Garielle

I will add myself to those in the thread giving this idea a thumbs down. Based upon the title of this thread, I am assuming that you don't find the current boosters worth the cost. That's fine and dandy. The answer is simple. Don't buy them. Those who do buy them don't really get a significant advantage over you in the game. They get nice costume parts. They get the joy of supporting further development. They get small, well-balanced, non-game breaking powers.

Purchasing of the boosters is completely optional. There is no pressure to buy them. If you provide any significant in-game advantage, they become less optional and more along the lines of, "Well, you don't HAVE to buy it, but you will have a much harder time of it if you don't."

During one day at the height of summer, six glittering starships appeared out of nowhere. Suddenly everything went dark. It was the curse of the evil monkey that eats cotton candy!

The people all fled in terror at the sight of the sticky-fingered monkey. It hurled large chunks of cotton candy at the innocent Omegatron Zeta Warbot, "Koo Koo Katchoo", who, caught unprepared, pulled up his iron underpants, and ran screaming into a brick wall.

Then the monkey laughed and said, "where's my punchline?" A man named Alfredo von Wigglestein appeared and said, "I think, therefore... I don't care. Now, you need to go to talk to the guy about registering for the special buns and thigh class. After all penguins have anurisms and I wear polyester thongs to school. Where was my jar of Honey Bees? Who will not drag my fat butt? Now what was the price of eggplants and bees again? I forget things quite quickly since I'm old. Although old is relative."

So then my sister Bruce bought a banana from a passing street vendor. He grabbed a dictionary and started to read aloud the definition for monkey curses. He then looked at the crumpled warbot, pointed and said, "Beware! Chaos is brewing beer!"

Then the warbot stood and drank beer.

Then my sister stripped naked and started to dance a sexy dance.

But the police helped her undress. Afterwards they ran in circles chasing Folonius while yelling the words to that pop hit polka song by the Andrews Sisters. That made Folonius roll out barrels of Rikti Monkeys. This proved problematic for the newly created government of the Rikti, for it had finally caged all of the barrel monkeys.

Lady Grey said, "I like to do weird stuff in the nude with the Rikti." So I took out my camera and filmed her from within her secret monitoring station. "I will never spy on her," said blpup pervertly as he passed out from poison. But just as he died, a passing noob stole his influence. Then burnt his body.

Soon the monkey scattered the ashes and ran home crying to mommy he'd been Riktirolled. The momma monkey ate Chaos Creator's little can of sausage to get even. Suddenly, the sausage regurgitated itself out of the monkey and said this, "Let my people go you jerk!" But then the Freedom Phalanx came and revealed that Chaos was happy. This surpised noone.

Then Chaos died a little inside. Later, he got on the interwebs,but got lag when he tried to look up sheep tied onto a kite. This saddened the chickens who wanted to eat sheep.

Suddenly a man wearing a big target on his jockstrap with three arrows on it, all pointing to his third nipple, busted into song:

"I can't get any more funny during this chaotic event, please help!"

Suddenly, Statesman said, "He who laughs first loses their chance to punch Defender in the genitalia! Don't laugh!"

Not laughing, Manticore took off his ill-conceived costume and started to dance like a meandering lama in split pea soup. Swan giggled and got naked before Popeye the Sailorman had a chance to eat spinich. This left him an opening to get Olive Oyl in the mix. Bluto was furious. Wimpy ate burgers.

Meanwhile, back at the hall of justice, Betty Boop was preparing to bath her puppy in a vat of boiling oil. She was killed by a man wearing a yellow sweater with matching socks. He also rode a Harley that did not stop eating Statesman. "Lego my Statesman!", he said. Shortly, a big red ball appeared and killed him too. The ball muttered its disappointment with a spatula.

Ghost Falcon appeared and began to remove his clothes so he could show off his new shiny and improved green toxic suspenders. They not only allowed him to run away with Numina's clothes but also with Positron's sex toy collection. His favorite toy was left behind a pillow so he reached back and brought sexy ' Bulbous Bobblehead Bertha' onto the bed and began to insert it into his very large pillowcase.

Meanwhile in Never Never Land, The Lost Boys, Mr. Rogers, and

During one day at the height of summer, six glittering starships appeared out of nowhere. Suddenly everything went dark. It was the curse of the evil monkey that eats cotton candy!

The people all fled in terror at the sight of the sticky-fingered monkey. It hurled large chunks of cotton candy at the innocent Omegatron Zeta Warbot, "Koo Koo Katchoo", who, caught unprepared, pulled up his iron underpants, and ran screaming into a brick wall.

Then the monkey laughed and said, "where's my punchline?" A man named Alfredo von Wigglestein appeared and said, "I think, therefore... I don't care. Now, you need to go to talk to the guy about registering for the special buns and thigh class. After all penguins have anurisms and I wear polyester thongs to school. Where was my jar of Honey Bees? Who will not drag my fat butt? Now what was the price of eggplants and bees again? I forget things quite quickly since I'm old. Although old is relative."

So then my sister Bruce bought a banana from a passing street vendor. He grabbed a dictionary and started to read aloud the definition for monkey curses. He then looked at the crumpled warbot, pointed and said, "Beware! Chaos is brewing beer!"

Then the warbot stood and drank beer.

Then my sister stripped naked and started to dance a sexy dance.

But the police helped her undress. Afterwards they ran in circles chasing Folonius while yelling the words to that pop hit polka song by the Andrews Sisters. That made Folonius roll out barrels of Rikti Monkeys. This proved problematic for the newly created government of the Rikti, for it had finally caged all of the barrel monkeys.

Lady Grey said, "I like to do weird stuff in the nude with the Rikti." So I took out my camera and filmed her from within her secret monitoring station. "I will never spy on her," said blpup pervertly as he passed out from poison. But just as he died, a passing noob stole his influence. Then burnt his body.

Soon the monkey scattered the ashes and ran home crying to mommy he'd been Riktirolled. The momma monkey ate Chaos Creator's little can of sausage to get even. Suddenly, the sausage regurgitated itself out of the monkey and said this, "Let my people go you jerk!" But then the Freedom Phalanx came and revealed that Chaos was happy. This surpised noone.

Then Chaos died a little inside. Later, he got on the interwebs,but got lag when he tried to look up sheep tied onto a kite. This saddened the chickens who wanted to eat sheep.

Suddenly a man wearing a big target on his jockstrap with three arrows on it, all pointing to his third nipple, busted into song:

"I can't get any more funny during this chaotic event, please help!"

Suddenly, Statesman said, "He who laughs first loses their chance to punch Defender in the genitalia! Don't laugh!"

Not laughing, Manticore took off his ill-conceived costume and started to dance like a meandering lama in split pea soup. Swan giggled and got naked before Popeye the Sailorman had a chance to eat spinich. This left him an opening to get Olive Oyl in the mix. Bluto was furious. Wimpy ate burgers.

Meanwhile, back at the hall of justice, Betty Boop was preparing to bath her puppy in a vat of boiling oil. She was killed by a man wearing a yellow sweater with matching socks. He also rode a Harley that did not stop eating Statesman. "Lego my Statesman!", he said. Shortly, a big red ball appeared and killed him too. The ball muttered its disappointment with a spatula.

Ghost Falcon appeared and began to remove his clothes so he could show off his new shiny and improved green toxic suspenders. They not only allowed him to run away with Numina's clothes but also with Positron's sex toy collection. His favorite toy was left behind a pillow so he reached back and brought sexy ' Bulbous Bobblehead Bertha' onto the bed and began to insert it into his very large pillowcase.

Meanwhile in

Actually, I am usually one to jump at any perceived inequality on the two sides, however, in this case, I think the Villains actually have the better of the deals. On the Hero Side, you need to do missions to unlock contacts that provide you with the upper level enhancements. Villains do not. On the flip side, Villains do quests to unlock patron powers. Heroes do not.

Now admittedly, with the advent of IOs, the heroes aren't actually REQUIRED to buy SOs at high level. Additionally, the availability of the SOs through tickets makes the aforementioned quests obsolete.

Still, I actually don't mind doing the Patron Arcs. It's one of those things I intentionally DON'T outlevel. Before anyone jumps and says, "Oh! You don't mind doing them, so EVERYONE should be forced to."... that is not what I am saying. The original poster gave an opinion. I gave another opinion. Nothing more. Nothing less.

As for some arcs being easier than others, they already made which patron arc you run irrelevant. You unlock all patron sets as soon as you run any of the patron arcs. So if you don't like one patron's arc, run another.

Finally, SSK does NOT NOT NOT take you down to the level of the MISSION. It takes you down to the level of the MISSION HOLDER. If you pick up an arc at level 40, and wait until you are level 45 to run it, you will still be level 45, and the mission will still be level 40.

The real issue is that, in most cases, each GM has a different Zone they call "home". There are FAR more Blue Side zones than there are Red Side zones. Sad, but true.

I have not, and will not, be spending any money on Champions Online. It has nothing to do with the graphics. It has nothing to do with similarity to WoW. It has nothing to do with the game itself at all. It has do with Cryptic, a company which has shown multiple times that they are not worthy of trusting enough to give them my money.

The first example, which I have detailed in other posts and will not repeat here, is their use of questionable methods in recruiting for the beta. Specifically, using the CoH forums and In Game Mail systems for recruitment.

Example two, which has been detailed nicely by DJ Jester of Woot Radio in this article was when they suddenly announced that Lifetime Subs and 6 Month subs were almost sold out. This, despite the fact that they had never mentioned limited quantities up until that point. This brings to mind commercials and infomercials which runs 100 times a day, and every time they urge to "Call NOW! Only a few are remaining!" Add to this the fact they continued to take orders even after subsequently announcing that the subs were completely sold out.

Finally, there are the massive changes made on patch day. Yes, it is always necessary to make adjustments in the interest of game balance, but doing them on launch day with no testing at all is not the way to go about it. It shows a deliberate bait and switch or complete incompetence on the part of the people making the calls. Either way, it's not a good thing. This one caused such a ruckus that Cryptic found it necessary to offer refunds on both the Lifetime Subs and the 6 Month subs.

Combine all this with the fact that Jack has already been moved to the Star Trek Online project, and it pretty much ensures I won't be looking at that one either.

Good luck Cryptic. You won't be seeing my money any time in the foreseeable future.

Glad to see this excellent project is being kept alive.

Thank you very much for your review. I'll respond to your feedback one by one.