line and we went from there, building depth from existing lore and introducing new lore. It was fun standing in front of the whiteboard scoping it all out. And it evolved.

The Art Department was already hard at work creating concept art for the landscape, the characters, and the villain groups and had already started on the essential building blocks of the landscape elements. Chris Hockabout, one of my World Designers, fleshed out my sketch in a more detailed way with more specifics and added flavor and scope. John Hegner (Protean), took Joe’s idea and began the long process of coming up with the stories of Praetoria and further defined the shades of grey of that universe. Even Code, under Matt Stults (Television), was hard at work with Art to incorporate the Ultra Mode technology that would eventually make Praetoria dazzling.

Fast-forward to now, and you have Praetoria with its rich story, lush landscape, and fascinating characters. I’ve populated zones before, I’ve even remade a few existing ones, but this is my first time building something from the ground up and, I have to admit, Praetoria is something special. The Art Team, Code, and Design teams came together to build something amazing. It went above and beyond what I had imagined Praetoria would be in my head and it blows my mind, every time I load the game.

DN: At one point, it was decided to cut a few characters out of the game, and some of them were personal favorites of mine not just because I'd worked on the concept art, but also because I'd become pretty invested in the characters' stories. The Design team had written some really compelling material around these guys, and that made it particularly hard to scrap them. In the end though, we managed to pull two of them back from the brink, and they're now officially awaiting players in GOING ROGUE. Really glad to have them back.

C!: Wow, so many things. Getting Kinetic Melee and Electrical Control in, however makes me the happiest. For a long time, it looked like we weren't going to get them due to time constraints, but we managed to get them in. I think both sets are great.

GF: One of the things that I didn't expect to come around was the Market Merge. It's been a topic that has been discussed many times at Paragon Studios, and I'm very excited that we're rolling this out at a time when it makes sense.

Q10 "If you(the real you) had a Praetorian double, what do you imagine they would be like?"

WW: Sly, smart, gorgeous, and probably working as an independent agent somewhere in Imperial City because that’s where the action is. It’s debatable as to whose side I’d be on, but only because my Praetorian double would like to keep her options open.

BS: Probably a legislator. Someone who spends all their time trying to come up with the best laws to help make Praetoria better, safer, more prosperous.

DN: If I already have facial hair…does that mean my double is clean-shaven?

C!: Praetorian Me likely got blown up or something during the Hamidon Wars.

Q11 “What Costume Sets will we get in Going Rogue?”

DN: Quite a few: Resistance, Antimatter Clockwork, Praetoria Police and Sport for starters.

Q12 “Since the world outside of Praetoria is decimated, what does that world look like and will we ever visit that area?”

WW: There has been fighting, yes, but the Devouring Earth has also played a large hand in taking over. If there is one thing the Devouring Earth does well (and this seems to transcend universes), it’s to return Earth (Primal or Praetorian) to its natural state. So even though Emperor Cole has created a pristine safe zone, there are still parts of Praetoria that are war-torn, but also parts that have been reclaimed by the Devouring Earth (and everything in between). Praetoria is vast and the desire to rebuild is innate. There is no limit to where we can take it.

Q13 “Can you give us any comparison as to how big Praetoria is compared to what we already have with City of Heroes/Villains?”

WW: Nova Praetoria is about one and a half times larger than Atlas Park. I think Praetoria appears larger because there are no war walls to "close it in". The way we've seamlessly tied the visuals from one zone to another also gives Praetoria a really large scope. And that’s just the zones you’ve seen so far.

Q14 “About how many missions or arcs are there in GR (not counting auto-generated "tips" type missions)? On one hand it's been said there will be content for levels 1-20, which points to very few missions, and then in a recent interview War Witch said there were "hundreds" of new missions. Can you please reconcile these statements?”

WW: I think you're thinking of traditional CoH content where you take a few missions in a zone and then you're moved off to the next. Praetoria is very heavy with mission content so when we say hundreds of missions, we're being accurate. The 1 - 20 content is more thick with mission content than anything we've ever done before in City of Heroes or City of Villains and that's not including the alignment missions in Primal earth. So hundreds is still accurate.

Powers

Q15 “What sort of damage types will Kinetic Melee provide? Can we look forward to a Smashing/Energy mix or will it be another all Smashing set?”

C!: It's a mixed damage set -- The powers are all Smashing/Energy.

