New efforts!

[Gamerchamp]

I wouldn't mind getting the account data and character data back but then again I'm not to fussed about having to reroll at all I can easily do that. Just getting all my vet rewards and purchased things not so much unless I can repurchase them somehow?

[Mageman]

I really think that NC Soft should help get the account information back. This is stuff we PAID NC Soft for, and therefore, it should be part of the sale. I also don't see any way getting all your characters back without this account information - without verification of your account info, how can you possibly verify which character was on which account? Therefore, if you don't get your account(s) back, you won't get your characters back.

And if you get the game back and are not restoring all the servers at once, limit the number of characters you can transfer from the old servers to the new ones or that you can create to ONE PER DAY. Even if the names are the same - If you decide to create servers Justice and Champion, but not Virtue and Victory, all the characters from the old Justice and Champion servers would have to be "transferred" just like the people from Virtue and Victory. This way, everyone has a chance to get their old character names back. But they have to choose which ones they want most and hope that the others are not taken once they can transfer/create another character. Everyone will lose some character names, but at least there will be a good chance that you will get some of the names back.

I know some people who were on the "old" servers will complain "Hey! This is the Champion Server, why do I have to transfer in my characters from Champion?" The simple reason, it's the same for everyone - if they named it Virtue instead of Champion, you'd still have to transfer in your characters, and then the people from the old Virtue server would be the ones complaining. If you agree to it now (before you know the names of the new servers), then you will be less upset. Personally, I think that if they are not going to restore all the servers at once, they should create new names for the servers (like Atlas Park, Galaxy City, etc.) - that will decrease the number of complaints so everyone will see that it's the same for everyone.

[Cobra Man]

I could care less about the data, been playing the game since 2004 and to be honest I just want the game back, characters can be rebuilt  and if you think NCSOF is handing account information and character data, keep dreaming.

To the team that is trying to get the game, thanks so much for trying to get us the city back and don't compromise that over data, I hope they are ignoring this thread and just focusing on getting the game back, because the greed in this thread is real.

See ... this is where I believe that hardball negotiations will focus on.

If I were leading the buyout team I would move heaven and earth to get access to a ready made player base - and I would stipulate that it was mandatory for the deal to go ahead.

It may be that a deal would need to be put in place that it was NCsoft that put out invitations to former player - inviting them to contact the new owners.

This would negate the problem of NCsoft passing on personal information.

I fall in the camp that all of the account info and character data is still archived as it was at game closure. The buyout team will know that they will be more successful if they are able to provide returning players with all of their characters, which is why I think that they will push extremely hard for this.

My 2 cents on what would happen if account info and character data wasn't restored is that the game would not generate as much revenue - and it would probably put a fair amount of players off from spending as much time playing.

Time will tell but until then the step 1 rule applies.

Let's get the game back :)

[Odimodus]

The problem with drawing a hard line is you eventually find yourself bumping into it. Also, NCsoft wants to get paid and dust their hands, not do more work. Who knows what shape their user account data is in, they may not be able to provide it, may be against legal limitations within their own country, have competing interests preventing sharing the data, who knows?

If the buyers have gotten this far it is quite likely they know what they are doing, or they have someone competent doing it for them.

[AlienOne]

Oh, I think I understand you pretty well. The only thing I attacked was the odious example of comparing deleting MMO characters with turning off life support of family members.

I'm sorry you took offense to it. There is still a similarity. I'm going to assume you're a smart person and I won't give you the definition of "similarity." People use examples of similar things all the time to make points or even to tell stories to better relate to an audience. In fact, you could say the example I used connected with certain members of the (reading) audience TOO much. It was simply too effective to certain members of the audience, and that overwhelmed the actual point being made at the time.

One could say "gaining new powers in a game because you've gained experience is 'similar' to real life where you gain new abilities to deal with various situations due to gaining....experience!" But, people such as yourself would retain a "single vision" and say "NO! IT CAN'T BE SIMILAR, BECAUSE ONE IS DIGITAL AND ONE IS REAL LIFE!"

What you're missing is... You're equating the word "similar" with "the same." Of course they're not the same. They're......similar. (cue definition of similar)

I am speaking directly about making everybody's characters "open season" just so  we can have 50's back at launch. You said you were fine with that. I recognized that. How did I misunderstand your response? "I'm fine with that" sure sounds like you think it's OK. I'm sure Heatstroke and Ohioknight would be as well.  Many others, myself included, as well as all the RL friends who played and I asked would not.

Incorrect. To answer your question "How did I misunderstand your response?", I did not say I was fine with making everyone's character's "open season" just so we can have 50's back at launch. I said I'd be ok with the knowledge that people may have the same exact build as me--as I already experienced that due to writing a guide containing builds that were exactly like the ones I used. I'm ambivalent to someone having a "copy" of my character. Meaning, "I don't care."

