Hey Devs, can you please some or all of this to HC?! :)

[BurtHutt]

Yes, I'm pestering for this again lol. I've never actually played any of these but I am sure some balancing and changes would need to be made but it seems the heavy lifting has been done. This would be epic to see all of this added to HC - an already professionally run game! There are tons of cool powers and ATs added on other servers. Could you not combine efforts and ask to use their code, adjust it and balance it then add it here? There seems to be a ton of good stuff. Stuff like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's also Wind Control and Holy Light powers but I couldn't find good vids for those. The shotgun power for tanks looks fun too. The arsenal powerset could be adjusted and added here too (change it so it includes missiles, electric tesla looking rod like in clocks etc). I am sure these powers would need to be balanced and maybe some changes would need to be made but they look like a lot of fun and some are different from what we have.

 

It's too bad the Vampiir power creators didn't add an option that allows the ability to transform the character into a bat with a few attacks; maybe even have a second form as a wolf as that was another popular form a Vamp could take.

 

Then I would also ask the Devs add these pool powers that seem to have been ready to go at the end of Live:

 

 

[Patti]

Experiments is already in.

[MTeague]

I get the impulse to ask.  But I would never assume that everything other servers have will (or even should!) end up on homecoming. 

 

One giant hurdle is that unless the other servers have made similar efforts as the HC devs to unravel the original spagettti code, and are using an identical organizational structure to maintain all of the refactored code, then no, the heavy lifting has NOT been done.  Because everything would need to be translated over from "slapped together in 32 bit spagetti code" to work in HC's 64 bit code.

 

Shinies are shiny, yes. 

We likes the shinies, yes.

But I strongly suspect the codebase between Thunderspy and Homecoming are essentially incompatible at this point.

Doesn't mean ideas for new things can never be added to Homecoming.

But I'd bet taking anything to put in here would very likely be "rebuild the shiny thing 100% from scratch".

[Patti]

Compatibility can sometimes be a one-way street.   I think number 6 or cipher said something about it being easier to take something made for issue 24 and bring it here rather than take something here and give it away.

[Alchemystic]

Thunderspy is the Garry's Mod of CoH servers.

 

It's fun and wacky, but it's not a properly curated game experience. A lot of what you see on there is high concept materials that don't receive the same balancing and thought as you would expect on Live or here on Homecoming, and mostly serves as a playground of possibilities instead of genuine development efforts.

 

Thunderspy also operates on an older version of the OuroDev system, so unfortunately as @MTeague and @Pattisaid, the content there is likely incompatable with the version used here on Homecoming anyway.

 

Things may progress slower here, but it's entirely for the sake of quality assurance and game health, something that's not really taken into consideration over there.

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Tyrannical

[BurtHutt]

I'm no code expert or anything close so, of course, not all of this will make it here....and as MT noted, some of it probably shouldn't. I don't like the looks of the patron AT and the freeform AT would be a hot mess lol.

 

I do like the looks of a lot of the other stuff but haven't played around with any of it. Yes, adding some of these would be great. It might even be better if the Devs all teamed up and helped on HC! 🙂 A pipe dream, I'm sure but think of all they could do. I do like the look of the Tarantula path, the Synergist, the other 2 power pool powers, Empathy power change and maybe even (with some changes) the Vampiir, Hell Knights, Paladin etc,

 

HC is definitely the place to be for CoH and I know they don't have a big Dev team and they're volunteers - it's just too bad so many talented people can't get together and come up with some wild, new stuff. 

Edited September 25, 2020 by BurtHutt

[Alchemystic]

27 minutes ago, BurtHutt said:

HC is definitely the place to be for CoH and I know they don't have a big Dev team and they're volunteers - it's just too bad so many talented people can't get together and come up with some wild, new stuff. 

To my understanding, there has been some communication efforts in the past, but they were met with unfriendly response.

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Tyrannical

[Ruin Mage]

To my knowledge, other servers believe that HC is the devil more or less.

Mostly Thunderspy.

[BurtHutt]

2 minutes ago, Tyrannical said:

To my understanding, there has been some communication efforts in the past, but they were met with unfriendly response.

 

That's a shame! Well, my daytime job (when I'm not a superhero) involves counselling and part of that is in communication. I'd love to help out the HC team and try to broker a working relationship. Always here to help!

[Giovanni Valia]

Thunderspy and HC will never work together. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the relationship HC has/(had?) with Leo.

