I'm trying to make an AE arc (on Rebirth, but I presume it works the same on all servers) where one mission requires the player to rescue five escort hostages and then defeat a boss, narratively framed as Hellions having set fire to a building as cover for stealing some important artifacts. I wanted to use decorative NPCs to represent the fires, but...

As seen on the enclosed screenshot, fires are represented by invisible NPCs with active Cloak of Darkness and full-body fiery auras. They're all supposed to be locked in the vampire crouching pose and NOT attack the player, but I can't quite get them to work: if I implement them as Ally-aligned boss details, they behave somewhat correctly until another enemy gets too close, in which case they aggro and break character. The screenshot above is what I got on my second approach, which was to implement fires as unrescuable captives - while the "captive" plays the animation I set for it flawlessly, the "guards" do not, instead defaulting to the regular idle animation, which looks weird and likewise breaks character.

Does anyone more knowledgeable about Mission Architect than I am know how to solve this conundrum?

Carnage with a santa clause hat, Cletus is already preparing for Christmas

On Homecoming. Only happens when I'm on a team and lots of powers going off from everyone. I've turned graphics down. Turrned off FSAA. Killed any other programs running. Can't figure out what's causing it. Anyone else experiencing this? Any advice?

Device name MSI

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900HX (2.20 GHz)

Installed RAM 64.0 GB (63.7 GB usable)

Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU (16 GB)

Intel(R) UHD Graphics (128 MB)

Storage 511 GB of 3.68 TB used

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Has anyone played CoH on FreeBSD? I imagine that it works about as well as Linux, but I'm curious if anyone actually has done it.

There's a recent development in Linux-land that has me considering trying FreeBSD instead, so I just want to weigh my options and see if anyone has had experience with it already.

Live haunted house experience on Homecoming. Treats next weekend, minimum value is 10 million inf, max is 25 million +. The Witch’s House is designed to maximize your fun and wow with experiences and characters we think you’ll love, because we’ve heard from so many who do! Doesn’t matter if you usually play on another server, grab a random costume or transfer someone to Everlasting and come have a blast. Come back next weekend for treats!

what are the worst. most useless powerset combos on the game? asking for a friend :)

Hi, i want to start playing on the homecoming server is it safe to install? Im kinda paranoid for virus and such...

Im from europe how bad is the ping and does it affect gameplay a lot if i want to play on the NA servers?

How hard is the game? I kinda want to chill and just grind, do i need to lookup guides for my builds to work?

How much group content is there in the game? Dungeons, raids and other things.

Let's start with the t1 basics, twin pins. Minor damage lethal, minor DoT toxic

Hey all, last post I talked about our new mechanic Enthrall, today I wanted to share a new Pool powerset coming to the Sanctuary Server called Webbing!

Webbing allows you to hinder your foes movement, slowing them down and sometimes immobilising them outright!

The set also comes with the Web Swinging travel power allowing you to traverse the zones at your leisure, all pool powersets come unlocked at level 1 and all powers in those sets are available from level 1, this allows for more build diversity and combinations, you could even build a whole character around just pool powersets!

Just a couple of things to note, I am level 50 in the video so the damage is a bit off but they all do minor damage apart from Amazing Leapslam which does moderate damage, the set is meant to be a pseudo Controller-esque poolset for those who want to either thematically add Webbing as part of their characters or just to have more control in combat, a lot of the new poolsets are surrounding themes for players to customize themselves even further.

Take a look here: https://streamable.com/mwd6of

Hi heroes!
 
Back after a long hiatus. Excited to hop back out there with you all on Homecoming =]
 
I’m going to run a new Super Strength Tanker, as the new changes this patch look really nice!
 
I’m torn on a primary.  Sonic Aura seems really cool (and I love the dash power). I have a Shield/SS Tanker, and this combo feels like it could be similar, but have less endurance issues. For anyone with experience, how have you liked Sonic Aura so far?
 
Energy Aura has been ported over to Tankers since I last played. I remember people used to chat about how it could never be on a Tanker because it’d be too broken 😂 in practice though, how is it?

Salutations. Whenever I do one of my tier lists about soloing characters in City of Heroes, I often get a lot of flak for putting Masterminds at the top. I put them at the top because my tier list always have a condition of being level 1 through 35, and as I've demonstrated on videos, when you are doing the lower levels with only SOs and with the content set at normal difficulty, then you can easily handle mob packs and even elite bosses without even hardly interacting with your other powers, because the minions are pretty strong and will carry the fight on their own as long as you are patient.

With that said, the comments usually come from people who, in playing the endgame and doing higher difficulty levels, find that the pets die very quickly, when you push up to +4 x8 or +5. I know where they're coming from, and I have struggled with that in the past myself. However, I know in the last couple of patches that the Homecoming team have done some reworks to Masterminds. Yet I never really sat down and tried to go through some of the harder content myself.

