Doctor Roswell

They're not "doing nice things for us," they're trying to sell us something. Asking for our money in exchange for their product. It's not a favor, it's business. The Domino's guy isn't bringing your pizza right to your door just because he's such a swell dude; he's doing his job, which is to provide that service to customers at a monetary cost.

In this case, the product being offered is one which a not-insignificant number of (potential) customers feel is incomplete -- almost as incomplete as the seller's explanation for that incompleteness.

I suppose. It's not like you really see the bullets moving anyway.

I'm just not sure what I think of a ray gun that goes "bang bang bang" instead of "pew pew pew." It's (presumably) a paid-for item, so I suppose some kind of "alternate sounds" setup could be a possibility (AND WOULD BE AWESOME, by the way, devs), but that seems like a lot of work, if it's even possible at all. Though it might explain what the sound people have been doing for the last few months instead of working on Titan Weapons and Staff Fighting.

"Hey, the Valkyrie pack doesn't include the Valkyrie Blade!"
"Quit complaining, you've already got the Fantasy Blade, that's good enough."

For the record:

The basic gladius, available to everyone at level 1.


The "Roman - Gladiator" and "Roman - Savage" swords (yes, they're actually listed as "Roman" in the character editor), omitted from the Roman costume bundle -- "They were intentionally left out to maintain some exclusivity to the Imperious Task Force (ITF)." Even though that's not how they're unlocked. The shields unlocked in exactly the same way as these swords are included in the bundle.

And, for completeness:

The Romulus and Romulus Nictus swords, also omitted from the Roman costume bundle "to maintain some exclusivity to the Imperious Task Force." These actually are unlocked through the ITF, so the logic holds up in the case of these two -- though I think it's important to mention that the equivalent shields, also (until now) unlockable only by completing the ITF, are included in the bundle, despite the stated goal "to maintain some exclusivity to the Imperious Task Force."

I don't have a Battle Axe character with the Roman axes unlocked (which, by the way, also happens via the Centurion badge and not the ITF), so I can't provide screen caps of those, but I think it's safe to say those are markedly different from the gladius, too.

Doesn't that, in a way, diminish the "locking the weapons keeps the in-game unlock special" argument more? This means that the rewards for the badge (aside from, you know, the badge itself, but that's neither here nor there -- nearly all badges in the game give no reward beyond the badge itself) only apply to two powersets, and at that, two fairly-uncommon ones. Wouldn't omitting the shields from the pack as well as the weapons serve the stated intent better than including them because it would make the badge/ITF "extra-rewarding" for more players?

What really bothers me isn't the weapons not being included, it's that the weapons aren't included but the shields are. The logic simply doesn't jive with itself, and especially not with the reasons we've been given for it. It falls apart with only a cursory examination.

As I said, it's really no skin off my back. But it still smells fishy.

The ITF unlocks the items for that one character only; the pack unlocks them for the entire account.
The ITF can't be run until a character reaches level 35; items from the pack are available at level 1.
The ITF can't be completed without also earning the Centurion badge (100 traiters to defeat for the badge, 300 to defeat in the last mission of the ITF alone) and thus unlocking the "missing" weapons, if you're playing a character who can use them; the pack doesn't include those at all.
Also, the bow. The only way to get Cupid's bow is by buying it (though it can be purchased separately from the whole pack).

The specific weapons he's asking about are unlocked with the Centurion badge, not by completing the TF.

And do we really believe nobody would run the ITF if it weren't giving away a handful of powerset-specific costume items? It's not a problem for... well, any other TF in the game that people are still running.

I think the "coming to our rescue with a weapons pack (for an additional charge) in a few months" theory holds a lot more water than the official line.

It's really nice for those of us who are constantly making new characters and don't want to have to sit on a concept for 10 months or more until the right holiday event rolls around. I had to do that a while back with my Roman Emperor character and had to wait forever (I think I created him in May or June?) to give him a look that was anything close to what I wanted with the toga and laurels from the Valentine's Day event.

