I hate what super boosters have done to the community

Yeah, I really didn't intend for this to become another big thing about whether boosters are good or bad...

I mean, that's why I didn't state my opinion about boosters, because I knew if I did someone with the opposite opinion would've felt compelled to tell me how I was wrong, and things would've spiraled from there.

which is different from any schlep with a few hours to burn grinding mobs or TFs or whatever how, exactly?

Here's the problem I have with costumes tied to achievements. If I have a character concept that works best with a costume then I want to use it from the moment I create the character.

I don't want to wait until the character has level up over 3 fifths of his career before I get to use it.

I don't want to wait a year until the next holiday event arrives so I can unlock it.

I don't want to wait "x" months until I've earned enough vet rewards to get the costume.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind having a fancy costume set tied to these types of rewards, but I do want an average version that I can use at the point where I'm creating a character.

Give us a plain set of Roman armor, Samurai Armor, etc. and leave the fancy looking stuff as the rewards. That way I can enjoy the basic concept and upgrade it to the fancy costume pieces when I unlock them.

I feel this way about capes. The basic long and short capes with simple patterns that don't change the shape of the cape should be available from level 1. If you want to keep unlockable capes, make the fancy ones unlockable.

It's ridiculous that the basic capes aren't available at level 1. There's no good reason remaining that capes should be restricted. Sure, there might have been performance issues back in 2004, but I doubt that's an issue anymore. The RP reasons are gone now that the time capsule has been opened and Hero 1 is back (and those reasons were silly and contrived in the first place), and really, is it a good thing when a hot new superhero MMO is coming out, for the new one to allow capes at creation and the old one not to? Heck, when that happens, there will be two superhero MMOs that allow capes at creation while this one doesn't.

Capes are a basic component of superhero costumes. Not allowing capes at creation is like not allowing masks at creation.

The fact that one reflects something you actually accomplished within the game, while the other doesn't.

One of the reasons I prefer pay-to-play MMO's over the increasingly popular 'P2P + cash shop' model is because with a P2P game, you're more or less guaranteed a level playing field. How well you do in-game is a function of how dedicated you are and how smart you play, not how much cash you have to throw around in the real world. You can't just go to the cash shop to get that awesome sword or cool-looking outfit you want - you actually have to play the game in order to earn it. When you do finally get it, it's a reflection of the effort you put in as a player. As far as I'm concerned, that's the way things should be. So I have no problem with the idea of some of the costume parts being unlockable, or tying that to specific accomplishments within the game.

That said, I do wish certain types of pieces (capes and auras, to be specific) were available for all characters at creation. The same goes for certain themed costume pieces that are restricted to veterans or otherwise inaccessible, like the Roman and samurai pieces. A possible compromise would be to create more basic-looking sets for these themes and make them available to everyone at creation, with the more ornate versions being tied to the unlock conditions we have now. Then anyone can start the game looking more or less like the type of character they wanted, but they'll still have something to strive for in the form of more elaborate pieces in the same vein further down the line.

EDIT: Looks like Forbin Project beat me to it while I was typing this, so I'll just say that I second the idea.

I'll be playing the game, too. But my playtime will not include grinding Vanguard merits, fighting 100 Overseers, doing the ITF even once, let alone twice and participating in Lord knows how many Rikti Invasion fights. I will certainly not do all of that crap on every character, whereas almost every character I have could benefit from the costumes.

On the other hand, I'll be paying for the game anyhow. Might as well pay a little more and get these costume pieces on ALL characters at character creations. It's far better than whining on the forums about how I don't want to defeat 100 Overseers for the third time when I was bored sick ten in the first time I tried it.

Some of us don't care about "achievements," when the "achievements" in question only test the strength of your butt cheeks and the zen of your patience. You know how I unlocked the Rularuu weapons the two times I've done it? I got a level 50 to gank level 41 Overseers in the shard while I watched from a distance. I feel so proud of myself now. You know how I unlocked a full set of Vanguard gear? I... Didn't. The entire War Zone arc only awards around 200-300 out of the 1000 necessary, and I have no interest in glorified story-less paper missions or the glorified lag fest mosh pit Mothership raid that's even lighter on story.

Levels are an achievement, because you can get them playing anything and everything (other than Steel Canyon fires, what the hell?), which means I get to have fun AND reach a milestone. Unless you define "achievement" as "missing the point of a GAME," I will never consider, boring, unentertaining WORK in my entertainment to be an "achievement." In fact, I would consider it an achievement if you managed to get to 50 without ever having to do something you hated. Like grinding Vanguard Merits, farming Rulauu Overseers or playing 35 god damn levels with a costume that's ugly and stupid and annoying just because the stupid energy sword is locked behind an arbitrary level and merit limit.

Powers are achievements, because they have a clear progression of scale. Each new power is superior to the last in at least one aspect, even if that aspect is nothing more than having four attacks instead of three, or just pluging up a semi-rare situational weakness. You can't say that "this" costume piece is "better" than that one, because how much good a costume piece is depends squarely on the person making the costume and their aesthetic preference. You can't put numbers on aesthetics and restrict only the "best" costumes as fake achievements, because there ARE no "best" costume pieces. Some people hate the thigh-high stilettos for women (and I'm among them) and some people would pay money to have them. If you put them as an achievement, I would chortle in your face, but other people would stab you in your face for it.

