|
S.D. posted:I keep meaning on planning out a Lets Play of all the Praetoria arcs - there's a lot of interesting stuff there and I think the Imperial City Crusader arc is some of the strongest stuff they made. the 15-20 stuff partially holds together but was clearly not heavily looked-over for bugs, but the overall ride from level 1 to 20 is still smooth. Yeah I had the out-leveling problem simply because Homecoming has an NPC that lets you get double xp at the cost of no Inf, and it's a great deal because honestly you get more inf from cycling reward merits into stuff for the AH. Though they did also add an option to turn off xp gain so you couldn't out-level the contacts.
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2023 19:47
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 00:21 |
|
|
Homecoming got an Official License from NCSOFT to keep hosting City of Heroes.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 17:50
|
|
|
Hunter Noventa posted:Homecoming got an Official License from NCSOFT to keep hosting City of Heroes. Excuse me, I need to get onto this phonecall with Hell, they say some kind of demented snowball overlord has taken control, it's completely frozen over, and all the pigs are having trouble staying in the air.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 18:01
|
|
|
Of all outcomes, this is the one I expected the least from NCSoft.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 18:10
|
|
|
I'm honestly not all that surprised. Remember, what was it, a year or two back when they temporarily shut down all streaming permissions and their justification was IIRC "we can't explain why, just trust us"? Gonna guess that was related to hashing this all out. I think I even speculated like a hundred years ago back when people were bitching about whatever the most recent kerfluffle was (maybe when they started cracking down on copyright infringing characters again) that having a codified set of rules and regulations was the sort of thing you could hang a licensing agreement off of. Edit: Didn't quite remember it right, but sure enough... John Murdoch posted:I do feel like there's a degree of presumptuousness to the whole thing. Like, you don't hear about random people saying something like "EA hasn't made a Command & Conquer game in years, I'm gonna demand they sell me the IP!" followed by "wow WTF EA refuse to sell, they must be crazy!!". Like it or not it just doesn't seem to work that way. Pretty much the only time you hear about IPs changing hands like that is if the original company gets dissolved. John Murdoch fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Jan 4, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 18:21
|
|
|
Happy for everyone involved including myself 
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 18:37
|
|
|
This… is amazing!
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 19:37
|
|
|
that's, huh. Honestly incredibly baffling but in a good way, because I think this is the first instance of an officially sanctioned private server? Usually it's just operating in a gray area with both parties looking the other way.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 19:51
|
|
|
IMO it's pretty much what could be described as a win-win for both sides. Homecoming doesn't have to play "we don't actually exist wink-wink" games with the potential penalty of being subject to Exterminatus by NCSoft's legal department anymore. NCSoft could legit stick up in the corner of their website a banner ad screaming "One of our Classic MMOs has been revived ! Play CoH FREE NOW !!!!" and they get the benefits of positive advertising along with Homecomings entire developer, server infrastructure, and community relations setup for $0.00 cost beyond how many lawyer hours they got billed for. Homecoming made a 64 bit capable client, is actively Doing Things with the game and has from all appearances a well made & not poo poo looking website, a Discord server AND old-school forums going. Absolute icing on the cake would be somehow allowing the nutjobs who archived their characters just prior to original shutdown to get their characters back (not holding my breath on this one).
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 20:11
|
|
|
Honestly with how easy it's become to put together a good build thanks to cheap and abundant enhancement converters, you can just get back your old characters. Though the badge grind is still real.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 20:26
|
|
|
gently caress NCSoft though? Still feels like a weird flex/power grab from Homecoming team, hoping to strangle out the competition.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 20:36
|
|
|
The other big deal is that people can stream the game now, they had to revoke that right a while ago, likely due to these negotiations, but now you can, and that ill help spread the word too. I've played around with some of their new content, and they've done a decent job keeping the tone going and making interesting new or adapted powersets.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 20:38
|
|
|
The streaming ban was lifted a while ago so there's really no effective change for the end user besides them asking for more donation money.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 20:43
|
|
|
The really seems like No Big Whoop to me. Homecomeing is going to pay money to NCsoft and abide by whatever rules, and in exchange... NC is less likely to demand they shut down?
