New efforts!

[Ironwolf]

Or a cheaper price. If someone had to "make" those somehow or find another source who has those tools.

[FloatingFatMan]

Still, if the studio buying it is aware that the tools are missing, and are happy to proceed - its their choice.
It could cause increased costs in maintainability, and ultimately for us, survivability of the game.

You really do need to read Ironwolf's posts...

The primary intent here is to bring the old game back, preferably with I24.  Immediately put it into maintenance mode, NO new development on it at all, and then commence work on CoH2. The buyers are after the IP far more than just the game itself.

[Relitner]

2 ways to look at this - if you don't technically "have" the tools from NCSoft - it can enhance your leverage for a better price/more thrown in.

If you force them to find or make these tools it could end the deal potentially.

NCSoft does not want to spend money fixing a game they closed. Details of working all of this out is the long boring stuff that takes time.

Found an interesting little nugget that nicely illustrates just how complex this may actually be... It's toward the bottomof the page "User744" allegedly a former Cryptic employee... http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/15389/what-popular-famous-games-are-written-in-c

[Ironwolf]

Found an interesting little nugget that nicely illustrates just how complex this may actually be... It's toward the bottomof the page "User744" allegedly a former Cryptic employee... http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/15389/what-popular-famous-games-are-written-in-c

That is cool, I can even dabble in C! But you could see by his explaination they had tacked 3 or 4 other types of code into the game as well!

[Angel Phoenix77]

Or a cheaper price. If someone had to "make" those somehow or find another source who has those tools.

I think  it would help to go to cryptic for the tools, they are the ones who made them.
I am abit worried about the 5th game development that might want to join in, I can see offering with money but development should stay with the team and I will say. "there is a saying too many fingers in the ruins the pie." All the development companies wanting to help with putting out city of could turn it into a mess.

[Baaleos]

Or a cheaper price. If someone had to "make" those somehow or find another source who has those tools.

Thats true, it could allow them to shave a little off the price - for Studio X to accept the additional risk etc

[Baaleos]

I think  it would help to go to cryptic for the tools, they are the ones who made them.
I am abit worried about the 5th game development that might want to join in, I can see offering with money but development should stay with the team and I will say. "there is a saying too many fingers in the ruins the pie." All the development companies wanting to help with putting out city of could turn it into a mess.

Is it really 5 studios wanting to work together?
I read some of the last posts and it sounded like they were all vying for the IP.
Eg: I saw mention to a bidding war?

Surely if thats the case it's just going to be one winning studio?

[Deadflame2]

Is it really 5 studios wanting to work together?
I read some of the last posts and it sounded like they were all vying for the IP.
Eg: I saw mention to a bidding war?

Surely if thats the case it's just going to be one winning studio?

You're skimming and not reading actual posts.  There is no "bidding war".

[The Fifth Horseman]

First off whats a 12 year old engine worth.. Two why would you wan it? IMO and I know zilch about the video game industry..

Old doesn't mean bad.

but to me it seems smart to buy the IP and as much account and character data you could..
I dont know how the code works.. Is that a part of the engine or can you get it separately?

You can get it separately, but without the engine the best case scenario is to obtain documentation that would allow you to figure out how to import the data for a new product. Otherwise it's just dead bytes with no real use, let alone value.

You can still buy them with Paragon Points.. maybe it makes people feel they arent spening MONEY ( even though they are )

The point is to make people feel they are getting a good deal for their money. :)

[AlienOne]

Is it really 5 studios wanting to work together?
I read some of the last posts and it sounded like they were all vying for the IP.
Eg: I saw mention to a bidding war?

Surely if thats the case it's just going to be one winning studio?

I think it's important to remember that the only person you should be listening to that matters is Ironwolf.

The rest of us are purely speculating.

This is how people misunderstand each other (speaking from experience here!)... No one said there would be a bidding war--they said they "hoped there wouldn't be a bidding war."

Someone hoping that there won't be or speculating that "it might be something that could happen" doesn't necessarily mean it will be something that will happen.

[Biz]

What needs to be guarded against at this point is what do the studios/investors want with CoH?

I know this team wants to get the original game back up and running at i24 if possible and to continue on with CoH2. Until these other folks are spoken with - we don't know what their plan is. The most recent one looks like a good fit - but we won't know until they talk!

Questions directed to The Ironwolf:

Who needs to guard against this?

Are these 4 other studios going to help buy/develop the game? I was under the impression this attempt was all on one studio who had found some investor support. And if this buyout failed, then the other studios would potentially learn from the mistakes of this attempt and then give it a go themselves.

But please tell me if I just didn't get enough sleep last night and can't think good no more.

[FloatingFatMan]

Is it really 5 studios wanting to work together?
I read some of the last posts and it sounded like they were all vying for the IP.
Eg: I saw mention to a bidding war?

Surely if thats the case it's just going to be one winning studio?

