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City of Heroes
City of Heroes box cover
City of Heroes box cover
Developer(s)Cryptic Studios
Publisher(s)NCsoft
Platform(s)Windows
Release2004
Genre(s)MMORPG
Mode(s)Multiplayer

City of Heroes is a massively multiplayer online role-playing computer game based on the superhero comic book genre, developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSoft. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004 and in France, Germany and the UK (by NCSoft Europe) on 4 February 2005 with Scandinavia, Italy, Spain and Benelux to follow. As of 2004, Cryptic was developing the game's first expansion, City of Villains, to allow users to play as supervillains.

In the game, players create superhero player characters who can team up with others to fight various villains in Paragon City and its surrounding areas. Heroes must battle villain members of a gang or organization and complete quests given to them by NPCs in order to accumulate experience points (or "XP") and increase their security level. As City of Heroes is an MMORPG, it is continually updated by the developer and new plot developments and villains are added.

Overview

A tanker confronts an Arch Villain (Dr.Vahzilok) in City of Heroes.

Players begin their adventure in a tutorial that teaches them how to play the game. (Experienced players may choose to bypass the tutorial and proceed directly into the game.) It is here they learn about the level system and how to determine which enemies to attack. As a hero's level increases, he gains benefits such as more health, more powers, more belt slots for holding temporary power-ups called inspirations, and more enhancement slots for powers. Enhancements are power-ups which players can socket onto powers to improve them, much like Final Fantasy VII's "materia". The more enhancement slots a power has, the more pronounced the potential improvements. See Enhancements and inspirations for more information.

Both enemies and heroes have security levels; a hero's chance to hit an enemy is determined by the difference between his level and the enemy's. Low level heroes always have trouble successfully damaging high level villains. Paragon City, the city in which the game takes place, is divided into different zones by giant energy walls (also known as "War Walls"). The force fields prevent any large threat from ever threatening the whole city at once; they also reduce enemy movement from zone to zone as the only way to travel between zones is by trains operated by the Paragon Transit Authority or roads that are guarded by police drones. Players can also travel to hazard or trial zones, zones outside of the city proper which can be teeming with large groups of powerful enemies, and the city's sewer system.

Heroes move around the zones themselves by running and walking, initially. As heroes grow in level and accumulate more powers, they gain the ability to choose one of four traveling powers: teleportation, super speed, super jumping, and flight. All four have their own advantages and disadvantages. While each archetype (listed below) has its own unique set of powers and abilities, all players have available to them powers from one of the 10 power pools. The power pools contain the aforementioned travel powers, as well as other generic, non-class specific powers such as Invisibility, Provoke, Recall Friend, and Boxing.

There are a variety of different villain organizations and gangs in City of Heroes, each with unique attributes. Groups of villains, all from the same gang and usually all with similar security levels, roam around areas of Paragon City. Certain gangs are more likely to appear in different zones. For instance, Circle of Thorns (magic using villain) members can almost always be found in the hazard zone of Perez Park. Increasing in level usually consists of traveling to different zones and fighting certain villains until your character's level is too high to benefit from the experience given by successful arrests.

Quests (known in City of Heroes as "missions") are also given by non-playable characters (referred to as "contacts") and can consist of either a "hunt" type mission where heroes are given the task of arresting a certain number of villains from one of the villain groups or a random mission zone inhabited by a particular gang, themed to Paragon City, so typically sewers or warehouses or abandoned office buildings. (When heroes reach approximately level 30, they begin to receive missions set in fenced-off outdoor areas as well.) As heroes venture further into the mission zone, they usually have to confront a boss villain, rescue hostages, or find a particular clue. Upon completion, heroes will be rewarded with an XP bonus and occasionally a badge. Some missions may be completed at the hero's leisure, but others will have a set time limit which begins counting down as soon as the mission is accepted from the contact. It is usually possible to tell, by reading its description, whether a mission is timed before accepting it.

Heroes can adventure into mission zones together if they form a team and choose a particular mission as the team's objective. The difficulty level and number of the villains is adjusted according to the strength and number of the heroes grouped together. Since the release of issue 3 expansion, the player is now able to set the difficulty of the missions by visiting a special NPC, the Hero Corps Field Analyst.

