2014 MMO Thread

[Thomkal]

Don't think there's a MMO thread for the new year yet, correct me if I'm wrong.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/01/24/soe-announces-closure-of-4-mmos-including-free-realms-vanguard-saga-of-heroes/

Say goodbye to free realms, vanguard, wizardry online, Star Wars: Clone Wars.

The only one that is a big surprise is Wizardry Online, which I think has been around for just a year or so. But their wacky idea of permadeath completely turned me off on the game so never even tried it. Guessing many others did too.

[Matthean]

Permadeath eliminates the casual players, and you need those to keep a game alive.

There's an MMO I'm keeping track of, but it is in pre-alpha so it is hard to get motivated to really mention it yet as when I downloaded the last patch it felt like you logged on and then simply ran around.

[Peregrine]

Too bad about Vanguard - that game had so much promise and so much that was unique about it - I had a lot of fun playing it.

Right now the only MMO I am playing is The Secret World - got back into it recently and having an utter blast.

[mauchow]

Having only played WOW many years ago I didnt know how it was going to be getting back into MMORPG but I have had a blast playing final fantasy 14 for the last month. I haven't gotten too far yet where the real fun happens but I've had a lot of fun.

[cuervo72]

Permadeath? That's madness.

[Apathetic Lurker]

The only one that keeps dragging me back regularly is LOTRO and once in a while Conan grabs me for a month or so.....

[Blackadar]

Speaking of 2014 MMOs, I'm in the Wildstar beta. It's far better than ESO IMO - it has a sense of humor, tons of exploration, some interesting mechanics and so forth. It has some sound bugs and the world itself is a bit alien and can be confusing at times.

The problem is that I'm entirely and completely burned out on the MMO mechanic. Even though I haven't played one consistently since GW2 was released, I only made it a few levels before I was bored with the typical MMO mechanics found in Wildstar. I think this genre has been ruined for me...perhaps forever.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I'm jealous that you're in the beta. I've been excited about Wildstar for a long while, and I've literally never been excited about an MMO.

Edit: well, Star Wars: The Old Republic had me intrigued, but I was certain I would be disappointed. I was.

[Thomkal]

Speaking of 2014 MMOs, I'm in the Wildstar beta. It's far better than ESO IMO - it has a sense of humor, tons of exploration, some interesting mechanics and so forth. It has some sound bugs and the world itself is a bit alien and can be confusing at times.

The problem is that I'm entirely and completely burned out on the MMO mechanic. Even though I haven't played one consistently since GW2 was released, I only made it a few levels before I was bored with the typical MMO mechanics found in Wildstar. I think this genre has been ruined for me...perhaps forever.

Wildstar, along with ESO is also going to start out as a subscription based MMO. Guild Wars 2 has proved a free to play from the beginning business model can work, and honestly I can't see paying for a subscription for a MMO ever again. (until I win the lottery that is)

[Thomkal]

Interestingly enough right after I posted this, I received a link on Facebook to an article for the top f2P MMO's to play in 2014. I wasn't expecting to find four out of the five to be already out games. I've not watched the video that goes along with the article, so maybe he explains it more there.

Top 5 Best Free PC MMORPGs to Play in 2014 - The Koalition (http://thekoalition.com/videos/top-5-free-pc-mmorpgs-play-2014#_)

I've played 3 out of the five, but I majorly disagree with his #1 choice Neverwinter. As a total free to play player, I have some problems with the limitations on things like the number of character slots we get-two. (which is why amongst other reasons I haven't played Star Wars: The New Republic yet). I also have issues with the mechanism used to be able to purchase from the cash shop using a conversion from an ingame currency to a item shop currency that makes it pretty useless for about all but the most dedicated total free to play customer.

[tyketime]

I am a backer for The Repopulation. It angles to be a spiritual successor to SWG (a game i never played). But what appeals to me is the very wide range of ways to play the game in a true sandbox environment. I will get into the next Alpha wave (March timeframe), and will let you know how it's going.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I guess all hell has broken loose in EVE again?

Gigantic Space Battle Breaks Out in EVE Online, Thanks to Unpaid Bill (http://kotaku.com/gigantic-space-battle-breaks-out-in-eve-online-thanks-1510023302)

The figure I'm seeing tweeted tonight is that real-dollar losses are now estimated at about $120k

[Vince, Pt. II]

I love EVE even though I've never played it. These massive battles are interesting as hell, in a train wreck sort of way.

[Berger]

This is the part of Eve that has always interested me greatly, the politics side of things, but how dogfights go down has always been a turn off. Which is also why I'm hoping Star Citizen fills that void for me.

[JonInMiddleGA]

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The most expensive battle in the 10-year history of the online sci-fi video game "EVE Online" is over after 21 hours of virtual warfare.

"EVE" developer CCP Games says the CFC and Russian forces won the encounter that ended up causing about 11 trillion dollars' worth of damage in "EVE" currency, which equals about $300,000 to $330,000 in real-world money.

