The 4chan-backed group /coxg/ now has an alternative City of Heroes rogue server up for those who don’t want to play on the existing Homecoming servers. The current build is an i25 build (with an i24 build promised in the future) and boasts over 600 accounts so far. Just be aware, it’s got no moderation and requires CreamSoda to play; even its own administrators are cautioning folks about what to expect, referencing “terrible behaviour” – hey, they’re being honest.
For those wondering about the safety of CreamSoda, the Reddit Discord says it has audited the code, though it may be wiser to wait for the completion of Sunrise as we noted last week, as that will obviate the need for both Tequila and CreamSoda.
Meanwhile, the Homecoming i25 servers have posted their code of conduct and late this week began testing a different hosting arrangement with more capacity for all of the shards. “Indomitable was chosen randomly as tribute to test out a slightly different hosting setup which should hopefully be both smoother and cheaper in the long run,” the team’s GM Jimmy wrote. “Assuming all goes well, we will be transitioning the other shards over at some point over the next few days.” As of midnight last night, over 6000 players were logged into the four Homecoming servers concurrently, meaning the queues continue.
Still waiting for other options – like maybe something pre-i25? Keep your eye on the folks behind Ouroboros; they’ve got a test server with i24 code running as of last night, though they’ve stressed it’s a true test server for now.
“Test server is now up and running. Menders have started private testing builds of the game. We’re focused on immediate and noticeable crashes or major gameplay problems that would be immediately noticed. At no point should you expect any of your Ouroboros test server characters to be retained. There will likely be frequent wipes. This server is specifically for testing only, and is not intended to be a long-term play with your friends server. […] We will continue on with our current work – a fresh take and build based on the i24 code, stable, with MTX and hardware logging removed. Alongside this we will provide a base set of game data for others to build from. Volume 2 Issue 1 will be released when it’s ready.”
Lots of stuff happening in the City of Heroes scene right now. Here is an overview of the different CoH server versions that are going around right now. Issue 24 was the last issue on the test server before the shutdown. pic.twitter.com/Tw3bC8Itxm
— City of Heroes News Network 2021 (@CityofHeroes00) May 4, 2019
Requisite reminder: These are rogue servers, not technically sanctioned by NCsoft, though NCsoft has not made any public statements about them. We’ve had confirmation that negotiations between Titan Network and NCsoft continue on, but it remains unclear whether the currently live shards will be wiped or maintained permanently or how any of them they will be funded long-term. Please do not give anyone money for City of Heroes servers right now.
Several readers expressed concern that we were “promoting” the 4chan-linked server, so we’d like to make clear that we’re not promoting any servers here; we’re reporting on all of the servers as they come online. We can’t promote anything as technically these are all unlawful servers, so our “official” position (as much as an outlet with 17 staff can have a position) is that we cannot advise people to do anything illegal anyway. That said, we’re aware that folks in our particular community are unlikely to gel with that server, hence the caveats, but we think it’s only fair to at least point out Homecoming isn’t the only option.
Relatedly, the /coxg/ team has released new stats this evening; the server has 164 people playing with 74 (!) mapservers running. The group has estimated its costs for this size at $285.99 per month, plus the setup fee. This is super useful information for anybody considering a smallish server. As the admin notes, “Economies of scale make this an unreasonably low figure; but I would estimate that you could probably host a similar sized instance on anything with at least 8 cores and 64GB of ram, which you could probably get for < $60.”
Finally, if you’re looking for another option that’s on the smaller side, give RDX’s Unity server a look (but try not to give it the hug of death!). It’s a small test server (300 max players) with boosted experience, something one of our commenters was hunting for earlier today. You can learn more in their Discord. Update May 8, 2020: The admin of the RDX server let us know it’s no longer running and that they’ve moved support to the Unity server, so if you’re a traveler from the future, head there instead. :D
Hey all, I'm (understandably) getting a lot of messages asking for updates. I don't have anything other than we're still in communications. I promise I'll let everyone know what's going on on our front, good or bad, as soon as I can. In the meantime, enjoy the a-changin' times.
— Tony BOOSTED 💉💉💉 (he/him) (@TonyV_CoH) May 5, 2019
