http://www.cityofheroes.com/game_update12.html


The Midnight Squad
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.



Villain Epic Archetypes
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.



Powerset Proliferation
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!



Hollows Zone "Gameplay Makeover"
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.



Major Gameplay Improvements
Eight configurable new power trays let players customize their User Interface by placing them anywhere on the screen.
Contact display redesign: Contacts are now listed separately as Active and Inactive, and players can sort contacts by a range of criteria including Name, Zone, and Level Range.
Inspiration Conversion: Right click an inspiration to convert three of that kind into any one inspiration of another kind.
Level Up Boost: Upon reaching enough XP to level up (at all levels), one of each type of large inspiration is immediately cast upon your character, and health and endurance bars are immediately filled.
Chat improvements: Right click on character names in chat window to ignore, add to friends list, invite to team, etc. Drag any item (enhancement, inspiration, salvage, etc.) into the chat window so that you and others can click a hotlink to view the complete info box.
More Real Numbers: Players can now display stats on powers before they choose them enabling more informed power selection and new temporary powers allow players to display enemy stats.

Update - The new powersets are:

Blaster
New Primary - Psychic Blast
New Secondary - Mental Manipulation

Corruptor
New Primary - Electrical Blast
New Secondary - Storm Summoning

Controller
New Primary - Plant Control
New Secondary - Thermal Radiation

Dominator
New Primary - Earth Control
New Secondary - Electricity Manipulation

Defender
New Primary - Cold Domination
New Secondary - Ice Blast

Mastermind
New Secondary - Storm Summoning

Brute
New Primary - Battle Axe
New Primary - War Mace
New Secondary - Super Reflexes

Stalker
New Primary - Electric Melee
New Secondary - Electric Armor

Tank
New Primary - Dark Armor
New Secondary - Dark Melee

Scrapper
New Primary - Fiery Melee
New Secondary - Fiery Aura

Unfortunately the scuttlebutt on the boards is you won't be able to respec some of your older toons with the new options. Some of my older fiddies are going to the Justice Server retirement farm.

Wow. That info came out of nowhere. I was playing CoH and logged to reset some of my graphics options and wham. There it was.

Awesome news. Now hurry with the Beta already!!

-MJb

Nice

Quote from: Time Titan on March 12, 2008, 09:53:01 AM
Powerset Proliferation
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!

Heh.  At one level, I can see Dr. Brainstorm dealing with Brutes seeking new powers...

"Right!  Wait till you try my latest technological marvels!  I call them the 'axe,' 'sword,' and 'mace,' respectively, or 'weapons' collectively!  Using a 'weapon,' you can hit your enemies really hard for ginormous damage!  Er... 'ginormous' is a... scientific term..."

All very welcome news.

New powersets - Always a good thing.  [edited to save myself some embarrassment]

Hollows makeover - Also good.  The addition of a Hospital alone is great news.

Midnight Squad missions and Roman maps - Good!  More stuff to do!  I especially like that they've specifically addressed the 10-20 range as well as the upper levels.

Villain Epic AT's - Well, I'll never see 'em.  I barely ever play villainside.  But I'm happy for the rest of you?

Roman Armor/Costumes - Eh.  Nice for Paradox Patrol/Tempus Fugitives, if those groups ever take off.  But if they're unlockable only for 35+ I don't see everyone using them.  Unless we're talking Toga parties...

Gameplay - Organizing contacts, yes!  Hiding all of those old contacts I've outleveled, yes! yes!  Chat improvements, sounds pretty good to me!  Level-Up Boost, cool!  Sort of a super buff, if you think of it that way.

Silly me.  If I'd looked closer at the thumbnails, I would have seen the clue.

Battleaxe Brutes and Plant Controllers.  Obviously some of the powersets from Villains have been transplanted (excuse the pun) to Heroes and vice versa.

Anyone want to speculate on which powersets got transplanted and which didn't make the cut?

Hmm...  Must 50 villlain...  play Wolf Spider...

About time Controllers get the Plant Control set  :lol:

:marm: *freaking meow!*

Quote from: BlueBard on March 12, 2008, 12:38:47 PM
Silly me.  If I'd looked closer at the thumbnails, I would have seen the clue.

Battleaxe Brutes and Plant Controllers.  Obviously some of the powersets from Villains have been transplanted (excuse the pun) to Heroes and vice versa.

Anyone want to speculate on which powersets got transplanted and which didn't make the cut?

