Nethergoat
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Mope, my semi-RP concept stalker (kat/wp, normal guy with a sword) made a mini-game of getting around the Rogue Isles without touching the ground with sprint + CJ.Originally Posted by StratoNexus
So my jumping across Steel Canyon, using just Combat Jumping and Sprint, without ever touching the ground game is nothing more than a curiosity!
Then along came Ninja Run, and WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! -
Quote:The tsunami of content they've unleashed since the advent of Freedom didn't materialize out of thin air.Originally Posted by Jetpack
It is? I don't pay attention much at this point, but I didn't realize it was doing better than ever. Was there a thread where someone analyzed the financials? Been years since I looked.
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Quote:Then what is anyone whining about?
To the person that said they pay for IO access, it is more cheaper to buy the license, and it is also more cost effective to pay as you go for powers or character slots.
I'm not interested enough to check your work, but this would be the first time in human history anyone complained about saving money.
1: Character slotsQuote:No logical reason to stay subbed if you are not into Incarnate content. Anyone that tells you otherwise is telling you so for sentimental reasons.
2: Character slots
3: Character slots
4: Character slots
5: Character slots
6: VIP saves me money- instead of buying stuff the second it comes out, I spend my 'free' points. Playing for "free" I dropped $50 on the market. Since going VIP again I haven't spent any cash on the market, only points. -
the huge number of excellent suggestions in this thread just PROVES how impossible it is to think up a good name that hasn't already been taken!
=P -
it was sort of a glaring oversight, wasn't it.
CO SIGNED!
Free the fish head! -
Quote:Freemium delivers a surprisingly full featured game experience.Originally Posted by Mazey
That's pretty presumptuous.
The devs are human beings, not infallible.
There are undoubtedly many decisions they would have done differently with hindsight. This may well be one of them.
The people I see complaining about it aren't raising valid issues for the most part, but simply whining about what they feel entitled to for their $0 a month.
Ergo, I feel the devs have chosen an excellent spot to build the 'fence' between VIP and free and trust them to maintain it with an eye toward customer satisfaction. Or rather, an eye toward the satisfaction of their rational customers.
They aren't going to un-gate IO use, so it's a moot point.Quote:Edit:
Further, what information could they data-mine to work out how big an issue this is? People who come back once and leave again, there's going to be hundreds of them, even if all issues are resolved. There's absolutely no way to pick out which ones leave because of IO issues, unless they explicitly say so, which most won't.
They built the fence there, quite reasonably as the game still plays just fine with SOs. All your powers work, and work well, you're just missing that extra layer of complexity.
It's like they're giving away free ice cream cones, but if you want them dipped in chocolate you still gotta pay.
I'm going to find anyone complaining about getting FREE ICE CREAM unreasonable, however amazingly delicious the chocolate dip is.
Whining that a free game doesn't let you use certain premium systems (IOs in this case) isn't their problem, it's a player entitlement issue.Quote:What?
Of course they do.
They've made the free game as open and full featured as they feel they can without undermining subscriber incentives. I don't see any improvement to be made short of making your VIP players ask "hey, what exactly am I PAYING for here?"
As noted, some people are going to whine about whatever you do.
They gave away TOTALLY FREE STUFF on the marketplace and got pages and pages of whining about it for their troubles.
Want IOs?
Pay.
Don't like that?
Oh well!
The game is demonstrably doing better financially than it ever has.
The danger of free players "quitting" over not being getting IO access seems a tad, ah, overblown.
See above.Quote:No. I'm arguing a monetary issue which, for a business, is far far more meaningful than "whose the entitled one?".
As they're raking in money hand over fist with the current system, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to be liberalized.
Clearly your sources of information are far beyond the data collection capabilities of NCSoft!Quote:Going by the forums, and responses I've gotten on sites other than this one, this is single biggest issue that people coming back to Freedom have had. -
My connection has SUCKED the last few days- barely adequate for web surfing, nearly worthless for gaming, totally useless for streaming. As pretty much all the media entertainment options in my home ride in on the internet (Gaming, Pandora + Netflix + Hulu Plus via Roku) this has been a trial. I'd almost forgotten how irritating having to actually play a dvd on a physical machine is. =P
AT&T should be ashamed of themselves- if Charter wasn't three times as expensive in my area (counting the criminal ten dollar surcharge for not subscribing to their ridiculously overpriced teevee service) I'd switch over in a hot minute.
