NCSoft grants license to CoH "rogue" server

[Aethilmar]

https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/04/ncso ... ming-crew/

A belated Christmas miracle!

I'm sure that Games Workshop would also have no issue with something like this since they are known to be a very reasonable and fan-friendly organization ...

[Gier]

Hate to break it to you but it's not Games Workshop you'd need to get the licenses from but EA... So ya. Good luck on that pipe dream.

[Tyrodan]

Hate to break it to you but it's not Games Workshop you'd need to get the licenses from but EA... So ya. Good luck on that pipe dream.

Should be both, no? EA has the rights on the assests and code created for the game but the IP is still Warhammer so Waynes Dorkshop has a saying in this too.

[Gier]

Nope Games Workshop has no rights to the Age of Reckoning IP. They sold the rights to EA who then made the game. It's why the lore doesn't match up with any Warhammer fantasy and is considered it's own story.

[Aethilmar]

Nope Games Workshop has no rights to the Age of Reckoning IP. They sold the rights to EA who then made the game. It's why the lore doesn't match up with any Warhammer fantasy and is considered it's own story.

The original shutdown notice said the IP agreement came to an end, thus implying it reverted back to Games Workshop.

REGARDLESS, kind of missing the forest for the trees here. CoH was able to negotiate a deal. Probably would be harder to do with GW or EA but still sets a precedent of sorts.

[Xalon]

If you ever played CoH and miss it, definitely check out CoH: Homecoming. They have done everything, just like the devs here on RoR. A great game and they have thousands of players also.

[Khelqhaineion]

Nope Games Workshop has no rights to the Age of Reckoning IP. They sold the rights to EA who then made the game. It's why the lore doesn't match up with any Warhammer fantasy and is considered it's own story.

Yes and no. Lore does match up past history to a point before the game lore starts, but for what happens in this game regarding the prequel stories, 2x books, quests, war campaign and LOTD/Skaven stuff (even custom quests and events on this server) then yes it goes in its own direction for this game into an alternate universe.

In a nutshell, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning includes all lore that goes all the way up to Storm of Chaos and then branches off in a different/alternate direction from there.

Age of Reckoning is/was an alternative narrative to Storm of Chaos (from 2004) which played out in the tabletop game. There are a couple of Black Library novels set during WAR and a graphic novel was released with the limited edition game, but it never as such concluded, the stories were set at the beginning/within WAR.

So the Age of Reckoning began with the rise of Tchar' Zanek as leader of the Raven Host, he sought to wipe out the Empire and united a **** load of chaos tribes and started marching on the Empires of Man. Meanwhile, Malekith wanted revenge on his High Elf kin and saw a good opportunity with the rise of a new Chaos Warlord. So he deviced a plan to seek out an Ork Warboss that could unite the Orc tribes and go on a bloody rampage all over the dwarves. He found Grumlok, created an amulet that granted the Ork amazing strength and toughness and it allowed Malekith to control the Ork.


So now the Empire and the Dwarves were under siege so they called upon their Elven allies to aid them, they did so and now Malekith could sweep in with his Black Arc.

Finished all pve quests on order, outcome is that both sides end up in a stalemate, hence "War Never Ends". Outcomes of the War Campaign involve a push/pull or seesaw-styled campaign. Keep and Fort lords defeated, city boss in Altdorf/Inevitable City killed (Karl Franz & Tchar'zanek), invaders are then pushed out by defenders instead of taking over a city permanently, pushed them all the way back out of their lands and thus the war campaign resets. Empire/Dwarf/High Elf and Chaos/Greenskin/Dark Elf gods would then respectively ressurect their keep/fort/city lords back eventually (who probably still have to pay fee to the nearest Healer NPC for Battle Fatigue like the rest of us) and it starts all over again.

It is not yet your time. I shall aid your journey back to the realm of the living... for a price.

I think eventually they should implement the Karak-Eight-Peaks and Karaz-a-Karak capitals as city fights. Both of these cities have flag areas in the bottom deeps and a keep. It could be re-tooled as a custom scenario environment for a city fight where stages involve fighting in the bottom deeps (logically due to the Underway), then main floor, then the king (High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer and Grumlok/Gazbag). Ekaslime supposedly has already covered boss mechanics that were designed by EA for these bosses even. https://ekaslime.wordpress.com/


Although the "Blood Lords?" expansion (Brettonia and Vampire Counts) got cancelled, there's still some story that hasnt been released yet. The last official content patch in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning was Patch 1.4.7 "The Verminous Horde" released on November 18, 2010.



