Premium IO's?

Yeah, it's a shame there isn't a feature that let's them use a second build that they can slot regular DO's and SO's.

It's a shame there isn't a feature that let's them pull enhancements off of a build like a repec or enhancement unslotter.

To bad there isn't a Trial that they can run where being unslotted doesn't matter while they sell the drops to make inf. Maybe somewthing in the Sewers, and a way to toggle off exp so they don't have to worry about leveling while they reslot their builds.

When I came back and saw I didn't have access to my IOs, I shrugged and played different characters.

Admittedly, I had 17 server slots, and was only a couple reward tokens from permanent IO access. Plus, I upgraded to VIP so I didn't have to worry anymore.

I agree about the communication thing, but you can't force people to read the information. Far too many of the people complaining are guilty of willful ignorance. They'll still be making the same complaints.

This is disingenuous, since enhancement unslotters are not free and unless you've upgraded your inventory, you get 10 enhancements recovered per respec.

Yeah, it's too bad that the game doesn't offer players more than one type of respec that doesn't cost real money, or pay inf for any enhancements that aren't unslotted.

Trial Respecs - earned, up to 3 possible (up to 30 enhancements if no extra trays are bought)
Veteran Respecs - earned, up to 5 possible (at 69 months) (up to 50 enhancements if no extra trays are bought)
Patron Respecs - earned, 1 possible (Villain only) (another 10 enhancements if no extra trays are bought)
Free Respec - free (A character can only have 1 at a time and they do not stack) (another 10 enhancements if no extra trays are bought)
Respec Recipes - free (These cannot be crafted if the character already has a free respec available) (another 10 enhancements if no extra trays are bought)
Holiday Respec - free (These cannot be purchased at the Candy Keeper if the character already has a free respec available) (another 10 enhancements if no extra trays are bought)



And what makes you think I'm not being candid or sincere about what I'm saying.

Yup. Nothing we can say will have any effect. He was probably just looking for justifying confirmation of his conviction that this game sucked instead of his own inadequacies.

And in regards to the comments about him possibly not being able to afford to buy SOs for his second build, ha! If he could afford to his admitted expensive Sets IO build, he could easily afford SOs.

So Knights, nice of you to visit us, but be careful and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

And as a previous player that has played long enough to completely IO out his characters means he was a subscriber long enough to earn enough Paragon Rewards to permanently unlock access to the Auction House (only 6 reward tokens) and he can sell off some of those IO's ha can't use to finance SO's on his secondary builds.

Yeah, thats one reason I rewrote my last sentence a few times:
"I just wish the information was less easily missed."

Sure, they can click-ok through whatever you throw at them, but at least you're making the effort TO try to tell them. People will be ignorant idiots... but the more effort they have to take to remain ignorant, the more foolish they look when ranting about it... and I love a good foolish rant.

Returning players have no way of knowing about this trial. Most wouldn't even know about the second build. You know what a returning player probably doesn't want to do? Research the game and its options after 4 years and doing 30 minutes or an hour of busy work before they go and bash heads.

In my experience of trying to get my friends back to the game the most likely scenario is this.

They ***** about whatever game they are playing and I mention I still love City of Heroes. We talk about MMOs and I reiterate the game's strengths; the best endgame of any MMO I play, sidekicking and exemp, the best customization of any game, and much improved content.

At this point almost every single one logs in some night while I'm not around out of curiousity. The game has that one shot to give them a good experience. If they are turned off, that's it I lose them. If they log onto their main and can't try the game out because their whole slotted character is functionally unslotted they will log off and go play their normal games. I've seen this multiple times.

These are people who have no problem spending money, but if they are forced to go through the process of spending money immediately to play they won't, not because they have an issue spending money but because it's easier to log off and play another game they are familiar with rather than go through the hassle.

When a returning player is in the "dip my toes in the water" phase of returning, it is my experience that hassles make them abandon the process not because they don't want to spend the money, but more because they don't want to be confronted with research to try out recent game developments. Forcing a player to swap builds and make decisions on powers and slotting after 4 years away makes them log out.

