The SoH Villains
On January 20th, we did a livestream with Neith, and we thought you might like to see and hear a bit more about that, and about progress with the enemy factions in Ship of Heroes.
One of our devs summarized what he heard in the livestream here, on the forums.
As a note for some of you who have not been receiving these newsletters, regularly – we have changed our process to ensure that everyone subscribed to our forums has a chance to receive the newsletters by email.

We’ve added two new Nagdellian enemies; a second lieutenant and a new melee boss (right).
The Nagdellians want to invade the ship, kill everyone aboard, and either take it over or destroy it. They want to remove one of the strongest ships in the sector from human control, or even transform it into a Nagdellian vessel. To that end, they frequently launch raids and invasions aimed at seizing a beachhead on the ship, or sabotaging key systems, or even stealing critical supplies. Other enemy groups will often drop whatever they are doing to beat back invading Nagdellians. One of the Nagdellians’ powers is that the lieutenants can call in reinforcements if they are losing a fight.

A group of seven Prometheans shown on a Warehouse District rooftop.
The Prometheans do not want to cripple the ship itself, or to kill any civilians; instead, they aim to forcibly convert everyone aboard into more Prometheans, especially mages and engineers. Their leader, Dr. Cornish, helped build the Justice when he was still human, and he views the ship and its non-super-powered crew as belonging to him. The Prometheans are just as evil and uncompromising as the Nagdellians, but they’re unique to the FHS Justice. Other hero ships don’t have any Prometheans to worry about, though they may have other enemies that the Justice doesn’t!

Three new NPC clothing outfits created by our team. Anyone could be a Red Sigil member.
The Red Sigil is a secretive, revolutionary subgroup within the much larger community of magic-users aboard the Justice. While they tend to favor old-fashioned and formal clothes, the Red Sigil has no uniform; any mage could secretly be a member. The Red Sigil is rich from trading in both legal and illegal magical goods, and they want the non-mage heroes to become their lieutenants in a new political system that prioritizes training more mages, and gives mages more respect. They’re arrogant, and often callous about the lives of others, but they aren’t aiming to enslave or kill everyone; they just want to change the power structure aboard the ship and rule over the crew. The Red Sigil has a particular hatred for the Prometheans due to their opposed ideals – delusional populism versus ruthless meritocracy – and the two factions go out of their way to target each other.

Four Yekus mercenaries. These are the first stills we’ve shown of the Yekus in-game.
The first goal of the Yekus mercenaries is to get paid. But they also want to fight, to improve their abilities, and to make a name for themselves. The Yekus emphasize tactics more than the other factions, so their men are trained to ignore most taunts and attack the healers in any party, and they possess a powerful energy drain attack that other enemies do not have. The Yekus are the most sympathetic of the enemy groups aboard the ship, to the point that they do recruit volunteers from the crew on occasion.

A Yekus officer in his field coat.
In the livestream, you can see our latest technical progress in bringing the game to life. We’re showing some things for the first time, including enemy models for the different groups. We’ve upgraded the Nagdellian models, and you can see how the different types compare. The Yekus mercenary models are also notable; they’re looking pretty good now.

Impromptu powers testing on a Science Park rooftop.
Some of what we show is just for fun, and not necessarily a core game feature. Towards the end, we come across a pair of impromptu testing arenas where one of our coders was working on a bug fix. We thought you might like to see many of the various powers we’ve created, working together on a single target. Should hero power FX look weaker? Stronger? Are there other cool powers you’d like to see? Join the discussion on our forums.

Our Unusual Story
In Ship of Heroes you can write your own short backstory for the unique character you create, which other players can read and enjoy. Your personal story will tie into the larger stories of the FHS Justice and the various planets as you explore them, so let’s talk about the setting, dialog, and themes of Ship of Heroes. We haven’t covered this subject much, though you may have seen pieces of the story in our public events and Betas.
Sword Blossom’s Origin Story
This weekend marks the 15-year anniversary of the launching of the closed MMORPG, City of Heroes. We want to honor that anniversary with a newsletter that reveals more of the backstory for one of the signature heroes aboard the FHS Justice.
Hero Profile: Meltdown
Meltdown is a half-human hero who was born on the planet Karschk to a human mother and a Vais father; the planet’s population is a 20-80 mix of humans and Vais.