Can Preems not pay base upkeep?
By
AmazingMOO,
Posted on: 2011-10-01 12:27 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Preems can't pay rent. The devs let preems join SGs but having a base is locked for supergroups that don't have ViP members. If you want to help your friend join her SG have her make sure you have rent paying permission and you can pay her rent.
So bases aren't locked out for Preems it's only locked out for Preems who don't have any friends that are paying a subscription.
I'm glad that I find this out, was planning on buying enough paragon points to get to the end of tier 7, but after seeing this I will pass on that and simply let my sub slide and likely not return.
I can live with no Incarnate content. I can live with have to spend £60 to get my Invention system unlocked permanently. But being permanently locked out of my base if I go premium is the straw that breaks the camels back.
Yeah, a friend of mine popped in Premium-style the other day and I had to join his SG with a character to pay his base upkeep for him. Of course, a few days earlier he couldn't access *anything* without subscribing so he was wise enough to not complain about it.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
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Paragon have received about 3 months subs a year from me for the last couple of years. I'd be paying that amount in bulk to open up the invention system. And the fact that I'd be able to access the game at any time would probably mean I'd buy every costume set and new powerset, like I have done in the past. |
Originally Posted by Tenzhi
Yeah, a friend of mine popped in Premium-style the other day and I had to join his SG with a character to pay his base upkeep for him. Of course, a few days earlier he could't access *anything* without subscribing so he was wise enough to not complain about it.
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Yet people are having digs at me for wanting to be premium and saying I should think myself lucky? The game obviously needs more people paying more or it wouldn't have gone hybrid/f2p. Yet the little restrictions like this are deal breakers for some. There's zero reason I can see for premium players being unable to pay base upkeep.
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You can't complain about going from getting nothing for nothing to getting something for nothing and expect much in the way of sympathy. Especially when the complaint is presented in the vein of 'that's the final straw!' gauntlet-hurling melodrama. |
Originally Posted by Death_Badger
Yet people are having digs at me for wanting to be premium and saying I should think myself lucky?
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For what it's worth, it does seem like a somewhat pointless restriction to me, but for all I know there are technical reasons for it.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
Quote:
Because they've always intended the VIP experience to be both the best deal and the most attractive option. Obviously, things are locked behind the VIP wall like Incarnates and Bases so someone can't just go Premium, buy everything in one lump sum and then not pay anything while having just as much access as VIPs. They need constant revenue.
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Originally Posted by Death_Badger
Paragon have received about 3 months subs a year from me for the last couple of years. I'd be paying that amount in bulk to open up the invention system. And the fact that I'd be able to access the game at any time would probably mean I'd buy every costume set and new powerset, like I have done in the past.
Yet people are having digs at me for wanting to be premium and saying I should think myself lucky? The game obviously needs more people paying more or it wouldn't have gone hybrid/f2p. Yet the little restrictions like this are deal breakers for some. There's zero reason I can see for premium players being unable to pay base upkeep. |
I suspect that if Premiums could pay rent they would also have to gain access to the choices that allow creating an SG. It does not make sense that Paragon doesn't sell the privilege to create SGs, and pay rent.
It probably has far less to do with what the devs want to do than what the code governing how SGs work allows them to do without a great deal more work than they feel is worthwhile at this time.
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Hm. I wonder if they can even invite other characters at this point. As I've said, it's their own "2-man" SG, so I can't pay the upkeep for them unless I've got a character in it.
Thanks for the replies.
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That's not "obvious". MMOs are not going F2P to survive. They're doing it because it works. They're doing it because people are paying money to play Mafia Wars and Farmville.| Yet people are having digs at me for wanting to be premium and saying I should think myself lucky? The game obviously needs more people paying more or it wouldn't have gone hybrid/f2p. |
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| There's zero reason I can see for premium players being unable to pay base upkeep. |
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
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they can
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Originally Posted by Feycat
I wonder if they can even invite other characters at this point.
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if you want to believe that then feel free. |
Originally Posted by Venture
That's not "obvious". MMOs are not going F2P to survive. They're doing it because it works. They're doing it because people are paying money to play Mafia Wars and Farmville.
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Originally Posted by Venture
Bases are very obviously big consumers of system resources. If F2P players could make and maintain them there would be roughly 82934729847298472 more bases to deal with. It's a complete no-brainer that they would be a subscriber-only feature.
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Well, subscriber-only isn't the only way to deal with Premium-only bases. They can sell a license to operate a base. Which I hope they do because as base rents start coming due in the upcoming month, we're going to be hit with Premium member spam looking for VIPs to pay their rent.
