New efforts!

[saipaman]

I hope we can come full circle and have the servers turned back on at one minute after midnight on 1 Dec 2014.

[Harpospoke]

Please do NOT raise the level cap, part of CoHs charm was it's not ludicrously high level cap like 200-thousand-billion whatever, it gave you a number that seemed realistic and a number to strive for. 60 may not seem like much more, but it's just too much.

I'll add to the chorus against the idea of raising the level cap.   As one of the people who played lvl 50 characters almost exclusively, I would get tired head at the thought of my completed characters suddenly becoming incomplete.

And that's if we got our old characters back!   If we had to start over from scratch it would be even more daunting to think that 10 more levels had been added.

[Harpospoke]

I think I missed what the whole Sentinels+ thing is...or how it equates to "things" being saved. 

I saved many of my favorite toons.

Here is an example of what it looks like:

<id>Controller_Control.Fire_Control.Fire_Imps</id>
  <level>32</level>
- <slots count="5">
  <slot level="50" boost="0">Boosts.Crafted_Soulbound_Allegiance_B.Crafted_Soulbound_Allegiance_B</slot>
  <slot level="50" boost="0">Boosts.Crafted_Soulbound_Allegiance_C.Crafted_Soulbound_Allegiance_C</slot>
  <slot level="50" boost="0">Boosts.Crafted_Soulbound_Allegiance_D.Crafted_Soulbound_Allegiance_D</slot>
  <slot level="50" boost="0">Boosts.Crafted_Blood_Mandate_A.Crafted_Blood_Mandate_A</slot>
  <slot level="50" boost="0">Boosts.Crafted_Blood_Mandate_F.Crafted_Blood_Mandate_F</slot>

[LaughingAlex]

By all accounts the current buyers that are looking to make an offer are already intensely interested and the price NCsoft has put out there is considered to be perfectly doable. So there's no need to make a noise to attract buyers since they're already there and looking to buy, and NCsoft isn't going to become more interested in selling just because there are still vocal fans out there. For NCsoft the two main criteria are whether the buyers are willing to pay NCsoft's asking price and whether they'll handle the IP going forward in a way that reflects well on NCsoft. Neither of which is likely to be helped by raising a ruckus.

When (if) the deal happens is the time to mobilize and start doing everything you can publicize the game. On the plus side making some noise right now probably won't hurt things, it just won't help either. Save up your energy and start working on your slogans and tactics now so that if this works out we'll be ready to go.


As a side thought while i'd love it if the servers would be spun up ASAP after a deal is made it seems to me that setting up a new account system and getting everything working will take months even using the version of the game that was live at shutdown. So even if the deal happened in May i wouldn't expect the game to be playable until some time in the fall at the earliest. (And i dare them to prove me wrong.  ;D )

On a positive note on that last section, they may improve security to, which i'd like to see.  I wasn't always happy not being able to include special characters.  Consequently I relied on email security to keep my account safe.

[LaughingAlex]

Raising the level cap wouldn't work in CoX due to the incarnate system, which only partially raised the cap, but only for situations where your fighting other incarnate-powered enemies.

[Harpospoke]

Re the "new look" topic.   I'm trying to decide if that would bother me.   I know Unreal 4 looks awesome....if it played exactly like CoH played I would think it would be fine with me.   Just make sure all the interface stuff, zones, and numbers were the same.   If it was still the same game that allowed me to choose to solo or team....to push myself against tough foes or mow down easy ones...I'm probably in.

[LaughingAlex]

Re the "new look" topic.   I'm trying to decide if that would bother me.   I know Unreal 4 looks awesome....if it played exactly like CoH played I would think it would be fine with me.   Just make sure all the interface stuff, zones, and numbers were the same.   If it was still the same game that allowed me to choose to solo or team....to push myself against tough foes or mow down easy ones...I'm probably in.

Thats my mindset to, as long as the game still favored the buff/debuff/crowd control support model it always had rather than switching to a typical holy trinity i'd be fine.  At times I ponder if MMORPG should be MMOHTG, HTG standing for Holy Trinity Grindfest, because so many mmorpgs do that and wonder why they cannot become successful, which is unfortunate.  But City of heroes was unique in that way, you weren't required to have healers in any team situation but had alternatives, and overall that no one archtype was required to make an effective team.  Thats what I really loved about the game, more than it's super hero theme even(the super hero theme allowed a wide range of roleplaying themes though, loved that).

It was also what allowed it to retain it's identity as a super hero game to me, rather than a fantasy mmo in disguise.

[batgirl]

I can't remember my initial log on to the site, so I had to create a new one, which almost makes me feel less legit. :(

Regardless ... this is my message and although my words or sentiment may not be perfect it is my hope that this message not get buried and the spirit and the voice in which i speak with meets the overall temperament of the community as a whole.

Iron Wolf, you are a true hero and it would be great if there was a remembrance of you and your dedication when the Phoenix rises. 

It's odd that a community of MMO heroes will be the first community to ever get a game back after it has been sunset. 

CoH will be reborn and I relish the thought of seeing a sunrise again in the New Atlas.

