Wildstar Launch Thread - Server: Stormtalon | Faction: Dominion

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Xevy

Log Wizard
8,537
3,772
Wildstar is the only MMO I've played in 10 years that I miss. The best action combat and most challenging content in any MMO. And that's why it died.

Sad times.
 
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dvoraen

Lord Nagafen Raider
515
181
I'm kind of sad to see it go as well, especially since I want to know who was writing the storyline so I could get answers about what Omechron stood to gain for sabotaging the Nexus Project... and what was really going on with the Eldan (since Nexus was clearly not their homeworld) and why they felt they needed to "make a god."
 

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,690
3,201
My first thought when I see something like this is there's still dudes playing, that have probably been playing from the beginning, that are really really pissed and/or sad right now.

Wish I could do that with any game. :(
 

Del

Vyemm Raider
1,120
2,675
The dungeons and raids in this game were amazing, definitely some of the most fun stuff I've ever done in an mmorpg. Unfortunately you needed a crew of competent buddies to do them without wiping a bunch. This game was a good experiment to see if the mmorpg community would enjoy a game that emphasized skill rather than sheer time management. Turns out, mmo players still prefer poopsocking for their achievements.
 
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Miele

Lord Nagafen Raider
916
48
In reply to the Kotaku article regarding Wildstar, I found this response, not sure if legit, but it seems so.

Source: https://kotaku.com/wildstar-developer-carbine-studios-shuts-down-1828862729
Browse under replies below.


exChuaMcMurderpaws
9/06/18 9:10pm
Okay. I made this burner account because I need to correct the record here.

The stories passed around since the end of COH have been summed up as “Paragon Studios was so great and perfect until evil NCSoft closed them down.” And obviously telling this story would not be fun for my NDAs of the past...

And no, I’m not doing this out of love for NCSoft or any shit like that. We parted ways many many moons ago and we’re both happier for it. I just hate untruths being passed around because they let certain people keep skating around the industry causing the same shit over and over and being able to pin it on a nebulous entity to remove blame for their own actions.

Paragon Studios was shut down because they tried to pull a fast one on NCSoft. NCSoft was actually pretty happy with how COH was doing - they were never a huge hit, but they’d long since paid their dev costs and were a nice little money farm. They were happy enough with the brand that they even decided to move forward on an unannounced COH 2 project, and allocated funds to Paragon Studios for the development of a new COH property.

Yea, THAT is how committed NCSoft was to the brand.

So what happened?

Paragon Studios basically took the money, pretended to work on COH 2, but in actuality started building a completely unrelated new IP.

That’s right. NCSoft handed them a giant pile of money to make COH 2 and Paragon Studios, a studio literally created JUST to keep the COH IP going, said “Wait, no, let’s not do that. Let’s make some other shit nobody wants and not tell the publisher and presumably they will be completely understanding of it because we’ll show them a completely different prototype than what they asked for!”

NCSoft was not understanding.

See, this is what I learned when I worked for them - South Korean publishers are actually pretty hands off for the most part, as long as you give them reason to trust you. You hit your deadlines, you give them the product you promised, they’re actually pretty willing to put up with a lot.

Until you waste their money.

THEN the boot comes down.

The gap between the COH 2 debacle and the shutdown was less than a year from what I gathered talking to people in the know.

And now WildStar. NCSoft was pretty cool with us for a long time. They gave the company piles and piles of money and many years of extensions to get the game out. The totality of WildStar’s existence, from conception to release, was about a *decade*. A decade that NCSoft never saw a single return of investment on. So obviously... they had a lot of patience.

Carbine... was never a well managed studio. Ever. WildStar as you saw it was a completely different beast from what started development. It wasn’t even the same IP - Tim Cain, literally one of the creators of the original Fallout, used to be the creative lead and eventually he got pushed out of the studio. Which was a dumb idea because Carbine didn’t actually lock down their only IP when they did it and Tim owned all of it. So there was a huge freeze on production while they essentially had to do the game over from scratch because they didn’t own their own game!

