Cptn_Courageous

And I counter that anything that significantly changes a game and ticks off a substantial portion of it's player base follows the path of SOE.

I am ticked. I feel that the VIP benefits were misrepresented and we were set up. It's all good. I've been playing this game for 7 years. Perhaps it's time for a change. And this change makes a good exit point... after all we can drop to premium and go off and play other games... and there are a ton of new games out there coming up.

I see. From your point of view virtual credit is not actual credit even when you've paid real cash for it. Of course you may not have bought anything from the store, in which case you haven't spent anything...in the store. But if you have purchased anything from the store you have spent the equivalent of actual cash... because as has been stated 400 paragon points is worth $5.

And as for your monthly 400 paragon points they 'give' you... they're not free... you pay for those with your subscription money. So yeah... you really did purchase them with real money.

Nothing in City of Heroes Freedom is really free. You're either buying it with your subscription fee, or with the money you spend on paragon points. And even the Free players are not playing for free--they're just being carried like so much dead weight by the people actually paying money to play this game (the subscribers) or people paying cash for paragon points. Without people actually paying money this game would not exist.

So yes, you are spending money and your money is not going as far as it used to, no matter how much you hoard your points. If you can't face it that's your problem, but I'm telling you there are crocodiles in your papyrus.

Whether you like it or not, whenever you spend Paragon Points you're spending value. That value has a real money equivalence of $5.00 per 400 Paragon Points. It's right there in the market. Spend $5 get 400 points. The 400 points you get from Paragon each month is basically a $5 coupon for the game store.

They're pumping out powers and costume sets as fast as they can, hoping all the shiney stuff makes people spend those 400 and run out of paragon points before their month is out so they'll buy more paragon points for hard cash. The monthly 400 is just a teaser to get you into the system. Truth be told if a person just sticks with those points you won't be able to afford all the shiney new powers without buying more points or waiting what will amount to many months.

Example: tons of people spent their points for rocket sleds, beam rifles, barbarian costumes, etc. All of a sudden out comes StJ. They've used up their paragon points--stupid of them, they should have waited--now they either have to wait for their next month to get their next infusion of paragon points and then buy StJ. Of course by then Paragon Studios will have pumped out the Staff power and the Titan Weapons powers, and it will be impossible for them to keep up on the powers without buying paragon points.

Now I had no issue with the supplmentry Packs before "Freedom" everything was straight forward you knew that your monthly subscription was going to take care of all the new content and all the new primary and secondary powers. If you wanted the fluff you could buy it in a pack, and with the exception of the party pack, I thought it was pretty much a good deal-- you knew exactly what you were getting and what you had.

I don't like the new system. I realize you can buy individual items, but the over all price per item is higher now than under the old system. And while you don't have to pay more if you're willing to do without, if you want the same service and updates, it is going to to cost more. And that's the bottom line.

I agree. They need to at least gray out items that you already own.

One page would be enough for each catagory of item. Have tabs up at the top with the catagory on it. Just click on the tab and it takes you to a list of the items you don't have.

Or make it like Wentworths--same format.

OK, so do the math. How much did you pay for Going Rogue and how much did you get for it? Now compare the price of Street Justice. Are you getting a bigger bang for your buck or are they charging you substantially more than those powers? By my estimation the cost of StJ is 3 to 4 times any of the powers you mentioned in real dollars, and that's stand alone. Is StJ really that much better that it's equal to 1/4 the price of the biggest expansion this game ever saw in 6 years?

No he meant $10. I mean really it costs $5 for 400 points... if you want an additional 400 points. The monthy 400 points is basically COH giving you a $5.00 coupon for the store.

What angers me... and I am angry... is that Pre-Freedom powers like Beam Rifle, and Street Justice were included with our free updates that came along our subscription. Packs were fluff, not substance. They were never power sets.

It looks like the new model is to zing the subscription players. I was worried about Freedom when I heard about it and now I see my fears were justified. It was always just an unabashed attempt to get subscribers to pay more money out of their pockets by dangling shiney goodies out in front of them and then giving them less than enough points to obtain them without paying additional real money.

I've been playing this game since Beta. I've purchased nearly every pack before Freedom. But I'm not going to spend a cent on Paragon Points, and I'm seriously considering going Premium.

