Octopus Overlords

that's sad. i loved CoH.

So does anyone know if you can still set up a CoH account? I have a buddy that I've been dabbling with various MMO's throughout the years, and he's never played CoH. I'd like him to try it out before they shutter the whole thing.

(I know I had to work like heck to get it to update my old CoH software last night. I went through and had to download the new NCSoft launcher, and it then let me download the new software. But from the old launcher, it would just bring you to their "So long, and thanks for all the fish" screen.

This was my first MMO. It was also the only game I ever repeatedly came back to (from WoW, DDO, Guild Wars, Champions, and every major single player release out there) for the last 7+ years.

One of my favorite characters, and my first to max level, was a (SS/Elec Brute)robot built by Longbow. He was sent into the prison in the Brickyard to clear out the riot. His advanced AI soon figured out they had sent him in as a prototype test just to see how long he would last, and he realized that any organization that would treat its assets that recklessly was actually his enemy. He joined Arachnos out of a sense of misplaced loyalty for the group that got him out of the situation. The fact that they opposed Longbow sealed the deal for him, and he rose up the ranks. He saw Black Scorpion and all his cybernetic technology as a human trying to perfect himself, and thus became one of his henchmen. Never powerleveled him, solo'd quite a bit of the content, and the image of him double-handed smashing anything that got in his way is what always brought me back to the game.

Farewell, Paragon! I hope your streets are safe once the heroes are gone.

hentzau wrote:So does anyone know if you can still set up a CoH account? I have a buddy that I've been dabbling with various MMO's throughout the years, and he's never played CoH. I'd like him to try it out before they shutter the whole thing.

(I know I had to work like heck to get it to update my old CoH software last night. I went through and had to download the new NCSoft launcher, and it then let me download the new software. But from the old launcher, it would just bring you to their "So long, and thanks for all the fish" screen.

Found an answer to my question, they weren't accepting any new sign-ups. Sadness. I really wanted him to try it out. When he was up for Octocon, I just went into the character creation screens, and he was blown away by how much you could customize everything.

So tomorrow is the day that they pull the plug on the game.



I think tonight I'm going to log on and take some of my old characters out for a final spin...walk around the old abandoned bases one last time. Grab a few screen caps of favorite places and costumes.

This is really making me more sad than it should. Haven't played the game with any regularity over the past couple of years now.

For those interested, Gamasutra did a postmortem piece on the game, and yes, it's rather depressing to read:

To outsiders, the Aug. 31 closure seemingly came out of nowhere, affecting 80 employees -- many of whom were just as surprised as the rest of the gaming world. But had history zigged instead of zagged, Paragon could still be around today. In fact, say Paragon veterans, up until the last minute, it looked like the company was facing a much different fate.

Paragon management -- including general manager/co-founder Brian Clayton, director of product development Destin Bales, and director of business and marketing Ross Borden -- actively negotiated with NCsoft to buy back the studio, which would have resulted in both the employees retaining their jobs and keeping City of Heroes alive for its core, but dedicated, fan base.

The deal looked like it would go through -- but at the last minute, roadblocks arose that scuttled the negotiations, sealing the studio's fate.

Smoove_B wrote:For those interested, Gamasutra did a postmortem piece on the game, and yes, it's rather depressing to read:

To outsiders, the Aug. 31 closure seemingly came out of nowhere, affecting 80 employees -- many of whom were just as surprised as the rest of the gaming world. But had history zigged instead of zagged, Paragon could still be around today. In fact, say Paragon veterans, up until the last minute, it looked like the company was facing a much different fate.

Paragon management -- including general manager/co-founder Brian Clayton, director of product development Destin Bales, and director of business and marketing Ross Borden -- actively negotiated with NCsoft to buy back the studio, which would have resulted in both the employees retaining their jobs and keeping City of Heroes alive for its core, but dedicated, fan base.

The deal looked like it would go through -- but at the last minute, roadblocks arose that scuttled the negotiations, sealing the studio's fate.

HOPE -- saw this over on Blues:

The proposal currently on the table before NCsoft would allow the game's spiritual successors to drop the "spiritual" portion of their title, enable a restoration of the game's servers for the last update (albeit with no saved character data), and create the potential for a "transition" server between the original game and its successors. While it's far from a done deal, it's the best news that the former residents of Paragon City have heard since the lights went dark -- there may be brightness on the horizon.

Smoove_B wrote:HOPE -- saw this over on Blues:

The proposal currently on the table before NCsoft would allow the game's spiritual successors to drop the "spiritual" portion of their title, enable a restoration of the game's servers for the last update (albeit with no saved character data), and create the potential for a "transition" server between the original game and its successors. While it's far from a done deal, it's the best news that the former residents of Paragon City have heard since the lights went dark -- there may be brightness on the horizon.

Man, that would be terrific! I was just lamenting the loss of CoH last week.

I tried so hard to get into Champions online...still have a lifetime membership and it just never felt the same. I'd really like this CoH revival to happen.

Smoove_B wrote:I tried so hard to get into Champions online...still have a lifetime membership and it just never felt the same. I'd really like this CoH revival to happen.

This. On all fronts, this.

About the only MMORPG I would go back to, even if it means starting over. Other than twinking and base building I played mostly newbs anyway.

