City of Heroes Issue 13 – New Info on Day Jobs!

October 9, 2008

City of Heroes Issue 13 – New
Info on Day Jobs!

NCsoft has released a new developer
diary for their long-running superhero MMO, City of Heroes. The new dev diary
concerns the upcoming Issue 13 update, and the upcoming Day Jobs feature. Read
the new developer diary below.

Designing Day Jobs, by Game Designer
Phil Zeleski

Day Jobs, a new feature for City of
Heroes, rewards players even when they aren’t playing the game. It’s called
offline character progression and while other games have done this before, City
of Heroes takes it to a whole new level. Simply put, Day Jobs reward players
with additional powers and benefits when they log back in. This also gives
characters greater depth by allowing them to flesh out their identities and
back-stories. Our goal was to create a robust system that benefits players now
as much as possible while also allowing the system to grow with future content
updates.

Day Jobs and Badges

The Day Job system allows players to
log out from a specific location (like a hospital or vault) and when they return
to play, after an extended log out period, they will gain a temporary power or
some other benefit. All of the benefits granted from Day Jobs, other than badges
and accolades (see below) are temporary or have a certain number of uses before
they expire. However, each time a character logs out from the same area, the
corresponding benefits are replenished. Most rewards take 10 days of logged out
time to reach the maximum benefit.

When characters are logged out from
a designated location (consecutively or non-consecutively) for a total of 30
days they will earn a badge associated with the corresponding Day Job. This will
result in additional benefits. Once a badge is earned, the rate at which
characters accumulate benefits, and even the potency of them increase!

Below is a list of most, but not
all, of the Day Jobs available in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility:

Hero Day Jobs

 Day Job
Name

 Log Out
Location

 Benefit

 City Official

 City Hall
(Atlas Park)

 Influence
Bonus upon mission complete.

 Law Enforcer

 Police
Stations

 Experience
Bonus upon mission complete

 Commuter

 Train
Stations

 Travel speed
bonus.

 Shop Keeper

 Store Lobbies

 Enhancement
drop on mission complete.

 Intern

 Portal Corp
Lobbies

 Large
Inspiration upon mission complete.

 Caregiver

 Hospital
Lobbies

 Out of combat
regeneration bonus.

 Professor

 Inside
Universities

 Random tech
salvage drop upon mission complete.

 Midnighter

 Inside the
Midnighter’s Club

 Random arcane
salvage drop upon mission complete.

 Banker

 Inside a
Vault

 Influence
Bonus upon mission complete.

 Clubber

 Pocket D

 Out of combat
recovery bonus.

 Fashion
Designer

 Tailor
Lobbies

 Coupons that
will grant a discount at the tailor.

 Mortician

 Graveyards

 XP Debt
Protection

Villain Day
Jobs

 Day Job
Name

 Log Out
Location

 Benefit

 Demagogue

 Arachnos
Building (Marconeville, Port Oakes)

 Influence
Bonus upon mission complete.

 Arachnos
Agent

 Arachnos
Bases and Arachnos Controlled areas.

 Experience
Bonus upon mission complete

 Pilot

 Near Black
Helicopters

 Travel speed
bonus.

 Smuggler

 Ferry Docks

 Enhancement
drop on mission complete.

 Crey Employee

 Crey
Industries Building in Nerva Archipelago

 Large
Inspiration upon mission complete.

 Pain
Specialist

 Hospital
Lobbies

 Out of combat
regeneration bonus.

 Professor

 Inside
Universities

 Random tech
salvage drop upon mission complete.

 Midnighter

 Inside the
Midnighter’s Club

 Random arcane
salvage drop upon mission complete.

 Thief

 Inside a
Vault

 Influence
Bonus upon mission complete.

 Clubber

 Pocket D

 Out of combat
recovery bonus.

 Fashion
Designer

 Tailor
Lobbies

 Coupons that
will grant a discount at the tailor.