In fact, my main point was stated in the post you quoted:

I wouldn't be so presumptuous to think that giving people an option to get a few vet rewards/IOs/costume unlocks would "ruin their experience." I don't know that.

I'm more for recognizing who the vets are and unlocking all vet rewards/IOs/costumes (possibly badges?) if they can prove they're actually vets/supporters of the game. I've stated in a previous post that I'd be ok with "starting fresh" and re-leveling up to 50. "Having a 50" is not my concern. Having all the things I earned and paid for is what I think would be nice.

I wouldn't mind leveling up to 50 again (that's easily accomplishable), but if there were some sort of compromise for all those costume/aura unlocks, that would be amazing. I realize getting 1,000+ badges back is probably not doable as well (since a lot of that is account bound accomplishments), but at least some sort of compromise would be nice for those of us who can never reach the heights we attained before.

Understand now?

Now, that opinion still has nothing to do with whether or not "I am ok with other 50s looking/acting/building like me." It's simply a statement. "I am ok with that." Does that mean I'm ok with everyone having an "I win, give me a 50 anytime I want" button? Look closer. I don't see anywhere I said that. You're making assumptions.

I realize that I don't speak for everyone, neither do you, but that is why I asked other people what they thought. I'm keeping a whole group of people up to date on what's going and I put the question to them. Out of about 20, only 1 was "fine with that".

So I guess I'm speaking for the 20 out of 21 who responded. Now, I don't know whether that would hurt there gaming experience or whether they wouldn't play if this path was pursued. Plenty of time to worry about that call if this happens. Personally, I hope it doesn't.

Then, since you misunderstood my stance on the issue, perhaps your "case study" was flawed, since you asked them a different sort of question than I would have. ;)

You'll find that if you go through all the pages of this thread (and the other one Ironwolf created), the majority of players posting would, given the choice between getting their characters back or starting fresh, would overwhelmingly choose getting their characters back. I am with the majority here. Most people want the data they spent so much time for back.

Now, it's been stated that's unlikely (but unknown at this point), and the majority of us are also ok with that. But, again, given the choice....We'd choose to get our stuff back. That's not greedy. That's just asking what you paid for and what you earned.

We realize the new team may not have the ability to provide that (and they don't owe it), and we're ok with that.

But, given the choice..... (starting to get the message yet??)

Do you remember how upset everyone was when it was NCSoft taking away the characters we created by closing the game? Why is this any different if you are just going to let anyone grab whatever looks like a  nice character or you remember as being a good character?

Don't think I need to repeat myself here.

But, then again....assuming you'll come back with something else you find fault with, perhaps I will...which brings up the question:

So why the special negative language for players who want their characters?

:P

[Cobra Man]

The problem with drawing a hard line is you eventually find yourself bumping into it. Also, NCsoft wants to get paid and dust their hands, not do more work. Who knows what shape their user account data is in, they may not be able to provide it, may be against legal limitations within their own country, have competing interests preventing sharing the data, who knows?

If the buyers have gotten this far it is quite likely they know what they are doing, or they have someone competent doing it for them.

Agreed.

If they haven't went after the account information and character data I will be very surprised.

[HEATSTROKE]

Yup, this would be the best way to go, simply strip the characters and award them an amount of influence equivalent to the number of slots x the most expensive type of standard enhancement they can use at their level (damage? TO/DO/SO) so they're playable.

I could get over losing influence. Id be a little upset if my non slotted enhancements were gone. Mainly because the last day I removed them all from the base and figured it would be safer to store them on the characters especially since Sentinel kept a record of that as well...

However if character data could be restored and the loss of those enhancements was the price I had to pay.. ultimately the characters are more important... so I could live with that...

[Solitaire]

I would like my characters back.
I would like my account data back.

Neither are a deal breaker for me.  I want the game back FAR FAR FAR more than I would like the other things.

Agree with this 100% :)

[Husk]

