_NOPE_

Hmmm.... well THAT explains a lot...

Of all the things to be pinged in... I come to find this. Oh, what a legacy I've left behind... ugh! At least the jokes are funny. Keep it up @Snarky!

They moved their URL and it looks like someone else took it over. Here's the current one, it seems: https://wiki.ourodev.com/view/Piglet

Ah, well I guess I just didn't make the cut then. Jumped through many hoops though. Ah well.

You're making the assumption with that statemenrt those Devs are in fact new Devs, and not previosly existing Devs who just didn't have public personas until more recently. We don't know either way, unless it's explicitly stated as such.

I was pinged into this thread, so I just got done reading it all. Not much else to say, but in response to the above? There's been no further updates (that I've heard of at least) since then. It was my understanding that the "Dev team" is essentially locked until the nebulous "Negotiations" are completed.

That's... more complicated, and involves actually opening up your PC for the world to find. I've never done it, though I'm sure I could probably figure it out for myself, I have no interest in it, so I never had to figure it out. Your best bet is to either see if there's anything over on OuroDev to describe how to do it (here's the FAQ): https://wiki.ourodev.com/view/I25_FAQ Or, join the OuroDev discord and ask around there: https://discord.gg/5k3RXKYv

To stop playing, close down your client like you normally would, and then go back to the main folder and double click "Shutdown_Server", and the magical script will shut everything down:

Oh, it's actually pretty easy. Here, I'll give you the step by step with screenshots: 1. Download and install a torrent program (I like qBittorrent) and 7Zip. 2. Click this link and use your torrent program to open the "magnet link": 3. Choose where you want to put the "7z" file at: 4. Wait for it to download completely: 5. Locate the file in your file system, right click on it, and extract it using the 7Zip right mouse click menu: 6. Drill down into the extracted folders until you come across "InitialSetup.bat". NOTE - BEFORE you run it, make sure that the files are where you want your server/client setup to be installed. If it's not where you want it, move it to where you want it now, before you click the ".bat" file. Run it: 7. Say "Y" here: 8. The script will start, say "Yes" or all the "positive" buttons for all of the installer processes that start happening now, until they are all done: 9. Inside the directory, there should now be a link called "Account_Tool", run it: 10. This tool lets you modify the database easily and let's you setup accounts and characters and such. Use it to make your own account on your server: 11. Once this account is setup, you can now start the "game server", which is really like a DOZEN sub-servers. Go back up a folder and double click on "Startup_Server": If you see any prompts from Windows like this, just accept them all (you may see MANY!): At this step, my AVG Antivirus also FREAKED out, saying that they were all filled with viruses. These are "false positives", just add Exceptions to your anti-virus, or turn it off while you're running this. 12. You'll see these 13 different icons pop up on your computer, each one is a different server: Just keep switching windows and watching them until they all give you a "happy" positive message, like these ones. It might take a while for all of them to link up with each other and be sitting there "stable", but they'll get there... eventually: 13. Finally, you can go back to the main folder, and start up your "Client": Log in and BOOM, you're now in your very own lonely, silent, "City of Hero":

The link that's on that site is what's called a "magnet link", and works with any torrent program. So, you have to have a torrent program installed in order to be able to download it.

Mostly because people have been pinging me, and since I'm not a COMPLETE curmudgeon, I feel the need to read and respond. That will die down pretty quickly, I'm sure. I just got this working today: https://wiki.ourodev.com/view/I25_Community_Virtual_Machines#i26_Self_Installer So, if I ever need a hit of that sweet CoH juice, I've got it now: I **WILL** miss the community though. Thanks everyone.

I'm sure you can come up with something better, but here. CoH_Modder_Source_Code.zip

I want people to be able to go to precisely the level that they want to, to precisely the power(s) they want to have.

Yes, you're reading it wrong.

And why do you think that might be, perhaps? Let's not get personal, please. Let's focus on the topic at hand, rather than each other.

Contrary position - your CHARACTER "earned" their powers, even if YOU as a player didn't. They still experienced everything they needed to experience to get better at being a hero/villain. Because this isn't just a superhero game, it's a superhero role-playing game.

Boom. I'll now leave you to your regularly scheduled beta testing.

