New efforts!

[Ohioknight]

Setting it even 20 years in the future would be a bad move - one of the key elements of comic books is the present day setting, and with the rate of advances being made in human society right now, it can lead to things becoming very outdated. If the setting is in the present day, then it can simply change as the real world changes, and keep a very real feel to it.

Yeah, that's also Valience Online's schtick and what will make it different than all the other super hero games -- and why I'll definitely play it in addition to any other options -- I'm totally doing a whole series of Legion of Super Hero homages over there.  Characters that just wouldn't feel right in CoH

[MWRuger]

Well now we are changing the subject again.

I was wondering why there are charges of being selfish and greedy are being leveled at people who want their characters back.    A person can openly hope that we get I24 without getting that.    People can openly hope all the characters are getting wiped without getting that.  People can hope we don't get a graphical upgrade or that we do get one...no problem.   So why the special negative language for players who want their characters?

My suspicion related to Sentinel was due to the change in attitude about "needs of the majority rules".   I saw it again a couple of pages back....a small minority might hack them so that means the majority can't use them.  The needs of the majority are ignored in that argument.   But then suddenly the minority being in possession of Sentinel files means the needs of a majority are again more important.

Why does that switch completely around?   There is usually a reason why two sides of an argument are used to promote an idea.

As for it being possible...apparently it is but may present challenges.   I see no reason to dismiss it out of hand.  Especially in the way I mentioned before as a way to verify certain characters are mine.

Since it's not useful for porting characters into the game the entire line of the argument about whether the majority has it or not is pointless and irrelevant. It's a non issue, like arguing for equal rites for Denebian Slime Worms.

It is equally useless as a means of identification or ownership of character data because is not secured by anything other than possession. You would still have to prove that you are you and that needs to be done with something more than the ownership of a file. I could send you all my sentinel+ files and that wouldn't make you, me. (thank goodness sense one of me is more than enough).

It will have to be something like account login, email, global, character name, credit card, etc. Likely a combination of all of them. Some people won't be able to do this. I'm glad it won't be me explaining why they can't have them back. I hope i can do it if the opportunity arises

So while it might be useful for SCoRE, where the entire game is essentially a hack, Sentinel+ is not useful for you to get your character's back.

[HEATSTROKE]

If you are willing to share info on that, I'll listen.

I actually called myself a "have"....I'm not sure that's really true.   I had maybe two lvl 50s who were loaded up with rare stuff.   I used MIDS, but I don't think I ever became good enough at it to do what others talk about.  ....Soloing AV's?   How does anyone do that???

This was me after 8 years...it's fair to say I suck at this game compared to some other people.   When I see someone else say they can get back what they had quickly, my mind boggles.   With me it was a long slow process.   Going back to square one is not a minor thing for me.

*required statement*  I'll take whatever we get of course

Here is where I am stuck.. why does anyone else care who " has ".. who is level 50,, what they haves slotted.. how does that take anything away from you and what you have.. or dont have ?....

It doesnt.. I might be on a level 50 fully IO'd thing one minute.. and a level 10 thing the next minute..

And the reality is that a great many people.. including myself are going to try new builds.. and new poiwersets etc etc..

Maybe we should limit the amount of influence someone can gain per day.. dont want them to have more..

Maybe we should limit the amount of levels someone can gain per day.. dont get too far ahead...

No no no you cant buy too many IO's today... you might have more than the next player...

That debate to me is silly.. someone will always have more.. so why even focus on that??

I know people that level to 50 in a few days.. I know people that can work the market like nobody's business.. and you KNOW the gold farmers and xp services will be back and people will use those as well..

So the reality is that someone somehow someway will always have MORE.. the only moment you wont have that is the minute the game goes live..

[Ohioknight]

It is equally useless as a means of identification or ownership of character data because is not secured by anything other than possession. You would still have to prove that you are you and that needs to be done with something more than the ownership of a file. I could send you all my sentinel+ files and that wouldn't make you, me. (thank goodness sense one of me is more than enough).

I would again point out that identification is only really important if it is important to you that "Snidely Cheater" doesn't ALSO claim a copy of your character(s).  These things aren't REALLY one of a kind, there could be 100 copies of all your accounts handed out all over the place and that wouldn't impact YOUR copy.  The devs COULD simply make every old character free for anyone to claim for any purpose -- then there's no need to prove your character is yours.

