Freedom's LeagueFreedom's League is a Supergroup founded by Cptn Freedom in 2005. Originally intended to an American patriotically themed SG, that idea was quickly abandoned due to lack ofappropriately themed toons. Ampmclerk was one of the original recuits, and when Cptn Freedom took a leave of absence, leadership of the group passed to him. Since then the base has grown into a fully functioning locale and I,Cptn Freedom, am proud to follow the leadership ofAmpmclerk, a truly dedicated player and hero. Come joinFreedom's League in the quest for peace in Paragon!
Four years.
I will say that again in case you misread it.
I am pleased beyond all belief that this game continues to prosper four years into its life. Our community is stronger than ever, the game as a whole is stronger than it ever has been, and the future for the game, as well as the franchise is extremely bright.
When I look back upon the game that we shipped in 2004, I can’t help but look at all the things that were missing from it. Things we added immediately, and things we added recently. Badges were not in the initial launch. Heck, level 41 to 50 were not shipped with City of Heroes! As the game has progressed, I think we have added more free features with our updates than any other MMO on the planet. Multiple zones, missions, features and systems have been added to the base game over the past four years, making the game better and better with every update.
Every time I visit the Tailor in the game, I say to myself “Heh, I couldn’t even change my costume when City of Heroes launched.” Every time I Exemplar down to play content with my lower level friends, I note that this too was not a feature in the game four years ago. Now I actively seek out Inventions and Recipes both in missions and on the Black Market. The Invention System worked out very well for both City of Heroes and City of Villains, and was not part of the plan when we were finishing up CoH in the first quarter of 2004. Just over this last six months we’ve also added our Ouroboros Flashback System, Weapon Customization, and more quality of life features than the game had ever seen (until Issue 12).
That’s not to say we haven’t been without our missteps. We’ve implemented a couple things imperfectly (Epic Archetypes and Enhancement Diversification come to mind), which caused a lot of headaches for us down the road. I can’t promise that we will never make mistakes, but I will say we will do our best to ensure that we don’t repeat them.
I can’t tell you how excited I am for our game’s future, and although we have some major announcements yet to be made, one of the things I can talk about is a feature that we are planning. Similar in concept to our character creator, it allows you, the players, to create missions and story arcs for your characters and others to participate in. You’ll be able to pick the map, villain group, and objectives, as well as write the dialog and any clues needed for the missions. When you are satisfied with it, you can upload it and have other players across all servers play it and rate it. Fame will come to the players whose stories rate the best overall. It is features like these that we never dreamed of including when we first shipped, but are excited to be able to offer players very soon.
In the end I just want to send out a thanks to all of the players of City of Heroes and City of Villains. Everyone, from the veterans who have been with this game since it launched (and even earlier for some beta testers!) to the users who just subscribed last week, have made this the most fun game to work on in my seventeen years in the industry. I look forward to reviewing our accomplishments this time next year when we celebrate our 5th anniversary!
- Lead Designer, Matt Miller (Positron)
To highlight the four years of City of Heroes gaming, we bring you some fun facts about the game.
Since City of Heroes launched:
Additional items of interest include:
Most Popular Origins Mutant (25%) Magic (24%) Natural (21%) Most Popular Archetypes Hero: Blaster Villain: Mastermind Most Popular Travel Powers Fly (34%) Super Jump (30%)
Most Traded Item (via Consignment House) Base Salvage: Alien Tech Salvage Most Wealthy Archetypes Heroes: Scrappers Villains: Brutes
JOIN THE MIDNIGHT SQUAD (LEVELS 10 - 20) The clandestine organization of mystics, scholars and mages, known only as the Midnight Squad, seeks to rebuild its numbers since the devastating assault of the Rikti Invasion. The Midnighters hold a secret that could bring the alien assault to an end, but without the help of the Heroes of Paragon City™ it will remain Lost forever.
NEW ROMAN-STYLE ZONE MAPS (LEVELS 35 - 50) The Midnighters hold many secrets within their walls, including a highly coveted Ouroboros crystal, enabling them to travel to the far reaches of time. There is a familiar threat in an ancient land and the Midnighters need the help of both Heroes and Villains to stop it. Players step foot upon the ancient land of the Roman Cimeroran Peninsula, where they battle deadly creatures, defend an ancient city and ultimately come face to face with the enemy of time itself. Throughout this journey players uncover the mysteries of power and the origins that guide them today.
UNLOCK ROMAN-STYLE ARMOR COSTUMES Through their accomplishments, players unlock the new Roman themed armor costume set.
Infiltrate the Arachnos organization from within! Upon reaching level 50, Villains unlock two new Epic Archetypes; Wolf Spiders and Blood Widows. They have their own unique storyline and missions, power combinations and costume sets. Branching powersets allow the Wolf Spider to specialize as either a Bane Spider or Crab Spider and the Blood Widow chooses from the Fortunata and Night Widow branches. Each brings with it unique costumes for your Arachnos duties, as well as your newfound role as a Destined One.
Using his newly built Resonance Manipulator, the Villain scientist known as Dr. Brainstorm™ has discovered a way to alter the energy strands which connect every Hero and Villain to their powers. This discovery has not only opened the door to new powers for his fellow Villains in the Rogue Isles™, but has also done the same for the Heroes of Paragon City ™! Specifically, new characters of almost every Hero and Villain archetype gain access to an additional primary and secondary powerset that they didn’t have access to previously. Details to come!
Significant changes have been made to the Hollows zone to make it more fun! NPC encounters have been rebalanced, including new spawns, new villain groups, mission door improvements, and a mobile hospital has been added to the entrance of the zone. Additionally, Meg Mason, a new contact, has been added to give out repeatable missions.
Cimerora Zone 1
Cimerora Zone 2
Roman-style Costumes
Epic Villain Costumes
Brute with Battleaxe
Plant Controller
Roman-themed Soldier
"XP Curve Smoothing" Q&A
with Matt “Positron” Miller
Q: Please tell us what exactly this XP Curve “Smoothing” means.
A: Well, the leveling speed “curve” looked like a jagged mountain slope more than a smooth line. There were some levels in City of Heroes and City of Villains that just took players longer to get through. This was due to a variety of reasons, mostly in the realm of available mission content. We have tried to add new content in those areas over the past few updates, but a stronger hand was needed in some of the real problem areas. We went in and, through data mining, determined how long characters “lived” (existed) at any given level. This pointed out exactly where our problem areas were and exactly how we could address them. In addition we did a near global increase to the XP earned for defeating enemies. This will have everyone leveling faster than previous issues.
Q: What made you decide to implement this?
A: Our players had legitimate complaints that certain levels acted like brick walls in developing their characters. We wanted to eliminate those walls wherever possible, and in the process speed up leveling for everyone.
Q: Does it fundamentally change anything about the game?
A: Definitely, players will see more progress on their XP bars in the same amount of play time they are used to. In addition, levels where they felt “stuck” should go by MUCH more quickly now.
Q: Are you concerned that this will allow players to level up too quickly now?
A: That’s always a concern, but we are always looking to add things for max-level characters to do to improve themselves. In addition, the Ouroboros (flashback) system allows players to go back and play content they may have missed, so even if they have outleveled a story arc or a badge-given mission they can go back and get it.
Q: When will this go live?
A: We expect this to be live before Valentine’s Day.
Q: Is there anything else that you want to say about this?
A: I am really excited about being able to bring this improvement to the players. This is nothing but a hugely positive step for the ‘City Of’ games.
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