Redbone
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Quote:A lot of snippage there, but since it's one post up....Originally Posted by Fulmens
We each started with a million. We still have 349,000 left. So we've destroyed 651,000 inf. And yet we've each BOUGHT 6.51 million worth of stuff.
I'm not seeing a big problem here.... You got 1,000,050 in Influence and over 6.51 million in Inf tied up in items you couldn't use, so you sold them, making 6.51 million influence which you did use to get 6.51 mil in stuff you did need. You earned the items via drops, you sold them for influence, you spent the money. You didn't "create" millions of influence you merely traded the same influence back and forth losing a little each time. Had the two people in the example gotten together and traded outright they wouldn't have "destroyed" 6.51 milion in influence.
You seem to be ignoring the actual and perceived value of rewards other than influence in your thinking. If you have a recipe drop that is worthless to you, it is still worth something to someone (even if that someone is an NPC, hence the actual value part).
In your example, you got 10 mil in Influence AND 6.5 mil in items, not 1 mil influence and 0 influence in items. The other person got 10 mil in Influence AND 6.5 mil in items, not 1 mil influence and 0 influence in items. Therefore, all you did was inefficently trade the items using the market as a middle man and influence as a proxy at the cost of several hundred thousand Inf. So, even by your own example, the Inf sink worked extremely well, eliminating around 60% of the influence involved. Had the two of you been in the same SG and dumped the items into a bin and picked up what you needed, you'd have all the items AND 1,000,050 Influence with zero Inf elimination.
Put another way, you and I own two cars. I don't want my car and you don't want your car. You pay me $10,000 for my car, I turn around an dpay you the same $10,000 for your car. We didn't "create" 10 grand and won't have the Feds knocking on our doors for counterfitting. We each had a car valued at 10 grand by the other and used cash as a proxy for the trade. We cna't just ignore the perceived value of the cars in the trade. -
Quote:This is the only place I disagree with you here. While I won't argue the markets are perfect, because they aren't, I will state that if the perceived problem with the markets is that things are too expensive, then the solutions can be foud outside the market. You came up with one with a desirable buff that costs a large sum of influence. If Influence can be sucked out of the marketplace (the game itself) in large quantities and the players wish to spend it and the "item" is an off market sale, then the solutions is well outside the markets. I have few doubts that is the Devs implimented a "buy a month of game time with 250 million Inf" plan, Inf would vanish from the game at an insane rate. As it stands, the earning potential in regular play outstrips the stuff you "need" to buy, even with IOs in the game. Before IOs it was an even more stark difference since gettign to 50 produces million more Inf that needed.Originally Posted by Snow Globe
This whole thread shows how the original suggestion is a bad idea both for badge hunters AND the market. You need to stop looking outside the market to fix the market's problems.
Another way to solve a perceived problem with markets being to expensive is to simply cap the market with a vendor who sells everything for high prices, but lower than the market average. It woudl establish a maximum price for an item since it coudl be bought outright rather than bid on. Of course, this woudl also bring market prices into parity with the new vendor price meaning fewer "low cost" lucky buys.
There are non-market solutions to a market problem, it's just a matter of the Devs seeing the same problem and thinking it is a problem. -
Quote:And that is the crux of it. A one shot (or even a badge series) will eventually be exhausted, leaving the problem to form again. To use the not-quite-perfect example of the Market Badges. When they were first released, I spent a considerable amount of time, effort and money acquiring the lot of them while IOing out my main. All told, I spend somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 billion influence (which was good back then, really) and the rest was done from drops while playing. So they managed to yank 100 million Inf out of the market from me just because of those badges. However, I've not done the whole series again on any other alt. I target only the ones that are beneficial (the ones for Market Slots, Recipe Space and Salvage Space) and even then I'm haphazard about it. Many people did much the same, so the badges themselves were a short term Inf Sink that petered out once the "new" wore off and people had the series on one or two characters. The market itself, however, has eaten up far more Inf in "fees" from me outfitting other characters and selling off drops I didn't need. At a rough estimate, it's gotten several hundred million from me since it's release. As a continual sink, it's working and the "loss" to it is relatively painless to the players.Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Again it will be farmed. For the average, non-market player it has to be farmed. That makes a bad badge.
