How would you suggest the dev team get more resources so that they can implement more things faster?

[Ukase]

21 hours ago, ShardWarrior said:

Perhaps I am in the minority here, but I am personally happy/satisfied with the content being developed and the speed at which that content is being rolled out. 

If anything, I think too much content is rolled out at once. Sorry, bored folks, but there's way too much content in this latest patch for a player to 
1. Create a character. 
2. Level it up as you would on the server, testing this, trying that. 
3. Doing the math if something seems off. 

There's just too much to do. And this is not new. All of the "pages" have been gigantic. They could have released half of what they did each time and we would have been fine, none the wiser. 

If we want to got more code savvy folks to work for free, perhaps it would be wise to reach out to a few university professors that teach programming and ask them if they have any promising students that would benefit from the experience. For all I know, it might make an excellent work study program for a few credits. 

 

[tidge]

I think there is some wisdom here:

 

21 minutes ago, Ukase said:

There's just too much to do. And this is not new. All of the "pages" have been gigantic. They could have released half of what they did each time and we would have been fine, none the wiser. 

 

We probably could have gotten only one of (three? four? I've lost count) major updates present in i28p2 and things would have been copacetic. Obviously the dev team has to keep track of branching and leverage some good configuration management practices, but I sort of expect that, even from volunteers. 

[lemming]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

I think there is some wisdom here:

 

We probably could have gotten only one of (three? four? I've lost count) major updates present in i28p2 and things would have been copacetic. Obviously the dev team has to keep track of branching and leverage some good configuration management practices, but I sort of expect that, even from volunteers. 

For the most part, the HC devs have been better with their code management.  Probably because it's a small team.   I forget which bug kept being reintroduced in live that was driving me up the wall.  iirc, it was something fixed in a minor update, then reintroduced with the next patch.

[Excraft]

On 7/23/2025 at 2:05 AM, golstat2003 said:

One constant over the last few days is how fast we get changes made to the game. So far we've gotten maybe 1 or 2 pages/issues per year. At that pace any suggested change made (either on the forums or discord) could take years to implement when the devs decide to pick some up (if they decide to, really at their discretion).

 

What's not getting done fast enough for you?  How much are you expecting from volunteers doing this in their spare time?  I think they've done a great job with the amount of content they've produced in the time they have, and that should be commended.  I may not like everything HC does, but I'm thankful they are doing it.  

[tidge]

3 minutes ago, lemming said:

For the most part, the HC devs have been better with their code management.  Probably because it's a small team.   I forget which bug kept being reintroduced in live that was driving me up the wall.  iirc, it was something fixed in a minor update, then reintroduced with the next patch.

 

My comment was more along these (hypothetical) lines:

 

Let's say the team is working on new power sets, changes to (control, tanker) powers, Gian Monster updates and new zone content. With good CM and branching, they could decide to rollout some subset and then branch in the other stuff at another time. I don't know that they aren't doing this, but the sheer amount of changes in i28p2 makes me wonder why we didn't get something more piecemeal like (an attempt to tie certain things together on my part):

 

1) New armor sets, tanker changes

2) New Control sets, control set changes (including adaptive recharge)

3) Khallisti Wharf

4) etc. 

 

I can speculate why, but for testing purposes, there was a hella much in this most recent page.

[lemming]

11 minutes ago, tidge said:

I can speculate why, but for testing purposes, there was a hella much in this most recent page.

Definitely.   I looked at some regen changes just from a playstyle point of view, but the numbers were not my strong suite.

 

I barely scraped together some testing of arcs, but even there I had to skim.    I just didn't have the spoons to do serious testing and do my real world tasks.  CoX is more a relief from having to do some serious thinking, but I would brush off my QA toolset if I came across something acting odd. 

[golstat2003]

2 hours ago, Excraft said:

 

What's not getting done fast enough for you?  How much are you expecting from volunteers doing this in their spare time?  I think they've done a great job with the amount of content they've produced in the time they have, and that should be commended.  I may not like everything HC does, but I'm thankful they are doing it.  

 

I agree. Various other threads the last few days, folks seems to imply that the devs were too slow in implementing suggestions.

[macskull]

5 hours ago, Excraft said:

 

What's not getting done fast enough for you?  How much are you expecting from volunteers doing this in their spare time?  I think they've done a great job with the amount of content they've produced in the time they have, and that should be commended.  I may not like everything HC does, but I'm thankful they are doing it.  

Since pretty much right after Homecoming spun up six years ago, they said they were going to handle updates with smaller, more frequent "pages" instead of issues like the retail run. The first year or two they seemed to be getting that right, but now we're looking at 1-2 releases per year which doesn't really jive with what they said they were trying to do. There have been three updates since the NCSoft license agreement was announced a year and a half ago, and one of those updates was 90% done before the license agreement happened, so there really have been only two.