"EVE" simulates a universe of more than 7,500 stars. It features more than 500,000 players piloting starships and engaging in a virtual economy linked to real-world money.

CCP Games says the skirmish erupted after a coalition member missed a bill payment that would've ensured security.

During the encounter, 75 Titan vessels were destroyed. The megaships take months for gamers to build and are worth about $3,000 each.

[RomaGoth]

I have never played Eve but had heard of it years ago, back when I was playing WOW and LOTRO. Over 2600 players were involved in this battle. That's just crazy.

Monument to be built for EVE's largest battle ever | Massively (http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/01/30/monument-to-be-built-for-eves-largest-battle-ever/)

EVE Online (http://massively.joystiq.com/category/EVE-Online/) is known for its epic battles. Not only did last Monday see the biggest EVE battle to date, but the developers and players have already started work on a monument to remember the event.

The Bloodbath of B-R5RB, as the battle is now known, will be commemorated in game with the Titanomachy monument, constructed from the wrecked models of the brand new Titan ship introduced with Rubicon's 1.1 release (coincidentally right after that battle). The permanent monument site will live around the seventh planet in the B-R5RB solar system and is already expected to be a pilgrimage destination for many players.

You can read a complete recap of the Bloodbath of B-R5RB on the most recent dev diary (http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/the-bloodbath-of-b-r5rb/), and be sure to tune in today at 19:00 UTC (2:00 p.m. EST) for a developer livestream (http://www.twitch.tv/ccp/) discussing the event and Rubicon 1.1's release.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Some first impressions (including lots of game play footage) from the beta of the Elder Scrolls online

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[Matthean]

I doubt he was in the position to have any say, but the guy behind powers in City of Heroes is working on the game, and I'm surprised the distance between quests ended up being an issue in this game.

[Matthean]

This is a long time coming, and I still wanted to wait longer for a new build to be posted, but oh well. In the post City of Heroes world, The Phoenix project arose and eventually brought City of Titans. Before the KS project, developers who were working on their own MMO with a different theme decided to switch it to a super hero one and talked with the people behind CoT to merge and form one project. The merge never happened. Still, the dev team continued on their pathway.

The game is being called Valiance Online, and they have a Facebook page where they post screen shots and videos. It is in pre-alpha so it is very early in development. So much so, I download a previous build and there was nothing to really do outside of walk around. There is a major patch coming and they should be entering beta soon after. Out of the post CoH projects, this might be the one to go up first. The game is obviously rough, so it is hard to tell what it will end up like, but I'm a bit worried they might be making it a bit too close to CoH. They have a powerset that mimics Dark Miasma down to the visual effect and animations. I'm not entirely sure once CoH died I want to be rooted like that doing animations. At least the CoT game looks to be separating itself decently from CoH while keeping enough of the core.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4vZaW9J06gY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://www.facebook.com/ValianceOnline

[Matthean]

Interesting, CoT is now going to use the Unreal 4 engine. Interesting in that they seemed will to defend using the version 3 engine saying it would make it easier to use on older machines without being too outdated in part because version 4 is still being worked on.

City of Titans to use Unreal Engine 4 | The Phoenix Project (http://cityoftitans.com/content/city-titans-use-unreal-engine-4)

[Blackadar]

Speaking of 2014 MMOs, I'm in the Wildstar beta. It's far better than ESO IMO - it has a sense of humor, tons of exploration, some interesting mechanics and so forth. It has some sound bugs and the world itself is a bit alien and can be confusing at times.

The problem is that I'm entirely and completely burned out on the MMO mechanic. Even though I haven't played one consistently since GW2 was released, I only made it a few levels before I was bored with the typical MMO mechanics found in Wildstar. I think this genre has been ruined for me...perhaps forever.

Update. I guess I found my second wind, but it wasn't with Wildstar, ESO or any other new MMO. It's with LOTRO. For whatever reason, I'm back at it in Middle Earth and having a grand old time.

[NobodyHere]

Ditto on LotrO. Finally got myself a level capped character (Lore-Master ftw) and I've been having a blast. The game really captures Middle Earth well. It also helps that I get a lot of content out of it w/o paying a monthly sub.

Turbine has renewed the License until 2017 so hopefully that gives the devs enough time to give us Minas Tirith and Mordor. A new update is coming soon and I believe it has players visiting the water-logged isengard.

[Matthean]

LotR probably was my fave F2P MMO but just didn't stick with it. KotoR could have been if they didn't gate so much stuff behind having a sub.

[Blackadar]

More on LOTRO.

After a long hiatus, I have finally come back to LOTRO. I'm playing with my 14 year old son. And we're having a blast. I insisted that we start with hobbits, simply because that opening zone is so good. He went with a Hunter, I chose a Minstrel. We've been playing for weeks and we just hit 65 and finished off the Moria book quest line.