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 20:48
|
|
|
Gynovore posted:The really seems like No Big Whoop to me. Homecomeing is going to pay money to NCsoft and abide by whatever rules, and in exchange... NC is less likely to demand they shut down? I think they can also market the game now? Though it'd be pretty hard to pull in anyone who didn't play back in the day.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 20:59
|
|
|
Gynovore posted:The really seems like No Big Whoop to me. Homecomeing is going to pay money to NCsoft and abide by whatever rules, and in exchange... NC is less likely to demand they shut down? also means that there's less risk for anyone wanting to join and work on the project since it's not skirting that gray area as much.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 21:07
|
|
|
Gynovore posted:The really seems like No Big Whoop to me. Homecomeing is going to pay money to NCsoft and abide by whatever rules, and in exchange... NC is less likely to demand they shut down? Significantly less likely to forcefully shut them down through use of law enforcement agencies and internet hosting providers without their advance knowledge. I imagine it wears a little, every time the server status page loads a little slow and suddenly you wonder if this is the day they decided to get serious.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 22:31
|
|
|
McSpanky posted:That active lately, eh? I was considering coming back to try some of the proliferated sets and new AT mechanics on Homecoming, but if the goon presence is dead then blah. Hello again you butts. The goon presence is very dead. Isawa Koi is the only other person I ever see in the goonsquad channel (which hasn't been used in at least six months) and I ran into Bhagwan in game a couple of weeks ago. That's about it. However, the game itself is very lively. Times have changed. Torchbearer is not the most popular, no one uses Indomitable for PVP (or anything really) and Reunion is a ghost town. Everlasting is still the RP server and Excelsior is by far the busiest. Excelsior usually has around 700 concurrent players at peak which for sure feels busier than Victory ever was, but not as full as Freedom or Virtue. There's at least two Hami raids every day, plus Mothership raids and Incarnate Trials. TFs fill up in no time. The only downside is every once in a while someone will get judge-y if you don't have ATT (Assemble The Team) or TT (Team Teleport). Sorry, but I haven't been farming non-stop for the last four years. I can't afford to buy those for every alt by level 8. Speaking of which, Homecoming allows you to have 1000 characters per server. Make one of everything! Not only have they added a new archetype, but they've added new powersets, new power pools and proliferated others, but they also lowered the levels you unlock powers. Tier 9 primary used to be 32, now it's 26. Epics started at 41, now it's 35. According to the server status page it looks like 70% of people still play blueside and the other 30% are split pretty evenly between red and gold. For the new year I started playing goldside again because I don't think I ever made it all the way to 40 on live. I hope the recent announcement encourages some people to come back. I do miss a good perma-team.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 23:04
|
|
|
Hunter Noventa posted:I think they can also market the game now? Though it'd be pretty hard to pull in anyone who didn't play back in the day. I got a YouTube ad for a WoW private server a few times. If you're doing it technically illegally, you can do whatever you want.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 23:29
|
|
|
Heathen posted:
It's 11 mil! That's like, one 30 minute WST if you have literally any 50. People shouldn't be judgey for not having it but it is pretty good bang for your buck
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 01:04
|
|
|
What would really be Big News to me is if they somehow actually got hold of whatever design docs might still be lying around, talked with old devs etc., and considered actually continuing the post-game and adding Incarnate slots & content. I'm sure that's incredibly unlikely but one can dream
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 04:49
|
|
|
Allegedly part of the agreement was HC handing over the source code back to NCsoft who did not actually have an archival version. So I kinda doubt they kept too much else. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 05:21
|
|
|
Team Teleport's the big 10 million spend that summons in the flyer. The only places I've really seen people get a little itchy if somebody doesn't have it are the Shadow Shard TFs, and honestly it's kind of a required component there given how much most of those rookie mistakes expect you to hop from the city to the shard and back again.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 08:17
|
|
|
Crust First posted:gently caress NCSoft though? Still feels like a weird flex/power grab from Homecoming team, hoping to strangle out the competition. Strangle out what competition, and what about the situation of said ‘competition’ has changed
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 10:45
|
|
|
In the full post it's described as the exact opposite, in fact - they're creating a "City Council" with representatives from other servers and the implication seems to be that HC can extend its own or otherwise help other servers reach the same level of legitimacy.
