Massively^™

City of Heroes community relations manager Alex 'Lighthouse' Von Minden doubles up as the editor for a new CoX Fanzine. The current issue is technically Issue 1, the former 'Issue 0' having been released as a preview issue, reproducing material from the Fan Submissions section of the Top Cow comic.

Issue 1 features a spectacular cover by Douglas Shuler, with Back Alley Brawler and Ghost Widow apparently on the same side for once. The background of Cimeroran soldiers can only mean they're among the many Heroes and Villains who've chosen to set aside their differences for long enough to help Imperious make the future safe. Ghost Widow's not looking too shabby for someone who's been dead at least three years, as Back Alley Brawler (the developer) would have liked to affirm.

It's a month and a half since City of Heroes Issue 12: Midnight Hour went live, and by now the developers will have been hard at work on Issue 13 for some time. While there has been little in the way of concrete information, over time the Developers have given out a multitude of hints and comments that have enabled us to put together a speculative look at some of the coming content. As we'll see, there's been a lot more hinted at concerning powers and game systems than new mission content or zones.

The safest bet for Issue 13 is the introduction of the Shields powerset, which Back Alley Brawler has described at length: 'Shields will be a defensive powerset, not an AT. They'll also be useable with any unarmed or right handed weapon powerset... because Shields require their own combat mode animations, they have to work with every attack power, every buff, debuff, hit reaction, pool power, ancillary power, and patron power that might be used while holding a shield out in front of you. So the bulk of work on Shields is just all the animations.' The bulk of those animations were completed with Issue 12, as many of the Cimeroran NPCs use shields. Since the NPC hero Blue Steel is famous for his shield, we'd be surprised not to see him play an active part in the game at last.

Back Alley Brawler of City of Heroes has made a brief but encouraging comment on the official forums, hinting strongly at a new piece of Powerset Proliferation in Issue 13. Villains who had complained of not having access to the funky new Nictus Sword have been reminded that they don't have the necessary sets 'yet'. Unless this is a cruel tease, this means Villains will be getting broadsword soon - and despite Back Alley Brawler's habit of turning into a shark when he visits the Test Server, we don't think he's that mean.

We already know that more Powerset Proliferation is coming in Issue 13, because Positron and Castle have told us it'll bring the villain equivalent of Empathy (which won't, of course, be called Empathy). Issue 13 is also an ideal time to give Villains the Broadsword set, as it should be bringing Shields, too. We've already learned that Shields will be a defensive powerset, usable with one-handed and unarmed sets; this opens up the possibility of Broadsword and Shield wielding Brutes, surely an obvious combination to go for. The Shield animations are now largely done, courtesy of the Roman NPCs in the Cimerora zone released with Issue 12, so we can't see any reason why they'd miss Issue 13.

After a tense week of mounting expectation, in which we waited for the promised big news to hit the City of Heroes multimedia forums, the Toyota Matrix Machinima Contest has just been announced. Contestants are asked to put together a video using City of Heroes and/or City of Villains, in which the theme is to be getting in touch with your dark side. After all, even heroes have a dark side of some sort, right? Videos have to be 2-4 minutes long and no more than 200 mb in size.

The Grand Prize is spectacular: 'A 2009 Model Year Toyota Matrix S model filled with a year subscription to "City of Heroes" and "City of Villains," an XBox 360, a Playstation 3, a Nintendo DS gaming console, and tons of super hero video games!' We know there's an ocean of talent out there, so we're anticipating some stellar entries from the CoX machinima crowd.

Details of the contest, along with full rules and regulations, are available at the official website.

This month's desktop wallpaper for City of Heroes recalls Issue 3, A Council of War. This was one of the most content-packed issues, bringing (among other features) the Striga Isle zone, the Hess Task Force (still a firm favorite) and the Kheldian epic archetypes. New Epic Power Pools were opened up for the regular ATs, and 'zone events' such as the Ghost Ship, the Clockwork Paladin and Lusca, the giant octopus of Independence Port, were added.