The part you seem to be missing is that you are looking at one segment of the game (the market) which has been broken because of another area (lack of things to spend Inf on) and not realizing that those with billions of Inf are the extreme fringe of the player base. You have to deal with them, not the rest of the game.
Make some day long temp powers that costs a couple million inf that provides a great bonus (possibly along the lines of a Shivan in strength or the equal of a single purple proc). That you will get people destroying Inf for, not a one-time badge that is purchased.
What you'd need is something like suggested here. The buff stations in SG bases were intended to do this with base salvage, but the fact they didn't stack, lasted such a short duration and the bonus was so trifling, meant they didn't get used a ton, and those just burned "worthless" base salvage, which was a dime a dozen. For players to go for in Inf Sink or Salvage Sink or Time Sink, they have to see it as worth the sink. If they gave us a 24 played hours damage buff at 3% and charged 1 million for it, it would eat some Inf, but not a ton. If it was a 20% buff it would eat up tons of Inf. People woudl be falling all over themselves to get enough Inf to their low-level characters to get the Acc and Damage buffs. -
Quote:Naturally, the "fairest" way to select nominees and the winners would be by a completely impartial jury with no connections to NCSoft/CoH OR the playerbase via a blinded provess where the creator's name is stripped out of the missions (Entrant 1, Entrant 2). In this case, that's just not possible, since a famillairity with the game and the game lore is needed to actually judge the entries and it may not be possible to remove every instance of the creators name and maintain the integrity of the mission story and files.Originally Posted by Rodion
The only way this can be "fair" is if the identities of the authors are unknown to an impartial and knowledgeable jury that reviews the arcs. Fiction and poetry contests are usually judged by a panel of writers and editors who read manuscripts that do not have the names of the authors on them.
Public voting on these arcs would be anything but fair for exactly the same reasons: players are swayed just as much by prior associations as the devs are. It would actually be less fair because of the opportunity to buy votes with in-game influence and items. You don't have to buy many votes to force a win in something as small as this would probably be.
Leaving it to the playerbase is unworkable because the playerbase will tend to vote for people they know or have heard of. The Developers are more workable since they know they're under the eyes of the players who will definately call foul if they see something that smacks of favoritism (and will likely call foul anyway just with less zeal if they can't find any definate favouritism). An unknown panel of NCSoft employees who work on the game, but not under the Devs would also be workable, since they represent the company, aren't under any possible Dev duress (not that the Devs would apply duress, but it stops the accusation) and have no contact inside the playerbase to tint their judgement. Lastly (at least that i cna think of at the moment), Celebrity judges may or may not be workable, depending on their connections in the playerbase; as an example I like Scott Kurtz and his work, but he has played the game before and very likely still has friends in the game and definately has long time readers who play, that could color his voting, so we can't be sure a celeb familiar with the game would be any better or worse than any other player.
Whatever the actual judging process, we have to trust it will be fair, since we currently have no reason to not believe it will be. With that said, I'm sure when the nominees are announced there will be some questions about why X was selected and was their any favoritism imvolved. It's the nature of the beast for those sorts of things to come up in any judging process not based on quantifiable criteria. -
Quote:Just tell me this is going live fast. This loop drives me nuts. I've stopped using the toggle just to keep form going a bit batty.Originally Posted by Niviene
Invulnerability (all Archetypes): Invincibility will now play the activation sound only when the toggle is first turned on.
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Quote:Information.... Their grey market economy is based on Blackmail and info brokering.Originally Posted by COTCaveHater
Actually, if they go down the 'third faction' route (ie. rogues have separate currency, markets etc), what will they call Rogue's inf? Anyone know a third synonym for reputation that starts with "inf"?
And instead of Reward Merits, you get Demerits for TF/SFs because the goverment, which sent you on the TF/SF publiclly disavows what you did and calls you a rat for it, but secretly keeps track of how well you did for them on the sly. Naturally, Demerits can't be traded or sold and have nothing to do with Merits except performign the same function. -
Quote:True enough on every point. However, I so expect Marketing is falling all over themselves to get a Pre-Sale on the shelves for the Christmas Shopping Season.Originally Posted by Sardan
I'm sure their marketing people would have loved to have GR out by Christmas. It's not exactly rocket science to figure out that a product on the shelves for Christmas is preferable to a product on the shelves in the first quarter. The problem is you can't just pull a Picard and say "make it so."
