News from PAX

They didn't even want to make those, if you recall. Jay was very against making any "furry" costume pieces. :-/

I like the set too. I just don't understand why, once again the female toons get this impractical, theme-inappropriate girly set and the guys get the actual new pieces.

I want the pieces the guys get, period, end of story. I don't want all my females dressed like tramps. Wedding pack, anyone?

Just like I did with the magic pack, the steampunk pack, etc.

Monstrous legs were part of the game before Jay worked here. Don't rewrite history please.

This is Hilda:

You made a chain mail shirt. I've wanted chain mail on my main for ages. I think I love you.

Unfortunately, the skirt won't work on a male character, so making it that long can't be done.

\

Ooo, very nice! Do you recall what the chain mail top comes from?

In regards to the top sellers from Beta, if they draw any conclusion that people want enhancement boosters, I'll be horrified.

Yep. I'm sure that's what they said. I even double checked my notes about the name while writing my original post because I know the name is already used in the game.

They did say he's the creation of a mad scientist. Players will have to go into the mansion, fight their way to the underground lab, then fight through tunnels to get to a cemetery where the big bad guy will be.

As far as the story arc rewards, I think they're fine. The arcs are three missions that can be run solo. They shouldn't take much time and can be repeated very week for the special rewards. Sounds good to me. It currently takes ten missions and two days to get a hero/villain merit.

If there are multiple arcs, and the reward is once per week per arc, that won't be too bad. You could conceivably finish 2-4 per week, even very casually.

If the reward is once per week total, instead of per arc, it's a pathetic way to progress.

I have the feeling that this will be the case.

Even if it isn't, 4 Astrals per week is still pretty pathetic and insulting.


So, 98 weeks (1.8 years) for one Tier 4 if we can run 4 arcs a week for Astrals.



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Once everyone was aware that imaginary money would be doled out, the items purchased, should in no way have influenced pricing or real customer/player needs/wants. I don't know if someone in marketing wasn't aware that many of the Beta players aren't idiots, but ..yea..we're not. Don't draw conclusions based on that data. You want to get real data, inform the participants about the rules and reset a buy item test time on Beta.

Barbarian set, looks decent for guys, though I did see the old shield in there, which was kind of a downer, but i'm still digging it. Outfit for female alts need to be..added to.Lots of suggestions in the thread and we got some time before i121 goes Live =].

Sig. story arc rewards- 1 astral per week. Yea that needs so much of a re-think, I'm not even gonna start to say where my mind went and I'm a guy who runs trials like they're going out of style on Live, so it's not a big downer for me, but I've got friends who don't and that..well it just bites.

Here's the little touch of frustration that's been building for me. I don't like getting annoyed at the game I LOVE.

In the items produced and direction the game has been goin for a bit, has me underwhelmed and a tad disappointed because I think that one of the best selling points for the game ..is the GAME. Yes, the Community is great and I always hear that as COH's selling point, but I don't come here to only chat ...I happen to love the game,from story to powers to reward and teaming /solo system.

There are other F2Pish games out there that can afford , I gather, to put enough resources into core items which directly appeal to their player base, more than not and it seems that in the COH marketing shpiel/ vibe that we've heard recently is ''..the industry does X and we're all friends so, we'll staying unique ,so here's new stuff that's from us!". But we're putting out the same stuff the Other game is and we're doing less of it. I personally choose to believe that's due to working in too small a design chamber, but that's me. Granted the..Other has had more time since going F2P, so maybe i'm just getting impatient.

I don't think our team is getting enough resources to actually be a real leader in this are and we're content to follow along, because we've got an 'older engine ..yadda yadda'.I don't know if anyone's told you guys, but some folks think our game world looks frikking cool and it plays pretty well too. I know I do. I want to see our team lead the charge and get out of the Other's shadow with respect to art design for player items, in particular.

So I just realised I had a bit of a rant...um.Yea. So yay i21 and get more resources allocated to the Art team, start writing memos and justifications, chop chop =p.

I for one like the fur lined bits. Been wanting some variety other than santa boots and gerrymandered magic bolero shoulders for some time for some of my characters. SO on that note I'm happy to see these teases.

Also pleased about the male barbarian bits.

