Meta’s Verse: Seven Years of Super

by Meticulous Meta, OnRPG Journalist

 

 

City of Heroes is celebrating seven years of being live in a big way. Two meet and greets, a live stream from Paragon Studios and announcements galore. And that was just on the first day! I took some time to see exactly what was going on and all about it so I could share that with you.

 

Vanguard Pack

Released on the anniversary of City of Heroes going live, this pack was given freely to every global account that stayed active during February and March of 2011. This pack gave access to armor pieces that were only available once you were at a higher level in your hero career. Now you can use them from the moment of creation. Easily the most adorable and contested part of the pack is the Mini Vanguard Assault Suit (MVAS). It is a noncombat pet, something which I’ve personally see people complain about. But really it is just so cute how can you say no to having one?

 

 

Global Server Access

Now everyone, no matter if you play the European version of the game or the North American version can play on any server. A lot of people have been really excited about this and since it went live I’ve seen a lot of crossover exploration and even done a bit of my own. The only real downside has come for the EU players who had to change their global names because there was a duplicate already on the North American servers.

 

Praetorian Invasion

Praetoria is invading the Primal world! Ongoing all May while there is a weakness in the barrier between our worlds. Warwalkers and Praetors have been seen wandering the streets of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles already. The event will end on May 27th with the invasion on Freedom where everyone is asked to participate between 4pm and 7pm Pacific time. Everyone who attends will be granted a global badge to celebrate their attendance and hopefully our victory over Cole and his army.

 

 

Producer’s Letter

Nate Burkholz released April’s edition of the Producer’s Letter. It explained plans to expand the incarnate system further, introducing a new trial every so often to keep things exciting. During all of May the next trial, Keyes Island Anti-Matter Reactor, will be in closed beta. They are also looking into ways for people to experience the incarnate system in smaller groups or even solo. There is mention of Issue 21 already which will feature a new zone and tie up some old plotlines. Overall it sounds like they have a lot more exciting things to come in the future.

 

 

Steampunk Booster

Ok, maybe this should go after the Dev live stream, after all that is where I heard about it from, but you know what? I’m just too darned excited about it! Yeah, you read that right, Steampunk Booster pack. It is not due until June, but that is really an easy wait for something so awesome. It will feature new costume pieces, a new aura and new weapons for customization. But, the most exciting part of it is what it will introduce to us, Backpacks. No, you can’t put stuff in them they’re just for show. But it is something the players have been asking for and finally the wait is over! It goes to show that the devs on high really are listening to our desires. Really the whole steampunk pack does this for me. I don’t want to say too much about it yet though! I’m just so excited I couldn’t wait to say something.

 

Anniversary Sale

During the month of May various boosters and services will be on sale. Including Rename tokens, extra character slots and the Wedding pack (in honor of a rather famous wedding you may have heard about a while ago). So far the days when they change what is on sale seem to be random, so the best I can suggest is to check the online store often.

Meet and Greet

There was a meet and greet with the devs on the test server which I was fortunate enough to attend. When I first arrived I was a little late and ended up being pushed into a second instance of Pocket D where the main event was being held. There were only a few of us there but we got to spend time chatting with Dark Watcher. Eventually after the few of us tried to wipe out some giant monsters left on the slopes we each made our way to the main instance of Pocket D. There Positron and Black Scorpion were answering questions on important things like, how the cake was and what they thought about the speculation of a romance between Positron and Numina. For me though the highlight of the night was getting the chance to chat privately with the newest member of the Paragon Studios crew, Freitag. We talked mostly about life in Europe as well as life in California. Oh and there was more talk of cake. My fault really, the cake looked tasty!

 

 

Eventually Positron and Black Scorpion decided it was time to go and Dr. Aeon came to hang out with us for a while. I asked him about the bouncy castle course they had in the parking lot which the day before he swore he would beat the champion at. He didn’t want to talk about it much. (Villains can be such sore losers!) After a little bit of chatting with everyone he let some giant monsters out to play on the dance floor. And when that proved to easy we got to try our hand at defeating the signature heroes and villains. A lot of fun was had and the mediport system got a good working.

 

I’ll be celebrating the super seven myself on Meta’s Verse with a top 10 list every week for the rest of May. Come back next week to see my top 10 list of City of Heroes Issues.