So, Villain Badgers like myself Will never have access to the 5th Column Gladiator?

So, for months I've been meaning to bring this up but haven't really gotten around to it- the 5th Column Gladiator badge is for getting both, the year 1 and 2 badges (Celebrant and Reveler).

Since Villains didn't exist in year one, is it safe to say we will never have access to the 5th Column Gladiator? Does this also mean that Hero badgers will always have a higher count than Villains by two? (Since Celebrant and 5th Column Gladiator are the only two badges Villains have no access to.)

Interested in other people's thoughts on this subject.

At this point, yes, heroes can have a higher count than villains. There was some talk about making the anniversary badges global to the account, but I think that might be on the low priority list and has the potential of messing up a large portion of the character database. It may take time, but if a player was around for the first anniversary, there is the possibility for getting these two badges on a villain.

As to getting the badge retroactively if you were not on during the first anniversary event, I don't think that will happen.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

I've suggested before that they could also tie the 5th column gladiator badge to the badge that one wins at the end of Khan TF or Cuda SF.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I think they should make those kind of badges purchasable with Hero and Villain merits. We are able to get past badges for the Winter Event via Candy Cane salvage, so why not do the same with anniversary badges? Add a badge tab to the Crucible and Fort Trident shops, and slap a 30 merit price tag on those suckers.

Yeah, 30 merits might be a bit too much, but I think that players still would have to "earn it" to quell the "I got here first!!!!1!!!eleven!" crowd.

Hi,

I think that what is wrong is that we can buy those specific Winter event badges!

I am not aware of the thinking behind the decision to let us do so, but feel that it was a devisive choice of implimentation opening up the very point about the other past awarded badges others here have posted about.

I am absolutely not in favour of the purchase of previous anniversary badges. Like that Lottery slogan says "You got to be in it to win it".

I missed them and so be it. Same as our Vet badges I am proud of the ones I have earned and waste no emotions on the ones that are not yet earned because I joined the party later than some.

On the other hand, I do think that the Glad badge should be divorced from the Anniversary system and awarded by some other achieved objective.

(Off topic, I feel the same way about having the 6 Respec badges tied to the award of the Respec and not for completion of the Trial, but that is another battle for another day)

Anniversary badges only for those subbed at the time (however they actually award them) and no retrospective purchase is my purely personal preference.

Cheers

Said it before and I say it again.
As you I'm a badger, but I was not playing the game at the time of the two first anniversary badges.
I know there will be some badges that I will never earn... and I'm fine with it.
Sure it looks a bit off on the sheets, badge-hunter or cohtitantracker that you have a few badges that you will never earn, but hey... thats life.

I do not want to buy them with merits/candy canes etc as I have a feeling it really will cheapen these two coveted badges (ok 3 badges). They as all anniversary badges are a gift given to the player characters that log in during the time. As a "I was here playing and I got the badge to prove it!"

Thank you all for your opinions on this here subject..

As for me, I started playing the City of games when City of Villains was first released, prior to I had no interest and still have very little in the hero side of the game (grin).

I am one of those big badge hunters that gets upset when he's told he can't have a badge but do understand that not everyone gets everything always.

My only real complaint is the 5th Column gladiator not being accessible by Villains or any players that were not around for year one. There's no real reason for this.

As for the 'Purchase Celebrant badges, etc using V/H merits' ... I actually like this idea.

I would work my butt off to get 30 Vill/Hero merits and spend them on the Celebrant badge instead of a 2.5-3 billion recipe, and happily!

The only suggestion for expanding the anniversary badges that I've heard that I liked is making them account-wide. Purchasing them, I would not like. Attaching them to some new random activity I would not like. Wouldn't be too upset if they took 5th Columnist and attached it to something else, especially since the whole point of it being special was because the 5th Column weren't in-game anywhere else when it came out... and now they are again.

The bane of my existence as a badge hunter is the fact that the character who became my first level fifty and main badger was made about six hours after Celebrant stopped awarding. Argh.

As they exist now I can mostly (mostly mind you) sympathize with the point of view that the anniversary badges should not be made available retroactively. They were defined to be something you'd earn for logging in during specific real world dates so at least on some level it makes no sense to allow them to be awarded anytime after those dates.

On the other hand I firmly believe the idea of implementing a set of badges earned by characters in this game based on real world dates was a very silly and shortsighted maneuver to begin with. I will always argue the point that how long a real world MMO game has been around has absolutely no bearing whatsoever to any individual character inside the game. Why would Captain Awesome, a hero who lives in Paragon City fighting crime, have any connection to how many years a real world MMO game has been live? At the very least anniversary badges should have ALWAYS been account wide badges because they have nothing to do with individual characters. They are what I'd call "player badges" not character badges and probably should have been separated from having anything to do with individual characters kind of like how SG badges are handled.

I realize the idea of removing anniversary badges completely from the game will never happen.
I also realize the idea of remaking them into global account badges will probably never happen at this point.
I wouldn't even be that upset if they were purchasable (via merits or even real world money) but that seems fairly unlikely as well.
Basically they were an intrinsically bad idea that we're all now stuck with.

But even if nothing can be done about the anniversary badges I'm all in favor of "divorcing" the 5th Column gladiator badge from the anniversary badges. There is no legitimate reason why that badge should be in anyway exclusive anymore. It could easily be remade into a simple "defeat" styled badge or linked to the Khan/Cuda TF/SF as Nericus suggested. Any character who currently had it would be allowed to keep it unchanged and it would become earnable by anyone else who wants it now. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

What's really sad is that the Devs had a perfect opportunity to "balance the scales" between hero and villain badge totals and didn't think to make use of it. The Elusive/Pursuer badge was basically the 1st year anniversary badge for CoV. If the Devs had thought to make that a "villain only" badge then that would have made up for heroes being the only ones who could have the Celebrant badge. Each side would then have had one badge the other side couldn't have thus restoring the overall badge totals. Oh well. *shrugs*

Divorce it from the 1st and 2nd anniversary badges and make it so that everyone who has 2 different anniversary badges is awarded the 5th Column Gladiator. Problem solved.

I have suggested in the past a booster pack: "Super Sidekicked."

What this would do is set your Vet Rewards to the release date of CoH and thus you can get all the Vet Rewards.

It would add all the in-game goodies from the out-of-print Collector's Editions (the most wanted be the Prestige Sprint/Slide power).

It would add a badge for each missed anniversary badge, maybe something like a History badge: "1st Anniversary History -- you have heard all about the first anniversary celebration from you mentors".

This would put late-to-the-game players on an equal par with Vets in regard to Vet Rewards, purchasable goodies, and number of badges... for a price.

Real vets would have the real Anniversary Badge rather than the historical version in order to set them apart, but the badge count would be equal.