Returning after MANY years with MANY Questions

[00Troy00]

Like many (most likely most) of you, I put many hours into CoX back in the day (It's a hell of a testimony that nothing since has been able to match its following in the genre!). I had no idea the game was still alive until yesterday! I have MANY questions, but I'm just going to throw out a few for now:

 

1. I'm downloading the game now, but it's moving REALLY slow. Is this normal, and how long does it usually take?

 

2. Are there certain days of the week /times of day the servers are busier than others?

 

3. Is there anything that differentiates the two regular (non-rp or EU) servers?

 

4. Do people still run super teams? For example, back in the day, my friends and I all made Radiation Defenders, and would run in teams of 8. We melted anything and everything that got infront of us, and discovered that it was a great way to level toons QUICKLY.

 

5. Does the game play much differently than it did before?

 

6. How are the servers maintained? Is there no membership cost?

 

Thanks in advance all!

 

Troy

Edited April 11, 2020 by 00Troy00

[Greycat]

1 minute ago, 00Troy00 said:

Like many (most likely most) of you, I put many hours into CoX back in the day (It's a hell of a testimony that nothing since has been able to match its following in the genre!). I had no idea the game was still alive until yesterday! I have MANY questions, but I'm just going to throw out a few for now:

 

1. I'm downloading the game now, but it's moving REALLY slow. Is this normal, and how long does it usually take?

 

2. Are there certain days of the week /times of day the servers are busier than others?

 

3. Is there anything that differentiates the two regular (non-rp or EU) servers?

 

4. Do people still run super teams? For example, back in the day, my friends and I all made Radiation Defenders, and would run in teams of 8. We melted anything and everything that got infront of us, and discovered that it was a great way to level toons QUICKLY.

 

5. Does the game play much differently than it did before?

 

6. How are the servers maintained? Is there no membership cost?

 

Thanks in advance all!

 

Troy

1. A solid "it depends." It depends on you, your connection, your usage, your ISP's load, the server load, etc. I'll note that, at least around here, internet providers are reporting slower speeds in general with so many more people working from home.

 

2. Yes. I couldn't tell you what they were right offhand, though. I'm on and off at weird times. Watch the server load indicators. It's never felt "dead," though.

 

3. Couldn't  say.

 

4. I haven't *heard* of any but I haven't heard that people don't. Start one! (I don't know if Repeat Offenders has started back up on any of the servers.)

 

5. Define "Before?" If you played at shutdown, there's a new AT, some new power pools, a few new enhancement (IO) sets, and a bunch of QOL tweaks. If you last played, oh, I9 or so... strap in.

 

6. Monthly request for donations, which tends to get filled and closed quickly.

[DougGraves]

 

1. I'm downloading the game now, but it's moving REALLY slow. Is this normal, and how long does it usually take?

maybe

 

2. Are there certain days of the week /times of day the servers are busier than others?

evenings and weekends are busiest

 

3. Is there anything that differentiates the two regular (non-rp or EU) servers?

Excelsior is the most populated, one of them is the unofficial PvP server

 

4. Do people still run super teams? For example, back in the day, my friends and I all made Radiation Defenders, and would run in teams of 8. We melted anything and everything that got infront of us, and discovered that it was a great way to level toons QUICKLY.

It does happen, not common

 

5. Does the game play much differently than it did before?

No.  It is almost identical.  They have done some changes that were in the pipelines when it shut down.

 

6. How are the servers maintained? Is there no membership cost?

They ask for donations to cover server costs.  They get enough donations in an hour.  The devs cannot be paid for legal reasons.

Edited April 12, 2020 by DougGraves

[justicebeliever]

18 minutes ago, 00Troy00 said:

 

1. I'm downloading the game now, but it's moving REALLY slow. Is this normal, and how long does it usually take?

Mine took several hours (like 5) to initially download on one machine, and then my laptop took an hour.

 

18 minutes ago, 00Troy00 said:

Are there certain days of the week /times of day the servers are busier than others?

 

3. Is there anything that differentiates the two regular (non-rp or EU) servers?

The servers are almost never too busy where you see performance issues.  So come one in,  the water is nice.  If you want to team alot, then evenings are good and weekends better.  

There are 5 servers.  The everlasting Server is home to a significant Role Play population, and Indomitable has more PvPer's, but you can find some roleplay and pvp on all the servers. Reunion server is for the European Union, but open to everybody.
 

18 minutes ago, 00Troy00 said:

Do people still run super teams? For example, back in the day, my friends and I all made Radiation Defenders, and would run in teams of 8. We melted anything and everything that got infront of us, and discovered that it was a great way to level toons QUICKLY.

