New efforts!

[Sugoi]

I generally used MIDS as a guidance tool... I'd take a look at the powerset possibilities, and make a logical progression routine for a character.  Then fine tune the slots to get an idea of what the power effects would be like.

I usually made multiple saves of the character at different stages of development... TOs, DOs, SOs, with appropriate IOs as they became available, although I usually saved the majority of my IO enhancements for the later 40-50 levels when they'd have the most effect.

After checking the CIT site and tallying things up - My Alts levels at the end of the game were:

50s - 22
40s -  6
30s - 30
20s - 60
10s - 83
00s - 246

[mrultimate]

At this point nothing has changed and due to the nature of the deal - it will take a while to finish. NCSoft does not at this point - appear to have the original source code. Other data like that for users is a maybe. What it appears they have - at this point - is a disk image of the final issue 24. NCSoft also does not appear to have any documentation or development tools - at this point.

None of these issues is a deal killer and in fact helps reduce the price as work will have to be done to be able to get the game running again.

Folks like Codewalker, Downix or Arcana may be able to explain what would be needed to reverse engineer this into a working game. I know Downix said he was thinking it might take 6-12 months to get this going - at this point.

I keep saying - at this point because it could change, NCSoft may find more or another source may have something they were sitting on. The team has said in messages that this could be an ongoing things where NCSoft finds more stuff as time passes. Obviously all of these things affect the price and conditions of sale. If suddenly NCSoft hits the jackpot and finds everything - a year from now - what happens? This is not an easy deal and just remember - this game was not shutdown with the intention of selling it later. It was in storage. I really think if we could have hindsight of what we know now a deal could have been done far earlier and not trying to find a 2 year old closed games backup data.

For your own sanity just hang in there as it is very likely the next real movement will be a yes or no - or possibly both. In a deal like this NCSoft may go the way of Cryptic/NCSoft sale and ask for a 2 year deal or some other condition. That is what both sides are working out now. It will take a while to work through each step. Just remember it is easier for NCSoft to do nothing, they are showing respect for our community for even bothering to make a deal. It has been a while since a serious offer was made on the game. I believe it was completely off the NCSoft radar.

I will monitor this thread and chip in when possible - but it is going to take a while at this stage for anything to happen. I do know if NCSoft was going to try and republish CoH - it would not be easy and they would have to spend time and money to get it going as well. In spite of people thinking - it is simple just turn it on! The servers will have been wiped and reused long ago. All that is left is backups. Try not to drive yourself crazy and enjoy the ride, something like this is not completely new but I do believe it will send ripples all over the gaming world.

Thanks for the update Ironwolf.

[Harpospoke]

No you read me completely wrong...


I was a huge min/maxer and power leveler in CoH. I never completed the new story arc in Hollows... because 1. I hate soloing and 2. No one was in Hollows and 3. I would get distracted on a new toon.


I really don't care how people play.. PL..turn xp off.. RP.. etc. What I would hope for with a clean slate is more people WILLING to do some of the low level content.


If EVERYTHING is a blank slate there won't be much PLing the first few days and even if there is SOME ... I think there will still be more people who missed the game who actually just want to play the game by running content.

So this isn't you wanting other people to play differently?

I guess I'm still reading you wrong because it still sounds like that's what you are saying.   And you are hoping I lose all my characters that I spent so much time creating.   I say "I lose" because that would be the result of your wish for me personally.

The only benefit I can see of a clean slate is the interesting human experiment which would result from it.  I would be very curious to see what happened.   My prediction is that very little would change.   Within a month most of the power-gamers would have most of their "stuff" back.  (Not me...I would be one of the people who would struggle to reacquire my former playstyle because I suck at PLing)   So the forum would be interesting reading in the first month as some express disappointment that the environment of the game did not change to something they preferred.

[downix]

With user data from nearly every country in the world................
On a game closed for 2 years.................
With users that have likely changed credit cards and email addresses.................

Yes, it isn't that easy.

Imagine if it was a shared database with other games.

Which is quite possible, as NCSoft did have that unified NC Account thing for awhile.

[hejtmane]

Imagine if it was a shared database with other games.

Which is quite possible, as NCSoft did have that unified NC Account thing for awhile.

It is very possible and there may have been tables for the different games I am not a DBA I just work with some quite a bit I know sometimes that stuff can become tangled messes if they are not careful. I seen quite a few of DBA's almost strangle a vendor through the phone on causing major headaches.

Good luck with any of that stuff if you can even get any data

[Sugoi]

Thank you for keeping us updated, Ironwolf!

So it looks like we'll all be starting over from scratch, but at Issue 24 level of game development.  That's still a very good deal in my book.  I remember crawling thru the early days of the game before many of the later game enhancements that appeared to make the game easier and more fun than before. 

I still shudder at the thought of Issue 3's Kheldian stats (-40% to defense!!!) Yeah Kheldians were truly EPIC!  Epic Target Ducks for anything with a gun that shot purple beams our way, especially the lurkers who hid in the far corners of a crowded room, and who would hit us every time we entered a fight.  Luckily, the Khelds got better after a month of sheer horror.  I managed to get my first PB to 50 within 3 Months of creation, while still playing lots of other alts whose abilities assisted the teams I were on as needed.

[Deadflame2]

So this isn't you wanting other people to play differently?

You are definitely reading way more into what he's saying than is necessary.  He's expressing his opinion on why a "clean slate" might benefit the game/players.  Nowhere does he say "I demand a clean slate".  Which is what you keep reading into it, even though it's been said numerous times, that is not what he's saying.

[Super Firebug]

I don't get it - not that I have to, but here's my nickel or so:

I'm not an endgame person. Glacial pace, tiny incremental advancement, even the incarnate stuff, though it was cool, wasn't game changing.

What I loved was the journey from 0 to 50.

If we have to restart, rather than reume, one of the reasons why I'd do it is so that I can do level-50 missions, get dropped level-50 loot, and sell it for far more inf than I can get by selling lower-level drops, whether in WW or the stores. That way, I have more inf with which to outfit my restarted toons more properly. Plus, a level-50 would be earning more prestige, with which I could rebuild my SG base more quickly. So, for me, it'd be so that I could get back to where I left off more quickly. In the same way, before the shutdown, if I made a mistake on a toon that had no respec to use, and I had to restart him, I used powerleveling or DFB to get the new version up to where I had his predecessor.

[Harpospoke]

I totally don't see how you get that reading from it, seems to me you are seeing it how you want so you can rehash the argument from 30 pages back.

Don't.

When someone wishes that I lose my characters, I'm kinda going to have a negative reaction to that.

I understand they have reasons to want me to lose my characters, but that doesn't change the impact on me.

I keep typing "I lose my characters" because that is the effect it has on me.   My wish to retain my characters does not depend upon other people losing something.   The wish for a "clean slate" has a very negative effect on me to obtain the stated goals.   That's not cool at all.

[Deadflame2]

When someone wishes that I lose my characters, I'm kinda going to have a negative reaction to that.

I understand they have reasons to want me to lose my characters, but that doesn't change the impact on me.

I keep typing "I lose my characters" because that is the effect it has on me.   My wish to retain my characters does not depend upon other people losing something.   The wish for a "clean slate" has a very negative effect on me to obtain the stated goals.   That's not cool at all.

But you have lost your characters.  Unless the character/account data returns with the game, you have.  Nothing changes that.

[AlienOne]

You are definitely reading way more into what he's saying than is necessary.  He's expressing his opinion on why a "clean slate" might benefit the game/players.  Nowhere does he say "I demand a clean slate".  Which is what you keep reading into it, even though it's been said numerous times, that is not what he's saying.

I agree... He literally said the words "I don't care how other people play," so I don't see how that is presenting any sort of "demand" that people should do exactly what he wants. He "hopes" it's a clean slate, because he feels there won't be any PL'ing going on (which I disagree with--mainly because people will be who they are no matter how they start), but he's not making any sort of "rule sheet" others have to follow.

That said, I'm sure we ALL want our characters back... There are many, many pages in this thread where people (including myself) have expressed this opinion. We have all invested a lot of time and energy and love and care into the characters we created. I don't think there's ANY doubt in anyone's mind that the overwhelming majority of people agree that if we got our stuff back, that would be the best scenario (people who want to start fresh could just delete what they want, and people who don't would have their old chars back).... But, this may not be doable for several reasons--also stated in many different ways.

If anything, I think this thread could be used as reference material for the new devs when they want to see what "general consensus" the more dedicated members of the CoH community have arrived at in terms of what they want.

[Sugoi]

Even with a 'clean slate' start, there will be people (myself included) who know enough about the ins and outs of the game to legally take advantage of the game to level their characters almost as quickly as they want.  Sorry, we haven't got to the 'Level 50 in 5 minutes' capability yet... grin.  But compared to the original release's months to get to 50, it'll be a breeze.

A clean start does not equate with an equal start in my book because of a simple modified equation:

"Knowledge equals Powers!"

