The Shot Heard Around Paragon City - SCORE Public Release

[Angel Phoenix77]

This Google Doc contains the consolidate patch notes for I25:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11cLJiSYlfueJheOumRywG8Evip2Mjmu_30Y6ePaetqY/edit?usp=sharing

How accurate are the contents?  No idea.

From what I have seen and done. It is very accurate

[saipaman]

It certainly seems too complex to fake, given that no money is involved.

[saipaman]

CoX had been F2P for several years before it got shut down, and it had actually seen an increase in revenue during that time.

Imagine all the thousands more people that are too nervous to play on a private server (or they'd rather avoid the lag, performance issues and drama there) that would jump at the chance to play again on an officially sanctioned server.

Unfortunately, with everything unlocked, you're down to just the people who care enough to donate.  A population that I'm sure is smaller than the population of people that would buy a power set or costume parts.

[Sinistar]

From what I have seen and done. It is very accurate

Yes indeed, almost makes me think we should skip i24 and have the i25 version instead.

[GamingGlen]

I'm all for i25.  I like the finished Khalisti Wharf zone.

[Brigadine]

[The Fifth Horseman]

Peak player count has increased to just over 3,500 (today)

It broke 4K now.

[Azrael]

I'm all for i25.  I like the finished Khalisti Wharf zone.

Leandro (and SCORE) did a terrific job on that.  Right down to the lady that did the Statesman statue.

All it needs are some mobs and a story for that zone.

Beautiful.

Azrael.

[Azrael]

Yes indeed, almost makes me think we should skip i24 and have the i25 version instead.

i25, clearly a 'love poem' and there's no reason the community can't have, as somebody once said...

'Both.'

Azrael.

[Azrael]

It broke 4K now.

Aye.  The stats are phenomenal.

So, NC, no demand for the game, eh?

4k.  And that's 'just' the people that know about it.

Azrael.

[Azrael]

CoX had been F2P for several years before it got shut down, and it had actually seen an increase in revenue during that time.

Imagine all the thousands more people that are too nervous to play on a private server (or they'd rather avoid the lag, performance issues and drama there) that would jump at the chance to play again on an officially sanctioned server.

Well.  That could happen.  My duo-partner who teams with me on 'test' i25 says he'd like to pay a sub.

We'll see what happens with Tony's talks.  Servers don't pay for themselves and this is where the private servers have to very careful and discreet about money.

This is where a 'tall' i24 or i25 could help in terms of fiscal freedom from such costs to run on a home brew distro and 'reduced' costs in terms of running servers.  But yes, 4k plus players.  That isn't going to be cheap as things are currently?  I can see why the i24 programmers are in a race against time.

Azrael.

PS.  Happy 15th CoH anniversary!

One...and all.

[Vee]

[Azrael]

So you'd rather grind prestige on a server that may be taken down at any time just to get a sense of accomplishment? You earned stuff before, if it bothers you that much put yourself on the honor system and only take/build what you had on live. Plenty of re-earning to be done just building characters back up for my taste.

There's enough 'earning penance' in the game.  SG 'grind prestige' was just the worst. 

Aye.  Just getting 'an' alt to L50 to fund the rest of my alts is going to be a 'earning my stripes' again thing.

Azrael.

[Ulysses Dare]

So you'd rather grind prestige on a server that may be taken down at any time just to get a sense of accomplishment? You earned stuff before, if it bothers you that much put yourself on the honor system and only take/build what you had on live. Plenty of re-earning to be done just building characters back up for my taste.

That's what was bugging me about some of the people complaiing about how flight, etc. was now available at level 4. They argued that the fix was that the game should be reverted to it's pre-Freedom settings. Apparently "just don't buy flight until level 14" wasn't a viable option for them.

[Azrael]

That's what was bugging me about some of the people complaiing about how flight, etc. was now available at level 4. They argued that the fix was that the game should be reverted to it's pre-Freedom settings. Apparently "just don't buy flight until level 14" wasn't a viable option for them.

ER...

They don't have to take flight until L14 unless they want to?  (Plenty of temp powers for travel...from rad' missions.)

Most of the missions up to the early teens are relatively local with trains to get you about. 

Two slot swift is plenty fast to get about also.

I used to dream of having flight at L4.  Now I wait until even L20 whilst I balance primary and 2ndary on alts.

It's great to see the test servers alive and flooded with CoH players.  I'd never seen the tutorial zone rammed with heroes before.  The Outcasts never had such a beat down.

Azrael.

