New efforts!

[roribeedm]

The reason it just rambles at times is to allow folks to blow off steam. I once went 3 weeks or so with no comment and it about killed everyone.

I don't bother the folks doing the buying often. They occasionally will tell me stuff out of the blue and I will ask them every 2 weeks or so. Part of what is taking so long is the securing of assets. Once it is known what we are getting it likely will be them NOT me - telling you. I will be quietly fading into the background and going full on fanboy!

When you said securing of assets, does this mean the buyers are getting the money together to make the actual purchase, or does it mean NCsoft is getting all of the software assets together to ensure they have everything the buyers want? Personally, I would assume the former, but someone on facebook thinks it's the latter so if any clarification is available it would be appreciated.

[Thirty-Seven]

Oh, Facebook, the perfect place to turn information into unfounded rumors and then back into totally different "facts" all in 3 re-posts or less! ;)

[Remaugen]

Tyrant taking up the role of Statesman was a terrible idea - truly awful.

There is plenty of scope for the return of Statesman and Sister Psyche to a resurrected and rejuvenated game .... and it would be awesome.

The removal of those 2 was a low point in the game - IMHO.

I have to disagree, I love the idea that Tyrant might find redemption by filling Statesman's shoes, it's brilliant!

My guess - not based in knowledge - just a guess, that likely the game returns and gets running and in the meantime gets ported to UnReal 4 and updated to more easily worked platform.

I am not positive of this just that it seems very likely. It would clear the spaghetti mess of 10+ years of code and get a nice graphic update that way. i honestly don't know if they plan to update the Original CoH after the purchase, if they do I am sure we will get more answers, soon.

Perfectly logical to me.

One change on store bought items I think would be good would be the ability to gift them to anyone you wish.

Absolutely, my (Then teenage) daughter played and I would have loved to be able to gift things to her.

Meanwhile, lets keep the rumors and speculation flying, they are fun! And I will keep asking. . .

Are we there yet?  ;D

[Felderburg]

When you said securing of assets, does this mean the buyers are getting the money together to make the actual purchase, or does it mean NCsoft is getting all of the software assets together to ensure they have everything the buyers want? Personally, I would assume the former, but someone on facebook thinks it's the latter so if any clarification is available it would be appreciated.

The "Once it is known what we are getting" heavily implies it's figuring out what game assets are being sold - whether that means NCsoft gathering things, or negotiating on pricing of more assets than just the game, I wouldn't know. But given that the talks are serious, I would assume that they've already gathered the money for the purchase.

[Ironwolf]

The people buying the game have the money or there would be no further talks.

Once the money question is past - now what does the money buy? That is what the talks do, they find out what does it get us. First, NCSoft will want their logo on the game and so will Cryptic - I would imagine - and that is fair. Do we get account data? What does it buy? This is what the talks do - they specify exactly what is to be purchased and then the lawyers step in and insure everyone gets what they expected to get.

At this stage we don't know what we are getting yet.

The Devs love the game as it is. If they make changes it will not be drastic, folks why do you think they are people on our boards? Why would they buy a 10 year old game? They are us. They may fix somethings or they may just try to get I24 up and running and start work on CoH2. I don't know - they may have had those talks as they daydream on what happens if they get it.

1. Get the game.
2. Everything else in its own time.

There would be no way to make drastic changes without a lot of development time. It won't open any different than what it closed apart from maybe I24 going live.

[roribeedm]

The people buying the game have the money or there would be no further talks.

Once the money question is past - now what does the money buy? That is what the talks do, they find out what does it get us. First, NCSoft will want their logo on the game and so will Cryptic - I would imagine - and that is fair. Do we get account data? What does it buy? This is what the talks do - they specify exactly what is to be purchased and then the lawyers step in and insure everyone gets what they expected to get.

At this stage we don't know what we are getting yet.

The Devs love the game as it is. If they make changes it will not be drastic, folks why do you think they are people on our boards? Why would they buy a 10 year old game? They are us. They may fix somethings or they may just try to get I24 up and running and start work on CoH2. I don't know - they may have had those talks as they daydream on what happens if they get it.

1. Get the game.
2. Everything else in its own time.

There would be no way to make drastic changes without a lot of development time. It won't open any different than what it closed apart from maybe I24 going live.

Thank you for that clarification. I assumed they had the money, but I know with some situations money has to be certified as available prior to a deal advancing so I was just wondering.

[Angel Phoenix77]

The people buying the game have the money or there would be no further talks.

Once the money question is past - now what does the money buy? That is what the talks do, they find out what does it get us. First, NCSoft will want their logo on the game and so will Cryptic - I would imagine - and that is fair. Do we get account data? What does it buy? This is what the talks do - they specify exactly what is to be purchased and then the lawyers step in and insure everyone gets what they expected to get.

At this stage we don't know what we are getting yet.

The Devs love the game as it is. If they make changes it will not be drastic, folks why do you think they are people on our boards? Why would they buy a 10 year old game? They are us. They may fix somethings or they may just try to get I24 up and running and start work on CoH2. I don't know - they may have had those talks as they daydream on what happens if they get it.

1. Get the game.
2. Everything else in its own time.

There would be no way to make drastic changes without a lot of development time. It won't open any different than what it closed apart from maybe I24 going live.

Thank  you for clearing everything up while I can't talk about everyone else, the more I read the more I get excited about the return of our game :)

[Fanta]

The people buying the game have the money or there would be no further talks.

Once the money question is past - now what does the money buy? That is what the talks do, they find out what does it get us. First, NCSoft will want their logo on the game and so will Cryptic - I would imagine - and that is fair. Do we get account data? What does it buy? This is what the talks do - they specify exactly what is to be purchased and then the lawyers step in and insure everyone gets what they expected to get.

At this stage we don't know what we are getting yet.

The Devs love the game as it is. If they make changes it will not be drastic, folks why do you think they are people on our boards? Why would they buy a 10 year old game? They are us. They may fix somethings or they may just try to get I24 up and running and start work on CoH2. I don't know - they may have had those talks as they daydream on what happens if they get it.

1. Get the game.
2. Everything else in its own time.

There would be no way to make drastic changes without a lot of development time. It won't open any different than what it closed apart from maybe I24 going live.

Okies, it was my bad confusing assets with money. Everything else makes perfect sense.

[Thirty-Seven]

The Devs love the game as it is. If they make changes it will not be drastic, folks why do you think they are people on our boards? Why would they buy a 10 year old game? They are us. They may fix somethings or they may just try to get I24 up and running and start work on CoH2. I don't know - they may have had those talks as they daydream on what happens if they get it.

1. Get the game.
2. Everything else in its own time.

There would be no way to make drastic changes without a lot of development time. It won't open any different than what it closed apart from maybe I24 going live.

To be clear, my point about potential future changes was more of a worst case scenario and not any kind of portent of impending doom.  And I personally dont think it is a likely scenario, but got to thinking about it like a bad dream. And couldn't shake it, so I posted essentially looking for people to state how unlikely that was.

Still, the fact remains that we as a community have little to no control over what happens to CoH when and if it is resurrected.

[Fanta]

To be clear, my point about potential future changes was more of a worst case scenario and not any kind of portent of impending doom.  And I personally dont think it is a likely scenario, but got to thinking about it like a bad dream. And couldn't shake it, so I posted essentially looking for people to state how unlikely that was.

Still, the fact remains that we as a community have little to no control over what happens to CoH when and if it is resurrected.

No more, or less, than we had before. On the other hand, the people buying the game are much more like us than NCsoft

[Thirty-Seven]

No more, or less, than we had before. On the other hand, the people buying the game are much more like us than NCsoft

True, I suppose.  However, NCSoft didn't have a lot of say in the day to day operations or content of the game, as I understand it, Paragon Studios was pretty much given carte blanche to do as they pleased with the property since they understood it so well.  Of course, that extends only up to the point where NC decided to pull the plug.

