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Importing Sentinel+ saved characters -- how much is recoverable?

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Sailboat
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Importing Sentinel+ saved characters -- how much is recoverable?

The FAQ says this:

Quote:

6. Can I use my Sentinel+ saved characters in your game?

We've been working closely with the Titan Network to ensure you'll be able to use your saved characters in TPP. Legal implications mean that you won't have exact copies of your avatars, but you should be able to convert them into TPP avatars for use in the game.

Reading between the lines, that appears to address the costume/appearance. What about biography?

Will any of the other saved info be ported over? Sentinel+ saved AT, level, powers, enhancements (including set bonuses), inventory....

CoT will have different ATs and I'll be very surprised if the powers and enhancements map directly. As much as I would love to revive my level 50 Storm Defender with IO sets (including the -knockdown unique!) on Day 1, I assume it will be impossible to directly drop an entire CoH character into CoT and be playable. Or far too much work to make conversion worth the team's time. Correct me if I'm wrong about that.

If that's the case, should the FAQ be more explicit that it's looks/costume CoT can recover, not entire characters?

Captain of Phoenix Rising

Amerikatt
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Why would someone want to

Why would someone want to start a brand-new game with a Level 50 character? That would only lead to them getting bored with the new world when they've blasted through all new content in less than a week.

Better to accept that the physics of the new universe work differently and that we were depowered while crossing the inter-dimensional bridge. It'll take time for us to adjust and reach our old power levels (or, perhaps, even *exceed* them)!

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A brave new world. Just

A brave new world. Just pretend your character got hit in the head with a videogame and forgot all his 'experiences', thus returning to lvl1

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Amerikatt wrote:
Amerikatt wrote:

Why would someone want to start a brand-new game with a Level 50 character? That would only lead to them getting bored with the new world when they've blasted through all new content in less than a week.

If it winds up being possible to import the character and not just the appearance (depending on the game mechanics, such a conversion may or may not be possible at all), it likely wouldn't be something available at launch. If this is planned as a longer-range goal, what I would expect would be done would be to create the ability to upload a Sentinel+ file to the server and have the server reserve the name, so that some time further down the pike, after they'd had the time to work on conversion from the CoH powersets and enhancements to the CoT mechanics, and you'd unlocked the ability to do so (i.e., by getting a character to level max or some such), you could pay a fee to upload a Sentinel+ file and have it converted into a CoT character... which would then need to be cleaned up after the limitations of an automated import process.

Sailboat
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I think you can let me

I think you can let me determine if I'm bored. :) I have a very long tolerance for games; I use Good Old Games (GOG.com) to play things from 1994. Heck, I still play this.

In the case of the specific character mentioned above, I didn't get to play him very long before "sunset" and had hoped Sentinel might save him for some future venue.

I already understand how unlikely it is that CoT would import the entire character, as I hope my OP makes clear. I just think some details would be a better answer to the many people who, like myself, might get excited to see "you'll be able to use your saved characters" in the FAQ.

Captain of Phoenix Rising

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I will be bringing some of my

I will be bringing some of my characters back from stasis, however I will be rebuilding them from character generation on forward. I know they won't be exactly the same as before, but that will be half of the fun. And then I'll never have to worry about any sort of compatibly issues that may arise.

I also fear that working to make the old game powers system work with the as yet new system is gonna take a bunch of resources that are already limited.

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I'm actually looking forward

I'm actually looking forward to starting at level one. I feel I know my characters better now, especially after years of play and recreate, create and kill/overcreate again. I just love that feeling of something new and untried yet, discovering everything fresh again! Hell, I can hardly wait to get my paws on that character creation screen, much more play the actual game!

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I'm just hoping CoT can

I'm just hoping CoT can somehow interpret CoH Costume files (even if the costume pieces and/or patterns are not an exact match).

If they were to implement Sentinel importing, it should probably merely have it set your character up to as closely match the imported character as possible (in terms of appearance, AT, and powersets), but at level 1.

