New efforts!

[roribeedm]

Whether they have it or not is one issue, but the other question will be will they be able to make it work with the account system they set up, will it be complete and compatible with the new server setup, and will they even want to use it?

Personally, I'd be tempted to start everyone from scratch with new accounts and brand new wiped servers.  But that's me.

I'd actually prefer that too. At least for a while there wouldn't be the whole names used by people who aren't playing anymore issue.

[Solitaire]

Whether they have it or not is one issue, but the other question will be will they be able to make it work with the account system they set up, will it be complete and compatible with the new server setup, and will they even want to use it?

Personally, I'd be tempted to start everyone from scratch with new accounts and brand new wiped servers.  But that's me.

I'd prefer this option, could make things a lot easier, yes there would be a few disgruntled people. Let's just get the game back

[Thirty-Seven]

I alluded to this up-thread, but someone else had a good related point as well:

I don't think we could possibly justify having anywhere near as many servers as we had before in the game.  IIRC, we had 16 servers (counting French, German, and Exalted).  The top 4 in population were probably Freedom, Virtue, Justice/Infinity and maybe Exalted... and all the rest could likely be added together to get maybe 2 Freedoms.  And that was at the end...  So, if the game were to relaunch we could likely house everyone comfortably on 3ish servers, unless I am greatly underestimating the number of us who'd actually sub and play the game again.

Of course, if this is true, we'd have a SERIOUS name conflict issue when trying to make use of the old account data (assuming we got it), and how the heck would you choose which servers get consolidated with which?  The other issue here, is that if you DON'T decide to trim down the server list and go with what we had at shutdown, the places in which some people used to claim were "ghost towns" really would be.  Maybe they'd open up the servers as they were and allow unlimited free server transfers and wait a few months and shutdown any servers below a certain threshold, maybe they wouldn't.

But, again, if it were me, I think the most elegant solution is to start with copies of the test server, or somesuch which gets cleared of characters on a regular basis.  That way, you'd have folks file in to brand new servers with brand new accounts and brand new characters.

[kiario]

What do you mean "safe"?

It's no more or less safe than it was a month ago.  And there's no way to know for sure what aspects of the costume creator will change, most likely nothing will change from what we had available on Live at shutdown, but who knows?

I would venture to guess that as long as you aren't using elements from i24 that were available on Test in your version of Icon, you should be safe to use those exact costumes when and IF the game relaunches.

But as I've said before, we know little more than a Magic 8 Ball in terms of "sureness" about anything.

sorry, was a bit unclear. I meant safe as in if I create a costume it is very likely to be able to reproduce it exactly later if the game comes back.
I know I spent a lot of time in the CC even using a measurement tape with mm precision to get the sliders at the exact positions

[Thirty-Seven]

[...] even using a measurement tape with mm precision to get the sliders at the exact positions

That's why saving costumes was such an AWESOME innovation... as it allowed you to reproduce a costume later exactly!

And as to your question: Again, there's no way to be sure... yet.

[Thunder Glove]

It's really unlikely that the first thing a new owner would do, even before bringing the game back online, is change the format of saved costume files.  You might have minor issues with older costumes (due to category re-shuffling), but any costume you create now in Icon should load fine if (or, hopefully, when) the game comes back.

Unless you use any NPC parts.  Those probably won't work.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I haven't seen any "folks speaking for them" hanging around. And thusly, "have said many times" is a false statement.
Just ruling from "odds," I'd have to say that since the effort started, we have no idea whether or not their efforts are even still going, have failed, or even have halted because all "members" simultaneously had a heart attack. There's no way of knowing.

Incorrect. You've missed several cues.

Do you really think another reverse engineer effort is going to accomplish what SEGS hasn't in 1/1000th the time?

Yes, given that SEGS is a one-man show.

What do they have? A small country working non-stop in a huge basement somewhere alongside the kids making sneakers?

From what we know? To begin with, about two years' head start before the shutdown announcement and extremely in-depth familiarity with the client - and there's strong evidence of the latter if you know where to look.

[kiario]

Nice, if we get confirmation about the game I am all set to start creating costumes for all my planned characters until game goes live. To me the costume is very important.

[Taivas]

Nice, if we get confirmation about the game I am all set to start creating costumes for all my planned characters until game goes live.

This is exactly what I've been doing for the last week or two. I've got four characters I want to make as soon as the game returns. It's just about keeping those extreme CoH cravings at bay.

[Goddangit]

I alluded to this up-thread, but someone else had a good related point as well:

I don't think we could possibly justify having anywhere near as many servers as we had before in the game.  IIRC, we had 16 servers (counting French, German, and Exalted).  The top 4 in population were probably Freedom, Virtue, Justice/Infinity and maybe Exalted... and all the rest could likely be added together to get maybe 2 Freedoms.  And that was at the end...  So, if the game were to relaunch we could likely house everyone comfortably on 3ish servers, unless I am greatly underestimating the number of us who'd actually sub and play the game again.