The content has been of little challenge, but it's been fun. Part of that has been because we're a duo and LOTRO is *very* friendly to running quests in tandem. Quests, skirmishes and even many of the "solo" books have been easier with two. The other part of that is my Minstrel is extremely powerful. I'm putting his Hunter to shame. I have an old RuneKeeper from years ago and gave that a try and my Minnie feels so much more powerful. Everything is instant cast and I have enough big damage shouts to really take a big whack off the ole' morale bar of mobs. It didn't hurt that I found a level 54 Legendary with almost perfect abilities on it. After leveling it up, +30% to my main shout, +30% damage to my AOE abilities and +20% to my minor shouts allows me to hit like a truck. Considering I played a Minnie to 45 even after the War-Speech fix, it's just night and day. This Minnie feels almost overpowered, except that I can die pretty easily if overwhelmed. Finding a good class has always been my biggest challenge in LOTRO, but I feel really comfortable with this one now. It's the first time in my life where I can say that my "healer" actually feels powerful.

I like so many of the changes since it went Free to Play. Getting reputation seems so much easier. I had to work on the men in Forochel because I didn't quest there, but that was the only horrific grind (4 hours). Rivendell wasn't easy because the trinkets don't drop that well from Goblintown. But the dwarves, Bree, Mathom, Eglain, Rangers of Annum...all were very easy. Lothlorien took about a day - we ran all the quests one day and came back for a half a dozen daily quests the next. Questing in many zones was so much better. The Lone-Lands was the typical quest-and-hub system and worked well. Angmar was still a bit of a pain, but that was the only zone we didn't care for. Evendim was so much better and we were done with that zone before we ever hit Ost Forod. Moria was a massive surprise. I remember spending weeks there, but the time and the zones just flew by.

Our questing has been Shire > Lone Lands > Evendim > Angmar > Eregion > Moria > Lothlorien. We've done skirmishes along the way, but entirely skipped Bree, North Downs, Misty Mountains, Trollshaws, Forochel and many of the zones in Moria (Redhorn, Water-Works, Flaming Deeps, Foundations of Stone, etc.) beyond the book quests in those zones. We could literally level again and never do the same zone twice. Of course, we're both subscribers so we can see all of the content without dealing with Turbine points. But I purchased the last 3 expansions all with TB points I had on my account. Very nice.

Now since I've already seen all this content before, but it just seems more fun this time. We're off to Dunland and Isengard (we're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!!!) and then to Rohan. I thought I was burnt out on MMOs, but I'm having a blast this time. We're not even guilded...just two lonely Hobbits wandering Middle Earth.

Some other tidbits:

Money has been easy to come by, especially as a miner. I have 140 gold at level 65. My son doesn't sell much and he's still at 50. Too bad we can't buy a guild house.

Really, the only thing we can't do are the 3 man instances. The mobs hit us too hard if we try to duo those, even if we're +5 or even +10 levels.

Love the Hobbit gifts. It's kind of cool to log on and see that you got a freebie.

Some of the items on the store are overpriced. I shouldn't have to pay 500 TB to disable leveling (but I finally did). But they also accumulate pretty fast if you're doing rep quests. I'll probably have enough to pay for the next expansion when it comes out (which is Gondor).

[flere-imsaho]

Thanks for the writeup, Blackadar. I've always wondered about LOTRO, but never got around to installing it. May have to do that one day.

How is it / would it be, running circa 2008 hardware?

[Blackadar]

Thanks for the writeup, Blackadar. I've always wondered about LOTRO, but never got around to installing it. May have to do that one day.

How is it / would it be, running circa 2008 hardware?

It ran fine for me when I played it at release back in 2007, so your 2008 machine should be fine.

Also, my sons' computer isn't very good and he's generally ok running it. It really can be a beautiful game (the Shire is probably the best zone in any MMO ever), so you'd like to turn up the graphics as much as possible. Therefore, a decent video card helps. RAM is pretty critical though. LOTRO doesn't entirely remove from RAM the last zone you were in when you move to a different zone. As such, if you only have 4GB and you start zone-hopping, you can end up with a pretty massive slowdown as your memory gets eaten. So he tends to have to shut down and reload the game after a while if we've hit a number of different zones.

[Matthean]

CoH Lore Questions: 2014 edition.

CoH Lore Questions 2014 - Google Docs (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ocOo69mXIQ8HthabNe1F4X1EcZcSDwZFEE9sT8WSBc4/preview?sle=true)

[chinaski]

Anyone in on the Wildstar beta?

[Vince, Pt. II]

I was invited this weekend, and despite over an hour of troubleshooting on my end, I could never get the game to patch successfully, so I wasn't able to play at all.

[Thomkal]

And to no one's surprise...Defiance goes FTP starting in June for PC's and Console players. Just in time for Season 2 of the TV show.

