Returning to CoH after two years...

Hey!

I'm not really sure where to post this, but I figured this would be the best place.

So today I decided to install CoH again after not playing it since 2010. I haven't been following what have happened since, so I just happily watched it install and looked forward to play all my characters again.

But then to my horror and surprise, I see all my characters are locked - and I now have 5 server tokens available, to unlock them... Problem is I have 10 characters (all on Defiant server), with a good bunch of playtime on each one. If this weren't enough, my first created and main character can't even be unlocked with a token, because my account no longer allow me to have a Controller archetype character unless I pay for it...!

So in short, I have over a year of paid playtime (I have always used time cards, never subscription) and now I can't access half my characters because of too few tokens, or invalid archetypes. I can understand the game have gone free, but why am I getting punished for that like this, when I paid to play back when it weren't free?

My question is - do I really have to pay to access my already paid for characters again, or is this something the support can fix? Sorry if it's a stupid question, but rather than reading updates for the last two years, I thought this was a faster way to get a clear answer.

Unless you have 13 reward tokens accrued from your previous playing (more info here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Paragon_Rewards_Program), then you do have to pay to unlock certain archetypes, and pay for extra slots.

Support cannot fix this, before the game went F2P you did not have access to anything unless you paid the monthly fee.

Now, you have access to some of it (a lot of it) without having to pay at all.

as others have said the non subscribed accounts are limited even if they put time in before the change and thus have to buy things a la carte

if you want full access to the game you have to subscribe

To give a little more detail. If you subscribe (VIP Player) then you get exactly the same number of slots as you used to: 12 per server + a number of extra slots on single servers unlocked either through time played or purchased directly (in your case 5 slots).

As a premium player you don't get the 12 slots per server and only have the ones that you earned through veteran rewards or purchased (plus two extra everyone received when Freedom went live).

If you want to play all 10 characters you have two options. The first is to resubscribe which will, amongst other benefits, restore you to 12 slots per server. The second option is to buy 5 more character slots which will cost you 1600 Paragon Points if you buy them as a set (check here for Paragon Points costs in your local currency).

Think about what you got before Freedom when you had to pay $15 per month to access even one of your toons, now you can log in for free and access some of your toons. If you want complete access simply do what you did before, pay the $15 and become VIP. When a VIP you also get 400 paragon points and a server transfer along with your month of access, plus signature story arcs, incarnate content and more.

If you think about it - it is better now, log in for free and play, didn't happen before except on free weekends. I can see you position though but I too had to change my mindset, just because we can log in for free, doesn't mean we deserve free grandfathered access to everything we have created on our account without paying something.

*Gets the popcorn ready for when the OP finds out about IO access*

I just checked the Paragon Rewards. At 13 rewards, you should have a Tier 5 which gives you access to Controllers and Masterminds. So you must have a little short of one year played time.

Couple of options: buying some more stuff will give you rewards which might just push you over the top. So you might be able to buy some more slots and have Controllers thrown in for free, if the purchase pushes you up to 13 reward tokens.

Or you could subscribe for a few months, have all your characters, and then when you get 13 tokens just drop back to premium. You'll still only have 5 or 6 slots to choose from, but at least you'll be able to play your Controller.

I realize you feel this is "not as free as hoped" or something similar, but as pointed out you can now play for free, whereas before you couldn't play at all. Unless you are determined to pay nothing, there's no reason to not subscribe or buy a few small items to get your account to where you want it.

BTW, how many tokens do you have? It should be up on the top of the screen where you see your characters.

OK, thanks a lot for the replies guys. I can somewhat see the point in that I can play a few of my characters completely free now, compared to back then when I had to pay to even access my account. It's probably going to take some time to get used to, but for now I still feel somewhat gutted about it. I feel I have paid for something that have now been forcefully limited for me - because I don't have enough played subscription time. Yes, I might play for free, but even some of my costumes can't be configured any more, because they contain parts that my account now don't have access to.

@StarGeek: Would you explain what you mean by that? Don't sound like it's good news... :P

@gameboy1234: I had 5 tokens when I logged in. I even wasted a token trying to unlock my Controller, only to find out after that it's still locked because of Controller limit... So I had 4 left for the rest of my characters.

Gameboy was getting things mixed up. He forgot that for time prior to freedom, you get on Reward token for every three months, not every month.

When you view the reward tree, how many total tokens does it say you've earned?

1 for the account
1 for a box (presumably)
5 for 12 months dubbed prior to Freedom (4 vet badges plus year bonus, he mentions a year of paid playtime)

I get 7 Paragon Rewards tokens

So Cinaed, if you could tell us how many reward tokens you have, we can help you out on figuring the quickest way to play who you want, for free.

If I'm right about how many you have, you'd need six more tokens for the "free" Controller AT unlock. Your first point purchase is worth one bonus token, besides the normal one every 1200pts purchased.

Plus side - if you sub to VIP status for a month, it resets your server-slot unlocks. Also, all month subs also give a reward token (now) - and here are a frew ways for cheap sub months - http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/R_M%27s_...g_Cheap_Months