We have long had discussions in this community about the game running up against The Superman Problem. So, let's discuss this, rationally and in a kind manner, that topic. I'll go ahead and start. For me, growing up in an era of "Nintendo Hard", where I find many modern games FAR too forgiving, The Superman Problem is a big problem in modern games. How do we make our challenges challenging, while still being fun? How do we make our play, "meaningful"? And how do "power levels" come into play in all of this? Let me give a couple of examples to elucidate my position. First, look at Minecraft. The game has two primary modes - Creative and Survival. I NEVER play in Creative, I tried it a couple of times, but it's just plain boring to me. What's the point of "having stuff" if you don't have to earn that stuff? Luckily, there exists Survival mode, where to create, you must earn the resources to create. Sure, the game is still fairly easy, and some of that earning can be considered "monotonous" to some, but it's still something that has a "meaning". When I build a tower of my own specifications in the game, it feels like a great accomplishment, because I worked for every single block. I don't get that same feeling in creative. Second, look at The Long Dark. It's also a game with two modes, "Wintermute" or story mode, and Survival Mode. In "Wintermute" you essentially have infinite lives, as when you die you'll just go back to your previous saved game. In Survival mode, if you die once, that's it... you're done. You can't play in that specific game instance again. You have to start over, losing anything you may have "earned" in the previous instance. I played each chapter in Wintermute precisely once, just to experience the story. I'd never go back into it. For me, Survival is where it's at. Now, we can't have really two different "game modes" in City of Heroes, because it's not a single player game - it's a social game. We all have to agree to play by the same rules. And that's where the rub, and the tension comes in. Because there are those like myself that want things to be "Nintendo Hard", and there are others who I understand just want to play around and feel like a God on Earth. I have nothing against those persons, they can feel that way if they want to. But, in my opinion, that's what the End Game is for - with all of the Incarnate systems and high level task forces. At that level of the game... you're truly Superman and are facing World-Ending threats. But, I would argue, that the lower levels should be HARD. They should be where you just begin as an amateur hero, a weak character that's just getting started, hasn't learned the ropes is new to their powers, and hasn't "exercised" them. Over time, you level up, get stronger and more powerful. Each level gives you access to new amazing powers, and you really feel like you've "earned" your power by the time you get to level 50. Changing the power levels and reducing the levels required changes that, for everyone. You don't have to "earn" it. Sure, the argument can be made "just don't take it until the level that you want it", but then you might as well just unlock all powers at level 1 then, if you want to make that argument. Why have "minimum required levels" at all then, if you really subscribe to that? Why not make City of Heroes like Champions Online was, Free Form where you choose whatever powers you want whenever you want? The Archetype system and the limitations on your powers serve, in my opinion, a story purpose. They show the natural progression of your character, from weak to strong. And, in my opinion, that shouldn't be messed with, it destroys the narrative arc. --- I propose the following solution as an alternative suggestion to constantly pushing to make the early levels easier for everyone: Put them back to the way they were when the game was on Live back all those years ago, and implement an "I Win" button. No, seriously. Stick a contact somewhere that you can talk to that allows you to just artificially set your power level to whatever level you want. You want an instant 50? BOOM, you're there, you now just have to transfer influence from one of your alts to fill in your slots. You just want to skip the early levels where you didn't have access to Flight, and you're tired of the Dr. V storyline? BOOM, done, skip those few. This solution would end the concept of "powerlevelling", there'd be no need, just go see the I Win button, then play the content you WANT to play. Jump right into that high level "steamroller" content that you thrive on. --- I then have the option to ignore that contact entirely, and so I'll just be sitting here punching Hellions in the face at level 1 for the next two hours for the umpteenth time, as God (Statesman, I guess) intended! Win-win, we all get what we want. Those that seem to hate the lower level game can skip it, and those of us that love the game at ALL levels, from our weakest moments where we have to use Rest after every fight all the way up to facing stuff in Portal Corp and beyond can do it our slow, "boring" way. But, I'd argue, constantly giving access to more powers earlier and earlier as has been the trend? Why even have level requirements at all then, why not just set them all to level 1 and be done with it?

Well, there's arguments, and then there's discussions. I know it's a fine line, but there were a lot of posts that were hidden that didn't involve any insults, and were just discussions and explorations about the philosophy of game design and what these changes mean against those subjects. That those parts of the conversations can't be seen... lessens the conversation, in my opinion. "...and each voice lost... diminishes us"

Thanks for the clarification @Faultline. That's very good to know. I really hate it when content gets deleted. There actually were some very good rational discussions in there. I just wish we wouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

It was my recollection that the Original Devs™ (ODs™, like OGs!) did this intentionally, for just the reasons why you stated. In fact, I believe that the words used at the time were "breathing room", to give players a chance to get used to their powers, find their favored strategies, and explore how the power pools affected those strategies. I believe it was also stated that their intention for the first secondary power to be locked in because it was meant to be a "signature" power of the sets, representing what those sets do the best, or at least what they were meant to represent. But, that was the ODs, back in 2003. It was a different world, and a different gaming environment than it is today. New world, new rules, I suppose.

I believe that I reached out to both the HC and Titan teams... crickets.

I had a plan to get search working via google... but I couldn't afford a server big enough to host all the files.

It's free AND open source. There should be no problems.

Well... f#$%. 😒