New efforts!

[Lucretia MacEvil]

I am saying that it is all a big mess. The game code may not even be completely up for grabs! All these things are what they are trying to get/do and if they are able to get the code - the game would likely not be able to be developed any further than Issue 24.

Since I'm a more casual player, I haven't had time to do even a quarter of the stuff from the newer, rapid-fire issues, so I'm okay with this.  I'm even okay with no further development, since I24 was the "fix everything" issue, and right now I just really really want to play again.

[Taliseian]

My thoughts so far...

If/When we get the game back, from what I've read here it looks like it will be I24 Maintenance Mode - cheapest and easiest way to get us back in the City.  More than likely no previous character information or accounts.

First off - I am OK with this.  I had an account since Beta and even though there were times I wasn't active, I always went back to the City and enjoyed the game. 

Step 1 - Get the game!

Secondly, the investors will want to start making their money back as soon as possible (with a profit) while figuring out the best ways to move forward.  So in that light, here are my ideas/recommendations.

1) CoX Classic -- CoX in i24 permanent mode - occasional new events and store items by a small team of developers in order to keep things interesting and maintain a profit stream, but the majority of the game stays as it is.

**IF** the tools are available and the designers can do it, consider i25 and beyond - this is optional IMO.

     a) Monetization

          1) Resell the client at a low price (ie $10 CoH or CoV -- $15 for CoX)
          2) F2P as before with a few changes to encourage income such as Daily/Weekly TF passes, unlock Incarnate, or other QoL improvements
          3) VIP at a reasonable price (my idea is $9.99/mo + some store currency) to remove all limitations
          4) All store items are for sale at a reduced price for the first 60-90 days after launch or whenever the store can finally reopen (store should try to open at launch or a few weeks later), then prices return to normal with weekly sales and new costume sets and/or powers/emotes/designer pets/etc as they can be created.

2) City of Heroes 2 begins development once the game is stable and a steady stream of profit is achieved

Again, these are my ideas after about five minutes of thinking -- I'm more than sure that the developers/purchasers have already consider some or all of these and have more/better ideas in store.


T

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

My guess would be yes since it's been stated that they don't want to be bombarded with IMs and questions during the negotiating process.

The real question is whether or not they gonna pop out of a giant cake during the reveal.
And whether or not I can have some.

There are a few Titanites who have nearly stopped posting the last month or so that were frequent posters previously with the sort of backgrounds that make them seem likely candidates for being involved in the new studio. So i have my suspicions, but i will not be naming any names. Like Ironwolf has posted before we can expect a big announcement and reveal when the negotiations are finished. No cake though, that part would almost certainly be a lie.

[AlienOne]

There are a few Titanites who have nearly stopped posting the last month or so that were frequent posters previously with the sort of backgrounds that make them seem likely candidates for being involved in the new studio. So i have my suspicions, but i will not be naming any names. Like Ironwolf has posted before we can expect a big announcement and reveal when the negotiations are finished. No cake though, that part would almost certainly be a lie.

I agree... I doubt they would have been posting (since Ironwolf has been taking that role), but I wouldn't doubt that they've been watching--if only to get a good feel for what the current "state of affairs" is as far as how people feel about everything.

Speculation is sometimes helpful for buyers/developers, believe it or not... ;)

[LaughingAlex]

Yes, the whole of my post is - the CoH game engine is likely not worth the money to buy. Get the game running - start development on CoH2 and move it to Unreal4 or whatever engine seems likely.

I know this is very sobering. I said from the start I would tell you what I can openly and honestly. Running from the truth and facts is silly. I will again state this is the status of things at this point. It might change but it seems very unlikely. I would say the most realistic situation is that the game will re-open at Issue 24 with some sort of Open Beta.

You will most likely have to start over again, however it depends on what form the Character databases are in as to whether they can tie them to players. It would be a real tragic thing to have someone else take all of your work on your past characters. Maybe seeing the game at the start as an alternative reality where the old dimension was destroyed might be the best fit. Things might change and until they get the stuff actually in their hands the folks don't know what can be done.

