Michael Zenke writes: They didn't know it when they woke up this morning, but City of Heroes fans are about to have a really great day. That headline might make you think that there are going to be some disappointed folks today. Not so. Not at all. You see, while the Mission Architect is moving out to Issue 14 in early winter of 2009, that's just leaving a ton of room in this year's Issue 13 (now called "Power and Responsibility") for an epic amount of awesome stuff. Even the reason for the delay is great: the City of Heroes developers have listened to the players. They realized their system just didn't have everything it needed to be truly special, and they're giving it the extra time to get it right.
So what is replacing Architect? How about an all new level syncing system that will ensure you can always keep up with your buddies? The "Day Jobs" system, with brand-new civilian costumes and a brand-new game mechanic? Rebalancing of powers for PvP? A new merit reward system? How about a new element where you can have multiple power specs kitting out for one character, and can be switched between almost at will? All this and more are in Issue 13, and you can read all the sordid details below the cut in the official release.