Fully functioning City of Heroes code released, public server now open!

OhhPaigey

In case anybody cares about a follow up to my post earlier this week about a City of Heroes private server being officially confirmed, in which the entire game & its database was leaked by a former employee before shutting down, this server has been run for roughly 6 years under almost total secrecy with very few being able to access it in order to avoid action from NCSOFT.

A former player of that server decided to leak a bunch of proof of the server and it was later confirmed to be the real deal. Well, after a few more days of drama, and as of like, 20 minutes ago, the owner of that server has released the entire code publicly.

What does this mean for us? Well a few people are now working on getting a public server up & running of City of Heroes.

Will NCSOFT spend their time shutting servers down? Does it really matter now anybody has access to the code? Let's see how this plays out. 

Edit: For those interested a test server is now open to the public! Signups here: https://score.savecoh.com/

Currently 1000+ players online, website is crashing. Expect server to crash too.

Palebane

That would be wild. Anyone have the code for SWG pre NGE?

OhhPaigey

Aori said:

It'll be shutdown, too easy a target.

Quite possibly, but NCSOFT will be quite busy shutting down every server. Guess we'll see how this goes. 

Heretique

NCSOFT: No Fun Allowed!

Seelinnikoi

Nice that a lot of people are sharing the client and server code so we can at least play solo at home or in a lan (heh, im old).

lahnmir

The game is back, but the magic is lost forever. Especially because of the circumstances of how this came to be in the first place.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

KnightFalz

OhhPaigey said:

Aori said:

It'll be shutdown, too easy a target.

Quite possibly, but NCSOFT will be quite busy shutting down every server. Guess we'll see how this goes. 

I guess we will see. Too bad it took the division of the CoH community being exposed for this to happen. If not for that it would still be a situation of denial and vile suppression tactics against the bulk of the community so the privileged few could enjoy their private utopia.

So, bravo, I guess. Hopefully it will help return the community to what it was, because there sure isn't much of that left in what it is.

Albatroes

I guess one can hope they eventually cave like blizzard and just reopen the game. Its not like all their other titles are doing so hot in the west atm anyway.

MadFrenchie

Interesting chain of events here.  Be curious to see how this ends up.

alkarionlog

OhhPaigey said:

In case anybody cares about a follow up to my post earlier this week about a City of Heroes private server being officially confirmed, in which the entire game & its database was leaked by a former employee before shutting down, this server has been run for roughly 6 years under almost total secrecy with very few being able to access it in order to avoid action from NCSOFT.

A former player of that server decided to leak a bunch of proof of the server and it was later confirmed to be the real deal. Well, after a few more days of drama, and as of like, 20 minutes ago, the owner of that server has released the entire code publicly.

What does this mean for us? Well a few people are now working on getting a public server up & running of City of Heroes. ETA is probably a few weeks, more than likely a month-ish.

Will NCSOFT spend their time shutting servers down? Does it really matter now anybody has access to the code? Let's see how this plays out. 

did they spend tehy time to shut down L2 private servers? when L2 was on top, you had several servers around, and I don't remember ncsoft doing anything, of course you could pull the whole its a diferent time, but I bet they won't do anything, its not like they will profit from closing such servers, and its impossible over the internet to stop it

Lokero

OhhPaigey said:

Aori said:

It'll be shutdown, too easy a target.

Quite possibly, but NCSOFT will be quite busy shutting down every server. Guess we'll see how this goes. 

The problem is, how much time would you really want to invest in any server that could be shut down at any time?

If it's a company known for shutting down emulators, then you are just sitting around waiting for the next Cease and Desist.  You never know when whichever server you are on will get hit.

Very few people are going to ignore a C&D from a big company.  That only works if you are in some lawless third-world country that doesn't enforce copyright laws.  Most of the time they'll be run from somewhere more civilized.

Arglebargle

lahnmir said:

The game is back, but the magic is lost forever. Especially because of the circumstances of how this came to be in the first place.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

That's rather your extrapolation of things.  Opinion and interest seem a bit more divided and splintered on this.  While I enjoyed the overall community in CoH,  it'd be nice to play with just the 20 or so vets in my game circle.

