Before I get to the actual thesis question of this essay, I need to briefly explain where I'm coming from: power curves. The rate at which characters gain in power, and how they differ in various settings. In short, while City of Heroes uses a superhero setting, it has a power curve much closer to that of a fantasy game. As a result, a character may not actually be "done" with character generation when they're officially done with character generation. I should note that this essay isn't so much a guide as it is a rumination upon the nature of the game now that I've played it for a year or so.

    In the (stereo)typical fantasy story, the power curve is based on the bildungsroman literary style, where the protagonist starts out a Nobody from Nowhere and grows into a Big Damn Hero over time. So, the protagonist is initially pretty wimpy, to the point where he might lose a fight against a sufficiently annoyed packmule. But every improvement is bigger than the last one, and eventually the hero (or villain) is very competent indeed. From there it may simply keep accelerating, so that in the same time interval the hero went from "must avoid pissing off housecats who can kill him" to "respected warrior," the hero will go from "respected warrior" to making plans on how to redecorate Mount Olympus once those pesky gods have been dealt with. I call this an accelerating power curve. Start low, stay that way for a while, but then really take off.

    Superhero stories, on the other hand, tend to jump the hero up from schlub to superman (in the generic sense) within a very short span of time. The next few improvements may be fairly significant, such as figuring out a "finishing move" power, or overcoming a glaring weakness. But after that, most improvements are minor refinements. Sure, radical changes sometimes happen, but they're often only temporary and the hero gets back on the slow ride upward. This is a decelerating power curve...rapid initial improvement followed by slow progress.

    Translate this into a tabletop leveling or point-build system and a graph of power level (on the vertical) versus advancement (on the horizontal, be it levels or extra build points) will tend to hug the lower right in fantasy and the upper left in superheroics. AD&D was a pretty extreme example of the fantasy style, where low-level characters could lose fights with livestock and high level characters literally did redecorate Mount Olympus sometimes. The original Marvel Super-Heroes RPG is an example of the extreme decelerating power curve, where you could do little other than tweak the details during advancement. Most games (tabletop or computer) fall somewhere in the middle, but computer games (including City of Heroes and MMOs in general) generally end up closer to the fantasy side of the graph than the superheroic. Fresh out of official character generation (and maybe a tutorial), MMO characters had better not leave the approved safe neighborhoods or they die fast, be they fantasy warriors, starfaring traders or superheroes.

    This is a poor fit for superheroes on a thematic level. In fact, it was one of my biggest concerns when I was considering getting into City of Heroes. After a year of play, I can see that the curve does lift up a bit after a while...a combination of player experience and add-ons like Booster Packs and Veteran Rewards can improve low-level play and make it take less time to get to the higher levels (for instance, I can reliably create a character of any archetype and solo it up to level 6 in a 2-3 hour session, much faster if I team). But that doesn't change the fact that a character right out of the tutorial is not a "finished" character when compared to the typical "just got his origin story" superhero. Spider-Man could bend bars, leap to the tops of buildings and dodge unseen attacks before he even made his costume, and he had his "travel power" after only one fight. That sort of thing isn't happening in City of Heroes.

    Once in a great while, you could consider a City of Heroes character to be properly "generated" as soon as you finish filling out your name and info. Especially if you're purely a combat player with no inclination to roleplay. But even in those cases there's an issue of playability.

    Chargen (character generation) ends when the character has acquired all the abilities that let them fit your idea of being "done". For some players, that's Level 50. They're in it for the arena play or the taskforces, so getting to 50 is all chargen. For others, that's Level 1. They don't really see it as a superhero game but as just another MMO with better costume customization. But for most players, there's a combination of two criteria to consider: conceptual completeness and functional completeness.

    Conceptual completeness means that the idea you had for your character is now matched by the reality. This assumes your concept could be done at all, of course. Due to coding or game balance concerns, a lot of concepts simply can't be modeled in City of Heroes (sorry, no giants or stretchy guys...and no Iron Man or Superman types who are good at melee, ranged AND defense, although you can come close by L44). But a lot of ideas will work, eventually. For instance, a lot of superheroes fly, but even hovering has to wait until Level 6 for everyone but Peacebringers, and if you envision your character flying rapidly under their own power (rather than with a jetpack) it's usually going to have to wait for Level 14.

