The BIG NEWS!

Well for the past few days there was talk about something BIG in the works. Couldn't say what it was... but people had plenty of guesses. Something new. Something wonderful. Something EARTH-SHATTERING!

So this week it came out...

THE MULTIVERSE IS BACK!

Oh wait... sorry, that was DC Comics.

CAPTAIN AMERICA IS BACK!

No... that's Marvel Comics.

YOUNGBLOOD IS...

Oh, that's Image... and of course if Liefeld is doing it, you can probably expect that to be delayed to infinity again.

No no... THE REAL BIG NEWS IS....

NC Soft now owns 100% of the City of Heroes and City of Villains franchise!

For the longest time, NC Soft has been working with Cryptic Studios on the City of Heroes/City of Villains operation. NC Soft provided the network and financing, and Cryptic would provide the content. Now NC Soft has picked up the whole operation, including most (but not all) of the developers from Cryptic.

So what does that mean? Well it means that NC Soft will be calling the shots now instead of it being a joint operation. They have their own special studio set up just for City of X and the key people are excited about being able to bring the whole game to the next level of interaction.

There are plenty of things in the works right now... and Battlerock X has his ear to the ground on this! So keep checking in with the Chronicles, because things ARE happening!

What's on Paragon TV?

Thursday nights are HERO nights on PBC!

At 8pm, it's the wacky tales of a school teacher who gets an alien supersuit and learns the hard way about being a hero.

It's... PARAGON'S GREATEST HERO!



This week's special guest is the legendary Back Alley Brawler.

At 9pm, learn how a group of dysfunctional heroes manage to live together and not kill each other. You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll tear your hair out in frustration!

It's... QUEENS OF KING'S!



And at 10pm it's MOON HILL THEATER!



Thursday nights is time for HEROES!

Only on PBC TV!
Paragon City's #1 Network!
Come SOAR with us!

Halloween Event 2007

Things have been busy in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. This is the time of Halloween, and this year we have a week-long Trick-or-Treat event.

Here's how it works: you knock on any normal door on the game (also works for the back of delivery trucks and manhole covers) and you get one of three things. You either get an outright TREAT, a TRICK (Halloween-themed bad guys to fight), or a CHALLENGE... namely a really BIG bad guy to fight.

Now you defeat the BIG bad guy and you get serious bonus points including some badges that look good on your profile. You defeat enough regular Halloween-themed bad guys in the TRICK and you get some badges.

But the TREAT has the fun stuff! You get can get one of several temporary costumes, and if you collect enough of those, you get some badges too. You can get "a rock"... which is a temporary power in homage to the legendary Charles "Charlie" Brown. Or you can get some VALUABLE salvage pieces.

How valuable? Well there are four special salvage pieces that are specifically themed for Halloween. They are joke costume parts... such as rubber imitations of Back Street Brawler's trademarked gloves, or a mask of either Statesman or Lord Recluse, or a cheap plastic Hamidon Monster toy. They seem like nothing, but when you have all FOUR of them (one each), you can take them over to a special witch and she will give you an extra costume slot. So for lower-level characters, this is a great opportunity to develop that "alternate outfit" instead of having to wait until you attain that first available slot of Level 20.

Now the bad news... this little deal only applies during the Halloween Event, which ends this Sunday. And the temporary costumes themselves also expire after a certain number of days. The extra costume slot, though, stays. So the badges and the costume slots are really the treasures for this event.

So far there is one hero (Superion Prime) and one villain (Spartan Warlady) here in the Chronicles who managed to get enough pieces together and make the trek to get that extra costume slot. And in truth, it was harder for the villain to make it than the hero (nothing really heroic about simply getting off the Green Line and walking a few dozen yards), so I'll have her give her account of the experience.

More info on Issue 11

Have some more previews of Issue 11... which should come out SOON!

First is a taste of the whole Ourboros experience:



And now a little behind-the-scenes look at the two new powers and how they got selected. This comes from one of the developers himself!

Battlerock X: Journal Entry 20071031

I am composing my thoughts as I attempt to rebuild my life and regain the memories that are still missing.

This is what I know… I know that my name is John Helix Battlerock. I know that for several decades I was a covert operative for some government agency before retiring.

I know that I was forced to return to action when the Rikti arrived in 2002. My last memory of that action was in helping to defend Hero 1 and the rest of the Omega team as they prepared their final assault on the Rikti homeworld. I know that I was declared “killed in action” and that for nearly five years I was roaming Paragon City as a brain-damaged vagabond.

