2025 - A Look Back, A Look Ahead

[Widower]

Hello Paragon City!

We wanted to take a moment to both review our year in 2024, as well as provide a look-ahead to our plans for 2025! The year started out with a bang, having been officially licensed! We also saw the completion of Issue 27, both a new Anniversary Event accompanied with a 20th Anniversary Celebration that we did, and the release of Issue 28, Page 1!

 

That was just our successes! Let's not forget some of the things you (the players) achieved in 2024!

2024 Player Stats:

• Number of Characters Created in 2024:  574,534
  • Torchbearer: 68,208
  • Excelsior: 255,972
  • Indomitable: 63,394
  • Everlasting: 120,017
  • Reunion: 66,943
     
• Powerset & Archetype Data of 2024:
  • Most Popular Archetype of 2024:
    1. Brute - 77,367
    2. Blaster - 75,570
    3. Mastermind - 67,112
  • Least Popular Archetype of 2024:
    1. Arachnos Widow - 5,183
    2. Warshade - 5,780
    3. Arachnos Soldier - 7,980
    4. Peacebringer - 8,116
  • Most Popular Primary of 2024:
    1. Mastermind Robotics - 14,547
    2. Mastermind Demon Summoning - 13,221
    3. Mastermind Necromancy - 11,632
  • Least Popular Primary of 2024:
    1. Stalker Stone Melee - 377
    2. Stalker Radiation Melee - 571
    3. Defender Traps - 591
  • Most Popular Secondaries of 2024:
    1. Brute Fiery Aura - 12,721
    2. Mastermind Dark Miasma - 11,681
    3. Blaster Devices - 11,681
  • Least Popular Secondaries of 2024:
    1. Corruptor Sonic Resonance - 770
    2. Stalker Fiery Aura - 777
    3. Stalker Ice Armor - 783
  • Most Popular Combinations of 2024:
    1. Blaster - Fire Blast & Fire Manipulation - 5,205
    2. Mastermind - Necromancy & Dark Miasma - 4,811
    3. Dominator - Arsenal Control & Arsenal Assault - 4,518
  • Least Popular Combinations of 2024:
    1. Defender - Sonic Resonance & Archery - 4
    2. Defender - Trick Arrow & Energy Blast - 6
    3. Tanker - Super Reflexes & Stone Melee - 6
        
• NEW 2024 Powersets:
  • Arsenal Control -10,311 characters made in 2024
  • Arsenal Assault - 5,631 characters made in 2024
  • Marine Affinity - 15,127 characters made in 2024
     
• Most Popular Task Force: Positron 1 Task Force - Completed 19,858 times in 2024
• Least Popular Task Force: Eden Trial - Completed 909 times in 2024
   
• Most Popular Story Arc: "What Was Lost" by Matthew Habashy - completed 112,892 times in 2024
• Least Popular Story Arc: "Light & Darkness" by Abyss - completed 911 times in 2024
   
• Support Tickets Resolved by Game Masters: 12,954
  • Game Master with highest ticket closure: @GM Crumpet (3,030 Tickets Closed in 2024)

 

2024 Forum Stats:

• Total Forum Posts in 2024: 101,569
• Total Topics in 2024: 7,469
   
• Highest rated forum users of 2024:
  • Luminara (5,179 posts & +2849 Reputation)
  • Snarky (8,394 posts & +2714 Reputation)
  • Rudra (7,627 posts & +2588 Reputation)
     
• Highest rated forum post from 2024:
  1. NCSOFT & Homecoming License Announcement (+245)
  2. Welcome Home! - An Open Letter from Homecoming (+133)
  3. City of Heroes 20th Anniversary! (+97)

 

Number of Kheldians Consumed: Infinite

 

It was certainly an exciting year! While we can't start 2025 in as exciting of a manner like we did last year, we did want to take the opportunity to give you our tentative plans and roadmap for the year ahead!

First though, we've had a lot of follow-up questions regarding the redesign of Homecoming's team structure that took place at the beginning of last year, so we wanted to shed some additional light on that.
 

