Old Character Data

[USCI]

Just prior to the shutdown, someone offered (MIDS maybe?) some piece of software that would download all of your character's data into an XML file so they wouldn't be permanently lost.  If anyone remembers that, please speak up.

 

Anyway, seeing as how this is now going to be ran as a community-based MMO, is there anyway to incorporate an upload function to the game for the XML files that we were able to save?  If not upload, offer a fee service to have an admin change the character data?  I would pay some serious coin to be able to recover the data that I had downloaded, specifically the badges and the slotting.  Just a thought.

 

Thanks.

[Rylas]

I was wondering about this, too. Before the shut down I exported a lot of favorites, would love to revive them if it's possible.

[Xanadu909]

I remember doing this too but I can't remember all the details. That would be awesome to see my old toons again with all their achievements etc. :)

[Capt. Chaos]

It would truly bring back memories to log on my old toons, the fun we had, crazy stuff that we done and lived through it, the lifelong friends.

But...as much as it would be good a part of me is eager to start fresh. Just my thoughts.

[Myrdinn]

If I read the reeds correctly, the problem is that the old character data might be one of the things that keeps us from keeping this server.

 

So, the wipe and not having the old toons may be what allows this server (or one like it) to continue.  Heck, *Titan* used to have a copy of some of our twitter-based data, and you might be able to get your badges from there... but it might be a good idea not to try, and reduce the reasons why a blind eye might be turned.

[Rylas]

But...as much as it would be good a part of me is eager to start fresh. Just my thoughts.

 

I'm looking forward to starting fresh with new builds without PLing, but don't find recreating old builds as exciting.

 

If I read the reeds correctly, the problem is that the old character data might be one of the things that keeps us from keeping this server.

 

Are you sure you're not thinking of the actual account data? Old account data would certainly be a legal issue. But the toons we played wouldn't have any private information in their profile.

[Myrdinn]

But...as much as it would be good a part of me is eager to start fresh. Just my thoughts.

 

I'm looking forward to starting fresh with new builds without PLing, but don't find recreating old builds as exciting.

 

If I read the reeds correctly, the problem is that the old character data might be one of the things that keeps us from keeping this server.

 

Are you sure you're not thinking of the actual account data? Old account data would certainly be a legal issue. But the toons we played wouldn't have any private information in their profile.

 

Our old toons are all copyrighted content of NCSoft.  Possible exception of a character owned by an author who copyrighted her IP prior to CoH's existence  by a decade.

[Rylas]

 

Our old toons are all copyrighted content of NCSoft.  Possible exception of a character owned by an author who copyrighted her IP prior to CoH's existence  by a decade.

 

Technically, any toons we make now would still be subject to copyright laws, so I'm not sure how that's any different.

[Zolgar]

If I read the reeds correctly, the problem is that the old character data might be one of the things that keeps us from keeping this server.

 

These are two different discussions:

 

The OP is talking about I think it was called Titan Sentinel, which was a system that would create a local copy of character data in xml format, I think essentially it just read the game and copied everything. The plan was that if someone made a private server they would make it so people could import that and get their old characters restored with everything they had. I don't believe this would be problematic for NCSoft, because it's not really any different than us just writing everything down and being able to email the server host saying "I had a level 50 stone/ss tank, I had these enhancers slotted, these incarnate powers. etc."

 

You're talking about the data that was reportedly given to the other server that allowed them to just import entire account worth of characters like nothing ever happened. This was data that was originally stolen from NCSoft's servers, and while nothing has been confirmed that I have seen, the rumor mill is that this paired with some EU data privacy law would cause immense problems for both the future of the community server and NCSoft.

 

[Burnt Toast]

I actually copied a lot of characters to Snetinel.

Sentinel was meant to bring back characters if the IP was sold right after the shutdown... not 6.5 years later.

Many people who did Sentinel copies do not have theirs any more. Many more people never did copy their characters over.

 

Even though I have a dozen of my levl 50+++ characters saved... I do not think it would be fair to anyone if that data was able to be used and Poof new level 50 character.

 

Not sure why people want Sentinel characters - you would think after nearly 6.5 years they would actually just want to play the game and level up their characters.

 

As a Sentinel user... I cannot support a very select minority being able to utilize such tools to basically powerlevel multiple characters.

