NCsoft had much to show off at Memorabilia this year, headlined with an incredible City of Villains Collector’s Edition giveaway for the first 2,000 visitors each day! Live game demos were taking place on an hourly basis where we presented City of Heroes and Guild Wars to hundreds of excited visitors over the course of the weekend, with a few lucky attendees given free copies of our games!

Adding to the gloss of the occasion, our Guild Wars and City of Heroes models, Reyna and Ms Liberty, were also available throughout the weekend for photo opportunities! Our professional photographers took 53 pictures over the weekend, the proceeds of which were all given to the Everychild Charity.

Eight gaming PCs showing City of Heroes, Guild Wars and Lineage II found themselves waylaid by fans and first time players alike, eager to experience the games and, for a small donation to charity, obtain one of our sought after Starter Packs.

Last but certainly not least, Draw the World Together was present, with Kat Nicholson and Jason Cardy sketching all weekend for the pleasure of our fans and managing to raise over £1,000, again for the Everychild Charity!

The dust has finally settled on Memorabilia, and it was great to see everyone, fans and staff alike, all having a great time. We’d like to thank everyone who attended, and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

You’ve heard right - The Open Beta for Issue 13 is now available to all our City of Heroes and City of Villains players!

All you have to do is log on to the Training Room (Test Server), and voilà! For those of you who are not familiar with the process, please read this post on our official boards, it will explain everything you need to know to access the Training Room.

Also please keep in mind that this is a beta version, which means you might encounter bugs or other gameplay issues. We strongly encourage you to report them using the /bug command ingame, and we’ll be happy to collect any comments you might want to share with us on our official boards. Your feedback is very valuable to us!

Here is a quick recap of Issue 13 new features: http://eu.cityofheroes.com/game-guide/feature-updates/issue_13_power_and_responsibility/

Have fun!

We’re going to Memorabilia over the weekend of November 22nd and 23rd and will be hosting an NCsoft stand jam-packed with exciting events and giveaways! For fans of City of Heroes we’ll be giving away codes for the PPD Hardsuit costume, while Tabula Rasa players will be able to claim codes giving them a special Lumin pet! Not enough for you? We’re also giving away City of Villains Collector’s Editions to the first 2000 visitors arriving at the show each day!

Ms Liberty will be present on the Sunday to have heroic photos taken with fans, and the Guild Wars Ranger, Reyna, will be present on Saturday. Either way, come dressed in costume and get your photo taken with one of the ladies and you’ll be entered into a Costume Contest with the chance to win great prizes! The rules are simple: arrive in costume, get your photo taken, and give us your details. We’ll then judge the photos and contact the winners.

Once again we’ll be sharing our stand with an amazing team of artists from the Draw the World Together charity. Neil Edwards will be sketching over both days, joined by Kat Nicholson and Jason Cardy who will be colouring his artwork. In addition to this core team, Mike Collins will also be joining on Saturday!

We look forward to seeing you all there!

The latest Issue 13 Development Diary is from City of Heroes Senior Game Designer Bruce Harlick, entitled Designing the New Missions in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility. In the article, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how the new missions included in the coming free expansion, Issue 13, were designed.

If you are interested to know more about the man behind the missions, be sure to read Bruce Harlick’s Ask a Dev article.

Today, October 30th, 2008, NCsoft announced a partnership with TransGaming, Inc. to bring the award-winning City of Heroes franchise to the Apple® Macintosh® computer platform for the company’s western territories. The Mac version will be available for public beta testing with the release of the game’s thirteenth free expansion, Issue 13: Power and Responsibility this winter.  The official launch of the Macintosh version is planned to follow shortly thereafter via a special digital-only edition.

For more details, visit PlayNC to read the full press release.  Here’s an excerpt:

Players will soon be able to join the battle of good versus evil in the most popular comic book MMO on both the PC and Mac platforms…and in the same game world,” commented Brian Clayton, executive producer of City of Heroes for NCsoft West. “Given Mac’s fame as a platform for creative people and City of Heroes’ unprecedented character customization options, I think City of Heroes is a perfect fit for the Mac gaming community.

To discuss this announcement, please join us on the Official Forums. 

In a recent article, City of Heroes Lead Designer Matt “Positron” Miller, along with Senior Designer Floyd Grubb, talk with Gamezone.com about features of the coming free expansion, Issue 13: Power and Responsibility. Here’s a preview:

What other little goodies are you packing into Issue 13 that maybe you have not talked about yet?

We’ve done a lot of quality of life features, like revamping the Badge UI, or tweaking the locations of some NPCs. A good chunk of time was spent setting up this year’s Halloween event, and that is taking place on the Live servers right now! This year’s Holiday event features some new “ski runs” for players to try out in Pocket D.

Trick or Treating and Zombie Apocalypses’ not enough for you? Then enter into the Rogue Isles Death Race! Organised by community member Mother’s Love, the Rogue Isles Death Race will take place this Halloween, 31st October, with entrants needing to gather near Kalinda at 20:00 GMT (21:00 Europe) in preparation for a 21:00 GMT start. Participants will be expected to start with characters of level 1-4 and not have any of the exploration badges that will mark the route. After the race there will be a costume contest for Level 1 characters held near Kalinda. Both the race and Costume Contest have great prizes on offer, including PPD Hardsuit Costume Power codes!

