Lothic

Very much /signed.

I believe I understand the Devs' original intent behind the way accolades work while exemplaring and at first glance when you say it real fast it makes some sense. But as you pointed out there are so many problems and quirks with it, especially in light of the way the game has evolved with IOs and Vet Award powers, that it seems like a logical QoL move to simply do away with the exemplar level lock concept all together.

Besides I think the Devs have far more to worry about balance-wise than an exmeplared level 5 firing off an Eye of the Magus or a Vanguard once every 30 minutes.

Try the first link you get when you google "coh emote".
Have fun...

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And it's better than all the people with nothing better to do than get their panties in a twist because I don't believe the rumor mill.

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Being cautious enough not to believe everything you read here is reasonable enough.
There is plenty of made-up stuff in this forum to go around.

But for the record Posi did confirm (sadly) that the Boxing costume set was the 39 month Vet Award in the closed I10 beta forums about a month ago and this topic has been discussed in dozens of threads/posts since.

Some things are actually factual here after all.
Sometimes they are trivial enough to be taken for face value regardless.

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what was the exploit? curious...most likely it will be corrected once it is live again... that is if its ever brought back.

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As best as I could tell from available information, there was some xp-generating exploit that the CoP allowed that came from the standard way mission rewards were handed out. It might have been similar to the PL exploit, where unsidekicking at the end of a PvP mission would see your character earn some pretty large xp due to lvl differences (eg lvl 30s could get lvl 50 xp rewards) that saw PvP mission rewards nerfed for a while.

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What I heard was similar/related to that. While anyone in your SG was running the CoP trial it would somehow disrupt the ability of anyone else in the SG to have their missions complete properly. The main net effect was something like if you had a 'Fed-Ex' mission to Azuria in AP you could keep clicking on Azuria non-stop and keep getting the mission XP complete bonus over and over. You could probably click your way from level 1 to 50 in a matter of minutes.

Whatever the exact nature of the exploit it seems incredible that the Devs couldn't have figured out -some- kind of fix or workaround to that by now. Even if they had to do a major redesign or scale back of functionality it seems that could have been done by now.

I honestly believe at this point the Devs should scrap the whole CoP/IoP concept and salvage what bits and pieces of it they can for content that could actually work properly. Don't get me wrong as I have said before on this topic I would have enjoyed playing with it as it was originally envisioned. But enough is enough.

We know the Devs failed.
The Devs know they failed.
It happens.

The only thing making this worse now is that they are avoiding officially owning up to it and moving forward.

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Someone's gotta say it, so...

I told you so.

I9 was not ready for Live. The CH/BM servers needed more fortifying, and this proves it.

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We all know I9 was not ready for Live. What Issue was -ever- technically ready to go?

But while we are are in "Someone's gotta say it" opinion/theory mode I'll offer that what might have happened in this case was a stupid human operator error. Obviously we may never learn that for sure even if that was what happened, but I'll cite from the following post from Lighthouse on the matter from yesterday:

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To elaborate on the roll back of the Hero auction; here is the scoop.

Hero Auctions were unfortunately restored from a back up dating from 10 PM Central on May 8th. This means that items you may have put up on the Consignment Market after that time may not be there now. Please keep in mind that this is Hero side only and does not affect Villains.

We are working on a way to address the issue by restoring lost items. Engineering is still evaluating and testing this method of correction. At this time, Customer Support is not in a position to address this on an individual basis. Should the current plan of correction not work out (again, it's still being tested) we have other ideas for compensation in mind and I'll elaborate on that as needed.

Please keep in mind that this in no way affects any items or influence that were on your character(s). Only items that were stored or up for auction may be affected. Our sincere thanks for your patience and understanding. Also, please know that we are already implementing new safeguards and procedures to correct the issue that led to this incident.

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I highlighted the key parts to illustrate my point. Why would Lighthouse say "unfortunately restored" unless that was the key mistake of this situation that would have been directly related to what a human operator would have been responsible for? And while "safeguards and procedures" can be applied to software controls, in the context given it sounds an awful lot like things they are going to ensure their employees are going to do from now on.

I believe when they had to do the manual rollback someone made a goof human mistake by restoring the wrong backup. Before they realized it too much time passed and now we are stuck with this "version" of Auction House reality until they recreate the missing transactions, if they can.

Again I'm sure we would never be told of this directly because it would be an admission of a pretty serious screw up. But I have confidence that they will be able to fix most of the losses whatever the real reason behind it was.

Sadly nothing Lighthouse has said since this post has disproven my theory on this either...

