Features

Issue 12 is about to hit the live servers and we took the chance to catch up with City of Heroes/Villains Lead Designer Matt Miller and Senior Designer Floyd Grubb to catch up on the Issue, their transition from Cryptic to NCsoft, in-game advertising and much more.

"We thought it was going to be a tougher transition than it was," said Miller of the switch from Cryptic's leadership to NCsoft's. "We kind of hit the ground running once we got into the new studio"

As NCsoft NorCal is exclusively focused on all things City of, they had promised to dedicate more resources to it. For example, when they release new elements of micro-content, such as a recent wedding pack, the money they make off it is put right back into the game's expansion and development.

Read more after the leap.

The period on December referred to as the "holidays" has come to mean many things and in this article, Robert Cox looks at what people can expect in some of the major MMORPGs. How do these virtual worlds celebrate this time of the year when so many have the time off work to peek inside?

If there's one thing the Horde and Alliance can agree on, it's a party. All across Azeroth and Outland, festive decorations adorn towns and cities as both sides begin their annual celebration of the Feast of Winter Veil.

Read more after the click.

Brian Clayton is the new Studio Manager of NCsoft NorCal and took some time to talk to us about Tuesday's announcement that NCsoft had bought full ownership of City of Heroes/Villains from developer Cryptic Studios. What will it mean to the players and what are NCsoft's plans for the game's future? Find out.

"We love the IP, we believe in the IP and for us it was all about focus on the IP," said Brian Clayton, the new Studio Manager of NCsoft NorCal and Executive Producer of City of Heroes.

Ever since Cryptic Studios announced that they had partnered with Marvel and Microsoft to produce a next-gen super-hero MMOG for the PC and Xbox 360 some variation of Tuesday's announcement seemed only like a matter of time. Whether or not it was the case, there was no way for Cryptic Studios to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest as they managed two competing IPs. The sale to NCsoft, according to both studios, is the best thing they can do for fans of the first super-hero MMOG.

Read more after the jump.

In the latest community driven "Ask a Dev" Q&A with a member of the City of Heroes team we talk to Melissa "War Witch" Bianco, the CoH World Designer. She answers a slew of questions in amazing detail, all of them from the community.

Remember, for our next installment, you get to ask the questions of Senior Programmer Vince D'Amelio. Check out the intro here.

Master0: Also will you ever introduce weather to create a more realistic environment?

War Witch: Ah weather. Yes, that's been brought up a few times.

So the short answer is 'no'. At the end of the day, we try to implement a system that has a lot of impact in terms of content and playability. Weather, for all intents and purposes, is an aesthetic that doesn't (ultimately) give the player anything to 'do'. (Well, except maybe slip and slide and not see well when it's snowing or hailing. I'm not knocking slipping and sliding. I love our chalet!!)

So this is my personal opinion. Your mileage may vary.

Read more after the jump.

In the latest community driven "Ask a Dev" Q&A with a member of the City of Heroes team we talk to Melissa "War Witch" Bianco, the CoH World Designer. She answers a slew of questions in amazing detail, all of them from the community.

Master0: Also will you ever introduce weather to create a more realistic environment?

War Witch: Ah weather. Yes, that's been brought up a few times.

So the short answer is 'no'. At the end of the day, we try to implement a system that has a lot of impact in terms of content and playability. Weather, for all intents and purposes, is an aesthetic that doesn't (ultimately) give the player anything to 'do'. (Well, except maybe slip and slide and not see well when it's snowing or hailing. I'm not knocking slipping and sliding. I love our chalet!!)

So this is my personal opinion. Your mileage may vary.

Read more after the jump.

A few months ago we got going on a community driven Q&A series between you the fans and Cryptic where fans around the world, but primarily on WarCry, get to ask questions of specific game developers. Here is the latest Q&A and be sure to get your questions in for Melissa Bianco, the World Designer.

Community Qestion (Belga): Can we be given access to the NPC costume pieces? Many players would love to use the Carnival of Shadows pieces, for example, and I'd really like to have access to the Mu Mystics costumes.

Jay Doherty: When NPCs where first made there was no intention to give players those costume pieces, mostly because they would not work with other costume pieces (ex: clipping, overlapping) When the PPD exobot guys were first put into the game, players really wanted those pieces for themselves. Unfortunately all those pieces where made to work with each other not as separate pieces, and they look really silly if you don't have all the pieces on. So to address this we have come up with a few solutions. First, while not completely copying the carnival of shadows I have built a completely new costume set with the flavour of the carnival. Second, there will be a new NPC group that was built with the player in mind, all costume pieces from this NPC group will be something players will be able to wear. Now depending on how the players respond to this is how we'll handle more things in the future. Please don't think that every NPC costume group from this point on will be given to the players, but I will put forth the effort to do as many as possible.

Read more after the click.

It's been a while, but we're back on track with our City of Heroes Community Quiz series. This time, we're talking to Melissa Bianco, the World Designer for City of Heroes / Villains. If you have questions about this game's unique world, she's the one to ask.

Click below for a full profile then ask your questions in our comment thread.

Jeffprime has posted a new chapter in his Villain 101 column! His column is like a journal of how the game plays out, in both his, and his characters eyes!

Welcome to Chapter 5 of Villain 101, the ongoing exploits of my villain, Twilight Dusk, in City of Villains. As usual, the column will be written from two viewpoints, the first from Twilight Dusk's perspective, and the second will be my thoughts on the game so far. Well, let's get on to it!

Click Read More to read the newest chapter, or click on Villain 101 to read all of the previous chapters!

Last time, we talked about Mialiah's Primary set, Claws. Her secondary is the ever popular Regen set.

In a new article, COH WarCry contributor "UnSub" looks at the invention system and how it's shaken down since the launch of Issue 9. This new system lets players create their own stuff, the first kind of "crafting"-like system in City of Heroes/Villains.

Following my last column, I took my Hero main off the substitution bench (which they had been warming ever since it was announced how Invention drops would work) and set to work experiencing things for myself. First stop was Wentworths, to see how that operated. Overall that seemed pretty simple and probably the best place to go to buy inspirations and non-IO enhancements. For all the complaining about how silent auctions would ruin the new economy and how people would hate them, they seemed to be working pretty well (but more on that later). I put a couple of Single Origin (SO) enhancements up for sale as a test case.

You can read all of his articles at A View From Atlas Park!