And hopefully City of Heroes never will, but City of Heroes 2....................
Exactly.
Firstly, I'd like to thank Ironwolf for keeping the Titan Network and CoH fans informed. It's quite exciting! 'We' have a contact, a price and a meeting. Amazing news. Hopefully, things can progress from here.
And if things don't. I get the feeling we'll know more about 'why not' this time around.
Which means? The numerous offers of financial help and technical help can be pursued. And, egos asides..., maybe 'all' can pool their efforts for one giant push to 'persuade' NC Soft that the CoH community can, financially and technically, STEP UP to bring the game 'home.'
To the efforts currently under way, I say...'God speed.'
As for the 'worries.'
I think with any possibly 'buy out' will have to have a basic plan. It's this...
1. Get the Classic CoH game back up and running.
(Make it pay. At least break even. I once saw 30 thousand subs quoted as the amount for an MMO game to 'break even.' I think the CoH community will 'walk' that number!)
- Re-launch the game. Get the community buzzing.
- Hot on it's 'heals?' (heh...) Finish and put out issue 24 to bring more subscribers on board.
- Develop and finish a probably sketchily finished issue 25. Introduce the galactic threat...invasion style.
- Develop the galactic threat and the 'Moon Setting' that Matt Miller was talking about. FINALLY, some more interior mission maps. Raise the level cap to 60. Add solo incarnate capability (for those like me who hated Legion hoards of chaos missions...) And complete the incarnate power tree. (And, I'd argue, give it a more traditional interface like the one for 1st, 2ndary and tertiary and epic power sets. The devs' lost the plot on the Incarnate interface. Deary me...)
What does this do? This gets the community back on track. It gets the developers focused. It brings back subbers who had left the game. Get the basic subs numbers back up to 100K, easily with this amount of work. Maybe 125-150k depending on the quality of the issues 24-25 and finally, with the 'Moon base' a proper end game.
2. CoH 2.
Show the other MMOs WE MEAN BUSiNESS. Because, YES SIR! Not only are we keeping the 'Classic game play and game' for those who want to play it... (I'm guessing 75k-100k still will! Including ME! That will make the classic game pay over 3 times over...)
We are going to shoot a sidewinder over the parapets of every MMO out there..!
- Develop Coh 2
- Phase 1.
- Keep Classic CoH gameplay and design.
- Ultra Mode 2.0! Update all graphics. All maps, characters, interfaces, game play are THE SAME! 99.9% port efficient. (See Irish Girl's demo of Oro for how good CoH '2' could look!)
- To achieve this? Go to the Unreal 4 engine.
- Keep everything. But ported to the new engine.
Phase 2.
- Raise the level cap to L70.
- Introduce new Power Sets graphical 'particle' effects that show what Unreal 4 engine can really do.
- Introduce new designs of Archetype sets that REALLY show the versality of the new engine.
- Introduce new game play types that take advantage of a more flexible engine.
- Introduce new 'ultra' realistic interior maps that REALLY show what Unreal 4 engine can do.
- Introduce new zones that show what the new engine can REALLY do.
So.
We get:
1. Classic.
We keep 'her' just the way we remember the 'old' girl.
2. CoH 2.
Phase 1.
Ultra Mode 2. CoH ports to a new engine and puts the 'old' assets in a more polished light.
3. CoH 2.
Phase 2.
Introduces the 'new' augmented game gradually. New interior maps. New zones. New Archetypes. New Power Sets. New graphical fidelity. New play types. (Inspired by 'classic' mode but not 'constrained' by it.
It keeps those who just want to play classic happy. (Me.)
Keeps those who want it updated to a new engine happy. (Me.)
Keeps those who want a game to extend into new territories happy. (Me.)
You get Vanilla. You get Strawberry. And yes. You get chocolate.
This is a progressive plan. A sensible one. You get the game up and running. You get it making money. You bring back the community. The loyal 75-100K base customers who had it closed down on them. The '50k'+ who had got bored after the launch of CoV with the lack of true end game, lack of new interior maps you can bring back...and give them a reason or three to hang around this time. i.e.. Proper End game. Interior maps given a new lease of life. Raise the Level cap to 60 to get people back and playing with new and proper end game content. Increase the 'stickiness' of the classic game.
But to poach the MMO players from eve online to WoW to other pretenders? CoH 2. Incorporating new engine. Classic gameplay. Ultra Mode 2 graphical upgrade. New CoH 2 based play types, archetypes, maps, zones, power sets to push the game forward. You get the 'old' but you progress to the 'new' on the same engine. You can choose classic gameplay in the classic zones given 'buffed up' graphics on the new engine or you can 'try' the new direction with super enhanced Ultra Mode 3 (which really cuts loose on the new engine with the Coh 2 in these new maps, new zones and new archetypes looking more like the tech demos of Unreal4 engine with dazzling particle effects, animation and realistic character geometry/textures!) influenced but not limited by 'classic' mode. Progressive development into new directions due to the flexibility the new engine gives you.
It goes without saying that the new group would do well to reach out to the community of CoH, ex-developers etc to get the game back up and running and help get issue 24 and 25 out the door within a year of re-launch.
And yes. The new group, if they succeed, can have my development plan free of charge, Ironwolf.
Azrael.