Frustration...

Ok, I am getting thoroughly frustrated. I know that this is a big change for you guys at NCsoft, and I know it is a LOT of work. But really.

I have been unable to log onto the servers due to downtime, both announced previously, and snuck in with a day before announcement, more then 8 times this month. I work night shift, and so when I get home, it's 8am...

The occasional downtime for maintenance I MORE then understand, I work in Sat Com, but if we ran our signals the way you run yours servers we wouldn't have any Distant Ends, they would all go to a more reliable service, and I am afraid that is what is going to happen to my beloved game. I already have friends upset over the change over to the market system, the micro-transactions are overly expensive when compared to the days when we would get most of these same things for free, or even the days of the Content Packs for 9.99 are being looked on as a Silver Age... Everything used to be released as content packs in the Free Issues, a Golden Age for City of Heroes. Then things went to the Content Packs, and people cried foul. They decried as a slippery slop leading to micro-transactions and no more free content updates. I, along with many Old Guard told them to sit on they're hands and be quiet the Devs knew what they were doing.

Then comes the I21 update. EVERYTHING in a micro-transaction. I was proven wrong.

You put in changes to severely curtail AE farming, but then expect us to farm Incarnate content. You push the farmers down, then encourage them to provide for your market in game. It is a VERY mixed signal. When we horded Shards so we would be ready for the next incarnate powers, you curveballed us with a new currency (Threads), and basically made all those shards worthless minus a 1/day transfer.

These actions aren't the actions of a caring Dev Team, which is what I always liked about CoH (minus a couple occasions of not listening to us (ED)), was that the team always seems to listen to what we want, and need as a playerbase. They address our concerns and push forward to making a better game for all of us, which in turn brings in more revenue by keeping old guard players, and we word of mouth it to the rest.

What is happening now, is well a money grab. It is a bid to increase revenue quickly, rather then steadily. The Micro-transaction system in a f2p game might bring in more revenue stream temporarily, but it seems to drive away subscribing players, and if it eliminates free content updates I can guarantee you it will do just that. I don't know why you devs would be adopting such a foolhardy, shortsighted approach, but it is forcing changes on the game that not all the Old Guard like, and your losing your steady income VIP players, in exchange for potentials hundreds of micro transactions over a short period of time. We need the servers to be up, and the VIP players to feel that they're game is intact for the game to continue in the tradition of great service and community it has always had. F2P isn't going to kill that community, but the micro-transactions, and constant downtime will. Here's how, by having the servers down, we lose players, Old Guard who grow frustrated and leave for other games. I have already seen this happen in few cases with VETERAN players, some of whom had YEARS dedicated to the game, and others are threatening to follow suit. The Old Guard, your VIP Players, the SUBSCRIBERS, are the primary concern, and should remain the primary focus of your efforts as a Development team. Micro-transaction is great, but in the end, it won't keep the lights on forever, the subscribers will.

This is affecting more then me, I have friends who are borderline to quitting the game because of the constant down time. I know you went f2p, but I still pay for my access, please keep the servers up so I can be here with my friends!

I'm begging here, enough with the Downtime. I am not asking for compensation, or any other whiny, entitlement BS, just that we have our servers and our game back up and running. We need to get the community back to the supportive, great group we were, and the only way to do that is to encourage our Old Guard to stay, by keeping servers up, keeper service high, and letting them know they're VIP status is appreciated, cause right now a lot of us aren't feeling it.

So here is our list of, well desires, not demands, but desires:

1. Keep the Servers UP!

2. Enough with new Currency... in fact roll Threads and Shards into the same thing and let it drop like Shards do. The Empyrean Merits, and Astral Merits are crap too.

3. Enough with the Farm Hate. Yes I understand Time/v/Payoff, but the farms are driving the economy for your game and without us it would be very difficult to keep things rolling. Not to mention while your trying to punish illicit behavior, a lot of players getting caught in the crossfire are innocent of any wrong doing. How is the Market a mini game, as has been cited by the devs, and the Farms aren't. Each takes a specialized set of skills, patience, long term planning, and both reap in game monetary benefits for the character. The market benefits a player MORE then the Farms if your looking at Risk v Reward, (lvl 2 player can sell his Tutorial Inspirations, use that as capitol and get over a billion in a week, it's been done on the market forums).

4. We are living in a time of low economy in the USA, and Europe, your prime playerbase, so Enough Micro-Transactions, VIP Players shouldn't have to spend money for what would have been free content in issues 1-19. New costumes, new powersets, all that should be VIP Content automatically. If you want to Micro-transact the f2p players, fine, that's what they get for not subscribing. Micro-Transactions should NEVER EVER effect content for VIP Players. We already pay for our content, please let it reflect that.