Q16 “In the teaser video it showed Kinetic Melee having a siphon power of some sort. Can you elaborate on the function of that siphon and what effects it'll have on the performance of the set as a whole?”

C!: Siphon Power for Kinetic Melee is an "enabler" power. What this means is that, while active, your powers have an additional effect. Say you use Quick Strike on a target, it does damage, reduces their damage strength and might knock them down. If Power Siphon were active, it would also increase your attack strength for the next several seconds. The attack strength effect can stack up to 5 times, so it can get to be pretty strong.

Q17 “Could you tell us a little more about Electric Control? I'm especially curious about the top tier power, is it another petless set? If not, could you tell us what the pet is? How is it different from the other control power sets?”

C!: Electric Control has a few very interesting power. Jolting Chains, is a Knockdown power that can go through a spawn and knock them all down, one after another. It's pretty amazing to watch. Static Field is a placeable Sleep power. Now, I know what most players think of Sleep effects, but our closed Beta testers really seem to like it, with comments like "This is the first Sleep power I consider worth it." The Tier 9 is Gremlins -- little electrical guys who toss out bolts of lightning.

Q18 “How much work does it go into developing a new power set?”

WW: The power set has to be something that can "fit" all of our environments and animations. We take many suggestions from players and always factor those suggestions into our "inspiration sessions", so a bit of time goes into inspiration and reality check. From there, the power set needs to be designed, from the ground up. Progression, function, descriptions, benefits, which archetype(s) it applies to, etc. The Powers Designer frameworks it and tests it internally. From there, Art and Design work together to flesh out the icons, animations, UI, and FX, and then the Sound team jumps in with SFX work. Then the real testing begins to ensure that the power set functions appropriately, is fun and balanced.

Incarnate System

Q19 “What is the lore of the Incarnate System, meaning is it tied to the Well of the Furies like Statesman and Lord Recluse being Incarnates?

BS: The source of Incarnate power goes by the name "The Well of the Furies," but that is not its only name, and the Fountain of Zeus is not the only way to gain its attention. The truth fits within existing lore, but the concept actually goes a little deeper than previous speculation might imply. As a possible example, what if I told you that Hamidon was one of those who found another way to tap into the Well of the Furies, thus making it an Incarnate as well?

Q20 “What bonuses does the Incarnate System grant characters? Extra Powers? New Enhancements? New Origins?”

BS: You can start off as any origin and become an Incarnate. It's not something that you will choose at character creation, but an epic path that opens up once you've reached the limits of where your origin can take you.

Q21 “With the upcoming Incarnate System that will be introduced with Going Rogue, will we notice a reduced effect/value of the current invention system in comparison with the new Incarnate abilities?”

BS: The Invention system bonuses are not going to change because of the Incarnate system. As for their value, each has their part to play in the scheme of the game. Most importantly, Inventions are a part of characters throughout all levels - the Incarnate Abilities are exclusive to characters who have "peaked" from a powers perspective at level 50. There will be characters who maximize their effectiveness via Inventions and characters who maximize via Incarnate Abilities, but there will still be benefits gained by doing both.

More Questions

Q22 “What will you guys and gals do to get players who've let their account expire back INTO the game? What will some of the rewards, if any, or other enticements to get us back to play for another 6 years? “

WW: Well, I think the biggest thing is the look of Praetoria and the missions in our new starting player content. City of Heroes was cutting edge when it first came out back in 2004, but we've done some pretty incredible things since then, creatively, visually, and with our systems and mission content. We're also adding new and cool power sets, villain groups to fight, new ways to run missions, and you can change alignments so now you can either create new characters or take your existing ones to places you've never been to before. There are plenty of things to do to entice you and, if you're in any way a badge collector, well, we have tons of those, too.

Q23 “Throughout paragon city there are dozens, if not hundreds of bus stops. To us players these are mostly annoying because of how easy it is to get stuck on them while running around the city at 93 mph, but it seems like they must be just as annoying to the citizens due to the apparent lack of any actual buses that might stop at them. So my question is if there are any plans for buses to ever start running in either universe, and if not why are you putting bus stops in praetoria as well?”

WW: Bus stops are a natural prop for any urban landscape, like fire hydrants or mail boxes (which can be run into at 93 mph, too). In Praetoria, they are great for Cole-approved advertisements like Enriche or to set up an atmospheric encounter to give a zone some depth or a bit of flavor.
We have had trolley cars run through Paragon City AND Praetoria, but that was by accident and the bug was fixed.