[Seed22]

Ive been saying for a while now that we need 3 medium sized pages instead of 1-2 HUGE pages. Makes testing a lot easier and digestible for one, and for two, allows for the appearance of a live game. 1-2 updates a year is not a live game imo, thats not dead but it surely isnt live if thats the vibe they were going for.

 

Inb4 “They’re volunteers!” Is thrown out due to calling it not a live game:

 

*Laughs in Turtle WoW a volunteer project that is REMAKING THEIR ENTIRE SERVER IN UNREAL ENGINE 5. Expected to be out by EoY and a whole roadmap with other updates planned for 25 and 26.* 

 

This would also have the added benefit of being less work loads for everyone, testers and devs alike. Smaller but more frequent releases= huge W in my opinion for all.

Edited Friday at 02:05 AM by Seed22

[golstat2003]

18 minutes ago, Seed22 said:

Ive been saying for a while now that we need 3 medium sized pages instead of 1-2 HUGE pages. Makes testing a lot easier and digestible for one, and for two, allows for the appearance of a live game. 1-2 updates a year is not a live game imo, thats not dead but it surely isnt live if thats the vibe they were going for.

 

Inb4 “They’re volunteers!” Is thrown out due to calling it not a live game:

 

*Laughs in Turtle WoW a volunteer project that is REMAKING THEIR ENTIRE SERVER IN UNREAL ENGINE 5. Expected to be out by EoY and a whole roadmap with other updates planned for 25 and 26.* 

 

This would also have the added benefit of being less work loads for everyone, testers and devs alike. Smaller but more frequent releases= huge W in my opinion for all.

 

To stop feature creep like macskull and others have pointed out I would STRONGLY argue that we actually need 3 (or 4-5 if TINY, if focused on ONE major feature)  SMALL sized pages instead of 1-2. Get the strongest features out faster. Clear the closed beta, open beta out faster to get the next one in faster. The longer these things stay in closed, the longer there is for feature creep to happen.

 

IMO, you can't do smaller but more frequent with anything larger than small. Anything larger than that just isn't going to work if we are looking for "frequent releases = huge W".

 

Not with the amount of sphaghetti code this game has. And it has nothing to do with the size of the team, and all to do with the buggy ass code this game is still based on.

Edited Friday at 02:18 AM by golstat2003

[Greycat]

On 7/23/2025 at 1:05 AM, golstat2003 said:

So the question is how else would YOU the player suggest the devs get more resources (aka people) to make the changes, test things, and create content/updates that eventually go into pages/issues?

 

The only realistic ways of doing this are:

- Get the skills to help out. Graphic artists, coders, back end, whatever. 

- Get the word out to people that do have the skills and enjoy doing it in their spare time, too. 

 

Goes for testing, too, though that's more a willingness to understand "this isn't finished yet and there will be bugs - that's what's being looked for" and be willing to give helpful feedback. (I ... used to test more, I just have neither time nor energy these days to devote to it like I would like to.) 

[Excraft]

On 7/24/2025 at 9:29 PM, macskull said:

Since pretty much right after Homecoming spun up six years ago, they said they were going to handle updates with smaller, more frequent "pages" instead of issues like the retail run. The first year or two they seemed to be getting that right, but now we're looking at 1-2 releases per year which doesn't really jive with what they said they were trying to do. There have been three updates since the NCSoft license agreement was announced a year and a half ago, and one of those updates was 90% done before the license agreement happened, so there really have been only two.

 

No disrespect meant, but so what?  This is just my 2 inf, but there's already so much content in this game.  I really don't think we need more story content or power sets.  I think we should be happy we have the game back and that the group of volunteers running it are still running it and not burned out.  Is everything HC does great?  Hell no.  Some of it has been great, some of it has been a steaming pile.  Overall, they've done a good job with what they have and accomplish more than other real development teams working on real games have produced.  That's not something to complain about.

[Seed22]

1 hour ago, Excraft said:

 

No disrespect meant, but so what?  This is just my 2 inf, but there's already so much content in this game.  I really don't think we need more story content or power sets.  I think we should be happy we have the game back and that the group of volunteers running it are still running it and not burned out.  Is everything HC does great?  Hell no.  Some of it has been great, some of it has been a steaming pile.  Overall, they've done a good job with what they have and accomplish more than other real development teams working on real games have produced.  That's not something to complain about.

That last bit about other dev teams irks me and I feel its HIGHLY disrespectful to real development teams. There are games like E33 that have utterly blown HC out the entire solar system. Most games while not reaching E33 levels are like this. I can count on my hand how many games are just awful and they all are live service or live service adjacent. I struggle to try and quantify how many amazing games are out there. We’re in an era of ironically TOO many good games lol. Theres at least 15 great games I could name off the top of my head though, and thats before I get deep into indies. Im sorry to get so heated but I see annoying rhetoric like this in the gaming space from people who don't play any modern games too much lately and it’s irritating.  
 

