Author Topic: And the mask comes off.  (Read 1712347 times)

Cailyn Alaynn

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #400 on: September 02, 2014, 08:34:47 AM »
If everything goes as planned you could always turn to crowd funding on kickstarter and the community i'm sure will help one way or the other, i know i definitely would like to help out in some shape or form, even if it's holding a banner outside starbucks at 7am to get people to play this game haha!

I would love to see that, lol. People could never say you weren't dedicated.
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AlBQuirky

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #401 on: September 02, 2014, 08:54:02 AM »
So much going behind the scenes I had no idea about!  Wonderful news and thank you, THANK YOU for this update :)

My best thoughts, wishes, and prayers for your continued success :)

Brigadine

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #402 on: September 02, 2014, 09:09:27 AM »
It's being written from scratch... Of course it's editable...
Well my bad it hasn't been super clear I guess.

Verziga

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #403 on: September 02, 2014, 09:11:47 AM »
Long time lurker but had to register now to say thanks to all involved. Your efforts are hugely appreciated.

On the character data front...would there be any scope to offer an 'instant lvl 50' option for a small fee similar to WOW's instant lvl 90 that they recently added? It might appease those who aren't too keen on starting from scratch. I've got less than no idea at all how anything technical works and whether that would even be possible.

Scendera

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #404 on: September 02, 2014, 09:18:15 AM »
*Normally* on a technical basis that'd be pretty easy. This isn't a normal situation, tho...

Verziga

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #405 on: September 02, 2014, 09:25:45 AM »
*Normally* on a technical basis that'd be pretty easy. This isn't a normal situation, tho...

Yeah that's what I figured. Personally, I'd have no problem starting from scratch anyway. The whole point of any game is to play it after all.

Kistulot

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #406 on: September 02, 2014, 09:49:14 AM »
While a free 50 is probably not easily doable with current ideas... there would be less issue with say, being given XP boosters. It's basically just 2x xp, but if you had enough of them... :)
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Scendera

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #407 on: September 02, 2014, 09:54:36 AM »
Yeah that's what I figured. Personally, I'd have no problem starting from scratch anyway. The whole point of any game is to play it after all.

Exactly. I'm more concerned at this point with simply being able to get a few of the names I was most attached to. I have the costumes saved, I have money to repurchase the unlocks, and the journey IS the point...

Jetfire99

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #408 on: September 02, 2014, 10:15:51 AM »
Must not get hopes up but ... a chance ... this is enough. Even if it doesn't make it thanks chomper this is more than I expected.

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DarkCurrent

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #409 on: September 02, 2014, 10:16:14 AM »
Purchase IP, license engine.

Thank you, sir.

That makes a lot more business sense.  Hopefully, it can be done quickly and cleanly.  Then the successors can stop struggling renaming ats and things.

Stealth Dart

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #410 on: September 02, 2014, 10:35:32 AM »
So for those asking what is APR?   :o

APR stands for Atlas Park Revival.  What is Atlas Park Revival?  :-\

Atlas Park Revival is Irish_Girl's project to take the existing geometries...the meshes as it were of the existing environment of City of Heroes and recreate them using Unreal Engine.  To what end?  To create the environment for an updated City of Heroes game with a newer game engine.  So while the Issue23 build of City of Heroes will not be able to be updated at all due to lack of the original source code.  APR will be using a license from the COT (City of Titans) build, which uses Unreal Engine 4, to make the next generation of City of Heroes.  Same COH IP, similar COH game play, updated graphics and capabilities.  What is being dubbed City of Heroes 1.5.  This version will be able to be updated with new content, power sets, story arcs etc.

Irish_Girl can correct me if I am incorrect in any of my understandings of this project.   ;D

Here is the link to the webpage.  http://apr.pc-logix.com/

Here is an example pic of Atlas Park in Unreal Engine.  http://apr.pc-logix.com/uploads/gallery/album_1/gallery_1_1_14817.jpg

Here is a video done in Unreal Engine.  http://youtu.be/Bg_xIAekCys



« Last Edit: September 02, 2014, 11:30:51 AM by Stealth Dart »
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Sihada

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #411 on: September 02, 2014, 10:38:32 AM »
Starting from scratch: Love it. The clean slate means that hero names that were attached to accounts that were never coming back will be available.  Already making my list of hero names I'm hoping to be able to grab.

