Chad Gulzow-Man

There are some people who can solo a level 54 Archvillain without breaking a sweat thanks to the benefits of IO builds. They're few and far between, but they're out there.

Then again, there are also people who have trouble soloing a +0/x1 mission with no AVs on an IO build (though that's largely due to the AT/powersets chosen).

But I'd rather not see this thread devolve into another discussion about why they should allow soloing in content intended for teams, etc.

So, would you have a problem with them selling the new costume options that are purchaseable via Astral and Empyrean Merits as of this week? I do know at least a handful of people who would rather pay a few bucks to get the non-Incarnate pieces (the new chest emblems, emotes and trail auras, specifically) than run any trials.

I actually think that everything they just introduced this week, minus the two versions of Ascension Armor, will be available via microtransaction when CoHF/i21 go live.

That would bother you, even knowing that some people are perfectly willing to pay for it?

You will receive them when CoH Freedom launches. Paragon Points do not exist right now.

Which is what Terra Draconis just said two posts before yours. If you reach Paragon Reward Tier 5, which is about three years of subscription, then you get MMs and Controllers unlocked for free.

I don't see anything wrong with that, specifically, but the post I was referring to (and the one it was linked to, ad infinitum) were discussing the possibility of selling Purple and PVP IOs via Paragon Points.

But really, what would be the point of paying real money for an enhancement that's going to die in a few levels when you can pick up max-level SOs for just a few grand in the auction house?

I'm not going to weigh in on the "should they/shouldn't they" argument, but unfortunately, they've said that there's only going to be ONE badge available on the market, and it will award with any purchase: an "I Used the Market" badge.

I think that this post exemplifies what most people* would like to see in the future of the Incarnate system.

*who aren't Bill and his crazy max-level-AV-solo-fighting antics. And I don't necessarily mean that as an insult, Bill--what you can do with a Claws Scrapper certainly impresses me. But you're part of an extraordinarily tiny minority in the pool of CoH players.

I can't say I disagree with people wanting a faster solo/small team path to the Incarnate abilities, but you've got your time scales wrong here. First of all, Issue 20, the issue that brought iTrials and Judgement, Interface, Lore and Destiny slots, has been out for less than three months.

Development doesn't happen overnight. And the new Keyes trial (and the upcoming Devouring Earth Cavern trial scheduled for i21) have certainly been in development since long before Issue 20 actually launched, and probably before i19 arrived and brought us the original Alpha slot.

As for the Alpha slot, unless you are absolutely unwilling to join a team for any reason, you can craft a Tier 3 boost in just a few days. Tier 4, by design, will easily take four weeks or longer. Between shards dropping from any even-level or higher enemy (even while exemped) that was given to us with the relase of i20, and the Notices we get for Weekly Strike Targets as of i19.5, as long as you're willing to do ONE TF--not trial--per week and some extra playing on the side, you can have your ultimate Alpha reward in about a month.

I'm going to muster up all of my psychic powers here (of which I have none) and predict for you: yes, there will, eventually, be a more reasonable path made available to those who do not want to do the trials, but still want to experience Incarnate-y awesomeness.

When will it be out? My money is on Issue 23. If they really want to surprise me, then Issue 22. Prior to that, all you're going to see is more of the same: a couple new trials, further adjustments to the cost of converting the necessary salvage, and if we're really lucky, an increase to the drop rate of Incarnate Shards.

But let me reintroduce you to the history of CoH:
Q: How long was it before Heroes got fast-paced repeatable content like the Villains did with their newspaper missions?
A: We got police radio missions thirteen months later.

Q: How long did it take for day-one veterans to be able to earn the Isolator badge, since badges weren't introduced until Issue 2 (Sept 2004)?
A: Isolator was reintroduced for defeating 100 Contaminated in the Recluse's Victory PVP zone in June 2006, nearly two years later. They spawned on a random timer at a rate of one per 30-120 minutes, and it took over two weeks to earn it doing nothing but camping the tram station with every moment of my free time. (It was later determined that this was a "**** move" and easier access was given in Issue 11, an additional 14 months later.)

Q: When was side-switching, a feature originally intended to be in City of Villains, finally implemented?
A: In the Going Rogue expansion, almost five years after the release of CoV.