I don’t know what brought some of my memories back. Maybe it was my experience with the Rikti that forced me to remember again. Maybe it was a nearby portal that put my brain back into alignment. All I know is that I’m remembering most of who I was before the war.

I do know that someone found me, and they did something to me. There is a metal plate on my face that I can’t get off, and I don’t know why it is there. I don’t think it was for just cosmetic purposes. I’ve gone to the medical center a few times but the doctors don’t want to help me. I can see it in their facial expressions. They have some idea of what this thing is, but they don’t want to get involved.

I know that I have a wife and a daughter who should be 18 now. I have not had the chance to see them yet, to let them know that I am still alive. I am not ready to make my presence known to them yet. I don’t want to put them in danger when I have no idea what this metal plate on my face is about.

Part of my resurrection forced me to start from square one. All that I knew once about fighting and my inherited abilities as a Battlerock Warrior were gone. I had a high security rating before the first Rikti invasion. That disappeared. I have to start from the bottom again.

Since my return I’ve created my own super-group called Omega 2. This gives me the chance to create my own base of operations so I can figure out what the missing parts of my life are and what happened after I was “killed”. I cannot trust the Paragon City infrastructure to help me, so I will have to conduct my own investigation as to what happened and who put this thing on my face.

Part of my “death” had something to do with the Rikti portals. Every time I fight one of those bastards when they just arrive, I have a flash of the life that I used to have. Unfortunately, my fellow heroes have made things difficult, because the number of Rikti invasions has decreased. I will probably have to go to the crash site itself, and to do that, I’ll need to get clearance from the Vanguard. That in and of itself will be difficult since my security level was reset.

I don’t know if I should get my daughter involved with this, but I may have to. I’ve seen reports of a “Battlerock Babe” in the Paragon Times, and she is wearing a modified version of my Rikti War outfit. No doubt her mother tried to talk her out of it, but Joan is a Battlerock Warrior, and my family has a strong history of doing whatever it is that we set ourselves to do. I just hope she doesn’t make the same mistakes that I made in the past.

Some GREAT Video Previews

Came across some GREAT previews for the forthcoming Issue 11.

First, a good fan-made teaser...

(Sorry, some rocket scientist demanded that embedding be disabled - so click on the link to get there.)

And then an actual demonstration of the Dual Swords power - one of the two new abilities that will be introduced in the City of Heroes and City of Villains series.


(Note: as of this post, Issue 11 is still in closed beta testing, so what you're seeing is still in the testing phase.)

The other ability that will be introduced is willpower, which will be a mixture of three powers (super senses, invulnerability, and regeneration) which should make things a little easier.

Updates for the Players

Hey Chronicle-Readers, I've been making some tweaks to the list of Players, including adding pictures whenever possible, so please keep checking in with that page. You can get to it quicker by going to the tag marked "The Players" on the right-hand menu.

Latest update: image of Herald Prime

I'll be posting updates when possible.

City of Heroes has first Real World Superhero

The folks at City of Heroes have posted this message...

Long Time City of Heroes Player "The Defuser" Wins Reality TV Show "Who Wants To Be A Superhero?"

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The City of Heroes Development Team wants to extend their congratulations to “The Defuser” for his victory in winning the reality TV show “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?” The Defuser is also known on the City of Heroes community forums as Detective2416 and has been a long time player of the game.

To check out the show, take a look at the Who Wants to be a Superhero website.

Or, join us on the Official Forums to congratulate The Defuser on his win!

I've watched both seasons of the Sci-Fi series, and while the series is somewhat corny, at least it INSPIRES people!

BTW, according to The Defuser himself (aka Detective2416), he wasn't the only City of Heroes to go from cyberspace to real-world. Mindset/Omnicron was also supposedly another CoH player who got the chance to take things to the next step.

So congrats Defuser! Maybe your character can become an honorary member of the Freedom Phalanx! I would certainly love to see more of CoH connections!

Why guys create girl characters

So you're probably wondering... why do guys create girl characters to play in the online world?

Well the secret is finally revealed... and no, it's NOT what you think!

THIS is the reason!



By the way, a few things about online girl characters: They don't complain about the clothes they wear. They don't spend your money doing online shopping. They really kick ass and don't complain about breaking a nail. They don't have bad hair days. They don't get moody. They don't spend their time watching Paragon Idol. And in the City of Heroes and City of Villains, female characters don't get fat so they don't have to obsess about their weight.

New Players

There have been several new players added to the world of City of Heroes and City of Villains.

Justice Server - City of Heroes: FyreLife

Champion Server - City of Villains: Spartan Warlady, The Reverend NeoCon

Official descriptions for each of them can be found in the Player's list.