Installing the new Homecoming Launcher on a Mac (LaunchCat)

[WanderingAries]

Try going into your System Preferences -> Security/Privacy and see if there's something asking for you to allow near the bottom.

[WanderingAries]

On 1/28/2022 at 6:57 AM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

*bump*

 

...came here to ask this, as the Mac is starting to nudge me a lot about Monterey and I'd prefer it didn't frag anything.

 

Y'all are gonna make me load a VM aren't you. I've sold the M1, so no more testing that for me anytime soon.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

37 minutes ago, WanderingAries said:

 

Y'all are gonna make me load a VM aren't you. I've sold the M1, so no more testing that for me anytime soon.

 

(Seriously, I just got back into CoH just as my 2015-era Mac Pro is starting to bite the dust. I was most worried about the on-board GPU not being able to work with it, but now Monterey is having its own fun with apps old and new...)

[Pigfighter]

I was able to get the launcher to load by opening it with security/privacy tab open.  It gave the option of "download it anyway". Trying to download it now.  I'll update you on how it goes. 

 

 

[WanderingAries]

Oh the game plays just fine on the platform. It's if there are any particulars about Monterey that I'm not sure of.

[Xiddo]

On 3/29/2021 at 3:21 PM, TheHumbleUnicorn said:

Hi Manga,

 

Thanks so much for your reply =D

 

The CoH folder had all permissions turned to Read & Write for all users and applied to all sub folders. I also updated my OS to Big Sur and experienced the same issues.

 

However, after much spelunking through the forums I discovered that another user bypassed this issue using bootcamp which I completely forgot existed.

 

Yesterday I was able to successfully partition my drive, install the windows client and log on to the game.

 

It is not the ideal solution but I found a way!

 

Thank you for all of your help and I will definitely try any new mac launcher builds that come out to see if I can get it running on my main partition.

 

So appreciative of what you guys do!

 

All my best =D

 

 

just popping back into this thread… @Manga has been amazing this week trying to help me get my HC launcher running. Everything with the install works fine until the issue @TheHumbleUnicorn had. I since found that my ISP blocked the bit between launching Launcher.app (wine) and the HC Launcher opening. I could fiddle with the ports on my router, but if I go on my phone hotspot, open Launcher, HC launcher opens, go back to normal wifi, then it’s fine.

So it’s permissions but not my computer’s, but internet for me! Only spotted this behaviour when I took my laptop into work and it opened fine on that network but not at home.

This - I think - might cover the problem?

https://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1942594.html 

[Sassitude]

I'm running Ventura and get this error message:

“Mac CoH Installer.pkg” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.

[WanderingAries]

9 hours ago, Sassitude said:

I'm running Ventura and get this error message:

“Mac CoH Installer.pkg” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.

 

I think you can right/shift click the file and run it anyway, but this may also trigger an 'allow' in the security & privacy settings as well. I've not tested in Ventura yet, so haven't seen what it looks like for the game installer.

 

And this is exactly it...give or take a couple other things. Update posted to the guide in my links:

 

@Manga, IDK how I'd test the last bit of my post there, but feel free to give feedback.

Edited December 1, 2022 by WanderingAries

[SanDiegoDana]

Not wanting to dig up an ancient thread, but also not wanting to start a new distracting thread :)

I have an M1 Mac running latest (ventura) and maintain security on my system in several ways, one of which is that my account does not have admin privileges.  Fine, it really should NOT be an issue here for what this game needs.

 

I tried getting the Windows installer to run in Crossover (Wine for Mac package) but it continuously gets "insufficient memory" errors verifying the files as it downloads (in both 32-bit and 64-bit configurations).

 

So I tried Island Rum and it just errors immediately with "Game Path Not Writable".

 

Is there any way to get a log of anything to indicate what the game path is?

 

I mean, I could alternatively just download everything in the manifest.xml but I am a bit stumped at what to fix :)

 

(THIS IS AWESOME, btw, I had no idea there were so many people who missed CoH like I do :) )

[SanDiegoDana]

Oh, interesting: launcher.exe from the pkg file seems to run fine (so far?) under crossover!  I can avoid tequila.exe that way!

 

 

I wonder if I can publish a crossover bottle with launcher.exe in it?

[SanDiegoDana]

I gotta say: that launcher.exe did pretty much everything perfectly in a new Windows 10 64-bit Crossover bottle.  like, that was it, just run launcher.exe.