Of course, if this is true, we'd have a SERIOUS name conflict issue when trying to make use of the old account data (assuming we got it), and how the heck would you choose which servers get consolidated with which?  The other issue here, is that if you DON'T decide to trim down the server list and go with what we had at shutdown, the places in which some people used to claim were "ghost towns" really would be.  Maybe they'd open up the servers as they were and allow unlimited free server transfers and wait a few months and shutdown any servers below a certain threshold, maybe they wouldn't.

But, again, if it were me, I think the most elegant solution is to start with copies of the test server, or somesuch which gets cleared of characters on a regular basis.  That way, you'd have folks file in to brand new servers with brand new accounts and brand new characters.

I personally liked the quiet of Infinity server because it wasn't red and inaccessible on XP bonus weekends.    But yes, we may have too many servers at relaunch if they just restore them as they were.  So assuming they launch with fewer servers and all the old data, how do we deal with that?

Here's one idea I had.  You bring up new severs all blank and fresh of any characters on them.  And you have a list of the old servers and your characters on them.  You then transfer them from storage to one of the new servers.  All the old data is there, first come first served, for anyone who comes back.  Old unclaimed characters stay in storage and don't clutter the new database.

[kiario]

This is exactly what I've been doing for the last week or two. I've got four characters I want to make as soon as the game returns. It's just about keeping those extreme CoH cravings at bay.

Hmm, for sure I can't handle the huge letdown and depression IF there will be no game and I have created lots of nice costumes waiting to play.

[blacksly]

Whether they have it or not is one issue, but the other question will be will they be able to make it work with the account system they set up

That is a complete non-issue. Data is easily migrated between databases. If they get the account data, they will be able to write something, convert it, etc, in order to have it work with the new company.

Remember that they would probably have to write their own software, or buy some other software, anyhow, to handle accounts... account management and payments are not a part of the CoH software per se. So, as they're doing that, it's easy to alter the format of the customer data that NCSoft stored, so that it works with a new account management package.

Basically, as long as NCSoft kept the data, which IMO is basically guaranteed (whether they kept it in their live accounts database and deactivated, or pulled the inactive account into offline storage), it should not be at all difficult to make the data work with a new account management system.

And as for the character data, that should be usable automatically, since CoH will obviously have to be able to store and read character data, and there would be no reason to change that at all.

Any questions would arise not from the ability to recover account and character data, but on any legal issues, extra costs, etc, that the new buyers may not be willing to face. As I've said, I'll happily start the game 3 months sooner even if it costs me my characters, but I'd wait an extra month to get them all back... the new buyers may have to consider that trade-off, depending on how much extra cost to purchase, and time to set up, will the accounts and characters cost them.

[AlienOne]

Incorrect. You've missed several cues.Yes, given that SEGS is a one-man show.From what we know? To begin with, about two years' head start before the shutdown announcement and extremely in-depth familiarity with the client - and there's strong evidence of the latter if you know where to look.

I've got a bridge to sell you, and I'll tell you where it is, if you know where to look...

[Golden Girl]

I'd prefer this option, could make things a lot easier, yes there would be a few disgruntled people. Let's just get the game back

The number of disgruntled people would be exactly equal to the number of non-healers who'd gotten all the healing badges

[Codewalker]

While we're on the subject of restoring data, would the character XML's from the Titan Sentinel be useful at all?  Is that even a possibility for restoring characters?

Not for anything official, no. Sentinel+ data is too incomplete to create a fully functional character from -- at best you can get an approximation. It could be useful for a private server that doesn't mind having slightly broken and buggy characters, but no sane game operator would invite that sort of support nightmare.

[Golden Girl]

I've got a bridge to sell you, and I'll tell you where it is, if you know where to look...

The SCoRE project is a known unknown.

[Solitaire]

The number of disgruntled people would be exactly equal to the number of non-healers who'd gotten all the healing badges

People will always have something to be disgruntled about, not happy about one thing or another! Scrapper with the all the healing badges how dare they

[downix]

Not for anything official, no. Sentinel+ data is too incomplete to create a fully functional character from -- at best you can get an approximation. It could be useful for a private server that doesn't mind having slightly broken and buggy characters, but no sane game operator would invite that sort of support nightmare.

It could be used to create a MIDS type progression plan as well as a costume file for import as well.

[Felderburg]

I posted something here, for those folks who haven't figured out how to navigate the archived version: http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,9924.msg143460.html#msg143460

For now, Titan forums is the perfect spot to continue, re-start or re-invigorate any such discussions, but this one thread seems to be where people are posting everything. So... I would respectfully suggest that anyone who wants to discuss anything, please find an appropriate topic HERE and go post something. One can always refer to the archived discussion using links found using the above instructions.

There's also the recreated CoH website, which has forums: http://www.cityofheroes.ca/community/boards/ & http://www.cityofheroes.ca/

[silvers1]

I'd prefer this option, could make things a lot easier, yes there would be a few disgruntled people. Let's just get the game back

I could live with re-creating characters.  But if I lost all of the purchased costume packs, etc...  that would be a deal breaker for me as far
as returning to the game.