Defiance | Community | Defiance Free-to-Play Arrives June 4! (http://community.defiance.com/en/2014/05/01/defiance-free-to-play-arrives-june-4/)

[Thomkal]

Bad news for you console owners expecting to play Elder Scrolls Online there rather than a PC:

Six month delay confirmed for Elder Scrolls Online on consoles | Metro News (http://metro.co.uk/2014/05/08/six-month-delay-rumoured-for-elder-scrolls-online-on-consoles-4721268/)

[Matthean]

Valiance Online continues its copy/paste of CoH. I have to wonder what Cryptic is sitting there thinking.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Qzjgfhxz330" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[cuervo72]

I was briefly talking about CoH with my son yesterday after seeing Cap 2 -- the climactic scene reminded me of the reactors in the Keyes Island trial (not that I actually ever ran the trial, but what I remembered about the reactors). He wondered why someone couldn't just copy CoH. So yeah, I think he'll be ok with this if it ever comes to fruition.

[Matthean]

I just don't see them legally getting away with it if Cryptic cares. Also, if they are that brain dead in terms of originality, I don't have much hope for them in creating new content.

[cuervo72]

Yeah, that could well be.

At this point I almost just hope that 15 years from now the game is at that point so easy to hack that someone does and you can run it locally through some emulator. :)

[Vince, Pt. II]

So some friends decided to convince me I should get on the Wildstar bandwagon. After a few hours of trying to troubleshoot my open beta weekend, I was not thrilled at the prospect, so I thought I'd try their customer service. Did this a little over a week ago, three days after launch. Didn't expect much, thought they'd be slammed. Got a response the same day with a potential fix. It took a handful of email exchanges, but they were able to hammer out the problem and get me up and running - not only that, they were extremely polite and thorough in their customer service and incredibly prompt, especially for a game that had been released less than a week prior.

I've put in a good bit of time over the last week and a half, and I'm extremely impressed. Very polished game with a lot of humor. It truly is an MMO, so if you're looking for something completely new, you're probably in the wrong genre. That being said, I'm having a blast playing this game. They've taken a lot of things that have worked well from many different games and applied it to their own. Universal kill credit, phasing areas so the world dynamically changes for each player...things that took WoW several years to develop Wildstar was able to implement right off the top. You're left playing a game that is fun and polished. Some new things (at least they are to me, I don't play ALL the MMOs, so apologies if these are also borrowed tech):

Path System - each character picks one of four different Paths (Settler, Scientist, Explorer, Soldier) and these paths unlock additional missions (quests) you can do. They emulate typical MMO quest types - settlers gather resources, scientists investigate and learn about lore, explorers search the map for great vistas, hidden areas and pockets of resources, and soldiers get to do a lot of killing. What's nice about these is that there is a good amount of variation to them, but it allows a player to have more of the type of content they enjoy while leveling their character. Paths have their own XP and level, and unlock rewards from vanity costumes to titles to cool abilities (Scientists can summon their entire group to their location once per hour while Explorers have a short cooldown slowfall type ability).

Challenges - Randomly as you run around the map, you'll hear the voice over guy shout 'Challenge Begins' and a timer starts counting down. These are anything from 'Kill X thingies' to 'Collect X resources' to 'Race to the top of the mountain' to 'defuse all the mines without taking damage' to 'get through the maze of laser tripwires without taking damage' to a whole bunch more. They are quick, simple, you don't have to go out of your way, and you can get free cool loot by participating. You can also simply ignore them and move along with your life. Many have Bronze, Silver and Gold levels of completion, so you can replay them to try to get a better result.

Whimsy - The game does not take itself too seriously and it endeavors to make sure you are enjoying yourself. Not only that, the medium of the game (Science Fiction) allows them a ton of freedom to give interesting locales and events. One example are the loftite crystals throughout one of the Exile starting zones. Walking near one gives you a buff that lets you jump about 100 times higher than you are typically capable of. Similarly, some of the missions take you off the planet to spaceships or moons, where the gravity is much different, changing the way you maneuver around. It doesn't greatly affect gameplay, but it definitely lets you explore the world in a different way, which is entertaining.

There are definitely some bugs - I've seen combat log doubling, multiple NPC avatars occupying the same space, and plenty of intermittent server lag (even a couple straight disconnects due to the server going down). All have seemed minor and none have made it difficult to play the game.

[chinaski]

So some friends decided to convince me I should get on the Wildstar bandwagon. After a few hours of trying to troubleshoot my open beta weekend, I was not thrilled at the prospect, so I thought I'd try their customer service. Did this a little over a week ago, three days after launch. Didn't expect much, thought they'd be slammed. Got a response the same day with a potential fix. It took a handful of email exchanges, but they were able to hammer out the problem and get me up and running - not only that, they were extremely polite and thorough in their customer service and incredibly prompt, especially for a game that had been released less than a week prior.

