ScottyB

This needs a bump. I've updated the opening post. There are more questions (and doubts) coming up about what packs contain, as well as other issues that will impair trust in the store.

FWIW, there was acknowledgement of this request a couple months ago:

I'd be for getting rid of DOs, if SOs could be slotted by any character but at 50% effectiveness (the effectiveness of a DO) when slotted by a character other than the matching origin.

I think training enhancements should actually be used for training in the workings of the enhancement system; they should be extremely cheap, so that players can experiment and see how their character performs with different aspects enhanced. Another idea I've had is that from levels 1 through 10 you should be able to right-click an enhancement slot and buy/upgrade a training enhancement for that slot, right there on the enhancement screen.

I'm curious as to whether or not the folks in this thread would find this suggestion more palatable.

Basically, if the first inventory expansion in a series (1 of 5) cost 400 points, would that soften the blow of subsequent expansions (2 of 5, etc.) costing 800 or more points? That if you could "test the waters" with your monthly VIP points, would it make you more willing to spend more on additional expansion beyond that?

One of the somewhat bothersome things in the store is that storage increases are "1 of 5" or "1 of 2" and "2 of 5", "2 of 2" - they're all separate items, instead of being able to buy quantities of them with a limit.

However, you could use this to your advantage: make a player comfortable with using the store by having the first in a series of expansions be significantly cheaper than the rest. 400 points seems like a good number - a VIP player can make one of those purchases each month. It gets them invested, and familiarizes them with the store, while allowing them to see their VIP subscription's value. Now that they've made a 400 point purchase if they want something else (lets say, Auction 1 of 5 and Enhancements 1 of 2) then they might be more comfortable spending an extra $5. Eventually (by waiting a month or otherwise) they'll go through the things that are 400 points, and the next purchases they can make (2 of 2 or 2 of 5 and so on) will cost more. But they'll be less apprehensive of the higher cost because they can already justify to themselves a value for what they're buying. "I know how great it was to have extra salvage space; getting more will be worth it!"

Currently the only "big" items in the store that can be purchased on a single month's points are the costume bundles, and that only appeals to players who value lots of costume pieces. (I'd even go further to say that most players will buy the pieces individually through the tailor as they find a use for them.) Thus you're only hooking a specific player demographic. By having more "big" items at (or even below) 400 points you can draw in more consumers with diverse interests, and by using the store quirk of listing inventory expansions as separate items you still have higher-priced items. In that situation, I'd say everybody wins!

There's no Issue 21 feedback forum and I no longer remember what I'd mentioned in the beta forums, so over in I21 Bugs I made a thread about the store failing to describe what a bundle includes: link

While I think I stated three good enough reasons for the store to be accurate/descriptive, any suggestions to improve my argument would be appreciated.

Update: The store now declares the total number of pieces it includes, and a disclaimer about lack of auras, emotes and powers. This is an important step, and I'm glad this issue was given the attention it needed. I still hope to see the store fully leverage its potential and be more than just adequate - there is always room for improvement.

There the current store item descriptions are the same whether you open that item on its own page or look at it in the list. There is no reason to be able to click on an item to load its own page if that page has no additional information. The "detailed info" page should list the specific parts, while the summary has the number of parts. The disclaimer can be "Click the icon to the left for a list of the specific pieces" - which is much more encouraging than stating the pack doesn't contain something. The current disclaimer is necessary because the number of parts doesn't indicate what the parts are, but if that issue can be rectified then the bundles can be given a better sales pitch.

It's nice to see improvements within a week or so of their need becoming apparent. Thank you.

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Original post is below for record's sake:

Costume bundles should clearly name what pieces are included. Apparently none of the bundles include auras, which many players consider to be costume pieces, leading to confusion. Some bundles do not include back details. (I believe it was reported that the Steampunk costume bundle doesn't include the wings or backpack?) If the item description clearly listed what it included then there would be no (legitimate) confusion.

There are no official means of determining what a bundle includes, so it's a mystery purchase. That will diminish faith in the store and discourage future purchases; whereas being up-front about what a bundle includes protects the seller, informs the buyer, and prevents misinformation.

Edit 1: Examples of this issue!

In this thread the Origins bundle is being reported as broken. Is it? There's no way for us to tell because we have no idea what the Origins bundle is supposed to include. However, customer service now has to deal with something that may or may not actually be a bug.

