I'm so sad

[Grouchybeast]

4 hours ago, Snarky said:

Holding my breath, that is it!

 

Wait, isn't that just...vampire business as usual?

[Snarky]

55 minutes ago, Grouchybeast said:

 

Wait, isn't that just...vampire business as usual?

Shhhh

[Greyhawke]

On 1/15/2024 at 8:39 PM, mcbraggart said:

I just found out this was a thing.  I played when the game first launched and now when I'm trying to recreate my first character, the  name is already taken.

You should definitely post the name and server. Whoever has it might be willing to give it up unless it is also important to them.

[Nostromo21]

On 1/17/2024 at 2:22 AM, Snarky said:

Well “Biggus Dickus” was going to be popular 

 

I just landed Incontinentia Buttocks!!!

 

Here's an idea: just allow duplicate character names already. The global handle is unique anyway, so surely it won't take Cryptic level devs to program this (last famous words).

Edited January 22 by Nostromo21

[Scarlet Shocker]

On 1/17/2024 at 8:23 PM, Grouchybeast said:

 

Wait, isn't that just...vampire business as usual?

it's when he holds somebody else's breath they need to worry.

[lemming]

5 hours ago, Nostromo21 said:

I just landed Incontinentia Buttocks!!!

 

Here's an idea: just allow duplicate character names already. The global handle is unique anyway, so surely it won't take Cryptic level devs to program this (last famous words).

It's somewhat based on how borked how the globals tie into things.   One of the name release threads had a dev talk about why this is difficult to implement.

[StarseedWarrior]

On 1/15/2024 at 10:39 PM, mcbraggart said:

I just found out this was a thing.  I played when the game first launched and now when I'm trying to recreate my first character, the  name is already taken.

Put a dash between it.

[Crossie]

I personally think I should be able to snag any name I please. 

[Nostromo21]

10 hours ago, lemming said:

It's somewhat based on how borked how the globals tie into things.   One of the name release threads had a dev talk about why this is difficult to implement.

 

Ok, so we just need a complete rebuild in Unreal Engine 5, with modern distributed, decentralised and properly virtualised architecture, running in all the data centres around the globe.

How hard could that be...?

[Nostromo21]

2 hours ago, Crossie said:

I personally think I should be able to snag any name I please. 

 

You should be able to challenge the current owner to a PvP duel for the name!  

[Excraft]

On 1/17/2024 at 8:36 AM, Nuc said:

Very few things in software development are downright impossible, given enough time and resources, that doesn't mean they're all worth doing. Especially when you're working with limited resources, return on investment becomes a major factor. So yeah, it's certainly possible but what else gets pushed to one side in the meantime?

 

How is the game going to grow and evolve to compete with more modern games if it doesn't?  If you ask me, nonsense like "team diversity bonuses" and recycling of powersets ad nauseam can pushed very far to the back of the line in favor of things like account based storage and properly correcting unique character name issues.  Again, Cryptic had corrected this problem in their second generation engine a long time ago.   

[ChzBoi]

....this is a 1987 Grand National......it's a 6 cylinder, 180ish hp, 4 speed automatic, un-aerodynamic, boxy, Darth Vader look-a-like.......It would lose, 0 to 60, today by a 10 20 year Kia ......

....it old tech.....it's old looking.....it's slow....it handles poorly...........it will never be able to compete with modern cars.......

 

........and yet,  polished up/maintained - it sold for $121,000.................and will sell for at least that amount the next time it comes up for auction.....

.....if the devs here at Homecoming did nothing else but "fix the rust, polish the leather, put on new period correct tires" to the existing game engine we have, I would still be happy and do my best to "wave my bidding paddle" every month.........

[Ironblade]

4 hours ago, Excraft said:

How is the game going to grow and evolve to compete with more modern games if it doesn't?  If you ask me, nonsense like "team diversity bonuses" and recycling of powersets ad nauseam can pushed very far to the back of the line in favor of things like account based storage and properly correcting unique character name issues.

Okay, so you have your priorities.  Sadly, I do not think they match the priorities of the 100% volunteer dev team who, pretty much, work on WHAT THEY FEEL LIKE.

They don't have the manpower to "grow and evolve" the game and they're not getting paid.  The goal is not to compete with more modern games.  This game is free.  The goal, as far as I can tell, is to make gradual improvements.  A major overhaul is simply wishful thinking.

[Excraft]

12 hours ago, Ironblade said:

Okay, so you have your priorities.  Sadly, I do not think they match the priorities of the 100% volunteer dev team who, pretty much, work on WHAT THEY FEEL LIKE.

They don't have the manpower to "grow and evolve" the game and they're not getting paid.  The goal is not to compete with more modern games.  This game is free.  The goal, as far as I can tell, is to make gradual improvements.  A major overhaul is simply wishful thinking

 

You're not telling me anything I or anyone else already doesn't know and hasn't been repeated over and over and over again.   I know they're volunteers doing this in their free time and I appreciate their dedication and hard work, just like everyone else.  From my understanding on a couple of the topics I mentioned, based on HC folk comments, they're difficult/tricky, but not impossible to do.  Who knows what they may be able to do with more volunteers they have been actively recruiting?  The game is struggling as it is with the small number of players it has at the moment.  If the goal is to grow the game and the playerbase, something has to be done to attract and keep people who are more used to the QoL features that exist in every other MMORPG on the market.

