Suggestions for Apps at this time is extremely useful, since that is an excellent way to unobtrusively monetize the game and what I know about Apps is...not much.
Okay then, well I had a few ideas. Some of these mimic and expand on some of City's more popular third party programs and websites but there's a couple originals too.
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Crisis Monitor: See which zone events and giant monsters are currently active, the time remaining until they end, and possibly the time remaining until they activate again. Track its progress if it has progress bars, for example the Adamastor respawn timer or the Seed of Hamidon's defeated Seedling counter. You could even set it to alert you if certain events begin on your selected, or any, server.
What would be downright awesome is if there were an invisible camera at the scene, so you could view ingame footage on your device and see for yourself if anyone is responding or not. Probably not video due to technical limitations, but perhaps stillframe captures that updated every few seconds. In fact, an "invisible camera" like that could be well-suited to certain key locations around the entire city. Places like Atlas Plaza, DJ Zero, the Rikti Mothership, the site where Hamidon spawns, etc. It could allow player run events to go beyond ingame activities, and become a fun source of word-of-mouth advertising.
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Tracking Device (Sentinel): Displays certain info on your characters that you can view outside the game at any time. Things like backstory and costumes, origin and archetype, powersets and chosen powers. Current zone and /loc if logged in, last zone and /loc if logged out (or more appropriately, where they will log back in, in the case of SG bases), time remaining towards a dayjob badge if applicable. Current inf and contents of the various inventories, ie salvage, recipes, enhancements, inspirations. Even the state of their powers, such as active toggles and remaining time on temp powers like xp boosters.
You can view some of this info for other players' characters as well, if they choose to make it public. Only characters specifically authorized by a player will be viewable this way, and only the information that player allows others to see. For example, you could allow others to see your origin and archetype, as well as your powersets and backstory, but not which specific powers you chose or your current /loc. If you choose not to make any info public, then it still tracks everything for your own use. You can also have an authorized list of users and set their viewing permissions individually. For example, you could let them see certain things about your characters that other users cannot, or even just let them see a specific list of characters such as those in a shared supergroup.
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Display Case (Badge Hunter): Chiefly this app acts as a database of all available ingame badges that characters can acquire, and the requirements for each. It also offers a checklist of which badges each character has already achieved, and their progress toward the rest. Additionally it lets you set your device's background picture to your character's portrait (from their /info description) overlaid with the artwork for any badge they have obtained. Or you can set your screen saver to a metal-plated, rotating 3d model of your chosen badge, complete with engraved title underneath and a pinback attachment on the reverse side. You could even arrange several favorites into a formation.
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Souvenir Room: This is similar to the badge display app, but lets you review your story arc souvenirs visually. It starts out as an empty back room, dingy and dusty. Each time that character passes certain milestones (like 10, 25, 50, 100, etc), the room "upgrades" and gets a little cleaner and better decorated. Each story arc souvenir has its own appearance, and when you gain one it gets added to the room. Some hang on the wall, some get story plaques, some get podiums or glass display cases. It's a tangible way to look back through your character's progress.
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Locator Beacon (VidiotMaps): This app provides interactive maps of all the zones.
Place map markers at custom /loc co-ordinates, and attach text and screenshots to help organize events or preserve memories.
Bring up info and screenshots of noteworthy areas near your location, like badges and history plaques.
Get relevant neighborhood info like level ranges and enemy types.
Find GM and zone event info like Eochai spawn points and Rikti dropship paths.
Enter a destination and it puts together all the possible routes you can take to get there from where you are. It will list the zone connections required, any entry requirements necessary (such as Ouro or Midnighters' Club), level ranges of the zones you'll be passing through (and the neighborhoods you're likely to be passing through if you take a straight path), and provide info on how to find and access those connections. If you tell it your current character level it can warn you whether you'd be entering dangerous territory. It can also present just the best option, based on what's more important: shortest travel time, avoiding areas that are too high-level, or avoiding high-traffic areas (for those affected by lag).
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Arrest Record: This app shows pictures, background lore, and limited power info for the various enemies that you can encounter in the game. Every enemy group, every type in every rank, and every named EB and AV. Each time you encounter one in the game their picture unlocks, and it starts tracking how many times you've defeated that particular foe. I think it was HeroStats that "counted kills" that way, so we know a small client-side program can do it, and periodically it would send that info to the app. Active 3d models would be even better than pictures, but that may require too much storage space for what should be a simple app.