This is only my anecdotal evidence of what I have seen from getting friends to come back to the game so take it with a grain of salt.

LOL, +1 cool points for you sir.

Cause they really want to respec 10 times to get the IOs out of the build 10 at a time, and if they wanted to spend money on unslotters, they'd probably subscribe.

I've returned to several different MMOs months or even years after I gave up on them. The first thing I do while the game is redownloading is spending 30 minutes to an hour (sometimes two hours) learned what all changed, so I understand what I am getting into and to make sure I'm not gimping my character if I need to respec.

I can't really speak about how others do their business, but personally, if I am planning to spend my time in a game I am returning to, I want to be informed of what the current state of the game is rather than being frustrated at my own ignorance, and the only person to blame for not spending the proper amount of time researching is the returning player.

This is so very very true sir.

Funny how you keep forgetting that an IO license only costs $2 bucks.

He clearly just wants IO's to be free too. IDK, I understand the want part, but beyond that it gets into that weird territory of entitlement.

Yeah cuz there's absolutely no chance there will be any changes to an MMO after 4 years. Just log on while blindly assuming everythings going to be exactly the same.

DERP!!!



So YOU talk your friends into returning to try out the new free accounts but YOU fail to tell them about the restrictions on free accounts. Funny how YOU try to blame the game for something YOU failed to do.


Are you serious? You honestly think people aren't familiar with the idea of having to pay before being able to play a video game.


People that are frightened off by changes to MMO's while they've been away shouldn't be playing big scary ever changing MMO's in the first place.

Don't forget that first time they log on, new players are most likely not making level 23+ characters, and thus IOs won't matter to them.

Yep.

There is some percentage of players that will have no problems coming back to a game and spending 30 minutes to an hour of busy work running around to make their characters playable.

There are also many players that when confronted by a long set up period for a game will not bother.

Guess whose money is valuable to this company. All of those players.

Making some design decisions to give players a smooth transition back into the game when they return and try to play their old characters is generally a smart move. It won't inconvenience you. You will read up and spend your time futzing with builds before you play. Other types of players will be able to try out content immediately and the chance of retaining them is increased. Everyone wins, provided a method can be implemented in a reasonable time frame and the revenue stream is not compromised.

I am not suggesting IOs simply be free. I am only suggesting some ways the game can make it easier for returning players to jump right into the action.

We are not talking about new players though.

Actually, he can have something for nothing.
The problem is that he wants EVERYTHING for nothing.


Never mind returning, even. When I first started this game, I saw it was going to be a 3 hour download. I spent that time reading the manual (as pathetic as it was) and tracking down online resources. By the time it was ready to play, I knew what AT and powersets I wanted on my first character to learn the game.

Because totally the best use of one's respecs is to clear out all of the IOs so you can slot SOs and play your characters on a premium account. Right...

And also because letting your often costly IOs go up in smoke for a relative pittance in a respec is something people are likely to do.

That was sarcasm, by the way.

I would assume that people wouldn't typically suggest solutions that can cost up to 8550 points (19 packs of five unslotters each, ~100 dollars) to avoid paying a $2 or $15 monthly fee.

Every suggestion you've made aside from using the alternate build, requires more overhead and/or money than simply buying the invention license. In other words, you're not really helping.

The OP's solutions are to go ahead and buy the license, upgrade back to VIP, use alternate builds for SOs if available, or not be able to play his characters. Respeccing over and over again to recover IOs so he can use them later, buying 95 enhancement unslotters, etc. are just not practical solutions.

Why I think it's disingenuous: Your suggestions are not helpful and I can't imagine that you don't know that, given the sarcastic manner in which you've delivered them.

To the OP:

Have you spent all your reward tokens? That alone might unlock the invention system. When I renewed I was only two short of tier 7 after I spent all of my unspent tokens.

Otherwise, your options are what I said above. That's unlikely to change.