Buzz_Killer

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ZOMG. THEY HAVEN'T POSTED IN FOUR WHOLE HOURS?!?!

On a less tongue-in-cheek note - typically, in the real world, businesses require more than four hours to respond to things. I recommend patience before the D0O0Om calls.

Kam

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LOL. Yeah watch this, I'm going to show you how right you are. Ready....<Start>! "Yes there is a problem, and we are looking into it" <End> Holy Shnikeys, you were right! Oh wait...no you weren't, sorry. That took me all of 4 seconds to type! If "In the real world" Businesses take more then 4 hours to type that....and I were to start my own business where I needed to respond to customers through electronic means...say a forum...or even a phone...Then I could....hang on...carry the one.....divide by PI....HOLY JEBUS! I'm fairly certain I've just assertained the formula to success and wealth! Now to put it to good use!

<AHEM>
Greetings, friend. Do you wish to look as happy as me? Well, you've got the power inside you right now. So use it. And send one dollar to Happy Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Don't delay! Eternal happiness is just a dollar away."


Now, jokes and smack talk aside, let's look at this logically for just a minute (I know I'm asking a lot of some of you). They KNEW there was the possibilty of a problem, because they were putting in a "possible fix" for an existing problem. If I were they, and I are not, (Funny ain't I?) I would have been logged into the forum the moment the fix went in. The second I started seeing posts about there still being an issue, and the second I found out that CS was getting bombarded with petitions, I would have simply posted "Ok, it looks like it didn't work, we're looking into why it didn't work, and possibly going with Plan B".

And THAT is all most of us need to hear to go right back into a display of patience. The fact is that if you have been checking all the threads on this issue, then you'd see that the problems are many, but the only one that concerns the majority of us is the lack of communication. Some people are ready to cancel accounts over this if it isn't resolved and would perhaps NOT want to pay another month-or-6-month fee while waiting for CoH to eventually tell us we're screwed anyway. It's almost like they're delaying the announcement for exactly that reason. If they see say....2000 accounts about to be renewed in 5 days and if they wait they make...hmm...just shy of $30,000.00 I'm certain that there are a few more then just 2000 acounts out there coming up on the end/beginning of their billing cycles. Seems to me we are justified in demanding to know what the deal is before they charge us another NON-REFUNDABLE fee yet again. But hey....color me wacky that way.

It's not the loss of items, or the loss of inf that makes me teeter on the edge of playing and quitting. It's not that the game is super buggy because they never hired good testers to test it. It's not even the failed reimbursement. It's that for the last 4 hours petitions have been sent, forums posts have exploded and ONCE AGAIN....not a whisper of an answer. I'm tired of being treated like we don't matter, by the people collecting our subscription fees. When they ignore us I feel like I'm being told directly to my face "Give me your money and shut-up. We'll do whatever we want" It's very VERY uncool. And yes if I quit, you have an equal chance to have it all. There will be a one-time only Character Contest (Bio, powers, name, costume) in atlas park on Guardian where the winner gets everything I have. Fully functional base with active SG, inf, whatever. Hell, I may even throw in my account name and password.

Not sure about the rest of you, but this fix sure didn't work for me. I logged out last night with 33,557,583 Inf logged into to find 59,759,903 Inf a difference of...26,202,320.

I had over 30 Million on Bids. I had paid fees toward items for sale. I didn't get the bid inf back in full, I didn't get the fees paid back. I got a nice winged boots recipe and a photonic weapon salvage though. Here's the problem. I had NEVER had winged boots until a few days ago, and I STILL have those. An item from after the incident got DUPED! And....the photonic weapon, I had already sold that and got the inf for it. WTH?? All the recipes I had are gone gone gone. The same issue on my wifes account. Some inf restored, no recipes. She got no dupes though. Waiting on a response from my petition, but given that my last 4 petitions were ignored, I'm not at all hopeful. Sadly this could be the end of the Buzz Killers patronage of City of Heroes.

Agreed HeckTender. I would be very suprised if they compensated us for the lost opportunity, but I thought I'd throw it out there. The repayment of the posting fees seems to be a fair request though and not out of the bounds of possibility. If they know how much we posted an item for, then they know the built in fee for that price. Here's hoping.

Sampoerna, thanks for pointing that out. Now we have a date. They still haven't addressed whether or not they plan on compensating us for those other things I mentioned though. We'll get our items back and the inf we had on bids(We hope it works) but no word on the fees we paid that are now gone etc. Still I'll be glad to get the stuff back and the inf, although all of it is now worth less then I had paid for it.

Here's the question on my mind lately. Yes we lost salvage, enhancements, inspirations and recipes. We lost inf on items we were bidding on. So far these are the only things that have been mentioned as far as fixing this issue or compensating. So, here it is. What about the fees we paid for posting anything we were trying to sell? Are we going to get that inf back? What about the fact that something we bought for 500K in order to try and sell for 1 Million is now only selling for 100K? The prices have dropped greatly, and continue to do so as we had been predicting they would as time went on. But each day that passes without fixing this issue leaves people with items that are worth less and less. By the time the fix goes in (If it ever does) something that was selling for 20 Million will be going for 1 million. Are we going to be compensated for that loss as well?


