New efforts!

[rezulin]

  I have a slight concern.  During the run up to the Public announcement, we were kinda pushed into the speculation that the Neo Devs were going to purchase the IP, set up I23 servers, and use the money we give them to not only keep the servers going, but primarily to fund the development of COH2.

  Now, if everything goes to plan, we will have a third party setting up the servers, if it is indeed not NCSoft themselves, which it could be as they "spin off" a subsidiary, and APR in charge of the development of COH2.

  Unless APR is going to become the studio that sets up I23, at the same time as developing COH2, then all the money being given to I23 will not be going to help APR.  I mean why should it, they will be separate studios, the guys purchasing I23 will want ROI, and why should they not get it, as they are the ones taking the risk with big gobs of money. 

  So where is APR going to get the funding to create COH2?  Just using volunteers, even great ones, will take a significant amount of time, as well as capital.  I kickstarted CoT, because I believe in their vision and their ability to create something I want to play.  Will I need to fork over even more money to both the I23 caretakers and APR?  Well, I will likely do that, but I don't see enough people doing it, and I can't fund APR by myself. 

  Before the Announcement last Monday, the plan looked pretty solid.  Now, I am not so sure.  Building an MMO from mostly scratch is expensive and time consuming.  Ask Valiance Online.  They have a good head start because of their other MMO.  They still have a long way, with I am sure plenty of expenses ahead of them.  I haven't seen anywhere I can throw money at them, but I may not have been looking hard enough.

  I miss COH, and I do want all the projects to do well, even if I do not play all of them regularly myself, sorry, I only have so much time.

  Anyone able to relieve my fears about this? Please?

-Fuegocito
Former Pinnacleite

[Rejolt]

I play so many games (when I have time) that I'll try all of these and stick with what sticks to me.

You'll solve this problem on your own. Hurry up and wait gets to us all.

[Number9]

  I have a slight concern.  During the run up to the Public announcement, we were kinda pushed into the speculation that the Neo Devs were going to purchase the IP, set up I23 servers, and use the money we give them to not only keep the servers going, but primarily to fund the development of COH2.

  Now, if everything goes to plan, we will have a third party setting up the servers, if it is indeed not NCSoft themselves, which it could be as they "spin off" a subsidiary, and APR in charge of the development of COH2.

  Unless APR is going to become the studio that sets up I23, at the same time as developing COH2, then all the money being given to I23 will not be going to help APR.  I mean why should it, they will be separate studios, the guys purchasing I23 will want ROI, and why should they not get it, as they are the ones taking the risk with big gobs of money. 

  So where is APR going to get the funding to create COH2?  Just using volunteers, even great ones, will take a significant amount of time, as well as capital.  I kickstarted CoT, because I believe in their vision and their ability to create something I want to play.  Will I need to fork over even more money to both the I23 caretakers and APR?  Well, I will likely do that, but I don't see enough people doing it, and I can't fund APR by myself. 

  Before the Announcement last Monday, the plan looked pretty solid.  Now, I am not so sure.  Building an MMO from mostly scratch is expensive and time consuming.  Ask Valiance Online.  They have a good head start because of their other MMO.  They still have a long way, with I am sure plenty of expenses ahead of them.  I haven't seen anywhere I can throw money at them, but I may not have been looking hard enough.

  I miss COH, and I do want all the projects to do well, even if I do not play all of them regularly myself, sorry, I only have so much time.

  Anyone able to relieve my fears about this? Please?

-Fuegocito
Former Pinnacleite

The pre announcement plan you talk about was (from what I understand) no plan but mere speculation on the part of some.  As I read things, there's no one really doing CoH2.  What you have is an effort to recreate CoH brick-by-brick with APR (of course with a new engine this could eventually bring in new updates and take steps to a CoH2).  I think your assessment of the challenges of all the successor projects is correct. 

If placed on a betting pool in Vegas the odds for any of these projects reaching fruition would be tough - that I think is just a reality of any MMO in development.  Look at Curt Schilling and project Copernicus/Kingdoms of Amalur.  Lots of money, lots of talent, and it almost got there but swing and a miss ... 'youre outta here!' 

What I do think is an advantage to having several successor projects in the works is that hopefully at least one will see the light of day. 

Personally, right now all I want is to see the i23 servers back online, that's step one in my book.

[Remaugen]

As best as I understand things (with my simplistic view) the sequence of events to come will run roughly like so:

Step 1:   Secure the IP (Nothing else happens without this step except CoT of course which is already well on it's way)

Step 2:   Get I23 image server up and running to get folks back into the game right away, it probably will not see any upgrades. 

