City of Combat Simulators?

[Corona89]

Hey, all 

Tl;Dr: Would it be feasible to build a localized, simplified version of CoX's combat engine and would that violate the legal standards in regards to NCSoft?

Where do I even start with this?  First of all, I'm not sure if this is even in the right section but I'm sure the mods will let me know if it isn't.  Second, my programming knowledge is a bit dated and I have very little familiarity with the game's network architecture so most of this is theorycraft.  Please feel free to tell me if anything I'm saying isn't plausible/is outright dumb.

With that out of the way, I've been wondering if a City of Heores combat simulator is something that could be done.  As I'm sure we all know by now, one of the main reasons powers and combat aren't possible right now is because the architecture that made it all work was kept server side and thus lost when the game shutdown.  But, in my mind, it makes sense that a simplified replica could be made using a local (That is, on the player's PC) system.

I don't wanna get too deep into what I have in mind as to how that would work because then this post would be miles long but think of something kinda similar to the Training Dummies in RWZ.  They'd be essentially static objects with a fixed HP value that the player could use their powers on (Probably just Brawl to start since it was the most basic attack in the game).  In the initial phase the dummy wouldn't react in any discernible way.  It wouldn't have a "hit" animation, grant XP, or any of the other values associated with enemy NPCs.  All of that would need to be worked in incrementally later on.

Again, I don't know how feasible the idea is or if it violates any of the legal stuff regarding NCSoft's ownership of the IP.  That's the reason I'm posting this.  I'd like to get some feedback on those two issues and whether or not it's something the playerbase would even care for. 

[GN2]

From a legal perspective, there should be no issues as long as you don't use any assets or terminology that are owned by NCsoft. This would probably mean calling it "HeroSim" or something equally generic, and genericizing any copyrighted AT or power names. (Khelds and SoAs would be the only issues there, probably). You would also need to make your own assets from scratch, if you ripped any from the actual client, that would violate NC's copyright.

From a technical perspective, it would be *possible*, yes, but it would be a massive amount of work to get everything correct. Massive to the point where we would probably have a definitive answer about the state of the current game talks before you were anywhere close to finished.

[doc7924]

From a legal perspective, there should be no issues as long as you don't use any assets or terminology that are owned by NCsoft. This would probably mean calling it "HeroSim" or something equally generic, and genericizing any copyrighted AT or power names. (Khelds and SoAs would be the only issues there, probably). You would also need to make your own assets from scratch, if you ripped any from the actual client, that would violate NC's copyright.

From a technical perspective, it would be *possible*, yes, but it would be a massive amount of work to get everything correct. Massive to the point where we would probably have a definitive answer about the state of the current game talks before you were anywhere close to finished.

I know nothing of the workings of MMO"s but I'm guessing in theory it could be possible to use your computer as the game and server in order to simulate some of the basics of the game. 

[Corona89]

From a legal perspective, there should be no issues as long as you don't use any assets or terminology that are owned by NCsoft. This would probably mean calling it "HeroSim" or something equally generic, and genericizing any copyrighted AT or power names. (Khelds and SoAs would be the only issues there, probably). You would also need to make your own assets from scratch, if you ripped any from the actual client, that would violate NC's copyright.

And there's the rub.  The whole point behind the idea would be to give players an application where they could relive the CoX combat system and really bring their characters back in a closed environment.  My thought was that using the assets would be okay provided the sim wasn't being marketed as a recreation of the game or used for monetary value.

[Jeff Anderson]

I am building an application that hooks turn based combat using the champions combat system into Icon, including an editor to associate characters with ability FX, Movs, and sound effects.

Not quite the same things as a real time combat engine, but it might scratch am itch..

[MaidMercury]

I am building an application that hooks turn based combat using the champions combat system into Icon, including an editor to associate characters with ability FX, Movs, and sound effects.

Not quite the same things as a real time combat engine, but it might scratch am itch..

sounds interesting...I'd like to see my Heals aura again, med scanner, etc..