---

 

Homecoming Team Structure:

 

You can always reference our Staff Directory for the most up to date listing of our current staff roster! However, the team is broken down into three major groups, which have a subdivision leadership structure within them. It's important to note that every member of our team is a volunteer, driven solely by their passion for the game and dedication to helping the community. From the City Council to the Game Masters and Developers, each individual generously contributes their time and expertise without expecting any compensation in return. We uphold strict protocols to ensure fairness and integrity within our ranks. Access levels are carefully monitored, and measures are in place to prevent any misuse for personal gain.

 

City Council

The first is our City Council. This is our group of administrators who oversee the entire Homecoming project, including both the Game Masters and Developer teams.

 

While the team makes decisions collectively, within the ranks of our City Council, some members take on additional leadership roles crucial to the success of our project.

 

• @Conviction and @Globetrotter oversee the Game Master team, ensuring that our moderation efforts remain effective and fair.
• @Faultline provides guidance to our Developer team and supports our Lead Developers in coordinating the City Council's vision for the project.
• @Number Six spearheads the work on the game's code, expanding the bounds of what's possible in Paragon City.
• @Telephone and @Michiyo run our infrastructure and server systems, ensuring seamless operation.
• @Widower (no relation :P) supervises our Discord and Forums and is our community manager, providing community engagement and regular updates to players.
• @Arcanum serves as our operations manager, supporting both the Game Master and Developer teams in their day to day work.
• @Cipher is the head of the project. He is the final voice on internal discussion and debates within the council.
• @Homecoming is our general account we use for non personalized messages. All City Council members have access to post from this account.

 

Game Masters

Game Masters uphold the Code of Conduct, ensuring that our streets remain safe from villainous behavior. They moderate our official communication channels (Forums, Discord, and in-game chat channels) and address any concerns or issues that may arise within our community.

 

Within our Game Master team, there are distinct roles that ensure the smooth functioning of our community.

• Lead Game Masters - Entrusted with the crucial task of collaborating with the City Council to shape moderation policies and guidelines. They oversee the broader operations of the Game Master team.
• Game Masters - The largely unsung heroes of our team! They handle all of the player tickets (both from in-game and forums) and are tasked with moderating our official channels and enforcing the Code of Conduct.
• Novice Game Master - You may see this role in our discord from time to time. These are newly onboarded Game Masters who spend time learning from the Game Masters and Lead Game Masters, with limited in-game access levels and moderation tools while they step into the role.

• @GM Bot - Our robot GM! This bot allows our Game Masters to perform numerous tasks and commands without being logged into the game. It also allows the team to post administrative messages across all shards (i.e. Notifying of our weekly server maintenance). While there may not be a human sitting behind this bot, it still has feelings! Be sure to send it a tell in game saying "Hi!"

 

Developers

Behind every thrilling mission and exciting update lies the hard work of our Developers. They're the creative minds drafting new content, enhancing gameplay experiences, and bringing your adventures to life. We internally have a structure of Lead & Senior Developers, who provide support & leadership across various development departments; including Code, Art, Powers, Story & Writing, and more. Together, these teams collaborate (under the guidance of our Lead Developers and City Council) to deliver new content and experiences to the game.

 

• @The Curator - Similar to our Homecoming account, this is a general Developer account. Several staff members have access to this account to post things like Patch Notes. It is not monitored by any one individual.

 

Hopefully this provides some invaluable insight into how the team runs behind the scenes and can answer questions we've seen pop up from time to time. If you have any others, please don't hesitate to reach out to either our Game Masters or City Council for additional info!

 

---

 

2025 Development Goals:

 

Now, let's get to the "fun" stuff and take a look at the upcoming calendar year! The team has been hard at work on several projects to make 2025 an exciting year! While we can't disclose all of the details yet, due to the fact it's a volunteer project and people's availabilities fluctuate, as well as the simple fact everyone enjoys a cliff hanger...

 

We did want to share some tentative plans with you!

Seasonal Event Updates:

• In 2025 we will be making some updates (varying in degrees) to all of the seasonal events hosted during the year! First up will be our Spring Fling event, which is set to run tentatively starting February 4th - March 4th.

Issue 28, Page 2:

• We hope to release Page 2 of Issue 28, continuing on the exciting building blocks of Page 1, in Early Spring 2025!

Issue 28, Page 3:

• Assuming everything goes to plan, we look forward to releasing Page 3 by the Fall of 2025!

