It would be a problem for the server to call it "Atlas Park"
If NCSoft wants to send you a cease and desist, then changing the name of Atlas Park or changing the name or appearance of a villain group (I'm not sure how far you intend to go with those changes) or changing the text of a mission won't stop them. It won't. I hope I'm never in a position to say I told you so. I'm not a dick. Watching ya'll pour all of that extra retconning work into the I24 community server just for nothing--it wouldn't vindicate me, I'd gain no satisfaction; it would make me feel awful. It would be depressing to watch.
I have only deep admiration for you guys. And, well, please excuse a bit of indignant whining, but it's unfair for Tony to say that I've pigeonholed the community. I've shown a great deal of understanding for differences, and shown a great deal of tolerance. Tony has complimented me for it a few times. When people talk smack, I defend the projects here and the people behind them in the broadcast channels of other games. I know memories tend to grow short in the heat of the moment, and this is a pretty strong difference of opinion. But it doesn't mean that I'm drawing a permanent line in the sand or preparing to slander anyone beneath every Massively article or something. I hope no one else does either.
But I consider it far more rude to show up and complain after something launches. If you care that much, then you ought to speak your piece as early as possible.
On the main forums, people would gather together and go nuts on the devs over some typos or a story arc they felt was full of plot holes. Of course, some people took things for granted, having no idea the game's days were numbered. It was mostly awesome work by the devs. The people who created that content were working in a professional environment and capacity, paid to work all business-day long, for many years. On top of that, they passed everything through QA. So, yes, I'm in the camp that doesn't think we ought to scrap all of that hard work.
Initially, when the I24 community server launches, most anyone will be glad to come back no matter what you do. Replace every villain group with anime-themed vampire cheerleaders. OK. When they're hungry in the desert, few people are food critics. But wait until they're feeling more like themselves. So this is what I believe will happen. If you gut and replace much of the work put into the fictional game world by Paragon Studios, you'll bewilder and disappoint many who just wanted Paragon City back; who wanted to, once again, fight alongside or against the Freedom Phalanx. NCSoft may have shut City of Heroes down but people will say that you destroyed Paragon City. They'll ask why you appropriated their favorite game world and turned it into your own personal AE mission. And then they'll start being mean.
You'd be rightly inspired to reply that you're doing this for free. But when your fans say "You didn't ask us about this," they won't
purely be acting like self-entitled jerkwads. I expect some of them will be genuinely shocked and upset, and you ought to give your understanding (and nothing less) when they express themselves. My roommate was pretty upset when I told him about this. He said it was just one more slap in the face from the City of Heroes closure (and he's not even aware of that meme). He wouldn't talk about it after that. You may feel like the ungrateful bastards ought to just be happy that they have a game at all. And you'd be partly right. But that would also mean you learned not much from watching Paragon Studios interact with the community over the years. Huge sweeping changes, particularly those which felt arbitrary, never earned the devs many big smiles.