Welcome Home! - An Open Letter from Homecoming

[Widower]

Hello everyone!

 

It’s been a rather exciting couple of weeks, hasn’t it? 😀

 

There’s been a lot of talk, questions, and speculations as to what this means for Homecoming and City of Heroes™, both now and in the future, so we wanted to take a moment to talk about where we’re at and where we’re going.

 

But first… how did we get here?

The Journey Here
Let’s look all the way back to May 2019, a month after Homecoming launched. We wrote an open letter to the community explaining our goals and motivations for everything that we’ve been doing. This statement still holds true:

 

On 5/26/2019 at 6:22 PM, Jimmy said:

The Homecoming Team is a group of individuals from across the City of Heroes community dedicated to creating a friendly, stable and long-term version of the game for everyone to enjoy. The key is in the name: We want this to feel like the home we all lost, and we want everybody to feel welcome.

 

To break that down: Our prime directive is to keep the servers online and available to everyone. Every single decision we’ve made has been in support of that goal.

Of course, after the events of 2019, City of Heroes can never truly go away again. But the game simply existing wasn’t good enough, in our books; it was already sunset once, and we didn't want to risk that happening again - potentially over and over.

 

The community deserves a safe and stable long-term home - not uncertainty, division, and a lack of continuity. That’s why we began our talks to acquire a license in 2019 - to secure that future for everyone.

 

It’s been a long road, and we know some of our decisions have seemed questionable or frustrating at times. We know we’ve made some mistakes and missteps along the way, but our motive has never changed. Everything we’ve done has been in service of that original goal.

 

And it worked. Nearly five years later, the talks succeeded and Homecoming is now officially licensed to host City of Heroes. We’re back for real now - and it’s still a bit surreal!

 

This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our entire team - the Game Masters (including those no longer with us), the development team, and the admin team - as well as you, the community. Without everyone's unwavering support, none of this would’ve been possible.

 

Thank you.

Victory + Paragon + Homecoming
As we mentioned in the announcement FAQ, we are working towards merging in some friendly servers - Victory and Paragon.

 

Victory will be joining us as our 6th live shard alongside Torchbearer, Excelsior, Everlasting, Reunion and Indomitable. This will likely not take place for at least a couple of months as it’s a fairly complicated process, but we wanted to give you all a heads up so you aren’t surprised when it pops up!

 

For those of you involved in Closed Beta testing, this will all be moving to take place inside Homecoming’s infrastructure, instead of being hosted by Paragon. As part of this, we will be setting up a new, straightforward path to join the Closed Beta process.

 

As a fully volunteer organization, we obviously don’t have an in-house QA team. Our Closed Beta process is therefore vital for ensuring updates go smoothly. We hope to see many of you join in and help out once we’ve moved it over to Homecoming! 

 

And, speaking of updates…

Issue 27: Page 7 - Coming Soon!
The next major update, Issue 27: Page 7, will be coming to Open Beta very soon™. This update is huge - new power sets, new story arcs (including the finale of Piecemeal’s story), zone updates, new customization options, enemy group updates, and our next Advanced Difficulty Task Force: Lady Grey.

 

We hope you like reading, as the patch notes are nearly 70 pages long when pasted into a document.

 

In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there’s so much more to come in Issue 28 and beyond, including 🌊 & 🐮.

Homecoming is Recruiting!
Our team is growing! Not only are the fine folks from Paragon and Victory joining us, but we’ve also recently brought on a new group of Game Masters and developers - and we’re not stopping there!

 

If you’re interested in joining the team, we'd love to hear from you!

• Developer application form
• Game Master application form

That’s all for today. Once again, thank you for all the support you’ve shown us. We hope you’re all as excited as we are for what the future holds!

 

- Homecoming

[Troo]

Good stuff.

[Ruin Mage]

ADVANCED MODE LADY GREY LETS FUCKING GOOO

 

[Laucianna]

Woohoo!!! Amazing work from everyone on the Homecoming team!!! (Even though you eat Kheldians!)

 

 - Lauci x

[luficia]

Oh. My. God.

 

I've been wanting that seer outfit for years. Seeing it-omgosh and everything else, I'm so HYPED!!

[Jimmy]

3 minutes ago, Ruin Mage said:

ADVANCED MODE LADY GREY LETS FUCKING GOOO

 

🙈🙉🙊

[Bananiac]

4 minutes ago, luficia said:

Oh. My. God.

 

I've been wanting that seer outfit for years. Seeing it-omgosh and everything else, I'm so HYPED!!

 

I just second that statement...

 

EDIT: I just zoomed in on that picture... that is a freaking RUBBER DUCK HEAD on top of that armoured suit?!?! 🤯🤣

Edited January 17 by Bananiac

[Xero013]

I'm interested on what the new powerset is.

[SaxyGuitar]

I do love a Lady Grey Strike Force. I'm looking forward to making people do this with me.

[Xtream]

Fantastic work all, keep it up 🙂

All the work put in by everyone is greatly appreciated.

[StrawberryWitch]

What's the new power set? Is it Wind? 🥰🥰🌬️ Ty for all your hard work!!

[StarseedWarrior]

52 minutes ago, Widower said:

Hello everyone!

 

It’s been a rather exciting couple of weeks, hasn’t it? 😀

 

There’s been a lot of talk, questions, and speculations as to what this means for Homecoming and City of Heroes™, both now and in the future, so we wanted to take a moment to talk about where we’re at and where we’re going.

 

But first… how did we get here?

The Journey Here
Let’s look all the way back to May 2019, a month after Homecoming launched. We wrote an open letter to the community explaining our goals and motivations for everything that we’ve been doing. This statement still holds true:

 

Of course, after the events of 2019, City of Heroes can never truly go away again. But the game simply existing wasn’t good enough, in our books; it was already sunset once, and we didn't want to risk that happening again - potentially over and over.