Amid the random missions, story arcs will emerge. These are a series of missions which, when linked together, form a bigger story. Often, these give the player new insights into the history and mythos that is Paragon City. Sometimes, these story arcs affect the player hero directly as well. Once a story arc is completed, the hero is rewarded with an enhancement.

For players who can devote a block of several hours to the game, two more types of mission storyline are available—the Task Force and the Trial. Task Forces usually require a team, and consist of a series of linked missions that must be run to completion by that same team before its members may take on any additional missions. (If a Task Force member leaves the team while the Task Force is in progress, he is unable to rejoin it, but if they are disconnected, they are not kicked out of the Task Force, unlike normal teams.) Trials are similar to Task Forces but are usually shorter and more challenging; some share the team restrictions of a Task Force but others are taken as individual missions. Upon completion, both Task Forces and Trials usually (but not always) provide all participants with a badge as well as a reward—either a Single-Origin or a special enhancement.

Teamwork is a very important and large part of City of Heroes. Players can form supergroups (similar to other MMORPGs' guilds) reminiscent of classic comic book groups such as the X-Men or Justice League of America. Supergroups pick a name, a motto, an emblem, and two colors. Heroes can then enter 'Supergroup Mode' and change the colors and emblem of their normal avatar (character) to those of their supergroup. Roaming groups of amazingly unique color coordinated heroes destroying enemies form some of the game's most pleasing visuals. Players can team with their friends/supergroup mates or form temporary teams of other logged on players (referred to as "pickup" groups) to go on missions and fight villains together.

Character Classes

Origins

When creating a character, the player must first choose his character's origin. Unlike races in fantasy MMORPGs, the origins only decide who the player's contacts are and what type of enhancements they can use.

  • Natural - Naturals train themselves to surpass normal human limits. It's also possible that a Natural isn't human at all, and their "powers" are simply their own natural abilities. Batman from DC and Shang-Chi from Marvel are both examples of this.
  • Mutation - The superpowers of the character were encoded in his genes. All of the X-Men and some of DC meta humans fall under this class like Fire from the Justice League.
  • Science - A character's powers are the result of a scientific process, intentional or otherwise: e.g. radiation exposure in a test lab. The Flash from DC comics and Spider-Man from Marvel are both examples.
  • Technology - The use of mechanical devices enables a hero to use powers. Iron Man from Marvel comics and Cyborg from DC comics show this orgin.
  • Magic - Supernatural powers are employed by a hero. Doctor Fate from DC and Doctor Strange from Marvel are examples.

Archetypes

The superpowers of each character are chosen based on archetypes (similar to character classes). Most of the character archetypes have a wide variety of group oriented powers. The game was launched with only the five basic archetypes, but Issue #3 introduced two new "epic" archetypes, the Kheldians. Kheldians are available only to players who have already achieved level 50 with another character.