Q24 “Previously the development team had all but stated that merging the markets was not feasible. What changed? Or rather what decision making process went into making this change, and for that matter what is the normal decision making process for a big change like this?”

WW: When Praetoria first came into discussion as a new world, I wrote a document called "What it Means to be a Praetorian" and came up with scenarios of how things would work from this perspective. Immediately, there were some problems that were tougher than others to solve. Praetoria would need one of two things: its own market or no market at all. Neither was a very palatable option. Since a market merge has been one of the most heavily requested features of our players and I had a problem to solve, we decided to take another look at it. We realized that if the market merge didn't happen now, with Going Rogue, when it was most needed, it was never going to happen. So we found the time and resources, and did it. At the end of the day, if all of your attempts to circumvent "players who try to do this" or "players who try to do that" makes the system unfun, maybe the system needs to change.

GF: Merging the markets was not a trivial decision. We made the decision early on in Beta to commit the resources to get the markets merged, and had to wait until the back-end tech was confirmed working before we could make an announcement.


Join in the Community discussion here!

WW = War Witch
BS = Black Scorpion
C! = Castle
DN = David Nakayama
GF = Ghost Falcon

Super Booster V: Mutant

Q1 “What is your favorite feature in the Mutant Pack?”

WW: The glow on the Bioluminescent costume set. I like sparkly things. Especially sparkly things that glow at night.
BS: I'm not sure how I got through the day before I had the rapid boil costume change.
DN: The new glowy tech's a lot of fun, but I'm really partial to the emotes our Animation Department cooked up for this set--definitely some of the coolest we've ever done.
GF: I love the costume change emotes because they allow my character to switch costumes thematically with my character's "concept".

Q2 “What was your inspiration for the Mutant Pack?”

DN: For the Bioluminescent costume set, it was a mix of actual self-lighting creatures from nature and two James Cameron movies: The Abyss (organic shapes) and Avatar (war paint/tribal markings). Organic Armor is primarily an homage to the work of Japanese illustrator Yasushi Nirasawa, but it reflects some of his disciples' creations as well.

Q3 “Now, we know what the effects of the power are and believe it or not I'm kinda stoked about the random chance to turn into a monkey. All I can say is emmm vengeance bait . My question is with this ability, on average how likely are you to get the Rikti Monkey ability?”

C!: Except for the Devolution Effect (which is what turns you into a Monkey), all the effects have an equal chance. Devolution is extremely rare, however -- one of our players posted they had cast it 70 times without the effect happening. And, if it DOES happen, don't worry, it only lasts a minute and instantly recharges Secondary Mutation so you can try again.

Alignments

Q4 How many times can we change alignments? How long does it take?”

GF: There are no limits to the amount of times that a player's character switches alignments. Regarding how long it takes to change an alignment, we are currently monitoring feedback and alignment switching progression in our Going Rogue Closed Beta. Our current goal is that a "casual" gamer should be able to switch their alignment in a week or so. A "hardcore" gamer should be able to switch their alignment significantly faster.

Q5 “What exactly is the reward for Heroes not switching to the Rogue Isles and Villains not switching to Paragon City?”

GF: We will be providing Heroes and Villains benefits for reinforcing their respective alignments. Those benefits will not be available to Vigilantes and Rogues. As we get closer to launch, more details about these rewards will be revealed.

Q6 “How will SG’s function when you switch to a Vigilante or Rogue?”

GF: Characters who are Vigilantes or Rogues will continue to enjoy the same access as their previous alignment (i.e. Vigilantes/Heroes and Rogues/Villains). Once a character moves from Hero to Vigilante to Villain (and Villain to Rogue to Hero), the character will not be able to enter their base.

Q7 “When a character changes his alignment, will he/she be able to use that alignments epic pool powers? such as a Stalker that goes Rogue/Hero can use Scrapper’s Ancillary power sets or a Defender that goes Vigilante/Villain and can earn the Patron power sets?”

WW: All characters will have access to the ancillary power pools for their AT. For ATs without ancillary power pools before I18 the powers are not exactly the same as the existing AT pools, but are very similar. Patron pools require running a patron arc to gain access to them, but once that’s been done once you always have access to the patron pools, even if you go to hero.

Q8 “What is your favorite feature of the Alignment System?”

