Positron was interviewed on w00t radio tonight and spilled a lot of what we can expect in the upcoming Issue #8.

• Issue #8 is going to be entitled, To Protect and Serve.
• Wings are an unlockable costume piece...and they flap when you fly!!!
• Nictus and maybe an evil Peacebringer are going to be the lvl 50 AT reward in CoV (Maybe Scorpionic should hold our for a few more months before ditching CoV, huh?)
• 5th Column is going to return this year.
• The Invention System will be implemented in 2007...stuff like building jet packs and travel costumes.
• Working on Power Customization....big project and won't be ready for I8.
• PAID EXPANSION HAS BEEN CANCELLED!!! They feel that their regular customers are more important. All the new features will be moved into the free Issues.
• Rent for the supergroup bases will be based upon the plot size, not what you have in it (YAY!!!)
• SG size may be changed to 75 accounts instead of 75 toons. This means you could possibly have up to 900 in one SG alone!
• New gladiators coming (duh) and some might be Archvillain gladiators ( )
• Funding has passed and the dam has been rebuilt. Faultline is a regular city zone again (better get screenies before it goes bye-bye!).
• Veteran rewards tied to how many paid months you have. New badge for every three months.
• Two new accolades as soon as they get the power worked out for them. Power? Could we get an extra power out of the new accolades instead of having it simply enhance our other powers? Currently, the only one is the Crey Pistol that doesn't do anything much anyway.
• Plans for villain powersets to be transferred to hero ATs but not all...they want to hold some back.
• No personal apartments but single player SGs are viable.
• Posi wants to see windows in the bases but the art department is throwing a revolution against him for suggesting it (hehe, just kidding....but they don't like the idea).
• Lot of issues about switching sides but they are working on it...don't know when.
• Permanent Nemesis staff as a veteran reward.
• Hero side mayhem mission jetpack type rewards, to avoid having to work up to a travel power? I think Statesman called them Safeguard Missions.
• Server transfer still planned but they want to make sure that the automation works and your hero/villain doesn't go sailing off into the sunset.
• Things have settled to the point where the City Council voted to take down the War Walls in the very near future....WHAT! Guess you had better get your War Wall Defender badge real quick if you don't already!
• Planned TF that will pit heroes against Lord Recluse's and his gang! WooHoo!!!
• Villains will be able to get into the Hami raid...maybe not on the hero side but they may have their own.
• Hero/Villain teamups will happen more frequently instead of just an event.
• Castle and Posi are looking at the blaster's defiance..."It's not all it could be" is a direct quote. Hey! No kidding! I warned you guys about it when it was on the test server, sending pics and stats and everything!
• New missions and contacts for 50+ contacts for issue 8, and adding more content for under used zones.

Here is a list that someone else over at the CoH boards typed up about what he/she heard...

1. another double xp event before the end of the year.

2. Another Halloween Event this year, bringing back original elements as well as add some "special treats" and get new contacts. The new treats can be
traded into contacts and receive a new reward that hasnt been given out before.

3. (training room patch discussed) Empowerment stations buffs didnt stack as intended, so since it doesnt work that way, they now last 60 minutes, replacing non stacking.

4. Possible all decorative rooms going down to 50k, if not 50k, they will go down in cost.

5. Issue 8 expect a possible RENT system change. (one is possibly rent could be free if its a small enough plot)

6. COP Trail scheduled to be debuting before i8. Base raiding not being promoted yet due to lots of bugs, time in getting the systems worked out.

7. Lots of stuff planned for pocket D.

8. PLans to add bigger teleporters to hold more beacons. No ETA.

9. Fix has been made for players not receiving HO drop when encoutering Hamidon. Coming Soon to live!

10. Teleporting back to mission after rezing in base is a bug. But there is an auxillary item going in as well (when the fix is made) to allow
you teleport to the active mission as a choice.

11. Looking into possible teleport to front door to Icon!

12. So far no plans for teleport beacons into PVP zones due to balance issues and possible exploits.

13. Arenas bugs will be getting fixed as they come in, new feature in next issue is that Pocket D will receive arena terminals so that villain and heroes can battle easier.

ISSUE 8

14. Issue 8 Title: To Protect and Serve! (taunt by Posi to see if players can figure out what chapter this relates too )

15. Invention system was scheduled for i8. Its a very big, detailed and scarey and moving it out of i8 to concentrate more directly on it.
if they worked on it, i8 would have been pushed back to next year. Some systems are done. It will probably come out in its own issue.

