City of Heroes

[The NZA]

You know, i hate to say it, cause Chief knows im an FF fan from back inna day, but im startin to think that too lately, not really exicted about X2: the sleepover sequel. Anyway, City of Heroes, looks cool if/when it makes it out the gate, someone lets me burn it & i can run the thing.

Oh, and until i think of somethin more original, Chief also knows i fancy the idea of a Wolvy rip-off...flight would be fun, but mutants get 2 powers i think, and healing factor would be really cool.

[BigChiefSlapaho]

Did you get to read City of Hero's character descriptions? They give a pretty good idea of the whole "mutant" class.

 

Mutants gain their super powers through a curious twist of genetic fate. Super powered mutants are not a natural occurrence but rather the product of large-scale genetic manipulation by unknown individuals. Starting in the late 1950's mutant children began to crop up all across the globe. Investigations into the startling phenomenon revealed that every one of these super powered individuals showed similar and otherwise unique genetic properties. A decade of further study revealed a mysterious link between the mutations and various disease immunization programs. A United Nations investigation team, headed by some of the world's most famous heroes failed to uncover the mysterious agency behind this bizarre and mysterious mutagenic program.

 

 

 

The puzzles of its origin aside, the mutant gene has now so thoroughly penetrated humanity that new, super powered mutants manifest every day. Most mutants begin to realize their true nature during puberty, although often it takes some kind of stressful situation for a person's powers to activate. From that time forward the mutant's powers continue to grow and diversify. A single mutant often manifests numerous different abilities over time, more so than heroes from any other origin type.

 

 

 

Mutant super powers use the mutant's own life energy to power their amazing effects. This means mutants can become one-person arsenals, needing no equipment, technology or magical relics to help them. On the down side, even a mutant body has its limits. As a general rule, mutant powers cannot reach the same staggering levels as powers belonging to heroes of some other origin types. Nevertheless, mutants can advance their powers to exceptional levels and often make up for a lack of high-level punch by possessing such a wide variety of abilities.

[BigChiefSlapaho]

Did a checkup on this game this morning. There are a ton of new screenshots out now, I'll post a few good ones.

 

They simplified the game a bit, it seems the original design for character stats was great but over complicated and somewhat buggy. It's been streamlined a lot and now the game is back on schedule. Pick up July 2003's issue of PCGamer for an idea of what's up.

 

[Silent Bob]

I'm definitely going to need a new computer before that game comes out...

[MetalHeart]

Not sure if it's been mentioned anywhere else, but City of Villians is coming out very soon. I know Dowe (endworld), Cj, and our friend Wes are all very very excited about it. I believe it's the expansion to City of Heroes. I'll find out some more info for you cats

 

EDIT:

CITY OF VILLIANS

 

What is City of Villains™?

City of Villains™ is the standalone sequel to critically acclaimed MMORPG City of Heroes®. Using a staggering assortment of new powers, abilities, and customization options, players will experience sinister game play from the other side of the mask. With diabolical craft and guile, players forge new super-powered villain characters in an attempt to dominate the world. Heroes and authorities of Paragon City will do all in their power to thwart these evil plans of destruction. It will take a supreme effort for true domination.

 

What are some of the Key Features in City of Villains?

 

Become an infamous Villain:

Players can advance from low level thugs to eventually fulfill their destiny as legendary arch-criminals.

 

Design and build infinitely customizable fortresses of evil:

Players repel intruders with vicious weaponry and diabolical defenses.

 

Heroes and Villains collide:

Now players can choose to take on the most challenging rivals of all time…each other!

 

Features a huge variety of villain missions

including heists, kidnappings, infiltrations, and more!

 

Incredible villain variety

including new archetypes, powers, villain costumes, and the deadly new villain group Arachnos!

 

When will the game be released?

Within the year.

 

How much will it cost?

Pricing will be announced when pre-order boxes are available at retail stores later this year.

 

Is this just an expansion to City of Heroes?

City of Villains is a stand-alone title, not an expansion. It may be played without City of Heroes, but there are clear advantages to owning and playing both. If a player only has City of Villains, he/she may only play a villain, not a hero. Also, if players want to build a base for their Hero characters and take part in PvP adventures (outside of the Arenas) they’ll need to get City of Villains.

 

So you’re saying that there will be lairs and bases?

Yes, in City of Villains all villain characters will be able to create custom designed lairs and bases with an extremely high amount of detail, rivaling that of the character creation for which City of Heroes is well known. The base-building feature from City of Villains will also carry over to City of Heroes members who have active COH subscriptions, enabling them to also construct hero bases.

 

What are some of the cool new items I’ll be able to have in my lair or base?

