Discussion: It's All Access for CoH and CoV
By
Agonus,
Posted on: 2008-07-16 24:03 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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CoH - Retail x2
CoH - Collectors x2
CoV x2
Pocket D TP/Jump Jet Pack x2
Wedding Pack x2
I don't feel I wasted my money and have no animosity at all about expanding the full game to everyone.
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I paid for the same (CoV Collectors Edition as well) and was curious.
Will those of us who purchased City of Villains and the additional content actually receive some sort of "game" compensation for what have essentially become redundant purchases?
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You have already received the compensation - you already have access to it, and have for some time.
And why would you get compensation for addition content bought? They are not giving access to that away for free.
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Two examples that spring to mind of having paid for exclusive content and having it opened up to general populace are:
Pre-Order Sprints
City of Villains Pre-Order Helmets
and of course paying for the City of Villains expansion to begin with.
Granted, none of these are game-breaking and I won't be canceling my 4 year old account as I love the game.
I'm just wary of CoX releasing expansion packs/promotional material that you purchase and then later making them free - as has been the recent case with EQ2.
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CoH - Retail x2
CoH - Collectors x2
CoV x2
Pocket D TP/Jump Jet Pack x2
Wedding Pack x2
I don't feel I wasted my money and have no animosity at all about expanding the full game to everyone.
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Agree with Steele, Sounds like an about time news and looking foward to writing my own heroic script.
Valor
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by Star Ranger 4 WIN LOSE OR DRAW, WE WILL FIGHT. WE ARE HEROES This is what we DO! |
Decide that this will be another day in which you Walk The Talk.
MA #14724 Operation: Discredit @American Valor
Sentinel Of Liberty SG
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I have not read the entire thread yet, just the announcement. Has this already happened, or have they announced that they're going to do it?
They already merged accounts once before. So only accounts activated after that date would have had limited access. So that alone isn't a huge step. However, NC Soft's web site is STILL selling the games individually.
Now, what exactly does this announcement mean? Is it JUST another account merging, "if you had only one side, now you have both"? Or are they giving all characters full access to either side of the game?
Either way, this is the death knell for the game I enjoyed. City of Villains, already all but abandoned in the last two years, will now never see exclusive content again. It's time to finally accept the facts, and cancel my account. *MY* game is dead.
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Okay then. Have fun elsewhere.
/em bigwave
PS. Can I have your stuff?
I sit in my zen of not being able to do anything right while simultaniously not being able to do anything wrong. Om. -CuppaJo
It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion.
Will the merging of CoH and CoV also merge the system requirements of the two games? I don't recall there being much of a difference in minimum system requirements but in general CoV seems to put a heavier load on a systems performance.
Certain effects like fire auras have an enhanced appearance on CoV that has yet to be translated to CoH. Is there a system requirements delta that is preventing this enhancement from transitioning to CoH and will this merger of the two games allow such a transition to happen in the future?
Pentangle - Base Building Engineer
Join the channel - BaseBuildersInc.
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Just FYI that this isn't very likely. NCsoft Europe is a separate entity from NCsoft North America and the business dividing lines don't lend themselves to such a merge.
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Oh, I wouldn't expect it. The so-called "official" release of CoH in Europe has just always bugged me, and I stubbornly cling on to my favourite US servers in spite of everything.
Have lost most of my friends to the split (and later to WoW since, apparently, they didn't like how low-pop the EU servers were) and it just makes me a little sad.
Besides, the localization of online games goes against the entire point of playing online games (for me). That is, getting together with people from all over the world to beat up Hellions. 
CoH isn't the sole culprit here, of course. It's a general trend in online gaming that's really irking me.
I'm just happy that there's no forced localization. Certain other games do everything they can to force my hand... and that's pretty much a deal breaker for me. So, despite everything, CoH at least deserves credit for that.
Thought for the day:
"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."
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Just FYI that this isn't very likely. NCsoft Europe is a separate entity from NCsoft North America and the business dividing lines don't lend themselves to such a merge.
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As I recall - since you have to be subscribed to the game, either the US or Euro version, and NC Europe and NC USA are separate companies, it becomes an issue of privacy laws.
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Easily fixed. Use Ouroboros to go back in time and stop the split before it happens. 
Thought for the day:
"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."
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CoH - Retail x2
CoH - Collectors x2
CoV x2
Pocket D TP/Jump Jet Pack x2
Wedding Pack x2
I don't feel I wasted my money and have no animosity at all about expanding the full game to everyone.
[/ QUOTE ]
I paid for the same (CoV Collectors Edition as well) and was curious.
Will those of us who purchased City of Villains and the additional content actually receive some sort of "game" compensation for what have essentially become redundant purchases?