[Glacier Peak]

2 minutes ago, Excraft said:

The game is struggling as it is with the small number of players it has at the moment.

This is a joke, right? 😆 🤣 😂 

[jprewitt73]

10 minutes ago, Excraft said:

 

 If the goal is to grow the game and the playerbase, something has to be done to attract and keep people who are more used to the QoL features that exist in every other MMORPG on the market.

That has never been a stated goal of anyone volunteering their time nor should it be. This is a 20+ year old game that we are just lucky to have and play for fun and to play for free.

[Nuc]

19 hours ago, Excraft said:

 

How is the game going to grow and evolve to compete with more modern games if it doesn't?  If you ask me, nonsense like "team diversity bonuses" and recycling of powersets ad nauseam can pushed very far to the back of the line in favor of things like account based storage and properly correcting unique character name issues.  Again, Cryptic had corrected this problem in their second generation engine a long time ago.   

Yes, Cryptic did solve this issue a long time ago. But we have no idea a) how difficult it was and b) how long it took. And they had the full resources of a professional game development studio at their disposal. As for "nonsense" like the Team Diversity Bonus, I'd imagine that was pretty low-hanging fruit (if I had to guess I'd say the Kheldian inherent could have provided the framework for it) and recycling existing powers is much easier than creating new stuff entirely from scratch.

 

And as has been pointed out, these are volunteers, we take what we get and are thankful that the game even exists at all. Alternatively, the source code is freely available, knock yourself out if you're not happy.

[Excraft]

3 hours ago, Nuc said:

Yes, Cryptic did solve this issue a long time ago. But we have no idea a) how difficult it was and b) how long it took. And they had the full resources of a professional game development studio at their disposal. As for "nonsense" like the Team Diversity Bonus, I'd imagine that was pretty low-hanging fruit (if I had to guess I'd say the Kheldian inherent could have provided the framework for it) and recycling existing powers is much easier than creating new stuff entirely from scratch.

 

Well from everything we've seen here over the past few years, the HC folk are able to turn out all kinds of new stuff and improvements, so your saying they aren't "professional" enough or lack the talent/skills/knowledge to make larger changes is demonstrably false.  Again, from what I understand based on comments from the HC folk, the stuff I mentioned isn't impossible for them to do.  Tricky/difficult yes, impossible no.  Also, as I understand it - and I could very well be wrong - but the tools to add in brand new animations and such to create brand new powersets with unique animations and such no longer exist.  

 

3 hours ago, Nuc said:

And as has been pointed out, these are volunteers, we take what we get and are thankful that the game even exists at all. Alternatively, the source code is freely available, knock yourself out if you're not happy.

 

I think you missed this part of my post.  Here, I'll re-post it for you and increase the font size a bit for you to make it easier for you to read.

 

5 hours ago, Excraft said:

I know they're volunteers doing this in their free time and I appreciate their dedication and hard work, just like everyone else.

 

Let me know if you need further clarification.  Thanks. 

 

 

5 hours ago, jprewitt73 said:

That has never been a stated goal of anyone volunteering their time nor should it be. This is a 20+ year old game that we are just lucky to have and play for fun and to play for free.

 

I seem to recall otherwise.  I'll try to locate the posts, but I distinctly remember there being a stated desire to bring in new players and grow the game. 

 

5 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

This is a joke, right? 😆 🤣 😂 

 

Sadly no.  I'm sure you're aware of why Double XP and Rikti Raids were enabled on other less populated servers to prevent Excelsior from crashing and collapsing.  I can link to the HC post about it though if you aren't aware.

[Nuc]

39 minutes ago, Excraft said:

 

Well from everything we've seen here over the past few years, the HC folk are able to turn out all kinds of new stuff and improvements, so your saying they aren't "professional" enough or lack the talent/skills/knowledge to make larger changes is demonstrably false.  Again, from what I understand based on comments from the HC folk, the stuff I mentioned isn't impossible for them to do.  Tricky/difficult yes, impossible no.  Also, as I understand it - and I could very well be wrong - but the tools to add in brand new animations and such to create brand new powersets with unique animations and such no longer exist. 

 

 

By all means, please point out where I said they weren't professional. What's that, you can't?? 🤥 Or perhaps you were trying to misrepresent where I said they don't have the resources of a professional development studio? Maybe I'm not the one who needs the increased font size after all.

 

And since you seem to have forgotten my first reply to you, I'll blow that one up on the off chance it penetrates the re-entry shield that appears to surround your skull.

Quote

Very few things in software development are downright impossible, given enough time and resources, that doesn't mean they're all worth doing. Especially when you're working with limited resources, return on investment becomes a major factor.