 Mortician

 Graveyards

 XP Debt
Protection

Accolades

An Accolade is obtained by earning
two Day Job badges that work in conjunction with one another. In other words,
earning multiple badges unlock Accolades. These Accolades will grant an even
more enhanced set of powers and benefits. Additional ‘charges’ can also be
earned for your Day Job Accolade powers by logging off from either of the areas
associated with the two badges that unlocked the Accolade. Below is a list of
some, but not all, of the Day Job Accolades available in Issue 13: Power and
Responsibility:

Hero Day Job
Accolades

 Day Job
Accolade

 Day Job #1

 Day Job #2

 Benefit

 Police Chief

 Law Enforcer

 City Official

 Baton Power:
Melee Minor DMG (Smashing) For Stun.

 Security
Chief

 Law Enforcer

 Banker

 Tear Gas:
Ranged AoE Hold.

 Scientist

 Professor

 Intern

 Sleep Gas:
Ranged AoE Sleep.

 Physician

 Professor

 Caregiver

 Ally
Resurrect

 Alchemist

 Caregiver

 Midnighter

 Ally Heal

 Villain Day
Job Accolades

 Day Job
Accolade

 Day Job #1

 Day Job #2

 Benefit

 Web Weaver

 Arachnos
Agent

 Demagogue

 Web Grenade:
Ranged Foe Immobilize, -Rech, -Fly, -Speed

 Black Ops

 Arachnos
Agent

 Thief

 Smoke
Grenade: Ranged AOE Foe -Perception, -To Hit

 Crey
Scientist

 Pain
Specialist

 Crey Employee

 Sleep Gas:
Ranged AoE Sleep.

 Physician

 Professor

 Pain
Specialist

 Ally
Resurrect

 Alchemist

 Pain
Specialist

 Midnighter

 Ally Heal

Note: These are only some of the
available Accolades. When players obtain Day Job badges, they unlock information
about which Day Jobs to collect next in order to earn the associated Accolade(s).

On Patrol

In addition to all of the Day Jobs,
every character is "On Patrol" after they log out of the game. When players log
back into Paragon City or the Rogue Isles they will gain 1 bar of double
experience (when defeating enemies) for every 24 hours they are logged out. A
player can earn up to 10 bars of double experience this way. Double experience
is shown as a blue portion of your experience bar. One thing to note is that if
a player has any experience debt, the debt will be removed first before any
double experience is applied.

If your character has a number of
bars of double experience that exceeds the number of experience bars you need to
level up, then this double experience will carry over to the next
security/threat level.

Getting Started

When exploring both Paragon City and
the Rogue Isles you will encounter several Day Job locations. You’ll know you’re
in one when you see a power icon under your health bar that explains what Day
Job you will work towards by logging off in that location.

Try visiting a hospital, where you
will earn the Caregiver (Pain Specialist if you’re a villain) Day Job. You’ll
notice a power icon that when moused over will state "Day Job: Caregiver."
Logging out from this location will earn you credit toward the Caregiver Day Job
badge. When you log back in you’ll gain an out of combat regeneration bonus.
Once you’ve logged out in the Hospital for a total of 30 days (consecutively or
non-consecutively) or more you’ll earn the Caregiver badge and will receive an
even more powerful regeneration bonus when you log out at this location from
here on out.

Once you have earned the Caregiver
badge you will find a hint for how to earn the Physician accolade by first
earning the Professor badge. To earn the Professor Day Job badge, you will need
to log out from the University for 30 (consecutive or non-consecutive) days.
After an extended log out period, the Professor Day Job will grant you a random
piece of tech salvage upon mission completion. This bonus will take 10 days of
log out time to earn 2 hours worth of this bonus. However, once you earn the
Professor badge you only need to be logged out 8 days to earn the 2 hour benefit
instead of 10.

Once you own both the Professor and
Caregiver badges you will unlock the Physician Accolade. With this Accolade you
will be able to earn ‘charges’ for a power that revives defeated allies by
logging out from (and back in to) either a University or a Hospital. You will
gain the Day Job benefits for both this Accolade and the Day Job benefit
associated with the area. Nice benefits!

Parting Words

All in all, we’re really excited
about this new feature for our game. By balancing your time in and out of the
game, you’ll get unique rewards that you wouldn’t otherwise attain. When you are
ready to log back in and kick some villain or hero butt… we’ll be there waiting
for you, and you’ll still be powerful enough to do just that. And with the
addition of our Day Job themed costume pieces you can even dress appropriately!