tidalwave008

the fun part is the stupid images are slow to update, so if someone was able to see it 15 seconds after, you know it was claimed in 2 to 4, so what the heck. <_<

I just wanna know what time I can buy it, cause this isn't fun to me, it's stressful and disappointing, and I can easily see where one person with multiply accounts or helping his/her friends can get all the codes. The only honest chance I'd have to get this is to buy it, so please, how about a little bit more info on that.

then how come the image won't change?

ok, so somehow ya'll think that if you let us pay for a random roll with merits, we'll take it and put it on the market for people to buy....I don't buy it. Let me ask you this. Why would I spend 20 to 60 million on a recipe on the market when all I have to do is do a couple of different TF's and BUY what I want from a vender strait up? Buying a random roll would be a waste of merits and I can't see someone really wanting buy recipes from the market when it's easier to get merits thanks to this new system. This is really one of the many factors in inflation on the market when i13 comes in. players and SG's will be fighting for Salvage and no one will wanna pay the huge prices on recipes, they will dry up and no one will want to waste merits on random rolls when they won't be able to sell them for high, they'll have to turn to salvage.

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Just a couple more answers for now. I'll continue to keep an eye on this thread and threads in the base forums and elsewhere.

Plasmastream asked:

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Q. Are you guys aware of the general view point on your movement to the new invention system?


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Extremely

We are in fact watching this very closely, and looking at options to improve it.

The Rent payment system is also being looked at closely as well.

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Q. It's understood there are 3 seperate building communities, PVP Base Raiders, Casual Raiders and DEAR GOD KEEP PVP AWAY FROM MY BASE!! correct?


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Yes.


Mad Scientist asked:

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The secure and hidden plots have the same prices for the same sizes. Bug? or can you give us insight into a design goal?


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Good question. This relates to the original goal of the base repricing, which was giving players access to make better raidable bases.

The smaller Secure plots are the same price, however the larger secure plots are more expensive. To make it official, this is what the correct prices are supposed to be: (I've seen them posted around the forums already.)

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Hidden base costs:

Size Cost
8x12 84,500
12x12 312,500
12x16 722,000
16x16 1,250,000
16x20 1,984,500
20x20 2,812,500
20x24 3,872,000
24x24 5,000,000
24x28 6,384,500


Secure base costs

Size Cost
12x16 722,000
16x16 1,250,000
16x20 1,984,500
20x20 2,812,500
20x24 5,000,000
24x24 7,812,500
24x28 11,250,000
</pre><hr />

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Welcome SunStorm! My SG's maybe able to give a tour as well, though they aren't all much to look at.

Also, here's a crazy idea. Make only two recipes for each empowerment and each base item...one that uses the cheapest all around invention salvage and one that uses the current base salvage. Not only does this add more options and lets those "confused" with base salvage use invention salvage...it could lessen the impact on the market to release dual builds and lower the amount of special recipes on the market (which you are doing at the same time as making bases depend on Invention salvage) and hopefully lessen the coming inflation. Cause really, I see no real reason to change it from the way it is. You could change text or add text about base salvage to the tutorial like you did for invention salvage quicker and easier that this change without upsetting the market or the player base.

Also if the original system really is too "confusing" to use, then change the drops. Discontinue the drops of all base salvage and replace it with component drops and special base salvage drops (Demon hearts and Aeon tech, used in certain base item crafting) only. Old base salvage can be turned into components til it's gone and with us getting the base salvage needed for base item crafting I.E., the components, straight from drops would in most cases cut out a big step in the process simplifying it greatly.

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It'd require more than just walking animations. What'd happen if you were 'walking' and you got hit with Speed Boost? Siphon Speed? Were standing on Caltrops? Had Granite+Rooted activated? Super Jump? Intertial Reduction?

BaBs doesn't want to have you running at super speeds while using the walking animation, nor walking while slowed to the point where you're practically just standing in place. There's a lot of issues that made BaB say it's not so simple as just making new animations.

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To add walking into the game we're looking at anywhere from 15 to 75 animations. That would get us a single 'style' of walking for the male, female, and huge player models. Doubtful that we'd ever be able to create a single walk animation that would make everyone happy...based on the mixed feedback about flight poses and the new hover animations.

We're not opposed to adding walking into the game...it's just really hard to prioritize it over so many other things that require animation time.

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I know it's dumb to say, but I heard a rumor that the reason we don't get walking is because all our movement is really Teleporting, and the client just adds the animation to our estimated destination, which also explains when you get pulled back while Super Jumping, and that we can't have walking because we couldn't "teleport" in such small distances. Is that how it works, is movement really TPing? And if so how do you explain NPC's able to walk around like the Plaza of Portal Corp.?

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You, there. Stop making string theory look smart!

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o.O

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It'd require more than just walking animations. What'd happen if you were 'walking' and you got hit with Speed Boost? Siphon Speed? Were standing on Caltrops? Had Granite+Rooted activated? Super Jump? Intertial Reduction?

BaBs doesn't want to have you running at super speeds while using the walking animation, nor walking while slowed to the point where you're practically just standing in place. There's a lot of issues that made BaB say it's not so simple as just making new animations.

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To add walking into the game we're looking at anywhere from 15 to 75 animations. That would get us a single 'style' of walking for the male, female, and huge player models. Doubtful that we'd ever be able to create a single walk animation that would make everyone happy...based on the mixed feedback about flight poses and the new hover animations.

We're not opposed to adding walking into the game...it's just really hard to prioritize it over so many other things that require animation time.

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I know it's dumb to say, but I heard a rumor that the reason we don't get walking is because all our movement is really Teleporting, and the client just adds the animation to our estimated destination, which also explains when you get pulled back while Super Jumping, and that we can't have walking because we couldn't "teleport" in such small distances. Is that how it works, is movement really TPing? And if so how do you explain NPC's able to walk around like the Plaza of Portal Corp.?

Base Repricing

1) My SG's are pretty small and this will now give us a chance to actually make larger, cooler, and more useful bases faster and easier.

2) In some cases I will, others I'll have to bite the bullet, even more so for items that must be reinvented with invention salvage.

3) Since my bases are small, it wouldn't take long, but would still take planning. Any slow down in the process would be caused by gaining invention salvage for anything I have to delete, when taking inflation into effect.

4) I see many new starting SG's having a real chance to be useful to other players, there by increasing the chance of getting membership. My only negative concern is some rooms going up in price for no reason I can think of, like the decorative rooms, which are mostly useless in the long run and before they were ALL the same price, they should have been lowered and kept the same price.

5) I've had a SG and base I've been working hard for two years to make useful with Teleporters and the like, so with this change I can improve it more and faster than ever before, as well as making (for long term use) future expansions actually possible and finally a likely happening.

Base Salvage Exchange to Invention Salvage

1) The negative effect I see is the likely inflation of prices on the market and now more need of invention salvage this will bring. Making Players fight SG's for invention salvage will slow my expansion, based on if I can actually get or afford invention salvage when before I would have been prepared and had an equal chance.

2)I can't really see it having a positive effect as we've already understood the process of base salvage and it wasn't hard to get, but now invention salvage will be spread pretty thin and it's going to be hard to get members to part with it rather than invent powerful IO's.

3) I hope it won't take long.

4) I see huge inflation in the market and stress between members of SG's and each individual player. To be clear, players have always used invention salvage to make IO's but NOW not only are you opening dual builds at the same time, letting each character anyone can have/make have up to two full builds of IO sets, BUT you are also asking SG's to use this making this strain even worse and with the possible lack of pool C and D's going in the market (due to the merit change) Salvage will likely be the way to go in making money, there by keeping prices high for a very long time and it seems that was never thought of as a possibility since this is all happening at the same time instead of one per issue.

5) I'm not so concerned that our members will steal from the base as we are all friends, but I can see it a likely side effect. The price increases will help drive this greed to take place and may even cause some SG's to keep storage (which can't have permissions individually) to cut off low members to protect themselves.


Additional Notes: It seems to me that beside some strange room price hikes, which will affect those of us who love making big fancy rooms, that the idea of using Invention salvage for bases was a strange and unnecessary idea. If the change was needed to clear confusion for new players, then better in-game messages and/or mention of base salvage in the tutorial would have been an easier and quite simpler idea than the current idea. I also can't see any need for three recipes for each item for a base, if I could make something with cheap easy salvage, you can bet I'd never use a rare salvage instead. Also if it's meant to simplify the system adding more than one recipe per item might only cause more confusion for new players.

