New efforts!

[HEATSTROKE]

Me too! I have gotten sufficiently hopeful that I dug up my old character spreadsheet. I haven't looked at it since October 31, 2012. (If I have now totally jinxed the revival efforts, I sincerely apologize. I held out as long as I could.)

Please Ive been making Issue 24 builds since March...

[Peerless Girl]

Disagree to a point.. I subbed for 8 years.. straight.. no breaks.. and I spent plenty in the Paragon Market.. bought Super Packs all the time... bought costume pieces.. bought IO's especially when they went on sale. Bought XP boosters..I spent more than I did just subscribing..

So did I. for Seven years. I did says "most of us". New players are not going to go for it, period. If you hope to get any new players at all, you don't do it. Again, CoH had a hybrid model, that's what I'm advocating, a pure sub model won't work anymore. It worked fine for the 5 or so years we all subbed it, but that was five years ago, the industry has changed, like it or not.

[HEATSTROKE]

So did I. for Seven years. I did says "most of us". New players are not going to go for it, period. If you hope to get any new players at all, you don't do it. Again, CoH had a hybrid model, that's what I'm advocating, a pure sub model won't work anymore. It worked fine for the 5 or so years we all subbed it, but that was five years ago, the industry has changed, like it or not.

It should have a hybrid model... no argument there.

[Peerless Girl]

I don't mean this as a criticism in any way, but this argument always surprises me. I mean, in the real world people have the same name as you all the time. I have an unusual first and last name, and I have still run across someone else with the same combination. (I remain hopeful that they have a different middle name.)

This argument, while true for real life, does not work within a game, especially a superhero game. There's only ONE Superman (yes I know there are a few versions, that's not the point). This is kind of an integral issue for me, and in that, the old way CoH worked was best. Will I adapt to whatever, yes, do I feel the need to justify myself to everyone, nope. That's..pretty much the end of my discussion on it, until and unless it becomes an issue the new team wants input on (Well, even if they don't, they'll get it :P).

[Acanous]

I'm quite enthused with the possibility of getting the game back. If it is at all possible to just get the game up, and get our stuff later, that's entirely fine. If the game launches and we have all our stuff, that's incredible. If the game launches and we can never have our stuff back, I'm going to take every weekend for three months and GET it back the hard way.

Just as long as we get the game back, I'm nothing but good feels.

[PSI-on]

It would kill nearly all of their revenue.  People pay to visit amusement parks, not graveyards.  That being said, giving rewards with no monetary cost to people who involve themselves back into rebuilding the community is just as helpful in both the long- and short- term.

Couldn't they just Kickstarter a sequel? It'd be a new game and just look at how much wanted to throw at a successor game, imagine how much they'll give to an official sequel. I can't imagine they would even need much revenue from CoX with other options.

[Ohioknight]

I don't mean this as a criticism in any way, but this argument always surprises me. I mean, in the real world people have the same name as you all the time. I have an unusual first and last name, and I have still run across someone else with the same combination. (I remain hopeful that they have a different middle name.)

Your name is... Barry Barry Barry Barry Barry Barry Barry!

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

(from 5min:32sec in)

[HEATSTROKE]

Couldn't they just Kickstarter a sequel? It'd be a new game and just look at home much wanted to throw at a successor game, imagine how much they'll give to an official sequel. I can't imagine they would even need much revenue from CoX with other options.

Of course they will need revenue.. they will need to pay people and recoup some of their original investment..

[PSI-on]

Of course they will need revenue.. they will need to pay people and recoup some of their original investment..

My post was in regards to using CoH's revenue to pay for CoH 2, NOT in making back the original purchase money which in and of itself is entirely different. Also they could still do that part by going back to selling the game and a sub, besides who knows how everything WAS set up and how much NCSoft does still have. WW's was third party, wasn't global channels handled separately from the game itself (I know it would go down sometimes and not the rest of the game) it could be possible the ability to separate certain things from everything else into a "have/have not" like store system won't be part of the deal. With Icon we can see all that stuff was in code and accessible since whatever kept someone from playing Dual Pistols if they hadn't bought it is missing. At this point anything could happen.

[Nyghtshade]

I know an awful lot of people are fixating on what they had in the old game, and how they'd like it back, one way or another.

Heck, in the best of all worlds, I would too.  But I think we have to remember that when this deal goes through, while the game will still be CoH, it will be under totally new management -- management which has, in fact, spent a lot of money up front just to buy the game, and will still need to raise money to be able to afford to run it.

I personally would be more than happy to support a "Getting things going" Kickstarter fundraiser.  I'd be happy to pay a monthly sub.  I'd be willing to purchase a "super-pack" with all the vet rewards (I had a lot of them, having played the old CoX for 8 years). 

But if I had to start from scratch and rebuild everything, because that's what the new management had to work with to get things running again - I would do that as well.

I know a lot of people have RL demands on their time and finances that they didn't 8 or 10 years ago.  But I think what we need to focus on here is getting our CoX home back, and a chance to put our capes back on (or our t-shirts saying "Mwahahaha"!) -- even if we have to work our way back up to lvl 20 to get them again.