Step 3:   Work CoH 1.5 (APR) and get it running as soon as possible (I23 ported to Unreal 4), while concurrently working on new content to upgrade CoH 1.5 to CoH2. At the same time CoT will be getting ready to go with some shared/common code (From CoT used to bootstrap CoH 1.5/2) and, with or without (CoT) shared background IP.   

Step 4:   Bask in the gaming glory that is (or will become) "World of Heroes"!



We're almost there!   ;D

[bugzee]

  I have a slight concern.  During the run up to the Public announcement, we were kinda pushed into the speculation that the Neo Devs were going to purchase the IP, set up I23 servers, and use the money we give them to not only keep the servers going, but primarily to fund the development of COH2.

  Now, if everything goes to plan, we will have a third party setting up the servers, if it is indeed not NCSoft themselves, which it could be as they "spin off" a subsidiary, and APR in charge of the development of COH2.

  Unless APR is going to become the studio that sets up I23, at the same time as developing COH2, then all the money being given to I23 will not be going to help APR.  I mean why should it, they will be separate studios, the guys purchasing I23 will want ROI, and why should they not get it, as they are the ones taking the risk with big gobs of money. 

  So where is APR going to get the funding to create COH2?  Just using volunteers, even great ones, will take a significant amount of time, as well as capital.  I kickstarted CoT, because I believe in their vision and their ability to create something I want to play.  Will I need to fork over even more money to both the I23 caretakers and APR?  Well, I will likely do that, but I don't see enough people doing it, and I can't fund APR by myself. 

  Before the Announcement last Monday, the plan looked pretty solid.  Now, I am not so sure.  Building an MMO from mostly scratch is expensive and time consuming.  Ask Valiance Online.  They have a good head start because of their other MMO.  They still have a long way, with I am sure plenty of expenses ahead of them.  I haven't seen anywhere I can throw money at them, but I may not have been looking hard enough.

  I miss COH, and I do want all the projects to do well, even if I do not play all of them regularly myself, sorry, I only have so much time.

  Anyone able to relieve my fears about this? Please?

-Fuegocito
Former Pinnacleite

Exactly my thoughts that the APR people should be the ones to run the i23 servers and use that revenue to fund development on 1.5.

[amrobinson]

Hmm...

Hot from Positron's twitter feed.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/FloatingFatMan/Capture_zps9e7171b6.png

AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!

So, what exactly has Positron been working on, all this time?

The Masked Hero rides again!

brought to you by
https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.idx360.com%2Fwarlockinc%2Flordminion.png

[Arcana]

It'd be nice to have a central info location that is free of conjecture, speculation, and fan theories about NCSoft's fiendish plot to come to our houses and personally kick all of our dogs.

But then how would you be able to recognize it as being about City of Heroes?

[Number9]

Exactly my thoughts that the APR people should be the ones to run the i23 servers and use that revenue to fund development on 1.5.

I think the plan is for the holding company who will control the IP to also be in charge of the running of i23 servers.  Giving control of i23 to any one of the successors would likely be a mistake, and anyway that could end up being a huge burden/distraction for APR which is already done with limited resources.

[Felderburg]

Thanks for posting that imgur thing, someone: it had the article I mentioned earlier linked in the comments: http://www.cracked.com/article_18858_the-biggest-star-wars-plot-hole-explained-by-science.html

[FloatingFatMan]

Thanks for posting that imgur thing, someone: it had the article I mentioned earlier linked in the comments: http://www.cracked.com/article_18858_the-biggest-star-wars-plot-hole-explained-by-science.html

The real reason for the Stormtroopers missing is quite simple.

It's a movie.  It would have been much shorter and less interesting if the good guys died the first time the baddies saw them, wouldn't it? :p

[Remaugen]

The real reason for the Stormtroopers missing is quite simple.

It's a movie.  It would have been much shorter and less interesting if the good guys died the first time the baddies saw them, wouldn't it? :p

Exactly!


We're almost there!   ;D

[Arcana]

The real reason for the Stormtroopers missing is quite simple.

It's a movie.  It would have been much shorter and less interesting if the good guys died the first time the baddies saw them, wouldn't it? :p

Technically, if it wasn't a movie the reason they would have missed would be because nothing would have come out of their plastic toy guns.

[Mistress Urd]

The real reason for the Stormtroopers missing is quite simple.