John Murdoch fucked around with this message at 11:08 on Jan 5, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 11:01
|
|
|
quote:Wasn’t Homecoming working with some other servers? Maybe I'm just reading it wrong, but "consolidate our userbase" feels pretty weasel wordy!
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 14:17
|
|
|
Pretty sure you're reading it wrong.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 14:23
|
|
|
John Murdoch posted:In the full post it's described as the exact opposite, in fact - they're creating a "City Council" with representatives from other servers and the implication seems to be that HC can extend its own or otherwise help other servers reach the same level of legitimacy. Dear Lord. Has there ever, ever been a time when a 'ruling committee' composed of volunteer internet randos has turned out well?
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 17:18
|
|
|
Until falling in love with FFXIV mean many years later, CoH was the only MMO to hold my attention as was my first major dive into online Roleplay... so with the news a good of time as ever to dive back in for at least awhile.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 18:43
|
|
|
Gynovore posted:Dear Lord. Has there ever, ever been a time when a 'ruling committee' composed of volunteer internet randos has turned out well? Which "volunteer internet randos" would these be? quote:Will the management of Homecoming change in any way? Unless you just have an axe to grind against Homecoming's admins in the first place, this doesn't seem like some big upheaval.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 21:31
|
|
|
John Murdoch posted:Pretty sure you're reading it wrong. i dunno dude i read it the same way. as a homecoming player i think it's a positive if there's a server consolidation as long as some of the unique features/powersets/etc. from the other servers are consolidated onto homecoming too, but i don't see many ways to interpret it other than "since we're licensed we hope people will just move on over here and bring their server's unique stuff with them instead of continuing to operate independently". either that or "other servers are going to technically become part of homecoming but will maintain a unique feature set and community" which would also be fine i guess
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 21:41
|
|
|
I guess I read "Our hope is that our license will help us consolidate our userbase with City of Heroes fans from other servers." as "Our hope is that our license will help us consolidate City of Heroes fans from other servers with our userbase." which feels ominous to me. gently caress NCSoft though for real.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 23:38
|
|
|
To me that definitely reads like "we hope now that we're official the other servers will close and send their players to us" but who knows. I stopped following who's who after the gigantic drama clusterfuck shortly after Homecoming opened to the public
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 23:43
|
|
|
https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/05/city-of-heroes-homecoming-talks-funding-the-city-council-and-the-impending-content-drop/ They elaborate on it a bit in a short interview that it's just two other servers I've never heard of that they're consolidating
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2024 00:16
|
|
|
When you log on to Homecoming now the server page looks like this:quote:Excelsior they're consolidating two other servers under the launcher so it'll now look like this: quote:Excelsior Victory is the private server that runs off Homecoming code and had to change how Hamidon enchancements drop. Normally you form up, kill the DE giant monsters to get Essence inspirations to resist the unique damage Hamidon does. Turns out they couldn't get more than thirty people to show up so now the DE giant monsters have a chance to drop Hami-Os instead. A server that can't scrounge up more than thirty players at one time is not "competition." The NFL isn't worried about the eight guys who play flag football in the park. I've never heard of Paragon before, but my educated guess is that they also use the Homecoming code and that's why they and Victory are being chosen to consolidate under the Homecoming launcher. Part of the deal is that they have to stop using Tequila and any other launcher. The only other private servers I've tried are Thunderspy and Rebirth. Rebirth is a no frills, very close to live feeling and Thunderspy has the most new customizable stuff anywhere. It's the "Mastermind server" because you can customize what your pets look like and they have a lot of NPC costume pieces you can use. Neither of them feel like a server though. They're more like big supergroups. Turns out the announcement has had a big effect at least temporarily. Excelsior alone has over 1000 