[/ QUOTE ]
You have already received the compensation - you already have access to it, and have for some time.
And why would you get compensation for addition content bought? They are not giving access to that away for free.
[/ QUOTE ]
Two examples that spring to mind of having paid for exclusive content and having it opened up to general populace are:
Pre-Order Sprints
City of Villains Pre-Order Helmets
and of course paying for the City of Villains expansion to begin with.
Granted, none of these are game-breaking and I won't be canceling my 4 year old account as I love the game.
I'm just wary of CoX releasing expansion packs/promotional material that you purchase and then later making them free - as has been the recent case with EQ2.
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This isn't really recent. The past 2 expansions from EQ2 plus the upcoming one include the previous expansions. The reason EQ2 does this is so much stuff depends on those previous expansions at this point and the only things you got from them really was a level cap raise and some new zones. They realized that by raising the cap again and again they really needed to just unlock the previous expansions for people buying the latest one. The same thing has been done with EQ and FFXI (buying a bundle of 3-4 expansions plus base game later cheaper than buying each expansion as it comes out).
Sorry but its the nature of marketing. I don't see any company worried that the price of their game drops to 10$ a year or two after release when the people who buy it at release pay 50-60$ for it. The price of things will change and what is offered changes. The company is by no way obligated nor should they be to 'compensate' since as pointed out what you get by buying it early is all that extra time to play and especially if you get in on the betas, or play on the test server or are active in the forums that means you also have a chance to shape the development of the game for those who are just getting it. As for the pre-order helmets, new players won't be getting those anytime soon since they're post 4-year vet rewards so likely the only people getting them while it still matters are people who pre-ordered CoV and (like me) only got 1 of the helmets since we didn't buy multiple copies.
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I have not read the entire thread yet, just the announcement. Has this already happened, or have they announced that they're going to do it?
They already merged accounts once before. So only accounts activated after that date would have had limited access. So that alone isn't a huge step. However, NC Soft's web site is STILL selling the games individually.
Now, what exactly does this announcement mean? Is it JUST another account merging, "if you had only one side, now you have both"? Or are they giving all characters full access to either side of the game?
Either way, this is the death knell for the game I enjoyed. City of Villains, already all but abandoned in the last two years, will now never see exclusive content again. It's time to finally accept the facts, and cancel my account. *MY* game is dead.
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Oh give it a rest, drama queen. I can't wait until we can cross to the other side (vills into hero side and vice versa). Also this should increase the player base for vills and that's great. This game is way better when it's busy out there.
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Personally, I'm hoping to see a merging of the EU and US servers.
But that's been a pet peeve of mine for years. 
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I wouldn't mind seeing this either.
~ Jonathan
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I would really like to see this happen as well.
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Just FYI that this isn't very likely. NCsoft Europe is a separate entity from NCsoft North America and the business dividing lines don't lend themselves to such a merge.
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To merge the player base (English speaking) would strengthen the game. That should very much be in the interest of NC Soft...both sides. They can make it work if they wanted to.
I'm hoping at some point there's plan for a GFX engine overhaul. Sure, it may be a year or so in the making, but after they put in ragdolls and other CoV enhancements in CoH, well ...
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This is the final step needed in preparing the IP for future projects, to be announced later this year.
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Hmmmm....wonder what these future projects could be???
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Perhaps we will fianlly get "fallen heroes" and "redeemed villains"
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YES! I can't wait for my redeemed Necro/Poison MM!
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I'm not sure if literal side-switching is coming soon, but a related possibility I can see is cross-zoning. The devs could make hero-side missions that take place in the Rogue Isles, and vice-versa, and heroes and villains would in effect be playing in the same zones, not entirely different from running opposite-side missions in Sirens or Warburg.
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Something similar could be heroes vs. villains instanced missions. A race to a glowie through Shivans. Protect/Destroy the MacGuffin Artifact. Escort/Kidnap hostage mission. Disarm/Plant bomb. The hero vs. villain aspects of this could be really fun! This could be a decent substitute for the Arch-Nemesis system they would've like to have implemented. This way you and a buddy could be each others' worst enemy.
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Two examples that spring to mind of having paid for exclusive content and having it opened up to general populace are:
Pre-Order Sprints
City of Villains Pre-Order Helmets
and of course paying for the City of Villains expansion to begin with.
Granted, none of these are game-breaking and I won't be canceling my 4 year old account as I love the game.
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As a reminder, unless you got ripped off, you did not pay extra for the *pre-order* sprints and helmets. They were to be given out if you ordered in advance and put down a deposit on the game. That deposit was then applied toward the purchase price of the game, which was the same for everyone who bought when the game initially came out. Unless you got ripped off. It was at no time stated that the pre-order items would be exclusive.
