Issue 17: Dark Mirror - April

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...-Overhaul.html

NCsoft has announced today that players can look forward to Issue 17, which has been titled "Dark Mirror," this April! Most players expected to find the new graphical updates featured in Going Rogue with the release of the upcoming expansion, however, it appears that the previously announced "Ultra Mode" will make it in with Issue 17!

Ultra Mode is an optional enhancement mode, enabling players that have the hardware to take advantage of the new bells and whistles to do so, without disturbing the game for those still running City of Heroes on their toasters. The mode will enhance the game with a "a new look and feel with a heightened level of detail in lighting, reflections, shadows and water effects."

Issue 17 will also introduce a "new and nefarious foe" that will be able to match players "blow for blow." Given the Issue's title, I'm guessing it will be your doppelganger, but for now Paragon Studios isn't saying anything more than that.

A short rundown of the issues other features is available below:

* New badges, new missions and new player emotes
* Epic Archetypes now available at level 20
* Improvements and additions to Mission Architect
* Enhancements to UI and game systems
* And dozens more

Was all that not exciting enough? How about the fact that beginning on March 2nd, those who pre-order Going Rogue will receive early access to the expansion's two new powersets, Dual Pistols, and Demon Summoning in April?!

The Going Rogue "Complete Edition" has also been announced, featuring both City of Heroes & City of Villains, 30 days of game time, and the "Complete Collection Item Pack," which contains Alpha and Omega costume sets and auras, four stance emotes, and The Shadowy Presence invisibility power.

The Going Rogue beta will begin this Spring, with the expansion's full release expected in July.

A small batch of new screenshots of Issue 17's Ultra Mode are available in our City of Heroes gallery.

Didn't see this coming (before the whole Aeon/TV thing, anyway).

So... the new content is you fight yourself? Or is it a full blown Nemesis system?

New Issue in April is a Good Thing™, though. Makes me wonder what's left for GR beside Praetoria and the new lvl 1 -20 content.

I'm preordering. I want my pistols, dammit!

Little bit that was said about UG:

Ultra Graphics Mode
Ultra Graphics Mode is a new, OPTIONAL mode that allows you to turn on a whole host of new, awesome graphical improvements. Some of these are:

* Reflections:
o Real time, environmental reflections on all shiny surfaces including glass, metal, water.
o This includes shiny elements on a character costume, such as a goggles and armor.
o Reflections warp to the shape of the reflective surface. Glass windows will have imperfections which give realistic image distortions.
* Shadows:
o Real time dynamic shadows that change with the time of day.
o Real time realistic shadows of everything in the environment, including all toons and critter that show a true projection of their shapes.
o Ambient Occlusion: Shadows are not one shade value -- they dynamically get lighter and fuzzier near light sources and they get darker in deeper corners and holes. Objects in the shadows get darker and harder to see.
* Water:
o Angle-sensitive reflection and transparency: When viewed from on oblique angle, water surfaces are reflective; when viewed from above, the reflectivity diminishes and one can see into the water (at least at shallow depths).
o Shadows: Distorted shadows are cast onto the surface of the water and onto the floor of a water basin (at least at shallow depths).

And some other info:

* Minimum specs will remain relatively the same
* Preatoria was build with Ultra Mode in mind, but it is not required to play in Praetoria
* Will be available throughout the rest of the CoH universe as well
* It will all work on ATI cards, infact, the demo at Hero Con was run on an ATI card
* Nvidia 3D vision is coming...soon™ (Apparently the Nvidia rep said March?)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze I hate to be the bringer of bad news... but Willpower sucks!!! you're better off rolling a regen

And Dual Pistol Closed Beta starts today for you Loyalty Program participants.

*joygasm*

this is....this is....this is....TOTALLY WICKED

wheres your DHOOM now MG?

Y'know, I'm generally not one to preorder things (in fact, some of my non-CoH friends always tease me how I always level behind them due to getting games/expansions after the fact), but this is one I certainly will. Not only is it pretty much a guarantee that I'll buy GR anyways, those are some nice preorder perks.

Also, I17 sounds like it could be pretty sweet.
...
I can't help but want more info for GR and I17 now...

Or GR will so packed with Awesome that our heads will explode!!!

awesome+awesome=MOST AWESOMER

Hmmm. I wonder if player powers/auras will cause shadows, as well as flashlight and torch emotes?

As the Mayor of Doomopolis, I feel that I must issue a statment regarding the latest developments.

Based on the press release, it seems like GR has been semi-gutted. Why? Perhaps I am mis-remembering, but I thought that the Devs stated you could run a toon up in Praetoria? Not just a 1-20 sprint, then pick a side. I guess I was under the impression that this would be a new world as opposed to a co-op zone similar to Cimerora or RWZ.

Not that I think fragmenting the player base even more would be a great idea. It just seems like GR is turning into a buffed up costume pack.

If it is a co-op zone where toons from both sides can go and team from 1-50, that would be a reasonable compromise. Assuming that there is content available to support a 1-50 run.

I'm probably not, as my account had to lapse a bit during that loyalty program thing. You know, for like two weeks. Never mind that I was in for about 10 months straight before that, or seven months after. *rolls eyes* Whatevah.

It'll just keep Dual Pistols shinier for me, I'm sure. I hate having to redo things.

And Flux, all we knew for sure was that with GR, you could side switch, get two new powersets, and run 1-20 in Praetoria before we had to make a choice of some sort that sent us to either Paragon or the Rogue Isles. We haven't known anything else since Herocon, and still know diddly squat.

I am a little unsure of how this all affects GR, though... if I17 isn't until April, that's the same time they were going to be doing beta for GR, supposedly. Not sure that that bodes well. I'm giving the benefit of the doubt that it will have a lot of stuff we don't know about, as that fits our developers MO pretty well. Still wondering how it all is going to work, though.

*added*

War Witch has stated that I17 will not have a nemesis system, so I'm not sure what the system will be that the article mentioned. Wonder if that means a nemesis system is in the works? For GR, perhaps? See, I can wildly predict things to counteract doom and gloom! Heh.

Nice!

Goes and grabs the name Wild West off the Victory vacant names list in preperation of Dual Pistols awesomeness.

I've been sitting on a name for 5+ years waiting for this set.

Rhinestone will be born again soon.

I do hope that they are going to give us a decent feature list before they start giving us pre-order options. The fanboy in me would love to just pre-order, sight unseen, but I like to see what I'm getting.

Especially for the "extras" pre-order. I like most of the costume sets they come out with, but there are some I can live without, and I'd rather another month of playtime than paying extra for costumes, etc. that I'm never going to use (hence my not buying the Science set, for instance).