City of Heroes - Secret Server

[Edge-]

Yet another update from the team leader:



No idea what's actually going on at this point. Seems like one admin (the one hosting the server) may have panicked and dropped out just thinking of the possibility of all this, and started a big panic among the team? At least, there's someone who claims to be that member saying that on Reddit, but it's a new account.

Edit: Okay, yeah. The server host suddenly panicked, shut it down, and dropped out of the project, and it started a bunch of confusion and panic among the team. Seems like there was no actual legal trouble yet.

I mean, we don't even have confirmation on the legal complaint against them even.

Definitely looking more and more like folks jumping to conclusions and going "FULL PANIC MODE" based off of very little actual info.

[SirCowdog]

That sounds really unrealistic, but apparently there is a precedent for that- I've heard that NCSoft released their own classic Lineage 2 server since they couldn't stop the mass of private servers for it. yers to go back if it's just maintenance mode. Would be great if we somehow finally saw the Battalion arc.

Well, it's confirmed- the host just dropped out and started a panic. Unfortunately, it seems they took all the work everyone's done with them, so basically they need to find a new host start over on all the progress they've made in the past three days.

Here's the thing: The way I understand the law is that NCsoft sort of HAS to either file legal action to get them to quit, or run the game themselves in order to not lose the rights to their IP when they're not otherwise doing anything else with it. Because corporations are greedy and sociopathic, they can't just tell the fans to knock themselves out running a private server.

What I find interesting is that there's already a precedent for this sort of thing. Hellgate London sat unused for a number of years before finally being sold on the cheap to a an asian company, HanbitSoft. They finally re-released it on steam.

Then we have the case of Vanilla WoW private servers popping up all over the place. Blizzard was forced to run one themselves after their legal action failed to stop new private servers from popping up.

So I think there's a fair chance that we'll eventually get CoX back, one way or another.

[Edge-]

https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/22/c...-legal-action/

Massively is doing a good job following this. Apparently there was no DMCA or anything filed, folks are just freaking out and their freak outs are being magnified by others.

Folks need to chill out a bit by the sound of it.

[Keile]

https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/22/c...-legal-action/

Massively is doing a good job following this. Apparently there was no DMCA or anything filed, folks are just freaking out and their freak outs are being magnified by others.

Folks need to chill out a bit by the sound of it.

Actual quote from one of the admins for that server (User: "Innocuous/Glory To Arachnos" taken from their Discord):

"As of now, we are running on the assumption that there is no DMCA. We have a drive that we are currently verifying on if it's the server binaries. As it stands, it has everything.
There has been some fuckups that lead to mass server panic, and an emergency administration and codemod meeting has been called.
We may very well be able to salvage this situation before the next sunset. No promises. Do not hold this against me.
We have a gameplan. It depends on verifying this code right now. Once it is achieved, we are pushing to get a server back up immediately.
The original goal of the server has been to get a stable i24 for distribution and by the Well of the Furies we will get it. This chaos was unprofessional on my part (partly from my inexperience), and triggers were being pulled before we even had the horses at the races.
We will also be futureproofing future development to make sure this kind of clusterfuck will never happen again."

[Edge-]

Actual quote from one of the admins for that server (User: "Innocuous/Glory To Arachnos" taken from their Discord):

Yep, that's in the article. MOP is updating as more info is released.

[Keile]

Yep, that's in the article. MOP is updating as more info is released.

Looks like they are no longer posting updates for 24hrs while things get sorted. So news is gonna get slow til tomorrow.

[Edge-]

Looks like they are no longer posting updates for 24hrs while things get sorted. So news is gonna get slow til tomorrow.

Yeah, sounds like they got spooked and panicked before actually confirming anything. Apparently they've wiped the Discord to get rid of trolls coming in from 4chin and elsewhere.

Good, what they need to do more than anything right now is chill way the fuck out, get a proper handle on the situation and what's really happening, and then figure out what their next steps are before they start talking with the community again. It's been a fucking whirlwind day, yeesh.

[Mahourai]

Remember that any information being released by the CoH private server scene is almost certainly part of their literal years-long disinformation and psyop campaign to retain control of the game data they have.

[Edge-]

Remember that any information being released by the CoH private server scene is almost certainly part of their literal years-long disinformation and psyop campaign to retain control of the game data they have.

Yeah, let's not go there. They lied about it and kept it secret for their own selfish ends (and at considerable expense to themselves from the sound of it), but we don't need to delve into conspiracy theories.

