MrDead

Originally Posted by Megajoule

Dear OP:

You go back to Hollows now.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison

Chill out... Freem is an April Fools Joke that has everything to do with this game.

Please leave your tinfoil hat at home next time.

Originally Posted by Madadh

But, F2P seems directly counter-productive to addressing one of the top 2.. Now, the new special story content in it could very well address the other of the top 2. Not sure which way that will swing, but, I would think adding in that special story stuff without going to F2P would be a better way to address people leaving.

Originally Posted by StarGeek

While it's not a product, here's an example of what may happen if they do.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison

Cheerio mate.

Originally Posted by HardRider

Excuse me but my Stone Melee/Invul brute has out done some tanks of the same powersets in the past. so saying brutes are out of date is also

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison

Hey guys. We been troll'd.

Originally Posted by Amy_Amp

How can we get rid of a set we don't currently have?

Originally Posted by Zwillinger

Hey all,

There are no plans for significant updates to PVP prior to Issue 21.

Thanks!

- Z

Originally Posted by Winterminal

I lol'd.

When you can show me a Brute that can take as much punishment and hold as much aggro as a comparable Tanker can (i.e. similar/same power sets), come back. If anything, it would make more sense to get rid of the Brute, since it could be considered the middle ground AT between Scrappers and Tankers. But that notion is only slightly less crazy.

Originally Posted by je_saist

Rooming with Edsel?

Originally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man

Reasonable. You can buy everything bit by bit over the course of four months at no additional cost beyond your subscription, or you can pay them a bit of extra cash if you absolutely have to have the new stuff ASAP. There's also going to be all sorts of nifty little consumeable bonuses for sale that will compete for your 400 subscriber points, such as Double XP bonuses and Enhancement Deslotters.

There will always be content in every future issue that VIPs have included with their subscription that Free/Premium players will need to purchase access to. There may be some content that everyone needs to pay for. There will also always be things that are free for everyone (such as access to the new First Ward zone), just as teasers to get the Free/Premium players subscribing to get the rest of what they're missing out on. And we know that there will be some content such as the Incarnate system that will only be accessible by VIP subscribers.

I have faith that as new issues approach the development team will make us aware of what will be included in the subscription fee and what needs to be purchased additionally.

Originally Posted by Astrale_Champion

Have never used the online game store...but at the first post by Ghost Falcon he says we will be able to buy things within the game. Also they said something in the original announcement that you will be able to buy things without leaving what you are doing.

Originally Posted by Psyte

Granted, I can't say I think particularly highly of the morons that are dumb enough to use these guys' services.

Originally Posted by MagicFlyingHippy

You are suggesting that Paragon Studios will intentionally introduce bugs, or intentionally leave bugs unfixed, just so they can charge for the fix. Normal ITF is free, but Special Premium ITF With No Lag In Lag Valley costs $5, or such. $10 to upgrade your Henchmen to cycle their attacks smoothly instead of getting hung up on their one melee attack! $5 for an Oil Slick Arrow that always lights!

It's hard to tell what's crazier. Believing something so completely insane, or not realizing that it's completely insane.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville

I didn't realize this was the crazy train express. Please, take my seat: this would be my stop.

Originally Posted by Psyte

Well, a better concern is if they can get 25pp's then they can buy a costume part. If that can turn a Free player into a Premium player, then they can send tells and use gleemail. Since there's no actual cost to them except time, they can earn influence, salvage, etc., to sell, then at 30 days unload that character's stuff, become Premium, do a mass email/tell spam-a-thon, and throw the account away. This is more than they can do currrently without resorting to credit card fraud (not that I think they have anything against it).



In Arcanaville's defense, it was a LOT worse before the devs clamped down on communication options for trial players. And, unfortunately, pp rewards could be around those restrictions.

Originally Posted by Thirty-Seven

Anyone else see the humor in Mr. Dead and Zombie Man having a conversation?

Originally Posted by Arcanaville

You'll have to balance the benefit of extending that sort of thing against the complaints you'll generate from people who will feel slighted by the very small amount of points they can earn. And it doesn't really matter if the complaint appears irrational: if you want to try to convince me that something is better than nothing and the number of people who would complain and cause a problem under those circumstances would be extremely small, you may certainly give it your best shot.

One more thing: if this thing is very time consuming it will be seen as a grind on top of being infinitesimal. But if it doesn't take a lot of time, since points can buy consumables I can sign up for a hundred free accounts and earn a ton of points across those accounts, bypassing the time gates. You potentially open the door to another RMT opportunity. Free accounts will cost nothing to make and in this game will be trivial to PL to any combat level you want rapidly, making level gating irrelevant.

Is it mathematically possible to find just the right balancing point for the reward rate and the time gates and the content selection to prevent trivial exploit? Maybe. How many man-years would you like the devs to allocate finding it?

Originally Posted by Psyte

Reasonable, although I wouldn't have it every day/month. If it was run similar to the Strike Package of the week (maybe every other week, select days, select months where revenue drops off normally, etc), making it more of an event? That'd be a little more controllable, I think.

I would personally take the value of those points from Marketing (because, really, that's what it is) and be darn sure that when a Freem or Preem reaches x-many points they get an email with items featured in the shop for about that price and a bit more. Again, probably more back-end butt-pain, but I think that would be a reasonable way to implement such a thing.

Originally Posted by Zombie Man

Well, you actually *could* reward Freeks and Preems with Paragon Points for doing stuff in the game if you gate the Points per day.

So, let's say the Preems can do something that earns a Point, and there's the usual 20 hour cool down before they can earn another point. They'll be earning on average 30 points per month. That's about 7.5% the rate of a VIP, plus they have to do stuff, so, if they skip a day, they don't get it.

It will whet their appetite. When they get 35 Points and they have their eyes on the 50 Point item, they'll break down and buy Points. Their glacial accumulation will cause them to buy points or subscribe for the 'free' 400 Points/mo.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville

Perhaps their target is to make more reasonable people happy: people who don't expect the worst for example.

VIPs will certainly get free powersets like they have gotten in the past. They will also sometimes have to pay for powersets like they have had to in the past. I can say both things with absolute certainty. But short of analyzing developer timesheets there will be no absolute way to prove we are getting more free content with our subscription than we have gotten in the past, and no way at all to disprove the unfalsifiable assertion that we would have gotten more if the switch to the Hybrid model didn't occur. At some point the people who want to believe that over the strong but inconclusive evidence otherwise will simply have to settle for being voluntarily unhappy. I do not want the devs to waste a lot of time trying to make them happy when that is impossible, or too difficult relative to making many more other people happy with a lot less effort.

Originally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man

Currently, they release free powersets in pairs, and usually about every 18-24 months. If they release a new powerset every three months, only you have to pay $10 for it now, isn't that still somewhat of an improvement?

Shortly before GR launched, Posi had the development teams split into groups. Presumably, resources will be allocated to those teams based on where the microtransaction money is going. If people pay money for powersets, then they'll get more resources, and we'll get more of them. It's a give and take.

If you want them, you can use your stipend and save up and get them at no additional cost, or you can pay a few bucks out of pocket. If it brings you joy, it's not a bad deal either way.

Originally Posted by Psyte

Not that I know of. The current expectation I have is the game, as-is, will be the base game as outlined, with future powersets being purchasable for Free and Premium players, and available for VIP use but characters will be locked should they become Premium players. Once the player buys the powerset then they'll be able to use it for new characters and be able to unlock characters with that set (similar to Controllers and Masterminds).

Again, this is my expectation, my theory. Nothing to back it up yet.