SlackTech

Oh, I agree, and I apologise if my post was overly terse. I did not mean to demean your point, or cause angst.

This is why I'm glad I'm not on the dev payroll. Just how much of the chocolate shop should F2P get access to? This is a very complex (and emotive for some) issue, and I think the VIP only part of the shop will start from a different point depending on which customer (or staff, member, possibly) you ask.

'Rainbow Blast set - only 2000 Paragon Points!'

Before I start my rant, I want to congratulate you on the above - it always amuses me that people find the villain content to be 'dark' or 'disturbing' or some such.... apart from a few exceptions (including some tip missions), the writing of the content is fairly tame, and certainly little 'darker' than hero-side. If I bash Freaks in GV to get a valuable client out of an office building, or I bash Freaks in PI to get a scientist out of an office building, I see little difference. However, I don't role play and, while I appreciate the subtle nuances, the process is basically the same. Most of the time (as said before, there is some villainous writing in the game), it's the player who attaches morality and emotion to a virtual play experience, not the devs.

This thread has much of the same themes as any other thread of this type (including the usual suspects coming in as CoH's official PR person and explaining why hero is 'good' and villain is 'bad').

I'm not going to repeat myself (search posts under my name and you'll see more than one that concerns this topic), but, unlike some would like to believe, 'bigger' is not always 'better'. Which 'side' to play on is an extremely personal choice, but more often than not influenced by external factors, such as;

• The perception of probabilty of finding a team available
• The perception of probabilty of a SG being available and/or active
• (For some) the probabilty to be farmed
• Play preference ('I don't want a dmg/support character to play - I want a Blaster so I can deal damage so I can complete the dmg/healer/tank magic three')
• Content preference ('I want shiny buildings!')

etc.

As others have said, it's a catch 22 situation, exacerbated by some people (who I often muse must be paid by NCSoft or the Paragon City government) to counter anything that alludes to villain content with negative comments. Basically, it's all about perception and culture, and I don't think Freedom is going to change that much (the only thing that is that the F2P people will be able to create 2 traditionally villain a/t and send them to Paragon immediately, instead of having to wait 20 levels).

As I've said before, I can tolerate the progressive invisibility of CoV as long as some dev resources are spent on Villain content (e.g. if a new TF that isn't co-op is introduced, I would like a new SF as well, as was done with Morty). I understand that, from a cost-benefit perspective, dev resources are always better spent on Co-op content, or re-doing the old TFs and old hero zones (these are truly needed for those that prefer to play blue-side), but as long as some parity is maintained I'll keep playing the game.

Sorry if I've thread-jacked - it wasn't my intention...

I agree. For the trials, the level shift makes the experience much nicer. I am pleased that a lot more choices were added, and look forward to when the remainder are added (Primal Clock, CoT, etc).

Instead of part-time and casual heroes?

Doesn't bother me, whichever I create will almost certainly be villains... which I guess (continuing the bad pun) is considered a 'full time' vllain

For what it's worth, my complaint was driven by my incorrect interpretation of the patch notes. As soon as I realised that I was wrong (which took a while - I can be thick sometimes), I questioned why people would spend a heap of salvage and inf on something they can get by spending 30-90 mins in a TF/SF (and get merits and drops along the way).

I actually don't really have much issue with the new costs for conversion. i think they're approaching something akin to reasonable now. However, if a person works and has kids and can only play 4-8 hours a week, and wants to deck out multiple characters with incarnate stuff, I can see how they'd perceive the incarnate trials and associated salvage a grind and, if they have to convert to make higher tier salvage, very costly.

Each person plays their own way according to their life and its demands. They are entitled to express how they feel and how they perceive their game experience. It doesn't mean anyone else will agree or understand it.

Agree completely.

Once again, thank you for being so diligent and patient correcting me - I certainly appreciate your willingness to clarify my incorrect interpretation

I feel foolish, but extremely glad I was wrong.

