New efforts!

[Matt Bold]

I was getting concerned a few weeks back but I remembered that they definitely would have to reconfigure the server, that includes the update server and the shop server. this could take a lot of work, money and time.

And that is assuming that is all that needs to be done. Maybe there was some profit breaking glitch/bug?, maybe all those bugs the paragon staff said were in the game at it's core level were the cause. If that's the case NCSoft might have said "ok, we'll tell you what we told paragon, if you want the game back and running, we'll sell it for a nominal price cause we aren't bad and actually want to see the game running, the catch? we need to set-up a transition company to fix all the server bugs and that will need to be paid for and will take a long time."

ok, there was a profit breaking glitch/bug, several actually that we/I know of here (possibly more than I know of). they may have been caused by something at the core level of the code (hence why they weren't being fixed and need to be for a self-run server). As far as I remember they were;

1: the permanent VIP bug, you buy VIP once and for some reason the timer on the server-side keeps refilling itself to 30 days on a per tick basis. (kinda like the holiday jet-pack glitch, that too kept refilling to 30 days on a per tick basis, I had one for 3 months using it all the time lol, my character had perma fly with the holiday jetpack).

With the jetpack they caught it and eventually reset it and it ran out, but something like a permanent VIP situation might not be caught without the user saying something, and we all know half the time we are too busy having fun and working to pay attention to weather we paid for that month or not.

2: The store points glitch (offshoot of the Permanent VIP glitch) so you get permanent vip, and every month you get more store points, but, store points are awarded in relation to the day that you purchased the VIP subscription, so if the server is constantly renewing your subscription on a per tick basis then once a day you will receive a whole month's store points.

these are 2 glitches I encountered personally. And I'm not that lucky, so if I observed this, I'm sure others did too, lots of others.

lastly, I'm certain the bugs /WILL/ be a necessary part of the negotiations for these reasons;

1: a game 5 years old having serious game breaking bugs like it's still in beta? yeah, no.

2: For the game to be left in stand-alone mode without staff for the majority of the year, means no updates, no Game Mods and with no GMs means there can't be a possibility to get stuck in walls or any of the other known glitches like the team leader glitch ETC.. this also means they might seal up that spot players have been using to get into the matrix zone, or they might remove the matrix zone completely.

3: stand-alone means that the server automatically cycles the holiday events and their updates without fail and without human input. Can't have bugs cause you might come to work one day a year later and find 7 months of messages from players complaining that it's been the Christmas event all year and all other events were skipped, or that there's a million lord frosts in atlas park and it's overloading peoples computers if they visit atlas.

It'll need to be bug free, and code will have to be added to cycle the seasonal content.

I forget how long the paragon crew said that would take, but obviously it was too long and too much effort for them to consider it while the game was live. I think I remember someone saying they'd have to rebuild the whole game just about.

So please be patient, and keep your hopes up, they aren't taking a long time because of negotiation problems (or we would have heard something), I suspect they are hard at work patching bugs and testing it.

Person 1: "hey, [president of NCSoft] we need you in the board room"
president of NCsoft: "can't now, busy testing CoX"
Person 1: "you can 'Test' that later, right now we need to go over the problems with guildwars and guildwars 2's declining fan base"
president: "just 5 more minutes! sheesh! we've almost got Reichsman down and there's no pause button!"

I would think that if they were to the point of preparing for launch or even bug testing, then they would be shouting from the rooftops getting people excited for the return.  I do not see a benefit of waiting to tell the community that the game is coming back if they already have it in their hands.  I silently check this board every day waiting for another shred of hope but what I assume happened is they were just blown off completely by NCSoft.  Even in the event of an NDA, if any deal has been made I'm sure it would be easy to make a case for some sort of announcement.  Even if the announcement was "Hey, things are progressing.  No ETA yet." to at least keep the handful of people that still reminisce about the game interested and hopeful.

I don't know what's worse.  Having them come out and say the deal is dead, or that they went through all this effort and by the time it's released nobody is interested anymore.

I really don't want to be a debbie downer here, but I just don't see how it's a smart business decision to say NOTHING.

[RGladden]

With an nda in place, as Ironwolf indicated, we can draw a few inferences from the fact that we haven't heard anything.  First, the deal hasn't failed yet, because if it had the nda would be rendered null-and-void and we would have heard something from the negotiating team already.  Secondly, since there seems to be some sort of holdup in the re-release of CoH, the problem is more than likely technical, and not financial.

If the sticking point is technical, the problem can be overcome, but it's going to take, in all probability, a lot of time.

[Surelle]

Out of curiosity I did just check Nate Downes' profile here, and he hasn't even logged onto the Titan network in 3 1/2 months, since December 31, 2014.  I would think that if things were moving along, he'd be at least keeping an eye on these forums and morale, if nothing else but to gauge how many potential paying customers he'd have for launch at least.   

[WildFire15]

Out of curiosity I did just check Nate Downes' profile here, and he hasn't even logged onto the Titan network in 3 1/2 months, since December 31, 2014.  I would think that if things were moving along, he'd be at least keeping an eye on these forums and morale, if nothing else but to gauge how many potential paying customers he'd have for launch at least.