[Super Atom]

37 minutes ago, Shadeknight said:

To my knowledge, other servers believe that HC is the devil more or less.

Mostly Thunderspy.

The outside issue with Homecoming is they're SCORE and SCORE isn't exactly on good terms with people. If thats entirely true or not, them being just score (including GM's) is debated. They're accused of a lot of things and they don't really address the accusations be it because they're not worth addressing or they're just letting people have their own opinions, whos to say other than HC staff.

 

End of day? I think everyone is entitled to their opinion as long as it doesn't turn into harassment.

[CFIndustries]

Can someone explain what SCORE is, at what's the controversy with SCORE and "Leo"? (And is "Leo" aka "Leandro"?)

 

I keep seeing these terms/names used without explanation…

[Super Atom]

7 minutes ago, CFIndustries said:

Can someone explain what SCORE is, at what's the controversy with SCORE and "Leo"? (And is "Leo" aka "Leandro"?)

 

I keep seeing these terms/names used without explanation…

 

Well, idk how much they're gonna like this being randomly discussed on the suggestion forums but, SCORE was more or less a jokey nickname, Secret (core?) (cabal?) of reverse engineers. It was a thing on the Titan Network forums. They secretly had a working version of CoH for 6 years and only let specific people in. It got leaked and then one guy who, imo at least took the brunt of the heat unfairly, released the game into the wild giving everyone the ability to play. Some people haven't let that go.

 

Theres more to it, but thats the basics

Edited September 25, 2020 by Super Atom

[CFIndustries]

Thanks for the explanation; didn't mean to pour salt in a wound or open up a verboten topic.

[MTeague]

Yea.  As much a I would have liked to have had the game for all those seven years?

I totally get why it was treated as Double Top Secret Classified.

 

They're fairly little fish in a great big sea, and who needs an army of lawyers going up places you really don't want armies of lawyers going?

Were the worries unfounded?  People can armchair quarterback that back and forth for years (and will, I have no doubt)

but without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight? I might have made the exact same choices if I'd been in their shoes. 

And that's even assuming HC = SCORE, which I've never even been sure is true. 

 

All I care about is I have the game NOW.

And Homecoming is doing their level best to get an above-board agreement hammered out with the legal owners of the IP.

And I've seen nothing but professional and reasonable behavior from them since I found this place. 

I don't see any benefit in obsessing over coulda/shoulda/woulda for what might have been during the Snap.

[Alchemystic]

I think the old server was kept private because of legal issues, or at least belief there would be legal issues.

However, once it was leaked, people felt betrayed that it was kept secret for so long without attempts to legitimize it, which is completely understandable. That being said, I can understand the precaution, since there was no way of knowing exactly what would happen if something like this reached the light of day.

Do note though that the original server was leaked out of spite in an attempt to shut it down, not to release it to the public so that the greater community could enjoy it.

Either way, I think at this point Homecoming has it's own identity separate from Leandro or SCORE, and shouldn't be held accountable for the misgivings of the past.

 

Edited September 26, 2020 by Tyrannical

[Super Atom]

As for these suggestions, I like individual ideas like Offensive/defensive targets having different effects, but for the most part they're wildly random and while they work for a server like Thunderspy they wouldn't fit in much here. My suggestion would just be to roll a thunderspy account as well and just play those things there. Can't hurt playing on multiple servers 😛 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Super Atom

[Solarverse]

Not to mention, it's a level fest on some of those other servers. You get a level with every other mob on one server, you get a level per mission on others...it's nothing but easy street where everything is just handed to you. People who enjoy power leveling may enjoy a server like that, but people who enjoy a normal level progression would fair much better on this server. In other words, the candy on other servers is not enough to make me want to leave this server. This server has more balance and still holds somewhat of a normal progression.

One thing that really got me loving this game in the beginning, is that seeing a level 50 was almost awe inspiring because you knew that person played their heart out to get there (as long as they did not PL to get there) and with all the debt that used to be in game, that was saying a lot back then. Although I miss the days when getting to level 50 would take me a VERY long time, these days I can literally level from 1 to 50 in a single day without any power leveling whatsoever. This game has just been dumbed way down since the pre i5 days. So this game has already lost a lot of its luster for me in terms of feeling accomplished after reaching level 50, however, even after saying that, this game is still a much more challenging game that what you have on those other servers. Those other servers practically hand everything to you on a platter...no thank you.