There was also a key change made to the game world itself, which excited controversy across the official forums and beyond. The Fifth Column villain group was replaced with the Council, an organisation very similar in powers but conspicuously lacking the Nazi background. As A Council of War coincided with the official European release of City of Heroes, some irate players reached a seemingly obvious conclusion: the Fifth Column had been removed due to 'political correctness'

A new patch has gone to the City of Heroes test server today. Courtesy of the European CoX forums, we've been able to take a look at the patch notes a little in advance. It's another round of fixes and tweaks, and we're particularly pleased to see the dual pistol wielding Lady Jane has been given a stern talking-to and instructed not to rush into combat like a maniac any more. The 48 month Veteran Reward pets are similarly non-suicidal - for real this time.

The controversial change, though, must surely be the adjustment of Total Focus: 'All player versions of Total Focus Disorient Magnitude reduced to 3.' For those who don't know, Total Focus is a double-handed overhead smash that previously dealt a Magnitude 4 disorient. That's one of the most powerful stun effects in the game, enough to send a boss staggering and temporarily helpless.

The first sign of the much-debated in game advertisements has now made it into City of Heroes. So far, there appears to be only one ad, a billboard-size poster advertising JETER CLUTCH sneakers. British players needn't worry about seeing this particular ad, as they won't be able to, whether they play on American servers or not. The ads are regionally targeted, so only those that are appropriate for a given audience will show up. We've not yet received any reports of what the UK players see instead, though some players have found a cached image of Statesman standing near a Union Flag.

Understandably, even though these ads are optional, not all players are happy with their presence in CoX. Immersion seems to be the main issue, so some players, led by Marcian Tobay of the City Scoop, have started a satirical thread to customize the sneaker ad for a super-powered audience. There are some funny entries, but you'd be hard pressed to match Zombie Man for sheer quality of snark.

The City of Heroes crew have fired up their travel powers to attend Comic Con, which runs from July 23rd to 27th in San Diego. The band of heroes in attendance includes Community Manager Alex 'Lighthouse' Von Minden, Community Co-Ordinator (and PvP enthusiast) Jill 'Ex Libris' Henderson, and developer Ray 'Blue Steel' Snyder, among others.

The big event of CoH's Comic Con is the Pocket D Jubilee, which has been scheduled for Saturday July 26th. You needn't be a City of Heroes subscriber to attend; all you need do is visit the booth and ask for a VIP Pass. The event is open to all Comic Con Attendees and City of Heroes subscribers that are 21+, have valid I.D. and have picked up a pass from the NCsoft booth. In the spirit of Pocket D, the interdimensional nightclub where heroes and villains can mingle in peace, the first thousand visitors to the booth also get a free drink ticket, one per person - again, provided they're 21 or older.

The VIP Pass will also unlock a special item in-game. NCsoft haven't yet announced what it is, but availability is limited to this one show only.

Jack 'Statesman Jackalope' Emmert is to be one of the Industry Guests of Honor at GenCon, to be held Aug. 14-17 in Indianapolis. Best known for his work on City of Heroes, in which he took over from original lead designer Rick Dakan, Jack is now the chief creative officer in the Cryptic team working on Champions Online.

Jack Emmert is definitely qualified to speak about iterative game design, as the City of Heroes design process featured no small number of clinkers that were identified as such by the player base, despite looking good at the design stage. Jack's self-deprecatingly frank about his early mistakes, and explains how he's learned from them: 'We assumed a player would get the mission, go into the instance, realize that he was facing a "boss," leave the mission, find a friend, and then tackle the "boss" together. I was pretty darn naïve back then.' Jack's willingness to engage with the player base had the unfortunate secondary effect of giving dissatisfied players an articulate target for their frustration. Even now, Jack is still remembered in some quarters as a sort of uber-bogeyman armed with a colossal nerf bat.