The exclusive items were, and still are, the Cape of the 4 Winds, the VIP badge, and the Prestige Power Slide from the CoH Collectors DVD; and the Arachnos Symbol, Arachnos Cape, and Destined One badge from the CoV Collectors DVD (I think, I'm not wholly positive on the CoV stuff). It has been stated that anything you legitimately paid extra for will remain "exclusive" to those who paid for them.
"Extra" includes the jump jet and the Pocket D VIP badge from the GvE pack, and anything in the Wedding pack.
"Extra" does not include basic game content.
Prophecy & Dreams | Prophecy & Dreams Discussion
Nerd Flirting | More Nerd Flirting | Nerds Talking About Flirting
Unbidden | Star Patrol | Real World Hero
Hmmm, apologies if this is mentioned somewhere back in the past 18 pages but... the two games have different minimum requirements. Are those requirements going to be merged as well?
I don't believe it got mentioned, specifically, Zloth, but the general expectation is "yes, in the long run".
At the very least, based on the way they're handling new costumes and some of the zone makeovers, plus the new areas themselves (Oro and Cin come to mind), that is the basic direction they are moving in.
Prophecy & Dreams | Prophecy & Dreams Discussion
Nerd Flirting | More Nerd Flirting | Nerds Talking About Flirting
Unbidden | Star Patrol | Real World Hero
I'm not sure if anybody has asked yet considering i don't have the time to look through more than 20 pages of posts.. but I was curious..
If when you purchased both City of Heroes and City of Villains separately... and applied them to your account.. Just speculating of course, would it have been / be possible that your account receives the benefits of the Good Versus Evil edition.. Taking into consideration that now when people buy either CoV/CoH, they get both for the price of one.. when we long time veterans(and some short) had to pay for both games
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I'm not sure if anybody has asked yet considering i don't have the time to look through more than 20 pages of posts.. but I was curious..
If when you purchased both City of Heroes and City of Villains separately... and applied them to your account.. Just speculating of course, would it have been / be possible that your account receives the benefits of the Good Versus Evil edition.. Taking into consideration that now when people buy either CoV/CoH, they get both for the price of one.. when we long time veterans(and some short) had to pay for both games
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How about no? Just because we are veterans, doesen't mean that we are suddendly entitled to stuff just because they combined the games. It'd be as stupid as demanding that Blizzard gave you something because they started selling the Diablo 2 Battle Chest, when you bought everything seperately when it first came out.
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how about getting these supposed 3 issues a year out for once. we've had 1 in a years time and its getting quite boring.
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Issue 10 (7/24/07) + Issue 11 (11/28/07) + Issue 12 (5/20/08) = 1 issue, I guess you're right... 
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Thank you Hellguard. I was a little baffled by this statement. I don't see how 3 issues in 10 months equals 1 issue in a year. Perhaps someone was just afk too long.
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I'm only on page eight thus far reading this thread so my apologies if this has already been pointed out.
Although technically there have been three issues in the past year if you count back from the date of the most recent release, there has only been one issue released thus far in the 2008 calendar year. So technically, both sides of the argument are correct. There has only been one issue released THIS year.
However, keep in mind that last year Issue 9 (titled BreakThrough - and my personal favorite) came out in May of 2007. So last year there WERE three issues inside the calendar year. Thus far this year we've only had one. Last year they successfully came out with three, tho they started relatively late and cut it close to the deadline. Let's take a look at the overall track record for The Powers That Be/en.
06/29/04 - Through the Looking Glass
09/16/04 - A Shadow of the Past
01/04/05 - A Council of War
05/04/05 - Colosseum
08/31/05 - Forest of Dread
10/27/05 - Along Came A Spider
06/06/06 - Destiny Manifest
11/28/06 - To Protect And Serve
05/01/07 - BreakThrough
07/24/07 - Invasion
11/28/07 - A Stitch in Time
05/20/08 - Midnight Hour
Two in 2004, four in 2005, two in 2006, three in 2007, and thus far this year, only one. Again, both sides of the argument are valid, if not accurate.
Compared to last year, the first issue for this year came out a little late, and we're overdue for the second issue for this year. Notice that there has NEVER before been an issue released in the month of December. That's because there's usually a holiday event that would overshadow it. So if the PTB are in fact going to have two more issues this year as promised, the second one needs to come out soon, and the third one still may not make it out before Thanksgiving.
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So if the PTB are in fact going to have two more issues this year as promised, the second one needs to come out soon, and the third one still may not make it out before Thanksgiving.