So the game was in a content drought for like 3 years before it got cancelled?, yikes.

As for EA granting a license to this server it will never happen. ROR dev's here have done FAR more productivity for this server than what the devs on live did. Why was live in a state of such long content drought?. Any work of any kind had to be approved and it was all rejected/denied because it would cost EA money. There was a tiny skeleton crew of devs that remained just for the balance team before they were fired in 2013.

Hopefully, the Skaven (and pets) stuff in 1.4.7 will be released eventually (probably 2030s), but everything else needs to be finished first of course (Lost Vale, TOVL,etc).

Hopefully in the near future we'll see 1.4.7 content. All depends if the devs have access to the patch builds.

WAR's 1.4 update includes a wide range of additions and improvements, although the highlight is the ability to play as one of the four new Skaven classes in RvR lakes. Other changes include a revamp of Open RvR mechanics, a Skaven-themed dungeon, a reworking of Renown Abilities and a Barber Surgeon who's anxious to give you a complete makeover.


Patch 1.4 also marks the addition of two RvR Packs to the controversial EA Store. The Progression pack adds 20 more RvR levels (bringing the cap to 100) in addition to faster leveling and more gear. For fluffaholics, the Personality pack is a bounty of vanity pets, mounts and dyes that help you make a dashing first impression.
https://www.engadget.com/2010-11-18-the ... today.html

[Omegus]

Nope Games Workshop has no rights to the Age of Reckoning IP. They sold the rights to EA who then made the game. It's why the lore doesn't match up with any Warhammer fantasy and is considered it's own story.

Games Workshop do not "sell" their IP to anyone. They grant permission for companies to make products/content/etc based on their IP. Often this is very highly restricted and checked, with Games Workshop having to sign off on everything. If you check the original development videos for WAR you'll see Mythic constantly mentioning getting Games Workshop approval for things and some career concepts. The Zealot was actually one of those concepts that Alan Merrett - the head of Games Workshop's IP - came up with for Mythic. The rights holder having significant creative control (usually the ability to say "no") is not uncommon and almost all licensed IPs work that way. If you wanted to make a Marvel game then Disney would be heavily involved with the creative process with regards to how their characters are portrayed, etc.

There is almost no question about whether GW owns the IP for Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning, as GW isn't dumb enough (they do love their lawyers) to let other companies "own" IP connected to their properties. This has happened once in the past - the renegade Chaos god Malal - and then to my knowledge never again.

What I don't know is whether GW also obtained the rights to all of the technology used for the game. Some was built-in house by Mythic, some is owned by Netimmerse (Gamebryo middleware), some is now owned by Amazon (Emotion FX animation middleware), and so on. Ownership of all that code and licenses would be covered in the contract between GW and EA/Mythic.

I think I remember seeing some officially licenses Warhammer mobile game which was using art assets from WAR so GW definitely seem to have ownership of the art assets at least.

The only person outside of GW and EA's lawyers who know the current situation of the licenses would likely be Max as I know he's been in contact with GW in the past, and I very much doubt he would be able to reveal anything at all.

ROR dev's here have done FAR more productivity for this server than what the devs on live did.

What the **** are you on about?

Mythic created the game. Every art asset, every sound effect, the client, the original server, the quests, the maps, all the world scripting, the writing, the animations, the UI, everything. The ROR devs are attempting to recreate/recover the original work of Mythic and are not even remotely close to fully recreating what Mythic achieved, either the quantity or quality (not a dig at the ROR devs), and the few totally new things added by the ROR devs are often still unfinished (KaK/K8P/Garden immediately spring to mind).

[Khelqhaineion]

What the **** are you on about?

Mythic created the game. Every art asset, every sound effect, the client, the original server, the quests, the maps, all the world scripting, the writing, the animations, the UI, everything. The ROR devs are attempting to recreate/recover the original work of Mythic and are not even remotely close to fully recreating what Mythic achieved, either the quantity or quality (not a dig at the ROR devs), and the few totally new things added by the ROR devs are often still unfinished (KaK/K8P/Garden immediately spring to mind).

I was referring about the content drought (2010-2013), not when the game was initially created by Mythic Entertainment/EA during 2005-2008 (which was a massive undertaking like you stated).

Yes, they did great work but everything fell flat when EA cut all the funding afterward. Still so much they should have done like finish implementing Malekiths Fist city for Dark Elves [Black Ark ship in Caledor] and Lothern city for High Elves (in Eataine),etc.


https://ekaslime.wordpress.com/?s=malekith+fist


https://ekaslime.wordpress.com/?s=lothern