New efforts!

[Wizzyboy296]

Yep. everyone will start at square one.  I have asked if it will be possible to either discount-purchase, or for all players to start with, a certain amount of vet rewards, maybe 48 to 72 month's worth if we pre-register.

well i dont care my character is gone, i can just restart him into better one  ;D so long all the stuff in the game is back. Then i can draw art fans for my characters and maybe for everyone!  :D :D :D

[candidate]

I fear if we have to start from scratch, a lot of casual players will not be interested in the game. So a few thousand hardcore players will continue.

But is that enough to keep the game going ?

So many games out there....... Star Citizen not that far away  ;)

[Takinalis]

I wasn't really a hard core player from 2010-2012, but I did dream about City of Heroes last night....

[Wizzyboy296]

still so long as the game returns, it's awesome! can i tell something, this game has everything what you like to play with, doesn't matter. i wasn't hardcore dude either 2010-2012, so far i forgot to say goodbye to coh last night on 2012 due my pc was dead that day :'( :'( but now today i got new one and now waiting for the game returns, maybe it returns like happy new year, a good day   ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[LaughingAlex]

I fear if we have to start from scratch, a lot of casual players will not be interested in the game. So a few thousand hardcore players will continue.

But is that enough to keep the game going ?

So many games out there....... Star Citizen not that far away  ;)

And whats to say that Star Citizen isn't going to repeat the mistakes of so many other mmorpgs?  I'm not actually that hardcore of a player and I'm fine with starting over.  Odds are if everyone had to start over it wouldn't be long before we have 50s running around anyways.  I already know how to level up fast in CoX without any power leveling maps, not a hard thing to do.  Just important to have lots of force multipliers.  Any player could do it to, its more knowing the strategy than anything.

And I don't think casuals are THAT common among gamers or mmorpg players.  If a person has an attention span and can play a game for an hour or two and improve at the game, they aren't casual.  Just my thought on that anyways.

[Twisted Toon]

I fear if we have to start from scratch, a lot of casual players will not be interested in the game. So a few thousand hardcore players will continue.

But is that enough to keep the game going ?

So many games out there....... Star Citizen not that far away  ;)

I know about a dozen people that would happily come back to CoH. I would only consider a couple of them hardcore players too. I'm sure if we could get Agent Night going again, we'd have our 50's back in no time. Then I could work on Incarnating Agent Standin again.

[Power Gamer]

I fear if we have to start from scratch, a lot of casual players will not be interested in the game. So a few thousand hardcore players will continue.

But is that enough to keep the game going ?

So many games out there....... Star Citizen not that far away  ;)

While Star Citizen might be an interesting diversion, it hardly compares to CoX.
If we get the relaunch, I will NOT have time for another mmo. Heck, I don't make time for any mmos now.

I played CoX because I liked the genre. It was soon after that I fell in love with the game, lore and community.

I admit that I do like sci-fi, but it doesn't hold the place that superhero genre maintains in my mind.

[FloatingFatMan]

So many games out there....... Star Citizen not that far away  ;)

I wouldn't hold your breath for that money pit, if I were you...  Biggest con I've ever seen, that thing is...

[Power Gamer]

I can pretty much guarantee that when CoX returns, I will bring at least a dozen players with me.
Some will be new, but most were casual players.

We will use AE to generate our own rpgs within the genre as well as play the established arcs.
I have over 30 years of game mastering experience. I know how to get people to the table and keep them coming back.
I run 5 rpgs a week now, each in different genres (superhero, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, western and spy-thriller switching depending) with 8 to 12 people at each table and a waiting list of dozens who want to get in.

So when I say I can guarantee at least a dozen players, it is not hyperbole. 

[Sinistar]

I wasn't really a hard core player from 2010-2012, but I did dream about City of Heroes last night....

Watch the anime series Sword Art Online, that should spur many a CoH related dream

[Angel Phoenix77]

I fear if we have to start from scratch, a lot of casual players will not be interested in the game. So a few thousand hardcore players will continue.

But is that enough to keep the game going ?

So many games out there....... Star Citizen not that far away  ;)

Some might see it this way, however, I think most just want to play. After 2 years this is how I see most of the cox community wanting, that is not saying some of those will devote the time they did before.

[blacksly]

I fear if we have to start from scratch, a lot of casual players will not be interested in the game. So a few thousand hardcore players will continue.

But is that enough to keep the game going ?

So many games out there....... Star Citizen not that far away  ;)

How many thousand? Ten? Sounds conservative.
What average amount did they spend per month? Is $10 a conservative estimate?
Am I seeing a very conservative estimate of $100k income a month for a game that is not spending any money on development?

That would be enough to keep it alive easily, plus a bit to spare for cheap advertising, plus even hiring contractors to try to create an editing tool that would allow them to add new powersets. If they manage that, then they would easily double their numbers, just from the difference of signing up for a game that will not get anything new, to signing up for a game that will get regular updates with new powersets. If they can do the same for missions (leaving aside AE) so they can add more developer-sanctioned content, then you can increase the numbers even more.

I'm just not seeing any major problems. There are TONS of servers out there operating for other games such as WoW and UO, and they're pretty much F2P all the way... now add in that the CoX servers would have official support so they can officially advertise and charge a subscription fee, and I can't see why would the game have any problems continuing.

[Teikiatsu]

I can pretty much guarantee that when CoX returns, I will bring at least a dozen players with me.
Some will be new, but most were casual players.

I know of at least one hard-core grind style player that will come back, even after being told he would have to start over.  The conversation came up after he hunted me down on FB and was complaining that no other MMO could satisfy him.  WoW, EQ, DAoC, TSW, TOR.  He'd tried so many with no hook to keep him around.  Then I mentioned this possibility and he was all in.

