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City of Villains is an incredibly fun and addictive MMORPG, improving the gameplay of City of Heroes with a healthy dose of evil. Taking an already Award-winning game. Villains from the City of Heroes series - which was one of the longest-running and popular. City of Villains downloads are here. Check all the latest City of Villains files, mods, patches, demos and betas on FilePlanet.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ' City of Villains' Paragon Studios Level Up! Interactive Brazil, Release date(s) October 28, 2005 Mode(s): Teen: 16+ 4 CDs, or 1 DVD, or via download System requirements Internet connection; Windows 2000/XP; Intel Pentium III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800 MHz; 512 MB RAM; CD-ROM Drive; 4 GB Available HDD Space; GeForce 2 Series or ATI Radeon 8500 Series Video Card; DirectX 9.0c; 16-bit Sound Card; 56k modem; Keyboard and mouse City of Villains is a based on the, developed by and published. Released on October 31, 2005 , the game is integrated with their previous release,. The gameplay centers on defeating a variety of computer controlled opponents within a three-dimensional world using various powers and attacks, sometimes with the help of several other players. On July 16, 2008, NCsoft merged the two games' content together, thus a player who only owned City of Heroes could now play City of Villains, and vice versa.

Prior to this, a purchase was required to access either game's content, but they were linked by one account and subscription fee. While both games are considered the same title after the merge, City of Villains still enjoys many improvements from the merged features while still receiving improvements on it's unique zones and player features that are not accessible on City of Heroes. Contents. Differences between the games As City of Villains was an expansion to City of Heroes as well as its own standalone title, it introduced several changes that are unique to the game.

One of the primary changes to the game was the ability to play as a, with new (classes) and powers unique to Villains. Other changes to the game include:. An instant-access mission system, the Newspaper. Players look through the newspaper for noteworthy articles, such as a valuable item being kept in a museum, then act upon them. areas for Hero vs. Villain conflict.

This addition was an expansion on CoH 's Arena areas, which allowed for Hero vs. Hero battles. Villain is also available in the game. Sharper and more detailed graphics, and other visual improvements. Ability to create/access Super Group bases.

These features have been implemented into City of Heroes. Initially, the use of Super Group bases in City of Heroes required an account with City of Villains access. Later, NCSoft gave subscribers to either game access to both games, allowing all players to use Super Group bases. Any account or game code which gave access to only one game now grants access to both games.

The instant-access mission system has been ported to City of Heroes as the Police Band radio, where heroes listen for crimes in progress and act to prevent them. Missions The player's initial tutorial is 'Breakout' (the name of which is the inverse of City of Heroes tutorial, 'Outbreak') where their character must escape from prison (specifically Zigursky Penitentiary, 'The Zig,' located in Brickstown) to go to the Rogue Isles, where the majority of the game takes place.

After this point, the player gains missions both from the new Newspaper system and from more traditional contacts. The game has diverse missions which have objectives such as bank robberies and kidnappings, in addition to the mission types currently available in City of Heroes. Players are able to choose between the different types of missions offered by the newspaper. Another type of mission is the Supergroup mission, where your entire Supergroup will be able to take on a difficult challenge.

Also, since the release of, players can participate in Mayhem Missions, where villains travel to instanced areas of Paragon City and harass citizens, rob stores, destroy property, and cause general mayhem for a limited amount of time. Player One major focus of City of Villains is the expansion of (PvP) combat. Although PvP was introduced to City of Heroes prior to the release of City of Villains through the Arena combat system, CoV substantially expands the variety and importance of PvP combat. Three new modes of PvP are included in the expansion:. There are specific PvP zones which both villains and heroes are able to enter in order to fight each other. These zones contain special objects which provide certain benefits to whichever side is in control of the map.

Warburg allows open PvP, where players can attack any other player, while the other zones (Recluse's Victory, Siren's Call, Bloody Bay) allow faction-based PvP, where heroes can only attack villains and vice versa. For a short time, Items of Power were available after a supergroup completed the Cathedral of Pain trial. If a Supergroup's base contains an Item of Power, the lair is open to (scheduled) raids by any other Supergroup which owns fewer Items of Power. Items of Power confer modest stat bonuses to all members of the owning supergroup. The Cathedral of Pain trial, along with the Items of Power system, have been disabled for some time. Players may earn gladiators by accumulating gladiator badges. These gladiators act as proxy fighters for the new gladiator mode of Arena combat.

A base foyer. Players can create bases for their villain groups. These allow the player to meet-up with other players privately and gain access to useful game facilities.

From a base, players can travel directly to specific zones, buy, or acquire missions, for example. 'Items of Power' can be stored here. These items provide the supergroupgroup with stat bonuses, but also opens up the base for raiding (see also 'Player vs. Player' above). The bases can be equipped with traps and other countermeasures to help fend off these raids. During scheduled base defense time periods any other supergroup will be able to raid the base and attempt to seize an Item Of Power.

The trial to acquire Items of Power was disabled shortly after its release due to the presence of a game-breaking exploit. This left player-scheduled Base Raids with no rewards beyond bragging rights as the only avenue for base combat, until the Base Raid system was disabled in Issue 13. In order to construct a base, the members of the supergroup must acquire in-game currency known as Prestige. Prestige is earned by members of the supergroup when they play their characters in 'Supergroup mode.' It is then spent to buy rooms, place items, and pay upkeep expenses for a base. Additionally there is a form of crafting using 'Salvage' acquired from defeated. With Salvage and a worktable placed in a base, players can create various items such as more powerful hospitals or turrets.

These placed items can make your base less vulnerable to attack, provide additional functionality for your Supergroup, or increase the visual appeal of your base. In Game Items There are many different types of items available for use in City of Villains and Heroes. The items mentioned here are all in both associated games.

Inspirations Inspirations are used by players in the game as temporary power ups for different stats or abilities. They are acquired by killing enemies, or buying for a small price from a Quartermaster. They are very common, but some are rarer and more expensive than others. The different stats that can be modified using these 30 to 60 second power ups are:.

Damage of all abilities, making your character deal more hit points worth of damage. Accuracy of all abilities, making your character hit more often. Resisting all status effects that could prevent you from attacking/moving. Defence, making your character harder to hit. Resistance, making your character take less damage There are also inspirations that can boost other things than stats. Such as:. A boost to your health.

Resurrection after death, penalties for dying will still apply Power ups in this regard are used to get out of tough situations, or just to complete a mission faster, or easier. Enhancements Enhancements are permanent bonuses to specific powers. They are obtained by killing enemies, or buying from a Quartermaster, and are more rare and expensive than Inspirations. They get more expensive the higher level your character is. When an enhancement is applied to a power, it is locked into that power, and cannot be moved. It can, however, be deleted or overwritten.

