Excraft

Having played them both within the last week, Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Bridge Commander come to mind. Its not like HC is unique in this respect.

This is something that I sincerely hope gets corrected in the future - names being unique. Cryptic changed this in their next generation engine after CoH. They're going to have to do something about this if they want the game to evolve.

It's always been very unlikely that NCSoft would shut anyone down or pursue legal action against any of the pirate servers. Aside from the bad PR it would cost them, it makes perfect sense given the solid reasons @Bionic_Flea points out above - especially that the code is out there now. Shut down one pirate server and another (or more) will crop up to take its place. It's a costly proposition to try and legally go after all of the pirate servers out there. Why would NCSoft bother with that hassle and expense? Instead they drew up a standard "license" agreement (which I have no doubt they will in turn charge a fee for in the future) and have any of the pirate servers sign it if they want to be declared a "licensed" server. Instead of a legal expense, a dead IP can be used to make a few bucks for NCSoft without NCSoft lifting a finger or costing them a dime. Smart move on NCSoft's part. Also, the NCSoft name and logo are still associated with the game, so its free advertising for them. Win win for NCSoft.

You missed the community base - TORCHCS-5949. I think there's a couple more you've missed on TB. Let me try to locate the codes and I'll post them here.

That isn't what I said at all. There's nothing in the announcement about the new "license" that expressly says HC is now the one and only "official server" and that HC will be the one and only "official server" from now until the end of time. Again, it's just the only server who has a "license" at present, which means HC has an agreement with NCSof, and from the sound of it isn't something thats exclusively only for HC. There's doesn't look to be anything preventing other servers from pursuing the same "license" agreement with NCSoft to operate their servers if they wanted to, nor is there anything saying other servers need to shut down and stop operating because HC is now the "one and only official server." If you want to believe it is, go right ahead.

Well no it's not "the official server", it just has permission via NCSoft now via a "license." As I understand based on the official license thread, HC is the only server at the moment to have a "license". There's nothing preventing other servers from getting the same from NCSoft should they choose to pursue it.

HC operating as a non-profit doesn't mean NCSoft can't make money. NCSoft doesn't have to take a cut of any profit. Their "license" could be a flat dollar amount based on number of servers in operation or whatever. That cost would then get passed down to the people making the donations to cover along with other expenses. It wouldn't be any different than what HC is doing now. Like I said, NCSoft is smart. They've made this into a money making opportunity for themselves instead of a legal expense in chasing after servers all over the place.

NCSoft has known about HC and other servers for years. NCSoft has known for years some have been taking player donations to keep everything running and NCSoft didn't lift a finger to stop it. They've already "been caught" and NCSoft didn't shut anyone down. People shouldn't assume what the motivations are for other servers as well. I know various discussions with people on other servers that some of them don't really care about having a client on Steam or wanting a huge number of players. They prefer the peace and quiet and flexibility of staying small and more casual. Heck I even know a couple of people who bit the bullet and stood up their own personal servers for family and friends to avoid all of the drama here. I think it more having to do with not wanting to bother with trying to fight an endless legal battle on multiple fronts. NCSoft turned this into a future money making opportunity for themselves without needing to type a line of code or maintain anything. Win win and smart business decision on their part.

I don't know anyone running the other servers on a personal level. I know there's players talking over on other servers about what this new license thing means for them in that they don't want to get involved, don't want to have to get one and don't want to be forced over here for various reasons. Can't say as I blame them in that regard. Other servers have been doing fine doing their own thing for years now, so there's no need to get involved with a "license" or have the hassle of dealing with NCSoft. I certainly hope that other servers and the players on them aren't in any way going to be "encouraged" to stop what they're doing, shut down and be forced over here. That would create a whole lot of bad will here. That much is an absolute certainty. The game could still go away at any time for any reason NCSoft wants. Also, having a "license" doesn't mean HC or the new and improved "City Council" won't implode at some point and shut the whole thing down from their end. So NCSoft isn't the only one that can cause the game to go away again. I also don't think that having a "license" really changes anything. I mean, maybe it goes from a .000000001.1% likelihood of getting shut down to a .000000001% chance. Not sure that's really all that big of a deal to be honest. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for the HC folks here on getting that done. I just don't see it being all that important.

Why would they want a license? They've been doing fine without one and don't want/need the added expense. What exactly won't they be able to do that they haven't done already?