I've put in a good bit of time over the last week and a half, and I'm extremely impressed. Very polished game with a lot of humor. It truly is an MMO, so if you're looking for something completely new, you're probably in the wrong genre. That being said, I'm having a blast playing this game. They've taken a lot of things that have worked well from many different games and applied it to their own. Universal kill credit, phasing areas so the world dynamically changes for each player...things that took WoW several years to develop Wildstar was able to implement right off the top. You're left playing a game that is fun and polished. Some new things (at least they are to me, I don't play ALL the MMOs, so apologies if these are also borrowed tech):

Path System - each character picks one of four different Paths (Settler, Scientist, Explorer, Soldier) and these paths unlock additional missions (quests) you can do. They emulate typical MMO quest types - settlers gather resources, scientists investigate and learn about lore, explorers search the map for great vistas, hidden areas and pockets of resources, and soldiers get to do a lot of killing. What's nice about these is that there is a good amount of variation to them, but it allows a player to have more of the type of content they enjoy while leveling their character. Paths have their own XP and level, and unlock rewards from vanity costumes to titles to cool abilities (Scientists can summon their entire group to their location once per hour while Explorers have a short cooldown slowfall type ability).

Challenges - Randomly as you run around the map, you'll hear the voice over guy shout 'Challenge Begins' and a timer starts counting down. These are anything from 'Kill X thingies' to 'Collect X resources' to 'Race to the top of the mountain' to 'defuse all the mines without taking damage' to 'get through the maze of laser tripwires without taking damage' to a whole bunch more. They are quick, simple, you don't have to go out of your way, and you can get free cool loot by participating. You can also simply ignore them and move along with your life. Many have Bronze, Silver and Gold levels of completion, so you can replay them to try to get a better result.

Whimsy - The game does not take itself too seriously and it endeavors to make sure you are enjoying yourself. Not only that, the medium of the game (Science Fiction) allows them a ton of freedom to give interesting locales and events. One example are the loftite crystals throughout one of the Exile starting zones. Walking near one gives you a buff that lets you jump about 100 times higher than you are typically capable of. Similarly, some of the missions take you off the planet to spaceships or moons, where the gravity is much different, changing the way you maneuver around. It doesn't greatly affect gameplay, but it definitely lets you explore the world in a different way, which is entertaining.

There are definitely some bugs - I've seen combat log doubling, multiple NPC avatars occupying the same space, and plenty of intermittent server lag (even a couple straight disconnects due to the server going down). All have seemed minor and none have made it difficult to play the game.

Bought it, played like crazy, and then got a refund and cancelled my sub. Its a good game, fun combat and the housing plots are great. I just couldnt do it. What it really boiled down to for me was is that I just cant play tradition MMO's anymore. The quest grind for leveling, then the loot grind for end game raiding, the endless cycle of grinding. It took a little while for Wildstar to remind why I hate WoW type MMO's, but in the end its the same as all the rest. I think this is my last attempt to get into a WoW clone, if Wildstar couldnt hold my interest then I dont think any future MMO can.

[Thomkal]

Hey Vince,

Wanted to ask if you think its worth paying a monthly subscription fee for? I've been pretty much spoiled by the free to play MMO's, so I can't really justify playing a traditional subscription MMO anymore (and I don't have the money for it either)

[Vince, Pt. II]

I'm a tough person to give a good answer for that question, because I love the crap out of JRPG and MMO type character development, so the grind doesn't wear on me nearly as much as it does others. There are enough new, interesting things that I think it's definitely worth a look - whether or not it's worth a monthly sub is going to be a personal opinion thing. I think if you like MMO's, this is probably the best non-WoW variation out there. One of the biggest changes in this variant is that the combat is completely interactive, as opposed to the "right click and forget" auto-attack version that most of these are. Your character will only attack when you push a button, and he will not automatically target the enemy. Each button press has a "telegraph" (essentially a shape on the ground), and if the enemy is standing in that telegraph, it gets hit. If not, you missed and wasted the resources for that attack. I've recently begun fighting AI enemies that are actively avoiding my telegraphs, so it takes a little skill to make this combat work. This isn't quite twitch CoD style fighting, but it's definitely more interactive than a typical MMO. I didn't put this feature in my previous post because even after a bunch of hours into the game, I'm not sure that it won't get really old. So far I'm loving it, but I could easily see that interest wane.

Another side effect of this change is that you really need to plot out your combat effectively. If you launch a long telegraph attack and pull a few extra creatures into the same battle with you, it is really easy to get overwhelmed. Single enemy combat is pretty simple, but when you've got several creatures beating on you it gets very difficult very quickly. And when you're in a small cave, it can be difficult to get the attention of one mob at a time.

I believe I get a few 7-day free passes, so I'd be happy to give them out if you want to give it a whirl.

[Ragone]

I'd love to give it a try Vince.. Trying to decide
On moving on to wildstar or resubbing to wow

[Vince, Pt. II]

So I do have a couple more guest passes - 7 days free in the game, you can play up to level 20 but many of the features (mail, guilds, auction house, etc) are unavailable. Ragone got the first one, the other two are up for grabs. Thomkal, you want one?

