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With the initial wave of discussion following the announcement of City of Heroes Issue 13: Architect beginning to die down, SI Radio pokes the fire with an interview from PAX. In the spotlight is Back Alley Brawler, aka CoX Senior Animator Christopher Bruce. The interview's not all that long, but fortunately interviewer Chris 'Chaotica' Carkner is on the ball and asks pertinent questions.

BaB ends forum speculation by explaining what Pain Domination will entail. This set, the villainous counterpart of the heroes' Empathy, is being tailored specifically in order to offer parallel benefits in zone PvP to what Empathy offers. It has long been a complaint of villains that they don't have anything comparable to Empathy's buffs when fighting in the level 20-30 PvP zone Siren's Call. Since it's received wisdom in some quarters that the developers not only hate PvP but hate Villains, we wonder what impact this latest announcement will have.

Not so long ago, City of Heroes players were treated to a preview of the upcoming Halloween Event, in which an unprecedented zombie apocalypse befell Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. Yesterday, the Test Server was host to a preview of this year's Winter Event: the ski chalet was opened up again, and if there's a better example of virtual coziness anywhere in MMOs, we're not sure what it is.

The main attraction this year is a new ski run. Unlike the slopes of previous years, this is a corkscrew nightmare that involves teleporters, geysers and jumps along the route. More like a toboggan run than a ski slope, it's great fun to hurtle down at breakneck speeds; badges are even available for beating preset times.

One of the most eagerly anticipated features of City of Heroes Issue 13: Architect is the Mission Maker, which will let players build their own story arcs for others to play through. There's been a torrent of speculation about what we will and won't be able to do. Now, lead CoX writer Joe 'Hero 1' Morrissey has given a brief question and answer session live from PAX, via the CoX Test Server.

Arriving in character as 'the Honoree', Joe proceeded to answer selected questions from the storm that followed his appearance, mostly in clipped Rikti dialect. An in-the-flesh presentation at PAX filled in some additional information. We were pleased to see that missions will indeed be more sophisticated than just radio missions with new text. Players will be 'able to customize existing heroes, villains and enemy groups with a dozen or so options, if not more at launch.' It will also be possible to include Archvillains and Heroes, though some of this content might need to be unlocked.

The only place where City of Heroes has 'raid content' anything like other MMORPGs is arguably the Hamidon, with the Rikti Mothership coming a close second. Originally a molecular biologist called Hamidon Pasalima, this horror underwent deliberate mutation to become a single cell of titanic size, which occasionally surfaces in the Hive zone heroside, and the Abyss zone on the villain end. Hamidon is considered to be the leader of the Devouring Earth faction.

Raids on the Hamidon used to be frequent, and were so predictable and easy that they became much more of a social gathering than a challenge. A major revamp to the encounter several Issues ago introduced new tactical challenges that made him much harder to defeat. Hamidon now had to be spawned, and the mitochondria had new powers that worked together in a frighteningly lethal synergy. Some blasts, for example, left characters unable to be healed for a period of time, a mechanic that had not been seen before - nor has it been seen since.

When City of Heroes Issue 12: Midnight Hour came out, it brought with it a new co-operative Task Force that many players thought was the best yet. Its popularity hasn't waned at all; there are still groups running it at all hours of the day.

We were pretty impressed, too. So we've visited Cimerora, signed up for the Task Force, and documented the result.

A word of warning first, though. This gallery is heavy on the spoilers. Most Task Forces don't contain twists or surprises: this one does. The Imperious TF contains one jaw-dropping reveal in particular, and we wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for anyone planning to run the Task Force themselves. If you're not planning to do so any time soon, or you aren't a CoX player, or you don't care about spoilers, then by all means continue!

With the announcment of City of Heroes Issue 13: Architect, we now have player-made missions to look forward to. The Mission Architect system will allow players to indulge their creativity, creating whole story arcs for other players to enjoy, some of which may even be selected as 'Dev's Choice'.

Michelle Travis, better known by her working handle Samuraiko, is living proof that players can create material that is every bit as stunning as what's officially on offer. In her most recent video, Michelle takes us back to where it all began, the pivotal moment in CoX history when Marcus Cole and Stefan Richter discovered the Well of the Furies. The video's been around for about a month, but with the current buzz about fan-made content, we figured it was well worth pointing it out.

We're sorry to say so, but this video is unofficial. Much though we'd like to, it can't be taken as evidence that there is an Incarnate epic origin or epic archetype coming up any time soon. But it's definitely worth watching, especially for new players who haven't yet learned the lore of how superpowers first came to be. Check it out after the break.

As the City of Heroes community fell upon and devoured the news of Issue 13: Architect like a pack of wild crack manatees, the developers occasionally ran out from under their desks to answer a question or two. The merits system in particular has been clarified, courtesy of Positron:

'Upon completing tasks in the game (Task Forces, Trials, etc.) you get an option of receiving Reward Merits instead of a normal reward. The number of merits is based on the difficulty of the mission, how long it takes to complete on average, etc. Thus things like the Katie Hannon TF have minimal merits associated with them, and things like the Shadow Shard Task Forces get bunches.'

This is, as we had suspected, a step to counterbalance the quick farming of Task Forces, not by nerfing them but by making the longer Task Forces worth doing. We'd like to see them made more interesting, too - some of the real marathons are very old now, dating back to launch and the first two Issues - but it's a step in the right direction.

The speculation that built up following Positron's haiku is over. NCsoft has announced its new free expansion for City of Heroes/Villains: Issue 13, Architect. The main focus is the Mission Architect feature, by which players can make missions for others to play through. Positron is emphatic that it won't be usable as a 'badging' or 'farming' system, and we're glad to see that.

