Energyman

We agree to disagree. I simply cannot fathom the need to demand things simply because they are in the game and you feel entitled to them. The vet system is fair as it's accumulated evenly for all players, hardcore, casual, occassional, whatever. If you stick around long enough you'll get the awards you're seeking. Especially when said items are only cosmetic in nature and affect the game in no other way. As you say, they cost nothing.

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, B, A, Select, Start. Nuff said.

On a side note, is it still wrong to smile when first after a red name?

As if the farmers and power levelers didn't make enough influence doing what they do. No, the system works fine as is.

The Kheldians do get more powers than anyone else, but it's restricted to the specific forms. Adding the ability for an Epic Pool would only increase that at the cost of the slots which many Kheldian players make note of, and I don't think the slots should ever change. Adding an Epic would add more options to the Kheldians for powers but also means they have to plan slotting even more. I honestly wouldn't see many players taking the epic aside from human only Kheldians.

As for the buff change I think only from a concept standpoint should it happen. I find it odd that the heroic class is leaching power from its teammates to boost itself while the villain class is giving power to its teammates. It's backwards conceptually. I'm not saying change the VEATs, they're fine as they are, but I would add team buffs based on form to the Kheldians.

Again to give the perception of balance between the HEAT and VEAT I would also add Longbow spawns to teams where a VEAT is present. I wouldn't worry about Cysts or anything like that, just add Longbow mobs as they are.

I do agree though that the strength of the Kheldians over the VEAT is the ability to serve multiple roles in a team. I've defended that before in the HEATs suck compared to VEATs threads. But changing the buff to team based, even at lower numbers, fits better with the hero concept, the epic pool add would fit fine with the dev montra of risk vs reward, and adding the travel pools I don't think hurts much as I don't see them being taken much, at least not the travel power as the Kheldians have an inherit travel power they get early. It would mean more power choices for hover, tp friend, whatever and again falls in risk vs reward as you lose a primary/secondary power and possibly have to worry about slotting.

Oh I found the comment funny too. To be honest I'm actually not a huge Aquaman fan, just a DC fan in general. I just think he's an underrated character that suffers from poor writting and gets a negative image for the past. Heck look at the camp that was Batman in the 60's and after Batman Forver/Batman and Robin. I'm sure a lot of people thought Batman was lame after Adam West, yet look at him now after the Frank Miller revolution and the writters that have followed that line of thought for the character. But yes, Babs comments were funny, they always are. So, since Babs said no to a moon base and underwater zone, what about a sky zone like the Shield Hellicarrier? I'm sure Babs will love that one

I'd agree to this. When playing my emp it's hard sometimes to see zzz effect go off with everything else. And no everyone gets out their "zzz" message or gets it out in time. I know as an empath I focus on the team window to see who's taking damage so I know who to heal, or if the team is running out of endurance I know to trigger ra if possible, or if I see a black name I know who to rez. Having a flashing name, purple name, whatever would help in that respect and help keep the team up and going. /signed.

I'll agree that if the devs want to give out basic shorts, boxing gloves, wings, what not to all players that's fine by me. They should be basic and the ones in the vet rewards should be fancy that can only be achieved via the vet rewards. I'm sure that would just recreate this exact same argument, but maybe not. Heck give all the players exactly what we have in the vet reward system and give the vets even more stylized versions of what's in there now, really make them stand out.

I agree with Dalantia. This is a retention system that keeps the churn down and slows down the players that only come in for new issues and events and then leave for several months at a time. For some people it's about the powers, for others it's the costumes, for others it's the freespecs, tokens, badges, merits, base items, whatever. Granted I would not have quit, I'm a loyalist to CoX, nor would I just because the vets went away, but I do agree with the system and think it should stay as is.

Changing or doing away with too many things leads to it in other areas. If you get rid of the vets how long before people complain about the booster packs because they don't have money in hard economic times to buy them? Or complain about the $19.99 price tag on the extras from the Good vs Evil, Architect Edition, Mac Edition, whichever version they didn't buy because it came out after they started playing. For the record I've bought most of them.

It's hard to change something like this, at any level, because as they devs had said you can't please everyone and there are people that like things just they way they are. The vet system adds something to the game that you don't get in most other games, and that is the loyalty program, retention program, reward program, whatever you want to think of it as.

It's a good system. And for the sake of the OP the costume pieces stop before the 36 month mark, which most people here agree that with GR coming out CoH is good for at least another 18 - 36 month mark. Meaning if you pay to play the game for that period odds are you'll get all those rewards. And the more people that pay to play during that time frame the longer that time frame will be. Show your loyalty, pay to play, get others to play, stick around and don't just jump ship because the game is between issues and it'll last that long.

Yes, the vet reward system is stacked against anyone who wasn't here from the beginning. Just as the ability to purple out enhancements is stacked against non farmers. Just as task forces are stacked against people that don't have 4 hours on average to devote to them, just as the Hami raid is stacked against toons not over 45 who can't get together in massive groups and spend the hours it takes to stop Hami. There are parts of the game stacked against non farmers, non hardcore, casual, whatever type gamers. You can't get everything in the game, that's the way it's meant to be and the way it should be. Nothing that is "unavailable" is game breaking. It's not like you can't get millions of other costume choices, or get general enhancements, or run regular missions, or AV missions. There is something for everyone and everyone should have that niche that they fit into and be allowed to preserve that uniqueness imho.