LAST EDITED ON Apr-26-19 AT 07:16 PM (EDT)
 
Edit 3: Server's back online, connection instructions are on Reddit, they've added a second server! Operation Skul Kil has commenced...

EDIT 2: https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/22/city-of-heroes-rogue-server-has-already-been-shut-down-under-threat-of-legal-action/

seems to be the best clearinghouse for new info.

EDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cityofheroes/comments/bg6a6y/the_future_of_score/

And that's that, it's gone. I'm not in the slightest surprised, but I am dismayed.

OK, so here's the scoop.

When NCSoft pulled the plug, a group called SCORE was able to obtain and run the CoH server code, and maintained a private access server for select folks. Recently, Stroya the Destroya leaked the existence of that server, and unlike previous leaks, the attempt to smear him as a conspiracy-theorist nutjob didn't work.

A reporter for MassivelyOP, Bree, covered the leak and it went big. Read her own words https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/18/whats-going-on-with-city-of-heroes-now-this-game-is-a-unicorn/

The Private server code was scrubbed of personal identification tracks and released. A group that I don't have a handle on or for has since modified and instantiated that code, and has opened the Public server.

Which is named Bree. :D

It's stable enough to play on - I've gotten two toons to level ten since it opened. It just keeps getting better.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cityofheroes/comments/bfrc9j/server_guide_questions/

Is a good place to get the instructions on getting your groove on - there's very little hackromancy here, it's pretty straightforward. If you need a bittorrent client, I recommend Deluge.

Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls.

New info;

Due to shenanigans and learning curve, the server is being wiped and reset on the 27th. I would assume this includes a codebase freeze and a move to a more cautious build policy, but that I don't know.

Current updates on the situation :

https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/22/city-of-heroes-rogue-server-has-already-been-shut-down-under-threat-of-legal-action/

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

https://youtu.be/TU5RL1leaq4

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Yeah. That's the short and the long of it.

As it turns out, the "threat of legal action" was a bogus C&D forged by a troll, or rumor thereof, and someone prematurely panicked. The server is going back up, although I'm not sure exactly when.

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

From what I found as of last night, SCORE is using a third party to talk with NCSoft to see about being legalized, but they are still moving ahead with their full servers regardless.

Here's hoping NCSoft listens to their Western consumers for a change. Though I don't see why they would suddenly start now.

Most of the official communications appears to be on a Discord, including a reasonably useful Q&A answers channel.

I suspect some of you are already there, but for those who aren't and want to get their news unfiltered by massivelyop or reddit, an invite code that shouldn't expire is https://discord.gg/G3Cst3x

-VR
Drrrrraaaaammmmmmmaaaaaa! /jazzhands
"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

Got my new rad/rad _tanker_ up to level 11 last night, dropped Frostfire. It's so freaking good to be back! I've been going, hunting, and yes, killing skuls.

*content noises*

Conga rats. I got maybe a total of an hour thirty entirely for Sunday. Saturday was better and I got my Elec/elec tank to 19 and a couple levels on a few other projects. Queues and random mapserver DC's are not a helpful combination.

Still, since two weeks ago I wasn't able to play /period/ I'll take a few hours over a weekend.

I've been giving it a shot, sending my Katana/Willpower Scrapper Aerianne Connor onto Excelsior to see what's up. So far up to about level 5 or 6; I would have gotten more save for the queuing times and the fact that I was at a convention all weekend. Still, it's nice to have multiple costume slots from the get-go, instead of waiting until level 20; I used Titan Icon to generate a load of costumes for her after the game closed, and it was easy to transfer the costume files over.

Only real annoyance/worry is that I fear the laptop I'm playing it on may melt if I'm not careful... I already had to crank down the graphics fidelity just to get more fluid fight animations... :/

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

That's about how far I got with Masaji, based on my Defender from the Days Before. I wanted Traps/Archery, screwed up the build, and restarted with Traps/Dark. I'm trying the original design again.

Peter Eng
--
Also, for silliness, I have The Tourguide from Hell, a Demon Summoning Mastermind who is just out to find badges and plaques.

>I've been giving it a shot, sending my Katana/Willpower Scrapper
>Aerianne Connor onto Excelsior to see what's up. So far up to about
>level 5 or 6; I would have gotten more save for the queuing times and
>the fact that I was at a convention all weekend. Still, it's nice to
>have multiple costume slots from the get-go, instead of waiting until
>level 20; I used Titan Icon to generate a load of costumes for her
>after the game closed, and it was easy to transfer the costume files
>over.