  • Blaster - Blasters are long ranged fighters with a strong offense and weak defense. They can damage enemies substantially from a distance with the highest offense in the game and also help fulfill one of the more classic superhero roles: the flying, energy blasting hero. Marvel Comics' Human Torch and DC Comics' Starfire are examples of Blasters. Tight squeezes are a blaster's worst nightmare as his lower defenses can be exposed to multiple enemies' attacks; this is less of a concern with a strong group of other heroes.
  • Controller - The most team-oriented archetype in the game, Controllers, like DC's Green Lantern or Marvel's Jean Grey, are able to hinder the enemy in a way other than dealing damage. They have a wide variety of powers, ranging from the ability to put the enemy to sleep to creating illusionary teammates, or control storms, all of which are designed to take the enemy out of the fight temporarily. Some of the Controllers' higher level powers are quite impressive visually, and their ability to incapacitate enemies is always an asset to a team. Most of the controller power sets allow players to summon creatures, called "pets," to fight with their characters. Controllers are generally more difficult to play than some of the other archetypes, as their powers take a bit more finesse and familiarity than a Blaster's.
  • Defender - A Defender's main strength is his ability to augment his teammates and/or deter his enemies. Characters of this archetype can be strong leaders and make their team faster, stronger, and physically more devastating to enemies. Defenders, especially in the earlier levels, typically have very little trouble finding a team thanks to their life-saving powers and powerful abilities. They can also do their fair share of Blaster-like damage but have trouble fighting groups of enemies by themselves. As with the Controller, playing as a Defender is difficult and takes some advanced knowledge of the game in general. Because a defender's powers are so tied to the game's mechanics (healing damage, increasing defences, decreasing opponents' accuracy) it is difficult to find examples in comic books. The Invisible Woman, Sue Richards, from the comic Fantastic Four, is an example of a Defender with force field powers.
  • Scrapper - Scrappers are the archetype that, like the Blaster, represents some of the best known comic book characters. Marvel Comics' Wolverine and DC Comics' Batman are examples of Scrappers. They are fierce melee fighters who can deal large amounts of damage to enemies while sustaining damage, as well. In City of Heroes, Scrappers can do very well fighting by themselves against groups of enemies. Scrappers can usually do better against higher level enemies, too, due to their speed and highly offensive powers. Enemies prefer fighting these heroes and they may have a hard time fitting into a well diversified team, but they can still be some of the strongest characters. Scrappers can look very impressive while fighting, each of their different attack types (e.g. katana, claws and spines) having elaborate attack animations.
  • Tanker - Tankers have the strongest defenses of the archetypes. Because of their ability to withstand heavy amounts of damage, Tankers are good at fighting groups of enemies by themselves. Because most of their attacks are in the melee range, most of the gameplay a Tanker experiences is up close to the villains he or his group is fighting. The biggest downside to the Tanker is the lower damage compared to the Scrapper archetype. Soloing can be slow for a Tanker without the added damage provided by teammates. Marvel Comics' Hulk is an example of a Tanker.
  • Kheldian Peacebringer - Peacebringers are natural Kheldians who have merged with human beings and have access to the Luminous Blast and Luminous Aura power sets. These power sets have some slight similarities to the Blaster's Energy Blast set and the Tanker's Energy Melee set. Peacebringers also receive inherent flight powers in their human form, and can shapeshift to Nova and Dwarf forms which provide limited Blaster- and Tanker-like abilities.
  • Kheldian Warshade - Warshades are a fusion of a human and a Nictus (a Kheldian who has undergone radical scientific experiments to become a being of pure darkness) with access to the Umbral Blast and Umbral Aura power sets. These power sets have some slight similarities to the Dark Defender's Dark Blast and Dark Aura power sets. Warshades also receive inherent teleportation powers in their human form, and can shapeshift to Nova and Dwarf forms which provide limited Blaster- and Tanker-like abilities. Warshades refuse to feed on the life forces of others as most Nictus do, instead warring against their dark brehren.

Other "epic" archetypes that have been announced for future expansions include Avilans, Incarnates, Blood of the Black Stream, and the Coralax. Not much is known about these archetypes yet, save that the requirements for playing them will be different from the level 50 requirement for the Kheldians.

Badges, Plaques, & Accolades

In order to give the game more content, Cryptic introduced a system of collectible badges in its second content update to the game. These badges are obtained by visiting particular areas, completing certain missions or sets of missions, defeating a quantity of specific types of foe, or special in-game achievements like taking a certain amount of damage or earning a certain amount of Influence. These badges may be viewed by other players in the player information dialogue, and may also be worn to add the name of the badge as a title under a hero's publicly-displayed name. Thus, if a player finds the name of a badge to be well-suited to his character, or finds some in-game accomplishment especially significant, he can choose to title his character accordingly with that badge.

Also added were a number of historical plaques, placed throughout Paragon City. Each plaque relates some historical fact about Paragon City's, its heroes', or the world's backstory, and they are grouped into sets based on their subject matter. Heroes can obtain certain badges by visiting and reading each plaque in a set, which are often scattered across two or more zones within the city. Plaques do not have to be read in any particular order.

When a hero has collected specific groups of badges, he is granted an "Accolade"—a badge that includes additional special powers for the hero. These powers may take the form of permanent boosts to a character's Health or Endurance, or may be clickable powers that can only be activated once every twenty-five minutes.

