Forbin_Project

While more content is always a welcome addition, no one is forcing you to stay in Nerva until you are level 35. You can easily switch over to Paragon City and run those missions and TF's until you get to the level you desire and switch back.

The problem you are experiencing is one of your own creation.

I thought we could only join 10 global channels.

That's why we have global channels. Using them any player can have access up to 25,000 players and they can be spread across every single one of the servers.

You know that can't be answered because it violates forum rules.

And it is this pov that I think could be avoided by calling it an unlimited trial and setting up F2P servers. It sends a different message to the public. A game in trouble doesn't expand and add more servers.

The odd thing about that is that no one made that post in either of the two threads the OP started on this topic.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=261321

Sounds like he's just agreeing with himself.

Probably won't find it under Iron Sky on the forums. More along the lines of getting linked to it in discussions about the Moon Zone and 5th column etc.

Forum rules prevent us from naming the other NCSoft games that had an issue about 2 years ago where peoples accounts were getting stolen because of a bug that gave people access to other players master accounts by repeatedly logging into their own master account.

All they had to do was login and out repeatedly into their own account using their own login and password and suddenly they'd find themselves in someone elses account.

That issue started a whole slew of security reforms in those games that were eventually applied here.

That's why I started off with the apology because it's a pet peeve of mine. And you are right the devs rarely speak in absolutes. It's just that Power Customization is the one people tend to incorrectly use as an example instead of Inherent Stamina which one dev did say something along the lines of he'd rather get rid of stamina altogether than make it inherent.

　
And yet while you are spending all that time convincing people to try out the game it never crossed your mind once to tell them that if they want to play on a busy server they should make their characters on Virtue, Freedom, or Union. It also never crossed your mind to explain to them how to join global channels so they will have an easier time meeting people in the game.

Sounds like the problem is you and your failure to inform those people of their options.
　
　
What Veteran Upgrades are you talking about?
Ghost Axe or Sands of Mu?
Base Teleporter?
Nemesis Staff or Black Wand?
Assemble the Team Teleport?
Buff Pet?
Reveal Map power?
　
These are the only Vet upgrades the game has and they don't help anyone run thru anything without help.
　
Or are you talking about IO Enhancements and the Incarnate stuff which is available to everyone from the very first day they activate their account. All they have to do is have the recipes/salvage to craft them and the Inf to pay for them or buy them on the market. Or have characters a high enough level to run thru the Incarnate stuff and start earning shards/etc.
　
Again that sounds like you are failing to explain how the game actually works to these people.
　
　

Then you should know enough to explain to people how the server population is spread out, and how to use global channals to meet people.

And if the real problem here is that you personally don't like the server you are on anymore then pony up the cash and buy some server transfers, or start some new characters on Freedom, Virtue, or Union.

Some go even further

1. By giving their monthly subbers and lifetme members free credit each month to spend on microtransactions.

2. By drastically reducing the number of characters F2P's can have before they must buy more slots. (I've seen as low as 2-3 slots for F2P while Monthlies get 10)

3. By making F2P pay to unlock races as well as what we would call Archetypes.

4. By making them buy the ability to form SG's/guilds

5. By refusing to give F2P players any customer support. Only Monthlies and Lifers get that feature.

6. Not letting anyone who hasn't paid for gated content join a team with someone that has.

7. Have a login queue where lifers and monthlies get priority to play the game and F2P must wait at the bottom of the pile for a space to open to play.

8. F2P players have an inactivity logout timer much less than paying/lifer players. (10 minutes for F2P vs 30 minutes for monthlies & an hour for lifers)

9. F2P players are only allowed restricted access to the forums. They can read but posting is limited.

Edit: forgot the banks

10. Wealth cap on F2P characters while paying customers are unlimited.

And yet that is how all the MMO's that have successfully converted to F2P have set up their games, and their F2P players aren't complaining that they feel like second class consumers.

River was saner than some women I've met in Real Life so I'd take whimsical in the brainpan over them anyday of the week . . . especially if she looked like Summer Glau, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, or Christina Hendricks.

Oooh! I wonder if they come in a 4-pack?

No Problemo. I just wanted to make sure this gets resolved for you ASAP.

Okay Tony. I've been hammering this out and changing things and this is what I've come up with.

As much as I dislike the idea of this game going F2P I would go and set up an unlimited free trial for nonpaying players.


I would also set them up on seperate servers for a couple of reasons.
　
1. If the F2P players really like the game then switching over to a subscription is a carrot that gets them access to 15 more servers and a minimum of 180 additional character slots. That monthly fee equates to $1 dollar per server. What a bargain!
　
2. I would make at least one of the free servers an open world PvP for people that enjoy that type of game.
　
3. F2P players can transfer freely between the PvE and PvP servers.