BS: All of the alignment missions are structured based upon a single event, but the missions you can take go in completely different directions based upon which path you decide. The aspect of choice is something really new to the game, and I'm excited for where we can take it.

Praetoria and New Content

Q9 “What is the most exciting thing you never expected to be able to get into the Going Rogue expansion pack that you were able to include and what excites you about it?”

WW: The degree to which the world of Praetoria came together. Months and months ago, when Hero 1 and I were talking about what Praetoria would be like at the most highest of levels, I sketched out this (admittedly amateurish) drawing on paper. I had a rough idea of how it would all fit together. Joe came up with the “utopia at a cost” line and we went from there, building depth from existing lore and introducing new lore. It was fun standing in front of the whiteboard scoping it all out. And it evolved.

The Art Department was already hard at work creating concept art for the landscape, the characters, and the villain groups and had already started on the essential building blocks of the landscape elements. Chris Hockabout, one of my World Designers, fleshed out my sketch in a more detailed way with more specifics and added flavor and scope. John Hegner (Protean), took Joe’s idea and began the long process of coming up with the stories of Praetoria and further defined the shades of grey of that universe. Even Code, under Matt Stults (Television), was hard at work with Art to incorporate the Ultra Mode technology that would eventually make Praetoria dazzling.

Fast-forward to now, and you have Praetoria with its rich story, lush landscape, and fascinating characters. I’ve populated zones before, I’ve even remade a few existing ones, but this is my first time building something from the ground up and, I have to admit, Praetoria is something special. The Art Team, Code, and Design teams came together to build something amazing. It went above and beyond what I had imagined Praetoria would be in my head and it blows my mind, every time I load the game.

DN: At one point, it was decided to cut a few characters out of the game, and some of them were personal favorites of mine not just because I'd worked on the concept art, but also because I'd become pretty invested in the characters' stories. The Design team had written some really compelling material around these guys, and that made it particularly hard to scrap them. In the end though, we managed to pull two of them back from the brink, and they're now officially awaiting players in GOING ROGUE. Really glad to have them back.

C!: Wow, so many things. Getting Kinetic Melee and Electrical Control in, however makes me the happiest. For a long time, it looked like we weren't going to get them due to time constraints, but we managed to get them in. I think both sets are great.

GF: One of the things that I didn't expect to come around was the Market Merge. It's been a topic that has been discussed many times at Paragon Studios, and I'm very excited that we're rolling this out at a time when it makes sense.

Q10 "If you(the real you) had a Praetorian double, what do you imagine they would be like?"

WW: Sly, smart, gorgeous, and probably working as an independent agent somewhere in Imperial City because that’s where the action is. It’s debatable as to whose side I’d be on, but only because my Praetorian double would like to keep her options open.

BS: Probably a legislator. Someone who spends all their time trying to come up with the best laws to help make Praetoria better, safer, more prosperous.

DN: If I already have facial hair…does that mean my double is clean-shaven?

C!: Praetorian Me likely got blown up or something during the Hamidon Wars.

Q11 “What Costume Sets will we get in Going Rogue?”

DN: Quite a few: Resistance, Antimatter Clockwork, Praetoria Police and Sport for starters.

Q12 “Since the world outside of Praetoria is decimated, what does that world look like and will we ever visit that area?”

WW: There has been fighting, yes, but the Devouring Earth has also played a large hand in taking over. If there is one thing the Devouring Earth does well (and this seems to transcend universes), it’s to return Earth (Primal or Praetorian) to its natural state. So even though Emperor Cole has created a pristine safe zone, there are still parts of Praetoria that are war-torn, but also parts that have been reclaimed by the Devouring Earth (and everything in between). Praetoria is vast and the desire to rebuild is innate. There is no limit to where we can take it.

Q13 “Can you give us any comparison as to how big Praetoria is compared to what we already have with City of Heroes/Villains?”

WW: Nova Praetoria is about one and a half times larger than Atlas Park. I think Praetoria appears larger because there are no war walls to "close it in". The way we've seamlessly tied the visuals from one zone to another also gives Praetoria a really large scope. And that’s just the zones you’ve seen so far.

Q14 “About how many missions or arcs are there in GR (not counting auto-generated "tips" type missions)? On one hand it's been said there will be content for levels 1-20, which points to very few missions, and then in a recent interview War Witch said there were "hundreds" of new missions. Can you please reconcile these statements?”