[Mahourai]

Yeah, let's not go there. They lied about it and kept it secret for their own selfish ends (and at considerable expense to themselves from the sound of it), but we don't need to delve into conspiracy theories.

They actively conspired for years to not only hide the existence of their private server but to lie to the community about the possibility of independently reverse-engineering CoH, spreading false information via their control of moderation on Reddit and popular community boards. It's a bit weird to use "conspiracy theory" as a pejorative for a situation with as clear-cut a real conspiracy as one could hope for.

[Eldryth]

Yeah, let's not go there. They lied about it and kept it secret for their own selfish ends (and at considerable expense to themselves from the sound of it), but we don't need to delve into conspiracy theories.

This isn't even the team that hid it (allegedly, but like you said about them possibly lying now, assuming otherwise would just be a baseless conspiracy theory at this point.) This is a new group that formed after he was finally talked into sharing the code. The guy who hid the old server was an admin- supposedly just until the "official" launch on Saturday- but he lost that for abusing his admin powers to boost a bunch of people to 50. It's very premature to assume any of this is a lie so far.

[Keile]

They actively conspired for years to not only hide the existence of their private server but to lie to the community about the possibility of independently reverse-engineering CoH, spreading false information via their control of moderation on Reddit and popular community boards. It's a bit weird to use "conspiracy theory" as a pejorative for a situation with as clear-cut a real conspiracy as one could hope for.

That was one guy, who is has been kicked from this project for his abuse of power. He is well known to be a complete ass, and even the current people in charge don't much care for him. The reason it wasn't ever made public before was because HE controlled the server and he and he alone had access to the code. Until now.

[Mahourai]

That was one guy

No, it wasn't.

Anyway, the current story is now that there was no Cease and Desist from NCSoft - to be clear this is the official story from the administration of the server.

[Yriel]

I'm actually quite sad now. I downloaded and registered but i did't have time on the weekend to try it and since i have this week off i wanted to log in today and now it's gone. I hope other people will make private servers but i'm afraid that those will be secret by-invitation-only servers once more.
And i guess even if someone will make a public server they'll probably wait for months to let things cook down and get NCSOFT off their backs again. And from what i read only the compiled code and not the source code was leaked so that will not make it any easier.

[Edge-]

And i guess even if someone will make a public server they'll probably wait for months to let things cook down and get NCSOFT off their backs again. And from what i read only the compiled code and not the source code was leaked so that will not make it any easier.

There's no confirmation NCsoft was ever on anyone's back to begin with, yesterday was a bunch of folks freaking out over rumors and whispers rather than anything concrete.

[SirCowdog]

There's no confirmation NCsoft was ever on anyone's back to begin with, yesterday was a bunch of folks freaking out over rumors and whispers rather than anything concrete.

It is likely something they're eventually going to have to deal with, especially if they get super-successful with the server and enough players hop on board. In WoW's case the biggest private server was REALLY big though, so I'm not sure if CoH will actually get enough people or attention to be considered a real threat to NCsoft's rights.

Still, if it was me in charge of the private server, I'd want some kind of plan or contingency if the legal hammer did get dropped. I wonder if some kind of crowdfunding option would work to buy the rights?

[Vynestra]

I played on the test server - was so hyped to be back on and was more hyped for 4/27 launch.

The person who owned the hardware got spooked from 4chan rumours and wiped it all, so essentially the discord coders are starting over - they stopped making announcements for 24 hours because it was a complete and total shit show (obviously). So we'll get an update tonight probably.

I think we'll have another server within 24-48 hours - doubt 4/27 will be the live launch.


NCSoft has done nothing so far - it's all been speculation and heresy.

- - - Updated - - -

That was one guy, who is has been kicked from this project for his abuse of power. He is well known to be a complete ass, and even the current people in charge don't much care for him. The reason it wasn't ever made public before was because HE controlled the server and he and he alone had access to the code. Until now.

It was a network - There was a disinformation campaign to keep it secret, and I completely understand why he did it.

It took 3 days for them to ruin everything for the current server - he captained a steady ship for 6 years.

[Eldryth]

And now there's another party (Titan Network) negotiating with NCSoft to open legal community-run server, and they say things are looking optimistic. Which they've said before a few times years ago, but the private server group is still working in case it doesn't work out. This would be a crazy story to follow over the past week even for someone who's not at all interested in City of Heroes.

[Beazy]

SCORE server is back up. You will need to re-register.

Leandro brought it up.

[Ielenia]

Says it's up, and I do log in, but the game freezes when I try to enter the only server in the list...