Issue 13: Architect will bring the much-anticipated Mission Architect, which will allow players to create their own missions and story arcs to share with the community. Other new features include two new powersets, new Cimerora missions, a new Merits rewards system and a new Day Jobs system which will allow characters to continue earning rewards whilst offline.

For all the details on Issue 13: Architect, read the announcement and then head over to read Positron’s Issue 13 address.

Aion fully playable! A packed show schedule! Quests for great prizes! It’s not enough – we’re going even further with our activities at Games Convention – we’re going fully multimedia!

Our community team has been working to create an official City of Heroes page on Facebook where you can receive news feeds, share images and videos with the community, and stay in touch with all your heroic and villainous friends.

You can even create a “Masked” profile to hide your secret identity, a place to put your Hero or Villain’s character profile and connect to other Heroes and Villains… a way to share and promote the game to your mild mannered friends on Facebook. So come and join us, you never know who you might run into!

City of Heroes players who come to the Games Convention in Leipzig (or the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle) this month are in store for a special treat!

We’ll be giving away exclusive codes for a new costume power: The PPD hardsuit!

How do you get it? Well, simply seek out a community representative of your choice (GhostRaptor, Palladium, Avatea or Kerensky) at the NCsoft booth and ask them kindly. Please note that codes given out at European conventions only work on EU accounts.

If you want to know more about these events, either check out all our announcements or have a look at the convention websites:

• Games Convention (20th - 24th August 2008)
  
• Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) (28th - 31st August 2008)

We look forward to seeing you there!

We now accept PayPal as a payment option for all digital code purchases made through the PlayNC store (not for subscriptions or NCcoin) for the UK and Germany. The PayPal payment option will show up beneath the Credit Card payment option and will require you to log into your PayPal account to complete the transaction. If you have any questions about this new payment option, please visit the Support Center for help.

Brace yourselves as the full fury of the Rikti Invasion Force is set to descend upon Paragon City and the Rogue Isles starting on Friday, August 1st and continuing through Thursday, August 7th. For details or to discuss this event with fellow players, please join us on this forum thread.

City of Heroes has expanded the suite of available purchasable services to include Character Respecs (short for Respecifications). Over the course of levelling up, there are many powers that a character can choose from. A Character Respec allows the character to re-select their powers from their chosen primary and secondary powers, along with any other pools of powers they have access to. To be clear, this optional purchasable Respec does not allow the primary or secondary powerset to be reselected; it functions like existing respecs currently available in game.

Optional Character Respecs are available via the in-game store, found at the character select screen, for the price of £ 5.99 / € 8.99.

There are already multiple in-game methods that players can obtain a Respec. Now, if the convenience of purchasing a Respec is desired, it is available. Having a purchasable option has been an often heard desire from the game’s customers.

Once a player purchases a Respec they must then visit a Respec Contact in-game to use it, in the same manner as the in-game obtainable respecs are done. The Respec Contacts include: Jack Wolf in Galaxy City and Arbiter Lupin in Nerva.

NCsoft Europe, The Sun and charity Draw the World Together combine to offer another uniquely crafted PC competition prize! The PC case features unique artwork from Neil Edwards, a regular Draw the World Together artist. Neil’s work is very popular when he attends shows with us, and this unique PC case is sure to be just as popular!

To enter, simply visit The Sun’s competition page and answer a simple question. Entries close on Monday 28th July, and are open to United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland residents over the age of 18.

The Games Convention in Leipzig will be a blast, no question about it. It will however also be stressful for all of us. There’s an abundance of things to organize as exhibitors and our sow, press and media people are likely to have walked many miles combined after each day – going from one game demo or conference to the other. And the customers, who keep the industry alive and kicking, have to queue up for often all too long to play or see their respective most anticipated games at the show.

We have a solution.

Starting on July 18th and continuing through the weekend, both Heroes and Villains will receive twice the value for arresting criminals or pursuing evil deeds.

Rally together as super teams and discuss how you will be spending your Double XP Weekend in this forum topic.

That’s right! We just added two brand new veteran badges to the Veteran Rewards system, for your own pleasure:

• 51 Months: Tried and True
• 54 Months: Allegiant

Check them out in detail on the Veteran Rewards page!

The Daily Mirror has announced a City of Heroes competition to celebrate the launch of Issue 12: Midnight Hour. One lucky entrant will win their very own uniquely-crafted PC featuring unique artwork hand-painted by Andrew Wildman, one of the artists from the charity Draw the World Together who regularly attends events with us! Four runners-up will receive a free copy of City of Heroes.

Entries close Wednesday, June 25th, so get yours in for the chance to win this one-of-a-kind hand-painted PC!

Starting with Boomtown, there’s a competition launched on Wednesday featuring a Lord Recluse statue as first prize! All you have to do is answer a simple question to be in the running. There are also prizes for second and third, and they have an interview with Lead Designer Matt ‘Positron’ Miller.

Moving on to VideoGamer, there’s another competition to win boxed copies of the game - again by answering a simple question - and another free trial opportunity for those who may not have visited Paragon City or the Rogue Isles yet.

NCsoft is proud to present Guide to Issue 12: The Midnight Hour, a comic book created by two of the game community’s own: Chase Arcanum and Cinder Flame! Explore the highlights and features of Issue 12 in this humorous look at the latest free expansion.

Click here to directly download the comic in PDF format and find out what’s in store for you with Issue 12. Covered in a unique style, you’ll find an introduction to the new content and many other game updates exposed.

If you don’t have the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the comic, click here to get it.

Issue 12: Midnight Hour has arrived on the live servers and is now open! Immerse yourself in the new Midnight Squad storyline with a host of new missions, and experience Roman-style zone environments unlike anything you’ve seen in Paragon City™ or the Rogue Isles™.

For Villains, we introduce the all-new Villain Epic Archetypes: the Soldiers of Arachnos. Powerset Proliferation brings new powerset choices for all archetypes, and the list of overall gameplay and Quality of Life improvements is, well, lengthy! To see the full list of new features, updates and other changes in Issue 12: Midnight Hour, make sure to check out the patch notes.