New efforts!

[AlienOne]

Ah, that did it!

I never clicked that before....I wonder, are there keyboard shortcuts that do the same thing? If that's the case I may have accidentally done it that way.

[Triplash]

You mean Stalker'd  :P

;D

[HEATSTROKE]

 The big questions in my mind.. if the game is procured...

  1) How long until actual relaunch

  2) How well will the relaunch be publicized to attract the loyal fans and new customers

  3) What will the model be.. Hybrid or Subscription..

  4) Will I get my old characters and/or account back?

  5) Will I have all my stuff and bases?

  6) If the answers to 4 and 5 are no..
  will veteran players be allowed some type of considerations.. starting at a higher level.. access to veteran awards.. etc etc..

  7) Will we see the release of Issue 24.. aka Issue fix Everything...
 
  8) Will we have the Paragon Market?

  9) Will we see the release of powersets in the making but unfinished like Wind Control. Savage Melee, Radiation Melee and Radiation Armor..

  10) and in my mind one of the MOST important.. will there be an outreach to some of the original developers ( especially tech people ) of Paragon Studios to help move the game along..

  11) Will i be able tp upload Sentinel+ as a way to restore what I lost..

  12) How will the inevitable influx of Gold farmers be handled..

[Remaugen]

Those are all valid questions and at this point I really don't think any of them can be answered completely.

[Cailyn Alaynn]

Gold farmers will be gathered up and tied to a chair, and they'll be forced to sit in front of a cardboard cut-out of TonyV looking down at them disappointingly.

[ShadowMokadara]

Those are all valid questions and at this point I really don't think any of them can be answered completely.

^

[Aleksandros]

Re: hype-generation for a CoH relaunch, just tossing it out there mind you - perhaps a note to the writers and cast of Big Bang Theory when something is solidly scheduled.  Captain Sweatpants with a renewed spring in his step, maybe sporting a Save CoH T-shirt with "The City LIVES!" on the back in place of his Statesman T, posters in the comic shop heralding the City's return.  And we, as the inhabitants of our City, will most certainly be screaming it's return from the mountaintops of FB, Twitter, InstaGram, ad nauseam.  No advertising like free, worldwide advertising ;)

[ShadowMokadara]

Re: hype-generation for a CoH relaunch, just tossing it out there mind you - perhaps a note to the writers and cast of Big Bang Theory when something is solidly scheduled.  Captain Sweatpants with a renewed spring in his step, maybe sporting a Save CoH T-shirt with "The City LIVES!" on the back in place of his Statesman T, posters in the comic shop heralding the City's return.  And we, as the inhabitants of our City, will most certainly be screaming it's return from the mountaintops of FB, Twitter, InstaGram, ad nauseam.  No advertising like free, worldwide advertising ;)

The problem is back when CoH ads were in Big Bang, the show was just another average comedy on Television. It's now the highest rated comedy on television so advertising would be VERY expensive. The difference between then and now is Big Bang used to need money so they'd put in advertisements. Now you need money to advertise on Big Bang.

Edit: It's funny, however. The show's theme song is a song by the band "Barenaked Ladies". The lead singer of the band played a role as "Captain Dynamic" in Rooster Teeth's three part short about the AE in City of Heroes.

[Ohioknight]

Those are all valid questions and at this point I really don't think any of them can be answered completely.

Or incompletely.  Or with any meaningful point to discussing any of them.  But that won't STOP US!!! ;D

[Brigadine]

Gold farmers will be gathered up and tied to a chair, and they'll be forced to sit in front of a cardboard cut-out of TonyV looking down at them disappointingly.

Or we could just unleash deadpool on them...

[chuckv3]

Personally, farming never bothered me. If people want to make some side cash by expertly grinding, then who cares? Does it affect how I want to play? NO. Does it bother me? PARTLY, since I'm disappointed that someone wants to make money from fellow players, and (less so) because someone wants to turn what's supposed to fun into a form of work. Have I ever bought gold online from a farmer? YES. I knew how to play, and knew how to grind, but hated struggling underpowered through so much redundant content, especially the 9th time through. (Especially as a godforsaken post Ed, Gravity / Kinetic Controller -- SHUDDERS -- but let's not go there.)

So here's what I'm thinking. Making farming a violation of TOS is pointless. NCSoft tried and failed. The RMT folks would just spin up new accounts, trade until they got busted, then rinse and repeat. To shut down a black market: Make it not worth the effort. How do you do that? Legalize it and profit from it being legal.

1. Are we really worried about the undeserving rich kids spending money to leapfrog those of us honestly grinding away? I think this reveals the fallacy of the gear-grind model itself, but that's a dead-end argument. Some folks just want to play, and don't necessarily want to grind. That would include me. If we can pay some scratch to get over some tedious grind-spots, why not turn that into profits for the owners of the game? I'm all for it because it keeps the lights on. If some rich kid buys his or her way all the way to the top, I really don't care. They're going to suck in action, and I'll be laughing at them, often publicly. So, maybe sell temporary buffs in the game store, so I can solo FrostFire or Maestro when I am not in the mood to team and I just want to get past it. Think underpants gnomes. Collect underpants, Sell temporary buffs, Profit!!! In this case, THANKFULLY you don't even need the underpants phase of the plan because step 2 has been figured out and requires no underpants whatsoever. (So, gnomes are stupid. At least they tried to put together a plan.)

2. Maybe only sell Prestige in the game store instead of Influence. What's the harm, since you know the only thing it can be spent on is base improvements? Maybe let people pay to earn double or triple XP, but don't just sell INF outright. The point is, the game owners should sell these options, because if they don't, an RMT black market will do it, and piss the rest of us off. The pay-to-advance model must be carefully balanced so those who don't pay can still achieve all the same things, albeit with a little more effort. But to say that such a pay-to-advance must not exist is simply unrealistic. It will either exist via the game owners or via a black market, but it will exist either way.

3. When I get back into the game, I would be willing to pay at least $100 in real life money for the privilege of IMMEDIATELY (okay, once I hit level 10) recreating the awesome SG base that disappeared on 11/12. I know it might sound pathetic, but I am just being honest. I LOVED being the leader of a zero-pressure SG, and letting anyone join, no obligation, just so they could use the telepads or pick level 15 and 25 IOs from the rack whenever they needed them. At 40-ish, I ran all my toons in SG mode anyway, and so did a couple of other dedicated members, so we had more than enough Prestige for anything we needed. I want to get back to that spot as soon as I can after the game returns.

4. Anyone who can somehow prove they are a former CoX veteran, or is at least seriously committed to the continuation of the game, should be allowed to enter into some kind of agreement where both sides benefit. For instance, the premium accounts at NCSoft were $15/mo during the free-to-play fiasco. Why not invent a THIRD tier? Make it $25/mo, and give each such account a bonus of 1M INF (or maybe even 10M) per month for just paying that extra $10. Frankly, to have the game back, if I had to start my first toon at level 1, I'D PAY THAT. Or maybe $300 up front plus $15/mo, with some possibility of rebate if the game disappears in less than 5 years.

5. As long as it doesn't follow the constant in-game-gear info-mercials that ruined Champions Online for me. I think a premium account with a trickle of extra INF and/or Prestige would be okay, because influence or prestige would only accelerate what you could otherwise earn in-game (by grinding more). What I would prefer to never see again is "exclusive" paid-for stuff that involves any kind of actual in-game advantage. Visual stuff I am fine with (pets, power slides, costume bits, etc). Even the VIP Pass stuff was okay, and the "teleport to base every 30 minutes" type of things.

Sorry for the long-winded idea-fest. Get the game back and I promise I'll be a lifetime / premium player.

[Remaugen]

On the topic of farming, the farmers and influence pedlers never bothered me. I never understood why the game had so many different currencies anyway, needlessly complicated from my point of view.

[LaughingAlex]

Honestly, I found in the end, they tended to fade in the later days of the game, with the paragon market showing up, and also the fact that they couldn't advertise easily enough anymore.  You'd see the occasional one spamming in an auction house in atlas park, and even then it wasn't common anymore.  I think it boiled down to AE hyper inflation of influence, as influence/infamy/information got severely devalued, so they couldn't do that anymore.  Power leveling was also not profitable, as many did it for free anyways.  If anything, this was a rare case of the communities standards causing something to disappear, combined with balance and the market factoring in.

The funniest thing, was those of us who knew how to get purple recipes to drop, were able to make so much influence we could adjust and choose our costumes without any impact at all on our characters, to, and buy what we wanted without those kinds of services.  Thing was though, that black market of real money to gold farmers couldn't keep a hold of the game because of the above reasons.  Their competition was not only legit but free, so they couldn't really take advantage of CoX like they could other games.

This wasn't always that way, granted, 2 years before the shutdown you'd see emails spammed in your in-game email, but later, they couldn't as they had to level to 10 and then got kicked all the time, as we also had good gms.  The farmers couldn't do well for the right reasons, in this case.

[AlienOne]

I think we're way off topic here, but I think it's important to differentiate between "farmers" and spammers who sold influence. One was doing something against the EULA...the other was just repeating his/her favorite content over and over again--maybe to power level himself/a friend...maybe to trade for an enhancement he/she needed.

