City of Heroes: Encyclopedia - City of Heroes

City of Heroes

City of Heroes (CoH) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing computer game based on the superhero comic book genre, developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSoft. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004 and in France, Germany, and the UK (by NCSoft Europe) on 4 February 2005 with Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, and Benelux to follow. On October 31, 2005 the game's first sequel, City of Villains, was launched, allowing users to play as supervillains. Six gratis major updates for City of Heroes have released since its launch, with more on the way for both City of Heroes and City of Villains.

In the game, players create superhero player characters who can team up with others to fight various villains in Paragon City and its surrounding areas. Heroes must fight members of various gangs and organizations and complete quests given to them by NPCs in order to accumulate experience points (or "XP") and increase their security level.

City of Heroes - Overview

Players begin by using the game's extensive character creation system to select an archetype and Power Sets, design a unique costume, and write a back story for their hero.

They start their adventure in a tutorial zone that teaches them how to play the game (experienced players may choose to bypass the tutorial and proceed directly into the game. However, this results in them being unable to earn a particular badge). It is here they learn about the level system and how to determine which enemies to attack. As a hero's level increases, he gains benefits such as more health, more powers, more slots for holding temporary power-ups called Inspirations, and more enhancement slots for powers. Enhancements are power-ups which players can socket onto powers to improve them permanently.

Both enemies and heroes have security levels; a hero's chance to hit an enemy is determined by the difference between his level and the enemy's. Low level heroes always have trouble successfully damaging high level villains. Paragon City, the city in which the game takes place, is divided into different zones by giant energy walls (also known as "War Walls"). The force fields prevent any large threat from ever threatening the whole city at once; they also reduce enemy movement from zone to zone as the only ways to travel between zones are by trains(or monorails) operated by the Paragon Transit Authority or roads that are guarded by police drones. Players can also travel to hazard or trial zones, zones outside of the city proper which teem with large groups of powerful enemies, and the city's sewer system.

Heroes move around the zones themselves by running and walking, initially. As heroes grow in level and accumulate more powers, they gain the ability to choose one of four traveling powers: teleportation, super speed, super jumping, and flight. All four have their own advantages and disadvantages. While each archetype (listed below) has its own unique set of powers and abilities, all players have available to them powers from the ten power pools. The power pools contain the aforementioned travel powers, as well as other generic, non-class specific powers such as Grant Invisibility, Provoke, Recall Friend, and Boxing.

There are a variety of different villain organizations and gangs in City of Heroes, each with unique attributes. Groups of villains, all from the same gang and usually all with similar security levels, roam around areas of Paragon City. Certain gangs are more likely to appear in different zones. For instance, Circle of Thorns (a magic using villain group) members can always be found in the hazard zone of Perez Park. Increasing in level usually consists of traveling to different zones and fighting certain villains until your character's level is too high to benefit from the experience given by successful arrests.

Missions (the City of Heroes equivalent of the quests typically found in other MMOs) are given by non-playable characters (referred to as "contacts") and can consist of either a "hunt" type mission, where heroes are given the task of arresting a certain number of villains from one of the villain groups, or a private "instanced" mission map created solely for the player (and his team) and is inhabited by a particular gang (when heroes reach approximately level 20, they begin to receive outdoor instanced missions set in fenced-off areas as well). As heroes venture further into the mission zone, they usually have to confront a Boss villain, rescue hostages, or find a particular clue. Upon completion, heroes will be rewarded with an XP bonus and occasionally a badge. Some missions may be completed at the hero's leisure, but others will have a set time limit which begins counting down as soon as the mission is accepted from the contact. It is usually possible to tell, by reading its description, whether a mission is timed before accepting it.

Heroes can venture into mission maps together if they form a team and choose a particular mission as the team's objective. The difficulty level and number of the villains is adjusted according to the strength and number of the heroes grouped together. Since the release of Issue 3 expansion, the player is now able to set the difficulty of the missions by visiting a special NPC, the Hero Corps Field Analyst.

Amid the missions, story arcs will emerge. These are a series of missions which form a larger story, often giving the player new insights into the history and mythos of Paragon City. Sometimes, these story arcs affect the player hero directly as well. Once a story arc is completed, the hero is rewarded with experience points, enhancements and for some story arcs, a badge.

