lionheart_fr

You realize, of course, that the only reason you can read that is because you have already learned the words and/or grammar correctly and your mind is automatically reordering them properly? If you didn't know the words and their proper usage, it would make no sense at all.

My wife and I just celebrated our 21st anniversary a couple of weeks ago. That's not lucky, it's blessed.

I guess. I spotted it the first time I read it. Didn't seem hidden to me.

I also read the chart the Paragon included in advance to let everyone know *exactly* what would be included in each option. No one should have been surprised at the outcome.

And it never made it into the purchased content so it was not part Going Rogue. Intentions are not product, only what makes the final cut is.

/thread.

Read the quote you posted again. It does not say "Everything you already purchased." It says "nearly" everything.

If the i18 vs. i19 comment earlier was accurate, then purchasing GR did not include the Incarnate system anyway.

Premium players should have expected significant things being held back, for a couple of reasons: 1) it's reasonable; they can't just give the whole game away for free, and 2) the grid provided well in advance tells them exactly what to expect. If they didn't do their research, that's their own fault.

If you want everything, subscribe. It you want a more limited subset (but not nearly as limited as F2P), go premium.

They could have skipped the premium tier altogether, which would have been *severely* limiting. I'm glad they didn't. I got to play CoH with my brother last night for the first time in a couple of years because the premium option is there.

I sincerely hope they don't go through with that notion. It makes no sense at all; titles such as King, Captain, and so forth are a significant part of the superhero genre.

If they truly do decide to do this, I hope they at least can provide a logical reason for that decision. Something beyond the iconic heroes being offended by the idea of the lesser mortals claiming titles.

Most of the best story arcs I've played have not been dev's choice.

I bounce around the search, often choosing missions that have zero plays. But I try to hit various ratings and high/medium/low number of plays. I also keep a log of those missions I enjoyed, so I can go back to them again on another character later or with my family when we're running together (I'm often the initial play tester to find said arcs ).

This forum is invaluable for finding arcs as well. Many thanks to those who have taken the time to discuss and list arcs they enjoy.

To me the value of the VIP server is twelve more free character slots. Altitis is a wonderful thing.

None of my characters are moving; only new ones will be made.

You, sir, win the thread.

When I write an arc, I know that I will play them. So will my wife and daughter and any friends/family that play CoH. Beyond that, anything else is extra. I hope people will find my arcs and enjoy them immensely, but I'm not concerned about getting ratings/tickets.

I write what I enjoy playing. To me, that's the greatest thing about AE. If one of my characters hits a point where I'm not interested in the available contacts, I can play my own mission line or play story missions from other players (thanks to those of you who post about good story-based missions). I also tend to search for missions with no stars or few plays just to give them a shot.

So "why should I bother to put forth the effort"? Because it's fun. If it's not fun, there's no point in doing it, regardless of the number of plays/stars it receives.

Which is great in concept, but doesn't help those who only have one credit card by design.

That would be a great marketing opportunity for them. It'll be interesting to see how they decide to handle it. The OP does raise a good point; your suggestion would go a long way to addressing that concern.

Unfortunately this will be a deterrent to some potential premium players, especially in light of the fact that at least one other hybrid game (LOTRO) gave both premium and F2P (I believe) two slots per server.

Now CoH -- with 15 servers -- is only offering returning players who go premium two total (plus whatever unlocks, etc).

I know one former player who wants to get back in but can't afford it at the moment. If there were two slots per server, he'd be in like a shot. With all the alts he has (he's been here since beta), the current limitation weakens the idea for him. He is more than aware that it will -- and should -- be limited. This just seems a little too limited. Even one per server (plus unlocks, vet) might do the job.

Paragon has a careful balancing act to do. They want subscribers, but in order to entice former players back as premiums, they've got to make it attractive without giving away too much. I don't envy them in this regard.

I hope not. $10 for a power set seems a little steep to me. That is really the upper end of anything I am willing to pay on a store item. I'm with others in hoping that they are no more than 400 points.

It's a tough call.

One small area of disappointment I have is that it seems like there will be no way to earn points in game (in small increments like LOTRO). The only two options seem to be VIP monthly points and purchasing them. It's not a gamebreaker by any stretch, just something I was hoping for.

Yeah, I did end up putting a few players on ignore (which I rarely do) early on.

CoH has a great opportunity here to learn from how Turbine and others handled their implementation. They can avoid some of the pitfalls, although I'm sure they'll find some of their own.

Overall, I'm excited by CoH:F as it is currently described, and will go into it with high hopes. I won't, however, blind myself to the potential for problems.

Thank you for prefacing this by acknowledging that it is personal opinion. I'll apply the same acknowlegement to the following comments as well:

To the best of my knowledge, VIP accounts were not "dropping like flies." Some dropped, but there was by no means a mass exodus. Neither I nor anyone I know in game moved to 50+ zones; I've got characters new and old, in low and high level ranges on 11 servers and have never felt the need to avoid specific zones during the transition.

While I certainly saw awful chat spam in the earliest days, it really wasn't any worse than launch or expansion releases.* There were new players that were serious troublemakers, but there were almost as many vets skewering newbs (not n00bs) for asking the same types of questions we all asked when we first started playing. Not all n00bs were new players.

I find LOTRO just about as friendly and happy now as I have since the beginning (Founder, earliest alpha member). There were definitely some speed bumps for a little while, but nothing to cause panic or make me not want to log in. As you noted, Turbine responded pretty quickly to harassment reports and nipped much of the drama in the bud. Hopefully that too is something Paragon has been watching.

The overwhelming majority of new players I've had any dealings with have been very pleasant. There was no massive horde of savages washing over the servers, just a few bad apples here and there.

Sometimes I think the few significant instances of problems get blown 'way out of proportion to reality because some players expected the worst, so they saw it -- whether it was really that bad all around or not (my experience says not). YMMV, but my advice to CoH/V players is to go into this with an overall positive attitude, while realizing there will be some bumps in the road. It will make for a much smoother transition and better experience for all of us.

*NOTE: I don't have OOC chat on, but turned that off at launch and never looked back.

I hadn't seen that. So much for my logic, although I like it a lot better than this scenario.

However, what about players that have full servers and want to simply unlock their existing characters?

Edit: That's now been answered too.

(post edited by Lionheart_fr to avoid confusion for future readers. The logic was sound -- but apparently not the way it really works. )

No, we are not getting 12 more slots; we already have 12 slots on every server (I think that's what the devs are saying). VIPs start with 12 slots per server just like we do now, plus whatever veteran rewards, purchases, and unlocks we've received.

If you use 10 slots to unlock more on Virtue (which you have filled), you are electing to unlock access to your other characters that are already on the server, not 10 new slots in addition to the original 36. If you want to use them for new characters, you'll need to unlock them on a different server that you haven't filled up yet.

At least I believe this is what they are saying.

That wasn't two, that was two *per server*, if I recall. I think it would be a mistake to take those away since GvE/CoV was also purchased.