I've shipped software to retail for Christmas in the past and my experience is that you have to commit to the retailers 6-9 months ahead of time (they don't take kindly to "we'll probably have it by Christmas") and have a master ready no later than early October to allow time for mastering, box manufacturing, assembly and shipping to retail. I'm sure Marketing had a sit-down with Development around March and asked if they could make Christmas and were told it just wasn't feasible. -
Quote:I was the one that dropped and it wasn't the game itself that did it, it was latency on my end after being active for about 12 continuous hours online.Originally Posted by eviella
Yes. No defeats, no temps both set at beginning. We were mostly stable; we had one member drop during the ambush waves but they returned in a few minutes.
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Quote:As I recall, NCSoft announced voice chat for all its games (CoH included) launchable from the NC Launcher. However, they promptly clammed up and haven't said a word since.Originally Posted by Shockwave1272
I was thinking that if CoH made an optional voice chat for players on a team, it wold be easier than typing in the midst of a mission or tf. For players who didnt want to hear our yammering on could ahave a mute function for incoming voice. just a thought
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Quote:I'm with you here. My guess is that there will be a sliding scale (for easy of thought, a 100 point scale with Hero on one Side and Villain on the other). You'll be offered Newspaper/Radio-like missions that slowly change your alignment by a few points and after doing several offered a mayhem/safeguard like mission that shifts alignment a great deal more. When the "meter" swings past the 50% mark, you lose access to the other side and can only go into your new turf.Originally Posted by PunchinJudy
As cool as that would be, and maybe I'm wrong here, but I'd be surprised if this is the case. I'd suspect during your rogue/vigilante transition period you'll still be limited to the zones of your original faction and Praetoria. Once the transition is complete you will then have access to the zones of your new faction, losing access to the zones of your original faction.
If they allowed "neutrals" access to both sides, there would be little or no reason to ever not be a neutral since the game isn't set up to not allow you access to some things but access others on a side (outside of level-locked zones) and I doubt they're willing to go back and alter the accesses on every zone, every store, every contact, every mission to impliment such a plan. -
From what the Dev's have said in the past plus what little information that's managed to slip out (mostly the survey information) the Dev's seem to be thinking in terms of lateral progression from 50 rather than adding true level by level progression.
IO Sets are a prime example of that apparent philosophy. They make characters slightly more powerful on the enhancement side, but let one customize the "special" bits more. The "Universal Enhancement Slots" from the survey also follow that philosophy, with 10 universal slots that cover the whole character modifying the "special" effects on powers. In that same vein, I wouldn't be surprised to see quasi-multi-classing as a future option (giving you blaster some control abilities or defender-lite abilities, or giving your tank some blasty type effects) or even a "revamp" of the discarded "skills system" from years back to get small bonuses on specific power aspects ("I maxed out the 'martial arts' skill track and now I get a 2% damage bonus and a 3% recharge bonus and a 3% defense in melee and now I'm taking the 'Inventor' skill track that drops the cost of making IOs, gives a market discount, reduses salvage requirements, and reduces the cost to place base items").
Given all that, I seriously doubt the Devs are going to spend the time and effort to rebalance the game around a higher level cap, plus add powers to every set, plus create new enhancements, build 10 levels of new content on both sides, plus risk alienating a portion of the playerbase by making their work to get hamis and billions to get level 50 IOs moot all to just hear "I'm level 60 when do we go to level 70?" after it's live 48 hours. -
So, you think the blue side is going to get royally screwed over by Going Rogue as well? I mean, the added content for Villians will be massive, but not so much for the heroes....
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Quote:While the billboard ads seem to be dead in the water, I am surprised the Devs haven't repurposed the software with the advent of the MA. I honestly expected them, soon after the MA's release, to offer a way to get your missions advertised on the billboards. I assumed a lottery style set-up or maybe even a contest or two to decide who got one on there.Originally Posted by Nethergoat
as always, it's depressing how many people embrace corporate advertising as natural and fun, a neat option for a fictional universe.