Saw the news last night about a possible buyout via a post on the CoT forums.
Rushed over here and read this thread right through,didn't sleep much last night either.
I have been gaming since I played Football Manager on a Sinclair ZX81 (guess my age lol) plus arcade games like space invaders,Galaxians,etc right through to present day.
Out of my 15 yrs+ mmo gaming there was only one game that I constantly went back to and stayed subbed to....City of Heroes.
It was my go to game when the latest uber game failed to set my world on fire,no game could have you teamed and screaming with laughter 2 mins after logging in....period.
Sure I had spells when I burnt out on it but that was down to me (3 accounts and a fire/kin was farmtastic lol).
When I heard NC soft we're closing it down I was gobsmacked,when the original buyout failed I was devastated.
Since then I have bobbed along in the mmo ocean trying to find land...have played numerous games and nothing scratches the itch like CoH did.Closest one is The Secret World but that is a standout in the dreaded WOW cookie cutter mmo world now.
Whoa I'm rambling a little here lol ok back to what I was gonna say at the start.
With regard to account/chars and getting them back....I had loads of chars,some pimped out,some farming,some concept,loads of purple IOS,inf,etc and I greatly miss them.
But the thing is I MISS THE GAME MORE....
I want the game back end of,I can make more chars,get inf,etc again no problems but if the game doesn't rise again then I will be even more shattered than the first time because this I got my hopes up.
Amazing what reading a random post of an evening will do to you isn't it lol.
I appreciate people want their chars back and have ties to them but I think it would create an instant imbalance on the relaunch of the game.
On reflection I think the best scenario is just get the servers up and running i24 and launch as CoH 1.1 or Revolution,etc.
Just think of a fully pimped out i24 City of Heroes launching and going in as a lvl 1 again,would be a definite holy shit moment...

Ps I do like the idea of 1 lvl 50 char if I am honest but not sure how they would do it,either way Rule 1 is "get the game back".

[kiario]

Saw the news last night about a possible buyout via a post on the CoT forums.
Rushed over here and read this thread right through,didn't sleep much last night either.
I have been gaming since I played Football Manager on a Sinclair ZX81 (guess my age lol) plus arcade games like space invaders,Galaxians,etc right through to present day.
Out of my 15 yrs+ mmo gaming there was only one game that I constantly went back to and stayed subbed to....City of Heroes.
It was my go to game when the latest uber game failed to set my world on fire,no game could have you teamed and screaming with laughter 2 mins after logging in....period.
Sure I had spells when I burnt out on it but that was down to me (3 accounts and a fire/kin was farmtastic lol).
When I heard NC soft we're closing it down I was gobsmacked,when the original buyout failed I was devastated.
Since then I have bobbed along in the mmo ocean trying to find land...have played numerous games and nothing scratches the itch like CoH did.Closest one is The Secret World but that is a standout in the dreaded WOW cookie cutter mmo world now.
Whoa I'm rambling a little here lol ok back to what I was gonna say at the start.
With regard to account/chars and getting them back....I had loads of chars,some pimped out,some farming,some concept,loads of purple IOS,inf,etc and I greatly miss them.
But the thing is I MISS THE GAME MORE....
I want the game back end of,I can make more chars,get inf,etc again no problems but if the game doesn't rise again then I will be even more shattered than the first time because this I got my hopes up.
Amazing what reading a random post of an evening will do to you isn't it lol.
I appreciate people want their chars back and have ties to them but I think it would create an instant imbalance on the relaunch of the game.
On reflection I think the best scenario is just get the servers up and running i24 and launch as CoH 1.1 or Revolution,etc.
Just think of a fully pimped out i24 City of Heroes launching and going in as a lvl 1 again,would be a definite holy pancake moment...

Ps I do like the idea of 1 lvl 50 char if I am honest but not sure how they would do it,either way Rule 1 is "get the game back".

Welcome  :) I think most of us here are in a surrealistic state until the green light shines ;)

[gypsyav]

Now I have this mental image of Dr. Aeon singing "Pure Imagination..."

No, I am not making a video of it.

Crap.

Yes, I probably am.

GODSDAMNIT!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I can't wait to watch it.

[Frereder]

Hello all (Guidestar from Virtue, yadda, yadda). 

I've been watching this for a bit, but hadn't registered for this forum until now.

I honestly find myself surprised about how this entire thing has made me feel.  I'd pretty much left City behind, and moved on to other gaming pursuits, outside of the MMORPG realm.  Or so I thought.  This bit of news has left me honestly hopeful.  I like being hopeful.

As to the current most heated argument, I find myself with mixed feelings.  I certainly get the desire of many to have all their old stuff back.  Looking at rebuilding a 50 Grav/FF 'Troller (mostly IO'd, though not many purples in there) is more than a little bit daunting.  On the other hand, if the sheer and simple practicalities don't work out, and we all have to start over?  I'm honestly fine with that.  In a wierd way, that almost leaves me a hair more excited, to begin the adventure again. (Though I imagine that would wear off around Level 21  :roll:)

[ukaserex]

Have I mentioned how good it makes me feel to read an active forum? Blessings to all! :D

[PSI-on]

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.

And just for me, having not read any of the Q and A's after the closure, I get the feeling the "Coming Storm" would have to occur in our CoH or at the start of CoH 2 and since we know it's supposed to start in Atlas with Shivans (that mission with the O-crew), then it seems more like it'd be a great way to somehow bridge the gap between them and couldn't be tossed aside, which to me is what 20 - 30 years feels like, felt to me like the implication of the "Coming Storm" was that it was gonna happen any minute and it was looming over our heads (also hate NCSoft, that would have made for an awesome game closing event.)

