New efforts!

[Blondeshell]

The problem for me was that I wanted Incarnate stuff, but got tired of the grind before any individual Incarnate stuff came out, and left the game until the shutdown announcement. It was just too much repetitive combat button mashing for something that would take forever to achieve.

Additionally, and this was the biggie, I enjoyed the story of CoH. You can look on the wiki at the trial pages - there's no story in those articles, just general overview and strategy. Why? Because no one played to experience what was going on, they rushed through for loot.

/Necroing a post from halfway back in this thread to let everyone know that all the I-Trial dialogue and cutscenes have been added to the wiki. (Sorry, no screenshots.) So you can now read all the stuff you chose to ignore when you were running with the Leagues.

[Risha]

I made and fell in love with a mind controller / empath (I justified the "healing" as "mind over body") and it ended up being my first 50.  It was squishy and didn't do a lot of damage so if I was soloing it required a lot of finesse and patience... which I actually came to appreciate and enjoy.

This was my main, Risha, and yes she was squishy and hard to solo, and I loved her...if she's back I'll put her up again, if not, I'll do a mind/something else.  But using her DID teach me a lot and I had great fun with her, but had extensive notes to respec her near the end.

[Risha]

Additionally, and this was the biggie, I enjoyed the story of CoH. You can look on the wiki at the trial pages - there's no story in those articles, just general overview and strategy. Why? Because no one played to experience what was going on, they rushed through for loot.

Yes, as a writer I loved the story lines.  For me, it would be like a book, just one more contact and mission to see where this leads.  One of the worst things about COH for me was that I still have little clue about the TF's stories I was in.

And, yes, I'm "at work" and not revising my rough draft to finally submit to my editor, why did you ask?  And one of my beta readers peeved me.  I'd usually do a quick run in COH to get rid of that before heading back for a 10-14 hour day....

[Waffles]

While we're on the topic of builds, My Crabbermind back in 2011, when I couldn't keybind worth a damn, yay!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3vYLVv2frU

Best part is that was her weakest build.

[Minotaur]

This was my main, Risha, and yes she was squishy and hard to solo, and I loved her...if she's back I'll put her up again, if not, I'll do a mind/something else.  But using her DID teach me a lot and I had great fun with her, but had extensive notes to respec her near the end.

I had a mind/rad (named psychosis safari after this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeSxjWMcAB4) and it was one of the few toons (ill/TA was another) that I felt I really didn't play very well.

[MWRuger]

/Necroing a post from halfway back in this thread to let everyone know that all the I-Trial dialogue and cutscenes have been added to the wiki. (Sorry, no screenshots.) So you can now read all the stuff you chose to ignore when you were running with the Leagues.

Thanks! i was one of those who was asking!

[BadWolf]

Understanding that's a guess, CW... I find the bolded part to be quite... amusing. :)

And I also am having a struggle with that, and the bit right after, regarding financial backing.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I see a bit of logic regarding it, but really... They're selling a game they shuttered.  Did they care what Cryptic thought about that?  I'm guessing they did not even consider it whatsoever.  Further, whatever NCSoft did with it past when they bought it from Cryptic, did you hear Cryptic crying foul?  No.  At least, I don't think so...

So why, after they sell it (assuming this happens to happen), and even if they demand their logo stay stuck on it, would they even care about their image?  "We sold it.  Not our baby anymore.  Good dang luck with it."

And if that's a hang up, well... they can have the logo removed, and it's no longer a problem.  Problem solved.

And EVEN IF it didn't prove to be a problem upon the sale of it, and it then was flying along quite nicely without them.. then in a year, say, things got bad in some way?  Why would it matter to NCSoft?  Because you shuttered it?  Then sold it?  And now you're not shepherding it, and you gave up control of it, but wanted your logo on the login screen?  And you're.... what... concerned about your image?!

Right. 

If that's a hang up... this is totally a wasted effort by the team trying to buy it.

Which dovetails into the financial solvency thing.  Again, it should not matter.  Why?

They're selling it.  It's not like once it's sold they have any stewardship over it.  It's not like they can swoop in afterwards and say "Oh, you paid us, but we think you need to relinquish control of it, you imbeciles.  We know best."

If they knew best, the damn game wouldn't have been shut down.  So no, you don't know best, NCSoft, go away (after you sell it.)

---

You'll understand if I seem a bit incredulous that these two things are even ON THE TABLE.  What the hell do they care?  It's closed.  Reopening under new management does nothing in regards to NCSoft's image or pocketbooks if it's a total sale. 

If it's a partial sale, with extra proceeds going to them as a percentage of profits?  Well, if I'm the team, frak that noise.  All or nothing.  Or why the HELL do you bother?

Whatever the sale, it needs to have ONE THING above all else... NCSoft is *out*.  They need to get their hands out of the game, and walk away once a deal is done.  For if they retain any control... then we have no hope that it doesn't live on. 

