Ridiculous Question

[Arcana]

as long as the game still awards recipe and salvage drops in a fight, we could likely go for awhile without the market until it was brought back online. 

Theoretically yes, but in a rebooted from zero game its worth noting that at least for a while without markets and farmers and twinking and high-level charity we'd all be back to scrounging for nickles and dimes trying to afford a single SO for our level 30s.  It was that and worse in the early days where some players deliberately put themselves into debt just to slow down progress enough to let their enhancement earning power catch up with their slot count.  It wouldn't be quite that bad given invention drops, but without a good mechanism for trading and selling them random chance would not operate in everyone's favor there.  I wouldn't mind playing City of Heroes The Next Generation not just starting from scratch but starting from nothing, but I suspect even with all the trappings of I23 that kind of game would be unrecognizable to most players that didn't live through those days.

[Sinistar]

I think it would be a mistake to not include parts of the game that only some enjoyed. Didn't care much for how pvp was in CoX myself but some actually did like it. I did however have fun dueling friends in the arena from time to time.

My point is this: if some of the features of the game could not come back right away but the main game was back and playable, would you be glad the game is back or lament the hopefully temporary loss of the features?

The ingame email system only became useful to me when items could be attached and sent.  Other wise it was useless.

IO's and the Market, the game went for quite some time before those features were added.  I suspect many could tolerate SO's for their characters until IO's and the market were restored. 

Supergroups and bases,  nice to have yes.  But I think those are features that we could also do without if it meant getting the game up and running again.

[LaughingAlex]

My point is this: if some of the features of the game could not come back right away but the main game was back and playable, would you be glad the game is back or lament the hopefully temporary loss of the features?

The ingame email system only became useful to me when items could be attached and sent.  Other wise it was useless.

IO's and the Market, the game went for quite some time before those features were added.  I suspect many could tolerate SO's for their characters until IO's and the market were restored. 

Supergroups and bases,  nice to have yes.  But I think those are features that we could also do without if it meant getting the game up and running again.

AE I could live without temporarily, but I would be unhappy about IOs and the market missing.  Again I know it'd be temporary though, and likewise, I know a good number of powerset combinations that work well without IOs.  Supergroups and bases?  I'd lament the loss for those the most.

[Rejolt]

I could live with friends lists over supergroups (most of us would create Facebook pages to coordinate)

We could go without ae, pvp, pvp zones, arenas, email or (gasp) the market to start.

I must have in-game chat! That's as vital as the costume creator to me.

Great discussion btw.

Edit: here's an evil thought - relaunch the game issue by issue (1, 2, 3... All the way to 23) - a week or two at a time.

[JanessaVR]

Personally, if I'm not even able to create a single IO for my characters, I'd log in long enough to create them (and secure their names), then log out and wait for the market to be restored.  If that takes a year or two, well, I've already waited this long.

[Rejolt]

Personally, if I'm not even able to create a single IO for my characters, I'd log in long enough to create them (and secure their names), then log out and wait for the market to be restored.  If that takes a year or two, well, I've already waited this long.

My bigger fear is burning through my nostalgia in the first month. I will, however, be subbed as long as the game is up.

[JanessaVR]

My bigger fear is burning through my nostalgia in the first month. I will, however, be subbed as long as the game is up.

Oh, I'll sign up, and stay subbed, I just won't bother logging in - there's no real reason for me to if I can do is run around with empty slots or crappy trainer-bought enhancements.  That "quality of life" is just too low for me to bother even trying to play.

[Sinistar]

Personally, if I'm not even able to create a single IO for my characters, I'd log in long enough to create them (and secure their names), then log out and wait for the market to be restored.  If that takes a year or two, well, I've already waited this long.

Logic error: you cant create IO's without money and salvage and recipies, so by not playing until the market is restored you are delaying the creation of IO's for yourself anyway as you will have no inf, no salvage and no recipes when you return after market restoration.

If the market is not back, at least secure all your names then grind an alt to 50 and build up some funds and salvage.

[Ankhammon]

My bigger fear is burning through my nostalgia in the first month. I will, however, be subbed as long as the game is up.

I think if you stayed teamed often you will get the swift fun effect and be ok. You'll get your drops and then be able to IO a toon in a month.

Just make sure the first one is something good. Not like an elec blaster or anything. :)

[Angel Phoenix77]

I hope either City of Legacy and ARP has some kind of life time subs :)

[JanessaVR]

Logic error: you cant create IO's without money and salvage and recipies, so by not playing until the market is restored you are delaying the creation of IO's for yourself anyway as you will have no inf, no salvage and no recipes when you return after market restoration.

If the market is not back, at least secure all your names then grind an alt to 50 and build up some funds and salvage.

Not for me - I'm not willing to grind and grind and grind on empty slots all the way up to L50, on the off chance that MAYBE by then I'll be lucky enough to have come across all the salvage I need to finally create some decent, basic IOs.  No market, no me playing beyond character creation.  I've got The Sims, I've got tabletop RPGs - I'll keep myself amused while it gets fixed.  But you guys have fun...

[Brighellac]

If AE is i23 compatible, people will be cheapo IO'd 50s in 2 days ... Purpling/PVP builds month or two :-\

[Burnt Toast]

Not sure what the last page or so has to do with the actual thread.topic... maybe we should try to contain all the off-topic posts to the threads that are already the unofficial off-topic threads "New Efforts" & "The Mask Comes Off."