[Ironwolf]

The people buying the game are us. That is what I want you to keep in mind, they love the game or they would not be making the effort.

They are members of our Community. They know the price of failure and how many peoples hopes are riding on them. They want to do it right. If you read through all my crazy posts - you will see that at first I was working a completely different idea. I was trying to understand why the first effort failed and was using logic to say:

If they won't sell the game - why are we bothering Disney or Google?

I did some searching and found some former Executives of NCSoft and they were very cool people. They talked to me and encouraged me. I kept digging - I posted what I found and those now trying to get the game - asked me about what I found out. I laid everything out with all the warts and good stuff too.

Then they got excited.

Then they worked and got a name who could pull the trigger on the deal. Now they have talked to this person and got a deal going. The money is there, the questions are now is what do they get for the money and does it get us the game back and at what stage? These will obviously completed at the close of the deal. They will know what they bought and we will know what we are doing at the start.

I know it is hard to stay with your feet on the ground! This is why I am here typing at 4:00 in the morning!

[Thirty-Seven]

It seems like you are getting a little defensive here, and I don't want my statements to come off as overly negative here, or in any way deprecating of the team that is working to make this happen.  It's just how I work in a situation of the unknown.

I always think about some of the worst possible things that could happen (especially those that occur as direct results of seemingly auspicious things).  My default mode is Devil's Advocate, and what I usually find, is that things end up better than I had planned and am pleasantly surprised.  Which, honestly, is way better than thinking only the best things and then being disappointed when it turns out 99% good and not the 189% good you were hoping for.

At any rate, I have read through this entire thread (especially all of your posts Iron Wolf), and have moved from "this is complete bullshit the game isn't ever coming back" to something like reserved optimism "we'll wait until that projected August date to get excited, because there may just be a chance here."

The people buying the game are us.

Also, this statement doesn't do very much to assuage my niggling bits of doubt here, since I was an active user of the CoH Forums and remember a great many devout fans of the game who had horrendously bad ideas for what the game needed to make it better.  Hell, even the Paragon Studios devs had their share of missteps and I trusted their judgment of what the game needed almost implicitily.  I don't remember the specifics, but there were initial plans to have to unlock expansions to some of the Incarnate Powers with purchase by Astral Merits, when in the past, none needed to be spent to unlock specific trees, while this is hardly the most egregious example, wrong-headed decisions can occur in even the best group, and as we all know, the CoH community is not homogenously composed of people who would make good decisions for the game. Hence my reserved optimism, and my questions above.

Now, if you were to ask me what percent chance do I think there is of some of those horrid suggestions I mentioned above coming to fruition if and when CoH re-launches... well, I'd say probably about 0-1%.

[MWRuger]

My guess is "securing the assets" is exactly that.

The assets being the game, the code, possibly client accounts, documentation and all back-ups of data that exist. I suspect that before NCSoft would even begin to talk the buyers had to present proof that they are well funded. NCSoft disclosed what they had for sale and what the conditions of the sale would be. Then both sides try to remove any roadblocks or negotiate any sticking points.

Then they can start working on a final deal. Once both parties have agreed to the deal, then they will work on transfer of assets.

We are further along than the last time I posted this, but be patient. This is the most delicate part of the deal. Everything has to go just right.

Once both parties have agreed to the deal, in writing, if something crops up both parties are invested enough that they are very motivated to work them out. Earlier in the process, like now, not so much.

We'll know more in a month or so I would imagine. And by more I mean we'll probably have a firmer date for when the deal is likely to be inked.

[MWRuger]

Thirty-Seven,

I'm not nearly as worried as you are about this and I'll tell you why. Right now I have nothing. If they are able to relaunch the game but they do greatly change it, for inexplicable reasons, I won't be any worse off then I am now.

