Abraxus

Well, to be fair, the quote you used with my name, was actually a quote from someone else...I just did it badly in the editing. But, I agree with the Nemesis plot part. 😎

This is the first I have heard about any lawsuits, beyond the original one that got the Devs to be on the lookout for trademarked characters/costumes being used in-game, and police any violators. After that, my understanding was that a settlement was reached, and Marvel went on to do their own MMO/RPG, which came, and went very soon after those events. If there were additional lawsuits all during the years of the game's existence, right up to the end, that certainly comes as news to me, and likely a lot of others too. How is it you know this?

I'm sure this one, and all of the ones following Microsoft's "Patch Tuesday" are to apply security patches, which on the newer versions of the Server OS, definitely takes some time. I do it for a living for the company I work for, and I have seen servers (even VMs) take 2 hours to patch, and reboot with just the monthly security roll-up patch, and the almost monthly servicing stack updates. When you stack even more on them (which they occasionally do), it can really bog things down for much longer than the previous OS versions took. So, all is good I think. Carry on! 😎

First, I'm not sure character data (outside of costume, and power customization) transfer is even an option being offered. Second...really? Preparing for the end before we know anything of substance? I get being anxious about the outcome, but lets not build our A-bomb bunkers quite yet. 😉

I just use whichever one of the 4 available seems appropriate to the post I'm reacting to. Never really paid much attention to the names for each of them, to be honest. 😉

My main concern with a lower population is being able to field teams for whatever I'm in the mood to do. Everything from a Posi 1 taskforce, to a Maria Jenkins mission team, to any and all manner of Incarnate Trials. I just want enough folks around that it doesn't take more time to assemble a team, than it does to do the actual mission, TF, Trial, etc. 🙂

Between the confusion about the difference between City of Titans, and the Titan Network; and things that were posted on the Titan Network forums, but talking about efforts led by City of Titans guys...wait...what? I think I confused myself! No, wait! I got it now! Hopefully, everybody else does too. 😎

I agree with all of that! 👆

In the absence of fact, the vacuum fills with supposition, conjecture, speculation, and out-and-out guessing. The hope is that, at least some of it uses some historical data, similar situations, logic, and business sense to make the best of a situation where we have no conclusive facts with which to work. But, it's all we have at the moment. For me, the bottom line is that we have a chance for legitimizing the Homecoming server, which will go a long way towards alleviating the fears harbored by all regarding its future in the current state of things. For others, if this is successful, and the server is legitimized, that might give them more cause for concern, because of their unshakable distrust of NCSoft. For them, I'm not sure there is a real solution, but I feel like the folks that fall into that category are a small percentage of the player base here. The only thing we do know for sure is that the talks are happening, and what the goals are. Beyond that, we are all just waiting to hear what parts of our hopes, and aspirations are confirmed; and which (if any) of our greatest fears could be realized. But, that is life in a nutshell, so there ya go...

Always better to know exactly where the hammer will fall, than to worry about if/when it will fall. Not knowing, or anticipating the worst is downright maddening. Why wouldn't you want to know for sure. I see these talks as the only way to have that knowledge. I, for one, feel better knowing that if this works out, that worry goes away for good, and we can just relax, play, and look forward to all the good stuff to come.

Except that it's literally 7 years later, and most of the folks at that company are very likely no longer there, or have moved in to other things since then. Plus, until just a couple of months ago, they had all the advantage. The game was dead, and they saw no real reason to bring it back. Since then, the game code has become an infinite resource, meaning that anyone with a little knowledge can bring up their own server, if they wish. So, they might see it as an opportunity to capitalize on a situation that would be easier to legitimize, than to spend resources chasing down, and playing whack-a-mole for all the servers that will pop-up out there. There is a certain logic to it, even from a corporate perspective. I'm sure they'd go the latter route if given no other choice, but here, in this situation, they have a choice. They are weighing that choice against their other alternative, and what comes of it could be as simple as they just agree to leave things here alone, and give their blessing on future changes made by the Devs, so long as they remain non-profit. So, trust? Well, I'm not sure I completely trust any large entity whose very existence revolves around the money to be made from their particular product(s). But, when something is in their best interest, or at least not completely against it, potentially good things can happen.

They could have easily done that already, without the "easy vector". They have chosen not to, most likely due to these talks, and their potential. The extent of which, we don't know at the moment, but was obviously promising enough from the start to keep something like that from happening. So, before all the doom and gloom predictions, let's hang about long enough to find out. What do ya say? 😎

We are a large, and diverse group. Differences in perspective, and opinion are inevitable. How we handle them, is within our power to control. Civility in expression is almost always a better way to conduct debate on any topic, and self-discipline when reacting to topics, and associated posts keeps things from spinning out of control.

I imagine there are others who have an ax to grind that they can't get past, and if this thing comes together, they will likely have a similar reaction and turn there backs as well. Regrettable, but probably inevitable. I'm one of those that would love to see everyone (including the ones who broke off and formed their own servers) come together to play in one place once again. But, I know there is probably too much water under the bridge for that to ever be an option again. Downside of the code being as available as it has become, is that it gives folks an option to follow their specific issues right out the door to a place that doesn't offend their sensibilities. When before, it was either play on NCSoft servers, or don't play at all. Likely no way back towards a unified community, as divisions seem to be the thing these days. Everything from our choice in games, phones, music, religion, politics. All of it has become fertile ground for issues that come between friends, and end relationships. But, I never thought City of Heroes would fall into that category. Probably naivete on my part, or Pollyanna, "pie in the sky" dreams of how things used to be. I guess you can never really go home, but I think the majority of us are gonna try all the same.

