Re: Marvel Heroes is Back!

Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs say:

Marvel Heroes is Back!

I used to play this, isometric stuff rather than full 3d, and premade
chars rather than roll your own but fun nonetheless.

Sort of like CoH was when I heard of the server emulation.
>
While not as exciting as CoH being back, Marvel Heroes did have a
special place as a good Superhero iso squad game.  Especially as I was
able to play Squirel Girl, taking down the liked of Dr. Doom with
squirrels and squirrel powers was such a delight.  I did play for many a
month, though nowhere near as much as CoH or Warframe.   The idea that
one could play for free without all the MTX is as enticing as it was
with CoH though.
>
Details are somewhat sparse, but there's more to delve into than I have
time currently:
>
The about page:
https://crypto137.github.io/MHServerEmu/about/
>
And copied here for those afraid of links:
>
*****
>
"
About
MHServerEmu is a volunteer-driven research project aimed at reverse
engineering the underlying technology developed by Gazillion
Entertainment to run Marvel Heroes. We do not host any game servers
ourselves.
>
This website is a blog for documenting progress. The source code for the
server emulator we are developing is hosted on GitHub. You can download
the latest nightly build here.
>
If you would like to discuss the emulator, ask questions, or help with
the development, feel free to join our Discord.
>
MHServerEmu is a completely non-commercial project: we do not make any
money off of this or take donations in any form. If you have paid money
for this, you have been scammed.
>
FAQ
What is this? Are you remaking the game? Is it going to use Unreal Engine 5?
We are not remaking the game. We are restoring it to the state it was in
before it was shut down.
>
Marvel Heroes was built on a client-server architecture, which means the
game consists of an Unreal Engine 3 based client app that runs on your
PC and a remote server that the client connects to. We are using the
original client as is without any modifications, and we are reverse
engineering the server software using the information available in the
client.
>
This is possible due to some of the choices made during the development
of the game. Even though the “netcode” is server-authoritative, meaning
the server runs the game and has the final say in all cases, the client
features significant prediction capabilities to keep the gameplay
smooth. For that purpose it shares a lot of the code, as well as all
game data, with the server. So copies of all the original stat values,
drop rates, formulas, and so on, as well as some of the logic that
processes them, are in the client.
>
All of this is completely custom technology developed by Gazillion, and
Unreal Engine acts as a sort of graphical wrapper. Porting the client to
another engine, such as Unreal Engine 5, is completely outside the scope
of this project.
>
What versions of the game do you plan to support?
Currently we are working on version 1.52, released in September 2017.
This is the version that was live when the game was shut down.
Eventually we plan to move onto 1.53 from November 2017, which was
available on the Test Center, but never released.
>
After we get post-BUE builds working, we plan on going back and trying
to implement support for pre-BUE versions as well. The prime candidates
for that in the order or priority are:
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1.48 - the final pre-BUE version from December 2016.
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1.10 - the “vanilla” version from June 2013, around the time the game
was first launched.
>
Each additional version is a significant undertaking, and the further
back we go, the harder it is to support due to technical differences and
a lack of data.
>
As of right now we do not have any plans to support console versions of
the game due to technical challenges with running and debugging the
console client. This may eventually change as work on PlayStation 4 and
Xbox One emulation on PC progresses.
>
BUE refers to the Biggest Update Ever, also known as Marvel Heroes 2016
2.0, released in January 2017. This update contained many changes that
were initially made with the upcoming console port in mind, and it ended
up being controversial among players.
>
How can I help?
If you would like to contribute as a developer, right now we are mostly
looking for help with reverse engineering the client and reimplementing
its server-related functionality in C# / .NET.
>
We also looking for any game network traffic captures (also known as
packet dumps) made with a tool such as Wireshark before the game servers
were shut down.
>
Another thing you might be able to contribute is some of the rarer
versions of the game client that are not on Steam:
>
Early beta versions released in late 2012-early 2013: 1.5.0.361,
1.5.0.408, 1.5.0.417, 1.5.0.422, 1.7.0.258, 1.7.0.597, 1.8.0.31,
1.8.0.52, 1.8.0.149, 1.8.0.232, 1.8.0.361, 1.8.0.394, 1.8.0.514,
1.8.0.537, 1.8.0.595, 1.9.0.286, 1.9.0.318, 1.9.0.422, 1.9.0.496, 1.9.0.531.
>
Mac open beta from June-July 2014 (most likely 1.23.0.x or 1.24.0.x).
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Any “whitelist” versions that you had to accept an NDA to access. Some
of these are called Marvel Heroes (Demo).
>
Please keep in mind that we are looking for complete copies of all
client files, and not installers or leftover files.
>
If you believe you can help us with any of the above, feel free to
contact us on Discord."
>
*****
>
Here's the server emulation software:
https://github.com/Crypto137/MHServerEmu?tab=readme-ov-file
>
And the discord:
https://discord.com/invite/hjR8Bj52t3

So it's not really back  :(  , but might be some time in the future.

Xocyll