NCsoft recently held an event in San Francisco, or rather, in the San Francisco Bay, to showcase some of the new features being implemented in their upcoming title, City of Villains – particularly base building and base raids. Held within the confines of Alcatraz Island, Lord Recluse and his right-hand woman, Ghost Widow, were on hand to interest the attendees into joining their league of evil, Arachnos.

Not to be outdone by these villains, our hero Robert Garriott, CEO NCsoft North America, presented his plan for subscriber domination: Two games, one fee - $14.95

Current subscribers of City of Heroes will incur no additional subscription fees for City of Villains as long as the player maintains their CoH account. The only cost will be the one time fee of roughly $50 for the CoV 'box'. The opposite will be true as well – those who don't currently own/play City of Heroes can pick up City of Villains, pay a monthly fee of $14.95, and later pick up City of Heroes and incur no additional subscription fees. Nice.

But before I get too far ahead of myself, I should probably let explain just what City of Villains is all about – though, if you are reading this, chances are you already know…

City of Villains is a stand-alone title that is both based within, and interacts with, the universe presented by City of Heroes – an online massively multiplayer super-hero role-playing game. In CoV, players are presented with the opportunity to create a villain to their liking, deciding on costume, archetype, origin, and powers. Finally, those that have been playing City of Heroes will be able to show their true, evil nature. Five new archetypes have been created for CoV to pair off against Paragon City's finest: Brutes, Corruptors, Dominators, Masterminds, and Stalkers – each with his/her own distinct powers and roles. Descriptions of each of these archetypes fall outside the scope of this article, as well as many other aspects of the game, though much of this information can be found at the City of Villains Official Site or in our upcoming review. New costume choices have been introduced as well, giving the character creation enthusiast several more hours of options to browse through.

Base Building
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of City of Villains – outside of the fact that gamers can play as villains - is the base building feature being implemented into both CoV and CoH, and the one feature I was able to spend some quality time with at the Alcatraz event. Villain Groups will be given the opportunity to construct their own private base or evil 'lair', from which they can setup defenses against raids and teleporters for easy travel to key locations throughout the isle (Rogue Isle). The bases serve as the luanchpad for a great deal more than those two functions, but that's the gist.

A base is constructed using 'Prestige' instead of the common means of currency, 'Influence' or 'Infamy'. Every item placed inside a base has a cost, and each base, depending on location and size, will incur an appropriate rent penalty. The system being put in place to manage this whole new aspect of the game (which will be added to CoH as well) can seem a bit overwhelming, with a form of 'crafting' being implemented as well (salvage), every other aspect of CoH has been rather simple, and the actual 'base building' is as well. My guess is that the overall governing system of rent/prestige/salvage will prove to be just as simple to understand.

Back to the actual 'base building': Once a location has been established, all interior decorating is handled from the perspective players are already accustomed to. Entering the 'edit' mode simply adds a series of window overlays pertaining to construction over the familiar view. Adding rooms is as simple as clicking on the 'Add Room' button, and then selecting what type of room. The room can then be dragged into position over a grid, with hallways between adjacent rooms being automatically generated. The doorways can be moved if the auto-generated location is not desirable by, once again, simply clicking on the proper button, and dragging the item on a grid.

Zooming the camera out a distance will allow you to view your overall creation so far, while zooming all the way in will allow you to actually see and better edit the interior. Walls, floors, and ceilings can be modified with different textures and colors. Individual sections of each can also be raised or lowered, pulled in or pushed out. While generally all rooms are, by default, square, the tools allow for creation of rooms that seem anything but. Ambience is added to each room by customizing the lighting, and rooms can be furnished with all sorts of widgets and gizmos, desks and filing cabinets, teleporters and power generators, shields and turrets – as long as their 'Prestige' bank account holds out. Members of groups can pool their resources together to fund a bigger, badder base, which lends itself to some highly interesting base raids. The whole process of base building is a point and click affair, and couldn't be simpler.

Base Raids
Base raids can take place when one supergroup attains an 'Item of Power'. These 'items' grant those in possession a buff in stats, depending on the particular item. One item of power may increase the damage output of members, while another may increase their defense. These items will, of course, be greatly sought after, and as a result, once a supergroup has acquired one, they will be susceptible to having their base raided by other supergroups. Challengers will contact and attempt to schedule an actual raid with the defending group (as to make sure that teammates can be notified of the event in the case that they are not currently logged on). Base raids will last up to 60 minutes, wherein the challenging team must successfully reach the 'Item of Power' or destroy the six 'dimensional anchors' scattered throughout the base. The defenders must simply hold off the attackers for 60 minutes by, hopefully, a well crafted defense system and the blood and sweat of teammates involved in the raid.

Non-'item of power' raids can take place as well, scheduled between supergroups, simply for fun and bragging rights. Currently, base raids occur between anonymous groups, which is unfortunate. Being able to raid the base of, perhaps, a particular supergroup's arch nemesis is currently impossible – something that will certainly have to change sooner than later.

Coming Soon
City of Villains is set to release October 31st, with a two day head start for those that pre-ordered. While PvP zones will be available to those who only own City of Heroes, bases and salvage, and of course all the new content contained within City of Villains is only available with a purchase of CoV. If you already play CoH, it seems a no-brainer to pick up City of Villains eventually, as it will cost nothing per month, and unlock new and exciting options not previously present.