Anyway, it's put quite a crimp in my CoH'ing.
Marketeering isn't too painful, as long as I'm super careful typing in bids and listing prices, and I can *barely* run solo missions provided they don't generate too many enemies, so right not I'm basically limited to fiddling with costumes, builds, market schemes, and low-ish level soloing.
This morning my son caught me doing some marketeering on The Goat, who he really likes, and demanded that we go "find a cave with him!"
I sorted through my contacts and found a likely looking tip mission and off we went. Goat was set to a moderate +1/X3, which I hoped wouldn't choke my connection.
The mission turned out to be in a sewer, not a cave, but he was willing to settle. Gameplay was PAINFUL for me, but he didn't mind the lag and thanks to /dark's spectacular mitigation it wasn't all that dangerous, so I forged ahead.
I've re-colored all Goat's fire stuff to be a dark blackish/purple, to reflect its nether-ish origin. The first time I dropped Rain of Fire, he yelled out "Dada! It's BLUE COBWEBS!" He also looooved the Dark Servant- "Look, Dada, it's Uncle Boonmee! Except he gots blue eyes!"
He has quite an advanced cinematic palate, especially for a three year old...
So I hobbled through the mish, got it done and then he ran off to look at some new books we'd picked up. I hung around to do a bit of marketeering.
I'd noticed the Goat had 10 converters & given the info up-stream about the profitability of turning crappy purples into great purples I thought I'd take another stab at it, with the caveat that I wanted to INSTA-BUY the recipe- no boring waiting around. I settled on 140m as my buy point- figure 10m for salvage & crafting, so 150 up front cost.
Threw out 5 failed bids before I snagged my winner, I think one of the Fortunatas. Paid BUY NAO prices for salvage, crafted it, pulled up the conversion window and SCORE! it immediately became a Ragnarok that should sell pretty quick around 300m (we'll see when I get home).
I wish I'd been around when they announced converters...I can only imagine the GROTESQUE fortunes my fellow marketeers earned buying up recipes before they went live.
I recall years back one of my market forum fellows creating a stir by buying up the supply of Fortunatas and deleting them because it offended his sensibilities that they were so cheap....hah!
I doubt the converter gods will always be so generous, but that was a nice score.
Hopefully my connection will clear up soon-ish, I was actually getting used to just jumping on a random TF when I had the free time.... -
Quote:Presumably the devs have enough data to figure out which "issues" are genuine and which are the product of inflamed entitlement glands. They certainly have vastly more info than we do.Originally Posted by Mazey
Yes, some people.
There are also many people who are quite willing to be satisfied, but who get turned away from the game early one by issues they find upsetting.
They've done an excellent job thus far.
The devs have no control over what individuals "feel".Quote:never said it wasn't.
The issue isn't how open the game is, but how open people feel the game is.
All they can do is make the most open game they're able, trusting that enough of their players are rational adults to grasp that reality.
So you're arguing about a meaningless non-issue just for kicks?Quote:Again, I'm not saying these people are right, just that they're getting put off, and have money.
Nice. -
Quote:Oddly, when I came back the game almost immediately "gave me a chance of considering paying" something towards it.Originally Posted by Mazey
I do:
Stop turning returning players away from the game before they even have a chance of considering paying anything towards it.
I ran a character through the tutorial, figuring I'd been a way a while, it was new and I should check it out, and at some point a contact said "hey, there's a market, go pick up this badge for free, and maybe while you're there take a look around, there's a bunch of stuff for sale".
Or words to that effect.
Some people are so whiny and entitled they'll never be satisfied however many concessions you make for them.Quote:Obsessing over "who's right" and "who's entitled" does absolutely nothing to help Paragon Studios make money. If anything, it harms their ability to do so, as players who feel upset, no matter how justified they are in feeling that way, come to the community and just get abused, resulting in someone who is never ever going to pay money towards the game again.
