Bosstone

Could be, but given that Paragon sells the VIP status pretty hard, it seems unlikely a new player would remain ignorant about it for long. This is all pretty much speculation about data we don't have access to, though.

To be fair, sidhe is not a common English word. But it's easy to run across if you're a fantasy buff.

I laughed when I saw it too. Clever.

You're right, I missed the point. In that case I think you're correct, but it's not really an amazing insight. If your CoH budget is $15 or more, you're most likely going to be a VIP because it's more value for the money. So yeah, Paragon's more likely going to get more money out of a VIP account than a premium account. There could be some people who have reasons to stay premium despite spending $20+ on the game each month, but I think it's fair to consider them outliers.

Now as an aggregate, whether VIP accounts or premium accounts make more money for Paragon is yet another question. If the average amount per month a premium spends is $7.50 and the average a VIP spends is $17.50, but there's three times as many premium accounts as VIPs, they'll make far more money off the premiums than VIPs as a whole.

Actually, it rather is. You can have a lively and fulfilling game experience without ever purchasing a Super Pack. It is not, therefore, being shoved down your throat.

Honestly, I understand all the issues folks have with the packs, but the rhetoric is insane, it really is.

That assumes the only things a premium would spend their points on are those not covered by a VIP subscription.

A VIP account unlocks a whole ton of crap premiums don't get, even when the premiums buy their way up the Rewards ladder. $15/mo for VIP + 400 points is a better deal than $15 for points alone.

Can't. Account bound.

I just want some pants! A decent pair of pants!

A couple of rambling and tangential yet related thoughts to throw out there. I'm half-asleep, so the quality of said thoughts is not guaranteed.

When CGI first came into widespread use in movies, some studios tried to use it to simulate live action movies. Everything was done in CGI, they tried to make the models look like real people, etc. etc.

Failed miserably, since it landed square in the Uncanny Valley. The studios figured out that CGI shouldn't dominate (unless of course you're making a cartoonish movie), but should instead enhance and support the live action. These days most moviegoers barely even notice when CGI has been used. It just works to make the conspicuous visuals of the movie that much better.

In general, probably the wisest proverb that ever came from a TV show: "If you do something right, people won't think you've done anything at all." (Bless you, Futurama.)

To bring this back around to City costume design, the tinting is a potentially useful tool that possibly got a touch overused. You can tell it did because people noticed it and it got in the way of what they wanted to do. If the tinting is used correctly, my expectation is that people will barely even notice it's been used at all; they'll just think the costume piece looks amazing and works wonderfully within their own creations. When they tell it to be primary green and secondary purple, it'll accommodate while still using the tinting to provide a subtle extra effect that makes the piece a quality one.

Standard Code Rant actually applies here because I don't have anywhere near the training or creativity to even know where I would start if I wanted to create costume pieces. I don't know how tough what I just said would actually be to do. But as guiding philosophies for design go, I think it's a useful one to shoot for.

I tell you, it's rough. I want to boycott the entire pack out of solidarity with the wimminfolk, but the male costume pieces look really darn good. Haven't bought anything yet, though.

I can't be the only guy who thinks a woman in a cool jacket is sexy?

Dude, there's feedback, there's complaints, and then there's just being a nuisance. You definitely crossed over into that last.

She's no Catherine Zeta-Jones, that's for dang sure:

That is terrific. In every sense of the word.

Wouldn't that just be a dream?

"Here are some concept sketches for an upcoming costume pack. Vote for your favorite!"

Sorry for the presumption in requoting, but I wanted to expand on this and the thread's moving too quickly to simply edit.

Basically, give us Lego pieces. Right now, what we're getting in packs is like a sloped Lego piece with a 30-degree angle, then the next set has a sloped Lego piece with a 45-degree angle, then the next has a sloped piece with a 60-degree angle. That's a nice level of detail, sure, but that's an awful lot of time wasted on minor variations of the same piece. Give us a single generic option, then let us build what we want with it. Further development time should be spent on making different shapes for us to use, not variations on the same shape.

In the same manner as Legos, themed sets are fantastic, sure. I like to see new pieces that create a completely new outfit. But as far as most of us are concerned, that set is just an excuse to have some brand new pieces to incorporate into our giant pile of individual Legos to make brand-new creations out of. The more a single piece is designed to work only with certain other pieces, or the more a single piece looks like a whole bunch of other pieces we already have with only minor variation, the less use it is to us.

Some consideration should be given to how many "unique" options there are. I mean, three packs so far have had a corset option. If more thought was given to interchangeability for costume pieces (which the non-tinted options will help with), then you can make one costume piece do the work of ten. A properly made corset could apply to several different costumes, rather than having to make an individual corset per costume. Yes, it can hurt period accuracy, but I don't think that's ever been a significant concern in this game.

Mix-and-match is the greatest asset the character creator has. Trying to go too far in the "each set is unique" direction really cuts down on costume possibility and results in heavy reduplication of effort.

Those are some amazing pictures.

I don't find the saloon girl all that sexy myself. A decent gunfighter outfit tailored to the female form would be loads more appealing.

The costume creator has about a billion variations on "skimpy" for women. I was playing with character ideas for my upcoming Titan Weapons character, so I loaded the Valkyrie outfit, changed the chest to Witch Lace, and immediately started blushing. I think we can afford to have the occasional robust outfit.

I have a Fire/Dev Blaster too, and while I like the combination I wouldn't have wanted to try Devices with any other powerset. You could skip every power from whatever secondary you chose and a Fire Blaster would still be a demon. Not sure you can say the same for any other.

Sorry, I meant you get the stats of a purple IO but not the associated inflated set bonuses. It was an offhand comment. You'd still keep your bonuses from whatever set the IO is from, of course.

Word. I liked First Ward fine and was more than satisfied with the story and the ability of the missions to tell the story, but having to run around the map from the northwest corner to the east side to the central tower CONSTANTLY got more than a little tiring. Yes, let's make you go right through the Seed's path 10 times and through +3 spawns even more often!

Hurray for the Jet Pack temp power is all I can say.

Of course not. That's way too cheap.