Jimmy

Hello everyone! Several things to go over today, so let's dive in. Code of Conduct Updates We’ve made some updates to two sections of the Code of Conduct (CoC). These updates are primarily clarifications on how we already operate. We already moderate for heated political discussion, and this is already covered by “Anything involving controversial real-world individuals or organisations” and “Anything involving sensitive events, both current and historical”, but we thought clarifying it in the Content Guidelines would be helpful with election season heating up in the US. We've added a paragraph discussing wasting volunteer time. This is already taken very seriously - if you re-create a character that was reset, you will receive an account suspension. This is now clearly spelled out in the Violations & Enforcement section. Finally, we very frequently get asked why players never see any consequences of reports - it’s because we don’t discuss it with anyone but the player in question. You don’t see if another player is warned, or if they receive a short suspension. We've added a paragraph explaining this. Base Building Contest (Deadline: October 31st) We’re excited to announce our first ever Base Building Contest! This contest has no theme, alignment or shard requirement. All bases are welcome, and there’s tons of prizes to be won (14,000 merits in total!). The submission deadline is October 31st, and bases must be entered by the Supergroup leader. Head on over to GM Miss’ post for the full details. We can’t wait to see your bases! New Dev Choice Arcs in Architect Entertainment We’ve recently highlighted two more Dev Choice arcs in Architect Entertainment: Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part One (Arc ID 26756) by @Darmian: “Galaxy City lies in ruins. Parts still burn. So many casualties in the attack. So many refugees. And there in the heart of the fire, taking advantage of the situation rather than helping, Arachnos. And now, moving through the rubble they return, seeking something.” Robolution (Arc ID 25870) by @Ankylosaur: "Orb Weaver Zane has left you a message. He wants to speak with you about a mission to recover stolen Arachnos technology. It's never a good idea to ignore an Orb Weaver, is it? (This takes place after the events of the Ernesto Hess Task Force.) [SFMA] Designed to be soloed with provided allies.“ 7511bf277a70d0560cb715e55cbccca3.mp4.dd8fdf03957b0d2d4f548f2755e32eea.mp4 a02e19685cab44227f574d053d84b317_1.mp4 Check out GM Arcanum's post for the full details, as well as information about submitting your own arcs for consideration. Monthly Costume Contest: Magic (September 19th) Come join us on Saturday September 19th at 5pm Eastern (9pm UTC) in Kallisti Wharf on all shards for the conclusion of our origin themed costume contests. This month the theme is Magic! As usual, a myriad of prizes will be up for grabs - check out GM Miss' post for the full details. Smol Kickball - With a Twist! (September 19th) GM Smol is hosting an Arena Kickball event just after the Magic Costume Contest, at 8pm Eastern (Midnight UTC). Here’s a brief overview for those new to Smol Kickball: Check out GM Smol’s post for the full details! Helping Homecoming After every donation window we’re not only taken aback by the generosity of our players that contribute, but also by the number of you that tell us you weren’t able to donate before the window closed. With that in mind, we wanted to remind everyone that there are other ways to help the project which are just as valuable as donating, including volunteering as a Game Master, helping out with testing (especially with Page 6 around the corner!), or boosting our Discord server. Check out this post for the full details, including information on becoming a Game Master. And that’s all for today! - The Homecoming Team

Generally if we need specific in-depth testing for something specific, we'll go and find people for that thing. Normally that'll be based on useful feedback / reports during previous rounds of testing or knowledgable posts elsewhere on the forums (eg: the feedback section). It's entirely possible we may use an application form in the future, but it's not needed right now. As said a few times in this thread - it's entirely down to the needs of the developers.

Hang on, we're meant to get yogurt?

This was discussed quite a bit a few months ago. This covers it a bit too. I'm not sure you've got the right picture of what's going on here. This isn't a big, organised development team - not yet anyway. It's a few crazy people doing stuff in their few spare hours, trying to make the most of very limited time and resources. Need to set your expectations accordingly.

<engage pedant mode> It's a contractual obligation rather than a legal one. Disclosure in this instance would not be a crime, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea! <disengage pedant mode> With that being said, you are still largely correct - we're not keeping this secret just 'cus. And you are also correct in that generally avoiding crime is a good idea! #notlegaladvice

Potatoes are supported.

