Issue 9 Live on Servers Print News At long last, the much anticipated Issue 9 has been released to the Live servers. Issue 9 - details here - brings many new features to the City of Heroes world including a new Task Force for level 50 heroes and a new raid in the form of the revamped Hamidon for both heroes and villains. As well the issue introduces the all new invention system which allows players to collect invention salvage and recipies to create new enhancements and costume pieces. For more information, be sure to check here!
City of Heroes Reaches the Big 3[ Comment ] Print News Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...Cryptic studios sent out a press release to let everyone know that the worlds greatest super heroe based MMO is turning the big 3. In that time, more than 24 million characters have been created in City of Heroes and City of Villains with more than 102,000 of those characters reaching level 50, the game’s top tier. With issue 9 right around the corner, you can expect those numbers to grow. You can read the full press release right here which also includes some more interesting numbers about the game in the past three years.
Topic of the Week - SG Costumes[ 6 Comments ] Print News There are plenty of super groups out there that have taken it upon themselves to dedicate one of their costume slots to a costume that is identical to other members of the same supergroup. While this does look pretty cool seeing a group dressed the same fighting, it does use up a costume slot and those who are still low level don't have many to spare. Our question is whould you like to see something official done to provide for SuperGroup costumes? Perhaps special costume pieces or a special mission to earn a special SG costume slot? Let's hear what you have to say!
The Dirt on Wings[ Comment ] Print News Eurogamer.net has an article from Cryptic Studios costume designer Jay Doherty. Jay is the one responsible for the creation of the wings in City of Heroes/Villains and had quite a bit to say about the origin of them and thoughts on each type of the ten wings available. Here's a snippy from the article:
With each new content update that has come out over the recent years, I always saw players making their own threads on costume pieces what they wanted, so I decided to start a thread on the City of Heroes several months back asking players what they most wanted. Within about two weeks 10,000 requests were made. So I started chipping away at the ever-growing requests. Obviously one of the cool aspects of City of Heroes is the ability for characters to fly, and not surprisingly one of the biggest requests was that players wanted wings. So wings are what they got.
Tanking For Newbs 101[ 6 Comments ] Print News Spacedog1973 has whipped up a little training video for all the tanking newbs out there that aren't quite sure how to pull off a little thing called herding. The video goes over it a few times so if you still don't know how by the time the video is over, there's no hope for you. You can check out the video below!
If you have any CoX related videos that you would like to submit to us, please feel free to send a link to me at Cyric@vaultnetwork!
Warcry Community Quiz with Lord Recluse[ 3 Comments ] Print News WarCry.com has posted up there latest community interview with the members of Cryptic Studios development team. This time around the community got to fire off questions to Serdar Copur (CoH Producer), also known as Lord Recluse. The questions are very informative and cover a wide array of topics. Here's a snippy:
arthurh3535: What is the hardest 'programming' thing that you want to eventually add to the game?
Serdar Copur: Blue-sky questions are so much fun. The most difficult thing to develop that I would like to add to our game is a completely new database architecture which allows every single player who plays CoH & CoV to be able to play on the same game server. This means no more server selection screens, no more re-rolling because your real life friends are not on the same server as you, and no more trouble finding a group at 3:00 AM because everyone else is sleeping. It’s not an impossible endeavor but my programming team assures me that there is nothing more time consuming and complicated that we could develop for our game at this point. I guess we can always dream.
Have a Friend? Get Them Hooked![ 18 Comments ] Print News NCsoft has announced the new City of Heroes and City of Villains referral program! The program allows current players to email 10-day trial codes to their friends to get them in the game. If one of their friends buys a standard account and pays for one month of subscription to City of Heroes or City of Villains, the referring player will be automatically credited with one month of free game time!
Have some friends that have been wanting to play? Now's the time to get them hooked! You can get more info on the promotion here at the official site.
Super Group Listing Updated[ Comment ] Print News Just a quick heads up that the Super Group listing here at the Vault has been updated with the latest additions that people have submitted. If you have a Super Group that you want to advertise or are looking for new members, be sure to submit it for peeps to check out. Also if you are in the market for a new Super Group, be sure to check out the listing and see if there are any that catch your attention. The Super Group listings> can be divided up by servers so finding one where you play is nice and easy!
CoH Vault Poll - I Want it![ Comment ] Print News This week's poll takes a look at the new goodies that will be available in Issue 9. With quite a few major things popping up in it, we want to know which you are looking forward to the most. Is it the Statesman TF, the new Hami Encounter or maybe the invention system? Hit the poll on the right side of the page and let us know!
As for our previous poll, we asked you folks what you favourite veteran reward was so far. Not suprising, the winner overall was the wings. I'm still waiting for mine even though it says I have them on the veterans page :(
Issue 9 Live on Test Server![ 2 Comments ] Print News According to the official forums, ALL players can now hop on the test server and get their feet wet with the latest patch. This is the big momma issue that includes the new invention system as well as auction houses, universities, the new Hamidon encounter and the new Statesman Task Force for heroes. There's is a lot going on in the new issue release and the earlier you get on to absorb it all the better!
