City of Heroes Going Rogue Expansion

[Alaric]

From an email I just received:

Paragon Studios™ is proud to officially announce the next City of Heroes® expansion, City of Heroes Going Rogue™! This will be the first major expansion for the City of Heroes franchise since the launch of City of Villains® in 2005.

Praetoria, a utopian mirror to our own world, hides a dark secret. Exploring this mysterious alternate earth, the heroes and villains of this world feel an uneasiness of doubt creep over them. Loyalties are questioned. Choices are made. Lines are drawn. As they search for the truth behind Emperor Cole and his Praetorian guard, brutal foes and fierce allies emerge, turning this once blissful paradise into a battle ground.

City of Heroes Going Rogue officially opens the "mirror universe" of Praetoria and an all-new alignment system that explores the shades of gray that lie between Heroes and Villains. For the first time, Hero characters can become Villains and vice versa, enabling Heroes to cross over to the Rogue Isles™ and Villains to experience Paragon City™.

There are links in the email to a press release and a web site, but neither seem to exist yet.

[RTTingle]

 

Wow!

[MJB]

Very exciting. Can't wait to hear more details and get a release date window.

[GrizzlyBearTalon]

Interesting....

[RTTingle]

 

Wow!

That means... finally... Emerald CloakV2.0 will have...

dual pistols!



RTT

[77]

trailer

http://www.cityofheroes.com/goingrogue/

[Midnight]

DO WANT.

[B A D]

<gurgle>

[Funeral-Pyre]

I want this now!

[AncientSpirit]

Um ... this sounds like a new game rather than a new issue of CoX to me.    Is anyone else reading it that way?

If that's the case, I'm going to have to pass because one "pay monthly" game is bad/good enough.  But two?   I'm not inclined for that.  Nor am I inclined t give up the SG, the characters, the IOs, etc., I already have.

If that's NOT the case, bring it on.   And what took so long?   

[77]

What I really hope this is, is the ability to take my hero red side and bring back again, just like an new set zones to explore. Now if I cannot bring him back very easily or I just make a hero archetype red side it isn't worth it to me. It will be an expansion pack like CoV was when it first came out.

[BlueBard]

This may be the enhancement I've been wanting.  Not because I want to turn my heroes into villains, but I've wanted to explore the possibilities of reformed villains... not to mention opening up new concepts based around other than the standard powersets.  I've even created a few villains for the express purpose of one day converting them.  There's at least one anti-hero concept I haven't been able to do properly because he'd essentially be, well, a brute who sometimes does 'good' or a scrapper who occasionally breaks the law for the thrill of being 'wanted'.

I'll pay for an expansion, if it looks to be what I want it to be.  No way would I pay a second access fee.  I'd need to see a lot more info before I could decide.

The possible downside I see is being tied into this Pretoria concept.  Again, I'll just have to see.

[BlueBard]

What I really hope this is, is the ability to take my hero red side and bring back again, just like an new set zones to explore. Now if I cannot bring him back very easily or I just make a hero archetype red side it isn't worth it to me. It will be an expansion pack like CoV was when it first came out.

I want it both ways.  I want a few characters who are free to run in either Paragon City or in the Rogue Isles, possibly even with opportunities for red or blue missions in either place.  I also want to be able to permanently translate a villain into a hero... without losing access to the powersets.

[Figure Fan]

Meh..

How about CoX 2?

[Lionheart]

This can tie wonderfully into the MA as well, depending on how they do side-switching. If it doesn't require special quests for existing characters to switch, we can write and play our own stories to lead up to the switch.

Good things from Paragon Studios. CoH remains my superhero MMO of choice.

[Marmeille]

That's nice. 

[MJB]

Um ... this sounds like a new game rather than a new issue of CoX to me.    Is anyone else reading it that way?

If that's the case, I'm going to have to pass because one "pay monthly" game is bad/good enough.  But two?   I'm not inclined for that.  Nor am I inclined t give up the SG, the characters, the IOs, etc., I already have.

This is an expansion just like City of Villains was. Purely optional to buy. One monthly fee.

What I really hope this is, is the ability to take my hero red side and bring back again, just like an new set zones to explore. Now if I cannot bring him back very easily or I just make a hero archetype red side it isn't worth it to me. It will be an expansion pack like CoV was when it first came out.

Q: If you change over to the opposite alignment, can you change back?

A: Yes.

[Tortuga]

That requires a huge HUZZAH!  Hopefully this means new power sets (besides changing sides) and perhaps new progress for all Mike's fiddies.

[Stopman]

Looking forward to the many more badges!

[Carravaggio]

Hopefully this means new power sets

C'mon blue electricity tank!

[BlueBard]

Cool trailer, but unfortunately not very informative for what I want to know.  Then again, it doesn't sound like they're at a point where they can say a whole lot.  I'd guess that it's an enormous amount of content they'll need to create to support the storyline.

Lionheart, you could simulate this in MA up to a point.  But the number of story arcs available for use could be a limiting factor.  Which leads me to think about the possibilities of a collaborative effort...  If a fair number of architects got together and hammered out a multi-arc plotline, contributing just one or two arc slots each... even permitting a crude form of branching where at the end of an arc the contact provided a choice between the next arc to run...

[Midnight]

Meh..

How about CoX 2?

Seriously? Why?

[Lionheart]

Cool trailer, but unfortunately not very informative for what I want to know.  Then again, it doesn't sound like they're at a point where they can say a whole lot.  I'd guess that it's an enormous amount of content they'll need to create to support the storyline.

Lionheart, you could simulate this in MA up to a point.  But the number of story arcs available for use could be a limiting factor.  Which leads me to think about the possibilities of a collaborative effort...  If a fair number of architects got together and hammered out a multi-arc plotline, contributing just one or two arc slots each... even permitting a crude form of branching where at the end of an arc the contact provided a choice between the next arc to run...

It depends on how you use the MA arcs and whether they're for limited consumption or broad use. For example, I have ideas for 8 different arcs right now, some of which may actually require more than one arc to get the whole story in. That means that my arcs will be published, unpublished, and republished as needed/wanted, depending on who wants to play them.

If I produce an arc with some popularity, it may stay up longer, but for me the MA is not about getting other people to rate my arcs and leaving them up indefinitely, but for creating/playing content that my family and friends can enjoy. So losing my "stars" doesn't really matter to me. If I pull down an arc and someone asks me to put it back up, I can certainly do that (depending on what else is up). Bear in mind that it takes time to write all these arcs (with RL limited time to do it), so the arcs will be up for a while for people to enjoy. But none of them are permanent, except in the unlikely event one makes Dev's Choice or something.

There's a thread on the official forums about just this; people creating arcs for their SGs and RP and rotating arcs in and out accordingly. Of course, with my wife, daughter, and I all playing, we've got nine arc slots to use up front.

[Alaric]

So- which heroic AT's would people most like to play as villains, and which villainous ones as heroes?

Personally, I think ALL the villain ATs would be to fun play as heroes- they would each add something new and fun to the heroic game, in my opinion. However, the ones I'd most like to try as heroes are Masterminds (because they're so different from anything the heroes currently have) and Brutes (because, face it- they're just fun to play- and they'd be good for simulating certain types of comic book heroes that don't quite work as Tankers or Scrappers)- oh, and a heroic Soldier of Arachnos would be a lot of fun, too... On the other side, the only heroic AT I'd really want to try as a villain would be the Scrapper- even though in a way they're already the most like the existing villainous ATs. It's always struck me that Scrapper-like villains are actually pretty common in the comics, and neither Stalkers nor Brutes entirely fit that.