Contents

1. Introduction
2. General Guidelines
3. Conduct Guidelines
4. Content Guidelines
5. Multiboxing Policy
6. Video & Streaming Policy
7. Violations & Enforcement

Introduction

The Homecoming Team aims to maintain a clean, welcoming, and fun environment where everyone is able to enjoy the game. In order to achieve this, we require that all players agree to this Code of Conduct.

These guidelines must be followed in-game, on our forum, and on our Discord.

There are three overarching ground rules that must be followed at all times:

1. Anything an Administrator or Game Master says overrides anything else in this document - if they give you an instruction, please follow it.
2. Don’t try to do anything you couldn’t get away with on the retail servers.
3. Enforcement of these rules is based on intent. If we deem that it is your intent to be breaking the rules and causing trouble, then that will be cause for action. If you unintentionally break these rules we will be far more lenient.

Staff can be identified in-game by the underscore in their name (for example: GM_Widower or HC_Jimmy).

General Guidelines

Stay safe:

• This is the internet, and there are some unsavoury characters about. Do not under any circumstances share any of your own personal information, or the personal information of another user. Homecoming staff will never ask for any of your personal information for any reason outside of account recovery.
• Never share your password with anyone. No member of staff will ever ask you for your password (we will, on occasion, need to ask you for your login name (or ‘auth name’) for troubleshooting or granting prizes).

Help us help you:

• If you encounter a negative person please block or ignore them; do not escalate the situation by engaging them yourselves. If their behaviour continues, please report them (see ‘Violations and Consequences’ below).
• If you have a bug to report, please post in our bug forum.
• If you have server instability or connection issues to report, please use the #report-server-issues-here channel on our Discord.
• If you have general feedback or suggestions, please post in the Suggestions & Feedback forum.
• If you require in-game assistance, please submit a ticket to our support site.

Spread the love:

• If you see another user asking for help and you have the ability to help them, please do so!
• Encourage and uplift each-other. Compliment each-others costumes.
• Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls.

Conduct Guidelines

1. Do not abuse or harass others
   1. This includes players, Homecoming staff, and players or staff from other communities
   2. If someone wants you to leave them alone, you must leave them alone
2. Obey the content guidelines (see below) at all times
   1. This includes messages and actions in-game, on the forum and on Discord
3. Do not spam
4. Respect the privacy of others
1. Do not attempt to uncover the private information (e.g. name, address, email address, phone number) of other players ('doxxing')
2. If you possess other players' private information, do not share it without their explicit permission
5. Do not impersonate others
   1. This includes Homecoming staff, NCSOFT® staff, players, other prominent members of the wider City of Heroes™ community and real-world individuals
6. Do not attempt to bypass the profanity filter
   1. For example: By replacing letters with numbers to allow a word to pass through the filter, or naming your pets something vulgar
7. Do not cheat or abuse exploits
   1. If you find an exploit please report it to a member of staff immediately
   2. This includes the use of scripts and programs to automate gameplay
   3. This includes trying to deceive or otherwise cheat other players for your own gain
8. Do not engage in real-money trading (RMT)
   1. For example, do not attempt to exchange real money for in-game services or influence
9. Be considerate of others and mindful of zone capacity
   • Raid zones (The Hive, The Abyss, The Labyrinth of Fog, etc.) have a limited capacity per instance, and AFKing in these zones can lock players out from participating in these raids.
     • In these zones, you are expected to participate or move to another zone to free space for other players.
     • Players who are found AFKing for long periods of time in these zones may be removed from the zone by a Game Master, and repeated offences of this behavior may result in further action being taken against your account.
   • You may be disconnected by a GM if you use Task Forces and Architect Entertainment to bypass the AFK logout timer.
     • In most cases a GM will only intervene if you are using this functionality in a disruptive way.
     • Further action may be taken if you repeatedly ignore warnings from a GM.
10. Obey the multiboxing policy (see below)

Content Guidelines

The following is considered prohibited content:

• Anything illegal in the real world:
  • This includes anything related to gambling, child pornography, terrorism, illegal controlled substances, and any real world criminal activity (yes, we know City of Villains exists)
• Hate speech:
  • Hate speech is defined as anything threatening or abusive towards a specific group based on their race, religious beliefs, political affiliation, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity
• Controversial and adult content, including:
  • Sexual, provocative, pornographic, or adult content
  • Violent content
  • Controversial religious content
  • Controversial political content
  • Anything involving controversial real-world individuals or organisations
  • Anything involving sensitive events, both current and historical

