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Very Art of Fighting 3! That answers my question perfectly, thanks! |
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
Technically everyone has an active billing date. It's simply the calendar date in the month that your subscription would renew.
For example: Your 12 month sub renews every April 14th. Your billing date is the 14th of the month. |
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Everyone gets billed every month. If you have a credit card on file, it is automatically hit up for billing the next month.|
Originally Posted by EricHough
So what if we DON'T have a active billing day in july, but DO have an active account the entire month (and the months after it)? For example, I buy my access in 6 month increments. I don't actually know off the top of my head when my billing cycle starts/stops but I could have easily just payed for my 6 month period sometime this month, which means I won't be billed again for 6 months.
I guess the thing throwing me off here is the phrase "active billing day" as I am only billed once every 6 months. EDIT: Looking at this more closely, it looks like the last point would apply in the case I mentioned above (For the months following, as long as you have an active account during that month (i.e. August, September, etc), your account will be credited with 400 Paragon Points for each month leading up to City of Heroes Freedom Launch), however all the references to having an "active billing day" in July are again, making it look like I actually have to be billed during the month of july to kick this off. |
If you paid a year in advance, every month you are billed against the escrow of your advance payment.
Otherwise, full-year subscribers would have a hard time getting their Vet Rewards.
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Ohh... now I understood...|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
Technically everyone has an active billing date. It's simply the calendar date in the month that your subscription would renew.
For example: Your 12 month sub renews every April 14th. Your billing date is the 14th of the month. |
Thanks Zwill! Did i ever told you that you are one of my favorite Reddies? You dont know a Little Pony collection like Beastyle... but... well... no one can be perfect!
** Guardian�s Crazy Catgirl **
************* 22 XxX 10 *************
Yes. I can get lost on a straight-line map.
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For VIP members there will still be free costumes in 'issues.' E.g., I21 has two new costumes free to Veeps.|
Originally Posted by Hy-Beams
So given your examples, what I am not clear on is once the game transforms into Freedom, will new content (beyond the monthly missions), e.g. powers, costumes etc. ever just get added to the game for VIPs and be available without us having to do anything or going forward is all of that content just added to the store and we need to use our points to purchase it?
In other words, I understand the store replaces Super Boosters but does it also replace the "free" costume sets, powers etc. that would be released as Issues. |
But there will probably also be special purchasable ones, too for Veeps.
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Doesn't look bad for the cosmetic items, it would have been nice to see what ninja run, secondary mutation or steam jump items were going for.
Edit it would also be interesting to see if those are going account wide or per character
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Thanks Zwillinger (and Zombie Man) - I thought that might be the case but dislike making assumptions.
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
Technically everyone has an active billing date. It's simply the calendar date in the month that your subscription would renew.
For example: Your 12 month sub renews every April 14th. Your billing date is the 14th of the month. |
Globals: @Midnight Mystique/@Magik13
I think these prices look very good - I see what you mean about choosing to be a VIP being a no-brianer 
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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They're going to be monthly arcs of between 6-10 missions where players get to fight alongside some of the signature Heroes and Villains.
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Originally Posted by Hercules
So are these signature stories similar to the guild wars epic stories where you play another character, or do you play as yourself?
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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To further illustrate - VIP get's 400 pts, 1 Character Transfer per month and sig story arcs included in their sub. |
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
I think these prices look very good - I see what you mean about choosing to be a VIP being a no-brianer
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400 pts = $5.00
Transfer = $10.00
Sig Story Arcs = $5.00
$20.00 per month included as part of your monthly VIP sub.
We definitely feel there's plenty of value there, and there's plenty more benefits to talk about for VIP's.
Andy Belford
Community Manager
Paragon Studios
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I agree with this. |
Originally Posted by Kheldarn
Interesting. This says, to me, that I am now paying $10/month for my VIP Sub, and $5/month for 400 PP. I think that's a pretty good way to look at it.
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From past readings on the subject they're well in line with Korean MMOs for vanity items and such. Typically, micros are meant to be impulse friendly, and these look it. Certainly, they're in line with my memories of Exteel (waaaah!). My only worry is that for a reasonably sized chunk of the playerbase they'll actually not have enough to offer! There are some lunatics, like myself, that have all, or darn near all, the available boosters!|
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
I think these prices look very good - I see what you mean about choosing to be a VIP being a no-brianer
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While maybe heresy for some, i think "renting" private instances might be a good VIP/micro perk. Rent an instance of the Ski Chalet, a PVP zone, etc, for a week or something. Yes, i know its isolating, but sometimes that's not a bad thing!