    For most superhero ideas, conceptual completeness hits at Level 14 when the travel power is added. However, some concepts require specific powers other than the travel powers, which may delay the "real" end of chargen. For instance, an intangible ghost villain can't be finished with chargen until they buy a Phase Shift power, which means Level 20 at the earliest. If you envision your character as a long-range sniper, you have to wait until you get the sniping attack in your Primary set (it comes at different levels for different sets, but generally before L14). If you really want a Space Rhino (Black Dwarf/White Dwarf) then your Kheldian isn't done with chargen until Level 18.

    Generally, if the concept can be done at all, characters are conceptually complete by Level 20 or earlier (Arachnos archetypes need to hit L24 and pick their advanced track, though). The biggest exception to this, however, involves Ancillary or Patron Pools. These pools can let you do things like give good inborn ranged attacks to a melee archetype or some defenses to a Blaster. But they don't kick in until the 40s, and most of the "run counter to archetype" stuff is only available at Level 44. So, the price you pay for trying to make a character who colors outside the lines is that your chargen won't really be done for a loooooong time.

    Functional completeness considers the level of power necessary to feel like the training wheels are off. This is largely a matter of personal preference, but here's a few aspects of character development that can establish benchmarks:

• Travel Powers: Most characters can't get a rapid transit power until Level 14, although the Raptor Pack can be acquired via bank mission as early as Level 5 (or from vendors earlier if you have help) and is generally good enough for the purposes of functionality. You can also rent a jetpack for all your characters for $5/month or buy the Martial Arts booster to get Ninja Run, but as a rule of thumb most archetypes are still pretty travel-hobbled until L14. Kheldians start the game with their travel power, of course, and 60 Month Veterans can get travel powers at L6.
• Action Cycle: The main thing here is to avoid the dreaded DOONK of a power that's still recharging. So, functional completeness means that you have enough attacks (or buffs, or whatever) that you can always be hitting buttons and having things happen. This varies by archetype (Tankers are particularly bad at this), but by about Level 10 most characters will be done with enforced idleness. They may not have the Endurance to keep it up for long of course. Veteran Rewards can help with this...once you hit 33 months, all of your characters start with a decent melee attack and a decent ranged attack in addition to the ones their regular powers give them, making functional completeness happen sooner.
• Status Defense: This only applies to archetypes that get defenses at all, of course. But low-level characters of most primaries and secondaries are rather unprotected against status effects like Sleep or Immobilize, which can really put a cramp in your play style. To be functionally complete, the character needs to get a status defense power, which most archetypes get by Level 12 or so (if they get it at all).
• Access: Level 1 characters simply can't get into some places, regardless of whether they'd survive long. Cimerora, Ouroboros, PvP zones, and so forth. If you consider access to be a matter of functionality, chargen won't be done until fairly high level. Level 35 covers most areas.
• Utility Powers: Some powers are so useful that just about every character you play will have them. Stamina is probably the archetypical example of this. Almost every archetype and powerset has a much easier time of it if you have Stamina, and you can't get Stamina until Level 20, which means functional completeness hits at Level 20 too. Maybe you consider the Ouroboros portal's use as a zone travel ability to be so vital that you don't consider a character functionally complete until Level 25. Or perhaps your sights are set lower...as long as you're Level 4 and can access that Ninja Run you bought, everything's golden. Or you're done with chargen at Level 3 when your inspiration slots hit 8 and you can afford to save inspirations up in order to change into other inspirations. Every player develops preferences for certain abilities that may not be available at Level 1, which means functional completeness isn't attained until these powers are obtained.

    In the end, it all comes down to your playstyle and whether you treat City of Heroes as a combat simulator or a surrogate for tabletop roleplaying games, whether it's all about the stats or it's about the idea behind the character. For some players, chargen is over when the character steps out into the city and starts running around. For others, it's only over at Level 50 and when the last Purple Invention Origin Enhancement has been slotted. But, in my experience, most characters will be "done enough" at either Level 6, Level 14 or Level 20, regardless of whether I'm using conceptual or functional criteria.

    It still doesn't really feel like superhero stories, but it's not as bad as I'd worried, and there's plenty of viable ideas that can be done with chargen after a single session of play.