For players who can devote a block of several hours to the game, two other types of missions with deeper storylines are available—the Task Force and the Trial. Task Forces always require a team, and consist of a series of linked missions that must be run to completion by that same team before its members may take on any additional missions. Once a Task Force has been started additional players will not be able to join the team. If a Task Force member voluntarily leaves the team while the Task Force is in progress, he is unable to rejoin it. In the case somebody is involuntarily disconnected, then he will return to the Task Force when connected. Trials are similar to Task Forces but are usually shorter and more challenging; some share the team restrictions of a Task Force but others are taken as individual missions, though teams are still practically required. Upon completion, both Task Forces and Trials usually (but not always) provide all participants with a badge as well as a reward—either a Single-Origin or a special enhancement. Several specially-designated Task Forces reward players with an opportunity to "respecify" their characters by choosing a different complement of superpowers or reassigning enhancements.

Teamwork is a very important and large part of City of Heroes. Players can form supergroups (similar to other MMORPGs' guilds) reminiscent of classic comic book groups such as the X-Men or Justice League of America. Supergroups pick a name, a motto, an emblem, and two colors. Heroes can then enter 'Supergroup Mode' and change the colors and emblem of their normal avatar (character) to those of their supergroup. Roaming groups of amazingly unique color coordinated heroes destroying enemies form some of the game's most pleasing visuals. Players can team with their friends/supergroup mates or form temporary teams of other logged on players (referred to as "pickup" groups) to go on missions and fight villains together.

City of Heroes - Character creation

Creating a character consists of several steps. First the player selects an origin, an archetype and a primary and secondary power set. Next the actual avatar with its costume is created. And finally the player chooses a name and can optionally write a background story to add some flavor to the character.

City of Heroes - Origins

When creating a character, the player must first choose the origin of his character's powers. However, the origin of a hero has hardly any effect on gameplay. It determines who the player's NPC contacts are, what type of enhancements they can use and what titles they can choose from at level 25.

• Natural — Naturals train themselves to surpass normal human limits. It's also possible that a Natural isn't human at all, and their "powers" are simply their own natural abilities. Batman from DC Comics and Shang-Chi from Marvel Comics are both examples of this.
• Mutation — The superpowers of the hero were encoded in his genes. All of the X-Men and some of the DC meta-humans fall under this class like Fire from the Justice League.
• Science — A character's powers are the result of a scientific process, intentional or otherwise: e.g. radiation exposure in a test lab. The Flash from DC and Spider-Man from Marvel are both examples.
• Technology — The use of mechanical devices enables the hero to use powers. Iron Man from Marvel Comics and Cyborg from DC are examples of this origin.
• Magic — Supernatural powers are employed by a hero. Doctor Fate from DC and Doctor Strange from Marvel reside in this category.

City of Heroes - Archetypes and Power Sets

The superpowers of each character are chosen based on archetypes (similar to the character classes of other MMOs). The player chooses their Primary Power Set and Secondary Power Set from a list of sets that are individual to each Archetype. However, there are some shared Power Sets. For example, the Primary Power Sets available to the Blaster are almost identical to the Secondary Power Sets of the Defender.

The game was launched with only the five basic Archetypes, but the Issue 3 expansion introduced two new "Epic" archetypes. They are two types of aliens known as the Kheldians (Warshades and Peacebringers). The ability to play as a Kheldian is made available only to players who have achieved level 50 with another character first.

Blasters are based almost completely around offence. Having no defensive powers Blasters rely on their overwhelming damage to protect them. Solo Blasters can easily defeat most enemies one-on-one, but can get into trouble if they face multiple enemies. In a group, Blasters can overcome their lack of defence by letting Tankers and Scrappers distract the enemy before they unleash their attacks.

Marvel Comics' Human Torch and DC Comics' Starfire are examples of Blasters.

Controllers are an Archetype that, as their name suggests, are based around controlling powers. Their abilities are used to halt foes in their tracks, sometimes making them completely helpless. Most controllers eventually gain the ability to summon “Pets” to fight alongside them. Although the Pets are not very intelligent and cannot be controlled, they draw fire away from the team and often contribute damage or holds of their own. Overall the Controller’s primary function is to incapacitate foes, either to be finished off by the Controller (though controllers are not known for their damage output) or his team.

DC's Green Lantern or Marvel's Jean Grey are examples of Controllers.

Although they can successfully complete missions solo, Defenders are designed around aiding their teammates. They can either buff heroes considerably or weaken foes until they no longer pose a threat. They are often mistakenly referred to as the healing Archetype, despite the fact only one of the Power Sets is dedicated to healing. Their secondary power sets are essentially Blaster Primary Sets with weaker damage.

Marvel Comics' The Invisible Woman (Sue Richards) of The Fantastic Four and DC Comics' Raven are examples of Defenders.

Scrappers are melee fighters, they fight up close and personal with little or no ranged powers. Scrappers can either fight bare handed or with weapons. They generally have good defensive abilities allowing them to not only dish out, but take damage. A Scrapper’s role is to be on the front lines taking foes down, as such they are generally considered the preferred Archetype of soloers.

