Issue 19

Overview

Issue 19, Alpha Strike, will be a major revision to City of Heroes and City of Villains. The title references the Alpha Strike Task Force, which is one of the ways Level 50 characters can make themselves more powerful with the Incarnate System.

This article summarizes some of the major features in Issue 19.

• Closed Beta testing on the Training Room for Issue 19 is scheduled to start on the week of October 11, 2010.

The following is confirmed content from official sources:

Badges

• New Badges: Exploration badges for hazard zones have been added.

City Zones

• Primal Earth Characters Can Enter Praetoria: Non-Praetorians can journey to Praetoria through Pocket D.
• Praetorian Mission Difficulty Slider: Praetoria gets notoriety adjuster contacts.
• Hospitals In All Zones: Hospital gurneys in all Trial and Hazard zones. And a nurse selling inspirations in all hospitals.

Costumes

New Auras

Issue 19 includes two free auras for all City of Heroes players. These auras are customizable.

• Fireflies: Your character can be surrounded by glowing, tintable fireflies.
• Snow: Celebrate winter and be showered by snow.

Costume Sets

• As part of a new, general policy of giving players the costume sets of new NPC groups, there will be a new costume set for players based on a group being more fully fleshed out in Issue 19, the Imperial Defense Force.

Incarnate System

The Alpha Slot

• Overview: The long-awaited Alpha Slot, the first part of the new Incarnate system that gives high-level characters access to new powers and challenges is unveiled in Issue 19 .

• Unlocking the Alpha Slot: Unlocking the Alpha Slot is no easy task. Players must first learn what it means to exceed the definition of Hero or Villain to become an Incarnate. Mender Ramiel in Ouroboros guides players on this journey. Learn the Secret of Mender Ramiel and your involvement in his appearance from the future. Uncover what makes Player Characters different from the Incarnates, Statesman and Lord Recluse.

Missions and Story Content

New Incarnate Task Forces

Challenges already await new Incarnates. The Praetorians have begun their invasion of Primal Earth. Protecting Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™ from such overwhelming forces requires the greatest Heroes and Villains to work together. Two familiar faces will help in stopping the invasion: Apex and Tin Mage.

• Apex Task Force: Apex has joined the Vanguard, and he helps organize your team of Incarnates to stop the Praetorian initial assault. Face off against the Anti-Matter Clockwork, War Walkers, and the Arch-Villain Battle Maiden before they can destroy Paragon City. If you succeed in this battle, the war is yet to be won.
• Tin Mage Task Force: The lost hero Tin Mage has returned (actually, Tin Mage Mark 2, reconstructed from his own schematics he left behind) to help coordinate an assault into Praetoria to stop the invasion cold. Your team strikes into the very heart of Nova Praetoria to confront Neuron, Bobcat, and a Praetorian army.
• The power of the Incarnate Slots are not required, but highly recommended to attempt these Task Forces.

Return of an Old Task Force

• The Calvin Scott Task Force is back as a flashback arc.

New Arcs

• A Hero arc investigating the medical transporters and why they aren't handed out to civilians
• A Villain arc has to do with finding out what exactly the Leviathan is and what its power source is
• Praetorians have new level 20-29 arcs that take place in Paragon City or the Rogue Isles that explore what their role is there.

More Tip and Morality Missions

From levels 20 to 50, all City of Heroes characters can play and enjoy more Tip missions, while City of Heroes Going Rogue™ characters can choose from more missions that impact a character's alignment.

Praetoria Zone Events

Live events in Praetoria in which your Resistance or Loyalist character can participate and choose which side to help:

• The Protest (Nova Praetoria): The angry citizens of Praetoria are staging a protest in Nova Praetoria. Will you join them or shut them down?
• Syndicate Takedown (Imperial City): The PPD has found a cell of the Syndicate in the Agilecorp building. The two forces are at a standoff at the base of the building. If you hurry you can capture one of the Syndicate's leaders.
• The Great Escape (Neutropolis): One of the Failed Experiments has remained lucid and sane, and appears to have the ability to influence other Ghouls. Informants say he is eager to aid the Resistance in its war against the regime. Will you aid him in his escape? Or will you hunt him down now that he has escaped?

Rewards for participation in the zone events will be based on the amount of participation, and not just damage done -- (de)buffing and heals are tracked.

Mission Architect

• New Maps: The Tunnels and Tech map sets of Praetoria are now available in Mission Architect.
• New Enemy Groups:You can now also select the Praetorian Clockwork, Destroyers, Resistance, Praetoria Police Department, Seers, Ghouls, and the Syndicate as Mission Architect NPC groups.
• New Power Sets for Custom Critters: Electric Control and Kinetic Melee are available power sets to give to custom critters in your stories.

Powers

Fitness Power Pool is Inherent

The Fitness power pool is now an inherent power pool available to all new and existing characters starting from Level 1. Players can freely choose between any or all of the Fitness powers for available character power slots. These powers can be slotted and will accept the appropriate Enhancements.

• Further clarifications were given by Castle after the initial announcement
  • Fitness Pool powers have been incorporated into Inherent powers available at Level 2 [1]
    • All characters will be granted Swift, Hurdle, Health, and Stamina.
    • Existing characters with these powers selected via Pool Powers will be able to gain the powers they have not previously taken via the normal leveling process. They will not gain access to any of the Inherent fitness powers until they Respec.
    • Upon using a Respec, the Fitness pool will not be selectable by the character, but instead, all 4 powers will be granted as Inherent Powers at level 2. This prevents issues with lost enhancements or slot allocation errors.
  • They are still auto-powers and will be always active.[2]
  • The powers will work while in Crab or Squid form as a Kheldian, which is different from the Pool versions of the powers. [3]

Alternate Power Animations

Now players can customize the animation for some characters' powers. Shoot a Psychic Blast or even launch a Fire Breath from your character's hands. Hurl an attack from one or both hands. Select the animations and customize how a character fires off its powers at any Tailor. Each power that has a an alternate animation can be separately chosen, just like colorization.

The following powers have alternate animation choices:

• Primary Sets: Dark Blast, Electric Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Radiation Blast, Ice Blast, Psychic Blast, Sonic Blast, Mind Control.
• Secondary Sets: Psionic Assault, Sonic Resonance, Icy Assault, Fiery Assault, Mental Manipulation, Energy Assault, Electricity Manipulation, Integration.

Quality of Life

• Merged Monorails, Ferries, and Black Helicopters: The Transit Authorities in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles have made major improvements to the monorail and ferry system by merging their respective routes. All monorails can now travel to every monorail station on the Green and Yellow Line (the two Steel Canyon and Skyway City stations differentiated with a North v. South designation), while all ferries can now travel to every ferry station in the Rogue Isles. Train Missions will appear at the top of the list of zones with a star.
• Log-out Option: Players can log out directly to the Character Select Screen.

• New Assets:
  • New NPC Faction: Imperial Defense Force
  • New maps with the new Task Forces
  • Goliath-Class WarWalkers
  • Designers now have an interface to create zone events without the need of hard coding (similar to what led to the Mission Architect).

Notes

• Release scheduled for Fall 2010.

Historical

• Issue 19 was originally going to be called Incarnates, but the name was changed to Alpha Strike through a comment made by Melissa Bianco (revealed at the PAX2010 Panel).

Gallery

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External Links

• Official Feature Update
• Info from the New York City Comic-Con Panel
• Video of the NYC Comic-Con Panel Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 of 4 parts.

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