I think after triggering Soul Drain followed by Rain of Arrows you're likely to be dead before your Rain of Arrows hits... unless you have a tank holding their attention or a controller locking them down. DP might have a better chance.

The problem is the agro generated by the Soul Drain which makes you the target of every mob in a group... even if you're bouncing about. Build-up generates no Agro.

I disagree with your assessment of Rad/Dark. There's not enough AOE support for it. You're stuck with single target and cone attacks. Rad doesn't have enough AOE attacks... and it's ranged AOE Neutron Bomb is way way way too slow triggering off. It's got at least a 3 or 4 second delivery time. You could do Soul Drain--> Irradiate but Irradiate doesn't do that much damage and you need a follower to Irradiate which will do big damage. Soul Drain and Irradiate are both slow starters... which means you're going to get pounded before any damage actually hits your targets.

It sure does...And; If we could pair Dark Manipulation with Fire Manipulation... wow. But we can't. You have to pair the Soul Drain PBAOE attack which is going to agro every stinking mob in a group with your mostly ranged primary attacks--depending on your primary that could be mostly single target. If you're going Dark/Dark blaster then the only other PBAOE attack you have is your nuke. Same for Fire/Dark. What about your snipes? Never going to get in a snipe after soul drain unless you have a tank. Cone shaped attacks? Going to miss half your targets in a big group because you'll be too close.

Look, I don't have a problem with blapping. Pair Radiation Primary with Fire secondary and again... wow. Aim + Build-up + Irradiate + Combustion + Fire Sword Circle + Burn Patch + Hot Feet = lots of dead mobs in a hurry especially if you have a controller to lock them down or a Tank to get their attention.

But Soul Drain does not play nice with ranged primaries where as build-up does. It also does not play nice with any of the melee attacks in its own set since they are single target or narrow cone.

I would rather see Soul Drain dropped for Build-up or made into a Targeted AOE.

1. We don't need a power set devoted to disguises. Individual temp powers would be adequate. The problem with power sets is that they take up slots which would be occupied by a primary or secondary. The temporary power would function without doing that.

2. Day job powers are too inaccessible to the average player to make them convenient. That goes for temporary powers granted from various missions. What I'm hoping for is something that people can get right into if they wish. Day jobs require time spent logged out on site, and therefore are not convenient for accessibility.

The point of the gas grenade is to take out a group of mobs so you can sneak past without agroing them. Many of the 'sleep' powers in the control sets actually agro groups. Also you may not have a controller in your group.

I would have also suggested a tranq dart gun which would not agro mobs. However, the nature of single target sleep doesn't fit with what I'm trying to accomplish. This is not your inherent science power tranq dart either--it just doesn't sleep long enough.

3. Lock-picks is not just a power for previous missions but also for future missions. It's something that can be incorporated into future missions. Having the ability to open locked items--files, chests, doors, etc. would add interest and believability to the game. It would be really fun if it were a mini-game where a small screen would pop up and you could actually see what you're doing with the lock-picks (of course that's not going to happen).

4. Electronic bugs again are something that has a lot of possibilities. Sure there are missions that have glowies where you would put the bug like the arachnos flyer mission, but those are isolated instances. Having the ability to plant bugs through a temporary power would add another dimension to the game.

As for Psy abilities-- as much as I sympathize your desire to 'read minds' how would you accomplish that? The mechanics for planting bugs and getting missions off that are pretty straight forward, but the mechanics for mind reading are not. We don't even have conversations in this game let alone the ability to interact with NPC's on a conversational level. I would love to have the ability to ask an NPC questions and get back an answer... in which case those characters with psy abilities could get a 'reading' like true-false-or some other content. So as far as I'm concerned your example of having a Psy mind reading ability is not even in the same ball-park as planting a bug.

This game, of course, suffers from being over simplified. I.e. they do pretty much everything for you except kill the bad guys. They tell you where to go, what to do, they provide all the information without any effort on your part (simply click on the glowie)... I guess they assume that there are more lazy people who don't want to do the work of actually solving mysteries playing this game than there are people who want the challenge of figuring things out for themselves. I suppose that's a by-product of a society that focuses on immediate gratification. This assumption is built into this game.

