Pattern Ghost Posted January 7 Report Share Posted January 7 This news just . . . floored me. NC Soft has actually licensed City of Heroes to one of the private servers, Homecoming. I found out yesterday, been making heroes since. It looks like Homecoming doesn't have any major changes over the old live version. It's essentially the live state, with the planned issue updates implemented. Not a huge problem getting back into it. The old cash shop is now a "P2W Store" which lets you buy things from the old cash shop for Influence (in game currency instead). The game always needed an influence sink, so that's a win win. I snipped the announcement post from their forum, but there's also a FAQ and more info in the thread linked: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/47223-ncsoft-homecoming-license-announcement/ Rich McGee and Steve 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 7 Report Share Posted January 7 Interesting. What's next, another sequel to Freedom Force? fdw3773, Sketchpad and Christopher R Taylor 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fdw3773 Posted January 8 Report Share Posted January 8 On 1/6/2024 at 7:19 PM, Rich McGee said: Interesting. What's next, another sequel to Freedom Force? Although unlikely, a relaunch/sequel to Freedom Force would be great. I loved the game and the Character Tool feature that allowed fan to create character modifications. Some fans did some amazing work creating DC and Marvel skins along with their own.😀 Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 8 Report Share Posted January 8 Oh, it's just a pipe dream - Freedom Force has a much smaller fan base than CoH - but one can always hope. Just the fact that the big-ish supers MMOs are still going in 2024 is heartening even if the populations are small, and there's always the chance that someone will risk developing a supers tactical game that isn't tied to a Big Two IP. There's one much like FF based on the Sentinels of the Multiverse setting, which benefits from decades of tech advances but isn't as ambitious in scope. fdw3773 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted January 8 Author Report Share Posted January 8 There aren't a ton of servers, but they're pretty busy. The busiest is very active. It seems more lively than Champions Online was the last time I peaked in there, around Halloween-ish. The game seems to be run well. There aren't a lot of glitches. It'd be cool if they got a cash infusion big enough to do a graphics and UI update, since it hasn't aged well in that regard, but they rely on donations, so unless a fan hits the lottery that seems unlikely. The gameplay is pretty much the same as it was when I played live. It has its quirks, and in most ways WoW is the better tab targeting combat system, but once I got back in the groove, it's been decent. The tremendous variety of builds and character costume designs are intact, and in fact more robust. They've both unlocked all of the VIP stuff for free, but have updated and added several power sets. It's been a good experience so far. fdw3773 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted January 17 Author Report Share Posted January 17 Dev statement about related stuff: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/47640-welcome-home-an-open-letter-from-homecoming/ Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted January 18 Report Share Posted January 18 City of Heroes is really feeling its age though, could do with a graphical, gameplay, and setting update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted January 18 Report Share Posted January 18 On 1/6/2024 at 8:19 PM, Rich McGee said: Interesting. What's next, another sequel to Freedom Force? Don't tempt me with a good time. I made a few of the characters for Champions back in the day. Hmm... wonder what happened to them. Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted January 19 Author Report Share Posted January 19 On 1/17/2024 at 5:30 PM, Christopher R Taylor said: City of Heroes is really feeling its age though, could do with a graphical, gameplay, and setting update. All true, though you just described creating a new game. 😃 I think a reskin with higher-resolution textures and the option to use either the old or new textures would be worth doing. I think even that's unlikely given that it's run by donations. I'm still having an inordinate amount of fun, though. And it even runs on my 13 year old laptop, which is cool. It's also one of the two AAA MMOs that runs on Mac that I know of. (The other being WoW). If you like supers, it's the best MMO in town for me. Champions Online is a ghost town these days, and I never really liked DCUO much. The slower paced combat is a relaxing change for my aging reflexes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 City of Heroes has been back for 4 years. I've been playing on Rebirth since May of 2019. City of Heroes Rebirth The Best Superhero MMO Game There are links there to create a game account, forum account and to join the Discord. Homecoming is the largest of the private servers. I played there before moving to Rebirth. While they have official permission, no private server has been threatened with shutdown since 2019 when the news spread of them. Homecoming has made a lot of changes from the original game to make it easier as a single player game. Advancement is faster and end game rewards are easier to obtain. It has a new AT, the Sentinel. Rebirth's philosophy was to advance the game as the original devs planned. It feels closer to the original game than any other server, but it has made some changes. -There is a AT, the Guardian. -There are nearly 1000 new costume options with more coming soon. -The alignment system has been streamlined for faster switching. Look me up if you want to return. I have 3 accounts: @Scatterstar, @Trigger Happy and @Control Rod. Peak times are 6 - 12 PM CST but you can usually find other players. I know several Russians and Kiwis who play in the wee hours of North America. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted January 20 Author Report Share Posted January 20 15 hours ago, Grailknight said: City of Heroes has been back for 4 years. I've been playing on Rebirth since May of 2019. The point is that it's licensed now. I don't play on pirate servers for several reasons, not the least of which is that they can be shut down at any time by the IP holder, and you lose all your progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 20 Report Share Posted January 20 "Pirate servers" is probably a little harsh for what's been going on with CoT. It's got negative implications that simply not having an official license doesn't. The IP holder is well aware of their existence, appreciates their efforts to revive the game, and was largely content to stay hands-off. That might change now that one of the private servers has an actual license (because lawyers are lawyers) but I personally hope not. At least until we're sure Homecoming manages to maintain the license long-term - the other servers can provide a fallback if anything goes wrong there (like, say, because of lawyers). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted January 20 Author Report Share Posted January 20 (edited) No, they're pirate servers. That's what they're called. Now, one of them isn't. It's still software piracy. "Private server" is just sugar coating piracy. PotAYto, poTAHto. I'll grant that in this case, they're more Robin Hood than Captain Hook. 2 hours ago, Rich McGee said: The IP holder is well aware of their existence, appreciates their efforts to revive the game, and was largely content to stay hands-off. Of course they're aware. Homecoming has been trying to negotiate this for years. But I think it's a huge stretch to say that NCSoft appreciates their efforts without a direct quote from NCSoft. They shut the game down while it was still profitable, they have a history of doing so, and they've never indicated that they care about anything other than their bottom line. If they did, they could have kept the game running for quite a while with the steady player base it had. Edited January 20 by Pattern Ghost Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 20 Report Share Posted January 20 Well, I guess I'd better not play CoH any more, then. Homecoming's as guilty of piracy as all the rest of the servers, and belatedly getting a letter of marque doesn't change their past one bit. Thanks for discouraging my interest in the endeavor, although I do wonder why you brought them up in the first place if felt so strongly about piracy. Back to my Freedom Force replay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted January 20 Report Share Posted January 20 7 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said: No, they're pirate servers. That's what they're called. Now, one of them isn't. It's still software piracy. "Private server" is just sugar coating piracy. PotAYto, poTAHto. I'll grant that in this case, they're more Robin Hood than Captain Hook. Of course they're aware. Homecoming has been trying to negotiate this for years. But I think it's a huge stretch to say that NCSoft appreciates their efforts without a direct quote from NCSoft. They shut the game down while it was still profitable, they have a history of doing so, and they've never indicated that they care about anything other than their bottom line. If they did, they could have kept the game running for quite a while with the steady player base it had. A strong case can be made that by approving Homecoming, NCSoft has given approval to all. All of the private servers going sprang from the same code leak, though each has been developed in its own direction since. Also, NCSoft may not want the ill feelings that would come from shutting down all these servers. Shutdown caused them to lose most of their North American market. If they want to reenter at some point, they need to start building some goodwill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted January 20 Report Share Posted January 20 Quote City of Heroes has been back for 4 years. I've been playing on Rebirth since May of 2019. Yeah I fooled around with that some again. Rebirth has everything for free both COH and COV, and all expansions, options, etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted February 13 Report Share Posted February 13 If you want to see all the changes Rebirth has made: https://discord.com/channels/568451050181492736/579233316688101403/1206687439301771314 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted March 21 Author Report Share Posted March 21 On 1/20/2024 at 6:09 AM, Rich McGee said: Well, I guess I'd better not play CoH any more, then. You do you. Sorry if I hurt your feelings by calling a thing what it is. Or was, in this case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.