Just saying....

[FloatingFatMan]

However, its also possible that the software necessary and sufficient to create operational servers existed on the workstations physically at Paragon's offices.  If those PCs are in a warehouse somewhere, its possible an operational server shard could be reconstructed from the disk content of those systems.

It's absolutely -certain- such software was in the Paragon offices. Otherwise, how would they have built their internal dev server? :p

[Cailyn Alaynn]

It's absolutely -certain- such software was in the Paragon offices. Otherwise, how would they have built their internal dev server? :p

Actually a lot of our custom built tools and programs are built on remote servers and then downloaded. Basically everything that's not Unreal Engine.

(Not saying this is the case, I'm betting FFM is right. Just saying it's possible.)

EDIT: Last time I heard...Which was awhile ago... the Paragon offices were sitting around like the studio had closed yesterday. Sadly, I live nowhere near there and can't just do a drive-by inspection! xD

[Twisted Toon]

This brings up an interesting question: What features of CoH could we go without having to get the game back up and running, and just let these features be rebuilt for the CoH 1.5 instead.

1. The Market
2. Email
3. Global Chat, this one should be a must restore if nothing else.
4. Supergroups
5. The Arena
6. The AE

and some others that I am not able to remember at the moment.

Personally, I could do without ll of that...except maybe Supergroups.

Arena, AE, and the Market didn't exist when I started playing. Also, I played solo most of the time. so chat wouldn't affect me. I didn't use the Email all that much.

[Mageman]

To me, I'd like to have the city back. I assume that what we've been currently told is that we will get back everything that we had in I23 (not I24, even though Paragon Studios thought it was ready to be released when NCSoft announced the shutdown and killed I24).

This means we should get back every capability we had there: Bases, Market, IOs, and PvP (I just don't like PvP).

What I want restored more than anything is my account data. All my purchases, game codes, etc... Characters can be rebuilt, but I can't see spending thousands of dollars restoring to me what I've already paid for. If this information is NOT restored, I will still play CoX, but I won't be spending a lot of dollars there. I'm sorry, but this is just the way I feel.

As far as NCSoft is concerned, as long as CoX is shut down, I won't buy another program from them. If it is restored, I MAY purchase a program from them, but I'm not sure (too many bad feelings about their company and lack of loyalty to their customers). I never liked the idea of a game that you can only play online. Don't get me wrong, I liked playing CoX and PUGs were fun. I just wish that I could continue to play it even after the shutdown or they had allowed people to start player-run servers. They could have sold you the software and allowed you to start your own server as long as you didn't charge people a subscription.

As far as I'm concerned, when they decide to shut down an online game, they should do something to show their customers that it's more than just the dollars. Something to show that they appreciate all the profits they've made over the years. Instead, NCSoft just said "we're not making enough money anymore, so you're gone". Well, now I'm gone and no matter how good the game they release is, if there's a NCSoft logo on the box, it will not be purchased by me. And I will do everything I can to get my friends not to buy it either.

I have a lot of old programs that I'm re-introducing myself to (like Master of Magic, Warlords 2 Deluxe, Diablo 2, etc.). These are great games, lots of fun to play, the ability to replay a lot without getting the feeling of "been there, done that". Even though in Diablo 2 (yes, I have Diablo 3, but other than the graphics, I think Diablo 2 is a better game) the quests remain the same, the items you find and most of the maps change so each game is unique.

While I'm waiting for CoX to return, I've returned, I'll scan this board, look at the progress of some of the "spiritual successors" to CoX, and play games I've already paid for.

[Sinistar]

Actually a lot of our custom built tools and programs are built on remote servers and then downloaded. Basically everything that's not Unreal Engine.

(Not saying this is the case, I'm betting FFM is right. Just saying it's possible.)

EDIT: Last time I heard...Which was awhile ago... the Paragon offices were sitting around like the studio had closed yesterday. Sadly, I live nowhere near there and can't just do a drive-by inspection! xD

It would be nice to slip inside and see if any data useful to reviving CoH was laying around...... not likely of course.

[Arcana]

It's absolutely -certain- such software was in the Paragon offices. Otherwise, how would they have built their internal dev server? :p

I'm not actually certain their "internal" dev server was internal to the office.  It might have been internal usage but still in the same physical location as the rest of the server farms.  They certainly had to have the tools to build a server shard whenever they wanted to in theory, but a lot of it could have been stored in corporate network resources and not physically in the office.  However, since all programmers keep local copies of the code they work on, its extremely likely that somewhere there exists a bunch of computers that contain the entire CoH system, either individually or collectively.

I wonder how NCSoft disposes of old computers.  If they destroy them, ebay them, or just store them indefinitely with the Lost Ark.

Also, a lot of testing did not require a fully functioning server shard.  That's something I stumbled upon a long time ago (like, around I11) and mostly pretended not to know so the devs could pretend not to know I figured it out.

[JanessaVR]

However, since all programmers keep local copies of the code they work on...

Ha, ha, so true.  I've worked for companies that actually said (with a straight face!) that they expected me to keep the primary copy of my source code library on a network drive somewhere.  Trying hard not to laugh, I say "Sure, will do." and then proceed to work from local copies as I always do and backup everything I've changed to the network drive at the end of the day before going home (just delete the project folders on the network and replace them with my local PC project folders - takes less than a minute typically).  I've no idea why anyone expects developers to actually not do this.