New efforts!

[Deadflame2]

So, if they get the disk image running as is at Issue 24, what about the unfinished content like the Wind Control power set? It's nothing but a set of placeholders. They could probably figure out their own animations and graphics for it but would likely need to get a hold of former Paragon employees that were responsible for programming and integrating the power sets. But I guess they'd be figuring all this out during the reverse engineering process.

And, on the idea that they may attempt a CoH2 on the Unreal engine, I would hope they'd use everything they're getting in that disk image as reference for what to launch the sequel with... and what not to mess with in the fundamental game mechanics. Change it too much and it ceases to be City of Heroes. Really don't want to play a sequel that handles like CO or DCUO. CoH's gameplay is the whole reason I largely ignored the others. They just don't compare in this sense regardless of all the newer, nicer things they have in place.

It's already pretty much been confirmed that there will be no developing of CoH.  There's no point.  The goal is strictly to get the game up and running in it's last known working form.  Any development (aside from getting CoH up and running) will be directed entirely at CoH2.  This is the best possible solution to the aging (Read: aged) engine.  Once development begins on CoH2, I'm sure there will be a place express our wants/needs/wishes/ridiculous demands ;)  Seeing as the buyers are described as "just like us", chances are slim they'll ignore the original feel of CoH when moving over to a new engine.  There is a pretty good chance they're going to port over as much of the original game as they possibly can, while most likely adding whatever it is that's going to make it "CoH2".

[Angel Phoenix77]

I missed a part - the code is likely not going to be "worked" developed past Issue 24.

Some of the tools to do so were custom made and not in NCSoft's posession. What would be possible is to run the game at Issue 24 and continue development on CoH 2 using the UnReal4 engine. I think you are seeing some of the posts and reading into them what you want to see. Due to NCSoft linking game accounts across all of their stable of games - account information is highly unlikely to be recovered, it also is information that is 2 years old and many emails and credit information have changed.

The character information is possible but the main point now is NCSoft asked the team to prove they are technically able to run the game. Once that is finished then further bargaining will happen. You can take a seat and heckle if you like but it won't stop me. I know where it all rests right now and either way you will hear what is happening.

I want to honestly say thank you and to the team of buyers for trying to get this game back. While I would love to have my characters back, if I don't get them it wont upset me, because right atm I am not playing :(.
As for the tools can't the team reach out and ask cryptic to see if they would be willing to supply the needed tools?

[Blightrix]

Hi there, I would just like to state first, I just recently discovered this forum and the efforts (I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the effort begin put into this) being made to get CoX back.

With the disclaimer out of the way I just had a question. IF user data was recovered, would it transfer to CoH2 (it seems like that is a must  for this deal to work, at least from what I've read) if you cannot get the original user data back will the new data be transferred to CoH2?

[Mistress Urd]

That icon program is really handy on days when I come up with an idea for a new character. It was also helpful in exposing the 2kro problem on IBM model Ms.

I'm still waiting! Its been too long since I got my CoH gametime in!

Dear Ironwolf, yes we are waiting with lots of anxiety!

[Luna Eclypse]

It's already pretty much been confirmed that there will be no developing of CoH.  There's no point.  The goal is strictly to get the game up and running in it's last known working form.  Any development (aside from getting CoH up and running) will be directed entirely at CoH2.  This is the best possible solution to the aging (Read: aged) engine.  Once development begins on CoH2, I'm sure there will be a place express our wants/needs/wishes/ridiculous demands ;)  Seeing as the buyers are described as "just like us", chances are slim they'll ignore the original feel of CoH when moving over to a new engine.  There is a pretty good chance they're going to port over as much of the original game as they possibly can, while most likely adding whatever it is that's going to make it "CoH2".

Sold, I'll take it! Ya know what, charge me monthly even to play the old game at the start of all this if it'll help cover any expenses. All I ask for in CoH2 is the gameplay not be radically changed and that I get separate fingers on my character model. And comparable big 80s hair to that in my portrait to the left here. ^^;

[Angel Phoenix77]

Hi there, I would just like to state first, I just recently discovered this forum and the efforts (I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the effort begin put into this) being made to get CoX back.

With the disclaimer out of the way I just had a question. IF user data was recovered, would it transfer to CoH2 (it seems like that is a must  for this deal to work, at least from what I've read) if you cannot get the original user data back will the new data be transferred to CoH2?

while I would not know first hand about the character information going to city of 2. I would think they would be for the city of heroes legacy (city of 1).

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

In addition to the use of "unicorn" to replace a more-inflammatory word, there is also the use of the word "pancake" to replace a profanity. Personally, I find this choice unfortunate, as I LOVE pancakes. However, I totally loathe grapefruit, and would have no objection to that word's becoming a profanity. :)

Though that originating on the CoX forums if I recall.

There was a brief period (not sure it was even a full day) on the official forums where one of the mods altered the language filter so that every letter of a filtered word was replaced with "pancake". So if you were quoting a certain movie instead of "I'm sick of these ************* snakes on this ************* plane!" it would display as "I'm sick of these pancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancake snakes on this pancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancake plane!" Needless to say a number of us who rarely used censored words at all went out of our way to use the longest censored words we could think of in every post. Some threads became virtual walls of pancake.