The word "farmer" is a generic term that shouldn't be automatically associated with people who are involved in illegal activity.

I myself enjoyed farming a bit with my Warshade from time to time, but at no point did I ever spam anyone or offer to sell my influence for money.

[Felderburg]

Farming is one thing, spamming chat and selling in-game currency is another entirely. And it does affect how others play. EVE has a good dev blog explaining how it affects lag and the in-game markets: http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/unholy-rage/

They are a heinous nuisance and a serious drawback on our systems and resources. Credit card fraud and account hacking is their game - the recent hacking troubles have been the work of the ISK sellers.

[ike]

i have a question for ironwolf.

Are the buyers willing to buy for your estimates prices? i read somewhere someone said 8-10 million, so I just want to know if they're set money-wise.

[Aggelakis]

The problem is back when CoH ads were in Big Bang, the show was just another average comedy on Television. It's now the highest rated comedy on television so advertising would be VERY expensive. The difference between then and now is Big Bang used to need money so they'd put in advertisements. Now you need money to advertise on Big Bang.

Edit: It's funny, however. The show's theme song is a song by the band "Barenaked Ladies". The lead singer of the band played a role as "Captain Dynamic" in Rooster Teeth's three part short about the AE in City of Heroes.

CoH *never* paid for advertising on Big Bang Theory. There was a person on set who was a fan.

[ShadowMokadara]

CoH *never* paid for advertising on Big Bang Theory. There was a person on set who was a fan.

Really? That's awesome, then.

[DJDee]

;D

Poor Trip xD

I never post on forums. I'm terrible at keeping up with them most of the time. But my minion Trip here pointed out this thread during my show and I just spent about 3 hours reading all of the posts. I felt the need to post here.

It's part of my "job" at NSR to watch all the projects and talk about the newest shiny stuff going on. I have a lot of friends on the dev teams of a few of the games. (Also Hellwreckage, guy is a riot xD) But I look and I look and I sit here and I hope beyond hope that I can just have a city to hang out with this community again.

To me the community made the game. That's why when the CoT KS started up me and a few like minded people got together and made a station to help spark that community up a bit. Bring peeps together. What I'm trying to say is that no matter what comes of the old CoH (God I hope it comes back in one form or another) I will be happy. If it comes around on UE4 with super shiny bells and whistles? then I will be right there. If it fades away again? I will cry and keep doing what I'm doing.

Oddly enough the sunsetting of Coh opened the doors and minds of a lot of players. New worlds are being made. CoT, VO, HaV, and who knows what else. The event may have sparked a surge of Super hero MMOs which I think is awesome. I plan on hopping from place to place to hang out with you guys. The community makes the game. Even if the game stinks. We make the game. If CoH is different in the hands of these new people, I'll live. Not the end of the world. (I hope o-o)

I read that the people looking to buy were players themselves. Hopefully they see things the way a player does. Know that we as a community are a resource. A well of new ideas. Something that can be used for their benefit. I know for a fact most of us wouldn't mind tossing around the idea ball for them (As long as it's kept civil) But I digress, that is the future.

I'm rambling and super duper tired. Probably won't see sleep tonight.  ._.;

Forgive me >.<

~Love
  Dee!

[Solitaire]

I think we're way off topic here, but I think it's important to differentiate between "farmers" and spammers who sold influence. One was doing something against the EULA...the other was just repeating his/her favorite content over and over again--maybe to power level himself/a friend...maybe to trade for an enhancement he/she needed.

The word "farmer" is a generic term that shouldn't be automatically associated with people who are involved in illegal activity.

I myself enjoyed farming a bit with my Warshade from time to time, but at no point did I ever spam anyone or offer to sell my influence for money.

Have to agree that we have gone slightly off topic, but agree with AlienOne, there is a difference between farmers & spammers, would we have said farming a specific type of mob for a kill badge farming? I would off, but would we call it spamming and trying to make money from it? Not to me...

Would doing a map mission full of Freakshow solo, over and over again be classed as farming? Yes! But who would it affect, no one that I can see as your either working hard yourself for the inf or the IO drops. So farming never concerned me as I did it myself, if I had a message or email from a spammer all I did was delete and move on with what i was doing, if others want to take advantage of the spammers it's there choice, but they will be missing out on alot of content, new information they could pass on to others i.e. best place to farm for badges, the hope of getting that purple drop (big smile when one does drop  :D ) but this is just my opinion.

My main concern at present is getting the game back as missing it so much these days, checking every day for any new updates from Ironwolf, got to be honest little bit sad when a day goes by without any new information... Nothing against you Ironwolf  ;) Doing a good job, was wondering though if your able to say when the meeting is taking place?