Marvel Comics' Wolverine and DC's Batman are examples of Scrappers.

Tankers by nature have the strongest defence and highest hit points in the game. A Tanker is always on the front lines drawing enemy attention away from his teammates. Tankers have no ranged powers to speak of and generally have low damage output compared to Blasters and Scrappers. Their role is to protect teammates by absorbing vast amounts of damage that the other Archetypes simply could not manage.

Marvel’s Colossus and DC’s Cyborg are examples of Tankers.

Peacebringers are members of an alien race known as Kheldians that have fused with a willing human host. Although they can only access two Power Sets (one Primary, one Secondary), Peacebringers have a wide range of powers at their disposal, making them (along with Warshades) one of the most diverse Archetypes in the game. Peacebringers can transform into Bright Novas, giving them Blaster-like abilities, or into White Dwarfs, allowing them to have Tanker-like abilities. Peacebringers naturally have the ability to fly from level 1.

A Warshades is a fusion between a human and a scientifically altered Kheldian known as a Nictus. Most Nictus are evil, however a subset called Warshades have repented their misdeeds and fight on the side of justice. Good or evil, a Nictus symbiote cannot forcibly take over a host (this is revealed during an in-game story arc) -- the host must be a willing participant (though some Nictus have experimented with brainwashing techniques to weaken the wills of otherwise unwilling participants, but even then this appears to be for temporary posession only). Much like the Peacebringers, Warshades only have two Power Sets and share several powers and themes, but unlike Peacebringers they have control-type powers instead of melee attacks. Many of their powers require enemies, living or defeated, to work. Warshades can transform into Dark Novas, giving them Blaster-like abilities, or Black Dwarfs giving them Tanker-like abilities. Warshades can naturally teleport from level 1.

Other “Epic” archetypes that have been announced for future expansions include Avilians, Incarnates, Blood of the Black Stream and the Coralax. The following information has been released in a series of hints and rumors planted in the course of the storyline of City of Heroes: the Coralax are a aquatic-based civilization equipped with gills and fins for underwater travel with a society based heavily around a heirarchy of 'Shapers'; the Blood of the Black Stream are a mystic sub-society of the Coralax based heavily upon Egyptian tradition and influenced physically by contamination of their homes from surface pollution; Avilians are confirmed to be a winged species, but little else has been announced regarding them. The Incarnate archetype has also been confirmed by the development team but has yet to have any details about it released.

City of Heroes - Costumes

City of Heroes includes the most extensive avatar and costume generator of all current MMORPGs.

First the player chooses either a female, male or huge male basic body type, which then can be modified by changing its size (4 to 8 feet) and its proportions (shoulder, chest, and hip size, etc.). Finally even the facial features can be changed by resizing and distorting parts of the head such as the cranium, chin, nose, cheeks, etc.

Subsequently the actual costume is created. The costume creation process offers literally millions of combinations. Features of the costume that can be changed include: faces, masks, hair styles, hats, helmets, horns, antenna, jackets, tops, emblems, shoulder pads, sleeves, robotic arms, gloves, belts, robes, pants, boots and more. Additionally each selection can be individually colored and most of them can also be overlaid with patterns.

Inside the game the character can visit a tailor where the costume can be modified at the cost of some influence. When a character reaches level 20 and completes a specific mission handed out by the representative in the City Hall of Atlas Park, a cape can be added to the costume at the tailor's shop. Similar to unlocking the cape, at level 30 a character can complete a mission and unlock various aura-effects to place on their costume. At levels 20, 30 and 40 a character can gain additional costume "slots", which allows the player to freely switch between costumes while playing the game.

City of Heroes - Enhancements and inspirations

Enhancements and inspirations fill the roles of equipment and items in City Of Heroes, with enhancements being permanent and inspirations being temporary. Usually, heroes earn random enhancements and inspirations by defeating enemies, but they can also be bought at stores. Special enhancements can also can be earned by completing missions, trials and task forces.

City of Heroes - Enhancements

At certain levels a character is given new enhancement slots to attach to a power. Every power comes with one slot, and can have up to six slots attached to it. Each slot can hold exactly one enhancement. Once an enhancement is put in, it can only be replaced by a different enhancement, or combined with another enhancement.