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So that answers my question: it's $5 per arc, not $5 to unlock Sig Story Arcs for the account forever.
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
To further illustrate - VIP get's 400 pts, 1 Character Transfer per month and sig story arcs included in their sub.
400 pts = $5.00 Transfer = $10.00 Sig Story Arcs = $5.00 $20.00 per month included as part of your monthly VIP sub. We definitely feel there's plenty of value there, and there's plenty more benefits to talk about for VIP's. |
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
When a new booster pack comes out, will there be a single option to buy everything it contains? For that matter, will themed booster packs as we know them even continue to be released, or will everything be a la carte now?
I missed this, its news to me. What are signature story arcs? how do they work? I'm looking forward to the second part as a few friends paid me up through October with time cards. hope it doesn't detract anything from those rewards >.>
Ignoring anyone is a mistake. You might miss something viral to your cause.
I certainly approve. The prices look right and it really does look to be a no-brainer to be a VIP subscriber. At least in my case. I love new story arcs and they each cost 400 points as a premium member. Further, you get 400 points for being a VIP subscriber on many things that I'm sure would be too shiny for me to resist anyway. So technically that's already $10 worth of stuff that I'm essentially already paid up on every month. At that point I might as well be paying just $5 to access Incarnates and AE. I'll forego a value meal for that.
Well played, Paragon. Well played.
"Always remember that you're unique -- just like everybody else."
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I'm pretty sure it's the opposite, but I'll agree it's a tad vague.|
Originally Posted by Liquid
So that answers my question: it's $5 per arc, not $5 to unlock Sig Story Arcs for the account forever.
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Still, I see "Signature Story Arcs" as a system, and your $5 payment buys you access to the system itself, not the arcs contained therein.
And remember, there are TWO Signature arcs every month--a Hero and a Villain arc, each at 3 to 5 missions apiece.
Main Hero: Chad Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1396 Badges
Main Villain: Evil Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1193 Badges
Mission Architect arcs: Doctor Brainstorm's An Experiment Gone Awry, Arc ID 2093
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!
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Can't find the thread that gave the best description of them right now (there've been a LOT of redname posts this week! |
Originally Posted by MrHassenpheffer
What are signature story arcs? how do they work?
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), but basically:They're a story arc given to you by one of the signature heroes (Freedom Phalanx or Vindicators) or signature villains (Arachnos Patrons and their lieutenants) that has you going on an adventure alongside the contact. There will be 2 arcs offered each month (one Hero, one Villain), and each arc will be three to five missions long, with all new arcs the following month. (Not sure if that means the old ones disappear, but I personally doubt it.)
That's about all the info we have on them right now, but it's one of the perks you can either buy on a Free/Premium account or get for free by being a VIP subscriber.
Main Hero: Chad Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1396 Badges
Main Villain: Evil Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1193 Badges
Mission Architect arcs: Doctor Brainstorm's An Experiment Gone Awry, Arc ID 2093
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!
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So...not directly related to the subject at hand, but this always bothered me. Why is it five dollars for four hundred points? Why not five dollars for five hundred points (with prices adjusted accordingly)? It'd make the mental math a lot cleaner.
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400 for $5 would make it $25 for 2000 (plus whatever amount of bonus points). Maybe there is a psychological price point in there that they are trying to hit?
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Originally Posted by MechaCrash
So...not directly related to the subject at hand, but this always bothered me. Why is it five dollars for four hundred points? Why not five dollars for five hundred points (with prices adjusted accordingly)? It'd make the mental math a lot cleaner.
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Wow. I read the post about Freedom's initial details the morning it was posted to cityofheroes.com and was skeptical. Now I'm excited . I have altitis so premium is out of the question, but VIPs get tons of cool stuffs besides what we get for our sub now.
