COH, Going Rogue, Freedom: Best Newb option TODAY?

All,

I have a friend who wants to get his son into COH using a free account (my friend is a VIP himself) so they can play together. He wants to buy a copy of the game today or this week.

We are wondering what the best purchase would be to make?

COH for $9.99? COH GVE for $19.99? Or Going Rogue for $29.99?

The reason we ask is because the Side-By-Side comparison page (Free vs Premium vs VIP) and some other threads I've read make it seem like we could buy GVE or Going Rogue and then possibly lose access to some of those features his kid had for a month or so, once he drops back from VIP to Premium.

I've seen some people say "you never lose what you buy" and even from some devs, but I know for a fact that he will lose access to Masterminds and Controllers, and I think he would lose access to side-switching also after having already had it, since the comparison chart says that Side-switching is purchasable for Premiums.

So basically, what does the smart money say that my friend should buy TODAY for his son, given that as soon as the game lets him drop to Premium, he will certainly lose some features? COH? GVE? or Going Rogue?

What will cause the least heartache in terms of lost access that the kid had grown attached to? Or alternatively, which purchase is the efficiency "must have" even with a little heartache, considering the stuff it does leave you access to?

Thanks for your help.

Lewis

Most of the features in Going Rogue are purchasable by Premium players. Therefore my understanding is that if you have already purchased Going Rogue you will retain access to those features when you go Premium. This includes side-switching, Preatoria, and the GR power sets but does not include Incarnate content/powers or the "limited access" ATs (so he'll have Demon Summoning but won't be able to use it and will not be able to make Electric Control Controllers).

Comparing GvE to basic CoH you won't lose any of it going premium but the perks it has are limited. For a new player I'd consider the Mac Edition or AE Edition better since they have better perks (Valk costume set for Mac edition and free magic booster for AE).

MD,

Hmm. That's a good point. On the other hand, if my friend buys the most minimal version of the game, he won't have those either, so he wont have to get used to less I guess.

If he gets the $9.99 version, will he not have access to the former villain ATs?

Hmm. Well, I await more replies and clarifications.

If it were me, I would just buy the $30 box, look at it as a one time fee and not look closely at what I may lose, and just have my kid make something I know he wouldnt lose access to and then make sure the kid doesnt do any side-switching or market stuff, and then whatever I lose, I lose.

But it still may make more sense, just from a heartache/bitter/but-I-paid-for-that perspective, to get the cheap version and let fate take its course. My friend is more likely to be irritated by what he loses access to than I am. No offense meant, buddy, when you read this. Different strokes and all that.



Adeon,

Hmm. Well I think in in terms of keeping it simple, we should just decide between the Basic, GVE or GR, simply because I dont know if the AE or Mac versions are even available from the NCSoft store (which is where the purchase is most likely to happen).

Anybody else have any opinions or insights into what might be the best bang for the buck in terms of feature availability, feature loss, and heartache?

Thanks,

Lewis

Based on the prices currently listed in the Beta store, the values of GvE versus Going Rogue are as follows:

Good vs Evil
Justice Armor - 280 pts
Sinister Armor - 300 pts
Pocket D Gold Card -- 500 pts
Jump Jet - 300 pts
-----------------------
1380 pts

Going Rogue
Alpha Armor - 400 pts
Omega Armor - 360 pts
Alignment System - 1200 pts
Create a Praetorian - 1200 pts
Praetorian Costume bits - 720 pts
Dual Pistols - 800 pts
Kinetic Melee - 800 pts
Electric Control - 800 pts
Demon Summoning - 800 pts
----------------------------------------
7080 pts

Based on those comparison, even if you remove Electric Control and Demon Summoning (because he won't have access to those archetypes w/o purchasing them) He'll still get a lot more value from the Going Rogue IF he'll actually use either Praetoria or the Alignment System.

If his son is on the youngish side and won't be interested in either Praetoria or side-switching, then I would recommend GvE just because the armors are cool and the jump jet and the Pocket D Gold Card are both very useful in their own rights.

However -- all that said - I'd say your friend should check out Amazon and Ebay because he's paying too much for GvE at that price. Heck, I bought Architect edition on eBay for a friend for $1. That's not common, but $9.99 IS common. $20 for box that's several years old is way too much, especially now that you have the option to buy the special bits piecemeal from the store. The only reason to spend $20 on GvE is that it's currently the only way to get those goodies.

I should point out that he will still be able to use Electric Control, because Free players can play Doms.

Also he doesn't have to buy the game at all for his son, because once Freedom comes out anyone can download and play the basic client. That being said, purchasing the game will give him a bunch of goodies.

I got another account about a month ago, so I could have a free-ish account to play with once Freedom hits... "refered a friend" to myself, found a copy of Architect Edition at my local Fry's Electronics for 99 cents (in a shopping cart bargain bin, no less), upgraded, then bought a $15 one-month game card... which gave my main account a free month for the referral...

But of course now, you only have 2 days before Trials are turned off... so if you do it this way, you'd have to find a cheap copy of CoH fast...

In the end, I'll have (when Freedom comes out), 1 VIP account, and 1 premium with 2 or so months of points (do you get the 400 monthly points for the "free" month that you get when you purchase a hard copy of the game?) for a grand total of $1 (the $15 dollars I paid for the game card paid itself back when the "refer a friend" gave me the free month!).... Oh! and doesn't Freedom automatically upgrade all accounts to GR?

Thanks for all the comments everyone. You're all very helpful. As COH forums are (unlike those other MMO forums). I'm the friend Unicycle asked for.

I might just get Going Rogue to the get the extra goodies and be done with it.