Yeah, I agree. That's not nearly enough, especially considering one didn't have costume pieces in it.

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.

The best compromise would be to make costume unlocks global. That way I have to unlock them just like everybody else, I just don't have to unlock them twelve times over. Then you can make unlock requirements even more stringent and I wouldn't complain, because I'd only have to do it once.

After all, I don't need a 50 hero for each Kheldian I make, do I?

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.

My game time is valuable to me. I prefer not to spend it grinding content I don't enjoy, not to mention the stuff that is gated behind content I am largely excluded from due to the erratic play schedule imposed by family responsibilities.

One of the great strengths of this game is that by and large you can get 'the best' rewards with a limited play schedule. I have several characters sporting l337 IO builds thanks to the market, which allows time restricted but motivated players to generate metric tons of inf with which to buy 'the good stuff'.

Game time and cash both represent energy expended. When we're talking about junk that is overwhelmingly cosmetic in nature, cash makes a handy substitute for the grind.

Not seeing how the largely cosmetic offerings in the booster packs have any effect on how 'well you do' in the game, unless they help you win costume contests or something.

Happily, it's irrelevant.
As the old saying goes, the dogs bark but the caravan rolls on.
They like my money, I like their boosters....it's win-win.

=)

That, too. The capes thing is the biggest foot we have in the door of "let's make something account-wide because the costume pieces are so widely used that it's bull to have to do it every time."

At least that's what I call the door. 'cause it's true. u_u

I'm with the Goat on this one. The only thing costume pieces serve to do is expand our tool kit, but they do little to make us "better" at making costumes, because making costumes is more of an art than a science.

What really bugs me, though, is the undertone. "How well you do in the game and how dedicated you are..." I don't WANT to be dedicated to a game. I don't WANT to "belong." I am not so dissatisfied with my life that I need fake achievements to make myself feel content. I could suck the worst of anyone ever born at a specific game, and as long as I'm having fun, I wouldn't give two rats about feeling like I "achieved" something.

I play MineCraft's free version only, and not just because I'm too cheap to pay for the full one. The only thing I want out of that game is to build stuff. I'm not interested in the "simulation" part where I have to earn materials for it. The longer I have to spend grinding out Metals, the less time I have to spend on building an almost exact replica of my house, or my interpretation of the Empire State Building.

Games should be entertaining. They should not be a professional sport you have to dedicate your life to in order to succeed at. They benefit from not being harsh like real life and permit me to eat my cake and have it, too, something I may not always get to do in the real world. I play this game as my super hero escapism. I don't need real life hardships in here, too.

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.

The main point of an MMO is to improve your character. That 'improvement' can take many forms - levelling up, questing for more powerful equipment, and hunting for cosmetic items that change your character's look are some of the more common ones.

There are cosmetic offerings in this game which are tied to particular accomplishments. You have to do something specific to unlock them. They then serve as a visual indicator to others that you've done that thing.

Whipping out your wallet isn't the answer to everything in life. That's as it should be, though some people seem to have lost sight of this. If everything was for sale, anyone could just whip out a credit card and buy themselves a championship cup or gold medal - items that not only look cool, but show others that the bearer achieved a particular thing - if they really wanted one, but didn't want to bother with the 'grind' involved with, you know, actually earning it legitimately. That really trivializes those sorts of items. And as I said before, not all costume pieces in CoX are tied to in-game accomplishments like that, but the fact that some of them are doesn't bother me in the slightest. I wouldn't mind if more of them were, in fact.

That's because you're looking at it backwards.

I'm not saying that the costume pieces in the booster packs affect how well you do in the game. I'm saying that pieces that are gated behind specific in-game requirements (like completing the ITF) reflect how well you're doing in the game, just like rare weapons or prestige gear might in another game.


That's completely irrelevant to anything I was talking about in the post you replied to, but thank you for sharing.

And this is where you fail. A Sword +1 is an improvement. A Helm of the Restricted Vision is an improvement. A damage enhancement is an improvement. A new set of gloves is NOT an improvement. Not always, anyway.

For instance, I quested for the Roman swords, hoping to improve my Broadsword Scrapper. The swords I got for defeating 100 Cimerorans, however, do not work. At all. The reason I was looking for a new sword was because his current one wasn't as big as I'd liked, so I wanted a bigger one, and all the Roman swords are short, as Roman swords are. Fat lot of good that did me.

Or how about capes? I quested for the right to wear a cape... Only when I got it, I realised that this character just didn't look good with a cape. So I waved my hand and went about my merry way, still capeless.

By contrast, one day I decided I wanted a medieval knight character. I went into the editor, put on a full suit of Medieval armour, threw in a bunch of colours and I had a really cool character. Then I decided I wanted to have a Roman soldier, so I went into the editor and... Went back out, because I didn't have access to Roman pieces. Apparently, Romans are an "improvement" over medieval soldiers, despite the fact that Medieval soldiers had much better technology and, to boot, much cooler outfits. But because Roman armour is locked, it must be an "improvement," right? Right?

