Homecoming Server Update (October 1st): Closed Beta, Name Release, and CoC Updates

[Widower]

Hello!

 

It’s been a while, but we’ve got some news for you today!

 

Closed Beta Applications Open

 

As some of you know, there has been a closed testing shard running for a number of years now, but the way to join has always been kind of opaque. We are pleased to announce that as of today, you will be able to apply to join Closed Beta through the account portal. We're looking for applicants who are interested in providing detailed and constructive feedback about features in development. There are no specific requirements for applying, but successful applicants should have a positive history in the community and a passion for City of Heroes™!

 

Name Release Begins November 1st

 

The City Council has decided that we will activate the long-awaited name release policy on November 1st, 2024. As a reminder, the policy is as follows:

 

• Characters will be flagged as ‘inactive’ when the following time thresholds are met:
  • Level 1-5 characters will be flagged as inactive if they have not been played in the last 30 days
  • Level 6-49 characters will be flagged as inactive if they have not been played in the last 365 days
  • Level 50 characters will never be flagged as inactive (with the exception of Temporal Warriors)
• When a character is flagged as inactive they are not immediately renamed. Instead, their name is simply no longer locked. This allows another player to create a character with that name, at which point the original character will be renamed.
• This flag will be visible on the character select screen. You can remove the inactive flag from a character at any time simply by logging them in.

 

As you are likely aware, the timer has been going since the release of Issue 27, Page 4, so most names should be released immediately.

 

Why are you doing this?

 

In the very early days of the server, back when we didn’t know how long we’d be around, a lot of people made a lot of characters and then abandoned them. There’s no reason to permanently preserve the names of someone who never intends to return to the game.

 

How many names will be freed up?

 

We estimate that 1.6 million names will be eligible for release upon activation, drawing roughly evenly from the 1-5 and 6-49 buckets. This is roughly half the total number of characters.

 

Isn’t there a better solution?

 

We have considered alternate solutions, but the way the servers and databases talk to each other makes those solutions impractical. This solution strikes a balance between preserving character names and freeing up unused names.

 

Will this ever extend to max-level characters?

 

We have no plans to do so.

 

Code of Conduct Updates

 

We’re making some minor updates to our Code of Conduct, mostly relating to multiboxing and AFKing in various zones. In short:

• We've added clarification on the watermarks for when multiboxing is and isn't okay with regards to shard population.
• Multiboxing in the Labyrinth of Fog is now explicitly disallowed.
• GMs may request that you cease multiboxing during events such as the Winter and Halloween events.
• AFKing or idling in raid zones may result in a GM moving your character(s) out of the zone.
  • Repeated behavior may result in further action, if necessary.
• Using TFs and AE mode to bypass the AFK logout timer may result in being disconnected by a GM.
  • The intent of this addition is to give GMs the ability to use their judgement and take action if necessary on a case-by-case basis. To put it simply, you're probably fine as long as you're not causing some sort of disruption or using the functionality for some kind of gain.
  • Repeatedly disregarding a GM's warnings may result in further action.

 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Halloween event will go live today and will run until November 5th. Enjoy Trick-or-Treating!

 

Thanks for reading!

[Laucianna]

2 hours ago, Widower said:

• GMs may request that you cease multiboxing during events such as the Winter and Halloween events.
• AFKing or idling in raid zones may result in a GM moving your character(s) out of the zone.
  • Repeated behavior may result in further action, if necessary.

Is multiboxing during events something if repeated may result in further action if necessary too? But thank you for the update too and good luck to those wanting names!

[Voltor]

Quick question "Using TFs and AE mode to bypass the AFK logout timer may result in being disconnected by a GM. "

 

Is that in the raid zones or in general?

 

[Cipher]

3 minutes ago, Laucianna said:

Is multiboxing during events something if repeated may result in further action if necessary too? But thank you for the update too and good luck to those wanting names!

It should be assumed that is the case for any offences or repeated disregard for a GM's instruction.

[Greycat]

18 minutes ago, Voltor said:

Quick question "Using TFs and AE mode to bypass the AFK logout timer may result in being disconnected by a GM. "

 

Is that in the raid zones or in general?

 

 

It's mostly been an issue with raid zones (though, given last year's halloween complaints of AFK hotel-farming, they're probably extending it to that.)

 

If you're just chilling in a mission soaking damage for a badge, I don't think they'll care (unless there's a really extreme server load issue.)

 

Edit: Also preparing for waves of "Name release went live! Broken, still didn't get the name I wanted!"

Edited 5 hours ago by Greycat

[Kaika]

2 hours ago, Widower said:

 

• Using TFs and AE mode to bypass the AFK logout timer may result in being disconnected by a GM.
  • Repeated behavior may result in further action on a case-by-case basis.

