@Rotten Luck, I'm actually working on a proposal for both teams that will offer members an opportunity to pool their resources under our company's umbrella. As I said, Gorgon technology has been establish and is limited (contractually) to our game network. Joining a team and trying to work on the framework at this point is completely counter-intuitive for me, seeing as our current technology and client-side content build has over 4+ years of code within it. This code will be made fully available to the team behind the project. The package comes with various tools that allow for the simple dragging and dropping of NPCs, writer tools that let creators type and click to add dialogue and quests to NPCs, there are also tools for things such as loot and item generation; the full MMORPG development suite is under our roof. The reason its designers want to keep things confined is because they are developing a lot of content for the system and don't feel it's ready for open licensing at the moment. Our company's programmers are now working on the software as well, adding multiple features for things such as facial animations, animated voice-overs technology, deep guild/grouping features, and a much more complex skill/leveling system than is currently there. So as you can see, we are able to easily produce a fully playable MMORPG with out technology. At the moment, we need support from artists, writers, and the community more than anything else. I noticed that you said you have a few programmers, but not many are skilled in advanced network programming. That can pose a serious problem as there is very little left in the area of "client-side" programming that needs to be done to get a playable product released. Our team is porting our UI code over to the new technology, but aside from that, there isn't much client-specific code to be concerned with. Particle effects and animations for skills are set using a tool and automatically played and timed with another tool. The system for swapping and selecting outfits, and the creation of your character are done as well. Look forward to an update to my original post shortly.
@Lily Barclay, I can see how that may have sounded as if the plan was to do a full clone of CoH. However, it was intended to say that the goal isn't to completely alienate the game from its original aspirations. I do agree with you that the project was fairly dated, and honestly it was one of the longest surviving MMORPGs I've played. So, expect to see quite a few updates/improvements to the product we're proposing.
@Segev, I'll be contacting you shortly to discuss merging of assets and organization. I do agree that all projects would benefit and stand a better chance of success combined. Having worked on games and applications on an advanced software development level, I know how long something like this could take. I do, however, agree with you regarding your theory of the projection of time-sensitive release planning. Moreover, we plan on releasing a pre-alpha within months as the normal 3-4 years of development are relatively done haha. Therefore, we are left with a single option of using an engine that is openly capable of high performance on a wide-range of machines and operating systems. Releasing the game with Unity 4 would not only open playability to a larger range of PCs players (Windows), it ports to Mac and Linux in a single click. Providing access to Mac and Linux opens the game up to starving markets with limited game access. I would bet any amount of money that element alone will keep the servers loaded. In my expert opinion, it's just the better choice for robust accessibility.
@Perfidus, I agree. I'll be making efforts soon to Unite the divide. From my time on their forums today, it appears they have the development potential to build the depth of the game, all they both need now is the technical backing and organization to get a nice playable pre-alpha to the community. My company can definitely help with that. I also feel as you do; since the closing of City of Heroes I feel like a homeless wanderer looking for somewhere to go when all the smoke clears, at the end of the day. It's what drove me here, and will drive me to gather everyone to a centralized location. We'll make it happen, I can promise you that. I can spend about 1-2 weeks adding a few enemies and a skill set and have a pre-alpha playable using our technology, so I'm more than confident that a small team of dedicated developers could have a solid pre-alpha together in about 1-2 months. It's really important to establish strong gameplay presence before folding over into the content box. With the community helping with ideas and suggestions, a small team be would be relieved of the majority of their work efforts. They'd spend that relieved time planning for implementation of content and features immediately; this would greatly increase the flow of production.
@Lightslinger, I can't agree with you more. I've worked for various large companies from Microsoft to IBM, and I can tell you that releasing any product (by commercial standards) isn't easy at all. However, we have something more unique working in our favor; the possibility of crowd funding as well as established technology. If we could establish a community of 100,000 supports willing to donate 10 dollars a month, for 3-8 months that could fund 5 years of fully dedicated development for the core development team with external outsourcing as a variable. Based on its heavy customization options, it's imperative that outsourcing of character outfits and customization are added to the equation. We have to a development partnership with Danzige Studios (
http://danzige.wordpress.com/#) and they have already gave the nod to working with us as a large scale outsource provider for 3D and 2D art at incredibly low rates. So, I do feel a collaborative effort is more viable and far more ideal.
@Downix, it's great to see you've put a lot of effort towards researching your options. A lot of developers dive in based on drive and ambition, but hit the water as if it was cement due to the lack of education. As I said above, we aren't looking to wait years for publications as the 3-4 year technology development has been accomplished already. I'll be contacting you shortly as well to talk about our options.
@FatherXmas, I'm not quite familiar with City of Heroes origin engine, but if you were there from the start, you saw the slow implementation of updates which is something I'd like to see the team behind our project do as time progresses.