right now and peaked around 1300. This dumb pirate server is more stable at three red dots than the drunk, duct taped live servers ever were. And there is no plan in merging Torchbearer, Indomitable or Reunion because its all the same hardware. Merging would accomplish nothing. Something different than live is the idea of KM task forces and speed task forces. KM = Kill Most, i.e. it's an xp run. You kill every mob on your way to the glowie / boss room. You're there to level up. The other option is Speed which is GOGOGO. You're only doing the objectives, lots of stealthing, skipping mobs, teleporting people to the mission door because you're trying to get done as fast as possible. When you finish you get reward merits, and WST (weekly strike targets) give out double. By going as quickly as possible you min/max how fast you get reward merits which is what people use to buy purple enchancement sets. Personally I just like consistently doing an entire ITF (the time travel roman one) in less than twenty minutes. Log on you dumb butts.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2024 06:14
|
|
|
Heathen posted:Something different than live is the idea of KM task forces and speed task forces. KM = Kill Most, i.e. it's an xp run. You kill every mob on your way to the glowie / boss room. You're there to level up. The other option is Speed which is GOGOGO. You're only doing the objectives, lots of stealthing, skipping mobs, teleporting people to the mission door because you're trying to get done as fast as possible. When you finish you get reward merits, and WST (weekly strike targets) give out double. By going as quickly as possible you min/max how fast you get reward merits which is what people use to buy purple enchancement sets. Personally I just like consistently doing an entire ITF (the time travel roman one) in less than twenty minutes. Honestly when I'm forming a TF I'll say KM even if I'm not strictly intending it because there's one mission or two that are just hot bullshit. Nobody's really complained - I think more practically, it just means "not speed".
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2024 06:43
|
|
|
Glazius posted:Honestly when I'm forming a TF I'll say KM even if I'm not strictly intending it because there's one mission or two that are just hot bullshit. Nobody's really complained - I think more practically, it just means "not speed". yeah people are generally either in it strictly for merits/time and will say so up front, or they're pretty cool with clearing stuff. the only exceptions are the RWZ task forces because the merits/time is way too tempting and practically nobody ever clears them.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2024 07:39
|
|
|
Heathen posted:Log on you dumb butts. The dumbest is abiding. *I honestly didn't think this thread was still active. I'm actually OK-ayishly active on the HC forums in the scrapper forums. My personal priorities don't allow me the ability to group reliably, but my autism has only evolved with the game. I am one of those min/maxers (my performance metrics back that statement up). Unlike the stereotypical min/maxer IDGAF what someone else does as long as they have fun. With that said, I'm still annoyed that whoever made the GS channel on the HC servers was unable to capitalize the word "GoonSquad". Whoever did this poo poo, [goonsquad], can get hosed. Tommy 2.0 fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Jan 6, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2024 12:56
|
|
|
Tommy 2.0 posted:With that said, I'm still annoyed that whoever made the GS channel on the HC servers was unable to capitalize the word "GoonSquad". Whoever did this poo poo, [goonsquad], can get hosed. I was gonna say something suggesting you chill out, but now i want to make an ice themed doctor named Chill Pill. Thank you for the inspiration. (There's no chance this name hasn't been taken) e: rip 
Diephoon fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Jan 6, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2024 13:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 00:21 |
|
|
I get the feeling everyone was in such a rush to be mad that they missed the question part of the question and answer, which was "hey what about those other servers you were working with?". Like I guess most people weren't aware of the small satellite severs, but in context there was never anything implying some huge land grab. If there's anything disingenuous or weasely, it's that they play it up as a magnanimous gesture when in reality it's probably just part of their license that anything running HC code has to officially be brought under its umbrella. It's still good that the other servers get a seat at the table considering they're tied at the hip to HC, but ultimately it just seems like some basic formalities.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2024 15:02
|
|