[Thomkal]

So I do have a couple more guest passes - 7 days free in the game, you can play up to level 20 but many of the features (mail, guilds, auction house, etc) are unavailable. Ragone got the first one, the other two are up for grabs. Thomkal, you want one?

Thanks for the offer Vince, but I'm playing right now on a very old computer with little hard drive space, I doubt very much I could play the game on it even with enough space.

[Vince, Pt. II]

No problem. Offer is still open for anyone, I have two guest passes left.

Also, FYI - the Dominion story line is leaps and bounds better than the Exile story line, at least early on. With the Exiles, it's pretty much 'the Dominion killed some people we like...screw them.' With the Dominion, there is a crap ton of intrigue and super interesting things that I actually seem to care about figuring out.

[SnowMan]

I've got 2 WildStar passes available as well, as long as you promise not to bot or gold sell and get us both banned. :)

[Matthean]

Looks like CoH will come back although a deal is still being worked on at a snail's pace.

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,9675.msg144254.html#msg144254

I spoke to the lead yesterday and he said that everything is going forward though slowly. Everything is still positive but like pulling teeth to get information from NCSoft.

He said they are shooting for August as the time for closing the deal.

Obviously this is not set in stone - but it is good news however you look at it. Once they come forward - you will understand more on why they were working on this quietly.

The goal is to release the old game - I am not sure of plans for further development and will leave that up to them to discuss. Right now - close on the game and restore it. I know they would like to either port to UnReal 4 either the existing game or develop CoH2.

They would not hold the current game up to develop or port it. Obviously the original game could start making money immediately and businesses need funds to develop future products and to pay the bills.

Edit: If I don't update stuff often - it is a good thing at this point. It means things are slowly being worked out. NCSoft is still talking and willing to sell. I really am sorry I can't say more - I am just like you folks and not anyone special. I just want to login and hear the musin in Atlas once more. I know many will be crying once they do and I will likely be right there with you.

I hope you understand until we get the game back - the folks doing the heavy lifting on this would be buried alive with emails, twitter, snail mail and interviews from MMO and gaming sites that really would not help at this point. I honestly believe the quiet manner of this purchase is a big benefit to the effort. I have no doubt NCSoft will have a release as well once the transaction is complete. Right now there is no pressure on NCSoft and they can proceed without also having to answer questions.

You can imagine what kind of whirlwind this will turn into once it gets out.

Wait, so this means if they get CoH back from NCSoft, they won't re-launch the game as it was? They're going to port it to UE4 instead, or develop a sequel with the IP?

No they will release the old game first. I don't know at what level but since I24 was a bit buggy still it might be at I23 just to let everyone back into a nice stable game. Please understand these folks are like US. They love the game and that's why they are doing this.

Afterwards they do plan to update the engine - at some point.

People have asked for a basic outline of what got this whole ball rolling and so I will try to do so here! I hope you all understand there are people who do know who/what is happening including Tony V and a few other board members. This is not some cruel hoax or made up deal.

1. It started with me getting the information from Rae as I was trying to find a buyer in Michigan. I then started sharing more on what failed on the original attempt.

2. I started working on a possible solution to see if they would allow us to open source the game and allow development on an open source platform and contacted some former employees including Chris Chung former NCSoft US CEO. Chris it turned out was the one who bought the game from Cryptic and unknown to me was also one of those in the first effort group.

3. A group approached me and asked if what I found out was really true? Yes, I explained and shared more information on the earlier effort. I also was contacted by other folks who had tried to buy CoH and failed mainly due to the slow communications with the home office. In all cases NCSoft WAS willing to talk - however they have certain standards as the game will remain with the NCSoft logo on it.

4. The current effort began and they were just as stoked as we were that this MIGHT be possible. That MIGHT turned into it IS possible - the right hoops just have to be jumped through and it will take time. Now I have spoken to the lead Dev and he says they are shooting for an August close.

5. They do want to develop the game further - but this may be on a new engine and it appears to be easy to do - so far. However the point now is to release the original CoH as soon as possible.

[Marmel]

I'll believe it when I see it. (Althought I really hope it is true!)

[cuervo72]

I would be back in a hot second. With or without old characters (I am not sure I can remember both of our accounts' login credentials...).

[Thomkal]

Some potentially good news there-I'm pretty much dead set against paying a subscription/monthly fee these days, but CoH would certainly be an exception if they go that route.

[Matthean]

I doubt they go for purely subs. It was making more money as a F2P with sub option. If all goes well, I'll be able to do a sub anyway as that's my preferred way to play. The good thing about playing for so long is I know what short list of builds I would play if I played again. I would do a fraction of what I played and just focused on what I liked the most.

[cuervo72]

I would probably go back to leveling up sets I hadn't played - which is still quite a few. Even more if the new sets and pools that were set to be introduced eventually were.

