I would imagine we would all be starting over from zero.
Unless NCSoft kept the client data for some reason and we could use our old accounts to have our characters back.
Mind you I would not be upset in the slightest if I had to redo all my heroes. I would be too happy just to be back playing again.
I would be upset at having lost 8 years of vet perks but I could live with it.
More than likely it will be a start over.
Beside I actually would prefer it that was. That way it seems like a new game all over again instead of merely returning to a game I played for 6 years and coming back to with everything in place just where I left off. I would probably would last maybe six months-year if it was merely a continuation of where I left off.
Not to mention I might have to recreate a new account anyway. The old information to log in is very very fuzzy if still there at all.
Would be completely opposite for me. I've made too many characters over the years that I was very fond of. Starting off on a clean slate might keep me around for a month or so...and then I would log on less and less. The last couple years of coh had me making a few concept characters here and there, but I mostly played my 50's.
And re-rolling them would be depressing.
I have never had that issue. I often would reroll characters that hit 50 and play them as another AT.
Occassionally I would find one that was perfect:
Carillion: Sonic/Ice blaster
Spike the Guppy: Claws/Willpower scrapper
Moo Jooz: Water/Kin corruptor
But on the whole I would try various ATs on the same character.
Quote from: Stone Daemon on June 21, 2013, 02:56:08 PM
Would be completely opposite for me. I've made too many characters over the years that I was very fond of. Starting off on a clean slate might keep me around for a month or so...and then I would log on less and less. The last couple years of coh had me making a few concept characters here and there, but I mostly played my 50's.
And re-rolling them would be depressing.
Yeah. starting over can be a bane for someone that play their 50s alot.
Usually at 50 I ran out of stuff to do I like (i.e not farming) and or able to do (Team based TFs that wasnt popular and wasnt able to form or join a team.) so I rolled on to another character. I can always delete my characters or even start new account and get my desired effect but it would be hard to bring back a 50 that isnt there anymore due to involunatary (player perspective) missing data.
I created a new character - an Earth/Ice Dominator - a few days after the shutdown was announced, and got her to 50+3 weeks before the game closed - and I wasn't playing her even close to exclusively, and I wasn't power-leveling her in AE. (I was teaming more than usual - but I also found that I *like* teaming in CoH)
If the game were to reopen without any of our characters, I could easily do the same again. (Especially since I'd like to reroll most of my first few characters anyway. My Elec/Invuln Brute as Elec/Elec; my Stone/Stone Tanker as Willpower/Stone; my Elec/Elec Blaster as Elec/Martial)
I would definitely reroll a few characters. My one 50 was a dark/dark corruptor that just has not translated to any other game, so he would be the first. The vast majority of my characters were the product of altaholic whimsy, and most would probably be left to the Elysian fields of fond memory.
I would remake my mains. A restart would allow me to clean up my roster. CoH was the only game where I became an alta-holic. It was always great finding out what a hero's strengths and weaknesses were...kinda like in the comics.
I'm pretty sure that they're keeping everything-- from the actual program itself to our characters-- as is. The characters are all associated with accounts which are in turn all associated with valuable (as in "worth money to someone") customer data. That value plummets sharply if they erased our characters.
But let's say NCSuck did delete all our characters. That would indeed be unfortunate. However, I've always maintained that out of all the projects going, the one that will get my money is the one that allows me to fly around in a manner most like that of City of Heroes. I ended a 5 year hiatus from the game just before Going Rogue came out for no other reason than this: one day I had an overpowering need to fly around like I used to. I still have that need.
Also, I don't think it's going to take a "miracle" to get our game back. It will take focused, sustained effort, but we've already proven we can do that. Even closed, CoX has a number of things going for it (such as the best costume creator to have ever existed). With a respectable advertising budget I think it could have very easily been the #1 MMO and probably still can.
I might be mildly irritated that I'd have to start over from scratch simply because I put so much time and effort into my characters, even to the point that I spent HOURS making their initial costume. I made sure that they looked perfect out of the gate, and the only time I tweaked a costume was if I was suddenly given a new costume piece that was absolutely perfect. None of my toons had alternate outfits aside from a civies costume for roleplay or a swimsuit for the same. I did have a lot of influence tied up in them though, including a SS/Inv tank that had so many purples/set bonuses that he had nearly capped DEFENSE on top of ridiculous resistance. Plus the time and frustration I poured into getting him top-tier Incarnate slotted. And that was just ONE of them.