As the game has expanded more badges have been added, as well as special "event" badges, the first for Halloween and the second was for the Winter Event. Badges have become, for some players, a greatly needed push for more to do in the game than just fight.

Expansions

Cryptic expands its game with both purchasable expansions and freely downloadable patches/updates. To date, only the latter type of update has yet been released. City of Villains is slated to be the first purchasable expansion.

  • Issue #1: Through the Looking Glass (June 29, 2004) - high level content (levels 40-50), new zones (Peregrine Island and the Rikti Crash Site), instanced outdoor missions, and the ability to have multiple costumes.
  • Issue #2: Shadows of the Past (September 16, 2004) - added capes and "aura" costume effects, six new zones (The Hollows, Troll Tunnels and the four Shadow Shard zones), new villains, respecification of powers, badge hunting, Exemplars (reverse sidekicks) and a dance club.
  • Issue #3: A Council of War (January 4, 2005) - epic archetype (Kheldians), epic power pools, new zone (Striga Isle), global chat (Completed in March 16, 2005), new task forces, new zone events (Giant Octopus, Ghost Ship, Clockwork Paladin), mission difficulty settings, and new "toxic" damage type (detrimental to Kheldians).
  • Issue #4: Colosseum (pending, 2005) - PvP Arena combat, Anime-centric costume extensions, body part proportions adjustable by slider, new mouse controls, multi-supergroup chat system.
  • Issues #5: (Names not yet announced) (pending, probably late 2005) - New power sets, a skill system, new zone (security level in the 30s), and possible new villain group.
  • Issues #6: (Names not yet announced) (pending, probably early 2006) - Possible new zones, possible new villain group, possible new epic archetypes, and possible customizable weapons.
  • City of Villains (pending, 2005) - Will be a stand-alone game in its own right as well as interoperate with City of Heroes; new zones, fully-realized PVP system, supergroup bases and base raids, etc.

There are a few programs that can help augment City of Heroes. Many "Hero Planners" exist with which you can build your character up and see what powers become available at what level. There are also data log programs that help you keep track of information such as experience gained per hour, number of kills and how many of a certain type of villian was killed. Also several websites exist with game maps, lists of badges, and the various stores.

Servers

There are two separate geographical locales in which to play City of Heroes: American and European. Each locale has its own set of servers. A different client is required for each locale; it is not possible to play on both sets of servers with a single client.

Nothing prevents a European player from importing the American client in order to play on the American servers (or vice versa); in fact, until the European servers were brought live in late 2004, any European wishing to play City of Heroes had to do precisely that. Many Europeans still continue to play on the American servers even after the European version is available due to having made friends or joined supergroups there.

Each server is its own instance of the complete game world; a player can have up to 8 characters on each server in the locale.

With the exception of the Training Room (which is a special case), there is no way to move characters from one server to another. However, this is something that is on the developers' agenda to consider in the future.

American

The 11 main American servers are as follows:

  • Champion
  • Freedom
  • Guardian
  • Infinity
  • Justice
  • Liberty
  • Pinnacle
  • Protector
  • Triumph
  • Victory
  • Virtue

There is no particular official distinction between these servers, save that some of them are located in an east coast datacenter and some in a west coast datacenter. However, the Virtue server has gained a reputation as "the unofficial roleplaying server" (that is to say, a server where people try to be predominantly "in-character" as much as possible). Some would also say that Victory is "the unofficial Euro server" because it has possibly the highest concentration of European players of any of the eleven. Victory was also the server where City of Heroes's original beta-testers were able to reserve their character names from the beta-test period.

Each server has its own dedicated forum on the City of Heroes bulletin board. The City of Heroes website has a server status page that displays the current status of all eleven servers, plus the Training Room.

Training Room

The Training Room is a special American server that requires its own separate and distinct version of the American client to access. The Training Room is Cryptic's testbed, where proposed new changes and patches to the main City of Heroes codebase are publicly tested before rollout to the eleven "main" servers. The test period can range from a few days for minor patches to several weeks or even months for expansion issues.