You can find all the details and race rules here, and to discuss with your fellow Villains visit the race thread in the official forums. The organisers have also provided this handy guide to the route for the race.

The only question that remains is: will the race be run and won without interference from the Zombie Apocalypse?

As a special thank you to all City of Heroes and City of Villains players we’ve begun this year’s Halloween Event early! Now through November 2nd, enjoy the 2008 Halloween Event!

Zombies

These homely fellows seem to be literally rising from the ground beneath us and attacking heroes, villains and citizens without discrimination. Their taste in fashion is despicable, not to mention the flies and the smell! Be sure to have the zone event channel added to one of your chat tabs in-game to see the event notifications and take part in all the fun!

Badges, Temporary Costumes and Other Rewards

But know this! With new challenges come new rewards! All of last year’s trick or treating goodies are back this year. Heroes and Villains can collect Classical Costumes (and wear them) for Trick or Treating throughout the city. Badges will be available for those who collect the most Classical Costumes. It’s almost enough to make heroes and villains set their differences aside. Almost.

Old Enemies Return

Ravenwing Cabal’s Annah will be in Croatoa to explain more about some of the activities, as will Granny Beldam in Nerva Archipelago. 

Head over to our Movies section for the first look at the new powersets for Issue 13: Power and Responsibility.

If you’re not familiar with these coming new powersets, find out more information in our website Feature Updates section: Issue 13: Power and Responsibility.

In the newest Dev Diary, Game Designer Phil Zeleski explains the new Day Jobs system that will be introduced in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility. Day Jobs takes the concept of offline character progression to a new level, incorporating a variety of potential rewards and allowing players to add further depth to their character’s identity and back-story. Is your Hero a Banker when not out stopping crime, or maybe a simple Shop Keeper? Is your Villain an avid Clubber, or perhaps a Smuggler? Whatever you choose, Badges and Accolades await in addition to other bonuses!

Last month we asked you to pose some questions for Senior Designer Bruce Harlick. Bruce has selected a range of questions to answer, and we have them for you today on the Official Forums. Bruce answers questions on mission design, which super movie of the summer he preferred, future story direction and more! Make sure to drop by the forum thread to read the full Q&A and leave your comments ... and maybe a Redname suggestion.

Next up in the series is Senior Animator/VFX Artist, Chris “Back Alley Brawler” Bruce. To learn more about Chris and the particulars of his role in the City of Heroes dev team, exit the highway and follow the signs to the alleyways of the Developer’s Corner. Back Alley Brawler is ready to answer your questions, so make sure to leave yours in this thread before 21st October.

Issue 13: Power and Responsibility includes a whole host of new developments. Not only are there significant new features, but there is also ongoing development to the existing game. A big part of the game is the balance of all the Archetypes, their respective power sets and how they compare to each other. Maintaining a level of equity between everything is also a continual goal. In this article, NCsoft NorCal Senior Designer Floyd “Castle” Grubb gives us the scoop on some proposed powers changes that will be in testing with Issue 13.  Please keep in mind that there is still the entire testing and revision process to go through with these changes. The team is excited to see how these refinements stand up to player feedback, datamining, and the beta process!

Click here to read the article

City of Heroes Executive Producer Brian Clayton and Lead Designer Matt Miller have been busy talking to the press in the wake of the latest news about Issue 13 and Issue 14. They have provided Interviews with Massively.com and MMORPG.com talking about these recent developments with City of Heroes.

At Massively, you can find three separate interviews:

• Brian Clayton and Matt Miller on Power and Responsibility in City of Heroes
• A new era for PvP in City of Heroes
• Super Boosters and Beyond in City of Heroes

Meanwhile MMORPG.com present their City of Heroes Issue 13 Changes Interview.

This is to allow community-suggested improvements to the Mission Architect. Issue 13 will now be known as Issue 13: Power and Responsibility and will be launched this autumn, including all previously announced features - except Mission Architect - and more announced today.

The Mission Architect will now become the main feature for Issue 14: Architect, announced today. Issue 14 is currently scheduled to be launched in the first quarter 2009. In addition to the Mission Architect, Issue 14 will include other yet-to-be-announced features.

We’re not done yet! Matt ‘Positron’ Miller has put his fingers to the keyboard once more to explain the reasoning behind the decision to make this change and includes some of the newly announced features in Power and Responsibility, such as the Levelling Pact and Multiple Builds.

Super Booster I: Cyborg

City of Heroes Super Booster I: Cyborg includes an extensive costume set, three character emotes, four selectable auras that activate in combat mode and a special Cyborg “Self-Destruct” power.  This purchase enables these features for all characters on your game account

Click here for details.

Mini Booster: Temporary 30 Day Jetpack

Sometimes even super powered Heroes and Villains can use a lift.  City of Heroes Mini Booster: Temporary 30 Day Jetpack includes a jetpack travel power for all characters on the game account for 30 days, beginning at the time of purchase.  After 30 days the jetpack will no longer be include within each character’s selectable powers.

Click here for details.