So, when do we actually get new Costumes?

Either that or make them darn easy to unlock. Like, defeat 25 Praetorian Clockwork to unlock the whole set.

Personally, I don't like unlockable costume pieces, especially since they're mostly tied to Task Forces, which I usually have neither the time nor inclination to run.

Ok, but aside for the unlockable Roman Armour pieces, Ulterior, Vines, the new day jobs jackets and other pieces, Arctic, the new faces and accessories, what have they ever done for us??

And Justice was a paid costume piece (with the GVE pack), so now you're complaining that you got a piece similar to a paid one for free?

You... do... actually realize that the booster pack money is turned right around to pay for development the game... right? You do realize that the profits from the original Wedding pack paid for the Developers to have the staff to work on Villain Epic Archtypes, right?

Rather than jacking subscription prices up, which affects everybody, or by turning to the Korean model of micro-transacting everything, our developers found a nice happy medium that allows players to support the game and get a nice product in return.

If you don't like that. Tough. Get over yourself.

Fact is, if you look at most other MMO's on the market, such as WoW, Final Fantasy, or Everquest, you'll be plunking down $50 on a regular basis to get the type of expansions our developers largely develop on the cost of subscriptions alone. So your cost argument isn't exactly holding any water over here for us.

***

There was always a gaping hole in this argument. Veteran rewards are for veteran players. Not new players. Tough, get over it.

I'd actually love to see you try to explain how this is true. No, really, I would.

First of all Booster packs are available to all players. Anybody who wants a booster pack can buy one. They don't have to wait. They don't have to have a certain time subscribed. You just buy, login, and poof, there's the booster pack.

***

Second, Booster packs are cheap. Unless your paying on the 14month basis, $10 is less than the subscription cost of the game. Also, lets look at when the packs came out. Pack #4 launched this month in November. Pack #3, the Science Pack, launched in July. Pack #2, the Magic Pack, was launched in April. The First Booster, Cyborg, was last year in September.

Then there was the Mac Pack, which on a side note ticked me off because NCSoft and Paragon Studios still haven't admitted the deal was done to support CoH on Cedega without having to utter the word LINUX. Then the original Wedding pack from way back in February 2008.

So, ignoring the Mac / Linux pack and the Wedding Pack, there's been an average of a new Booster pack every 3 or 4 months. $10 every 3 or 4 months? You can't seriously tell me that the pricing is unfair.

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Third: Money from the booster packs goes right back into the developers pockets, and it's not just to fund more privately bought content. As I mentioned earlier in the post the development of V.E.A.T's was reported to be funded largely due to purchases of the Wedding pack.

You can't seriously tell me the booster packs aren't fair.

So everyone's treated equally.


To me Booster Packs are infinitely preferable over locked costume pieces (unless there's a sweeping change where costume unlocks are account-wide).

Welcome to Capitalism, the crazy game where businesses are required to make money if they want to continue their existence!


Booster packs are infinitely more "fair" that vet rewards by virtue of being equally available to everyone.

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

Booster packs are Socialist? That seems... backwards.

Pretty much.

I agree, though I'm not willing to go back and look. My recollection is, we've gone through much longer stretches of not getting much new free stuff.

I mean, it's not like we got 1-2 new free sets per issue for every issue up to when Super Boosters started.

For a while there, the costume stuff wasn't even handled in-house.

Two words for you. I'm sure you can guess what they're wrong. Think bovine and what they leave behind - and we're not talking hamburger, folks.

Costume: Free.
Issue 11 - Nov 28, 2007 we got 16 female hair styles, and 19 male. (See Paragonwiki.) Weapon customization is also introduced. As it affects your look but not your powers, and is altered via the tailor, I'm fully comfortable calling it a "Costume option." Affects 12 powersets.

Issue 12 - 5/20/2008. Talsorian weapons added. Roman costume pieces added. Also, while not a 'costume piece,' the costume creator gives premade sets with linked pieces. And a list from the wiki/patch notes:

• Many new chest details have been introduced:
  • Alien 1
  • Alien 2
  • Bulls Eye 2
  • Cyber Eye
  • Health
  • Lion
  • Mantis
  • Nuke
  • Power On
  • Question Mark
  • Recycle
  • Skull 3
  • Star 10
  • Star 11
  • Star 12
  • Star 13
  • Star 14
  • Swirl 3
  • Symbol 8
  • Symbol 9
  • Symbol 10
  • Tech Hole
  • Trash
• New Body Patterns sets
  • Arctic
  • Perplex
  • Thorn
  • Vandal

Issue 13 - 12/2/2008. "Day job" and casual costumes - MULTIPLE costume pieces added, all free. "Official," multiple blazers/coats/jackets and more.

Issue 14 - 4/8/09. Mission architect. Sole focus of the issue. So there's ONE issue with no costume bits.

