Issue 17 Overview

As per this updated page:

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

With the release of April's Issue 17: Dark Mirror, the newest free update of City of Heroes®, the game you love now has the visual depth, contrast, and richness it deserves! Dark Mirror includes a superior graphics rendering process, dubbed "Ultra Mode," that gives City of Heroes a heightened level of detail in lighting, reflections, shadows, and water effects. Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™ have never looked better.

In addition to Ultra Mode, as part of Issue 17, you will confront a new and nefarious foe who will be able to match your character blow for blow.

Other Issue 17: Dark Mirror features include:

• Epic archetypes are now unlocked at level 20.
• Animated character tails.
• New missions, new badges, and new player emotes.
• Quality of life enhancements to the UI and game systems.
• Improvements and additions to Mission Architect.

Features

Ultra Mode

Ultra Mode includes a superior graphics rendering process for players who have higher-end graphic cards. Each feature can be enabled or disabled in the graphics menu options and will be scalable. Ultra Mode works on both Macs and PCs. In specific, it offers dynamic shadows, screen-space ambient occlusion, and dynamic environment reflections (including planar reflections and environment mapping of reflective surfaces).

Epic Archetypes Unlocked at Level 20

Previously, you had to have at least one character at level 50 to make an epic archetype character. No more! Now you can create an epic archetype character as long as you have any one character at level 20 or higher.

Animated Tails

No more tails lying about like dead weight! You will now be able to select tail body parts that will react to your movement and have a swaying or swishing idle animation mode. You will need to go to a tailor to upgrade to the animated version.

Content

New Story Arcs: Issue 17: Dark Mirror features two new Hero and two new Villain story arcs for levels 20-30. Each of these story arcs has four missions, and the story arcs highlight the Dark Mirror's sinister new enemy. Acquire first Hero story arc in Talos Island, and the first Villain arc in Sharkhead Isle.

Silver Mantis Strike Force Update: The Silver Mantis Strike Force will now be available to all Villains, not just supergroups. You now can access the Silver Mantis Strike Force via Silver Mantis, located in Sharkhead Isle. You can also run this Task Force from your supergroup computer.

Positron Task Force Update: This Task Force has been split into two halves and dramatically upgraded and updated to ramp up the fun. The final battle of the Task Force takes place in the Faultline Dam and incorporates the new Dark Mirror enemy.

New Badges: Along with adding badges for 500 Badges Earned, 750 Badges Earned, and 1,000 Badges Earned, we are adding new exploration badges to city zones, almost doubling the number of exploration badges. You can learn new Accolades for finding all of the exploration badges in each city zone.

New Player Emotes: We'll let you know more about the new emotes soon.

Quality of Life Improvements

Craftable Temporary Powers: You will now have a much cleaner and more consistent way of finding and crafting temporary powers.

Increased Mission Count: You can now have seven active missions (previously three).

Show Last Objective: This UI improvement lets you find your last objective on a mission map, making it easier to find something you've missed.

Auction House: The UI gives you new options for sorting search results, your Auction House inventory is now separated by clearly marked tabs based on the item's status, the Auction House text entry box now autocompletes, and a single click on a recipe displays all salvage needed for that recipe.

In-Game E-mail: You can now use in-game e-mails to send Influence/Infamy to your own characters or to other players' characters via in-game e-mails. (You still cannot send Influence, Infamy, or items from a Hero to a Villain or vice versa.)

Mission Architect Improvements

Experience: You can now handpick the powers for custom enemies and still receive experience for them (within game balance limits).

New Maps: We have added approximately 20 new unique maps.

Giant Monsters: You can now add giant monsters to some outdoor maps.

Exit Mission on Complete: You can now specify that players have to leave the mission manually on completion.

Escort Missions: "Lead to place" technology allows you more control over escort objectives."

Going Rogue Pre-PURCHASE Details

As per this post:

"There have been a lot of questions about the City of Heroes® Going Rogue prepurchase program, the Complete Collection and the Item Pack. We’d like to take a moment and try to clarify this for all of you.

There are two different ways to get the City of Heroes Going Rogue expansion: as a separate expansion, or as part of the Complete Collection.

The separate City of Heroes Going Rogue expansion costs $29.99 (€19.99 / £17.99) and requires you to already have City of Heroes. The separate expansion doesn’t include game time, so you must be an active subscriber to play. The separate expansion does not include the Complete Collection Item Pack. The separate expansion will only be available digitally, and will be available for prepurchase starting in March (see below for more information on what you get from prepurchasing this separate expansion).

The City of Heroes Going Rogue: Complete Collection costs $39.99 (€29.99 / £26.99) and includes City of Heroes Going Rogue as well as City of Heroes, City of Villains, 30 days of game time, and the Complete Collection Item Pack. With the game time and previous expansions included, it is ideal for those who are new to City of Heroes franchise (perhaps as a gift!), but also a good value for players not interested in prepurchasing. The Complete Collection will be available both digitally and at retail (in North America) starting in July and cannot be prepurchased (only the separate expansion can be prepurchased).

Starting at launch in July, players who prepurchased or bought just the separate City of Heroes Going Rogue expansion will be able to upgrade to the Complete Collection. The upgrade will include the Complete Collection Item Pack, but it won’t include any game time.

