City of Heroes Issue 16 now in open beta
by James Egan 
Aug 27th 2009 at 7:00PM
Filed under: Betas, Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, News items
We've been writing about the new level of customization coming to City of Heroes with Issue 16, but the time has come to jump in and check out the next content update for yourself. NCsoft announced that Issue 16 "Power Spectrum" is now in open beta.
If you're interested in checking out the ways you'll be able to extend that signature City of Heroes depth of avatar customization to your powers as well, see NCsoft's instructions on how to get into The Training Room (the City of Heroes test server) and you'll be tweaking the look of your Electric Armor and Psionic Assaults in no time.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Slaphead said on 10:50PM 8-27-2009
Yep, it's in open beta. If you happen to play on the US servers. The patch wasn't published on the EU test server for whatever reason.
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Denice Cook said on 12:08AM 8-28-2009
CoX's Issue 16 rocks beyond anything you can imagine power customization-wise, and it leaves Champions Online behind in the dust (as it does in every other way already). Dual tones and custom particle effects add to already amazing powerset graphics. Must be seen to be believed. The entire CoX world is wandering around in amazement on the test server right now. Why aren't you there?
I already renewed into 2010, even though I'm going to play Aion as well.
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Ruffianopatsu said on 9:57AM 8-28-2009
I'm a pretty big fan of CoX myself, but seriously, do you work for paragon studios.....
I16 is funny to me though, for years people have been asking for customization on powers, and they've always said "NO, not going to happen, it's not in the mechanics to do it, and we aren't going to change it!" Then Cryptic gets to make a comic game in their original image, and puts power customization in, and NCSoft/Paragon rushes to implement it.
Again, long time fan of CoX, but I think CO has potential to fully take CoX's place in my heart.
Adrian said on 10:16AM 8-28-2009
@Ruffianopatsu:
What they actually said back then was 'It's possible, but it's a huge amount of work and we can't justify doing it right now.'
All that changed, of course, when NCsoft bought CoX and there was a lot more money available. Things like the marketing survey suggested powers customization was coming, and the devs started dropping increasingly heavy hints. That was in 2008. They haven't rushed it out to compete with CO, they've been working on it for over a year now.
interitus said on 11:49AM 8-28-2009
Too little too late. They played with this idea and teased us with it for years. Now when their first major competition comes out they release it? No... way too late.. not interested.
Sam said on 1:56AM 8-28-2009
I like the i16 system enhancements and the one little PVE change they made (watch for areas where you normally see Council), but I'd like to see more done to its Power Customization. They've done a lot of work and it shows, but they could go further. I'd say that when you compare the two games in terms of power customization it sort of evens out. No power emination selection in COH, nor do all powers have the same number of options, but CO doesn't have alternate animations on any powers, nor alternate graphics like some of the COH powersets go.
I personally believe there needs to be complete divorce from appearance and powers - that'll be the ultimate in power customization. Let me choose a power for how it works, then choose animation, graphics used, then color tints. Neither game does this, but hopefully in time they both will.
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.jpg said on 2:02AM 8-28-2009
that sounds like a pretty tall order for an mmo. like too tall to be realistic at all. maybe try freedom force?
Sam said on 2:04AM 8-28-2009
Example (using COH terms): I pick Energy Bolt for how the power works (knockback), choose to use one of the Fire animations/eminations (maybe the one where you raise your hands over your head), make it look like an Ice Bolt, then color it sort of a green color (just because).
Sam said on 2:07AM 8-28-2009
Not especially. CO has the emination points, COH has alternate animations for some powers, and alternate graphics for others. It'll be easier for the ranged stuff than melee, though. Ideally it would be baked in from the get-go.
Tried Freedom Force years ago. There's a game that needs to be brought back :)
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mysecretid said on 2:53PM 8-28-2009
Freedom Force and its sequel are now available as downloads over on Steam for $5 US -- all tweaked up to run on modern systems.
Definitely worth a look for those who missed them the first time around. Presuming you can handle dealing with Steam, of course.
jerm said on 2:42PM 8-28-2009
COH is the most grindy and dull MMO I have ever played in my life. When I left a few months ago, literally all that people were doing was farming the same repetitive missions over and over in the mission architect builder. Lame! It doesn't matter what kind of shiny graphics or power customizations you can have when the game has devolved into something this uninspiring and repetitive.
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skyrous said on 10:39PM 8-28-2009
Power custimization isn't the only thing they've added. Probably even more importantly they've improved the sidekick/lackey system. It's the one thing EVERY MMO SHOULD HAVE! Yet nobody has ever followed COH's lead with this system. And now they've improved it:) Basically when you join a team your automatically set to the proper level for the mission. no pairing up with high level teammates you don't have to do anything at all. also if a high level is exemped down to a lower level team HE STILL GETS XP! and can use powers up to 5 levels above whatever level he's fighting at. Also because of this they've removed most level restrictions for most zones.
This effectively makes your level irrelevant for teaming You can bring any character you want to a team and not worry about having enough mentors. or being effective
Also now pets can cross zones with you! Masterminds are screaming hallelujah today. This also applies to controllers and dominators too!
So what else... You can access the arena screen from your menu.... you can block all emails that don't come from your friends.
I'm sure there's more things i haven't found yet, so far i've spent most of my time tinkering with the character creator and not so much in the game.