Going Rogue, the upcoming expansion for City of
Heroes and City of
Villains, will allow players to transition from hero to villain and
villain to hero for the first time. We spoke with Matt
"Positron" Miller, Senior Lead Producer of City of Heroes,
about what the change will entail. This process is not
immediate, its not a switch, its not a $30 charge. Its a story that
you go through. For heroes, its a fall from grace, for villains its a
redemptive arc. A hero will be a hero for a while and hell do enough
content that hell become a vigilante... do enough of that vigilante
stuff and youll get kicked out of Paragon City and youll end up in
the Rogue Isles as a villain.
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No timetable has been set for City of |
Villains dont become vigilantes, they become rogues. They become the
redemptive sort-of guys that think, Maybe Im fighting on the wrong
side. Maybe Im not doing everything for the right reasons. Maybe
theres a better way for me to use my powers. Theyll get what I term
internally as the Han Solo missions, the heart-of-gold but wears a
grey hat type stuff. Eventually if they do enough of that stuff,
theyll be invited over to Paragon City to become a full fledged hero.
Even if you meet the content requirements to change allegiances,
theres no danger of accidentally changing sides. Youll have to
purposefully do the content, and purposefully make that transition. So
you can kind of ride that middle line I talked about - you can really
stay a gray hat, and there will be some advantages to doing so. You can
go from one zone to another more freely, but youll lose some
opportunities as well.
But characters that switch sides will still retain much of their
identity. Youll keep your archetype, its not like a brutes going to
become a tanker or a blasters going to become a mastermind. Youll
become a heroic mastermind, youll be a villainous blaster. Keeping it
simple is what the players want. The one thing that may change are the
badges (CoHs version of achievements). Weve always been careful to
have a villain version of all the hero badges and vice-versa, Matt
explained. So it makes sense that the descriptions of all your badges
might change, but what youve earned will stay with you. We imagine
that some of the really hardcore badge hunters will do the content just
for those really hard to get badge rewards.
We asked whether the tremendously successful Mission Architect system
will allow players to create content which will shift allegiances.
According to Matt, thats still a topic under discussion, .
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Going Rogue will also have new entry-level content in Praetoria, for
those starting new characters in that zone. We acknowledge that our
tutorial is about four or five years old. Weve added stuff to it
piecemeal as weve added systems on, but for the starting zone in Going
Rogue, we are rewriting and modernizing the new player experience.
But level-capped players will also get theirs, and Matt explained that
the team isnt just extending the purple enhancements grind. Were
going to have a whole new system that will allow max-level players to
take their max-level characters and make them even more powerful. For
the moment, thats all we were able to find out on that topic.
No timetable has been set for the Going Rogue expansion as of yet, but
to keep players from leaving City of Heroes while checking out the MMO
flavors of the day, NCsoft recently announced a loyalty program for
players who stay subscribed from August through November. They will
get priority access to the Going Rogue beta when we get there, Matt
added. Additionally, the second annual Hero-Con is scheduled for
October 24th and 25th, and Ten Ton Hammer just learned of this years
exclusive
costume set for Hero Con attendees. We look forward to
learning more about Going Rogue at the event in San Jose and in the
coming months.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our City of Villains Game Page.