Ok since NCsoft asked the team to prove they can run the game; once we have the game do we have to raise money in order for the new devs to reverse engineer City of Heroes just like what we did on the City of Titans kickstarter campaign?

Nope, that's not even vaguely what's happening. i'd suggest at least searching for all the posts by Ironwolf if reading the whole thread seems (understandably) a bit daunting.



[140 pages and counting. This is by far the largest thread i can recall reading here.]

[Angel Phoenix77]

Though that originating on the CoX forums if I recall.
There was a brief period (not sure it was even a full day) on the official forums where one of the mods altered the language filter so that every letter of a filtered word was replaced with "pancake". So if you were quoting a certain movie instead of "I'm sick of these ************* snakes on this ************* plane!" it would display as "I'm sick of these pancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancake snakes on this pancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancakepancake plane!" Needless to say a number of us who rarely used censored words at all went out of our way to use the longest censored words we could think of in every post. Some threads became virtual walls of pancake.
Nope, that's not even vaguely what's happening. i'd suggest at least searching for all the posts by Ironwolf if reading the whole thread seems (understandably) a bit daunting.



[140 pages and counting. This is by far the largest thread i can recall reading here.]

I have read all 350 pages :D

[Goddangit]

I have read all 350 pages :D

As have I.  We should get the Eyestrain badge.   8)

[LaughingAlex]

I have read all 350 pages :D

All 350?  Man, ever since it took off I'd been struggling to keep up, i'm mostly skimming back and forth anymore.

I envy you can do that LOL.

[Felderburg]

Regarding CoH2:

1. I hope there's something to tie characters from 1 to 2. Even if we start over in 1, it would be nice to have that tie, like Guild Wars does.

2. I'm not sure anything would be "ported over" to CoH2 from CoH1... maybe some of the basic graphics, but if it's being made as a new game, make sure it has the right "feel", and then create it with awesome new assets and innovative gameplay features. I think the amount of stuff that moves from 1 to 2 will depend on when and where 2 is set.

That reminds me of the time I was in Sirens Call, and it respawned me at the hero hospital... as a villain. I still have no idea why it did it, but I certainly gave several heroes the scare when they respawned. Never seen someone run so fast to catch an elevator.  ;D

Even at the end, there was an angle you could fly into the villain base with as a hero, and not get hit by drones. Even after they added walls and extra drones. You couldn't move from the spot, but it was fun to do. I mean, other than the soul-crushing loneliness, it was fun.

...the second to string him up by his curly bits! :p

... his hair? What is a curly bit?

I'm not sure when it was changed but I remember being chased to the ends of the earth enemies that could fly, mostly the clockwork. I could always get away from the ground ones but not them.

Yeah, I was gonna say that it was the flying ones.

[dwturducken]

At this point, I'm pretty much just skipping everything that isn't posted by Ironwolf, no offense to anyone who isn't "being moderated." (Frankly, if you've been moderated, I probably didn't need to read what you had posted, anyway, right?)

Thanks to Codewalker (or whomever it is, now) having fun with the colored dots, I tend to stop on new colors, like Agge's (yes, I still use "pancake" and "unicorn;" why the pancake not?), and the new nicknames or titles or whatever they are are kinda fun, too, but all I really care about is if and when the game is coming back. I drove myself nuts back during the run up to The Shutdown with this sort of speculation, and I can't do that to myself, this time.

That said, there are a lot of names that I'm happy to see back. It bodes well. :)

[Angel Phoenix77]

As have I.  We should get the Eyestrain badge.   8)

I agree :D

for Laughing Alex, I started reading this thread near the very beginning, before this I was a lurker, only posting a few times a month if at that, not I've posted so much I am now a Elite Boss :D

[Angel Phoenix77]

All 350?  Man, ever since it took off I'd been struggling to keep up, i'm mostly skimming back and forth anymore.

I envy you can do that LOL.

Thank you when I am not at my college and I am tired of writing assignments, I just click on this site and after I read the new posts, I write abit more than refresh to see what's new :D

[Serpine]

And, on the idea that they may attempt a CoH2 on the Unreal engine, I would hope they'd use everything they're getting in that disk image as reference for what to launch the sequel with... and what not to mess with in the fundamental game mechanics. Change it too much and it ceases to be City of Heroes.

My understanding is the "reverse engineering" that gets mentioned is actually just identifying / extracting the existing behaviors of CoH for use in a fairly direct rebuild under a new engine as CoH2. If they really aren't getting source code its hard to imagine any reasonable amount of work would allow them to convert the compiled game into something that could be worked with in a production capacity, and even if so the time would be better spent on the higher-end remake. That's why it gets talked about as being likely to end up in maintenance: Because they aren't going to be able to adjust the original product much at all beyond what can be accomplished with pure database manipulation (which technically could be a lot depending on what gets stored that way).