Issue 15 - 6/29/09. Over 20 new faces and two full costume sets. Plus the costume change emotes, which - while they debuted with a paid set, have seven (five normal, two Kheld specific) that are 100% free. And, of course, we now have "cosmetic surgeons" who can change your *body type* as well. Go ahead and tell me that has nothing to do with looks (IE, costumes.)

Issue 16 - Power customization - which, yes, I throw in with "costume" for the same reason as weapon customization. Purely aesthetic.

So, to put it bluntly, you're full of it, OP.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Just a cursory page-through of the issue notes from the wiki:

Issue 1 - June 29, 2004

Added the tailor and the costume slots at 20, 30 and 40

Issue 2 - September 16, 2004

Added capes and auras

Issue 3 - January 4, 2005

Appears to have added nothing costume wise.

Issue 4 - May 4, 2005

"A significant increase in the costume selections available." If I remember correctly, these are a couple faces, the robes and the shirts mostly. I'm sure there were some other things that I forget about though.

Issue 5 - August 31, 2005

Appears to have added nothing costume wise.

Issue 6 - October 27, 2005

No additions in the issue itself, though it was the release of CoV and villain characters had access to a plethora of new costume options.

Issue 7 - June 6, 2006

Hero characters would now have access to previously villain-only costume pieces if the owner had a combined CoH/CoV account.
Several costume pieces were added. I can't remember which ones they were, and the wiki didn't elaborate beyond this.

Good vs. Evil pack - September, 2006

Sinister and Justice costume sets

Issue 8 - November 28, 2006

Veteran reward costumes.
Several new patterns, two new hair-styles, several new ear options, and some goggles. (might have missed something)

Issue 9 - March 6, 2007

The crafted costume pieces.

Issue 10- July 24, 2007

Vanguard costume pieces.
The bunny tail (and several costume 'tweaks')

Issue 11- November 28, 2007

The new hairstyles.
Weapon customization.

The Wedding Pack - February, 2008

Two new tux looks for all and several female exclusive pieces.

Issue 12- May 20, 2008

Roman costume pieces.
The English monocle.
Several new chest details, four new patterns.
Since it's technically new costume pieces I suppose, the VEAT's came out here, so their initial costume selections were 'new'.

Super Booster 1: Cyborg - September, 2008
Issue 13- December 2, 2008

The day job costume pieces.

The Mac Special Edition Pack - March 2009

The Valkyrie pieces.

Issue 14- April 8, 2009

Nothing of significance. (valkyrie blades for DB and 'waist capes for female widows)

Super Booster 2: Magic - April, 2009
Issue 15- June 29, 2009

Vines pattern, ulterior costume set.
Free costume change emotes.

Super Booster 3: Superscience - July, 2009
Issue 16 - September 15, 2009

Appears to have added nothing costume wise.
Added power customization.

Super Booster 4: Martial Arts - November, 2009

That's certainly not an exhaustive list of everything, and I might well have missed something, but there you go.

Frankly, free costume pieces have ALWAYS been at a high premium in this game, perplexingly, before OR after the advent of micro transaction booster packs. Pretty much the largest influxes of new costumes have been CoV, veteran rewards and booster packs. Outside of that, it's more of a slow trickle. A set here, a pattern there and nothing truly big or spectacular. I've always been amazed at how new costume pieces get such a low priority. The way I see it, it's booster packs or nothing, which, again, is sort of a no-win situation. At least booster packs give SOMETHING.

Personally, I still wish they'd come up with an "Everything Pack" that combines all the previous boosters for whatever price that's deemed to be worth.

*edit*
To actually answer the question, we made it from Launch to I think I4 or such without any new costumes at all, getting only a few new "anime-inspired" costume pieces with the City of Hero launch. We did get capes and auras in I3, though. The next costume items influx was CoV, with the villain pieces not available to anyone who didn't own CoV. After that, I don't recall much of anything major until the GvE pack and then the Wedding Pack, and it went on from there. In fact, probably the most memorable new costume set we've gotten for free was Enforcer. Stealth, ExoProto and Ulterior get an honourable mention, of course, and Tech Crey made an appearance at some point as a direct (and in many instances bugged) rip of the Crey Protectors' suits.

But again, very little was done prior to booster packs, so it's not like they do LESS for free now than they did before.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Same here.

But I'll settle for 10 full sets.

well, my guesses are that given that jay really hasnt put out many new sets( the new female art person did the issue 15 stuff) is that gr is going to be about on par with cov for new costume bits. similarly i'm expecting the lack of much official storyline content to have gone into gr as well. finally i'm hoping for some other animator to do some more stuff, he has made a favorable start.

here's the deal, the devs really are in a situation where they can't do right. If the booster packs were less than impressive, as many felt the science pack was, then they get roasted for ripping us off, also if the powers are useless, as the booster 4 was originally believed to be with that stealth power, then they get nailed for the booster being a waste of time. But if the booster is really good, like the magic and martial arts packs, then they are ripping us off by withholding the good stuff from free release. They cannot win really.