When overwritten, the enhancement previously locked into the power is lost, and cannot be recovered. Enhancements can alter all different stats and are permanent, but can only affect one power, and until the higher levels, do not affect them as much as Inspirations. Salvage There are 2 main types of salvage. Invention salvage allows you to craft recipes with it to make an Invention Enhancement.

The other type is Special salvage. The main types being Merits that you gain after completing a Task Force to be turned in for Recipes.

The other being Rikti War Zone (RWZ) Merits that allow you to turn in merits you gain from killing Rikti, into costume pieces and temporary powers. Other Special Salvage you can gain are only available during some special events.

Invention System The invention system is used by players to make advanced enhancements, inspirations, and salvage that can be used for personal gain, or sold for profit. All invention items require a recipe and an assortment of salvage (listed on the recipe itself) to complete the creation. Main article: Beta testing for City of Villains began in August 2005 and ended a few days before release with an event where the developers played famous NPC heroes attacking the Rogue Isles. The update history of CoV mirrors that of and starts at Issue #6 'Along Came a Spider' where the content of both games were linked. Issue #7 titled 'Destiny Manifest' introduced powers and the 'Mayhem Missions' in which one can invade CoH's Paragon City and rob banks and cause mayhem as well as a new zone know as Warburg. Issue #8 titled 'To Protect and Serve' did not influence CoV as much as it did CoH. Issue #9 titled 'Breakthrough' introduced the Inventions and auction house systems.

Issue #10 'Invasion' focused on the Rikti villain group that is central to the backstory of City of Heroes, and the Rikti War Zone was, so far, unique in that it is designed around the concept of the heroes and villains working together against the Rikti, whereas in player vs. Player zones, villains and heroes are on opposing sides in any conflict which occurs, save for Warburg, which is described by the City of Heroes website as a 'free-for-all' zone where it's every character for themselves.

Issue #11 'A Stitch In Time' introduced the Ourobouros group and time travel. This issue also introduced two new power sets for melee characters, weapon customization (on drawn weapons) and the Flashback system.

Issue #12 gave Villains the chance to get their own Epic Archetype (after leveling a Villain to 50) who have a career tree style leveling, unique to these two Archetypes. Also, just like City of Heroes, City of Villains shares holiday-themed events, such as the and -themed Winter Event, a event, and a event. The various games' anniversaries are also celebrated by rewarding players with items for signing on. Character Creation Creating a character consists of several steps. First the player selects an Origin, an Archetype and a primary and secondary power set.

Next the actual avatar with its costume is created. Lastly, the player chooses a name and can optionally write a background story to add some flavor to the character as well as creating an individual battle cry. There are five Origins a player can choose for his/her character that dictate what type of enhancements the character may use, affect a single short-ranged power and can influence the various hero groups that the character goes up against; these origins are Natural, Magic, Science, Mutation, and Technology. There are five basic Archetypes (or classes) in City of Villains that affect a character's Power choices throughout the game.

Brutes are primarily melee fighters with some defensive powers who do more damage the longer they stay in combat. Corruptors are primarily long-ranged fighters who deal moderate damage and secondary powers that either weaken their foes or strengthen their allies.

Dominator primary powersets focus on preventing foes from moving and attacking while their secondary set consists of moderate offensive powers. Masterminds are able to summon various Henchmen to do their bidding and can bolster their Henchmen with powers from their secondary set. Stalkers are melee specialists who rely on the power 'Hide' to increase their damage potential. A sixth 'Epic' character Archetype was added in Issue 12: Soldiers Of Arachnos. This Archetype allows players to play as stronger versions of Arachnos minions encountered throughout the game, discover many secrets about the inner workings of Arachnos and its secret societies and achieve high ranks.

They are also unique amongst CoH/CoV characters to date in having branching career trees. At level 24, Blood Widows can choose between the Fortunata (Dominator/Ranged Psychic attacks) and Night Widow (Stalker/Ranged Psychic attacks) paths, while Wolf Spiders can pick the Crab Spider (Corruptor with summons) or Bane Spider (Stalker/Brute with summons) paths. These are unlocked by reaching level 50 on a Villain character, similar to the method of unlocking the Kheldian Archetypes in CoH. Main article: City of Villains takes place on the fictional Rogue Isles off the coast of in the ocean, which used to be a colony and later a haven. The Rogue Isles have acquired status.

The Rogue Isles are under the control of a new and powerful villain group, led by Lord Recluse. Unlike, the zones in City of Villains run in a linear pattern; as your character levels higher, they progress to the next zone.

These zones also lack the 'War Walls' to divide them, and require the use of ferries or helicopters to traverse between islands. Pricing City of Villains currently retails at an of $19.99 with a at an MSRP of $39.99. A combined 'Good Versus Evil' edition with City of Heroes, which also gave access to exclusive in-game powers, was released in October 2006 for $29.99. All versions also include the first month of subscription fees (see below) to the game. Subscription Fee As in other MMORPGs, players must pay the publisher (NCSoft) a monthly fee to continue playing City of Villains. Portions of the subscription costs go to supporting a full-time 'live' team, which develops additional content for the game; other portions support the significant server maintenance and bandwidth costs.

In addition to paying subscription fees via credit card, another option is pre-paid cards that are available at video game retailers. Once purchased, the player inputs a code from the card and their account is updated to allow as many months of play as the card is good for. Both City of Heroes and City of Villains are now bundled together when purchased or downloaded. They were once two separate games with a single subscription fee. General references. City of Villains Binder, PRIMA Official Game Guide, Eric Mylonas, Prima Games (2005). ISBN 0-7615-5206-5.

City of Villains Exclusive Binder Update Content, Issue 7: Destiny Manifest, PRIMA Official Game Guide, Jack Emmert and the Cryptic Studios Design Team, Prima Games (2006). ISBN 0-7615-5350-9 References. Retrieved 2009-05-12. External links. From Wikia Gaming, your source for walkthroughs, games, guides, and more! City of Villains Release date, ( & ) / Massive Multiplayer ESRB: T PEGI: 16+ Credits Soundtrack Walkthrough City of Villains is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (, it is also often referred to as a MMO Role Playing Game, or ). It was released on October 31st, 2005, and has 11 servers in and 5 in Europe in English, French and German.

Developed by Cryptic Studios and published by, CoV is an ' to, based on the genre of comic books popularized by Marvel, DC, Wildstorm, Image, and so on. Players take on the role of a supervillain in, fighting to gain personal power, money, and rank in the Aracnhos organization. City of Villains Overview City of Heroes starts with a player building their villain from the ground up. First, a player chooses one of 5 Archetypes, or 'AT's: the Corrupter, Stalker, Dominator, Brute, or Mastermind. Each AT has a selection of Primary and Secondary Power Sets, each with 9 powers.

These powers can be unlocked as a character levels up, starting at level 1 a character can choose one of their first two powers from their chosen Primary, and also recieve the first power from their Secondary. Generally, secondaries unlock later than primaries, and are less powerful than primary versions that may be availible to other ATs.