All enhancements have the following characteristics:

• Stat affected is labeled on the enhancement, and shows what stat of a power it will boost. This can either increase or decrease the affected stat. For example, the damage enhancements increase damage, but the endurance cost enhancements decrease the endurance cost. Hamidon enhancements affect two or three stats.
• Origin type determinates which origins can use a specific enhancement and how large its boost is:
  • Training enhancements can be used by any origin and give about an 8.3% boost.
  • Dual Origin enhancements can be used by only two origins and give about a 16.5% boost.
  • Single Origin enhancements can be used by only one origin and give about a 33% boost.
  • Hamidon, Crystal Titan, and Hydra enhancements can be used by any origin and give a 33% boost in two or three different categories (for example, it might do both damage and accuracy).
• Level is a number on the enhancement that determines what security level a character can be to use it. The difference of the level of the enhancement and the character must be within 3. For example, a level 6 character can use enhancements level 3 through 9. Hamidon enhancements are only level 50.

To combine two enhancements they must have the same origin type and affected stat and one must be slotted. Also the further apart the levels of the two enhancements are, the greater is the chance that the combination fails, thus losing the lower leveled enhancement. Two enhancements with the same level can always be combined without failing.

The combination will result in a single enhancement one level higher than the highest leveled enhancement used. An enhancement can only be combined twice with lower leveled enhancement, after that it can only be combined with a higher leveled enhancement.

City of Heroes - Inspirations

Inspirations are quick powerups that many enemies drop randomly. Inspirations can be used quickly and it is common to store some for more difficult battles. They can also be traded between player characters and bought from non-player characters. Characters gain the ability to hold more inspirations as they gain in level.

There are usually 8 types of inspirations. The types are generally referred to by the color they are represented by in the interface: blue (endurance), green (health), red (damage), yellow (accuracy), purple (defense) and the newest, orange (damage resistance). There is also a type that gives resistance and frees the hero who uses it from most status effects, usually referred to by the name of the weakest version, break free, and a type that resurrects a fallen hero, usually just called a rez or awaken. In each of these types there are three specific inspirations, which help the affected area by 25%, 33%, and 50% (with rez, this refers to the amount of hp they have upon resurrecting). The more powerful versions are less common. There is also one special inspiration, called ambrosia, used only for the Eden Trial. Special "gift" inspirations with a random ability (including temporary immunity from experience debt) have also been available upon occasion.

City of Heroes - Influence

Influence is the currency within City of Heroes. For completing missions and defeating opponents heroes not only gain experience points, but also receive influence points. Especially after a hero defeats a group of villains threatening a civilian on the streets of Paragon City, that civilian will run up to the hero and thank him by giving additional influence. Influence can be spent to buy enhancements and inspirations, change the costume and adjust the difficulty level of missions.

City of Heroes - Enemies

City of Heroes - Badges plaques and accolades

In order to give the game more content, Cryptic introduced a system of collectible badges in its second content update to the game. These badges are obtained by visiting particular areas, achieving a certain security level, completing certain missions or sets of missions, defeating a quantity of specific types of foe, or special in-game achievements like taking a certain amount of damage or earning a certain amount of Influence. These badges may be viewed by other players in the player information dialogue, and may also be worn to add the name of the badge as a title under a hero's publicly-displayed name. Thus, if a player finds the name of a badge to be well-suited to his character, or finds some in-game accomplishment especially significant, he can choose to title his character accordingly with that badge.

Also added were a number of historical plaques, placed throughout Paragon City. Each plaque relates some historical fact about Paragon City's, its heroes', or the world's back story, and they are grouped into sets based on their subject matter. Heroes can obtain certain badges by visiting and reading each plaque in a set, which are often scattered across two or more zones within the city. Plaques do not have to be read in any particular order.

When a hero has collected specific groups of badges, he is granted an "Accolade"—a badge that includes additional special powers for the hero, such as a maximum health or endurance boost, or an attack.

As the game has expanded more badges have been added, as well as special "event" badges, the first for Halloween and the second was for the Winter Event. Badges have become, for some players, a greatly needed push for more to do in the game than just fight.

City of Heroes - Geography

Paragon City is a fictious city located in Rhode Island. This was revealed to the players by Lead Developer Jack "Emmert" Statesman very early on in the City of Heroes beta test period.

City of Heroes - Updates

The developer continually expands City of Heroes with free downloadable patches/updates. City of Villains will be a quasi expansion for City of Heroes, because both games will stand alone, but there will be some zones where heroes and villains will clash.