Hello everyone! We’ve got a few updates to share with you today. The Talks Just over one year ago we announced that we had begun talks with NCSOFT, so it’s about time we provided a little update! Over the past year we’ve been working closely together to make this work, and have made significant headway in several areas. Unfortunately, Coronavirus has hindered the pace of these discussions somewhat, but we’re still having regular meetings and are slowly but surely moving towards a positive outcome. Many of the updates we’re talking about today are a result of these ongoing talks. There’s still a ton of work going on behind the scenes to get us to the finish line, and we’d like to thank you all for your continued patience. TL;DR: Still Soon™, but Soon™er than before. Homecoming: City of Heroes We’re going to be changing the name of the project from City of Heroes: Homecoming to Homecoming: City of Heroes. This won’t be an immediate change - you’ll slowly start to see things switch over the next few months - however, the current Homecoming logo will be remaining in place. We’ve also set up several social media channels - we’re not actively using these right now, but feel free to follow us for when we do! Twitter Twitch Facebook YouTube Finally, we’ll also be switching over to using homecomingcoh.com domain in the near future (with our short links moving to hccoh.gg). When we make the switch all existing links will continue to function with a redirect, but you will need to refresh your login cookies (ie: you’ll need to log in to the forum again). New Launcher Next up, the long awaited new launcher! Informally dubbed Project Hangover, the new launcher is a big step up from our dependency on Tequila and Island Rum. It’s designed to be light and fast, and is built with a focus on security. It allows you to selectively install and remove the beta / staging servers (and toggle automatic updates for each), features a built-in server status monitor, and has a much more usable news feed. Finally, the new player experience is much improved as it takes care of installing the necessary runtime, and is compliant with the modern Windows permissions model. It works on Windows and Linux out of the box, with the Mac version requiring a simple WINE update - but we have an upgrade procedure mapped out for Mac. For brand new installs it’s already fully functional, we’re currently finishing up functionality to facilitate automatic migration for pre-existing installs. We’ve recently begun internal testing of the new launcher with the GM team, and hope to roll it out for wider testing in the near future. Page 6 Finally, we’ll leave you with two screenshots to hint at some upcoming content from Page 6... And that’s all for today! - The Homecoming Team

New Dev Choice Arcs in Architect Entertainment First up, we've got two brand new Dev Choice arcs for you to look at. This time it’s a two-parter set in Cimerora! Tales of Cimerora: Of feathers and fur (Volume 1) (Arc ID 1261) by @Nebulhym: Anyone who loves mythology or is craving a little extra "Cimeroran" content, look no further! This story arc involves teaming up with Daedalus, and getting to feel like a demigod of Roman Mythology, sent on a task by the gods to help defend Cimerora. If you enjoy mythology, you'll see a lot of familiar names and characters pop up in this arc! Be sure to bring some fellow heroes, because on lvl 54, these enemies are certainly a challenge! Tales of Cimerora: From Tartarus with love... (Volume 2) (Arc ID 1262) by @Nebulhym: We honestly enjoyed Volume 1 so much, we couldn't wait to delve back into the world of mythology and play Volume 2, and let me tell you - it did NOT disappoint. This time we're tasked by Imperious himself, to dive back into the stories of old and help defend Cimerora. We particularly enjoyed the custom characters and the map choices (Temple of Neptune). If you enjoyed the first volume, be sure to test out this one as well! a15eb04bd325f088d59951856a696321.mp4.271573e191871c4e3a21c2e136131115.mp4 Check out GM Arcanum's post for the full details, as well as information about submitting your own arcs for consideration. Monthly Costume Contest: Technology (August 22nd) Come join us on Saturday August 22nd at 5pm EST (9pm UTC) in Kallisti Wharf on all shards for the continuation of our origin themed costume contests. This month we are all about Technology! Unique and creative costumes are always encouraged - we can't wait to see what you come up with. As usual, a myriad of prizes will be up for grabs - check out this thread for the full details. Derek’s Disaster Averted! Thanks to the valiant efforts of the many Heroes & Villains on all shards who turned up to help @Mender Silos fix @Mender Derek's mistakes, the timeline has been saved… for now. d8b5d6331a33813e61e5825c45c1d1b0.mp4.fb05ef9a15aa752c2ee78c5779908c59.mp4 Check out this thread for a gallery of screenshots from Derek’s visit to each shard. Discord Update: Community Server Program We’ve signed up to Discord’s new Community Server program. This has several small perks, but most importantly of all it allows us to set up a much-requested Discord Announcements channel. You’re now able to relay our Announcement channel to your own Discord server in order to forward these updates into a channel of your choosing. Also - if you’ve got a spare Nitro Boost going please consider boosting our Discord! It allows us to maintain several cool benefits for the server. Folding@home Update: All-Time Top 100 Teams We’ve just overtaken Ukraine in the Folding@home team rankings, which has pushed us into the all-time top 100 teams. We’re on track to beat Poland in a few hours, which will bring us to position 99. We’re incredibly proud of everyone involved in making this happen. Check out this thread if you’d like to get involved, you may even win some in-game prizes! - The Homecoming Team

There's been no further changes since then.

