Senior Designer Joe Morrissey recently went online on the City of Heroes Community Site and talked about the rich background of the next issue to the super powered MMO game, City of Heroes. Issue 12: Midnight Hour. The new issue inserts itself as the next expansion in the CoH saga and focuses on another major superhero faction: the Midnight Squad.

This time-travelling superhero squad takes its cue from the fallout of Issue 10: Invasion, where the group was decimated by the invading Rikti race. After recovering from the failed invasion, it's now the Midnighters turn to strike back with its vast storehouse of knowledge and resources at their disposal.

Since the Rikti were known to have a distinct weakness against magic, several story arcs in the upcoming issue will explore this facet which will be used against the marauding race.

In terms of technical features, Issue 12 will also introduce the use of Contextual dialog which will allow players to receive appropriate dialog from NPCs they've previously talked. This new tech will give NPCs the feel of being actual contacts inside a zone by providing up-to-date information for players regarding the state of their missions.

This dynamic interface system may provide the design team with plans to use the Contextual dialog in future Issues. However, the devs will be keeping this particular feature under wraps for now until they can find different ways to utilize it in future Issues.

In any case, things seems to be shaping up for this colossal update. Don't forget to drop by this spot for more updates regarding NCsoft's City of Heroes and its upcoming Issue 12: Midnight Hour.