Characters can be copied to the Training Room from any of the eleven "main" servers; characters arrive at the Training Room with zero Influence but otherwise unchanged. This is intended to allow testing effects of patch changes on higher level characters, but is also commonly used to test respecs or new power choices for characters before going through with them on a "main" server.

The test server is prone to instability and imbalance with major patches, usually has a very small population except when major updates are undergoing testing, and could theoretically be completely wiped at any time to start fresh. However, there is a small but dedicated number of players who treat the Training Room as their "main" server—playing characters exclusively there from beginning to end. They feel that the lower population and technical barriers to entry lead to a smaller, more intelligent clientele than the main servers.

There is another server, called the Shibboleth, that occasionally shows up in the Training Room client's server list. This server is a private server for in-house developer testing, and is inaccessible to ordinary players.

European

There are four primary European servers: Defiant (English), Union (English "unofficial roleplaying server"), Vigilance (French), and Zukunft (German). There is also a European Training Room Server. It is mainly tested in English however the language will vary based on what is being tested at the time.

Subscription

As in other MMORPGs, players must pay the publisher (NCSoft) a monthly fee to continue playing City of Heroes. Portions of the subscription costs go to supporting a full-time "live" team, which develops additional content for the game; other portions support the significant server maintenance and bandwidth costs. Paragoncity.com has an article on why MMORPGs have recurring fees [1]. In addition to paying subscription fees via credit card, another option is pre-paid cards that are available at video game retailers. Once purchased, the player inputs a code from the card and their account is updated to allow as many months of play as the card is good for.

As of March 2005 City of Heroes has less than 150,000 subscribers worldwide; placing it out of the top dozen currently running MMORPGs (according to MMMGchart.com [2]). Games such as Lineage, Lineage II and World of Warcraft all have more than a million subscribers worldwide.

Payment Options

US Dollars

  • 1 month for $14.95
  • 3 months for $41.85 ($13.95 per month)
  • 6 months for $77.70 ($12.95 per month)
  • 12 months for $143.40 ($11.95 per month)

Euros

  • 1 month for €12.99
  • 3 months for €34.99 (€11.66 per month)
  • 6 months for €64.99 (€10.83 per month)

British Pounds

  • 1 month for £8.99
  • 3 months for £23.99 (£7.99 per month)
  • 6 months for £44.99 (£7.49 per month)

Press Voices

City of Heroes won many awards in its first year of service including MMORPG of the Year both from Computer Gaming World and at the 1st Annual Spike Video Game Awards [3]. GameSpy gave it PC Game of the Year as well did Billboard magazine.

Beyond the Computer

The Comic Book

North American subscribers to the game receive the City of Heroes monthly comic book in the mail; it is also available in some comic book stores. The comic follows the adventures of fictional Paragon City heroes and ties into the game's plot development at times, as well as featuring a section devoted to fan art, fan fiction, and other miscellany in the back. At times, this rear section has also included comic strips by Scott Kurtz of the PVP webcomic and Tim Buckley of the Ctrl Alt Del webcomic.

The comic's first volume ran 12 issues from May 2004 to April 2005. It was written by one of the game's designers, Rick Dakan, art was by Brandon McKinney and coloring was by Moose Bauman. Starting in May 2005, the comic book will be published by Top Cow Productions, written by noted comic book writer Mark Waid, and illustrated by newcomer David Nakayama.

Collectible Card Game

A recent 16 March 2005 press release anounced Alderac Entertainment Group, maker of several collectible card games including Legend of the Five Rings, has been choosen to release a City of Heroes CCG.

Role-playing Game

In another press release, Eden Studios, makers of RPGs based on Army of Darkness and Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchises, have been tapped to produce a tabletop role-playing game for City of Heroes. It will be based on Eden Studio's Unisystem rules and the core book will be called Registration Manual. Other supplements (Paragon City source book, Monitor's Support Pack, Super-powered Operative's Dossier, etc.) will follow.