You also choose an origin, which is mainly used to determine which enhancement types your character can use. Then, they choose the design of their character. Unlike many other MMOs, appearances such as armor or lack of it has no effect on player statistics. CoV character customization is perhaps the most flexible in almost any game, and almost certainly within the MMO field, with a virtually infinite number of possible costumes, even without taking into count color variations. Players can choose a basic female, basic male, or 'Huge' male frame to start with, and go off from there.

City Of Villains Private Server

Then, it's time to choose a name, write an origin story (if you choose), think of a battle cry (optional), and hit the tutorial. City of Villains Story City of Heroes/Villains has a rich backstory, with a story bible said to be several hundred pages including. Obviously this is too much to cover here, but the basics are: The Rogue Isles is an island chain in the Atlantic off the American coast. A former colony, the Rogue Isles has a sordid history of piracy, demons, corruption and bloodshed. In more recent history Lord Recluse, leader of the Arachnos organization, took control of the islands and began using them as a base against his nemesis Statesman, and his beloved Paragon City. In fall of 2005, the Fortunata Kalinda had a vision that foretold that someone in Paragon's prison, the Zigguraut, was destined to lead Arachnos to its ultimate victory. So, in Operation: Destiny, Recluse broke out every superpowered villain held in the Zig, brought them to Mercy Island, and began to allow survival of the fittest to show which was the Destined One.

Are you strong enough to rise above the competition? Or shall you make your own destiny in the Rogue Isles? Gameplay The style of gameplay varies depending on which of the several Archetypes is being played.

Each has its own focus, strengths, and weaknesses, and while all are intended to be soloable to some extent, some are more group-focused than others. The Corrupter The Corrupter has two main roles: lang range damage, and buff/debuffing. While CoH is not as healer-focused as some MMOs, CoV has even less - the Corrupter is the closest you'll find and even they are mostly damage-focused. Their Primary power sets are: Assault Rifle, Dark Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Radiation Blast and Sonic Blast. Secondaries include: Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Kinetics, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Thermal Radiation and Traps. Their inherent power, 'Scourge', causes them to do more damage to enemies as their health drops. Comic book examples include Mr.

Freeze or Silver Banshee of DC. The Dominator The Dominator plays a similar role to CoH's Controllers; being the mez-heavy AT. However, unlike controllers they have a stronger damage capacity rather than buff/debuffs. Their primaries are: Fire Control, Gravity Control, Ice Control, Mind Control and Plant Control. Secondaries are: Energy Assault, Fiery Assault, Icy Assault, Psionic Assault, and Thorny Assault. Their inherent power is 'Domination', when charged and activated it doubles damage and mez effects, and refills the players endurance. Comic book examples include Poison Ivy of DC or Dark Phoenix of Marvel.

The Stalker The Stalker is somewhat like CoH's Blasters in that it is something of a 'glass cannon', only they fight in melee rather than at range. All stalkers are stealthy, and can use 'Assassination' attacks which cause them to do more damage when attacking from stealth.

However, once this assassination strike has been used stalkers can become vulnerable and do not generally fare well in an extended fight. Their primaries are: Claws, Energy Melee, Martial Arts, Ninja Blade, and Spines. Secondaries are: Energy Aura, Ninjutsu, Regeneration, and Super Reflexes. Comic book examples include Slade from DC or Sabertooth from Marvel.

The Brute The Brute is the stalker's opposite, with heavier focuses on defenses, and their 'Fury' ability causes them to do more damage the longer a fight lasts. They are the toughest of the CoV ATs, although CoH's Tanks still reign supreme in that field. Their primary power sets are: Dark Melee, Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, Stone Melee and Super Strength. Secondaries are: Dark Armor, Energy Aura, Fiery Aura, Invulnerability and Stone Armor. Comic book examples include Marvel's Hulk, or DC's Grundy. The Mastermind The Mastermind is the most unique of the ATs. Masterminds do little fighting themselves, and instead command various minions to fight for them.

They they back up their minions and teams with buffs and debuffs. Their inherent power is 'Supremacy' which gives damage and accuracy buffs to their minions as long as they are near.

Primaries are: Mercenaries, Necromancy, Ninjas and Robots. Secondaries are: Dark Miasma, Force Field, Poison, Traps and Trick Arrow. Comic book examples would be Doctor Doom or Lex Luthor. Combat CoV follows MMO tradition with the use of level-based combat.

There are 40 levels in Cov (soon to be extended to match CoH's 50), and the experience points required to level up increases as you proceed (although the number of minions you need to defeat remains constant starting around level 39). Players have higher damage and accuracy, and longer duration of effects against lower-leveled opponents, and the opposite against those of a higher level. CoV also uses a classification system for different types of PvE opponents: Underlings, Minions, Lieutenants, Bosses, Elite Bosses, Heroes/Arch-Villains and Giant Monsters. CoH was balanced around one player being roughly the equal of 3 even-level minions, 1.5 lieutenants, or 2/3rds of a boss. This holds up for roughly the first twenty levels, however as players gain access to better enhancements and more powers Heroes may find themselves capable of taking on large numbers of even-level foes, and will need to attack higher levels to find a challange.

Underlings are typically cannon-fodder, while Elite Bosses may take 2-3 players to defeat (or an excellent strategy and use of inspirations). Heroes and Arch-Villains, or AVs, usually require 3-5 players to defeat. Giant Monsters have no level and are a threat to any level player, and can require from 4-20 players to defeat. In PvP, all players are considered to be of an equal level, although those with a true higher level will usually still have an advantage. There are two bars for players to keep track of during combat, their Health and Endurance.

Should a player be reduced to zero Health, they are defeated, and must either call on the emergency Mediport system, wait for resurection by an ally, use a self-resurrection power (if they have one), or a self-resurrection 'Awaken' inspiration. Players recieve 'XP Debt' for being defeated, until the debt is paid off they only recieve half the normal experience point gains. Since launch, many cutbacks have been made to when you recieve debt, currently you do not recieve debt until level 10, and only recieve half debt while in an instanced mission.

The other bar is Endurance, and is the energy required to activate powers. Unlike Health, your total amount of Endurance ('end') does not increase as you level up, so as more powers are gained the player must use Endurance Reduction enhancements or powers like Stamina to keep from running dry during a fight.

Rewards Unlike many MMOs, 'loot' is virtually non-existant in CoV. The rewards that can be gained by defeating enemies or completing missions are: Enhancements, Inspirations, Infamy, Salvage, Prestige, and Badges. Enhancments take the place of loot, and are used to improve a character's powers. When leveling up players recieve either a new power or a number of Enhancement Slots, a power starts with 1 slot and can have up to six. There are almost thirty kinds of enhancements which do things like increase damage.accuracy, duration of effects, speed of travel powers, and so on. There are also three basic classes of enhancments: Trainings, Dual Origins and Single Origins.

