Spatch

Not sure I'd reasonably describe my earlier post as criticizing. I went out of my way to point out her motives were unclear.

<shrug>

Giving them the finger is one thing, but not even owning a chequing account would fall under the Baby-Bathwater heading, IMO. Banks don't make money on a single service, basic personal chequing account customer.

Mind you, not sure what this person's motives might have been.

Yeah, I see it too. Doesn't bug me much, but I have noticed it.

Happy to help. Enjoy the gender bending!

Poor Bunny.

*gives Bunny a carrot*

The option will be available on ALL of the toons associated with the account to which you applied the Science Booster pack.

Also, note, only a specific tailor in the Icon store allows this change, the Cosmetic Surgeon. There's still the usual Icon tailors that allow for the usual costume changes. But you need to speak with the Cosmetic Surgeon for the gender/body-type change option.

I was thinking about the pre-paid Visa cards too, but seem to think I read something about restrictions regarding their use. I couldn't find any specific information after a search, though, so I can't say for certain.

In any case, if this is a particularily good friend of yours, as the other poster suggested, perhaps you could purchase her upgrade and ongoing time on your credit card, and simply have your friend pay you the cash. Not sure if your circumstances lend itself to this scenario, but the option is "out there".

A minor item but, yes, I agree. I was always ever-so-slightly puzzled that there was an option to disable/enable the pet window at all. It seems rather pointless to me.

Now, e-mail ... there's another story altogether.

You might want to avail yourself of the extensive support system on the NC web site.

To your questions:

1. Game Time Cards vs. Game Account Cards

2. Payments via money order

Cash and the internet don't mix well, unfortunately. I'd encourage your friend to open a chequing account. I can understand a variety of reasons why somebody would not carry a credit card, but honestly everybody in this day an age should have a basic chequing account.

IMO.

In a word: PayPal.

Helpful Link

Yikes, over two hours to do a Katie TF?

As stated by another poster, this is abnormal in the extreme.

My average Katie runs are around 35 minutes or so, and a good investment of time for 9 merits, IMO.

For the record, I like the concept of the AE system. I have personally made two arcs (see my sig), the long story in particular I spent a great deal of time on creating. Sadly, it has been played only 18 times since its creation shortly after I14 went live. What I dislike about the AE is how it is, IMO, being abused for PL'ing purposes.

To the specific points above:

1. I'm not against reducing AE xp from a philosophical standpoint, but it would need to be coupled with other measures. As it stands, even if AE xp were reduced to, for example, 50% of normal xp, a toon could still be PL'ed in fairly short order. Other measures would need to be implemented. For example, I like the suggestion made elsewhere, by others, to mandate custom groups MUST have equal amounts of minion, lt. and boss class critters. I think it's absurd that custom groups can be created that contain only bosses. Nowhere in the canon game does such a thing exist.

2. Regarding the auto-levelling feature of AE, I must agree in full. It's an absurd feature that needs removing. AE players should need to operate by the same sidekicking and exemplaring rules as those folks playing the regular game.

Just my 2 inf.

Odd. I simply re-linked my avatar from my photo bucket account when the new forums went live. Not sure why you might be having difficulties, but some of the other suggestions might be helpful.

I've seen this theory mentioned before, and I believe there is merit in it. The good folks at NC, who make such a great game, finally got another boxed version out on the shelves to drawn in new players. Sadly, I do believe there is truth to the theory that many of these new players:

1. Don't realize there is a game outside of the Mission Architect

or

2. If they realize there is an outside world, perhaps believe they don't have access to it (after all, "I only bought the AE edition.").

In either case, I agree the folks at NC marketing didn't optimize the opportunity presented by the first significant CoH retail shelf presence in almost 4 years.

This.

Another poster also mentioned that the PL-quotient of AE seems "tuned a bit high." I agree.

Also, that a whole slew of new players appear to have been drawn into the game, but aren't seeing the game beyond the MA suggests something is broken to me. Removing the AE building from starter zones might be an idea. Some of the anecdotal stories are truly shocking, like the level 50 tank who thinks a /regen scrapper was supposed to heal. Good grief.

The genie's out of the bottle though, and I'm not sure it can be stuffed back in. Not easily, anyways.

Yes, this generally describes my experience. I found the usual level of activity when I logged in, and don't believe I ever saw any deviation from the usual server loads (i.e. Freedom and Virtue at two yellow dots, all others at a single green dot). I didn't see any increase in terms of teaming activity, TFs, etc. Granted, this is just one man's experience, but I'd have to agree with the OP: from my point of view, this didn't feel like a usual 2XP weekend at all. Felt like any other day.

Ugh.

Is -this- what The Competition™ is doing? I can see what they are trying to achieve, but what a gawd awful way of going about it.

Never had a problem myself, in over 5 active years of playing this game, in coming up with an original name. I like the way CoX deals with names:

1. The "Check Name" function on the charactor selector screen
2. Ability to purchase a Rename token
3. Occasional purge of inactive names that meet certain criteria

1. Unlike you, I don't make a big deal out of the matter publically when I see any one of the following:

SuperGuy.
SuperGuy-
XxSuperGuyxX
Etc.

However, I do feel the player couldn't be bothered to make even the slightest of effort to come up with something original. So, yes, in that way I "look down" upon that player.

2. And, if you tell me you've never exercised any kind of judgement based on a superficial observation, at any point in your life, I'll call you a bald-faced liar. Throwing stones, glass houses, etc., etc.

Indeed, such a change would be fraught with problems I think. In over five years of playing this game, I've never had any material difficulty in coming up with unique and creative names. When difficulties do arise, the use of an online thesaurus has always solved the problem.

To the OP, do whatever floats your boat, so to speak. There is no rule per se you are breaking by adding a period, hyphen, whatever to the end of your name. Personally, when I see this in game, I tend to "look down" upon the player.

As am I.

This.

This.

And, this.