Yes

 

18 minutes ago, 00Troy00 said:

How are the servers maintained? Is there no membership cost?

All free, now and forever. They do take up donations one day a month (last Saturday of the month) to cover the maintenance costs, but that is up to you to participate and how much. 

 

18 minutes ago, 00Troy00 said:

Does the game play much differently than it did before?

Not substantially no. It looks and feels like city of heroes that you remember. But there are some improvements:  all content can be played solo, there is a new AT, a couple new missions, new power sets, and other improvements that you can see under the patch notes on the website.

 

Forgot to say the most important thing, “welcome home. “

Edited April 11, 2020 by justicebeliever
Forgot to say the most important thing, “welcome home. “

[siolfir]

1. As answered, "it depends." Download speeds are usually somewhat of a crapshoot to predict because you never know who has what provider.

2. Usually, weekends would be busier than during the week, but with the COVID lockdown it's "weekend" all the time at the moment.

3. Population. Excelsior is higher population, Indomitable is the unofficial PvP server, and Torchbearer was the first one up.

4. Yes. They're usually organized in the server-specific or AT-specific forum areas, and there are a few threads around.

5. Much differently is subjective, and as mentioned depends on when you stopped. The guides section has a lot of resources for new and returning players. 

This one will help you figure out what changes have happened since you last stopped playing:

 

6. As noted, they take donations and announce finances each month, but do not require a donation to play.

 

[ArchVileTerror]

And since most other folks seem to have your questions tackled pretty well already, I'm just going to chime in with our new battlecry:

Welcome Home!

[00Troy00]

33 minutes ago, ArchVileTerror said:

And since most other folks seem to have your questions tackled pretty well already, I'm just going to chime in with our new battlecry:

Welcome Home!

OH HELL YEEEAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

[Oubliette_Red]

With regards to downloading, I believe Homecoming still uses what was implemented in Legacy, so it should download and install in stages. I say should, but I didn't test this when I first installed this last year.

 

1st: Character Creator - You should be able to launch and enter the CC while the rest continues to download.

2nd: The tutorial. If you wish to play through the tutorial, you should be able to enter that after creating your character, depending on how long you spend mucking about in the CC.

3rd: Atlas Park/Mercy Island/Nova Praetoria - The starting zone should be accessible next.

4th: The rest of the game.

 

At each stage the installer should tell you that the next section is available.

[Bootlegger]

Hey Troy, I’m in the exact same boat as you - loooong time player from way back in the day just returning (about three days in).  Look me up - I’ll be glad to team up and we can help each other out. 
 

welcome back!!

 

im @boot legger 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Bootlegger

[Abraxus]

Welcome home hero!  I'm sure it's been a long time, and I'm sure you are gonna be overwhelmed with nostalgia logging in for the first time.  I know I was!  

 

As for organized events, just watch the forums, and the Discord channels for things like that.  Also, the LFG tab in-game.  For myself, I managed to put together a few of the folks I played with back in the day, so we get together fairly regularly to play now.  We too had a RAD group way back when, made up of Defenders, and Controllers.  We were powerful!  Now, we have a group of 5, mainly Corrupters, and a Controller, and we are darned near as powerful!  That group is currently in their mid-40s playing once or twice a week, for a little over a month.  

 

Yes, I think you'll recognize a lot that is familiar, and see a whole lot that is new as well.  Feel free to ask if you have questions, and know that there is a LOT of information contained in this forum for research!  Paragon Wiki (link at the top of every forum page) is still about 85-90% pertinent as well.

 

Enjoy!

[Bastille Boy]

Welcome back to the game!

 

One big change to the game since live is that features that once cost Paragon Points are now either free or purchasable with inf. Most notably, double XP is free now. You can just go to a "Pay 2 Win" vendor (found in Atlas, Mercy, or Pocket D) and ask for up to 8 hours of double XP.

 

Because there is no cost to starting a new character, a lot of people have major altitis.

[siolfir]

29 minutes ago, ejworthing said:

Welcome back to the game!

 

One big change to the game since live is that features that once cost Paragon Points are now either free or purchasable with inf. Most notably, double XP is free now. You can just go to a "Pay 2 Win" vendor (found in Atlas, Mercy, or Pocket D) and ask for up to 8 hours of double XP.

 

Because there is no cost to starting a new character, a lot of people have major altitis.

There is also a P2W vendor in each tutorial and in Grandville.