He might be avoiding the forum to avoid correcting people and possibly breaking the NDA.

[RGladden]

He might be avoiding the forum to avoid correcting people and possibly breaking the NDA.

Yep.  Nailed it.

With the NDA in place, Nate is entitled to tell us....nothing.  IF the deal has fallen through he would have already told us, because the NDA would no longer be valid.

Patience is our only option at this point.  But, as one vulture said to another vulture,  "Patience my ass!  I'm gonna go KILL something!!"

[HeatSpike1]

Out of curiosity I did just check Nate Downes' profile here, and he hasn't even logged onto the Titan network in 3 1/2 months, since December 31, 2014.  I would think that if things were moving along, he'd be at least keeping an eye on these forums and morale, if nothing else but to gauge how many potential paying customers he'd have for launch at least.

the only thing on Nate Downes mind is cooperating with the NDA and trying to get CoH back into our hands. Reading the titan network forums, or not for that matter, to check moral isn't any lead worth following for signs on how the negotiation is going. I mean if CoH came back tomorrow or a year from tomorrow, anyone who's been waiting this long will be there when it opens back up. I know it seems a little disheartening that we haven't received any updates in a couple months and we're all on the edge of our seats.  However, no news is good news.  That means we're still in there getting closer and closer each day. 

[Felderburg]

Out of curiosity I did just check Nate Downes' profile here, and he hasn't even logged onto the Titan network in 3 1/2 months, since December 31, 2014.  I would think that if things were moving along, he'd be at least keeping an eye on these forums and morale, if nothing else but to gauge how many potential paying customers he'd have for launch at least.

I seem to recall some posts here about him posting on Facebook, so he's not completely away.

[Burnt Toast]

I have no doubt that when the return of CoH is announced... there will be plenty of interest :)

I would think that if they were to the point of preparing for launch or even bug testing, then they would be shouting from the rooftops getting people excited for the return.  I do not see a benefit of waiting to tell the community that the game is coming back if they already have it in their hands.  I silently check this board every day waiting for another shred of hope but what I assume happened is they were just blown off completely by NCSoft.  Even in the event of an NDA, if any deal has been made I'm sure it would be easy to make a case for some sort of announcement.  Even if the announcement was "Hey, things are progressing.  No ETA yet." to at least keep the handful of people that still reminisce about the game interested and hopeful.

I don't know what's worse.  Having them come out and say the deal is dead, or that they went through all this effort and by the time it's released nobody is interested anymore.

I really don't want to be a debbie downer here, but I just don't see how it's a smart business decision to say NOTHING.

[Joshex]

I would think that if they were to the point of preparing for launch or even bug testing, then they would be shouting from the rooftops getting people excited for the return.  I do not see a benefit of waiting to tell the community that the game is coming back if they already have it in their hands.  I silently check this board every day waiting for another shred of hope but what I assume happened is they were just blown off completely by NCSoft.  Even in the event of an NDA, if any deal has been made I'm sure it would be easy to make a case for some sort of announcement.  Even if the announcement was "Hey, things are progressing.  No ETA yet." to at least keep the handful of people that still reminisce about the game interested and hopeful.

I don't know what's worse.  Having them come out and say the deal is dead, or that they went through all this effort and by the time it's released nobody is interested anymore.

I really don't want to be a debbie downer here, but I just don't see how it's a smart business decision to say NOTHING.

When I first learned of the existence of blender3D, I thought my dreams of being a game developer had finally come true, I downloaded it and proclaimed to my parents I was now a game developer.

I was quite foolish, just because I had the tools in my hands didn't mean they all worked and definitely didn't mean I was done with all the work necessary to make a game, and for a third point didn't mean there wasn't anything I had to learn to complete a basic game.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch, it's an old saying that has some relevance. or rather don't saddle a just-born horse and expect to ride.

even if they do have their hands on the game, even if NCSoft made /NO/ demands whatsoever, they still have to make a few edits to the server 1: so it pays out to nate and crew instead of NCSoft, and 2: to make the server image a standalone operation.

that could take a while.

I have no doubt that when the return of CoH is announced... there will be plenty of interest :)

bingo.

[Zerohour]

This game should be the LAST thing on Nate Downes mind since he should be focused on City of Titans.

[Noyjitat]

This games closure is the whole reason why city of titans was even started so I expect it will remain one of his priorities. As for the slow progress of titan that is to be expected. This is the first game most of (if not all) of the developers have been apart of. And keep in mind they have other jobs. Can't expect them to work Full time with no pay.

[RGladden]

This games closure is the whole reason why city of titans was even started so I expect it will remain one of his priorities. As for the slow progress of titan that is to be expected. This is the first game most of (if not all) of the developers have been apart of. And keep in mind they have other jobs. Can't expect them to work Full time with no pay.

[/b]

True....up to a point.  However, Valiance Online's personnel seem to be making significantly greater progress on their project.  You can download, and play VO, in a pre-alpha form if I am correct.  That team is busting its chops....although they undoubtedly have quite a ways to go as well.  Anyways, they appear to be far ahead of the other two CoH clone projects.

