Going Rogue

Overview

City of Heroes: Going Rogue will be the second expansion of the City of Heroes universe (the first being City of Villains, of course!). No dates or much information is known about this exciting new development. It will be a new box featuring a whole new world, where a character's choices may decide whether they end up a hero or villain.

At the Official Going Rogue site, there is teaser trailer available, which introduces Maelstrom, a pistol-wielding hero turned Vigilante, and Desdemona, a demon-summoning villain turned Rogue.

The skyline for the title logo is a new outline; speculation is that it is the skyline of Nova Praetoria, the heart of Emperor Cole's domain, like City of Heroes has Paragon City skyline and City of Villains has Spider City (Grandville)'s skyline. The center building is a landmark which appears in the beta as Emperor Cole' tower of operations in Nova Praetoria, and is apparently visible from almost any point in the city. This is apparently to show players that the entire city is always under observation and under Emperor Cole's rule.

Features

A small section of Nova Praetoria with Cole's tower visible in the background

In a Boomtown.net interview with Positron on June 27, 2009, a Dev Diary posting on July 13, 2009, along with Hero Con 2009, the following features were revealed:

Several new zones in Praetoria
To begin as a Praetorian instead of a Hero or Villain. This will put the newly created character directly in Praetoria
Praetorian players may choose to align with the Resistance (hero) or with Loyalists (villain) in the beginning levels
The ability to switch from Hero to Villain and vice versa
Heroes will be able to become "Vigilantes", an intermediate step between hero and villain. This will enable them to visit the Rogue isles and team with villains. They may only use the market at Wentworths.
Villains in the intermediate stage become "Rogues". Likewise, they may visit Paragon City and team with heroes, and can only use the Black Market for auctions.
Difficult tasks for level 50s to do that make them more powerful
Demon Summoning powerset for Masterminds
Dual Pistols powerset for Blasters, Corruptors and as a secondary for Defenders.
Certain enemies are not hostile unless attacked first, such as the Praetorian Clockwork.

An additional option which may or may not be a part of Going Rogue is Ultra Mode, a significant graphics upgrade to take advantage of newer graphics cards. Minimum specs will remain roughly the same, and though Praetoria is built with it in mind, all existing zones in Paragon City and Rogue Isles will benefit. Notable effects include more detailed shadows which move accordingly with height and position of the sun and obey ambient occlusion, as well as reflections in mirrored surfaces such as buildings, water, or metallic surfaces, including metal costume pieces.

Ultra Mode, if completed prior to Going Rogue, may be released in a small Issue of its own, along with other things that are completed before Going Rogue's beta process.

Hardware Requirements

In a posting after the Herocon panel, Positron posted the following in response to questions about the hardware requirements for Ultra mode. This is not for the game as a whole, just Ultra mode.

After demoing the Ultra-mode at HeroCon, one of the most frequently asked questions we have been receiving is “what are the video cards you recommend to get the most out of Ultra-mode?” With the holiday season coming up, we asked the programmers in charge of implementing the features of Ultra-mode what they would recommend. We would like to forward this information on to you so you can better work on your holiday shopping lists.

If you are looking to spend under US$100, then an NVidia 9800 GT is your best bet. For AMD (ATI/Radeon), we don’t have enough of these cards at this price point to get you good data. This would be the minimum card for enabling all the features, only at reduced quality settings.

If you are looking to spend between $100 and $200, the Radeon HD 4890 and GeForce GTX 260 will do you well. We don’t have numbers from the Radeon 57xx series yet to verify if that is better or worse though. This would end up somewhere in the middle of Ultra-mode quality.

Finally if you are going to spend over $200, the GeForce GTX 285 is an excellent choice. We don’t have numbers from the Radeon 58xx series yet. This would be able to run Ultra-mode with the quality maxed out (except we have no data on Anti-aliasing, so caveat emptor when it comes to that specific feature).

Note: This is based on our current internal testing and might change by the time Going Rogue is released. Also, a video card is not the ONLY thing you should take into consideration. Your PC having a decent processor and memory will also enhance your performance. As we continue to test and get more information available we will update you. I hope this helps, and happy holidays!

Confirmations

Several players, though reportedly not all players, received the following email late in the evening on May 11, 2009:

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™.

In response[1] to a post on the forums, Castle said:

[quoted] If this is a joke, I am quitting this game right then and there.

It's not a joke. I can't say more about it now, though. Stay tuned for more info!

Soon after this was posted, the Going Rogue website, which was non-functional at the time the newsletter was sent out, went live. It includes a 3D teaser video, a 14-day free trial offer (currently for the Architect Edition of City of Heroes), a way to register for newsletter updates, and a "Hall of Fame" that tracks the top five people who have sent Going Rogue details to their friends.

Early the next morning, the press release was posted to NCsoft's news log, and a FAQ was posted on the forums by Niviene. The FAQ revealed a few new pieces of information:

Q: Do I have to own City of Heroes or City of Villains to be able to play the Going Rogue expansion? A: Yes.
Q: Do I have to change sides in order to play the expansion? A: No.
Q: If you change over to the opposite alignment, can you change back? A: Yes.

On June 19, 2009, Positron posted on the game's official forums, "Issue 16 is NOT Going Rogue."[2]

During the 4/28/2009 anniversary event, Positron mentioned Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning, but it is not necessarily linked with a specific Issue release (partial chatlog):

04-28-2009 18:33:30 [Local] Sicari: Can we expect to see more power proliferation in new issues to come?
04-28-2009 18:33:34 [Local] Positron: Demon Summoning? Dual Pistols?

However, in Positron's Dev Diary on July 13, 2009, Positron says that Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning are part of the Going Rogue expansion.

On July 29, 2009, a newsletter was sent out, containing a few tidbits pertaining to Going Rogue:

All City of Heroes® and City of Villains® players who maintain an active account for the time period beginning August 15, 2009 and ending November 15, 2009 will receive a set of special rewards for their loyalty to Paragon City™ and The Rogue Isles™:

Closed Beta access for City of Heroes Going Rogue™
Exclusive loyalty badges: "Vigilant" for Heroes and "Determined" for Villains

Going Rogue Closed Beta Access will be granted using a three-tier system:

Tier One: City of Heroes Veterans with 60+ months of paid time.
Tier Two: Loyalty Program players
Tier Three: Players who Pre-Order Going Rogue (Preorder details to be announced at a later date)

Badges will be enabled within one week after the promotional period has ended.