Otherwise there needs to be some way to connect player to character but JUST AS IMPORTANT it needs to be automated and easy -- if the characters are available and they're all tagged (or can be tagged) by sign-in and password as it was at closure -- hooray! no problem.

[HEATSTROKE]

I'd be ok with starting over with new characters. Rebuilding old favorites would give me more to do. After all, COH was more about the journey than the destination.

Thats true for some people experience.. but to define that experience for everyone isnt correct..

After 8 years of playing.. I did the journey.. more times that I cared to count.. after a while I didnt really enjoy the game until 22.. and then I didnt really enjoy the game until level 35 on.. in fact I can say without a doubt thats the part of the game I enjoy the most.. from 35-50.... so some people DID in fact enjoy the latter part of the game more than the earlier part...

and as Incarnates opened up.. I thoroughly enjoyed finding completely new ways to build and alter my creation in ways I never had before..

so while I will agree wholeheartedly that journey is fun.. and should be experienced.. after doing it enough times.. I was pretty much over it..

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

Your input does matter. It does add leverage and I am not saying have a screaming tantrum and say I refuse to play without my data!

I am saying that you can add you would find it VERY important to your continued enjoyment in playing the game in a return to service. I do have a thread in the General CoH side of the boards for this input exactly. You can tell exactly what you want in one location and how important each part is to you.

I am with you - if the character data is reachable by just logging in with my old account name and passwrd, I would love it. I also understand we are all passionate about this game or we would not be here 2 years later. Have a little calm and slow down being upset at other players, the new folks or even NCSoft right now. I know you are all being whipped to a frenzy, I have considered giving less out but I did make a promise to give you what I can.

These characters are part of a created world that gained a status in my opinion of art. Novels have been written, pictures drawn, comics made, videos created and all in homage to a world where you are the most vile creature in existence or the most noble.

To me personally the most important part is regaining access to the full set of tools that i used to create my characters. Character concepts that were very important to me i saved bios and background notes in text files and the costume files as well. So to me the most important thing i would want back is access to all the perks and unlockables i had. My most iconic/signature characters would sometimes be remade when powersets were released that more closely fit the original concept. Not that i wouldn't want my old characters back; i most certainly would, some were exactly what i had in mind when i first made them, but for me recovering characters takes second place to having as much freedom as possible to create the characters. Characters that were right the first time can be recreated easily enough as long as i have access to the same resources as before. My greatest attachment is to the original character concept; the character in the game is just the version that best manifests the concept within the framework of CoH's lore and engine, and the experiences with the character when leveling it make each version new and interesting.

Even in real life i focus more on creating new pieces than on what i've already made. Once i've made something i'm more interested in making something new that builds on what i learned from working on old projects than looking back on what's already completed. Even when i set out to make editions of a design i can't resist tweaking and refining each new iteration.

[P51mus]

I'd much rather have all my characters back just because of all the time spent into building them up, though I'd put up with having to build them again.  I had to remake a bunch of characters before because of a keylogger and a crazy roommate before, though I didn't have quite so many characters at that time.   There's one character I'd probably remake anyway though.

And even if we have to start over I'll be rich again from market shenanigans eventually.


While we're on pie in the sky requests, I'd like the influence cap to be raised somehow.  Having to store billions in the market was kinda cumbersome.

[Fanta]

Thats true for some people experience.. but to define that experience for everyone isnt correct..

After 8 years of playing.. I did the journey.. more times that I cared to count.. after a while I didnt really enjoy the game until 22.. and then I didnt really enjoy the game until level 35 on.. in fact I can say without a doubt thats the part of the game I enjoy the most.. from 35-50.... so some people DID in fact enjoy the latter part of the game more than the earlier part...

and as Incarnates opened up.. I thoroughly enjoyed finding completely new ways to build and alter my creation in ways I never had before..

so while I will agree wholeheartedly that journey is fun.. and should be experienced.. after doing it enough times.. I was pretty much over it..

This! After eight years of playing, even when I created a new character, there were just some things I did not want to do again. Before the game closed I spent most of my time in DA and doing incarnate trials. That's the part of the game I enjoyed.