Not sure that makes any sense. They've done work on arcs here that involved "official" characters and such. I agree with you that having a "license" doesn't make it more likely they'll get shut down now. I was just suggesting that the chances of that happening were slim to none before for various reasons. Also, I don't like that people are now referring to other servers as "illegitimate" or "out of scope" or whatever other vitriolic derogatory term people feel inclined to toss their way. Other servers have been doing their own thing for years now too and having options for people to try is a good thing.

I don't disagree, however it was already very highly unlikely that NCSoft would've shut down any of the rogue/pirate servers. History proves this out. How many years has it been now the game is in the wild and all of the servers are still going? It was too costly for NCSoft to go after all of the pirate servers and cheaper to just let them exist unless the people running them did something really stupid. Nor would NCSoft take a chance on garnering even more ill will by shutting the game down again. HC and other servers have been doing development for the past several years on new story arcs, new powersets, new costumes etc. without any license. Other servers are still developing without a license. Having a "license" doesn't really change anything other than increasing expenses here to pay for the new license. Smart move on NCSoft... collect some money without lifting a finger from a dead IP, garnering the free good will for "blessing" the server with a license and not shutting anything down. Winning all around for NCSoft.

Might be a good idea to update the dual boxing policy. That could help curb all the people who are dual, triple, and quadruple (and more boxing) to take some more of the load off.

I liked season 2 and the series as a whole. I don't agree with a lot of the criticisms I've seen about the Loki series though. Only beef I have is in the writing for Sylvie this season. Once she knew that doing what she did at the end of Season 1 would lead to the destruction of literally everything, you'd think she'd change her ways. Not changing a lick despite that makes her a narcissist to the extreme and truly an unlikable character. She's the worst part of season 2, if not the whole show IMO.

That's fair, although don't most people have alts on various servers? From what I can tell, people who didn't want to wait in a queue just switched to a character on Torchbearer to avoid the login queue. Seems that at least some would be doing that organically. Probably not enough though.

@Jimmy Thank you very much for the clarification. I hope you all can find a more permanent solution to fix the stability issues with Excelsior and as always, thank you and all the HC folk for the work you put into the game.

How do you define "under performing"? Aren't you implying that people who want to be in a crowded space are somehow more important than those who want a more casual, less populated setting? You're basically telling them that it's a multiplayer game, so deal with a heavy population even if there's an option for them not to. There's no right or wrong and I wasn't implying anything. I was asking for clarification since the HC folk had said they wanted to provide players as broad an experience as possible by having both heavy and low pop servers. The double XP and Raids on a couple of lower population servers - which according to them might be low population by choice of those on them - seemed to contradict that philosophy, so I asked for clarification.

All shards have active players on them. It's very Simple to understand my reply. Please read the linked posts I included that provide context from the HC folk regarding server populations, player preferences and reminding that server transfers are free. Trying to spread everyone out is not an "objectively better situation" for those who might want to play on lower population servers. At the same time, if you or anyone else don't want to be in line waiting to get on, then use a free server transfer and move to a lower population server where there's no wait. Having to wait in line a minute in order to be on a populated server so you have more people to do content with is a tradeoff. Same goes for those who are on a lower pop server who might want to have more people to play with. Those who don't want or don't need a large population can stay on the lesser populated servers. Not at all saying invasions and double XP on certain servers is a bad thing at all.

Exactly. Badly written.

See my linked posts above. Server transfers are free and people have the choice to move to a higher pop server or to a lower pop server based on their preference. If pop is too low, move to another server.

Great that you're all trying this out and thanks for doing it. Something isn't adding up though. Why try to drive more people to other low pop servers when people already there may be there specifically for the quieter experience as you all mentioned here?

No, they shouldn't have. Nor should this or the last Indiana Jones film ever been made. All of these studios trying to resurrect properties and stars older than dirt to milk as much as possible out of them is what's getting old. I wonder how many mega flops it will take before these movie studios start creating new stuff again?

Problem is and always has been that what is or isn't an "homage" differs greatly between players. I think it safe to say most everyone can agree on what a direct copy is. See the above post as an example. I've personally seen others who are definitely not direct copies get reported and genericized while other groups are allowed to have flagrant ripoffs INCLUDING copyrighted names and still be allowed to keep them. All depends on who you know here.

Same here. I don't think I'd call any of these latest MCU (or DCU) flops "woke". From what I can see, they didn't fail for being "woke". They failed because they're poorly written. Add to that you have studios who seem to be more interested in rapidly churning out as much content as possible instead of focusing on quality over quantity.

I'm really glad you both get something out of those sites and they work for you. I prefer to be skeptical of reviews posted on sites owned by the studios producing the films being reviewed.