While the main goal for the pages listed above will be to continue the overarching storyline, we also hope to release new powersets, costume pieces, base items, badges, and customization features that allow you to play your character's story the way you want to!

 

As a reminder, we are currently looking for a Tools Developer to assist us with some of these goals! If you're interested in volunteering your time to support the team in this capacity, please submit an application and our team will reach out!

 

We look forward to sharing more with you all Soon™ - in the meantime, here's some in-development images to share with you all 😉. Please keep in mind, as this content is in development; it is not finalized and subject to change.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! We look forward to another heroic year in Paragon City and a less-than-heroic year in the Rogue Isles and Praetoria!

[Laucianna]

14 minutes ago, Widower said:

Number of Kheldians Consumed: Infinite

 

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE! 😄 

Edited yesterday at 07:13 PM by Laucianna

[Ironblade]

13 minutes ago, Widower said:

• Most Popular Task Force: Positron 1 Task Force - Completed 19,858 times in 2024

 

Honestly, I'm surprised the number is that low.  I did that task force 15 times in 2024.  Also, twice in the past week.

[Lunar Ronin]

16 minutes ago, Widower said:

• Powerset & Archetype Data of 2024:
  • Most Popular Archetype of 2024:
    1. Brute - 77,367
    2. Blaster - 75,570
    3. Mastermind - 67,112
  • Most Popular Primary of 2024:
    1. Mastermind Robotics - 14,547
    2. Mastermind Demon Summoning - 13,221
    3. Mastermind Necromancy - 11,632
  • Most Popular Combinations of 2024:
    1. Blaster - Fire Blast & Fire Manipulation - 5,205
    2. Mastermind - Necromancy & Dark Miasma - 4,811
    3. Dominator - Arsenal Control & Arsenal Assault - 4,518

 

 

Good to see  supremacy.

[ZamuelNow]

5 minutes ago, Laucianna said:

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE! 😄 

 

Either they're teasing you...or they're teasing everyone about the Battalion.

[lobster]

4 minutes ago, Ironblade said:

 

Honestly, I'm surprised the number is that low.  I did that task force 15 times in 2024.  Also, twice in the past week.

I really figured it would be Yin.  It's so fast, fun and great XP. Lately I've been running it at least once a day, sometimes more....and they always seem to fill fast and be recruiting.

Could we get the counts for all TFs?  And Itrials!?  That would be interesting.

[Laucianna]

4 minutes ago, ZamuelNow said:

 

Either they're teasing you...or they're teasing everyone about the Battalion.

Ready to throw tentacles! 💛

[SaxyGuitar]

28 minutes ago, Widower said:

Most Popular Task Force: Positron 1 Task Force - Completed 19,858 times in 2024

I see this as more proof a Port Oakes SF would be a good idea haha.

 

 

Either way keep up the work. Looking forward to whatever you have in the works.

[ZamuelNow]

For analytics, I'm curious: How many supergroups/villain groups were registered?  How many AE arcs were created? What were the most and least populous zones?

[Glacier Peak]

28 minutes ago, Widower said:

• @Conviction and @Globetrotter oversee the Game Master team, ensuring that our moderation efforts remain effective and fair.
• @Faultline provides guidance to our Developer team and supports our Lead Developers in coordinating the City Council's vision for the project.
• @Number Six spearheads the work on the game's code, expanding the bounds of what's possible in Paragon City.
• @Telephone and @Michiyo run our infrastructure and server systems, ensuring seamless operation.
• @Widower (no relation :P) supervises our Discord and Forums and is our community manager, providing community engagement and regular updates to players.
• @Arcanum serves as our operations manager, supporting both the Game Master and Developer teams in their day to day work.
• @Cipher is the head of the project. He is the final voice on internal discussion and debates within the council.
• @Homecoming is our general account we use for non personalized messages. All City Council members have access to post from this account.

I knew Jimmy got...

🔪

[Seed22]

31 minutes ago, Widower said:

Hello Paragon City!

We wanted to take a moment to both review our year in 2024, as well as provide a look-ahead to our plans for 2025! The year started out with a bang, having been officially licensed! We also saw the completion of Issue 27, both a new Anniversary Event accompanied with a 20th Anniversary Celebration that we did, and the release of Issue 28, Page 1!