If they allowed importing at level 50 (which I wouldn't recommend, but I wouldn't complain, either), I'd stiil do it much the same way, creating the character at level 1, and then making you level up manually until you reach 50 (because it's 150% certain that the powers won't match up one-to-one, so you should be able to pick the ones you want rather than having a random selection foisted on you). Of course, the latter also assumes that they eventually raise the level cap to 50. Right now, it's 30 (with 40 as a stretch goal).

Either way, I don't think that should necessarily be a high priority, though.

Anyway, I suspect Sentinel saves are as much intended for CoH emulation than for any of the Plan Z projects.

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Personally, I don't see the

Personally, I don't see the point in putting any resources into "porting" CoH character info into CoT.

I had dozens of alts myself (level 50 and otherwise) but this is a completely new game in a completely new universe and while I can understand the nostalgia for old characters, I seem to be missing the difficulty in just going and recreating them in the costume creator rather than have the devs spend time (especially since they are all volunteers at this point) coding an interface to import them.

I for one can't wait to jump in and mess around with all the NEW combinations in our new home, Titan City!

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I plan to bring over a number

I plan to bring over a number of my old CoX characters, but I plan to do it the old-fashioned way, by going into the character creator and recreating them. I also fail to see the point in spending time that could be used to add content to the game on writing a CoX->CoT costume conversion program. Heck, since the avatar builder is going to be out and available long before the game itself is, we'll have tons of time to have all of our costumes worked up and ready to go at launch. :)

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I'm in agreement there. I'm

I'm in agreement there. I'm eager to dig into the game from level 1. LoTRO let you keep your closed beta characters at level 15 at launch and that was ... odd. I had to wait for my friends to catch up to me and didn't have the fun of exploring new things together. it took away a lot more than it added.

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"
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There are a few I'm looking

There are a few I'm looking to recreate, but I am taking every opportunity to upgrade their look, feel and where it fits even their powers.

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GH
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Yeah it would be like if

Yeah it would be like if swtor suddenly announced you could import your cox characters.. but most of the costume pieces would be different, the powersets are different / unavailable, the enhancements are all different, the badges are different. Oh and there's a different character limit so your bio will trunca...

At that point you might as well roll a new stormtrooper / wookie or get to level cap and respec into what you think feels right.

At launch you' re not going to be able to import most of your characters due to powersets not being available anyway but as a future goal, depending how powers map, I'd be interested in seeing this work as I rarely to never had a clue what I was doing in CO and, again depending how powers map, this might bring some familiarity and clarity.

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Dudesoft wrote:
Dudesoft wrote:

A brave new world. Just pretend your character got hit in the head with a videogame and forgot all his 'experiences', thus returning to lvl1

Or think of this as Multi-Dimension-5. (After COH, Champions of Online, Marvel and DC of course) and yourself as a new incarnation of a timeless, classic idea. :)

Longtime City of Heroes player, longtime writer. :) Working in Nebraska.
COT: Mission tips writer, studying Cinema 4D animation program

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AmbiDreamer wrote:
AmbiDreamer wrote:

Or think of this as Multi-Dimension-5. (After COH, Champions Online, Marvel and DC of course) and yourself as a new incarnation of a timeless, classic idea. :)

For me, it would be Earth-2 (since any game other than CoH doesn't exist for me), which would be *very* appropriate since Amerikatt is a late Golden-Age/early Silver-Age character!

Or maybe it's that CoH was Earth-2 and now Amerikatt has found her way to the more modern Earth-1. *ponders*

At any rate, I look forward to creating "a new super-kitty for a new era*!

*strikes an heroic pose and salutes the flag*

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I will certainly recreate

I will certainly recreate names, back stories, and personalities (i.e, silent RP'ing), but I'm looking forward to starting anew with different costumes and power sets.

Maaaaaybe I'll decide to take each of a few of my six toons that ever wore the title "Main" and recreate them as whole as possible within the CoT universe. But otherwise, brand new adventures is what I would prefer.