I will see about how to publish a bottle with that file in it....

[pauper_ill]

OK, so weird problem -- the power supply on my M1 Mac mini went out, and Apple was kind enough to replace it and the logic board under AppleCare+ (whee!). They also nuked the drive, so I reinstalled from a Time Machine backup (whee!).

 

Once completed, only two applications failed to launch as expected -- but one of them is Homecoming.

 

I'm on Ventura, so it took a bit to find the privacy settings under the new Settings app, but I think I have them all in place, but I keep having the same problem -- launching 'Launch CoH' opens Wine Installer, it sits for about 15-20 seconds, then quits. No error message, just application ends.

 

No real clue what to do at this point. Any advice?

 

Edit: Think I stumbled onto the answer -- the restore-from-backup apparently didn't restore all of my Xcode command line tools properly. (Props to this page (https://www.davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/wine-mac/) put together by David Baumgold that pointed me at the 'brew doctor' command that clued me in.)

Reinstalling Xcode command line tools, then reinstalling Homebrew appears to have fixed the issue, though the version of Homebrew I have now is 7.1 rather than the 6.1 that seems to be included with the Homecoming installer. (Not sure if that might cause issues down the road.)

Update to Edit: Success!

 

--

Pauper

Edited January 7, 2023 by pauper_ill
Found solution

[VioLight]

So can I just say thanks for making the Mac installer so smooth?

 

Brand new (base) M2 Mac Mini on Ventura and it installed and ran like a champ. (Homecoming was the second thing installed after Firefox.)

[Crowcus Pocus]

On 1/24/2023 at 11:47 PM, VioLight said:

So can I just say thanks for making the Mac installer so smooth?

 

Brand new (base) M2 Mac Mini on Ventura and it installed and ran like a champ. (Homecoming was the second thing installed after Firefox.)

 

Does it run smoothly? I've been thinking of finally letting go of my 10y-old desktop and get a M2 Mac Mini. But I'd love to still being able to play City of Heroes and a few minor steam gams.

[Xiddo]

On 1/29/2023 at 7:46 PM, Falsey said:

 

Does it run smoothly? I've been thinking of finally letting go of my 10y-old desktop and get a M2 Mac Mini. But I'd love to still being able to play City of Heroes and a few minor steam gams.

After some kerfuffle my end (for some reason my ISP doesn't allow wine to open but once installed is fine) it runs really smoothly. You'll be fine.

[VioLight]

On 1/29/2023 at 1:46 PM, Falsey said:

 

Does it run smoothly? I've been thinking of finally letting go of my 10y-old desktop and get a M2 Mac Mini. But I'd love to still being able to play City of Heroes and a few minor steam gams.

 

I haven't joined anything like a giant league on it yet, but other than that it runs really nicely. 

[Crowcus Pocus]

On 2/3/2023 at 3:36 PM, VioLight said:

 

I haven't joined anything like a giant league on it yet, but other than that it runs really nicely. 

Good to know! How about Mids - is there a working solution? Thank you!

[Xiddo]

44 minutes ago, Falsey said:

Good to know! How about Mids - is there a working solution? Thank you!

This one I’m not sure about. There is a video knowing around of getting it to work but my one is currently struggling a lot with it. I can select powers, it’s very slow, but as soon as I try and slot stuff it just crashes.

[Crowcus Pocus]

25 minutes ago, Xiddo said:

This one I’m not sure about. There is a video knowing around of getting it to work but my one is currently struggling a lot with it. I can select powers, it’s very slow, but as soon as I try and slot stuff it just crashes.

Oh noes! I'm lost without my loyal Mids.

[Xiddo]

I suspect it might be “user error” @Falsey. I’m going to have a look again this weekend.

[VioLight]

On 2/7/2023 at 10:39 AM, Crowcus Pocus said:

Good to know! How about Mids - is there a working solution? Thank you!

 

Sorry for the late reply, I don't really use mids, so... 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Hi all - existing Mac Launcher dies without launching after upgrade to Ventura 13.3.1. Going to try a reinstall.

 

If that fails, anyone got any good tips? 