Players will be able to create their bases from the ground up.  They can place walls, raise and lower ceilings and floors, build hospital rooms, transporters, and more.  Textures, colors, and lighting can all be customized, and players can use tons of decorative items in their bases as well.  Players can protect their creations by placing turrets, traps, and other defense mechanisms.  All of these result in nearly limitless options.

 

How will City of Heroes and City of Villains interface with one another?

City of Heroes and City of Villains will share the same universe. A majority of the new features and zones introduced in City of Villains will be available to City of Villains customers only. Also, many of the existing (and yet-to-be-released) features and zones within City of Heroes will remain exclusive to City of Heroes customers. There will also be “overlapping” zones in which heroes and villains will interact with each other.

 

Will you continue to provide updates for both?

Absolutely. Both City of Heroes and City of Villains will continue to be updated.

 

Does City of Villains require players to participate in PvP?

No. While there will be PVP-specific features and events, PvE content will be abundantly available. Both games will have PvP and PvE elements. Players will never be required to play in PvP battles - they are by player permission only.

 

What types of villains can I create?

There are five cool new archetypes in City of Villains: Dominator, Destroyer, Brute, Stalker, and Mastermind. In addition to these new archetypes, the character creator will allow a nearly limitless set of customization options.

 

Can villains have minions?

Yes! The Mastermind archetype will enable players to have minions, or “henchmen”, as they will be called in City of Villains. Stay tuned for more in-depth information.

 

Will there be villain badges?

Of course!

 

The character creator in City of Heroes is amazing.  What unique aspects of the character creator tool can we look forward to seeing in City of Villains?

The character creator in City of Villains will offer many new customizable costume options. Players will be able to create characters using monstrous features such as horns, hooves, new villain capes, and much more. Plus, the new bump map graphics technology will make metallic and other costume components react dynamically with lighting in the environments.

 

When will the game go into beta?

City of Villains is targeted to begin its closed beta phase (invite-only) within the July/August time frame. Please note that this is subject to change. We will bring you more specific dates just as soon as they’re finalized. For more beta test related info, please visit the Beta Test page.

 

Will there be Task Forces and Trials in City of Villains?

Yes indeed!  Villainous Task Forces will be called Strike Forces.  There will be Strike Force missions spread out among the middle-to-high levels of City of Villains.  There will also be Trials, and some examples of rewards will be Items of Power, respecs and badges.

 

Will there be 'Issues' for City of Villains?

Yes, of course. We will continue to release content updates for both City of Heroes and City of Villains.

 

What exactly will be included in the City of Villains Collector's Edition box?

We will be announcing these details in August with the official kick-off of the City of Villains pre-order product.

 

Will there be a version of City of Villains released on DVD?

We will be announcing these details in August with the official kick-off of the City of Villains pre-order product.

 

What will the system specs be for City of Villains?

The currently estimated system specs are below.  We will continue to test the game and adjust these as necessary.

 

Minimum System Requirements:

 

Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP

Intel® Pentium® III 800 Mhz or AMD Athlon™ 800 Mhz 

256 MB RAM

CD-ROM Drive

4 GB Available HDD Space

NVIDIA® GeForce  2 Series, ATI® Radeon® 7500 or Intel® i810G Series Video Card

16-bit Sound Card

56k modem

DirectX® 9.0c 

 

Recommended System Requirements:

 

Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP

Intel® Pentium® 4 2.0 GHz or AMD® Athlon™ XP 2000+ 

1 GB RAM

16X CD-ROM Drive

4 GB Available HDD Space

NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6200

16-bit Sound Card

Broadband Internet Connection

DirectX® 9.0c

 

PRE-ORDER CITY OF VILLIANS

Edited September 16, 2005 by MetalHeart

[dante]

CoV can be standalone, you won't need Heroes to play it. However, I just got a newsletter in my inbox that says that for those who do have Heroes, you won't need to pay extra for Villains... there was much rejoicing in my mind. not out loud for I was at work. But yes, I have the newsletter to prove it, and it made my friend want to reinstall City of Heroes for that very reason. Oh, nothing will get done on my time.

 

Incidentally Rach, I'm sorry I missed our Guild Wars appointment. Please forgive, I was careless. :( I won't make those kind of promises anymore.

[MetalHeart]

it's ok! I had to work late because of a stupid scorpian woman, so I felt terrible. I thought maybe you waited then got offline :( so I'm glad that youmissed our appt! hehe

[Lycaon]

Found this rather amusing, thought I'd share.

 

 

 

And (much) later...

 

Edited November 18, 2005 by Lycaon

[MetalHeart]

we lol'd for five minutes

[Lycaon]

"Welcome to Walmart, BITCH!"

Ah, MacHall... you so funny...