Suit by Marvel

In November 2004, Marvel Comics filed a lawsuit against City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios and publisher NCSoft alleging that the game not only allows, but actively promotes, the creation of characters whose copyrights and trademarks are owned by Marvel, and that Cryptic has intentionally failed to police these infringing characters. The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to force the companies to stop making use of its characters.

Some have noted that Cryptic already includes in its end-user license agreement (EULA) language forbidding the creation of copyrighted characters and has been known to delete or rename such characters. Others have pointed out that the EULA also includes a clause which gives ownership of created characters to Cryptic.

Cryptic has replied that the lawsuit is frivolous. Many intellectual property analysts agree, but others have noted that trademark law is structured such that if Marvel believes their properties are being infringed upon, they have little choice but to file a lawsuit, regardless of its outcome. At least one has noted similarities to Fonovisa, Inc. v. Cherry Auction, Inc., a case in which a company that ran a flea market was successfully sued over intellectual property infringement because a vendor had been selling bootlegged records at that flea market. Although Cherry Auction had not been directly selling the infringing items, the court found that it was vicariously or contributorially liable for the infringement.

NC Soft answered Marvel's suit with a motion to dismiss. NC Soft's statement was as follows:

Kids with wandering imaginations have long decorated school notebooks with pictures of fantastic and supernatural beings of their own design. The ingenuity of individuals, as expressed through the creation of characters incorporating timeless themes of mythology, patriotism, "good," and "evil," has been a source of entertainment in the form of role-playing games for ages. In the face of technology that enables individuals to engage in such activities in a virtual, on-line context, Marvel Enterprises, Inc. and Marvel characters, Inc. (collectively, "Marvel") have taken the unprecedented step of attempting to appropriate for themselves the world of fantasy-based characters, based upon alleged rights in works purportedly embodied in four comic books.
City of Heroes is a tool that encourages originality, not slavish copying. It allows young and old to exercise their imaginations to create super-powered beings and send them off to interact with the creations of other individuals in a virtual world called Paragon City. If it should be banned, then so should the #2 pencil, the Lego block, modeling clay, and anything else that allows one to give form to ideas. In Marvel's view of the world, if people should play online games with super heroes, they must only play with licensed Marvel characters, and imagination shall be damned. Marvel's attempt to monopolize online "hero" games and quash creativity has no basis, and its complaint should be dismissed.

As of March 11, 2005, several claims in the lawsuit have been dismissed by the U.S. District Court, but the case is still ongoing [4].

Communities

Many on-line communities exist for the discussion of City of Heroes. Some prominent ones include:

Official Forums

The official Internet forum for City of Heroes is the web board found at boards.cityofheroes.com. This web board is run by Cryptic and NCSoft themselves, and frequented by various developers and customer service representatives (referred to by site regulars as "red names" because their usernames are highlighted in red on their forum posts) as well as players. There are forums devoted to announcements, general issues, player guides, questions, suggestions, each archetype, each of the eleven game servers, City of Villains, and other topics.

The value of this forum to the average player is a matter of debate. Some find the presence of the developers, and their willingness to interact with and answer questions from players, to be laudable—especially in comparison to other MMORPGs, which tend not to have this type of developer availability. However, there is also a very vocal faction of disgruntled gamers that produce flamewars and complaints which can cause would-be participants to stay away. Reportedly only about 5% of the game's player base actually participates in these boards.

The official web board is moderated to remove extreme antisocial behavior, discussion of client modification (such as map patches, skin modifications, or disabling certain sounds) prohibited by the EULA, and discussion of moderator decisions.

The European version of City of Heroes has its own separate official web board.

Livejournal Communities

Over sixty communities on the LiveJournal weblog site list City of Heroes as one of their interests. Most of these are communities devoted to specific supergroups or servers.

The LiveJournal community for general discussion of City of Heroes-related issues is city_of_heroes. A variety of matters are discussed here in an informal setting, including discussions prohibited on the official forum. Flamewars seldom occur.

alt.games.coh

alt.games.coh is a low-traffic USENET newsgroup where City of Heroes is discussed. As with any USENET group, flamewars can and do occur, sometimes lasting for days, but they are relatively seldom. As an alt.* hierarchy group, alt.games.coh may not be available from some news servers.

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