SCORE: Someone else already said this and I agree: they appear to be an urban myth. It's romantic to think that there is a secret cabal of programmers laboring in obscurity to reverse engineer the server or the game in whole. The problem is that there is no evidence that they exist, or that they've made any progress.

I23/24: Don't care so long as I can play CoH with my kids.

Source Code: There are a host of reasons why a company wouldn't release this. It may contain code licensed from elsewhere that prohibits this kind of transfer. It may contain code that is used in other properties (Lineage, etc) where exposing the source could introduce security risks, etc.

Naysayers: we've already had one person decide they won't pay since they didn't get exactly what they want. More people like this will emerge as time passes. My hope is that enough people are willing to put their money where their mouth is when it comes time to enter their CC#.  Even maintenance mode will cost money to operate, and if it's a money-loser from month to month then there's not going to be much incentive to keep it running.

Shadowe

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #412 on: September 02, 2014, 10:43:21 AM »
Every time I read this thread title I think "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for these meddling kids".

So, if I understand this all correctly:

City of Heroes as an Intellectual Property gets purchased by a company/trust/group/whatever.
Said group licenses the i23 game from NCSoft and runs maintenance mode servers.
Said group licenses a design studio to port existing City of Heroes to a new engine (U4).
Said group also (possibly) licenses the various successor projects, allowing them to use City of Heroes IP in their work.

At an indeterminate point in time, i23 game closes (license from NCSoft is no longer required) and City of Heroes in U4 becomes the sole City of Heroes game available, in a modern engine, with continuing development.

Some of these stages may occur concurrently.

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Kaos Arcanna

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #413 on: September 02, 2014, 10:44:24 AM »
Can someone enlighten me to as what the source code would be exactly? Is that different from the game engine?


FloatingFatMan

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #414 on: September 02, 2014, 10:58:33 AM »
Every time I read this thread title I think "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for these meddling kids".

So, if I understand this all correctly:

City of Heroes as an Intellectual Property gets purchased by a company/trust/group/whatever.
Said group licenses the i23 game from NCSoft and runs maintenance mode servers.
Said group licenses a design studio to port existing City of Heroes to a new engine (U4).
Said group also (possibly) licenses the various successor projects, allowing them to use City of Heroes IP in their work.

At an indeterminate point in time, i23 game closes (license from NCSoft is no longer required) and City of Heroes in U4 becomes the sole City of Heroes game available, in a modern engine, with continuing development.

Some of these stages may occur concurrently.

If I'm right, can I get a HELL YES?

I think you're mostly wise in this instance, apart from one part.

The "Classic COH" servers wouldn't necessarily have to shut down at any point at all for the U4 engined version, though I suspect it eventually would.

FloatingFatMan

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #415 on: September 02, 2014, 11:01:08 AM »
Can someone enlighten me to as what the source code would be exactly? Is that different from the game engine?

Source code is the huge list of instructions from which the game is created.  Like a novel isn't a novel without the words that make up the sentences that form the chapters that make the story.

The game engine is just a term used to describe the code that displays the game world to the players.

TinFoil

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #416 on: September 02, 2014, 11:06:29 AM »
Can someone enlighten me to as what the source code would be exactly? Is that different from the game engine?

The source code is the actual programming of the game. It is what tells a Fireblast to do 30 damage. Having the source code would allow folks to change that value to 40 damage or 15 damage. The game engine is basically the collection of all the source code running together to allow you to move around and actually play the game. The Binary (which is what the proposal is to obtain) is all that source code and game engine packaged up and ready to run. Folks controlling it won't be able to make changes, but we'll still have the finished package to play.