I was gone for a year, came back, played the Free game and the only thing that bugged me about it was a lack of slots. Yeah, that's as a max tier vet, but with 7 years of continuous subscription behind me I feel justifiably entitled to those considerations.
The game is very open to new and returning players.
Making it any more so would frankly undermine the incentive to remain VIP. -
Quote:Usually I have to *pay* someone to follow me around repeating my points, so thanks.Originally Posted by Rajani Isa
If a=b, b=a.
Just because YOU think something isn't funny does not mean no one else does. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Doctor Roswell
It seems that any time someone mentions it being tough to find a decent name around here (outside this thread, anyway), they're immediately set upon by a crowd of people telling them how easy it is, that they just need to be "more creative," that they should learn to use a thesaurus, et cetera. Well, if you're one of those people, then this is your lucky day. Assuming it's as easy as you say it is, anyway.
It's roughly as easy to make inf in this game as it is to think up a good name, but some people will persist in pretending they're both gigantic hurdles. -
Quote:wasn't it even lower than that in the old days?Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
I could easily be misremembering but I thought the cap was always 2 billion and what was increased over the years was how much players could trade/transfer between characters.
I clearly remember at one point only being able to trade/transfers of 99,999 at a time.
I remember back when everyone was poor, getting some inf from a pal took forever because you had to do so many transfers. -
and yeah, that- make sure you're not just capped out.
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Quote:I thought Hami-O's were level 50?Originally Posted by Black_Assassin
Ugh slotting Creepers with enfeebled op? 2 nucs, 2 rechs, posi % and impeded swiftness % imo
Did they change something while I was away? -
Welcome back!
If your money went "poof" or something, PM me your global with the missing sum and I'll issue a refund on behalf of the game. -
Quote:SSSSSSSSSLOTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.Originally Posted by Creole Ned
Nethergoat, I have enjoyed reading your diary and especially the adorable comments from your son (his strange love of caves aside).
I find myself in the reverse of your position as my account just went from VIP to premium. This is partly due to finances though I may re-sub when Issue 24 comes out. It's going to be interesting to see how things change now.
Looking back, is there any one thing you liked most in jumping from premium to VIP? My guess would be character slots since, you know, alts.
At Tier 9 I had pretty much everything I wanted/needed aside from the Incarnate system (which I didn't miss at all) and character slots, which TORMENTED ME every time I logged on.
If I'd stuck around as a Premium I would have had to buy a pile of slots just to free up my most played alts, and that still would have left a bunch of characters I like stuck in Freemium Jail.
Also, as a sort of counterintuitive surprise, being a VIP again has saved me money. Getting that monthly stack of points has given me a reason to be patient with my purchases instead of just saying "I want it, I might as well buy it NAO!"
As a VIP I see stuff and think "hmm, if I wait for the next point dump I can get that for FREE!"
Which isn't maybe what they intended VIP to do, but it certainly works as an incentive to stay subscribed.
Yah, conceptually I was glad to see them stretch a bit, but in the context of this game sending everyone off on their own is questionable (even in real pen and paper role playing 'splitting the party' is generally a no-no).Quote:Originally Posted by gameboy1234
Partially this, and also I didn't like being segregated from the rest of the group. I don't like being stuck in the vault going "are you done yet?" over team chat. I'd rather have an objective that only I can touch, but still be able to follow along with all of the other action. Interaction with teammates is still a big deal. Make sure too that others can follow me as well. If I must go in a separate room, make sure there's a big window so the rest of the team can watch my action.
Overall I give Casino Heist an A+ for effort, but the final result only gets a C. That's ok, the devs tried a new thing. Sometimes new things don't work out. This particular formula of mission needs a fair amount of tweaking before the devs can just clone it and stamp out others of the same type. But I'd encourage them to keep trying, as I think it has a lot of potential.
And I didn't really have any idea what I was doing.
I mean, yeah run here and blow up these things- great. Then I stood around for a while wondering "what now?" Then suddenly we're at our 'hideout' duking it out with a pile of baddies, then *bamf* I'm talking to some guy on the casino floor? I guess I did "good" by picking the hobo (figured he'd catch on to shady dealings better than the other choices), but I don't really know.