[Pyromantic]

[/b]

True....up to a point.  However, Valiance Online's personnel seem to be making significantly greater progress on their project.  You can download, and play VO, in a pre-alpha form if I am correct.  That team is busting its chops....although they undoubtedly have quite a ways to go as well.  Anyways, they appear to be far ahead of the other two CoH clone projects.

Which might have something to do with the fact that the game started way earlier.  The game existed in another incarnation before it came to be known as Valiance Online.  It was reskinned into a CoH spiritual successor.  The other two actually started from scratch after CoH's closure.

That being said, I personally don't have any faith that Heroes and Villains will go anywhere, though I may well be wrong.  CoT I think has a lot more potential.  But treating the lack of something playable at this point as a sign it hasn't gone anywhere is incredibly premature.

[Waffles]

I remember this. Anyone else, from Virtue?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02FfbRvos24

Darko to the left is my elec/shield brute :3

Pr00f! https://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b580/Resselydoc/screenshot_110523-16-38-32_zpsycvhpnkl.jpg

[Triplash]

Which might have something to do with the fact that the game started way earlier.  The game existed in another incarnation before it came to be known as Valiance Online.  It was reskinned into a CoH spiritual successor.  The other two actually started from scratch after CoH's closure.

Yep. The Valiance team had been developing their engine for several years (three I think) for a fantasy themed game. After the sunset, they decided to adapt their existing work to fit a superhero theme, and that became the Valiance Online project. So they had a lot of the foundation work already done before we even knew about them. For those previous years, they were probably moving at a very similar pace to MWM's current progress.

Plus, I believe much of the Valiance team also had previous experience in the game development industry. That makes a lot of difference too. Not least of which is their willingness to stand back and let one person lead the project, rather than wasting time going in twenty different directions. (That's not a knock against the other projects, by the way - that's just how things go when you have volunteers that are more enthusiastic than experienced. When you're paying someone you can crack the whip and say, "No, you're going to do it *this* way." Then later, once they see it come together, they understand why it's important to have one clear voice making the decisions. But when someone's volunteering their time, they can start to feel like everything should be a democracy - which is an excellent way to reduce progress to a slow trickle.)

[RGladden]

Yep. The Valiance team had been developing their engine for several years (three I think) for a fantasy themed game. After the sunset, they decided to adapt their existing work to fit a superhero theme, and that became the Valiance Online project. So they had a lot of the foundation work already done before we even knew about them.

Hmm.  I wasn't aware that VO had that much of a head start.  There's nothing about it on their forums...

I think they've managed to pick up a former development team member from CoH to help with animations within the last few months....

[Aggelakis]

VO's engine has had SEVEN years' headstart. Granted, only a couple people working on it in their spare time, but still, seven years. Seven years to get a pre-alpha playable. This information is buried somewhere here in the several posts by them when they decided to join the successor movement.

CoT's only been around for about two years, less than that with funds to do much of anything, and very few workers with any kind of prior experience. So yeah, keep perspective there.

[Triplash]

Hmm.  I wasn't aware that VO had that much of a head start.  There's nothing about it on their forums...

I remember it from here actually, back when Aaron first showed up to introduce the project.


Edit: Found the thread, down in the "Plan Z: General" section (Don't post in it at this point though): http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,7902.0.html

My name is Aaron Victoria, Lead Designer/Programmer of an independent MMORPG entitled Legends of Etherell: Antavia. I'm also the CEO of an independent game development studio, SilverHelm Studios LLC. For the last 3 years our company has been developing Legends of Etherell, unfunded, as a community-driven product.

...

We started developing Legends of Etherell 3 years ago, with the first 2 years dedicated to story development and the last year to physical content development and programming.  About 2 months ago we met another group of independent MMORPG developers who worked on the technology behind Everquest 1/2 and Asheron's Call 1/2. They happened to have started development opposite of us; starting with programming first using placeholder art. Their game, "Project Gorgon" featured far more advanced server technology than ours had, so we formed a great partnership where we now utilize their outstanding technology to power our project in exchange for our help with art. This has empowered both teams to build a strong network of developers working to deliver games demanded by the players. The Gorgon server technology represents a massive software suite capable of easily creating template based MMORPGs. With a dedicated team of artist, programmers, directors, composers, and the community, I believe we can create the spiritual successor to one of my most favored MMORPGs of all-time, City of Heroes/City of Villains.

I was a bit off I guess, but not bad for a two year old thread, hehe

[Brigadine]

Out of curiosity I did just check Nate Downes' profile here, and he hasn't even logged onto the Titan network in 3 1/2 months, since December 31, 2014.  I would think that if things were moving along, he'd be at least keeping an eye on these forums and morale, if nothing else but to gauge how many potential paying customers he'd have for launch at least.

Who says he would do it logged in?

[Reaper]

Who says he would do it logged in?

This.  He would probably suspect that people would be tracking his every movement once they knew his involvement.  If anything I'm sure he is having these doubts and messages relayed to him if he isn't actively watching as a guest himself.