Come to think of it... the bolded part does, in fact, NOT amuse me.  At all.  :p

OK, let me explain. The thing is, this company that's in talks right now is not the only company that has wanted, or will want, to buy CoH. There have been other opportunities in the past, there will be other opportunities in the future. NCSoft is looking for the best deal they can get. Because they are a business, and that's what businesses do.

You're saying, "Why do they care? The game is shuttered, why don't they just sell off to the first person who asks and wash their hands of it? Why do they want their logo on it, why do they care if it's run well, et cetera?" The answer is, "Because they can make more money if they sell it to an outfit that can run it well, increase its value, put NCSoft's logo on it, and at the very least put out a quality product associated with NCSoft. To say nothing of the potential for profit-sharing, royalties, et cetera, which are probably being negotiated."

Basically, there is an opportunity cost associated with selling it to a bad buyer--the money that NCSoft would leave on the table from not waiting--and they're presumably pretty well-placed to judge what that cost is. Which is why they're doing due diligence on any potential buyer. And as I previously noted, this is of benefit to us, the gamers, as well--if NCSoft sold to the first person to scrape together some dough, not caring what would happen to it afterwards, we would not get the full benefits of CoH's return. So both we and NCSoft are on the same side here, wanting the game to go to someone who will take good care of it. Even though NCSoft doesn't think it's worth reopening themselves, that doesn't mean they think it's worthless. And that's a good thing.

[Felderburg]

/Necroing a post from halfway back in this thread to let everyone know that all the I-Trial dialogue and cutscenes have been added to the wiki. (Sorry, no screenshots.) So you can now read all the stuff you chose to ignore when you were running with the Leagues.

I saw that! THANK YOU!!!

Did you have a bunch of screens or something?

[Blondeshell]

Nope, had to scour through my chat logs to find them. Those worked better, anyway, because I could get accurate colors for the text boxes.

Happy reading. :)

[sindyr]

Seeing MIDS builds... *sniff*

In my experience, MIDS was pretty much the BEST offline character designer I have found in any MMO...

[Noyjitat]

I have two AMD GPUs and I don't have any of these crashing issues you speak of. I also have two nVidias and they are also free of crashing problems. A little bit too much hyperbole there? Do you even own an AMD/ATI video card currently?

I had initial issues with my current computer but I had downloaded the wrong driver. All is well now.

[Ironwolf]

See, here's the problem though. It's ALL speculation. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not calling Ironwolf a liar. He's definitely talking to the team that is working on getting the game back. But everyone needs to realize that he is NOT part of that team. Like me, he's just a guy who knows a guy, and the information he's posting here should be considered second-hand. While he's generally got a pretty good bead on what's going on, I've also seen him draw some incorrect inferences as well.

So what you're asking me to do is the same as, for example, referring to someone who knows someone who works at Apple and has an Apple fan blog as a source of official Apple information. Extending the metaphor, he might mention that Apple is coming out with a new smart watch. Apple fans get excited and start talking about what features they want it to have and what effect it might have on the market place, which is cool. But then when people start fighting over what an Apple smart watch should or shouldn't be or posting messages about what we "know" (which we don't really), everyone needs to take a step back and calm down. And of course, posting messages on Facebook telling the Apple haters to please stop posting negative messages about Apple because it might jeopardize the decision for Apple to come out with a smart watch, well, hopefully you can imagine how useful that would be.

All I'm saying--all I've said all along--if that if you want to talk about the prospects of getting City of Heroes back, great! As long as Ironwolf isn't posting stuff that I think is deliberately false and misleading (which he hasn't so far), he's certainly welcome to keep posting away. And hopefully sooner or later the team that is directly involved in these talks will come forward and make some sort of announcement, and if or when they do, I'll be more than happy to back it up as being official information from a first-hand source. Until then, though, we're all just average, ordinary, unofficial folks.

I thank you for this Tony. This is exactly what is going on - I am the official unofficial spokesman - for now. Once things are decided one way or the other people will understand why the delay. They have a studio and are working on other projects and those other projects would/could be impacted by letting this out of the bag before we know either way on what is going to happen. They would be spending a lot of time answering questions and fielding emails and phone calls rather than working.

It has progressed to the point that they are proving technical competence and working on a project for NCSoft. I can speculate on what they are doing - but it is just my guess. Every time I speculate I say that is what it is and i have no knowledge of the true inner workings. I do however have the posting history of those involved and I can tell what they feel about certain subjects and what they want from CoH1.

The speculation is harmless unless you want more than Issue 23/24 from the old CoH and a future of CoH2. I know that is the current goal as spending time developing CoH1 would be less productive in the long run. Now the moonbase and other stuff may get rolled into CoH2 - that is for the future to show. For now we have a team who loves the game working on a project that NCSoft requested, prior to the sale.

