The annual Halloween event in City of Heroes has started early this season, and with good cause: zombies are attacking!

These homely fellows seem to be literally rising from the ground beneath us and attacking heroes, villains and citizens without discrimination. Their taste in fashion is despicable, not to mention the flies and the smell! Be sure to have the zone event channel added to one of your chat tabs in-game to see the event notifications and take part in all the fun!

The event runs until Nov. 2, so be sure to log on and help turn the tides in this infestation. You can also trick-or-treat for classic costumes, badges and more. Full information can be found here.

CoX lead designer Matt 'Positron' Miller is going to be running a D&D game for charity the day before Hero-Con '08!

On Friday October 17th, 2008 Matt 'Positron' Miller will be running a Dungeons & Dragons game for six lucky winners. Seats are being auctioned and proceeds will benefit 'SCARE for a Cure!' A charity that was created by Jarrett "The Defuser" Crippen in 2007.

The game will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara California at 8:00 PM. Winners of the auction must arrange travel to and from the hotel but they do not have to be 'City of Heroes' players or attendees of NCsoft's Hero-Con '08 event that will be held the following day at the Hyatt.

Good luck to everyone, and well done to Positron for putting in the effort for such a good cause!

Superheroes need secret identities. I think it's written in comic book law. It's a necessity so that the "secret" identity can one day be dramatically revealed to the world, only to follow up by magically writing that storyline out of continuity and pretending it didn't happen (I'm looking at you, Spider-Man).

Anyway, getting back to City of Heroes, we have received a developer's blog and screenshots from NCsoft outlining the new Day Jobs feature. Game Designer Phil Zeleski explains that players will now be rewarded even when they're not logged in since their characters will be working normal jobs during that time.

For example, if you log out in a hospital, your character will gain a temporary out of combat regeneration bonus for working as a caregiver. Keep reading for Zeleski's full blog, which includes a lot of information on a variety of Day Jobs.

As a follow-up to his discussion on Issue 13 PvE power changes, which we reported on last week, Senior Designer Floyd "Castle" Grubb has spoken on the Jester's Court podcast at length about what players can expect to see regarding the power updates.

The 41-minute podcast can be found here.

Senior Designer Bruce Harlick has answered many questions from City of Heroes/Villains players in the latest installment of "Ask a Dev," and he focused mainly on intricacies of creating interesting story arcs and missions.

When asked about the future direction of the game from the point of view of a storyteller, Harlick said that he really wants to explore some of the back story of existing characters. "You’re going to see some missions from me that deal with that," he said. "I hope to get a chance to move between characters and get more of their stories into the game."

As far as the differences between player-created missions through the Mission Architect feature and developer-created missions, Harlick said that, " we’ll push the envelop as far as we can here and use the resources we have, and the new resources we can get, to create kicking new Story Arcs and missions that go beyond what you can do in Mission Architect."

The full "Ask a Dev" article can be found here or below. Also, submit your questions for the Oct. 21 article with Senior Animator/VFX Artist Chris Bruce here.

Issue 13 is bringing changes to PvE powers including balance changes!

A big part of the game is the balance of all the Archetypes, their respective power sets and how they compare. Maintaining a level of equity between everything is a continual goal. In this article, NCsoft NorCal Senior Designer Floyd "Castle" Grubb gives us the scoop on some proposed powers changes that will be in testing with Issue 13. Please keep in mind that there is still the entire testing and revision process to go through with these changes. The team is excited to see how these refinements stand up to player feedback, datamining, and the beta process.

Introduction
For Issue 13, we have a rather wide selection of PvE (Player vs. Environment) related powers changes. These changes focus on either Quality of Life concerns or on powers which were not quite in Balance with others.

Read on for a full list of the changes!

Gamers are generally a highly creative group of people. We all spend some of our free time running avatars through virtual worlds, and most of us come up with at least small biographies for them (whether we openly admit it or not).

Now, Palit and AMD are focusing on that creativity in their City of Heroes "Create a Character" costume contest . As the name implies, your job is to skillfully create a completely unique character (hero or villain, of course) with an interesting costume and backstory by Oct. 17. The grand prize is a $2,000 custom gaming PC by Smooth Creations , as well as a unique in-game title. Runner-up prizes include Palit Radeon video cards.

For the long list of rules, check here . Basically, work on your screenshot skills because you'll be taking a lot of them.

Through Thursday, Oct. 2, the returning Rikti Invasion Force will attack Paragon City and Rogue Isle with increased frequency. It's up to the superpowered beings in the world to stop this threat. More information on how you can help can be found here .

Also, advance warning systems indicate the the Rikti Invasion Force will attempt to return from Nov. 14-20. Keep your eyes peeled for suspicious activity during that time.

NCsoft and Lead Designer Matt Miller announced today that City of Heroes' Issue 13 has been split into two updates: Power and Responsibility in fall 2008 and Architect in winter 2009. Thanks to this delay, players will be able to create custom heroes and villains to fight in their own story arcs in Issue 14.

Issue 13 was originally announced a few weeks ago as including the Mission Architect system, which will allow players to create their own missions and story arcs. Fans gave positive feedback, but wanted the ability to create custom characters, as well. In response, Miller and his team are waiting until Issue 14 to release the Architect system in winter 2009 with this ability included, but are still releasing the rest of their new content this fall as Issue 13: Power and Responsibility .

Earlier today NCsoft revealed the latest expansion for City of Heroes , Issue 13: Architect. Like previous expansions, this one will be free, and includes some pretty cool features.

Mission Architect: First the City of Heroes Character Creator set a new standard for player creation and customization. Now, Issue 13 takes another giant step, allowing players to design their own missions and story arcs to share with the entire City of Heroes community. Using an intuitive interface similar to the game's detailed Character Creator, players can create missions from the ground up. Players will determine details ranging from environments, mission objectives, and enemies, to written fiction and character dialogue; giving their stories nearly infinite depth and personalization.

Among other rewards, authors and architects who create the most extraordinary content will garner acclaim and reputation. Community feedback will be paramount and some missions will elevate in status unlocking new rewards and benefits for their creators.

Keep reading for more...