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There's not going to be another two issues this year. There's simply not enough time. The only way they were able to start the three issue cycle so late in the year last year is because most of the work on Inventions was done well in advance of pushing Issue 9 to Test and they were no doubt working on Issue 10 while polishing up Issue 9.
There's just under five months left in this year. Around a month of that will be taken up by two holiday events. That only leaves four months for closed beta testing, open beta testing, and the push to Live, with potentially a few weeks or so tweaking and fixing bugs after the go live date. There's plenty of time this year for them to do all that once, but twice? Doubtful.
I wouldn't call it impossible for them to be able to pull it off, but it's very close to impossible. Besides, BaB already posted here that they're not currently meeting their goal of "an issue every 4 months" (his definition of the "3 issues a year" goal).
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So if the PTB are in fact going to have two more issues this year as promised, the second one needs to come out soon, and the third one still may not make it out before Thanksgiving.
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There's not going to be another two issues this year. There's simply not enough time. The only way they were able to start the three issue cycle so late in the year last year is because most of the work on Inventions was done well in advance of pushing Issue 9 to Test and they were no doubt working on Issue 10 while polishing up Issue 9.
There's just under five months left in this year. Around a month of that will be taken up by two holiday events. That only leaves four months for closed beta testing, open beta testing, and the push to Live, with potentially a few weeks or so tweaking and fixing bugs after the go live date. There's plenty of time this year for them to do all that once, but twice? Doubtful.
I wouldn't call it impossible for them to be able to pull it off, but it's very close to impossible. Besides, BaB already posted here that they're not currently meeting their goal of "an issue every 4 months" (his definition of the "3 issues a year" goal).
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And I do believe they pointed out that'd probably be the case with the move, getting new staff up to speed, etc, etc, etc.
In other news, Saigon fell.
Wanted: Origin centric story arcs.
If you've only played an AT once (one set combo) and "hate" it - don't give up. Roll a different combo. It may just be those sets not clicking for you.
Actually there may be a way for them to do two issues this year. I'm not saying they'll WANT to, but it's not out of the question. The way to do this is to use material that has already been in existence before, and treat that as one episode.
They're already working on stuff for a new issue. Probably not ready right this minute, but may be worth putting out live within two months. Say around early October, we could get issue thirteen. If the ONLY thing available at issue 13 was the ability for "player created missions" that would probably satiate a lot of people. If not, they could also throw in something simple involving badge accumulation that led to a new power which essentially affected your character randomly, sometimes in lucky ways and sometimes unlucky ways. Sometimes your guy would be very powerful for a brief period of time, and sometimes he'd weaken. I mean, it is issue 13. Something luck oriented (but simple) would be called for.
Issue fourteen would fall right around the holidays. What they could do is take ALL the holiday stuff from previous years, and incorporate it into the game permanently. So players could opt to play Christmas any time they want. The ski lodge at Pocket D would be available all year round. Not just a couple weeks of the year. The whole father time thing? All year round. Halloween stuff? All year round. However, it'd only be available either in Pocket D, or from a new zone created for the holidays that was accessible directly from Pocket D alone.
Most of the content is already made for issue 14. They'd just have to implement it permanently.
Yeah, lets not do what ZachsMind is proposing as far as the holiday events are concerned. New issues should in fact be new. I'm looking forward to this Halloween, my second. If I was able to access it all the time I would quickly grow bored. Much like Croatoa did for quite a spell. Haven't been there in a few months, but when I fight my PumpkinHeads now its fun once more. Winter/Halloween should be like that.
Enjoy your day please.
Coming Soon(tm)! Issue 13: I Got Nothing
But seriously, there is only going to be one more issue this year (if that). That's why they're testing Halloween and Holiday content with the I12 build, just in case I13 isn't ready to go this year. And if I13 might not be ready, guess where I14 is? That's right, 2009.
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So if the PTB are in fact going to have two more issues this year as promised
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See, this is the problem with forum-goers. There was no promise. There has never been a promise. It was a GOAL. Something they would LIKE to do if able. Stop putting words in the developers mouths.
...I forgot what experience means.
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Hmmmm....wonder what these future projects could be???
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Only to be teased with the indication we'll find out more "later this year" is frustrating in the extreme. I'm getting pretty antsy to hear of some news, not only of issue 13 (which surely must be in a fairly advanced stage of development), but generally the direction this game is moving.
I know good things are coming. But to know of the incredible amounts of new resources being poured into this game, yet knowing nothing of how they're being used is maddening.
Stop the insanity!
Q. Just wondering Posi, where are the new dance emotes we were told would come with GR?
A. Positron: Whoops, my bad.
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