Excraft
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Posts posted by Excraft
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8 minutes ago, Bodai said:
With a license, you would not need to operate partially or totally in the shadows. You could have clients available on Steam or other mainstream platforms. It does appear that there are restrictions on making a profit, but they can officially accept donations to support their operations. I think it basically removes all of the "gray areas"... "less" fear of being shut down. If you offered those other servers licenses as well, I am sure they would seriously consider it.
I don't think you really need me to spell it out for you. People don't need to get married either, but they do and it has pros and cons just like anything. They put the work in so they get the spoils, whatever that may be, likely that will become more clear over the next few years. Perhaps NCSOFT is taking a "wait and see what happens" approach and this could be the first step to something more. Either way it doesn't really take any effort on their part, so they don't really lose anything.
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.
10 minutes ago, Bodai said:I for one would not play it that much for no reason other than it could go away at any time, and I don't think that you can argue that this does not at least make that less likely. We can argue about how secure that actually is or is not with a license, but many or most "solutions" are actually "make better" rather than "fix".
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.
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16 minutes ago, Bodai said:
I agree that there is no reason to disparage other servers or be in any way unkind or disrespectful. But, did any of them do the work to get a license?
Why would they want a license? They've been doing fine without one and don't want/need the added expense.
17 minutes ago, Bodai said:I suspect NCSOFT will just continue to look the other way on those, but there are things they won't be able to do that a licensed server can.
What exactly won't they be able to do that they haven't done already?
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22 minutes ago, Abraxus said:
They have continued development. However, now they can further develop with more "official" arcs, and characters, where before they really had to dance around things that would get NCSoft's attention, in a bad way. Now, they no longer have to worry about that. I don't see that getting a license puts them at any more risk of being shut-down. I see it as less likely. Now, out of scope servers, that could very well be a different story.
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.
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1 hour ago, Abraxus said:
I look at it this way.
NCSoft always had the legal right to issue a C&D order to Homecoming, and all the other rogue servers. They still could. What changed as a result of this agreement, is that their inclination to do so, would be vastly reduced to the point of being highly unlikely. Also, the benefits are (as I understand it), that Homecoming now has permission to develop the game as if it were still live. Continuing development of story arcs, power sets, Incarnate system, and other things that were in the pipe before the shutdown announcement of the live game. I see nothing but good things coming from this, and I am excited for the things we will see come to fruition over the next year, and beyond!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.
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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.
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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.
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9 hours ago, Lunar Ronin said:
For the good of both Excelsior and Homecoming as a whole, some players need to move off from Excelsior to other shards.
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.
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@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.
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9 hours ago, MelleXJoe said:
So you're implying that they should keep under-performing servers active to appease the very small number of people that want to play a massively multiplayer online game on an unpopulated server? I'm sorry, there's no response that can be given to you that will satisfy whatever your concern is. The fact is that the game was made to be multiplayer, and so underpopulated servers are being given attention to bolster them. That's all anybody can tell you, as that's the very nature of the game itself. Best of luck.
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.
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6 minutes ago, MelleXJoe said:
I'm not sure what that has to do with the double XP reward comment I was replying to. A rather good answer to your comment is that they are keeping five shards up, so why not try to have all five active? At peak hours if everyone is on then the shards fill up and people can't get in as well. It's objectively a better situation for everyone if they have five shards with medium population as opposed to two shards with waiting lines. It's a great idea to encourage new people to join to bolster other shards, and offering a carrot to do that is good thinking.
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.
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15 hours ago, Ghost said:
Thor L&T seemed more like an SNL Thor parody than an MCU movie. One bad joke after another - even during scenes that were supposed to be somber.
Exactly. Badly written.
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2 hours ago, MelleXJoe said:
Both Everlasting and Excelsior have thriving, busy populations. The other three servers are near ghost towns. Doing a special event to help build them up is objectively a very good idea. Consider having a population that you can find a team with at any hour to be a year-round celebration.
Every character I have is on Excelsior, and I appreciate Torchbearer, Indomitable, and Reunion getting events to build them up. They need it, we don't. Just my two influence.
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.
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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?
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14 hours ago, Voltor said:
They should have recast Mutt and passed the Fedora to him.
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?
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On 11/30/2023 at 12:45 PM, Seed22 said:
Homages have always been allowed. Problem with CoH players is that a lot take homage to mean direct copy, so they get rightfully genericed to the point where I think it would be beneficial for someone to pin a message with the literal dictionary definition of what homage means.
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.
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On 11/28/2023 at 8:47 AM, Without_Pause said:
The sad/funny thing is I don't know what is 'woke' about them, but I'm convinced people who are anti-woke don't know what woke is. My issues with say the latest Ant-Man had nothing to do with anything 'woke.'
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.
