If we start with no user data

[MWRuger]

I could easily see a month long welcome home with rotating events and alternating Double XP weekends. That would be a lot of fun and help characters get leveled quickly as well.

[DarkCurrent]

I may be the only one who thinks this, but I hope that if the game does get restarted they don't fire up a bunch of 2x xp weeks and toss everyone lvl 50s (unless we get user data back).  If there's just an orgy of loot, farming, AE teams, DFB lfm!!!, etc. then I think people would just get burned out in a couple weeks.

I'd rather just have the game on and team with folks happy to be back and get their xp the old-fashioned way.  It'd be cool to start fresh and run with I24 the 'we fixt everything' backbone.  At least for the first few weeks.

Then, once the honeymoon fervor starts to die down you unload your 2x xp, rikti invasions, summer blockbusters, ToTing, etc (one per week) to carry things through for a few more months.  Hopefully, by then there'll be some news released that gets people fired up for more.

I feel that if a 2nd chance is granted, we should be in it for the long haul:  CoX2 that might be a couple years away.  Not just blowing our loads on trying to purple out our WS by the end of day one.

[MWRuger]

I may be the only one who thinks this, but I hope that if the game does get restarted they don't fire up a bunch of 2x xp weeks and toss everyone lvl 50s (unless we get user data back).  If there's just an orgy of loot, farming, AE teams, DFB lfm!!!, etc. then I think people would just get burned out in a couple weeks.

I'd rather just have the game on and team with folks happy to be back and get their xp the old-fashioned way.  It'd be cool to start fresh and run with I24 the 'we fixt everything' backbone.  At least for the first few weeks.

Then, once the honeymoon fervor starts to die down you unload your 2x xp, rikti invasions, summer blockbusters, ToTing, etc (one per week) to carry things through for a few more months.  Hopefully, by then there'll be some news released that gets people fired up for more.

I feel that if a 2nd chance is granted, we should be in it for the long haul:  CoX2 that might be a couple years away.  Not just blowing our loads on trying to purple out our WS by the end of day one.

I'd be fine with as well. Really just want to play.

[Ohioknight]

I hated those "1M inf, 8USD.  All best gold from goldfarmers.com" bots (and the inflation they helped create)...

Were those actually for real?  How the heck did they work? -- I just assumed it was a universal spam-scam

(not that I would have cared either way -- they just annoyed me like all spamming, but I neither care if people buy inf or don't -- I wasn't interested and wouldn't be)

[Burnt Toast]

I was shocked when a friend told me they purchased inf and a power level through one of those services. I asked him if he felt comfortable giving them his credit card...to which he told me he didn't...that it was done through paypal. I found that interesting because the main reason I heard on the boards for not doing it was because they would steal your credit card info etc...


Apparently he had used them for years and just never told anyone. I did some further researching and actually knew quite a few people who used them (most people used them for just inf). $5 for 1000 million (which I find funny they called it that instead of 1 billion hehe)....

Were those actually for real?  How the heck did they work? -- I just assumed it was a universal spam-scam

(not that I would have cared either way -- they just annoyed me like all spamming, but I neither care if people buy inf or don't -- I wasn't interested and wouldn't be)

[Apex Viper]

I was shocked when a friend told me they purchased inf and a power level through one of those services. I asked him if he felt comfortable giving them his credit card...to which he told me he didn't...that it was done through paypal. I found that interesting because the main reason I heard on the boards for not doing it was because they would steal your credit card info etc...


Apparently he had used them for years and just never told anyone. I did some further researching and actually knew quite a few people who used them (most people used them for just inf). $5 for 1000 million (which I find funny they called it that instead of 1 billion hehe)....

Personally, I never used them either. I earned every influence or level 50 I ever had and I had many. I know MANY who did, including several high ranking SG's....I assume they bought influence and converted it to prestige. When I brought up this topic earlier on, I was merely thinking of away to add revenue for the development/profit of CoH and/or CoH2.  Many people just throw money to this type of quick leveling or quick influence....I view this no different than that of the AE Farmers for Hire. Anyway, my point was why not let the game reap the bounty? As far as the inflation in the market place, that will happen regardless. Too many people play the market just to set the prices of IO's or salvage high to pay for their builds. I was told of this by a former SG leader. He would place something on the market, take an alt account and re-buy it for say 999,999,999. Afterward he would re-list it for the same amount.

[Myrmydon]

I was shocked when a friend told me they purchased inf and a power level through one of those services. I asked him if he felt comfortable giving them his credit card...to which he told me he didn't...that it was done through paypal. I found that interesting because the main reason I heard on the boards for not doing it was because they would steal your credit card info etc...


Apparently he had used them for years and just never told anyone. I did some further researching and actually knew quite a few people who used them (most people used them for just inf). $5 for 1000 million (which I find funny they called it that instead of 1 billion hehe)....