Trainings can be used by any origin character and are generally used from levels 1 to 15. Dual Origins are twice as effective as Trainings, but can only be used by 2 of the 5 origins.

Around level 25 players can purchase Single Origins, which are twice as effective as 'DO's but can only be used by a single origin. Inspirations are more commonly dropped, and much, much cheaper to buy. They are short-term powerups that increase damage, return health, break mez effects, and so on. As a player levels up they can hold more, up to a maximum of 20. Infamy is the currency of CoV and is a numerical valuation of how much people fear respect you. Infamy is mostly used for purchasing enhancements, or changing a characters costume. Salvage is a new form of loot used for Supergroup bases, and is used to construct certain items, like teleporters or power generators.

Although there are dozens of kinds of salvage dropped by the various villain groups, they are refined into a limited number of mystical or technological components, making it easy for a SG to combine them into something useful. Prestige is a new form of currency used only for SG bases and is used to increase the base plot size, or to place items - even items built with salvage still require prestige to place. After level 34 players can either earn influence or prestige, but not both simultaneously. Badges are a mostly decorative item used to show to other players what that player has accomplished, and they are rewarded for a variety of different actions. Accolade badges typically have a gameplay benefit, such as a HP or End percentage increase, or the ability to 'respec' powers.

.: April 27, 2004.: February 4, 2005 Mode(s) City of Heroes ( CoH) was a developed by and published. The game was launched in North America on April 27, 2004, and in Europe by NCsoft Europe on February 4, 2005, with English, German and French servers. Twenty-three free major updates for City of Heroes were released before its shutdown. The final live update, 'Where Shadows Lie', was released on May 31, 2012. On August 31, 2012, NCsoft terminated its development team, ending all production on City of Heroes with the last day of services on November 30, 2012. In the game, players created super-powered that could team up with others to complete missions and fight criminals belonging to various gangs and organizations in the fictional Paragon City. The box art for the stand-alone sequel City of Villains.

On October 31, 2005, the game's first sequel, City of Villains ( CoV), was launched, allowing players to play as. The did not require City of Heroes to run, but if the user had both games, content was added to the City of Heroes side of game play. On July 16, 2008, NCsoft merged the two games' content together. Thus, a player who only owned City of Heroes could now play City of Villains, and vice versa. Prior to this, a purchase was required to access either game's content, but they were linked by one account and subscription fee. On November 6, 2007, NCsoft announced their purchase of the City of Heroes/ City of Villains and transitioned the staff from Cryptic Studios to a new location in Mountain View, California, to continue development of the game.

The new studio on April 14, 2009, became, which shared credit with Cryptic Studios for the development work. This then led to City of Heroes becoming available for download on, along with other NCsoft titles, on April 22, 2009. On October 30, 2008, NCsoft announced a partnership with in order to bring both City of Heroes and City of Villains and all 13 expansions to. The City of Heroes: Going Rogue expansion's release was announced on May 11, 2009. This part of the game centered on the alternate reality of Praetoria and featured a new alignment system allowing players characters to shift allegiances between Heroes and Villains, giving characters access to both Paragon City of City of Heroes and the Rogue Isles of City of Villains. Paragon Studios described this as 'exploring the shades of gray that lay between Heroes and Villains'. Going Rogue was released on August 17, 2010, with pre-purchasers able to play on August 16.

On June 20, 2011, Paragon Studios announced that they were going to switch to a hybrid subscription model called City of Heroes: Freedom, adding in a free-to-play game model. Special models for former subscribers would be termed Premium Players, and current subscribers would become VIP players, who would gain access to all the content in the various upcoming game updates. On August 31, 2012, Paragon Studios announced that it was being closed, and City of Heroes would cease all billing immediately and begin the process of shutting down the service. The stated explanation for this move was a 'realignment of company focus and publishing support'.

November 30, 2012, was listed as the official shutdown date of the game and the servers were turned off at midnight. Many players arrived to express their continued protest, support, and fond farewells, including messages of gratitude from the developers and moderators thanking their fans for their support and passion for the game. A variety of efforts got underway, led by players of the game, to keep the game operating past the announced date of closure. Ultimately, their efforts were unsuccessful, and the game shut down as scheduled. Missing Worlds Media's president Nate Downes announced in September 2014 that he introduced an interest party who wanted to make a deal in reviving the game's intellectual property with NCSoft staff, which might enable the final version of the game to be released. No additional info was released as the involved parties were under an NDA.

The effort did not succeed, due to reuse of Statesman and Ghost Widow in. Gameplay. A tanker (foreground) confronts one of the game's arch villains, the Dr.

Vahzilok, in City of Heroes. After and selecting a name (the game would check if the name was already taken on the server), players could either begin play in an isolated zone, or skip the tutorial and begin in an open low-level zone. A character's level increased by earning experience points from defeating foes, completing Missions, and exploring Zones, then returning to an NPC known as a Trainer. Benefits for rising in level included more Health, more Powers to choose for the character, more slots to allocate Enhancements to Powers, and larger inventories for Inspirations (quick use items) and Salvage (crafting materials).

If a player loses all of their Health, they could be revived through use of an item, by an ally's powers, or in one of the Hospitals on the map; reviving in a Hospital after a certain level incurred Experience Debt, which made gaining additional experience more difficult. The setting of the game, Paragon City for Heroes, was divided into different Zones (essentially neighborhoods) by giant energy 'War Walls', which were justified in the back story. Especially dangerous zones called 'Hazard' or 'Trial' zones, which teemed with larger groups of enemies, were marked in red on the in-game map and were much more dangerous than normal zones. The Villains' setting, the Rogue Isles, consisted of islands connected by a network of ferries and helicopters. A few zones were accessible to both heroes and villains; some were cooperative zones, while others were player versus player (PvP) zones. Praetoria, for characters created in the Going Rogue update, lacked War Walls, allowing more or less free movement between areas.

City Of Villains

Players initially moved around the zones by jogging or using a minor speed-increasing power such as 'Sprint'. As heroes grew in level and accumulated more powers, they could choose among four higher speed traveling powers: Teleportation, Super Speed, Super Jumping, and Flight. As characters leveled-up, players could choose new powers from the character's primary and secondary power sets, as set during creation, or from shared power pools. The power pools contained the four travel powers and other generic, usually utilitarian, powers that fell under categories such as Fitness, Concealment, and Leadership.

In addition, as characters leveled up, they gained access to new costume features, including the ability to change between up to five costumes and unlockable costume parts such as capes and auras (unlocked after missions). In the game were known as missions, and were obtained through various channels, generally from various NPCs the player met in the game. Although missions could be completed alone, the player had the option to form Teams with other player characters to play off of each other's characters' strengths and abilities.