Update: Recreated Aerianne over on Everlasting (the unofficial RP server), same powerset, but this time with Magic origin because I'm trying out the Sorcery power pool which was going to be released with issue 24 but never did because of the closing. Its Mystic Flight includes a built-in LoS teleport, and the other powers attached to it are nice buff/debuff/ranged additions and will probably replace my Leadership-incorporating build from before.

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

I thought I spotted you in Global Chat.

-----
Iä! Iä! Moe fthagn!

If you see the Very Blue Starcraft Terran Marine gent running around, hit me up for an invite to The Legendary, I do believe we're going to end up based on Evie.

Got to L16 on my Katana/Dark Armor Scrapper yesterday. It's pretty much the game I remember, though I'm definitely more used to MMOs than I was when I last played it. Good times.

I'm home.

And now I'm sure I wasn't seeing things through rose-tinted glasses when considering MMOs through the lens of CoH.

For anyone who cares, hit up:
Fragrach (Dark/Dark Brute)(Both sides)
Fafnir (SS/Bio Brute)(Redside for now)
or
Mass Effect (Gravity/Time Controller)(Blueside)
on Evie if you need a +1 for stuff

My current roster on Everlasting in about a month of play:

Blueside:
* Aerianne Connor (Katana/Willpower Scrapper)
* Night Ace (Staff/SR Scapper)
* Arisa Aiziz (Dual Blades/Dark Armor Scrapper)
* Juillete Gabrielle (Broadsword/Shield Scrapper)
* Green Shadow (Darkness/Dark Assault Dominator)
* Detective Chu (Electric/Electric Blaster)
* Detective LeBeau (Super Strength/Invul Brute)
* Derek Aiziz (Dark Armor/Titan Weapon Tanker)
* Admiral Moyer (Force Field/Energy Blast Defender)

Redside:
* Princess Arisa (Demons/Thermal Mastermind)
* Gaige Massani (Robots/Traps Mastermind)

... the Altitis, it is real...

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

I admit, I never really got into CoH, but can I just say Gaige Massani FTW? I should go read Shepard's 11 again!

------
Fearless creatures, we all learn to fight the Reaper
Can't defeat Her, so instead I'll have to be Her

>I admit, I never really got into CoH, but can I just say Gaige Massani
>FTW? I should go read Shepard's 11 again!

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

So, for the unenlightened at home; is it possible for newbies to join this new server, or do you have to be an old player?

>So, for the unenlightened at home; is it possible for newbies to join
>this new server, or do you have to be an old player?

Oh no, we've been getting new players all the time. Everybody starts at the beginning on Homecoming (no old game character information was brought over), but practically everything that was "veteran" (ie. "paid") locked has been unlocked, so you have access to all the powers and costume options up front.

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/ are the forums and the gateway to getting CoH Homecoming up and running on your machine. You'll need to create a forum account first, and once that's done you can create a game account (they are NOT the same) that can be used to log into the game when it's installed.

https://discordapp.com/invite/cityofheroes is the invite to the discord server, which has a lot of people who are willing to help (and have heard the same questions multiple times).

I can't speak to the PC experience, but I've been using the Mac version of the client (which is basically the original windows CoH client in a wine wrapper) from my older laptop and desktop without issues. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,950.0.html has the initial guide for setting up the requisite launcher.

Hope this helps! See you in the city!

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

If you end up on Everlasting, hit me up @Wiregeek (Usually on Mag Flashlight or Merideth Poppins) and I can throw you a few million starting cash, and answer any questions you may have!

>If you end up on Everlasting, hit me up @Wiregeek (Usually on Mag
>Flashlight or Merideth Poppins) and I can throw you a few million
>starting cash, and answer any questions you may have!

Not around as often as Wire / Mags is, but if you look for @Star_Ranger4 (or is it a space instead of _ ?) I might be able to hook you up as well, though I am probably not as flush as wire is

>>If you end up on Everlasting, hit me up @Wiregeek (Usually on Mag
>>Flashlight or Merideth Poppins) and I can throw you a few million
>>starting cash, and answer any questions you may have!
>
>Not around as often as Wire / Mags is, but if you look for
>@Star_Ranger4 (or is it a space instead of _ ?) I might be able to
>hook you up as well, though I am probably not as flush as wire is

It's a space; underscores "_" are reserved for GM's and other server-related folks.

--- Philip
("@The Dawnwalker" here on everlasting, though I'm not nearly as flush in cash because I keep working on crafting badges...)

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions