What is your X-mas wish-list?

[GladDog]

CoH had a team of 50 and an 8 million dollar budget in 2000. They could afford to have a dozen+ artists doing nothing but designing and refining costume sets. And they could afford to have a dozen programmers, animators, SFX guys, etc working on powersets (even at that they only released with about 30 powersets; SoH will release with between 20 & 25). It still took them well over 3 years and they made tons of mistakes, mostly because they did not do enough proper testing. Many costume pieces occluded other bits, and most of that was not fixed for years; some of it was never fixed.

SoH does not want to release with that heavy of a burden on their shoulders. They realize some things will need fixing, and they are planning on that. But, they want most of the team looking forward, with new content, levels, powersets, etc...

Plus, it seems that NCsoft is ready, willing and able to defend their IP. So this game will not be CoH2; hopefully it will be better!

[Avatar PDM]

CoH had a team of 50 and an 8 million dollar budget in 2000. They could afford to have a dozen+ artists doing nothing but designing and refining costume sets. And they could afford to have a dozen programmers, animators, SFX guys, etc working on powersets (even at that they only released with about 30 powersets; SoH will release with between 20 & 25). It still took them well over 3 years and they made tons of mistakes, mostly because they did not do enough proper testing. Many costume pieces occluded other bits, and most of that was not fixed for years; some of it was never fixed.

SoH does not want to release with that heavy of a burden on their shoulders. They realize some things will need fixing, and they are planning on that. But, they want most of the team looking forward, with new content, levels, powersets, etc...

Plus, it seems that NCsoft is ready, willing and able to defend their IP. So this game will not be CoH2; hopefully it will be better!

I wonder, what they offered NC Soft a few years ago, when they declined to sell the IP and instead kept it that way - you know something about that?

[GladDog]

I saw a lot of numbers thrown around back then. Paragon Studios apparently offered 14 million USD in a buyout over time. However, that number has been strongly contested, and IMO that was a pretty large number for what Paragon was going to get. I think it much more likely that Paragon made an offer in the range of 4-7 million USD in a buyout over time.

From what I read back then, NCsoft was not interested in anything but a cash buyout, essentially freeing them from the game completely. And unless they got a cash buyout, they were probably better off writing off the loss over time.

[GladDog]

I've mentioned this before, and I'll bring this up again. The biggest thing that killed CoH was the one-off game engine, one of the last games done like this. The number of people that understood the engine well enough to make changes was merely a handful. NCsoft really was not in a position to sell the game to anyone else other than Paragon (the only place with a concentration of programmers that understood the CoH engine), and they were not happy with their offer.

If CoH had been done using the Unreal 2 or Quake 3 engines, it would very likely have been remastered at least once, and fixing problems would have been a LOT easier and quicker. With those expenses reduced, it may have very well been in NCsoft's best interest to keep the game running, and maybe do a sequel.

[PowerAce]

Mine is to have the supporters beta running! I want to play! I have the whole week of Xmas off, so that would be an AWESOME present, to be able to play on my stay-cation!

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I approve this message.

Agreed!

[Inkaris]

I'am very happy to see that Mastermind get the most votes.

Now I have the chance to start the game with my favorite class.
Thanks to all.

[MikaMerrow]

My wish list? An MMO other than Champions with monster/angel parts