[Sinistar]

[Paragon Avenger]

The SCORE peole and the THeM may or may not be one in the same.  I don't know.  I assume that they and THeM are different.  However, this does fit into the scheme of trying to get our home back.

The source code for City of Heroes has been released to the internet.  Is it theft?  That is unclear, after all, if you steal something out of your neighbor's trash nobody cares.  Not that City of Heroes is trash by any stretch of the imagination, except maybe in NCSoft's eyes.

With the game code out in the wild, several possibilities emerge. 
Like private servers popping up like danilions in the spring.
Malware servers could become a problem. 
Fake City of Heroes sites setup to steal credentials or infect your computer with malware.
Mostly, this changes the "THeM Talks".

Right now, all, (read 'both of'), the SCORE servers are down.
I believe that the crash was caused by too many players playing all at once. 
With so many avatars starting out, Atlas Park actually sank a couple inches, (ok, no it didn't).
It is possible, hopefully not likely, that rogue agents sabortaged the game.
Unfortunately, the servers will be stressed until most of the pent-up demand for the game is satisfied.

There is another possibility, shutting down the server in another feature of Marty.  When too many players are leveling too quickly, Marty steps in and shuts everything down.

Is there anyway to remove the Marty subsystem from the game?

[Brigadine]

The P2W vendor is a nice way to slowly reclaim lost Vet Reward items and powers that you want rather then pay actual cash for them and risk server shut down by Ncsoft

As to the SG all being unlocked.....there will be many private servers after all is said and done. Hopefully also the TonyV community will be around.  Population on all servers will be......variable.

Some people don't want to be in a large SG, some want to have a base of their own.

Also some of the unlock requirements for SG badges/items seemed a bit steep.

Also if we don't have to pay base upkeep anymore that is fine with me.

I worry about things getting too fragmented. I just want a stable home with a healthy population enough to be able to find people to do most of the game any day.

[Azrael]

The P2W vendor is a nice way to slowly reclaim lost Vet Reward items and powers that you want rather then pay actual cash for them and risk server shut down by Ncsoft

As to the SG all being unlocked.....there will be many private servers after all is said and done. Hopefully also the TonyV community will be around.  Population on all servers will be......variable.

Some people don't want to be in a large SG, some want to have a base of their own.

Also some of the unlock requirements for SG badges/items seemed a bit steep.

Also if we don't have to pay base upkeep anymore that is fine with me.

It was a bit of a time sink and a money pit at launch.  They tweaked the costs a few times I think.

If you had a handful of people you could get the prestige to get a modest base going.

But yeah.  You'd have to arrest people for dropping litter just to keep up with prestige costs...

Azrael.

[Azrael]

I worry about things getting too fragmented. I just want a stable home with a healthy population enough to be able to find people to do most of the game any day.

Don't worry about that, Brigadine.  I hear what you're saying.

But there isn't just one big studio doing 'one' strand of development any more.  (And there's no one that wanted to see i24 officially released than me...and the coming of the Batallion and the Moonbase as revealed by Matt Miller in his last interview re: CoH.)

There's 20 thousands registrations so far.  That's more than enough to support a handful of servers.

The 'home brew distros' (matter of time) will cover people like me who will fly below the radar. 

You'll have big communities and small communities.  But?  We're still the CoH Federation of 'Love our Game.'

It will just be like going shopping.  You'll have your favourite type of food, clothing, car etc.  Or 'ice cream.'

You'll be able to decide what flavour of CoH you like. 

Fragmentation.  It doesn't really mean anything other than?

Choice.  Something we have in most areas of our lives.

There just won't be one studio developing the story.  Not Paragon.  Nor NC.  Those 'official' days are gone.  We have to take responsibility for i25's story content upon ourselves.  Some that want to enjoy i24 as a frozen testament to what 'nearly' launched can do so.

But the sacrfices made by the dev' that leaked the code, the team at SCORE that preserved it and really brought some quality of life improvements and development fixes to i25....scream that we, as a community have to take responsibility where it goes next.

That means coders racing to get a i24 home brew distro that can be run more economically.  It means, eventually, the tools to create our own content.  (We can start with AE....maybe write our own Battalion arc...for The Wharf zone?) 

We shouldn't fear this.  It's the nexus inflection point.

Those seeking a more 'like live' home will be wishing and hoping that Tony's talks with NC go well.  My Duo-partner feels that way.  And maybe they'll have a license to take the game forward with some story content to go with i25 along with all the fixes and improvements they've made.

Me?  The privacy of my own distro run by me...where I know a legal nuke isn't going to take down the game or the server.

Azrael.