Something tells me that the Devs hadn't thought about it quite that way yet, and that same something makes me think the answer will be a resounding "no"

Ok, Burn changes and Changes in general. First, I totally understand where the devs are coming from. We all know Fire-tanks are way too powerful. 100% Fear? Well...I get that a guy would run out of a fire to be more realistic, but then your average guy would also continue to burn from fire on his clothes and hair and skin... An average guy would probably not attempt to go toe-to-toe with a superhero in the first place. If the Devs want to make the game more "realistic" then they have to A.) Make the WHOLE game more realistic, or B.) realize that "realistic" inside a fantasy world of their own creation is a very loose term that they have full reign to create an otherwise abnormal standard to judge "Realistic" by.
If they're making all these changes for the sake of balance, then they really need to think about what that means. Balance every characer to have the same abilities (Eliminate the creativity process) so that everyone can solo, or Make every AT a "Single function team member" thus forcing teams to have one of every AT in a team in order to function (Enter 9 year old blaster named "Blastyyerbuttdood123!!" to harass the team into quiting)
As you can see there are MANY variables related to changes of this magnitude.
But here's the REAL problem. Theft. Robbery. Fire tanks have just been robbed.
You go to a car dealer and see a Station wagon and a Sports car. You ask "How much for each of these?" The Dealer says "They are the same price" so you buy the sports car. The Dealer points out that "The experience of driving it may vary in time" (Hm....sounds like it might slow down, or speed up a bit) A few months down the road you are sleeping in bed, dreaming of your sports car. All the guys at the office are jealous. All the ladies want to ride with you. But...the dealers have been doing a little research. They have determined that the sports cars they have sold are just too fast. So in the night they steal your car, and replace it with Station wagon, but to help maintain the illusion, they leave the body of the sports car over the frame of the station wagon. And in the mail, they send you a comic book, which reads "We're stronger then ever..."

All the time you took driving, and more importantly the reason you made the purchase are now being mocked. You have been robbed of your time and money. It feels like a con. We'll sell you this, but first you have to sign an agreement that says you don't actually get to keep what you bought, as long as we replace it with anything we feel like replacing it with, including nothing at all.

In the end it's not about the changes. It's about the timing of the changes. The game has been out too long to make such a huge change to the most commonly played AT.
I've already lost 43 good friends that cancelled their accounts because of i5. I said to them that the changes weren't yet in, and may not go forth. They should wait and see. They said that at this point, they just didn't care. At the least they were aware that the company they had been paying for enterainment was willing to screw them at anytime, and eventually it would happen, if not now, then later.


Best case scenario, the devs realize it's the community that makes the game, and stops making drastic changes that make players cancel subscriptions (I thought they wanted to make money, not rule a fantasy world with an iron fist, silly me)
Middle ground solution here would be to let every account with a AT that has been drastically changed to have a full AT Respec.
i.e. I have a 50 fire tank, I get to go into Character Creation, make a new look, choose a new AT, New name, new powersets, Slots all the way up to Level 50, a full set of enhancements. For every HO on the original character, I get to choose another HO that would benefit the new AT and all the INF on the origianl would transfer to the new one. All the temporary powers saved up, all the badges that the Original had would transfer over to the new one. And while we're at it, the new Level 50 would get dropped into Outbreak so they could pick up the isolator badge which most long term players never got the chance to get.
Worst case scenario The changes go through, and everone is given yet another respec to deal with the nerfs. Except of course that there will be no way to respec a fire tank to make them worth playing. I guess those people can play their blaster....or quit.

Name: Sexy Superhero Syndicate

Motto: "Saving the world...and looking gooooood doing it!"

Leader(s): The Ion Chef, The Buzz Killer, and Narcissa

Player Type: Casual to Power Gamer

RolePlay?: Not really. When we do it's usually just to make a joke.

Membership levels: 2-50

SuperGroup Colours: Black and Red

Normal time of Gameplay: All the live long day.

Other information: A varied team of skill levels. We play to have fun, and are quick to ignore those that are in-game only to harass others. Since the inclusion of Global Ignore, we generally add any annoying griefers there. This allows us to add people we randomly meet up with to global ignore, and if we see that they are already on that list we tell them we can't play with them. If they aren't already on the list we take them off again and a fun group may ensue. While this idea isn't all that new, most griefers never think that anyone will bother. Worst thing that can happen in this game is someone you don't know suddenly getting random people angry on purpose and you being associated with them at the time. We try very hard to keep a solid and friendly reputation.

Recruiting?: Not actively. Those who we play with often, who show a decent amount of gameplay skill, and more importantly, respect for their fellow players will be offered membership.