For a brief, shining moment, CoH lived again.

Apparently, for the past several years, there has been a private server that you could play CoH on. That code was released on a Discord server and at least one private server popped up. A co-worker of mine actually found out about this, and over the weekend managed to get on and play and create a new character and get him up to level 5. Said it was buggy as hell, you would get map served about every 20 minutes because of all of the people trying to get on, but for a glorious weekend, he was able to play CoH.

And I'm as jealous as hell.

FWIW there are two remakes in the works:
https://www.shipofheroes.com/a-big-game/
https://cityoftitans.com/

Of all the many MMOs I've played in my time, COH was probably the most enjoyable to just sit down and play.

There is also an offline psuedo-server that lets you at least explore the locations just for the sake of memories. I didn't play for long, and burned myself out fast (I was hired to do a strategy guide, which is really intense play for... six weeks, I think?) I then traded my account to someone on OO (or GG?) I went back a couple of times later on, but never stayed long. Still, I have lots of fond memories.

hentzau wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:39 pm For a brief, shining moment, CoH lived again.

Apparently, for the past several years, there has been a private server that you could play CoH on.

From what I understand the private server was up almost as long as the official one (longer?). There is a lot o bad blood because the private server folks were taking crowdfunding to reverse engineering a public server all the while they were playing on their own private. With source code. Also, apparently they have/had all the characters.

I'd totally throw $60 at that if I could install the game & server on my PC and run it for me and my kids. I kind of wish there was some kind of GOG.com, but for MMO's ... Just run your own little servers, and as long as you never charge for it, it stays on forever.

Still miss CoH/CoV, but I acknowledge that my own departure and dwindling return was one of thousands that helped kill the game.

I did grab the character creator and empty-city test zone - but when I ran it, everything felt hollow and dead. I couldn't do it again.

Hell, I'd probably drop a hundo to see that game again. I've been keeping tabs on City of Titans for the past 5 or six years, but it seems like vapor to me. They sell a good product, but I've never seen any actual gameplay that I'm aware of, just pictures of an environment and character toons, including screenshots of a character generator.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong, as I would do just about anything to play that game again. I've even thought about finding my old box of that cheesy one with set missions and such, or even Champions Online.

Hyena wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 1:40 pm I've even thought about finding my old box of that cheesy one with set missions and such...

Freedom Force?

hentzau wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 1:57 pm

Hyena wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 1:40 pm I've even thought about finding my old box of that cheesy one with set missions and such...

Freedom Force?

Yeeeeeup, that's the one!

Hyena wrote:

hentzau wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 1:57 pm

Hyena wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 1:40 pm I've even thought about finding my old box of that cheesy one with set missions and such...

Freedom Force?

Yeeeeeup, that's the one!

Love that game.

Yeah, Freedom Force (and its sequel) is great fun. While I certainly enjoyed Bioshock back in the day, I still wish Irrational had instead followed through on their original plans to make the FF series a trilogy.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 9:25 pm

hentzau wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:39 pm For a brief, shining moment, CoH lived again.

Apparently, for the past several years, there has been a private server that you could play CoH on.

From what I understand the private server was up almost as long as the official one (longer?). There is a lot o bad blood because the private server folks were taking crowdfunding to reverse engineering a public server all the while they were playing on their own private. With source code. Also, apparently they have/had all the characters.

So if the source code gets leaked, could people start setting up their own private servers?

hentzau wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:32 pm

Hyena wrote:

hentzau wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 1:57 pm

Hyena wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 1:40 pm I've even thought about finding my old box of that cheesy one with set missions and such...

Freedom Force?

Yeeeeeup, that's the one!

Love that game.

Still available on GOG. I picked up both the original and the sequel a while back. Good fun.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2019 2:34 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 9:25 pm

hentzau wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:39 pm For a brief, shining moment, CoH lived again.

Apparently, for the past several years, there has been a private server that you could play CoH on.

From what I understand the private server was up almost as long as the official one (longer?). There is a lot o bad blood because the private server folks were taking crowdfunding to reverse engineering a public server all the while they were playing on their own private. With source code. Also, apparently they have/had all the characters.

So if the source code gets leaked, could people start setting up their own private servers?

Technically, yes. Legally, not sure.

FYI - COH lives.

They have expanded from one.. to two.. to four.. and now (as of last night) five private servers and are apparently in negotiation with the owners of the intellectual property to make it legit. I got on this last weekend.

Old characters do not exist. Reboots happen from time to time to apply fixes. They broadcast warnings in advance. All of the archetypes are unlocked, as are the VIP rewards, for all accounts. Prestige for super groups seems to be a non-thing and you can build what you want as a base. Also, all costume slots appear to be unlocked from the start. Note that old plugins like the vidiot maps will not work.

I recreated a couple of my toons on the Torchbearer server. They are level 18 and 20 now. For the most part, its been stable and fun. Under heavy load there are occasional map server time outs just like when it was live. Also, the movement AI for pets is still a little squirrely.

They have opened it to everybody. If you want to play - go to score.savecoh.com and follow the instructions to create an account and setup the tequila launcher they use.

Its been a blast and the nostalgia has not disappointed. I'm happy, happy, happy.