• Issue #1: Through the Looking Glass (June 29, 2004) - high level content (levels 40-50), new zones (Peregrine Island and the Rikti Crash Site), instanced outdoor missions, and the ability to have multiple costumes.
• Issue #2: Shadows of the Past (September 16, 2004) - added capes and "aura" costume effects, six new zones (The Hollows, Troll Tunnels and the four Shadow Shard zones), new villains, respecification of powers, badge hunting, Exemplars (reverse sidekicks) and a dance club.
• Issue #3: A Council of War (January 4, 2005) - epic archetypes (Kheldians, split into Peacebringer and Warshade archetypes), epic power pools, new zone (Striga Isle), global chat (Completed in March 16, 2005), new task forces, new zone events (Giant Octopus, Ghost Ship, Clockwork Paladin), mission difficulty settings, and new "toxic" and "Quantum" damage types. Kheldians are particularly vulnerable to Quantum damage.
• Issue #4: Colosseum (May 4, 2005) - Player versus player Arena combat, Anime-centric costume extensions, body part proportions adjustable by slider, new mouse controls, multi-supergroup chat system.
• Issue #5: Forest of Dread (August 31, 2005) - Four new power sets (two Archery and two Sonic) for use by the Blaster, Controller and Defender archetypes, new Blaster Epic power set "Electric Mastery," new Blaster automatic power "Defiance," new Controller automatic power "Containment," a new zone called Croatoa (magically themed; with missions, task forces and some new villains geared to security levels 25-35), new events, new missions, and new task forces. A new Defender automatic power, "Vigilance," and new inspirations for damage resistance were added in an update following Issue 5. Virtual teammates in missions who assist you when rescued, as well as NPC's in missions which need to be escorted to the exit.
• Issue #6: Along Came a Spider (October 27, 2005) - Integration with CoV including; Super Group bases and badges, three new PvP zones (Bloody Bay, Siren's Call, and Warburg), additions to the PvP Arenas, changes to enhancements, pet management window and longer character names.
• City of Villains (released October 31, 2005) - A stand-alone game in its own right as well as interoperating with City of Heroes (dubbed "Expanshalone" by one of the developers); new zones, fully-realized PVP system, supergroup bases and base raids, improved graphics, improved physics and game mechanics.
• Issue #7: (Names not yet announced) (pending) - High level content (41-50) for City of Villains, including the PvE zone Grandville and Patron power pools. A new PvP zone, "Recluse's Victory" is also being added, and is a level 50 zone. Possible new villain group, possible new epic archetypes (unlikely), and possible ability for heroes to go "rogue" (joining CoV) & vice versa. Cryptic is also working on the ability to move characters to other servers around this timeframe. Thugs are being added for Masterminds.
• Issue #8: (Names not yet announced) (pending) - Possible skill sets, possible customizable weapons & powers, and possible addition of more end-game content (Legends System). Possible addition of new power sets; Pirates & Carnies (for Masterminds) and Shields (Tankers and Scrappers). Possibly the ability to drop unwanted missions.

Several special seasonal events have occurred:

• Halloween weekend 2004 - A variation of "trick-or-treat" was implemented where clicking on non-active doors was answered with either "Trick" (spawning several Halloween-themed opponents) or "Treat" (dispensing inspirations and/or enhancements), with the slight possibility of receiving a single rock (being a ranged temporary power that did minimal damage) in a reference to It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Defeating enough of the Halloween themed opponents earned special badges.
• January 2005 - A "Winter Lord" and his minions appeared in several zones. Defeating them earned special badges and unique "Gift" inspirations.
• December 2005 - A three pronged Holiday event was held.
  • First, every character received use of a special holiday jetpack for thirty days.
  • Second, a special winter Holiday mission was put in place. Villains from the CoV portion of the game steal presents intended for the children of Paragon City, and the heroes have to retrieve the gifts before the holiday is ruined. Completing the mission earns heroes a new badge and the option of wearing a new special costume piece, a Santa Claus-style stocking cap. Conversely, villains in City of Villains have a matching mission, in which they steal the presents in question (earning the hat and a different badge for ruining the holiday).
  • Third, a terrorist named the Gamester placed "presents" all over the city zones of both games. Clicking on these presents would give one of several results. A mystery inspiration or temporary power could be earned, or a group of the Winter Lord's snow minions could be spawned around the character. badges could be earned for defeating a number of snow minions and for opening a number of the "presents".

There are a few programs that can help augment City of Heroes. Many "Hero Planners" exist with which you can build your character up and see what powers become available at what level. There are also data log programs that help you keep track of information such as experience gained per hour, number of kills and how many of a certain type of villain was killed. Also several websites exist with game maps, lists of badges, and the various stores.

City of Heroes - Criticism

Some players have criticized the game for being improperly balanced, with some power sets far outshining others. As in all MMORPGs, there are calls to weaken, or nerf, these apparently overpowered sets.

Some sets have powers that are rarely taken and are dismissed as useless. Other powers are so useful that they are considered essential for every character, such as Hasten, which allows powers to be reactivated more quickly after each use, and Stamina, which increases a character's endurance regeneration rate.

Other criticisms are more subjective. Some players say the game lacks an immersive feel and doesn't express fully the superhero comic book genre on which the game is based. Other players have also noted that the game does not incorporate the experience suggested in the in-game text written for mission descriptions and historical plaques, or the fictional world's history found on the game's website.

