Lord_of_Time

So much for the server 'upgrades'. I've seen better stability on a damn Commodore 64.

I AM A REAL AMERICAN!

Made on the First Anniversary of 9-11 by the good people of Top Ten from the Freedom server.

Little Easter Egg. At the beginning and the end of the video on top of the Atlas Dome. There is a character named Shiro and Geko. That is in fact the old dev Geko (the powers guy before Castle) and his RL wife.

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Yeah I missed the 'in real time', I think ym briain is addled today.

EG:
Sorry the win goes on. Did you not get the memo that suckage is no longer part of CoX ?

(aside from MOG) *ducks and runs*

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MoG continuing to suck is the only thing that grounds me in reality.

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You might want to avoid the Training Room in the near future, then.

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O.O

I just died

Excellent trailer. Top rated production. Finally you guys are getting your act together on these trailers The Rikti invasion trailer with the whole War of the World's theme was excellent. This I11 vid was even better. Congrats!

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It sure does! Thanks to all for the kind words.

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*ties Manticore to a chair*

And now, Meeester Fish, you will tell us all!

... about the story bible and the fifth column and the butt kicking reichsman and the evil kheldians and who ms. liberty's father is and what incarnates actually are and what happened to Weaver One and what you and Recluse were up to in Bogota and who the Coming Storm are and whether there'll ever be a sighting of the Battalion and and and

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Heheheh. Reading your post hun. Made me think of this Monty Python sketch at time index 6:20

Woo hoo! Welcome back Manticore you sexy beast Nice to have you back on the team. Boy. All the old gang is coming back. Feels like the old days again all those years ago.

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All of the bugs or QoL issues that have been lingering for what seems like forever because the programmers were too busy fixing the major bugs.

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if that were only the case. no, they were too busy making sure villains and heroes couldn't get certain badges and breaking other issues in the game. we still have no IoP.

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You need to check the boards better before mouthing off.

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One of the goals at the new studio is to hire a lot more Engineers to come in so that Bases can be worked on and fixed. Base Raiding, IoPs, everything is going to pushed to get working.

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Just ignore Stasis. He flamed in the Beta boards and he flames here. Not worth the typing time to respond to his drivel.

But I for one am excited that BaB took the time to write this explanation and I'm so happy to hear that all the things we players have been dying for but never made it in are back on the list of 'Doable'.

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All of those things that we've had to push back or write off as taking too many resources to get done in the limited time frames and limited manpower. All of the bugs or QoL issues that have been lingering for what seems like forever because the programmers were too busy fixing the major bugs. All of those really big pie in the sky ideas that we've dreamed about for so long and couldn't do because there was no one who could implement them...that's all back on the table. The sky is literally the limit.

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... I could listen to you talk like this all day.

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SWEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTT.

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Hey all

Wow, it's been a whirlwind couple of days that I haven't had much time to sit down and throw in my two cents on the whole thing.

I don't know if you guys know this, but I've been working on City of Heroes since the early part of of 2002....lonnnnng before we launched.

And it has been the absolute greatest experience for me. I had the dream story of how I started in this business (which is truly rare) and how I got to work on a project with a handful of other people to put together this game called City of Heroes. I had no idea how it would be received when it first came out.

From the first day of open beta to each time I sneak on and say hi to people, either as War Witch or my normal characters, you guys are the reason (besides my team, which I adore) that I love doing what I do.

You laugh at my silly NPC comments and easter eggs and you have been nothing but wonderful and supportive since day one.

I'm not going to lie, the decision to leave Cryptic was hard for me. They gave me my start and I will always be grateful for everything they've done for me. Having said that, I LOVE City of Heroes and I love you guys and, ultimately, the choice to stay with the project was a no-brainer.

I'm also thrilled that everyone else who came on board, did. One of the greatest joys I have in working with my team is getting a chance to get to know every single one of them and care about them as if they were an extension of my family (okay, fine, I'm less snarky with my team). What this means is plenty of feeding of food and laughter around cubes.