Oddly enough, I've been told that before...in this very thread...by a Dev no less! 😆

Over the years of the original run, I had a few characters with SS. In a lot of zones, it was fine. But, for those with vertical terrain challenges (Faultline for instance), I found I had to augment it with something that would give me the ability to compensate. Jump pack, or additional travel power like Hover, or Teleport. I did those things, but finally just settled on either Fly, or Super Jump for the most part, so I wouldn't have to resort to those kinds of measures. When I've got something that intensely thematic, and that travel power works for it though, then so be it. Otherwise, I'm guilty of taking the easy path to get from A to B. 😉

Once we have resolution (one way, or the other) to the talks with NCSoft, I would expect to start hearing more about the future of the game, and the development efforts for potential changes/new content. Until then, I don't believe things will change too much, outside of fixes for issues that need more immediate attention. After things are solidified, so many things are possible! Some of which will thrill people, and disappoint others. In other words, just like it always was, and always will be. 😎

I use Fly as a travel power on the majority of my characters, except the ones that use the large, or huge body models. To me, those guys look ridiculous flying, so for them, I use Super Jump. When Afterburner came out, and I was finally able to make Fly a power that didn't suffer a speed deficit, as a trade-off for the relative safety it provided, I was ALL in! Suddenly, I wasn't always the last one to show up at doors, when the team had to traverse across the entire length of Independence Port, and I could still enjoy the view along the way. To me, it was the perfect add to the set, and given the information here, to know that you don't have to "three-slot" it to get more than acceptable speed, makes it even better! The only accommodation I had to make, was setting up a keyboard macro, that would turn on both Fly, and Afterburner, then shut them both off when I arrived. Otherwise, Fly would turn off, leaving AB on, and making me unable to do anything else. A few times (when it was new), I went into missions thinking the game was glitched, because my attacks weren't firing, and I couldn't do anything, only to find AB still running, and the "Only affecting Self" message in the corner of the screen. 😚

I'll share a memory, and it's a pretty recent one. Like last night recent. Synapse TF, being the "weekly", is not surprisingly being run every few minutes. I had just completed a run with a L15 blaster, who ended up L20 at the end, and it took only 1 hour 20 minutes. About that time, a friend got online, and wanted to run the same TF. Well, I had another character in that range that I wanted the badge, the XP, and the merits for, so I said "Sure". 15 minutes later, nobody had started one, so we formed it ourselves. Got a team of 8 very quickly. All good so far. A couple of missions in, someone went AFK, and never returned. Then a few minutes later, another member DC'd, and never came back. So, now we are looking at fighting on, with a team of 6, comprised of two Brutes, a Defender, three Dominators, and a Controller. Given the nature of the Synapse TF (which is that the majority of missions are "kill all"), we started feeling the "slog fatigue" at around the two hour mark. It was getting late on the east coast, where a few of our team members hailed from, and they were dozing off at their keyboards. But, we fought on! We didn't have anyone with Stealth/TP to find the bosses in the last few missions, and teleport us directly to them to save time. Nope. We slogged through it all to get to them. When we finally got to Babbage, we didn't have the damage with just the 6 of us to even make a dent! Fortunately, since he is outside, we were able to call for assistance from others in the zone. It took longer than is typical, be we finally prevailed. The final mission with The Clockwork King, slogged it through the lair, finally got to him, and took him down quicker than expected, given what happened with Babbage. So, at three hours, and 20 minutes, we were finally done, and feeling like we had earned every one of those 116 merits! It was not the finest example of an efficient, well balanced Task Force. But, it was a great example of perseverance, and dedication. It would have been easy for more to just say "You know, this is taking too long, and I'm done". But, nobody did that. They fought on, and prevailed. Not unlike the CoH community itself has done all these years since the game shut-down. The reason we are playing again at all, is because we never gave up hope, and believed against all odds, that someday, we would be back to tell stories like this again someday. I'll take playing a less than stellar Task Force experience any day of the week, over just being able to remember the good ones from days gone by.

The folks who believe this is all a nefarious plot on the part of anyone involved in these talks, are gonna think that, and nothing anyone says, or shows to the contrary is going to change their minds. If things go well, they will still be skeptical, thinking the bottom will fall out at any moment. If it falls through, they will say they knew it all along, and likewise be ready to run for the hills. For the rest of us, we will wait, watch, and react according to what we hear from the team, rather than out of pessimistic speculation, and we will just keep playing the game we love. It's really as simple as that. 😎

87.95 huh? I'm guessing that could easily have been just a rounded off 88mph, but that number harkens to other known properties, so I guess they wanted to avoid that. 😉

I'll take as much freem as possible please! ⚡

Having just completed the last of my 6 Incarnate T4 powers, I can attest to this personally! You want those Empyrean merits, and as many of them as you can get! The fact that you are awarded 20 (?) of them for each three Vet levels achieved is nothing to sneeze at, and without XP turned on, you are missing out on a free bonus/reward for your endeavors.

Personally, I'm excited about the possibilities that this could open to the Devs, to the game, and ultimately, to the players. Fingers crossed for a speedy, and positive outcome! 🤞

Then, of course, there's that! 👆