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I hope you plan to make that cape available at lvl 1 like you did for the aura's, since no matter how you slice it people will be paying for this content, whether they bought the box set or the pieces separate in early 2009.

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Good call, with lessons learned from the Cyborg Pack (and Vet Rewards to a lesser extent).

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Very true, and with that in mind they might wanna think of the old bought capes too, if they decide to do it with this cape. Though I don't see why they'd only do it for aura's and not cape's like this too. It's all just character effects after all, right?

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1) Will non-mac users be given access to the bonus power and costume in the future.

2) How will this affect people who have macs and already have accounts? (I dont have a Mac, I'm just wondering)

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Yes, just like the Good vs. Evil edition of the game, the Macintosh version will include some special in-game items, including:
<ul type="square">[*]Mission Teleporter Power - Players can save time and get right into the action by teleporting directly to their active mission.
[*]Exclusive Valkyrie Costume set - Costume pieces include two varieties of wings, a cape, a skirt/kilt, pants, boots, shoulders, chest, gloves, belts, and helmet with multiple details.[/list]These items will be available separately for purchase in early 2009 for customers who are not playing on a Mac. We’ll have further details of these exciting options, including screenshots, in the near future.

We'll have the above posted in a separate forum announcement, along with information about the closed beta test of the Mac version, shortly.

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I hope you plan to make that cape available at lvl 1 like you did for the aura's, since no matter how you slice it people will be paying for this content, whether they bought the box set or the pieces separate in early 2009.

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What powersets are you talking about? The only power available in the pack is the Self-Destrut temp/perm power. I doubt very seriously they will ever have a powerset via Booster Pack. Temps, yes. Sets, no.

[/ QUOTE ]Not sure what you mean by that. What I meant was that the Cyborg powerset(ability to play as Cyborg) isnt available to those that didnt/wont buy the pack. At least, Im not seeing that as an option, though I certainly dont expect to see it, not having bought he booster pack. To me, itd be like if Kheldians had been introduced via a boster pack, and I just dont care for it.

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*blink*

Have you actually checked the store website dude? It's not an Archetype or a powerset.....it's a set of costumes, aura's, emotes, and one power that makes you blow up....that's it.

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Basically, you could set yourself up to quit (30 second countdown) with the patron pet ready to summon. At about the 3 seconds left mark, you activate the power. This would summon your patron pet, but without you around as an "anchor" so to speak. So it would be summoned as an enemy mob and attack anything within aggro radius. Considering you'd have to be level 47 or higher just to get said pets, it could really do some damage inside of a well packed Pocket D (like say, on Virtue).

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OMG, I never heard of that. That's terrible. They fixed that, right? I thought you were talking about when MM minions were attacking people in Pocket D and that it also applied to the Patron Pets.

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In that video, maybe most of the people were in on the trick. But it was used to mess up an Angels party in Pocket D, and happened more than once.

The problem is, once a way of griefing gets some publicity, there are lots of idiots who go "hyuk hyuk hyuk I kan do dat too and den dey will no dat I are kool two hyuk hyuk hyuk". So as undeniably clever as a single inventive grief can be, getting it repeated ad nauseam wipes out any respect for the cleverness.

And yes, if your fun is standing under Atlas, talking to people, trying out emotes, getting novaed is ruining your fun.

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Oh, absolutely. It happened at the Golden Giza fight night once before too. The main point I was making is that the video shown wasn't made to go "look how cool I am griefing dis place" but rather to get more attention to something that had been happening for months before it was even acknowledged.

Also, does anyone remember the Patron Pet summon bug? Now THAT was brutal when used in the D.

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Given the posts made by that vid's poster, it seems like they did it to grief.

What Patron Pet summon bug are you talking about? I don't think I've heard of that one.

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Lighthouse has just posted announcement that Cyborg Auras will be changed so as to be available at level 1 instead of unlocking at 30

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I can see why they did it, but that seems hardly fair. I hope they intend to do this for the Special Edition capes as well, after all we had to pay extra for them too.

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What do you mean? Still only the people who purchased the pack can use the auras.

