Dev Chat Highlights, July 20: Paragon Rewards

You can see a new power right on the list. Remote Vault access.


Now I'm really surprised that they're still gating content with this new system and that they didn't just assign a specific number of tokens to the various powers/costumes/etc on the tree and just let you pick and choose what you want without having to buy open a whole tree level.

3 tokens for remote market access
1 token for kilts & shorts costume bits
2 tokens for assemble the team
1 token for 3 respecs
1 token for 5 costume tokens

etc etc etc....prices of course would be set as to the "worth" of the power/thing and existing vets would have all that unlocked already if they currently have it.

It means the the things subscribers (VIPs) get at tier 9 will change and rotate around every 3-4 months, so they'll potentially have new things to spend their tokens on (likely consumables and costume bits and the like).

I would also assume by "rotate" it means that they'll come back in and out over time.

They count as spent already, and you don't lose them.

Honestly it struck me as fairly straightforward to tell the truth. You get your tokens, you slot your tokens into a tier. Fill up a tier move on to the next one. Putting tokens in slots gives you 'neat stuff'.

If you have any vet badges on your account they give your account a token for each one plus one extra token for every year you've played.



That is, of course, assuming I haven't missed something horrible somewhere.

8? Why not go for 24 for a full league of statesmen.

Pardon the hyperbole. The problem is that I have been very confused about whether I have to re-unlock all of my veteran rewards. Also, it doesn't say you can or can't skip rewards (and still move up the rewards "bush"). Anyways, the explanation just leaves me with many questions, and I await official answers on some issues. I went from thinking I could stockpile points since I already have sands of mu and such, to now thinking that most of my tokens will be used up re-unlocking most of these things (buying all slots in order to advance) and that my 72 month progress will only be incrementally further in the new system (with the best stuff just out of arms reach... unless I find a few barrels of cash to stand on!)

That the Tier 9 VIP rewards will be a rotating list. That way you don't always have the same 3 options to buy for Tier 9 VIPs.

I just worry that means I could miss out on costumes because I could be stuck in previous the first several months of Freedom. That would horrify me.

Where does it say 'rotate'? To me 'refresh' seems to indicate they'll be bringing in a stream of new content for that tier every 3-4 months. If that turns out to be the case I'd imagine when new content comes through, they'll take the previous content and open it up to purchase on the in-game store. Which means not only would vets get the pieces early, they would effectively get it for 'free'.

I mostly think it'll be a steady stream since if it was rotated through you'd run into issues of people just missing the piece they wanted and having to wait months and months until it cycled back around again as well as the issue of the rotation eventually getting entirely too long (not to mention that eventually everyone would end up having all of the rotating content).

To play CoH, log in, click stuff, and stuff happens.

You worry a lot. You don't have to re-unlock your old rewards. You can't skip tiers, you have to fill it all in before moving up. You can't "stockpile points" because some of them will be "pre-spent" on things you have already (which is effectively the same thing that WOULD happen if you were asked to re-unlock everything, and picked all the exact rewards you had at launch). You'll gain some things in the new system (namely stuff marked in green that didn't exist before) as well as new choices to make. It won't be "just out of arms reach" because you advance in the new system every MONTH not every THREE, so eventually you "catch up" there'll never be a "tier 10" so you'll eventually get to the top within a year or two at most.

I'm not sure if costume bits would rotate or not, they may only rotate on consumables, that's a question for them. However, even if they did, you'd be able to get them a few months later when they rotated back in again.

You're making this way harder than it really is.

You may be right there, but that's more of a question for the Devs.

So basically not a single current vet will be unlocking tier 9 costumes without paying real cash or waiting half a year.

An 87 month vet will have 36 tokens which only unlocks 2 of the 5 in tier 9, they will have 3 months to go to get the other 3 and then 3 more months to get to the costumes. Or they can spend 90 bucks to unlock them, far far more money then any super booster every cost, or even the combined game boxes cost.

I seriously hope we get to choose what order we unlock stuff in each tier.

I am not happy with having to spend 90 bucks or waiting half a year to get new costume stuff. It better not be half ***** like the Ascension costume parts/steampunk booster costume parts/animal pack parts is/are.

So tiers are just earned? I was just confused because the current vet rewards (the ones that are worth something) have you select between thing like sands of mu or ghost slaying axe. I thought that the multiple listed rewards were a "chose one only" style that our current system uses.

I think my comprehension problem stems from my impression that the new system was previewed as offering players a new level of choice. I expected to be able to opt out of rewards in the process. Instead, I think my only choice is the order I choose rewards within a tier (unless that is fixed, i'm not sure I saw). The other aspect of choice only arrives at tier 9, when there will be a larger field of rewards, no specific reward being requisite.

