TrueMetal

Just want to add my voice to this. I really dislike pre-colored items like this.

Here's my feedback on this and a bit on pricing in general:

When I saw in beta that these costume powers were priced at 800pp I figured that you hadn't decided on a sensible price point for these yet and that the 800 figure was just a placeholder. What else could it be, right? The thought that you would consider these costume powers on even footing with full costume sets and flashy new power sets really never occurred to me.

When I saw that the prices hadn't changed on live I actually laughed, in a 'wow I can't believe they think this is a good idea' kind of way.

I'm not trying to be rude, but the whole idea of paying 800pp for just the ability to have some npc model replace my character really is THAT ridiculous to me. You can't even use it in combat for a good number of characters, because it doesn't play well with stealth powers and granite and such.

I'll pay 800pp for full costume sets and power sets (if I like them, obviously). A lot of work goes in those, it usually shows, and I get a lot of fun out of them, so I'll spend my cash on them. 800 points is the upper limit I'll pay for one 'item' that isn't a big swat of playable content (meaning an expansion.)

NPC costume powers don't come anywhere near that price point for me. You can't convince me that they require anywhere near the same amount of work as power sets or costume packs and I'm sure that I won't get anywhere near the same mount of fun out them. *Maybe* if the whole lot of them was bundled in one pack I'd pay that.

In my opinion a costume power is worth somewhere between the 50 and 80 points mark, certainly not more.

Actually it was. There were several posts over the past few months were people asked directly if they would get the points up front and they got a direct red name answer that that was the design. The last one being only a few days ago, iirc. (I'd provide a link or two, but due to the massive amount of red name posts of the past few days I'm having trouble locating the posts.

I like Galaxy Girl and her story. It is one of my favourite bits of Paragon history. But the place itself? No, I won't miss it. I never went there other than to get the exploration badges on 2 characters.

I'd "sacrifice" any of the old hazard zones in order to get some decent content in there. (Except the Hollows, that's okay as it is.) I'd rather they keep the original feel and theme of the zone intact when they do that of course.

As for current city zones. Peregrine Island. The poster child for generic blandness and dated design, and the most dissapointing end game zone in any game I've played. (Yes, I know it's not "end game" anymore) Say what you will about Grandville, but at least it's visually imposing.

My guess is that it is because of costume parts unlockable through vouchers and stuff. Personally I'd rather that they made it possible to use the Incarnate unlockable path aura's and such at character creation. Find a way to make those vouchers claimable in the costume creater. But this is an okayish work around. It's a lot better than running all the way to a tailer on a level 1. (Though that's not as bad as it used to be either.)

As for making sense, well, as far as my "in character" characters are concerned, those tailor functions at the trainers don't exist. And neither does changing titles or actually "training" at the trainers.

Yep. There's a video where he mentions it while on a fantasy authors panel. I believe it's of Comic Con 2009 or 2010. Should be on Youtube.

I'll bother, because it's fun to play there. I really don't get comments like this. :S People who like Praetoria will make characters in Praetoria.

Meh. You have a bit of a point here. Making tilesets is rather resource intensive though, and personally I'd rather they spend their art resources on other stuff than maps.

This is the basic gameplay of the game. I really don't see how they can change it without, well, turning it into another game.

I'd like to have seen a TF of sorts to round off the Praetorian content. I was rather disappointed to learn that there wasn't one, since I really expected it.

They added the zone events (which are rather fun imo and woefully underused). I really don't see what more they would add? You outlevel stuff as it is. You can run 4 characters through Praetoria and not repeat a single mission. (except Marauder) There's more stuff in Praetoria than in Coh and CoV lvl 1-20 combined. Asking more Praet content also clashes a bit with your next point.

I like Praetoria and certainly wouldn't call it weak and I'm sure many others feel the same. Not sure about the Well of the Furies bit, but we'll see where that goes.

This has me miffed. I can understand that some stuff (or a lot of stuff) that we've gotten over the past year(s) wasn't for you. But I really don't see how you can look at all the changes, the fulfilment of player requests, the future plans, and the obvious enthusiasm of our devs and then conclude that they've 'become complacent and lost their zeal'. Looking at your post (especially the bits about gameplay) I can't shake the impression that it is you who has lost his zeal for this game. (Not an accusation, it happens.)

