New efforts!

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

Let's round this back to the efforts or the future of the game at the very least. If ya'll wanna keep talking about archetypes, what you did with them, etc., there is a whole subforum for that. :)

Sorry about that. It was one of those "How 'bout those Mets?" moments when i had the impulse to suddenly change the subject when things got acrimonious and warnings were given. In my defense it worked, more or less.

While i'm hoping it would be sooner i don't expect any definite news about the current efforts until some time past the middle of June or July at the earliest. Bad news would probably arrive much sooner, so in a way i'm almost hoping there's nothing new to report for another month. i am really interested in finding out who the group/team in question is since the hints about the participants that have come out so far are intriguing, to say the least.

[HEATSTROKE]

Honesty I am not expecting any real news until the end of the year..

[PSI-on]

Honesty I am not expecting any real news until the end of the year..

; _ ;

[Solitaire]

Now this really brings back memories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qcjoOdVHR8

Thanks  ;) That again brings back good memories, *but it's just music...?* No it's everything to those who loaded the game for the first time!

Honesty I am not expecting any real news until the end of the year..

I really hope not.

[Tyger42]

How about some old school dumpster diving with freaks no aoe limits etc etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIYEG53P__w

Good illustration for why it was nerfed. :p

[MWRuger]

Honesty I am not expecting any real news until the end of the year..

I don't think it will be quite that long before we hear something. Again, it will depend on how far apart the principle parties are.

I think a more reasonable date to hear something would be the end of August. It could just be that this appeals to my sense of symmetry, but with nearly three months to go, something can and probably will be announced. Of course, it might not be a firm opening date and I hope it is not "it all fell through", but a general statement of intent is certainly feasible by then.

[MWRuger]

Something I have been thinking about a lot is server merger, name retention and player retention. (Everything in this post is conditional on the game reopening and account data being restored)

At first it seemed to me that the best way to deal with low pop servers would be to simply merge them. BUT, I quickly realized this might not be a good idea, at least not at first.

If the idea is to get back as many of the old player base as possible, how can this be done if we just merge the low pop servers? All those character names that were specific to a specific server will be lost. Sure, we can hand out transfer tokens and rename tokens, but remember what happened when the European servers were merged with the US servers and the conflict between global arose? It upset a lot of people.
Merging servers will be at least as bad as players with names on say, Liberty lose them when transferred to Champion.

Also, I have seen many discuss freeing up old names that have been held on non-playing accounts. I like the idea of freeing up names. I guess the question is how far back do you go?  It can be difficult to judge, but Going Rouge might be a decent cut-off point.

Or maybe a grace period? No matter how long ago you played if you go to www.CoHMysteryBuyers.com and enter your old global or even you old email it will preserve you old account data for 6 months after the launch.

I think our new CoH overlords will need to come up with a least horrible way to do this. One thing is certain, no matter what the solution is, someone will hate it and someone will likely get the short end of the stick.

[Felderburg]

Personally, I'm betting on everyone starting from scratch. So it's a moot point. And if that is what happens, I would hope that they implement a global handle, like STO (or CO) has. When I started STO, I was overjoyed at that particular naming system. It allows characters to have their own name, but still allows everyone to know who the player behind a character is.

If character data is saved, then I would assume they'll see who's still around - anyone who signs up again in the first X months gets to keep their name in the event things are merged, people who arrive late don't. In the event that there are conflicts (I assume it would come from the servers being merged right off the bat, since population is likely to be even less than at close) then they would first see if one of the players was willing to change. If neither are, I don't know of a fair way to do it.

Coin flips for each name would be lame, but reasonably fair. Or they could also assign each server a number, and randomly pull half the numbers from a hat. Those servers get to keep their names in the event of a conflict (thereby screwing over entire servers). Or maybe they do some algorithms, find servers with the least amount of name conflict, and merge them, using the coin flip method for the few conflicts.

[MWRuger]

Personally, I'm betting on everyone starting from scratch. So it's a moot point. And if that is what happens, I would hope that they implement a global handle, like STO (or CO) has. When I started STO, I was overjoyed at that particular naming system. It allows characters to have their own name, but still allows everyone to know who the player behind a character is.

Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with a wipe and restart. But I did an informal poll amongst all my RL friends who played and several indicated that if they lost all the time they had put in, they would not come back. Mainly, it was a "good money after bad" argument.

So I hope that they manage to find some way to restore old accounts.

Maybe that's the way to handle it. No accounts restored except by request, in order of the request. That way you don't have to worry whether old emails work or whether payment info is still valid. You update when you submit the request.

Say set up six new servers, take requests for restoral. First come first serve. In case of duplicated names they get a server transfer token and/or a rename token.

The naming system in CO is the same as STO.

[Remaugen]

While I would not object (At least not too much or for too long) to starting over, I think we would almost certainly loose a large player base if that happened as so many players would feel robbed without the 50s they worked so hard on. So I would hope that for myself, and for the game as a whole, that the player data is saved and restored so that we have a good player population jump start.