The level of the characters used, size of the team, and a separate difficulty scale chosen by the player called Notoriety, all affected the difficulty of the mission. Missions could take the form of an where the player(s) must defeat a, save NPC characters held hostage (sometimes taking the form of ), or search the instance for a certain object or number of objects (such as clues or defusing bombs), while other Missions required that players defeat a certain number and type of, possibly in a defined area of the game. Some missions are part of that involve the player in a larger narrative that tells some of the back story of the setting. Task Forces ( City of Heroes), Strike Forces ( City of Villains), and Trials (both) were particular missions that could be completed multiple times, but only as part of a team, and had to be completed in entirety to earn particular rewards for completion, such as the ability to a character's chosen Powers and Enhancements. Cooperative play also took the form of larger called Supergroups, reminiscent of comic book groups such as the, the, or the. Players part of Supergroups could team up together or convene in Bases (introduced with City of Villains). Bases were used for social meeting or housing special items used in crafting Inventions, serving as a collective item vault, or to recover after losing all Health in the overworld.

Supergroups in turn could form Coalitions with each other for increased collaborations. Coalitions were generally formed for the featured in the game. Another form of cooperative play was the Sidekick feature, which allowed for characters of disparate experience levels to participate in the game together. A Sidekick's experience level would be temporarily risen to be close to their partner's level, and their Health and strength would be scaled to their artificial level, while any experience or Influence they gained was scaled to their original level. A reverse feature known as Exemplar was added later, which artificially lowered the level of a higher level character (also removing access to powers unavailable at their new level), but they earn experience at their original level, which is useful in removing Debt, or gains Influence rather than Experience. For the release of City of Villains, these features are Lackey and Malefactor. Issue 16 overhauled the system such that it was automatically scaled to the 'Anchor', which was either the player on the team whose mission the team was set to perform or the team's leader.

Players could also set 'leveling pacts' which allowed two players to sync up the experience their characters gained, although this was disabled in a later update. Other game features included auction houses and crafting inventions to make characters more powerful or unlock further costume options. The Architect release gave players the ability to construct custom mission arcs, with customized enemies and layouts that could then be played by all other players.

The Going Rogue expansion allowed players to switch their alignment using Tip Missions collected from defeated enemies. Character creation In character creation, the player first selected a character's origin and archetype, then primary and secondary power sets.

Next, the actual avatar with its costume was created. Then the player had a choice of customizing the colors of his/her powers. Lastly, the player chose a name and could optionally write a background story to add some flavor to the character, as well as creating an individual battle cry. There were five origins a player could choose for his/her character that dictated what type of enhancements the character may use, affected which single short-ranged power they begin with (in addition to powers obtained from their primary and secondary power sets), and influenced the various enemy groups that the character went up against. See also: The setting of City of Heroes was the fictional Paragon City, located in in the. The city was divided into several smaller neighborhoods that had varying enemies and progressively higher levels of enemies within them.

The arbitrary divisions between zones are explained in game by the presence of 'War Walls', powerful force fields derived from alien technology which were used to defend various areas of the city. Heroes set out by dealing with low-powered street gangs in the initial zones, working their way up to fighting increasingly dangerous threats — such as organized crime, corrupt corporations, hostile aliens, and supernatural terrors — even eventually entering other dimensions to fight supremely powerful enemies. The setting of City of Villains was the Rogue Isles, a fictitious group of islands off the eastern coast of the United States. There, under the watchful gaze of Lord Recluse and the Arachnos organization, prospective villains fought to make a name for themselves, seizing any opportunity that presented itself. The setting of the Going Rogue expansion was Praetoria, a parallel dimension version of Paragon City where the world was ravaged by Hamidon and his Devouring Earth legions and only Emperor Marcus Cole managed to bring stability to a world ravaged by the Hamidon Wars.

Superpowered individuals living in Praetoria begin as Praetors, working for Emperor Cole, but decide to either join the Loyalist faction and remain a member of the Praetorian armed police force or join the Resistance and attempt to reveal the corruption of Emperor Cole (otherwise known as Tyrant) and free humanity from his rule. Updates and history The Development Team continually expanded City of Heroes with free downloadable patches/updates as well as free game expansions dubbed 'Issues'. All Issues were made available to both City of Heroes and (as of Issue 6) City of Villains titles throughout the lifespan of the game, improving features in both games with each release. Issues (free updates) Issue # Title Main features Release date 1 'Through the Looking Glass' Raised the level cap from 40 to 50, introduced new high level enemy groups and zones for these levels, and added a tailor feature allowing players to alter character costumes.

June 9, 2004 2 'Shadows of the Past' Added cape and aura costume features, respecing, badges, and new zones (one of which included a secret dance club without enemies). September 16, 2004 3 'A Council of War' Introduced a new zone, replaced the Nazi-themed 5th Column enemy group with The Council, added new giant monsters and zone events, added Peacebringers and Warshades, and added Ancillary Power Pools for characters above level 40. January 4, 2005 4 'Colosseum' Introduced (PvP) content in the form of an arena, and also added costume options such as finer tuning of body and face scale. May 4, 2005 5 'A Forest of Dread' Introduced a new folklore-themed zone, with several new associated enemy groups, as well as new power sets based on and powers. August 31, 2005 6 'Along Came a Spider' Updated the game client's graphics engine, and added support for dual-core CPUs and 3D sound; it also introduced three shared PvP zones, and the ability for Super Groups to build bases. October 27, 2005 7 'Destiny Manifest' Raised the level cap for villains from 40 to 50, introduced the new zone for villains of that level range, 'Patron Power Pools' (the villainous counterpart to heroes' Ancillary Power Pools), 'Mayhem Missions' for Villains of all levels, new power sets for new Villains, and a fourth PvP zone, 'Recluse's Victory'.

June 6, 2006 8 'To Protect and Serve' Introduced a Police Scanner for Heroes that provided repeatable missions (similar to the Villains' Newspaper) and 'Safeguard Missions' (analogous to the Villains' 'Mayhem Missions'), as well as a complete redesign of the Faultline zone and the Veteran Rewards system, which gave special 'perks' to players based on how long their accounts had been active. A retail box was released after this update called 'Good vs. Evil Edition'. November 28, 2006 9 'Breakthrough' Introduced the Invention system and auction houses; it also revamped the game's single encounter and opened it to Villain players as well. May 1, 2007 10 'Invasion' Replaced the old Rikti Crash Site zone with a new Rikti War Zone area, featuring a new raid encounter and cooperative play between both Heroes and Villains. The Rikti enemy group was also redesigned, and a new world event was added in which the Rikti would stage a mass invasion of a random zone. July 24, 2007 11 'A Stitch in Time' Focused on; it introduced the Flashback system for accessing or repeating game content beneath a player's level.

