I'm pretty thrilled. The last time they did a ".5" update they introduced a cross-factional hang-out called Pocket D (i6.5). This? i11.5 is looking freakin' awesome (well, that's what we're calling it - not sure if everything will be at once or not). City of Heroes is significantly better than when I started playing 2 years ago, and the past year's updates (i9-i11) have been nothing but awesome. This seems to be mostly a Quality of Life upgrade, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Small wonder I have a hard time tearing myself away from City of Heroes to play other games (even ones full of Win like Guild Wars).
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The City Vault
We gave a sneak peak of the new "City Vault" feature at the recent San Jose Meet 'n Greet. The City Vault is coming soon to the City of Heroes website and will showcase the millions of interesting Heroes and Villains found in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. It will allow you to search for characters by a number of different criteria, and then view those characters, including images of different costumes, powers, badges, friends, stats by zone and other fun information! As we have previously announced, you can manage what information will be displayed through the City Vault for your characters via several in game options.
We will have more details about the City Vault Beta soon.
Double XP Weekend and Server Hardware Improvements
We have another Double XP Weekend coming! Currently we are targeting February for this event. It will be the same format as we have run previously: a weekend long fest of double rewards of experience gain, influence or infamy, and prestige! Double XP is always popular and usually drives our online numbers to record heights.
To better address performance issues that tend to arise under such conditions, we are investing in server hardware upgrades. Technology is always marching forward and we are making this investment back into the game to take advantage of the latest tech and help create the best gaming experience possible for our players.
Our plans are to have all of the new hardware online before the coming Double XP Weekend. We will post more details of the server upgrade schedule, along with the dates of the actual Double XP weekend soon, so keep your eye on the City of Heroes website!
Valentine's Day Event
Also coming in February, we have an expanded Valentine's Day Event! We're adding a few new twists to the previous event and also have a very special surprise to go along with this romantic holiday. More details will be coming soon!
Smoothing the XP Curve
One thing that we constantly examine is the rate of advancement in the game. In a future version, we intend to smooth out the leveling curve by changing how much experience is given out for defeating opponents. The intent is to smooth out the "bumps" where players typically get stuck leveling up their characters. Keep an eye on coming patch notes for specifics.
Real Numbers
As a general quality of life improvement we will be adding new functionality in a coming version of the game to display the "real" numbers behind your characters and their powers. This includes a user configurable display of important characteristics such as movement rate, regeneration rate, resistances and many more! Additionally, you will be able to see how those statistics are affected in real time by buffs and/or debuffs affecting your character.