Issue 17

Overview

Issue 17, titled Dark Mirror, will be a major revision to City of Heroes and City of Villains. The title references a new enemy group introduced in the new story arcs and updated Positron Task Force.

This article summarizes some of the major features in Issue 17.

• Closed Beta testing on the Training Room for Issue 17 started on March 2, 2010.
• On April 14, 2010, the Training Room was opened up for Issue 17 Open Beta.

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).

Missions and Story Content

New Contacts and 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.

New Positron Task Forces

The Positron Task Force has been split into two halves and updated. The final battle of the Task Force takes place in the Faultline Dam and incorporates the new Dark Mirror enemy.

• The new Positron Task Forces are Rule of Three, levels 10-15 (11 Merits); and Dam Heroes, levels 11-16 (15 Merits). Each still requires 3 players to start.
• Each Task Force now has a new badge associated it. Getting both badges awards Positron's Ally, the badge from the original TF (which is needed for the Task Force Commander Accolade). Those who have the Accolade before Issue 17 will not lose it.
• The leader of the team can not start the second new Task Force without having the badge for the first new Task Force.
• The old Positron Task Force is now available as a flashback arc under "The New Recruits" (which can be soloed) under Protector of the Innocents (Level 1 - 15). It's currently worth 40 Merits in Beta (was originally 66 Merits as a Task Force right before Issue 17).

Availability of the Silver Mantis Strike Force

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.

Mission Quality of Life Improvements

• Increased Mission Count: players can now have seven active missions (previously three)

• Show Last Objective: This UI improvement lets players find the last objective on a mission map, making it easier to find something missed

• Cell Phones: Some legacy arcs have the contacts giving out their cell phone sooner.

• Starting Zone Missions:Contacts in starting zones (Atlas Park, Galaxy City, Mercy Isle) should, in general, no longer send players into dangerous neighborhoods to reach low-level (1-5) missions. Travel times will often be shorter to reach these mission doors, as well.

• Drop Mission Option: In the mission window and when contacting a contact with whom one has a standing mission, there is now an option to abandon that mission. This does not complete the mission. This is not available during "Task Force mode."

• New Mission Mechanics: There are new mission mechanics allowing for more varied mission objectives and dialogues and choices that can be based on variables such as the gender of the character or past decisions made by the character. These appear in the new arcs of this Issue. And there is a new type of boss! (Play the new new hero and villain arcs of Issue 17 or the new Positron Task force for an encounter)

New Badges

• Number-of-Badges Badges: Newly available 500 Badges Earned, 750 Badges Earned, and 1,000 Badges Earned (though, not until switching sides in Going Rogue will the 1,000 Badges Earned Badge be earnable).
• New Exploration Badges have been added to city zones bringing the number of Exploration badges per city zone (not hazard, pvp, nor trial zones) up to 8 for each zone. Players can learn new Accolades for finding all of the exploration badges in each city zone. The new exploration badges will not be need for Base Beacons.
• Two new Task Force badges for the new Positron Task Forces.
• Four new arc-completion badges for the two new Hero arcs and two new Villain arcs.
• Special defeat badge for Villains who complete Leonard Silmon's first mission selecting the in-mission dialogue challenge for 8.

Forum thread listing the new badges in Beta.

Quality of Life Improvements

• Craftable Temporary Powers: a cleaner and more consistent way of finding and crafting temporary powers

• New player emotes: dig, picklock, spraypaint, jackhammer, and warmhands under interact > environment in the quickmenu; pamphlets, vendor, and batlookout (hold bat) under idle in the quickmenu.

• Arena Score: Added a button that displays the score of an Arena match while the match is still being played.

• New Sounds: Lots of new and updated sounds have been added to the game especially to specific objects: cars honk; citizens have footsteps and special sound FX; new player footsteps sounds depending on flooring material; etc....

• Recipe Splash Color: The color of the splash notices for recipe drops now correspond to the color-coded rarity of the recipe: White for common; yellow for uncommon; orange for rare; and purple for very rare.

• Respec Level Counter: Now when you respec, there is a "Current Respec Level" counter in the upper right when you're picking powers.

Auction House UI Update

The Auction House 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 auto-completes, and a single click on a recipe displays all salvage needed for that recipe

Mission Architect Improvements

• Experience: Players can now handpick the powers for custom enemies and still receive experience for them (within game balance limits)
• New Maps: Approximately 20 new unique maps
• Giant Monsters: Players can now add giant monsters to some outdoor maps
• Exit Mission on Complete: Players can now specify that players have to leave the mission manually on completion
• Escort Missions: "Lead to place" technology allows players more control over escort objectives
• More Work Space: File sizes for missions have been doubled.