Stealth Dart

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #417 on: September 02, 2014, 11:08:03 AM »
I would like to address some other concerns.  One.  That Missing Worlds Media is using funds from the Kickstarter for the new holding company purchasing the COH Intellectual Property.  This is not so.  Funds from the Kickstarter raised for City of Titans are designated for City of Titans.  New funds will need to be raised separately at some point for the COH revival should the deal with NCSoft get approved.

That MWM somehow misused their funding to switch game engines from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4.  And that this transition set them back irreparably.
Unreal Engine 3 has zero MMO support.  Meaning that MWM would have had to either create their own code for handling the MMO portion of the game, or contract a third party to do so.  Such would have taken an unknown amount of time.  Unreal Engine 4 on the other hand has built in MMO support.  This is why when MWM was offered the chance to upgrade their licenses to the newer version they did so enthusiastically.  As this would be one less thing to have to work out. 

As to the setbacks...that has to do with the character rig on which our avatars will be built upon.  MWM was a little too ambitious with the amount of sockets the character rigs could hold and to how many pieces would make up the rig, and where their seams connected the pieces together would look and work in their game engine.  Some of the seams did not move properly once the rig was in motion.  Too many sockets used up too many resources leading to instability. 

It is my understanding that they are on the third iteration of the character rig.  Once all the kinks are worked out progress will proceed.  While this sets back the avatar builder somewhat it does not affect other portions of the game such as the background world building, lore, or art assets being created.  There are multiple paths all being worked on simultaneously.

Just because other Kickstarter projects have failed does not mean that this project has to fail.  As with any project their is a risk of failure.  There is also the possibility of success.  I prefer to be enthusiastically supportive of City of Titans and why I have contributed to the Kickstarter campaign.  If they start a new Kickstarter to revive City Of Heroes, I will contribute to that as well.  We can all be naysayers and be negative and say that all of this is a pipe dream and give up our hopes or we can be positive and look to a brighter tomorrow.  I prefer to do the latter.  Nuff said.
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thunderforce

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #418 on: September 02, 2014, 11:14:14 AM »
This is excellent news, of course, but I wonder if we should be concerned about the implications for City of Titans (and the other successor projects, if they come to fruition). Realistically, a rejuvenated CoH - let alone a CoH/APR being actively updated - cuts their potential customer base (and the motivation for their project) drastically. I hope it's not going to wither on the vine (at the very least, I hope any successor project that does fold allows the others to use its assets...)

Safehouse

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Re: And the mask comes off.
« Reply #419 on: September 02, 2014, 11:18:40 AM »
Wow! This is... better than I thought we might get, even though I know it's not a done deal.

I kind of hoped that i24 might be on the table, but I did not expect that to be the case. I kind of assumed that, if the game were going to come back, it would probably be in maintenance mode. Again, that's okay with me. Even without having character data, I'm actually okay with it. A part of me would even kind of enjoy starting from scratch. We would all be in it together, supporting each other on the climb back to 50.

What I did NOT expect was the inclusion of APR, CoT, etc etc etc. To me, that is a HUGELY wonderful thing! How I read that was that yes, CoH would come back in i23 maintenance mode, but then we would know that it was working its way onto UE4 for a semi-but-not-quite-sequel. Based on the stuff I've seen of APR, it would be in pretty great hands. I am praying so hard to see this go through. Honestly, I think it would be a great deal.

Thank you, to those of you who have been working so hard to get us this far. I hope to see you in the City, to have the opportunity to team up with you or just express my thanks in-game.

Thank you, Irish-Girl; you have been so good at answering everyone's questions, and your work with APR is lookin' solid so far!

Thanks Nate/downix, for the update on where we stood. I was getting antsy, but now that I have a sense of where we're going I can wait a little longer.

And thank you to everyone else who has been instrumental to the NCSoft deal getting this far!

To celebrate, I will listen to the CoH soundtrack all day at work today! Especially that Ouroboros music. Love me that Ouroboros music (watched the Ouroboros APR recreation on youtube this morning).
« Last Edit: September 02, 2014, 11:28:14 AM by safehouse23 »
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