The point is, you'll get your access. But the development team has a schedule that they've been working on, and it wasn't made apparent until the February/March timeframe that a large subsection of the population (though I doubt a majority) did not want to partake in the trials.

You'll get what you want, but there are other things on the timetable that are going to come out first, and you'll either need to accept that or move on. I'm not saying "Shut up or GTFO!" and I'm certainly not saying you shouldn't make your wishes known... but you have to understand that it's not going to happen overnight.

Might I suggest a pair of pants? >_>

Gratz on the accomplishment! I never made it to 2B... I got up to about 1.4 and then spent it.

I'm a little torn on this, personally. I see both good and bad in it.

On the good side of buying enhancements: I have less time to play now than I did historically, and even then it took me until January of this year to get my since-day-one main character purpled out, so the option to pay for enhancements on my favorite characters is pretty tempting. (Side note: I almost never farm--nearly everything I got was earned with drops gained just playing the game.) There's also something attractive about the ability to just pay a couple bucks for a Purple/PVP IO and get it now rather than grind for money, post a bid on the market and wait weeks for it to fill (if at all).

On the bad side: it starts out as a way to print in-game money (buy Gladiator +3% Def, sell on market for 2Bil, or on the boards for even more), then slowly collapses the game's economy because the super rare expensive stuff floods the market. People complain that $5 is too much for a PVP IO that now sells for a couple million on the market and demand the price be dropped.

It's a very tough decision for the developers, and I won't personally blame them whichever way the chips end up falling.

Fix'd.

It has also been said that any Veteran Rewards you've already earned will always stay on your account. If you make a new character, you'll still have access to Sands of Mu and everything else that any character you made today would get.

You realize that literally all of your questions and fears (except those regarding your apparent dislike of Going Rogue's content, which is already being covered in dozens of other threads that aren't about i21/CoH Freedom) were already answered in the 388 posts preceding yours in this thread, right?

I'm not even going to bother addressing specific things, because absolutely everything you just said is either completely wrong or simply a matter of your own opinion (which you are of course entitled to).

-----
As a rebuttal, this isn't entirely true either. All they said is that the cost of subscription will not change. They haven't said a word about what the cost of booster packs would be under the new system, and it's actually pretty apparent that we'll be looking at $12-15 (960-1200 Paragon Points) per Booster, given the examples we've seen and what was mentioned in last week's Ustreams--namely, that the temp power portion of a Booster Pack would likely cost about 400 points on its own.

First of all, either of these should put you right back at the same point--the game checks itself after patching to ensure the files on your computer match the ones the server uses. If you want to reinstall, there's no real benefit to one method over the other, but I'd wager doing a download installation would probably be quicker.

-----
I'm willing to guess your issue is probably due to old drivers on your video card.

Actually, it could be even simpler: have you accidentally resized the Incarnate window display below the minimum size to display everything? (Can you resize that one? I'm not on my game machine so I can't check for myself...)

Also, you are actually selecting a slot to see what Incarnate abilities you have available for it, right? The stuff you've crafted doesn't show up until you've clicked on one of your unlocked abilities.

Just specifying that Vet--ahem, "Paragon" Rewards aren't purchased with Paragon Points, but Paragon Reward Tokens.

It all boils down to semantics, since you're purchasing them either way.

That ability is reserved for Paragon Studios employees... so I suppose if you can earn it, then they'll be paying you!

This is true. I don't necessarily disagree with what the OP is saying, but I highly disagree with how he's saying it and what section of the forums he's posted it under.

But just watch, in Issue 22 or 23 they'll probably roll out different, more solo-friendly ways to earn Judgement/Lore/Interface/Destiny, and the OP will take the credit saying it was his suggestion (which he for some reason believes doesn't belong in the suggestion forum) that made it all possible.

All your questions can be summed up with one answer.

There will be two tutorials once Issue 21 is released: Primal (Hero/Villain) or Praetorian (Resistance/Loyalist). They're just getting rid of the existing Hero and Villain intros, which have barely been touched since 2005, and replacing them with the new Primal intro.

Obviously, since this info about the new Primal tutorial was JUST announced like an hour ago, there's no word on whether the Praetorian tutorial will have the comic loading sequences.