Quick question on this, If I am still at my computer and able to respond ect. is this still allowed or is it just entirely forbidden.

 

I work nights and have alot of free time at work and like to stay logged in, in AP, to chat or to help out new players, while doing other things on my other screens and I often use a TF just to avoid having to jiggle my character when nothings going on, but I'm still there and responsive if someone were to ask, would this be ok? Or is that now in general not allowed?

Edited 5 hours ago by Kaika

[Greycat]

2 minutes ago, Kaika said:

Quick question on this, If I am still at my computer and able to respond ect. is this still allowed or is it just entirely forbidden.

 

I work nights and have alot of free time at work and like to stay logged in, in AP, to chat or to help out new players, while doing other things on my other screens and I often use a TF just to avoid having to jiggle my character when nothings going on, but I'm still there and responsive if someone were to ask, would this be ok? Or is that now in general not allowed?

 

I think you're going to get a vague answer to a lot of that (it's one of those "we have lines, but hesitate to say what they are because people will go RIGHT up to the edge of them" things that are just headaches for gms.)

 

What you're describing probably won't be an issue. They're listing raid zones and during events. Given when the Prismatics were introduced, there were people hovering AFK in front of the hotel with a MM (and other people complaining about it,) they're probably talking about that sort of thing.

[Spirito76]

2 hours ago, Widower said:

• Using TFs and AE mode to bypass the AFK logout timer may result in being disconnected by a GM.

Is it now (or has it always been) impermissible to use this technique to AFK farm badges?  I used the Ouro TF technique to AFK farm the damage badge (afk in a Mercy fire) and the healing badge (afk on the Mercy platform full of Arachnos autofiring the +MaxHP Rebirth incarnate power).  Ought we find appropriate instances to farm these badges in the future?

[Number Six]

3 minutes ago, Kaika said:

I work nights and have alot of free time at work and like to stay logged in to chat or to help out new players, while doing other things on my other screens and I often use a TF just to avoid having to jiggle my character when nothings going on, but I'm still there and responsive if someone were to ask, would this be ok? Or is that now in general not allowed?

 

It should be clarified that the referenced change isn't a prohibition of the practice as a whole -- if that were the case we simply would have made those modes subject to the normal AFK timer. They're a notice that GMs reserve the right to kick someone who is AFK if it's being used it in a disruptive way.

[Seed22]

That name release policy seems to be exactly what I was expecting. Should be interesting to see for those looking for names I suppose.

 

I'm glad and a little weary of new beta testers arriving thanks to the the proverbial gates being lifted. On the one hand, more testers! Yay! Should lead to faster and damn near bug free releases. On the other hand, the potential for infighting between testers as beef from the forums spills over/grievances from whatever previous slight take root. But more importantly, the chances for leaks sky rockets. I figure this can be remedied via GM moderation, so I'll cycle back to yay more testers!

[Kaika]

1 minute ago, Number Six said:

 

It should be clarified that the referenced change isn't a prohibition of the practice as a whole -- if that were the case we simply would have made those modes subject to the normal AFK timer. They're a notice that GMs reserve the right to kick someone who is AFK if it's being used it in a disruptive way.

Thanks for the response, I figured that was the case just wanted clarification.

Edited 5 hours ago by Kaika

[macskull]

10 minutes ago, Greycat said:

Edit: Also preparing for waves of "Name release went live! Broken, still didn't get the name I wanted!"

I’m curious as to how many of those 1.6 million names are on inactive accounts. As it’s currently going to be implemented the name release policy still makes it trivial for a player who is intentionally sitting on a pile of names to  keep them indefinitely.

[WindDemon21]

1 minute ago, macskull said:

I’m curious as to how many of those 1.6 million names are on inactive accounts. As it’s currently going to be implemented the name release policy still makes it trivial for a player who is intentionally sitting on a pile of names to  keep them indefinitely.

I was actually curious about this too, hoping for the first rollout to simply only affect those inactive accounts and see where it stood after that first.

[Voltor]

8 minutes ago, Number Six said:

 

It should be clarified that the referenced change isn't a prohibition of the practice as a whole -- if that were the case we simply would have made those modes subject to the normal AFK timer. They're a notice that GMs reserve the right to kick someone who is AFK if it's being used it in a disruptive way.

 

Ah then soaking damage in a mercy fire or farming heal badges should still be okay, preferably after the event is over.

 

[GM Impervium]

The system doesn't look at accounts, only the last time each character logged in. So an active player with a forgotten level 4 alt on page 32 of their character list has the same chance of losing that specific character's name as the player who logged in once five years ago.