You can't grade costumes from best to worst, so you can't put some of them as rewards. Practical rewards have a measurable worth based on how powerful they are. Costumes have no measurable worth whatsoever, unless you play the meta-game of how costly they are to the developers to make.

Trying to claim unlocking a costume piece is an improvement is as ludicrous as claiming that unlocking the ability to use the colour blue is an improvement to the outfit of a Manchester United fan. Each item's individual worth is subjective and almost entirely dependent on the concept and costume of the character, therefore what you lock and what you allow is completely arbitrary.

I can have an Egyptian sword from character creation, but I must unlock the Roman one, because... The Romans are better than the Egyptians? I can make a ninja character at when I join the game, but I have to wait a year to make a Saumrai character, because... Samurai are better than Ninja? I can have an Energy Shield at character creation, but I can't have an energy sword unless I buy it from Vanguard, because apparently energy swords are cool and energy shields are not.

In other news: THIS MAKES NO SENSE!

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.

You can have an Energy Shield (to match Energy melee). However you cannot have a Vanguard Shield, that too needs to be unlocked.

Having nitpicked that though it would make more sense for Weapon Unlocks to be Account wide. The way it works now limits creativity, at least making them account wide means if you've an idea for an alt but it requires an unlock you can do so with an alt who normally wouldn't be able to use the unlock anyway.

Boosters are account wide (including the weapons & cossie options they offer), other available unlocks should be the same. If my Plant/Empath completes the ITF then my reward should be something I as a player can use, like being able to make a new Roman Gladiator scrapper alt.

My point exactly. Let's take a little example of what kind of difference it would make to me.

Right now, it takes around 1000 Vanguard Merits on a single character to unlock the full Vanguard set on that specific character. I would be perfectly willing to accept raising this to 10 000 Vanguard Merits among all of my characters to unlock the set for all of those characters. So, for instance, if I want the Vanguard Sword, now I have to pay 100, and under my proposed system I'd have to pay 1000. 100 now seems expensive to me. 1000 for having the sword account-wide seems perfectly reasonable.

Here's another example - you unlock Rularuu weapons for defeating 100 Overseers. I would happily defeat 1000 over however long a time that this may take, if it were to unlock the weapons for my entire account. Or even just that one weapon that just that one character can unlock. So a Broadsword Scrapper would have to slay 1000 Rularuu to unlock JUST Rularuu's Bane, but then all other Broadsword Scrappers on my account would have it unlocked.

Right now, you need to do the ITF twice to earn the Nictus Romulus sword. I would gladly do it TWENTY times if it unlocked the sword for my entire account.

I'm not against working for these things, I'm not against achieving "stuff" in the general sense. I'm against having to achieve it over and over and over again. I can put forth the work, as long as I know I only need to do it once. I may not like it, I may not agree with it, but I wouldn't complain.

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.

That's probably a given even among the people who don't mention it.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Probably not, I agree, but I can't honestly say I'd be against the idea in basic concept. It would depend on how assinine the unlock is and how many times it has to be unlocked. I know it sounds crazy, but consider this:

We're already getting Boosters which offer costumes you CANNOT get without buying the Booster. Wouldn't Boosters that come with an in-game way to earn the bulk of their content be considered an improvement by the opponents of microtransactions? I would think so, but I honestly don't know.

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.

Yeah I think my solution offers the best of both worlds to those who'd buy the boosters and those happy to earn them. However the bean counters at Paragon wouldn't even entertain the idea cuz earning booster items reduces their revenue.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

But that's what badges are for, that's all badges do. They tell others what bits of content we were capable of doing, there's no reason we need to have costume pieces to do that too.

I know its a bit nit picky, but we do actually have a Roman Gladius and as ugly as I find the Tech Sword to be, it does actually have energy blades.

The thing I don't get is there are 3 variations on the Samurai armor, why couldn't one of them have been put in the basic costume creator and the other 2 used as the vet reward? Baring the helmet base and kilt, there exists at least 2 variations of every piece of the roman armor (some of them we don't get yet), why couldn't we have gotten one set at creation and the other as an unlock?

Wait, you mean I'm not actually supposed to play thorough content on an MMO?

Seriously, the ITF is probably something most high-level characters are going to do once anyhow. Same with Rikti ship raids (maybe 2 or 3 passes to get enpugh Merits for all the costume bits?). You make it sound as if we're working in a salt mine

OTOH, see my next post below.

I know that's the way it is in other games. Invest time, or invest money. Personally, I find this solution equitable. And either way, an MMO is making money through longer sub times or through micro-trans. But as S_S pointed out, double-dipping the player base is too tempting for a publisher.

Personally, I'd play longer and more often if it meant I could get those costume bits without having to shill out $10 for every booster. But that's just how I roll. Others could certainly have the option to bypass and just pay for the items. Heck, if they made a booster for all the Vanguard and Roman stuff, I'd be fine with that, because you can either earn it in-game or pay extra for it.