I think some costume bits should be added to the upcoming Origins booster pack

I couldn't agree more. At this point they're just ripping off players dumb enough to buy everything thrown at them. In my mind a booster pack should provide options and powers that go way beyond the bounds and needs of normal players. Costume change emotes: yes. Possible jetpack costume options: yes. Regular emotes, auras and regular not so special costume pieces: no. Those costume pieces and auras should be free for everyone. The microtransaction crap with this game is beginning to get out of hand.

I couldn't disagree more. I'm beyond pissed off at Booster packs with ever more unbalancing powers, giving people who fork out an ever greater advantage over people who don't, segregating people into haves and have nots based on money spent. If no Booster pack ever added another power to the game, I would be perfectly happy.

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, sorry, thats the worst idea. The boosters generally provide NO substantial gameplay effect (ninja run is the reason generally is in there, it's overpowered) and are take them or leave them. If you don't like the costumes you don't have to pay more. Simple.

You add serious powers to the mix and suddenly to get the full game play effect you HAVE to buy it. You think people are unhappy with the boosters now wait untill they feel forced to get them.

Which 'ever more unbalancing powers' would these be, exactly? I'd say that the best of the bunch is Ninja Run, and that's hardly something that's segregated the playerbase into haves and have-nots.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with the principle of the thing. It's just that none of the powers included as part of the boosters really offers a significant bonus of any kind. Even all of them taken together would hardly qualify as a 'must-have', except possibly in the minds of the most number-conscious min-maxers - the sort of people willing to pay any price for a percentage point or two of effectiveness. It certainly doesn't strike me as something to be 'beyond pissed off' about.

It doesn't usually happen, but I agree with Sam here. I've been of the opinion that we shouldn't be able to pay for powers that give us some advantage from the start, and if we keep getting more it's going to throw some things out of balance. I too am a little peeved at the seperation, and I'm on the side with all of the powers. Ninja run is possibly the worst offender: very nice to have, but a little overpowered for something we shelled over extra cash for, in my opinion.

I think that the science booster allowing you to change body type was a mistake, too. That should have been made available for everyone. Capes and auras being available from level one have always been a bit iffy to me. I'm not too sure that I like paid extras being available from creation and the rest becoming available at twenty and thirty. Unfortunately, it's a tad late to make them unlockable.

Now don't get me wrong; I love the boosters. I've bought all of them so far except for the party pack and that thirty-day jetpack thing, and I get a lot of use out of them. I can accept that if a pack isn't my cup of tea, I need not buy it, and that's fine. I just think that this pack, were some regular costume parts included, would be pretty much what I'd want out of a booster. Some decent-looking things I can use to make my characters look how I want them without giving me any real advantage over other players. I'll almost certainly be buying it.

I'm inclined to agree with you with respect to the Science booster. As to the question of capes and auras, I personally feel that all of the available auras and capes should be available at creation. At most, you should have to unlock them on a single character, at which time they'd become available to all characters on your account. I think it's ridiculous that you can't create, say, a character whose body is composed of living flame from day 1 because you can't access auras yet. Instead, you're forced to wait until level 30, unlock auras, then come up with some sort of ridiculous rationale for why the character didn't look like this from the beginning. The same goes for capes. IIRC, making them unlockable at 20 was originally a measure to prevent everyone from potentially starting out with one and bringing PC's circa 2004-5 to their knees in the starting areas. Nowadays, most people's PC's can handle the added load of a bunch of animated capes without breaking a sweat, and we've got boosters that grant access to capes at level 1 anyway. So why not let people start out with a cape if they feel it's thematically appropriate for the character? It's really overdue.

Ninja Run. I have seen numerous people use that to replace their travel power, because it's "good enough," it never runs out and you get it at level 4 for doing nothing more than existing. This gives those who have it the potential for two extra power pics and possibly a slot pick or two, which is NOT something to scoff at.

Yes, it's true that Ninja Run isn't better than any of the four "real" travel powers, but it's good enough in most situations. Good enough to make an actual travel power pointless except for concept or as a luxury. You don't NEED a travel power with Ninja Run, whereas someone without it does very much need one if they want to get anything accomplished.

Right now, people seem to hold Ninja Run as the bottom line of what they want, and expect each subsequent booster to outdo that. This SCARES me to death for the future of this game, because we're already half-way down the slippery slide of buying performance. Ninja Run itself is a step too far, I do not want to see anything else that even comes close to that and, ideally, I don't want to see any more powers in booster packs ever again.

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 bonus powers are cool, but I cannot argue with this logic.

Yup, guilty as charged. Ninja Run, especially if you also have Swift, Hurdle, and Combat Jump (which just about all my alts do), is more than good enough. Level 4 running 40+ mph. Level 50 running and jumping 60+ mph and able to jump complete over two story buildings... Ninja Run is *more* than good enough.

I've got several alts that do away with travel powers and pick up other, more 'useful', powers.

On that note, the same goes with veteran attacks. Black Wand, Sands of Mu, Nemesis Staff... They're too powerful.

My lvl 50 Brute has no Ranged attacks - she doesn't need them!
My lvl 40 MM has no attacks slotted whatsoever -- he doesn't need them!

Vets attacks more than suffice - they actually do more damage than many standard attacks, and I seem to hit plenty often with them (I guess global accuracy bonuses apply).

Toons that take travel powers and Melee toons that take ranged attacks feel a bit gimped to me, because I have free alternatives that are more than good enough to replace them, leaving me free to take mule powers for LotGs and extra slots to get more Recharge and Defense toward the softcap. Those 'extra powers' make a good toon much much better than most people realize.

And soon, we'll stack incarnate abilities on top. Powercreep has happened, and I even though I take advantage of it here and there, I don't think it's a good thing for the game and won't complain if it's nerfed or gutted.

For this pack? No thanks.

I get why you think it needs more (I don't agree, but I at least understand). But any fixes to the few glaring ommisions from previous packs need to be made part of the original packs those parts should come with. I mean, imagine the outcry if they decided that Organic w/ skin was gonna be in this pack and not the mutant pack? It doesn't make sense. Besides, I believe there's precident for them adding to a pack after the fact. Didn't they go back and add some weapons to one of the earlier packs? (Am I thinking of the Valkyrie swords?)

I'll fully support the idea of fixing some holes in previous packs, but I can't support tying them to this one. It will make future purchases of all packs needlessly confusing.

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Agreed.


Also, I'm OK with the set as it currently is. There are people that don't see the value in it-- and that's fine, they shouldn't buy it. There are others that are more than happy with it-- and that's fine, too.

Hopefully, it'll help establish boosters as what they should be in the players' eye. OPTIONAL additions for people that like that stuff. We're not OBLIGATED to buy them, and we shouldn't be expected to. As long as the devs sell enough of them to cover the costs + reasonable return on investment, then they priced and packaged it well enough.

I don't think anyone ever said the new Origins pack was supposed to be on par with the SUPER booster packs, which is what the original Origin-themed packs were. It's supposed to be less.

Agreed. I just wish it cost a little bit less too to reflect that. :P

Yes, they should add some 8-bit pieces so I can do my Mario and MegaMan characters.

--NT