New efforts!

[Cobra Man]

Think we all need to keep calm and trust the new team to do what's best here.

Getting the game back is the primary goal.

[Cobra Man]

You obviously cannot......now remove that stick and have a better day  ;)

Think we all need to take a step back here......

[FloatingFatMan]

You obviously cannot......now remove that stick and have a better day  ;)

No.  Absolutely NObody can answer such a ridiculous question. They haven't even got the game yet, let alone made any kind of start on a sequel, and you're asking if we can port characters from 1 to 2?

As for your stupid stick comment, what are you, three?  Grow up and stop being so rude.

[Triplash]

BTW: Can anyone remember what the unlock conditions were for PB's? It's been so long now... Level 20, wasn't it?

It was dropped to level 20 at one point, yeah. But then when Freedom launched it was changed so that EATs and VEATs were bought as premium unlocks (or earned over time through the reward system). So it'll depend on which way they want to go with monetizing things.

And IMO, it's perfectly fair of them to ask for money for some of the more advanced and desirable features - even on top of a basic subscription fee - they do have to make money to keep it, and themselves, running after all.

[FloatingFatMan]

It was dropped to level 20 at one point, yeah. But then when Freedom launched it was changed so that EATs and VEATs were bought as premium unlocks (or earned over time through the reward system). So it'll depend on which way they want to go with monetizing things.

And IMO, it's perfectly fair of them to ask for money for some of the more advanced and desirable features - even on top of a basic subscription fee - they do have to make money to keep it, and themselves, running after all.

That's fine.  If we get the game back, I'm gonna drop whatever money is necessary on it to get back to where I was as quick as possible.

[artbunker]

Long time lurker first time poster.

First of all, I want to thank the folks up who run this forum for keeping it up after the game went down. Second of all, I would like to thank the folks who continually participated on this board with their fond game memories.

I use to play on a friends account for 2 years before I got my own. I was technically with the game since beta and supported it personally from I4 till closure. 

I remember level 5 debt, the  hunting parties in Perez Park, travel at 14, and even when Lusca appeared and it was big news on the site in either i3 or i 4 . But the game evolved and got worse then much much much better over time . It sucked when it was shut down , especially since it was making a little money at least.

Anyway, if this deal goes through, I wont mind starting over. I'll just be glad to have the game back. I played on he ICON the other day, and forgot how much i didnt remember about the game.  Was still fun walking around just to walk arround in the original tutorial .
Folks lets just pray to get the game back.

Finally, what I WANT BACK IF THE GAME COMES BACK(because I too have tom make my dream demands)

1. Lots of people in the servers no matter how many servers there are
2. People willing to team up and have fun.
3. People re running Mothership Raids on Mondays and those other "special events" :)
4.The community back together talking about the game and other things again.
5. The other sucessor folks to continue to make their games as we need more superhero MMO's
6. The organization that doesnt exist to continue to make playing this game possible if the servers and game goes down again.
7. To see a team leader tell a blaster to stop  BLAPPING FOR GOD's SAKE :)
8. To once again see "ON THE GROUND AGAIN?"

[r00tb0ySlim]

No.  Absolutely NObody can answer such a ridiculous question. They haven't even got the game yet, let alone made any kind of start on a sequel, and you're asking if we can port characters from 1 to 2?

As for your stupid stick comment, what are you, three?  Grow up and stop being so rude.

I didn't think my questions were ridiculous....your answer; however, was a bit pretentious IMO as most of these posts are going past step #1. 

[FloatingFatMan]

7. To see a team leader tell a blaster to stop  BLAPPING FOR GOD's SAKE :)

I've heard that so many times.  But it was always because my PB wasn't leaving anything for anyone else to kill! :p

[Tyrannical]

I'm actually curious about the engine changing to Unreal4, I'm not a tech savvy person, but how much would it change the game? I love CoH as it is at I24, it was golden, and it's how I remember it. Will our progress on the current version of CoH be all for nothing? will we have to make new accounts (again)? Will the current game's content and account data be ported over?

On the topic of implementing I24, will we end up seeing the rest of the WIP content too? I noticed Savage Melee and Psionic Melee were almost compete, Radiation Melee/Armor and Wind Control are there, but they lack their own animations and effects (currently borrowing other power animation), and will we see the other Pool Powers that were on their way? (Gadgetry, Utility Belt, Experimentation and Force of Will). I really wanted to see these powersets in action, I had so many ideas for them, and I never got the chance to use them in the end...

7. To see a team leader tell a blaster to stop  BLAPPING FOR GOD's SAKE :)

with the inclusion of Martial Assault and Martial Combat, there will be plenty of Blappers and Scrapinators flooding the game :P

[Fleur_uk]

Oh that's mint !! I am well excited then.   If we can't have our original heroes back so be it, its sad, but I am so grateful for the chance to play CoH again.    I am not bothered in the least if I have to buy things again.  I am happy to support this group working to bring back CoH again, and at least the money isn't going to NCsoft.     ;D
Thank you ^^

Yes, it would be doable to get the game going again with a snapshot of code.

I see a lot of folks saying well we will have to buy what we already had - understand something profound and sobering, that game is gone. They closed it and with it all of the stuff you purchased. Now please give the new folks a chance to work out solutions to all of this. They don't have all of the stuff yet. Once whatever databases and code is in their hands - then they can start making plans and solutions.

I opened a thread in another area for just this thing - start getting input on positive things they can do to make it as fair as possible for returning players. In a real sense this is like totally crashing a car - without insurance. You can go buy a new one but it will only have standard features. You will have to put in all those things you added with aftermarket parts.

I am trying to put this out so you can see the size of the task. It is not easy. I get the easy part - talking to you folks. They get all the hard work of sorting a snapshot of spaghetti code. Working out all the financials and getting the game running. I say this and things may change for the better - but it may start at this stage. I hope for the best - but I do realize it may be that reality is a tough thing. I could sugar coat stuff - but it is not in my nature to do so. I am very direct while trying to temper it with some sense of peoples feelings. I know this is hard, I know they are trying to get everything that it makes sense to retrieve.

Give them a chance. They are players too who just so happen to love the game and be good at programming.

[Risha]

I've been looking for the new thread that Ironwolf started and I can't seem to find it (and I'll post there, too, that I'd continue to subscribe to an i23 maintenance only game, though, of course would support ongoing efforts).  Can someone direct me to the new thread?

Thanks

[Fridgy Daiere]

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,10024.0.html

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

As someone who has experience with MMO client/server stuff, I'd kinda like to add the following:

Despite the fact that the development tools may not be available, since pretty much every calculation in MMOs is handled server-side, the fact that it may not progress beyond I24, does not necessarily mean that the game cannot be tweaked or improved upon.

As long as the new team has access to the actual code server-side (and provided that CoX was logically built), then they can still make adjustments and tweaks to stuff like powersets, IOs, drop rates, mobs, etc.

What the lack of development tools does mean, is that no new major content will be implemented client-side. Depending on how the client is put together (and how much code the new team has access to), new costume pieces, NPCs, and other sort-of minor stuff might pop up. It might even be possible for new arcs or quests. What will most likely be impossible is stuff like new powersets and areas (though if I24 is going to be the issue we do get, I think it's a very fitting last major update).

Furthermore, depending on how much the new devs have access too, it could go a long way to making Co(H/X)2 the true sequel to CoX. If they can really sort through the spaghetti, and find the calculations (both client and server-side) that make CoX feel and play the way it does, they have the major advantage of being able to just directly translate those calculations into a new engine. The alternative, of course, is guessing, approximating and developing by feel. Which is what the "successor" teams have to work with.

Actually, most of the combat and core game mechanics were pretty well known by shutdown, Arcanaville and several other math mavens had actually been big a help to the Devs in reverse engineering a lot of the formulas and algorithms that the game was based on. As i recall the biggest black box at shutdown (base system aside) was the byzantine AI code, which was still giving the Dev team fits trying to nail down exactly how it worked and just making it work as intended. (This is my general recollection, and may not be completely accurate.)

Fortunately i24 added a lot of tools to the game expressly for the purpose of allowing the Devs and GMs to create new missions and events and alter existing missions and events without involving programmers. Unfortunately, as you say, that's not the same as adding new graphical assets and game mechanics. One of the new features being added to the engine was the forcemove command, which would have allowed effects like pulling mobs towards a point instead of just repelling or knocking them away. Without the tools and code to continue development of the engine it's one new feature that will most likely not appear until the hypothetical CoH2. On the plus side at least LUA scripting was already implemented and the final tweaks to the new costume sets were finished. (i'm hoping the i24 code they'd have access to includes the changes that hadn't been pushed to the beta server yet, but were finished and awaiting the next patch.)