Ultimately, a job is a job, but it's the people who really make it worth it and I love my team. I'm not being cheesy or trying to sell you anything, I truly do. I work with some top-notch people and they (and you guys, of course) are the reason why I love coming to work each morning.

I am truly blessed to have the job that I do and I'm grateful that I get to do it, every day (even on the days when it sucks - yes, there are those days on occasion) with people who are so hard-working and talented.

NCsoft has been nothing but amazing to me since the first day I met them way back when we were working out of the Jury Court office and I really do enjoy working alongside them every day.

I haven't read all of the comments about how everyone is reacting to the news, but if you do want my opinion (looks like I'm giving it anyway), I'm excited. I'm excited and happy and I will stick around on City of Heroes/Villains as long as they'll have me.

(Man, I can yap when I feel like it...sorry, got all misty-eyed there.)

So to you guys, who have been most faithful over the years and to anyone who is new, I definitely look forward to many more awesome issues and times together with you. You guys are the reason I'm here and I couldn't be happier.

Great. Now I have writer's cramp.

Love you guys!

Melissa

AKA War Witch

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I'm glad you're coming along War Witch. I am cautiously optimistic about this move but the only thing that is keeping me upbeat is the fact that the dev team is moving with the game. You guys actually give a damn about the game and it's future.

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Im with Happy_Killmore.

Sadly, I think NCSoft forgot a bribe here. They forgot to bribe the hard, core, dedicated player. Ill grant, that group is probably not as large or as influential as any of the other three bribed, but its the group I belong to, and the group everyone I play with belongs to. And my cheeks (pick one, of the four) are feeling a little stung here. As if Ive been slapped. Taken for granted. Why would we quit over something so silly as a new owner? We've been playing for 3 years, why quit now? Why indeed. Of course we wont. These bribes arent about making players feel good about the new owners. These bribes are about business, pure and simple, and for some reason that sends a dark chill down my spine for the future of a game I love.

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That article was full of stupid. Loaded with it. I'm not an ignorant man. I can be a jerk, but no one I know would say that I'm stupid. Or a chump.

Yet I don't feel chumped. I can certainly see that these little perks, incentives, bribes, whatever you wish to call them, might be construed negatively by the more paranoid of the world, but I see them rather as junk given out because there's no harm in doing so.

Other than the hurt feelings of those with overblown senses of entitlement.

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Not to mention it was filled with enough Libel to make a lawyer salivate. He basically accused a legitimate company like NCsoft of bribing it's player base and lying to it's customers. If this guy had any money I'm sure they sue his @55 lol

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*hits Lord_Of_Time with a sticky plasma grenade, runs away*

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<in best Grunt voice> Ahhhhhh get it off me!

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There's a distinct lack of DOOM here.

I find that odd, like everyone's walking down the railroad tracks whistling a merry tune...not hearing the "CHOO CHOO" in the distance, getting louder and louder..."

Business change hands in two situations:

First, cos they are new and extremely, unexpectedly successful and a big company snaps them up.

Second, because the end of the business' lifetime is on the horizin and the original owners want to cut and run so they can pursue better things. The new owner then maintains the products until they naturally wind down.

I don't see how anyone could think the first scenario is active here. The kiss of death for an MMO is the moment when people are no longer required to pay a subscription. This isn't *quite* what we have here, but the "opening up both sides to everyone" smacks a little of that idea.

I'll keep an open mind and see what happens, but I'm worried(tm).

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You'd have a point, except that NCSoft set up an entire new studio just for this game. If this game were on the decline, I somehow doubt that a big multinational company such as NCSoft would set up a new studio for a fading enterprise.

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Yes but you haven't seen their new facilites yet. I have. BEHOLD THE NEW COH OFFICES!

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I'm not sure what to think. More money is good but..

Well let me sum up my thoughts in one sentence.

The only good thing to come out of NCSoft has been CuppaJo.

