Discussion: NCsoft Acquires City of Heroes!
By
AaronH,
Posted on: 2007-11-06 13:55 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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Hey NCsoft! The next time you do something as major and exciting and feel like doing something good for those who helped, just throw yourselves a major office party or take your employees somewhere special. Save yourselves from the whining and moaning of all these players who feel they are priviledged or deserving, for they will moan about anything you should be generous enough to give.
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Note well: if you don't also invite the players to the "somewhere special", we'll complain about that too.
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yeah, but if they did, there'd be complaints from people who don't live close enough to easily travel there.
i've been through the thread and i haven't seen this asked yet, maybe i missed it. what does this deal do to the coh/v software? cryptic has been calling newer versions of this their "mmo engine" lately, and i thought it was a branch-off of core pieces of coh/v's software at some point when development started on muo. is ncsoft now going to have to pay royalties or any other structure of payment to cryptic for continuing to evolve coh/v software, or do we wholly own it now? i'm not too comfortable with the idea of us (the collective all of us) not 100% owning everything coh/v, especially the software.
Cryptic will be leasing the needed aspects to NCSoft.
you're kidding, right?
free global rename token would be sweet.
No, I'm not kidding. Trying to find the link now, but it's proving elusive.
thx for checkin, i'm still stuck at work here and i can't get to half of the links posted so far.
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So we have no issue about the legal ramifications and we're having a matter of difference on the opinion portion. That somehow makes me unreasonable and you reasonable? Not likely.
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I'm not the one screaming about supposedly being out $5. I'm not the one crying about someone getting something for free that I had to pay for (remember I'm in that boat too, I paid more than you did for CoV). I'm not the one pleading for something that I'm not entitled to.
You're being unreasonable. Whether you can see that or not is irrelevant. You have NO reason to expect that NCSoft will give you anything other than what you paid for. You aren't out a lot of money.
You can talk about good customer service until you're blue in the face. NCSoft is exercising good customer service. They're providing a lot of freebies for their customers to commemorate this occasion. That you feel somehow wronged because someone else got something for free is selfish, rude and unreasonable.
I'm not going to sugar coat this like I normally would.
All NCSoft is basically doing is giving out some free copies of the game. They do that all the time. The media often gets free accounts for review. Does that screw you over? No. It's done as a way to promote the game.
Giving away the other side of the game helps all players by increasing the number of people we can group with and it helps nurture the community. That's a net win for us all. But all you can worry about is your frikken $5. Well I would prefer that they spend that money making the game better than giving you a dime of free time.
You don't deserve it. You aren't entitled to it. But who knows, maybe if you complain enough you'll get it.
We can only hope not.
(And if you don't like hearing the truth, you can feel free to ignore me.)
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
OK i cant search through all these pages..my question is this, has the supergroup max members # been upped to 150? Cuase by my math 75 members x 20,000 prestige is only 1.5 mil. So i'm guessing the max number of members is 150 now? Is that right?
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OK i cant search through all these pages..my question is this, has the supergroup max members # been upped to 150? Cuase by my math 75 members x 20,000 prestige is only 1.5 mil. So i'm guessing the max number of members is 150 now? Is that right?
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Yes, that's correct. It's part of the Issue 11 changes. Check out the patch notes, a whole lot of win is coming.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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Hopefully with the free CoV, we'll see an actvity spike in bases and in turn base raids and the IoP trail will get some Dev loving.
"I'm not scared of anyone or anything Angie. Isn't that the way life should be?"
Jack Hawksmoor, The Authority.
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thx for checkin, i'm still stuck at work here and i can't get to half of the links posted so far.
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This is quite common actually. You know that free Windows Media Player you get with windows? MS has to pay to license the MP3 technology. All movie studios have to pay to use the MPEG2 technology to release DVD's. And the list goes on and on and on. Incidentally, this is also why different companies want to have their technology as the standard. Since they'll be getting paid for it by everybody who uses it.
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Hopefully with the free CoV, we'll see an actvity spike in bases and in turn base raids and the IoP trail will get some Dev loving.
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Already in the works, as Neutra relates in the transcript of Jester's interview with Posi and Lighthouse here.
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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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EDIT: Fixed link.
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Those getting 'hooked up' with the other side don't get anything else that came with the purchase of hte other sid via retail (GvE goodies, free month play, access prior to today, etc.) It might be a nice gesture by NCSoft to credit in free game time another month or so for those who had one side for a while and just recently (past month at most) added the other side, but its only a nice gesture not a requirement. The EULA and such even states such things about service availability, price changes, content changes, etc. Also fee lucky you're not just getting into EQ2 without checking up on things, the new expansion is going to includeall the prior expansions and adventure packs for one 'low' price. Someone who wanted to play and decided to buy them all seperately before knowing about something coming out in under a month (suppsedly) would be out even more than the 20-30$ paid by someone here (after all EQ2 has 3 previous expansions nad 3 adventure packs, the lowest cost of one of those being 10$).
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But they are getting something we did pay for, that is the 12 slots instead of 8 per server. If you didnt buy GvE or CoV Deluxe or any of that, you did buy those 4 extra slots.
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Giving away the other side of the game helps all players by increasing the number of people we can group with and it helps nurture the community. That's a net win for us all. But all you can worry about is your frikken $5. Well I would prefer that they spend that money making the game better than giving you a dime of free time.
You don't deserve it. You aren't entitled to it. But who knows, maybe if you complain enough you'll get it.
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I'm not disagreeing with you on the give them the freebie, making it a gain for the community. But why also give them the thing we did buy along with the game, that is the 4 extra slots per Server. Can we, who paid, at least get that as an exclusive? I'm just not jibing with the idea of freebies for something the rest of us paid for without some kind of merit to those that bought the game. Two extra slots for those who did pay wouldnt be so ground breaking or just leaving just us the 12 slots would be fair. The rest of the thank you from the game is for general community but barely gives true thanks to those who did give the most for the experience.
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Hopefully with the free CoV, we'll see an actvity spike in bases and in turn base raids and the IoP trail will get some Dev loving.
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Already in the works, as Neutra relates in the transcript of Jester's interview with Posi and Lighthouse here.
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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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EDIT: Fixed link.
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Wow......
That's great- my fingers are crossed to hopefully see bases get some loving. Thanx for the links and update.
"I'm not scared of anyone or anything Angie. Isn't that the way life should be?"
Jack Hawksmoor, The Authority.
You're welcome! 
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you're kidding, right?
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Nope, this is failry standard practice in games actually. The core engine that CoH/V is built on was developed by Cryptic and remains theirs. The IP (which is the content of the game itself) is what NCSoft bought from Cryptic straight out. They likely just have a license agreement that is either a lump sum for use of the engine or a yearly fee. Any changes and enhancments that NCSoft NorCal makes to the engine are theirs alone. They probably also have the option to get updated core engine versions from Cryptic should they choose, though that would only be useful for a new game rather than to put into CoH/V.
Many companies just make and license game engines and never design a game around the engine. Others will put out a single game to showcase their engine in hopes of getting game studios to license their engine rather than have to create their own from scratch. Vanguard runs off the Unreal engine, many games came out based off the Quake and Halflife engines (or variants thereof), and the supposed in the works Firefly MMO is using the Multiverse engine. Other games/systems out there will use base engines that handle some core functionality but don't provide full game functionality, like the Havok phsyics engine that gets used in other engines and systems (like SecondLife which is still using Havok1 but testing for an upgrade to Havok4). In this day and age very few major games code entirely from scratch, most use a variety of software suites/engines as building blocks for their game. This helps in some ways since you don't need a math genius to develop your physics engine just to be able to make a game and can instead hire another level/class/graphcis designer.
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Can we get a Dev list of who's around and who stayed with Cryptic?
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Jack Emmert remains in his position as Creative Director of Cryptic Studios, that he has been doing back since he transitioned off the day-to day CoH team and Positron took over as the Lead Designer.
As was mentioned by Brian Clayton in his Dev Corner, the previous Cryptic Team Leads all join us, consisting of:
Matt Positron Miller (lead designer)
Aaron Brady (lead engineer)
Ken Morse (lead artist)
With one exception, everyone who was presented with an offer to stay on the City of Heroes team under the NCsoft banner has accepted and is looking forward to working hard on the future of the franchise! While this includes a good number of people, it also includes many of the familiar red names from the forums, such as: Melissa War Witch Bianco, Floyd _Castle_ Grubb, Back Alley Brawler, Ghost Widow and Sexy Jay Doherty.
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Very curious as to who the one person is that did not hop on the train!!! What position did this person hold? (Artist, engineer/coding, etc...???)
Very curious indeed!
Also....+1 shameless vote for a sequel in 2 or so years (anyone with me???)
I don't know if its been asked, but the real most important question is this: Will the hidden Cryptic Lounge in Faultline have to be renamed?
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Remember: Guns don't kill people; Meerkats kill people.
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Does this mean that since cryptic has an office in Texas and they will no longer be part of the project that the tax will no longer be applied to Texas Residents 
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Similarly, does this also mean that maintenance windows will now be 8-10 PST rather than 8-10 CST? I would dare say that'll impact the player base a little more.
If so, standard maintenance windows become:
EST 11am-1pm
CST 10am-12noon
MST 9-11am
PST 8-10am
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Maintenance won't change as the game servers have always been set up and operated by NCsoft. None of that is changing.
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And they are not even changing timezones - we have always had the east and west coast clusters - no reason for the times to change when they are staying in the same zones.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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thx for checkin, i'm still stuck at work here and i can't get to half of the links posted so far.
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This is quite common actually. You know that free Windows Media Player you get with windows? MS has to pay to license the MP3 technology. All movie studios have to pay to use the MPEG2 technology to release DVD's. And the list goes on and on and on. Incidentally, this is also why different companies want to have their technology as the standard. Since they'll be getting paid for it by everybody who uses it.
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That's part of why The gamecube A) used mini-dvds and B) couldn't play movie DVDs, to avoid the fees. Also why it was cheaper.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
Just on the PRESTIGE...
Neat idea, but does it have to be that much for every char the group has then?
That is sort of forcing everyone to make as many dummy chars as possible.
Cant it just be per char the group had when the announcement came out? Or per PLAYER that has a char in the group?
I think its too much, plus makes it impossible for groups created afterwards to catch up anytime soon. Please, a bit less, somehow.
Good luck with the new team though!
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So we have no issue about the legal ramifications and we're having a matter of difference on the opinion portion. That somehow makes me unreasonable and you reasonable? Not likely.
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I'm not the one screaming about supposedly being out $5. I'm not the one crying about someone getting something for free that I had to pay for (remember I'm in that boat too, I paid more than you did for CoV). I'm not the one pleading for something that I'm not entitled to.
You're being unreasonable. Whether you can see that or not is irrelevant. You have NO reason to expect that NCSoft will give you anything other than what you paid for. You aren't out a lot of money.
You can talk about good customer service until you're blue in the face. NCSoft is exercising good customer service. They're providing a lot of freebies for their customers to commemorate this occasion. That you feel somehow wronged because someone else got something for free is selfish, rude and unreasonable.
I'm not going to sugar coat this like I normally would.
All NCSoft is basically doing is giving out some free copies of the game. They do that all the time. The media often gets free accounts for review. Does that screw you over? No. It's done as a way to promote the game.
Giving away the other side of the game helps all players by increasing the number of people we can group with and it helps nurture the community. That's a net win for us all. But all you can worry about is your frikken $5. Well I would prefer that they spend that money making the game better than giving you a dime of free time.
You don't deserve it. You aren't entitled to it. But who knows, maybe if you complain enough you'll get it.
We can only hope not.
(And if you don't like hearing the truth, you can feel free to ignore me.)
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hahah, I will say Geko, I rather like the UN-sugar-coated version of you, far too many people are too polite on these boards I say
but I'm glad to see all the whiney cheapskates with their 'warped sense of entitlement" brings out the honest aggression in the decent folks
=]
On the Care and Feeding of Your Scrapper (V2.0)
Martial Arts - A Comprehensive Guide
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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 -Potential- 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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NOOOOO!, Neutra!, don't TEASE me!
Regen is getting "BUFFED"?!?!?!
oh please oh please oh please, bring back my IH toggle, I don't care, make it cost 1-2 end/s, it's REGEN for christsake! think about the IO's!
anyways, in all seriousness, I think I'll go post in the scrapper or suggestions forums
On the Care and Feeding of Your Scrapper (V2.0)
Martial Arts - A Comprehensive Guide
Heh... I want to see what they do to the buildings in Paragon which have the Cryptic Studios signs in front. Anyone else think they should just put "For Rent" signs in the windows?
Hey Cookie Monster, if "C" is for cookie, what is "N" for?
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