Happily their billboard idea was an abject failure.
Hopefully that will spare our little corner of the MMO universe further predation. -
Quote:Looking at your reg date, I assume you already know this, and were making a joke, but for those that don't, they did try selling billboard space in the game. I remember only two ads ever showing up and then the whole hting went poof. I assume it failed utterly or their ad provider bailed out or folded. The boards were a firestorm when it was announced and the whole thing was a pain in the rear with discussions of ad ware and file access all over the place, plus the obvious "I will NOT pay you to advertise to me" arguments.Originally Posted by Garielle
I have always thought NC Soft should lease the in-game billboards for real advertising.
Would be non-intrusive advertising, so much more consumer friendly than spam mail, pop ups, edge blocks (the silly ads that occupy space along one or more edges of the screen, obstructing the user's view), and other methods. It would provide good exposure for the product as well.
Real World corporate logos are problematic since they are trademarks. NC would be foolish to provide free advertising for companies in the game when they could make money on the exact same thing. However, to get those companies to pay to have their ads in they'd have to monitor "eyes on the logos" including number of views, number of unique views and duration of views before the companies would be willing to put any coin into the deal. Add to that having to delete the logo (and deal with player's complaining) when the sponsor company decided to pull out of the ad deal or be forced to leave it in and advertise for free, in which case, the sponsor would just buy a weeks worth of ads and then bail and possibly even charge NC for the use of their trademarked logo. Then you have to stack on top of that some products will not want to be associated with the "bad guys" so some logos will be locked out to villians. Then there's the same complaints and worries from the billboard fiasco to add to the mix.Quote:As for corporate logos on costumes, if it were done in the same "non-intrusive" method and was a matter of choice, then I'd be cool with it. I wouldn't want some company's logo showing up on my costumes without my consent though. There are some companies that I just don't believe in endorsing.
As for in-game faction logos, ummm.... those already exist (Crey, Vindicators, Council, and a few others).
Basically, IMHO, I believe NC would view such a thing as a headache they simply don't want for too little return. -
Quote:I assume because Kurtz's PvP and CoH have been linked together before both in the comic (with several short runs of PvP being set with the character playign CoH) and in the promotion of the game with the PvP tie-in in the DVD Collector's edition.Originally Posted by DumpleBerry
Um...why is Kurtz on the panel?
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A_C, For what it's worth I still remember that debate, not because of the subject matter, or even anythign specifically said, but because it was one of the most entertaining ones I'd had in a long time, and for that I thank you (and the others involved in it).
You are/were one of the CoH reactionaries, and every group needs a reactionary. Your posts were ones I looked for when on the forums because even when I thought you were dead wrong, heading completely off the rails, they were entertaining and provoked thought. I, for one, am going to miss having you around and hope you come back sometime in the future.
I am sure a lot of people are going to give you academic advice, but I'd like to give you something a bit more broad. I was also the first in my family ever to go to college in 6 generations. I was the second generation in my family to graduate high school (well, primary education, the local system was a bit odd back in the 1800s) in 6 generations.
The first thing I'll tell you is, don't let the sudden freedom drive you a little nuts. It's sometimes hard to reel ourselves in and not get a bit drunk with the new-found freedom and sudden openness of ideas and modes of thought. However, revel in that same freedom at every possible chance. In some ways I envy you. College was the absolute best time of my life because of all the potential, ideas, new thoughts, new knowledge waiting to be picked up and put in my pocket.
Second thing: be as social and outgoing as possible but not to the detriment of your degree. You are very likely going to meet people who you'll be friends with for the rest of your life and a few you'll trust with your life. They're more valuable than anything you're going to see or hear in your studies, but you have to keep a watchful eye on your degree and know when to tell you friends "I have to study, so I can't go to Denny's at 2 AM." You also have to know when to bin the studies, go with them to Denny's and pull and all nighter to make it up.
Third, moderation. Watch the "bad habits" that come your way. There is nothing wrong with having a drink, nothing wrong even with getting drunk, but it all has to be in moderation. You have to be very aware of how much you do anything, "good" or "bad," and when it starts becoming a problem. Fastest way to get your read-end on Academic Probation (or Suspention) is to wake up one morning and realize it's a month later and the last four weeks is a haze.
