Nethergoat
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Posts
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Joined
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another terrific name spotted outside a mission door in Talos, guy kitted out in the new VIP Mecha set:
Star Freem
I LOL'ed.
I have a little market experiment going, which I'll document and post in the market forum if it ends up being interesting.
Not much else going on- finished Frankenslotting my plant/fire Dom and sort of accidentally took him into Recluse's Victory this morning. Was in the Grandville 'city hall' this morning when my son woke up, toddled out and climbed into my lap. I was looking over the Villain patrons, trying to make some sort of rational decision about the best fit for MANT, but my son chose for me- "OOOH, go talk to that SHARK guy! I like him!"
Okay, Captain Mako it is!
I let him wander around a bit, and we ended up in a room with a gigantic glowing portal- anyone expecting him not to run up and click it is doomed to disappointment.
So we ran around a bit- I picked up a heavy, which he loved. In his book the only thing more fun than having a "friend" running around with us is being in a disguise. He was disappointed we couldn't *also* get one of the Longbow robots, but ah well.
The spawns were pretty lame- usually just one yellow Nullifier. Not that I've spent a ton of time there, but I seem to remember slightly better hunting.
Son's new favorite power in the game is Carrion Creepers, which he calls "our ribbon friends". He is also a huge fan of our pet- "Hey Dada, THAT venus flytrap can WALK! Make it BITE some guys!"
I have a Mayhem mission all lined up for the next time he wants to "visit our guys".....Carrion Creepers + flytrap + Mayhem should blow his mind. -
Quote:Having them on the market at *any* time completely devalues the super packs.Originally Posted by Turbo_Ski
The costume parts and wolf should only be available separately if they retire the current super pack at a later date. You can't have them on the market at the same time because it would completely devalue the super pack and it's still too new to be retired within the year.
Which wouldn't matter if it were a one-off deal- they could sell them through the packs, then put them in a store and not care about all the pack buyers they pissed off.
But a new round of the things is already on the test server.
If they want to keep going back to that well, those costume sets need to stay exclusive. -
Quote:Not letting him get away with meaningless babble like this is why he ignored me.Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Repeat after me: There are no costume bundles that are 600 points for the complete set... All costume bundles on the Paragon Market are priced at 400 points.
Because as I noted earlier:
The costume sets in the packs are different than the stuff they sell in the store- most notably because they're not in the store. On average it costs more to get them- this makes them more valuable. In any case, market prices are not graven on stone tablets. They have something called SALES, where they sell things for LESS than the list price, proving that these things can and have changed- they are flexible, and there's nothing to stop them going up as easily as they go down.Quote:Originally Posted by Every MMO EverGame Experience may Change During Online Play
The first time he ran it up the flagpole I thought it was a contender for stupidest argument I'd ever seen on-line. Repetition isn't improving it any. -
Quote:High tier vets have access to pretty much everything, yes.Originally Posted by Mystic_Fortune
Pretty much this, in fact I'd go so far as to say Premiums get too much already.
But then, those people have contributed substantial material support to the game over the years- it's a much appreciated "thank you!"
As for the lower tiers, if you're gong to offer a 'free' play mode it serves you well to make it engaging and as full featured as you feel you can get away with. During my re-introduction to the game, which lasted six weeks or so, I wasn't paying a subscription but I still spent $30 on the game via the Paragon Market.
The ideal is that VIP remains an attractive option (which it does for me simply by dint of the # of character slots it opens up), but Premium is still a fun, full featured game- the longer someone hangs around, the more integrated they're likely to become with the community and the more opportunity they'll have to drop a few $$$ on the store even if they don't sub up. -
Quote:even if that's all they did I'd be very happy.Originally Posted by CrimsonOmen
If you take the -movement out of Rooted, that's the only change I can really condone.
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Quote:Yes.Originally Posted by Tetsuko_NA
Alrighty then - do you agree with him?
It is a fact of human behavior that if you mislead customers, they get mad at you. As this thread demonstrates there are a couple of people who're upset with this system of distribution and refuse to engage it, or engage it under protest. Their unhappiness is the equivalent of a pleasant summer breeze compared to the hurricane of rage that making them generally available now, after many, many, many people bought piles of super packs chasing them would whip up.
The only way it would work would be if the price point was high enough to make Super Pack purchasing the more cost effective option- that is, if super pack buyers got the set at a discount compared to the store price.
Which, as you can see from this thread, would do little to mollify the protesters.
Initially no- I bought a couple out of curiosity to see what they were.Quote:Is the only thing tempting you to buy SuperPacks the exclusivity of costume pieces?
But the costume bits did inspire me to purchase the discounted 25 count bundle of Superpacks.
It's a fun way to collect a prize that interests you.Quote:You're indifferent to the SuperPack mechanic itself?
If you're asking "would opening super packs which contained a random selection of undesirable junk appeal to you", the answer is no.
The mechanism derives the entirety of its appeal from the rewards it offers.
If they are going to have super packs and expect people to buy them, it MUST have an exclusive prize that players A: strongly desire and B: can't get anywhere else.
Theoretically, that item can be anything.
But given the historic predispositions of this game community, I can't imagine anything more effective in the role than costume sets. -
love this thread, love the other thread (which is going to provide my lunchtime reading tomorrow).
Viva Organica! -
Quote:he's saying if they offered junk previously available exclusively via super pack for direct purchase, he'd never buy another super pack.Originally Posted by Tetsuko_NA
So - and I want to make sure I'm not misunderstanding you - you aren't interested in the SuperPack mechanism per se, just what's in the packs. You'd be just as happy with the merchandise if it was offered as a bundle or as a SuperPack, yes?
A reaction I'd say would be epidemic among players who picked up bundles of packs to get the costume set. -
Quote:I'm perpetually confused by folk who don't grasp this obvious & salient point.Originally Posted by Venture
Would I be unhappy about it? No, but....
...it would mean I wouldn't touch the next set with someone else's hand.
Yes, there are people who hate super packs and would like to just buy stuff straight up- this isn't aimed at them.
The people it is aimed at would be alienated by Paragon shopping the good bits around at a trunk sale after everyone had dropped their $$$ on super packs.
If they wanted a deterministic system, they'd have made one.
They wanted it semi-random, they wanted it to appeal to acquisitive types who like randomness, collectors & game players.
You don't get to play it that way up front and then switch it around on the back side. Well, not if you expect to keep going to that well anyway- and the impending launch of Super Packs II: Electric Pirate Boogaloo indicates that they very much do want that return business. -
Quote:Being able to trade them would make the system more deterministic- it would have the effect, similar to the tickets in MA, of 'concentrating' the good stuff.Originally Posted by Grouchybeast
That's really the key issue.
Would people buy more packs, knowing they could trade the items they didn't want for items they did?
Would people buy fewer packs, because they could get all the items they want by trading items they don't want rather than by buying more packs?
Unless you can answer that across the player base, you can't say whether it's financially a good idea or not.
If I want, say, IO recipes I can fill up my inventory off one MA farming run, something that would take many, many repetitions of a 'real' farm.
It seems to me the ability to 'concentrate' super pack rewards would follow that same logic path- far fewer purchases would be needed to fill out the player's shopping list.
I'm not sure a change that would result in selling fewer packs is going to fly with the bean counters. -
Quote:*weeps bitter tears of rejection*Originally Posted by BlueRidger
To the OP: (I didn't bother reading any other responses because I don't really care what they have to say)
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been thinking about this a bit lately.
firstly, my problem with the new power amplifiers has been somewhat addressed by adding them to the next round of super packs. So, that's an in-game way to earn them, although a somewhat roundabout, cost ineffective one.
As for my philosophical objections with Pay to Win as a business model, I think I've gnawed my way down to the heart of the matter.
In a game world we're all on an even footing, whatever our circumstances IRL. We have the same tools, the same opportunities, the same potential.
What we can accomplish, whatever rewards we earn, are conceivably available to anyone willing to commit enough of their attention and effort to playing the game. In another MMO I played there's stuff I would never have and content I would never see because I wasn't willing to pay the price in 'game effort' to get there. Which was fine- the potential existed. Those who lived at that level earned their honors and I could join them at any time were I willing to equal their game efforts.
And I'm a big fan of commerce within the boundaries of the game world- I love the Wentworths/Black Market mini-game, as I loved the auction house at the other MMO.
What I dislike, what makes me uneasy, is when reality breaches the wall of the game world. This is the core of my apprehension regarding the Paragon Marketplace, and is similar to the core of my long-ago crusade against the (happily aborted) 'in game advertising' billboards, which envisioned selling sneakers & junk food to a captive audience of superheroic dreamers.
If I'm not notorious for my impatience with RP arguments for/against various game systems it isn't for lack of trying. Even so, I believe multiplayer games owe their players an environment where the playing field is as level as the devs can make it and which encourages suspension of disbelief. In other words, a game that seeks fairness in its mechanics and which provides a neutral canvas for us to act out the stories of our various characters on.
Ads for IRL companies violate that covenant, as, to a variable extent, does allowing the substitution of cash money for in-game effort. With that substitution the playing field is suddenly unbalanced by outside forces. Forces you can control somewhat by careful vetting of the sorts of things available for purchase, but unbalanced nonetheless.
I am not a zealot on this issue.
I've greatly enjoyed the accelerated content schedule that Freedom brought with it. I wouldn't want to roll the game back to its pre-Freedom state any more than I'd want to repeal ED if that meant giving up the Invention system.