A more recent criticism is against a change in the game's mechanics, called Enhancement Diversification (ED). This is causing an even larger outcry than those on the changes in Issue 5. The changes were originally posted on the City of Villains beta forums, however some testers who were angered by the changes attempted to leak the information on to the City of Heroes forums despite their Non-Disclosure Agreements.

Eventually the developers posted the information on the CoH forums. They stated that ED had been in the works since March 2005, and that all changes to the game had been made with it in mind. The lead developer stated that it wasn't mentioned before because he didn't want to release the info because they hadn’t worked out the exact system and didn't want to release false information.

City of Heroes - Praise

Computer Gaming World hailed the game saying "City of Heroes blows a superpowered gust of fresh air into an increasingly stale sword-and-sorcery MMO world" in August of 2004. PC Gamer, Game Informer, GameSpy and several other industry magazines critically acclaimed City of Heroes for its foray into the superhero genre and gave the game top or near top scores across the board.

GameSpy went on to say that City of Heroes has the most flexible character creator to date of any MMORPG and has consistently given the update issues high marks. The launch of City of Heroes was widely reported as one of the most successful MMO launches in the history of the industry.

City of Heroes - Awards

• Computer Gaming World, MMORPG Game of the Year - February 2005
• Spike TV, MMORPG Game of the Year - December 15, 2004
• GameSpy.com, PC Games of the Year - December 24, 2004
• Billboard 2004 Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards, PC or Console Game of the Year - November 5, 2004
• Billboard 2004 Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards, Multiplayer Game of the Year - November 5, 2004
• Wargamer, Award for Excellence - October 14, 2004
• Games Magazine, Game of the Year 2004
• Computer Games Magazine, Editor’s Choice - August 2004 Issue
• Computer Gaming World, Editor's Choice - August 2004
• Game Informer, PC Game of the Month - July 2004 Issue
• Loadedinc, Hot Property Award - June 30, 2004
• The Adrenaline Vault, Seal of Excellence - June 15, 2004
• Actiontrip, Editor’s Choice - June 3, 2004
• Warcry, Best Expansion - City of Villains - E3 2004
• IGN, Editor’s Choice - May 28, 2004
• Gamespot, Game of the Month - May 2004
• Gamespy, Game of the Month - May 2004
• GameSpy, Editor’s Choice - May 28, 2004
• Game Critics Awards, Best Online Multiplayer - E3 2003
• Game Revolution, Best of E3 2003 - Best Online Game
• Game Critics Awards, Nominee - Best Online Multiplayer - E3 2002
• IGN, Best of E3 2002 - Runner Up - Best MMOG

City of Heroes - Servers

There are two separate geographical locales in which to play City of Heroes: American and European. Each locale has its own set of servers. A different client is required for each locale; it is not possible to play on both sets of servers with a single client.

Nothing prevents a European player from importing the American client in order to play on the American servers (or vice versa); in fact, until the European servers were brought live in late 2004, any European wishing to play City of Heroes had to do precisely that. Many Europeans still continue to play on the American servers even after the European version is available due to having made friends or joined supergroups there, or simply not wanting to pay the more expensive European monthly fees. As of October 28, 2005, players can transfer their characters to European servers without purchasing the European game client.

Each server is its own instance of the complete game world; a player can have 8 characters per server. If a player owns City of Villains, however, then he may have 12 characters per server, in any combination of hero/villain.

With the exception of the Training Room (which is a special case), there is no way to move characters from one server to another. However, this is something that is on the developers' agenda to consider in the future.

City of Heroes - American

The 11 main American servers are as follows:

• Champion
• Freedom
• Guardian
• Infinity
• Justice
• Liberty
• Pinnacle
• Protector
• Triumph
• Victory
• Virtue

There is no particular official distinction between these servers, save that some of them are located in an east coast data center and some in a west coast data center. However, the Virtue server has gained a reputation as the "unofficial role-playing server" (that is to say, a server where people try to be predominantly "in-character" as much as possible). Some would also say that Victory is "the unofficial Euro server" because it has possibly the highest concentration of European players of any of the eleven. Victory was also the server where City of Heroes's original beta-testers were able to reserve their character names from the beta-test period. Triumph, has the smallest population of all the servers and is the "unofficial friendly server," Freedom, in addition to being the most populated American server, holds a special place in the hearts of many beta-testers as this server was actually one of the servers from the beta-test, it was originally named Prime. Virtue, in addition to being the "unofficial" roleplaying server, has become the 2nd most populated American server with the launch of City of Villains.