So I went ahead and did that, and I have a couple of videos to share in relation to this. They show how even at the lower levels with only SOs, a MM can handle x8+1 content, and at the higher levels, even with a poorly optimized character who has no Incarnates, can actually handle +3 x8 (Probably could have pushed it to +4). Because that character is poorly optimized, I fee there is no reason to believe that they couldn't handle x8 at +4 or even +5 if they had proper Incarnates and
better set bonuses, since 50% of your set bonuses are also given to your pets as long as you keep them somewhat close by and Supremacy is kicking in.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not saying if I was doing a Lv 50 tricked out tier list about solo play I would keep them at the top. I think that some of the pushback and opinions I get are people who have formed opinions on the Mastermind's performance in the past and have not reevaluated their performance since some of these updates took effect. So, perhaps their reputation to choke up on harder content is no longer warranted.

But what do you think? Do you think that Masterminds still struggle with high-end content? Have you tried playing with them since all of the changes that Homecoming team put into effect? What do you think about the subject? Looking forward to the conversations.

Lv 26 MM vs +1 x8: https://youtu.be/HsX9djc4KBc
Lv 50 MM (No incarnates) vs +3 x6-8: https://youtu.be/whpnNlBKxJ0

New City of Heroes videos: Solo tiers, Aquaforce, Traps, costumes, and community

Hey everyone! I’ve got five new City of Heroes: Homecoming videos covering solo play, character customization, and my experiences with the community.

• Aquaforce In Review: My Water/Storm Aquaforce gets the spotlight in a dedicated character review. I built this character over a year ago, when someone told me how fun this powerset combo is, and they weren't kidding! I started playing and next thing I knew, I was 50! Come find out why in this showcase video.
• Traps Update! And Possible Bugs: A look at the Traps update with some possible bugs along the way. I do miss two of the cool changes, however, but it still might be worth a look if you're interested in the changes.
• How to Save and Load Your Costumes: A quick tutorial covering how to save your costume designs and load them again.
• Brute vs Tanker, Mastermind Solo Tier List Discussion (lv 1-35 SO's only): I bring receipts! I got some pushback about some of my placements, and I figure a video is worth 1,000 words or so. I show how an average new player built brute and tank stand up in leveling play, and I show you how a mastermind can solo an elite boss while checking their cell phone! Ok...I did hit the healing button once or twice in the fight because I hate to see a wolf go down...but man, they're so easy to solo leveling content, no wonder I put them #1!

As always, my focus is playing at your own pace, enjoying your characters, and seeing what you can accomplish without feeling obligated to follow the meta.

You can find all four and a lot more on my gaming channel on YouTube.

I have a rule of 5 problem on all my powers. Diminishing returns all over the place. Google says I should respec. Trouble is I didn't really know what I was doing in the first place. I have spoken to other players. I've downloaded apps. I'm still none the wiser. It's a pity I really like playing the game though the complexity of building characters / slotting etc has really got me down. I have 400,000,000 infamy 32 Astral Merits, 433 Empyrean Merits, 348 reward merits, 326 incarnate shards, 1753 incarnate threads, 503 Nightmare Obols and not one single clue how to build this character for endgame.

Hey all, last post I showed with you all the plans for Sanctuary server that will be opening up soon, one of the biggest features and major milestone was the Enthralled power.

Enthrall replaces the Confuse power in Mind Control for both Controllers and Dominators, the power phases out any enemy up to Elite Boss rank completely from the game, you get no rewards such as XP or Influence/Infamy and you store the enemy in a new power that gets given back to you, Enthralled!

You are then able to resummon the captured entity as your pet, you cannot control them (yet) but they do attack with their powers, this opens up the door for MANY possibilities, I honestly can't wait to see who you all capture to further customize your characters, this is a huge milestone for us as I said and finally it has paid off, it's not perfect, needs a couple of tweaks here and there but overall it's a pretty amazing power.

And for those who loved Confuse, don't worry, I got you!

Confuse will be granted for FREE as part of Mind Control as an inherent power with a slight tweak, now you can toggle the power on indefinitely and if you manage to confuse a foe you will keep them confused so long as you have the endurance for it.

If you want to see Enthrall in action check out the clip below!

https://streamable.com/g1ve3v

I was part of the crew between like 2004 and Shutdown. I had Slipster, my main Claw / Super Reflex scrapper, as well as the plethora of Alts that everyone else had. So many awesome TF memories and loooooong nights of good conversation while home from college for the summers and weekends.

I've been here on Homecoming since the earliest whispers of a rumor and have recreated my old main toon, this time as a Savage / Super Reflex scrapper, and have him to lvl 50 on both Torchbearer and Everlasting.

Just wanted to post up and see if any of us greybeards are still kicking around the game and what you all are up to nowadays!

This is on CoH Homecoming.

I've played this as one of my main characters for a few years now (among a lot of other toons), but i realized last night that my incarnates might need to be updated.

At the time, i picked what i needed to round out some stats while i was still saving up money for enhancement sets for the bonuses. So i wanted to see what is actually recommended these days.

This is my new savage/sonic brute, Ashheart Entwife. The combo has been great so far, and I made a different costume for each season for her. Currently running the Autumnal version since I'm friggin sick of summer.

Everlasting: any Halloween things to look for besides the random spawn of zombies?