 

[Glacier Peak]

7 hours ago, Excraft said:

Sadly no.  I'm sure you're aware of why Double XP and Rikti Raids were enabled on other less populated servers to prevent Excelsior from crashing and collapsing.  I can link to the HC post about it though if you aren't aware.

That's load balance, so what? Indomitable runs fine, server transfers are free. The game is flourishing as it never has in the past five years. Just this month they've made clear they're selecting improved servers for the increase in players across the more populated shards (I can link that if you're curious).

 

 

Edited January 30 by Glacier Peak

[ZacKing]

On 1/17/2024 at 8:36 AM, Nuc said:

Very few things in software development are downright impossible, given enough time and resources, that doesn't mean they're all worth doing. Especially when you're working with limited resources, return on investment becomes a major factor. So yeah, it's certainly possible but what else gets pushed to one side in the meantime?

 

I don't know, I think that projects like making it so names don't have to be unique or being able to check on names based on account (not character) activity, stabilizing the architecture so that the server doesn't explode when there's a high number of players on it are a hell of a lot more important than "diversity bonuses".  Not everyone is going to universally love every little update made.  There's nothing wrong with having a different opinion. 

 

We all get that they're a volunteer staff.  That doesn't mean they're incapable of more involved projects.  Seems to me they're just as, if not more, fluent in the code and architecture of the game than Cryptic was.  I'd argue that HC has the advantage here in that I don't think they've had the turnover that Cryptic had so they've got more people who've worked with the code longer.  I also take it they're far better at documenting code than Cryptic was. 

 

23 hours ago, jprewitt73 said:

That has never been a stated goal of anyone volunteering their time nor should it be. This is a 20+ year old game that we are just lucky to have and play for fun and to play for free.

 

So adding more story content, power sets, modernizing the code and such isn't to improve the game or attract new players??

 

On 1/28/2024 at 9:17 PM, Ironblade said:

They don't have the manpower to "grow and evolve" the game and they're not getting paid. 

 

Everyone knows they're volunteers.  And I don't know about you, but seems to me they've had the manpower to grow and evolve the game over the last five years because that's exactly what they have been doing.  Maybe I'm wrong, but seems to me if the goal wasn't to improve and grow the game, they'd have just left it like it was at sunset and just kept it up and running and stable so people could log in and play.  No need for new content. 

 

Edited January 30 by ZacKing

[Nuc]

43 minutes ago, ZacKing said:

 

I don't know, I think that projects like making it so names don't have to be unique or being able to check on names based on account (not character) activity, stabilizing the architecture so that the server doesn't explode when there's a high number of players on it are a hell of a lot more important than "diversity bonuses".  Not everyone is going to universally love every little update made.  There's nothing wrong with having a different opinion. 

 

We all get that they're a volunteer staff.  That doesn't mean they're incapable of more involved projects.  Seems to me they're just as, if not more, fluent in the code and architecture of the game than Cryptic was.  I'd argue that HC has the advantage here in that I don't think they've had the turnover that Cryptic had so they've got more people who've worked with the code longer.  I also take it they're far better at documenting code than Cryptic was.

 

 

I never said anything about the merits of changing how character names work (for the record I'd much prefer the CO naming system) I was originally replying to a comment along the lines of "they said it's difficult, not impossible" by pointing out that just because it's technically possible it doesn't necessarily follow that it's feasible given the available resources.

 

[Excraft]

11 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

That's load balance, so what? Indomitable runs fine, server transfers are free. The game is flourishing as it never has in the past five years. Just this month they've made clear they're selecting improved servers for the increase in players across the more populated shards (I can link that if you're curious).

 

I've read that thread already, thanks.  Perhaps you might want to give it another read though, especially the post where it says there's a chance (albeit a small one) the issue won't be resolved by more hardware alone.  So yeah, maybe looking at doing some code architecture improvements are worth it. 

 

17 hours ago, Nuc said:

By all means, please point out where I said they weren't professional.

 

You've essentially said they're a volunteer staff and can't take on large(r) projects due to manpower.  I disagree.  I think they can manage it just fine as they look to have a firm grasp of the code and architecture of the game.  I'm not suggesting stuff like new costumes, powersets and such should be put on hold completely in favor of larger scale back end code improvements.  Just my opinion.  Feel free to disagree. 

[Excraft]

7 minutes ago, Nuc said:

I never said anything about the merits of changing how character names work (for the record I'd much prefer the CO naming system) I was originally replying to a comment along the lines of "they said it's difficult, not impossible" by pointing out that just because it's technically possible it doesn't necessarily follow that it's feasible given the available resources.

 

They are actively looking for more developers.

[jprewitt73]

1 hour ago, ZacKing said:

 

So adding more story content, power sets, modernizing the code and such isn't to improve the game or attract new players??

 

Maybe, maybe not. I was always under the impression the volunteer team did it cause they thought it would be fun to have some of that stuff cause they actively play the game as well and like shiny new things to play with.