New efforts!

[sindyr]

What if you can buy a one time purchase and get everything - for free? You won't need paragon points then! Then if they do make a store for extras - BONUS!

Grin:

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=24.media.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_m5mmlpJWDy1qcnzjbo1_1280.jpg

[Fanta]

Grin:

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=24.media.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_m5mmlpJWDy1qcnzjbo1_1280.jpg

Is it me, or does this keep getting bigger?

[primeknight]

What if you can buy a one time purchase and get everything - for free? You won't need paragon points then! Then if they do make a store for extras - BONUS!

That'd be awesome, but how does that get coded?  They need the tools to do that right? 

And here's another question.  Does NCSoft just have the runtime disk image (the playable one), or do that have the Dev version with all the bells and whistles that allows characters to do cool stuff, like use any power in the game ever.

Is there a way for our client computers to access a login server and then what about the "NCSoft based" game servers. 

So, what I'm asking is, what does having a disk image of I24 mean specifically mean?  As there were many programs working in conjunction to allow players to log on and play.  Or can you allowed to answer that?  Also, did that make sense? :)

[Burnt Toast]

Which is what I stated on the official forums.... and was called a liar.. unicorn...and every other name out there. There was even a thread that Black Pebble had to moderate because they called me a filthy Korean who was spying for NCSoft LOL.
*
*
I'm hoping CoH comes back...and a part of me wants it back as a blank slate.. no account info etc. I look forward to logging in on day one and seeing a bunch of low level characters. Would love to have huge groups of people in The Hollows and Kings Row. I can come across as caustic (I prefer to call it blunt) but I am/was a HUGE fan of CoH it was the only MMO I played more than 2 to 3 weeks....I played from late 2004 until the doors closed... paying subscriber for 2 accounts the entire time. I have been spending the past few days making builds for all my new characters. :)

The first group who tried to buy the game was the Paragon Studio buyout with VV and company and they were buying the game still running.
The second group never got past the preliminary stages before they stopped - I am not sure if NCSoft stopped or they did - I believe it was NCSoft seeing they were not capable of running the game.

Why did they cut a profitable game?

Paragon Studios was making roughly $10 million a year gross. They also were making 2 other games as well as developing CoH. Paragon Studios was not profitable, they were losing money due to the other 2 titles. During this time NCSoft merged with Nexon another multi-billion dollar company. They changed focus to consolidating their assests. CoH was the game making the least money with Paragon Studios losing money. They closed Paragon Studios. CoH was Paragon Studios and when they shut - there was no one to develop the game.

So the 2 things were not seperated by NCSoft. They could have waded through how many people they needed to keep it running - but they chose simply to close the studio and also cut management. Downix also reminded that NC Interactive - whose head was Chris Chung a friend of the game was closed shortly before. I was very angry at NCSoft but once you see what was happening it makes sense. They were pouring way too much money in management of something that technically was losing money.

[Power Gamer]

Costume Contest in Atlas Park starting in 5 months! :P

Oooh, me, me, PICK ME!

[MWRuger]

I had heard that so far, they don't have the source code just a disk image of the game at the point of closure and little to no actual documentation on how to run the game or the notes you use when compiling the code.

If it is at this level they will have to get a server running with as close as possible to the original and then fire the game up. Once running you have to reverse engineer it - unless some of this stuff can be found later through another source. The Devs don't appear too worried and in fact this lack helps reduce the price as it will require significant work to get running.

This is actually my dream scenario. Get it back, get it running. If tools are developed/found then maybe do a server merge or something. But this solves duplicate names, lost SG's badges, just about everything except account data not keyed to specific characters.


If this happens I could easily see a buy this get it all pack as this would fix costume piece unlocks on older characters. With account data gone, these global unlocks will need to be restored and this is an easy way to do it.

SO, yes. Please this. As soon as feasibly possible.

[MWRuger]

Grin:

Someone does crafty/sewing type projects!

[Deadflame2]

I noticed someone mentioned 2 accounts.  I also had 2 accounts and paid for both for periods.  I'll most likely do the same again after a short time depending on whether we have our accounts back or not.

[primeknight]

First, it was jiggawatts, not jiggabytes. Second, it was actually gigawatts. The word can and has been pronounced with a hard G or a soft J. Soft J is the correct style according to Merriam-Webster 
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gigawatt)

While I agree with you about parsecs, I have heard the explanation that the ship actually warps space by bending it. The more it's warped the less physical distance it actually travels. If so, then 12 parsecs is a measure of distance. A less capable ship might make the run in say 21 parsecs because it could not warp space sufficiently.

But I think he just screwed up.

Everyone pronounces gigawatts with a "G", not a "J" except for the guy at the seminar that Spielberg attended:  seriously, he tired to get educated.  It's fine though...it's pronounced either way technically. 

The Star Wars thing was "explained" as: The Kessel Run was thus: the transport ship was trying to catch a moving target ship to make a delivery.  So the faster the transport ship, the shorter the distance it took to catch the moving target.  But Lucas believed, Parsec to be a measure of speed, the explanation was made up just so the line in Star Wars made some semblance of sense. 

(Hey, there's a reason I have "Knight" in my username :) )

[Serpine]

What if you can buy a one time purchase and get everything - for free? You won't need paragon points then! Then if they do make a store for extras - BONUS!