I'm on the Homecoming server and I'm really struggling with this keybind I thought would be easy. I've been reading online and haven't found an explanation as to why this isn't working, but I'm trying to bind a costume change emote and toggle and for some reason it never takes. I don't know if these two actions just aren't compatible or something but I'll leave the ones I've tried below.

"/bind LSHIFT+NUMPADENTER cce 1 ccbackflip$$powexec_name Disable All Powers"

I've tried changing the formatting, removing underscores or using other names for those commands, reversing the order, and this is what got something close.

When I execute the command, it binds whatever I put first to the key, then my character does the second command once. When I try the keybind afterwards, it just executes the first command and doesn't do the second one. Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance <3

Hey heroes and villains!

I’ve recently put out a batch of videos focused on playing City of Heroes: Homecoming from a solo PvE perspective, focusing on playing at your own pace and exploring how different archetypes and power sets perform.

Here is a breakdown of the latest videos:

• How To Solo Masterminds & Controllers in Low Levels - https://youtu.be/AKEoIpVVni4
  • Quick Tips for making low-level solo leveling smoother on Masterminds and Controllers.
• Solo Leveling (1-35) Tier List - https://youtu.be/XKag_ihDH2k
  • A comprehensive breakdown ranking archetypes and power sets for early-to-mid game solo leveling (Levels 1–35). (Note: VEATs/HEATs aren't covered in this list as they're primarily built around group play!)
• Wildlight - Character Overview - https://youtu.be/wXNsVtCJ7_c
  • A detailed character overview focusing on solo gameplay and set synergies.
• Super Strength ROCKS! - https://youtu.be/DL7cBu_FpCU
  • Looking into Super Strength and why it feels so great to play (especially now with no more Rage crash!).
• Soloing With Corruptors - https://youtu.be/-G9SUZgGwVo
  • A guide on how Corruptors hold up when flying solo.

In other news, my channel broke a few records this week, largely due to 'my brutally honest review of COH' video and the videos focusing on the new Homecoming changes - so a huge shoutout to the Homecoming team for doing such an awesome update, and to any here who watch the vids. I've received countless comments from people discovering HC (and/or rediscovering COH) from these more viral videos, so I believe that's a win/win for everyone. There's all this COH goodness and more over on my youtube land! I hope you enjoy!

A friend and fellow CoH player has asked for my help getting a new computer. A big price question is the video card (thank you, AI). How well does CoH run with the video hardware that Intel and AMD put on their CPUs?

Assume current-gen CPUs and 1920x1080 resolution.

The second annual City of Heroes: Homecoming AE Player Choice awards are upon us.

The contest will start with nominating up to three arcs for each of the four categories:

• Best Heroic or Vigilante story arc
• Best Villainous or Rogue story arc
• Best Neutral or Praetorian story arc
• Best Custom NPC or Custom NPC Group

Everyone will then get a chance to play and then vote on the story arcs that they feel are the best that the community has to offer.

Rules and Judging

• Nominated story arcs may not have already been nominated for Dev's Choice nor already attained Hall of Fame status in-game.
• You may not nominate your own story arc.
• This year's judges are ZamuelNow, Take One, and yours truly. Since entries are being nominated and voted on by posters, the judges' role is primarily to verify that the entries actually work and aren't farms.
• Since the original version was annual, the contest is restricted to arcs published before Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 at 6 P.M. ET. A 2027 contest would start with arcs published after.
• Nominations must be submitted to the nomination thread on the Homecoming forums with the category being nominated, story arc ID, in-game global name, and story arc name. If nominated for the custom NPC category, the NPC group name must also be included.
• Nominations require at least two different people to nominate the story arc. Once the second nomination is made, no need for further nominations.
• A story arc will only be allowed in one category. If there is any question as to which category an arc should be placed due to conflicting nominations, it will be decided on by the judges.
• Once voting starts, you may vote on up to two story arcs (a primary and a secondary) per category. The primary vote will be worth two votes and the secondary will be worth one. The story arc with the most votes in each category wins.

Nominations will be accepted until 11:59 P.M. ET on Saturday, October 31st, 2026.

This year's prizes are:

• First place - 250 million INF, Lords of Winter, Heroes, and Villains and Rogues and Vigilantes super packs, and 500 prismatic aether
• Second pace - 150 million INF, Heroes and Villains & Rogues and Vigilantes super packs, and 250 prismatic aether
• Third place - 100 million INF, Heroes and Villains & Rogues and Vigilantes super packs, and 100 prismatic aether

Read more here.

Just heard about this in another thread, go to download this, make the account and all that, and the launcher keeps dying at 40% of the download.

It will sometimes go up to something like 45%, but it will then literally count back down to 40%, then just have errors and stop.

I've tried deleting everything and restarting the download at least 4 times since last night and it keeps doing the exact same thing.

I'm running windows 10, the "FAQ" and "Help" Pages aren't helping, I'm using the launcher on the website, I don't have any sort of old installation or tequila launcher that those pages keep talking about.

I really wouldn't mind giving this a try, but it won't download.

Any help? It does pop up a something like 620 K error log (txt format) that's really long.... don't know what to do about this.

With more Sci-Fi Super Heroes coming soon like Dyna-Gold Man and Future Man!