Are we there yet?  ;D

[Thezanman]

It's enough for me if we get the game back. I think we should just be grateful for that, and happily start over. But if so many people would leave because of this, maybe it's necessary.

[Mistress Urd]

Personally, I'm betting on everyone starting from scratch. So it's a moot point. And if that is what happens, I would hope that they implement a global handle, like STO (or CO) has. When I started STO, I was overjoyed at that particular naming system. It allows characters to have their own name, but still allows everyone to know who the player behind a character is.

If character data is saved, then I would assume they'll see who's still around - anyone who signs up again in the first X months gets to keep their name in the event things are merged, people who arrive late don't. In the event that there are conflicts (I assume it would come from the servers being merged right off the bat, since population is likely to be even less than at close) then they would first see if one of the players was willing to change. If neither are, I don't know of a fair way to do it.

Coin flips for each name would be lame, but reasonably fair. Or they could also assign each server a number, and randomly pull half the numbers from a hat. Those servers get to keep their names in the event of a conflict (thereby screwing over entire servers). Or maybe they do some algorithms, find servers with the least amount of name conflict, and merge them, using the coin flip method for the few conflicts.

This is probably what would end up happening if NCSOFT isn't involved in some way. Well, we will cross that bridge when it happens.

[Reaper]

It's enough for me if we get the game back. I think we should just be grateful for that, and happily start over. But if so many people would leave because of this, maybe it's necessary.

I feel the same way; would just be happy to have the game back, regardless of account status.  However, I also think we will have to wait for more details before we can determine what needs to be done for preservation.  I personally would like to know what hardware they intend to run it on and how close to the original setup is it going to be.

As far as people threatening to not play because their characters have been wiped, well, we'll see about that.  Personally I think most of that is speculative talk and that many of them would end up returning anyway.  Only time will tell though.

Don't get me wrong, I would prefer to pick up where we left off, but it would not be a deal breaker.  It was harder to find names that weren't already used, but I'm sure we can all come up with variations of our originals if needed.

[steveharp]

I would actually prefer a complete new start for everyone so I can experience the game for the first time........again. I would relish the chance to play my ill/storm troller from scratch going through all the missions I skipped on alts, collecting a but load of badges and trying not to forget about spelunker. It wont take long to get back what you lost bar event badges and vet rewards, unless you had 50+ alts then, well, sorry bout that    :)

[MWRuger]

Oh I would be ecstatic if the game comes back, even if we start with a  wipe. If that's what it is, sign me up.

But I'm in the camp of if there is anyway at all to recover those accounts, it should be done. Imagine this:

scenario 1:

CoH is Back! Issue 24 is going live in a few months!

Really? Awesome. I still have my login! Cap'n Awesomesauce only needs a few more pieces of incarnate salvage to finish his next power! I have hated the Hasten effect on him for years, this will be great!

Umm...You have to start over.

Oh, well maybe I'll give it a look. Jim and Darcy won't play without their mains.

Maybe We can get Steve?


scenario 2:

CoH is Back! Issue 24 is going live in a few months!

Really? Awesome. I still have my login! Cap'n Awesomesauce only needs a few more pieces of incarnate salvage to finish his next power! I have hated the Hasten effect on him for tears, this will be great!

Yeah, plus QUIVER(S)!

Cool. I'm gonna get in touch with all my old SG mates and get a team together! Team Buttery Nipples Rides AGAIN!

[LaughingAlex]

I would actually prefer a complete new start for everyone so I can experience the game for the first time........again. I would relish the chance to play my ill/storm troller from scratch going through all the missions I skipped on alts, collecting a but load of badges and trying not to forget about spelunker. It wont take long to get back what you lost bar event badges and vet rewards, unless you had 50+ alts then, well, sorry bout that    :)

For me, it'd be convenient for a lets play/walk through/tutorial video series I plan to make for city of heroes.  Mostly focusing on how to make the mechanics of the game work for ya with any character build, even *gasp* empathy *gasp*(since so many only healed with it and then wondered why some teams still wiped like crazy, blamed the teams when they really could have actually, well, used their buffs and not contribute to bad team failure themselves).

[kiario]

I would be in heaven if the game came back. Delete all other games from SSD. Fresh start or saved does not matter. I just want to get back in the CoH World.

Not until lately I have understood what great game it was. And not a day has passed without me thinking and dreaming of it.

[chuckv3]

even *gasp* empathy *gasp*

Fortitude and Clear Mind were definitely a nice part of that set. And I took energy blast as secondary, so I could actually pull for the team and sometimes lump on some damage. In fact I had f1 through f8 macros for applying Fortitude to teammates, ctrl-f1 through ctrl-f8 for Clear Mind. Make sure you explain how to play Empathy in "watch the team board" mode -- that would be a nice video. It was definitely fun running all over trying to get line-of-site for buffs and heals while also trying not to catch stray aggro. fun fun fun.

[Noyjitat]

Personally I like first come first serve on names. I don't like others running around using my character names.

[AlienOne]

Personally I like first come first serve on names. I don't like others running around using my character names.

You like it until someone has your character name already... ;)