Could be another alternate time stream to :).

[Golden Girl]

If this deal does go through, l then I think that CoH II is pretty much inevitable - which would help keep the franchise at the top of the comic book game tree.
DCUO has been getting uppity while CoH has been on break :P

[Goddangit]

I played I24 extensively at the end. I encountered no bugs.

I wouldn't worry about it.

On another subject, I just know in my heart that when and if Ironwolf comes back to us and says, "we got it", I'm simply going to burst into happy tears of profound relief.

It's probably weird to have such a reaction to a game, but that's how much joy the game has brought me. (And conversely, that's how horrid the other options out there for MMOs are right now.)

(Quiet smile) Not a weird reaction at all.  Especially if you did roleplaying.  When you create a character you invest a bit of yourself.  No matter what they are, hero or villain, whatever their background, shape or size... We can only base them on what we know or dream or fear.  They are slivers and shadows of ourselves.  How can we not care what happens to them?

[Deadflame2]

We are just talking about the game returning.  Some would like to see I24...are they being "greedy"?   Some want the bases redesigned...."greedy"?   Some want their characters back...."greedy"?   Some want costumes back..."greedy"?

We all want the game back....is that "greedy" too?

When we talk about "City of Heroes" there are a lot of elements which make that term what it is.  ...And those elements are different for each person.    "Wanting it back" isn't the same thing for everyone.

Yes, I would call that greed.  Imagine walking up to an ice cream truck and the driver says "Today is your lucky day!  Here is a free cone."  Awesome right?  Of course it's awesome!  Your response isn't going to be "Well...sure.  But only if I can have one of each flavor and each of the toppings as well.  Also, since I bought a cone last week, I think you should throw in an extra one".  You could certainly apply the word "greed" to the fact that people want the game back, but I think that's just a way for those who want it all or nothing to justify their erroneous thought process.

[Ohioknight]

Yes, I would call that greed.  Imagine walking up to an ice cream truck and the driver says "Today is your lucky day!  Here is a free cone."  Awesome right?  Of course it's awesome!  Your response isn't going to be "Well...sure.  But only if I can have one of each flavor and each of the toppings as well.  Also, since I bought a cone last week, I think you should throw in an extra one".  You could certainly apply the word "greed" to the fact that people want the game back, but I think that's just a way for those who want it all or nothing to justify their erroneous thought process.

Let's just stop talking about the motivations and bad intentions of other folks comments -- this really isn't advancing any possible discussion

[Remaugen]

Can you smell it yet?

I think we are almost there. . .  ;D

[Fleur_uk]

While I am sure these might be different, think of it as uploading a system image from a backup. before something happens to your computer, you would make a system back up a flash drive or dvd; than something happens and you computer is messed up you can than put the backup copy into a bootable drive, you can than restore you computer to how it was before it was messed up.

I am thankful to Ironwolf and the team for trying to get the game back; personally it would be awesome to get account info back. but thinking about what we have now, I would not mind a clean slate :)

Cheers Angel for explaining, that makes a lot of sense to me and something I've actually done before, with great pain haha.  I'm not techie but not completely daft...yet.  hehe :) xx

[Angel Phoenix77]

Cheers Angel for explaining, that makes a lot of sense to me and something I've actually done before, with great pain haha.  I'm not techie but not completely daft...yet.  hehe :) xx

your welcome :), right now I am going through Computer networking class' and I remember how this works in my windows 8 Config. class last semester :).

[Harermuir]

There is a thing that has to be taken into consideration, that is that there was a lot of server before the shutdown, and there will not be that much when the game is relaunched. If the character database has to be used, which one will be choosen. And how will doublon in name be treated.

I really think that the only realistic solution is to start back from scratch. And that will be a pleasure, indeed. I really can build up with pleasure some of my toons from scratch, it will be only one more reason to play them.