After that I have a friend and hos two sons that will want to try it out when CoX is back online.  He'll love the crafting and his two sons are polar opposites.  One is a super techie sci fi person, the other is all about fantasy swords and sorcery.  They've never found anything they all like.

[JanessaVR]

How many thousand? Ten? Sounds conservative.
What average amount did they spend per month? Is $10 a conservative estimate?
Am I seeing a very conservative estimate of $100k income a month for a game that is not spending any money on development?

That would be enough to keep it alive easily, plus a bit to spare for cheap advertising, plus even hiring contractors to try to create an editing tool that would allow them to add new powersets. If they manage that, then they would easily double their numbers, just from the difference of signing up for a game that will not get anything new, to signing up for a game that will get regular updates with new powersets. If they can do the same for missions (leaving aside AE) so they can add more developer-sanctioned content, then you can increase the numbers even more.

I'm just not seeing any major problems. There are TONS of servers out there operating for other games such as WoW and UO, and they're pretty much F2P all the way... now add in that the CoX servers would have official support so they can officially advertise and charge a subscription fee, and I can't see why would the game have any problems continuing.

This is more or less what I was thinking.  With enough old players resubscribed (and the money that generates), would it reasonable to try decompiling the server image and coming up with a version of the source code?

Or, since we basically have all the #'s behind the code, and the zones/animations/sounds in the PIGG files as references, would it be more productive to just forego all that and jump straight to getting it working in Unreal 4?

I suspect the latter may prove the more productive path.

[LaughingAlex]

I can pretty much guarantee that when CoX returns, I will bring at least a dozen players with me.
Some will be new, but most were casual players.

We will use AE to generate our own rpgs within the genre as well as play the established arcs.
I have over 30 years of game mastering experience. I know how to get people to the table and keep them coming back.
I run 5 rpgs a week now, each in different genres (superhero, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, western and spy-thriller switching depending) with 8 to 12 people at each table and a waiting list of dozens who want to get in.

So when I say I can guarantee at least a dozen players, it is not hyperbole.

I'm in a similar boat.  Alot of people in CO I know want to try city of heroes out when/if it comes back.  The thing is, many of them grew MORE curious since it's shutdown rather than less so, I also get the feeling that many of them are hearing positive things from alot of CoX players, especially about content, which CO lacks, horribly.  They want to know what they missed out on and what the big fuss was, and even why Jack Emerit himself spoke of CoX positively at that one mmorpg convention(can't remember it's name atm).

[Surelle]

This is more or less what I was thinking.  With enough old players resubscribed (and the money that generates), would it reasonable to try decompiling the server image and coming up with a version of the source code?

Or, since we basically have all the #'s behind the code, and the zones/animations/sounds in the PIGG files as references, would it be more productive to just forego all that and jump straight to getting it working in Unreal 4?

I suspect the latter may prove the more productive path.

You know, you're probably right.  I'd heard that the original plans for CoX2 were to port existing characters into the new game.  I think they were trying to do that to get away from all that outdated spaghetti code.

[Arcana]

This is more or less what I was thinking.  With enough old players resubscribed (and the money that generates), would it reasonable to try decompiling the server image and coming up with a version of the source code?

Or, since we basically have all the #'s behind the code, and the zones/animations/sounds in the PIGG files as references, would it be more productive to just forego all that and jump straight to getting it working in Unreal 4?

I suspect the latter may prove the more productive path.

The latter is also the only practical one.  The former actually borders on technobabble, in that while its hypothetically possible to do that in theory, in practice the current state of the art of technology only allows you do things like analyze what a particular subroutine does or investigate how memory gets written for a particular module, but it doesn't ever generate source code human beings can actually use to continue development of the program.  There's no reverse equivalent to what an optimizing compiler does.  Its "lossy."

Decompiling executable images to recreate the source code is rather like bypassing the Heisenberg compensators to manually align the pattern buffer and recreate a matter stream from a holograph scan.  Or to put it more realistically, its like trying to recreate a movie script after only listening to the sound track.

[JanessaVR]

The latter is also the only practical one.  The former actually borders on technobabble, in that while its hypothetically possible to do that in theory, in practice the current state of the art of technology only allows you do things like analyze what a particular subroutine does or investigate how memory gets written for a particular module, but it doesn't ever generate source code human beings can actually use to continue development of the program.  There's no reverse equivalent to what an optimizing compiler does.  Its "lossy."

Decompiling executable images to recreate the source code is rather like bypassing the Heisenberg compensators to manually align the pattern buffer and recreate a matter stream from a holograph scan.  Or to put it more realistically, its like trying to recreate a movie script after only listening to the sound track.

Interesting.  I've heard talk of decompiler programs before, but never used one.  That said, some apparently do exist, but if what you say is true (and I certainly have no reason to doubt that, coming from you), I wonder what use they are.

[Des_Tructive]

This is more or less what I was thinking.  With enough old players resubscribed (and the money that generates), would it reasonable to try decompiling the server image and coming up with a version of the source code?

Or, since we basically have all the #'s behind the code, and the zones/animations/sounds in the PIGG files as references, would it be more productive to just forego all that and jump straight to getting it working in Unreal 4?

I suspect the latter may prove the more productive path.

I'm still hoping that somewhere along the way, the CoX source will magically "show up". I find it so extremely hard to believe that nobody at Paragon Studios, with them being so passionate about the game, didn't save a back up. I'm not implying that someone did, since that would draw a metric *@&%ton of legal issues, I'm just saying I'd be surprised if nobody didn't.

[Mistress Urd]

I wouldn't hold your breath for that money pit, if I were you...  Biggest con I've ever seen, that thing is...

Yeah, another Duke Nukem. With the current track record of new MMOs, its best to see how it looks after a year.