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So this really cool window pops up while I'm in the middle of a big fight. And it says:
City of Heroes is Three Years Old!

Free Respec!
To commemorate the 3 year anniversary of City of Heroes, we will be granting all characters a free respec on Tuesday, May 1st. For more details please visit the announcement forum of the City of Heroes message board.
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Hey that's great and all but... 1) I already knew this was coming. As does anyone else that reads the forums. 2) Your [censored] giant [censored] window popping up right in the middle of a big hairy battle I was in almost got me killed.

Thanks!

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While you had some bad timing with the pop-up, I highlighted the key part of your post that probably explains why they chose to 'inform' everyone about it that way.

It's generally accepted that only maybe 10% of the player population ever reads these forums.
I'd be willing to bet that was actual 'news' to a bunch of people...

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I used to be excited about I9... for the wings, alone.

You see, I couldn't care less about angel/demon wings. I have them on a couple of my gals, but, could take them or leave them.

My main Heroine (been around since CoH beta) is a Pixie. She requires Pixie wings.

I oh so wish that instead of being granted angel/demon wings as the Vet reward, we could instead choose the two types of wings for our account that we'd actually use. And, then, make angel/demon wings part of the invention process as well.

/sighs

I'm definately not looking forward to grinding and praying that I get the right drops for my gal (or having to pay horribly high prices at auction... don't have a sugar daddy 50...).

I won't quit over this, but it has diminished my desire to play. It's not envy that other players will have my wings first, just that I shouldn't have to jump through hoops to complete my gal just because she's not an angel/demon.



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Well I'll admit I might be more miffed about this if my main were a Pixie instead of a Demoness.
Heck I might even gripe about it in the forums.

But I would quickly come to realize a few things about it very quickly:

1) The Devs did nothing to specifically target ME over this. The choice of wings available and how they are being made available is ultimately their decision and wasn't done directly to help or hurt me. You can call it bad luck for being a Pixie, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with the -concept- of having inventible costume items in this game. The Devs could have just as easily made angel/demon wings inventible, as they were actually originally intended to be anyway.

2) It might take a while to get your Pixie wings after I9, but at least you now have a CHANCE to even have them. As I mentioned in my last post I played this game for years without ANY idea I'd ever have a chance for any kind of wings. Having a CHANCE for Pixie wings, even a slim chance, is better than having NO chance.

Obviously the people who really want the items that are going to based on rare inventable recipes will have to jump through more hoops for them. I myself have other Alts that will be looking for things like the Tech Wings and Rocket Boots so it's not like I won't be in the same boat of looking for these things. But contrary to popular opinion I actually -like- that things like this will be relatively rare and cool like that. For me these things will actually motivate me to continue playing. They will be long term goals that I'll either find on my own or I'll play long enough to earn enough INF to buy them.

I played 2.5 years for my demon wings. For all I know I might be playing 3.5 years for my tech wings.
It'll give me something to look forward to if it takes me a year.
It'll give me something to show off if I get them the day I9 goes live.
Either way I'm not really seeing the downside of this as much as others I suppose...

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So, if you have a character design that needs one of those to look right, how many more issues should you be forced to wait?

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i dont intend to be rude or anything but if you need wings to make a costume work id suggest using one of the other 4 and possibly 5 costume slots until you can get them. Stop playing because your costume doesnt work? of course not. but itd probably be a good idea to use the things they have given you until then.

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Actually, the people that care about how the character appearance matches the character design will simply not play (or likely even begin) that character. They can play other characters, of course, but doing so simply constitutes waiting.

The question to EvilGeko still remains: how long is an appropriate period to have to wait to be able to use the new costume pieces?

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I'll offer my experience with this to put things in perspective.

When I started playing this game back during CoH beta I adapted a character concept I've played for many years from other RPGs to CoH. This character became my first 'main' despite the fact that the concept "needed" wings to make her be how she had always been before. Sadly CoH did not offer wings 3 years ago, but I decided to accept that situation and went on to enjoy many hours of playing with her regardless.

I waited EIGHT Issues to finally get my wings to satisfy the original character concept for her.
Two and a half YEARS.

So I feel that I am uniquely qualified to answer your main question you've been harping others here about: How long is an appropriate period to have to wait to be able to use the new costume pieces? Well of course "appropriate" is a loaded word because obviously anyone who wants a certain thing usually wants that certain thing ASAP. But to give you a hard answer, I have absolutely no problem at all playing a week, a month or even a year or more before I get a costume drop I'd like to have. Sure like anyone I'd want it ASAP. But after waiting 2.5 years for the "costume drop" I needed I think I could easily be "forced to wait" (others might call that "time spent enjoying the game") many months if necessary to hit the "lottery" as you described it.

