It's that time of the year...

[Glacier Peak]

Great people of this forum, I am looking for your input on the approximate dates (and lengths) of special seasonal and other events ran on Homecoming each year. If I missed anything or if the dates (or lengths) are off, I'd appreciate you writing the correct information.  

 

Annual Homecoming Special Events:

• Spring Fling Seasonal Event: Beginning in February each year, lasts 1 month.
• Mapserver Madness: Begins the first week of April (week of April Fool's Day), lasts 2 weeks. 
• Anniversary Event: Beginning the last week of April each year, this event lasts 1 month.
• Summer Blockbuster Event: Available year round via the LFG tab.
• Halloween Seasonal Event: Beginning in October each year, lasts 1 month. Additionally, Atlas Park undergoes a zone wide makeover to reflect the spooky season (i.e., Atlas globe replaced with a Pumpkin, Gazebos with candy-filled cauldrons, Jack o'lantern and spider decorations around Atlas Plaza, autumnal variants of trees, and a pumpkin patch and associated NPC in the grass by the Atlas Plaza steps). Following the Halloween Seasonal Event, Atlas Park undergoes another zone wide makeover for the Fall theme.
• Winter Seasonal Event: Beginning in December each year, lasts 1 month. Additionally, Atlas Park undergoes a zone wide makeover to reflect the Wintery season (i.e., Atlas Park covered in snow/ice)

 

Special One-Offs (a lot of work to put these events on!)

• Derek's Disaster: Began in the month of July in 2020 and lasted three weeks. This event has not been ran since (Derek's got a better handle on the time stream!).

 

Regular or Triggered Special Events

• Nemesis Plot Invasion Special Event: Formerly an annual event, now triggered by completing the last mission of Episode 5 of the Pandora's Box Signature Story Arc. The event will spawn in the zone matching the character's alignment.
• Rikti World Invasion Special Event: Formerly a special event following the completion of the City of Heroes beta in 2004, and then again in 2007 with the release of Issue 10, the Homecoming Team has activated it at their discretion over the past few years. This special event is currently triggered by completing the Lady Grey Task Force. The event will occur in a random zone in Paragon City and/or the Rogue Isles and last for a short period of time. 
• Zombie Invasion Special Event: This event is triggered by completing the Katie Hannon TF or Virgil Tarakoss SF.

 

I'd like to see the City of Heroes beta Rikti invasion event back in early 2004 get added in future Anniversary events (like how Homecoming recreated the Wedding Event recently), I think it would be a neat recreation for the community to experience that for an event few of us that are still around got to participate in, but that suggestion belongs in a different thread!

Edited April 3 by Glacier Peak

[Uun]

You don't mention that the Zombie Invasion is triggered by completing the Katie Hannon TF or Virgil Tarakoss SF.

[Apogee]

On 3/30/2025 at 8:34 AM, Glacier Peak said:

I'd like to see the City of Heroes beta Rikti invasion event back in early 2004 get added in future Anniversary events (like how Homecoming recreated the Wedding Event recently), I think it would be a neat recreation for the community to experience that for an event few of us that are still around got to participate in, but that suggestion belongs in a different thread!

 

The amount of death and carnage during that event still haunts me to this day.

[Snarky]

There was this one time… the Devs had all the GMs invade a zone for a … costume contest if i remember correctly.  It was absolute madness.  A couple years ago.  Not a regular thing.  The empty stadium zone off Pocket D, Echo Plaza.

Edited April 2 by Snarky

[Glacier Peak]

And they spawned Giant Monster versions of players doppelgangers. Wild stuff. 

[Bionic_Flea]

On 3/30/2025 at 11:34 AM, Glacier Peak said:

Derek's Disaster

 

What's Derek's Disaster and who is Derek?

[lemming]

2 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

 

What's Derek's Disaster and who is Derek?

 

[Bionic_Flea]

Oh!  Thanks,  I vaguely remember that now.

[Glacier Peak]

7 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

What's Derek's Disaster and who is Derek?

Yeah who is @Arcanum... I mean Derek? 😁

[Arcanum]

Honestly, GM_Miss & I had a blast running that event. I'm glad people enjoyed it! 😄

Also, Mapserver Event will run until 4/15 for what it's worth.