Each server has its own dedicated forum on the City of Heroes bulletin board. The City of Heroes website has a server status page that displays the current status of all eleven servers, plus the Training Room.

The Training Room is a special American server that requires its own separate and distinct version of the American client to access. The Training Room is Cryptic's testbed, where proposed new changes and patches to the main City of Heroes codebase are publicly tested before rollout to the eleven "main" servers. The test period can range from a few days for minor patches to several weeks or even months for expansion issues.

Characters can be copied to the Training Room from any of the eleven "main" servers; characters arrive at the Training Room with zero Influence but otherwise unchanged. This is intended to allow testing effects of patch changes on higher level characters, but is also commonly used to test respecs or new power choices for characters before going through with them on a "main" server.

The test server is prone to instability and imbalance with major patches, usually has a very small population except when major updates are undergoing testing, and could theoretically be completely wiped at any time to start fresh. However, there is a small but dedicated number of players who treat the Training Room as their "main" server—playing characters exclusively there from beginning to end. They feel that the lower population and technical barriers to entry lead to a smaller, more intelligent clientele than the main servers.

There is another server, called the Shibboleth, that occasionally shows up in the Training Room client's server list. This server is a private server for in-house developer testing, and is inaccessible to ordinary players.

City of Heroes - European

The 4 main European servers are as follows:

• Union
• Defiant
• Zukunft
• Vigilance

There is no particular official distinction between these servers other than the language (Union & Defiant are English, Zukunft is German and Vigilance is French), however, the Union server has gained a reputation as "the unofficial role-playing server" (that is to say, a server where people try to be predominantly "in-character" as much as possible). The European servers also have a Training Room, that is mainly in English, though can be swapped to German or French at any time.

Each server has its own dedicated forum on the EU City of Heroes bulletin board. The EU City of Heroes website has it's server status's on the main page.

City of Heroes - Subscription

As in other MMORPGs, players must pay the publisher (NCSoft) a monthly fee to continue playing City of Heroes. Portions of the subscription costs go to supporting a full-time "live" team, which develops additional content for the game; other portions support the significant server maintenance and bandwidth costs. Paragoncity.com has an article on why MMORPGs have recurring fees [1]. In addition to paying subscription fees via credit card, another option is pre-paid cards that are available at video game retailers. Once purchased, the player inputs a code from the card and their account is updated to allow as many months of play as the card is good for.

As of March 2005 City of Heroes has around 150,000 subscribers worldwide (according to MMMGchart.com [2]).

City of Heroes - Payment options

• 1 month for $14.99
• 3 months for $41.85 ($13.95 per month)
• 6 months for $77.70 ($12.95 per month)
• 12 months for $143.40 ($11.95 per month)

• 1 month for €12.99
• 3 months for €34.99 (€11.66 per month)
• 6 month for €64.99 (€10.83 per month)

• 1 month for £8.99
• 3 months for £23.99 (£7.99 per month)
• 6 months for £44.99 (£7.49 per month)

City of Heroes - Beyond the computer

City of Heroes - The comic book

North American subscribers to the game receive the City of Heroes monthly comic book in the mail; it is also available in some comic book stores. The comic follows the adventures of fictional Paragon City heroes and ties into the game's plot development at times, as well as featuring a section devoted to fan art, fan fiction, and other miscellany in the back. At times, this rear section has also included comic strips by Scott Kurtz of the PvP webcomic and Tim Buckley of the Ctrl Alt Del webcomic.

The comic's first volume ran 12 issues from May 2004 to April 2005. It was written by one of the game's designers, Rick Dakan, art was by Brandon McKinney and coloring was by Moose Bauman. It followed the story of the heroes Apex, War Witch, and Horus, who were virtually unmentioned in the game until Issue #5, where War Witch is a trainer in Croatoa.

Beginning with the May 2005 issue, the comic book is published by Top Cow Productions, written by noted comic book writer Mark Waid, and illustrated by newcomer David Nakayama. Unlike the previous volume, this series will follow the adventures of the city's most illustrious supergroup, the Freedom Phalanx led by The Statesman.

Mark Waid wrote the first three issues of the new Top Cow comic.Starting with issue four, Troy Hickman (who received Eisner Award nominations for Best Short Story and Best Anthology for his Common Grounds comic from Top Cow Productions) wrote a three-issue story arc entitled Smoke and Mirrors. This was followed up by Dan Jurgens, who wrote the next three-issue arc named Bloodlines.