So, for me there was just too much stuff going on, stuff I don't particularly look for or value when I log in to play CoH. I come here to bust heads, not follow someone else's blueprint. Not that I don't enjoy a good storyline or a different style of game mechanic, but it should serve the head busting, not get in the way. =P
But even as I don't think it was completely successful, it was still pretty fun and I'm sure there's some stuff they can take from it and apply to future story arcs (soloing, I wouldn't have minded the stuff I minded quite so much) or trials.
And Time Gladiator was just pure fun and exactly what I log in for. -
Quote:Well, those were balance nightmares and potential disasters as well- note the tremendous amount of resources dedicated to both.Originally Posted by Yogi_Bare
Not necessarily (outside the perception that there are already balance nightmares in the setup as is).
It would be no different that the Dev team implementing the Incarnate system or the Inventions system to the game.
Let me rephrase- I think the amount of energy necessary to make the idea work well would massively outweigh a relatively minor payoff.
Currently, people who like the systems can play the sets that use those systems, people who don't can skip them.
If you could just wave a magic wand and *poof* have a power overlay that let you choose from a range of possible options, from plain vanilla to combo master with a few stops in between, I'd say sure, sounds great!
But absent a magic wand, that's a gigantic undertaking & resource sink.
Quite an undertaking to fix something that isn't really a problem.
Maybe not, maybe it isn't much more complex than powerset proliferation and they'll get to it one of these days. That would surprise me, though.Quote:I don't see the balance nightmare unless you're coding in for some grandiose effects that are beyond the scope of what I've suggested. -
Quote:A: Yogi's idea sounds like a game balance nightmare and invitation to disaster.Originally Posted by SuperFerret
I actually like Yogi Bare's suggestion, because that encourages the most options. What do you say to someone who wants a "plain vanilla" attack set and wants to use a staff?
B: I'd tell them to roll up a Mace and play make-believe. =) -
Quote:especially as the genesis of the game appears to have come from his latest novel, the excellent and heavily MMO-tinged Reamde.Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake
ok, voted, looks like they did clarify. also a little disappointed that CLANG! wasnt on the kickstarter list, a realistic sword fighting game with the backing of the surprisingly funny sci fi author of snow crash. that was a biggie for me.
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Google tells me it's an insurance company....it was a robo-call, so I hung up as soon as the recorded message started spieling me.
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so we have caller ID here at work, which I habitually check before answering to tip me off about telemarketers.
Just had a call from an outfit that showed up as
LFG Group
I think I have the name for my next Supergroup.... -
I really, really, REALLY like the Dark Astoria stuff I've played so far.
Which is surprising, given that the 'original' was my favorite zone in the entire game. -
Quote:Hey, that's what /ignore's for!Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Burned out on all the name-calling over Performance Amplifiers or whatever those were called.
If you want to really have your eyes opened take a year off like I did.Quote:Honestly, though, I do think the writing in this game has improved, and greatly. It's hard to appreciate it when I've followed it every step of the way - the change is quite gradual - but seeing some of the more errant old content really puts newer content in perspective. For instance, I sometimes tend to be cynical towards Dark Astoria, but it's still a VERY solid story despite some minor flubs here and there. It's easy to dismiss a good story over small faults, which is why First Ward was such an eye-opening experience. It reminded me just how far we've gone, and it's actually quite uplifting to thing about the game in this respect.
Most of the stuff that drives you crazy is still a huge improvement on things that were 'gold standard' when I started my hiatus. -
where've you been, Sam?
I've missed your sunny optimism! =D -
Quote:with regards to 'free' giveaways like this, yes it's smart to add stuff to the store eventually. the 'perk' in this case being a free (whatever) plus the ability to show it off for a bit before the proles can get hold of it.Originally Posted by peterpeter
EDIT: Also, what Snow Globe said. Now that we have the market, all exclusive items should be released with the understanding that they will appear on the market after a certain amount of time has passed. I am baffled by any company's reluctance to make money.
Then you get $$ from the proles too- win/win, as the folk who got the freebie can't be legitimately mad at you for selling something they got free.
With regards to things that have previously been sold (specifically, super pack costume sets) having them appear in the store would be counterproductive. A window of exclusivity isn't enough of a perk to inspire most players to pony up the next time the devs come along with a similar 'golden opportunity'.