No, you saw someone on here saying they hoped a bidding war wouldn't start.

The other studios have been put in contact with the team trying to buy the game.  It's up to them if they want any help with that.  As Ironwolf has said several times, NCSoft wouldn't be talking to them if they weren't a viable buyer, which means they have a solid business proposal and money to spend.

[Ironwolf]

You really do need to read Ironwolf's posts...

The primary intent here is to bring the old game back, preferably with I24.  Immediately put it into maintenance mode, NO new development on it at all, and then commence work on CoH2. The buyers are after the IP far more than just the game itself.

This is the far most likely scenario. It really makes very little sense to move forward on a 12+ year old engine that is heavily customized.

The best way forward would be to get the old game running and immediately launch work on CoH2. Porting the old game over - or at least the IP and gameplay would keep the same feel and give it a serious update in engine and graphics. UnReal4 is a big upgrade and makes future development far faster and easier.

Watch this and consider it in the CoH world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOvfn1p92_8

[Scendera]

Ideally something like that wouldn't be an add-on but a new feature: The ability to save and load (for respect) build in a nice general format that MID's or other similar programs could be then modified to support, right from the powers screen.

EQ2 has this, more or less. You can use the Amory-alike to "test build" or copy a spec from another character, your own or someone else's, then export it in the exact format the game itself generates, then import it in-game. This is totally legal, built into the game client, intended use, so there's no fear of "being caught" or anything like that.

It is, as you might expect, quite awesome.

Something like that would work very well indeed for CoH, I believe.

Yes, please! I have a few patterns I had tinkered with and like too much to delete... really don't wanna look dorky to those who can't see my edits.
(AN: unlinked for post size/load times)
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/2452/metallicpattern001.jpg

I like this...I could see it as the basis of a Steampunk outfit or robot. Very, very well done.

[r00tb0ySlim]

Watch this and consider it in the CoH world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOvfn1p92_8

Very nice indeed!!!

[FloatingFatMan]

I like this...I could see it as the basis of a Steampunk outfit or robot. Very, very well done.

Assuming the store returns and they're able to add new costume content, perhaps they could hold player voted competitions, and winners get put into the store as freebies?

That would seriously rock, IMO.

[Baaleos]

This is the far most likely scenario. It really makes very little sense to move forward on a 12+ year old engine that is heavily customized.

The best way forward would be to get the old game running and immediately launch work on CoH2. Porting the old game over - or at least the IP and gameplay would keep the same feel and give it a serious update in engine and graphics. UnReal4 is a big upgrade and makes future development far faster and easier.

Watch this and consider it in the CoH world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOvfn1p92_8

I admit COH would be awesome in unreal4 - but having difficulty imagining COH in it.
Guess im just used to the blocky graphics, and the comic book/sci-fi look of the city.
Ultra Realistic graphics was never one of the things that springs to mind with city of heroes.

Though it does make sense to move to a more recent engine, technology as far as graphic cards and cpu's have evolved. So should COH
These days the Graphic Cards that could allow Ultra graphics back 5-6 years ago, are sold as cheap as 30-40 dollars today.

With regards to getting the game running immediately in maintenance mode, while they port it over.
Realistically is this something the studios would agree to do?
It seems like it would be adding additional operating cost to them while they would be wanting to focus most of that revenue into COH2?
If they have said they intend to do this, fair enough: Just seems like 2 parallel work streams, which might drain their cash flow.
Although - as stated, the micro-transactions might bring in an added incentive in supplementing operating costs and add revenue for COH2 development.

[Codewalker]

First off whats a 12 year old engine worth.. Two why would you wan it? IMO and I know zilch about the video game industry..

The Unreal engine is 18 years old and seems to be worth a decent amount.

[Ironwolf]

This is another costume and weapons demo in UnReal4, this would rock in CoH2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyFicpOYlIg

[Thunder Glove]

...

I don't like where this is going.  NCSoft has suddenly conveniently "lost" so many things.  As said, the game is mainly coded in C++, so why would it be so hard to update things?  Don't C++ programmers exist?  I'm an out-of-work C++ programmer who would be HAPPY to work on the game.

The primary intent here is to bring the old game back, preferably with I24.  Immediately put it into maintenance mode, NO new development on it at all, and then commence work on CoH2. The buyers are after the IP far more than just the game itself.

That doesn't really bode well, either.  I want to play City of Heroes, not some new game with the City of Heroes IP tacked on.  I loved Mega Man 2, but I can't stand Mega Man 8.  I tried it because of the IP, but the game itself didn't keep me playing.

As for "twelve-year-old engine" - it's not.  It was originally made twelve years ago, but it has constantly been updated and refurbished as the years went on.  I24 can do things that I1 couldn't even begin to do.  It can do things that I23 couldn't do thanks to the new LUA scripting that was going to be added.

CoH is a "twelve-year-old engine" in about the same sense that the MacOS is a "twenty-year-old OS".