KidLazarus

Overall, I would rate this Booster as below the Magic and Valkyrie packs, but somewhat better than Cyborg or Superscience.

The costume parts are well-made, but I wish they had chosen a theme that wasn't already so well represented in the game. There are already plenty of viable costume options for Asian themed characters (ninja, martial arts, Samurai). I don't see myself getting much, if any, use of out the costume.

Both costume change emotes are quite nice, as are the other new emotes. The real win here is the Ninja run power. The only drawback, for me, is the run pose -- I'm not crazy about it. However, the power itself is terrific -- a nice mix of running and jumping, roughly analogous to CO's Acrobatics. The flip while jumping is fantastic.

The glowing rapier used by the Harlequin Fencers -- I want it so badly (for Dual Blades).

Generally I am all for more options in the game, even if it's something I personally wouldn't use; however, this is one I hope doesn't make it.

A player's costume, aura, and now powers are a personal representation of how they want their character to be perceived and no one else should be able to change that. If you don't like someone's visual elements, don't team with them. Easy enough solution. I've left plenty of teams through the years because I found someone's costume to be a garish eyesore.

Still down I'm guessing this won't be resolved until Monday, now. I'm going to be so ticked off if my character's name is lost.

The store is still down? I'm a pretty patient person, but 12 hours later and I still can't use something I paid for? That's pretty shoddy.

Worse, you apparently lose the slot if you delete the character occupying the purchased slot. I deleted a character with the intention of re-creating him, and now the slot is unavailable. Fingers crossed no one takes my name before the store comes back up!

Power customization is a terrific addition to the game and long overdue. Unfortunately, for me, the "overdue" part is key -- it's just too late. Two or three years ago, this would have been a source of unspeakable joy for me; now, it's a minor diversion to a game that doesn't really excite me any more. The Dev team did a fantastic job on this feature but, like so many of the new additions to the game lately, it just feels like a new coat of paint on an old car.

I can finally fulfill some long desired character concepts, and I will undoubtedly have fun in the character creator. But then I've always enjoyed creating characters, the problem is I don't actually enjoy playing them. I play 3 or 4 hours a month, tops, and really only keep my account active out of attachment to my characters and because $15 per month is pretty inconsequential.

My hope for rekindling my passion for the game now rests solely on ROGUE: new zones, new foes, new powersets -- that's really what this game is in need of.

Cool costume and, IMO, better than the Cyborg costume from the Booster Pack. I'd pay for this -- if it were a real costume, which could be customized and used in pieces, not one of those toggles that I have no use for.

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These rewards are alright. The extra slots for 66 months is a decent reward, but I'm baffled by 63. I mean, I get what the "Fog of War" is -- I just don't see the value of having it lifted. Clearly I'm missing something; I have never once entered a map and thought, "Oh, I wish this map was revealed." Does this pinpoint glowies or tell you where mobs are located?

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I didn't pay much attention to this announced feature, at first. I was too preoccupied with Power Customization and didn't see this as something that would benefit me.

For a long time now, I've been finding CoH to be dull at its very core: the combat. Fights are boring, missions far too predictable. The Difficulty Slider was never a help. Hitting things less often and doing less damage does not make it more exciting or challenging, it just increases the tedium exponentially.

But this new feature is intriguing; fighting large groups of even level foes might actually be exciting.

Yes, please.

Being able to change Hasten, for example, into the same color as my powers would make it more tolerable -- but I'd much rather just turn off the aura or make it as opaque as possible.

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I have always believed we would get Power Customization. It didn't matter how hard the Devs made it sound, it didn't matter how frequently the Forum Know-it-Alls would dismiss it, I always believed it would come. Once Champions Online announced the feature, it became a question of when, not if, CoH would implement it. This feature for CoH has knocked any potential interest I had in CO from about 80% down to about 20%.

A few random thoughts:

Generally I support as many options as possible in the game but, in this case, I hope they DON'T allow customization to be turned off. Designing a character is as much for other people as myself -- it's how I want my character to be perceived. (You think I would iron my clothes every night if no one saw them?) If someone doesn't like the colors of my powers -- well, don't team with me. But they shouldn't get to decide how they view my character. I've left many a team because I found someone's costume to be a garish eyesore, but that doesn't mean I should have the power to alter how they want their character to be perceived.

I really hope Travel and Ancillary powers are made customizable. I would love to be able to make the Power Glide an icy blue for my Ice Blaster.

For now, I'm perfectly satisfied with the level of customization announced -- but I hope they continue to expand. I would love to be able to chose my emanation points -- to chose to have blasts come from my hands, or eyes, or mouth, etc. Not to mention alternate sources, for example, Radiation blasts coming from a gun or Fire blasts from a wand/staff.