The problem with your frustration over the rarity of costume drops is that your argument against them is fundamentally flawed. It's flawed because the Character Creator in this game will never be able to provide an infinite selection of items. Whether there are inventible costume items or not, veteran costume items or not or event costume items or not there will ALWAYS be character costume concepts that this game will never be able to support. For you to narrow mindedly fixate on a rare inventible costume item and be unable to adapt to whether you have access to it or not is unreasonable at best and totally childish at worst.

If you really, really, really, really, really can't live without or accept the lack of that item you OUGHT to be motivated to do what it will take to get that item. It's very simple: Play as much as possible and you will either get lucky to have it drop on you or you earn enough INF to buy it. End of story.

Games need goals - inventible costumes items are now a new goal.

Not having wings at first didn't stop me from enjoying this game regardless.
While I respect your position and frustration on the matter you do -not- have my sympathies...

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This is not a reply to anyone in particular, but just an extended comment to my original post...

I'm not asking for this fix because I like PvP (though I do). I also respect people who don't like PvP and who like the other metagames in this game (badges, bases, costumes, etc.) more. I'm asking for support on these fixes because I believe they are better for the game as a whole.

Bugs, especially ones this extreme, shouldn't be tolerated in any part of the game. Those that know me in game know I don't like badges, but I will support fixes to those that allow friends of mine to enjoy that aspect of that game more. Same with any part of this game.

All I'm asking for is that this part of the game, which can be voluntarily accessed by anyone in the game, be fixed. This should be an issue you can support irregardless of how you feel about PvP since even though you may personally dislike it, there are others that you know that do.

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I agree with your desire to have overall arena functionality fixed. The arenas are a very visible aspect of this game and it would justify all the effort our Devs put into them if they worked better in general.

Although I have PvP'd in this game and had some fun with it, I would probably describe myself more a badger than a PvPer. Despite that I could see arena bug fixes helping even badgers in the long run. Currently AFK arena badging is widely used by the badging community to farm top level epic healing badges. It's arguably just about the only way anyone can hope to earn Empath without spending about 10 years playing the game normally. If the arena bugs that allow this farming to happen were finally fixed, the Devs would be forced to address how stupidly high the requirement for Empath is now and lower it to a reasonably obtainable level of say a year or two of normal play. As long as arena bugs like this are allowed to continue they adversely affect badgers as well as PvPers.

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Since this has come up so often, I guess I will leak a feature of Issue 8:

You can change your title at any of the following levels:

15, 25, 35, and 45

At 50 you can change your title at any time.

You need to visit a trainer still to change your title and they "don't stack" (in other words, if you don't use your level 35 change, you don't have two changes when you hit level 45).

There is no Influence or Infamy cost associated with this.

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It figures I stopped looking at this thread just in time for Posi himself to pleasantly surprise us a few hours ago.

Anyway I'm happy to be proven wrong about it not costing any INF. Frankly that doesn't make much sense since everything else character-oriented does, but because the changes are limited to certain levels I imagine that'd be enough to keep people from going silly with this.

So I'll ask the obvious question... Does this mean we have ONE change opportunity at level 50 (usable whenever) or does that mean we can change it as many times as we want once a character is level 50?

If we only have one change available at 50 I think I'd rather be able to pay INF to change it whenever I want.

It'll be nice to actaully consider using titles for once - of course assuming that I have unlimited changes available at level 50 that is...

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Can you imagine how powerful the pocket d temp power would be for pvp if it had a reasonable activation time. It would make all escape powers pale in comparison.

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And that is why it has a long, interruptable activation time.

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I knew this to be the case. It's just annoying that the multitudes who either don't PvP or wouldn't care if people could do this in PvP have to be inconvenienced. *Sigh*

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When you use this power to shorten long multi-zone trips the travel time you save more than makes up for the activation time of this power.

Think of this as an example: When I fly from Atlanta to Tokyo I sometimes have 3 or 4 hour layovers on either end for connecting flights - that's still alot faster than it would be if I drove to California and took a boat to Japan.

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Yes, it boosts Fly.

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What it does not do is boost the flight cap. Which is fairly easy to hit already with 3 SOs. So, if you are already 3-slotted with SOs in flight, and thus already around the cap, you will not see a boost, because you cannot go any faster than you are already going.

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Sadly that's right where I am with several of my Alts. It's unfortunate that when creating this power they allowed for situations in which its effect is virtually useless or unnoticeable to any degree.