16. Rewards system: 1st veteran reward 3 months Trenchcoats on all characters. They are a back option, IE like a cape. There are veteran rewards planned for up to 3 years of subscription. (April)

17. Wings: an unlockable costume piece. Wings will move in flight. (very impressed with look of wings).

18. Jetpacks eventually coming down the road. (Flight options). Castle has made a zillion and will kill posi if he is asked to make one more.

19. starting with issue 8 each issue will build on itself regarding storyline wise. And when the "show drops" youll know. Plans are coming for zone wide events tied with storylines.

20. 5th Column: Their return is planned but not for this year.

21. Respecs as a veteran reward, new base items (comic cover art as posters for base).

22. New missions and contacts for 50+ contacts for issue 8, and adding more content for under used zones.

23. Possible to get into Rikti Ship, in the future?!

24. Jay has a lot of costume options, some are going into issue8. He is reading the forum every day! Someday he may get a red name.

25. Power customziation and effects of powers: Its very hard. Colors are "baked into" the powers. Its a huge effort, its not on a schedule, but it doesnt meant hat it cant jump onto a schedule.

26. Epic Archetypes: Incarnates? They are planned as an Epic, dont know when yet. They dont fit into the current storyline. It will be first Epic after Nictus for COV! Confirmed,
Nictus are confirmed as a lvl 50 villain Epic! They will be like warshades, but an evil version of a peacebringer, with some power tweaks.

27. Planned Box Expansion: It has been taken off the schedule as a paid expansion. They are going to please the player base by moving all the features from the paid expansion into free issues!
There fore the issues will maintain storylines that would have lead up to the free expansion. issue 9, 10, and 11 storylines planned for next year.

28. New high end villains for high end players.

Breaktime!

29. Rent may be based off plot size.

30. Plot costs are staying the same, to give Larger SG's long-term goals.

31. Posi has been investigating increasing SG's size. An Idea is if you have 5 alts, in a SG it would count as 1 slot fo the 75 in the SG rather than 5.

32. Adding arch villains as gladiators, but new thigns to do with Gladiators!

33. Dev Hosted PVP arena Events and giving a reward?: Possible. Idea, SG tournament, and last SG standing vs. Devs!

34. All out PVP zone without NPC's or debtless PVP zone coming?: removing threat of NPC's removes incentive, XP gain for example. But zone with no NPC's is possible idea.

35. Faultline, getting upgrade.

36. New badges coming, inlcuding veteran reward badges! Most badges are going to be focused out of combat. 2 new accolades coming into game, no ETA.

37. Paigon Poker is really exciting for Posi, nothing to do with the game. LOL

38. Minion customization is something they are not touching.

39. New powersets are still coming as it was planned for the expansion. They will be broken out into issues. He just needs to make them "cool"

40. Recluses SF: it is where the devs want it. Its meant to be hard and be proud when its completed. They recognize some AT's are better at it, but its the nature of the beast.
They have ideas on helping those AT's but nothing coming soon?

41. Stalkers and DOms not feeling useful in the Recluses SF: They believe it takes a player to know the weakness and strengths of teams, aand fit in to be used as best as possible.
As for stalkers they have awesome dmg right off the back, and players recognize to use them as their dmg drops off with DPS.

42. They are constantly monitoring all AT's.

43. moment of glory: Not sure if there are any plans coming for MOG. They keep data mining it and balance numbers it, but not sure if changes are coming.

44. Patch notes issues: people type them in. People make mistakes. They made changes to the process and hopefully it should be easier to not miss as much. They are doing their best.

45. Villain powersets moving over into Heroes? yes it is planned. Its somehting they can do quickly, but not sure when. There will be some hold backs for uniqueness but some can definitely work on heroes.

46. Buffs and debuffs are primarily assigned to their individual games. But first they would want to move certina powers over before working on buffs.

47. Tweaking bases to allow a 1 person SG, and allowing first plot to be rent free is better than redesigning base editor for apartment style housing for players.

48. Training room is the cross server PVP server

49. Windows in bases? He needs to convince art department that they can do it. But art says it isnt possible. its being looked at.