Well, on the official boards, the devs have, so far, confirmed the following (this is from memory, and from several different posts, so it's possible I'm misremembering or forgetting something);

Each AT, with two exceptions, will be getting two new (to that AT) power sets- one primary, one secondary. The exceptions are Brutes, who are getting TWO primaries and one secondary, and Masterminds, who are only getting one secondary (no primary). Confirmed power sets so far are as follows:

Blasters- Mental Blast (Primary)
Controllers- Plant Control (Primary)
Brutes- Battle Axe (Primary), War Mace (Primary)
Corruptors- Storm Summoning (Secondary)

My guesses as to some additional new power sets would be as follows:

Blasters- Mental Manipulation (some powers from Mind Control mixed with some short-range powers from Mental Assault) (Secondary)
Tankers- Electric Melee (Primary), Electric Armor (Secondary)
Corruptors- Electric Blast (Primary)
Dominators- Illusion Control (Primary)

I'm curious if this means lvl 20-30 content for I13?

I'm very happy about the sharing of powersets - glad to see the devs finally making this happen - and all at once too yet!

Hm.  Not sure how I feel about mentalist blasters.

I'm going to take some wild guesses...

Given Mental Blast as a Primary, Alaric is probably right on as to what the secondary will be.  I would have liked to see Radiation Blast, though.

Controllers get Thermal Radiation as a Secondary.
Defenders get Thermal Radiation as a Primary and Fire Blast (Assault) as a Secondary.

Tanks get Electric Melee and Electric Armor.  Ditto for Scrappers.  I would've liked to have seen Energy Aura, which Tanks might get instead of Electric Armor.  But Alaric is probably on the money there, too.  I am so totally rolling an Elec/Elec Scrapper Speedster if it turns out that way.

I'll have to think about villainside more before I speculate on what Villains are getting.

Best news I've heard all month :D
I was only wishing for a Roman Centurion's helmet yesterday for a character. Despite all the hubbub of CO, if COH can keep churning out new costume pieces and interesting stories I could see myself paying for two games a month...
...yeah I'm shallow, its all about the looks for me ;)
Good to see the old dear has some life in her yet.

I'm going to predict that this issue will be Electric... I bet Dominators get some form of Electricity Manipulation 4TEHWIN.  And Alaric is probably right about Corruptors getting Electric Blast as a primary.

Not sure what Stalkers would get, though.  Secondary...   None of the available defense powersets really fit this AT thematically.  Fire? Ice? Stone? Invulnerability? Ditto for Primary... the available options don't seem to fit.  You could throw in Broadsword, I suppose, but why?

But, since everything else is going Electric, I'll throw out Electric Melee and Electric Armor as the pick for Stalkers.  I'm probably wrong, but I don't have a good guess otherwise.  By that logic Masterminds will get Storm Summoning.  That will make their Mercenaries... (drum roll) Storm-Troopers!

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Trollers better get /Dark.

Quote from: BlueBard on March 12, 2008, 02:27:03 PM
I'm going to predict that this issue will be Electric... I bet Dominators get some form of Electricity Manipulation 4TEHWIN.  And Alaric is probably right about Corruptors getting Electric Blast as a primary.

Not sure what Stalkers would get, though.  Secondary...   None of the available defense powersets really fit this AT thematically.  Fire? Ice? Stone? Invulnerability? Ditto for Primary... the available options don't seem to fit.  You could throw in Broadsword, I suppose, but why?

But, since everything else is going Electric, I'll throw out Electric Melee and Electric Armor as the pick for Stalkers.  I'm probably wrong, but I don't have a good guess otherwise.  By that logic Masterminds will get Storm Summoning.  That will make their Mercenaries... (drum roll) Storm-Troopers!

Actually, I can see ice armor being a stalker set instead of elec.

Ooh! Now this is some great news!

Quote
The Midnight Squad
JOIN THE MIDNIGHT SQUAD (LEVELS 10 - 20)

Nice!  I wonder if there will be a way for those who outleveled  those levels to play.  One could always exempt down, but I'm hoping Ouroboros too.

QuoteNEW ROMAN-STYLE ZONE MAPS (LEVELS 35 - 50)

Wow!!!  A whole new zone in a completely different time.  NOW that is interesting.

Quote
UNLOCK ROMAN-STYLE ARMOR COSTUMES

New costumes, always a good thing!

QuoteVillain Epic Archetypes

So, uh.... anyone wanna' powelevel Emerald C1oak?  Dev confirmed - at some point you actually do get the spider guys backpacks.  Sweet!  Most interesting part of this news?  Devs said the excellent sales of the Wedding Pack enabled this to be bumped up to Issue 12 and not 13.

QuotePowerset Proliferation

Everybody but Masterminds gets one new primary and secondary.  This has been a long time coming and sorely needed.  Not a set here, or a set there.  Darn near ever AT gets something new.  With that much goodness... there is pretty much going to be something for everyone to at least try --- including me.  Excited to see what they are. 

QuoteHollows Zone "Gameplay Makeover"

Very nice.  While I wouldn't say the zone was broken, it needed a bit better planning.  Definite improvements that I think will keep people from skipping this zone and actually give it another try.