It also added customizable weapon graphics for power sets which used drawn weapons, and new power sets based on dual blade wielding and willpower. November 28, 2007 12 'Midnight Hour' Introduced new magic- and mythology-themed zones, including one set in; the Arachnos Soldier and Arachnos Widow archetypes, and began 'power proliferation' by which power sets unique to certain archetypes were made accessible to other archetypes. May 20, 2008 13 'Power and Responsibility' Added two new power sets (Shields and Pain Domination), changes to power effects making them act differently in PvP situations, dual builds (Players can build and maintain two separate character builds on the same character), and leveling pacts (Players can level up two characters simultaneously in-game, even if one of them is offline). On January 2009, a download-only release was made of Issue 13 called 'Mac Special Edition', which allowed computers running Mac OS X to play City of Heroes for the first time. December 2, 2008 14 'Architect' Added the Mission Architect feature that allowed players to publish and play custom mission arcs.

A retail box release was made after this update called 'Architect Edition,' available to both PC and Mac players. April 8, 2009 15 'Anniversary' Announced on April 28, the date of City of Heroes ' Fifth Anniversary, this update returned the 5th Column as an enemy group in various zones and a 5th Column-centric Task Force and Strike Force.

It also added Mission Architect features that didn't make the deadline for Issue 14, costume sets, new character faces, and the first free costume change emotes. June 29, 2009 16 'Power Spectrum' Allowed players to choose the color/styles/animation paths for character power sets. This update also included more power set proliferation, added epic power pool choices, a new Sidekicking system, Levels 5-24 adjustments to increase XP/influence rewards by 20%, minor changes to the Mission Architect, and a replacement of the difficulty adjustment system. September 15, 2009 17 'Dark Mirror' An update to the graphics engine that fixed all older issues related to ATI cards, as well as added a new preset for high performance graphic cards called 'Ultra Mode,' several QoL updates, and a revamped Positron's Task Force. Issue 17 also permitted CoH: Going Rogue pre-order customers to play Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning power sets prior to the official release of Going Rogue. April 28, 2010 18 'Shades of Gray' Introduced the tips system, an alternate method of getting missions via drops from enemies, opened trading between alignments, and united the Wentworth's auction house and the Black Market.

Anyone with the Going Rogue expansion received access to new power sets Kinetic Melee and Electricity Control. This issue also re-introduced the Cathedral of Pain trial.

A retail box release was made of Issue 18 called 'City of Heroes Going Rogue: The Complete Collection.' August 16, 2010 19 'Alpha Strike' Issue 19 included the first part of the new endgame changes referred to as the 'Incarnate system,' as well as an Ouroboros task force that unlocks an 'Alpha Slot' on Level 50 Characters. Two difficult task forces were added for characters who had gained their Alpha Slots. Other changes included Zone events in all Praetoria city maps, opening Praetoria to levels past 20, merging subways/ferries to include all destinations (across same alignment only), power animations, increased tip mission drops, mission architect enhancements, hazard zone badges, and making the Fitness Power Pool inherent to all characters. November 30, 2010 20 'Incarnates' Issue 20 further expanded on the Incarnate system introduced in Issue 19. It also introduced 'leagues,' massive teams of characters that could involve up to 48 different characters at a time, for anything from Rikti Mothership raids to costume contests. It introduced the Behavioral Adjustment Facility and Lambda Sector trials in Praetoria for Incarnate characters, and gave Heroes a new level 20-40 task force, and Villains a new level 20-40 strike force.

City Of Villains Download

Players could also sign up for incarnate trials from anywhere in the cities. April 5, 2011 21 'Convergence' Issue 21 was the first free expansion under the City of Heroes: Freedom program. It added the First Ward zone to the Going Rogue exclusive game content, which included a new Giant Monster and a new Incarnate trial. A new Time Manipulation Power Set was also released, although only for VIP subscribers, as well as new costume options. In addition to these, the expansion created a new co-op tutorial for all players which would determine whether the player's character was a Hero or a Villain (similar to the Going Rogue tutorial).

September 13, 2011 22 'Death Incarnate' Issue 22 relaunched the Dark Astoria zone as an Incarnate Co-op Zone. The first zone of its kind in City of Heroes, Level 50+ characters could gain Incarnate XP to unlock slots while fighting solo or in teams in normal missions (whereas before, Incarnate XP was only gained by participating in trials with League play).

Further additions included a new Incarnate Trial (Dilemma Diabolique), new power sets (Beast Mastery and Darkness Control) available from the Paragon Market or free to VIPs, and a new Trial (Drowning in Blood) for Level 15+. Also of note, starting with this release Statesman had been removed as a living contact/NPC in City of Heroes after the cliffhanger of the 'Who Will Die?' Signature Series player arc was revealed in January. March 6, 2012 23 'Where Shadows Lie' Issue 23 ended the Praetorian War, following the deaths of signature characters Statesman and Sister Psyche, with Emperor Cole trying to destroy the dimensions and take over Primal Earth. This also introduced the new co-op area of Night Ward where various new mystical enemy forces were gathering. May 31, 2012 24 'Resurgence' Issue 24 was to bring an epilogue to the Praetorian War storyline, with Praetorian Earth and Galaxy City evacuated because of the loss to Hamidon and several characters from other affected areas moving to Primal Earth and other parts of Paragon City to rebuild after the chaos. Heroes would help integrate and rebuild, while Villains would take the opportunity to invade Praetoria to become the new emperor.

Cancelled any further development for the City of Heroes project on August 31, 2012, halting the release of Issue 24 to the beta and live servers. N/A Expansions (paid updates) Expansion title Corresponding issue # Release date Summary (paid features only) City of Villains 6: Along Came a Spider October 2005 Villain player archetypes, villain character tutorial and villain player zones (Level 1-50), player vs. Player zones, player-created superbase system. City of Heroes: Going Rogue 18: Shades of Gray August 2010 Hero/Villain side-switching capability, Praetorian character tutorial and Praetorian character Zones (Level 1-20), power sets. City of Villains City of Villains was released in 2005 as a stand-alone expansion, an expansion that did not require the original City of Heroes purchase to work. It offered five new character archetypes that were, at the time, exclusive to Villain characters, new maps, and began the first PvP Zones (versus the Arena, which were instanced maps made for PvP fighting) of the game. City of Villains also was playable with the same subscription fee that paid for City of Heroes access after buying City of Villains.

The retail box included four for installation current to Issue 6, one of four limited edition figures of the game's villains, a poster of a map of the Rogue Isles, and a serial code that gave access to the game and one month of game play. Also included was a code for a 30-day trial for City of Heroes, as both games were currently separate. Since 2008, after the NCSoft acquisition of the intellectual properties, owning either City of Heroes or City of Villains unlocked both titles at no additional cost. Going Rogue City of Heroes: Going Rogue was released in 2010. Unlike City of Villains, Going Rogue was an expansion rather than an stand-alone expansion and required the original game to play.

