“This is a very social MMOG [massively multiplayer online game],” remarks lead designer Matt “Positron” Miller. “We have a very friendly and helpful community who even run their own newspaper, the City Scoop, that reports on the game, both in-game and out.”
He adds: “We also have a great character generator. I’ve known people to play around with the costume creator for hours before even stepping foot into the game. Other MMOGs start you off in a standard set of clothes that you can maybe color, and then you have to find or buy the rest. City of Heroes gives you literally billions of possible combinations of costume pieces from the start.
A Popular Place to Meet. Characters gather under the statue of Atlas, who was one of Paragon’s earliest heroes.
“Comic books have covered a lot of cool themes, and we try to do the same thing, but translated into game terms for the players.”
- Matt “Positron” Miller, lead designer
“Millions of characters have been created, and just when I thought I couldn’t see anything new or original, someone turns around and uses our costume parts and colors in a way I never imagined.”
With Great Power Comes…
Your new hero or villain begins her career in Paragon City or the Rogue Isles. (To learn more about the history of both places, see “Origin Issue”) As you explore the world, accept missions from NPCs (non-player characters) and visit trainers to improve your powers — just as you have wide-ranging options for customizing your character’s look, you can choose from many different paths when developing her abilities.
It’s Raining Rocks. A heroine uses all her powers against the enemy.
If you’ve read even a few superhero comic books, you’ll probably be tempted to emulate your favorite character. Miller and the rest of the development team know how you feel. “My influences started out very Marvel-centric, but once I started working on City of Heroes, I started reading some DC books,” he recalls. “Comic books have covered a lot of cool themes, and we try to do the same thing, but translated into game terms for the players.
“Take our Sidekick feature, for example. It allows a character who is lower level to actually fight at almost the same level as the character they’re sidekicked to, so players who have characters with radically different levels can still play together. You’ve got numerous examples of that dynamic in comic books.”
A Bit of This and That From the Marvel Pantheon... Many players like to mimic the look of well-known superheroes.
Collect the Whole Series
NCsoft also took a cue from comic books by calling its expansion packs “issues,” complete with numbers and titles. Each one grows the game world with new features, including zones to explore, NPCs and storylines, powers and items, and more. Three to four are scheduled each year — the latest one, issue 13 (“Power and Responsibility”), introduced several improvements, including day jobs, which grant your character bonuses even when you’re logged off.
Game Hardware
Check out our systems for your best gaming experience.
- Site: City of Heroes Architect Edition
- Publisher: NCsoft
- Developer: TransGaming, Inc.
- Genre: Role-Playing Game
Architect Edition
The City of Heroes Architect Edition introduces user created content. Players can design their own missions and story arcs to share with the entire City of Heroes community. They also have their choice between two exclusive in-game item packs, the Cyborg Pack or the Magic Pack.
“Millions of characters have been created, and just when I thought I couldn’t see anything new or original, someone turns around and uses our costume parts and colors in a way I never imagined.”
- Matt “Positron” Miller, lead designer
When you install issue number 14 (“Architect”), you’ll have access to the new Mission Architect system, which Miller says “will allow our collective community to create more content than we ever could. We know we have a lot of creative players out there, and not only do we think that they will enjoy using this robust set of tools, but they will want to share their creations with other players.”
Do the Robot Dance. Heroes battle a Kronos Class Titan that works for the shadowy Malta Group.
Miller expects the results to enthrall him, based on previous experience. “Players have the ability to build bases, and I’ve seen some that simply blew me away,” he notes. “One Halloween we had someone make a maze in their base, like a cornfield maze. It was amazing — oh, bad pun, I know — although when the Mission Architect feature comes, I anticipate a whole new level of awesomeness to come out of our very creative players.”
He adds that the Mission Architect stories you write will be distinct from the game’s storyline, “unless we the developers want it to be part of the official canon. That’s the ultimate goal for any mission writer: Make a story so good and so fitting in the City of Heroes universe that it becomes part of the game lore itself.”
”Literally Billions of Possible Combinations.” Or you can click “Random.” That works quite well too.
The Intersection of Shady Place and Sunny Place
Like many comic book universes, City of Heroes is set in a world similar to ours, but with key differences, aside from the presence of super-powered people. “We explore the gamut when it comes to our story arcs,” Miller observes. “There are storylines involving corrupt corporations, and how your hero attempts to deal with something he or she knows is rotten, but the rest of the world is oblivious.
“We even have a psychotic Prussian prince who has attempted to take over the world since the 1800s. And he even succeeded in taking over Washington, D.C. for a short while in the early 20th century.”
The character in question is a supervillain known as Nemesis, who you’ll encounter eventually. As hero characters are told: “He works with plans inside plans inside plans.” Whether you play as a hero or a villain, you’ll soon discover that Nemesis is not alone: the game’s many factions have varied goals. Sometimes the curved lines of those yin-yang relationships blur, and you’ll need to figure out whether you reside in the shady place or the sunny place. May your powers guide you true.
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