MrDead

Originally Posted by CodeJunkie

You are correct, it has never been an option. It was Champions Online which offered a lifetime sub and apparently still does. STO does as well (or did?).

Originally Posted by CodeJunkie

DDO went F2P because they could not retain subscribers. They are now solely focused on maintaining the game via micro transactions, so "successful" is really only relative to the goal at hand. Have they been successful? Yes, however it does not fit the goal of PS, which is gain more subscribers, not cater to non-subscribers. That is why they are attempting to make VIP (subscriber) access a no-brainer.

Originally Posted by CodeJunkie

Not likely to happen. The whole point of the perks that VIPs get (including the 400pp/month) is to entice Freems and Preems to subscribe to the game. Why would you expect that as a non-paying player you should also have the capability of getting other content for free by earning points towards such things? That defeats the purpose of the system, which is designed to make money, not give people a free game to play. Nothing is truly free.

Basically the new hybrid model is designed to say "hey, you don't want to pony up $15 a month...ok...well, you could at least spend a few bucks here and there to help us release new stuff, instead of being a complete free loader."

Originally Posted by Psyte

Originally Posted by Psyte

Not that's been announced, no. They could always run specials and promotional events, though, and a totally free player still gets to play a LOT of the game for, well, free. Seems fair enough to me, and I've been paying to play for nearly six years now.

Originally Posted by Texas Justice

They have not stated any other method of acquiring points, other than purchasing them, for non-VIP players.

They are already giving people a method to play for free with a few minor limitations. Why would they give away the points for free as well?

Purchasing points, which in turn makes you a Premium player and removes some of the limitations, is part of the basic f2p system that includes microtransactions, and seems to be a core of the hybrid models some games are using.

Originally Posted by Texas Justice

If you are subscribed to the game, you will earn 400 Paragon Points per month as part of your subscription.

Originally Posted by Golden Girl

I think the server stability problems will be fixed long before I21 comes out.

Originally Posted by Neuronia

Amateur Prediction Hour:

x)My Warshade will continue to power up, casually and under the radar.

Originally Posted by hedgehog_NA

so you just want a private MA to use, got it. An empty room is not in any way a success.

Originally Posted by Not_Epsilon

Bad changes based on Flawed/Biased/Unknown circumstances almost never turn out to be overall beneficial to the cause.

My opinion on these particular changes?

Useless.



The reason my farming will take longer?

Not these changes, it has more to do with the SSK system. Otherwise the XP efficentcy has been reduced a staggering 25-35%. The group I farm, I down a 6 man spawn in about 5 seconds, or, FC+FS+FB+FC. I literally spend more time traveling in my mission then actually killing.

What are these changes really doing?



Killing AE story Arcs. No, Really.

The difference for a 49 toon running an AE all boss farm on Dreck map and a 49 running a liberate TV map using patrol XP, using pre-16 data is that, the 49 running RC was making more XP due to the maps being run through faster and the Patrol XP.




In conclusion, I'm Neutral to these changes, they don't bother me, they don't impede me, they don't even register. I am quite certain these are some of the most useless changes yet.

Originally Posted by HellPyre

Actually maybe you should just go read comics if the story is all your interested in. Perhaps you should quit complaining about how everyone plays an MMO and play it the way you want. Then you and others like you might quit screwing up good MMO's for those who play for other reasons than "story".

I don't give two farts about COH's story anymore. It was mildly interesting the first two times I leveled to 50 before ED. I came back because I wanted to try different builds, IOs, and other villain/hero concepts. To me the stories are better done in a comic than in this game.

At this point I'm just being a whiney puss, because that is apparently how you get things done in COX, otherwise this AE "fix" would have never occurred.

AE came out, people flocked back to play it, PlayNC rejoiced as their pocket books got full. Positron had a cow because OMG people might level faster than he thought about in his little game world. A bunch of Role-Players whined because no one wanted to group with them anymore.... boo whoo. Guess what no one wanted to group with you before. So now you get your game back! gratz! Enjoy. I hope PlayNC takes a HUGE hit in subs over this and fires Positron. He can then experience life in a recession and have plenty of time to make up stories of how he used to be a big shot gave dev in a game with super heroes.



As opposed to before AE, where you dealt with... anybody want to team? Anybody out there? Is there anyone playing this game?

Ghost Town of Heroes and Villains is what you'll be playing shortly.