50. Anymore Mastermind sets coming? One more is coming, not animal based. Its 1 of 10 new powersets thats coming out next year. Posi says NO CLOWNS!

52. Villains turning heroes, heroes turning villains: they would like to see it happen, theres a lot of hurdles before implementing. Posi thinks its worth putting in but tey have to get past the tech hurdles.

53. Flashback: loves idea of flashback, but it takes away from altism. They understand that players have to make alts to see all the content, but iits a double edged sword.

54. Rewarding altism? comes with veteran rewards in a sense (ie permanent nemesis staff)

55. Jet pack on hero side coming like in Mayhem Missions.

56. Hazard zones coming in COV? probably not, but that doesnt mean Villains wont have access to hero hazard zones.

57. Server/character Transfers: something thats a priority, moving characters to other servers. Biggest hurdle is making sure its automated with no issues. Havent decided on pricing but will
most likely be a paid for transfer.

58. The war walls will begin to come down. The city council has decided they are not needed anymore. Happening in the very near future! Not sure where they will be coming down.

59. Will there be a TF like the Recluse SF? YES!

60. Will villains be able to raid hamidon? Undecided.

61. Hero/villain team up besides events? Yes.

62. More than 1 build type characters for PVE? Discussed ultimate enhancement slotting.

63. Defiance: Castle and Posi have talked about changes. They are looking into it.

64. Gladiators: choosing which gladiators they can fight, like a training? Yes, possibly in the form of a room in base. "danger room" type room for lack
of better words

65. Hercules Class titans: Hasnt seen a bug for it, and players should enter bugs in game for better understanding.

Let me tell you....I'm getting pretty stoked about it.

Anyone else?

looks like i might play coh and cov more often when it comes out. when i7 came out, it didn't do much for me and since i got guild wars, haven't been playing coh much.

Excited as I am, this comment worries me.....

Quote: Arenas bugs will be getting fixed as they come in

...and I'm only halfway to my fifth healing badge of 50 million points. To get the sixth, you need one billion.

Yeah.

Tried to talk to Posi about it and he said that to lower the minimum points needed would cheapen the work that others have put into it to get it. Well, as far as I know, less than 10 players across all the servers on both sides combined have the badge.

Hey, they lowered the Sally requirement, the Ritki monkey badge, and the Born in Battle accolade requirements.....why not this one? To get it without healing, it would take someone healing an awesome 1,000,000 points per day over three years to earn the badge. Well, CoH was released in April of 2004 so the earliest a person could possibly get it without farming would be May of 2007.

Eh, guess this is another badge that I can't get.

Rob

Don't believe this to be a part of Issue #8, but on the Test Server, there is a new addition to Pocket D and it's called the Tiki Room (LINK). Somehow, someone got in there and posted a video of it over at YouTube (LINK). Pretty neat, huh? Think it's in connection with a possible going away party for CuppaJo.

Oh, found this, also. A video of the dam at Faultline. Someone was able to TP through the walls and took this video. LINK

Rob

From the CoH website.....

_______________________

Issue 8: To Protect and Serve, the eighth free expansion since the launch of City of Heroes® in April 2004, introduces a host of innovative features, gameplay improvements and player programs. Issue 7: Destiny Manifest allowed villains to wreak havoc in the PvP zone Recluse's Victory and physics-filled Mayhem Missions. Now it's the Heroes' turn to take back the streets!

Safeguard Missions (Heroes only)

Vandals are creating mayhem and destroying Paragon City while high profile villains are attempting major bank heists! Emergency broadcasts from the new Police Band scanners (see below) call Heroes to action, resulting in a frantic new twist on Mayhem Missions. Heroes must stop the mayhem (in massively destructive versions of Paragon City zones) and prevent the heists from occurring.

Police Band (Heroes only)

Offering similar functionality to the Newspaper Missions in City of Villains®, new Police contacts throughout various Hero zones grant Heroes Police Band access, opening a plethora of new missions and rewards.

Pocket D Arenas (Heroes and Villains)

For the first time, Heroes and Villains can officially battle each other using Arena kiosks set within the neutral ground of the Pocket D nightclub.

Faultline Reborn (Heroes only)

Faultline transforms from a hazard zone to a city zone! Paragon City's Measure X has passed, reconstruction of Faultline has begun, and the effort has revealed some major surprises.