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On 11/23/2023 at 9:47 AM, Without_Pause said:
You just needlessly repeated yourself. I'm pointing out the ratings from the same site to get a base for how those films did using the same system. Also, the audience ratings for how much I liked a film line up with how I feel about said films.
On 11/23/2023 at 10:49 AM, Ghost said:You may not, but a lot of people rely on those ratings to decide if they are going to see a movie they are not already invested in.
Ill use IMDB for movies I know nothing about - is it 100% accurate and in line with my tastes? No, but it can still be a good indication if something is trash.
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.
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14 hours ago, Psyonico said:
There is a fine line where they are allowed. Homage is different than copy.
I wasn't asking about direct copies. Those are a no brainer. Homages are a different story and depending on who you ask, they shouldn't be allowed. There's still all sorts of people here who get upset if they find your character to be too close for their comfort.
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8 hours ago, Without_Pause said:
The Audience Score for it still isn't the lowest for an MCU movie. Thor: Dark World has a 75% Audience Score. Iron Man 3 is at 78%.
Sites like Rottentomatoes are notorious for bots and manipulating reviews. There's all sorts of reasons why they do it. For me, I don't believe any of the results on websites like those.
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12 hours ago, battlewraith said:
The numbers are saying that it failed at the box office. That doesn't tell you why it flopped. John Carpenter's The Thing is, in my opinion, one of the best films ever made and at release it not only bombed but was absolutely despised by critics. Dredd with Karl Urban kicked ass and it didn't even make it's money back.
It failed at the box office because the majority of moviegoers weren't interested in it for whatever reason. That's great that you liked the Thing (I agree - totally underrated film) and Dredd. I did say that whether a film is good or bad is subjective, but that's irrelevant. What you and I may find to be a masterpiece of cinema doesn't magically make it so. Box office receipts don't lie - the film is a total flop and a complete financial disaster. I'm happy you enjoyed it though.
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Are homages allowed now? I had thought they were verboten.
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Scores on Rotten Tomatoes are notoriously suspect, same as any other site where "customer" reviews and product ratings are easily manipulated by bots and sellers paying for good reviews. The Marvels being good or bad is subjective, but numbers don't lie. Overall, the 46 million dollar opening weekend followed by a near 80% drop off in the following week is enough to inform you that the movie isn't performing and is a complete box office disaster.
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On 6/1/2023 at 10:25 AM, Captain Fabulous said:
If people didn't harbor resentment, contention, and animosity between the servers then I would likely agree with you. But knowing those exist it's wise to just avoid discussion of other servers altogether. Even in places like Reddit such discussions get messy very quickly. Discretion is very often the better part of valor.
I don't disagree that some people can get very passionate about the subject, but the same can be said for any topic. If moderating is such a big concern, just add this to the CoC and ban any and all discussion of other servers and be done with it. Seems weird to single other servers out but allow discussion of other games IMO.
21 hours ago, lemming said:The discussion is probably restricted because someone would have to monitor said discussion to make sure it doesn't go off the rails.
It's the same reason they don't want other topics discussed in the chats because there are people who debate in bad faith and it's a headache to monitor.
Having to monitor and moderate forums and chat rooms and such comes with the territory though and if you want to host those things, you have to deal with the consequences of your decision. Pretty sure the mods here have to keep an eye on all kinds of topics. Like I said above, if they don't want people talking about what other servers are doing, add it to the CoC and just outright ban discussion of the topic.
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2 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:
This is not constructive nor respectful discussion. Banning discussion of other servers prevents people from making these kinds of inappropriate comments.
That's your opinion which you're more than welcome to. It certainly wasn't my intent. I notice you selectively edited out the part of my post where I began with "with due respect."
2 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:They don't want people bashing other servers. Or this one in comparison to others. Or getting into long drawn out arguments of "well so-n-so server does this, why can't Homecoming?" The mods here already have enough work, let's not make more for them.
There are other neutral places to take such discussions, like Reddit or Discord.Reading the OP and follow up from the GM, it sounds like the post made wasn't bashing any server. As far as bashing other games, there's a thread in the Video Games subforum right now discussing the worst games ever. I'm sure some people can get very visceral and disrespectful of other games they didn't like and those game makers can't come here to respond. Allowing threads like that isn't making more work but somehow discussing other CoH servers does? Not trying to be disrespectful, what you're saying here doesn't quite add up for me.
As far as mods needing to respond to posts where newer players may ask why HC can't do what other servers have done, the mods here have already addressed that, a few times as I recall. Players can help by linking to those responses in threads to answer the question.
I understand this is their house and their rules and they can do whatever they want. I've no objection to whatever rules the folks here decide to put into place.
NCSOFT & Homecoming License Announcement
in Announcements
Posted
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.