[Matthean]

UPDATE
The group is working on possibly signing a deal in the next few days. All of the good Karma you can muster point towards South Korea and let NCSoft be persuaded! They are in touch with the last guy who if he signs the game is purchased.
I don't know the exact details of what is in this deal but it is VERY close. It appears at this stage User Data may not be available - at least not at this time. More details as things unfold. It seems their data storage retrieval system is to equal that of the IRS. If this goes well the new Overlords will be up and running with further details.

.

[cuervo72]

To an extent it would suck not to get any user data back (beyond characters - purchases, unlocks, billions of inf), but first thing's first I guess. Certainly better than where we've been for the past year and a half.

[Matthean]

Part of me wouldn't mind a clean slate. They can't change enough about the game to prevent the mass of SS/fire brutes from hitting 50 within hours anyway. :lol:

[law90026]

Been playing Marvel Heroes, which is kinda like diablo but with raids now. Free to play and anything to be bought is cosmetic.

It's been fun

[Matthean]

It would be interesting to see reviews based on how it plays now. Early ones weren't kind, but it seems like they have done a lot of updating.

[NobodyHere]

I never knew ESO was THAT detailed.
<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/PgowBLb4sKw" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

[law90026]

It would be interesting to see reviews based on how it plays now. Early ones weren't kind, but it seems like they have done a lot of updating.

I would say it's a decent ARPG with some MMORPG elements (there are 10-man raids but I suspect they are dumbed down compared to old-school WOW or EQ raiding).

Between this and Diablo 3, I have to say I actually prefer MH2015 more, largely because there are a lot more characters to play (if you buy/redeem them).

There is also more of a sense of an online world since there are hubs/instances where you see other people, as opposed to D3 where you're pretty much all alone unless in a party.

It's F2P in the good way, i.e. you don't really have to spend unless you want to. Spending is either on getting more inventory space, more heroes or costumes for heroes. There are some buffs you can buy but I've never actually seen the need to do so and some of those items are actually drops/gifts that come along the way as well.

[Matthean]

Beating D3 isn't hard. I was bored even during my initial run and couldn't even complete Act I the second time around. If Blizzard wasn't so hellbent on keeping their stuff at a high cost, the expansion might eventually get cheap enough to give that a go for a bit and then move on.

It seems odd somehow that Marvel Heroes might be the superheroes MMO to win out post CoH. DCUO was on the verge of being awesome until you factored in the combo system. CO is now a shell of itself since Cryptic North, no real relation to Cryptic, runs the game and has pissed away any potential the game had. I'm working on installing Marvel Heroes right now. I figure just getting the chance to play a couple characters in a hack 'n' slash game will be worth a few spins.

CoH buyout still remains on pace for an August likely Sept. deal.

[Thomkal]

Not as good as a movie probably, but for you Firefly fans out there...

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/25/firefly-online-releases-first-game-footage-announces-returning-cast-members/

[Peregrine]

I've started playing Elder Scrolls Online - have to say that so far I enjoy it, the world is beautiful, I like the crafting system and so far the skills/abilities concept seems solid. I am @Peregrine23 if anyone else is playing and wants to friend me.

[Matthean]

Played the Marvel MMO some time ago and enjoyed it once I got past the first mission I did. I logged on today and there's just a ton of patches, 29. I know it has been awhile, but good lord.

[Matthean]

And the mask comes off. (http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,10284.0)

Yay CoH comes back for a time. I'm not overly fond of what comes next.

[cuervo72]

I think I'd be most happy at permanent maintenance mode, honestly.

eta: unless they get (or have) someone on board with their outfit who has some actual experience with producing games

[Matthean]

They aren't sure how well it will work with Windows 9. Granted, they could avoid needing to use it for some time. My hopefully better understanding is that any future spiritual successor can use ties to CoH without issue. This will be a goldmine for Valiance Online since they were doing so much of a copy paste job already. I'm just not sure this is really what I want if CoH is going to still be short lived although all indications say they could run it for years to come. I only really have interest in CoT if it works out well, and them switching to Unreal 4 looks to have already set them back.

[Matthean]

I think if I understood the game a little better Marvel Heroes would grow on me. There's simply so many options for vendors that it initially is a little overwhelming.

[law90026]

I think if I understood the game a little better Marvel Heroes would grow on me. There's simply so many options for vendors that it initially is a little overwhelming.

Upgrade your crafter first because that allows you to start affixing costume cores to your costume, plus other stuff.

Upgrade your enchanter next for additional buffs.

Item vendors tend not to be useful.

My biggest initial struggle with the game was just trying to understand when an item would be an upgrade.

[mrkilla22]

Archeage comes out in a few weeks. Anybody playing that one?

[Thomkal]

Shame it took 7 years to find that out:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/09/23/blizzards-mmo-titan-canceled-after-seven-years-in-development/

[flere-imsaho]

It would be very interesting to know what they had planned, but I would imagine for competitive reasons it'll be a while before we really know that.

[Thomkal]

It would be very interesting to know what they had planned, but I would imagine for competitive reasons it'll be a while before we really know that.


To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me that in the end they couldn't come up with anything that was better enough than World of Warcraft, and "Titan" was their idea for a World of Warcraft 2.