Another thread is a question about what's actually in a pack. The original poster replied, post 14, that if someone had told him it didn't include a what it turns out it didn't include he wouldn't have bought it. Building upon that logic, it's possible for rumors to spread about what a pack does or does not contain, and there is no static official source to dispute what we claim about store items. Potential customers may be discouraged from buying something based on hearsay. Sure, you could reply with corrections on a case-by-case basis, but that takes up an employee's time and that information is lost as the thread gets pushed back a page.

Have someone spend the time today to create adequate store descriptions, or more time will be wasted (and sales may be lost) until you do.

Edit 2:

This person is unwilling to buy a bundle until they know what the bundle contains.

There are also reports of support requests being filed over confusion as to what the un-described bundles contain. This should not be taking up support's time!

On the subject of things that shouldn't be taking up support's time: people are filing support requests because they can't see what they spent their points on. By that I mean, there aren't any clearly-visible receipts or purchase logs. The account info only shows purchases of point bundles, but not the spending of points on store items. There needs to be some clearly-marked page for looking at this. I know from reading the forums that there's a /mypurchases command - which dumps a blob of text into the chat window. But a player who's never looked at the forums and is checking out City of Heroes for the first time needs to be able to use the store without special training. (If the /mypurchases thing is explained somewhere in the UI of the store, here's the problem: people filter out information that doesn't look like what they're looking for. If people are looking for a button or a link then they won't look at text even if it's relevant.)

When I have the time I'll make a more comprehensive list of store issue threads. What I've selected here are merely the most obvious and relevant to this thread. (Small note: It's been a few days since I mentioned this. I still intend to do it, but I want to make sure I can make some sort of constructive suggestion based on the issues I compile. And some of them, like the one prompting this thread, have been partially addressed.)

Agreed. I can't remember if it was this way in Beta or not, but after the update I spent a minute staring at the screen trying to figure out which button to press to start playing my character. It used to say "Enter [Paragon City/the Rogue Isles/Praetoria]" but I'd be happy with "Play" instead of "Next".

Now that I type this out, it feels like I might have already suggested this during beta, actually.

One of the things I noticed about the new tutorial was that it doesn't introduce enhancements. So, instead of having Numina sell us a free badge I think she should have us to buy a free enhancement (an Account Item so it can only be bought once - which will also double as teaching us about email!) If possible, claiming the enhancement could award the Knowledgeable badge.

The old tutorial gave a pair of damage training enhancements, but adding in an explanation about combining might be bit much in comparison to the pace of the rest of the new tutorial. So a single level 5 damage training enhancement would probably be simplest.

Anyone else think the store in the tutorial would be better if it actually gave your character something useful and taught you to use a feature other than (just) the store?

When I entered the finale the Giant Shivan was already damaged, at like 2/5. I helped finish it off and the other player was teleported but not me.

I fought off the shivans and the Giant Shivan again and it properly teleported me.

I'm not sure why I had to do it twice. On the bright side, I've run half a dozen characters through the new tutorial and this is the first time it's happened (to me, at least).

For all the little (and even not-so-little) things that have made this a bumpy ride, the overall experience has been worth it. Good job, to all the rednames.

Please add a warning to wait at least a minute (a real minute) between changing your password and trying to log in. Almost burned my login attempts.

It's not an instantaneous fix, but it worked. Thanks!

While others have pointed this out, I want to be thorough with specific links:

According to the Library of Congress, the last status of the Consumer Internet Privacy Protection Act was "referred to House subcommittee" [link] . There are no records of it being signed into law. In fact, the House never passed it and it was never even looked at by the Senate [link].

The Data Privacy Act had a similar fate. Last staus: House committee hearings held [link]. Its only action was to be discussed in committee by the House of Representatives, never voted on and thus never passed [link].

There are no Library of Congress records of an Internet Privacy Act. If it did exist, it would be a simple matter of looking it up. The IPA is commonly cited as "code 431.322.12" but this is not the way one refers to a federal law or code. Additionally, the first component of a U.S. Code citatation - the title - is numbered 1 through 50. There is no title 431. If one can produce a valid U.S. Code (or heck, a bill name that does exist in the LoC database) others can look it up and confirm its existence and history.

It's not about the badge, it's about being in a decommissioned zone. The last people to be able to log in to it.

Perhaps I was a little unclear... if you make a character on Live and log out in Outbreak, then copy them to Beta, that character is still in Outbreak. The zone still exists, it's just that new characters can't access it. That's what this is about. After Freedom goes live and new characters go to the new tutorial, we log in to our characters made today in Oubreak.

Also:

Anyone else on Justice parking a toon or two in the Outbreak and Breakout tutorials?

Maybe we can get together after Freedom and beat up contaminated one last time.