Costumes

Animated Tails

• 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.

• Tails have moved to a separate "Lower Body" option, meaning you can have a belt and a tail at the same time. You will need to go to a tailor to upgrade to the animated version. Additionally, if you are using a legacy static tail, the next time you visit a tailor, you will be forced to select it from its new sorting location.

Reflective Costumes

• The following costumes have real-time reflections when the appropriate Ultra Mode options are selected: Cyborg, Enforcer, Tech Sleek, Valkyrie, Vanguard, and Metallic.

New Zoom Views

• Depending on which part of your toon you're costuming, the zoom button now creates new views and stances to better see that section of the avatar.

Archetypes and Powers

• Epic Archetypes: The Epic Archetypes now unlock at Level 20 instead of Level 50.

• IO Set Adjustment: The set bonuses provided by Blessing of the Zephyr are being reduced[1].

• Dual Pistols: New pistols options for Dual Pistols. Forum thread with pictures of new pistols.

Vigilance Buff

• Vigilance, the inherent AT buff for Defenders, now has a Damage buff for Defenders on teams of 3 or less. The new, in-game description says:

The Defender's primary focus is to protect the team. When his allies are in danger, the Defender is able to look deep within him or herself and rise to the occasion. As a Defender's teammates are in danger of being defeated, the Defender gains an Endurance Discount and can activate their powers at a reduced cost. The more teammates in trouble, the greater the discount. A defender on a small team or by himself has more freedom to concentrate on his enemies, which allows him to increase his damage output by up to 30%. Each team member reduces this by 10%, to a minimum of no buff at all.

The stats are:

Level	+%Dam per Number of Extra Teammates
	None	1	2	3+
1	6.0%	4.0%	2.0%	0.0%
2	6.3%	4.2%	2.1%	0.0%
3	6.9%	4.6%	2.3%	0.0%
4	7.5%	5.0%	2.5%	0.0%
5	8.1%	5.4%	2.7%	0.0%
6	9.0%	6.0%	3.0%	0.0%
7	10.5%	7.0%	3.5%	0.0%
8	12.0%	8.0%	4.0%	0.0%
9	13.5%	9.0%	4.5%	0.0%
10	15.0%	10.0%	5.0%	0.0%
11	16.5%	11.0%	5.5%	0.0%
12	18.0%	12.0%	6.0%	0.0%
13	19.5%	13.0%	6.5%	0.0%
14	21.0%	14.0%	7.0%	0.0%
15	22.5%	15.0%	7.5%	0.0%
16	24.0%	16.0%	8.0%	0.0%
17	25.5%	17.0%	8.5%	0.0%
18	27.0%	18.0%	9.0%	0.0%
19	28.5%	19.0%	9.5%	0.0%
20+	30.0%	20.0%	10.0%	0.0%

Vigilance buff mentioned at PAXe 2010.

Email Attachments

Players 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)

The Developer, pohsyb, gave more information on the forums about the new email system where infamy/influence and items can be sent by in-game email:

• Emails can be sent to local as well as global names now.

• Emails with attachments can only be sent to a Global name.

• Valid attachments are Images, Enhancements, Salvage, Recipes and Inspirations if they are tradeable (buyable on AH). One per email. Inf can be sent alongside item.

• There will be 20 mail cap to inbox. Mails sent to full mailbox will bounce (bounced mails can exceed cap). If you are at the cap you cannot send mails.

• Items with attachments cannot be deleted until attachment is claimed. They can be returned to sender.

• Nothing can cross from hero to villain or vice-versa.

• An example of sending oneself an item (Awesomething) by @Starchild whose PCs are RichHero, PoorHero, and PoorVillain:

1. Logon RichHero
2. Send Awesomething to @Starchild
3. Note that you have new mail with Awesomething attached
4. Log off RichHero.
5. Log on PoorVillain.
6. Note you have Email with Awesomething attached.
7. Try to claim it greedy villain, go on I dare you.
8. No you cannot have item! You are villain!
9. Log on PoorHero.
10. Note you have Email with Awesomething attached.
11. Claim Awesomething.

Notes

• Release Scheduled for April 2010

External Links

• MMORPG.com announcement
• Official Feature Update