Abraxus

I got together with my regular Wednesday night group, where we play our Radiation characters. Out of curiosity, I checked the server status from the top of the forum page, and there were almost 3,500 players on, with Excelsior showing the infamous 3 red dots. I figured there would be a bit of an uptick in CoH play during these days of isolation. But, 3,500 on a Wednesday night! I'll be curious to see what's up on Friday or Saturday night! We could be seeing numbers not seen since shortly after the rebirth of the game (or the un-snap, as it's referred to). Obviously, I wish the circumstances were different. But, it makes me happy to know that there is still so much interest in the game, with so much untapped potential out there still waiting to learn we are here.

My love for the game in general, has never wavered. But, at this point, 15 years later, to still be finding new things in it to make me love it even more? Well, that's pretty special. There just aren't too many things in life that just keep giving like this game does.

I have a new appreciation for Tanks of late as well. My tank had languished in his 30s forever (post-snap) because I just wasn't having that much fun with him in teams, and soloing was no fun with him. After the changes, he's more fun to do in both, and is now L42, on his way to 50 in the foreseeable future! I love that after all these years, even the things we had kind of given up on during the live run, can be improved to the point of making them fun as well. It just keeps getting better, and I am eternally grateful for the confluences of circumstance that allowed this to not only happen, but to get better with each update!

Heh! Bad guys. They just can't help themselves. Next thing you know, he will be promising cookies. The blue side just promises JUSTICE. 😇😎

Welcome home hero!

I had the opportunity to take one of my Blue side toons, over to the Red side recently to do the Patron arc. It was a blast! I'll be doing that more often in the future.

One of my favorite quotes that seems relevant here "When you're walking on eggs, DON'T HOP!" (Comes from an 80's movie called "Blue Thunder"). In this case, when running what, for all intents and purposes, is an illegal server in the strictest sense, you don't go advertising the fact, and flaunting the fact to the world. Mainly, because that world includes NCSoft, who have stood by so far, and not done anything of a threatening, or legal nature up to this point. But, I'm sure if the players post their game play in a manner that gets undue attention, we run the greater risk that we could cross a line we didn't even know existed, and things will change in ways nobody would like. Might, or might not happen. But, do we REALLY want to take that chance, when the possibility exists that the negotiations could be successful, and this restriction goes away? Can't we just be a little more responsible, and self-disciplined than that, waiting until we hear something, one way, or the other? I don't think it's a lot to ask, if it means taking less chances in a situation that's been dicey since the beginning. People can say "You're not the boss of me!", and they are right. The HC team can't get videos taken down. But, they can restrict your ability to play here. Is your desire to post videos so overwhelming that it makes it worth the risk? Is it really so much to ask to just not do that until there is no need for the restriction? Granted, it would help if we knew, or had a rough idea of when to expect something like that, but to keep our game free of further scrutiny by the legal powers that be, it's in our best interest to tread carefully.

You are absolutely right. From the beginning, they have run this place almost as if it were the REAL deal, back in the days of live. Professional, responsive, transparent as circumstances allow, and dedicated to providing improvements to the game we all love. I believe this was done to illustrate that such a thing could be done, which obviously would be looked upon as a positive in their efforts for legitimization. Act like a real/legal gaming organization, and it sure doesn't hurt your chances of it really happening someday soon.

Passions run high, and sooner or later, things like this that touch on sensitive issues, eventually morph into something that encompasses the larger issues around the topic, as well as expressions of personally held beliefs on it. We all know where we stand, and we know what the established policies are.

I consider my monthly contribution as my way of saying "Thanks" to the folks who make this possible, and for their efforts in legitimizing this whole effort, so that we have CoH back for as long as we want it, with no worries about potential future legal actions. I also consider it small repayment for all I get out of the game!

Hmmm...I created characters the first day Torchbearer came online, and the earliest date I can find so far is April 29th. But, it's possible I might have concentrated on the first one in for a few days before I created the rest from saved costume/power files. In any case, we are at least 6 weeks away from the anniversary of Torchbearer. Perhaps a little over a month from the creation of the short lived "Bree" server anniversary, and just short of a month from the anniversary of the code leak. So, I say...let's establish exact dates, and organize events to commemorate each one in-game!

I believe the code was first leaked in mid April, and the first server "Bree", was up a week, or two later, if memory serves. Then there was a fake C&D scare that caused the proprietor of that server to become alarmed enough to pull support, and shut it down. It took a few days, perhaps a week, before Torchbearer was born. That would have been early, to perhaps mid May, and has been in operation ever since. So, depending on which milestone event you are commemorating, we are getting close to the first of them. Personally, I still consider it to be one of the miraculous things I've seen in my life. Something that I loved, lost, wished desperately to have back, and actually got back. It's just not something that happens too often in life. There are so many other games that had devoted followings, that wished for the same thing, and never saw it happen. We really are quite fortunate to have this game back, and thriving, as we do.

