State of the Project - August 2020

[Number Six]

7 minutes ago, Panthonca7034 said:

For Project: Hangover, you mentioned that at some point in the near future it will be rolled out to begin replacing Tequila/Island rum (at least that is what I'm interpreting from the announcement), do we have a timetable of when to expect having to download it once it is tested and confirmed as stable?

No precise timetable. We have one more round of internal testing to do, and waiting for one piece that's an external factor (we may begin public testing before we have that, it depends on how complicated it sounds like it's going to be). Rough guess: A couple of weeks before we start seeing public beta and early adopters?

 

The goal is to replace Tequila entirely. Island Rum will be mostly replaced, or at least sidestepped, but still has an important purpose on Macs they are notoriously annoying to get the necessary environment set up properly on. So Mac users please participate in @Manga's Island Rum beta, as the Wine 5.0 it installs will be required for the new launcher.

14 minutes ago, Panthonca7034 said:

Does Hangover work with Senticon/Paragon Chat?

It does not. Those tools have not been updated in a long time and a launcher is not needed for them. We've also had sporadic issues with one of the Titan download sites not functioning and causing issues for Tequila. It wouldn't cause issues with the new launcher due to its different design, but it still is something that may be confusing for new players, so we decided to omit it.

15 minutes ago, Panthonca7034 said:

Also do we have confirmation of it working on Vista Potatoes? 😛 (aka Windows Vista)

I don't believe it's been tested with that yet. Since it runs on both XP and Windows 7, I would not expect Vista to be a problem. If you do have a Vista machine lurking around somewhere, keep an eye out for the public test phase and let us know!

[Panthonca7034]

2 minutes ago, Number Six said:

I don't believe it's been tested with that yet. Since it runs on both XP and Windows 7, I would not expect Vista to be a problem. If you do have a Vista machine lurking around somewhere, keep an eye out for the public test phase and let us know!

Understood, Will do 🙂

[PorkTips]

Will the new Launcher be required, or will I still be able to connect with Tequila and/or Island Rum?

[Hottheadliberty]

5 hours ago, MrFireBrand said:

With all due respect and if I can post this here without anyone bringing pitch forks. But is there anyway you can prove that you have been in talks with NCSoft? It's easy these days to just say "trust us!" while continued request for donations are being taken. It would be the same as holding your palm closed and telling others there's gold inside but you can't show them.. and they can only just trust its there, also known as blind faith that's being ran off the honor system. I hope you can see where I'm coming from without bringing the pitch forks. Like I said before, I can tell you I have five top of the line cars, three houses and a unicorn in the back named Gary.

 

If what you're saying is true, then that's fantastic news for the community. But it would be nice to see receipts of said conversations.

Oh that Gary, He's a hoot!

 

Honestly though, as long as the servers are up and running i don't mind chipping in a few bucks that i can spare, I don't really care what they do with the money as long as i can play CoH.

If they are lying about being in talks then they are ones that get nailed with court problems not me. My point is they have no reason to lie about it when doing so is a bigger threat to themselves than it is to us.

[Cinnder]

Great news to hear all around.

 

Keep up the good work folks!

[ivanhedgehog]

5 hours ago, GM Brax said:

Every level of potato available to us is being thrown at it.  But, when the testing expands, I'm sure there will be levels of potato out there that we haven't thought possible.  Any and all potatoes will be put to the test that day, in the hopes that this thing is as bullet-proof as possible when it goes live.

Im pulling out my commodore vic20 as we speak

 

I heard Dr Vahz makes his victims sign a NDA

Edited August 13, 2020 by ivanhedgehog

[Wild Claw]

I swear I have a commodore PET in the attic...

[GastlyGibus]

5 hours ago, GM Brax said:

Man, that is some LEGACY support alright.  I'm not in the development loop, so I can't speak for them.  But, that one might be a bridge too far. 😉

 

Oh come on. If I can't even play City of Heroes on my Commodore 64, then what's the point? 😛

[Robotech_Master]

I doubt that any "proof" HC could offer that it's "really" in talks with NCSoft would be sufficient for everyone. (Apart from things like the name change, which as someone already noted does smell just like the kind of deck-chair shuffling a corporation would insist upon.) In addition to its code base, Homecoming also inherited much of the general hostility and distrust toward the hidden private server that ran for six years without telling anyone. I don't doubt that there are plenty of people out there looking for any reason they can find to decry the Homecoming staff as a bunch of doodyheads. Trying to appease people who simply can't be appeased is a waste of time and effort on everyone's part.

 

Perhaps the best "proof" is that we're still being permitted to continue playing and the servers haven't been C&D'd into oblivion. (Or into relocating to some hard-to-prosecute country, anyway.) The number of rogue private server projects for other games that have been permitted to continue for very long once the rights-holder knew about them is...not large. You honestly think they wouldn't know about us by now?

 

As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. When they're finally ready to announce actual final results of the negotiations, I imagine everyone  will believe them then.

[GM Crumpet]

39 minutes ago, GastlyGibus said:

Oh come on. If I can't even play City of Heroes on my Commodore 64, then what's the point? 😛

That's really posh. I'm dragging out my ZX81

[Rejolt]

6 hours ago, Galaxy Brain said:

Every time you use a regen click, a part of you becomes freakshow

But if I use cybernetics that much I’ll lose the ability to use magic!

 

I’m guessing Freakshow AT and Wind Control. These are things used by other servers. 