Veteran Rewards Program (Heroes and Villains)

Launching together with Issue 8, the Veteran Rewards Program retroactively* rewards City of Heroes and City of Villains players for their past active playing time. Specifically, for each increment of three months played, players will unlock special costumes, powers, badges, and more! The program is retroactive by player account and rewards will be applicable to all characters within each respective account.
*This means time that players have already played counts towards their rewards!

awesome. will definetely be coming back to coh to play more. better get the faultline exploration badges on all my toons before they change things up.

Sorry I haven't been keeping you all up-to-date on Issue #8, but NCSoft just release some more information today on the veteran rewards program that they are going to implement.

The veteran rewards program is their way of saying thank you for continued playing (or at least paying to play) the "City of Heroes/Villains" video game.

So far, here is the info on the veteran rewards they will release:

_______________________________

3 Months:

Trustworthy badge



Costume Piece - Trenchcoats (almost a letdown....looks like they just added a 'skirt' to one of the jacket options on the costume pieces....however, I still applaud the crew for creating them).





Costume token for every character on the account.

6 Months

Faithful badge



Costume Piece - Greek alphabet letters



Costume token for every character on the account.

9 Months

Dependable badge



Costume Piece - Belly shirt for females, Scottish kilts for males





Respec for every character on the account

Costume token for every character on the account

12 Months

Loyal badge



Temporary power choice: Permanent Undead Slaying Ax or Permanent Sands of Mu (NOTE: I believe they list it as a 'temp' power because it doesn't fit into either the Primary, Secondary, or Inherent power pools).





Pre-Order Sprints (Remember that the original CoH pre-orders had unique 'sprint' power effects. I've only included one shot of the four you get because a) I like it and b) from the pics this is the only one you can tell the difference): Run, Dash, Quick, Surge



Base Item: Wall mounted weapon display




That's all for right now. Next week, they are going to release information on the remaining veteran rewards. The one veteran reward that I'm extremely interested in is the wings and I'm hoping it isn't the 24 month veteran reward as I only have 16 months paid time right now. That would really stink; however, I'm cybersquatting on the perfect character name.

Here are some pics of the two different wing types that will be available...





All images are taken directly from the CoH website.

Here is a teaser video of the wings....

ftp://ftp.coh.com/movies/vr_wings_720.wmv

21 Month

Steadfast Badge



Costume Piece: Shoulder Cape. Eh, not that excited about it, but still an option.



Free Respec that stacks with the in-game respecs and the other free respecs.

Costume Token for each character on the account.

24 Months

Devoted Badge



Prestige Power: Emergency Base Teleporter. From what I can tell, no matter where you are at, you can teleport to your base.

Base Item: You can now have posters of the CoH comic book covers on the walls.



Veteran's Titles for lvl 15 characters. There will be a new set of titles that 24 month veteran's can use. I'm guessing that you can take your already lvl 50 toon and visit a trainer to get it changed.

If you wish, you can view a video of the new costume items HERE. Oh, and the devs have already said that no, walking is not a new feature. They just slowed the video down so you can get a good look at them.

Well, except for the badges that come with the 21 and 24 month veteran's rewards, I'm happy right where I'm at.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that they have (I think) three new flight poses. It's random just like the /dance emote so for photo's sake, you're going to have to activate it a couple of times to get the one you want.

To me, this Issue is really HUGE in the way of the developers saying thanks to those that have stuck with the game over the past couple of years. With the addition of the wings, I am using my last character slot for the wings but now that I know about the samurai armor, I'm going to have to delete my lvl 15 claws/regen scrapper on my primary account and re-create him on my secondary account.

Yeah, I've got two accounts and it doesn't bother me. I don't mind.

:afro:

I was able to log into the Test Server (after a six-hour download due to high demand) and take a few screen shots of the upcoming new Issue for CoH/CoV. Not all of Issue #8 has been uploaded to the Test Server yet (i.e., veteran rewards).

Issue #8 Volume I Pics

Issue #8 Volume II Pics

As a bonus, I've included pics of the Tiki Lounge that was part of the 'Good vs. Evil' release.

Enjoy,

Rob

Uploaded some more pics to album #2.

27 Month

Dedicated Badge



Costume Piece: Anime-style tech armor (I'm not too impressed with this armor.)







Costume Token for each character on the account.