I'd have no issue with that. Since it is likely individual purchase information is gone, getting all the previously released things in peoples hands in a convenient / economical fashion seems best.

Then after that a theoretical store could focus on expendable things and things we definitely didn't have before, like some of the costume parts you can only see in Icon when in NPC mode. :)

That'd be awesome, but how does that get coded?  They need the tools to do that right?

You don't really need existing tools. First you'd need to figure out the format of the existing databases which can probably be done by studying the available game snapshot. Its may be a propriety database design or something standard, but unless seriously encoded figuring it out shouldn't be a big deal. Once you can read the databases, my guess is that one of them has as records each costumer ID linked to all the IDs of the unlocks that ID has access to. This may or may not have been separate from where other info (password / name / etc) were stored. The list could be a long string, delimited records, a series of records with unique keys for each item, or some more esoteric form. Whatever the case, all you'd likely need is a few examples or trial & error to figure out how to manually add unlocks to the database and confirm how it all works. Then you identify all the known unlock indexes (which are probably cross-referenced in another database, or fields in the databases of each sort of unlockable thing) and you can construct a baseline for what data an account would look like with everything unlocked. Once you have that, you can build a new probably fairly simple tool that you can link to a store (or account, or whatever) option and block writes all the required "unlocks most everything" data to the appropriate database but linked to whatever account you want.

I'm simplifying a bit but it seems a pretty rudimentary (if initially time consuming) operation if you are good with navigating data structures.

[Scendera]

New team stipulates in the agreement to buy the game from NC. We reserve the right to use any missing code, tools, data that may come to light after that guy signs at the given price. Hokey smokes, where'd that come from :D

I can hope can't I :D

If NCSoft offered permission, it would definitely be a very classy move that would get a lot of good will, even it it turned out nothing actually remained. Failing that, yes it should be asked for.

[MWRuger]

Everyone pronounces gigawatts with a "G", not a "J" except for the guy at the seminar that Spielberg attended:  seriously, he tired to get educated.  It's fine though...it's pronounced either way technically. 

The Star Wars thing was "explained" as: The Kessel Run was thus: the transport ship was trying to catch a moving target ship to make a delivery.  So the faster the transport ship, the shorter the distance it took to catch the moving target.  But Lucas believed, Parsec to be a measure of speed, the explanation was made up just so the line in Star Wars made some semblance of sense. 

(Hey, there's a reason I have "Knight" in my username :) )

That's the way I pronounce it myself, with a hard G. In fact I never heard it pronounced the other way. But I guess Christopher Lloyd did!

See, that parsec explanation makes as much sense as any retconning ever does. I've heard others as well. Is that the "official" one George decided on?

[MWRuger]

What if you can buy a one time purchase and get everything - for free? You won't need paragon points then! Then if they do make a store for extras - BONUS!

OK. Sign me up for three of these!

[Fanta]

OK. Sign me up for three of these!

I'd get at least two for boxing.

[primeknight]

That's the way I pronounce it myself, with a hard G. In fact I never heard it pronounced the other way. But I guess Christopher Lloyd did!

See, that parsec explanation makes as much sense as any retconning ever does. I've heard others as well. Is that the "official" one George decided on?

Yup, a more detailed version should be up on the wookieepedia...or just look up Kessel Run on google.  Just be careful, you could be on there for years reading up Star Wars related stuff. 

And officially, Disney gets to make all calls on any explanations so they may retcon the retcon :) 

[Wammo]

Happy birthday Alien...and if you give me a tag I will gladly have it!

[Fanta]

Happy birthday Alien...and if you give me a tag I will gladly have it!

Not sure he can, but I will. You're it!

[Black Gold]

Costume Contest in Atlas Park starting in 5 months! :P

I'll be there (hope there's a Guardian server LOL. what can i say? It's home!)

[Black Gold]

What if you can buy a one time purchase and get everything - for free? You won't need paragon points then! Then if they do make a store for extras - BONUS!

I would do THIS atleast twice. I always loved having two accounts and fully plan to do so again!

[Zubenelgenubi]

Except that they wouldn't have... Lived, that is.  Remember, unjoined Kheldians only live 8 years (another stupidhead thing about them.  Whoever thought -that- one up needs some slappage!)

We know from the lore that Khelds come from outside our galaxy (though how far out is unknown). It's  impossible for a lifeform with only an 8 year lifespan to travel the millions of light years between galaxies if its limited to light speed.  Even time dilation effects wouldn't allow it, it's too far.

This turns out not to be the case.

When an object travels near lightspeed, time dilation slows its experience of the passing of time. Massless particles (like photons) *must* travel at exactly the speed of light. These particles do not experience the passing of time whatsoever. A photon leaving the Andromeda galaxy arrives at the mirror of my telescope in ZERO TIME, as far as the photon is concerned. To me, it took about 2.5 million years from Point A to Point B.

Objects with rest mass cannot travel at lightspeed (their mass would increase to infinity). The closer to lightspeed you go, the slower time passes. So just wave your hand and say, "They were travelling so close to light speed that only 3 or 4 months of subjective time passed as they travelled to Earth." It's actually trivially easy to calculate *exactly* how fast they were moving if you know the distance and their subjective time experience.

The mechanism used and the energy expended to accelerate our hypothetical relativistic Keldans is left as a (hand-waving) exercise for the student.  ;)