It's a movie.  It would have been much shorter and less interesting if the good guys died the first time the baddies saw them, wouldn't it? :p

How about they didn't want to hit them because some guy in black armor who breathes loudly came up with an idea of placing a tracking device in the ship so it would lead the empire to the secret rebel base?

[Taceus Jiwede]

The real reason for the Stormtroopers missing is quite simple.

It's a movie.  It would have been much shorter and less interesting if the good guys died the first time the baddies saw them, wouldn't it? :p

It's not that they were missing.  Its that everyone else has protagonist powers, which causes them never to be hit.  Like a force field, that also makes people dumber and more useless if they are not the protagonist.

[CrimsonCapacitor]

It's not that they were missing.  Its that everyone else has protagonist powers, which causes them never to be hit.  Like a force field, that also makes people dumber and more useless if they are not the protagonist.

So you're saying it's a subtle use of the force, possibly unconsciously used by the heroes, that deflects the shots?

[AnElfCalledMack]

So you're saying it's a subtle use of the force, possibly unconsciously used by the heroes, that deflects the shots?

Well, Leia is definitely Force-sensitive. And it wouldn't be too out-of-universe for the Force to play up the instinctive aversion to hurting other people - make it harder to look you in the eye and pull the trigger, but they still *take* the shot because you aren't using a compulsion and you're an enemy combatant. They just... don't aim as well as they could have. Pressure of the moment. Happens to everyone.

[KennonGL]

Exactly my thoughts that the APR people should be the ones to run the i23 servers and use that revenue to fund development on 1.5.

Well, while I certainly think such a thing would be a great revenue generator for APR; I highly doubt that the APR PERSON (ie Irish_Girl)
is both willing and able to undertake such a task

[even if it was a remote possibility, which it's not.  APR is a private effort that may (or may not) receive an official license 'blessing'
if things go perfectly.  It is not, however, actually associated with any of the I23/IP revival efforts currently underway].

[BadWolf]

If placed on a betting pool in Vegas the odds for any of these projects reaching fruition would be tough - that I think is just a reality of any MMO in development.  Look at Curt Schilling and project Copernicus/Kingdoms of Amalur.  Lots of money, lots of talent, and it almost got there but swing and a miss ... 'youre outta here!' 

Well, it wasn't like that was simple misfortune; Schilling believed that simply throwing money at talent and throwing talent at project would automatically equal success. His business plan was laughably unrealistic, and he assumed that simply playing video games made him an expert in the video game industry. (There's an amazing article on the whole thing here. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2012/07/38-studios-end-game/ )

There is an element of luck in any success or failure in the entertainment industry. But that doesn't mean it's a lottery. :)

[thunderforce]

Well, it wasn't like that was simple misfortune; Schilling believed that simply throwing money at talent and throwing talent at project would automatically equal success.

I don't think it's just that, but:

To industry observers, Schilling's quest seemed overwhelmingly difficult. To Schilling, it was just another opportunity to prove the naysayers wrong. "I had to beat the Yankees three times in nine days," he tells me, referring to when he led Arizona to the 2001 World Series title. "I never doubted I was going to do it. My whole life was spent doing things that people didn't believe were possible, because God blessed me with the ability to throw a baseball. And I carried that same mentality into everything I did here."

As the saying has it, there are two kinds of rich people; clever ones who knew they were lucky, and lucky ones who think they're clever. There are innumerable baseball players who never doubted they could win against heavy odds until they lost; Schilling (although doubtless talented) happens to be the lucky one. If a million people play Russian Roulette until one of them is alive, that doesn't mean the survivor is very good at Russian Roulette; it just means _someone_ had to be the last person standing. Schilling is that survivor who thinks they're an amazing Russian Roulette player.

So, what's the natural consequence when Schilling tries another heavy-odds shot at victory? Defeat.

[Harpospoke]

As best as I understand things (with my simplistic view) the sequence of events to come will run roughly like so:

Step 1:   Secure the IP (Nothing else happens without this step except CoT of course which is already well on it's way)

Step 2:   Get I23 image server up and running to get folks back into the game right away, it probably will not see any upgrades. 

Step 3:   Work CoH 1.5 (APR) and get it running as soon as possible (I23 ported to Unreal 4), while concurrently working on new content to upgrade CoH 1.5 to CoH2. At the same time CoT will be getting ready to go with some shared/common code (From CoT used to bootstrap CoH 1.5/2) and, with or without (CoT) shared background IP.   

Step 4:   Bask in the gaming glory that is (or will become) "World of Heroes"!



We're almost there!   ;D

I like it.