There's also a real surprise, something which we've not seen as a feature in any other superhero game, current or planned: a Day Job system that allows offline character progression, so that your character can fill in the mild-mannered reporter hours (while you're offline) as well as the super-powered hero ones!

A newcomer to City of Heroes is bound to see some strange terminology flying about on the Broadcast and Help channels. After around level 30, many heroes develop an interest in something called a 'fast Katie'. No, it's not some legendary heroine of dubious virtue, nor a dietary supplement to burn calories. A Fast Katie is a high-speed run through a particular one of the game's Task Forces, polishing it off in minutes instead of hours.

The 'Cap run' is the City of Villains equivalent, a super-quick trolley dash through the Virgil Tarikoss Strike Force in Cap Au Diable. Although it takes slightly longer than a Fast Katie - and yes, this has been used as an argument that the CoX developers are biased in favor of heroes, believe it or not - it can still be done in approximately 30 minutes.

So what's the point? Why sprint to the end of a Task Force instead of taking your time and playing it 'properly'?

Confused? Stay with us. Matt 'Positron' Miller, lead developer of City of Heroes, loves to drop hints to the player base about coming content. Sometimes these hints come in the forums, and sometimes they get fed through the much-loved fan-made publication The City Scoop.

Back in Issue 11, a cryptic message from 'Silos' turned out to be a clue to Ouroboros content, while a hint for Issue 12 was in cipher form and had the forum uniting to try to crack it. We've also had anagrams that hinted at additional power trays. The guy puts the Riddler to shame.

Snow? In the dog days of fall? Sure -- if you're talking about snow that appears in a game world. Of course, today's One Shots doesn't show snow so much as a graphical glitch in CoX, but we think Jeff T. has a point. He writes: NCSoft always said weather was beyond the City of Heroes/Villains game engine. Obviously they weren't thinking laterally enough. Some of my game environment files became corrupt somehow, and so many of the maps failed to load. Result? Snow in Cap! You know, that fresh thin stuff that coats everything with a gleaming white coat. This was definitely a bug, but wouldn't it look great for the winter holidays?

We think it looks pretty cool -- and it would be extra fun if you could slip and slide over pockets of ice here and there like the Frostfire mission! If you have a screenshot of a glitch, strange graphics bug, or just a seasonal event you'd like to show off in your favorite game, send those our way! All you have to do is drop them into an email to oneshots AT massively.com, along with a quick description of what we're seeing. We'll do the rest!

Both the EU and US forums are home to excited speculation after the discovery of a curious new Invention Enhancement type listed in the City of Heroes Auction House. The drops aren't yet available in-game, but it's a fun quirk of the system that the Auction House listings tend to include everything in the current code, whether it's technically available yet or not. As with last year when Candy Canes showed up in a similar way, this new item set looks highly likely to be part of a coming CoX Winter Event.

With the significant-sounding name of 'Winter's Gift', the goodies are a set of three recipes for craftable enhancements, one of which is a whopping 20% resistance to Slow. What's even more interesting is that these are a brand new type of enhancement, Universal Travel, meaning they can be slotted into any travel power and will apply a contextually appropriate bonus: Fly powers increase in speed, Teleport powers increase in range, and so on.

Emotes add flavor to a game, and frequently add humor, too. Roleplayers especially appreciate them, as they allow characters to communicate other than through text alone. Practically all MMOs use emotes to some extent, and the addition of new ones is often that little extra bit of candy when a patch comes along; for example, Age of Conan will shortly be adding a male version of the female 'sexy dance'. The latest games appear to be taking emotes to new levels. Non-verbal communication is so important in Champions Online that characters will even be able to use facial expressions to convey emotion.

Some games have emotes specific to them that you won't find anywhere else. This blogger is especially fond of the City of Heroes 'alakazamreact' emote that lets you turn into a pumpkin temporatily. (It used to be indefinite, but the rumor is that people were using their pumpkinhood as an ambush technique in PvP, so it got nerfed.)

What are your favorite emotes from the MMOs you play? Are there any that really ought to be included, but aren't yet?

City of Heroes has a feature missing in some other games: a space to write your character's biography, or 'bio' as it is often called (not to be confused with the other meaning of bio, which causes characters to go afk in the middle of raids and the like, with fatal consequences). Some players ignore this altogether, or use it to write insightful comments like 'people actually write stuff here?' Others prepare touching or funny character histories.

Some, however - a gifted few - come up with that shining jewel of the CoX experience, the Incredibly Bad Character Bio. There are far too many players out there who take guilty pleasure in spotting them. On certain communities that we will not mention, the most spectacular examples are screengrabbed and posted for the amusement of others, with the relevant names blocked out, so as not to cause undue embarrasment.

This is not an exercise in elitism. Truly awful bios are a thing of beauty and a joy forever. But bad character bios don't just happen. There is an art to them. Let us give you some hints.

Not content with just a Myspace page, City of Heroes now has an official Facebook presence. Players from around the world can take advantage of this well-renowned social networking tool to share their enthusiasm for NCsoft's game of super-powered do-gooders and bad guys.

While this is excellent news, offering a connection point for players from diverse international communities, it can only whet players' appetite for the City Vault. This is the official online repository of player character data that was announced some time ago, but which we haven't heard much about for a while: it would 'allow you to search for characters by a number of different criteria, and then view those characters, including images of different costumes, powers, badges, friends, stats by zone and other fun information!'

For now, players will have to content themselves with all the networking possibilities of Facebook, which include staying up to date on coming CoX events and offers, as well as being able to pester the CoX team from a whole new angle.