[USCI]

The OP is talking about I think it was called Titan Sentinel, which was a system that would create a local copy of character data in xml format, I think essentially it just read the game and copied everything. The plan was that if someone made a private server they would make it so people could import that and get their old characters restored with everything they had. I don't believe this would be problematic for NCSoft, because it's not really any different than us just writing everything down and being able to email the server host saying "I had a level 50 stone/ss tank, I had these enhancers slotted, these incarnate powers. etc."

 

BINGO!  That was it and that was the intent.

[Rylas]

Not sure why people want Sentinel characters - you would think after nearly 6.5 years they would actually just want to play the game and level up their characters.

 

It's possible to want to do, and enjoy doing both, you know. And as stated before, it's not as appealing to level up the same set of a favorite as it is to just start a new character with different power sets.

 

However, if it should look like there would be an unbalancing to the game with these older characters, I'd be ok with some things not being able to copy over with them. I could trust the devs decisions on what those would be.

 

[Zolgar]

I actually copied a lot of characters to Snetinel.

Sentinel was meant to bring back characters if the IP was sold right after the shutdown... not 6.5 years later.

Many people who did Sentinel copies do not have theirs any more. Many more people never did copy their characters over.

 

Even though I have a dozen of my levl 50+++ characters saved... I do not think it would be fair to anyone if that data was able to be used and Poof new level 50 character.

 

Not sure why people want Sentinel characters - you would think after nearly 6.5 years they would actually just want to play the game and level up their characters.

 

As a Sentinel user... I cannot support a very select minority being able to utilize such tools to basically powerlevel multiple characters.

 

While I see your point, the imbalance of levels is always a part of MMOs. Different amount of play time, different play styles, etc.

 

The few who have 50+3s can run the content they want, or powerlevel those who didn't save/lost their data and want to be 50 again.

[USCI]

Sentinel was meant to bring back characters if the IP was sold right after the shutdown... not 6.5 years later.

 

I'm not sure what the time difference makes.

 

Even though I have a dozen of my levl 50+++ characters saved... I do not think it would be fair to anyone if that data was able to be used and Poof new level 50 character.

 

Fair?  Who determines what's fair?  That I had enough foresight and studiously kept my XML files backed-up on four different drives for over six years, it wouldn't be fair to anyone else to restore my hard-earned character because someone else didn't do it?  No, not new....restored.  I earned those level 50 characters...I put in the time, sweat, tears, and laughter.

 

Not sure why people want Sentinel characters - you would think after nearly 6.5 years they would actually just want to play the game and level up their characters.

 

As a Sentinel user... I cannot support a very select minority being able to utilize such tools to basically powerlevel multiple characters.

 

You see, I would love to be able to play the game like I used to many years ago.  In the course of eight years, I racked up over 16,000 hours on one account alone (I only had two accounts).  Translate that to years and that's over 1.8 years of solid 24/7 gaming that I put into those characters.  There's nothing powerleveled about them.  However, I can't play like I used to because after the game shutdown, it forced me out in the sunlight where I found the love of my life, adopted one son and just had my first bio son, and I'm traveling way too much for my job already.

 

It's going to be a community-based MMO now, we can make our own rules.

[USCI]

However, if it should look like there would be an unbalancing to the game with these older characters, I'd be ok with some things not being able to copy over with them. I could trust the devs decisions on what those would be.

 

I think that "unbalancing" would only last a few weeks, at most, as many folks I've seen playing in the short amount of time I've been logged into the game.  I saw folks advertising for level 30 missions already.

[Felderburg]

At one point in discord, Leandro said that the original tool they were using to upload Sentinel+ files never got updated, because once they had the character database it became irrelevant. He implied that it would worked on depending on the status of the character database. I would love to see a standalone CoH server package that included the option to turn on or off Sentinel+ uploads, so every server could decide how it handles them.

 

It's worth noting that you can extract costumes from Sentinel+ files here: https://cit.cohtitan.com/senticon/index.php (it's a bit of a process, and the person who created the utilities is now working to improve the process).

 

Sentinel+ is available here: https://cit.cohtitan.com/sentinelplus/ (t's not needed anymore, but there it is)

 

It was named after Sentinel, which is what City Info Tracker used to pull badge info (and Mids builds) when the game was live: https://cit.cohtitan.com/sentinel/

[USCI]

At one point in discord, Leandro said that the original tool they were using to upload Sentinel+ files never got updated, because once they had the character database it became irrelevant. He implied that it would worked on depending on the status of the character database. I would love to see a standalone CoH server package that included the option to turn on or off Sentinel+ uploads, so every server could decide how it handles them.