 

That was just our successes! Let's not forget some of the things you (the players) achieved in 2024!

2024 Player Stats:

• Number of Characters Created in 2024:  574,534
  • Torchbearer: 68,208
  • Excelsior: 255,972
  • Indomitable: 63,394
  • Everlasting: 120,017
  • Reunion: 66,943
     
• Powerset & Archetype Data of 2024:
  • Most Popular Archetype of 2024:
    1. Brute - 77,367
    2. Blaster - 75,570
    3. Mastermind - 67,112
  • Least Popular Archetype of 2024:
    1. Arachnos Widow - 5,183
    2. Warshade - 5,780
    3. Arachnos Soldier - 7,980
    4. Peacebringer - 8,116
  • Most Popular Primary of 2024:
    1. Mastermind Robotics - 14,547
    2. Mastermind Demon Summoning - 13,221
    3. Mastermind Necromancy - 11,632
  • Least Popular Primary of 2024:
    1. Stalker Stone Melee - 377
    2. Stalker Radiation Melee - 571
    3. Defender Traps - 591
  • Most Popular Secondaries of 2024:
    1. Brute Fiery Aura - 12,721
    2. Mastermind Dark Miasma - 11,681
    3. Blaster Devices - 11,681
  • Least Popular Secondaries of 2024:
    1. Corruptor Sonic Resonance - 770
    2. Stalker Fiery Aura - 777
    3. Stalker Ice Armor - 783
  • Most Popular Combinations of 2024:
    1. Blaster - Fire Blast & Fire Manipulation - 5,205
    2. Mastermind - Necromancy & Dark Miasma - 4,811
    3. Dominator - Arsenal Control & Arsenal Assault - 4,518
  • Least Popular Combinations of 2024:
    1. Defender - Sonic Resonance & Archery - 4
    2. Defender - Trick Arrow & Energy Blast - 6
    3. Tanker - Super Reflexes & Stone Melee - 6
        
• NEW 2024 Powersets:
  • Arsenal Control -10,311 characters made in 2024
  • Arsenal Assault - 5,631 characters made in 2024
  • Marine Affinity - 15,127 characters made in 2024
     
• Most Popular Task Force: Positron 1 Task Force - Completed 19,858 times in 2024
• Least Popular Task Force: Eden Trial - Completed 909 times in 2024
   
• Most Popular Story Arc: "What Was Lost" by Matthew Habashy - completed 112,892 times in 2024
• Least Popular Story Arc: "Light & Darkness" by Abyss - completed 911 times in 2024
   
• Support Tickets Resolved by Game Masters: 12,954
  • Game Master with highest ticket closure: @GM Crumpet (3,030 Tickets Closed in 2024)

 

2024 Forum Stats:

• Total Forum Posts in 2024: 101,569
• Total Topics in 2024: 7,469
   
• Highest rated forum users of 2024:
  • Luminara (5,179 posts & +2849 Reputation)
  • Snarky (8,394 posts & +2714 Reputation)
  • Rudra (7,627 posts & +2588 Reputation)
     
• Highest rated forum post from 2024:
  1. NCSOFT & Homecoming License Announcement (+245)
  2. Welcome Home! - An Open Letter from Homecoming (+133)
  3. City of Heroes 20th Anniversary! (+97)

 

Number of Kheldians Consumed: Infinite

 

It was certainly an exciting year! While we can't start 2025 in as exciting of a manner like we did last year, we did want to take the opportunity to give you our tentative plans and roadmap for the year ahead!

First though, we've had a lot of follow-up questions regarding the redesign of Homecoming's team structure that took place at the beginning of last year, so we wanted to shed some additional light on that.
 

---

 

Homecoming Team Structure:

 

You can always reference our Staff Directory for the most up to date listing of our current staff roster! However, the team is broken down into three major groups, which have a subdivision leadership structure within them. It's important to note that every member of our team is a volunteer, driven solely by their passion for the game and dedication to helping the community. From the City Council to the Game Masters and Developers, each individual generously contributes their time and expertise without expecting any compensation in return. We uphold strict protocols to ensure fairness and integrity within our ranks. Access levels are carefully monitored, and measures are in place to prevent any misuse for personal gain.

 

City Council

The first is our City Council. This is our group of administrators who oversee the entire Homecoming project, including both the Game Masters and Developer teams.