One would think that since this power already has a limited duration with a relatively long recharge that it could have been set up to provide say a 25% boost to flight speed regardless of the cap. Would it be so terribly unbalancing to the game to be able to temporarily get a flight speed going that could be 25% greater than the current flight speed cap? Even -that- speed would probably be about 1/2 of what you get from Superspeed and you could only do it for 30 seconds every few minutes.

For flyers this power 'ought' to act like an "afterburner" on a jet engine regardless of the flight speed cap but I'm doubting it'll be changed for that consideration. As it is it's great for SSers, SJers and poorly slotted flyers. Overall the Jump Pack is a neat idea for a prestige power, it's just not one I'm going to get any real benefit from.

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I don't know, it's thin. I could buy it if the devs want to go that way, but from a player-satisfaction viewpoint I believe it's the wrong choice.

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The Devs' whole concept of INF in this game is that it's not "money" as much as a representation of how much "pull" a character has to be able to change public opinion or "pay" for favors exchanged.

While I admire their attempt to stick to that concept I do agree it can be cumbersome from a purely game mechanic point of view. Based on how everything else works in this game it almost -wouldn't- make sense to have an aspect of a character be changeable that -didn't- involve an INF cost.

I think we are all agreed we'd like a more user-friendly way to change Titles.
Sure it'd be "nice" if this were free and simple to do.
But frankly I'd never expect a way for this to be done that didn't cost a character -something- to accomplish.

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All I'm saying is that it is reasonable that such a change would have a cost of some kind.

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Why?

You could make a case for it preventing changing titles every five minutes, but what's the harm if someone wants to do that?

I haven't bothered to set any titles at all, after the first toon through the game. I just don't see it as a big issue either way.

Open the titles up and let people personalize their characters however they want. One of the strengths of this game, why limit it?

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Well the Devs decided, for whatever reason, to make Titles limited to certain levels.
The Devs also decided, for whatever reason, to -not- make them freely changeable from Day One.

I wholehearted agree that there's no -obvious- reason why they shouldn't be freely changeable other than the clear evidence that the Devs wanted them to be limited/semi-permanent.

The whole reason the idea an INF cost for Title changes was even mentioned (and trust me I wasn't the first person to suggest it by a long shot) was that much like costume changes and difficulty level changes it seems reasonable that the only way the Devs would implement this is with some kind of associated INF cost.

I don't like it... You don't like it...
But if the Devs finally gave us this feature after all this time it -would- cost us something.
Of that I have no doubt...

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What I'm saying is, since we are speaking in the hypothetical, why even suggest or except an inf cost? Why would they feel it needed since they have obviously changed their view on costume changes? They just need to move the Title choices from the trainers to the tailors and be done with it.

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Well for one thing if you want Titles to be more like a costume creator element it would more than likely have a INF cost to it by design. Sure you could go ahead and use one of our now near-infinite costume tokens for it, but it -would- have a cost. All I'm saying is that it is reasonable that such a change would have a cost of some kind.

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Anyway I threw a million INF out there because it -is- supposed to be a deterrent.

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Why have a deterrent in the first place? This was the original scheme behind the costume costs, now they give out free costume tokens when the wind changes direction. My heroes have enough costume tokens to tile a bathroom floor. Why does it really matter?

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Again it doesn't really matter.
As I pointed out several times eariler no version of this will likely happen anytime soon.
As a hypothetical I'd -accept- an INF cost if the Devs felt it needed it to get it implemented.
Clearly unchangable Titles was an oversight that we'd all like to see changed.
That's all that does really matter.

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The title system is flawed to begin with. You can't choose a level 25 title without choosing a level 15. Whats up with that? You actually have to choose a blank 15 title to even get the options to show up. And you can't get that back if you keep the 25 title.

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That's pretty much another reason I never bothered with Titles myself.
Clearly the whole idea was a little half-baked and needs a few more minutes in the oven...

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Like costume costs? Yeah whatever you want since this isn't going to happen anyway.

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Aren't I supposed to be the stuck-in-a-rut unchanging pessimist among the two of us?

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Oh I've got plenty of that for a whole army of forumites.

Anyway I threw a million INF out there because it -is- supposed to be a deterrent. If you have to wait until level 30+ to change a Title that's supposed to make you be "really" sure that's the Title you want.

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could see it costing 1 million INF as a reasonable requirement.

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Well I'd think it'd more scale along the lines of the Difficulty levels with Hero Corps, personally

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Like costume costs? Yeah whatever you want since this isn't going to happen anyway.

