Ship of Heroes

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Krimson said:

Every action they take almost looks like it's designed to encourage failure.

This is complete speculation on my part, but if they were paying themselves a salary during the development cycle, from the funds raised for the project, then they've basically fulfilled their obligation and can wipe their hands of it, (whether you think that's right or wrong is another story, entirely)...

[Jocantaro]

On 9/25/2025 at 8:24 PM, Skyhawke said:

I don't do reddit so I can't speak to how the people there behave, but the ones on Steam that left bad reviews actually paid for that mess and were rightfully pissed. Add in the SOH devs being absolute tools in how they've handled everything and it was asking for trouble. Again, it's a shame because more options are always better, but daaaaaaaamn this one just tripped out the starting gate and faceplanted. CIty of Titans doesn't spark much hope either. I haven't looked into Valiance, so can't speak to that. 

Valiance came up in the old Titan Network forums. Someone who was aspiring to launch an MMO game saw a window of opportunity because the CoH playerbase wantes their game back (well, the ones who didn't know it was secretly back, like me). He announced as the developer of some game... which did not exist except in a website saying it was in the makings, and made up a sob story saying he was an old CoH player because he played with his little brother who had a terminal cancer and CoH was the only thing that brought him some comfort.

 

He obviously didn't know anything about the game, and it was evident when he stated that CoH had a "block" mechanic (he didn't understand the 5% the game keeps to hit any enemy or deflect any attack from any enemy regardless of level) and when asked which was the biggest nerf that happened in CoH, he replied saying something along the lines that "when damage from energy powersets was changed from <insert technical word> to <insert technical word>. 

 

Valiance was an unnecessary attempt to deceive the CoH playerbase when a simple "hey guys, you need a game and I might be able to deliver one, let's talk" would have sufficed and therefore, it was perceived as a scam.

It failed miserably in the crowdfunding attempt (while City of Titans got a massive success) and it was pretty obvious in the game website forums that he had an amount of followers / interested players very similar, if not lower, to Golden Girl's "Heroes and Villains" which btw was a stupid idea from a stupid person.

[Kyksie]

7 hours ago, Jocantaro said:

Valiance came up in the old Titan Network forums. Someone who was aspiring to launch an MMO game saw a window of opportunity because the CoH playerbase wantes their game back (well, the ones who didn't know it was secretly back, like me). 

 

This is true: Valiance began life as a generic fantasy MMO, then around 2015 or so pivoted to a superhero MMO and erased their previous identity.

 

It's been a shitshow since day one. They had their first public alpha in 2020, during which I heard multiple reports of the installer failing completely. (does anyone remember the days when 'alpha' meant internal and 'beta' was public testing? Pepperidge Farm remembers.) Following that they closed up and went into "make a donation to play the alpha" mode, which is where they've been for five years. Nowadays, the website is mummified and the forum has half a dozen posts from this year.

 

Edited Saturday at 06:50 PM by Kyksie

[madicen]

Just when you think things could not possibly get worse over there at SoH the newest move to "combat the trolls" is to wall off discussion into "people who own the game" and "those who dont own the game". Over the weekend they didn't get enough people online concurrently to fill two groups at any point so I guess those couple dozen people have a nice safe place to keep telling each other they are right while the rest of the world is wrong, while us poors who dont want to waste our money can go over there in the corner and talk to each other. 

 

It's like a train crash I cant help but watch at this point. There is no way they keep the lights on till end of year at this rate, unless they have something left over from the Kickstarter or a whale with deep pockets behind them privately.

 

[Skyhawke]

2 hours ago, madicen said:

It's like a train crash I cant help but watch at this point.

 

RIght? It's our version of the Coldplay Kiss Cam. It was wild when it hit, has been fun to watch, but will be going away soon and forgotten about other than "Hey, remember that time?" posts. I did notice they got that Spotter guy out of the ban pool and he's been really flexing those smooching lips ever since. Kinda feel sorry for the guy. Either he's super delusional or being paid. One's just sad and the other's just sad and set to loose that paycheck before too long. 

[madicen]

1 hour ago, Skyhawke said:

 

RIght? It's our version of the Coldplay Kiss Cam. It was wild when it hit, has been fun to watch, but will be going away soon and forgotten about other than "Hey, remember that time?" posts. I did notice they got that Spotter guy out of the ban pool and he's been really flexing those smooching lips ever since. Kinda feel sorry for the guy. Either he's super delusional or being paid. One's just sad and the other's just sad and set to loose that paycheck before too long. 

 

Spotter is a fascinating case. Their posts are CRAZY, so crazy I think they are playing a character at this point....but whoever they are they a) really have a thing against LOTROs pricing and B) have sunk over 100 hrs into SoH. Fascinating. 

 

The deconstruction of this whole thing is going to make for some interesting video essays in the near future...perfect for Josh Strife Hayes Worst MMO Ever or nerdSlayer Death of a Gamer series. 

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

Too much schadenfreude going on here.

 

We wish every superhero game success.  No need to rain on their parade or call out players.

 

Let's talk about something else.