[Reverend Jax]

City of Heroes 2 to be a "Marvel Universe" title.

[The NZA]

been hearing bout this one for years, be cool if the CoH people did it, and it was cross-platform'd.

[bishopcruz]

Well, at X'06 they announced that it is going to be for Xbox 360 and Windows. Kinda curious to see if they can do a better job at making an MMO for consoles than FFXI did.

[Jumbie]

I'm assuming that by Marvel universe, they don't mean that you get to BE wolverine etc but that the established character will be NPCs in the game.

SO you can you can get a Xavier school group together and go do a misison against Apocalypse etc?

(That'd end all Marvel's bitching about people dressing up as wolverine, since wolverine would already be in the game, but it means no one can go be wolverine in the game. That might cut into it's attractiveness with the fans)

 

 

will you get o play on both sides of the hero/ villian fence?

[The NZA]

if its anything like CoH , youll get heroes in one game, villians in the expansion. here's to hoping they pull off both this time.

 

youre gonna have a million spideys and wolverines running around one way or another.

[Jumbie]

Well, with official Marvel involvement what I'm suggesting is that Marvel is gonna make it just baout impossible to create Spideys and Wolveys (They complained about that kinda thing with the original CoH) I think that would be a bad step commercially, since lotsa fans want that, but would acually make the game better since nothings as lame as a thousand wolvie wannabes.

[Lycaon]

What, no City of Villains thread?

Behold, the most nefarious villains in the world:

Edited October 23, 2006 by Lycaon

[Lipala]

City of Heroes/Villains was one of my favorite games for years and when it was shut down in the middle of development of the followup and new content coming on the horizon because NCSoft decided that if a game wasn't popular in Korea it didn't matter how well it was doing in Europe or the US it hurt. The devs weren't even allowed to release a final story-arc to give the game some closure, it was rough for many players and a lot of us stuck together as communities after. Mutliple spiritual successor and emulation projects have struggled for years since then to bring the game back with varying degrees of success. Some of the most promising are just now hitting playable states this year.

 

Recently we discovered that one of the devs leaked source code and database files to a community member who had stated intent to reverse engineer the code to allow for the game to be played on private servers much like SWG. However, instead of doing that, they created their own private server and a new parser so the version of the game they compiled would be unusable with the code they were provided. They invited a small number of people to play, made them agree to NDAs and actively censored them on Reddit and other CoX community sites where members of this secret server were admins. This may have been a measure to protect them from NCSoft but the end result was that a secret group of players never lost the game and actively told the community that the very thing they were doing was impossible. That went on for 7 years.

About 2 weeks ago now the silence was broken. A youtuber managed to release a video with documented proof of the private server and a games journalist published a piece on it. This piece included a statement from the owner of the secret server confirming its existence as well as his holding of the character database of everyone's old characters, costume, powers, etc. In fact one of the draws of the private server was that they could restore your old characters. The community was incensed and felt betrayed. Some of its most well regarded members were the culprits and it hurt. A week later, the journalist was in a voice chat on Discord with the leaker and a few community members, interviewing to get our words for a followup article and the head of the server showed up, was convinced to release the source code he was leaked and the binaries for the version of the game he was running. The character database would not be shared due to privacy concerns and the legal ramifications of distributing potentially personal data in the EU where the server was based.

Within a day of this release we had a test server up, named "Bree" after the reporter who exposed all this and by the end of the weekend when it had to be taken down it had over 3000 players (enough to fill 2 of the old pop-capped servers). The community has organized around a discord server that due to various interpersonal drama has become a neutral ground with 3 other discords started, one for the reddit community, one for the 4chan community, and one for the "Homecoming" team who are hosting currently 4 shards with 2000 player cap each. Those of us in the know on what's going on are dubious about Homecoming. While the rest of the community has agreed to transparency and sharing  and nominally so have they, when it came time to actually share something they clearly had and the rest of the community didn't they refused and instead offered to configure it for individual server teams, requiring admin access to be given to them for all the teams. This is ultimately unacceptable because while they have access they could do whatever they want, including installing backdoors and the like. This is exacerbated by that team being closed about who they are, whose doing the work, etc.

 

That said we have the files and the ability to run servers locally, and if you've got he hardware you can even host a few people. My partner is working on setting up a private server for a few of our friends, all old refugees from CoX. Not sure why I'm talking about all this but felt the need to. If you used to play CoX and want to play again I can point you in the right direction.

[alive she cried]

I don't know the game, and have really been into online games. But I find the story fascinating, keep us updated.

[Lipala]

So updates, the code is live, multiple groups hosting servers, several working together in the "Pleideas" ring. Pretty much everyone who isn't the "Homecoming" team is working together and collaborating/federating.