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Every time this comes up in the suggestions forum, I suggest that they should be freely changeable, or at worst with an influence cost.

God I hope that change comes with I8.

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Well an INF cost for a Title change seems most appropriate. Kinda makes sense given what the Devs have always wanted INF to represent in this game anyway and it would keep people from changing it every 5 minutes which -would- be a little silly. I could see it costing 1 million INF as a reasonable requirement. This would make Titles changeable if you really wanted but also make it a non-trivial thing that you wouldn't do all that often.

Given that we've been asking for this almost from Day One I don't have much hope for this anytime soon.
Just another one of those things...

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Level 15 characters will also have a whole new set of titles that they can add to their character name. Simply visit any Trainer and check out the new titles that are available.

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Anyone curious if they are giving us the ability to change titles as well with free costume tokens and respecs? I have several characters I kinda want to change the titles but I can't since you only get two chances.

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I always opted against using these Titles since they were more or less permanent. Based on what I've read in these forums and what people have told me in-game it just seemed easier not to lock myself into any of them. Most of them never really applied to my Alts anyway, or at least not well enough to be permanent.

While I'm glad the Devs have added more of these as Vet awards for those who like them, for me it would have been a better QoL change for the Devs to make Titles changeable whenever we want. Had this been done I might have been motivated to use them in the first place.

As an alternative to Titles I have /settitle binds attached to my costume slots so whenever I switch costumes I have a different badge name act as a personalized subtitle for that costume. This is more flexible for me at any rate given how many badges I have to choose from.

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30 min recharge.

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Very nice. I was worried it would be something hideous like once a day. That will be quite handy at that recharge.
Thanks.

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Assuming the Pocket D badge is an accolade a 30 minute recharge timer would put it on par with the other accolade powers which makes sense. This will make it useful when needed but keep it from being easily used as a PvP "eject" button all that often if ever.

Of course when I get it I'll likely keybind that power to Alt+d.

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ok. I went to a few walmarts in the Cleveland Area. nothing. and blank faces from the walmart staff. so I think ok I'll choke it up and order it online.

GVE

OUT OF STOCK

Hmm what?

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I ordered mine when it -was- in stock, and already have the confirmation that it's shipped and will arrive Monday or Tuesday at my house.

I think they ACTUALLY sold out of the copies, and didn't just SAY they're sold out.

Which both impresses and frightens me.

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Actually based on what everyone's been saying about this today to hear them being "out of stock" doesn't surprise me at all.

If I had to speculate the whole problem all along seems to be one of supply, as in like they only managed to print maybe a quarter of what they expected to have available by today. Perhaps the company involved with the mass boxing and distribution ran into trouble and there was simply not enough to go around.

At least this theory fits the facts of how a few people seem to have gotten lucky today while most of us didn't. I'm sure within the next few days we'll have a better idea one way or another.

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Adam7 said:
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* Choice table for Lord Recluse's Strike Force. - Upon completion of the mission, you will get a choice table, instead of the Enhancements simply being put into your tray (and if your tray is full, put into oblivion). You will NOT be able to pick the specific Synthetic Hami-O, but you will be able to choose a +3 level SO instead of the random SHOE if you want.

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What a worthless fix. Way to spend a time and effort coming up with a [censored] solution.

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because at the very least, now you won't lose your shoes.

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While I think the benefit of this update is obvious, what isn't obvious is why this wasn't cut-n-pasted into CoH as well. Every time the Devs make anything related to HOs/SHOEs -more- different from each other they are only bound to create more problems than it's worth.

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Liquid said:
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You will NOT be able to pick the specific Synthetic Hami-O

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I hope this is only being put off until you can implement picking the specific HO for heroes as well. It really sucks to go through all of what it takes to get these things and get something you can't use and nobody else wants (like a Lysosome).

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I'm sure most everyone would want to be able to pick their HOs/SHOEs after a raid/SF.

But sadly I see this update more as evidence that being able to choose them will in fact likely -never- happen. The code to implement this new "choice table" we're getting would have to have been virtually identical to a GUI that would've allowed us to pick any HO, yet the Devs decided to give us this +3 SO choice alternative instead. I could be wrong, but I think we just got our "answer/compromise" to all the suggestions we've made on the subject and I doubt the Devs are going to revisit this again. Enjoy it for what it's worth...

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This Guide seems to be up to date.

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That's a good guide and for once it -is- up-to-date.
I have found the latest list in that thread to be out-of-date several times but it's good for what it's worth.
Hopefully it won't change too many more times...