 

It's worth noting that you can extract costumes from Sentinel+ files here: https://cit.cohtitan.com/senticon/index.php (it's a bit of a process, and the person who created the utilities is now working to improve the process).

 

Sentinel+ is available here: https://cit.cohtitan.com/sentinelplus/ (t's not needed anymore, but there it is)

 

It was named after Sentinel, which is what City Info Tracker used to pull badge info (and Mids builds) when the game was live: https://cit.cohtitan.com/sentinel/

 

Rep+1

 

Thanks!

[Kaliselia]

Well all of my many Heroes brought the farm when CoH World blew up back in 2012.

 

So I will be rebuilding a few of them tonight.

 

 

[chase]

However, if it should look like there would be an unbalancing to the game with these older characters, I'd be ok with some things not being able to copy over with them. I could trust the devs decisions on what those would be.

 

I think that "unbalancing" would only last a few weeks, at most, as many folks I've seen playing in the short amount of time I've been logged into the game.  I saw folks advertising for level 30 missions already.

 

Its more in other ways you imbalance things.

 

I had 6 characters at the influence cap, all of them fully IO'd out with some frighteningly expensive IO's.

 

I import that character back once, respec and hand off the expensive stuff to friends.  Delete.  Import again.  Rinse. repeat.

 

Any effort to "resume" previous characters is going to need a controlled and planned system to assure the fairest and most balanced solution for all participants.  This rushed environment we're in right now isn't the best place to plan that out.

[metalb00]

Just prior to the shutdown, someone offered (MIDS maybe?) some piece of software that would download all of your character's data into an XML file so they wouldn't be permanently lost.  If anyone remembers that, please speak up.

 

Anyway, seeing as how this is now going to be ran as a community-based MMO, is there anyway to incorporate an upload function to the game for the XML files that we were able to save?  If not upload, offer a fee service to have an admin change the character data?  I would pay some serious coin to be able to recover the data that I had downloaded, specifically the badges and the slotting.  Just a thought.

 

Thanks.

 

sentinal, they have a tool that will generate costumes from the files

 

https://cit.cohtitan.com/senticon/index.php

[USCI]

I import that character back once, respec and hand off the expensive stuff to friends.  Delete.  Import again.  Rinse. repeat.

 

Then you institute either a mechanic that allows it to be imported only once (or not allow the character to /respec for 30 days after importation) or you charge a fee for each character you upload.

 

EDIT:  I think it should be both and I could live with that.

[SubZippo]

Thanks for the responses.  I backed up my characters with Sentinel Plus and while I'd prefer to restore -everything- about them I'm thrilled just to restore their costumes.

[Milk Sheik]

I have my characters on flash drive, and if it makes anyone feel better about fairness, I will use my 50+3 emp defender to fly around the city healing and buffing lowbies left and right.  :)

[Kelador]

I actually copied a lot of characters to Snetinel.

Sentinel was meant to bring back characters if the IP was sold right after the shutdown... not 6.5 years later.

 

 

Have no clue were you got that information from... Sentinel was added by the SCORE team after shutdown it has nothing to do with NCSoft its custom for their private build which is what this server is using... and many of the newer secondary powers were also SCORE additions... for example Ninja Training (not new but new for blasters)...

 

You can read all the SCORE teams changes they made to the official i24 https://docs.google.com/document/d/11cLJiSYlfueJheOumRywG8Evip2Mjmu_30Y6ePaetqY/edit

 

Its good to bare in mind that many of the coders are working with the i24 source code and improving/optimizing that as they dont have the source code for SCORES unofficial i25 build so if they make great improvements in the future with their build and optimize it to run better and require less hardware the Homecoming team maybe choose to switch over which most likely would require a wipe and the listed changes in that document would be gone but thats a long way down the road.

[Blue Storm]

well, thanks to Codewalker who already prepared a tool to that effect, you can import your backed up chars with Sentinel+ into your private server...

 

see the pose here : https://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php?topic=13387.0

 

Now to answer some of the earlier posts, I'm not sure what an "unfair" advantage that would be if you can import your characters only once, considering the fact that there are already many lvl50s toons already and that AE farming is apparently running strong !