Going Rogue added an Alignment system, which allowed players to switch from Hero to Villain and added two intermediate Alignments: Vigilante, as a player progresses from Hero to Villain, and Rogue, as a player progresses from Villain to Hero. Players with Vigilante or Rogue characters had access to both City of Heroes 's Paragon City and City of Villains 's Rogue Isles until they change to Hero or Villain. The expansion also added the Praetorian Earth dimension where players could start out as neutrally-aligned Praetorians (choosing any of the ten basic Archetypes available to Heroes or Villains), either deciding to side with Emperor Cole's ruling faction and become a Loyalist or side with the Resistance; the allegiance could change as the player chose and completed missions. Praetorian players could also attack new Neutral and would eventually be able to play a mission that allowed them to choose to be a Hero or Villain and complete gameplay in the original games. Going Rogue also granted access to four new power sets, new costume sets and auras, and introduced missions that started after defeating mobs that affected the player's Alignment. Retail releases and special editions.

City of Heroes: Collector's Edition: Sold through stores in 2005, this included an installation that had game content up to Issue 4, a poster of a map of Paragon City, a CoH/ comic book, a figure, and a serial code that added access to a special movement power, badge, and cape, in addition to access to the game and one month of game play. A special Hero Kit was later sold that allowed people to get all of the physical and digital content included in the Collector's Edition aside from the game installation disc. City of Villains: Collector's Edition: Sold in stores alongside the standard game edition, this pack included an installation DVD-ROM current through Issue 6, seven exclusive HeroClix figures of characters from both games, a book featuring for both games, a promotional card for the, one of five preview decks for the CCG, a two-sided poster of the game map from the standard edition and a Heroes vs. Villains fight scene, a CoH trial serial code, and a serial code that allowed access to a special costume icon and cape, in addition to access to CoV and one month of game play. City of Heroes: Bootleg Edition: A trial copy of City of Heroes released free of charge as a promotional copy during City of Villains. The Bootleg Edition came with no special features, a 10-day demo key, and required a player to purchase a digital key for the City of Heroes or City of Villains game in order to play after the demo. Released during Issue 6, the disc allowed players to try either Heroes or Villains.

City of Heroes & City of Villains: Good Versus Evil Edition: This retail box included an installation DVD-ROM current to Issue 7, a two-sided map of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, digital copies of issues 1 through 6 of 's CoH comic book, and a 'Pocket D VIP Pass' that had the serial code for access to both games, a month of free game play, special costume pieces for both Heroes and Villains, a special badge, and two special powers. This serial code was later made available digitally. City of Heroes: Architect Edition: This edition of the game included an installation DVD-ROM current to Issue 14 for both PC and Mac, a quick-start guide, the map from the Good Versus Evil Edition, and an activation code for the unified games, one month of free game play, and access to one of the first two Super Booster packs. A digital-only purchase later was made available for the same content. City of Heroes Going Rogue: Complete Collection: Released in 2010 alongside the standard version of the game, this edition includes City of Heroes, City of Villains, and adds access to unique in-game costume pieces, auras, emotes, and a unique invisibility power in addition to access to all of the content available with the standard Going Rogue game. Ordering this from GameStop included exclusive power enhancements. Booster packs Starting in 2008, 'Booster Packs' were also released sporadically around Issue updates.

Booster Packs did not function like expansions (adding content to the game), but rather added optional costume sets to the game's character creator and user interface, and were available on the NCsoft Store for a one-time fee. Although each of these packs were themed after their similarly named character option in the game (so far character origins and power sets), their features could be applied to any or all the characters in a player's account regardless of their actual origin, archetype or powers. There was also a 'Mini-Booster' pack for the purchase of an in-game jetpack for 30 days of real time.

As of August 30, 2011, Booster Packs were no longer available for sale on the NCSoft website. While costume pieces were still available in the Paragon Market under the Booster Pack names for one price, the prestige powers and emotes had been separated from the packs as an additional purchase. Super Packs On February 24, 2012, Heroes and Villains Super Packs were introduced to the Paragon Market after feedback from the beta release of the program was made known by the players. Super Packs contained five cards which were turned over (upon opening of the pack) to reveal random items given to the player's account as a Character Item (one character per account receives the item), or, in the case of costume parts or prestige powers, the reward is applied account-wide. Super Packs functioned much like a lottery mini-game, which offered two cards that give common rewards, and one card each that offered an uncommon, rare and ultra rare reward per reveal. There were 205 possible rewards in the entire pack, of which 92% were repeatable (Costume Parts and Temp Powers only granted once per account.) Super Packs were sold in quantities of 1, 12 or 24 uses each on the Paragon Market. Super Packs were not available through in-game play (Free players could not receive or use them), and as a Premium Player, a Super Pack may have granted rewards that you could keep but were unable to claim or use until you unlocked it in the Paragon Market or through the Paragon Rewards program.

Virtual item packs A few in-game item packs were released to allow players to gain in-game items from select box releases of the game at a lower cost than repurchasing the title at retail price. Item packs only contained the items in an Edition release, and did not come with free playtime or (in the case of expansions) the added game content that require an expansion purchase in order to use. Good versus Evil Edition Item Pack which included a Jump Jet Travel Power, Pocket D Teleport power and special Hero/Villain-themed costume sets. Mac Special Edition Item Pack, which included all of the costume pieces from the Valkyrie set and the Mission Transporter power. Going Rogue Item Pack, which included the Alpha and Omega costume sets and the Shadowy Presence power. Wedding Pack: A serial code first sold on, 2008, added special wedding-themed costume pieces and emotes to the game.

Party Pack: Released in late September, 2010, which included party themed character emotes. As of August 30, 2011 virtual item packs were no longer available for sale on the NCSoft website. The individual costume pieces and powers were available through the in-game store. Holiday events The City of Heroes development team also initiated events based on and holidays and observances, starting with in 2004, followed by a Event (eventually becoming a primarily -themed event), and the newest holiday observance, a event.

Eventual changes to holiday events included the addition of a Zombie Apocalypse world event during Halloween, and a inside of Pocket D during the holidays. Holiday events granted commemorative badges upon signing in during the event, and had earnable themed badges by participating in the in-game events. Anniversary City of Heroes granted a commemorative badge during its anniversary month of May and often scheduled special events and surprises during May. On the game's fifth anniversary on April 28, 2009, and on the same day during the sixth anniversary for 2010, an outbreak of Giant Monsters of every type was released throughout the game in all zones for players to defeat within a 24-hour span. City of Hero A open beta of City of Heroes, entitled City of Hero ( 시티 오브 히어로, Siti Obeu Hieoro), was launched on January 18, 2006. However, the game's official release was cancelled.

The Korean CoH team directed its players to a coupon for an account on the US servers as compensation. Servers City of Heroes and City of Villains employed several servers. The servers were divided between the North American and European markets, with separate European servers with language localization for German and French speakers. The North American servers were based in Dallas, Texas, while the European servers were moved from Germany to a new site in the US in November, 2010.