WW: I think you're thinking of traditional CoH content where you take a few missions in a zone and then you're moved off to the next. Praetoria is very heavy with mission content so when we say hundreds of missions, we're being accurate. The 1 - 20 content is more thick with mission content than anything we've ever done before in City of Heroes or City of Villains and that's not including the alignment missions in Primal earth. So hundreds is still accurate.

Powers

Q15 “What sort of damage types will Kinetic Melee provide? Can we look forward to a Smashing/Energy mix or will it be another all Smashing set?”

C!: It's a mixed damage set -- The powers are all Smashing/Energy.

Q16 “In the teaser video it showed Kinetic Melee having a siphon power of some sort. Can you elaborate on the function of that siphon and what effects it'll have on the performance of the set as a whole?”

C!: Siphon Power for Kinetic Melee is an "enabler" power. What this means is that, while active, your powers have an additional effect. Say you use Quick Strike on a target, it does damage, reduces their damage strength and might knock them down. If Power Siphon were active, it would also increase your attack strength for the next several seconds. The attack strength effect can stack up to 5 times, so it can get to be pretty strong.

Q17 “Could you tell us a little more about Electric Control? I'm especially curious about the top tier power, is it another petless set? If not, could you tell us what the pet is? How is it different from the other control power sets?”

C!: Electric Control has a few very interesting power. Jolting Chains, is a Knockdown power that can go through a spawn and knock them all down, one after another. It's pretty amazing to watch. Static Field is a placeable Sleep power. Now, I know what most players think of Sleep effects, but our closed Beta testers really seem to like it, with comments like "This is the first Sleep power I consider worth it." The Tier 9 is Gremlins -- little electrical guys who toss out bolts of lightning.

Q18 “How much work does it go into developing a new power set?”

WW: The power set has to be something that can "fit" all of our environments and animations. We take many suggestions from players and always factor those suggestions into our "inspiration sessions", so a bit of time goes into inspiration and reality check. From there, the power set needs to be designed, from the ground up. Progression, function, descriptions, benefits, which archetype(s) it applies to, etc. The Powers Designer frameworks it and tests it internally. From there, Art and Design work together to flesh out the icons, animations, UI, and FX, and then the Sound team jumps in with SFX work. Then the real testing begins to ensure that the power set functions appropriately, is fun and balanced.

Incarnate System

Q19 “What is the lore of the Incarnate System, meaning is it tied to the Well of the Furies like Statesman and Lord Recluse being Incarnates?

BS: The source of Incarnate power goes by the name "The Well of the Furies," but that is not its only name, and the Fountain of Zeus is not the only way to gain its attention. The truth fits within existing lore, but the concept actually goes a little deeper than previous speculation might imply. As a possible example, what if I told you that Hamidon was one of those who found another way to tap into the Well of the Furies, thus making it an Incarnate as well?

Q20 “What bonuses does the Incarnate System grant characters? Extra Powers? New Enhancements? New Origins?”

BS: You can start off as any origin and become an Incarnate. It's not something that you will choose at character creation, but an epic path that opens up once you've reached the limits of where your origin can take you.

Q21 “With the upcoming Incarnate System that will be introduced with Going Rogue, will we notice a reduced effect/value of the current invention system in comparison with the new Incarnate abilities?”

BS: The Invention system bonuses are not going to change because of the Incarnate system. As for their value, each has their part to play in the scheme of the game. Most importantly, Inventions are a part of characters throughout all levels - the Incarnate Abilities are exclusive to characters who have "peaked" from a powers perspective at level 50. There will be characters who maximize their effectiveness via Inventions and characters who maximize via Incarnate Abilities, but there will still be benefits gained by doing both.

More Questions

Q22 “What will you guys and gals do to get players who've let their account expire back INTO the game? What will some of the rewards, if any, or other enticements to get us back to play for another 6 years? “

WW: Well, I think the biggest thing is the look of Praetoria and the missions in our new starting player content. City of Heroes was cutting edge when it first came out back in 2004, but we've done some pretty incredible things since then, creatively, visually, and with our systems and mission content. We're also adding new and cool power sets, villain groups to fight, new ways to run missions, and you can change alignments so now you can either create new characters or take your existing ones to places you've never been to before. There are plenty of things to do to entice you and, if you're in any way a badge collector, well, we have tons of those, too.