Amathe

NCSoft should use the Grinch in its corporate logo.

Alverant

So what, exactly, would it take for me to have my own private CoH game on my home PC?
(Also would I be able to dial-down the levels of the Archvillains and Giant Monsters so I can solo everything?)

Keller

You can pitch it like you want, but the source code is stolen. Why not cherish the memories? If you really want to play a COH like game try to start your own company/Kickstarter to create a better & improved game instead and avoid playing cat and mouse with NCSoft?


Guess where the money to fight illegal servers has to come from? Players in current games and/or budgets for devteams. COH public server is truely a selfish project.

GeezerGamer

Who's up for Drek?

AlBQuirky

Baahlzaron made a post too, citing a Massively Overpowered article: https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/18/the-city-of-heroes-private-server-team-has-released-its-code-to-the-world-but-not-the-characters/


From that article:
"It also doesn’t contain the mission files or NPCs..."


So basically... It's just the Paragon City maps and net code?

OhhPaigey

AlBQuirky said:

Baahlzaron made a post too, citing a Massively Overpowered article: https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/18/the-city-of-heroes-private-server-team-has-released-its-code-to-the-world-but-not-the-characters/


From that article:
"It also doesn’t contain the mission files or NPCs..."


So basically... It's just the Paragon City maps and net code?

Right, it's everything that was missing in order for the community to start their own server. Creating NPCs and quests will be easy enough.

Edit: And now apparently the rest of the "missing" data has been released, so there's that.

Arglebargle

As I understand it, they had to scrape off the identifying bits of those who worked on/delivered it.   
I look forward to a wave of new  CoH server activity.   

k61977

Lokero said:

OhhPaigey said:

Aori said:

It'll be shutdown, too easy a target.

Quite possibly, but NCSOFT will be quite busy shutting down every server. Guess we'll see how this goes. 

The problem is, how much time would you really want to invest in any server that could be shut down at any time?

If it's a company known for shutting down emulators, then you are just sitting around waiting for the next Cease and Desist.  You never know when whichever server you are on will get hit.

Very few people are going to ignore a C&D from a big company.  That only works if you are in some lawless third-world country that doesn't enforce copyright laws.  Most of the time they'll be run from somewhere more civilized.

You get the same issue playing on a company run server these days.  They can walk in tomorrow on any game and pull the plug and have been actually doing that more an more these days.  So the argument about putting time into something that can be taken away is a mute point.

Personally I think if a company is going to shut down all operation of an MMO they should be forced to release the code themselves.  They are walking away from it anyway as it isn't making them enough money to keep it going.  I could see putting in a stipulation that any server found to be making money off of it though could be brought up on charges though. 

All the big companies would fight this tooth and nail though and claim trade secrets blah, blah, blah.  In reality though the way developers are bounced from company to company anymore though there are no secrets.

kitarad

I cannot wait! Very good news indeed.

Halibrand

Whichever private CoH server seems the most stable and trustworthy and close to live rules, I'll play on that one!  Kind of loving Paige for the exciting news, right now.

I'm gonna need an Arthur. 

Kyleran

Its so weird to see so many cheering for the "bad guys."

Perhaps playing video games is harmful after all.

  

Blueliner

Kyleran said:

Its so weird to see so many cheering for the "bad guys."

Perhaps playing video games is harmful after all.

  

NCSOFT are the bad guys, they have been for years

Blaze_Rocker

Blueliner said:

Kyleran said:

Its so weird to see so many cheering for the "bad guys."

Perhaps playing video games is harmful after all.

  

NCSOFT are the bad guys, they have been for years

Very true. They aren't known as 'The MMO Killer' for nothing.

lahnmir

Blaze_Rocker said:

Blueliner said:

Kyleran said:

Its so weird to see so many cheering for the "bad guys."

Perhaps playing video games is harmful after all.

  

NCSOFT are the bad guys, they have been for years

Very true. They aren't known as 'The MMO Killer' for nothing.

Yeah, breaking the law is nothing in comparison....

/Cheers,
Lahnmir