The GOOD thing about Freedom though is that if there is a palpable enough demand from friends for them to say do the labor to recreate these parts for the female model (the more butch barbarian bits), then they can without needing a Barbarian 2 Booster Pack or some nonsense. Stuff can in general can be revisited more easily from a business standpoint. And to that point, I hope they do. Even if female model versions of what is shown as male barbarian bits are NOT available at first release of these sets, I hope they do come back and port them over for female characters as well.

Touch of devil's advocacy here:

- These arcs are for VIP customers or premiums can buy 'em for Paragon Bucks, right?
- We've already been told that each of these arcs will be available in perpetuity if you purchase it or remain a VIP subscriber
- IF (and big IF) this reward table is every 7 days PER signature arc, it actually becomes a bit more reasonable. Similarly it encourages rotating through the content instead of turbo-farming one or two. i.e. 5 arcs are out, 5 astral merits a week.

Again just playing devil's advocate while trying to get inside the logic of this rewards design.

This.

I had 96000 points and bought everything. I hope they don't think that means I'd actually pay any of those prices.

Looks like one of the baggy tops with the Mesh overlay. I did something similar with the Tights Sleek + Scales overlay. You just have to find the right colors.

Despite what many forum-goers believe, our development team isn't full of idiots. I'm fairly confident that they realize people will likely exhibit different spending habits once they have a limited amount of Paragon Points or actually have to pay real money to acquire them.

This is actually to you and Johnny both.

It looks to me like we'd be better off accepting the 10 threads. 1 Astral is only 4 threads. For actual progress through incarnate powers, the Astrals are less useful. The Astral store doesn't offer anything that moves you up through the incarnate tiers, just cosmetics and some IOs.

No, because that has nothing to do with the discussion.

Yea, silly me, I thought I was beta testing the different features, not giving them marketing data.

And the way in which she does so is? Just go look at her attitude toward people who want that solo/small team path. I've read enough of Lisa's reactions to her (and, frankly, her own posts for long enough) that I think the reply was spot on. I can't imagine her reaction to an invite from Golden Girl would be any more positive than an invite to dinner from someone who punches you in the nose twice a day would be for anyone else.

So it looks, to me, like the characterization was spot on.

And I've played with her in game and found her pushy and unwilling to shut up about the way we "should" be doing things.

Are we talking about the same person?
And are we talking about playing "BC 350, the MMO," or a comic book based game? This argument is irrelevant. As you eventually get to.

I'd say people want something in between those two extremes. Yes, the chainmail loincloth is one bit (note the requests for females to get the *male* loincloth?)

The requests seem to be less "Santa's Naughty Helper" and more, oh, skins, leather armor, that sort of thing. Seeing if I can find images:

SOmeone cosplaying at comic con 2007:


More leather:


Even going to the bikini, something rougher-made instead of the dinky lines:



or the classic:



Bulking it up some:


Looking like someone's shooting for more "stereotypical native" type:



Or this, since we're looking at higher boots too:



... none of which could be mistaken for "santa's helper."

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Which still puts 1 week on par with a 30 minute trial (not even counting the emp or thread drops) that can then be repeated immediately for the same number of astrals. It's a pathetic reward.

The development team were caught off guard by the demand for an incarnate solo path and all instantly fell in love with the new CoT design, so they aren't exactly geniuses either.

I would not call this a barbarian - too much metal; "Barbarian" evokes a more primitive feel. However, I really like that, and would love to use pieces like that in-game.

Yeah, the whole "we'll look into a solo path" thing has left a bad taste for me. Luckily for me, "taking a break" from paying/playing now will still let me login and piddle around when I don't have another game to play.

Of course, there are 2 games coming out this fall/winter that I am really looking forward to buying, one of which is an MMO. I look forward to seeing how well it caters to my play style (casual and solo and story-oriented).

You don't have to be an idiot to make idiotic decisions.

The dev team has made plenty of mistakes and missteps. Some they get around to fixing sooner than others. Some they just ignore.

I'd rather they got Enhancement Boosters, their pricing and their effectiveness right the first time. They've yet to indicate they are going to, because the prices haven't changed to reflect the feedback despite this going Live being "imminent". Yes they still have time to change it, but continued concern until they actually do is justified.



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And historically they thought SOs (and HOs) would be rare, as opposed to having builds full of them, and weren't prepared for what people did with IOs (softcapping *blasters,* for instance.) So it's not like it's a recent trend.

Yeah, slightly less metal (like the arm) - but the overall ragged look and such fits.

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