When the design team sits down to discuss what is going to be in the next issue for the "City Of" games, we generally have some high level goals that we want to accomplish in that issue. With Issue 8 it was bringing more parity to the games of City of Heroes and City of Villains with Safeguard missions, and Issue 9 was adding a brand new far-reaching system with the Invention System.
 
With Issue 10 we decided to advance the storyline. Like any ongoing game we have many unresolved plot threads and each is a great opportunity for introducing new game content. Our first thought for Issue 10 was to bring back the 5th Column, a villain group that disappeared when the Council was introduced in Issue 3. But in the end we decided to focus on one of the greatest threats to Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, the aliens known as the Rikti. We had revealed a lot about the Rikti in the past, but there was always the looming specter of a second Rikti War. There were already plenty of missions that involve shutting down attempts by stranded Rikti to contact their homeworld. For current players, Rikti are a familiar enemy and remain a giant pain in the butt.