[MacOS Sonoma Upgrade]

Been using since launch with no issues.  Didn't need to reinstall HC Launcher via Mac Installer or any permissions fixes new to Sonoma. It still works fine.

[Supergroups, Global Friends, and You]

Team mostly on Global list and PUGs via LFT/General chat.  More chat than friends these days. 

 

And most of those friends are Homecoming-specific.  Folks from Live I used to play with are out in various diaspora: different shards, different rogue servers... And more than a handful have moved on from MMOs to play other stuff.  The world turned and even with City of Heroes coming back, they saw it and said "it's not my scene anymore.  Glad it's back but I'm invested in my time elsewhere."  Reasons vary: No more love for any MMOs (COH may/may not be the cause), memories in any form good or bad, missing friends who aren't there, or wanting more than the return of what we actually got (such as Paragon Studios which isn't possible).

For that reason SGs have fallen out of favor for me mostly.  Like others said my 20s are radically different than my 40s.  Where I was broke and couch surfing I had plenty of time to participate in regular teams, meet up with SG members as a club situation, and help folks with SG lowbies to do missions.  Now I'm able to live on my own but my free time is the first thing to go when money and errands demand more and more attention.  When I can play it's for either <45 minutes before something else... or at night when I'm too exhausted to stay up long.  So the lure of "an active SG with progression-minded teams" doesn't really appeal any longer.

 

As for starting one up I don't have the time to do in-game meetings or curate a SG roster even if Discord or some other method to reach folks out of game is involved.  So base editing is the only reason my SG exists at all.  Absent of that I'd try the Freedom Corps Building/Items via Email/Mule Toon method of managing stuff without one.

[Ventura 13.3 Update broke Homecoming Launcher]

Looks like a Wine issue with MacOS Ventura.  https://www.reddit.com/r/wine_gaming/comments/1261ic4/problem_with_running_wine64_at_macos_after/

Wine-Devel has a fix, prob. not useful to say "hold off on that update, folks", but that.  Wine-Dev branch has the fix if you want to try to fix it on your own.

[The Apple Transition To ARM]

I suspect a touch longer.  After the security updates for Ventura expire likely as a 'vintage OS'.  Or the next version's security updates if Mac Pro is even being released under Apple Silicon at all.  And even then, OpenCore may patch the Rosetta 2 installer anyway for a few later releases.

The release cadence for OS X back then wasn't as fast as it is now.  They had 2-3 years between releases for the hardware to be exhausted, vs. faster iteration today across both.  It's a coin flip.

[The Apple Transition To ARM]

I can say a year later that M2 is doing great with City of Heroes.  Apple's claims that it runs games as well as a RTX 3000 series is far fetched, but playing at QHD (2560) with almost 100FPS with Ultra Mode on one notch below full blast is pretty good.  Other MMOs I can get to run on it work great too.  (Final Fantasy XIV players may be surprised with M1/M2 as well.)

Rosetta's timeline of existence was 2005-2011 during Apple's first transition away from Motorola/IBM made PowerPC processors to Intel Core solo/Duo/i-Series systems.  So it's not unlikely to guess at Apple's future with Rosetta 2 when they finalize their end of support for Intel processors.  That time may be when Rosetta 2 is removed from new OS support in favor of making new room for features more users rely on.  (If one expects history to tell when Apple considers it's time for it to go, we're 50% through the timeline.)

Optimism is also hopeful that Asahi Linux and Kernel Devs continue to make progress.  If they have enough of Apple Silicon mapped out by then, a future version of Wine can take advantage of a more direct method to utilize Apple's GPU cores by itself.  With or without a performance hit, Rosetta 2 won't matter as much any longer.

Sorry for the necro post, just wanted to offer a different insight that others posted.  The sky didn't entirely fall.  Although the larger point that Apple MX CPUs furthers the effort to making computers into non-upgrade capable appliances more of a norm to mainstream users... that remains valid.

[Cheap prebuilts that can ROCK CoH!]

Been using one of these as a 2nd system to play on.  https://www.amazon.com/TRIGKEY-Mini-Computer-PC-Graphics/dp/B0BCVLFQQ4

 

It's a NUC clone using AMD Ryzen instead of Intel.  Cost varies if they're on sale or not, but generally a decent one can be had for $300-400 to game on.

Pros: NUCs and NUC clones are super portable.  If you have room to take a Nintendo Switch around on trips, this is just as able to travel with you to plug into a Hotel room TV, just BYO Bluetooth keyboard and Mouse.  Unlike most laptops, these can be upgraded in RAM, Wi-Fi, and M.2 Storage.  This one also has a slot for a SATA 2.5" drive for additional data storage past the M.2 drive it comes with. And for the price, a similarly equipped laptop would be on the low end for graphics/processor. ($400 for a laptop is looking at a Ryzen 3 and likely 4-8GB RAM.)  The gaming capability is a touch oversold in the marketing material, most AAA games, FPS and eSports titles will need the resolution turned down to FHD or 720.  For MMO titles, however, it runs great.

Cons: It's... not a laptop. Even if it is basically laptop parts in a tiny box. So if you don't have a screen and AC Jack, you're out of luck.  The prior post is a better choice for graphics upgrades, which isn't a possibility here (System on a Chip - Ryzen CPU and Radeon graphics soldered to the board.)  And some Intel fans will deride the AMD versions of the same thing as inferior build quality or questionable brands.  Both Intel and all of the AMD ones are made in China anyway, so the distinction of quality is a bit silly. And only enthusiasts go for these, so if the warranty is important, you won't look at one of these to begin with.  If you fix your own stuff, cause "PC Builders", you have a good chance of being a self-support type.

 

Trigkey is the same label as Beelink, they both have the same manufacturer.  Minisforum also sells these (their Kickstarter for AMD versions of the NUC is what touched this off to begin with.)

Finally: some shopping advice -- AMD laptops and NUC clones are on older Zen architectures at the moment waiting for a refresh.  Zen+ and Zen 2 NUC Clones can be had for cheap, and still support Windows 11.  Zen 3 models, the price will be a bit higher (because they'll last longer and possible have Win 12 in their future).  If you look, you can find a Ryzen 5 for $250-300 if you don't mind either a Windows 10 one, or feel froggy enough to put Linux on it instead.  Watch the specs carefully, the low end (Sub $200) may be in unplayable territory (Intel GMA or low end Iris graphics, or AMD E-Series processors pre-Vega.)