Thankfully I still have all my costumes saved, and from there I honestly wouldn't mind grinding everyone back up to fifty and doing it all over again. I loved doing it the first time, and if the whole community was behind the effort to restore our heroes to their former glory, I'm sure there would be many new friendships to be made, and old ones to be rekindled. Honestly I think it'd make the community even stronger. I would hope that NCSoft kept some kind of records/customer database info so that if someone bought out the IP or they re-opened in maintenance mode or anything we'd at least be able to maintain our veteran rewards. I would not at all like to be locked out of the ability to wear a trenchcoat again, nor lose my Zeus helmet, as that was an integral part of one of my favorite heroe's costume.
Either way, if we had our city back I wouldn't care. Hell, I'm sure the RP community would jump at the chance to pull a DC "Crisis" reboot on the community, revamp old backstories, origins from years ago that became inconvenient/cheesy, perhaps even an excuse to give established characters a whole new powerset. I can see nothing bad coming from COH re-opening.
I'd be fine with starting over if it means having the game back.
Quote from: Kyriani on June 21, 2013, 10:03:59 PM
I'd be fine with starting over if it means having the game back.
I thought about it, and I would too (provided NCSoft was not allowed to have any further say in whether or not the game existed). But a lot of people would be mouth-frothingly po'd about all their hard work gone down the drain.
I want my bases back, dammit. :(
I wouldn't mind recreating my characters. In fact I enjoyed leveling them up more than playing them as 50s, so I'd be happy about it.
As long as I get The City back.
I wouldn't mind starting fresh. I'd remake some of my favorite old characters with different powersets first, then some of the ones I've made in CO since the game shut down. And there's plenty more ideas waiting in the wings to become characters after that.
I would hate to have to recreate my characters but I would be willing to I use to recreate characters on whim (Hmm this combo would play better as a brute rather than scrapper, scrapper rather than brute, Hmm I think StJ makes more sense than MA for a shield tank etc)
My only thing would be wanting my Peacebringer unlock asap. I never spent enough time on one, and I was just learning how fun they were before the notice hit.
I'd be fine with making all new characters, but I think the missing power sets, costume pieces, ATs, etc. that I had already purchased might dim my interest considerably.
Ideally, all info would have been stored and re-enabled as it was November 30, 2012. But even if everything has been wiped, we could still have ways to create a limited number of characters at lvl 50 so we wouldn't have to grind all our old characters from 1 to 50 again. People could receive one or more options to create characters at lvl 50, say one at the time of subscribing and the option to purchase (or earn) a few more. Somehow linking the uses of an Insta-50 Creator to paid time earned previously would be very cool, but if all data had been wiped, all the veteran badges and time subscribed would likely have been wiped as well.
Quote from: Kurrent on June 22, 2013, 07:31:48 AM
Ideally, all info would have been stored and re-enabled as it was November 30, 2012. But even if everything has been wiped, we could still have ways to create a limited number of characters at lvl 50 so we wouldn't have to grind all our old characters from 1 to 50 again. People could receive one or more options to create characters at lvl 50, say one at the time of subscribing and the option to purchase (or earn) a few more. Somehow linking the uses of an Insta-50 Creator to paid time earned previously would be very cool, but if all data had been wiped, all the veteran badges and time subscribed would likely have been wiped as well.
If I were in a position to buy the IP I'd make two offers one for the IP itself and a higher offer if they include all the customer data (assuming it still exists) from when the game was running so I could at the very least give customers back all their unlocks that they rightfully paid for/earned over time.
With that said, if COH makes a return it will almost certainly be as a private run server. Either an individual solo client that will allow you to restore yourself exactly as you were with dev hacks or as a server hosted by someone else who can use dev hacks to at the very least give you all the unlocks if not outright level you. Consider though there would be things that couldnt be done, at least not without time consuming work that I doubt anyone would be willing to do, such as editing the character data to show you've completed this or that mission at least once etc. Just being bumped to 50 won't tell the client about all the things you've done or in this case didnt do since this would be a recreation of your character.