 

Edit: this was meant as a reply to @WindDemon21

Edited 5 hours ago by GM Impervium

[Cipher]

15 minutes ago, Kaika said:

Quick question on this, If I am still at my computer and able to respond ect. is this still allowed or is it just entirely forbidden.

 

I work nights and have alot of free time at work and like to stay logged in, in AP, to chat or to help out new players, while doing other things on my other screens and I often use a TF just to avoid having to jiggle my character when nothings going on, but I'm still there and responsive if someone were to ask, would this be ok? Or is that now in general not allowed?

 

We've just updated the wording in the CoC to make this a little clearer, but the intent of this addition is to allow GMs to use their judgement and take action if necessary on a case-by-case basis. To put it simply, you're probably fine as long as you're not causing some sort of disruption or using the functionality for some kind of exploitative gain.

[Greycat]

1 minute ago, GM Impervium said:

The system doesn't look at accounts, only the last time each character logged in. So an active player with a forgotten level 4 alt on page 32 of their character list has the same chance of losing that specific character's name as the player who logged in once five years ago.

 

I seem to recall being told at one point that it actually *couldn't* be done with accounts due to how things were set up. (Rusty memory.)

[WindDemon21]

2 minutes ago, GM Impervium said:

The system doesn't look at accounts, only the last time each character logged in. So an active player with a forgotten level 4 alt on page 32 of their character list has the same chance of losing that specific character's name as the player who logged in once five years ago.

Yeah that's what was in question I imagine like grey mentioned it just isn't possible somehow.

 

That said it would be super helpful if there was a way to sort (not just search) our characters in the list by name, AT, level, powers, etc.

[SnoBahr]

I have an alt account which I primarily use for my club criers, generally in Pocket D, and my MSR crier in the RWZ to let people who didn't fully read the /lfg that they need to get both in zone *and then* /t me for the invite to the instanced MSR (also useful for those folks who swapped alts to join, so they lost the scrollback in their LFG feed). Is event crier activity one of the triggers for the AFK crackdown?

[mechahamham]

For the sake of clarification, will RWZ be considered a raid zone?

 

A lot of the regular MSRs are now forming exclusively for the sake of instanced raids, but I still find myself occasionally getting in the way of those that form up in the permanent RWZ 1 instance.

 

(Also, Laucianna, Maya and others forming raids in SG bases, thank you for doing so!)

 

This usually happens if I'm using the Vanguard base as a crafting hub on a new, unfunded character due to its convenient placing of crafting tables and vendors. I hate to think I'm crosswise of people trying to enjoy a raid, but would be even more upset if I found I'd been causing policy problems.

 

If RWZ will be considered a raid zone, might I suggest keeping a RWZ 2 instance spun up by default? Another good solution would be to put vendors inside the Kallisti Wharf University to make it as convenient as the RWZ location.

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

WARNING: Mere GM commenting, not Lead GM or City Council Member.

 

The new policy is just a statement that we reserve the right to move or kick players that are AFK.  Generally, being AFK is not a problem, especially if it's for a short period of time.  But occasionally, players go AFK in a way that's disruptive to other players, for eg. AFK at the Halloween Murder Hotel for the entire month, AFK and blocking entrances or exits for extended periods of time, AFK on a TF and preventing the rest of the team from moving on.  The more disruptive to other players and the longer the AFK, the more likely that person might be moved or kicked.

 

And the worst that will happen is that you get moved or kicked.  When you are back at your keyboard you can play again . . . but probably wise NOT to resume AFKing in the same disruptive way.

[Ridiculous Girl]

yay! for the name release! i have 850+ alts and i cannot begin to do that manually without creating more alts in the process... best let it happen automatically. 😄

[kelika2]

1 hour ago, macskull said:

I’m curious as to how many of those 1.6 million names are on inactive accounts. As it’s currently going to be implemented the name release policy still makes it trivial for a player who is intentionally sitting on a pile of names to  keep them indefinitely.

imagine the maintenance after the patch tho, that should break most people.

like every year i pool my alts inf, merits and other misc things and that takes a few days with 150~ alts

 

someone actively squatting on a handful of names would make that into more than a full time job

[Hedgefund]

So, just to boil it down - AFK while resting in a fire within a zone like St. Martial.  Disruptive/Kickworthy?  Y/N

[kelika2]

6 minutes ago, Hedgefund said:

So, just to boil it down - AFK while resting in a fire within a zone like St. Martial.  Disruptive/Kickworthy?  Y/N

Im still not 100% sure myself but they can do it as they please/as needed.

So if St martial has an active ToT league, or rikti group then maybe