Enigmatic City of Heroes redname Ghost Falcon has drawn players' attention to an important point: the offer of two free character slots just for logging in won't last forever. When Issue 12: Midnight Hour went live, bringing with it the long-awaited code for additional purchaseable character slots, all players who logged in were able to claim two slots for free. Long-term players got even more, but everyone was granted at least two - which is conveniently just enough to start one Soldier of Arachnos VEAT and one Arachnos Widow.

The patch notes at the time explained that this wouldn't be a permanent offer, but some players may have overlooked this. As Ghost Falcon explains, 'Please note that the free two slots are only being given to "active" accounts that log into the game during this gift window. If your account is active, but you've never logged in, you're not getting your two free slots when the window closes.' The good news is that NCsoft hasn't yet specified a closing date for the window. Nonetheless, if you're thinking about coming back to CoX, or just pondering logging in for long enough to claim the freebies, now is a good time to do it.

'Forged a million years ago, black blade!' sang Blue Oyster Cult far too many years ago. They were, of course, rocking out over Elric of Melnibone's famous soul-drinking weapon, Stormbringer. Since the patch of June 17th, something not all that dissimilar to the moaning sword has now turned up in City of Heroes as a new broadsword option, without any announcement in the patch notes.

The Nictus Sword, as you can clearly see, manages to be both dark and shiny. A Nictus, for those who have yet to encounter them, is a form of evil Kheldian, a disembodied quasi-vampiric energy being.

The CoX servers went down today to apply the latest patch, which is mostly a collection of fixes. It's notable for the inclusion of a player-side means to address the sync bug, which we looked at late last week. By using the /sync command, players can now resynchronize their client with the server, putting an end to the 'deserted city' syndrome.

Unfortunately, the buff icon bug which has been hanging around for several weeks now is still not completely fixed. This bug messes up the display of little icons that indicate a given buff has been placed. Archetypes whose powersets include a lot of team buffs, such as Corruptors and Defenders, have found this especially frustrating.

There are three subjects guaranteed to cause multiple-page arguments on the CoX forums. (Four, if you count the old chestnut about how 'the Fifth Column were taken out of the game because of the European release', which doesn't seem to crop up any more since Issue 12, for some reason.) In short, these are:

• Why does everyone hate PLers, and what is so bad about power leveling anyway
• Defenders aren't Healers, and if you say they are, you are a noob (and should go back to WoW)
• Why do people send blind invites, I hate it (or alternatively, 'why do people get so worked up about blind invites, it's no big deal.')

Imagine it: you fasten the brooch on your cape, buckle on your piston boots, and stroll out of the door of your super base, only to find a deserted city before you. The City of Heroes - or Villains - is abandoned.The buildings are still standing, but there are no people. Familiar contacts are gone from their street corners. No pedestrians pass by and wave to you. Places that are usually abuzz with player chatter, like Atlas Park, are silent. Even the villains are gone. You are the only living thing anywhere in this desolate place.

It's not post-apocalyptic CoX, it's the result of a bug that has been around for a while, but has been cropping up a lot more with the last round of patches. The 'sync bug', as it is known, gets the client out of sync with the server. You can move around, but you can't interact with the other elements of the game world. It's spooky, and it's very frustrating.

The official forums are reporting that the Rikti are back, once again, to give the City of Heroes a general pounding. Lighthouse shares the sad news that the invasion will be taking place this weekend, and well into next week. Starting today and through to June 19th, random sorties of Rikti aliens can be expected throughout the Paragon City region.

Heroes interested in participating can find full details at the site. Essentially gameplay boils down to finding the biggest group of players in a given zone, and then hanging tough as the creeps from beyond the stars put the smackdown on your cape and cowl. If you do participate make sure to keep in mind what you need to kill in order to collect your badges. The world event can hand out a total of four, and no well-heeled Hero would go without his "Watchman" title.