However this works out, whatever form the game must take to open again, I'm just profoundly grateful to Ironwulf, the Investors, and all the people in the Community who have not given up Hope - and who have given Hope to us.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Mistress Urd]

The problem is, while most of *us* would be more than happy to simply pay $15/month, a pure-sub model basically doesn't work in the MMO space anymore (with the exception of WoW, and it doesn't even entirely do that anymore). A hybrid model is a better model, or even a full F2P/micro model. There's a reason Secret World couldn't hold up a pure-sub model (and built their store with that possibility in mind in beta) there's a reason ToR nearly failed trying to do it (despite that the Doctors of Bioware were deeply against it). There's a reason 99% of all other games have gone to a Hybrid and/or F2P model. There's a reason CoH did it when they did it. The vet reward system just happened to give way too much to most of us "old timers" to the point that we didn't need to buy much, and didn't even really need to sub at all unless we were doing Incarnate content. That didn't help the game in the end either.

Let's not start this one out on the wrong foot, hmm?

I don't agree, I would prefer a sub model. IMHO the "free" model really irks me. Its basically catering to the players who generally intended to spend as little as possible, chasing the subscriber who won't pay anyways. I'd rather focus on the players who are and do pay. Just my $.02

During the CoH break I am playing EVE Online one of those few sub games left. Voting with my wallet.

[Aggelakis]

What's worrying me is that the devs said the reason they didn't release I24 at the end was that it was too buggy to do so. If the only code snapshot is I24, I'm not sure how playable the game would be.

I24 wasn't released because there were no devs to release it. That's it.

[MWRuger]

From the way ironwolf is talking I strongly doubt that character naming is going to change in CoH redux. (this reply makes some assumptions about how CoH's databases work. I could easily be wrong. There is your grain of salt!)

Globals are already tied to character data. But as you probably know, there is a character limit to your name for your character. You could already add your global to it if you want (although I don't think "@" is an allowed character). However he also said that the tools for modifying the game were custom built and not available.

Making this change will require changes to the code and the database structure. Pretty unlikely if all they have is essentially a compiled copy of the game. You want them to display the character name minus the global name but have all character names stored with the global to make them unique. Globals are already unique, indicating they are a Key field.

Personally there are loads of other things I would rather have IF they can make changes to the code. The naming system worked for the entire duration of the game. I think it would work for the restart.

[Thirty-Seven]

Agreed, Devil.

I24 wasn't released because there were no devs to release it. That's it.

Well, there WERE still things here and there to work the kinks out of, but yes, by and large it was done.  They wanted to push it to Live before the shutdown, but literally no one still worked there to do it.

[Dannii]

I personally will wait and see what the buyers were/are able to get.  Any anger I feel will be directed toward the people that shut down the game and not the ones trying to give us our home back.  Will I be disappointed if I don't get my stuff back, sure.....  But I will be thankful that I have my home back, a chance to fly, and most importantly, an opportunity to play with old friends as well as new ones. 

At this point speculation is a bit silly.  The buyers will do the best that they can with what they have.  Having our home back, in whatever form it takes more important than posting for years on a forum wishing we could play just one more time.

[Aggelakis]

There were still things to work out in I23, I22, etc. etc.

I24 was basically done. It was scheduled to release like two weeks after the shutdown notice. Some of the market stuff went 'live' during the shutdown because of automatic triggers built in based on date.

It really angered me that they couldn't hire a "scab" (sorry - showing my union background ;) ) dev/group on a temporary basis just to get I24 to the live servers. The bugs didn't make it unplayable in the least! (some texture issues with costumes, I think? I can't remember what else - another tweak to the Blaster makeover?? Ugh...I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, let alone esoteric details from 20 months ago :P )

[Golden Girl]

NCsoft didn't want to push I24 live, as any bugs in it might have hindered our enjoyment of the sunset period.

[sindyr]

There were still things to work out in I23, I22, etc. etc.

I24 was basically done. It was scheduled to release like two weeks after the shutdown notice. Some of the market stuff went 'live' during the shutdown because of automatic triggers built in based on date.

It really angered me that they couldn't hire a "scab" (sorry - showing my union background ;) ) dev/group on a temporary basis just to get I24 to the live servers. The bugs didn't make it unplayable in the least! (some texture issues with costumes, I think? I can't remember what else - another tweak to the Blaster makeover?? Ugh...I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, let alone esoteric details from 20 months ago :P )

I24 was a smooth running awesome beast the last few weeks that I played it.

It would be so cool...

[LaughingAlex]

Think I finally found a song i'd celebrate to...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqQuihD0hoI

:)

[HEATSTROKE]

I don't agree, I would prefer a sub model. IMHO the "free" model really irks me. Its basically catering to the players who generally intended to spend as little as possible, chasing the subscriber who won't pay anyways. I'd rather focus on the players who are and do pay. Just my $.02

During the CoH break I am playing EVE Online one of those few sub games left. Voting with my wallet.

CoH hybrid model was according to the devs more profitable than when it was a Pure Sub model..