Q23 “Throughout paragon city there are dozens, if not hundreds of bus stops. To us players these are mostly annoying because of how easy it is to get stuck on them while running around the city at 93 mph, but it seems like they must be just as annoying to the citizens due to the apparent lack of any actual buses that might stop at them. So my question is if there are any plans for buses to ever start running in either universe, and if not why are you putting bus stops in praetoria as well?”

WW: Bus stops are a natural prop for any urban landscape, like fire hydrants or mail boxes (which can be run into at 93 mph, too). In Praetoria, they are great for Cole-approved advertisements like Enriche or to set up an atmospheric encounter to give a zone some depth or a bit of flavor.
We have had trolley cars run through Paragon City AND Praetoria, but that was by accident and the bug was fixed.

Q24 “Previously the development team had all but stated that merging the markets was not feasible. What changed? Or rather what decision making process went into making this change, and for that matter what is the normal decision making process for a big change like this?”

WW: When Praetoria first came into discussion as a new world, I wrote a document called "What it Means to be a Praetorian" and came up with scenarios of how things would work from this perspective. Immediately, there were some problems that were tougher than others to solve. Praetoria would need one of two things: its own market or no market at all. Neither was a very palatable option. Since a market merge has been one of the most heavily requested features of our players and I had a problem to solve, we decided to take another look at it. We realized that if the market merge didn't happen now, with Going Rogue, when it was most needed, it was never going to happen. So we found the time and resources, and did it. At the end of the day, if all of your attempts to circumvent "players who try to do this" or "players who try to do that" makes the system unfun, maybe the system needs to change.

GF: Merging the markets was not a trivial decision. We made the decision early on in Beta to commit the resources to get the markets merged, and had to wait until the back-end tech was confirmed working before we could make an announcement.

Patch notes for build 1800.201006040036.5Tr

COMBINED

Tasks

• The Invention Tutorials for Heroes and Villains can no longer be abandoned.

Rewards

• Destructible Longbow Doors no longer grant rewards when destroyed.

Global Email

• Fixed a bug that would cause attachments to be lost if an email was accidentally sent to an invalid name longer than 21 characters.

CITY OF HEROES

• None.

CITY OF VILLAINS

• None.

The NORTH AMERICAN & EUROPEAN LIVE SERVERS will be offline for a publish on TUESDAY, 29TH JUNE 2010.

START TIME: 4AM Pacific Time (7AM Eastern Time / 12PM British Time / 13:00 central European Time)
EXPECTED DURATION: 2 hours
EXPECTED FINISH TIME: 6AM Pacific Time (9AM Eastern Time / 2PM British Time / 15:00 Central European Time)

Patch notes will be available after this downtime.

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

I believe we have a winner, well done Kheldarn! Let me know what code you'd like to get. In the meantime, your forum title has been set!

Praetoria - A Paradise or a Prison?

Praetoria is a utopian world ruled by Emperor Cole. Until now, we have only had brief glimpses of this other dimension. For the first time ever, learn the true history of Praetoria on the Going Rogue website!

Join in the Community discussion here!

Praetoria - A Paradise or a Prison?

Praetoria is a utopian world ruled by Emperor Cole. Until now, we have only had brief glimpses of this other dimension. For the first time ever, learn the true history of Praetoria on the Going Rogue website!

Please note there won't be a Monday forum game next week due to a company holiday. We'll be back the Monday after!

Submissions open on Mondays only from 10 AM Pacific Time (1 PM Eastern Time / 6PM GMT / 19:00 Central European Time) until 5:00 PM Pacific Time (8:00 PM Eastern Time / 1:00 AM GMT / 2:00 Central European Time) between January 11, 2010 and July 26, 2010).

Welcome to our "Search the words, save the world" forum mission!


A super computer turned evil codenamed Ebil-o is attempting to take over our most powerful nations' computer systems and exterminate us puny human beings (how original, huh?). However, every week, a short window of opportunity allows us to break into Ebil-o's matrix and reset the timer leading to our undoubtedly apocalyptic end!

How do we do that, I hear you ask? Well, we happen to have an anonymous little helper and each week, he or she snail mails us a word search puzzle containing anywhere between 10 to 15 words related to City of Heroes related theme (Ebil-o likes City of Heroes; apparently, it helps him unwind after a long day hard at work planning to get rid of humanity).

Each week a new theme will be passed along and you will need to find the exact number of words you’re being told exists within the block of letters you are given.

Your opportunity to save us all is through a word block located at the bottom of this post.

