Slim to none.
None if NCsoft doesn't release the rights to the game.
Im thinking NCSOFT would be the ones to release it. Not sure how Steam generates revenue but I wonder if this would be attractive to both.
Playing on Freedom
Quote:
NCSoft has already confirmed that they are shutting CoH down come November 30th, period. |
Originally Posted by DarkOasis
Im thinking NCSOFT would be the ones to release it. Not sure how Steam generates revenue but I wonder if this would be attractive to both.
|
I doubt a game programmed for massively multiplayer servers could ever "come back" as a single player game hosted entirely on an end-user's machine, though. If anything, our slim hopes depend upon another MMO publisher picking it up.
Id rather play it as a stand alone game with end user multiplayer option than not play it at all...
Im thinking of possible options NCSOFT and us players have. If you think the only option is NCSOFT sells the rights to another company to maintain it as an MMO..what happens when the company they sell it to cancels it? We do this all over again?
If they come out with a stand alone game it will be around just about forever. I mean I dont know about you but if I buy a game I want to be able to put it away and play it later. Hell. I still have a PS1 game I play. And a couple Sega Saturn games I will probably get out once the game goes offline.
I figure Ive spent over $1000 on this game. As of December 1 what will I have to show for that?
Playing on Freedom
Quote:
I understand your feelings-- believe me, NCSoft has shut down about 8 MMORPGs now counting CoH. They seem to go for the initial rush of box fees, get a couple years' subs out of people if that, then shutter them. CoH has had a much longer overall run than that, but NCSoft only bought them out a few years ago from Cryptic Studios, so actually, this closure time-wise is right in line with all their others (if not still longer than Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, Dungeon Runners, Dragonica or Exteel got anyway).|
Originally Posted by DarkOasis
Id rather play it as a stand alone game with end user multiplayer option than not play it at all...
Im thinking of possible options NCSOFT and us players have. If you think the only option is NCSOFT sells the rights to another company to maintain it as an MMO..what happens when the company they sell it to cancels it? We do this all over again? If they come out with a stand alone game it will be around just about forever. I mean I dont know about you but if I buy a game I want to be able to put it away and play it later. Hell. I still have a PS1 game I play. And a couple Sega Saturn games I will probably get out once the game goes offline. I figure Ive spent over $1000 on this game. As of December 1 what will I have to show for that? |
MMO publishers, and NCSoft in particular, really need to start considering this "lack of anything to show for it come shut-down time" and what it's doing to their reputation and future sales. I agree.
I just don't see how an entire game can be reprogrammed from massively multiplayer to single player, especially with the entire dev team having been pink-slipped three weeks ago. Not that they would want to do it, anyway, even if they were still there.
Quote:
So... you're sayin' there's a chance? YES!|
Originally Posted by shadow35
NCSoft has already confirmed that they are shutting CoH down come November 30th, period.
I doubt a game programmed for massively multiplayer servers could ever "come back" as a single player game hosted entirely on an end-user's machine, though. If anything, our slim hopes depend upon another MMO publisher picking it up. |
---
Ok, Dumb and Dumber quotes aside (and no, I've not seen the entire movie... I just... can't. Ugh. I'm one of 'those', sorry. But I do appreciate some of the lines.)
/sidetrack
Ok, D&D... oh, hey... look at that... no, no, must stay on target - Porkins... STOP IT.
Sheesh. Startin' to act like Gir here...
---
I too find the amount of... stuff... that you'd have to do to make it standalone, while not impossible, certainly improbable. There's the contact system, the mission system, and the system for just the random NPC people walking around... although that could be removed, but I bet it's integrated pretty well.
In other words, you'd have to buy... well, several servers to just host yourself somehow, as well as the code to run it. I kind of doubt you could have a good running game with all those servers in one box...
Not that it's impossible, but highly improbable and possibly insurmountable in any good time frame... and costly as hell, because *someone's* going to have to code it.
The other is to have online servers you can run to make the game work... but then, you might as well do it right and run the whole thing in the first place.
Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I don't think so. No, the way to go is save it as it is somehow.
Mike
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
I'd love for this to happen, but I too think it's unlikely.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by DarkOasis
I figure Ive spent over $1000 on this game. As of December 1 what will I have to show for that?
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by shadow35
MMO publishers, and NCSoft in particular, really need to start considering this "lack of anything to show for it come shut-down time" and what it's doing to their reputation and future sales.
|
Those thousands of dollars have been spent on the hours of entertainment you've enjoyed over the years, more recently enhanced by virtual items from the Paragon Market. It's pretty much the same as spending money watching movies at the cinema, afterwards you aren't left with anything other than memories (perhaps some 3D glasses these days!)