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I'd even go so far as to debate you on that point. Cuppa may have been well liked by the community. But Lighthouse and Ex are 10X better at modding the community then Cuppa did.

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That's pretty much what Robert Garriot (NCsoft North America CEO) reiterated to us on the team when he was here to talk with everyone on Friday.

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Too be fair, LH, CEO's always say that during an acquisition.

But Mr. Garriot doesn't strike me as a man to break what's working, so I'll keep the faith.

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Now that I did not know. Robert GARRIORT is the CEO? heheh Hmmm.. I wonder how RICHARD GARRIORT found support for his new game Tabula Rasa? To be fair though. Robert is gonna kick his brother's butt when he loses a bundle on TR. Good thing he has a good game like COH to keep feeding NCsoft cash

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With the people playing either CoH or CoV being able to play both for free now(meaning, not having to purchase the other half of the game), how about giving all the people with more than one account full vet rewards and bonuses to match their account that has been established the longest?

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Now THIS I could get behind. I have friends that played blues longer than reds but they mistakenly bought the game and registered it (not computer savy) under a different NCsoft account so they started from scratch when it came to vet rewards. If they could somehow merge these two in some way that would be cool.

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SOE was not the company that did Matrix Online did. That distinction belongs to Monolith. SOE's attempts were to save an already destroyed game -- in essence, they got a pale and tried to save the Titanic after it started sinking. You can shovel all the water you want out, but the huge gaping hole still existed.
Oh yeah, agreed. They didn't actually pull the trigger, they just bought the thing afterwards. I was just trying to emphasize that whenever a game gets bought up by someone, it's because the game wasn't doing well or is nearing the end of its run. The players were expecting it, so no one is surprised when it is bought.

In the case of CoH, I don't think anyone was expecting NC Soft to pull a move like this. We were just chugging along innocently

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Damn it I know now I SHOULD have posted my suspicions before now but I knew I would have probably been labeled a conspiracy theorist. I was chatting with several of my friends not only at work but in game just a few weeks about but about the future of the game. I just KNEW that eventually there would be a parting of the ways with Cryptic and COH.

The big factour which I kept telling my friends about was the obvious conflict of interests. NCsoft was essentially a partner with Cryptic which would in a very short time be releasing a DIRECT competitor of the COH slice of the MMO pie. Sort of a "Cryptic is in bed with the enemy" sort of thing. I seriously doubted that NCsoft would be embracing the fact that the ones who made out like champs here was Crytpic. They (Cryptic) would be receiving monies from both NCsoft and Microsoft for two properties they had created.

Something would eventually have to give and my money was on (though not specifically NCsoft) somebody buying out Crytpic or Cryptic passing their rights onto another developer thus ending the state of affairs.

I so called it and now if you'll excuse me. I'm gonna collect some money that is owed me

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HERE'S A SIMPLE EXPLANATION AND ANSWERS TO WHAT THIS ANNOUNCEMENT MEANS:

The Past
<ul type="square">[*] Cryptic Studios and NC Soft both owned CoH. In order for anything in the game to happen, both NC Soft and Cryptic had to agree on it.[*] Cryptic studios has a ton of people working at it. Of all those people, only about 20 were working on CoH. Everyone else was working on MUO, or the other secret project.[*] Of all the money Cryptic Studios had, almost all of it was being used on MUO, since Microsoft is paying for them to make it. CoH was only getting a little money from outside investors and other places to be worked on. That's why they had such a small amount of people working on it.[/list]
The Present
<ul type="square">[*] Cryptic sold their rights to CoH to NC Soft. Now, NC Soft completely owns CoH. Cryptic Studios has NOTHING to do with City of Heroes anymore.[*] Now that NC Soft owns CoH, they have created a completely new, separate studio called NC Soft NorCal, to work ONLY on CoH, not any other game. NC Soft completely owns this studio, however, this studio will be doing it's own thing. NC Soft will be paying for everything it does.[*] ALL of the Devs working on CoH at Cryptic are moving to this new studio and working for NC Soft, not Cryptic Studios anymore.