[unladenswallow]

I'd be all for scrapping the old vet rewards progression, and all of the time related event badges for a complete redo. Even though I logged in thousands upon thousands of hours on my main character and my many alts I no longer want them back. I want a fresh start after what will likely be over two years since last playing this game. I want it to be a little different to mark what we had to go through and deal with.

COH was my first MMO. When I was playing I was largely unaware of how close nit many in this community really were. I knew some of you but it wasn't until the game shutdown that I saw what I had been missing. Holy crap this community I was part of was awesome and I didn't even know it. So I want to see some changes in the game that reflect all of this. I don't want it to be exactly the same because even if they were able to bring it back exactly like worked before it would (to me at least) seem like we weren't rewarded with the sense of change we have in the real world when we have to fight to get something back that we lost.

I'm just speaking for myself. I don't expect or even want everyone or even a lot of people to agree with me. Because disagreement fosters debate and debate fosters change and change is how we improve things.

Oh and thanks Ironwolf for keeping us up to date, excited, impatient, giddy, annoyed, hopeful, and all of the things good and bad such news gives us.

[steveharp]

There are a few Titanites who have nearly stopped posting the last month or so that were frequent posters previously with the sort of backgrounds that make them seem likely candidates for being involved in the new studio. So i have my suspicions, but i will not be naming any names. Like Ironwolf has posted before we can expect a big announcement and reveal when the negotiations are finished. No cake though, that part would almost certainly be a lie.

What if the titan team is the team trying to buy COH who then turn around and make city of titans COH2 :O

[Peerless Girl]

I'm kind of in the same boat that I'd honestly prefer everyone start back at level 1 from a blank slate. Even things like importing titan sentinel data would be a bit..squicky. Whos to say someone else can't fabricate or use someone else's TS Data to re-create that chracter as if they were them. For example, a friend of mine did all of my titan sentinel backups for me, as I couldn't bring myself to do them at the time. Mind you, I trust this person, but it just illustrates a point. It would be handy to use TS to re-create old costumes rather than doing it by hand, but other than that....

[Serpine]

One thing I'm wondering since the account data is likely a goner, the character data possibly unlinkable even if unavailable, and the engine is also apparently in a choppy state:

Since they are going to be having to do some fix-ups to get things working anyway, could it be considered to try and eliminate the requirement for unique names by mixing the global into the mix? Several current MMOs allow for duplicate names, just appending the global handle (which can be hidden). This would eliminate the fear of lost names, remove the name scuffling of old, and make having fewer servers (or even just a single server) less problematic.

If things weren't in such a reboot state I wouldn't mention the notion, but since they would be, why not do it at the ground floor?

[Kaos Arcanna]

One thing I'm wondering since the account data is likely a goner, the character data possibly unlinkable even if unavailable, and the engine is also apparently in a choppy state:

Since they are going to be having to do some fix-ups to get things working anyway, could it be considered to try and eliminate the requirement for unique names by mixing the global into the mix? Several current MMOs allow for duplicate names, just appending the global handle (which can be hidden). This would eliminate the fear of lost names, remove the name scuffling of old, and make having fewer servers (or even just a single server) less problematic.

If things weren't in such a reboot state I wouldn't mention the notion, but since they would be, why not do it at the ground floor?

I agree that adding the global is a very useful option as a way to solve the naming issue. I believe in Neverwinter there's even an option to hide the global portion of the name which would allow those who dislike that option not to see it.

[Ohioknight]

What if the titan team is the team trying to buy COH who then turn around and make city of titans COH2 :O

Tony V has said specifically it's not Missing Worlds Media/City of Titans -- of course, since the buyer group includes Titan forum fans who are developers, I'd be surprised if none of them had put any time into various Plan Z efforts.

[Cymmetri]

Losing all our account data is beyond sobering, it's my worst fear realized if the game should return. I bought near everything. Even if they could import  character data, I couldn't use them with everything purchased locked out.