30 Month

Committed Badge



Costume Piece: Signature Group Chest Emblem (Freedom Phalanx, Vindicators, Vanguard, Arachnos, PPD, Cage Consortium, CoT, Council) ( HOLY CRAP!)







Costume Token for each character on the account.

Base Items: Hero: Scirocco's Sword, Ghost Widow's Cape, Black Scorpion's Armor, Captain Mako's Tooth, Lord Recluse's Helm, Hamidon Goo. Villain: Positron's Helmet, Synapse’s Goggles, Numina's Cape, Sister Psyche's Belt, Citadel's Brain, Manticore's Bow, Statesman's Faceplate.

33 Month

Unswerving Badge



Free Power Choice - Permanent Nemesis Staff or Permanent Blackwand

Here players get a choice. Player characters can select one of the staves that Nemesis gives his troops, or the awesome Blackwand, as a prestige power. These began as temporary powers players could earn for completing certain missions. Now they can become permanent parts of player characters, like the Ghost Slaying Axe and the Sands of Mu from the 12 month reward.

The Nemesis staff is a steam-powered staff that shoots bolts of energy that deal damage, knock back foes, and may stun them. Damage: Moderate. Recharge: Long. The Blackwand is a black metal wand that feels cold in the hand, and glows with dark arcane energies. When used by those skilled in magic (i.e. of Magic origin), it increases the potency of its attacks. Damage: Moderate. Recharge: Long.





Free /respec given to all characters on the account.

36 Month

Addicted Badge



Base Item - Arachnos flyer (for villains) or Longbow Chaser (for heroes).





(....and no, you can't use it as a means of travel...just a base item... :weeping: )

Finally (and I think this is kinda cool)....

Power Choice - Non-combat pet to chose from (Demon Pet, Clockwork Pet, Redcap Pet, Ritki Monkey Pet, Robot Pet).

This was posted over at the CoH forum boards today about the new flight poses. Apparently, the first banking animation was loved by half the testers and hated by the rest. Then when they changed it, the first half hated it and the second half loved it.

Ah well, I've never had a problem with the original flight pose anyway and with wings, it'll still look awesome.

Rob

__________________________________________________ __

Our animator wanted me to post this for him:

Hello again to Paragon's finest and the Rogue Island's most feared.



We want to thank everyone for taking the time to download the test client, thoroughly test I8 on the training room, and post your comments, suggestions, and issues on the forums here. You guys make the training room a success and it’s greatly appreciated.



Based on everyone's feedback about the changes to travel animations (in particular the alternate flight poses and strafing/banking) we've decided to push back introducing flight poses for now. We really like them, as did many of you, and we were hoping to get them into the game in conjunction with wings. Unfortunately, we just ran out of time to get everything working the way we really want it to work. So rather than getting it in now as is, making some of you happy and some of you unhappy, we’re going to push this feature back a bit so we’ll have the time to fully implement what we really want to do. Here's a rough overview of the things we want to fix before re-introducing these:



1) Flight poses should be selectable. That's our biggest thing to get working before implementing these on live. It's very obvious from feedback that you guys have very strong feelings about which poses you like/dislike for your characters. Once the animations are selectable (and not randomly or sequentially chosen) we'll be able to do much nicer transitions from stationary to forward flight.

2) Hover should not use the alternate flight animations. We have a hover forward animation that has never played (it's the upright position like the current strafe and backward animation that many of you have suggested). There's a code issue that's preventing hover from getting the right triggers to play its animation. Instead it uses the flight animations, which in turn causes it to use the alternate flight animations. We agree that it looks silly in most cases. We assure you it wasn't done intentionally.

3) We need to fix the camera/orientation bug that's caused by the alternate strafe mode. This currently effects the Kheldian Dwarf and Nova forms on live. Oddly enough, I have a level 50 Peacebringer on live and never noticed it before you guys pointed it out. Now it’s glaringly obvious. Good catch.

4) Along those lines, we want to make a lot of little tweaks to the behavior of the alternate strafing mode. It solves a lot of the animation blending issues with strafing while running, jumping, or flying...but it's not quite where we’d like for it to be. It's a lot of little minor things such as adjusting turn speeds, using the strafing animations under the right conditions, adding a bit of roll/banking to the transitions between flying and strafing, etc.



So once again, thanks for trying these out and posting your feedback here for us. It’s been an immeasurable help.

--------------------
Positron
Lead Designer, City of Heroes