Premium IO's?

Honestly this is really making me mad but I don't mean to get angry at anyone else, but I came back from a long time ago to play City of Heroes, and realize it went free. That's fine, but then I log into my Hero, look at my personal info and realized none of my set bonuses were there. Okay, so then I searched up why. It seems I have to get some "license" or pay for VIP just to USE my IO's that I put a lot of time and influence in. Cmon NCSoft. You could've ATLEAST kept that in. I went from having the Hero of my dreams to the worst Hero i've ever had. This really makes me upset considering I put more time into this hero then anything I have before and now I have to pay just to play him the way I used to. At least let Premium+ accounts to use their IO's just the way they used to. Restrict other things but don't ruin players Heroes that put much time into them and don't have the money to pay to keep their Heroes the way they used to play it. Please NCSoft. Help me out here :[

premium accounts can use IOs for free if they are tier 7 reward level or higher

if they are less they have to get the lisence which is only $2 a month

They do eventually let premium players have permanate access to the invention system. It's just a bit high on the reward tree. I think it's one of the benefits of competing tier 7.

At least the monthly IO access thing is pretty cheap, but if you don't want to do that but still want to play I suggest slotting up your second build with SOs instead of replacing the IOs. At least that way you're not irrevocably getting rid of the IOs in your character.

The $2 dollar monthly license is good value.

Hi.. welcome back..

First off lets explain a few things. The entire game is not free to play. It is a hybrid free to play model.

Secondly prior to premium access when you stopped paying you couldnt play A THING.. zip.. zilch zero nada...

Now with premium access you can pay TWO dollars a month and have access to all the IO's for a licence. 15 bucks.. or 2 bucks.. 180 bucks a year vs 36 bucks a year..

Also if you get to tier 7 either through previous accrued subscriber reward tokens or purchasing enough paragon points you can then get IO access for free...

SO in all honesty CoH isnt going to fix it because it isnt broken.

As has been said so many times before, they 'way you used to play' your characters required you to pay a monthly fee (or your parents, if you used their funds). Now, you don't have to if you don't want to and will still get past the log-in screen.

So, the options are - pay nothing and get a limited version of the game, pay for points and get reward tokens to boot (which can be used for various unlocks and goodies) or pay a monthly fee and get incarnate access and other gated stuff and monthly points and reward tokens.

The choice is yours!

I honestly don't care what else they had to restrict from me. But seriously? my IO's? Come on that ridiculous.

The rules for what was accessible for free and what was gated behind payments is not in my realm of knowledge, as I don't work for Paragon Studios. What I think it clear is that the rules must apply to all, so while you might only want IO access, someone might forgo this for something else, but this would be very difficult to implement, I'd imagine.

Bottom line is that they need an income stream and if they're not getting it from a monthly fee, they need to get from another source. This is part of those other sources.

You didn't pay to have access to those IOs when you were a subscriber - you paid to access the game world. You're not paying a subscription now, and still have access to the game world. I can't see that you're worse off now.

Either - pay a monthly fee for VIP, pay a montly fee for the IO licence, buy enough points to unlock that perk or not pay anything.

This point was brought up by many people when they first announced the plans for the Hybrid model that they were planning to implement with Freedom.

They have stood firm in their decisions on this. I don't see them suddenly changing their minds now because you don't like it.

Part of the purpose of going to a Hybrid model was to offer inducements to subscribe or to purchase items from the Paragon Market. They could have left IO access as either a VIP only item, VIP or Reward Tier only item, or VIP or License only item.

As Airhammer and Slack Tech rightly pointed out, under the old model if you didn't pay a subscription you couldn't play you characters at all (unless it was one of the Free weekends to try to entice former subscribers to resubscribe). Under the new model you are allowed to play most of the content for free with very small limitations. Many of those limitations can be lifted either by purchasing a license or working your way up the Reward Tiers through purchases of Paragon Points. Most of the licenses are offered at a very small cost.

If you feel that even the small IO License fee is too much to pay to be able to access the benefits that IO's give your character then there isn't much I can say without violating the currently posted Message Forum Rules and Guidelines.

Knights... Slow down take a deep breath and realize you ARE getting for $2.00 what use to cost $15.00. It really is that simple, no need for drama or further elaborate explanations.

When my son gave up his job to focus on college he couldn't play the game any more. Now he can. I enjoy being able to access my secondary account again (after they made more slots available for purchase on servers, I let it lapse, and we needed the money). I have a few characters I hop on from time to time on it. They can't get IO's either, and they play just fine.

I don't see it being more fair than that. The stuff you "need" IO's for (more than anything else) isn't available to Premium folks anyway.

Just use one of your other builds (talk to a trainer for that) and make a new build with SO's. When you have the reward tokens saved up or become a subscriber again, then you can go back to your IO'd build, and it'll be there waiting for you.

Hello Knights and welcome back to the Community.

I certainly understand your feedback. It's something I've passed along to the development and business teams prior to this. If anything, know your feedback is being heard.

That being said, as has been mentioned, the licenses are a mere 180 Paragon Points/Month. Also, I'm not sure when you left the game, but did you know that you can use an alternate build to play with as well? Visit any trainer and you can switch your active build to another one. Many of our returning players keep a SO/HO based build in that slot, in case they decide to revert to premium status from VIP.

Rest assured, all content available for Free/Premium players is balanced around Single Origin enhancements being used. Thanks to the adjusted difficulty option, our VIP/Premium players who have access to IO's can enjoy the same content at a higher difficulty, if they so choose.

Again, welcome back, and I will be sure to convey your sentiment along.

By the way, you can use your second build, fill it with SOs, and be completely functional, and your IO build will be waiting for you if ever you decide to subscribe again or buy a license.

..(i don't have time right now to read all the posts).... if none has already mentioned it, u can buy invention license ingame , with merits , from the merit vendors......

it went live i saw it, in afternoon when i will go to home i will check it again