They just don't have to reach level 30 and complete the aura mission first.

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And only people that bought the DVD versions of the game can use the capes they came with, but we still have to wait til lvl 20 to earn them.

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The DVD didn't cost you extra. Meaning it didn't cost you game+x, it just cost you what the game cost. The special edition capes were free. If you decided to re buy the game just to get the special cape, then you chose to buy the game all over again.

You didn't pay a specific extra amount just for the cape. You decided to buy the game again to get the free cape. Thats the big difference.

I for one am glad that combat auras are available at level 1
now.

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Wrong. The DVD versions of City of Heroes/Villains cost more than the regular versions of the game (at least at the time in which I bought mine). Also the extra's in the City of Heroes DVD pack could (for a short period) be bought alone in the NCSoft store. They were at an extra cost. The only copies I bought were both DVD games when they came out, so I paid more for my copies (80 for CoV alone) than some one that didn't, so I paid for the extra's, including the capes. The dev's have mentioned they counted as paid for content, which is why they won't show up as vet rewards. So no I didn't "decided to buy the game all over again" and I'm sure I'm not the only person, but even then that would still make them paid for content. The only thing that makes these aura's different is that they activate only in combat mode, they are still aura's. People just wanted them sooner rather than waiting like they knew they had to because they paid for them. Being that the case, why shouldn't I and any others who paid for our DVD capes get ours now?

My basic point is, they HAVEN'T made them availble at lvl 1 yet, they are working on it. Once they have the basic code to make them separate, cause they aren't really different, only in how they show up to us, I'm asking they apply it to the DVD capes, because they were paid for content and that's the only reason they are making this change to the aura's in the first place. As long as they are working on one, should be time to look into both.

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Well the booster auras aren't the same as the other auras: they only can go in one spot and they only activate in combat mode.

Also you are paying 10$ for them (plus the emotes, one long recharge power, and some costume pieces).

The SE capes were a small fraction of the cost of the DVD Edition so I can see why people never complained about them since we were already complaining about levelling to 20 just to get ANY capes. That's why they gave us the vet wings and shoulder capes, so we could use them pre-20. Also the wing costume pieces allow 'early' access to wings.

While it'd be nice for the SE capes to be available from level 1 I don't think there's ENOUGH people with them that are upset to have the devs spend time coding in a way to unlock them earlier. Jay has explained (to me in person at least) some of the flaws and headaches in the current costume creator and how adding or change costume options is not a simple matter that people would think it is. It's part of the reason many costume pieces aren't in every subsection we'd think they should be in. I suspect the same mentality that went into the costume creator is the same that's made it feasibly implausible to have powerset color customization.

Things like this are why we end up with new versions of games, you can only modify an existing game engine so far.

So while the SE capes would be nice I don't think we'll see it happen due to 'return on profit' from them compared to possible future sales of the cyborg booster.

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I fail to see what they lose from applying this same rule to the SE capes. They are already working on this for the aura's, so if they figure it out, it sounds like it would be reasonably possible to apply it to the capes as well. I don't see how comparing Vet rewards can compare since that's waiting 15 to 21 months of play (if I remember correctly) to get those other options rather than dropping an extra 10 dollars (for the pack or for the DVD versions) to get them now. Since they are already working on making it possible and since it's actually possible to still get the DVD capes for the game, it only seems like a fair thing to ask for.

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Oh and to the "if you buy it, you get used to it" comment, funny how that only seems to apply to the capes, but not to the auras.

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...Huuuh...?

It really doesn't matter... The capes have been around for a long time now. The auras are the 'new thing.' They're little shiny things that people buy to look nice.

Level 20 is not a hard level to achieve. 30 takes a little while. It took me four days to get to 20 casually.

I like the fact that the auras are now level 1. In fact, I was talking to someone who bought the pack after buying CoH a little while ago, and felt bad telling the guy he had to level more than halfway up to the max level to unlock the thing he'd bought.

Chillax.

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I'm calm, I'm just making a fair suggestion. What does the age of it matter? The capes are just little extra things to look nice too. It's all the same thing. I just think if they are going to look into this, then they should look into the other. I honestly don't see why ya'll are so worked up over the suggestion, it's not like you lose something. :P

It's not like I said "Don't do it unless you do it all." I simply asked "If you're going to do this, please concider doing it for the capes." That is, after all, what the forums are for. You're asking to get your paid for content early cause it makes you happy, why shouldn't I be allowed to ask for the same?