This tells me NCSoft is at least happy enough with the team to not shoot them down out of hand. I will also tell you flat out when I get it wrong. I was completely wrong in thinking we were days away earlier and took full blame for that. It is in the hands of the last guy - however what form the deal will be - we don't know yet.

[Ironwolf]

OK, let me explain. The thing is, this company that's in talks right now is not the only company that has wanted, or will want, to buy CoH. There have been other opportunities in the past, there will be other opportunities in the future. NCSoft is looking for the best deal they can get. Because they are a business, and that's what businesses do.

You're saying, "Why do they care? The game is shuttered, why don't they just sell off to the first person who asks and wash their hands of it? Why do they want their logo on it, why do they care if it's run well, et cetera?" The answer is, "Because they can make more money if they sell it to an outfit that can run it well, increase its value, put NCSoft's logo on it, and at the very least put out a quality product associated with NCSoft. To say nothing of the potential for profit-sharing, royalties, et cetera, which are probably being negotiated."

Basically, there is an opportunity cost associated with selling it to a bad buyer--the money that NCSoft would leave on the table from not waiting--and they're presumably pretty well-placed to judge what that cost is. Which is why they're doing due diligence on any potential buyer. And as I previously noted, this is of benefit to us, the gamers, as well--if NCSoft sold to the first person to scrape together some dough, not caring what would happen to it afterwards, we would not get the full benefits of CoH's return. So both we and NCSoft are on the same side here, wanting the game to go to someone who will take good care of it. Even though NCSoft doesn't think it's worth reopening themselves, that doesn't mean they think it's worthless. And that's a good thing.

They may want the same deal they had with Cryptic in reverse. That was profit sharing and a 2 year hand over to NCSoft running it. It may come back with a new shiny team - City of Heroes by Mystery team in partnership with NCSoft. It is a real possibility. It is an entirely different talk to acquire a partner rather than selling a game.

I don't know the exact talks and likely they are under NDA. I get hints and that is about it and I then guess what they are saying and if they don't correct the guess - I know I hit it! You see you can tell a lot if someone can talk about everything except alligators - and you ask about Komodo dragons and they say - nope that isn't happening and yet when you mention gators - they can't say. Then you can reasonably fill in the blanks as to what is occuring.

[Samuraiko]

I saw that! THANK YOU!!!

Did you have a bunch of screens or something?

Nope, had to scour through my chat logs to find them. Those worked better, anyway, because I could get accurate colors for the text boxes.

Happy reading. :)

However, I may still have my demofiles of running the various I-Trials, so screenshots may still be possible... :)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[Wammo]

Ironwolf,

Speculate away! Every tidbit of information gives me hope and makes me excited.

I would, in the spirit of speculation, ask one specific question for you to speculate about...In your most perfect of worlds...if everything goes well from here forward...when would you guess the earliest date we could fire up the game and play it again?

[Luna Eclypse]

If NCsoft still wants to be associated with the game through these new developers, I see it as maybe the one strategic business move that also makes sense in the American & European markets. They want to repair their image and do well by the consumers they so supremely scorned... and renew a previous revenue stream no matter how minuscule it was. So they have to be sure the prospects looking to get involved in this can maintain the infrastructure needed to make it happen, otherwise it could further damage their reputation.

I'm sure the idea of the would-be devs offering to do all the work in transferring the game to the Unreal Engine also sweetened the deal, no doubt there are people at NCsoft previously close to Paragon Studios that understand how bloated and clunky the old game engine was.

[BadWolf]

They may want the same deal they had with Cryptic in reverse. That was profit sharing and a 2 year hand over to NCSoft running it. It may come back with a new shiny team - City of Heroes by Mystery team in partnership with NCSoft. It is a real possibility. It is an entirely different talk to acquire a partner rather than selling a game.

Agreed--my post wasn't intended to close off suggestions, it was merely to point out that a lot of things could be going on, all of which benefit both NCSoft and the CoH community and none of which are going to be as simple as "dump the game off to somebody and wash their hands of it". They could do that, but it would be a bad decision both from their point of view and ours. :)

[Golden Girl]

I can see some major trust issues if NCsoft still has any say in the running of the game.

[Nealix]

NCSoft selling CoH to a buyer qualified to run the game will go a long way in repairing their reputation with me.  After the way they handled the shut down of CoH I vowed never to trust them with my gaming experiences thereafter.  I didn't want to get hooked on another game that could vanish on me so easily.

[Cailyn Alaynn]

I can see some major trust issues if NCsoft still has any say in the running of the game.

Then people have a very simple choice.
Get over it, or don't play City of Heroes.

-shrug-

I doubt a partnership would end up being more than NCSoft getting their logo on the game, a share of the profits, and a very stern "Don't **** it up.". From what I understand, they didn't really lean on NorCal that much...