QuoteMajor Gameplay Improvements
Eight configurable new power trays...

Honey... I want a second monitor for my birthday. 

QuoteContact display redesign:

Nice QoL addition.

Quote
Inspiration Conversion:

I actually like this.  Interesting idea and actually I think I'd use this quite a bit.

QuoteLevel Up Boost:

Heh heh heh.  CoH's version of grabbing a canister of Energy X.

QuoteChat improvements:

Great addition.  Especially with people swapping out numbers and letters in their names.  JUst makes life much, much, much easier.

QuoteMore Real Numbers:

Always a good thing.

Wow... I have to say I'm impressed by whats coming for the next Issue.  Well, if nothing else... when it goes live, COH will have my attention for the month.

RTT

So that means that Issue 12 will bring RTT back for a month? +1 to Issue 12.

-MJB

Quote from: MJB on March 12, 2008, 09:15:19 PM
So that means that Issue 12 will bring RTT back for a month? +1 to Issue 12.

-MJB

Haha! It's going to bring me back, too. No love for Phibby, eh? :P

Actually at the mid to higher levels, the whole contacts list improvements seem CONSIDERABLY useful. I keep forgetting which contacts I'm "depleted" and which I haven't.

Know what's funny? This is apparently the "smaller" of the next two issues. Hell, if they had given us half this back in the early single digit issues most people would have been going "holy crap".

And too think, I was debating canceling after this month.

So remember, folks - buying those optional expansions helps give funding to crank out those Issues faster!   :D

I hope dominators don't get a straight up version of Illusion Control.  There are only three control powers in the set that would be effected by domination (flash, deceive and flash).  Only one other power would receive any benefit (spectral wounds).  If they were to make more of a hybrid version involving some of the dark powers (like swapping Spectral Terror for Fearsome Stare, Group Invisibility for Shadow Fall, etc), I'd be all for it.

Personally, I'd prefer to see in this order Electrical Control (all the powers exist in game), Dark Control (all the powers exist in game), Earth Control, Illuision/Dark Hybrid Control or Illusion Control.  For secondaries, Electrical, Dark or Earth Assault (like the Legacy Chain blasts), both of which would need to be pieced together.

Other stuff I'd like to see:
Blasters: I wish it wasn't Mental Blast (PvP is broken enough without adding psi damage to blasters)
Brutes: Ice Armor
Controllers: I'd prefer Thermal Radiation, but Cold Domination would be good as well. 
Corruptors: Electrical Blast would be good
Defenders: Thermal or Cold, Fire or Ice Blasts
Masterminds: Sonic Resonance, (illusion with some work would of made a decent mm set)
Scrappers: Enegy Aura, I'm afraid that they'll be getting Energy Melee just to break PvP more
Stalkers: Mace and Invulnerability?
Tankers: Electrical primary and secondary

The things that excite me the most are the recent focus on powers and now, entirely new ATs (epic villains).  These are much more game-changing than, say, a refurbished zone.  In my first entire year of CoX, all of the issues seemed to focus on stuff outside the player characters.  The big exception to this was IOs, which was limiting in scope because only a portion of the player base has been able to engage the most rewarding aspects of it.  Now, I look at the the incredible spike in overall interest with just the introduction of db/wp and the surrounding discussion about other new sets.  Bringing previously unavailable powersets (albeit extant ones) to current ATs should provoke a similar game-wide festival of toon-tinkering.  And, hopefully, people will be even more turned on by these new epic ATs than the they were by the hero-side ones.

In my humble observations, the hierarchy of player interest goes something like this:

What toons can do > content toons can engage > what toons look like > what the environment looks like

It seems to me that the devs have become more consistent in prioritizing improvements this way.

EC

I could write a huge response to the changes/improvements announced for I12 but I'm not going to.

I can't judge the issue without actually playing it. Gotta admit, I'm super psyched for this issue. Can't wait to try out the new content. I'm so jazzed. :mjb:

-MJB

I should point out that the devs have stated the next completely new power set they add to the game will be Shields, and that that won't be ready in time for I12- whcih means ALL the "new" sets are going to be sets already used by other ATs (or, for Blaster and Dominator secondaries, likely combinations of powers from a couple of existing sets)- which is why the new Dominator primary pretty much has to be Illusion Control.

Gotta admit, not giving MM's a new primary sux the big one. Hopefully they will rectify this in the future.

-MJB

Quote from: MJB on March 13, 2008, 07:02:59 AM
Gotta admit, not giving MM's a new primary sux the big one. Hopefully they will rectify this in the future.

-MJB

The reason they're not giving MMs a new primary in this issue is because all the new sets this issue are re-used old sets from other ATs, and no other AT had "pets"-based power sets (although, it probably wouldn't take that much work to turn Illusion Control into a MM primary set...).