Originally Posted by megajoule

personally, i don't care to team with the sort of players who would rather be farming. They're welcome to it. And when they get bored in a week (because they "beat the game") and move on to the next new shiny, i'll still be here.

Originally Posted by EternalDominion

I can see that as being annoying. Wouldn't a solution to that be some sort of tag that shows what percentage of total badges the AE badges make up for a player? That would show you the people that spend all their time in AE as opposed to more "accepted" ways of playing. I can see you wanting to avoid a player that is level 50 and only has 3 exploration badges

Originally Posted by EternalDominion

I don't think I have seen this answered, so if someone could explain it to me, I would appreciate it.

What harm do the "boss farms" cause to the non-farming community? The only thing I can think of is that it throws the economic system out of whack because you have more people looking for the same IO sets. Other than that I am drawing a blank. And, if that is the case, it really isn't an argument that can be made by the people on here crying about the sanctity of canon story arcs. The most vocal people on this thread have said they do play CoX for the stories, not "collecting 50's", so how much stuff costs or how many other "uber characters" are out there shouldn't matter if all they care about is story content).

My question is this. If it doesn't affect you in some tangible way, why should you (or the devs) care if people rip through the XP at unheard of rates? If that is how they choose to enjoy the game, then so be it. I just got my 45 (or 48, I forget) month Vet badge and have tons of alts. Only 1 50. I enjoy seeing what the AT's can do. Am I some horrible monster because I was using the AE farms to see what the potential of an AT was to see if it is one I would want to run through the entire game?

Thanks, and also, try out my story arc. It is full of custom critters (not a farm. Multiple, story-driven missions), but I still think it is pretty well done.

Originally Posted by Chantress

I think people will become more and more disenchanted with the changes in the game as time goes on.

While the power customization is great (I just wish you could copy colors across costumes for consistency) the changes to AE have ruined it for a very die-hard few who ran story arcs. Likewise, it seems that going back to developer content does not make up much for the changes. It's terrible when there's a drastic change in the influence and experience you get from soloing critters on the sidewalk verses working as a team.

This game should really get back to promoting team work as it's main concern. While auto-sidekicking and so forth in my opinions were steps in the right direction, it seems that there are huge changes not only in the rewards in AE but also in developer content. It also seems as if enemy range is now ridiculous in proportion and you only have to drop a pin to aggro 3 mobs at once. Adding people to the team in mission took off thousands of influence per kill.

Those are just my thoughts for today. Im sure I'll more to say later. The rewards in and out of AE seriously need to be looked at.

Originally Posted by Johnstone

[ QUOTE ]
If you are exemplared (via Ouroboros, Task Force, or actually helping someone lower than you) you get double influence and (I think) double Prestige .

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I believe this to be a misconception as well.

"All experience the exemplar would have gained goes instead toward paying off debt, if she has any, or becomes influence if she has no debt. This increase in influence has no effect on how much prestige is gained by a character in supergroup mode. Additionally, an exemplared character will not get any enhancements or normal infamy/influence rewards from defeating enemies ...
... It is widely believed that an exemplared character gains full normal influence rewards in addition to any extra influence he gets from converted experience. In fact, it's even stated in several player guides, both official and unofficial. This is not true. Playing while exemplared and debt-free will not result in roughly double the usual amount of influence. "
- Excerpt from the Wiki Article.

When I read this, it seemed to go counter to what I remembered. However, in testing it using AE and Oro, I found that I actually gained less influence per defeat with my 50 bs/wp. Defeating a level 50 Lieutenant at level 50 (in AE and on the street) got me 3,335 influence and 44 prestige. I tested exemplaring to different levels within AE (49, 47, and 45) and at each level, facing even-con lieutenants, I earned 2,779 influence and 44 prestige. I then headed to Oro and chose an arc that exemplared me to 45 and headed to PI where I killed a few random even-con lieutenants to test if AE was borked. I earned the same amount from them.

Then I thought that maybe it was because I was doing it with a level 50 and that it wasn't working right, so I logged in a level 36. Against an even-con lieutenant, I recieved 1,613 experience, 968 influence, and 44 prestige. Exemplared to 35, I got 807 influence and 44 prestige.

Conclusion:
Examplaring does not affect prestige earning at all, and actually lowers the rate at which you earn influence.

That is, unless I'm just bugged and gaining way too much influence when not exemped.