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.

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

Villain Day Jobs

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

Villain Day Job Accolades

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!