 

The community deserves a safe and stable long-term home - not uncertainty, division, and a lack of continuity. That’s why we began our talks to acquire a license in 2019 - to secure that future for everyone.

 

It’s been a long road, and we know some of our decisions have seemed questionable or frustrating at times. We know we’ve made some mistakes and missteps along the way, but our motive has never changed. Everything we’ve done has been in service of that original goal.

 

And it worked. Nearly five years later, the talks succeeded and Homecoming is now officially licensed to host City of Heroes. We’re back for real now - and it’s still a bit surreal!

 

This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our entire team - the Game Masters (including those no longer with us), the development team, and the admin team - as well as you, the community. Without everyone's unwavering support, none of this would’ve been possible.

 

Thank you.

Victory + Paragon + Homecoming
As we mentioned in the announcement FAQ, we are working towards merging in some friendly servers - Victory and Paragon.

 

Victory will be joining us as our 6th live shard alongside Torchbearer, Excelsior, Everlasting, Reunion and Indomitable. This will likely not take place for at least a couple of months as it’s a fairly complicated process, but we wanted to give you all a heads up so you aren’t surprised when it pops up!

 

For those of you involved in Closed Beta testing, this will all be moving to take place inside Homecoming’s infrastructure, instead of being hosted by Paragon. As part of this, we will be setting up a new, straightforward path to join the Closed Beta process.

 

As a fully volunteer organization, we obviously don’t have an in-house QA team. Our Closed Beta process is therefore vital for ensuring updates go smoothly. We hope to see many of you join in and help out once we’ve moved it over to Homecoming! 

 

And, speaking of updates…

Issue 27: Page 7 - Coming Soon!
The next major update, Issue 27: Page 7, will be coming to Open Beta very soon™. This update is huge - new power sets, new story arcs (including the finale of Piecemeal’s story), zone updates, new customization options, enemy group updates, and our next Advanced Difficulty Task Force: Lady Grey.

 

We hope you like reading, as the patch notes are nearly 70 pages long when pasted into a document.

 

In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there’s so much more to come in Issue 28 and beyond, including 🌊 & 🐮.

Homecoming is Recruiting!
Our team is growing! Not only are the fine folks from Paragon and Victory joining us, but we’ve also recently brought on a new group of Game Masters and developers - and we’re not stopping there!

 

If you’re interested in joining the team, we'd love to hear from you!

• Developer application form
• Game Master application form

That’s all for today. Once again, thank you for all the support you’ve shown us. We hope you’re all as excited as we are for what the future holds!

 

- Homecoming

Incredible you guys are all outstanding heroes in my book you have my respect 100 percent I wish I could help with the game but I am not good at coding or other details but I am extremely creative.

Edited January 17 by StarseedWarrior

[Troo]

I think my mind has been blown.

[Infinitum]

Man oh man that's good stuff.  This is so exciting!   Awesome job again and again. 

[PeregrineFalcon]

Please port Energy Aura to Tanks finally.

[GM Crumpet]

Finally I can actually confirm we have an update coming!! People keep asking me and I'm like "eventually, at some point" 🙂

[Lazarillo]

Okay, I see what looks like VEAT power customization.  Which means that I'm now stuck.  Because if it is VEAT power customization, I'm never gonna play anything but a Fortunata again, probably.  And if it's not VEAT power customization, then the fakeout is going to leave me so annoyed that nothing else in the patch could possibly salvage it.

Edited January 17 by Lazarillo

[luficia]

1 minute ago, GM Crumpet said:

Finally I can actually confirm we have an update coming!! People keep asking me and I'm like "eventually, at some point" 🙂

 

You were literally the Gingerbread Man from Shrek 3 in trying to avoid saying yes or no, lol. 

 

Glad to see a confirmation at long last!

 

[EmperorSteele]

...

 

Now I'm wondering what Rikti wings would taste like with buffalo sauce.

 

But, that's a "me" problem. Thanks for the update on the update, looking forward to being updated again soon!

 

(Still waiting on my pony, tho...)

[Lazarillo]

8 minutes ago, GM Crumpet said:

Finally I can actually confirm we have an update coming!! People keep asking me and I'm like "eventually, at some point" 🙂

I mean, there's still not a timetable, so I'd assume that if people ask you the answer is still "eventually, at some point".

Edited January 17 by Lazarillo

[Gadzookery]

mYES more costume pieces, my number one thing

 

[Gadzookery]

4 minutes ago, Lazarillo said:

I mean, I think if people ask you the answer is still "eventually, at some point".

Didn't Live devs have a thing where whenever they announced something they just said "SOON (tm)"

[Conviction]

21 minutes ago, Bananiac said:

 

I just second that statement...

 

EDIT: I just zoomed in on that picture... that is a freaking RUBBER DUCK HEAD on top of that armoured suit?!?! 🤯🤣

Anyone else start humming "Rubber Ducky You're the One" when you saw that picture?1?  Just me then?

[Anyad]

Awesome to hear, excited for what’s coming. As a veteran Rikti hunter. I await the next alien challenge. How about 4⭐️ Instance Mother Ship Raid my Friday night raid army is getting too good at it . More Heavies!!😜👍

Edited January 17 by Anyad

[Kaoticken]

Awesome news!!

Can't believe I only managed to get back into the Cities just before Christmas and am here for such a monumental shift!

 

As one of the 'Oldies' who was there in the beginning, who stood there at the end, who has NEVER found anything quite like the Joy of the City of Heroes/Villains - THANK YOU - Thank you from the depths of my usually uncaring heart.