10 50's To Date! Check out Titan Sentinel; it got my CoH presence synced online
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I know this is water under the bridge, but with the new system coming online, I want to once again attempt to make the argument for more rational pricing for this one feature. Currently, this feature is implemented so that people can move a character to a new server to be with friends or to move an old toon people do not want to delete to a less used server to make room on their "primary" server for a new character. For that use, the price point listed is reasonable (I think high, but reasonable).|
Originally Posted by Ghost Falcon
800......$10.00......................Character Server Transfer Token
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However, this could be so much more. Since it feels like cross-server teaming is Sadly a long way off (not even on a production schedule?), this could be used to solve the primary reason for cross-server teaming.
Maybe I am near unique, but I know several of my friends have the same situation. Characters strewn across 3, 4, or sometimes more servers. Sometimes I log-in and really want to play character X on server P, but my friends want to play on server G. Sometimes I log-in just to fool around and wait to see what is going on; I may see a team forming in one of my globals to run a TF/trial on server P, but I really want to do that TF/trial with a character on server G. Maybe I have joined a team for a TF on server L, but the team really wants buff/debuff, while I would love to switch to one of my buff/debuff toons, I do not have any on server L.
If you make server transfers cost 10 bucks, I will never buy one.
If you make server transfers cost 5 bucks, I may buy one or two a year.
If you make server transfers cost 1 dollar, I will buy 1 every 6 weeks or so.
If you make server transfers cost $0.50, I will buy 4 or 5 a month.
If you make server transfers cost $0.25, I will use them like candy, especially if that 25 cents is 20 PPs.
I think more money can be made at the lower price point, on top of more convenience for the players. It looks like a win-win to me.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
OP looks great. The current server transfer and respec prices still sound terrible to me though. I would love to know how many respecs you folks sell at the current price point. Anyone on the forums even want to admit to buying one ?
Sermon
@sermon
One of Six, Cannibal 6
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Its pretty common. I had read (and now can't find!) an article discussing the psychology behind it, but if you look at the other big companies/games doing F2P with micros, or even Microsoft/Live, you'll see $1 does not equal 100 points (or however). NCSoft used to sell NCCoins at a $1 to 100 rate, but that flopped over here.|
Originally Posted by MechaCrash
So...not directly related to the subject at hand, but this always bothered me. Why is it five dollars for four hundred points? Why not five dollars for five hundred points (with prices adjusted accordingly)? It'd make the mental math a lot cleaner.
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Two theories I remember are:
- Since we're so conditioned to money being in units of 100, $1 equaling 80 points means when we see something for 80 points we think $0.80.
- Since conversions are less obvious, so is comparing international pricing and exchange rates and all that stuff.
As a side note - buying things in set amounts versus buying solely ala carte? By doing it this way Paragon/NCSoft gets hit with less credit card processing fees. Good for them and good for us since, as a business, such things would get passed along and there would be that slight mental barrier ("Do I really want to buy $5 worth of points for a hat?").
Just a thought - since our COH login and password can be different than our PlayNC accounts? And I do recall we can set spending limits on credit cards on file associated with the account? That might be a nice tool for parents - little Bruce's account could be set for no more than $5 a month, whereas slightly older Diana's account could be set for $10.
I'm hoping that, like NCCoins, we'll be able to buy Paragon Points with time cards. I had spent a fair bit of money on Exteel, and thought they handled all the microtransactions and such well on that game (and that was following a strictly Korean/Asian model). Now, a few years later? I think Paragon/NCSoft is doing an excellent job adapting COH, and based off of my past experience I see myself continuing to be a happy customer.
based on these numbers,I am trying to figure out the cost of new powersets. somewhere between 2000 and 4000 points?
Fluffy Bunny 1 Person SG
Rabid Bunny 1 Person VG
Both on Pinnacle
Hobbit's Hole 1 Person SG
Spider's Web 1 Person VG
Both on Freedom
I guess the thing throwing me off here is the phrase "active billing day" as I am only billed once every 6 months.
EDIT: Looking at this more closely, it looks like the last point would apply in the case I mentioned above (For the months following, as long as you have an active account during that month (i.e. August, September, etc), your account will be credited with 400 Paragon Points for each month leading up to City of Heroes Freedom Launch), however all the references to having an "active billing day" in July are again, making it look like I actually have to be billed during the month of july to kick this off.
** Guardian�s Crazy Catgirl **
************* 22 XxX 10 *************
Yes. I can get lost on a straight-line map.