If it were me hosting a server that others played on, I would basically make everything unlocked for everyone but not give out any free levels. If the store was kept at all it would be changed over to an in game currency since it would be a legal nightmare to charge real money from people for playing/buying. It would likely serve only to acquire things that were only acquirable via the store. Essentially everyone's vet tiers would be filled out, but I see no reason not to give every player the monthly vet token (assuming the process could be automated) so they can get the repeatables every month.
For myself... I'll play no matter what as long as the game still plays as it did before the shutdown. The prospect of remaking my toons is actually exciting to me. It would be a chance to see old characters with new eyes.
It would be a bittersweet thing indeed, getting our beloved game back, but having to start over.
In emotional terms it's like building a new house on the same site a tornado destroyed the last one - the memories would always be there, and while the new house would be...well, new of course, it would forever exist in the unseen shadow of the the original house.
Imagine:
Old-timer : "Well, here we are at last, sitting on the porch, just like old times eh?"
Crusty fellow : "So many memories. The new place looks just like the old one though. They did a fine job rebuilding it. A fine job."
Old-timer : "That they did. Looks just like new, like when we first came here, d'you remember?"
Crusty Fellow : "Yes...and no. Remember how there used to be names carved in the post here?"
Old-timer : "Haha! Yeah, I should remember - I carved them!" *runs hand over smooth, freshly painted wooden post* "I was so young then. I'd just got my first knife and I wanted to see how sharp the blade was..."
Crusty Fellow : "It's strange, isn't it? Everything's so new now, it's almost like we were never here at all, like nothing changed."
Old-timer : "That's the ironic thing - this place has been rebuilt, but it hasn't changed. Whereas we...we remember everything. Every scratch, every scuff, every creaking wooden stair, just as it was before. It's us that have really changed, old friend. Us."
I've started over many times in this game. I must have independently leveled Sajaana about three or four times on various servers, La Dame Terrible twice, DX-109 about three times, Femme Fencer twice, etc.
Even when "slow playing" it, like I usually do, it takes me about one month to level up a character, and I could probably cut it to half of that or even a third of that if I try.
Now I know others may disagree. But I look at leveling up again as an opportunity, not a burden.
I don't see it as a burden, but I'm with Tenzhi. I bought a lot of the Booster Packs, and there were a few of the Vet Rewards I would miss, as well. Those last could be re-earned, but it would still be clumsy getting used to not having them.
For the last three years or so of my 8+, I wasn't really playing CoH for the game itself, to be frank. The gameplay had gotten very rote for me, reticule-targeting MMOs had come along (I've always hated tab-to-target combat systems), and I didn't like the shift to a raid-focused endame (if I'm going to grind in a game, I want better combat...). I stuck around for a combination of good friends and beloved characters.
I've never had much luck recreating characters...they never seem to quite "feel" the same. If CoH was reborn, but w/o player/character data, I'd have to think long and hard about whether I'd play at all. :-\
Quote from: Dollhouse on June 22, 2013, 04:05:26 PM
For the last three years or so of my 8+, I wasn't really playing CoH for the game itself, to be frank. The gameplay had gotten very rote for me, reticule-targeting MMOs had come along (I've always hated tab-to-target combat systems), and I didn't like the shift to a raid-focused endame (if I'm going to grind in a game, I want better combat...). I stuck around for a combination of good friends and beloved characters.
I've never had much luck recreating characters...they never seem to quite "feel" the same. If CoH was reborn, but w/o player/character data, I'd have to think long and hard about whether I'd play at all. :-\
See I prefer tab targeting vs reticule-targeting MMOs. Nothing infuriates me more than my mouse moving the camera when I don't want it to. I still dont get why people think reticule-targeting is superior. MMO's aren't supposed to be FPS games.
Selecting your target and then using skills works in City of Heroes. It works in EQ1 and 2. It works in DAoC, Lineage 2, WoW, Aion and so on and so forth. I understand the need, after years of nearly identical systems, to mix things up a bit. But let's not forget how we got this genre to where it is today: solid mechanics, and ease of use.
I don't want to worry about "skill." I want to worry about FUN. And not everyone's idea of fun involves twitch combat that requires good reflexes and reaction time as well as a reliable ping.
