City of Heroes/Clientmods

Client-side modifications are changes to the way your local computer renders and plays City of Heroes. You cannot change the way the game mechanics function, meaning you cannot make yourself do triple damage or become invincible, but you can change the way certain things look or sound. Please be aware though, that client mods and PIGG viewers are wholly unsupported by Cryptic and can be deemed as breech of the EULA.

The way this works is if you explore your City of Heroes directory (referred to as COH_DIR from now on), there's a directory named "piggs". Each of the files with .pigg extension are collections of files. They contain textures, models, sound effects and so on. However, your City of Heroes client will check to see if those files are "replaced" before using the default version in the appropriate .pigg file.

A file (texture, model, sound, etc) is replaced by putting a file with the right name in the right place. Specific changes are detailed below.

Zone maps
One of the major changes is to replace your in-game maps. Shops, villain types and level ranges, task force contacts and more are all displayed in the map window. To download and install these maps, the authoritative site is VidiotMaps.com. Click "Check Mapping Status or Download Maps" and download "all_ingame.exe". Run the .EXE and restart City of Heroes.

Sounds
You can replace any sound effect in the game with one of your own choosing. The primary reason for this is to silence annoying looping sound effects like Targeting Drone or Super Speed.

First, if you wish to silence a sound effect, you'll need to download or create an .OGG file that contains several seconds of silence. You cannot just create an empty .OGG file because City of Heroes handles it poorly. To replace a sound with another, follow the same steps, except use your replacement sound in .OGG format instead of silence.

Second, you need to know what to name the file and where to place it. Below is a list of known powers and their locations. To silence/replace a particular sound effect, put your .OGG file in the given directory and rename it to the filename given. If these directories do not exist on your computer, you will have to create them. If you don't like the change you made, just delete the newly saved .OGG file and you are back to standard. For changes to take effect, you will have to restart your CoH client if the game was running while you added, changed, or deleted the .OGG files.

File list
Finding which file to replace to silence/change, is tricky. You can find more specifics on how to do so at City of Heroes Coldfront.

General

 * 1) Glowy: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\FrontEnd\Objective_loop.ogg
 * 2) *It is not recommended to silence this file, however replacing it with easily recognizable will make finding glowing objectives much easier.

Power pool

 * 1) Super Speed: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\ForceField5_loop.ogg
 * 2) Super Jump: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\SuperLeap_loop.ogg

Blaster

 * 1) Targeting Drone: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Weapons\targetdrone_loop.ogg

Scrapper

 * 1) Dark Embrace: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\miasma_loop.ogg
 * 2) Dark ?: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\Dark1_loop.ogg
 * 3) Dark ?: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\Darkfear_loop.ogg
 * 4) Dark ?: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\darkfear2_loop.ogg
 * 5) Dark ?: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\darkfear2_loop.ogg
 * 6) Practiced Brawler: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\Fast7.ogg
 * 7) Focused Fighting: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\glow7_loop.ogg

Tanker

 * 1) Unyielding: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\glow6_loop.ogg
 * 2) Invincibility: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\glow5_loop.ogg
 * 3) Plasma Shield: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\plasmafire_loop.ogg
 * 4) Fire Shield: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\auru5.ogg
 * 5) Blazing Aura: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\auru6.ogg
 * 6) Blazing Aura: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\auru7.ogg

Defender

 * 1) Forcefield ?: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\ForceField1_loop.ogg
 * 2) Forcefield ?: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\ForceField2_loop.ogg
 * 3) Forcefield ?: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\ForceField3_loop.ogg
 * 4) Forcefield ?: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\ForceField4_loop.ogg
 * 5) Forcefield ?: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\ForceField5_loop.ogg
 * 6) Forcefield ?: COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\ForceField6_loop.ogg