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Originally Posted by Venture
Bases are very obviously big consumers of system resources. If F2P players could make and maintain them there would be roughly 82934729847298472 more bases to deal with. It's a complete no-brainer that they would be a subscriber-only feature.
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QFT |
Originally Posted by Venture
Bases are very obviously big consumers of system resources. If F2P players could make and maintain them there would be roughly 82934729847298472 more bases to deal with. It's a complete no-brainer that they would be a subscriber-only feature.
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Bases consume a TON of system resources, and this is why full access is gated. However, the inability to pay SG prestige may very well be a technical limitation given how they restrict access to bases for Free/Preem through interaction with a specific contact.
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Your already getting something for nothing, and your whining about not getting more for nothing. Yet your surprised at peoples responses. Grow up, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.|
Originally Posted by Death_Badger
Yet people are having digs at me for wanting to be premium and saying I should think myself lucky?
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| The game obviously needs more people paying more or it wouldn't have gone hybrid/f2p. |
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| Yet the little restrictions like this are deal breakers for some. |
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| There's zero reason I can see for premium players being unable to pay base upkeep. |
The devs are selling extra storage slots on the market. If Prems could pay rent they could make solo bases and use them for free storage instead of buying extra storage off the market.
So if Prems want access to SG storage they need to get over their elitist attitudes and invite a VIP to their SG's. That's right I said elitist. Why? Because base permissions allow players of any rank to pay rent, and storage access can easily be restricted to Prem leadership.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Well, subscriber-only isn't the only way to deal with Premium-only bases. They can sell a license to operate a base. Which I hope they do because as base rents start coming due in the upcoming month, we're going to be hit with Premium member spam looking for VIPs to pay their rent.
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Well the devs have always been against solo SG's. This can easily be seen as the devs manipulating the system to force Prem's and VIP's to co-mingle and integrate the community.
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If they have in the past... not anymore. Once Base Raiding became a dead issue, there was no reason to discourage single-player Bases. The very fact that Prestige costs have dropped so significantly that it is now trivially easy to have one-player bases would indicate a change in Dev position.
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Well the devs have always been against solo SG's.
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They have?
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Well the devs have always been against solo SG's.
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A solo base still requires 2 accounts in order to get toons into the SG, that hasn't changed since bases where introduced. Cheap rent is a benefit to all SGs no matter how many members are in that SG.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
If they have in the past... not anymore. Once Base Raiding became a dead issue, there was no reason to discourage single-player Bases. The very fact that Prestige costs have dropped so significantly that it is now trivially easy to have one-player bases would indicate a change in Dev position.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
If they have in the past... not anymore. Once Base Raiding became a dead issue, there was no reason to discourage single-player Bases. The very fact that Prestige costs have dropped so significantly that it is now trivially easy to have one-player bases would indicate a change in Dev position.
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Originally Posted by Tutelary
They have?
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Edit: And just to be clear I'm not agreeing with the devs decisions on these topics. Just guessing at their motivations for their decisions on why Prems can't pay rent.
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Premiums can apparently deal with base construction, if the supergroup is already base-capable.
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Originally Posted by Venture
Bases are very obviously big consumers of system resources. If F2P players could make and maintain them there would be roughly 82934729847298472 more bases to deal with. It's a complete no-brainer that they would be a subscriber-only feature.
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Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
Besides offering a license for Base Privileges (paying rent, creating, editing) they can also make it a reward for a certain Reward Level. That would prevent a million resource-hogging bases from pure freebies, but still allow Premiums to use bases, and, most importantly... monetize it!
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Bad idea. Bases live forever.| Besides offering a license for Base Privileges (paying rent, creating, editing) they can also make it a reward for a certain Reward Level. |
They should stay subscriber-only.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
Positron mentioned recently that they'd been looking at the idea of personal player housing, but that it was very resource intensive.
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I don't want to get in on the argument, but I want to say something to Death_Badger:
Never say never, and certainly don't take the advice of giving away all the stuff on your main account. Decisions about what to give to Premium players can change over time. I've seen it in another game. It may be that a year from now the situation will be different in this regard.
Posting for a friend who can't post...
Married couple comes back to the game, my best friends, who've been playing the game off-and-on with our group since i0. They've got enough tokens to access bases, but can't pay their upkeep? Sadly, their personal SG is just the two of them and their alts, and while the base upkeep says it's due, the gent in City Hall doesn't give them the option to pay upkeep.
When was this added and what's the point of it? Why give Premiums SG access if they can't pay the base upkeep? Or are we missing something obvious? Are they bugged? Can anyone shed a light?