[MWRuger]

I would again point out that identification is only really important if it is important to you that "Snidely Cheater" doesn't ALSO claim a copy of your character(s).  These things aren't REALLY one of a kind, there could be 100 copies of all your accounts handed out all over the place and that wouldn't impact YOUR copy.  The devs COULD simply make every old character free for anyone to claim for any purpose -- then there's no need to prove your character is yours.

Otherwise there needs to be some way to connect player to character but JUST AS IMPORTANT it needs to be automated and easy -- if the characters are available and they're all tagged (or can be tagged) by sign-in and password as it was at closure -- hooray! no problem.

My characters were carrying around billions in inf and purples and the like I wouldn't want a hundred copies of any them running around.

Besides,  didn't you already get the message a few pages back that a lot of players wouldn't like having copies of their characters running around when you brought up this tact before?

Maybe if all your toons are just heroes with a costume, no backstory and Pl'ed to 50, it wouldn't matter. Each one of mine was handcrafted with a bio that said who they are and represented the hours I spent playing. It ruins the uniqueness of the experience. You may as well go the guild wars route amd just offer four or five outfits you can color tint,

If the only way to get them back is to hand them out to everyone, then no dice. That probably would make not want to play.

Are you so desperate for those toons that you want anyone and everyone to have them?

[AlienOne]

Are you so desperate for those toons that you want anyone and everyone to have them?

I can't speak for anyone else, but I had a guide that had been viewed a total of over 15,000 times as well as multiple dozens of people who sent me messages on the forums and in-game that my guide was what they referenced when they built their characters...

Soooo, I'll wager there were quite a few of "my toon" running around multiple servers... :P

My answer? I wouldn't care. I place a FAR higher value on the years I spent carefully making my characters than worrying about whether or not anyone wants to copy me.

If the choice was "can't get your characters" vs "you can get your characters, but other people might have copies," I'll opt for the latter. It'll save me a boatload of time and effort, and I can get back to what I was doing when the game shut down: leading high-level TF's, helping people with builds, and playing Incarnate material.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

What did YOU use the Architect Entertainment system for?

Were you a farmer?  An author?  A player who dabbled in it?  A player who reveled in it?  A player who ignored it?

My answer to that comes in just a moment--a handful of sentences, really.  First, a little background: I teach English.  I write for fun.  I read a great deal.  I love comic books.  Put all that together, and I was an avid writer of AE arcs, releasing 8 over the time that the AE existed and that I was able to do so without slacking on my work obligations.  Arguably, I believe I wrote the final arc in the AE system: PENGUIN Part 4, Waddle On, which went live around 8 p.m. Eastern on the last night.  It saw 6 total plays and held a 5-star average rating.

To me, the Architect Entertainment system represents a great source of hope for the future of City of Heroes if the game returns.  Even if we have the risk that the developers cannot craft future material, if the Architect Entertainment system is live and functional with the game's possible rerelease, what can WE, the players, truly do for our game, our developers, and our community?

Thank you.

i used AE to play some of the more brilliant and imaginative arcs produced by the players. (i still have special fondness for the arc that featured Nikola Tesla.) i also used it when an RP team i joined used AE to create RP story arcs. And on occasion i used it to farm/fight some of the tougher missions just to test how good my character and my playing was. Sadly i never got around to publishing any of my own concepts before things closed up.

[Fanta]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I had a guide that had been viewed a total of over 15,000 times as well as multiple dozens of people who sent me messages on the forums and in-game that my guide was what they referenced when they built their characters...

Soooo, I'll wager there were quite a few of "my toon" running around multiple servers... :P

True, but are we talking about something that you have to build toward, or a simple click to get?

[Mageman]

I just want to put in my 2₵ worth about NCSoft and selling of CoX. What I really want from NCSoft to provide during the sale is the ability to log into your NCSoft Master Account, and get some kind of verification of your accounts so you can get your account data (purchases, vet rewards, etc.) and get them transferred to the new owners. Some sort of code (like a 16 digit alpha-numeric) agreed upon by both sides Then it's a matter of trying to tie the character data to those accounts. Now the information may not be available to tie the characters to the accounts, which means all of that data is lost, but at least we have all of our purchases, which is a head start for the long time and those of us who have limited edition in-game items.

[AlienOne]

True, but are we talking about something that you have to build toward, or a simple click to get?