These content guidelines apply to anything you can create or share in-game, on our forum, and on our Discord. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Character names, descriptions, and costumes
• Chat messages on any channel in-game
  • This includes private channels, such as team or supergroup chat - we generally do not proactively monitor these channels, but if we receive a complaint, you will be liable for anything you have said
  • The guidelines will be strictly enforced on server-wide channels
  • The guidelines are relaxed in private chats which are only accessible to consenting parties (such as /tells)
• Messages posted on Discord or on our forum
• Pet names
• Supergroup names and bases
• Architect missions and any content they contain
• Anything else another player can see or experience
• Personally Identifiable Information:
• Any personal information relating to you, another player, or Homecoming staff
• This includes names, addresses, email addresses, IP addresses, and anything else that could be used to identify you or someone else

Copyright Policy

Use of copyrighted characters and content without permission is not permitted when creating characters or Architect content. This includes characters and stories from intellectual property belonging to any IP that is not City of Heroes.

Additionally, creating copies of existing characters from the City of Heroes / Villains lore or naming your Supergroup after existing groups from the City of Heroes / Villains lore is not permitted. Use of these characters in Architect Entertainment and character backstories is permitted, and you are free to present yourself as a member of an existing group or portray your Supergroup as an offshoot or subdivision of an existing group, but you cannot portray yourself as owning or being in control of any existing group.

Multiboxing Policy

We allow a basic level of multiboxing on the Homecoming servers outside of peak times. These rules apply on a shard-by-shard basis (by ‘shard’ we mean Torchbearer, Excelsior, etc).

• If the status indicator for a shard is green (1 dot) or yellow (2 dots), you may play with up to three accounts at once.
• If the status indicator for a shard is red (3 dots, 1,100+ players) you may only play with a single account.
• If you are caught multiboxing repeatedly while a shard is red (1,100+ players players logged in), all of action will be taken against your account including being disconnected from the game or temorarily or permanently banned.

It is your responsibility to monitor server status and current player count if you wish to multibox. You can do this both on our website and in the #live-shards channel on our Discord.

An exception to this rule is raid zones (The Hive, The Abyss, the Labyrinth of Fog, etc.) which have a limited population cap. Multiboxing is not allowed in these zones. Breaking this rule may result in all of your characters being removed from the zone and short-term suspensions being issued for repeat offenders.

Finally, Game Masters may request that you stop multiboxing during events such as the Halloween and Winter events to reduce server load or decongest populated areas.

Please note that this policy does not apply to groups of players simply playing from the same home/network. It only applies to individuals playing multiple accounts on their own.

Video & Streaming Policy

You are permitted to upload and livestream gameplay footage from Homecoming, provided that:

• Footage must not contain any content that violates the Code of Conduct, including (but not limited to) content that infringes any third-party copyrights, or other rules or guidelines that we may provide from time to time
• All uploaded footage and live streams must be free to access for the viewer (however, standard monetization through platform-provided advertisements is permitted)

Check out this video that summarizes some of the key dos and don'ts when creating video content:

Any violations of these rules will result in action being taken against your account until the offending videos are taken offline. Continued violations will result in permanent action against your account and any other remedies available to us.

Although we allow for videos and livestreams (subject to the Code of Conduct), we cannot be held responsible for actions taken by third parties. It is your responsibility to ensure that you do not break the rules of any video platform you choose to use, or otherwise infringe upon the rights of a third party.

Do not upload any footage which may portray City of Heroes or Homecoming in a negative light, or we will be forced to revisit this policy.

Violations & Enforcement

To report any violations please open a ticket in-game (with /petition) or on our support site. If it is an emergency, please DM one of the Game Masters on our Discord.

A violation of this Code of Conduct may result in any of the following actions:

• The removal of your character’s name, costume, or description
• Deletion of your character, supergroup, or Architect mission
• Restrictions placed on your ability to communicate (eg: a chat ban)
• Temporary or permanent suspension from our servers

Depending on the seriousness of the violation, you may initially just receive a warning. Repeated offences, however, will result in more serious consequences.

A specific point to be aware of is wasting volunteer time. If your character is reset, or you are asked to stop breaking a rule, and the behavior continues (for example, if a character is simply recreated) and we're required to spend more time resolving it, the consequences will generally be much more severe.

Please also be aware that if you report another player we will not discuss the actions that we take against them (if any) with you. Any actions taken are only discussed with the player in question and are considered confidential unless that player requests otherwise.