[Burnt Toast]

17 hours ago, DougGraves said:

 

1. I'm downloading the game now, but it's moving REALLY slow. Is this normal, and how long does it usually take?

maybe

 

2. Are there certain days of the week /times of day the servers are busier than others?

evenings and weekends are busiest

 

3. Is there anything that differentiates the two regular (non-rp or EU) servers?

Everlasing is the most populated, one of them is the unofficial PvP server

 

4. Do people still run super teams? For example, back in the day, my friends and I all made Radiation Defenders, and would run in teams of 8. We melted anything and everything that got infront of us, and discovered that it was a great way to level toons QUICKLY.

It does happen, not common

 

5. Does the game play much differently than it did before?

No.  It is almost identical.  They have done some changes that were in the pipelines when it shut down.

 

6. How are the servers maintained? Is there no membership cost?

They ask for donations to cover server costs.  They get enough donations in an hour.  The devs cannot be paid for legal reasons.

For clarification: Excelsior is the most populated server. It is a general server that doesn't have any "unofficial" status (Everlasting=roleplay and Indom=pvp... unofficially).

Population rank:

1. Excelsior - Frequently in the red in afternoon/evening/night - 1100+

2. Everlasting - Occasionally  in the red in afternoon/evening/night - 1000+

3. Torchbearer - Steadily in yellow in afternoon/evening - 700+

4. Indom - Steadily in yellow in afternoon/evening - 500+

5. Reunion - Steadily in yellow in EU evening/night - 450+

 

Current numbers:

Excelsior: 970

Everlasting: 552

Torchbearer: 571

Indomitable: 361

Reunion: 384

 

You can always view how many people are online by going to https://forums.homecomingservers.com/status/

[TheWino]

18 hours ago, Greycat said:

(I don't know if Repeat Offenders has started back up on any of the servers.)

Repeat Offenders still exists, at https://www.repeat-offenders.net/forum/ and on the Everlasting server.

[DougGraves]

1 hour ago, Burnt Toast said:

For clarification: Excelsior is the most populated server. It is a general server that doesn't have any "unofficial" status (Everlasting=roleplay and Indom=pvp... unofficially).

 

 

Thanks, fixed it

[THEDarkTyger]

On 4/11/2020 at 5:20 PM, justicebeliever said:

They do take up donations one day a month (last Saturday of the month) to cover the maintenance costs, but that is up to you to participate and how much. 

To nitpick here: They have a specific goal to cover running costs that they need. They take donations until they reach that goal then shut them down. This is to avoid running a profit on the game, which they feel helps their odds in negotiating to make the server legit. The usually meet this goal in under a day, once or twice in under an hour. It has taken longer before, though.

[Ironblade]

1. I'm downloading the game now, but it's moving REALLY slow. Is this normal, and how long does it usually take?

By modern standards, this game is TINY (4 GB).  Back when I first played this game, it took me 3 hours to download.  Now, on 50GB fiber, the download took minutes.

Keep in mind that almost everyone is on and using the internet currently.  Everything runs slower - often HALF the speed it should.

 

2. Are there certain days of the week /times of day the servers are busier than others?

Same as any game - prime time is prime time.  Normally, that would be weekdays about 6-midnight EST and all day long on weekends.

With the coronavirus shelter in place, you can usually find teams all day every day.

 

3. Is there anything that differentiates the two regular (non-rp or EU) servers?

You just have to know which is which.  The important one is Reunion - that's the EU server and it's hosted in.....  I think Frankfurt.

Everlasting is the RP server, but I play there and I don't RP and I don't see much RP.  To be fair, I hardly ever visit Pocket D.

And there are five servers: Indomitable, Excelsior, Everlasting, Torchbearer and Reunion.  Excelsior is the most crowded - that could be good or bad depending on you.

 

4. Do people still run super teams? For example, back in the day, my friends and I all made Radiation Defenders, and would run in teams of 8. We melted anything and everything that got infront of us, and discovered that it was a great way to level toons QUICKLY.

Yes.....  My *impression* is that there are less fixed teams, super teams, supergroup activities, etc.  I *think* this is due to the fact that supergroup bases are now free (no prestige costs) so there is less motivation to join supergroups.

 

5. Does the game play much differently than it did before?

Not really.  It's a bit more casual-friendly and new-player-friendly.  There's a new AT and some new powersets.  But, overall, it doesn't play differently at all.  It's very much the same game it always was.

 

6. How are the servers maintained? Is there no membership cost?

Voluntary donations only, accepted up to the monthly target.  Donations are accepted on the last Saturday of each month and shut down once the target is hit.

They do a breakdown of expenses each month.  The last one is  https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/17076-april-2020-donations-finances/