 

While the team makes decisions collectively, within the ranks of our City Council, some members take on additional leadership roles crucial to the success of our project.

 

• @Conviction and @Globetrotter oversee the Game Master team, ensuring that our moderation efforts remain effective and fair.
• @Faultline provides guidance to our Developer team and supports our Lead Developers in coordinating the City Council's vision for the project.
• @Number Six spearheads the work on the game's code, expanding the bounds of what's possible in Paragon City.
• @Telephone and @Michiyo run our infrastructure and server systems, ensuring seamless operation.
• @Widower (no relation :P) supervises our Discord and Forums and is our community manager, providing community engagement and regular updates to players.
• @Arcanum serves as our operations manager, supporting both the Game Master and Developer teams in their day to day work.
• @Cipher is the head of the project. He is the final voice on internal discussion and debates within the council.
• @Homecoming is our general account we use for non personalized messages. All City Council members have access to post from this account.

 

Game Masters

Game Masters uphold the Code of Conduct, ensuring that our streets remain safe from villainous behavior. They moderate our official communication channels (Forums, Discord, and in-game chat channels) and address any concerns or issues that may arise within our community.

 

Within our Game Master team, there are distinct roles that ensure the smooth functioning of our community.

• Lead Game Masters - Entrusted with the crucial task of collaborating with the City Council to shape moderation policies and guidelines. They oversee the broader operations of the Game Master team.
• Game Masters - The largely unsung heroes of our team! They handle all of the player tickets (both from in-game and forums) and are tasked with moderating our official channels and enforcing the Code of Conduct.
• Novice Game Master - You may see this role in our discord from time to time. These are newly onboarded Game Masters who spend time learning from the Game Masters and Lead Game Masters, with limited in-game access levels and moderation tools while they step into the role.

• @GM Bot - Our robot GM! This bot allows our Game Masters to perform numerous tasks and commands without being logged into the game. It also allows the team to post administrative messages across all shards (i.e. Notifying of our weekly server maintenance). While there may not be a human sitting behind this bot, it still has feelings! Be sure to send it a tell in game saying "Hi!"

 

Developers

Behind every thrilling mission and exciting update lies the hard work of our Developers. They're the creative minds drafting new content, enhancing gameplay experiences, and bringing your adventures to life. We internally have a structure of Lead & Senior Developers, who provide support & leadership across various development departments; including Code, Art, Powers, Story & Writing, and more. Together, these teams collaborate (under the guidance of our Lead Developers and City Council) to deliver new content and experiences to the game.

 

• @The Curator - Similar to our Homecoming account, this is a general Developer account. Several staff members have access to this account to post things like Patch Notes. It is not monitored by any one individual.

 

Hopefully this provides some invaluable insight into how the team runs behind the scenes and can answer questions we've seen pop up from time to time. If you have any others, please don't hesitate to reach out to either our Game Masters or City Council for additional info!

 

---

 

2025 Development Goals:

 

Now, let's get to the "fun" stuff and take a look at the upcoming calendar year! The team has been hard at work on several projects to make 2025 an exciting year! While we can't disclose all of the details yet, due to the fact it's a volunteer project and people's availabilities fluctuate, as well as the simple fact everyone enjoys a cliff hanger...

 

We did want to share some tentative plans with you!

Seasonal Event Updates:

• In 2025 we will be making some updates (varying in degrees) to all of the seasonal events hosted during the year! First up will be our Spring Fling event, which is set to run tentatively starting February 4th - March 4th.

Issue 28, Page 2:

• We hope to release Page 2 of Issue 28, continuing on the exciting building blocks of Page 1, in Early Spring 2025!

Issue 28, Page 3:

• Assuming everything goes to plan, we look forward to releasing Page 3 by the Fall of 2025!

While the main goal for the pages listed above will be to continue the overarching storyline, we also hope to release new powersets, costume pieces, base items, badges, and customization features that allow you to play your character's story the way you want to!

 

As a reminder, we are currently looking for a Tools Developer to assist us with some of these goals! If you're interested in volunteering your time to support the team in this capacity, please submit an application and our team will reach out!