HC’s cadence is to me very disorganized because each page feels like a potluck of features that drag the process down.  Mac and I are, I believe, simply thinking a tightening of the ship may be in order. For one, one person pushing patches is just asinine and NO other dev team outside of one man teams has that, and literally no team for MMOs except HC, has that for common sense reasons. For two, pages feel like 4-5 pages in one instead of one central objective for the page. A page shouldnt be an armor revamp, a new zone, a litany of new arcs, enemy group revamps AND powersets. This could be split into 3 pages and still accomplish the same effect imo. 
 

 

Game being back or not is irrelevant to me. If it disappeared tomorrow I’d be just as fine as I was in 2012 when it shut down as gaming and other hobbies have significantly surpassed CoH personally, so if HC called it quits best I would do is shrug as there are other servers for one if I wanted CoH, and for two…well have you SEEN 2025/2026 lineup of games?!

 

And thats before any RL obligations and responsibilities or recreational activities which is ofc personal to whomever it pertains to. 
 

This imo, has helped me to be a bit blunt, but ultimately critical in a sense of wanting the cadence and game to genuinely improve. Not having a sense of attachment and indebtedness to the team or game makes me kind of step back and look at things in a more analytical way. Not perfect by ANY means mind you, just a more…unfettered look.

 

 

 

TLDR: HC should scale back pages to allow for more focused and frequent pages. This also helps testing immensely.

Edited yesterday at 05:22 PM by Seed22

[Excraft]

43 minutes ago, Seed22 said:

That last bit about other dev teams irks me and I feel its HIGHLY disrespectful to real development teams.

 

A couple of things ...

• No disrespect was intended.  
• It is true the HC team produces more content than some real development shop.  See Cryptic Studios.  STO barely gets a trickle of content. 
• Pointing this out doesn't mean other real development shops suck.  That's you making an assumption.  All my post means is that some of them produce content at a slower pace than HC.  That's all.
• You're injecting a personal hangup into my post that isn't there.
• If you want the cadence to improve, as others have suggested, volunteer for the development team.  

 

 

[lemming]

My two cents, and that's pretty much what it's worth.

One person being in control of pushing patches has both some advantages, and disadvantages.   As shown, it can result in updates that are scheduled around that person's schedule, rather than if they're truly ready.  (Though that's something that happens in real work dev as well with, need to ship now for marketing reasons...)

If the person has the time available, it can work to the advantage of making sure everything is consistent.   (Big if there)

 

HC team has been IMO good in comparison to many paid dev shops.   Better than many, not as good as some.   I think their love of the game works in our favor most of the time.   Yea, not every decision is going to be popular with everyone, but for the most part they're good.

 

And while I'm interested enough to be involved with this thread and the like, I don't expect much to come of it.   Much better input will happen if people are more involved with the process with development and beta.

[Neji_Hawke]

I got my degree in Game Art and Design and I'd be willing to help with stuff but I have to learn the engine first. I am use to working in 3DsMax and Unreal Engine. I've only recently started trying to learn other engines and Blender for modeling.

[arcane]

18 hours ago, Excraft said:

 

A couple of things ...

• No disrespect was intended.  
• It is true the HC team produces more content than some real development shop.  See Cryptic Studios.  STO barely gets a trickle of content. 
• Pointing this out doesn't mean other real development shops suck.  That's you making an assumption.  All my post means is that some of them produce content at a slower pace than HC.  That's all.
• You're injecting a personal hangup into my post that isn't there.
• If you want the cadence to improve, as others have suggested, volunteer for the development team.  

 

 

You just compared HC to things they actually like and play. Ofc they’re going to feel disrespected into typing a few hundred words.

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

5 hours ago, Neji_Hawke said:

I got my degree in Game Art and Design and I'd be willing to help with stuff but I have to learn the engine first. I am use to working in 3DsMax and Unreal Engine. I've only recently started trying to learn other engines and Blender for modeling.

 

If you or anyone wants to volunteer to develop the game, there is an application here:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeXms2cSA2wJz7tLYyzrcmJmv5OGNfONtSXsUdcyBitxuJ5oQ/viewform  

 

You can also get a head start looking at some of the code, if you wish, by checking out https://ourodev.com/.  That code forms the base for all of the servers but each has been modified  off that base.  Some by quite a bit.

[macskull]

On 7/26/2025 at 8:47 AM, Excraft said:

I think we should be happy we have the game back and that the group of volunteers running it are still running it and not burned out.

Believe it or not, it is possible to be happy to have the game and a volunteer dev team while also being unhappy at some of the choices that dev team has made. "You should be happy you have anything at all" is nothing more than a cop-out to deflect criticism. I'm not going to simply go like "oh okay this is fine" when it's not, though when I provide feedback and criticism I try to make sure it's constructive and well thought-out.

 

I also feel the need to point out the post you're replying to was simply pointing out things the HC team has said they're going to do that they aren't doing.