Once I got my video settings set properly (basically letting the GeForce utility handle Ansiotropic Filtering, and Full Screen Anti-Aliasing, and turning it off in the game), it has been buttery smooth, even in battle. I haven't tried an Incarnate Trial, or a Hami Raid since I made these changes, but I feel like it will behave better than it did before in those settings, just because the modern cards built-in controls are bound to be better than those in 15 year old code.

When it came out, I played it for 3 months. So, I gave it a chance. When that was over, I went back to CoH, and never looked back. Not since have I heard anything that gave me any serious cause for regretting that decision, and this thread would seem to highlight the fact that most others felt the same way. Bottom line, it just wasn't as "fun" to play as CoH by any measurement that I found important.

As someone in the Discord discussion mentioned, for those that have never done a Distributed Computing project before, this thing is designed to use ALL of the available computing power your system can deliver. That is going to me the CPU, and possible the GPU will be running at high utilization (read: higher than normal temps), while the program is engaged. So, blow the dust out of those nasty rigs, so that things don't overheat unnecessarily!

I have a few annoyances. But, in all honesty, I'm thrilled just to be able to experience them again. So, I'm good!

These kinds of things aren't unique in this community. But, sometimes I am a little disappointed that, as a group, we aren't a little more...above all of this, and more atypical of what one would find on any other group site. We are helpful to each other for the most part, when it comes to game issues. But, when sensibilities, and sensitivities are discussed, well we still haven't found that balance of compassion, and realism needed to speak on some things without giving offense. We need to be more diligent on such things. I'm making it a goal of mine to be better than what I see out there. Hopefully, others will join in.

You will be feeling all of those nostalgic feels for some time to come. I mean the first time I heard the Atlas Park them again, I got all misty eyed. There will be so much to re-learn, and so much to experience all over again. Plus, a lot of new stuff that's been added since you've been gone, with more to come soon! So, get yourself ready for the best reunion you've ever been to!

I believe they are up, according to the Discord server status message. Also, there is a "server status" link at the very top of the forum page. Either one is a good way to keep an an eye on things.

Yup. Just like the Windows desktop OS, the server OS are patched monthly. and share many of the same vulnerabilities. I do server patching as a major part of my day job for 12,00+ servers. So, I'm quite familiar with the process. I also know that Server 2016 takes much longer to patch than previous versions, due to the sheer size of their cumulative roll-up patches. Compressed, that single patch was almost 2gb, so it would be much bigger once uncompressed. I've had servers with that version of the OS take almost two hours to complete. It's supposed to be better in Server 2019 according to Microsoft, but I'm waiting to verify that. Anyway, you can see that just doing the monthly security stuff can be pretty time consuming, and throwing on game patches likely just makes it take longer.

I've got my 6th toon approaching L50. This one is a SS/Invul Tank. When he hits 47, I'm gonna start a second build for him that will be for the most bad-ass I/O, bonused-out set I can make for him. I want him neigh unbreakable, because I want to experience that just once in all my toons. And now that Tanks can actually do a little damage (thanks to recent changes), I'm hoping he will be able to give back a bit of what's being thrown at him too! I'm actually looking forward to the arduous shopping, and crafting for this one.

Welcome home hero! Good to have you back, and just ask if there is anything we can do to help!

"...once the restriction has been lifted". That's optimistic! I like that!😎

I have no doubts about the fact that it is important to you, and a lot of other players too. However, these guys are doing for free what a much larger group of developers used to get paid to do as their main jobs. They have a LONG list of important things to attend to in the game, and while this might be on the list, there are likely a lot of things ahead of it in priority, in addition to their attempting to balance what they do for us vs. their real jobs/families. All we can do is make sure it's on their "wanted" list (which has a thread of it's own), and they'll get to it if they can. 😎

Oddly, this has been one of less frequently used AT for me in this iteration of the game, as well as the live version before. I did have a couple, and didn't dislike them, per se. The damage output was satisfying, and "up close and personal" in nature. But, I think I found while playing them that my style was more suited to the ranged, and control based ATs. When I look at my pantheon of characters, the numbers are overwhelmingly representative of this. Plus, when one throws in the Brute AT to the argument, with perhaps slightly less raw damage, but a bit more survivability, it's easy to go that direction when considering a melee toon. My favorite Scrapper that I have ever played, used what is probably one of least played power set combinations. His name is "The Immortal Light", and he uses Dark/Dark powers. I always thought that was kinda funny, but nobody ever seemed to get it when I played him.