It always seems I come up with a really great idea for a specific costume piece a few days after the event ends and it's too late to make a new character to earn it or even to unlock it on an existing character. Being able to buy an account-wide, level 1 unlock and not worry about it anymore for that stuff is a huge benefit to people like me.

Besides, the option is still there for people to unlock them for free in-game. This is just another option. Money versus time.

Oh, well if one other game doesn't do it that way, then clearly it's fundamentally impossible.

My mistake.

(Never mind that I specifically pointed out that I knew it was unlikely and extreme, nor that I also pointed out a number of less-extreme, more-likely scenarios that would also make this a bad idea. We'll ignore all that, though. No offense, but you obviously have zero idea what I'm talking about.)

A very good point. So let's see where this leads us:

Roman swords
Unlocked by: earning the Centurion badge
NOT included in Roman costume pack "to maintain some exclusivity to the Imperious Task Force" (which isn't required to unlock them).

Roman axes
Unlocked by: earning the Centurion badge
NOT included in Roman costume pack "to maintain some exclusivity to the Imperious Task Force" (which isn't required to unlock them).

Romulus/Nictus sword
Unlocked by: completing the Imperious Task Force
NOT included in Roman costume pack "to maintain some exclusivity to the Imperious Task Force."

Roman shields
Unlocked by: earning the Centurion badge
Included in Roman costume pack

Romulus/Nictus shield
Unlocked by: completing the Imperious Task Force
Included in Roman costume pack despite stated goal "to maintain some exclusivity to the Imperious Task Force."

Oh, yeah... this makes sense. Well, the parts about Romulus swords and non-Romulus shields do, anyway. The rest, not so much.

If I'm remembering the TOS correctly, it's supposed to be 13 and up. The game's T rating supports that, but doesn't prove it. I suppose I could comb the fine print to verify, but... eh.

Yeah, only the first paragraph was specifically in response to your... well, let's call it an insult. An indirect one, but still. Plus, only that same first paragraph could even remotely be called "pedantic." And no, I'm not over-educated. (Believe it or not, I'm not even a real doctor!) I just learned proper punctuation, spelling and syntax when they taught them to me in grade school (public, no less!) and still exercise those skills to this day for clarity's sake. Seriously, you're dismissing me because I didn't make enough errors for you? Should I try to screw up a little on purpose so you'll know I'm f'realz?

The rest of that "wall of text" (three paragraphs is a "wall?" Where'd you get your over-education?) was just me expanding and providing my thoughts on an ongoing topic of discussion. As you didn't choose to respond to those points but rather dismissed them out of hand based on their length, I'll assume you didn't even bother to read them.

tl;dr: I'm not going to apologize for having taken basic English classes as a kid.

Right, gotcha. The Hero Gear Kit was essentially an upgrade to the Collector's Edition after the fact because some people were upset that they, the early adopters who had already bought the game, hadn't had the opportunity to get all the shinies that came with the CE (which was released a few months later). Again, just like with the CE of CoV, certain items were promised to be truly "exclusive" to the CE, as opposed to, say, the Arachnos helmets which were CoV pre-order bennies and not "you'll never be able to get these another way" specialties, which is why they were released as vet rewards later on.

As I said, I bought the CE, I have the slide power, the special cape, et cetera, and I'm fine with those items being released for everyone to purchase on the market, but I understand why they'd hesitate after making an outright promise that those things would never be available by other means. However, that doesn't mean "remarkably similar" items couldn't be released. In fact, it was already done once with the vet rewards program -- the CoV CE Arachnos chest emblem (an exclusive like power slide) is different from the vet reward Arachnos chest emblem.

