Daemodand

I think you've answered your own question as to why you're not getting 5 stars (challenge arcs are not generally well liked; stories aren't usually any good on them and they aren't any good for farming, and they get people killed on top of that).

You've got me curious, though.

To me "Assassin's Strike" means your Archetype is held hostage to a mechanic that just doesn't work in today's game.

I won't be rerolling my main Daemodand (MA/SR) but retiring him in favor of a new SJ main. I'm torn between Brute and Scrapper, and a couple of different concepts.

I wouldn't worry too much about Martial Arts. It'll still have reasons to be rolled over SJ, especially once the new set smell of SJ wears off. Someone could like the animations of it better for a particular concept, prefer the true Buildup of Focus Chi, better single target damage, and someone might actually prefer the lack of a gimmick in the set (I know Dual Blades' gimmick really turned me off of the set; that and the sounds). And the Eagle's Claw crit bonus. And the set's accuracy bonus, too. People always forget Martial Arts' accuracy bonus.

Personally, I'm rolling a SR/MA Tanker as an alt, because SR and MA is still one of the conceptually coolest things you can roll.

SJ is awesome, and will be my main set, but MA will be fine.

As a long time proponent of the game going F2P, CoH:F is a welcome and exciting change for the game.

That said there are a few things I think would make the model even more of a success:

Forum Access for All

Every F2P game I've ever tried allows read/write access to their forums. Why? Because they know getting involved with the community gets people to stick around, and people who stick around spend money.

The fear I suppose is gold spam getting posted. But go look at the forums for any given F2P title: how much spam do you see?

Supergroup Memebership for Free Players

Getting involved with the community is very important in MMO retention, and retention is very important in F2P MMOs to get people to spend money. A free player who is allowed to join a Supergroup is much more likely to stick around, and therefore much more likely to spend money.

This also improves the game experience for VIP players as they have a larger pool of Supergroup mates to team up with.

Consignment House Access for All

The more people involved in an economy, the better that economy is for all involved. By allowing free players access to the Consignment House, they get a better game experience and VIP players get a better game experience as well as the economy is improved by the participation of a larger pool of players.

Mission Architect Play Access for All

Though I agree Arc creation should be limited to VIP/Vet Premium players, the ability to play Mission Architect arcs improves the game experience for VIP players who create MA arcs as one of the biggest issues with MA is getting your arcs played. With more people able to play, VIP MA authors get a better experience than they otherwise would.

City of Heroes: Freedom is looking to be a great success, but with these changes I feel that it could be even more successful and improve the game experience for all involved.

I'd just like to lend support to DarkCurrent. He's right. Only way Doms aren't getting stiffed here is if there's something really cool planned for them to make up for getting left out of the proliferation. I don't think any such cool thing will ever materialize, though I hope to be proven wrong on this in the future.

And I can't believe the posters here who see nothing wrong with Doms being left out. Fans of this Archetype being A-OK with Doms getting nothing? Something's seriously wrong with that.

Controllers got Plant. Give us Illusion.

A bit concerning how little enthusiasm they show for the project. Counting down the days left, even. They've got dream jobs and they're counting down the days.

Pistol...Defense?

*head asplode*

I sometimes wonder what people are doing with their 50s that they have so little Inf.

Thing is, Willpower stole its thunder.

I'd been hoping for Super Reflexes Tankers. Love it! I'm not surprised some people have a false perception of the set's strength. It's a deceptively simple set, and very unforgiving of build mistakes. Build it well, and SR is one of the very best sets in the game. And you get to IO out for things other than Defense, like every other set in the game is stuck doing. And on Tankers...forget about it! Gonna be amazing.

The way to advance your Incarnate should be to play them through anything in the game.

I still can't believe the complaints about the inf costs to convert. What are people doing in this game that leaves them so poor? You'd think inf was hard to get or something.

Just please don't let the momentum be lost when you miss. That'd be very annoying.

Game's lucky to have you, DR.

I don't buy the "you lose everything by not paying now" argument. The fact that you don't lose everything when you stop paying when Freedom goes live alone is enough to refute it. Taking the "you lose everything" argument to its logical conclusion, there is no justification for free or premium players to retain anything at all. It just isn't a good argument.

"But people need to be able to play the game at some minimal level," you'll say. And I'll throw your own argument back at you, "Right now if you don't pay you lose everything, so it's fair!" Yes, a bad argument for sure.

I'm not saying to give the store away for free, so to speak. I'm just saying there's an opportunity here to offer a free and premium service that is heads and shoulders above everything else in the industry. Don't squander it.

I think it would be fair if premium players got the Alpha Slot, and VIPs got all the other slots as well.

And haven't I heard the new iTrials will be purchasable? What good would purchasing the iTrials be if they effectively give no rewards?

The mechanics of Titan Weapons I find very interesting, but the addition of still more swords to the game dampers my enthusiasm a bit. Hopefully there'll be tree trunk and telephone pole options. And a toilet option. Yes. There needs to be a toilet option.

If bases ever get looked at, they need to be ripped out and completely redone from scratch. Bases need to be as cool and functional as the Batcave, Watch Tower and Hall of Doom. The current system falls far short of that standard.