[Throne and Liberty] New NCSoft MMORPG (global release on 2nd half of this year)

[Chadow]

info:
https://blog.ncsoft.com/en-news-tl-interview-220317/

Trailer:

[Delever]

info:
https://blog.ncsoft.com/en-news-tl-interview-220317/

Trailer:

Looks pretty nice but the fact that its NCSoft worries me

[Steelangel]

I don't trust NCSoft after Wildstar and CoH. Screw those guys.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Project HON was cancelled for a Black Desert clone?

The one thing of note from this trailer is that it seems like you will be able to transform into a giant monster. I wonder if you need a rare item to do it, or the player with the highest points on their team is the one who gets picked to do it.

[Dakhath]

Looks interesting, but yeah, NCSoft.

[Daedius]

Bored of high fantasy MMOs... :/

[Edge-]

I don't trust NCSoft after Wildstar and CoH. Screw those guys.

Eh, WS was an unmitigated disaster of Carbine's own making. NCsoft is very hands-off with western studios for the most part and kept support for Carbine up for a while despite the poor launch, but they can't keep game that's bleeding money alive forever.

CoH was a bummer since that game was pretty good, but it was long past its prime and they were likely trying to free up resources/market space for WildStar (which obviously didn't work out).

OT: Trailer looks fine, it's another pretty Korean MMO. Surprised it's supposedly getting a global launch this year but I'll give it a spin.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Even in the same region, the geographical features change depending on the weather while the flow of battle changes according to the wind direction.

Ah, so we might get FFXII-style environment changes? That would be really cool.

We heard that players can also transform into an animal in the game. Why?
(Jong-ok Ahn) We concentrated on two points when designing different worlds of < Throne and Liberty > at each level. To begin with, we tried to connect every world seamlessly. And we sought to allow players to maximize the spatial use by allowing them to feel every space three-dimensionally.

To that end, it was required reduce teleportation and enable users to move from one space to another at a rapid speed regardless of height.

We thought animals are the answer. So we allowed players to transform into a land, water or flying animal. For successful exploration of some regions in the game, they have to utilize the animal’s ability to move. In addition, players can carry other players once they transform into an animal.

I wonder if the flight forms will be glorified gliders like GW2's griffon mount, or if it will be bog standard unlimited XYZ flying like in WoW.

Since there are water forms, I wonder if there will be any underwater content.

It seems that you paid a lot of attention to making the game contextually well-organized, providing more immersive in-game experiences. Please introduce other differentiated content of < Throne and Liberty >.
(Jong-ok Ahn) In < Throne and Liberty >, environmental factors such as time of the day and weather conditions including rain and wind keep changing. Although you might not be able to recognize this when you just start out the game, it has more implications than you think.

For example, the direction and strength of the wind affect the archery shooting range. If you practice lightning-type magic when it rains, it affects a wider range of enemies unlike the way it affects a single enemy in a sunny day. Terrain is influenced by environmental factors, as well. For example, you can infiltrate the castle in diverse routes in a siege warfare including the underground sewer and it could be filled with too much water and become unavailable if it rains heavily.

Conversely, players can affect the environment. They can change the environment in their favor by causing a solar eclipse or rainstorm if required conditions are met.

Okay, this sounds really cool.

Although the recently released video highlights Korean elements, we will ultimately create 16 countries to show different historical, ecological, and visual references of the East.

I wonder how big those countries will be. One capital city and a small town each?

Bored of high fantasy MMOs... :/

The problem is the art direction. It's just more mundane medieval European landscapes with a photorealistic artstyle.

Project E is apparently set in the East so it should be a little more interesting.

[qwerty123456]

I don't really trust them with any game that doesn't focus on the Korean market. GW/2 is the only more western games they haven't shut down. But this is apparently a Sequel to Lineage (not a sequel to Lineage 2) so I'd say there's probably a 80% chance they don't shut this down.


Also a side note supposedly City of Heroes shutdown was due to a new Ceo wanting to make a name for themselves and focus more on the Asian markets which is why they refused to sell it to Paragon when they offered to buy the IP since if it had still been successful they would have looked like a dumbfuck.

[Stormdash]

I don't trust NCSoft after Wildstar and CoH. Screw those guys.

I'm still bitter about COH. It's been 10 years, and really for me like 13 years since I stopped playing it as my primary game, but it's still not okay.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

A generic Korean MMO in which your only option for the playable race seems to be human...yeah, not feeling anything beyond "Oh great, another one...".

[Edge-]

GW/2 is the only more western games they haven't shut down.

Their other efforts were not great. Tabula Rasa was a mess (and they made it messier), WildStar was a big miss in a number of ways, and CoH had strong success for a while but F2P couldn't keep its revenue high enough to justify continued support.

But this is one of their in-house MMO's, and those are still alive and kicking in the west with the exception of Lineage 1. L2 is still around and getting updates, Aion is too (plus Aion Classic), same with BnS.

Also a side note supposedly City of Heroes shutdown was due to a new Ceo wanting to make a name for themselves

Kim Taek-Jin has been the CEO for NCsoft since 1997, so this isn't true on that fact alone. Beyond that, I can tell you from personal knowledge (didn't work for them, but with them) that this wasn't at all any part of the discussions around possible/eventual closure of CoH/Paragon.

they refused to sell it to Paragon when they offered to buy the IP since if it had still been successful they would have looked like a dumbfuck.

They actually tried to find a buyer for Paragon/CoH IP but couldn't find one - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the...city-of-heroes

Good news is they largely don't seem to care about the private server reboot that's still being worked on, though I forget how far they've progressed. Last I checked they had functional social spaces at least.

[Steelangel]

Eh, WS was an unmitigated disaster of Carbine's own making. NCsoft is very hands-off with western studios for the most part and kept support for Carbine up for a while despite the poor launch, but they can't keep game that's bleeding money alive forever.

I can't say that I know what happened on the back end with Carbine itself, but outside of a really bad launch server issue, the game was great and played great and I had a lot of fun with it up until they mucked up crafting and went F2P.

If WS re-launched now with some spit polish for new graphics cards and the original crafting matrix, I would quit WoW for it in a hot second.

[Edge-]

I can't say that I know what happened on the back end with Carbine itself, but outside of a really bad launch server issue, the game was great and played great and I had a lot of fun with it up until they mucked up crafting and went F2P.

They "mucked it up with F2P" because it was not financially sustainable and revenue cratered. They needed to generate more revenue in order to keep the company alive so they did a F2P transition - and one that honestly was far too generous for free players with a shockingly limited selection of cosmetics and services in the store.

If WS re-launched now with some spit polish for new graphics cards and the original crafting matrix, I would quit WoW for it in a hot second.

Many would, but the problem would largely be the same one it faced after it launched: There simply weren't enough people who wanted to play the game as it was, and spend money on it, to keep it alive. Targeting the game primarily at the "oldschool hardcore raider" crowd was a fairly unmitigated disaster, even if they tried to course correct post-launch.

[qwerty123456]

But this is one of their in-house MMO's, and those are still alive and kicking in the west with the exception of Lineage 1. L2 is still around and getting updates, Aion is too (plus Aion Classic), same with BnS.

It's not just those games more than half their non-mobile games they have shut down. But I agree that there's no way this one gets shut down unless there are massive fuckups. Lineage series is what made them. Alot of them were meh. MXM was kinda cool.

Kim Taek-Jin has been the CEO for NCsoft since 1997, so this isn't true on that fact alone. Beyond that, I can tell you from personal knowledge (didn't work for them, but with them) that this wasn't at all any part of the discussions around possible/eventual closure of CoH/Paragon.

I was wrong about ceo the reddit post I saw just said management. which might not be true. Just seemed like it was the most likely given Paragon tried and failed to buy the game.

They actually tried to find a buyer for Paragon/CoH IP but couldn't find one - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the...city-of-heroes

Good news is they largely don't seem to care about the private server reboot that's still being worked on, though I forget how far they've progressed. Last I checked they had functional social spaces at least.

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/busine...udios-shutdown

Paragon tried buying CoH.

"Those guys ... really loved what the studio was doing and they really felt that the game still had legs," says Miller. "So they actively sought another publisher to purchase Paragon Studios from NCsoft. ... Suffice it to say that eventually the talks broke down. The buyer wasn't going to buy and NCsoft wasn't looking to sell. So, plan B, which I always thought was a great plan from the beginning was the management buyout."

Negotiations started off pretty good between the parties. While Miller wasn't in the talks, he was briefed regularly. And the company was optimistic enough about its future that it quietly began to ping select media outlets to discuss plans on how it would break the news once Paragon and NCsoft had reached a separation agreement.

Then, things fell apart.

"Things looked like they were going to go well and then things just kind of stopped going well," says Miller. "I'm not exactly sure where the sticking points were, but in the logistics of business there's always some sticking point somewhere [on which] people just aren't willing to budge and I think that's where we ended up. There were one or two points where neither side could budge.

"On the night before we all got the notice of the studio shutting down, Brian, Ross, and Destin were in there still trying to work out that deal. We were a signature away from things going through or not - and we unfortunately fell on the not side.".

Apparently Paragon also wanted the 2 other Ips they were working on as well so maybe that's what caused the talks to break down.

Not sure how much I'd trust the NCSoft pr when they say "We looked to sell the franchise multiple times, however, we were unsuccessful in finding a suitable partner that we thought would support City of Heroes' fans in a manner they were accustomed to for years to come," after the game devs attempt to buy it from them. How would Paragon not support the game they were making?


There are apparently multiple private servers. https://www.reddit.com/r/Cityofheroes/wiki/servers
Nice that they don't seem to care about em but it also probably means we wont be getting a CoH2 from them.

[korijenkins]

NCSoft has to be one of the dumbest devs in my eyes. Had GW2 online and basically just waiting for new content and they practically ignored it to make Wildstar, which bombed and died. Now GW2 is getting expansions and they're still trying to make another MMO.

Creating competitors to your own games has to be one of the dumbest strategies of all time.

[Calfredd]

NCSoft has to be one of the dumbest devs in my eyes. Had GW2 online and basically just waiting for new content and they practically ignored it to make Wildstar, which bombed and died. Now GW2 is getting expansions and they're still trying to make another MMO.

Creating competitors to your own games has to be one of the dumbest strategies of all time.

Think you got some things confused. Carbine Studios made Wildstar and it was them that bombed it.

[Edge-]

NCSoft has to be one of the dumbest devs in my eyes. Had GW2 online and basically just waiting for new content and they practically ignored it to make Wildstar, which bombed and died. Now GW2 is getting expansions and they're still trying to make another MMO.

Because NCsoft published those titles, which were developed by ArenaNet and WildStar. Nothing was "ignored" for WildStar on the GW2 front, NCsoft largely lets their western studios operate independently and doesn't meddle with them.

Creating competitors to your own games has to be one of the dumbest strategies of all time.

The goal was that they wouldn't directly compete, and they weren't really going to as they were serving very different MMO audiences.

Having multiple MMO's doesn't mean you're competing against yourself, MMO's aren't a zero-sum game.

[dope_danny]

Isn't this just the re-re-re-re-redo over of Lineage 3 from 2011?

[Chadow]

Isn't this just the re-re-re-re-redo over of Lineage 3 from 2011?

yes

/10 char