[AlienOne]

Have I mentioned how good it makes me feel to read an active forum? Blessings to all! :D

Love your avatar pic....

So true.

[PSI-on]

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.

Assuming they kept the records they should have, (read: many businesses keep records and files of many types, especially ones tied to money, for up to 7 years sometimes), I imagine they should still have it, epsecially since some of use never deleted out master accounts (I had GW and GW2 *note I bought it before the closure notice, would have cancelled otherwise, I'm sure they picked the timing so it wouldn't impact GW2 sales <_< * and still have my master account). If so I imagine it could maybe go like when PW bought Cryptic from Atari. You had a Cryptic account but eventually it all got forced and ported over to a PW account, I can imagine something similar could be done with our old CoH accounts and whatever our new owners set up for us.

[PSI-on]

Nor do I believe it will... I would appreciate a sincere effort given.. and even possibly pursued in the future..

but STEP ONE.. Get the game back.. rules supreme..

I can't imagine a "future" scenario where something could be pursued after the sale. If this effort fails, sure, but not if it succeeds. What purpose would NCSoft have of hanging onto any part of the CoH data that didn't sale, especially if the IP is sold and no longer belongs to them? They'd have no need of it, it'd be of no use to them or likely anyone else and one could argue that whatever it's stored on could be used for something else. I'd imagine it's NOW or NEVER that they get it. IF they can't then fine, no sense in pushing, if they can they need to now. Heck even if they won't use it yet, they should still grab every part they can now while they can, cause I'm willing to bet the likely hood of them "still having" any part you passed on will be deleted, it's not like we're talking about old car parts here. (where they could still have some use in something else and rarely has legal issues for being reused outside of the original product intended for)

[Remidi]

If you're worried about the economy, you could even go as far as stripping influence or carried inventory (recipes and non-slotted enhancements) during the import process.

Personally, I'm not the least bit worried about the economy.  Anything done to make it 'fair' will be wiped out after a week of play anyway.  And I wouldn't want my characters stripped, since a couple of my alts are carrying complete collections of base salvage.  Why did I keep them?  Damned if I know, except that I'm just the type that collects things.  But I would hate to lose them just because someone was worried there might be a few extra IOs in the game.

[PSI-on]

I would vastly prefer being able to get my character data and account data back.

If I could pick one to get back, I would prefer my account data (vet and market unlocks, game edition codes, costume con codes, etc.). My characters can be recreated, half of the fun for me was making characters (that's why I had over 100 characters and only 5 50s - one of which was my ex's and another of which was PL'd via level pact). It would make me very, very sad to lose my account data. Very sad. I spent an embarrassing amount of money on City of Heroes. :-[

I would start over with nothing if it came down to it. And I'd spend money to get much of the account stuff back. But I would be very, very sad panda. :'(

That's basically my take on it too. I bought every copy of the game for it's in game stuff, pre-ordered two of them, was a top tier vet, even had a comic con code for Freakshow Tank and one for that robot lady in preatoria with the blade arms (have mercy on my I NEVER got past the first City area on the pretorian side...so many regrets ; _ ; ) so for some of us it's not just IO's and characters hard work we will miss out on, it's what? Four pages of character slots, 12 slots each? Stuff from editions and vet rewards we likely used constantly, special events that will never happen again (i was also there for Sister and Manticore's Wedding). Heck it took me like...4 years to get my first 50. I can't imagine I could ever afford to put as much money into the game a second time as I did before, let alone ever feel SAFE doing so knowing I could lose it all over again. If an effort can be made, it'd mean the world to a lot of us to try or just ask.

Also, I too, would pay even as much as a the same as a brand new game maybe, to be restored.

[PSI-on]

Not picking on this post in particular, but this far in and nobody has pointed out the obvious answer to copying xml files?

The solution to that is trivial -- just make a unique signature out of each character that is imported into the system and store it. Don't allow importing the same character more than once. The checksum prevents making trivial modifications to try to fool the signature. If you give someone copies of your characters and they import them before you, tough cookies, you shouldn't have done that.

There are a lot of problems with allowing Sentinel imports, but duplicate characters is not one of them.

If you're worried about the economy, you could even go as far as stripping influence or carried inventory (recipes and non-slotted enhancements) during the import process.

God I love our members who know programming stuff (I'm aware of what you've been up to specifically, just making a sweeping statement of the awesometude of all our programmer members). Even though at close I STILL had a full inventory of Base Salvage, only one character with more than a million Inf, and already knew all the stuff we had stored in the SG base was doomed, I'd be all for being stripped of my inf and inventory if it meant picking up where I left off with, in essence as a writer, those parts of me that were lost.