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But ... okay, well I was going to cheer that they've decided to add level-1 access and *of course* people are COMPLAINING about it.

Fer god's sake, people. If you buy the thing, you get to use it. Those of us who bought it now no longer have to wait for it to become available at 30 with other auras. Don't compare it to other things, they are *not separate addon packs* and don't apply.

I thank and applaud the devs for coming through on this, it's something that truly makes sense since it is an *extremely limited form of aura*.

I still have to hit 30 to make my full-cyborg outfit on the one character I *bought* it for, because I don't want to remove any of her other costumes yet...

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I'm not really complaining, I'm making a suggestion just like others have. And like I said I think it's a good idea, I just think it's only fair to apply it to the others. And FYI, the stuff in the DVD pack for City of Heroes WAS made as an addon pack in the NCSoft store for a short time, so in that case it does count. I'm not saying they shouldn't do it, I'm just saying it shouldn't just apply to the new aura's. I have both capes and the cyborg pack as well, I can't be the only person this applys to.

Oh and to the "if you buy it, you get used to it" comment, funny how that only seems to apply to the capes, but not to the auras.

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Lighthouse has just posted announcement that Cyborg Auras will be changed so as to be available at level 1 instead of unlocking at 30

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I can see why they did it, but that seems hardly fair. I hope they intend to do this for the Special Edition capes as well, after all we had to pay extra for them too.

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What do you mean? Still only the people who purchased the pack can use the auras.

They just don't have to reach level 30 and complete the aura mission first.

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And only people that bought the DVD versions of the game can use the capes they came with, but we still have to wait til lvl 20 to earn them.

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Sure- Unless you have the side-cape option.

Just think of the auras like the 15 month wings- Nice little tidbits to slap on at level one without access to the others of those sections. Once you reach level 20, you can put on the capes, or any of the other many designs. At level 30, you can get constant auras. Or, if you have the shoulder-cape option, slap on the SE capes and the Cyborg auras.

Does it matter THAT much?

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Yes, cause the SE capes do not come in Shoulder Cape style, only normal style. And you paid extra for those two capes. All I'm saying is if they are going to change the rule for this non-vet, paid for extra, then they should do it for the others. Currently the only way to use my paid for DVD edition capes is to lvl to 20 and earn them, even though I paid for them ahead of time. However I knew that was coming. Players already knew aura's had to be unlocked before using them, but complained about this. I'm simply saying if they are going to do this, which isn't a bad idea, then it should apply to the capes as well.

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Lighthouse has just posted announcement that Cyborg Auras will be changed so as to be available at level 1 instead of unlocking at 30

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I can see why they did it, but that seems hardly fair. I hope they intend to do this for the Special Edition capes as well, after all we had to pay extra for them too.

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What do you mean? Still only the people who purchased the pack can use the auras.

They just don't have to reach level 30 and complete the aura mission first.

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And only people that bought the DVD versions of the game can use the capes they came with, but we still have to wait til lvl 20 to earn them.

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Lighthouse has just posted announcement that Cyborg Auras will be changed so as to be available at level 1 instead of unlocking at 30

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I can see why they did it, but that seems hardly fair. I hope they intend to do this for the Special Edition capes as well, after all we had to pay extra for them too.

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Is anyone else having trouble buying this thing? Me and my roommate use the same card and he bought his with no problem. There is more than enough money left and it keeps declining me, what gives?

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One use per day, per card. You have to use a different card to make another purchase. Ran into this problem a long time ago myself when I was running multiple accounts.

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is that not the same as our monthly subscription fee? Cause that also comes from the same card on the very same day each month and we've never had any problems.

Is anyone else having trouble buying this thing? Me and my roommate use the same card and he bought his with no problem. There is more than enough money left and it keeps declining me, what gives?

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Also.. The Reichsman... any villain that can go toe to toe with an entire TEAM and come out with technically a draw.. that would be an epic TF.

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I love this idea, the whole discovery of his dimension and his invasion would make an awesome task force.