Redbone

To get the money out of me a "booster pack" has to have the following things:

Utility: It has to have something in it that is useful to play. A new/fun power, a new ability or a new way to do things we've always been able to do.

Customization Options: New costume parts, new hair, new faces, new auras, new emotes, that sort of thing.

Innovation: It has to be something that's actually new, not a retread of previously avaliable stuff that's just gotten a new paintjob.

Interest: It has to be interesting. If all or most of the above are boring or lifeless, it's not worth the effort (tiny as that effort is) to get, much less the money.

So far the Valentine's Pack and the "Jetpack pack" are the only boosters that have failed this and the Superscience booster was borderline. I did buy The Vday pack and Superscience (Vday because it was the first and Superscience because it was just the right side of the borderline) but have avoided the jetpack as a waste of 5 bucks since it would have to be reupped every month.

Expansions are a while different kettle of fish. They have to espand the game dramatically, boosting content and abilities on part with a sizable percentage of the existign game (a percentage which, admittedly, shrinks with each expansion released). It has to make some fundamental change to a large aspect of the game and/or add a load of new content to get my attention, much less to crack open my wallet.

It is my guess that we'll continue to see Superboosters for the forseeable (and unforseeable) future. They're too good of a revenu stream to give up. If they relase 2 a year that's similar to having a new expansion box on the shelves in cash intake (without having to deal with retailers gettign a cut) but not in subscription bumps/new subscriptions while being less labor intensive than a full expansion. It's a major win for NCSoft.

What I think will change is once the "Mutant Pack" is out we'll see a de-emphasis on "origin specific packs" and a new emphasis on the packs being "themed packs." While the end product won't be different, the marketing will be to see if there's a bump in purchase numbers. With that in mind, they can go in hundres of possible directions: fantasy pack, steampunk pack, victorian pack, horror pack, holidays pack(s), pulp pack, Golden/Silver/Modern Age pack(s), cyberpunk pack, alien pack, demon/angel pack(s) and on and on. The only real limits are their abilities to come up with a theme and enough "stuff" to make people want to buy the themes (powers will become a problem since eventually there will be so many powers that it'll take tray after tray just to hold the pack powers - I know that between vet, accolade, primary, secondary, inherent, preorder and pack powers, it takes 5-6 trays to do the trick now at 50 on many characters without any temporary powers in the tray).

Ads and Signage from the game stores and billboards.

Widescreen desktops

A quick update on the Sabrina's Tale arc. This morning, I edited it to repair the damage. The live version has now been tested again and is working as it is supposed to.

Again, to anyone who played it yesterday, I apologize for the broken final mission.

To everyone else who plays it, I appreciate you playing the story and hope you enjoy it.

I am hoping that any potential players of the Sabrina's Tale arc see this.

After seeing a comment calling the last mission "just flat out crazy" (a turn of phrase that's entered my pattern of speech now), I have tested the mission as it stands as a Dev's Choice selection. Apparently, when they "flipped the switch" on Dev's Choice for the arc, something corrupted in the file that controls the critters that spawn in the final mission. As such, the last mission spawns only one type of mob rather than the "combined group" I set up using customized standard critters and one special EB. Unfortunately, that one type happens to be the special EB... in every group. At sufficently low settings, it is "just" a boss, but that's still a very difficult row to hoe when there's three or more of them in a single spawn. I had a feeling this is what had happened as a previous patch had done something similar to the same mission. The oddest thign is, if I remove all my local AE files, then save a copy of the Dev Choice version and run a test on it, it functions properly, only the live version has the error.

I have also gone back and tested that specific mission in my local copy as well as a copy of the exact .storyarc file that was sent to the Devs for the Awards. Both of those function properly.

As such, anyone who has played the arc since Sunday (when it was functioning properly) has my sincere apologies. I have dropped a line to two Rednames requesting permission to revise the arc back to what they actually gave the award to rather than this insane thing that the arc corrupted into.

So, just for the record, the Dev's were not insane in selecting something so crazy difficult for Arc of the Year and hopefully I will hear back from the Rednames quickly and be allowed to correct the problem so everyone can play the arc without running into mega-death in the final mission.

UPDATE: Thanks to the prompt attention of Dr. Aeon, I was able to get in and repair the arc. It is now functionign as it is supposed to, so no more Elite Boss mega-death in the final mission.

Given the positive response the Hero Con Going Rogue info has garnered, every issue up to then has a hard sell for not being Going Rogue. So, in that spirit...

"Meh, I mean, everything we wanted is fine and all, I suppose, but it's not Going Rogue..."

This is rather off the top of my head, so there may be omissions.

Badges That "Do Something" are typically Accolades and grant a power. Not all accolades do so, but most do. There are exception to this though:

All Day Job badges offer some temp power or bonus, but have to be charged by logging off in the Day Job location, which is what actually grants the power/bonus with the badges making the power/bonus more powerful.

Rescuer gives access to Mr Yen's Store in Faultline.
Trusted With The Secret grants the Oro Portal Power.
Midnight Squad gives access to the Midnighter's Club (and, by proxy, Chimora).
Burkholder's Bane gives access to the dice7 emote.
A Wentworths badge (I can't remember which off the top of my head) gives a bonus (again, can't remember if it's Recipe Slots, Auction Slots or Salvage Space)
Some Crafting badges give more Recipe/Salvage space.
Member of Vanguard grants the abilit to collect Vangard Merits.

On the Red Side, some badges unlock special contacts.
On Both sides, some badges unlock weapons with which you can customise your weapon using characters.

So, yeah, a number of badges, not just accolades, give a bonus, benefit or area access. Beyond that, they can be a fun little item to collect if you're an "explorer" personality.

To start a base, you just visit the same guy you registered the SG with and tell him you want to build a base. This will give you access to a base with one room (the entry way). This room can only accept decorative items.

Your next step will be to purchase an Oversite room (cost: 50,000 prestige) and put a combo power/control unit in it (Cost: 25,000 Pres and gives 75 control and 125 power). This will give you a little power and control to get started. You'll next need a workshop room (cost: 50,000 Pres) and a basic workbench/forge (cost: 25,000 Pres). With these you can craft your teleporters.

Now you need Teleporter rooms, they cost 100,000 each and can hold 2 TP units (4 beacons to locations), but you can go "cheap" but a Teleporter Bay for 50,000 which holds only one Teleporter.

Keep in mind that each teleporter costs 15,000 pres to place and each beacon costs 10,000 to place. Each teleporter also consumes 50 power and 25 control and each beacon consums 5 control (a "full teleporter" costs 35,000 and burns 50 power and 35 control with the beacons). In other words, even if you delete the work bench, you cna only equip 2 teleporter and 4 beacons before you run out of power and control.

By now, you need to updrade again, adding a proper set of power and control items, this means you need a Control room (100,000) and an Energy Terminal room (100,000) as well as a Mainframe computer (50,000) and basic generator(200,000). You now have your basic items.

From this point its a matter of simply adding teleport rooms, teleporters and beacons, while upgrading (or adding to) the basic control items.

All in all, to get you to a point where you can have a decent number of porters, you'll need to accumulate Between 600,000 and 1 million prestige. however, you can get started and functional in the 200,000 prestige range.