[Thomkal]

The first sign of Wildstar going F2P?

Wildstar studio loses "around 60" employees in NCSoft restructure - PC Gamer (http://www.pcgamer.com/wildstar-studio-loses-around-60-employees-in-ncsoft-restructure/)

[Matthean]

The first sign of Wildstar going F2P?

Wildstar studio loses "around 60" employees in NCSoft restructure - PC Gamer (http://www.pcgamer.com/wildstar-studio-loses-around-60-employees-in-ncsoft-restructure/)

Outside of Blizzard, I don't see why MMOs aren't F2P from the start.

[Matthean]

Valiance Online is going to Kickstarter tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how this does. It is the most developed of the CoH wannabe games, but they also want no part on the possible deal with NCSoft despite being up to this point such a copy/paste version of it.

[Matthean]

Valiance Online by SilverHelm Studios &mdash; Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1589345686/valiance-online)

Not seeing a strong start to lead to getting funded.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Outside of Blizzard, I don't see why MMOs aren't F2P from the start.

I'd imagine you might actually LOSE subscription volume if you came out of the gates as F2P. Not only that, even if you do swap over to F2P, the amount of money you can make on a monthly subscription game that has any sort of following must be obscene; why not take that money hand over fist while you can?

[Matthean]

I'd imagine you might actually LOSE subscription volume if you came out of the gates as F2P. Not only that, even if you do swap over to F2P, the amount of money you can make on a monthly subscription game that has any sort of following must be obscene; why not take that money hand over fist while you can?

Because F2P makes more money than subs do. Often times companies will offer both as that seems to be the standard now. I just don't see how doing purely subs from the start is all that practical in the end. You are adding F2P at some point. Give people the option to try it out, and if they like it the sub option is there, or the player can use the F2P option and typically spend more money than they would a sub. If Path of Exile had a sub, I wouldn't have played the game. Since it is F2P, I dropped $40 on it during beta. You figure that has to be a win for GGG.

[Grover]

My girlfriend wants to get into an MMO so we have a game to play together (apparently TorchLight2 isn't enough.) Curious to get some recommendations. I could always go WoW, but I'm not sure how willing she is to pay a monthly sub fee at the moment.

[Thomkal]

My girlfriend wants to get into an MMO so we have a game to play together (apparently TorchLight2 isn't enough.) Curious to get some recommendations. I could always go WoW, but I'm not sure how willing she is to pay a monthly sub fee at the moment.

Hey Grover,

You better marry this girl quickly :) No need to go to WoW (though you can play for free for levels 1-20 I think) If you are looking for superheroes, you can play DC Superheroes for free (console would be best, or console controllers you can use on your PC) If sci-fi is her thing, especially Star Wars, you can play Star Wars: The Old Republic (though they treat F2P members like dirt in terms of what they allow them to do, carry, etc) or the more established, likely to stay open a long time fantasy games like Rifts or Guild Wars 2. I would probably pick GW2 for you both.

It sets up nicely for a duo-you each will have your own personal story that you can help each other with (and they tend to be harder), which gets you into the lore of the city and race you start with. Plus the zones are done masterfully IMO. Each zone have events that are ongoing or start when you enter a particular part of the zone. Any player there can participate, and many are quite fun to do.

Hope this helps!

[larrymcg421]

Rift has an outstanding free to play model. I'd definitely recommend that.

[Grover]

Thanks guys!

She's looking at SWTOR for the moment. So we'll see how that goes. She is willing to pay a monthly fee. Guild Wars 2 was another I had definitely thought about.

[chinaski]

Rift, SWOTR and GW2 are all great games, dont think you could go wrong with any of them.

[frnk55]

Hey Grover check out Lord of the Rings online. Fun if you like PVE.

[Matthean]

I played a little of SWTOR, but thought it had CoH potential for me in terms of playing it. My schedule got in the way of playing it more.

[Matthean]

Is it me or does Marvel Online have a ton of patches like all of the time? I feel like I updated within the past two weeks, and I start it up only to see a message about 13 patches.

[Blackadar]

Hey Grover check out Lord of the Rings online. Fun if you like PVE.

This still remains my go-to MMO.

[Matthean]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yHCj-8tTA2U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Grover]

I am back on WoW. ShadowMuppet#1565

What servers are you on?

[Thomkal]

Let's squeeze in one last post on this thread before the New Year starts here shall we?

Elder Scrolls Online heading to F2P?

The Elder Scrolls Online removes six-month subs; F2P rumours abound - PC Gamer (http://www.pcgamer.com/the-elder-scrolls-online-removes-six-month-subs-f2p-rumours-abound/)

[Peregrine]

From when I played ESO, it doesn't surprise me - I don't think it would help the game though. It's got a lot of great things going for it plus a built-in fanbase from the Elder Scrolls games - I found the community to be very cool. But I figured it would be heading down the F2P primrose path sooner or later.