Fourth is to find your mentor as quickly as possible. You may not always know who he or she is right off the bat. You may not have much contact with them once you're out of school. But they will guide your whole life, even when you're not aware of it at the time. I didn't initially do the first three, and the fourth is what saved me. Had it not been for a particular professor named Blair Beasley, there's a very good chance I'd not even be alive today. Blair has been dead for many years now, but something he said, or something he showed me helps me every single day.
Good luck, and once you get all rich and famous, give us a yell so we can come over and mooch off of you. -
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The lack of info on GR really shows that it won't be out anytime this year and probably not in Q1 of next year.
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I think this is a false and irresponsable statement based on nothing, that only leads to more gloom and doom. Closed beta for issue 16 starts next week or soon there after, it probably won't go live untill mid September. That leaves three months to get GR out before Christams and I think there is a good chance that is what they are aiming for.
It is much more likely that they want to consentrate on building hype for Issue 16 before starting the really marketing push for GR.
Of course i could be wrong, it's just an opinion, but stating GR won't come out in the next 7-8 motnhs is also just a geuss with no real facts to base that negative assumption.
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My gut instinct says they want GR to hit shelves in time for holiday shopping, but I have a feeling that I14 knocked their schedule off a little (hence the very fast turnaround for I15). I16 may be a bug squashing-fest as well slowing the GR release.
If we make a few reasonable assumptions about the future it becomes distinctly possible GR won't make it until January and possible even later (I'd say end of Feb to mid march). If we assume I16 beta goes well, that puts I16 live in September. Assuming the same test time for GR (and that it's "I17") and that drops it live in mid-December (well after the prime shopping season). The Devs don't like dropping issues close in on "event time" which pushes it into January of 2010. If testing is extensive and time consuming, another month of testing pushes it to February (yet another event time) and the delay could stretch into March.
So, yeah, it's definately possible with a little bad luck, bad timing, tricky coding or persistent "showstopper" bugs GR could see a 6 month gap from I16 going live. Should that happen, I'm betting there will be a pre-order box to capture some holiday sales even if they're not currently planning on one (which they may be already).
Of course, with a LOT of good luck with I16 and GR testing it could hit just before the holidays. -
Don't feel too bad, I made the same mistake thanks to my local Best Buy gettign the cards before they were announced around here and puttign them out. I figured NC was about to boost sub prices. On the up side, I didn't feel to bad over my mistake because the Best Buy schmucks thought the same thing and had pulled all the Time Cards fromt he shelves.
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Question first: Why are City of Heroes game time cards $20?
Disclaimer: I swear by everything holy (and unholy) that I searched hard looking for a previous post and wiki info looking for this first.
Story: I try to get on CoH last night after work, just like I do every evening, only to find out the auto-renew subscription didn't 'take' because funds are low in the bank account. I then remember that I have some Best Buy gift cards and that I can get the PlayNC time cards for 15 dollars apiece.
Thinking my problems are solved, I call the 3 closest stores and ask if they have them in stock. The ones who answered (2 out of 3) indicated that they were in the system, but couldn't be found on the shelves. I risk it and go to the most reliable store and check it out for myself.
Lo and behold, I get there and there is no slot for the PlayNC card, despite it being on their website. Instead, they now have a City of Heroes card that is $20, not $14.99.
The happy ending is I said, "[censored] that" and bought the Architect box for $19.99, which came with the free month and I now have the Magic super booster as well. Same money, more goodies. I suspect it has to do with the switch to Paragon Studios, but the price hike is annoying.
So, does anyone know why these time cards went up in price?
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Are you sure it was a Game Time Card (stil sold in the clam shell DVD case and valid for all NC Soft subs) or a Game Card (sold on a peg card, basically a card with a card sized bit of plastic attacked at the tip and hung on a peg with is specificly City of Heroes)?
Game Time Cards just have the time "on" them and run 15 bucks.
Game Cards are actually the full game (with a month of play time) and include a 1 month jetpack temp power and cost 20 bucks. They are basically a "box" without the disk and packaging. -
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I got my PPD hardsuit last year when I was living in Iowa. I didn't go to PAX. I asked someone I knew who was going to get me a code.
