Can you believe it has already been 2 years since we first came home? Even more, 17 years since the launch of City of Heroes?! Say it ain’t so! Homecoming’s Jimmy took to the forums to talk about what’s coming up for Homecoming as well as introduce a new zone, and the new anniversary badge. Below is a copy of the text from the forums for your reading pleasure.
Hello everyone!
It’s now been just over two years since Torchbearer, the very first Homecoming shard, came online, and 17 years to the day since City of Heroes first launched!
It’s been a very difficult year for all of us, with the pandemic impacting our lives in so many ways. Despite this, we’re happy that City of Heroes has been a much-welcomed escape for many of you during this trying time, and we’re incredibly proud of how the Homecoming community rallied around our folding@home initiative to aid in vital Coronavirus research. Our F@H team is currently ranked #71 worldwide (out of around 260,000 teams) – well done everyone!
Many of us have experienced loss in this past year, including our team. In October, GM_Cyclone – better known on the forum as Robotech_Master – sadly passed away after a hit-and-run accident. Cyclone’s main character, Infurno, can now be found in Steel Canyon’s library, surrounded by his love of books, and continuing to aid fledgling heroes as they get their career started, just as Cyclone used to both do in-game and on the forums with his extensive catalogue of guides.
I’d also like to take a moment to extend an huge thank you to all of our volunteers – both past and present – for their time, patience, and dedication. Without each and every one of you this simply wouldn’t be possible. To date, the GM team has answered and resolved over 22,000 support tickets, and they’re always just a /petition away if you need anything. We’re always recruiting more GMs to help out – if you think you’ve got what it takes, take a read through this post.
The development team has also been hard at work this year, with Page 5 of Issue 26: Homecoming releasing just before the last anniversary, Page 1 of Issue 27: Second Chances releasing in November, and Page 2 releasing just last week. And we’re not stopping there…
Introducing Echo Plaza
Echo Plaza is a brand new zone that’s built from the ground up for hosting events!
Along with a giant costume contest-friendly square, Echo Plaza also features a winners podium, an Icon store for making last-minute costume changes, a power-suppressing prison for dastardly players who leave Steamy Mist running, and a hospital for… reasons.
Echo Plaza is easily accessible from Pocket D, meaning all characters – including Praetorians – can access it and join in with future events. During official Homecoming events (and the entire month of May), Echo Plaza will also be accessible via TUNNEL portals and by using the Long Range Teleporter power.
In the vast emptiness of the Shadow Shard, there is a peculiar cluster of debris; discarded attempts at remaking things the Ravager has seen in all the dimensions that he has consumed. One of Rularuu’s aspects, Uuralur the Mirror, has organized some of the larger pieces into an area called the Garden of Memories, either out of remorse or for amusement, and populated it with Reflections from the original inhabitants. Not all of these testaments to extinguished life saw use in Uuralur’s Garden; some of them were cast off even further into the cold Outer Reaches of the Shard.
One of these disowned pieces is a large Roman-style Colosseum, considered unworthy of Uraluur’s vision. First discovered by the Shadow Shard Expeditionary Force under the leadership of Justin Augustine, it has no activity from the various Soldiers of Rularuu; mostly due to its remote location, but also because the Ravager would rather forget the memories tied to this place. Considered a brief respite during the long expedition, it was filed away in Justin’s report as a potential location for Mole Point Echo and never visited again.
That is, until nearing the occasion of Paragon City’s 198th anniversary, when a former member of the Shadow Shard Expeditionary Force was enjoying a few pints in Pocket D and described the place in detail, mentioning the bizarre clash of pieces from different dimensions. After an hour of raucous argument, other patrons and management came to the same conclusion: nothing would come of this until someone “put up or shut up”. With the wild stories from the inebriated soldier fresh in everyone’s minds, patrons politely asked DJ Zero to open a passage to it, if it could be done. After promising that they would “party hard” and leave their conflicts and troubles at the door, DJ Zero agreed to locate it and open a gateway. It is unclear how long the traffic into this corner of the Shadow Shard will be tolerated by Rularuu, but until then, Echo Plaza is open for business.
Anniversary Costume Contest
Speaking of events, we will be hosting an Anniversary Costume Contest on the 15th of May. It’ll take place at 9pm UTC (click for your timezone) in Echo Plaza on all five shards. There’s no specific theme this time – bring your best overall costume!
There’s huge prize pool available, including a total of 50,000 Reward Merits and 100 Super Packs:
The overall winner will receive:
10,000 Reward Merits
20 Heroes vs. Villains Super Packs
A permanent golden title and the Fashion Victim badge
The winner on each shard will receive:
5,000 Reward Merits
5 Heroes vs. Villains Super Packs
A permanent golden title and the Fashion Victim badge
And the four runners up on each shard will receive:
1,000 Reward Merits
3 Heroes vs. Villains Super Packs
A permanent golden title and the Fashion Victim badge
Be sure to stick around after the contest ends… you may get to make use of that new hospital!
17th Anniversary Badge: Legendary
Legendary has been chosen by you as the title for the 17th anniversary badge. Any character that logs in between now and the end of May will automatically receive the badge and 5 charges of the Experienced temporary power.
Additionally, all previous anniversary badges are also available to purchase from Luna in Ouroboros for 100 Reward Merits each until the end of May.
Invasion!
As you may have already noticed, the Rikti are invading once again!
They’ll be here for a couple of weeks, and will disappear during server maintenance on Tuesday the 11th of May. Be sure to collect your badges (and debt) before then!
The Future
And what’s next for Homecoming? Well… here’s a sneak peak of a few things we’ve got in the works…
And that’s not all – there’s plenty more that we’re not quite ready to show off just yet.
Remember, we’re always in need of help testing these updates. Specifically the thing that helps us the most is well-documented bug reports and feedback based on thorough testing on the beta server. The more of that you’re able to give us, the faster and smoother our development process will be – which translates to more updates with fewer bugs! Check out the Homecoming Beta FAQ to get started.
This has been an incredible journey so far, and we are truly humbled by all the support you’ve given us over the past two years. Thank you.
That’s all for today. We’ll see you in-game.
– The Homecoming Team
If you want to see the announcement for yourself you can find it on the Official Homecoming Forums. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check out Echo Plaza!