5. The camera suggestion was never about screen shots. It was about goals. I.e. taking a picture of a file folder is not the same as taking a screen shot. We actually have a camera picture taking emote. There's no reason you can't use that graphic with mission objectives. I.e. you click on the glowie a file folder appears and then you click on your camera power, you've gathered some evidence.

This could have some effect on story outcomes. For example if you fail to properly gather evidence, the bad guy gets away on a technicality.

Yes you could 'pretend' to do this just by clicking on a glowie but that's less satisfying than actually performing the actual act of taking a picture or planting a bug.

Yep,

Rockteer back Rocket Pack

Steampunk Helicopter pack (Steampunk Wings Pack with a rotor instead of bat wings)

Agree to coats having symbols on the back rather than on the left breast pocket.

You are correct in respect to your comment that any change to an MMO is going to tick some people off. It doesn't matter if that change is good or bad. Some players are simply calcified and don't adjust well to any change.

So, I think the argument that some people are going to be upset by a change in nomenclature, while true, is not a reason to not do something that would clarify the roles and make the majority of players identify with their AT's better.

The real issue here is the majority of the population of COX is Blue side. As a hero I'd like my Hero to have an AT that at least sounds Heroic. So if I want to play a defender type character which has more offensive punch--because we all know that defender damage for the most part sucks--I'd rather not be called a Corrupter.

The ideal thing would be for them to make AT's so you can choose which set is your primary and which set is your secondary. But that's not going to happen.

Sam, you and others may be ecstatic about the new sets, I'm not.

I don't like ultramegasized gear. Heck I don't even like the greater fire sword. I don't like WOW pauldrons (shoulders). They look silly in my personal opinion. That's my opinion. Ultramegasillysized gear really get's some people excited... kinda like monster trucks, and giant robots I guess...(insert joke here about the inverse size of certain body parts and the size of the item for compensation).

So, Meh. I'm less than thrilled. I would rather have had a new class/archtype which would contain hybrid ranged and melee weapons--Call it the Avenger Class.

A full whip set for blasters or scrappers would have been interesting.

An offensive shield set would have been interesting-- ability to throw the shield, and various ways of slinging it around by it's strap, or using it to smash a foe with both hands...thrown in a couple of kicks and punches... what's not to like?

Web slinging could be a great set: web balls, group nets, individual nets, single strands: whip, lasso, trip, bola, flail...

Lots of people have been asking for a staff/spear set.

A power-gauntlets set could be interesting.

I could keep going but there are entire threads full of good ideas (and some bad ideas) for power sets that I would find preferable to Ultramegasillysized Weapons. I guess we're going the Final Fantasy route, it's nice some people are pleased.

Now as to my objections about Time Manipulation *somebody else brought this up too.

To do Time Manipulation right is very hard. Real time manipulation would allow you to move back and forth in time to change events or the results of combat. They can't do that. That would be so overpowered it would be absurd.

So what can they do? Speed and Slow. They can make things move faster and make things move slower. Sounds a lot like Kinetics with a few minor twists.

So here's what they can do:

Slow individual or group attack rate, movement speed, and regen & recovery.
Speed individual or group attack rate, movement speed, and regen & recovery.
Hold an individual or group (i.e. stop time for a group)
Slow individual or group and reduce their defense
Speed individual or group and increase their defense

Unfortunately I don't see how they could manipulate resistance and damage (although they could play around with the idea of entropy--it would be hard because entropy would need to be item based) . They couldn't do anything with aging because that would be too permanent and therefore overpowered.

Bottom line is there is nothing that this set will offer that is not already done to some degree by the primaries in the defenders or the secondaries in the controlers/corrupters. I.e. this set is rendered moot by the fact that it's going to be more of the same.

Is there a power set out there that is not already covered by the current powers? Probably but Time Manipulation is going to be a rehash...and that's just my opinion.

I think that's a very optimistic point of view. Maybe overly optimistic. The business model is designed to make more money in a less obvious way. This of course allows those using this model to adjust it to make sure players are spending more. Not to understand this is like not understanding that a marketing department is a lot like the CIA. They can tell you they have your interests in mind but in the end they serve the interests of the company first.