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I had two characters in CoH

I had two characters in CoH who each had around 99.9% of the badges available in the game (Bug Hunter be damned). I had a fun time getting those badges and I've got both characters saved via Sentinel+ for what that's worth. While it might be fun to resurrect these characters just for the pleasure of seeing those badge totals again I'm pretty much of the opinion that it'll be just as fun to restart those characters "from scratch" badges and all.

I realize the idea behind Sentinel+ was to provide a way to archive what we had against an uncertain future. At the time no one knew if we were going to be able to restart CoH or whether an effort like CoT would ever see the light of day. But now that something like CoT seems hopeful I figure it'll end up being far enough different from CoH that our saved Sentinel+ characters ultimately won't matter/apply much. That doesn't make Sentinel+ a wasted effort overall, but it does mean the Devs of CoT shouldn't be too obsessed trying to make it compatible to CoT either.

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

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CoH

CoH
Max Level 50+4
Powers per Set = 9
Uses Enhancements
All Archetypes
All Powersets
Limited Power Pools

CoT (at launch) [Note this is as currently planned and no guarantee the game will be the same at launch]
Max Level (20 or 30 based on KS Stretch Goals)
Powers per Set = 8
Uses Boosts
Limited Archetypes (ie: no Mastermind)
Limited Powersets
A LOT more 'Tertiary Sets'

So how would you be able to bring over your lvl 50 Mastermind that took all 9 powers from both Pri and Sec sets and also took the T1 Fighting Pool Power?

Too many differences to allow this. CoT is not a clone of CoH but a new game designed with the same feel. While many mechanics may be similar others will be very different.

Even bringing across costumes would be difficult unless they code the names of each item, pattern and colour the same or link them together so Witches_Hat_01 = HeadItem_Witch_01.
Will CoT have the EXACT same item? Probably not.

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Well...,

Well...,

- ...for me, it won't be difficult 'porting' the character I want over to CoT...since Enforcers (Gladiators) are going to be part of launch. Galaxy-Gal was essentially a 'Gladiator' with 'Brute' inherent...and if there's Ancillary power sets available, all it will mean is that when she went through 'The Nexus' in order to escape the destruction of Paragon City, she had the ability to survive the occurrence...though it took every scrap and shred of will that she had, and was undeniably drained in the process. The Galaxy-Gal in CoT will start being but a pale reflection of what she was...though she'll recover in time with experience and become (...once again...) the 'Knock Back Queen' I grew to love (...and what others learned to hate...).

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As a Tank/Brute I hated Nrg

As a Tank/Brute I hated Nrg/Nrg blasters
As an Nrg/Nrg Blaster I loved KB :) But I did try and herd the enemies into/towards the Tank rather than away (unless the Tank was getting overwhelmed in which case my 3 AoE KB powers came in handy)

The Phoenix Rising Initiative Rules Lawyer

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The whole point of saving

The whole point of saving characters through Sentinel was in case CoH was sold or rebooted.

CoT, however, is a new and different game, albeit a 'spiritual successor.' So, unfortunately, a port directly from Sentinel is unlikely. Especially if we want to avoid suit of IP infringement.

This doesn't mean some enterprising folks can not make a list of all the CoH items and all the CoT items and create a correlation table that some enterprising 3rd party can't code into a conversion program.

It is likely (though, no promises!) CoT will allow the kind of hooks and visible client-side save files to allow that to happen.

Former Online Community Manager & Forum Moderator

Lothic
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Zombie Man wrote:
Zombie Man wrote:

The whole point of saving characters through Sentinel was in case CoH was sold or rebooted.
CoT, however, is a new and different game, albeit a 'spiritual successor.' So, unfortunately, a port directly from Sentinel is unlikely. Especially if we want to avoid suit of IP infringement.
This doesn't mean some enterprising folks can not make a list of all the CoH items and all the CoT items and create a correlation table that some enterprising 3rd party can't code into a conversion program.
It is likely (though, no promises!) CoT will allow the kind of hooks and visible client-side save files to allow that to happen.

This seems reasonable. I figured that at the very least CoT would start out with its own version of Sentinel (regardless of backward compatibility to CoH) that would allow players to "save" their characters client-side for any number of future purposes.

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

Nyx Nought Nothing
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The Kitteh wrote:
The Kitteh wrote:

I will certainly recreate names, back stories, and personalities (i.e, silent RP'ing), but I'm looking forward to starting anew with different costumes and power sets.
Maaaaaybe I'll decide to take each of a few of my six toons that ever wore the title "Main" and recreate them as whole as possible within the CoT universe. But otherwise, brand new adventures is what I would prefer.

This would be my preference and approach as well. Well, i had several characters who would plausibly end up in any number of alternate worlds, so i will probably remake versions of those, but i will start them from scratch.

Still, if someone really wants to try to recreate their old CoH character as closely as possible i welcome the option to make that easier.

In my case i didn't save any of my characters using Sentinel+ anyway. i do have their costume files saved, but even if CoH itself is resurrected in same form without any of the old characters available i'd welcome the opportunity to start all over again.

In theory there's no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.

On the CoH forums at the end i went by the name Schismatrix.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

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Yeah - Sentinel+ was a "hail

Yeah - Sentinel+ was a "hail mary" pass if there ever was one. I was never expecting it to work with this project after I saw the direction they were taking with it.

And that's alright.

I mean, I probably will take one or two of my more "straightforward" favourites from CoH and "re-roll" them in CoT at launch (my classic Invulnerability/Super Strength Flying Brick for instance). And maybe as more classifications and costume options are released I'll slowly do the rest, but I'm sure once I get into this game and it's even wider array of options I will find inspiration for even more characters, or even new takes on old ones. We will have to see. But long story short - I'm not worried about "losing my 50s" - this is a new game, with new content and new goodies to play with. I look forward to playing through it.

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I liked doing amusing

I liked doing amusing characters, like when that little red demon pet came out, I created a character as close to it as possible so i could run around complaining my mom made me bring my little brother...

___

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The plan is to make an open

The plan is to make an open standard for build planning characters, for import. While we will not make such a tool ourselves, it is possible for a third party (ie MIDS) to create such a tool. Now, this tool could import other data (ie Sentinel+) and convert it to our format, but that is up to the tools developers.

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Oh my goodness. I had

Oh my goodness. I had completely forgotten about those Sentinel files. I don't really need to import them, I can rebuild them with the new supergroup... but it's so cool that anyone's even trying to consider that as an option. If they let you build one toon at launch that way, as your primary, I'd be so darn happy...

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Just to clarify what I said

Just to clarify what I said above.

I was thinking that if you had, say, a Level 50 Super Strength/Invulnerability Brute with all purple IOs saved via Sentinel, then the game would use that sentinel file as a starting point for a new character. The game would "import" the data by simply making your new character a Gladiator with Super Strength and Invulnerability powersets (or their closest equivalents), the Fury-analogue as a Specialization, and an approximation of their old costume, and the character creation process would use that as a starting point instead of a blank slate. From there, you could change things normally before actually finalizing the new character and starting to play. The old character's level and enhancements wouldn't be imported, and neither would Pool, Epic, or Incarnate powersets.

In other words, I see it as a time-saver so you don't have to select those choices from scratch, not actually importing the character exactly as it was in CoH, level, gear, and all. The most difficult part would be designating which costume pieces are equivalent to each of the old CoH costume pieces.

Actually, I wouldn't mind a feature like this in the actual Character Creator - the ability to save, not just your costume, but the whole thing (costume, primary and secondary powersets, specialization, power customization, and possibly even character name) as a single file for quick loading later.

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Thunder Glove wrote:
Thunder Glove wrote:

Actually, I wouldn't mind a feature like this in the actual Character Creator - the ability to save, not just your costume, but the whole thing (costume, primary and secondary powersets, specialization, power customization, and possibly even character name) as a single file for quick loading later.

With the stated intention of being able to set up and run private servers, it seems to me that the ability to save and load complete characters à la the Sentinel+ export would be a necessary feature to give players the ability to archive their own characters to play on another server. Whether you would be able to upload an archived character to a particular server would be part of the server configuration -- even with the tagging in the Sentinel+ file to detect casual post-archive modification (i.e., going in and changing the saved data; you're not going to be able to stop someone really determined from coming up with a way to fake the validation check), someone hosting a server may not want to give people the ability to upload characters without review, but you'd be able to set up your own private server to allow you to load characters at will, so you'd always have the ability to play your characters even if the 'main' server closes down. Might not be immediately available at launch, but I'd be willing to bet that it's an important feature the MWM people have already factored in as part of the development.

So there would be an archive/restore capability built into the game; it wouldn't be compatible with the Sentinel+ files to insulate MWM from potential rights issues with the MWM code having to be 'aware' of the CoH data to read Sentinel+ files, but as described previously, there would be nothing preventing a third party from writing software that read Sentinel+ files and output a City of Titans character file -- and with a full-character export/import capability in CoT, it might even be possible, with a sophisticated-enough conversion program, to be able to create a 'closest-match' version of your CoH character as a CoT character. That, though, I wouldn't expect for a couple years after CoT's release at the earliest; the game would need to grow to the point where it could mimic a fully-tricked-out CoH character first.

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You are right.

You are right.

But it would be too much. Remake, enjoy the hard work these guys are putting into this game.

Yeah, that sounds like a Jedi. Massacre a whole room full of people, then stand around apologizing for it. - Swtor NPC

srmalloy
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Gauntlet wrote:
Gauntlet wrote:

You are right.But it would be too much. Remake, enjoy the hard work these guys are putting into this game.

I expect that a full-blown convertor tool will get made at some point; I think that being able to take your CoH characters and bring them into City of Titans, even if it's just on your own private server, will have a big "thumb in NCSoft's eye" appeal, even if it takes years after City of Titans releases -- recreating your characters and bringing back the community will be thumbing our noses at NCSoft, but getting the actual characters back immune to some faceless bean-counters' decisions cutting you off from them is a more archetypal victory.

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Well, keep in mind that even

Well, keep in mind that even the Sentinel data is based on a copyrighted property of NCSoft. That data may be just a list of your selections and items found in the game, but its still THEIR game. While i agree that it would be fun to be able to restore those old files, remember that this is a NEW GAME. While it may be in honor of the old game, it isnt the old game because it cant be due to legal issues. Legal issues that if pushed could bite our whole new project right in the booty. The Sentinel program data was ONLY incase we were able to get the CoH servers going again. We weren't. Therefor that idea failed, and technically the Sentinel Data is a failed option. Enjoy the NEW game, the old game is gone.

Yeah, that sounds like a Jedi. Massacre a whole room full of people, then stand around apologizing for it. - Swtor NPC

srmalloy
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Any program that does a

Any program that does a conversion from the data in a Sentinel+ file into a CoT character design is, because CoT is not going to be a mirror of CoH, inherently only going to approximate the CoH character, using the closest match between the CoH costume parts, character meshes, archetypes, powers, and enhancements and their analogues in CoT. What would come out of the conversion tool would be a CoT character that resembled the CoH character, but which didn't have any actual CoH content in the character design. MWM has already expressed the intention of giving players the ability to create NPCs for player-generated content at some point down the road; being able to do this would inherently create the ability to do an 'as close as possible' recreation of a CoH character, and all a conversion program would do is automate the choices to the greatest extent possible.

And this convertor wouldn't be developed by MWM; it would be a separate development like Mid's or Sentinel+ was, reading a Sentinel+ file and either just writing a closest-match CoT character file or have a UI to allow you to tweak the character before saving, although, once it was saved as a CoT-format file, the CoT NPC editor could be used for cleanup. The resultant character files would inherently be loadable as PC characters only if the server configuration allowed it, so while you might be able to use them as NPCs in custom content ob a public, you'd be able to play them only on a private server specifically set up to allow you to load them. And it may well be that, by the time the NPC configuration capability is completed for CoT, we'll all have recreated the characters we saved out of CoH and leveled them back to equivalent or better power level... but I still think that being able to create a full 'reflection' of a saved character will have sentimental value to people.

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ok. so heres the other side

ok. so heres the other side of that coin; exploitation. How many times could you transfer your maxed out character with purple enhancements and ridiculous inf resources onto the new server? once? ten times? a hundred? oh but my data must have gotten lost cant you just let me transfer it one more time? If people could be trusted NOT to find some way to hack it for ill gotten gains....

Yeah, that sounds like a Jedi. Massacre a whole room full of people, then stand around apologizing for it. - Swtor NPC

Tahquitz
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Perhaps it could be a later

Perhaps it could be a later Easter Egg to post Sentinel+ Files for play on a test shard where being ZOMGL33T doesn't matter. (Or a close but comically wrong adaptation of your CoH toon with in-game textures and options, since mimicking CoH in character options may not be the wisest move.)

syntaxerror37
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Really, the only thing a

Really, the only thing a converter program should do is strip out the text from your Bio so you can post it into a CoT character.

-----------------------------------------
I never set anything on fire accidentally!

The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame

srmalloy
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Tahquitz wrote:
Tahquitz wrote:

Perhaps it could be a later Easter Egg to post Sentinel+ Files for play on a test shard where being ZOMGL33T doesn't matter.

Having the City of Titans code contain conversion functionality that would let it read a Sentinel+ file, convert it to a closest-match complete character, and then allow it to be played would require that CoT contain references to City of Heroes data, albeit peripherally, which could be a liability in a theoretical lawsuit. Having the conversion be an independently-created program that reads a file with CoH-derived data and writes a file with CoT-derived data insulates MWM and CoT from liabiity -- it's not their code, and the output CoT file wouldn't have any of NCSoft's IP in it.

One of the goals of the MWM team is to give people the ability to set up their own private servers -- IIRC, the metric that was tossed out was that a medium-grade desktop machine would be able to act as a server for either eight or sixteen simultaneous players, or to be able to run both a server and the client for standalone play. I don't expect that any 'official' public CoT server would allow such a converted character to be loaded to play, only with a private server -- or a personal server -- that was explicitly configured to allow them to be imported.

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I was hinting at having my

I was hinting at having my Sentinel + save, as a decoy, pet, or accolade summoning (but I wonder will he have all of his bonus buffs from my frankenslotting)?

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Are you sure about this whole

Are you sure about this whole private server thing? how are they going to make enough money to keep the game going if you dont need to pay to play it?

Yeah, that sounds like a Jedi. Massacre a whole room full of people, then stand around apologizing for it. - Swtor NPC

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Gauntlet wrote:
Gauntlet wrote:

Are you sure about this whole private server thing? how are they going to make enough money to keep the game going if you dont need to pay to play it?

I'm not 100% sure - but I think the "private servers" idea was taken from something a dev or two said about plans for if the game flops - the devs will make sure that people can make their own private servers rather than shutter the whole thing. Someone correct me if I'm wrong - but I don't think private servers are in the mix for "normal operations" - it will still be a server(s) run by Missing Worlds Media.

As for the topic of Sentinel+ itself - if I recall correctly that quote in the original post was made way back when the Plan Z was in the planning stages - when the idea was to make a CoH clone - sticking to the original game as close as possible - making it comparatively easy to transfer character.

City of Titans has evolved way past that - it will be a different beast altogether. Your old character saves are probably going to be next to useless. The badges will be different, the character classes are different, the power selections will be different, different costume pieces, etc. Then consider that CoH had 8 years of additions, whereas CoT will be starting fresh - even re-rolling manually might not be possible for some characters until MWM adds more costume pieces/specifications/powers.

syntaxerror37
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Interdictor wrote:
Interdictor wrote:

Gauntlet wrote:
Are you sure about this whole private server thing? how are they going to make enough money to keep the game going if you dont need to pay to play it?

I'm not 100% sure - but I think the "private servers" idea was taken from something a dev or two said about plans for if the game flops - the devs will make sure that people can make their own private servers rather than shutter the whole thing. Someone correct me if I'm wrong - but I don't think private servers are in the mix for "normal operations" - it will still be a server(s) run by Missing Worlds Media.

From what I have heard, the private servers will not have access to to mission server and market server, so you can run around, street sweep, buy from the NPC shops, and (if it is up and running) use the CoT equivalent of AE with your friends. So there is plenty of reasons to still log onto the main server, but it can keep running, at least in a fashion if/when the game is shut down.

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I never set anything on fire accidentally!

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Gauntlet
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syntaxerror37 wrote:
syntaxerror37 wrote:

Interdictor wrote:
Gauntlet wrote:
Are you sure about this whole private server thing? how are they going to make enough money to keep the game going if you dont need to pay to play it?

I'm not 100% sure - but I think the "private servers" idea was taken from something a dev or two said about plans for if the game flops - the devs will make sure that people can make their own private servers rather than shutter the whole thing. Someone correct me if I'm wrong - but I don't think private servers are in the mix for "normal operations" - it will still be a server(s) run by Missing Worlds Media.

From what I have heard, the private servers will not have access to to mission server and market server, so you can run around, street sweep, buy from the NPC shops, and (if it is up and running) use the CoT equivalent of AE with your friends. So there is plenty of reasons to still log onto the main server, but it can keep running, at least in a fashion if/when the game is shut down.

This would be awesome for patch and maintanence days. if the game would work in this mode even when the main server is offline. Then when your offline you could still work on AE-ish missions in the creator, even if you cant run them, cuz the Mission Server is down. (this would help curb PLing this way) or even use the costume creator, or other lil stuff.

Yeah, that sounds like a Jedi. Massacre a whole room full of people, then stand around apologizing for it. - Swtor NPC

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I'm looking forward to re

I'm looking forward to re-creating some of my favorite City of Heroes/Villains alts on City of Titans and, for most of them anyway, I'll pick outfits and powersets that match their old versions as closely as possible.

That said, I'm looking forward to playing them up from level 1 to the max level. They deserve new adventures in this brave new world. =)

Buxley

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Opening up Villains and

Opening up Villains and starting out from level 1 was one the greatest joy when it came out. By the time I had reached level 40 (at that time the level cap), I had completed all but 2 of the original story arcs with my stalker, having ground my way through many many missions. It was learning about the game world, and learning how to best utlilize my toon, that made me a better player as a result. My fondest memories include:

1) Being on a six-villain team - with players in Japan, Australia, Israel, France, America and myself in Canada. This blew my mind at the time - here was a game that allowed for real-time gaming around the globe!
2) Having had 3 separate Speed Boosts and an Accelerated Metabolism boost my stalker (!), proceeding to unveil the entire CoT map in under 30 seconds using only my keyboard.
3) Building my namesake. She was my first toon built - hence the namesake - and despite desiring to change my global handle, I had made so many friends in game that changing it would have been a hassle.

And now, I will get to start all over again. New world to discover, new challenges, new threats. Bless you, CoT.

Travel provided by Plantatia Plantlines! 3 times faster than the trains, and much goopier!

Tahquitz
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Sentinel+ did it's job. It

Sentinel+ did it's job. It did save your characters to use with Icon or certain websites to recall your character.

If City of Heroes came back, or was sold off to a new company without the server data to come with it, we had some options. But that clearly didn't happen and NCSoft is throwing the IP into a wooden crate to be parked right next to the Ark of The Covenant until Harrison Ford wants to make another comeback movie. (The hope is that Ford isn't getting any younger, he can't have too many left... Okay, I'll stop. The joke's not that funny.)

Does that mean Sentinel+ data doesn't have a role with City of Titans? Not necessarily:

-- Someday when they visit player made content, Sentinel+ characters might be one of the import methods allowed. It might not be a 100% match, but for player-made content using player-made data, it would be a far less risk for MWM, since Sentinel+ wasn't a NCSoft program, and the data received isn't a 100% exact representation anyway.
-- Or what I'm thinking would be more useful: a Sentinel+ character import could be a part of a web-based tool to tell a player in a printable guide what power choices to make in City of Titans to get as close as possible to that character. It could be simple choices like what classifications choice does a character need to make to get their Fire/Ice Blaster back and how close will it be to CoH's numbers and strengths based on Mids data from Issue 22. Or as complex as advanced comparisons like classifications for similar DOT, control, or activation speeds (for example: you might not get the Ice/Fire Blaster, but if you just want the feel of the character back from activation speeds, the ______ classification should make you fairly happy, although it's powers involve ranged cotton candy projectiles and tax forms. Again, not that funny.) This would be difficult to keep up with game updates, of course, as the numbers change, so it depends on the effort involved (Just because you can, doesn't mean you should: not only a question of ethics, but also resources and opportunity cost. Also doesn't mean someone in the community couldn't champion such an effort either like Titan Network initially did.)

Tahquitz
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srmalloy wrote:
srmalloy wrote:

Tahquitz wrote:
Perhaps it could be a later Easter Egg to post Sentinel+ Files for play on a test shard where being ZOMGL33T doesn't matter.
Having the City of Titans code contain conversion functionality that would let it read a Sentinel+ file, convert it to a closest-match complete character, and then allow it to be played would require that CoT contain references to City of Heroes data, albeit peripherally, which could be a liability in a theoretical lawsuit. Having the conversion be an independently-created program that reads a file with CoH-derived data and writes a file with CoT-derived data insulates MWM and CoT from liabiity -- it's not their code, and the output CoT file wouldn't have any of NCSoft's IP in it.
One of the goals of the MWM team is to give people the ability to set up their own private servers -- IIRC, the metric that was tossed out was that a medium-grade desktop machine would be able to act as a server for either eight or sixteen simultaneous players, or to be able to run both a server and the client for standalone play. I don't expect that any 'official' public CoT server would allow such a converted character to be loaded to play, only with a private server -- or a personal server -- that was explicitly configured to allow them to be imported.

If that is true, then it should be the easiest question to answer in the FAQ: instead of "we're working on it", it should just read "No, due to legal complications preventing this, we're not going to support Sentinel+ or any native City of Heroes/Villains data directly removed from the client in live play."

But I don't see this as an absolute, since the player created the data, and the costume data will never match the engine 100% anyway. And the City of Heroes IP would be enforceable on the major characters, such as Freedom Phalanx, Arachnos, and Praetorian Guard characters that players could never play in the game (within reason: there is a Signature Arc where you get to be Sister Psyche's twin for a bit.) Preventing the engine/EULA from allowing that is acceptable, but does NCSoft have a trademark on Leopard spot textures? Or rocks?

We're all just making supposition here, I don't mean to be abrasive if that's how the above comes off. I know nothing about what's possible myself from the devs because I'm not one, but the legality is a gray area. And to accept the least amount of risk is to not make the game at all. (THANKFULLY, we're not going down that road.)

Mister Rik
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snate56 wrote:
snate56 wrote:

I liked doing amusing characters, like when that little red demon pet came out, I created a character as close to it as possible so i could run around complaining my mom made me bring my little brother...

Toward the end, I rolled a character named, "The Grammar 5th Columnist", who did nothing but sit in chat correcting other people's grammar and spelling :D

(No, he didn't do it often. I wanted to be amusing, not annoying.)

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Amerikatt wrote:
Amerikatt wrote:

AmbiDreamer wrote:
Or maybe it's that CoH was Earth-2 and now Amerikatt has found her way to the more modern Earth-1. *ponders*
At any rate, I look forward to creating "a new super-kitty for a new era*!
*strikes an heroic pose and salutes the flag*

Hmm, why does the concept of "Hello AmeriKitty" come to mind?