Quote from: Kyriani on June 22, 2013, 05:43:20 PM
See I prefer tab targeting vs reticule-targeting MMOs.
Which is your perfect right. To each their own. It's kinda cool that as MMO gamers, we have the choice these days. :)
QuoteMMO's aren't supposed to be FPS games.
Agreed. But there's no reason whatsoever than an MMORPG can't have reticule targeting instead of tab-to-target and be any less of an MMO (Fallen Earth, for example...). At present, technological limitations would seem to make full-on realtime, collision detection aim-to-hit combat unworkable in an MMO environment (Fallen earth's fantastic system is not realtime like a shooter game). Defiance comes close, and it's definitely an MMO...but an MMOTPS. It lacks the social tools to really be an MMORPG, sadly. But there are several reticule-aiming MMORPGs now, and I find I greatly prefer their combat. Again to each their own...
QuoteI don't want to worry about "skill." I want to worry about FUN.
We're no different in that respect. I find reticule aiming to be more fun (by a lot) than tab targeting. Sometimes I like a twitch aspect (Defiance...), but not always, and it's not always the case that reticule = twitch (again, Fallen Earth: the pace of combat is actually fairly deliberate, unless you don't mind dying really a lot...).
I think Neverwinter did a good job of balancing the tab- and reticle-targeting feel. You still are basically using a reticle, but it makes a certain sense without relying on a deeper "aiming" skill than most gamers have. It annoyed the hell out of me in CoH to tab for the next target, only to have it pick a baddy on the far side of the mob. Not a big deal, if I was playing a ranged character, but annoying on a melee character.
However, unless you're playing some kind of sharpshooter concept, having a reticle in CoH wouldn't have made sense.
I'll be thrilled just to have my good old fashioned COH back again... I keep hoping every day to see word of it throughout these forums so I can get to work rebuilding what was taken from us. I hope those "smarter than me" coder peoples don't ever stop working towards bringing our game back...
I would be more than happy to start all over again. The shutdown period makes you realize just how much of the game you miss. The next time around I will take time to smell the flowers, if you will, by listening to the great music in each zone, watching trash blow down the road, reading funny crap in chat, badging, etc...
Quote from: Kyriani on June 22, 2013, 07:22:09 PM
I'll be thrilled just to have my good old fashioned COH back again...
Ditto. I still have the records (build sheets) that I kept of most of my toons' development as they leveled up, and I still have most of the costumes, so it wouldn't be too hard for me to reconstruct them (I hope I can get their original names). But, even if that weren't the case, I'd just build new versions of them. I have to admit, I'd be kind of ticked off at no longer having my SG base, the vet rewards, and the other stuff that I'd bought, or worked so long to earn. But you play the hand you're dealt. Or, in this case, you play the game you're dealt. And I, for one, would relish it.
I'm so eager to have it back, that I find myself re-checking this forum often, hoping for encouraging news on the successors' development, and/or on the efforts to get someone to buy the IP. On occasion, I've caught myself checking again only an hour after the last time I'd looked! If we do get CoH back, or something like it, the first toon I make will be this account's namesake - the first toon I made in CoH. I can think of no better way to start.
Quote from: Dollhouse on June 22, 2013, 06:48:03 PMWe're no different in that respect. I find reticule aiming to be more fun (by a lot) than tab targeting. Sometimes I like a twitch aspect (Defiance...), but not always, and it's not always the case that reticule = twitch (again, Fallen Earth: the pace of combat is actually fairly deliberate, unless you don't mind dying really a lot...).
Personally, of all the various games I've played I think Star Trek Online of all things got this the best. They have both tab targeting traditional MMO style combat, and reticule targeting more twitchy combat as well. On the ground that is, space combat is a different thing. But my point is, they have both modes available for you to use if you wish and as far as I can tell there's nothing you outright can't do in either mode, it's really just a choice of which is more fun for you since they're both viable.
And that I think is the ideal way to do it. Make the game playable both ways, and the various concessions to one or the other that have to be made in the process balance out to get combat more or less just right.
Their space combat on the other hand is a pretty good system as well. It's tab targeting but your positioning matters far more than in any other game I've played because every weapon and enemy affecting power has a firing arc, and you get a defense bonus for being above a certain speed so you have to keep moving. So you need to be conscious of where you are, where your target is and which way each of you is moving at all times, which results in a far more active experience than the standard 'stand in one place, mash buttons' gameplay that most people likely think of when they think tab targeting.
