City of Heroes Sunset

Though I played a little bit of COH Freedom, we didn't have the time, nor did we want to commit further resources to bringing back our old and loved toons. It was only today that I came across the "Sunset" notice. No, it wasn't the title of the upcoming Issue, it was the complete closure of the game that has been ongoing since 2004.

And this was just two days after my wife and I were discussing our favourite moments and characters in the game over dinner. The designated closing day will be on 30th November 2012.

Farewell forever, City of Heroes and Villains; the first and best superhero MMO. You were instrumental in our courtship, and provided a place for us to spend time together, beating up baddies, and an outlet for our creativity and humour. Farewell to all the online personalities that we (@Jay Kay and @Tragos) have met over the years, most notably @Flautist, and all the rest of you who coo-ed and ooh-ed and ahh-ed when Hemingway did his backflips and macho dog poses.

The following is a list of all our toons (that we can remember):

Biff Ballistic
Hemingway
Divine Poochie
Divine Gatsby
Adolph & Bardolph
Jay Kay
Bone Horror
Chaucer
Tragos & Meddlekins
Nin Yamazaru & all the scrapper Yamazaru spin-offs
Drizzt spin-off (became Yamazaru Genjiroh) & Guenhwyvar
Hardo Gey
Moostapha
Bronte
Schrodinger Paradox & Cain Noctem
Il Picolo Mostro & Deus-Ex Machina
Evilcrombie & F'etch
Pooch Cassidy & the Sundance Pup
Abraxas Blue
Drakenstein & Drake Grayscale
Sky Small Fly Boy & Girl
Lone Highwayman
Scarlet Macaw & Burning Bantam
Roborovski MK-II
Donnie Rocco
Gallop the Nightmare
J'erky & H'ide
Red Branky
Ash Lad
Miyamech DB Custom
Uesugi Kagetora & Shin Kabuki
Invisible Ink Man
Pan Nick & Pan Demonium
AggroD'ziac
Angus McBull
 Molten Mephit Mage
Rubberducky/ Duckee & Munkee & Dual Banana Scrapper
Penguin Platoon
Tama Tanuki
Warumono
Chee Cheong Fan & Lady Har Kow
Sir|oin
Power-Up Pal
Gundam Sandrock
FF-inspired: Cloud Striga, Loz, Wind Strife, Sephy-roth
Lady Kabuki
Helvindar
Free Range Rabbit, Debonair Hare & Bunninator Mk-II
Regal Eagle
Bishamonten
Vege'mite
Lord Leonids
K9-Brutesmasher
Inugami
Cap'n Shivermetimber
Tora Sunstalker
Yamazaru Inuii
Sukiyaki Wagyu
Texas T-Bone
Operative K9-42
Bad Samaritan
Haldor Giliatharuin
Bolero Bull
Lightning Lamb
Kappa King
Snow Pupsicle
Sizzling Striploin
Varsity Lion
Asashoryu
Lord Boombubble
Royal Bay

Going Rogue In-Depth, by MMORPG.COM

Here's an interview with Melissa Bianco, lead designer of Going Rogue, by MMORPG.COM.
It seems there's been a change to the gameplay of this 6-year old game, as well as a new updated graphics engine (only Praetoria so far?).

Read more here.

Issue 16: Power Spectrum announced!

Click here to read. Of note would be the section "Power Customization" that includes power proliferation and.. alternate animations for Super Strength and Martial Arts!!

City of Heroes Dev team becomes "Paragon Studios"

NCsoft has officially renamed its NCsoft NorCal studio, developer of the superhero MMO City of Heroes, to Paragon Studios. We salute this decision, because any developer working on a superhero game day-in and day-out deserves a decently cool-sounding name. The studio's new moniker comes from the game's setting itself: Paragon City -- ergo Paragon Studios.

The name change is also an indication of NCsoft's intention to keep building the CoH universe for a good long while. It "represents our devotion to the present and future of the City of Heroes series," general manager Brian Clayton told Gamasutra. Good news for MMO fans, better news for us; NCsoft didn't yoink our own, inevitable superhero MMO studio's name, "Guys in Capes."


From Joystiq

Differences between Tanks, Brutes & Scrappers

Quoted from DLancer from the forums, boards.CityofHeroes.com:

When eying a large and dangerous mob...

...A Tanker says, "Stay here while I distract them with my rock hard (granite) body."

...A Brute says, "Stay here while I let them kill me so I can kill them faster!"

...A Scrapper says, "Stay here while I.....ya know what, screw it---CHARGE!11!!1!!11!!1!!"

How to Scalp the market

Issue 13-14 announcement

The long-awaited Issue 13 Architect has been re-named "Power & Responsibility" with the oft-talked about "Architect" feature being postponed to Issue 14 instead to allow more time for development.


Three new features of I13 that caught my eye:

1) the ability to have TWO builds available for any character. This gives the flexibility of say having a toon built for PVP AND PVE, and not just one or the other. Implications - market prices are going to skyrocket, unless they increase the frequency of drops. Will build 1's enhancements be reusable in build 2's? Where do the "spare" enh go?

2) PVP vs PVE powers. From this letter by Positron, it reveals that they're taking a different approach to power-balancing in PVP and PVE. I suppose because of point (1) above, they can now have separate stats for PVP/PVE. Implications - NO MORE NERFING!! YAY!

3) Leveling Pact - This allows two toons to synchronise XP such that they always level together. I suppose this would mean 1 of the toons will get reduced XP if he's playing alone more and the other benefits. hmm..

Edit: it seems I was right -

Here is the gist of how this works, when players enter the leveling pact (level 5 and below) their experience is all flattened to whoever was the lowest. Any incoming experience to any member is effectively split by the member count of the pact (which we are limiting to 2 initially). From that point foward, all members will have the exact same experience and always be the exact same level. If player A logs out and lets player B do all the work, it will take player B twice as long.

And of course more content for my favourite new zone - Cimmerora.