Anyone that had worked on CoH in the past was offered a chance to come work at the new studio and leave Cryptic. Some people are taking that offer and others are not. So we WILL have some of the original team from the past working at the new studio along with the current Dev team.[*] Positron will remain the Lead Designer, but there will be a new "Statesman" -type- person that he will be working with. This person is NOT Jack Emmert, aka Statesman.[*] Jack Emmert, aka Statesman, is not going to be involved with NC Soft NorCal. He will continue to work at Cryptic Studios, but will no longer be involved with anything having to do with CoH.[/list]
The Future
<ul type="square">[*] Once the deal has been completed, Posi and all the other Devs will be moving out of Cryptic Studios and into the new NC Soft NorCal building. NC Soft has hired some other people already to work at the new studio, so they will be joining them. They will be hiring MORE people to work at the new studio.[*] MORE MONEY. CoH will have stupid amounts of money thrown at it to make it better then it already is. All of those projects like Shields, Weapon Customization and so forth that required a LOT of time, and thus a LOT of money, to do, will be able to actually get done. NC Soft is now a giant sugar daddy like no other NC Soft is HUGE. WoW has Blizzard throwing money at it. MUO has Microsoft throwing money at it. CoH now has NC Soft throwing money at it.[*] Bigger Staff. They will be hiring a LOT more people to work on CoH. With more people they can finally have TWO teams, one for CoH and one for CoV, working at the same time. They can have a team working on PvP, they can have a team working on Events, and they can have a team for just about anything else you can think of.[*] Issues will be BIGGER after this change. More people means MORE content, MORE TFs, MORE zones, MORE Epic ATs, MORE of EVERYTHING. All those things we were told couldn't be done right away because they just didn't have the people for it, GONE. They'll be able to do just about anything with a full staff. Think about, 100 people working on CoH versus the 20 people working on it right now.[*] Faster releases, less secrets, shorter response time. Now that NC Soft owns ALL of CoH, they don't have to ask Cryptic for permission to do anything. Decisions will be made much quicker now that there aren't two different companies trying to agree on things. If we ask for something and NC Soft says "OK!", that's it, it'll happen.

In the past, if Cryptic Studios wanted to tell us something, but couldn't because NC Soft said "not yet", that won't happen. Now NC Soft can tell us anything we want, they have all the power to release information anytime they want.

And best of all, since there's no more delays with trying to get both Cryptic Studios and NC Soft on the same schedule, Issues, fixes, expansions and all that will be coming out MUCH quicker.[*] CoH can actually have Marketing! That's right, with the NC Soft Marketing team and all the money NC Soft has, they can actually use real songs for trailers, they can actually try and make commercials for CoH and all sorts of other things. CoH will have the capability to advertise like WoW does. Shirts, hats, key chains, toys, it could all happen.[/list]
Answers to Concerns
<ul type="square">[*] All of this does NOT change anything in the game right now or anytime soon. Issue 12 WILL be coming next year and has already been worked on by the Devs.[*] The Boards WILL not change. NC Soft actually owns and runs the boards already. If anything the Boards will be getting BETTER.[*] Issues will NOT be slowing down. In fact, they will be speeding up.[*] All of the Devs will still be here to hang with us, work on the game and everything. All they're doing is moving to a new desk.[*] NC Soft is NOT going to be changing or working on the game. Positron and all the other Devs will continue to be the ones to make the decisions for the CoH world.[*] Regen is not getting nerfed.[/list]
In conclusion, this is a FANTASTIC announcement. It's one of the BEST things that could have happened for CoH. It sounds like they already have plans for future expansions, possibly a CoH 2 and tons of new content for issues. Next year is going bring a LOT of new toys and content to the game!

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There is quite a bit of supposition in your post. But to be honest all your points SEEM valid and I hope to Christ your right. I've been here since the beginning like many board members and I'm not going anywhere. If this acquisition means more money, more talent, more content, more EVERYTHING then woo hoo!