And NCSoft actually let them when any sane publisher would have spotted the flaming shitshow brewing and cancelled the project entirely.

But okay. WildStar had its IP rebooted... then missed release date after release date after release date. The scope of the game was never realistic - we were supposed to ship with tons of extra zones, all of which got cut when they were well into production, because nobody actually knew what a pipeline was (oh but the higher ups would literally start screaming at the line designers for so much as laughing during work because obviously if we had time to laugh, we were wasting time that could have been used meeting these impossible deadlines.)

After yet another missed launch, NCSoft finally put the boot down and demanded more control over the project to actually make some money on this turd of an investment. Which meant there was finally an unmissable deadline that HAD to be hit. And then all hell broke loose.

Teams and personnel were constantly shuffled around at random without any real concern for if this was creating useable content. The economy team, which is, you know, the core of an MMO and literally the most important component to player retention and monetization, was a skeleton crew where staff were just flung at it when a producer didn’t like them but wouldn’t actually fire them. By the time someone went ‘Hey wait, isn’t the economy important?’ and reorganized the team, it was far too late to catch up on those systems... which included our end game content.

Hey, remember that memetic chart that went around showing all the obnoxious and pointlessly time consuming quests needed to actually unlock endgame raids? Guess what? That content was literally injected in at the very last minute because A) our raids weren’t actually completely done at launch and B) the creative director literally said we should add raid keys to artificially lengthen the game enough to force people to have to pay for a subscription past the free trial period in order to actually raid.

Oh there was shit from NCSoft, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not exactly the villains destroying the lives of saintly devs. Though they did try to push really hard on the art team to dress up all the female characters in the equivalent of lingerie. Given that they were already insanely over sexualized, this ended up being a tipping point and the artists tried to rebel. Believe it or not, the only reason the actual artists of the game got their way was because of Tumblr users kicking up a shitstorm over the obsessive pointless T&A. Those tumblr threads gave the artists enough momentum to at least keep the sexy ladies dressed in normal (but still revealing) clothing.

So with all this in mind... how did WildStar do?

They were already culling people before the end of the second month of release. Behind the scenes, they knew it was going to lose so much money that they were actually greatful so many people quit right after launch because it saved them money on personnel. But then people stopped quitting, so they started looking into how many people they could fire before someone at the state labor board got suspicious of them trying to duck out on the WARN Act. Given that they’d already gotten into legal trouble for illegally exempting employees from overtime pay, it’s kind of amazing they rolled the dice again anyway. But they did manage to hide the true state of the game until October 2014 when they finally had their first major layoff.

Coincidentally, most of that first wave were people that had at any point raised criticism of the company’s management.

I can’t speak to much to WildStar’s existence past their first huge layoff, because I was in that. I remember being shocked and surprised it stayed online as long as it did because it never, ever turned a profit - though almost all of the original leadership either quit or were fired, which is probably how it stabilized. But it still had a terrible launch that was actively on fire. We literally promised our players *monthly* content updates... then we couldn’t even hit the goal of *quartely* updates. Because, once again, nobody actually had a reasonable scope of what it took to actually make shippable content and how long that would actually take to be more meaningful than an occasional holiday event.

So really, you shouldn’t be angry at NCSoft for finally pulling the plug. My experience with them was that they were a tough but surprisingly forgiving master that overlooked an exceedingly troubled development and still put a lot of faith and money into a title they never saw an ROI on. WildStar had it’s four-year anniversary this June. Given that I assumed it wouldn’t even make it to a first year anniversary, that’s pretty darn impressive.

Also I learned that a few idiots running a game studio can basically screw over hundreds of talented game devs by performing utterly boneheaded decisions, but really, anyone who’s shipped more than one title can tell you that.

So now, you know... the whole story. From the mouth of an exChua on a burner account.
 
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Kuro

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
8,262
20,905
Well that's where they fucked up, if they had tigole bitties floppin around they'd be an Age of Conan level success.
 
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Xevy

Log Wizard
8,537
3,772
This is one of the few games I would be interested in an emu server for.

I honestly loved the Dungeons. I ran everyone silver medal'd several times without exploiting anything (except the occasional wall climb to avoid a pack or two of trash). We almost gold medal'd two, including Skullcano which was always the noob destroyer if you weren't cowards who just sat inside the wall. They should release a like 1GIG emu that's just the dungeons and add a leaderboard system. Be pretty neat.
 

Qhue

Trump's Staff
7,465
4,413
It is interesting, at least to me, to see these post mortems as they often show what a complete fucking mess game development really is. It is clear that these entities lack fundamental systems engineering, but that seems typical of most entities that rise up from a completely Agile environment.
 
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kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
Wildstar had a lot of good things going for it but them sticking to the whole HARDCORE end game always struck me as a bad idea. It is a very small part of the game playing audiance and the part that consumes content faster than anybody. So if that is your end game focus then it has to be done carefully while still having stuff for the non hardcore to do. I hit end game with a couple characters in wildstar and there just was not that much to do at the end for the bulk of people. I think if they had early on added more non hardcore stuff while still having some of the really high difficulty stuff it could have done fine but most of my friends we just got bored of having nothing much to do and wandered off.
 
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Kuro

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
8,262
20,905
Reading the NDA breakers, it doesn't seem like Hardcore was actually the game's focus. The game wasn't incomplete due to hardcore focus, it was just incomplete. And hardcore was pasted all over it by marketing/suits to try to make it look intentional.
 

Kreugen

Vyemm Raider
6,599
793
Feedback: "it feels like I need a third arm to play this"
Marketing spin: "HARDCORE!"
 
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Xevy

Log Wizard
8,537
3,772
Feedback: "it feels like I need a third arm to play this"
Marketing spin: "HARDCORE!"

Wildstar was one of the few games with a limited action set so much less ability usage than other games. Fucking WoW as a prot warrior now is retarded cycling through 7 buttons I have to hit in order then 7 more situational ones. The limited action bar was actually awesome because it made your character specialize further. You could be the good warrior who interrupted with 2 interrupts and group defense, or you could be the retard warrior who had maybe one interrupt and all DPS abilities.

This wasn't a game where you needed more fingers, but you definitely needed strong fingers for nonstop clicking for some classes.
 
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Qhue

Trump's Staff
7,465
4,413
I played a Chua medic and while the class was fun as hell it was also hell trying to get people to play along. No matter how many times I told people they needed to be in front of me in order to get healed they would bitch about 'bad healz' while standing in the back and actively dodging the effects of my heal sprays.
 
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Woefully Inept

Ssraeszha Raider
8,701
33,412
I played a Chua medic and while the class was fun as hell it was also hell trying to get people to play along. No matter how many times I told people they needed to be in front of me in order to get healed they would bitch about 'bad healz' while standing in the back and actively dodging the effects of my heal sprays.
Medic was incredibly fun and incredibly infuriating to play at the same time. It was nice not having to play the hotbar as a Medic.
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
Reading the NDA breakers, it doesn't seem like Hardcore was actually the game's focus. The game wasn't incomplete due to hardcore focus, it was just incomplete. And hardcore was pasted all over it by marketing/suits to try to make it look intentional.


What end game content it had was focused around 40 man groups that the engine could barely support let alone at the levels of crazy template shit happening that wildstar had going on. Honestly I think its PVP stuff early on was probably an unnecessary distraction. Overall I think with competent management most of its issues could have been overcome to be a fine well rounded healthy player base game. But they did too many early misteps and then as things were failing kept falling into the same bad decision patterns.
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
I played a Chua medic and while the class was fun as hell it was also hell trying to get people to play along. No matter how many times I told people they needed to be in front of me in order to get healed they would bitch about 'bad healz' while standing in the back and actively dodging the effects of my heal sprays.

Oh yes I also was angry they removed the hilarious bass drop dub step sound effect from the medic weapon from beta. Everytime I started healing it was like a fucking dance party I loved it.
 

Braen

<Medals Crew>
1,027
531
Just in case you wanted to see the game one last time:

WildStar Signing Off November 28 | WildStar®

When Carbine first started working on what would become WildStar back in 2005, the team set out to make something special that presented a different kind of MMORPG experience. At launch, the Carbine team delivered a deep, engaging, and spectacularly fun game full of outlandish adventures on the most legendary planet in the universe. And it has been our great privilege to share those adventures with all of you over the last four years.
Unfortunately, as you may have heard, those adventures are coming to an end. It’s never easy to say goodbye to something, especially something that has meant so much for so many—but the WildStar game service will close on November 28, 2018.
From now until then we’re going to do everything we can to honor the WildStar community, and show thanks for your support. In an attempt to recognize your dedication and love for WildStar and for those of you who have come to call Nexus your home, here are our plans from now until the servers close:
Refunding Recent Purchases
  • All real money purchases have been disabled on the website and in-game store.
  • Refunds for the purchases will be processed by October 3, 2018.
    • Real money purchases (including Protobucks, C.R.E.D.D., and Signature) made since July 1, 2018 will be refunded, and we will also process refunds for prepaid Signature Memberships that still have time remaining past September 26, 2018.
    • C.R.E.D.D. that remains unused and where the account holder has been active within the last 90 days will have their C.R.E.D.D. converted into equivalent NCoin for each unit.
    • C.R.E.D.D. that has been used to redeem Signature and where remaining active days extends beyond September 26, 2018 will be reimbursed in NCoin for each day remaining on a prorated basis.
  • Steam purchases have been disabled, and all purchases made on or after July 1, 2018 will be reimbursed in full.
    • Steam users who made purchases through Steam using funds from their Steam Wallet will have the funds returned to their Wallet.
    • Steam users who used other payment methods will be issued refunds to their original payment method.
    • If there are any issues, please contact the Steam Support team.
If you have any questions regarding refunds, or if your qualifying recent purchase was made with a non-refundable payment method, please read through our Sunset FAQbefore contacting Customer Support.
Final Update
The final update to the game was released today, which introduced a few changes aimed at ensuring you can enjoy everything WildStar has to offer.
  • Any Protobucks you have will be converted to Omnibits at a 1:1 conversion.
  • Omnibit drops are being increased.
  • The Omnibit cap has been raised substantially.
  • All in-game store items will be purchasable with Omnibits.
  • All seasonal store items and rotating costumes/mounts will be available on the store.
  • All Signature Station items will be available on the regular store.
  • Everyone will receive Signature status.
  • Gear drops from Prime instances and raids have had their base ilevel increased higher than they normally would be.
  • Primal Essence gain rates are being substantially increased.
  • Select endgame reputations can be maxed out, letting you access everything the faction vendors have to offer.
  • And more!
Be sure to check out the full game update notes for what changes to expect.
Returning Events
The seasonal in-game events are some of our favorite content, and we know you agree, so we’ll be increasing the rotational speed of the planet Nexus (not really) to fast forward and ensure you can enjoy your favorites one last time.
September 26–November 28
  • Double XP, Glory Days, Power Prestige and PvP, and Blessing of Essence will be on from now until shutdown.
October 12–19
October 19–November 2
November 9–23
November 24–27
November 28
  • Join us in-game for the final few hours as we have some fun. More details to come!
We are truly grateful for the vibrant community that grew around WildStar, and for all of your support throughout the life of this game. Our hope is that in these last couple months we can all celebrate the great adventures you’ve had on Planet Nexus—and have some fun along the way.
Again, a most heartfelt thank you goes out from all of us to you for sharing this wild, intergalactic ride with us, and to helping make WildStar an experience that truly could not have been possible without you. Thank you.
 
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GuardianX

Perpetually Pessimistic
<Bronze Donator>
6,690
16,850
This is one of the few games I would be interested in an emu server for.

Has there been any front on that?

I really almost expect an "Unintentional" leak of all the necessities for a private server at this point.

Kinda stupid not to do that..

I know the EFF has been barking up the tree of "MMO -server only- type games should be legal to emulate if the parent company drops the game" for a while now.

It's surreal to me that a game like LOTRO can be up and running for over a decade and this can barely pull in enough to exist.