Oops.
For some CoX subscribers who were watching their emails last night, a little something came through …
Paragon Studios™ is proud to officially announce the next City of Heroes® expansion, City of Heroes Going Rogue™! This will be the first major expansion for the City of Heroes franchise since the launch of City of Villains® in 2005.
Praetoria, a utopian mirror to our own world, hides a dark secret. Exploring this mysterious alternate earth, the heroes and villains of this world feel an uneasiness of doubt creep over them. Loyalties are questioned. Choices are made. Lines are drawn. As they search for the truth behind Emperor Cole and his Praetorian guard, brutal foes and fierce allies emerge, turning this once blissful paradise into a battle ground.
City of Heroes Going Rogue officially opens the “mirror universe” of Praetoria and an all-new alignment system that explores the shades of gray that lie between Heroes and Villains. For the first time, Hero characters can become Villains and vice versa, enabling Heroes to cross over to the Rogue Isles™ and Villains to experience Paragon City™.
For more information, read the official press release and check out our new Going Rogue website to view the announcement trailer and register for the latest news and updates for City of Heroes Going Rogue.
The web page link is still up, but the announcement was dubbed premature and the press release is MIA. Speculation and thought run rampant on the subject however. My initial reactions?
Well, first, people have been clamoring for being able to run both Blue and Red power sets together for a long time. Earlier speculation had some sort of a conversion process — where a hero would turn villainous (and move to CoV setting), or a villain heroic (move to CoH), perhaps around some sort of particular mission arc.
Instead, it sounds like they are creating a whole new setting — Praetoria — to house both moral ambiguity and, presumably, both Blue and Red side powers. That’s a little odd — do we really need to be pulling people away from the Paragon and Rogue Isles maps? Does having a new setting invalidate the legitimate (and time-honored) storyline of heroes fallen or villains redeemed?
We don’t know much about the metastory or how folks get there. Will this be someplace you can go some time during your career, or do you start characters there? If the former, what’s the mechanism for transfer, and is it reversible? In other words, is Praetoria a third new game locale to split up the CoX population, or a new meta-zone that people can enter and leave? The email leaves open the possibility of the former, but doesn’t make it certain.
Further, the trailer at the website makes this sound more like an event than a simple new location — is Praetoria going to invade? And how will that be part of the “moral ambiguity” story arc over time?
New maps and new story are good. I look forward to hearing more.
First, gratz on the new look of the site, it looks great!
Back on topic, the prospect of bringing Praetorian Earth into the game is an enticing one. But crossover, though it is indeed a time-honored comic book story, from a gaming perspective is a bit worrisome. Most I’m concerned about redside population. When people can take their Brutes and Masterminds and leave, redside’s already inferior population shrinks even further. Maybe even into oblivion.
I’m lucky I solo a lot because finding a team in the Rogue Isles is going to become a real challenge.
And PvP just got homogenized even further.
I always enjoyed the fact that there are differences, game-mechanics-enforced differences between the Heroes and Villains. Now that’s gone, and that’s too bad.
We’ll see if my concerns are confirmed or assuaged by future details. Right now, I’m just shaking my head.
That’s a good point, too.
I have a handful of villainous alts that I pull out once in a blue moon. I have one duo I am running with Margie that we play every so often.
I don’t *know* that I’d pull them over to the Blue Side if need be. (Well, some I might — most are sort of anti-heroic sorts who could hang out in Paragon.) I know that I tend not to be as interested in villainous narrative as heroic, and that the Rogue Isles are a pain in the ass to maneuver around in. Plus, as you note, teaming opportunities are much narrower.
So, yes, if this contracts the CoV population more, that’s not a good thing.
Thanks for the thoughts on the site.