Saving for a Sunny Day, so I can buy back as much of the stuff I can that I lost due to NCSoft's server wipes when the game returns.

[Harpospoke]

Getting through the Hollows was like a graduation, of sorts. I loved playing lowbies through those arcs (before the refit). No matter how many times I played through Frostfire, I never got bored of it, hehe.  ;D

For me (and for several others here who have already stated this), the fun part of the game is the end-game (the min/maxing) part. If we all start without our character data, I'll be trying my darndest to get back to where I was when the game went down. Some people like the journey, some people like the end results. Some people hate the incarnate content, some people like it. That's the beauty of CoH. It had something for everyone.

I'm not an endgame person. Glacial pace, tiny incremental advancement, even the incarnate stuff, though it was cool, wasn't game changing.

What I loved was the journey from 0 to 50.

I say '0' becausse I would spend 2-3 weeks person even creating the character in CoX designing, doing MIDs work, posting ideas on forums, etc. Then what I thought the build was as perfected as it could be, I would make the character in game and start playing him.

At the beginning, I would look for farms to join, then I realized that being in a farm meant NOT playing CoX. Sure it was a fast way to level, but the game was the *experience* of going from 1 to 50 - why was I skipping that?

So I stopped farming, and starting having FUN with the 1-50 journey. Maybe it took me three months to get to 50, playing a few hours a day, and stopping every so often to IO up and stuff. But it was the MEAT of my CoXing. Then, as soon as I hit 50, I would shelve the character and start the process all over with a new design period for a brand new mechanical concept.

So I don't want to rocket to 50 - though I *do* want to see constant steady level progress. A journey isn't fun if it slows to a crawl either.

The leveling speed of CoX I thought was just about perfect. I could gain a level every few hours or so on average.

Anyways, not looking to dawdle to 50, but not looking to race to 5 either.

Now if we can just figure out a way to understand all these different ways to enjoy CoH and not claim any of them are "the right way to play".   ;D

[FloatingFatMan]

When someone wishes that I lose my characters, I'm kinda going to have a negative reaction to that.

I understand they have reasons to want me to lose my characters, but that doesn't change the impact on me.

I keep typing "I lose my characters" because that is the effect it has on me.   My wish to retain my characters does not depend upon other people losing something.   The wish for a "clean slate" has a very negative effect on me to obtain the stated goals.   That's not cool at all.

I dunno what you're reading, but it sure as hell isn't anything posted by Burnt Toast...

[Super Firebug]

A gimp is twisted silk, worsted, or cotton with cord or wire running through it, used chiefly as upholstery trimming. Its reference here comes from being tied up so it is difficult, but not impossible, to move. Think running with your shoelaces tied.

"Gimp" is also a real-life slang term, generally regarded now as offensive, for someone who is crippled. So to gimp a character is to build it so that it's crippled (as gameplay goes) and ineffective. My namesake, one of my first CoX characters, was definitely gimped until I learned how enhancements worked, and was able to respec him. (A good illustration of why you should consider your first couple of characters in a game as disposable "test dummies" to learn the game on.)

[Super Firebug]

Not at the end you didn't. They took off level restrictions for zones.

Yep. You could take a brand-new level 1, just arrived in Atlas Park, through the Vanguard base to the RWZ, and get yourself instantly, royally dead. The guards at the doors of that Atlas Park entrance were, obviously, just decoration. OTOH, it WAS nice to have access to the base's crafting table.

[kiario]

So just for fun, on what page do you folks think we will get the info -game aquired-?  :)

According to my calculations it should be on page 554.

[FloatingFatMan]

"Gimp" is also a real-life slang term, generally regarded now as insulting, for someone who is crippled. So to gimp a character is to build it so that it's crippled (as gameplay goes) and ineffective. My namesake, one of my first CoX characters, was definitely gimped until I learned how enhancements worked, and was able to respec him. (A good illustration of why you should consider your first couple of characters in a game as disposable "test dummies" to learn the game on.)

It's also used by the BDSM community. :p

[Sugoi]

It's also used by the BDSM community. :p

The Blue Death Screen Makers?  That does not compute!   :P

[downix]

"Gimp" is also a real-life slang term, generally regarded now as insulting, for someone who is crippled. So to gimp a character is to build it so that it's crippled (as gameplay goes) and ineffective. My namesake, one of my first CoX characters, was definitely gimped until I learned how enhancements worked, and was able to respec him. (A good illustration of why you should consider your first couple of characters in a game as disposable "test dummies" to learn the game on.)

See, I was trying to use the nice version.