But I'll remain skeptical of the system for the same reason I was skeptical of the promise that we'd always be able to 'opt out' of the in-game advertising- money is pressure. Your intent may be to open that door just a tiny crack, but with enough force on the other side the potential for it to blow wide open and explode off its hinges is ever present.
And on my way out the door, I'll address one popular argument in this thread: on a practical level I don't care how other people play the game, or that they might be slipping the doorman a few (real) bucks to cut in front of me in the competitive line. On a philosophical level I find it offensive for the reasons stated above.
Ideally game achievements should be rewards for game effort and only game effort.
Inasmuch as the 'Free to Play' model is the future of MMOs I'll measure success by how little performance impact players are able to purchase with out of game currency. -
that would be undeniably cool, but there are about 5 billion other things I'd rather the animators work on first.
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The folk who like their low pop home servers have, for the most part, been there forever & are thoroughly integrated into the community. I made my first ever character on Virtue, but we ended up playing on Triumph because one of my pals didn't get the memo and made his character over there. Triumph is still home to all my longest serving characters, and I play there about as often as I play anywhere else.
That said, the high pop servers definitely generate more random teaming opportunities, especially when you play odd hours. These days I'm up at the crack of dawn and on the rare occasions my son sleeps in a bit I'm usually able to catch a team for a few missions on Virtue or Freedom. Not saying it couldn't happen on Triumph, it's just less likely. -
I miss freebie fridays!
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Quote:I don't see this being a legitimate worry.Originally Posted by Diellan_
The snipe change, if it is precisely what we have been told and what we think it is, is not something I can get behind. Ditto the Blaster changes. I fear that both of those solutions are band-aid solutions that will only make it more difficult to make needed changes in the long run.
To paraphrase Arbiter Hawk in his Q&A thread, if blasters still lag after these changes "the buffs will continue until performance improves."
It seems he's dedicated to 'fixing' the AT however well these changes end up working. -
I don't see how eliminating the recharge on Rest would unbalance anything.
They could even increase the duration if they wanted, I wouldn't mind.
It'd be nice at the lower levels, it'd be nice for the less robust ATs, and most players wouldn't even notice it. Most of my high level types don't even have it in their power trays...the exception being my blasters. =P -
looks like they added these to the next iteration of the Super Packs, which somewhat mollifies my concerns.
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Quote:I admit having zero experience with granite- hit 28 last night.Originally Posted by Dirges
I disagree with making granite stack with the rest of the toggles in stone. Well not really disagree, it is just granite would be completely overhauled before it has a chance to happen, much to the outrage of a lot of the stoners out there. I just don't see Granite staying a toggle and being balanced. The numbers would be too low as a toggle compared to the clicks in other sets. I can see lowering its numbers some making it a click and adding the new absorption mechanic, but then that is me there will be people outraged with any change to granite.
But I dislike toggles that disallow other powers on a philosophical level.
Of course, I may feel differently about it once I get Granite... =P -
Quote:That wasn't internet funny, it was actual funny.Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Those were just NPCs
*claps hooves* -
Premium players with enough seniority get basically free run of the entire game EXCEPT for incarnate stuff.
That strikes me as more than fair. -
Quote:yes, it's almost like they want to turn a profit, keep the shareholders happy and stay in business or something!Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
You'll have to, since the stuff is only available in the bleedin' Super Packs....
Seriously, I sometimes think Paragon borrowed some suits from EA or something
Monsters! -
Quote:this is all true, and I haven't been able to figure out why.Originally Posted by Organica
"The really expensive ones" still sell for less than 50 million if you're patient.
Mostly these are the brute ATOs. In my considerable experience, you can reliably buy them for less than 50 million and sell them for over 100 million (which I've been doing consistently since they first appeared). For a lot of the other popular ATOs (blaster or controller for example) you can reliably buy them for 10-20 million and sell for 45-50 million.
Which means if you just want them for your character, a low but reasonable bid and some patience is all you need.
flipping ATOs is like some kind of perpetual money machine- I'm totally confused by the fairly reliable low/high spread across all the ones people actually want. -
Quote:Well back in my day we had to cobble together our own powersets from old shoelaces, bedsprings, chewing gum and empty soda bottles while the devs chucked throwing stars and super sharp pencils at us to keep us on our toes- so count yer blessings!Originally Posted by Vel_Overload
lol they sure do love their VIPs man... so much they either make us wait 2 months to get it or force us to give even more money for power crepped sets...
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Quote:The devs have a long, impressive track record of irritating me by liberalizing the supply of just about everything that started out rare in this game, dating back to costume drops back in the early days of the market on through adding purples to the Paragon Market & letting people just flat out buy PvP IO's with alignment merits.Originally Posted by Triplash
Ah well, they've changed their minds on things before. Something like it might still happen one day.
In other words, keep fighting your fight. My crystal ball about this sort of thing has been on the fritz for years now. =)