A few days ago the fine folks at Paragon Studios and NCSoft announced the next free expansion for City of Heroes, Issue 16: Power Spectrum. Here’s a rundown of the goods:
New Character Creator
Not only does the newly updated Character Creator allow players to jump directly between Archetype, Powersets, Costumes and Character ID in any order without losing progress, but it also allows you to select your colors and theme for each individual power or apply it to the entire powerset. These themes will allow for color tinting of geometry and particle effects such as energy blast colors and force field colors. The primary and secondary colors of any power effect can be changed individually for each power in the set.
This feature sounds great. I’ve often ended up scrapping whole character concepts when I stumble upon a costume design I think would be great for another concept. Now, I’ll be able to change details at will.
Blue fire imps!
Customizable Powers
Customizable powersets include Cold Domination, Dark Armor, Dark Blast, Dark Melee, Dark Miasma, Earth Control, Earth Melee, Electric Armor, Electric Assault, Electric Blast, Electric Melee, Electricity Manipulation, Empathy, Energy Assault, Energy Aura, Energy Blast, Energy Manipulation, Energy Melee, Fiery Aura, Fire Assault, Fire Blast, Fire Control, Fire Manipulation, Fire Melee, Force Field, Gravity Control, Ice Armor, Ice Assault, Ice Blast, Ice Control, Ice Manipulation, Ice Melee, Illusion, Invulnerability, Kinetics, Mental Manipulation, Mind Control, Necromancy, Plant Control, Psionic Assault, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Radiation Emission, Regeneration, Sonic Resonance, Sonic Blast, Spines, Stone Armor, Storm Summoning, Super Reflexes, Thermal Radiation, Thorny Assault and Willpower.Super Strength and Martial Arts will each receive an alternate animation for their powers, and Stone Armor and Necromancy will include limited customization.
This one’s a big deal. Players have been asking for this for years, and were told it couldn’t be done. I’m not sure what happened to change that, and I don’t much care. Being able to change the color of fire that your character emits is a great feature.
Other Issue 16 Features
- Powerset Proliferation – More powersets are now in the hands of Archetypes who couldn’t use them previously! Blasters will have access to Radiation Blast, Brutes will get their Claws on, Controllers can now freeze it up with Cold Domination, and Corruptors get to feel the “twang” of Archery and Trick Arrow. Defenders can go high-tech with Assault Rifle and Traps, and Dominators can pulverize their enemies with Earth Assault. Masterminds heat things up with Thermal Radiation, Scrappers and Tankers get ready to fry their foes with Electric Melee and Electric Armor, and finally Stalkers get to swing their own mighty Broadsword.
- Enhanced Difficulty Options – Players can now fine-tune their difficulty levels by telling the game exactly how they want to be treated. They can choose to be regarded as a specific size team (even if they are soloing), and even have control over the level they are detected to be when it comes to the dynamic spawn system. So if you ever wanted to see if your Scrapper could take on a map that is populated for an 8 person team, four levels higher than your own, now you can! The difficulty settings of the mission owner dictate how the mission is handled, just as before, and you can change your difficulty settings at any Hero Corp.’s Representative in Paragon City or Fateweaver in the Rogue Isles.
I don’t care about the enhanced difficulty at this point, but I’m loving the power proliferation. Finally, I’ll be able to make an all electric scrapper!
Going Rogue Character Profiles
The upcoming City of Heroes: Going Rogue expansion will introduce some new characters to the overall lore of the game. Here are a couple of the profiles available. I’ve highlighted specific details of interest. Click the links for more details.
MAELSTROM
Secret Identity: Edward “Eddie” Polstra
Origin: Mercenary Super-powered Soldier
Affiliations: Former United States Marine, Praetorian Guard
Archetype: Blaster
Powersets: Dual Pistols / Energy
Height: 6′3″
Weight: 210 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Distinguishing Marks: Maelstrom Power Core on his chestOverview: The son of a soldier who was Killed in Action, Eddie Polstra found himself destined to live in the shadow of his father. He entered the military at the earliest convienence and never had a problem accepting the orders of a superior officer. His loyalty and devotion (as well as the connections his father had before he was killed) saw Eddie promoted into a super-secret black ops division of the military. His loyalty never wavered and his devotion was only strengthened with every off-the-books mission he performed. That is until the one day he was captured and disavowed by the very government that he swore to uphold.
Dual Pistols! Finally!
DESDEMONA
Secret Identity: Eve Salvatore
Origin: Magic
Affiliations: Arachnos
Archetype: Mastermind
Powersets: Demon Summoning / Darkness
Height: 5′7″
Weight: 120 lbs
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: Black
Distinguishing Marks: Tattoos around her neckOverview: The daughter of the original Desdemona, Eve Salvatore was destined to take up her mother’s persona and pursue a life of crime. Hers is a life of choices, and even the Arachnos Fortunatas can’t predict her destiny accurately. As a demon summoning Mastermind she has the power to bend the wills of infernal entities to that of her own, a power that she has used to great effect in ridding the world of anyone who dared stand in her way. But then she encountered Statesman; the man she blamed for the death of her mother. She was given yet another choice, one that would either cause her to question her loyalties, or firmly establish her on a road to tyranny and destruction.
Demon Summoning would be new for Masterminds. Is Darkness the same as Dark Miasma or something completely different?
And finally, Super-Booster III: Superscience has gone on sale!
I bought mine already. You get a handful of new, scientific themed costume pieces, some new emotes, and some new costume change animations. Best of all is the Super-Tailor that allows you to change physical builds and scales for each costume slot! I took advantage of it right away and gave my giant dragon a smaller human form. I even created a keybind that uses one of the costume change animations when I switch.