40 Incarnate Shards + Drop of the Well + Incarnate Infused Nictus + Infinite Tesselation + Vanguard DNA Metamatrix

-> Notice of the Well

Why in jeebus name would someone do the above, instead of just running a WST (if the point is to get a Notice)??? It's not as if getting on a WST team is difficult most times (and I play off-peak mostly)....

However, thank you for your clarification. It's much appreciated (not having access to the game is rather painful in these situations!!)

I hate to be argumentative (and I may end up with egg on my face), but I disagree.

This is the section in question;




Incarnate Conversion

• Inf costs for Incarnate System conversions have been reduced
  • Notice of the Well Conversion now costs 12.5 mil
  • 10 Shards -> 10 Threads Conversion now costs 1 mil
  • 10 Shards -> 5 Threads Conversion now has no Inf cost
  • Incarnate XP Conversion now costs 1 mil
  • Incarnate Rare Conversion now costs 25 mil
  • Incarnate Very Rare Conversion now costs 100 mil

To me, this is simply costs of the

• shard/Notice -> threads; or
• threads -> ixp; or
• threads -> Rare/Very Rare component

All conversion costs, except Notice -> threads have been decreased significantly. Notice -> Threads, since the ability to convert were introduced, were free. These patch notes seem to change that to 12.5 Million.

Am I wrong??

I realised my last reply was rushed and may have been patronising, so let me put it another way - I understand your argument (along the lines of 'history books are always written (or re-written) by the victors'. I agree with this in principle (e.g. a Sydney local government administration has recently been in deep debate about whether British arrival in Australia was 'colonisation' or 'invasion' - their policy now uses the latter term).

However, this is written by Paragon Studios staff. It's not a case of someone anti-Cole writing this piece, therefore that bias shouldn't come into it. In other words, motive or perceived motivations or morality shouldn't be influencing whether 'villains' as a group term are or are not mentioned in the patch notes.

I think, ultimately, you and I (and a large percentage of the player base) will disagree on this point, but invisibility often equals death in the long term. I would hate to see this for the 'City of Villain' brand.

I'm doing it for the inf, drops and other rewards. Unless it's the damsel in distress in the Keyes Trial that's writing these things, I don't agree with your argument in this situation (However, I do understand your argument).

I'll be checking this out tonight, but the person I quoted was obviously reading from http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/pat...scend_liv.html, which does say it now costs 12.5 million (but also, inaccurately says, "Inf costs for Incarnate System conversions have been reduced ", which is true, except for the 12.5 million stated increase for this).

If this has been missed, and it's still free when I log on tonight, I'll be converting my NoTW on each character that already has T3 or T4 alpha - I'd rather the threads to convert to commons than a Notice I can do little else with.

Thanks for the update

I really must have missed this is in the open beta info - if I had known about it, I would have converted all my Notices last night. Now, I won't - I don't want to contribute that much inf to the great ether that is the Bank of X.

I would REALLY like this change to be reversed, but I doubt that will happen. I will echo this in a more appropriate forum (e.g. suggestions) so that hopefully a red-name will look at it (not saying they'll reverse the change, but at least I won't be whinging and doing nothing about it).

The tailors in Praetoria use a spatial discombobulator to throw you out of sync with the public. Your modesty is intact, good citizen!

<Sponsored by Emporer Cole>

I'm glad you bought this up, Gecko, as it was one of the things I noticed, too. I love that there's not even an attempt now to include CoV in PR graphics or, apart from mentioning some key words (e.g. 'Mercy Island'), in text.

I apologise to those who've read my previous rantings on this subject. And, yes, I'm aware that I have the choice to quit the game if I don't like what Paragon Studios are doing with thier IP, but I won't, as that would be foolish. I would only do this if they cut resources to villain-side (e.g. a new TF without a new SF (not counting co-op content, which obviously is accessible to all characters)).

Much like the branding of the game, it's now all a matter of perception. The cynic in me says that the PR department has more power than Statesman and Recluse combined.

Hmmm, maybe PR is the Well's new and most effective champion??

Except that I'm sure they made mention in the announcement that this has been in the works for a year

(inserted the smiley as I assume you're being flippant)