strix_

This looks cool as hell! Gonna play through it soon

One of the great things about the CoH community being set up the way it is is that there are so many rogue servers (and now this officially licensed one!) that all have differing interpretations of the base game. There's stuff other servers do that I wish HC does (or know why it doesn't, because I've seen the implementation be a bit janky even if the idea is really fun.) In the same vein, there's stuff HC does that I wish other servers could adopt (showing weapons on backs takes SO much more effort than you would expect). This largely isn't going to happen for a dozen different reasons (different code bases seems like the main one, from what i've read, alongside all the servers having differing priorities in what they choose to work on because this is an esoteric old MMO with fan-made tools being developed by volunteers and there's always going to be a manpower limitation that results from that.) It's a broad ecosystem, and there's a server for literally everyone's tastes. If you're struggling with waiting for new content or feeling like HC is too "safe", there's definitely a server out there more your speed (and, to be frank, nobody is going to yell at you for coming and going from multiple servers based on which one is most interesting to you. I've given most of the major servers a try in the past few years before settling on HC as my "main" home a few months before the licensing announcement.) Just don't be surprised if people act rudely towards you if you try to fan the flames between the different servers. People like the servers they like for a reason.

Loved getting these stats, definitely makes me want to try out the least popular ATs going into 2025

Echoing the late goodbyes (painfully busy with IRL, missed this thread until the bump). Thanks for everything you've done to make Everlasting a welcoming server, Veracor! You helped me a ton when I was a clueless newbie and your raid-leading made running content seem so much less threatening.

Appreciate getting the name release reminder on the launcher as of yesterday! I haven't been able to log in as much lately (and I don't really care about losing any specific character names I might've set up and not leveled to 50) but it was a good reminder to log into any characters whose names I'm precious about

This was an awesome new zone for the game and reading how it all came together was fascinating!

Blarf is so friend-shaped! This is the greatest patch of all time

Are there any fun ideas (that the dev team can talk about, of course) that were kicked around for the various CoH sequel/successor pitches we've learned about over the years? Did any concepts from the early pitches get repurposed for CoH content in the later years that the game was live?

RTM was just the name for the final version of Windows 8 that shipped packaged with computers of the time, iirc. It's the release-to-manufacturer version, so it probably just means people are playing the game on PCs they never updated to Windows 8.1/10. vNext means some SysAdmin's been playing Homecoming on their work computer. 🤣

Sure! So for extra clarity, I am specifically talking about issues regarding replicating or homaging characters from the setting of CoH/CoV (i.e. Hero One from another timeline, a Clone/Robot of Statesman). This is where the ambiguity in present enforcement of the CoC copyright policy lies. I am fully aware that homaging characters from other properties are a separate issue and one that must be more stringently enforced. For examples of clarifications on enforcement that I think could be made more easily accessible, this 2023 discord post from GM Flints states that there is a degree of "if the character is evidently intended to be a robot/clone, this is fine under the Code of Conduct" enforcement around characters such as Statesman, whereas a character who is trying to be the Primal Earth Marcus Cole is against the Code of Conduct. In the current CoC, this is stated outright for organisations in rules around things like "naming your super group to be a subgroup of Longbow/Arachnos is fine, claiming to be the leader of Arachnos is not" It's a little more unclear about whether that's okay with characters, which only states that you cannot make copies of existing characters from the lore. This 'clearly an automation/clone' guidance would be really helpful to have in a more accessible form, whether that's directly in the CoC or in an FAQ on the subject of best practices to avoid getting Generic'd. There's also this recent thread on the topic of Copyright Infringement where GM Crumpet has given a ton of useful advice on where Crumpet, as the GM who does most of the generics, draw the line of parody/homage with third party characters: Which really helps determine what's okay to do and what isn't! I'm not suggesting any rules or guidance that the GMs haven't already been providing in these discussions. I just think that making these thought processes more easily accessible, through alterations to the text of the Copyright policy section of the Code of Conduct or through an FAQ explaining GM decisions, would prevent a lot of confusion before the Generic-hammer gets swung.

I'm not asking for rigorous rules on what constitutes an infringing character and what doesn't, I'm asking for an easily-accessible document that can clarify the thought processes that go into the decision not to have those rigorous rules (for the reasons given by other users above), and that the pre-existing advice that has been given by GMs informally through various mediums over the years to be collated in an easily-accessible form, as at-present finding it requires a user to do a ton of background reading to dig up.

I appreciate the explanation, but I feel like it misses my point that this would be information that would be great to have in more permanent form directly from the GMs/Devs either directly within the Code of Conduct or in an explainer/FAQ thread on the subject of character homage pinned in a visible spot on the forums, rather than nested in several 2+ year old threads and then repeated second- or third-hand by users with no association to the GMs.

It'd be nice to get some more clarification on the policy around homages to CoH/CoV characters (esp. for RP purposes, i've seen and played a lot of characters who were inspired to take up heroism by their idolizing the Surviving Eight or were visually distinct clones/AU versions of signature characters and having spoken to other people who make those kinds of characters in a "hey! same hat!" manner we're all fairly unsure of where the line is that would get us Generic'd) and where exactly the lines get drawn on those vs. the more rigid "obviously, don't make Wolverine" rules around copyrighted characters. There's been a few informal clarifications from GMs in various forum posts and messages in the discord server over the years on where they draw the line on "copies" of in-game characters and their reasoning for it, but it's still something that feels like it's gonna put you at the risk of falling afoul of a GM who draws that line differently to another.

It's so much worse than it used to be, in more ways than one. Glad it's not just me who's been having issues

In my head P2W was bought out by the START Corporation through a series of complicated mergers and acquisitions. That being said, since they fit in with M.A.G.I and the other starter agencies now: Special Training and Applied Research Team