Customization

There is no question that customization and content are the heart of generating micro-transactions needed in the free-to-play model. It was proven years ago with the Wedding Pack that players were willing to pay for the expense of getting a Dev to sit down and do the work involved for costume parts and emotes. Indeed, costume customization got its second wind in Freedom.
But costumes pale when compared with the interest in power customization. Yet that barely got any attention in Freedom. Oh there were new power sets with their trick game mechanics. But a far simpler plan that arguably would have been more profitable would have been for every power set and every power pool to consist of two items: a basic pack and an expansion pack.
For each archetype, make six primary and six secondary sets free to play. Additional ones are free to VIPs/available for purchase. The basic pack contains the 9 set or 4 pool powers (including ancillary) and the original animations and color effects. This is plenty for anyone to experiment with each archetype and its core capabilities.
In the expansion you get all the power customization and alternate animations. All pools add a 5th power and all sets add 3 powers (one for each tier), bringing them to 12 total. The availability level for pool powers drop to the more recent values. And pools get some customization/alternate animation luv. The four movement pools could even get customization in two ways: one being the pool expansion pack, the other(s) coming from costume set expansions.
Much as I wanted Beast Run and Flying Carpet, the fact that they were not enhance-able and not usable in combat (since they suppressed other powers) made them annoying more than fun. But had they simply been alternate animations to Sprint/Fly included as part of the Animal or Arabian costume sets, I would have happily paid, and not-so-patiently waited for combat interactive poses.
The epic archetype power sets would get also expansion packs. Who was not ready for Kheldian customization? Admittedly, I would have played a dirty trick by moving the morph/specialty powers into the expansion packs. I’m suggesting that the Nova and Dwarf powers come in the expansion, but their associated ‘Pools’ expand to six abilities, reserving the fifth and sixth to higher levels. For Arachnos, ditch the respec at level 24 and have the expansion simply offer Night Widow /Fortunata /Bane /Crab ‘patron’ pools open at level 1. Each pool contains 12 powers (6 primary and 6 secondary) that are level dependent.
In a similar manner, the ‘Patron Pack’ unlocks Arbiter Rein and the mission arcs for each patron and a similar contact (Ghost Falcon?) for new heroic patron arcs. And again, the ‘Patron Expansion’ adds a fifth Patron power to each pool, lowers the level requirement, and provides color and pose customization.
I feel there is little question this would have generated more micro-sales for the game. These changes would have caused disruptions for players who let their subscriptions lapse moving into the Freedom model. But would that disruption have been severe enough to cause the demise of the game, or would players have re-purchased the affected customization options?

Wall of text is...wallish.

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Don't go all quotewarrior on someone you just berated for posting a wall of text. Pot, kettle, etc..

Excuse you? When did you become Arbiter of Acceptable in the forum?

I broke up his original post into paragraph format for readability, leaving a separate post so that any further people reading and wishing to rebut the article can simply copy-paste my quoted reformatting and made a note of why I did so.

Then proceeded to respond on a point by point basis so someone can follow the original argument and my rebuttal, increasing clarity and reducing confusion.

You've been here a few years. If you don't know that I respond to ALL lengthy, multi-point posts in similar fashion, you haven't been paying attention. If that's still a problem, feel free to put me on ignore for the next 6 days.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

You're thinking a bit too highly of yourself if you think I'd get so worked out over a quote warrior I'd put them on ignore or remember them. As you implicitely suggest by claiming what you did might actually be useful rather than the nitpicking counterproductive to earnest discussion it truly is, nowadays there are a lot of people on the Internet lacking communication skills who behave similarly. I just see quote breakdowns as a sign this particular individual has too limited of an intellect to see a point for more than the sum of its parts (or is purposefully doing this to derail the topic into pointless bickering), and hence isn't worth bothering with. It's an helpful feature more than an annoyance, really, as it is easy to identify at a quick glance, skip the post, save time.

Occasionally, yes, seeing the irony of such people correcting someone else on their poor form might prompt a snarky one-liner. It's much like seeing a first-year university student go on about the evils of capitalism, and how Marxism is the solution to everything, which he has all figured it out because he attended a couple of lectures - you can't reason with them, so you might as well have a good laugh.

Pretty damn sad this persons thread got **'ed up cause of a few self righteous wana be forum dictators. Who gives a flying shite. Throw the first stone