5. No more mixed signals. Farms should be ok. Even farms where we have resurrecting enemies. Yes we figured out ways to build toons to stand up to it. But now we have Incarnate Trials we are basically required to farm day in day out if we want the shiny armor, and powers locked behind Empyrean Michael and Astral whatsherface (I don't know cause the Servers are Down!). One minute your encouraging us to repeat content as much as possible the next we are being told that isn't ok.

In closing, please keep the Old Guard happy, we're your steady paycheck, your solid gold, and this flash in the pan from the Micro-transactions are just that, fools gold, cause they won't last, but we Old Guard, if you keep us happy, we would love to stick around for years to come.

Thanks,
Elvnsword

Im all for downtime rage and all that, but they did give us a warning last week about the downtime today so i cannot complain myself [since its one of the things i wanted was just notice ].

I'll throw my hat in the ring for 'enough new currency.' I work with spreadsheets all day and I don't want to have to keep using them for the game I enjoy. I'm not Steelclaw.

I'd like to support the downtime disappointment, but there's too much of other kinds of entitlement in the original post that I don't support at all, so I'll look for another thread to do that in. Sorry, there's a little too much frustration here, even for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Would just like to say that farms dont take anywhere near as much skill as say a person playing the market

Farm = tray full of [luck], kill.
Market = Patience.

[Thread about farms coming in 3 . . .2 . . . .1!]

First off. This is a hybrid model, not pure F2P.

Secondly, 80% of those 'micro-transactions' are available to VIP members for FREE. Plus, VIP members get an allowance of 400 - 550 points to spend on the other 20%, for FREE.

So far, with my free points, and my 15 bucks a month (as in, my normal subscription fee) I've been able to buy everything i want out of the market.

While farmers may help bring in supply to the in game market, they aren't the only driving force, and AE farming actually takes AWAY from the in game market, due to not providing any 'normal' salvage drops. You CANNOT get reliable uncommon salvage drops from tickets, and your not getting a lot of the 'junk' recipes from tickets either. AE was never meant for farming.

Itrials on the other hand, provide both inf, normal salvage, normal recipes, and a means to progress your character, which AE doesn't provide.

Oh, the lastly, downtime is required for a stable game environment. Obviously you were here for the beginning, where we had downtime almost DAILY, if you got more then 2 hours playtime over the weekend that wasn't flooded with lag, you were lucky. The game changes, things improve, and all of it requires taking the servers down. Get over it.

Coulda swore you couldn't buy uncommons with tickets, and thats what drove up the uncommon salvage prices...

For the record, I came in at issue 3. I remember days when stability issues prevented play for weeks at a time. AND I remember how unstable everything was when Villains hit. What I am saying is that ADDED to the new Freemium f2p, micro-transaction thing they're doing, they are driving away Old Guard players. People who played longer then I have or as long, on subscription. I have at least one friend who's paid up through then end of the year who is refusing to touch the game out of frustration to the changes made recently.

AE Farming creates Market Supply... PERIOD end of conversation. Without it you wouldn't have a buy it now market, they provide the VOLUME of supply to the market. No they aren't the only people listing stuff, but they are providing the volume of stuff that people buy now. Most farmers, are at least amateur marketeers.

AE Provides a means to progress my characters just fine thank you, and a lot of us find them fun. Just cause our fun and your fun are diffrent doesn't mean it's wrong. High Horse, you need to get off it, come back to reality there and think. We Farm for Inf, Prestige, and Tickets which turn into recipes... We bring along a friend's lowbie who in turn farms our lowbie later, thus we progress a character. How is it not progress...

O and COMMON salvage prices would be fixed with a MARKET cap as I proposed... Read in full please before you rage post TYVM...
Elvnsword


I understand Maintenance downtime, as I stated, I am just asking for more warning then the night before as happened last week, some of us don't like getting home from a night shift and finding ourselves locked out of the game.

I have the opposite experience. Instead of "Old Guard" leaving I see them returning. And not only returning premium, after a day of playing resubscribing. Sounds like your "Old Guard" may need to take a break.

How dare you farm in the AE? The only repetitive grinding of content you're allowed to do is in Incarnate Trials!

Oh Samuel, I agree with you so much! One of the things I like is being able to pick a costume piece I will use, rather than get a bunch with it that I won't. There are a lot of small and wonderful changes that take a back seat to the members' hot topics. Inner Inspiation, Null the Gull and /auctionhouse are just a few things I love.