CoH 2 What are the Chances

[PartyKake]

Didn't we already kickstart some of these?

There were multiple projects trying to revitalize City of Heroes after its shutdown. Each one was going to be a different approach.

[legendaryjman]

1 hour ago, PartyKake said:

Didn't we already kickstart some of these?

There were multiple projects trying to revitalize City of Heroes after its shutdown. Each one was going to be a different approach.

 

City of Titans taught me to never Kickstart things. Until then everything i had Kickstarted came out. Then City of Titans happened and I learned that people can simply not make the thing they said they would make and there is nothing I can do about it. Never again. I will buy a product but I wont pay someone for an idea.

[lemming]

There's some cool stuff being done with AI, but I'm against it being used to produce art.    (My degree would have been a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science)

[PartyKake]

10 hours ago, legendaryjman said:

 

City of Titans taught me to never Kickstart things. Until then everything i had Kickstarted came out. Then City of Titans happened and I learned that people can simply not make the thing they said they would make and there is nothing I can do about it. Never again. I will buy a product but I wont pay someone for an idea.

Kickstarters have always been risky, and long term projects are always rough.

I would say that some of the community definitely bit off more than they could chew by trying to make an MMO as their first game. MMORPGs are notorious for having massive budgets, massive demands for development time, ludicrous difficulties, and as it turns out, even if you start off with a good idea and a working formula, you can quickly get overwhelmed.

 

Try not to get bitter at them for trying and failing.

 

At least we have homecoming.

 

(Yes, I know how frustrating it can be. I've got a golden ticket to Star Citizen. ...and a monocle lol)

[ZeeHero]

Trying to carbon copy COH is a mistake to begin with. Should be taking the parts that hold up today, the customization (both visual and powers) the variety of playstyles, and updating the flow of gameplay to higher standard.

 

COH combat cannot be called good, or even ok. Not the feel of it. The powers are effective and the mechanics are mostly solid, but the flow is awful and could be improved upon VASTLY.

 

A good game like COH is NOT perfect. there is no perfect game, not COH or anything else. but it can be made more perfect.

[Xalon]

1 - increase the amount of donations accepted each month

2 - use that funding to pay more devs and spend some on real marketing efforts

3 - all players should be promoting the game (we should make a referral program - bring in a new player and get 10mil influence or something)

4 - get ncsoft to allow the above

 

It is doable. CoH Homecoming can be a the next phase of CoH with another expansion and more issues. But until we can pay the devs enough for them to make Coh work their main job, they can only do so much. I'm so thankful for everything they have been doing and I hope it continues for a long time. But having a small budget from donations, even 25k a month, would be a huge step up from the 8k or so they get donated monthly. As donations increase, there can be rewards offered. Get a plaque or special costume piece or recipe or anything. 

 

It is 10000% doable and can be done. Just having the game as it is with the new stuff they put out is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!! So as long as they keep doing that, I will always be here. But it would be great to be able to donate more that can be used to increase comfort for devs putting in the time. Players can handle the marketing but allowing devs to leave jobs and focus solely on CoH would be the best thing for the game.

 

Also, those that have experience with design, programming, modeling, animation and rigging, marketing, and more - should all reach out and donate some time to help. I plan on doing that and hopefully I can get the marketing on track 🙂

[Psyonico]

3 hours ago, Xalon said:

4 - get ncsoft to allow the above

You say its doable, even "100% doable" but this is going to be the sticking point.

 

NCSoft understood that the cat was out of the bag and there was no way they could prevent rogue servers from showing up.  IMO they signed the agreement for 2 reasons.  1, I almost guarantee that part of the monthly donations goes into their coffers and 2. It gave them some free positive press.  They're not going to let anyone make money off CoH though.

[ZeeHero]

AI can draw hands now, something which was impossible for it not long ago. I don't know if AI will be writing whole games for us, probably not but it can do a lot more than some people in this thread seem to think.

[Without_Pause]

On 8/2/2025 at 11:28 AM, baster said:

What you all think about that?.

As Sr. Software Engineer I think you're highly ignorant of what AI can actually do. Also, if an average gamer while in their basement can crank out CoH2, then how are they going to get a 'massive' number of people to buy into playing their version of it when it is so easy to replicate?

[baster]

22 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

As Sr. Software Engineer I think you're highly ignorant of what AI can actually do. Also, if an average gamer while in their basement can crank out CoH2, then how are they going to get a 'massive' number of people to buy into playing their version of it when it is so easy to replicate?

I guess you need to be uniquely creative in order to entice people to play it.

[golstat2003]

13 hours ago, ZeeHero said:

AI can draw hands now, something which was impossible for it not long ago. I don't know if AI will be writing whole games for us, probably not but it can do a lot more than some people in this thread seem to think.