Edited August 13, 2020 by Rejolt

[hermeticus]

Hey, HC people --

 

Would you please elaborate on the name change?  It would seem to imply that "Homecoming" is becoming a brand of some sort, with CoH being one of its projects, as opposed to being an issue of CoH, which may be the point.  Is it a brand thing, an NCSoft saying "don't present yourself as being the actual City of Heroes" thing, or something else?  It just sounds awkward to me, and not just because I'm used to it the other way around.

 

Thank you in advance!

[JawGod]

If I had to guess about Page 6. I hope it's enemy costume pieces but it looks like a combination Freakshow/vahzilok group that uses scavenged super tech to boost them to incarnate level, and a story arc surrounding that. 

[Lunchmoney]

7 hours ago, GM Brax said:

Every level of potato available to us is being thrown at it.  But, when the testing expands, I'm sure there will be levels of potato out there that we haven't thought possible.  Any and all potatoes will be put to the test that day, in the hopes that this thing is as bullet-proof as possible when it goes live.

I hope no potatoes were hurt in the making of this update.

[Lunchmoney]

This thread needs to be pinned, like the open letter from last year.

[Daggenthal]

A native Linux client? Wonderful news! I was hoping that we'd get a cross-platform launcher someday, and I'm glad to see that it's actively being worked on and is natively supported!

 

Happy to see my guide have to go :) I'm always for simpler ways to do something, especially if the user is new to Linux!

[Subber]

Although I am sure that the Freakshow screenshot is, first and foremost, about the upcoming Story Arc, I still hope that it will also make Freakshow/Rikti parts available for player use, because by God, I will murder for Rikti parts.

[Daggenthal]

5 hours ago, GM Tahquitz said:

Linux, while I can't guarantee across distros the same magic (I'll give Fedora a shot for an RPM-based distro over APT next), it was as simple for me as Ubuntu 20.04 > Lutris > Homecoming Launcher > Install.  The new Launcher caught the Tequila files and migrated them over automatically.  If it doesn't work after patch, configure the launcher once more and make sure DXVK is turned on for Vulkan/OpenGL support.  But that's it.

 

I did have to change the Lutris launcher after install to point to the final patcher location in the Wine C Drive, but once done, it worked.  (Because I'm on NVidia, that means using the "Version 440" closed source driver and not the open source hot-ness that is Noveau, so none of the Wayland goodness is possible for me yet.  But with that, Linux and Windows performance is pretty evenly matched!)

 

Stay tuned. 🙂

 

Hey there! I don't know how you're currently syncing things up across distros, but this is how I've been doing it with my own Linux script in BASH. I just execute a command in terminal, and compare the output from said distro with specific install scripts that I use. I used it with my guide to help install WINE + Lutris for beginners to Linux that wanted to play CoH, so that's why it also installs Lutris. It's just a simple "if then, elif" script where I obtain the output from the command that's being run, and then compare that string output to figure out which version they're on (all hardcoded for now, sadly), and then follow the required commands to install WINE and Lutris.

 

Here's the github link to the script.

 

Please note that while I use this as a comparison for Linux Mint 20.04, it was only for its initial release. lsb_release -c works on Linux Mint 20.04 now, so that can easily be changed back.

linuxMint=$(awk "NR==11" /etc/os-release)

 

I'm happy if this is somewhat helpful for you in any way! Happy to test things out for Linux if you'd like!

[BadMinotaur]

6 hours ago, Greycat said:

Should rebuild the system I started COH on.

 

*Starts hunting Ebay for a Thunderbird 1 Ghz and Maatrox Mystique 440*

Holy crap, that brings back memories.

[Grouchybeast]

2 hours ago, Robotech_Master said:

Perhaps the best "proof" is that we're still being permitted to continue playing and the servers haven't been C&D'd into oblivion. (Or into relocating to some hard-to-prosecute country, anyway.) The number of rogue private server projects for other games that have been permitted to continue for very long once the rights-holder knew about them is...not large. You honestly think they wouldn't know about us by now?

There are multiple private CoH servers, none of which have been hit by C&Ds.

 

However, only one of them is very publicly posting claims to be in negotiations with NCSoft about rights, and is also collecting money to cover legal fees for those negotiations.  I actually think it's much more likely that NCSoft would slap a C&D on that kind of thing, if the negotiations weren't really happening, because NCSoft's name would be being used to actively defraud people.  But NCSoft haven't done that.  So...

[Wilky]

great ! i will stream everything on my youtube channel as soon as allowed ! i have sub to HC on youtube 🙂

you are going great ! crazy

[Nanolathe]

12 hours ago, Jimmy said:

More Non-targeted Cones... or Vectored Knockback?

[starro]

 Is that some sort of praetorian/ Roman female butt cape costume piece?  How awesome is that??

[Williwaw]

I play CoH on a Mac still running 10.10, mainly because I hate the Wine client (for reasons I've stated multiple times but which always get brushed off or ignored).  Will the manifest still work with old launchers?  Or is this the end for me and CoH?  (Unless one of you wants to pay for a brand-new Windows laptop I could play it on)

[Rejolt]

Looking at the two photos in detail, I don't think they're highlighting powers or ATs but NPC costumes and more backpacks(!) coming to players as a tease. I'm not at home to check - I think we have access to the backpiece shown on the sonic character but I can't be 100 percent certain.

 

I have to admit - I'm seriously overusing Vanguard, Vanguard jet pack, cybernetic spine pieces. I'd use the school backpack more if it weren't oversized on most of the characters I've tried it on.

 

EDIT: Re-Re-Looking at the sonic photo... ok maybe it's sonic armor or being able to buff yourself?

Edited August 13, 2020 by Rejolt