RobotPants

What? Why were you in the woodwork?

But here's the weird thing. You know that Metallic costume that's been in the game since release? It got true reflections when the real-time reflection effects first got put in and it takes colors perfectly. Why wouldn't they do the same thing with Celestial armor or any metallic costume part that's supposed to be reflective? It's annoying because it makes an otherwise excellent costume set really hard to work with if you use other pieces. It can be done, sure, but you're pretty limited with your color choices and I really don't think it was designed that way intentionally.

You do know you can read the actual text in the OP before responding, right?

This is the biggest sticking point for me. For the most part, the game's method of auto-leveling characters for TFs and teaming in general is absolutely excellent and should be copied by every MMO out there. But they've failed to update their archaic contact/mission system with appropriate tech. There's zero reason to out-level a contact or story arc and I can't think of a single other MMO that makes content unavailable if you pass the level it was designed for.

All of this stuff drives me bonkers because it all seems so obviously broken. None of it is game-breaking, but it affects the presentation a ton. The ragdoll bug even goes past that and in some severe cases allows you to defeat enemies without retaliation because they're stuck in the wall or on a rail or doing the splits after being knocked back.

I'm not sure if it's actually gotten worse in the past 2 years, but escort missions certainly haven't gotten any better. They're terrible. I have no desire to babysit an NPC simply because they get stuck around a corner or on a staircase or a rock or dozens of other things. It's also really maddening that the "fix" for escort NPCs for player stealth powers that was put in years ago to prevent people from exploiting escort missions has still not been addressed. It's just unnecessary and is a case where the devs' old and weird "risk vs reward" obsession resulted in many ham-fisted changes like this that punish people playing normally far more than it does those who were deliberately trying to game the system.

One other thing I think has gotten worse are the wild difficulty swings in a lot of the newer story arcs, mostly related to the use of friendly combat NPCs in missions. I know you often get the choice on whether or not to use them, but in my experience it hasn't been clear on the first playthrough just how much help they're going to be. There are many missions where you could quite literally do nothing while your super-duper NPC buddies clear out the entire thing for you. And then there can be a mission in the very same arc that ends up being difficult simply because it's not clear what you're even supposed to be doing, often due to Ned's mentioned Caption issue.

The last thing I'll complain about that has definitely gotten worse is the use of the giant blobs of NPC dialogue that gets vomited out right as combat starts. This has been a problem for quite a while, but with the ever-increasing focus on story, the frequency of it has gone way up. Similarly, dialogue that takes place when talking to a friendly-but-about-to-turn-unfriendly NPC is often impossible to actually read before they start fighting.

So you really don't feel statements like "I find it remarkably petty that ya'll are ready to burn whoever's responsible for this minor goof at the stake." are overly dramatic? Because as far as I can tell, not a single physical threat has come up in this thread. I know you can't possibly mean that literally, so the only other logical conclusion would be that you're making the complaints out to be more than they are. People are disappointed, but that doesn't mean they're frothing at the mouth as your posts would suggest.

The only thing I find remarkable is how some people will defend everything no matter what and make negative comments out to be inherently bad. You're being far more dramatic with your comments than most of the people disappointed in this whole situation.

Well, sure, having an in-game preview of the Vet packs would be great, but it's still your fault that you bought something you weren't sure about. There were all sorts of pictures posted of the Celestial set when it came out and it's pretty easy to find lots of them on this very forum if you look.

And hell, you're complaining about the lack of an in-game preview but also that you looked at people wearing the costumes in the game and didn't notice the gaps? Do you really not realize how ridiculous all of this sounds?

Good grief. It takes a special kind of selfishness to view a free gift that way. God forbid they don't tailor everything to you specifically.

I don't know why any rational human being would choose to perceive something free as a 'slight'. Seriously, how did people become so spoiled and jaded?

Pff. They should just use their ice powers instead.

While that may be your preference, I have no idea how you could possibly presume to know how much hats with no hair would be used if it were an option. To even suggest you have any idea what "most characters" want seems odd.

And yes, I suppose I should've clarified my OP a bit. What I'd like to see is an option to use hats on heads that wouldn't have hair, i.e. reptile skin, robotic, elemental, etc. Since there are quite a few of those, it only makes sense and while I can typically get away with matching the color of the hair to the head, it's still just a workaround and doesn't always look good. So many robots with hats I'd like to make!

And arguments about how much work it would take are irrelevant to what I'm suggesting, so I'm not certain why that's even being brought up. It's a suggestion to the devs, so any objections to the amount of effort needed for such a change should come from them, not from us. I'm really not sure why people come into these threads to shoot down requests for more options in the character creator. This game lives for its insane customization, so seeing people oppose ideas that would add to that are puzzling to me. I'm not asking to take anything from you. Just let my robots wear hats!

Yeah, I'd prefer that, except maybe not as crystalline. Really, I'd love if they could just make a shiny, smooth, reflective ice texture that conforms to the body's shape with maybe some cracks here and there instead of the blobby stuff they've been using. I still really hate the look of the ice armor set and this new set still doesn't quite get ice right.

I just love how much information some of you folks seem to have about the inner workings and financials of the people making this game. You also keep trotting out the "for free" part, but that's not it. The OP doesn't want something for free, he wants it for the money he's paying every month to play this game. You say that's unreasonable and that's your opinion, but that doesn't mean it's surprising for people to be disappointed that their monthly subscription doesn't get them new power sets.

Here's the thing with that for me: I don't know if I'm even going to like the new sets. Paying $20 to try both of them just isn't something I'm willing to do. Now, I'm not completely opposed to buying them if I like using them, but until I can find that out... no way I'm paying 1.5x the subscription cost just to see.

And I'm sure some of you are saying "well tough, you don't get them!" and it's fine if that's how you feel about it, but that's not very customer-friendly. I have absolutely no issue whatsoever with paying for costume parts XP boosters and other fluff that are just nice-to-haves, but when it comes to powersets, I think it's just not fair to charge for them without being able to try them out first.

As it turns out, if you've got lots of paid time on your account, the answer to that question is "not much". As a premium subscriber, I'm only really limited by having fewer character slots, no access to the Incarnate stuff and I'm missing a few costume parts. While it's great they give so much for free to customers who have been loyal over the years, it's actually sort of rotten that my $15 gets me quite a bit less than someone who just started paying for a subscription. I should've checked first, but I resubbed specifically to try out the new power sets and instead found out that I had to purchase them in addition to paying the monthly fee. Severely disappointing.