Thank you for not giving up Iron Wolf and thanks to the others who will be investing time and/or money into bringing this back to life.  Like others have said it will take time, there will be moments where we'll feel all is lost again, but that will not going to happen. 

We did not give up on the characters that gave us so much strength and in some respects we became friends with.  We will rescue them as we've done repeatedly for the binary citizens of Pargon City.

I am honored to virtually stand along side each of you real life heroes who believe that justice will always triumph.  In this case, our community will exact a type of social justice backed by a revenue stream and that will prevail as the victor.

While there are some who are sidekicks, there are many more CoH who are true heroes.  Our community's tireless efforts to never give up is wearing down even the suits who thought 'it's just a game'. 

We are heroes and we will return ... home.

--theOracle (a/k/a shopgirl)

[Ammon]

I've just spent the last hour reading the first 21 pages of this thread.  I'm assuming I'll need at least the same again to get to the end, and I have some work to do. However, so far, this is all excellent, and I wanted to let people know I was getting up to speed and catching up.

[Triage IV]

I've just spent the last hour reading the first 21 pages of this thread.  I'm assuming I'll need at least the same again to get to the end, and I have some work to do. However, so far, this is all excellent, and I wanted to let people know I was getting up to speed and catching up.

As you get nearer the end, it gets more exciting...awesome stuff.

[Kozzma]

Thank you!
Lots more reading to do! but it looks like you are making ground.
PS: In all I think I miss the community more than anything else. I have not found anything like it anywhere else.

Hope to see you on the Streets soon!

[chuckv3]

At times I ponder if MMORPG should be MMOHTG, HTG standing for Holy Trinity Grindfest.

MMOHTG. Lol.

I gotta say, though, the graphics in-game are going to be dated if it comes back as-is. Personally I wouldn't care, because I never played the game because of how it looked. Being a seasoned computer guy, I'd be more than willing to help with the effort to take the existing game mechanics and swap out the graphics layers for something like Unreal. Like others have said, if anything changes other than the rendering, it would be a different game. In fact, you should be able to re-write only the client pieces, and have people using the old client playing alongside people using the new client. THAT I would volunteer to help with. Writing a new and different game, I would not (which is why I bailed out of the City of Titans efforts very early, as most folks wanted fundamental changes to be part of that effort).

[Codewalker]

Re the "new look" topic.   I'm trying to decide if that would bother me.   I know Unreal 4 looks awesome....if it played exactly like CoH played I would think it would be fine with me.

Regarding a "new look", if someone buys it, they could just as easily decide to take the art style in an entirely different direction. Might be easier than recreating the entire game in something like Unreal, which, make no mistake, would be effectively the same as rewriting it.

https://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/ft5512/atlas/lolco_thumb_zps64593d5a.jpg

[ShadowMokadara]

If we have people who can do things like reverse engineer the game enough to go into an offline Atlas Park or access the character creator, I feel like we could have people who could potentially work with City of Heroes' code as is if the game were purchased. That and the dude who's doing SEGS.

City of Titans I feel like will launch either way (especially since a lot of money went into it), but I wonder if the other two successors would come together to offer to work on CoH if it were to come back.

[Brou]

Regarding a "new look", if someone buys it, they could just as easily decide to take the art style in an entirely different direction. Might be easier than recreating the entire game in something like Unreal, which, make no mistake, would be effectively the same as rewriting it.

https://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/ft5512/atlas/lolco_thumb_zps64593d5a.jpg

You forgot to give the player more fingers and facial articulation.

[mrultimate]

You forgot to give the player more fingers and facial articulation.

Who needs 'em????  :P

[Codewalker]

You forgot to give the player more fingers and facial articulation.

Photoshop filters can only do so much. :P

But to truly be accurate I'd also have to add back-breaking idle poses, especially for female models.

[chuckv3]

Might be easier than recreating the entire game in something like Unreal, which, make no mistake, would be effectively the same as rewriting it.

Re-writing the client piece alone could be done without affecting the server pieces (which are where the important game mechanics live). Especially if the source code for the existing client (at least) is available. Yes, you'd be completely re-writing the client, but you'd have an existing client as a reference, which always makes it easier. Even where their source code is obtuse and confusing, you can use a debugger and similar tools to see what it's doing.

[BenshowSly]

If we have people who can do things like reverse engineer the game enough to go into an offline Atlas Park or access the character creator, I feel like we could have people who could potentially work with City of Heroes' code as is if the game were purchased. That and the dude who's doing SEGS.

City of Titans I feel like will launch either way (especially since a lot of money went into it), but I wonder if the other two successors would come together to offer to work on CoH if it were to come back.

This message seemed to be directed to a certain someone that we could call "Code W." ... Wait, it's too obvious! Let's call him "C. Walker"  ;D

[ShadowMokadara]

This message seemed to be directed to a certain someone that we could call "Code W." ... Wait, it's too obvious! Let's call him "C. Walker"  ;D

Yeah it came out a lot more direct than anticipated. The SEGS guy has some knowledge in servers, too. Oddly, he's not getting any hassle from NCsoft from it. Surprises me there aren't more servers. It may be the costs of running one.