City of Heroes: Encyclopedia II - City of Heroes - Character creation

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.

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