Client-side Modifications
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 (IE: You cannot make yourself do triple damage or become invincible), but you can change the way certain things look or sound.
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. 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 Targetting 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. The linked download version has four seconds of silence and is 5 kilobytes in size. (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 and where to place that file. Here is a list of known powers and their location. 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.
PLEASE HELP THIS LIST TO GROW!
- General sound effects
- Super Speed (looping part) - COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\ForceField5_loop.ogg
- "Glowy" - COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\FrontEnd\Objective_loop.ogg - It is not recommended to silence this file, however replacing it with a Homer Simpson "WOOHOO!" has made finding glowing objectives much easier to recognize and find.
- Blaster
- Targetting Drone - COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Weapons\targetdrone_loop.ogg
- Scrapper
- Dark Embrace - COH_DIR\data\sound\Ogg\Powers\miasma_loop.ogg
Finding which file to replace to silence/change a particular file is tricky. You can find directions on how to do so here.