Following yesterday’s surprise announcement that NCsoft has granted City of Heroes rogue server group Homecoming a license to operate the game – something it’s sought over the nearly four years since the code went public and brought the game back from its sunset – we spoke to Homecoming representatives to ask a few of the obvious questions not already addressed in the FAQ. Specifically, we asked about long-term funding, the City Council, compensation for devs, and the upcoming content dump. Read on for their answers!
MassivelyOP: What happens if HC stops making enough money through donations to run? Is the studio technically allowed under the license to add proper monetization tools if that became necessary?
Homecoming: We don’t expect this to ever be an issue. When our donations are opened up on schedule, they generally fill within a few hours. Even if we post them at an odd time, it still fills in a matter of days. We also maintain a contingency fund (as described in our FAQ) to help cover any short-term issues, and we are able to easily scale our hardware and costs to meet demand (and this won’t result in any shards merging – they all share hardware) if that’s ever necessary.
Are there any other conditions under which NCsoft would revoke the license?
(no comment)
Which servers will be included in the City Council? Which won’t? Will servers not part of the Council be at risk? (There’s considerable panic going on in some of the rogue server Discords that NCsoft is going to crack down on anyone who doesn’t toe the line on this. Folks are really concerned about the “consolidate our userbase” line.)
Homecoming, Victory and Paragon will be part of the City Council. When we talk about consolidating, we’re just talking about those servers.
Will any of the City Council servers be brought under the Homecoming umbrella/launcher?
That’s the plan, yes. It will take some time as it’s not a simple process :)
Will the existing HC servers keep running exactly as they are or are merges in store?
The servers we’re working with will be merging in – but as mentioned, it’ll take a bit of time to ensure the process goes smoothly! [Editor’s note: We meant would the existing HC servers – Excelsior, Indomitable, etc. – be consolidated, but follow-up suggests that this type of merge is not in the cards.]
Is HC expecting an influx of players today [yesterday for the launch], and is it prepared to handle them?
We’re not entirely sure what to expect! But we’re definitely ready. We have very robust and scalable infrastructure, and our team is very experienced. [Editor’s note: As it happens, the servers didn’t implode last night, though at least two we saw were quite busy. This weekend will be another test for sure.]
If the team still won’t be allowed to pay its contributors, how does it aim to keep them?
Same as before. We’re all in this for the love of the game and the players. The mission statement we posted back in 2019 still holds true: Our prime directive is to keep the servers online and available to everyone. Every single decision we’ve made has been in support of that goal.
Finally, when is the new content dropping and what’s in it? Are the rumors that content was being held back because of the negotiation correct?
Soon™ (but actually, very soon).