Personally I'm sincerely hoping that since the normal tier 9 rewards are all repeatable (I imagine that's what the green arrows circling those slots means anyway in the picture) that as long as you're a VIP customer and have the tier 9 slots open, then you can 'buy' those costume rewards.

I wouldn't really put any money on that or anything, but I'm hopeful at least.

Basically yes. You can choose the order you take things within the tier (some of them anyway, some are lumped together) which technically speaking is "a new level of choice". You can't opt-out of anything, and there's not really a "larger field of rewards" at tier 9, just consumables to buy and such, but I suppose that's "larger" in a way. It's all in how you look at it, and the expectations you had.

I think, now that I've read more on the page, that When you hit tier 9 you get to spend your points on ANY of the tier 9 stuff including VIP, assuming you have a paid subscription, which makes you a VIP.

So say you have 36 tokens when this goes live, putting you 2 tokens into tier 9 and you're a VIP. You could spend them on the consumables or 2 of the 3 costume parts. Better then how I first read it assuming you don't want the consumables right away, but not fantastic.

I think all vets who have been here from the very start should be unlocking everything at least once (for consumables) when this goes live and then be able to spend their points that they start accruing on the consumables.

EDIT: This seems to state that any VIP will get all the costume bits & vip stuff for free and not have to spend any tokens for them

"Tier 9 VIP offers new exclusive costumes, powers, and other exciting in-game rewards. These Tier 9 VIP rewards will be refreshed every 3 to 4 months and are available for free for Tier 9 VIP players. Players must have an active VIP subscription in order to claim Tier 9 VIP rewards."

You mean just like the vet rewards we have now?

Which I think is the cause of some of the disappointment for some. Some people just don't use some of the ones and would probably like to not have to slot them. I admit that would be a nice feature, though I'd probably end up slotting everything anyway personally.

Well, with them expanding and improving their rewards system, it seems perfectly fair to be disappointed if the system goes unimproved in terms of forced rewards.

Personally, I am fine with the proposed system as long as I never miss the chance to obtain a costume piece due to arriving too late to the party.

But that is what is weird about it. Why would something that is pretty much useless for anyone over level 20, included as a reward so far up the tiers? I actually liked having them for my Praetorians, as it allows you to rely on your actual powers earlier rather then the vet reward powers (if you have them). However, I still would not take them until I had no other choice.

While I understand the only thing I payed to get them, was pretty much not having access to the Dual Pistol and Demon Summoning sets early, I still find it odd that to get to the higher tiers I need to "purchase" something I already have. At least when they added the other pre-order items in veteran reward form, you got access to other items as well. I guess I'll just look at it as a slot to get the next set of "freebies", which I suppose is better then nothing.

Your misunderstanding the upper levels.

Here are the levels:

1st = 1 (1 cumulative)
2nd = 1 (2)
3rd = 3 (5)
4th = 3 (8)
5th = 5 (13)
6th = 7 (20)
7th = 7 (27)
8th = 7 (34)
9th = 5 infinite repeatables = infinity
9th VIP = 3 (37)

You can unlock ANY of the options on the tier once its unlocked in whatever order you want, but you HAVE to unlock them all to move up to the next tier. The 'T9 VIP' unlock the with the rest of the repeatable T9s. The difference is you have to be VIP (as I understand it). Thats why they are T9 VIP and not T10.

If you have 36 vet tokens to 'spend' when this goes online, you'll have to spend 34 to unlock all of them through T8. That leaves you with 2 to spend on the 8 possible T9 options. 5 are repeatable, 3 are the new costumes. You will actually only have to wait a month (since after this goes online you get one token per month, not one per 3 months) and you will have everything they have listed here. Anything after that you can spend on any of those 5 T9 repeatable options you want, or when they add more into the T9 VIP, you can get those as well.

The option to get tokens from buying paragon points isn't intended as a way for you to buy everything right now to get everything right now, though you have that option, but I think that would be crazy for someone to do since none of these things are really required at all in the game, just make it nicer. Its intended so as the premium players buy paragon points to purchase content, boosters, and such, they make progress in here, since they don't get 1 a month from the VIP subscription.

Its a nice way of saying 'thanks for supporting the game'. As VIP, you already are with your subscription, and likely getting these tokens faster, unless you just spend a TON at the paragon store, and in reality if you're buying more than $15 worth of things in the store a month to unlock stuff, why aren't you just spending that $15 on a VIP membership. But thats another issue.

That raises the question: Would the Set Bonuses of such an enhancement work if you exmplared down to level 27, or 28?