You, too, can do this this year with ComicCon and PAX.
Sadly, though, I don't know anyone going to ComicCon, so I can't ask them. And other than the PPD Hardsuit and the Malta Gungslinger costume (it'd be so cool if that were given at PAX since I live in Seattle now *hint hint*
), there isn't any other Halloween costume I want more than KoA. *sadface*
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You can always try to arrange a possible future trade with someone. Basically "O plan to go to PAX, so you save yours and if they do it at PAX I'll trade it for the KoA one."
I had a friend who did that last year to get one she wanted, though, IIR, she got the SDCC one, didn't use it and arranged a trade with someone later on. -
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Your implication that someone who's going to the con is buying their way into the dev's choice slots is obvious and that's what I was responding to.
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That you saw such an implication, present or not, merely shows that you think the Devs are giving an advantage to those with the geographic location and/or money to go over those that do not.
I said it was nice of them to do it, that's going to be a time sink for them and it will help them add to the 17 or so DC arcs we have. The chance to sit down with a devs to run your arc is bloody awesome, because the feedback is instant and running. If you're into the AE, that is all very very cool.
But your first reaction was to defend the devs from being called "nice." That that tells me you think it is an unfair advantage but don't want to admit it, perhaps even to yourself and will mindlessly defend the devs even when you think they're wrong. -
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No, they don't.
If your arc is good, show it to them in a pm.
If they like it, there you go.
This isn't preferential treatment, it's a CONVENTION.
You want to have your arc shown off? Make a good arc, advertise it, and refine it. sheesh.
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Hmm, such a strong defensive reaction.
I said it was nice of them. Such a strong defensive reaction would indicate you believe there's something wrong with giving such a nice perk to convention goers and are mindlessly defending what you perceive as a dev "misdeed," but won't say is a misdeed, even when someone says they're doing something nice.
Sheesh. -
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Come by and meet in person members of the City of Heroes® development and community relations teams! You will be able to seek Mission Architect advice and tips straight from the designers who created the system themselves - including Matt "Positron" Miller, Joe "Hero 1" Morrissey and Bruce Harlick. Or...you can take advantage of this unique opportunity to show them in real-time your already created story arc mission!
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Nice to see the people with money and/or luck to live on the West Coast will have a better chance at getting their Arcs made Dev's Choice and getting the story slot that comes with it. -
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I really think they should through a temp power and a few more cotume peices in the science booster, and just make the height adjuster included in issue 15 or 16.
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Not targeting you specifically (you're just the most recent commenter), but this general attitude makes me laugh.
People complain that they won't buy the booster packs unless there's something they want in there.
Then when the booster pack comes out with something good in it, people complain that it should be taken out and given to the players for free. Often, these two groups are exactly the same people. The whole situation is actually rather funny.
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Every player is going to have a different list of what should be in the basic game (with a few universals, I would think, like capes and tights) without having to resort to being forced into spending more money to get the feature (to head off the inevitable, "forced" is the correct term, since the hypothetical feature will ONLY be open to those who will pay for it and ONLY those who pay for it, therefore the only way to acquire it is if money changes hand thus if you want the feature you are forced to purchase it unless someone, somewhere comes up with a way to get it without a transfer of money).
In this specific case, I agree that the ability to alter "the sliders" should be a base function open to all rather than gated behind a $10 purchase, but that's just my particular list. I don't feel that way about the "body swapping" part, and think it's fine for that to be in the pack and locked away from those who didn't shell out the cash. I would guess there's a number of people who think exactly the same way, another group who thinks I'm half right and a number who don't agree at all.
The question is where does one (the Devs in this case) draw the line between "definately should be universally accessable in the base game even though people would pay for it" and "cool enough to pay for but not so utterly cool it should be universally accessable"? -
My assumption (and it is just that, an assumption with little to actually back it up) is that since bases were initially envisioned as PvP areas first and foremost, decorative rooms were viewed as "defensive items" for PvP.
If you're in a decorative room, you're not in a vital area winning the PvP match. As such, they were priced through the roof originally (and just up to the roof now).