By
Joe Morrissey, Senior Designer, City of Heroes



It’s pretty safe to say that if it’s not
Positron’s fault… it’s mine.



Hi. I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced.
I’m Joe Morrissey, some call me Hero 1. I’m a
senior designer and the lead writer on style="font-style: italic;">City of Heroes.
I’ve been on the team just over a year now, coming on during
the craziness of Issue 10, helping guide the vision of Issue 11 and now
laying the foundation for what is issue 12, “The Midnight
Hour”. But before I get into that, let me give you a little
background about myself.

style="margin: 10px; border-collapse: collapse; float: right; width: 148px; height: 185px;"
border="1">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/31919"> src="/image/view/31919/preview" width="200">

An image of Darrin
Wade, an important NPC in Issue 12..

I’ve been a writer/designer for about 10 years now, starting
at Blizzard North working on Diablo II, the expansion and anything else
us “Northies” thought was a good idea at the time.
From there I went over to Backbone and learned how to roll up my
sleeves and get down and dirty in design. I worked on a number of
handheld games the highlight of those being Death Jr. 2. About a year
ago, my wife and I found out we were going to have our first kid and
that meant a couple lifestyle changes needed to occur. The main one
being a job much closer to home. I applied at Cryptic Studios and
apparently I “interviewed well”, a fact Positron is
quick to point out anytime that I make his life difficult.



So, why the Midnight Hour?

The Midnight Squad takes the main focus of this issue.
They’ve got some of the coolest history, yet hardly any of it
has been opened up to the players. I choose the Midnight Squad because
they were seriously crippled by the invasion and therefore were
extremely motivated to take action against the Rikti. We did a lot with
the Rikti story for Issue 10, but it was only through the single lens
of the Vanguard. Now we see a second perspective, through the eyes of
those hardest hit from the invasion, the Midnighters.



Rather than retreating further back into their libraries, they are
stepping out of the shadows and throwing their pipes and monocles into
the fight against the Rikti. The Squad has always been a group of
intellects who research, discuss and analyze the world of the unknown,
but now they have a purpose. They have an enemy – an enemy
who thought them important enough to attack first. An intelligent man
might believe there was something to that, something the Midnighters
can use to their advantage. Now all that knowledge and hidden power is
being turned against the Rikti.

style="margin: 10px; border-collapse: collapse; float: left; width: 148px; height: 185px;"
border="1">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/31921"> src="/image/view/31921/preview" width="200">

The Midnight Squad is
the main focus of Issue 12.

The image I have in my head is of a stodgy old Midnighter rolling a big
crate out in front of the Freedom Phalanx. The lettering on the crate
reads, “The Arc of the Covenant”. With a smile, the
Midnighter asks the group of heroes, “You gentlemen think you
could put this dusty old thing to use?”



The Midnight Squad is recruiting and sharing their knowledge with
others. Now in the world’s hour of need, the clock strikes
midnight. It’s the Midnight Hour.



The Rikti and the
Wonderful World of Magic

The landscape of magic and the Rikti have changed. When the Rikti first
attacked, they came after magic users first. This showed their hand to
anyone paying attention. The Rikti’s greatest weakness was
magic. Already the Vanguard use magic in their weapons, the Circle of
Thorns are working on their own anti-Rikti spells and now we see what
the Midnighters have up their sleeve.



This best comes to light in Montague Castanella’s story arc,
“Lost and Found”. Montague is at the University in
Steel Canyon. It’s a lower level arc, from 10 – 20,
but you get to face Rikti, aid the new leader of Dawn Patrol
“Lady Jane”, ally with both the Vanguard and the
Traditionalists as well as craft an item that could change the
landscape of the game. You get mixed up with a lot of stuff in this
arc, which is one of the reasons why I like it so much.



However, one of the standout arcs this issue, if not of the past three
I’ve worked on, has to be Darrin Wade’s
“Midnight Draws Near”. Wade’s an
ex-Midnighter who sells his knowledge and stolen relics in the Rogue
Isle. Now the Midnighters come to town and he doesn’t much
like it. What starts out as a simple enforcer mission, ends up
revealing a darker side to the Rikti and eventually sending you into
the belly of the beast against the Midnight Squad. There are a couple
nice twists and turns in this arc, leading all the way up to your final
conversation with Darrin Wade.

style="margin: 10px; border-collapse: collapse; float: right; width: 148px; height: 185px;"
border="1">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/31920"> src="/image/view/31920/preview" width="200">

Contextual dialog
will certainly add a bit of flair to the CoH missions.

Let’s talk
tech: Contextual dialog

Finally, I’d like to talk about some new tech for missions
we’re rolling out this issue: Contextual dialog. Contacts can
now know specific things about your character or the state of the
mission you’re on and give you appropriate dialog to match
it. I think almost every new story arc uses it in one way or another.



For example, in the Origin of Power arcs you talk to a representative
of each of the five origins. When you get to the contact who is the
same origin as you, he or she will have more in depth information for
you regarding your specific origin. This new tech also allows for us to
make NPCs in instanced maps feel more like actual contacts in the zone.
We’re now able to change their dialog depending on events
going on in the mission. A great example of this is the Sybil you speak
with at the beginning of Imperious’ first mission in
Cimerora. She has three different dialog states depending on where you
are in the mission.



This tech actually has the potential to replace our current system for
handling missions. The design team has a couple of other ways we plan
to use contextual dialog but we’re going to have to keep
those plans locked up for now.



Thanks for your time. I hope you enjoy the issue. If not, it was
Positron’s fault.