Designing Day Jobs, by Game Designer Phil Zeleski
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Picking a
Day Job gives your avatara bonus when you log out in the correct
location.
Day Jobs, a new feature for
style="font-style: italic;">City of
Heroes, rewards players
even when they aren't playing the game. It's called offline character
progression and while other games have done this before,
style="font-style: italic;">City of Heroes
takes it to a
whole new level. Simply put, Day Jobs reward players with additional
powers and
benefits when they log back in. This also gives characters greater
depth by
allowing them to flesh out their identities and back-stories. Our goal
was to
create a robust system that benefits players now as much as possible
while also
allowing the system to grow with future content updates.
Day Jobs and
Badges
The Day Job system allows players to log out from a specific location
(like a hospital or vault) and when they return to play, after an
extended log out period, they will gain a temporary power or some other
benefit. All of the benefits granted from Day Jobs, other than badges
and accolades (see below) are temporary or have a certain number of
uses before they expire. However, each time a character logs out from
the same area, the corresponding benefits are replenished. Most rewards
take 10 days of logged out time to reach the maximum benefit.
When characters are logged out from a designated location
(consecutively or non-consecutively) for a total of 30 days they will
earn a badge associated with the corresponding Day Job. This will
result in additional benefits. Once a badge is earned, the rate at
which characters accumulate benefits, and even the potency of them
increase!
Below is a list of most, but not all, of the Day Jobs
available in
Issue 13: Power and Responsibility:
Hero Day Jobs
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style="font-weight: bold;">Day Job Name
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style="font-weight: bold;">Log Out Location
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style="font-weight: bold;">Benefit
City
Official
City
Hall (Atlas Park)
Influence
Bonus upon mission complete.
Law
Enforcer
Police
Stations
Experience
Bonus upon mission complete
Commuter
Train
Stations
Travel
speed bonus.
Shop
Keeper
Store
Lobbies
Enhancement
drop on mission complete.
Intern
Portal
Corp Lobbies
Large
Inspiration upon mission complete.
Caregiver
Hospital
Lobbies
Out
of combat regeneration bonus.
Professor
Inside
Universities
Random
tech salvage drop upon mission complete.
Midnighter
Inside
the Midnighter's Club
Random
arcane salvage drop upon mission complete.
Banker
Inside
a Vault
Influence
Bonus upon mission complete.
Clubber
Pocket
D
Out
of combat recovery bonus.
Fashion
Designer
Tailor
Lobbies
Coupons
that will grant a discount at the tailor.
Mortician
Graveyards
XP
Debt Protection
Villain Day Jobs
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style="font-weight: bold;">Day Job Name
style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; width: 150px;">
style="font-weight: bold;">Log Out Location
style="vertical-align: middle; width: 300px; text-align: left;">
style="font-weight: bold;">Benefit
Demagogue
Arachnos
Building (Marconeville, Port Oakes)
Influence
Bonus upon mission complete.
Arachnos
Agent
Arachnos
Bases and Arachnos Controlled areas.
Experience
Bonus upon mission complete
Pilot
Near Black
Helicopters
Travel
speed bonus.
Smuggler
Ferry
Docks
Enhancement
drop on mission complete.
Crey
Employee
Crey
Industries Building in Nerva Archipelago
Large
Inspiration upon mission complete.
Pain
Specialist
Hospital
Lobbies
Out
of combat regeneration bonus.
Professor
Inside
Universities
Random
tech salvage drop upon mission complete.
Midnighter
Inside
the Midnighter's Club
Random
arcane salvage drop upon mission complete.
Thief
Inside
a Vault
Influence
Bonus upon mission complete.
Clubber
Pocket
D
Out
of combat recovery bonus.
Fashion
Designer
Tailor
Lobbies
Coupons
that will grant a discount at the tailor.
Mortician
Graveyards
XP
Debt Protection
Next up are the Accolades and the On Patrol function, which
introduces rest XP. Just
continue to page two.