The question is not if AI can do it. The question is can AI do it to any acceptable level on a large scale product that you intend to make a profit with.

 

The answer today is so far a resounding no when it comes the software life cycle needed for large IT projects.

 

There are some tools that can speed up some aspects of development or testing, but not without a heavy human resource cost to watch and review what is being outputted.

 

Now in 5 to 10 years a different story.

 

But all that was not the question of the thread, posted by the OP.

 

I also think some folks in this thread are vastly underestimating the difficulty of

convincing the IP owners to make another game With this IP.
 

Also to answer an earlier question, FUCK NO would I be okay with the current COH servers shutting down to accommodate some mythical COh 2 that would probably be a terribad product

based on today’s live service gaming standards.

 

So likelihood of us getting a COH2: more than 0, maybe 1 percent.

Likelihood of us getting a GOOD COH2: I would put the chance in negative numbers.

 

lol

[ZeeHero]

I dont think anyone is suggesting AI will be THAT advanced within the next 5 years.

Also why would developing "COH2" mean HC has to shut down? Assumingly COH2 would be a for profit game HC would still run on donations.

And it would only lose those donations in the event COH2 actually IS that good.

[BurtHutt]

I don't think you could do a 2. Cost, demand etc. - likely not feasible.

 

Honestly, I'd like to see Homecoming try some different stuff. I haven't liked their missions and SF and changing that up would go a long way - for me, anyway. 

 

Maybe one day A.I. will be able to make CoH2 for next to no cost!

[Ghost]

1 hour ago, ZeeHero said:

I dont think anyone is suggesting AI will be THAT advanced within the next 5 years.

Also why would developing "COH2" mean HC has to shut down? Assumingly COH2 would be a for profit game HC would still run on donations.

And it would only lose those donations in the event COH2 actually IS that good.

Probably because if someone was to put out a For-Profit game, they wouldn’t want any F2P versions out there cutting into the player base.

[kanga]

I'd be fine how it is, I just want a visual upgrade.

[ZeeHero]

I'd much rather have a mechanics upgrade (Combat wise) than a visual one. Visually sure it could look better but gameplay improvements are more important.

If we did have a visual upgrade I'd want upgrades to the character/costume editor. Limb length adjusting, torso length, relative head size, along with at least 3 color channels for each costume part, and more colors/shades.

[kanga]

I like the gameplay as it exists now, and I would rather not have everyone start over and loose everything, so if the gameplay must change it has to be careful. I was talking visual upgrades because it could be done on a per client basis, so those with older hardware don't have to worry.

 

 

Edited August 9 by kanga

[Greycat]

On 8/2/2025 at 12:24 AM, lyra said:

i dont need a CoH2.

 

Why would you need it? What would you change?

 

Usually when these sorts of things are suggested, it's things like a modern engine and newer graphics, without the various limitations for what can be done with a costume/more modifiable faces/etc, moving the timeline forward, fixing as much of the "we'd love to but can't due to structural limits in the game" sort of things. Usually paired with expanding the scope (starting out with going to other places in the world, going underwater/into space, etc.) 

 

Would I love to see it? Solid "maybe." 

Would I expect to ever see it? Nope. Especially as an MMO. I'm not sure when the most recent actual-MMO has been released and done well. I'd half expect if someone launched a COH 2 "officially" it'd be a squad based game (COHelldivers 2?) And given the way corporations are, it'd be a ton of microtransactions and such (unless they *did* follow the Helldivers 2 model... you *can* buy in game cash, but there's no reason to, since earning the same stuff in game is actually done at a reasonable pace.) Plus there'd have to be a demonstrable market for it as a "live service" game. 

 

So. Yeah. For those and many, many more reasons, I don't expect to see a COH 2 ever. 

[BurnTheWitch]

A few weeks ago I was having a chat with friends over dinner and the topic of winning the lottery came up. Here is the math that we came up with.

 

• A 1 billion dollar lotter winning would leave you with about 600 million dollars when you take the lump sum ( anyone who is an accountant, please keep me honest here, this is not my area of expertise.). 
• If you Invest that money and can get 5% returns, that would leave you with about 30 million a year to spend and live off of. If it helps, that’s about $82,200/ day.

 

Now we have to look at the cost of developing an MMO. 

• I'm going to put the price at $200 million. This should cover the costs of -almost- anything we can think of within reason. Anyone who says you could make CoX2 - electric defender bogaloo for $1,000,000 is lying. They might not be doing it maliciously, but they are lying. The actual cost is heavily based on vision too, if you’re funding this, I assume you get quite a bit of say in the matter.
• I am not certain how much NCsoft would want for the permanent rights to the IP. I’m certain it’s more than it is worth, but you can’t put a price on a 1 of 1 item.