 

Here's the last few bits from the logfile:

 

2023-05-12 19:13:08    launcher: WINE detected
2023-05-12 19:13:08    launcher: Using basedir z:/Applications/coh
2023-05-12 19:13:08    bootstrap: Cached config loaded
2023-05-12 19:13:08    pstate: package hc_bin_live_win32:1.20230503.223513.5450 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:13:08    pstate: package hc_bin_live_win64:1.20230503.223808.5450 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:13:08    pstate: package hc_crashhandler_win32:1.20211104.184105.4643 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:13:08    pstate: package hc_crashhandler_win64:1.20211104.184105.4643 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:13:08    pstate: package hc_data_live:1.20230501.53728.5440 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:13:08    bootstrap: Cached package loaded
2023-05-12 19:13:08    pstate: package launcher:1.4550 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:13:08    bootstrap: Package is valid
2023-05-12 19:13:08    pstate: package i24_piggs:1.0.2400 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:13:08    pstate: package hc_live:1.20230503.224356,1 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:13:08    installer: Created shortcut Z:\Applications\coh\HC Launcher.lnk
2023-05-12 19:13:08    eula: Cached eula loaded
2023-05-12 19:13:08    bootstrap: Loading lua script launcher.lua
2023-05-12 19:24:01    launcher: Starting (build wine-x64-final-4550)
2023-05-12 19:24:01    launcher: WINE detected
2023-05-12 19:24:01    launcher: Using basedir z:/Applications/coh
2023-05-12 19:24:01    bootstrap: Cached config loaded
2023-05-12 19:24:01    pstate: package hc_bin_live_win32:1.20230503.223513.5450 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:24:01    pstate: package hc_crashhandler_win32:1.20211104.184105.4643 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:24:01    pstate: package hc_bin_live_win64:1.20230503.223808.5450 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:24:01    pstate: package hc_crashhandler_win64:1.20211104.184105.4643 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:24:01    pstate: package hc_data_live:1.20230501.53728.5440 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:24:01    bootstrap: Attempting to recover from failure
2023-05-12 19:24:01    bootstrap: Fetching config from http://manifest.cohhc.gg/launcher/v1mac/bootstrap.json
2023-05-12 19:24:01    pstate: package i24_piggs:1.0.2400 transitioned from unknown to installed
2023-05-12 19:24:01    pstate: package hc_live:1.20230503.224356,1 transitioned from unknown to installed

 

EDIT... okay, after a reinstall and a bit of playing around, found that the only bit that seems actively broken is the launcher shortcut app that loads Wine with /coh/bin/win64/launcher.exe.

 

Accessing launcher.exe directly pulls up the launcher, and allows you to download/update game client. However, the first couple of launches the client may think you haven't installed the files yet. Clicking on the download icon refreshes its memory and it should load.

 

Question: is there anything particularly useful in the actual Homecoming launcher shortcut that's needed to boot launcher.exe in any particular mode, or is accessing it directly to call WINE just as good?

Edited May 12, 2023 by ThaOGDreamWeaver
Blasted Mac updates - but not as bad as thought

[littlelitz]

Sorry to revive an old thread.

 

I was playing CoH on my old MacBook a few months ago, but life got busy and I haven't been able to play in awhile. I have a couple of weeks without many obligations, and I was immensely excited to start playing again. But, after downloading the updates on the launcher, when I hit run, the loading screen comes up indefinitely and CoH never launches. I've tried deleting my launcher and downloading and reinstalling it from scratch, but it's just the same issue.

 

I'm running macOS Catalina, I haven't made any updates since I last played CoH. I really only still have this laptop because of CoH.

 

Any help would be extremely appreciated.

[doooood]

For those wanting to install, here's a really easy method:

1. Download whisky: https://getwhisky.app
2. Install whisky
3. Download the windows Homecoming Launcher: https://manifest.cohhc.gg/launcher/hcinstall.exe
4. Create a new bottle in whisky
   1. Name it COH
   2. Manually run (bottom right corner) and select the `hcinstall.exe` wherever you saved it.
   3. Run through the installation
   4. Click "pin program" go into the installation directory, go to bin, win64  directory and select `launcher.exe` - give it a name like "COH Launcher"
   5. After, click the refresh icon in top right corner (2 arrows) so the pinned program shows up.
5. Double click on the pinned "COH Launcher" and the game should now load.

 

That's it!

 

 

[GM Manga]

I updated the post at the top of this thread with newer and simpler instructions.