Ace

I think this was a communication error on my part. Fixing the Patrol XP bug helped with income inequality, as that bug primarily took effect in level 49 farms, so that did specifically hurt the value of farming. The double inf change wasn’t targeted at farming specifically, but I suppose it felt like it hurt farming the most due to the effect of the inf change and the bug fix combined. Looking back, it may have been better for us to fix the bug and then make the inf change later, so each step was clearer - but hindsight is 20/20.

The poster I replied to deleted their post, so I hid mine as it contained quotes from the deleted post.

Not sure where you're getting your information, but: As far as I'm aware we didn't have any complaints about false positives which weren't either resolved or retracted (and it's possible I'm mis-remembering as it was 10 months ago, but I think there was only one complaint, and it was quickly retracted) Accounts that bought influence were only banned for 2 weeks, not permanently Beyond that we generally don't discuss actions related to individual accounts publicly. As always, if you have any concerns about actions on your accounts please submit a support ticket. That's why it's not happened yet - there's no simple way to do this that doesn't also screw up normal gameplay. It's also why teleport macros still exist. We don't want to remove it until the legitimate uses have an alternative.

It starts with a very simple question and you should be able to figure the rest out on your own: How do you know if someone is actually doing useful testing? Keeping asking how? for every answer. You'll get the idea.

At the end of the day, marketeers don't negatively impact the experience of other players so we don't really see it as a problem that needs solving. You can be upset that someone has the patience to work the market and amass wealth - but really, what impact does it actually have on you (or other players)? In order to make money on the market they need to produce goods that others want to buy. If nobody did that, then you'd either have to make (craft / convert) them yourself (which you can still do!), or pay very high prices due to those goods being scarce on the market. You are effectively paying the marketeers to craft and convert for you. All of this is only true because of how obscure and unintuitive / difficult to work with the crafting systems are. If they were simple and easy then there wouldn't be a reason to pay others for it and everyone would it themselves. So in reality... the market isn't the problem here, crafting is. If we want to democratise this, then we need to make crafting and converting easier to use and understand.

Even that's not really practical because of converters. I think the only thing you could really do that with would be Hami-Os (because they can't be converted), but sustaining that kind of manipulation would be incredibly expensive, and it wouldn't last long after you stopped because Hami-Os just aren't that much better than the alternatives in most cases.

It's been thought about, but simply put it just wouldn't be worth the time it would take to develop - the issues you've already mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. That's why we try to drum up excitement when we think public testing will be worthwhile. It's also why this post was written - we wanted to communicate that testing is just as valuable as donating money. We are incredibly grateful to everyone that contributes - be it time, money, or both. We just don't always have the time to post in every bug report or feedback thread (as that's a lot more time consuming that just reading them). We also do sometimes award the Bug Hunter badge to those that put serious work into reporting bugs, but that's an informal / discretionary process - generally it's awarded when a developer feels that an individual has gone above and beyond in helping us resolve an issue.

You're correct. Reducing the total amount of influence entering the economy (without reducing drops) means there's less money available to pay for the same amount of assets. This results in prices going down (as we have now seen). Generally the more expensive items are now more accessible to those with less money - meaning normal players playing normal content have less of a need to engage in farming (which is a good thing, because not everyone finds farming fun). We don't want to kill farming due to some inherent hatred for it*, we just don't want it (or any other type of gameplay) to be necessary - and of course that means that the relative value of farming compared to other activities will need to shift until there's a more equitable balance. *This does not extend to AFK farming. Expect that to be mercilessly destroyed when we have the time. If this upsets you, please direct your complaints to someone who cares. I'm just talking for myself here, but I don't perceive the market (or game economy / progression) to be perfect (or even close to it) right now. It's certainly better than it was, but there's still plenty of room for improvement. Just the usual problem of our time and resources being very limited.

You can play and test, but I'm not giving you any cake.