Quote from: dwturducken on June 22, 2013, 06:50:06 PM
I think Neverwinter did a good job of balancing the tab- and reticle-targeting feel. You still are basically using a reticle, but it makes a certain sense without relying on a deeper "aiming" skill than most gamers have. It annoyed the hell out of me in CoH to tab for the next target, only to have it pick a baddy on the far side of the mob. Not a big deal, if I was playing a ranged character, but annoying on a melee character.
However, unless you're playing some kind of sharpshooter concept, having a reticle in CoH wouldn't have made sense.
I didnt really care about the targeting system in Neverwinter. IMO, a mouse is to be used for clicking things like buttons, menu items, etc.
Any other design is a poor interface. But to each his own, I guess.
I rarely used tab in CoH - instead I mapped "C" to "target nearest". Worked fine most of the time.
Quote from: General Idiot on June 24, 2013, 08:16:14 AM
Personally, of all the various games I've played I think Star Trek Online of all things got this the best. They have both tab targeting traditional MMO style combat, and reticule targeting more twitchy combat as well. On the ground that is, space combat is a different thing. But my point is, they have both modes available for you to use if you wish and as far as I can tell there's nothing you outright can't do in either mode, it's really just a choice of which is more fun for you since they're both viable.
That sounds like a very good approach (at least for a game w/o collision detection in realtime...but most MMO's don't work that way). I played through the beta cycle in STO, and the ground combat was pretty awful, but it sounds like they got it squared away nicely. Probably not coincidentally, given it's the same studio, you can set up your UI in Champions to target the enemy nearest the center of screen, and it gives you a red aiming dot. When I played CO, I set things up this way and thought it worked pretty well (my objections to CO have nothing to do with the combat, which I think is quite enjoyable).
You can choose either targeting method in TSW, too, although their reticule system's not very well implemented. I need to keep at it, but I learned the game before they implemented the reticule option. TSW's combat is quite a bit more challenging than most MMOs, so I'm reluctant to go through the "I'm getting faceplanted all the time" stage while I adjust! :P
Quote from: silvers1 on June 24, 2013, 11:11:41 AM
I rarely used tab in CoH - instead I mapped "C" to "target nearest". Worked fine most of the time.
I think we each had our own sort of "comfort" when it came to the controls. I had to remap the "down" key from X to the left Shift, key, for instance. I don't know why, but, when my brain was in "WASD" mode, hit that X was the keyboard equivalent of trying to lick my own elbow. :)
Quote from: Turjan on June 22, 2013, 12:32:52 PM
It would be a bittersweet thing indeed, getting our beloved game back, but having to start over.
In emotional terms it's like building a new house on the same site a tornado destroyed the last one - the memories would always be there, and while the new house would be...well, new of course, it would forever exist in the unseen shadow of the the original house.
Imagine:
Old-timer : "Well, here we are at last, sitting on the porch, just like old times eh?"
Crusty fellow : "So many memories. The new place looks just like the old one though. They did a fine job rebuilding it. A fine job."
Old-timer : "That they did. Looks just like new, like when we first came here, d'you remember?"
Crusty Fellow : "Yes...and no. Remember how there used to be names carved in the post here?"
Old-timer : "Haha! Yeah, I should remember - I carved them!" *runs hand over smooth, freshly painted wooden post* "I was so young then. I'd just got my first knife and I wanted to see how sharp the blade was..."
Crusty Fellow : "It's strange, isn't it? Everything's so new now, it's almost like we were never here at all, like nothing changed."
Old-timer : "That's the ironic thing - this place has been rebuilt, but it hasn't changed. Whereas we...we remember everything. Every scratch, every scuff, every creaking wooden stair, just as it was before. It's us that have really changed, old friend. Us."
Ha -- nicely written, my friend!
For my own part, I would prefer to get my old characters back, but if it's restart all my characters or never play again, I will be happy to recreate every 50 from scratch.
There is a guy who lives in a town not far from me who lost his wife and daughter in a fire a couple of months ago. He and his sons are rebuilding on the same spot. I think I can see my way clear to start over in a game.