The patch notes are huge and include the new emotes, badges and power changes. You can check them out here on the official UK boards where it is layed out much easier to read than on the official NA forums. Click here to check it all out!
Topic of the Week - Henchmen[ 12 Comments ] Print News Time for one of these fancy topic's of the week! This week's question is all about the masterminds. If you could have your pick of henchmen for a mastermind, what would you want to have? I'm thinking I would like animals of some sort. Dogs or wolves maybe...or cats and then you could be like the crazy cat lady. What say you? What type of henchmen would you like to see added to the game for masterminds to control?
The contest will run from March 27th until April 27th and will allow participants to enter by submitting a four to eight-page comic book entry, utilizing featured super-powered hero and villain characters from their online game play, along with a collection of City of Heroes and City of Villains images, icons, symbols and artwork, created by the Planetwide Media’s Comic Book Creator software.
If you do not have the creator or the game, both can be downloaded in trial form. A 30 day trial of the creator can be downloaded here as well a 14 day trial of City of Heroes/Villains can be obtained for downloading (check the official details for further info).
The contest entries will be judged by a panel of celebrity judges that will include legendary comic book writer - Marv Wolfman, esteemed comic book artist - David Nakayama and City of Heroes Lead Game Designer - Matt "Positron" Miller.
For more information on what you can win and full contest details, rules and regulations, make sure you hit up the contest page right here on the official City of Heroes site!
Hamidon Redesigned[ 6 Comments ] Print News The good folks over at Curse Gaming have an exclusive look at the redesigning of the greatest challenge in City of Heroes – the Hamidon Trial. Check out this “look-behind-the-scenes” written by Cryptic Developer Christopher Bruce, as he explains some of the common problems with the old Hamidon encounter, how it is changing for Issue 9: Breakthrough, and how it’s being introduced to the City of Villains side of the game through the new Abyss zone. You can check it out right here!
Jack Emmert on Cryptic Future[ Comment ] Print News While at this years GDC, Warcry.com had a chance to swing some questions past Cryptic Studios head honcho, Jack Emmert. The questions includes some bits and bites about some of the upcoming games from Cryptic as well as his stance on the MMORP community as a whole. You can read the article/interview right here!
Topic of the Week - Hami[ 21 Comments ] Print News So with Issue 9's release, there will be a new Hami encounter for both heroes and villains to take part in. I myself would have prefered to have seen an all new raid style epic battle instead of just a rehash of the Hami but it is still cool to have an epic battle included. What do you guys and gals think? Do you still like the idea of having to fight the hamidon or would you have prefered something else, something new, something a little more interesting than a giant glob of jello? Let's hear what you have to say!
Firing Squad Issue 9 Impressions[ 1 Comment ] Print News The Firing Squad had a chance to go over some of the nifty features of Issue 9 at this years GDC conference. Their article includes some of the crafty things that can be created with the invention system such as the previously seen Tech-Wings as well as "flying boots". The article also states that the invention system will be open to players once they hit level 10 and even if players decide to not partake in the crafting and invention system, the game will still remain the same for them, gameplay-wise. You can read the full article right here!
Issue 9 Trailer[ 7 Comments ] Print News Fresh from the GDC, there is a trailer for City of Heroes/Villains that shows off some of the new features of Issue 9. The video is in two formats; either the regular which pulls in at 16 megs, or the HD version which is a hefty 77 megs. You can grab the video right here from IGN and I would suggest putting on your bib first so you don't drool on your clothes.
Patch notes - 03/06/07 Print News Patch updates! Today's patch is a pretty small one, but appreciated by players with a shaky internet connection such as myself. This one corrects an issue where disconnecting from the game while in a Trial or Strike/Task Force mission would unintentionally disband you from the group. For full details, check out the official site right here.
For those looking to connect to the Training Room Test Server, you should be aware that the server is currently being used for a closed beta test of Issue 9: Breakthrough!
While anyone can connect and patch to the server, when you go to select a character, if you are not part of the closed beta, you will not be able to actually log that character into the server.
The closed testing is not expected to be long; perhaps lasting into mid-March. The actual duration of closed beta will depend on how testing proceeds. Once closed beta ends, Issue 9 will be on the Training Room for anyone who wants to check it out and provide feedback for several weeks of additional testing and tuning.
The word is that the closed beta testing will run for at least two weeks and then the test server will be open once again for the rest of us to test out Issue 9. You can get all the details right here on the official forums.
GameSpot Talks With Positron[ Comment ] Print News GameSpot had a chance to catch up with Cryptic Studios Lead Designer Matt 'Positron' Miller and bounce a few questions off him in regards to the upcoming issue 9 and invention system. The interview gives some good details about just how the whole thing is going to go down as well as tidbits of information such as the consignment houses being cross-server so that people from one server can sell their items to people on other servers. As well there is a brief mention about Issue 10 and other things that may be brewing at the house heroes built. You can check out the article right here.
