Some way to track hours played

[Gen.Alexander]

So, sadly, CoH lacks a convenient way to keep track of the time I spent playing the game. There is no /played, you need to talk to a specific NPC and it's only on per-character basis. I used to use Xfire and Steam to keep track of my gaming time, but Xfire is long dead and the Steam doesn't work with Homecoming. Would it be possible to add (an optional) tracker of my "hours played" to Homecoming launcher?

[UberGuy]

There are no game stats of any kind that aren't per character. The only way to do that would be to scan every character and sum their respective times.

 

Any addition of stats to the launcher would be a significant expansion of what it does. It doesn't connect to the game's back-end at all. It simply auths to the forums and patches and starts the game client.

Edited May 18, 2021 by UberGuy

[Hedgefund]

Some things are better left unknown...

[RubyRed]

I think this would be a nice addition at some point. I get some stats since I use Lutris as a front-end but that has challenges since it's tracked client side (I play on two different computers and have reinstalled at points which wipes the data).

8 hours ago, UberGuy said:

Any addition of stats to the launcher would be a significant expansion of what it does. It doesn't connect to the game's back-end at all.

 

Probably doesn't need to be that fancy at all. It could just track time the game is running, that's what Steam does, and it's a nice enough estimate.

[UberGuy]

5 hours ago, RubyRed said:

Probably doesn't need to be that fancy at all. It could just track time the game is running, that's what Steam does, and it's a nice enough estimate.

 

Yeah, something like that could work for folks that leave the launcher running. Of course if you leave the game sitting at the login screen, the launcher might measure that as time "playing". It might be able to be a bit smarter than that, if there's an easy-ish way to monitor the client for active connections to a mapserver. (I think that stuff is all UDP, so the notion of "connection" may be tenuous.)

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by UberGuy
Typo / clarity

[arcane]

1 hour ago, Hedgefund said:

Some things are better left unknown...

This figure could prove immensely depressing for some of us.

[Kismette]

If you have any of the Steam version of CoH, you could technically use that to track your hours played.  It wouldn't be accurate now if you're only about to this and if you already have play time recorded from back on live.

 

You'll have to redownload/reinstall the old files though (via Steam, of course), after that, right click on 'City of Heroes' from your library list.  Click 'Properties' from the pull down menu and from the General tab below, for the Launch Options, type:

 

"C:\Homecoming\bin\win64\launcher.exe" %command%

 

win32 if you're using 32-bit to run the game and the target location of launcher.exe should be where you've installed it if anywhere else.  Finally, run it like a regular Steam game.

 

Now I don't know if this is allowed though 😅

Edited May 18, 2021 by Kismette

[TemporalVileTerror]

Back when I used to use Steam, and Legacy/Retail City of Heroes was a thing, that's exactly what I did.
Logged over 5,000 hours!   . . . because I just left the client running on the login screen for days on end.

 

Then again, 5,000 hours doesn't seem that unreasonable either:  https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/14432-youve-spent-a-total-of-1343-hours-on-patrol/

[Wavicle]

I think civilians whose name start with M tell you how many hours you've played on that character? Am I misremembering?

[Gen.Alexander]

On 5/18/2021 at 7:24 PM, Kismette said:

If you have any of the Steam version of CoH, you could technically use that to track your hours played.  It wouldn't be accurate now if you're only about to this and if you already have play time recorded from back on live.

 

You'll have to redownload/reinstall the old files though (via Steam, of course), after that, right click on 'City of Heroes' from your library list.  Click 'Properties' from the pull down menu and from the General tab below, for the Launch Options, type:

 

"C:\Homecoming\bin\win64\launcher.exe" %command%

 

win32 if you're using 32-bit to run the game and the target location of launcher.exe should be where you've installed it if anywhere else.  Finally, run it like a regular Steam game.

 

Now I don't know if this is allowed though 😅

That sounds interesting. I actually managed to make Steam see Tequila as a Steam CoH Launcher by making a shortcut, putting it into a Steam CoH folder and renaming it, but it didn't work with Homecoming launcher. Gonna try your approach.

[Gen.Alexander]

On 5/18/2021 at 7:24 PM, Kismette said:

If you have any of the Steam version of CoH, you could technically use that to track your hours played.  It wouldn't be accurate now if you're only about to this and if you already have play time recorded from back on live.

 

You'll have to redownload/reinstall the old files though (via Steam, of course), after that, right click on 'City of Heroes' from your library list.  Click 'Properties' from the pull down menu and from the General tab below, for the Launch Options, type:

 

"C:\Homecoming\bin\win64\launcher.exe" %command%

 

win32 if you're using 32-bit to run the game and the target location of launcher.exe should be where you've installed it if anywhere else.  Finally, run it like a regular Steam game.

 

Now I don't know if this is allowed though 😅

Tried it. It actually works! Thank you, I've never heard of that trick before.

[Riverdusk]

The GoG Galaxy client will also track hours for you.  Run the launcher from it and it tracks the hours as long as the launcher is running, how I use it anyway.  Not perfect, but it is still interesting, not sure I want to say how big a number it is showing my hours played is already.  

 

And I love how GoG Galaxy lets me track and run ALL my games across all the different services (steam, uplay, origin, etc.) all from one spot, so I'm a fan anyway.

 

Note that I'm still using Tequila, haven't tried it with the new launcher.  I'll have to try it when I have some time.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Riverdusk

[Kismette]

7 hours ago, Gen.Alexander said:

Tried it. It actually works! Thank you, I've never heard of that trick before.

 

You're welcome!  But yea, it's using up 'useless' 2... 3? gb of space if done this way.

[starro]

On 5/18/2021 at 9:25 PM, Wavicle said:

I think civilians whose name start with M tell you how many hours you've played on that character? Am I misremembering?

 

Civilian NPCs - Paragon Wiki Archive

 

It's been years and I don't think it is around any more but I wonder if the old City of Heroes "Herostats" utility had that.  I just remember it was very small.

Edited May 23, 2021 by duane

[Shenanigunner]

On 5/18/2021 at 7:27 AM, Hedgefund said:

Some things are better left unknown...

 

And for the rest, there are things called "clocks." No, no, not clockwork.

[Herotu]

On 5/18/2021 at 2:27 PM, Hedgefund said:

Some things are better left unknown...

Known unknowns? or known unknown but really knowns, I mean who doesn't own a clock... or a phone with a clock on it? If we REALLY want to cut down on carbon, we'd get rid of time. it's bullshit anyway. Someone just made it up. Like money. #TimeDenier

[Mopery]

"You have waaaaay too many hours played." - Maria from Steel Canyon

[Blood Speaker]

On 5/23/2021 at 4:29 AM, starro said:

Civilian NPCs - Paragon Wiki Archive

I still remember a redside NPC, in Port Oakes, I think, asking me "Is your character a copyright violation?" I only ever got this once, so I don't know if it was possibly removed, but I found it pretty hilarious. 🙃