Aside from the initial box sale nobody has spent any money on anything tangible, just the ability to access the game and use certain items from the store for a time.
Quote:
Slim to none. But I guess since it's ok and logical to wish and hope for the slim to none chance of the game being saved then it must be ok and logical to hope that it will go to stand alone format. |
Originally Posted by DarkOasis
What are the chances of COH going to a stand alone format sold by say STEAM...and given limited multiplayer access?
I was thinking this might have already been brought up. If it has please link me to that thread. Thanks. |
I would like that.
Funny thing is when I bought this game years ago, I thought it was a stand alone game. I thought it was one of those game, like many steam games, that require i-net connection only for setup and install. Man, was I disappointed. Took me a year before I decided I was going to go ahead and give it a whirl anyways, especially for the customization and concept that was described. Even though I would have prefered it to be standalone to this day, I got kind of used to it being an MMO. I did learn somethings about the way that some MMOs operated and this lead to me trying other MMOs that prior I wouldnt have looked twice at. Most, didnt play for any significant time beyond the time it took to know that this game isnt for me. Some I played on and off before getting rid of it. And one, I stayed, which was here. Wish it was standalone but it wasnt and I dealt with that. It was a small price to pay for the overall good game and concept. Sometimes I wonder that if I went on and installed the game as soon as I bought it would it have put me in I4 or I5 instead of coming in at I6.
-Female Player-
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by mauk2
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard.  Never change, E_L! |
Frankly, most of what needs to be done to run City of Heroes as a standalone are "under the hood," so to speak. Either sync calls to the server need to be intercepted and handled, or the game needs to ship with some kind of server emulator, but considering how some sections can lag the server itself (say, ITF lag hill), that will undoubtedly have a serious performance hit associated with it.
The game itself, though? Doesn't need that much done to it, all things considered. Anything non-team-required can be soloed, and the only things "team-required" are like this because enemy ranks and spawn sizes don't scale. Once upon a time, a bug allowed the "no bosses" option to scale elite bosses down into regular bosses as it scaled regular bosses into lieutenants. This was "fixed," but there's no reason to suspect the functionality doesn't still exist. Basically, what this meant was AVs scaled down into regular bosses with purple triangles.
Take almost any TF, scale spawn sizes down to 1 person, scale enemy levels down to -1 to the player, scale all AVs down to bosses and most of the content becomes doable by a much broader range of characters. Even fights like Nictus Romulus wouldn't be THAT bad. I can't speak for iTrials as I've run all of one maybe twice over, though.
I just don't think NCsoft would go for that. It costs money to convert and the game still doesn't "fit with company direction" anyway. We may see "private" servers start showing up, but the best we can hope for is NCsoft sell the game to a company who's interested in running it like what happened to Hellgate London.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
|
Quote:
This was fixed several Issues ago.
|
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Frankly, most of what needs to be done to run City of Heroes as a standalone are "under the hood," so to speak. Either sync calls to the server need to be intercepted and handled, or the game needs to ship with some kind of server emulator, but considering how some sections can lag the server itself (say, ITF lag hill)
|
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
Quote:
I know it might seem sort of harsh, but thats a risk you take when you play anything online-only. Going into it, you have to understand that at any time, for any reason, the people behind the curtain may pull the plug. You HAVE to know that it won't last forever, even if it is the most popular game in the world. Eventually it's time will come. Then all of a sudden all the money you spent, all the man hours, all of that is gone. It sucks, its terrible, its one reason I prefer offline games to online, but that's how it goes. Que sera, sera.|
Originally Posted by DarkOasis
Id rather play it as a stand alone game with end user multiplayer option than not play it at all...
Im thinking of possible options NCSOFT and us players have. If you think the only option is NCSOFT sells the rights to another company to maintain it as an MMO..what happens when the company they sell it to cancels it? We do this all over again? If they come out with a stand alone game it will be around just about forever. I mean I dont know about you but if I buy a game I want to be able to put it away and play it later. Hell. I still have a PS1 game I play. And a couple Sega Saturn games I will probably get out once the game goes offline. I figure Ive spent over $1000 on this game. As of December 1 what will I have to show for that? |
Still not giving up on CoH, tho'.
"I have something to say! It's better to burn out then to fade away!"
Quote:
Hopefully fond memories of the time you played.|
Originally Posted by DarkOasis
I figure Ive spent over $1000 on this game. As of December 1 what will I have to show for that?
|
It's like being in a bowling league for 8 years with a team that was never good enough to win a trophy. Hopefully you enjoyed playing with your teammates every week and just that was worth the weekly fees.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
What are the chances of COH going to a stand alone format sold by say STEAM...and given limited multiplayer access?
I was thinking this might have already been brought up. If it has please link me to that thread. Thanks.
Playing on Freedom