Doctor Roswell

Yep, there's a difference between pre-order freebies (Arachnos helmets, for example), and collectors' edition exclusives. "Exclusives" being the operative word here.

That said, I have all of the CE exclusives, and I wouldn't personally have a problem with them going on the market for sale. "Personally" being the operative word here, as I don't claim to speak for anyone else.

When server transfers were first made available, long before the Paragon Market, they cost $10. Some people happily paid it. Others were outraged that they'd charge so much for it. The justification for the cost was that it wasn't to make money, it was to keep people from using the service on a whim. A price tag like that meant only people who were really, truly serious about wanting to change servers would even consider it. Otherwise, people would transfer from, say, Champion to Freedom to run a task force, then transfer back. That's not how the devs wanted the service to be used, so they attached a pretty serious "Are you SURE?" to the whole process in the form of a not-insignificant price tag.

When character renames were first made available, long before the Paragon Market, they cost $10. Some people happily paid it. Others were outraged that they'd charge so much for it. The justification for the cost was that it wasn't to make money, it was to keep people from using the service on a whim. A price tag like that meant only people who were really, truly serious about wanting to change their character's name would even consider it. Otherwise, people would change their characters' names all the time, maybe just to confuse or grief other players. That's not how the devs wanted the service to be used, so they attached a pretty serious "Are you SURE?" to the whole process in the form of a not-insignificant price tag.

Are we sensing a pattern here? Okay, one more:

Today, with alignment change tokens now available, they cost $10. Some people will happily pay it. Others are outraged that they'd charge so much for it. The justification for the cost is presumably that it isn't to make money, it's to keep people from using the service on a whim. A price tag like that means only people who are really, truly serious about wanting to change alignments would even consider it. Otherwise, people would change alignments daily -- maybe more often, especially if they figured out a way to exploit the alignment merit system. That's not how the devs want the service to be used, so they've attached a pretty serious "Are you SURE?" to the whole process in the form of a not-insignificant price tag.

Time/patience or points/money -- which do you have more of? Which is worth more to you?

Do I /sign this now, or do I wait until it drops off the front page and then /sign it?

I'll just do it now. Either idea would be welcome. The Tuesday reset seems like the easier of the two for the dev team, since it wouldn't require any UI or dialogue changes. But either would be welcome.

Let's also keep in mind that while we don't have an official confirmation/announcement, it's pretty clear there's at least one other set of boosters planned at some point. So there is a "long term" plan to add "more" to them.

Yes, yes, and more yes.

(Plus capes and jacket backs.)

I just got my first blaster to 50 this weekend -- an Energy/Energy. Damage-wise, Energy is never going to be the best, simply because it's not Fire, so it has a secondary effect besides "even more damage." But stuff was dying plenty fast anyway. I was teamed for about half the trip; when I was solo, knockback not only kept me alive, it made the character endlessly fun to play. It's one of those sets that really makes you feel powerful when you play it. On teams, I got not a single complaint about my knockback. Not one.

Why? Because I followed two very simple rules:

1. You break it, you bought it. Basically, what Claws said: if I knock a target back, that enemy is now my responsibility to deal with and nobody else's. When I shoot something, it's no longer the tank's job to keep it focused on him, or the defender's job to debuff it. So I focus on that enemy until it drops, then pick another.
2. Knockback, not scatter. There's a difference, see. Sending a single target flying? Great. Even better if it's into a wall or corner, but it doesn't have to be. What "griefs" the group is sending multiple targets flying in multiple directions.

Sure, I tried to be positionally-aware and to knock targets into places the melee-types could get to them (like, say, the ground, by Hovering above them), too, but that's not always possible, and I wasn't about to stand there waiting while everybody else did all the work -- I don't do "wait here while I herd them" either. I even took Repulsion Field from Force Mastery and used it to prevent a few team-wipes, though I did have to break rule #2 to do it (turns out it works better as a "panic bomb" than as a toggle).

Knockback isn't a problem. Badly-used knockback is a minor problem. People who can't deal with anyone not playing how other people tell them to is a bigger one.

It's not just you. A lot of people have complained about the flimsy sounds for the set. So far I haven't seen a dev acknowledge (never mind actually address) the complaints. It's possible it happened and I just missed it, though.

Staff is even worse, unfortunately. Whiff-whiff-whiff-swoosh.

It's worth mentioning that they've changed sounds before, even after a set has gone live -- the original sounds for the Sonic powers were a lot more... intense than what we have now, and apparently a significant number of players were complaining about them being migraine-inducing. People not only wouldn't play the sets, they wouldn't team with anyone who had them, because it meant either turning off their speakers or playing while in physical pain. This is almost the opposite problem, but it does mean there's a precedent for "fixing" sounds after the fact. Even so, I wouldn't hold out much hope for TW unless sales of the set drop off pretty severely and they can trace that drop conclusively to the sounds being unsatisfying.

I've had five purple recipes drop for me, ever, since inventions were introduced to the game. They're called "very rare" drops for a reason.

That total does include the two purples I got in one night (five level 50 tips at +2/x6) last week. So yes, random is random.

You know how at the little mom and pop store on the corner, the cashier will greet you by name and ask how your family's doing, but they charge $1.99 for a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi?

And at the giant Walmart supercenter across town, they don't know you or much care to, but they charge 98 cents for an identical 2-liter?

Volume.