 

So with these things in mind I figure you could personally create and fund a studio to make CoX2 if you won a billion dollars US pre tax. I’d personally  try to do things “right”, there are some positions at this theoretical company that are basically already spoken for. The current dev team, GMs and moderators are doing a better job than many paid MMOs, imagine how good they would be if they could spend more time on their passion. I'd probably end up overpaying for a lot of that talent, because let's be honest, we're not trying to turn a profit here.  That is one route that would cost a ton of money and -might- yield a great game in 7 to 10 years.

 

But

 

If you have that money, just buy the permanent rights to the IP, sign them over to homecoming servers LLC and set up a trust that funds homecoming servers LLC under conditions that they don’t add microtransactions or payment (something like that. Contact a lawyer or 10 before you do any of this). This will cost less and likely have better results if you ask me

 

TL;DR

No chance unless I win the lottery and get bored of travel.

 

 

 

[Plutonix]

*hits blunt* what if we're all NPCs made by an AI simulation for one or two living beings?

[Azari]

Hopefully never.

[Latex]

On 8/2/2025 at 4:44 AM, baster said:

As the title says. What do you all think.are the chances of CoH 2 ever being made and what  will it take to get it off the ground?

 

I have no backround in any programming, game development or any such a start-up.

I'm merely a player and enthusiast of CoH. 

 

It would be great to hear from people in the  gaming bussiness, software bussiness or any related fields.

 

Is there any possibility to use kick starter or any similar platform to make this happened  maybe?

 

There's a lot of thread to read through so I'll respond to just the OP.

Sadly, as much as gamers yearn for the next big Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game they're an extremely expensive and high-risk 'investment' for anyone making them, look around at the market these days;

World of Warcraft (Microsoft, Previously Acti/Blizz) released in 2004, it's so old now that it's been re-released several times with Classic and riffs on that.
Guild Wars 2 (NCSoft) released in 2012, one of the trifecta of the last big three MMO's. Guild Wars 3 is currently being developed though.
Elder Scrolls Online (Microsoft, Previously Zenimax/Bethesda) released in 2014 still releasing content today, considered one of the big three western MMO's.

These are the big three, two of which are owned by Microsoft who acquired these studios, all three have 'Pay to Progress/Pay for Convenience', all three make money primarily through retention and their in-game stores and they're all well over a DECADE old. WoW arguably milks their fanbase the most with nostalgia-bait, subscription model, MTX store, gold-buying directly from shop, and iirc, even a 'Battlepass' of sorts with the trading post and yearly expansions priced at the cost of a full price game.

The MMO scene is dire in 2025, it's a sad state and is sort of at the point of just letting it go. There's only one western MMO that will either break it's back and be the final nail in the coffin for the genre (outside of older games, private servers ran with pure passion and such) or be a renaissance and that's Riot Games League of Legends MMORPG that's because Riot has the capital, the fanbase, the worldbuilding and all of LoL to call back on. If that MMO succeeds (and is as massive a success as say, Fortnite or Minecraft) then you might well see City of Heroes 2 in some shape or form, if it flops I doubt any investor will ever back an MMO project again, and these big MMO's need a lot of investment and capital to be of the scope players expect.

Edited Monday at 08:19 PM by Latex

[MTeague]

Honestly, I don't think a CoH2 will ever happen, even if there's a few new successful MMO's. 

I'm not saying there couldn't ever be another super-hero MMO.

But I don't believe NCSoft will ever bless use of the CoH intellectual property beyond what they have already done with Homecoming.

 

So if a next-generation game comes out? It won't have any NPC's or landmarks you associate with CoH. Archtype names will be different. Powersets will be different, if indeed they separate powesets from archtype at all. And whoever developed it, will want to quickly recover all of the costs of developing the game, so there will either be a substantial monthly fee, or it will be chock-full of "technically" optional microtransactions, like Diablo Immortal, or worse. 

 

Yea, I'm channelling Debbie Downer (.... which now I have to go check if that name is available on Everlasting...), but.... for major projects like creating a new MMO, "follow the money" is a great rule of thumb. What gamers want will only be occasionally be paid attention to. It's amazing to me that people don't understand how good we've got it here.

 

[Major_Decoy]

When I think of a "City of Heroes 2" at this point, it is in the context of "What changes can be made to this game without needing to create City of Heroes 2?"

 

Getting rid of Origins is City of Heroes 2.

Reducing Primary and Secondary power pools to five powers instead of nine is City of Heroes 2.

[Sovera]

Complete re-make would be too much, but upscaling the textures seems doable. I've see nteh difference in games like Titan Quest 1 and Grim Dawn, even Star Wars knights of the old Republic, and the upscaling breathed youth into those games. 

 

I'm not sure what it entails but a single person was capable of upscaling the textures for those games so it can't be that problematic.