In that case, at least, they have a legitimate exclusivity to fall back on: paying customers were promised back when the Collector's Edition was released that Prestige Power Slide would never be available by other means; it was part of how they justified the added cost of that edition versus the normal one. However (and I've mentioned these before):

• I don't claim to speak for everybody, but as one of the people they made that promise to, I'd personally have ZERO problem with them going back on it.
• If they don't want to do that, there's nothing stopping them from releasing a (non-prestige) Power Slide with a different (or completely absent, which might work better with current path auras anyway) glow effect. It's really just Sprint with a different animation, after all. That would be a proper compromise, I think. People who want to pay money to slide can do that, people who want something to lord over other people still have their "prestigious" purple foot glow.

Not that I want to become one of "those people," but I'm starting to think task exclusivity and super packs are both strategies that include a contingency plan: they sell what they can this way, and when people complain (like they have to know they will), they wait a few months and then release another pack under the guise of "giving the people what they've been asking for."

"Hey, remember a few months back when we released the Roman costume pack and everybody was all upset it didn't include the weapons? Well, we heard you loud and clear, and now, for only five additional dollars...."

As with my previous use of the term "so far," my words were chosen deliberately. In this case I'll point to the word "main," which in this case refers to "primary" or "most numerous," and has never meant, nor been used by me to mean, "only" or "exclusive." There will certainly be people who don't fall into either group. But I believe that, of the people who have a strong opinion on the subject at all, the two groups I mention will be the main ones, and that both will have legitimate cause to be upset about this. I had assumed my use of such a common and basic word as "main" wouldn't have to be explained, but, hey, here I am doing it.

I don't really have a dog in this fight, as I long ago made what's likely to be my only broadsword-wielding character, and my only Roman-themed character. He's had his Roman gear for a few years now; that ship has long-since sailed. I do like to occasionally use the armor pieces, the ones that are a part of this set, on other characters, but the weapons themselves are kind of a moot point to me personally. The one character I have that I'd want them for, already has them. But that doesn't mean I think that the people out there who are a little peeved that they're being asked to pay real money for what they consider to be an incomplete product aren't perfectly justified in feeling that way. Particularly after the precedent set by the Vanguard pack.

As for leaving some parts exclusive to the Imperious Task Force, that's all well and good in theory, but it doesn't make much sense in practice -- it only preserves the "specialness" of having earned the pieces for characters who use a few specific weapon-wielding sets. My invulnerability/super strength tanker and my empathy/psychic blast defender both recently did ITFs and now have "nothing" to show for them, costume-wise, since none of the ITF-exclusive unlocks apply to those specific characters. And again, why drop all the weapons from the pack but leave the shields in? Those are powerset-exclusive costume elements just like the swords are.

Conceptually, the idea a few people have mentioned where the Romulus and/or Nictus sword and shield could remain in-game rewards while the "regular" weapons were purchasable makes more sense to me, particularly since the assumed rationale behind those particular items is that the character took them directly from Romulus himself. So to me, forcing a player to actually defeat Romulus to "take" those items makes perfect sense. Forcing a character who already has access to ancient Roman armor and a huge shield infused with swirling Nictus energy to defeat Romulus in order to gain access to a mundane gladiator's sword, not so much. This idea still suffers from the same problem of powerset-exclusivity that I brought up in my last paragraph, but since that's happening as-is anyway, it would at least be an improvement over the current strategy. And it would spread the "special" around to more than just weapon-wielding powersets by allowing shield users to have a "trophy item" as well.

Thus my use of the phrase "so far."

Realistically, I think you're going to see two main camps on this: The people upset that the weapons weren't included when everything else was, and the people upset that any of it was made available for purchase at all. This approach ensures that neither group is happy. More lose/lose than win/win.

And is, so far, pretty much the only player to express support for the strategy.

Just, you know... by the way.

This confused me too. We have the new bow, and the shields -- even the swirly purple Romulus Nictus one -- but that's it? Why no weapons? If I want those I still have to wait until level 35 and run an Imperious TF... and that would unlock the whole mess anyway!

There are cutscenes in missions that can be single-player. Or eight-player.