Prepurchase

Only the separate City of Heroes Going Rogue expansion will be available for prepurchase. The Complete Collection will not be available for prepurchase, nor are there any incentives for preordering it at retail.

Prepurchasing the separate City of Heroes Going Rogue expansion will give you early access to the Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning power sets. Dual Pistols will be available immediately once the prepurchase program starts in early March. Demon Summoning will become available starting in April. You will get both power sets early if you prepurchase.

Complete Collection Item Pack

For those who prepurchase the separate City of Heroes Going Rogue expansion, but also want the Complete Collection Item Pack, starting on launch day in July, we will offer an upgrade to the Complete Collection. The upgrade will include the Complete Collection Item Pack but will not include any game time. The pricing for the upgrade hasn’t been set yet.

We hope this clears the majority of your questions up"

Aion

Well guys, I have tried Aion and I have to say I do enjoy. It seems like a perfect blend. Graphically it destroys WoW and has the beauty of the Final Fantasy games. Story wise it could use some work, but over all much better than a lot of games out there.

I just reached level 10. So far that looks to be when you get your "wings" literally. The weapons are customizable and the character creation screen is great. It is missing some features such as costume design, but it really does not hurt the game. What features it does have would be great if CoH would use them. Things like changing the size of hands and feet, arms and legs....even the size of the neck.

Check it out. Aion Forums

Double XP and Re-activation Weekend!

"Get excited because one of your favorite times of the year is quickly approaching - Double XP Weekend! All the fun begins on March 4th!

What is a Double Experience Weekend? It's a three day stretch of time during which all participating Hero and Villain characters receive double the XP, Influence, and Infamy for their accomplishments in game. All you have to do is log in and take advantage of this opportunity to level up your favorite characters twice as quickly as normal! And if you pre-purchase Going Rogue, you'll be able to take advantage of all that Double XP has to offer while wielding the Dual Pistols power set!

But it doesn't end there. We're also having an Account Reactivation at the same time! This means that all inactive accounts in good standing will be re-activated free of charge and given access to City of Heroes and City of Villains® during Double XP weekend! So grab your friends and loved ones and get them back into the game so that you can play and rack-up the phat loot together!

If you or any of your friends haven't played in a while, visit the City of Heroes Website for all the latest game news. Download the PC game client or the Mac game client, or visit our official message forums for a wealth of other information.

• Double XP and Re-activation Weekend Start: Thursday, March 4th at 8:59am Pacific Time (11:59am Eastern Time / 8:59am GMT / 9:59 Central European Time)
  
• Double XP and Re-activation Weekend End: Sunday, March 7th at 11:59pm Pacific (2:59am Eastern Time / 11:59pm GMT / 0:59 Central European Time)

Please note: if your account expires after the reactivation weekend has started, it will not get automatically reactivated. To participate in the Double XP Weekend, you will need to reactivate your account via the usual method. Please check our Knowledge Base (European Knowledge Base available here) for more information on how to reactivate your game account.

We hope you take advantage of all the advantages a Double XP/Reactivation Weekend has to offer! Enjoy and have fun...see you in-game on March 4th!"

Issue 17: Dark Mirror Announced

Via MMORPG

"NCsoft has announced today that players can look forward to Issue 17, which has been titled "Dark Mirror," this April! Most players expected to find the new graphical updates featured in Going Rogue with the release of the upcoming expansion, however, it appears that the previously announced "Ultra Mode" will make it in with Issue 17!

Ultra Mode is an optional enhancement mode, enabling players that have the hardware to take advantage of the new bells and whistles to do so, without disturbing the game for those still running City of Heroes on their toasters. The mode will enhance the game with a "a new look and feel with a heightened level of detail in lighting, reflections, shadows and water effects."

Issue 17 will also introduce a "new and nefarious foe" that will be able to match players "blow for blow." (edit: Confirmed by War Witch not to be a Nemesis system) Given the Issue's title, I'm guessing it will be your doppelganger, but for now Paragon Studios isn't saying anything more than that.

A short rundown of the issues other features is available below:

* New badges, new missions and new player emotes
* Epic Archetypes now available at level 20
* Improvements and additions to Mission Architect
* Enhancements to UI and game systems
* And dozens more

Was all that not exciting enough? How about the fact that beginning on March 2nd, those who pre-order Going Rogue will receive early access to the expansion's two new powersets, Dual Pistols, and Demon Summoning in April?!

The Going Rogue "Complete Edition" has also been announced, featuring both City of Heroes & City of Villains, 30 days of game time, and the "Complete Collection Item Pack," which contains Alpha and Omega costume sets and auras, four stance emotes, and The Shadowy Presence invisibility power.

The Going Rogue beta will begin this Spring, with the expansion's full release expected in July."

Head over to the original article for some wicked screen shots!

Update!: The main site has been updated with more info HERE! Including pricing on both Going Rogue (MSRP $29.99) and the Going Rogue: Complete Collection (MSRP $39.99)! Woo-Hoo! Now I just need to find out where to and when to pre-order!

Sorry about all the red highlights... I'm just so excited! WHEEEE!!!!!

Aquaman's Lament