[DoctorDitko]

On 4/2/2025 at 8:42 AM, Glacier Peak said:

And they spawned Giant Monster versions of players doppelgangers. Wild stuff. 

I was stomped into the pavement by a GM-sized version of myself. Such an honor!

[Uun]

9 hours ago, Arcanum said:

Also, Mapserver Event will run until 4/15 for what it's worth.

It can't end soon enough for me. The lag it generates is unbearable and slows the entire zone to a crawl.

[UltraAlt]

19 hours ago, Arcanum said:

Also, Mapserver Event will run until 4/15 for what it's worth.

 

[Healix]

58 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

Also, Mapserver Event will run until 4/15 for what it's worth.

[Arcanum]

On 4/3/2025 at 6:38 PM, Uun said:

It can't end soon enough for me. The lag it generates is unbearable and slows the entire zone to a crawl.

You aren't the first person we've heard this from. We're exploring a few options to alleviate this next year.

[Troo]

On 4/3/2025 at 3:38 PM, Uun said:

It can't end soon enough for me. The lag it generates is unbearable and slows the entire zone to a crawl.

 

We have how many zones..

I mean seriously some folks would complain if they won the lottery.

 

@Uun not meaning to lash out.

Edited Tuesday at 05:05 PM by Troo

[Octogoat]

9 minutes ago, Troo said:

 

We have how many zones..

I mean seriously some folks would complain if they won the lottery.

I have never understood all the lag complaints I have not once experienced lag and I'm not on a high end pc with fiber optic.

[COH Radgen]

I've enjoyed seeing the MS events in the Praetorian zones...probably the most traffic they've gotten on most shards in, well, ever.

[Uun]

1 hour ago, Troo said:

 

We have how many zones..

I mean seriously some folks would complain if they won the lottery.

 

@Uun not meaning to lash out.

It's particularly problematic when it hits PI (or other zones where a lot of mission doors are located). The cars on the street literally move in stop motion.

[Snokle]

On 3/30/2025 at 12:34 PM, Glacier Peak said:

I'd like to see the City of Heroes beta Rikti invasion event back in early 2004 get added in future Anniversary events (like how Homecoming recreated the Wedding Event recently), I think it would be a neat recreation for the community to experience that for an event few of us that are still around got to participate in, but that suggestion belongs in a different thread!

 

Never got to experience that, only read about it on the wiki, and I would love to see that in game, especially if it is designed to be no holds barred against us.

 

Also the Rularuu invasion from Issue 2 would be really cool to reintroduce as I read up about that stuff. In a way you could use the Shard TFs to trigger that in a zone possibly? Give them some more juice to do than just when they are WSFs.

Edited Tuesday at 10:04 PM by Snokle
typo

[Snarky]

5 hours ago, Troo said:

 

We have how many zones..

I mean seriously some folks would complain if they won the lottery.

 

@Uun not meaning to lash out.

Did a Synapse ang got caught in the lag on the clock hunt.  A short, miserable, memorable hunt.  

 

And yes, I WILL complain when I win the lottery.  I am Snarky after all.  

 

[Snarky]

Troo will prob call security on me too...

 

[Captain Fabulous]

It only seems to happen in high pop blue zones like Steel, Talos, and PI, especially when there are a lot of people all in the same area.

[Troo]

4 hours ago, Snarky said:

Did a Synapse ang got caught in the lag on the clock hunt.  A short, miserable, memorable hunt.  

 

And yes, I WILL complain when I win the lottery.  I am Snarky after all.  

 

That's what folks get for moving to high population servers.... L A G, lag upon you all!

[srmalloy]

5 hours ago, Snokle said:

Also the Rularuu invasion from Issue 2 would be really cool to reintroduce as I read up about that stuff. In a way you could use the Shard TFs to trigger that in a zone possibly? Give them some more juice to do than just when they are WSFs.

Or have a recurrence of the all-too-brief war between the two factions of the 5th Column -- the 'loyalist' side and the Council -- that broke out into open battles in different zones for, IIRC, only two or three days before disappearing forever as the Council completely replaced the 5th Column across Paragon City (which has been reversed to a degree, but we still don't have as much of the fights between the two groups, or the big knock-down-drag-out fights with twenty or so mobs on each side that occurred during the Council rebellion.