I stand by my reservations though that this could be both a blessing a curse for CoX. Personally though. The best news I could have heard is when Castle said he WILL be coming with us to the new NCSoft building and staying on COH. He's the best dev we got and losing him would have been a tremendous loss for the game.

Hmm. Upon reflection. Now that the devs have a bigger check book and pool of talent to draw from. Let's see if NCsoft consuming COX will mean the resolution of unresolved matters.

<ul type="square"> Cathedral of Pain
Power Customization
New Archetypes (specifically villain epic)
Bases (or more specifically their almost complete uselessness)[/list]
That's just the short list too. I could keep going if you like
Guess we'll see how the wheels turn on this whether it's good for the community or were headed down the road of SWG, EQ or *gasp* MXO. (do people even play that anymore?)

Basically. Cryptic is working on the Marvel MMO. That will be a direct competitor of COH. Cryptic basically jettisoned COH to NCsoft so they could focus all their time and resources on their new baby MUO. Yup. That pretty much wraps it up. To all my personal friends I told this would happened a couple of months ago.

"HA! I so ******* called it! "

Pay up guys.

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Happy Birthday Villains. Let's give em Hell

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W00T! Now let's roll those epic villain Arc- oh wait.

I keed I keed

Actually if it is technical reasons that is stopping them from bringing the CoP to us (which I'm sure it is). Then a friend of mine had a really good idea that serves the playerbase. Make the CoP a co-op TF and offer a rare recipe. Just scrap the TF for IoP and design a new one from the ground up. I mean you have basically a whole TF just sitting for over a year barely used.

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Last qustion: WHAT'S IN SOUTH AMERICA? Aztec mystics?

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As someone else pointed out, South America is a classic haven for fleeing Nazis.

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Even further evidence to support the return of the 5th. God I'm literally salivating. I've missed them for SO long. I can't wait to crack open some Nazi heads

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Colombian soldiers interviewed were more frank. “These are not rebels. They are foreign terrorists who fled here when they were driven out of Los United States many years ago. It is a good thing they are dead, but not so good that it is at the hands of these super-villains-Americanos,” one sergeant said.

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This just SMACKS of the Council/5th War. I'm convinced the 'rebels' are 5th and that this is just a tiny part of the organization. The 5th is LOOMING. The time is near. Here comes the drums. Shine up the Jackboots. They're BACKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

O-M-G. I'm calling it. Return of the 5th Column and parallel universe. GOT to be. I'm on cloud nine. I'm kicking puppies. I'm sniffing glue. I'm.. I'm... I'm just so HAPPY

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On a slightly more serious note:

1. It's a cross-symbol of the traditional infinity pattern and the Ouroboros (which also represents infinity or eternity), certainly.

2. I'll say it also looks like a wood cutting; and the style of it appears to have Nordic influence.

3. Direct comparison culturally there is to Jormugandr, a child of Loki and also called the World Serpent.

Implications:

a. If I had to point to something in-canon, there's good money it's Reichsman. Nazi propaganda rooted itself, at least superficially, in Norse mysticism.

b. The method of his appearance/influence could be one that's time-related. Looking at the Paragon Times article, time's either gone flutzy (someone is changing history), or it's from an alternate timeline. Both are avenues to Reichsman.

c. This could directly refer to the Flashback system; however, I'm more inclined to say it will open up new story arcs, possibly via Portal Corp/Shadow Shard, by going into alternate timelines, or Paragon's own past, to pursue this threat to PC's history.

I'm suspicious of Reichsman because of the heavy Nordic styling of the symbol; it's almost certainly magickally rooted; gut response is telling me it's a time-loop "go back into history to change the future" storyline; and it would open the door back up to the 5th Column.

If it's a time loop storyline, we'd get to explore moments of PC's past as well. I'd love to join Atlas in his solo fight against the Nazi armada at Independence Port.

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I think you pretty much nailed it. Time will tell of course. It always does. But my gut is telling me this is the most likely explanation.