Probably a mix of the two, as I gave many people huge amounts of influence in a variety of different ways (give outright, costume contests, and purposefully overpaying for items during a trade)... They were getting help--not with leveling, but with building their characters fairly quickly.

[LaughingAlex]

I just want to put in my 2₵ worth about NCSoft and selling of CoX. What I really want from NCSoft to provide during the sale is the ability to log into your NCSoft Master Account, and get some kind of verification of your accounts so you can get your account data (purchases, vet rewards, etc.) and get them transferred to the new owners. Some sort of code (like a 16 digit alpha-numeric) agreed upon by both sides Then it's a matter of trying to tie the character data to those accounts. Now the information may not be available to tie the characters to the accounts, which means all of that data is lost, but at least we have all of our purchases, which is a head start for the long time and those of us who have limited edition in-game items.

Hmm, not a bad suggestion, we'll have to see.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

Setting it even 20 years in the future would be a bad move - one of the key elements of comic books is the present day setting, and with the rate of advances being made in human society right now, it can lead to things becoming very outdated. If the setting is in the present day, then it can simply change as the real world changes, and keep a very real feel to it.

CoH was barely present day in its setting. A lot of environmental designs and details of the launch game and the original zones were based more on the Silver Age comics circa the 70s and 80s than the early 2000s. The car designs alone were very retro in flavor.

Not that i'd want a ten or twenty year skip for CoH2. But there is something to be said for jumping the timeline forward a few years for CoH2 and putting in more current environmental details. Maybe a couple old school phone booths for those Golden Age heroes to change in, but still a little more contemporary flavor tossed in with the classic would be nice. (Although skipping over the 90s pouches and deformed physiques and overcompensating accessories is fine with me.)  8)



Edit: Page 73 and counting. i take back what i previously posted about the thread not hitting 150 pages.  ;D

[Fanta]

Probably a mix of the two, as I gave many people huge amounts of influence in a variety of different ways (give outright, costume contests, and purposefully overpaying for items during a trade)... They were getting help--not with leveling, but with building their characters fairly quickly.

But not 15,000. I had done the same thing. Almost exclusively to people I knew after past experiences with the gimme gimmes.

[Mageman]

As far as the Sentinel+ files, I know that someone can figure out how to "crack" them. It wouldn't take much, change 1 thing, create a new file, and see what changes.  Repeat many times and you probably have figured out the code. In Diablo II, they tried to make multiple checksums to make it (in their mind) almost impossible to break, but people figured it out and soon there were save game editors. They changed them, and new editors came out. So with D3, they made it an online only game so the saved game files are stored on their servers, not your computer.

As for me, when they announced the shutdown, I stopped my subscription, stopped playing CoX, and left. Only within the past couple of months have I tried to find a replacement and stumbled upon this information so I don't have any Sentinel+ files.

[Fanta]

CoH was barely present day in its setting. A lot of environmental designs and details of the launch game and the original zones were based more on the Silver Age comics circa the 70s and 80s than the early 2000s. The car designs alone were very retro in flavor.

Not that i'd want a ten or twenty year skip for CoH2. But there is something to be said for jumping the timeline forward a few years for CoH2 and putting in more current environmental details. Maybe a couple old school phone booths for those Golden Age heroes to change in, but still a little more contemporary flavor tossed in with the classic would be nice. (Although skipping over the 90s pouches and deformed physiques and overcompensating accessories is fine with me.)  8)



Edit: Page 73 and counting. i take back what i previously posted about the thread not hitting 150 pages.  ;D

Depends on when the announcement comes, but I'll bet we'll be here for a while yet. Even if it is good news  ;)

[Mageman]

I just want to put in my 2₵ worth about NCSoft and selling of CoX. What I really want from NCSoft to provide during the sale is the ability to log into your NCSoft Master Account, and get some kind of verification of your accounts so you can get your account data (purchases, vet rewards, etc.) and get them transferred to the new owners. Some sort of code (like a 16 digit alpha-numeric) agreed upon by both sides Then it's a matter of trying to tie the character data to those accounts. Now the information may not be available to tie the characters to the accounts, which means all of that data is lost, but at least we have all of our purchases, which is a head start for the long time and those of us who have limited edition in-game items.

The more I think about this idea, the more I love it. It lets NCSoft keep it's server information private and yet gives the buyers a jumping-off point as to how to restore the old account information. Can you feel the love? :-*