Never

Mine: pretty standard.

The emotes that came with the Magic Booster made me realize how seldom I use any emotes in the game. So often something would happen and I would think, "Oh, this is a good time for xxx emote." But by the time I would scroll through the interface and finally locate the emote I was looking for, the moment had passed. At that point, it's like hitting someone with a comeback 2 minutes after the fact.

I created an Excel doc with all of the emotes, categorized, which I now keep open on my 2nd monitor when I play. Not an ideal solution, but a lot easier than using the emote menu.

This has been one of my few complaints about the costumes in the Magic Booster; if I want the band of the Occult hat to be, say, red or orange, I end up with clown-hair. (What I've been doing is flipping the colors, so that the hat is red and the band is black. Not an ideal solution, but better than having bold red hair.)

Similar complaint about the Baron jack/vest/shirt; it doesn't seem possible to make the shirt white, without turning the vest grey.

I know this is a limitation caused by items only being able to have 2 colors. Hopefully, at some point, some of these items will be broken down further so that hats and hair can be independent. (Not to mention belts and tails, but that's another discussion.)

I do believe Hell just froze over. Someone on the internet admitted he was wrong.

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Ran into similar problems with purchasing the back through the online store; numerous time-outs over a 40 minute period which finally resulted in purcashing two codes. A slightly frustrating experience, but nothing to get too worked up over.

As for the set itself -- absolutely spectacular. It puts the previous Booster Packs to shame; the number of costume options, and the quality of them, are well worth the cost. I have a long conceptualized character that I can finally create; previously, no costume I designed quite fulfilled my concept. That alone made it worth the price, but I also have many characters who can use individual parts of the set.

The costume change emotes are total win. I hope we see many more of these.

Hmmm ... sad to say I'm unimpressed I have so many costume tokens stacked on every character, it's inconceivable that I would ever need to pay for a costume change ... so a 50% reduction in price is irrelevant. I never take a travel power until I'm well into my 20s; builds are so tight at low levels, I can't imagine wasting a slot on something that can easily be acquired through jetpacks, etc.

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Having seen a bunch of pictures and read multiple reviews, I've decided that I will indeed be purchasing this Pack; however, I'm doing so with some reservations. I like the idea of these Booster Packs, but they really need to start offering more "bang for the buck" for me to continue paying for them.

The Cyborg Pack I thought was a fairly well balanced offer: we got a (not quite) full costume set, some emotes, auras, and a nifty power. (My only complaint about the set is that, as someone who doesn't like bulky overlays, I was disappointed that there was not a regular chest option with the costume set. It's bad enough when free costumes have gaps in them, something I'm paying extra for should have all options available.)

The Valkyrie set is, unfortunately, less impressive. One costume, which I personally don't care for much in its entirety -- although I can put some of the individual pieces to good use. Only one weapon option, with a set that would have been ideally suited for other choices (shield, bow, axe, mace). No emotes. No auras. And a power of dubious value.

My problem with the mission teleporter isn't a standard complaint about its recharge -- I just don't feel the need for it. I like using my travel powers, and have no compulsion to just be dropped off at my mission. (Seriously, at this rate, why even bother having zones? Just have one door that takes players to every instanced mission.)

I hope future Packs are much more fully realized than this latest offering.

(Are the wings and cape from the costume set available at level one, like the combat auras -- or do they need to be unlocked?)

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Next time don't be so quick with the credit card.

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Agreed. Seems there are quite a few people quick to buy something without really knowing what it is that they're buying, and just as quick to complain that it doesn't live up to their unsubstantiated expectations. Me, I always wait about 2 weeks to buy these packs so I can read other player's reviews before making the decision to purchase.

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Sigh, I think I've seen several complaints repeating this from you lately. There is this cool new idea that may help: alts.

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Sigh, here's a cool new idea: mind your own business. I expressed my opinion. Don't like it? Who cares.

I don't collect badges on other characters, and the zombie apocalypse would be the same tedious lagfest regardless of which character I was playing.

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We've also seen feedback that some players miss receiving Tier 3 inspirations as Treats. This change is intentional. In making changes to Trick or Treating from last year, it's possible to open doors and receive Treats at a faster rate. In order to keep Tier 3 inspirations something of value, we removed them from rewards to Treats.

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That was a terrible decision in my opinion. If I have a choice between waiting a tad bit longer to get a decent reward versus getting an instant lousy reward, I know which I would prefer.

I've been looking forward to ToTing for weeks, even months, and because of the lack of Tier 3 inspirations I was done with it in less than an hour. The 4 new badges took me about 5 minutes to earn, so that did nothing to prolong my interest in the event.

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And since this can't be pleaded enough: Bring back the Tier 3 Inspirations, please!

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This.