All in all i24 should allow any studio that takes over the game to continue adding new content for a while even if it turns out that completely new assets such as costume pieces, maps, powers, and the like are out of the question.

Edit: Up to 65 pages now. Impressive.

[JKPhage]

Honestly, with the state the game is in, I don't think I'd complain at all. We'd get a clean slate to free up names that are no longer being used and haven't been for years, all the improvements of i24 and above and beyond all of that, we'd have the game back.

I honestly think it would be a smart move for the new team to just unlock all the costume bits, archetypes and powersets for everyone at account creation, and probably all the mission content as well. Have the store as only the temp powers, cosmetic pets, card packs and IOs. That way players would have access to all the game, but if they wanted to guy the rocket board, they could, or they could spend their money on the scalable IOs from the store that were so amazing. That way there'd still be plenty of cash flow for the new owners to put towards development of a new game, if they even need it honestly.

From what I gather, they have enough funding to actually make this purchase of the IP, so I'd be surprised if they don't have the funding to develop a new game as well. If they need a subscription fee, I have $15 a month to spare and I'll gladly give it to fund the future of Paragon City. I'd be perfectly fine with an essentially Maintenance Mode version of classic COH as long as we could play it and enjoy in the years to come while we wait for a COH2 to be completed. I honestly think that would be an ideal scenario. As much as I adore COH, even I realize that it was starting to show it's limitations. A custom rig had to be built for non-humanoid creatures and it didn't always play well with the game environment, certain things that would have been epic to see simply couldn't have been pulled off within the game's confines. If a new engine is built to emulate the playstyle but have fewer limitations then we could potentially see a version of a Rikti Raid with portals that you could charge through into a Rikti base to help disable it, or any number of other things that just couldn't be done on the COH engine. I'll be more than happy to play i24 until that time comes, and I'll love every second of it, as long as I know that the people who brought the game back and are working toward it's future are fans just like us and want to see the game flourish and thrive.

[The Fifth Horseman]

When CoH2 launches, what happens to our re-built CoH I24 characters (you managed to earn all that good stuff back  ;D) that run on the old engine?  Will we just "move" the character info over to CoH2 and be assimilated into the UR4 engine?  Will CoH2 recognize all of CoH1's achievements and goodies?  Just curious and wondering if we would need to start over again.  I'm good with either option as I want to super jump my big a$$ all over town  8)

We won't know for sure for a long while. CoH2 could be an all-new game with the same IP or could be just a new client (think, like what happened with Ultima Online) for the existing one.

[kiario]

Good info the last days. Thanks to the team an Ironwolf. Closing in on the well earned summer semester. Would be a fantastic start  if the deal s made. I wonder, if the team is posting here without us knowing their identity :)

Would kickstarter be a good option to fund the startup of the game once it is aquired?
Waiting to lend my help anyway I can.

[Risha]

Thanks for the link, Fridgy Daiere!  And being an email hoarder has paid off (coming up on my 8th anniversary of buying COH, so not from the start, but still plenty of years) "Your game account XXXXX for City of Heroes has been activated!  Please save this email as your receipt for future identification purposes. Your unique account id is playncXXXX."

I'm sure that won't help much in the long run, but it makes me smile to think I'll be playing again...sending good thoughts that the deal will be made.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

i think that the best move would be to unlock all the old perks and packs for subscribers if the game relaunches with or without the account data. Everything else is gravy. <vader>"The loss of a few badges is insignificant next to the relaunch of the game."</vader>

[Talner]

For me it's not about saving any character names or veteran rewards. I'm fully aware the game I joined in June of 2004 is long gone. All it's about for me now is getting to relive that moment of climbing the Atlas steps to Ms. Liberty again. All my in game friends are gone on to different places too. But I'd be super excited about making new ones in our old/new city.

[MWRuger]

Thanks for the link, Fridgy Daiere!  And being an email hoarder has paid off (coming up on my 8th anniversary of buying COH, so not from the start, but still plenty of years) "Your game account XXXXX for City of Heroes has been activated!  Please save this email as your receipt for future identification purposes. Your unique account id is playncXXXX."

I'm sure that won't help much in the long run, but it makes me smile to think I'll be playing again...sending good thoughts that the deal will be made.

Yes, I have all mine as well. But since most don't I'm not sure it could be used.