As someone who spends about 90% of his time in game villainside I have to say that I have never encountered anything like this in any significant way. The only time I've ever had someone 'griefing' me by wiping out the mobs I was hunting was heroside in the Hollows.

So, they revamped a hero zone in a co-op zone and that somehow manages to be a 'kick in the teeth' for villains according to you.

What you're doing in the LGTF and the whole of the RWZ is fighting off an alien invasion. It's all pretty clear in the contact and mission texts. I can think of a number of good reasons why some of my villains would sign up for that. And with the few that wouldn't, well, I simply don't put them through the RWZ.

As far as the NPC's go: You're taking Penny away from the Rikti because they're using her as a super charged psychic battery to open an interdimensional portal to their homeworld, which would be bad for earth. Since you joined the Vanguard and their war to stop the Rikti, that seems a pretty obvious thing to do. Noone's helping the Clockwork king, not even the heroes, he's just a chum that gets in the way and needs to get flattened. Hero 1, my villains don't save him, they beat the crap out of him and leave the heroes to do as they see fit with the leftovers as it doesn't concern them. Fusionette isn't actually in the LGTF, but in the arcs she's actually there to help you. That's the idea anyway. You can always get her killed or completely ignore her as you see fit.

People's rigid lack of imagination with these sorts of things always annoys me.

Yes, damn antibiotics and indoor plumbing! Not to mention art and music! Worst things ever!

Founders Falls has it's charms. Dark Astoria has ... fog. Yay. Underneath that it's just the same generic, bland, boring, uninteresting, incoherent cityscape that is shared by all the city zones. The Rogue Isles may be dinky but at least they have character. (The CoH hazard zones are actually quite interesting imo, but besides your initial exploration/badge hunt and a random out of the way mission every now and then, why would spend any time there?)

You seen any photos of Tripoli? Old Soviet cities? You'll notice that the public places and government buildings are all big and imposing, like in Grandville, but once you enter the parts inhabited by the regular population it deteriorates fast, like in Grandville.

I think that Grandville functions pretty well as the "Seat of Power" of a ruthless comic book dictator, especially an anarchist like Recluse.

It's more like 40/40/20 if you count in those pesky Praetorians!

The fact of the matter is that the tech used in Paragon City has already fallen behind the tech used in the Rogue Isles. Atlas and 70% of all hero zones are far more in need of update than the Isles.

The same goes for the old original hero content vs the orginal villain content. The villain stuff outstrips the old hero stuff by leagues and bounds for the most part. Yes, there's the issue of feeling like a lacky. But the quality of the stories and the actual missions (in terms of variety and fun) are superior to most of the original blueside stuff.

So, this villain player is happy with the attention to original game is getting. Maybe now I'll actually play through that stuff more than once.

I agree and you can add the Mortimer Kall SF to that list. I really enjoy those newer arcs and appreciate the effort the devs have put in to deal with this particular player complaint.

The reactor is the most dreadfully boring waste of time blue side. And that's saying something. I don't think I've ever been on a failed treespec, maybe one or two when I just started, but I can't actually recall any.

I regularly do the redside SFs for fun, the blueside TFs are only run once per character for the badges. (Except the new Posi x2 and Statesman, I like those.) The old blueside trials I actually like though (Hollows, Sewer, Eden) I wish redside had some more stuff like that.

And now I'm on the subject, I wish they changed the Sewer and Eden trials to the 38-50 level range. I think they would be run a lot more that way.

On Union the Keep em separated is the standard tactic, mainly because of the extra merit. Noone uses the tennis courts. I've been on a number of PuG BAF runs where we got the Mo badge when we weren't even trying. I was really surprised to learn that Virtue ( the only 'American' server I have experience with) uses the tennis courts as the standard tactic.

Not that that detracts anything from your experiences and points. Just a random comment.

Why? I've never actually seen it be a major problem to someone. All it does is 'force' people to spread out. Something I kinda like. Anything that encourages people to deviate from the standard, stationary 'tank and spank' AV 'tactics' is a plus in my book. It's why I LOVE the Keyes and Apex end battles.

Exactly. If I have to choose between refilling my supply of greens/purples and being stuck for another 30 seconds or going now with an empty inspiration tray, I'm going now. Nobody likes being left out of the fight.