Paragon Chat > Announcements
The Elephant in the Room (& the future of Paragon Chat)
Codewalker:
So I've been away for a while, mostly recovering from some pretty serious burnout, and came in late on all the drama. I've spent a couple days reading and thinking and trying to decide what, if anything, to say about it. After starting and rewriting this post about half a dozen times, I think the best course of action is just to answer some of the more pertinent questions and try to correct some incorrect information I've seen floating around.
First, yes, I did know about Leandro's server. I didn't play on it, but I knew it existed*, and have contacts within its community. I kept my mouth shut for a variety of reasons, but the most important personally is because when I make a promise to somebody, I take it really damn seriously. I've done my level best to be as truthful as possible and avoid misleading the community, mostly by just staying quiet whenever discussions of emulators or private servers came up, or speaking only in vague hypothetical terms. I completely understand if people feel let down by that, but I'm not going to apologize for not betraying a confidence.
* Seriously, like half the CoH community knew about it; I can't decide if it's the best kept or worst kept secret.
For what it's worth, from the beginning what I was hearing from Leandro was that he planned a public release at some point, either after a full rewrite so that it could plausibly pass as new code (which ended up being a lot more complex than expected and stalling out last I heard), or otherwise with precautions to ensure it couldn't be traced back to whoever leaked it to him. Sounds like the passage of time may have done the trick for the latter part.
So, on to the Paragon Chat questions.
What is the relationship between S.C.o.R.E. and Paragon Chat?
That really depends on how you define SCoRE. What I always called SCoRE was the effort to write a ground-up clean code server replacement that could be released as open source. But now people are conflating it with Leo's leaked code server, and it seems to be far too late to put that genie back in the bottle, so I guess I'll just go with it.
By that second definition, very little. Leandro wrote the logon UI and a few other miscellaneous bits for the original release. He also provided the Tequila launcher, which was used initially for the download and updates.
Since then, there hasn't been just a whole ton of coordination. Leandro was busy dealing with personal issues a lot and keeping his server running, and I've been doing all the Paragon Chat code and updates. Paragon Chat abandoned the Tequila launcher fairly early on due to it being lacking in several important ways (apologies to the developer who wrote it) and implemented its own patching system. Some people still use Tequila to get the I24 files, but for a long time we've recommended against using it.
Leandro has also helped out with PR for some of the events, and provided content from his team, some of which was probably developed for his server but he wanted to give to the community where possible. So don't be surprised if you see similarities between the i25 build and stuff that was added to PChat.
Is it true that Paragon Chat was just a "smokescreen" for the secret server?
Absolutely not. I take strong exception to that.
I have no doubt that Leandro found it useful to have out there as a diversion, or that some people who played on his server thought it was just a smokescreen. But that's not why it exists. It was created for the community, to do as much as I possibly could.
I certainly didn't put hundreds of hours of coding into this as a mere smokescreen. F that.
What's this about Paragon Chat donations going to the SCORE server?
One of the more ridiculous rumors that's been floating around.
That would be a neat trick, since Paragon Chat has never asked for donations, and never accepted any. I've turned away everyone who offered, even the intangible offers like creating character portraits. Sorry if you're one of those who offered -- it wasn't personal -- I just thought it best to keep any exchange of money or value as far away from the project as possible.
So what now for Paragon Chat?
I honestly don't know yet.
The goal was always to use the PChat code to build an actual server out of it eventually. PChat is the equivalent of a miniaturized stack (dbserver+database+mapserver+content) all rolled into something small enough to run on a desktop. The XMPP stuff is just bolted on to the backend to synchronize state between mapservers. I've also been doing a lot of early but promising experiments with multimaster synchronization of powers and combat, which I thought might lead to a fully decentralized game implementation. One that in theory could never be shut down.
But I've been pretty much doing it by myself for the last couple years, and my free time is limited... Now that the real deal is out there, there doesn't seem like much of a need for Paragon Chat anymore. And you know, that's actually kind of a relief.
I think I'll wait a while and see what the community comes up with before making a final decision.
Atlantea:
Personally I think Paragon Chat should stay at least for now. It may not be a GAME. But it can still be a useful hub for both social functions and communication between groups of people who may be on different servers.
I'm not sure how viable turning PChat into an actual game would be. But - maybe if the server source code could serve as some kind of guide to bolt on things? Maybe? But only as a guide. The idea obviously being that it would be a good idea to have at least one version of Paragon City out there that isn't using code illegally. (Not that I'm particularly against that, but you know - lawyers.)
saipaman:
I'd advise waiting until we know what's going on with NCSoft.
Crystalclear:
I'd just like to say "thankyou" to you for all your hard work in bringing us Paragon Chat. It's not easy to do things on your own but you persevered and gave the community "something" when there could have been nothing.
Well done on an amazing effort which I for one appreciate.
Korbian:
Codewalker, I just want to hug the crap out of you, man. (Well, okay, not literally. :P)
Paragon Chat has become more of a home to me than live servers ever were, as far as the family I've become a part of there. I mean, I met the love of my life there, and have made so many more friends. I came hoping to find some of the people I used to know on live, but I found so much more.
And Paragon Chat is really cool for other reasons. I mean, you can't just chill in the Cascades and enjoy the pretty waterfalls on live. There's mobs everywhere. And I bet you won't be able to DB edit either, and we've had SO much fun with that toy. ;D Not to mention what PChat means to the RP crowd.
All that being said, I guess my question is, even if you stop updating it, will Paragon Chat at least still be here? I understand if it's not worth the costs of maintaining, since I have no idea what those costs may be, but I think a lot of us will miss it if it has to go away. Oh wait. That's what this thread is deciding. Sorry. I haven't had coffee yet.
Seriously though. I know I've said it infinity times but thank you, Codewalker, for everything you've done for all of us. Shelve PChat for now and focus on you. But don't chuck it completely. It'll give you something to do when you retire.
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