The City of Heroes forum has a new announcement from Tim “Black Scorpion” Sweeney about an update coming to Issue 19 called the Strike Pack. From the post: "The Strike Pack introduces the Weekly Strike Target and the Rare and Very Rare tiers of the Incarnate Alpha Slot."

Weekly Strike Target: Every week, we will announce one Task Force and one Strike Force (or instead one Co-Op Task Force) that will give increased rewards for that week. The first time a character completes the Weekly Strike Target in the week, they receive double merits and a bunch of additional XP. Even if you “go rogue” and do the other side’s Weekly Strike Target as well, you’ll only get that reward for your first in a given week. After running it once, your character can earn progress toward some brand new badges for helping others by running it as many times as you like. Of course, you can run the WST on as many characters as you have the inclination for and get the increased rewards on each. The Weekly Strike Target will change every Tuesday morning.

Read more here.

Paragon Studios and NCSoft have announced a terrific celebration for the seventh anniversary of City of Heroes. Players with a continuous subscription to the game from February 1st through April 18th will receive a boatload of nifty rewards for their loyalty. Players will receive a new emote, a chest emblem, a loyalty badge and a booster pack in thanks for their support.

Seven Years of Super Rewards

• Seven Stars, a new chest emblem that will remind everyone of your experience as a Hero or Villain.
• The Constant, a new badge and title that highlights your dedications and unswerving determination.
• Loyalty, a new emote that you can use to brag about your alignment in style.
• The Vanguard Pack, a new Booster Pack that unlocks many Vanguard costume pieces and features for all of your characters.

These rewards will only be offered for a limited time. All eligible players will have these unique rewards unlocked on their account on April 28th, 2011.

Read more here.

NC Soft and the City of Heroes team have announced that a double experience weekend will be coming from January 27th through January 30th. Heroes will want to check into Praetoria, Paragon City and the Rogue Isles  to reap the reward!

The City of Heroes Double XP Weekend is coming soon. Power up through Praetoria, Paragon City, and the Rogue Isles, and earn twice the Experience Points when you defeat opponents or complete missions.

Read more here.

Paragon Studios has announced that in conjunction with its new year's resolutions, the team will be publishing monthly producer's letters to keep the fan base involved in the game's development progress. To introduce the new series, Nate “Second Measure” Birkholz has authored the goals for the monthly newsletters. It's an ambitious list that is well worth the time to read.

The Future Is Now: The features we have brought you in the game over the last year are just the first steps on a voyage to bigger, better, shinier, much more exciting things in 2011 and beyond. Going Rogue set up the world of Praetoria. Issue 19 introduced the Incarnate system and some of our most challenging content to date. Issue 20 will unleash the Incarnate Trials that bring you even more raw power courtesy of the next levels of Incarnate abilities. Issue 21 will continue to develop these storylines and features in new and thrilling ways. All the great things we are producing take you steps, leaps, and superleaps closer to the resolution of an epic storyline, and we want your characters to help lead that journey.

End Game for All: We have always wanted to provide a game that was open to everyone. We want you to feel powerful when you visit our world, and the Incarnate Trials will be inclusive, accessible, and easy to participate in. Not to say that it isn’t some of the most challenging and exciting content we have ever provided, but we want to make it possible for you to participate in easily, without the need to belong to an elitist “raiding guild” and without surrendering your weekends for a small chance at rolling on a random reward. Now that many of you have begun your ascension to Incarnate, we’ll be releasing the Rare and Very Rare tiers of the Alpha Slot in just a few short weeks to help you get a leg up on the launch of Issue 20.

Read more here.

Paragon Studios devs have announced that the Winter Event that began in mid-December 2010 has been extended through Sunday, January 30th. The event includes prizes simply for logging in, holiday presents, candy cane salvaging rewards and more.

SPECIAL REWARDS JUST FOR LOGGING IN

Every City of Heroes character that logs in between Friday, December 17th 2010 and Monday, January 3rd, 2011 will unlock:

• The Fuzzy Earmuffs costume piece.
• The Holiday Spirit. This Temporary Power grants 48 hours of 25% Debt Protection.
• The Holiday Cheer. Use this Temporary Power on another player to give them a Mystery Gift which could contain a rare Temporary Power, a sack full of Influence or Infamy, or even a winter themed hat.

Find out all of the Winter Event details here.

NCSoft and Paragon Studios have announced that the annual "Winter Event" is slated to begin on Friday, December 17th and run through Sunday, January 2, 2011. Players will be on a mission to stop Lady Winter from freezing the world and will be able to take in some hot cocoa at the ski chalet.

The 2010 Winter Event is nearly upon us and will bring new presents and dangers to Paragon City, the Rogue Isles and Praetoria. You will be able to stop Lady Winter's plot to freeze the world, visit the Ski Chalet and race to win prizes. Unlock Snow Flake Emotes, Winter-themed costume pieces and earn special badges.

The dev team has plans to reveal more details next week. In the meantime, head here to read the original post.

The only hitch is that you won't know exactly when we will post codes on each - so keep your eyes peeled! Once you see the codes, simply be the first to apply one of the codes onto your City of Heroes game account via your NCsoft Master Account and you'll be awarded an inherent power in game that gives you the appearance of a Coralax!

Read more here.

NCSoft and Paragon Studios have announced that Issue 19: Alpha Strike for City of Heroes has been deployed on all servers. The new update is free and continues the storyline started with the Going Rogue expansion. In Alpha Strike, players have the opportunity for a look at the first part of the Incarnate system that allows high level players to earn new skills and abilities.

• Two New Task Forces: With the Praetorians having begun their invasion of Primal Earth in Going Rogue, protecting Paragon City and the Rogue Isles from such overwhelming forces requires two familiar faces to help stop the invasion: the Hero Apex and the redesigned Tin Mage Mark II.
• Three New Praetorian Zone Events: Allowing players to take part in three new world events that ultimately determine how the story will unfold, and allow players to earn new rewards.
• Inherent Fitness Pool Powers: In a major quality of life improvement, the Fitness Pool Powers will now be granted to all new and existing characters starting from Level 2.
• Alternate Power Animations: Giving players the option of being able to customize the animation for certain characters’ powers.
• And much more: Collect new Exploration Badges, experience Merged Monorails and Ferries, Mission Architect Enhancements and two new free Auras including Snow and Fireflies.

Read more about Issue 19: Alpha Strike here.

Paragon Studios and the City of Heroes dev team have announced a new contest. Players are being asked to create an advertising campaign for a product, retailer, restaurant chain, in-lore political candidate, or service of your own devising (or based on lore). The campaign is to be submitted on a "billboard" which, if chosen as the winner, will be featured in the game. If that isn't enough, three winners will receive some pretty awesome prize packages as well!

Whether you do it with a drawing, a painting, or a screenshot, we are offering you the opportunity to create your own billboard for the delight of the denizens of Paragon city and/or the Rogue Isles. Make it clever, funny (or punny!), make it deep and contemplative, make it dramatic and histrionic--it is up to you as long as it fits into the City of Heroes universe AND doesn't infringe any patent, copyright, trademark or other intellectual property right, or any privacy, publicity or publishing rights of any third party, or libelous, obscene or otherwise contrary to law.

Read all of the contest details here.