The goal is to be the first one to find the words based on the theme (without being told what they are), circle them in the word block (using Paint or an equivalent program) and then list them below it.

If you are the first one to answer with the correct words, you win and only then will we be able to input the words into Ebil-o's matrix, thus delaying our impending doom. As a token of our gratitude, we'll give you the "Ebil-o FTL [date]" forum title as well as 1 (one) costume code amongst the following ones:

• Carnival of Shadows Harlequin
• Freakshow Tank Boss
• Paragon Police Department Hardsuit
• Carnival of Shadows Ring Mistress
• Knives of Artemis Lt.
• Praetorian Clockwork

Have fun…but not too much as each week we’re counting on you to save the world!

Rules

1) Reply in the official City of Heroes® forum (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/) thread created for each weekly " Search the words, save the world Contest” with your submission.

2) Your reply must contain a number of words or names that will be defined every time this contest is run. Please refrain from posting more than the number of words indicated in every contest post. Only post the correct number of words or names, even if you notice duplicates..

3) Your reply must also contain the following statement. Please note that your submission will be disqualified if this statement is not present in your post:

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

4) To enter the contest weekly, as of January 11, 2010, you must be 13 years of age or older. If a winner is under 18 or a minor in his or her state/province/country of residence, his or her parent or guardian must also sign any applicable releases and documentation.

5) Please note, only 1 (one) entry per forum account will be accepted. If you post a second time, you'll get disqualified, so make your one entry count! Also, once you have posted your entry, do NOT edit it as any edit will disqualify you from that day's forum game.

6) Entries must conform to the Official City of Heroes Message Forum Rules and Guidelines and to the Contest Official Rules and Conditions.

7) If you win the City of Heroes® Search the words, save the world Contest one week, you are not eligible to do so again for the next 8 weeks. This is to allow other people the opportunity to win. Please be courteous to others and refrain from participating during the weeks you are not eligible to win.

If there is not a winner by the end of the day, I will post the solution.

This week's word list consists of 14 Names related to powers used by the Riktis. PLEASE NOTE: whenever the name of a power contains the terms Monkey, Rikti or Drone, I have not included those 3 words!



Monday, June 28th, 2010 - Word Block






Good luck all, and don't forget that the fate of the world is in your hands![/COLOR]

Some of you will have noticed that the Character copy tool was being a bit temperamental when attempting to copy from Triumph lately. We are aware of the issue and hope to have a fix in place by next week.

We will keep you posted! and thank you for your patience in the meantime!

Harness the powers of mutation in City of Heroes® Super Booster V: Mutant now available at the NCsoft® store. This new super booster evolves character customization to a higher order with its fantastic Organic Armor and Bioluminescent costume sets.

For the first time ever, costume pieces can also have their own unique glows! Super Booster V: Mutant also comes with three bizarre costume change emotes and the new Secondary Mutation power, which unlocks the incredible potential within your character's DNA!

After much excitement generated by the testing of Super Booster V: Mutant on the North American Training Room, our European and North American code giveaway as well as the posting of the new costume change emotes on our Facebook page, the wait is now over! So wait no more and head over to the NCsoft store now to embrace the mutant within!

Join in the Community discussion here!

Harness the powers of mutation in City of Heroes® Super Booster V: Mutant now available at the NCsoft® store. This new super booster evolves character customization to a higher order with its fantastic Organic Armor and Bioluminescent costume sets.

For the first time ever, costume pieces can also have their own unique glows! Super Booster V: Mutant also comes with three bizarre costume change emotes and the new Secondary Mutation power, which unlocks the incredible potential within your character's DNA!

After much excitement generated by the testing of Super Booster V: Mutant on the North American Training Room, our European and North American code giveaway as well as the posting of the new costume change emotes on our Facebook page, the wait is now over! So wait no more and head over to the NCsoft store now to embrace the mutant within!

Heads up! The date was changed from Friday to Monday for those of you who chose to send in their questions by mail.

13 seconds this time, I guess it took you by surprise :S

Well done all!

And by popular demand, we present you the very last North American code:

It took a whole 7 seconds this time. Congrats to the grabber!

Without further ado, here's the 9th North American code:

Razer™ will be sponsoring a City of Heroes Going Rogue Developer Q&A on Wednesday, June 30th.

Starting at 5:00pm CST on June 23rd through 11:59pm CST, June 28th, the City of Heroes Going Rogue Dev Team will be accepting questions by e-mail at rogueqa@ncsoft.com. We will be answering your Going Rogue questions.