[Monos King]

8 minutes ago, Solarverse said:

it's nothing but easy street where everything is just handed to you

Funny enough that's exactly how I saw HC until I toured the other servers.

[MTeague]

7 minutes ago, Solarverse said:

Although I miss the days when getting to level 50 would take me a VERY long time, these days I can literally level from 1 to 50 in a single day without any power leveling whatsoever. This game has just been dumbed way down since the pre i5 days. So this game has already lost a lot of its luster for me in terms of feeling accomplished after reaching level 50, however, even after saying that, this game is still a much more challenging game that what you have on those other servers. Those other servers practically hand everything to you on a platter...no thank you.

This is a huuuuge part of why I use the option to disable XP so much. 

It's not the only reason; as much as I know I *can* go back later to do Safeguards and Mayhems I missed levelling up, I do like them, and I don't want to miss any as I level.

but it's so easy to completely outlevel phase 2 of a long story arc (croatoa, striga) while you're still only doing phase 1.  

and I like doing several story arcs in each level range on the way up. 

[Solarverse]

Just now, Monos King said:

Funny enough that's exactly how I saw HC until I toured the other servers.

I know exactly what you mean. Those other servers made me appreciate HC a bit more than I did before visiting those other servers. Like somebody previously said, they are a fun playground, but when it's time to get serious, this is my home server.  I do admit, for PvP, Cake is probably the best server because you can create instant characters and go PvP with anything you thought up, but for PvE, this is the server I wish to play on until somebody comes out with a server that challenges me more than this one.

[Solarverse]

1 minute ago, MTeague said:

This is a huuuuge part of why I use the option to disable XP so much. 

It's not the only reason; as much as I know I *can* go back later to do Safeguards and Mayhems I missed levelling up, I do like them, and I don't want to miss any as I level.

but it's so easy to completely outlevel phase 2 of a long story arc (croatoa, striga) while you're still only doing phase 1.  

and I like doing several story arcs in each level range on the way up. 

I can't stand not getting XP, it kind of makes me feel like I am not getting anywhere. However, I would LOVE if there were an option to get the old Debt system back. It would make me fight harder not to die rather than "Meh, if I die I die" type of thing. I feel you though, man...really.

[FoulVileTerror]

I don't see it get brought up a lot, but there is another aspect to all of this which might explain why you don't see Homecoming using everything posted to OuroDev:

Credit and Ownership.

 

Well, yes, duh.  ncsoft owns the rights to City of Heroes, but I meant all that additional work that the fans have done since then.

Some of them share it freely!  However, some have asked for certain concessions be made if you intend to use their work.  While it might seem to be a small thing to ignore that, especially given the pirated nature of the whole affair, I don't except the Homecoming Team to run roughshod over that.  If they don't want to meet those concessions, I doubt they would just up and steal something (or at least I -hope- that's the case).

And then there's the possibility that the Homecoming Team want to be the ones who can put their names to their work (you know; IF they could actually put their names to it without risking legal backlash).  I expect the Homecoming Team would rather just give anything not made internally a pass.  

 

To be clear; not defending the choices, or condemning them.  It's too nuanced a situation for me to make a call one way or the other; especially without more factual details.

[Grouchybeast]

I wouldn't want everyone to be working together on one server, anyway,

 

If we're going to have the downsides of playing a pirated game, then we should at least get the advantages.   Different communities suit different people.  The more dev teams are working on their own version of the game, the more choices players have to get the gameplay experience they prefer.  And the more servers that are running, the more time-consuming and expensive it is for NCSoft to shut them all down.

[BurtHutt]

2 hours ago, Grouchybeast said:

I wouldn't want everyone to be working together on one server, anyway,

 

If we're going to have the downsides of playing a pirated game, then we should at least get the advantages.   Different communities suit different people.  The more dev teams are working on their own version of the game, the more choices players have to get the gameplay experience they prefer.  And the more servers that are running, the more time-consuming and expensive it is for NCSoft to shut them all down.

I guess. I'm working under the premise that HC will get the license to run the game and their Dev team could use the help. HC has a top notch product here and it's comparable to Live. I don't know if the other servers have that...it doesn't seem like it. HC has a very professional product and feel here. If they do add other Devs etc, I'd want it to maintain the quality. I wouldn't want a single thing added if it doesn't meet a high standard.

 

Again, there's a reason most play here. I get others may want some variety but the actual gameplay and quality seems to be better here. 🙂