Yep. This isn't an Ubisoft marketing ‘beta’. It’s highly unfinished work that needs serious testing. However, public testing is also really important, and it's vital that everyone engages in the testing process when patches hit the public beta server - and I'll explain why! If we went straight to public testing then there would be a wave of interest (and testing) immediately - which may seem useful - but in actual fact it would be mostly wasted as everyone would be encountering the really obvious showstopping issues. All of the smaller, harder-to-find (but still important) issues would be eclipsed by the obvious ones. Finding those smaller issues generally requires a much larger amount of time (and therefore players), which is why we don't want to waste that large wave testing wave on the obvious problems. Splitting the testing phases up allows us to 'save' that large testing wave to be used when it'll be the most effective. This isn't a marketing exercise designed to generate interest or engagement - and as cynical as it may seem, it's not about making testers happy. It's about helping the development team produce the best work possible for the live servers. I know it's been said a lot, but it bears repeating: This is a volunteer operation. We're professionals operating in a decidedly unprofessional environment with zero resources and zero in-house testers, so this is about as atypical as it gets - and therefore not something you can compare to most other testing experiences you may have had. With that in mind, we're quite happy with how it's worked so far. To date only been two serious issues that have slipped through the testing net: Brute taunt auras not working in farms - this was on Homecoming's test server for months, but the players it affected didn't engage in testing, so the issue wasn't found A really bad mapserver crashed caused by character transfers - Resurgence has only one shard, and our Beta server also only had one shard at the time, so it simply wasn't possible for this to be found #1 tells us how important it is that players engage in testing every step of the way, and how important it is for us to focus public testing at the time it will do the most good. #2 tells us we should have two beta shards set up so we can test character transfers (which we now do 🙂).

Simply put, the decisions about what gets tested where and when are entirely dictated by the needs of the development team. Some of Page 6 (mainly the balance stuff) is being tested on Resurgence (aka Closed Beta), primarily because the last time early experimental powers changes were tested on our public test server there was a large amount of upset when changes got scrapped or altered (which is par for the course when it comes to live game balance), and this severely reduced the efficacy of the testing process. I refer to this as 'internal testing' because this (unfinished stuff that's nowhere near ready for prime time) would traditionally be tested internally if we actually had, y'know, a paid QA team - but obviously we don't, so this is the next best thing. Many Homecoming players who have provided constructive feedback during the last few rounds of powers testing are also taking part in this test. Once we're more confident in the changes then they'll hit the public beta server for more rigorous testing. This is the kind of crazy conspiracy theorizing I'm used to seeing from other CoH communities, not this one 🙂 Players on that server donate to keep it running because they want to play there, and they've been doing that for far longer than Page 6 has been in testing for. I'm sure they'll continue to do so once Page 6 is on the public test server.

We're meant to be nerfing Regen, not buffing it.

This is correct. Some people just don't understand the difference between PvPing and being an asshat. It's a PvP zone, not an asshat zone.

It depends on the exact issue you're encountering - there's two distinct problems: Latency Caused by communication problems between your machine and the server The game was simply not designed to have 200 players fighting an army of enemies in one zone, so the mapserver starts chugging when we do stuff like this - and when the mapserver starts to struggle, you'll experience rubberbanding and powers taking a while to fire off (spreading out in the same zone wouldn't help with this) The best way to combat this is lowering the population cap in the zone back to a normal level (100~), but of course that means less players being able to participate - so it's a balancing act between stability and capacity A poor quality connection between yourself and the server can also exacerbate this issue due to the sheer amount of information that your client needs to receive (the setting you mentioned could potentially help mitigate this) Minimizing use of pets can also help a bit (we were routinely culling pets last night!) Framerate Caused by your machine not being able to keep up with the insanity Not moving around much helps with this (When you move from place to place, the client has to very quickly load in all the entities in the new location you've moved to - staying raltively still means it only needs to load in the entities that walk towards / away from you) This can also be mitigated by turning your graphics options down To give you an idea of the various factors we've got to balance: The available time of our volunteers (planning and executing these events is no small feat) The number of players that want to participate (nearly impossible to gauge in advance) The stability of the event Keeping the event fun for those that participate Ensuring the event is not so special that it upsets those that can't make it (due to capacity or inability to make the limited time windows). The lag was unpleasant for sure, but you the zone was full around 15 minutes (not an hour) before the event began, so anyone that turned up less than 15 minutes early wasn't able to participate - which, of course, really sucks. That problem would get worse if we made the event more exclusive and allowed fewer players to participate in order to reduce the latency issues. I think a little extra lag is a fine price to play to allow more players to join in. We are reading all the feedback and will be improving where can - but everyone also needs to remember that this is a free, volunteer-run server, and their expectations should be set accordingly. We're going to do our best for as many players as we can with the resources that we have 🙂 With all that being said though - based on the in-game feedback from those that managed to participate last night - we're really happy with how it went, especially given that this is our first time doing something like this on one of the live shards!

That'll get fixed when those pesky marketeers stop creating infinite influence! (but in all seriousness, it's already fixed in Page 6!)