In the Freedom closed beta, I used them in an example of how the Devs should activate all SBOs at launch so that they could grab some of the money spent on that and was quickly modded for it. While I deplore using those sites, I definitely see it as a convenience for people that can't stand farming and such. I would have much rather seen Paragon make the money than some farming site.

Personally, I never used them either. I earned every influence or level 50 I ever had and I had many. I know MANY who did, including several high ranking SG's....I assume they bought influence and converted it to prestige. When I brought up this topic earlier on, I was merely thinking of away to add revenue for the development/profit of CoH and/or CoH2.  Many people just throw money to this type of quick leveling or quick influence....I view this no different than that of the AE Farmers for Hire. Anyway, my point was why not let the game reap the bounty? As far as the inflation in the market place, that will happen regardless. Too many people play the market just to set the prices of IO's or salvage high to pay for their builds. I was told of this by a former SG leader. He would place something on the market, take an alt account and re-buy it for say 999,999,999. Afterward he would re-list it for the same amount.

In the PM I was told that, while the mod agreed with me on the principle, I wasn't allowed to make reference to the idea of using gold farming sites in the forums. It was one of the more entertaining modding a that I received over the years.

[ukaserex]

CoX Legacy:

1. Subscription, to fund further efforts and pay the new developers for work on that game.

2. The subscription should include all the bells and whistles, except things you get by unlocking; that stuff should stay the same. The bells and whistles soften the blow given when people's old alts were consigned forever to the dustbin of gaming history. Which, right now, I would guess is 90% probability of what's going to happen.

SoAs and Kheldians should be included in this, definitely.

3. At least ten character slots open at launch, with the option to buy more.

4. I would like the option to buy a disk or disks, I know a lot of people like Steam but I despise my computer being monitored by an outside party. I would happily pay for these disks, just like I did all my CoX disks.
Then while all this goes on and people are happily reunited with their alts, CoX 2 goes into production.

Personally, I don't think I know or remember what "Steam" is, but will do a search and try finding out about it. My gut says I'd rather have an installation disk than have to download from any site, let alone some third party.

[Waffles]

At the risk of going slightly off topic, has it been estimated how long it would take the game to go live, if the image/whatever NCsoft says they have had to be reverse engineered to get everything out?

[Eoraptor]

At the risk of going slightly off topic, has it been estimated how long it would take the game to go live, if the image/whatever NCsoft says they have had to be reverse engineered to get everything out?

Some of the Save COH threads say as little as six to eight months, though honestly I'd look for it to be closer to 14 to line up bandwidth and server hardware.

[MWRuger]

Personally, I never used them either. I earned every influence or level 50 I ever had and I had many. I know MANY who did, including several high ranking SG's....I assume they bought influence and converted it to prestige. When I brought up this topic earlier on, I was merely thinking of away to add revenue for the development/profit of CoH and/or CoH2.  Many people just throw money to this type of quick leveling or quick influence....I view this no different than that of the AE Farmers for Hire. Anyway, my point was why not let the game reap the bounty? As far as the inflation in the market place, that will happen regardless. Too many people play the market just to set the prices of IO's or salvage high to pay for their builds. I was told of this by a former SG leader. He would place something on the market, take an alt account and re-buy it for say 999,999,999. Afterward he would re-list it for the same amount.

Well, he may have been trying to keep the price where he wanted it but he was also actually reducing inflation. The market fees that he paid were one of the few things that actually removed inf from the game. The same with prestige conversion. That was inf that was removed from the system. Thus reducing the supply of inf.

You are also forgetting that there were many changes introduced late in the game that lowered the prices on purples and PvP IO's. Alignment merits and IO converters really increased supply and lowered prices overall. There were many ways to get the good stuff without marketing or RMT douches. I would also remind that it was against the TOS and could get you permanently banned if discovered.

The market will always tend toward inflation because there is no cost of production associated with inf and almost nothing to spend it on. But there is no good reason to help it along. Besides, why not let them buy the purples from the store? It does the same thing you want without increasing inf.

Until you can show me what benefit it offers over just selling them in the store and making them account bound, it will remain a terrible idea to me.

[HEATSTROKE]

 I didnt get burned out in 8 years of constant play... They could throw EVERYTHING at me and I wouldnt get burned out..

[Lava-Lad]

I didnt get burned out in 8 years of constant play... They could throw EVERYTHING at me and I wouldnt get burned out..

AGREED

[Blackshear]

What if this?  No problem, I'll start from 1.  I enjoyed the gameplay and would have fun leveling up my signature toons along with some new faces.  I do hope they'll dole out some vet rewards early if possible...Sands of Mu was always a handy ability to give my beginners a little leg up.

[Eoraptor]

Indeed, one of my favourite story arcs was spunky lil twinshot and the shining stars

[Shifter]

I'd prefer they not think about this at all and just focus on getting the game back up and running to be honest.