　
I would allow paying players to transfer characters to and from the F2P servers freely if they have F2P friends they want to play with.


Now if a subber went F2P he'd be restricted to the free servers but he would be able to transfer his characters on the paying servers back and forth if he liked as a courtesy for once being a subber.


I wouldn't offer lifetime subs here because this game is supported by it's veteran players and we would all jump at the chance to get one. And while the LTS's would generate a nice spike in income it would be short lived. Once spent the game would be forced to rely on microtransactions to survive. Thats when the nickel and diming would start.


Most MT's would have to be temporary in nature so players would need to keep buying them, and of a type that while not necessary to play the game would still be things players would want to purchase to give their characters an edge. Far example:
　
Temp Powers
　
those base craftable Empowerment Buffs
　
Tier 2+ Inspirations
　
Remember the special IO Enhancements that came with the pre-order purchase of GR from Gamestop? Well make a duplicate set of all the IO's we currently have in the game and make a version of them that can be sold as MT's but are soul bound to the character they are purchased on. They can't be traded or pulled off of a build during a respec. That way they can't screw up the supply and demand on the market, but players willing to spend money on them can still IO out a character. The regular IO's will remain unchanged in how they are gotten and used.
　
The above would still be available as drops or mission rewards for patient players.
　
Some other MT's would be gated content. Maybe sell 2xp tokens for individual characters in increments of 2, 4, 6, and 8 hours real time.
　
F2P wouldn't be restricted by levels like current trials and they would have access to the basic game but they would have to pay to unlock the other two factions.
　
Epic Archetypes would have to be bought to unlock on Trial Accounts.
　
Now take a look at the missions and TF's that were added over the years in the free issues. Those would also be gated content F2Pers would have to pay to unlock. They could buy the individual Issues, and they could pick and choose which Issues they wanted.
　
Content being gated would not prevent them from joining and participating on another players team who had the content unlocked, they just couldn't get the missions/TF's themselves. This would work like Tip missions where you can participate in another players tip mission if you don't have GR but you can't get the missions yourself until you buy GR.
　
Certain trial account restrictions would still be enforced and new ones would be added.
　
No access to server wide global channels. Paying customers don't need to put up with jerk spam or RMTers advertising. They would however have unrestricted access to the regular server wide channels.
　
Trials would be restricted to say 50 million inf per character so they can afford to craft a few IO recipes that drop from normal play.
　
No access to the email feature to prevent RMT abuse.
　
No access to either the Mission Architect nor the Market. Those are more carrots to entice F2P to get a subscription, and as far as the markets concerned since they can buy special IO Enhancements they don't need the market.

Trials will have global access to the /help channel so they can benefit from subscribing players experience.

Feel free to hate it.

Sorry but I hate seeing people say that even if it's only in jest.


That is not true. The devs never said CoH would never have power customization. What they actually said was that they would love to do power customization but we wouldn't get it for quite some time because of the huge amount of time and resources it would take to do it, so they shelved it until they could do it. And when they finally had a large enough staff to work on it we got it.

Similar problem here. Gout flared up and I've been keeping my leg elevated.

Gee you didn't like it. Why is no one surprised to hear that?

HEY! There is nothing wrong with getting a naked girl in a box. We should all be so lucky.

It's a habit I picked up in the military. Everything in at least triplicate to CYA.

As to the safe deposit box, I'm on a fixed income (disability) and can't afford that expense.

Tattoos are unrealistic because they are too expensive to keep updated as more codes get added, passwords/security questions get regularly changed, and personal info changes. Moved three times in past 7 years, switched banks and used different cards for payment.

Hi Laser I hope this problem gets resolved for you fairly quickly because I went thru something similar with my Guild Wars account a while back and I wanted to shoot someone even tho I had all the info they wanted onhand.

This is a perfect example of why I keep multiple copies of everything I get for all my games. Yes it seems like a pain in the hind quarters but it saved me a lot of frustration that you are going thru.

I have a copy of all my codes/security question answers for all my games in a folder on my online email account.

I saved a duplicate of that folder on my hard drive.

Another copy of that file is backed up onto a RW disc.

And I printed a copy of that folder which I keep in a $30 dollar portable safe/lockbox along with the flattened original game boxes and papers that came in the boxes.

I realize what I'm saying doesn't help you much right now but maybe it will give you an idea you can use in the future to prevent a similar occurance from happening.

And once more you have my sympathy and I hope this problem is resolved without any more frustration for you.