Reception In the United States, City of Heroes sold 330,000 copies ($13.8 million) by August 2006, after its release in April 2004. It was the country's 53rd best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. In 2004, hailed the game, saying, ' City of Heroes blows a superpowered gust of fresh air into an increasingly stale sword-and-sorcery MMO world.' , and several other industry magazines lauded City of Heroes for its foray into the superhero genre and gave the game top or near top scores across the board. In 2009, and praised 'City of Heroes: Architect Edition,' which added the ability to create missions.

The game received additional praise because the characters of inactive players were not deleted, even if the player's subscription had been canceled or inactive for an extended period of time. In anticipation of the release of City of Villains, Cryptic announced on October 10, 2005, that effective October 24, 2005, characters below level 35 on accounts that had been unpaid and inactive for more than ninety days would have their names flagged as unreserved allowing new users to take the name. The character itself was left untouched, and a player who lost his character's name was given the option to choose a new one. This policy was suspended on May 4, 2006, because Cryptic's data-mining had shown that very few names were being taken in this fashion anymore; Cryptic said thirty days' notice would be given prior to future changes to the name policy. On July 31, 2007, Cryptic announced that the name policy would go back into effect as of August 29, 2007, but would apply only to characters under level 6.

Awards named City of Heroes the ninth-best computer game of 2004. The editors wrote, 'In a genre dominated by games that try to be all things to all people and end up doing nothing particularly well, it's particularly refreshing.' Main article: To tie in with the game, NCsoft released two original comic book series that featured various characters from within the games themselves. The original series by publisher Blue King featured the heroes/roommates Apex and War Witch with their neighbor Horus.

The later series from publisher Top Cow featured signature heroes and villains from both City of Heroes and City of Villains such as Statesman, Positron, Lord Recluse, and Ghost Widow, along with scripts by well-known comic book creators Mark Waid, Troy Hickman, and Dan Jurgens. Both series were originally free for subscribers to the games, but later they were provided for an extra subscription fee with the game and for free in digital format afterwards on the official City of Heroes website. The Blue King series ran for 12 issues, after which the Top Cow series ran for an additional 20 issues, ending in July 2007. Collectible card game.

Main article: also worked with CoH to create a featuring characters from the game, as well as several original characters. The game's website also allowed players to create a game-compliant card for their own online character. Role-playing game The City of Heroes team worked with to create a based on the game. While a free preview version of the game was released, the game was due to the cancellation license with on their and role-playing games. Eden owner later made a statement in 2008 that they were waiting on information from the copyright holders, but no news arose after this date. Heroclix The various collector's editions of City of Heroes and City of Villains included exclusive figures of signature characters from the game. Film and television In June 2007, it was announced that the producer for the film, had acquired the option to make movies and television shows based on the City of Heroes franchise.

In February 2008, it was announced that DeSanto had indeed begun preparations for the film. A plot summary had been released detailing that the movie itself takes place during the first Rikti War. Lawsuit In November, 2004, filed a against City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios, publisher NCsoft, and game administrator NC Interactive (NCI), alleging that the game not only allowed, but actively promoted, the creation of characters who infringe copyrights and trademarks owned by Marvel. The suit sought unspecified damages and an injunction halting further sales and shutting down the game. The game included in its strong language against such activity, however.

It forbade the creation of potentially infringing characters, and NCI had been known to rename or 'genericize' such characters. The User Agreement additionally held players accountable to indemnify (reimburse) NCI and its affiliates against third-party infringement claims, and demanded either a granting of sole ownership in player created content, including characters, to NCI, or a warranty that a third party owner of the rights in player created content had made such a grant. It was unclear whether this grant was an exclusive or a non-exclusive, however.

The defendants replied that the lawsuit was frivolous, and while many analysts agreed, others noted that trademark law is structured such that, if Marvel believed their marks were being infringed upon, they had little choice but to file a lawsuit, regardless of its outcome, to preserve the strength of the marks. At least one noted similarities to Fonovisa, Inc. Cherry Auction, Inc., a case in which a company that ran a was successfully sued over because a vendor had been selling records at that flea market. Although Cherry Auction had not been directly selling the infringing items, the court found that it was vicariously or contributorially liable for the infringement.

Marvel subsequently admitted that some of the allegedly infringing characters cited in the had been created by Marvel's own investigators. In March 2005, the court struck those exhibits from the complaint. The court also dismissed with prejudice some of Marvel's claims.

The dismissed claims included all indirect counts, because Marvel had not commercial use of Marvel's marks by the game's players. Commercial use is a required element of infringement under American trademark statutes. On December 12, 2005, all remaining claims were settled under undisclosed terms. The game's operators asserted that the settlement did not require changes to the character creation engine.

Despite the litigation, in October 2006, selected Cryptic Studios to develop its own superhero MMORPG for and, titled. The alliance surprised players, but developer Matt 'Positron' Miller assured fans on Cryptic's official website that development and maintenance would continue separately on both games , proved later by the complete split between City of Heroes and Cryptic Studios. Marvel Universe Online was eventually cancelled by Microsoft. Acquisition and new studio On November 6, 2007, NCsoft announced that it would assume ownership of both City of Heroes and City of Villains.

As part of a push to further develop City of Heroes, the company also announced the formation of a new development studio dedicated to new titles as well as their interest in distributing and administering their future works once launched. This new team was centered on key members of the Cryptic and NCsoft City of Heroes/Villains teams who accepted the NCsoft offer to join their new studio in Northern California. The sale of the City of Heroes IP granted Cryptic Studios the freedom to work on its new superhero MMORPG (at this time, an RPG/Action hybrid) without concerns of conflict of interest. Shortly after having acquired full ownership of the property, NCsoft granted all existing and former City of Heroes account holders access to both games ( City of Heroes and City of Villains). This allowed all Hero players access to Superbases, which initially required a CoV purchase from its release in Issue 7 until Issue 10, and was no longer required as of Issue 11.

Before the purchase, NCsoft allowed players with a subscription or a time card for City of Heroes to have the same access to City of Villains as well (at its lowest price point, $14.99 covered access to both titles for a month), whether or not they had purchased the other title. This was still being honored after all accounts who had only City of Heroes received access to City of Villains for free. In a July 2008 press release, NCsoft announced the successful completion of allowing all copies of City of Heroes or City of Villains to access the other game (it claimed that Single Title Retail Boxes recently purchased did not successfully unlock the other game when activated). On April 14, 2009, NCsoft NorCal formally changed its name to to become a fully owned developer subsidiary of (similar to and ) dedicated to City of Heroes.

Paragon Studios was credited alongside Cryptic Studios on the website and NCsoft websites for development of the game. References. Retrieved 2012-08-31. ^ Connor Sheridan (August 31, 2012).

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General references. City of Heroes, PRIMA Official Game Guide, Chris McCubbin and Christopher Pinckard, Prima Games (2004). City of Heroes Binder, PRIMA Official Game Guide, Eric Mylonis, Prima Games (2005),. City of Heroes/City of Villains Bind, Macro & Emote Guide, 'Shenanigunner' (2006–2009, updated regularly) External links.