[Luna Eclypse]

My understanding is the "reverse engineering" that gets mentioned is actually just identifying / extracting the existing behaviors of CoH for use in a fairly direct rebuild under a new engine as CoH2. If they really aren't getting source code its hard to imagine any reasonable amount of work would allow them to convert the compiled game into something that could be worked with in a production capacity, and even if so the time would be better spent on the higher-end remake. That's why it gets talked about as being likely to end up in maintenance: Because they aren't going to be able to adjust the original product much at all beyond what can be accomplished with pure database manipulation (which technically could be a lot depending on what gets stored that way).

Totally cool with that too. I'm cool with whatever they want to do as long as we get the game back. Maybe in rebuilding it, many features that were complicated to add to the old engine can be integrated directly into the new build from the start... even something as simple as the Walk power being added as a native keybind without the need for the power.

[Magus Prime]

Hi, everyone.

I've been giving it some thought and I've come to the conclusion that now's as good a time as any to announce that I am the benefactor looking to buy our beloved City of Heroes.  But before you all get your hopes up any further, I think it's only right that I inform you that I have no intention of re-releasing the game and that the only reason why I'm interested in purchasing CoH is so I can fuss around with the character creator and rework the backstory on my petless mastermind.  Some of you might ask, "Well why don't you just download 'Icon'?" and to which I reply: I tried that and when Windows asked me if I wanted the program to make changes to my computer I accidentally hit "No".  I have no idea how to fix my boo boo so I figured it would just be easier if I just buy the game.  Again, sorry to dash everybody's excitement but if you're still interested I will keep filling Iron Wolf in on my progress so stay tuned right here for all the latest!


Regards,
Some rich guy.

[Serpine]

and that I get separate fingers on my character model.

Fingers would certainly be a nice option, though keeping around the legacy mitten-hands would be cool as well. :)

What I really want in a CoH2 build is more then two color channels on costume parts that it would make sense (4 or 5 would be nice). And I'd really like parts to be broken up across more categories (i.e. splitting up shoulder pieces into separate right shoulder / left shoulder / neck / bicep / slots, splitting belts into belt / hip, etc). One area CO actually really excels is how many different components costumes are split up into, and they've been adding even slots over time, like recently the "foot accessory" which is for stuff like additional armor plating or a knife that is strapped to the outside of your boot.

[LaughingAlex]

My understanding is the "reverse engineering" that gets mentioned is actually just identifying / extracting the existing behaviors of CoH for use in a fairly direct rebuild under a new engine as CoH2. If they really aren't getting source code its hard to imagine any reasonable amount of work would allow them to convert the compiled game into something that could be worked with in a production capacity, and even if so the time would be better spent on the higher-end remake. That's why it gets talked about as being likely to end up in maintenance: Because they aren't going to be able to adjust the original product much at all beyond what can be accomplished with pure database manipulation (which technically could be a lot depending on what gets stored that way).

Well, mechanically CoX was fairly simple, combat wise.  You had to hit rates and accuracy, which multiplied against each other to determine the "chance to hit", which was then if I recall subtracted from by defense.  To-hit debuffs affected to-hit directly, and thus chance to hit was impacted ect.  It's not like CO where you have "layer, layer, layer, another layer, ok, this layer is in front of layer 1 but is unaffected by layer 3, layer, layer, another layer affected by layer 4 and 2 but not 1 and 3", which was more like sphaghetti(don't have to be a game coder, this is actually just evident in the many damage glitches and whatnot, like protection field for example not benefiting from dodging or resistance in normal circumstances, but strangely benefiting from dodging only when you have post-resistance absorption such as IDF, but still not benefiting from the resistance layer in front of that absorption, you can see this in the battle station pretty easily).

CoX was, surprisingly, simple.  Chance to hit equaled, roughly, (tohit + accuracy) - defense.  I think, from my observations.  A dev could probably step in and correct me on that.  But combat was designed around layering defenses and resistances, which was how it also avoided the more common mmohtg problems in team dynamics to.

[Luna Eclypse]

Fingers would certainly be a nice option, though keeping around the legacy mitten-hands would be cool as well. :)

What I really want in a CoH2 build is more then two color channels on costume parts that it would make sense (4 or 5 would be nice). And I'd really like parts to be broken up across more categories (i.e. splitting up shoulder pieces into separate right shoulder / left shoulder / neck / bicep / slots, splitting belts into belt / hip, etc). One area CO actually really excels is how many different components costumes are split up into, and they've been adding even slots over time, like recently the "foot accessory" which is for stuff like additional armor plating or a knife that is strapped to the outside of your boot.

That is the one great thing about CO. I loved the creation options, I just didn't like the plastic aesthetic of everything in the game. 3 to 4 color channels would be ideal and definitely left and right separation of applicable costume pieces. And I know a lot of people like certain legacy costume pieces regardless of them looking very outdated next to later work that was done but I'd like to see everything get a polygon boost and re-texture as long as it maintains the form of it's legacy appearance... such as hair or costume pieces with their own meshes separate from the body like belts and shoulder pads. Rebuilding the game in the Unreal engine gives plenty of room to improve the visuals. I mean, graphics do not a good game make but the visuals here are definitely integral to the experience.