City of Heroes - The Novels

The first of the City of Heroes novels City of Heroes: The Web of Arachnos, by Robert Weinberg, was released on October 17, 2005. It features the back stories of the most prolific characters of the City of Heroes and City of Villains franchise, The Statesman and Lord Recluse. The second novel City of Heroes: The Freedom Phalanx, by Robin D. Laws will feature the history of the title characters, the Freedom Phalanx; Sister Psyche, Manticore, Positron and others is slated for release in April of 2006. The third novel "The Rikti War" by Paul S. Kemp will be out August 2006.

City of Heroes - Collectible card game

A recent 16 March 2005 press release announced Alderac Entertainment Group, maker of several collectible card games including Legend of the Five Rings, has been chosen to release a City of Heroes CCG.

City of Heroes - Role-playing game

In another press release, Eden Studios, makers of RPGs based on Army of Darkness and Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchises, have been tapped to produce a tabletop role-playing game for City of Heroes. It will be based on Eden Studio's Unisystem rules and the core book will be called Registration Manual. Other supplements (Paragon City source book, Monitor's Support Pack, Super-powered Operative's Dossier, etc.) will follow.

City of Heroes - Suit by Marvel

In November 2004, Marvel Comics filed a lawsuit against City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios and publisher NCSoft alleging that the game not only allows, but actively promotes, the creation of characters whose copyrights and trademarks are owned by Marvel, and that Cryptic has intentionally failed to police these infringing characters. The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to force the companies to stop making use of its characters.

Some have noted that Cryptic already includes in its end-user license agreement (EULA) language forbidding the creation of copyrighted characters and has been known to delete or rename such characters. Others have pointed out that the EULA also includes a clause which gives ownership of created characters to Cryptic.

Cryptic has replied that the lawsuit is frivolous. Many intellectual property analysts agree, but others have noted that trademark law is structured such that if Marvel believes their properties are being infringed upon, they have little choice but to file a lawsuit, regardless of its outcome. At least one has noted similarities to Fonovisa, Inc. v. Cherry Auction, Inc., a case in which a company that ran a flea market was successfully sued over intellectual property infringement because a vendor had been selling bootlegged records at that flea market. Although Cherry Auction had not been directly selling the infringing items, the court found that it was vicariously or contributorally liable for the infringement.

As of December 14, 2005 all claims have been settled. Although the settlement has not been disclosed no changes will be made to the City of Heroes client. [3]

It should be noted that Time-Warner, owner of DC Comics see the CoH franchise as something which could promote the sales of its comics and doesn't consider the game to be a threat of any kind.

City of Heroes - Communities

Many on-line communities exist for the discussion of City of Heroes. Some prominent ones include:

City of Heroes - Official forums

The official Internet forum for City of Heroes is the web board found at boards.cityofheroes.com. This web board is run by Cryptic and NCSoft themselves, and frequented by various developers and customer service representatives (referred to by site regulars as "red names" because their usernames are highlighted in red on their forum posts) as well as players. There are forums devoted to announcements, general issues, player guides, questions, suggestions, each archetype, each of the eleven game servers, City of Villains, and other topics. Currently, the primary forum moderator is CuppaJo.

The value of this forum to the average player is a matter of debate. Some find the presence of the developers, and their willingness to interact with and answer questions from players, to be laudable—especially in comparison to other MMORPGs, which tend not to have this type of developer availability. However, there is also a very vocal faction of disgruntled gamers that produce flamewars and complaints which can cause would-be participants to stay away. Reportedly only about 5% of the game's player base actually participates in these boards.

The official web board is moderated to remove extreme antisocial behavior, discussion of client modification (such as map patches, skin modifications, or disabling certain sounds) prohibited by the EULA, and discussion of moderator decisions.

The European version of City of Heroes has its own separate official web board.

City of Heroes - Fan Sites

Numerous City of Heroes fan sites exist with a wide variety of formats and purposes, including roleplaying sites and informational sites. NCsoft maintains a City of Heroes fan site portal on its official site. Any person may create a fan site and submit it to NCsoft for publication on the portal, pending review to ensure that the site meets with the guidelines for a fan site submission. Fan sites listed on the portal are periodically reviewed by NCsoft to ensure that they are up and maintained.

City of Heroes - LiveJournal communities

Over sixty communities on the LiveJournal weblog site list City of Heroes as one of their interests. Most of these are communities devoted to specific supergroups or servers.

The LiveJournal community for general discussion of City of Heroes-related issues is city_of_heroes. A variety of matters are discussed here in an informal setting, including discussions prohibited on the official forum. Flamewars seldom occur.

City of Heroes - alt.games.coh

alt.games.coh is a low-traffic USENET newsgroup where City of Heroes is discussed. As with any USENET group, flamewars can and do occur, sometimes lasting for days, but they are relatively seldom. As an alt.* hierarchy group, alt.games.coh may not be available from some news servers.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "City of Heroes", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki