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General: Valiance Online - Spiritual Successor to City of Heroes

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

SilverHelm Studios has announced that a new KickStarter initiative has begun for what is described as the 'spiritual successor' to the now-closed City of Heroes. Called Project Valiance, the game will utilize sandbox elements to put the control of the world in the hands of the players.

"Imagine a world full of limitless scientific advancements, immense magical power, and the unfettered potential of the human body and mind.

In this world, you choose. You can be the one to step up and save the day; the hero who strives to protect the city and the people who inhabit it.

Or you can be the one to cut a swath of destruction through the populace; the villain who rules the world with an iron fist.

Or perhaps you’re something in between?"

Welcome to Valiance Online, a new superhero MMO born from the death of City of Heroes. Like many of you, we too were shattered when our beloved City of Heroes was taken away. But now is our time to rebuild. Our time has come to rise up, and build a stronger foundation against the forces of evil, or a more menacing threat to world order. Help us make City of Heroes one of the only games in history to launch several successful spiritual successors. Be the part of our story that says indie developers can, instead of indie developers can't. We can make a successful superhero MMO, standing on the shoulders of the giants, but we need your help to go all the way!

Check out the Valiance Online KickStarter initiative page.






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Comments

  • nebb1234nebb1234 Member Posts: 242
    cool. project gorgon is interesting
  • shivnashivna Member UncommonPosts: 6
    The question remains as to who will get to release first, this or City of Titans (AKA The Phoenix Project)
  • ReldinReldin Member UncommonPosts: 10
    Originally posted by shivna
    The question remains as to who will get to release first, this or City of Titans (AKA The Phoenix Project)

     

    This most likely will since it was in alpha for months and months before it entered into Kickstarter, which is miles ahead of what City of Titans was when that went to Kickstarter. 

  • ThestrainThestrain Member CommonPosts: 390
    Originally posted by Stizzled
    So, one game goes unfunded and they simply start another. If they can't stick to one vision, then I'd be wary of anything they hope to produce. I'm not trying to be pessimistic here, but they either want to finish Gorgon or they don't. I'm already wary of giving them money if they are so willing to change directions so abruptly.

    Project gorgon is getting completed. They are seeking funding now directly from the official website now and response has been very good.

    So you got nothing to worry about. This game was in development long before project gorgon so i don't know what you mean by changing direction 'abruptly'.

  • AaronVictoriaAaronVictoria Member UncommonPosts: 25

    Greetings Everyone:

    My name is Aaron Vicoria, and I'm the CEO of SilverHelm Studios. There are minor inaccuracies in this news article that I'd like to clarify. My company has been a key partner in the development of Project Gorgon. A majority of my workforce has joined with ElderGame (the studio behind Project Gorgon) to form a parallel developer network known as the SHOGN; a group of indie game developers building games together, pooling resources.

    Valiance Online, Project Gorgon, and another one of our projects Legends of Etherell all share the MMO network solution, GorgonServer. In the early development videos of Valiance and Legends of Etherell, and Project Gorgon you'll also see placeholder art from the framework, but all game are absolutely separate of each other and developed, primarily, by separate organizations.

    I've reached out to the MMORPG.com editors to get these inconsistencies clarified before they are further taken out of context.

    Thanks for taking the time to read.

  • AaronVictoriaAaronVictoria Member UncommonPosts: 25
    Torvaldr, thanks. Thus far it has been working out nicely for all the teams within our network. All products have seen an increase in nearly all areas of development since partnering. We're really happy with the results.
  • AlverantAlverant Member RarePosts: 1,319

    I thought City of Titans was the spiritual successor to City of Heroes. How many games can claim that title?

     

    Anyway, I do have some concerns. Wildstar advertised itself as being for the niche market of "hardcore" gamers. Valiance is advertising itself for a niche market, that of "roleplayers". What are you doing to broaden the appeal of the game outside of that niche? How many subscribers (since a payment plan hasn't been established yet) do you need to keep going? Would half the people who subscribed to CoH be enough?

     
    ETA I just joined the KS. I do want this to succeed. That's why I'm asking these questions. I want you to avoid the mistakes other games have made. The game footage looks very much like CoH (and that's a good thing IMHO) and I want to play it.
  • ParamountFromVOParamountFromVO Member Posts: 3
    Originally posted by Alverant

    I thought City of Titans was the spiritual successor to City of Heroes. How many games can claim that title?

     

    Anyway, I do have some concerns. Wildstar advertised itself as being for the niche market of "hardcore" gamers. Valiance is advertising itself for a niche market, that of "roleplayers". What are you doing to broaden the appeal of the game outside of that niche? How many subscribers (since a payment plan hasn't been established yet) do you need to keep going? Would half the people who subscribed to CoH be enough?

     
    ETA I just joined the KS. I do want this to succeed. That's why I'm asking these questions. I want you to avoid the mistakes other games have made. The game footage looks very much like CoH (and that's a good thing IMHO) and I want to play it.

     

    Hey Alverant and all. My name's Nate V and I'm the Design Director for Valiance Online. I figured I should tackle some of these questions since I've got Aaron hard at work getting the game polished up here.

     

    Wildstar was slightly off in judging the general audience of MMO's as a whole. If I may be so bold, their general attitude in the main was slightly more arrogant seeming than was warranted by the final product. In our case, we want to make a game that is fun, first and foremost. I tend to believe that the audience will define the game more than the game defining it's audience. Further, the acceptance of roleplayers creates an inherently social atmosphere, one that feels casual and welcoming. It is a fair bet that when players form social groups within a game, they tend to be disinclined to leave that game without exceptionally strong motivators (for example, the dread SWG's combat updates and NGE). Secondly, we rely on our fanbase. We're exceptionally open with the development process and offer everyone the chance to have their say on the choices we make because we consider you all to be investors as much as someone with deep pockets. 

     

    Roleplaying itself is a funny little niche. It fits into almost anything, regardless of setting, story, game systems and so on. You'll find roleplayers in every sort of game out there, from the CVA in Eve Online, to a pair of people standing in Orgrimmar commenting on the politics of the day. In CoH, they were all over the Virtue server, but not just there. They would be the folks hanging around in Pocket D treating it like it was an actual interdimensional club, the ones who would spend time filling out backstories on their characters within the character limits of the game's creator, to that one individual who would skip certain powers in a typical build because 'it didn't fit', no matter the systemic benefit.

     

    So, supporting Roleplayers can actually happen without compromising most any other aspect of a game, and to that extent, the other aspects of the game are built on the primary pillar of customization. We want to give our players the ability to customize their characters and every aspect of them, their powers as thoroughly as we can, and even their gameplay experience. This is a game designed to tailor itself to the individual, be it someone who wants to just run around solo and do their own thing, or the group of people who get together to hang out and occasionally go beat on mobs. 

     

    To that end, we have a large (and I mean large) variety of systems that we are implementing above and beyond what was found in CoH. Some will be familiar, story arcs that players can run, player created missions, and arena combat. We also have room for people that want to say, run a business, that want to fight to control territory and have it actually mean something, that want to experience a little bit of political 'warfare', and so on. When I said that we want players to be able to customize their experiences, I meant it.

     

    As for our payment model, we're taking it back old school. Straight $15/mo subscription (with possible discounts for multiple month purchases), and we'll create, design, and build content for free. The number of subscriptions required to keep us running is an interesting one. You asked at half of that of CoH which, after the F2P switch pretty much destroyed any hope of finding actual subscriber numbers. The smallest estimate I've found was, at the end, there were around 55k subscribers. Half of that would put us at a little over 26K. That would be comfortable enough to continue the venture. Now, admittedly at that number no one is shouting from the rooftops, but it's a survivable minimum.

     

    So, all told, we feel we've got a rather strong position if we can make it through this next year to launch, we'll be golden. Hence the Kickstarter. We've all thrown about as much of our own personal funds into the pot as we can spare. So we need a little boost, and a little message from our fans saying that, yes, they want this game and yes, they believe we can do it. I believe in the game. Do you?

     

    Nate "Paramount" Vogeding

    Design Director, Valiance Online

  • AlverantAlverant Member RarePosts: 1,319

    Thanks, Nate, I really appreciate you answering my questions. My edit on the post got lost but I said that I did join the KS and I asked the questions because I want your game to succeed. I was on the Freedom server because ... well FREEEEEDOOOM (said in Braveheart voice). CoH never officially designated which servers are RP. It sort of happened naturally and I didn't want to leave my SG. When Star Trek Online came out I took a CoH break to see how that game was. I liked how it was effectively one server and I hope you'll do something like that. I don't know much about the economics behind MMOs but I figure the fewer servers you run the less you have to spend so the longer the game can go on the same amount of money. (Sorry, I feel CoH might have lasted longer if they did a server merge to cut costs. Even if it didn't it would have helped the population crunch.)

     

    I think WS did a lot of things right. I like the art style, setting, lore, humor, some missions, and housing. It was the combat that drove me away, it was just too intense. I'm not a WoW player so the game was a real shift in thinking for me. Some parts were fun and others were grindy beyond words. The combat was the biggest factor in driving me away from MMOs for a while (how long, I don't know). Please tell me the combat is more CoH than repeated button mashing.

     

    How much can you do for RPers in a computer game? I've done PnP for over a decade and my favorite sessions were just RP (apart from all combat where I got to become a force of nature). If a character didn't like magic then the GM would make adjustments. But in a computer game doing the same thing you miss out on combat. You mentioned RPers who avoided certain powers because it won't fit into their character. Do you have anything in mind for them? (I'm not even sure how much you CAN do for them. There's a proverb about a horse and water that comes to mind.)

  • ElRenmazuoElRenmazuo Member RarePosts: 5,361

    That combat doesnt look very super

    When devs want to make a super hero mmo they need to take a look at games like spiderman, infamous and prototype and see how epic super hero fights look like.

  • adam_noxadam_nox Member UncommonPosts: 2,148

    Hey guys, if you are still reading this, I'm put off by the pricing of the KS rewards.  You could hand out a lot more in-game extras, bonuses, credits for use if you are planning microtransactions, and more economical tiers for those that want a subscription.

     

    For example, there's no 10 or 15 dollar tier, when a 10 dollar would be perfect for nothing but a single month sub.  20 for 2.  These things should come at a discount for pledgers, as that is typically how KS rewards work.  At least how they work any time I actually back a project.  Otherwise, why bother?

     

    The only time we get into any in game extras is at 65 dollars, and that's just way too high for a large segment of gamers, and I think that includes your intended audience.  You need to spice up the lower tiers quite a bit.  Paying 40 dollars for the risk of how this might turn out should be no less than several in game perks, 2 month sub, and access to at least 1 if not 2 beta periods.

  • Four0SixFour0Six Member UncommonPosts: 1,175

    Show me that this with have the CoX aesthetic, and not the Marvel aesthetic and I will consider kickstarting.

     

    marvel =/= roleplay.

     

    Virtue (Uninted) = roleplay.

  • ParamountFromVOParamountFromVO Member Posts: 3

    Originally posted by Alverant

    How much can you do for RPers in a computer game? I've done PnP for over a decade and my favorite sessions were just RP (apart from all combat where I got to become a force of nature). If a character didn't like magic then the GM would make adjustments. But in a computer game doing the same thing you miss out on combat. You mentioned RPers who avoided certain powers because it won't fit into their character. Do you have anything in mind for them? (I'm not even sure how much you CAN do for them. There's a proverb about a horse and water that comes to mind.)

     

    There are quite a few small aesthetic things that can be done just to simply help out the atmosphere (such as actually being able to sit on a chair/stool, something that strangely never could be done in CoX properly). In this case our job is just to provide the tools (emotes, easy chat interface, etc) and the space (bars, clubs...and yeah, bases too ;) ). Roleplay is itself a form of emergent gameplay where we as developers cannot really direct it, just support it by providing what is necessary.

     

    Originally posted by ElRenmazuo

    That combat doesnt look very super

    When devs want to make a super hero mmo they need to take a look at games like spiderman, infamous and prototype and see how epic super hero fights look like.

     

    We're still working on our combat animations and such, there are a few new videos on our Facebook page and more coming. If you have any specific feedback, we're always listening. Keep in mind this is still an alpha phase, not beta.

     

    Originally posted by adam_nox

    Hey guys, if you are still reading this, I'm put off by the pricing of the KS rewards.  You could hand out a lot more in-game extras, bonuses, credits for use if you are planning microtransactions, and more economical tiers for those that want a subscription.

     

    For example, there's no 10 or 15 dollar tier, when a 10 dollar would be perfect for nothing but a single month sub.  20 for 2.  These things should come at a discount for pledgers, as that is typically how KS rewards work.  At least how they work any time I actually back a project.  Otherwise, why bother?

     

     

    Actually we did consider this, which is why we have the $1 tier with the ability to add on access at $10 in our Add-Ons. Granted those could stand out a bit more, but our artists were already pressed for time. But, further we're going to be putting out a chart here shortly to show exactly what each tier is getting for the money they are laying out. We think they are very fair.

     

    Originally posted by Four0Six

    Show me that this with have the CoX aesthetic, and not the Marvel aesthetic and I will consider kickstarting.

     

    marvel =/= roleplay.

     

    Virtue (Uninted) = roleplay.

     

    I'm not sure I understand this entirely, could you explain a little bit more?

     

    As always folks, we thank you for the support and the interest in our game.

     

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