And as if this wasn't enough, up to three lucky players will also will win a free Razer Naga™ Gaming Mouse simply by submitting a question!

For more information on the contest, visit the Razer™ City of Heroes Going Rogue™ Q+A Giveaway Official Rules and Conditions page.

Good luck to all!

Join in the Community discussion here!

Razer™ will be sponsoring a City of Heroes Going Rogue Developer Q&A on Wednesday, June 30th.

Starting at 5:00pm CST on June 23rd through 11:59pm CST, June 28th, the City of Heroes Going Rogue Dev Team will be accepting questions by e-mail at rogueqa@ncsoft.com. We will be answering your Going Rogue questions.

And as if this wasn't enough, up to three lucky players will also will win a free Razer Naga™ Gaming Mouse simply by submitting a question!

For more information on the contest, visit the Razer™ City of Heroes Going Rogue™ Q+A Giveaway Official Rules and Conditions page.

Good luck to all!

Well done! I honestly don't know how you all do it...

5th North American Mutant Pack code coming up!

Patch notes for build 1800.201006040036.4Tr

City of Heroes® Super Booster V: Mutant is now in game and will be available tomorrow for $9.99/€8.99/£5.99 on the NCsoft® store. City of Heroes® Super Booster V: Mutant allows you to harness the powers of mutation to access fantastic new costume sets, bizarre emotes, and the exclusive Secondary Mutation power. This booster pack serial code enables the booster pack features for all characters on the game account from level 1. However, the costume change emotes** listed below require unlocking at least one additional costume slot.

Mutant Theme Costume Sets

• The Mutant theme costume sets unlock all-new heads, armor, sleeves, shoulders, gloves, tails, wings, pants and boots.
  
  • Organic Armor
  • Bioluminescent
• Custom weapons:
  
  • Dual Blades.
  • Broadsword
• Both costume sets include tintable costume pieces, a new feature that allows you to create unique glows for individual costume pieces.

Secondary Mutation Power

• Tap into the incredible potential locked within your DNA. Secondary Mutation allows your character to mutate itself for amazing, unexpected results. Charge into battle with new abilities. Be careful, they may help your foes more than you. There is a chance this power can backfire and turn you into a Rikti monkey. Secondary Mutation is available every 20 minutes and is not affected by recharge buffs. Its effects include:
  • Acute senses
  • Tough hide
  • Pain tolerance
  • Quick reflexes
  • Heightened speed

Character Emotes

• Showoff (/em showoff)
• Growl /em growl

Costume Change Emotes

• Activate the following mutant-themed costume change emotes using the costume change interface, selectable from the main Menu.
  • Energy Morph
  • Rapid Boil
  • Dimensional Shift

**By default characters only have one costume slot, and must unlock additional costume slots through activities in the game. This can be accomplished by completing costume slot missions at levels 20, 30, and 40, and by using Halloween Event salvage (which can also be bought and sold via the in-game Consignment Houses).

COMBINED


Powers

General

• Arachnos Heavy Blasters will no longer immediately run out of endurance.

Tasks

• Fixed a bug in all Police Band/Broker ‘rescue’ missions, where the boss guarding the rescue NPC would be named 'BOSS_DISPLAYNAME’
• Ouroboros – Fixed a bug in Flashback missions that caused Badges to be awarded only to the mission owner.

Tailor

• Put back the Warrior lower body option from the Martial Arts pack, which had temporarily gone missing.
• Fixed a bug that made the left hand gun of female Thugs Masterminds (except the Legacy Semi-Auto) invisible.
• Fixed a bug for Male and Huge characters where the legacy tails still showed up in the Belt category if the upper body was set to Armored or Baggy.

Global Email

• Increased the time before stored emails are deleted from 30 days to 60 days. There is now a column after the date that indicates how much longer an email will be stored.
• Fixed a bug that would cause attachments to be lost if an email was accidentally sent to an invalid name longer than 21 characters .

Arenas

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from issuing commands to Gladiators.

Options

• Fixed sound FX not playing properly when in flight and on Female and Huge models for various Costume Changes associated with the Mutant Pack
• Players who have not prepurchased the Going Rogue expansion can now open The NCsoft Store Going Rogue prepurchase page at the Character Select screen at log in.

CITY OF HEROES

• None

CITY OF VILLAINS

• None

Join in the Community discussion here!