[therain93]

There is NO PROOF that CoH Freedom was more profitable BECAUSE of free players... it was simply more profitable. I offer this reasoning:


VIP players made it more profitable... I know I did. I gave myself an allowance of "only" $50 a month to spend on the Paragon Market every month...guess who was bad and over spent most months.. Yep.. Me LOL! I figured it out right after the announcement that my CoH budget went from $45 a month (I had three accounts) to $120 a month. CURSE YOU PARAGON MARKET! So do I think it was the freebies bringing the majority of new funds into the game... No I think it was a lot of VIPs wanting more... more.. more


Regarding the Premium and VIPs in my proposed plans for the return of CoH1 and bonuses for CoH2.
Let's say "only" 20,000 players come back (Where do I get that number from??? Well CoH1 is a 10 year old game that is going to be stuck in maintenance mode... it doesn't have the star power it once had. I wouldn't be surprised if many ex players have given up on MMOs or that they will be excited...but wait for CoH2.


So 20,000 players... Now let's say this entire deal costs 2 million. I think that's a fair price. So let's look at how this will work:


20,000 players... at $9.99 a month will take 10 months to pay off the PURCHASE cost...this does not include servers...staff..etc. So let's round that up to an even year to call everything paid off WOOHOO!
So 1 year of players...just to break even.


Now let's say HALF of those returning players are VIP... so they are paying $5 more a month...which goes towards CoH2... that's only $600,000... which will not buy you much towards development when you consider staff, computers, an office, etc... Well Poop.


So now we move into year 2 (I am giving them 2.5 years from relaunch of CoH1 to launch of CoH2...which is a tight schedule).
Year 2 allows more sub money to be funneled into CoH2 ... since now we are just maintaining CoH1 and have paid of the purchase price etc.


So yes... it makes complete sense to offer incentives to people who for a year support CoH2 with an extra $5 in their sub..and yes it makes sense to give them even more incentive to continue to do so to help fund CoH2.


Two things to think about:


1. Had CoH never closed... and you wanted to be VIP... there is NO change in the  amount you will be spending on your subscription, but a lot to be gained when CoH2 comes.


2, The financial differences over a 2.5 year period:
Premium cost: $299.70
VIP cost: $449.70


$150 more over the course of 2.5 years... $60 per year more. That's 2 nights at a movie btw ALSO - There will be no NEED to save for CoH2 if you are VIP from relaunch of CoH1 because you are getting a FREE copy of CoH2.


I think it important to not think about "ohhh they are getting this or that" and focus more on... "Oh I am helping support a game I love...and a game that I will love."

Just to throw a comment out there --

Although the statement is true that "There is NO PROOF that CoH Freedom was more profitable BECAUSE of free players", the reality is that free players gave paying players more people to play with.  More people to play with gave more reason to keep paying, if you are so inclined, as many of us were.....

[Burnt Toast]

I never knew any free players.... except a few run ins with people wanting to do itrials that were not VIP. Of my core group of friends (about 10 of us)...I do know we all spent a lot of extra cash on perks (enhancement slots...costume pieces...power sets...etc). I also do not know any of my old friends (most of whom I kept on my globals) that returned once Freedom launched I really thought a few of them might resurface... but not one did I also never met anyone new who went from freebie to VIP.... this is just my experience obviously.... I am not a fan of the free to play model... I am a fan of limited trials and/or reduced subs akin to my proposal for Premium players once the relaunch happens. Heck I am even ok with the premium cost being $5 a month....but I truly feel all players should pay some type of subscription fee...even in "maintenance mode" while we wait for CoH2.

Just to throw a comment out there --

Although the statement is true that "There is NO PROOF that CoH Freedom was more profitable BECAUSE of free players", the reality is that free players gave paying players more people to play with.  More people to play with gave more reason to keep paying, if you are so inclined, as many of us were.....

[Super Firebug]

I didnt get burned out in 8 years of constant play... They could throw EVERYTHING at me and I wouldnt get burned out..

I did. There was about a two-month period when I didn't play, because I had gotten to the point where the game just seemed like an endless string of "Go to point A, and beat people up; go to point B, and beat people up; go to point C, and beat people up; etc." I'm looking forward to CoH's return, but I wish these games had more depth than just the combat. It'd be nice to be able to help citizens caught in disasters, or pull them out of burning or collapsed buildings, or something.

[Ankhammon]

I did. There was about a two-month period when I didn't play, because I had gotten to the point where the game just seemed like an endless string of "Go to point A, and beat people up; go to point B, and beat people up; go to point C, and beat people up; etc." I'm looking forward to CoH's return, but I wish these games had more depth than just the combat. It'd be nice to be able to help citizens caught in disasters, or pull them out of burning or collapsed buildings, or something.

I have to admit, I got burnt out a few times over the years. I went and tried a couple different games and within a week or two would be back at CoH.