 

We look forward to sharing more with you all Soon™ - in the meantime, here's some in-development images to share with you all 😉. Please keep in mind, as this content is in development; it is not finalized and subject to change.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! We look forward to another heroic year in Paragon City and a less-than-heroic year in the Rogue Isles and Praetoria!

Im very glad to see this. It’s honestly what I wanted most. For all the flak I give, I know when to acknowledge an awesome moment and this is most certainly one of those.

 

Here’s hoping it’s a solid 2025 for you all and CoH!

[Tandi]

YES YES YES GIVE ME COSMIC CORSAIR 3 BACK DETAIL 

Edited yesterday at 07:31 PM by Tandi

[Arcanum]

5 minutes ago, ZamuelNow said:

For analytics, I'm curious: How many supergroups/villain groups were registered?  How many AE arcs were created? What were the most and least populous zones?

Not going to be pulling more data for this year's post, but mentally noted to include some of these on next year's!

[Americas Angel]

36 minutes ago, Widower said:

 

 

YES.

[Universalis]

18 minutes ago, ZamuelNow said:

 

Either they're teasing you...or they're teasing everyone about the Battalion.

My characters backstory is tied in with the Battalion so I which a space goof would on my new lovely planet!

[Wispur]

KHELDIANS FIGHT BACK IN 2025!  
Time for the Eldritch AT to remind everyone why you don't mess with tentacled creatures from deep space!
 

26 minutes ago, Laucianna said:

Ready to throw tentacles! 💛

Edited yesterday at 07:47 PM by Wispur

[Nutation]

48 minutes ago, Widower said:

Least Popular Combinations of 2024:

1. Defender - Sonic Resonance & Archery - 4

I feel very distinctive.

[General Idiot]

Every time they make one of these posts I can't help but wonder how many people go and make a character with the least popular powersets. Was there a sudden surge in sonic/archery defenders today?

[TygerDarkstorm]

1 hour ago, Lunar Ronin said:

 

 

Good to see  supremacy.

I think I have like 30-40 of those MM's lol.

 

I was honestly surprised to see MM's as the 3rd most popular AT.

[LegionAlpha]

1 hour ago, Ironblade said:

 

Honestly, I'm surprised the number is that low.  I did that task force 15 times in 2024.  Also, twice in the past week.

 

 

[Blastit]

29 minutes ago, General Idiot said:

Every time they make one of these posts I can't help but wonder how many people go and make a character with the least popular powersets. Was there a sudden surge in sonic/archery defenders today?

 

It did remind me that I do have a stone/ice stalker gathering dust somewhere. Maybe it's high time I went and took Mountain Man for a spin again...

[starro]

I love the numbers.  I think in years past it was described as a labor of love and not a quick task.  Thank you again.

 

LOVE THE ROADMAP!  Of course subject to change.

 

 

Oh, yeah all those Khledians will simply have to go.

Edited 23 hours ago by starro

[Dumathn]

Fun.. any chance we could see a new class in 2025?  Something like Warden - defender primary with blaster secondary?  

[Steampunkette]

So... out of curiosity, I zoomed WAY IN on the Crey Biotech image.

 

I recognized Amanda Vines, Dean MacArthur, Jessica Flores, and a few others at the press event...

 

2 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

 

Where is that from, and what's it meant to represent?

Edited 22 hours ago by Steampunkette

[BurtHutt]

Thanks to the HC team for providing this update! Long overdue and nice to see.

 

Another note on the Khelds - I am a fan but why are people shocked that so few are made? There are two types of Khelds and you can only vary them so much. When you get 3 builds per toon, you don't have to keep making one.

 

VEATS have more options so maybe a similar situation here? I'll admit, I am not a huge fan and don't play them a lot so...

 

Also, will we finally get actual, new costume pieces?! I don't think that has really happened with HC.

 

Maybe an unpopular comment here: can we please have a change in the way you design your SFs, story arc missions and so on?! I will say I really dislike most of the stuff HC has added in this area. Maybe I'm the only one. Please look at how the Live devs evolved their designs - the iTrials are mostly fun, DFB and DiB are fun, Yin TF is good, Sutter is ok - could be better but solid premise and so on. I hope HC looks at that and really considers it when designing arcs, TFs etc.

 

Thanks again to the HC team. You guys do an amazing job and I do appreciate your efforts!