Further, I suspect SCORE is continuing and with the game up and running, even if it is changed, reverse engineering will be easier.

BUT, here's why I don't think you have to worry.

The target audience for this game is US. You aren't going to sell a ten year old game to new players. Further, it is in their interest to start generating return on investment as quickly as possible. If for no other reason, then to fund the changes you are worried about. To do that they will likely want to get the game up and running as quickly as possible. That means as few changes as possible.

Now, they could change things later, but for re-launch it will likely be as we remember because it is easiest to do.

[Thirty-Seven]

I'm not nearly as worried as you are about this and I'll tell you why.

Hmmm... I guess you missed this part:

Now, if you were to ask me what percent chance do I think there is of some of those horrid suggestions I mentioned above coming to fruition if and when CoH re-launches... well, I'd say probably about 0-1%.

:D

Further, I suspect SCORE is continuing and with the game up and running, even if it is changed, reverse engineering will be easier.

I keep hearing about this, but have yet to see a thread or any other communication about what SCORE is exactly or what it stands for even.

[kiario]

It seems like you are getting a little defensive here, and I don't want my statements to come off as overly negative here, or in any way deprecating of the team that is working to make this happen.  It's just how I work in a situation of the unknown.

I always think about some of the worst possible things that could happen (especially those that occur as direct results of seemingly auspicious things).  My default mode is Devil's Advocate, and what I usually find, is that things end up better than I had planned and am pleasantly surprised.  Which, honestly, is way better than thinking only the best things and then being disappointed when it turns out 99% good and not the 189% good you were hoping for.

At any rate, I have read through this entire thread (especially all of your posts Iron Wolf), and have moved from "this is complete bullshit the game isn't ever coming back" to something like reserved optimism "we'll wait until that projected August date to get excited, because there may just be a chance here."


Also, this statement doesn't do very much to assuage my niggling bits of doubt here, since I was an active user of the CoH Forums and remember a great many devout fans of the game who had horrendously bad ideas for what the game needed to make it better.  Hell, even the Paragon Studios devs had their share of missteps and I trusted their judgment of what the game needed almost implicitily.  I don't remember the specifics, but there were initial plans to have to unlock expansions to some of the Incarnate Powers with purchase by Astral Merits, when in the past, none needed to be spent to unlock specific trees, while this is hardly the most egregious example, wrong-headed decisions can occur in even the best group, and as we all know, the CoH community is not homogenously composed of people who would make good decisions for the game. Hence my reserved optimism, and my questions above.

Now, if you were to ask me what percent chance do I think there is of some of those horrid suggestions I mentioned above coming to fruition if and when CoH re-launches... well, I'd say probably about 0-1%.

Hey,

I think i am in general quite the opposite of you meaning always thinking positively instead of imagining the worst scenario. However, I agree with your reserved optimism to be more realistic in this case because we know so little about whats going on.

[kiario]

Thirty-Seven,

I'm not nearly as worried as you are about this and I'll tell you why. Right now I have nothing. If they are able to relaunch the game but they do greatly change it, for inexplicable reasons, I won't be any worse off then I am now.

Further, I suspect SCORE is continuing and with the game up and running, even if it is changed, reverse engineering will be easier.

BUT, here's why I don't think you have to worry.

The target audience for this game is US. You aren't going to sell a ten year old game to new players. Further, it is in their interest to start generating return on investment as quickly as possible. If for no other reason, then to fund the changes you are worried about. To do that they will likely want to get the game up and running as quickly as possible. That means as few changes as possible.

Now, they could change things later, but for re-launch it will likely be as we remember because it is easiest to do.

What do you mean the target is US? Are there more people from US that want the game back compared to the rest of the world? Does it mean that it wont be playable for other people than in US?

[Scendera]

(deleted, got distracted and replied to the wrong thing)

[Thirty-Seven]

He means us not the U.S.  Us as in "we the ex-players of CoH."  He was using uppercase instead of bold.