SilverAgeFan

I stuck to facts. But the facts are that it takes only about 3 years of simply continuously subscribing to the game to go from Tier 1 to Tier 8 with the new system. Was trying to provide some perspective. Sorry if that is not to your liking.

And yeah, three years can be a long time. It can go by in the blink of an eye. Didn't expect to be here 7 years later myself.

Not to tell you what to think on this one, but this seems like a bit of an overreaction. Consider that any account will earn 39 tokens in just three years of VIP subscription with zero additional purchases. This means that a BRAND SPANKING NEW ACCOUNT made today would be well into tier 8. With the former vet program, what did 3 years get you? And again, you can buy in for additional points. So if that very same new account decided to buy the equivalent of our booster packs, purchasing say $30 worth of additional points each year, they'd end their 3 year stretch with another 7 tokens total (including the bonus for first $$ purchase at the Paragon Store.) That's 46 tokens through what we've been doing normally. Giving a new account access to all the premium loyalty rewards. These rewards are going to unlock faster for folks than I think some people realize.

Snow Globes Full Guide to Paragon Points and stuff May be others out there.

First question: how many vet rewards do you have currently? If you've been playing for 2 years straight, you should have 8. You'll also have earned 2 free character slots as part of the old vet program. All this translates to 10 starter tokens in the new system.

Plus you get 1 token for your original purchase of the game. But only 1, even if you bought CoV as a box after buying CoH. So you've got at LEAST 11 tokens coming your way to start.

And now, each month of VIP status from AT LEAST this day forward (maybe July 1 forward when they started also giving us Paragon Points) also nets you 1 additional token.

You also get 1 token for each $$ increments of points bought from the Paragon Store. (Monthly allowances of 400-550 points from being VIP do not count towards this amount.) I think it's somewhere around every 1200 points purchased (probably not including bonus overages for bulk buys). Basically every $15 you spend = 1 additional token. You do NOT need to spend your points to get the tokens towards the new rewards (Vet) program. And lastly, I think they are giving out a bonus token upon your first purchase of ANY points.

Based upon my assumption that you have at least 11 tokens to start (you may have more if you have more vet rewards than that and may have more from billing cycles since July 1), you will be somewhere just below entering Tier 5 at a minimum on day 1. If you were to spend just $30 in the Paragon Store and stay subscribed through the end of the calendar year, you'll be a token or two away from entering Tier 6 of the program. So no, you won't get access to the Tier 9 vet costumes, but you'll also be unlocking oodles of other neat prior vet rewards, including costume pieces, that you would otherwise be waiting years to get still. I think Samurai armor may be one of those. And though it is no celestial armor, it is one of the better and more complete vet sets in the old system.

Edit: To be clear, if I can, Snow Globe's guide is focused on how the tiers will affect premium players (those that play for pay but then later unsubscribe). So it does not list all the other goodies like costume bits, respecs and vet powers. But all the rewards that were once a part of the former Veteran Rewards program are now being folded into this new program. So you have oodles of presents to open in a couple hours.

This. Nothing more.

Was gonna say... you're fast with the transcriptions but not time-reversingly fast!

I similarly have probably been unlucky as of late. But even when I'm not "unlucky" getting a hostage hitching for a long stretch of time, it just struck me the other night as I turned off sprint in yet another mission and played 2d map down CoH: This is simply one aspect of the game that I really don't enjoy whatsoever. It feels like too much micromanagement with no tools.

Maybe my luck will turn for the better soon. But with all the other improvements being made to the game, would be nice if this particular annoyance were alleviated as well. Which I guess is the point of my OP. This is not necessarily game breaking. But it is one of those moments where the games age really becomes glaringly obvious.

This pretty much says it for me.

Very much would be into this. Would pay Paragon Points for variations of all sorts of applied shields: cold, FF, thermal, etc. Never been too pleased with the fx or geometry of cold and thermal shields in fact.

Also would pay for total alternate fx pack for plant powers that included alternate geometries and fx that felt much less sinister: leafier, tintable flowers, butterflies flitting about, etc.

What about some dragon ink tattoos thrown into that holographic/form-fitting aura category as well? Threw the Victorian decor chest aura on a character with a jacket and just love watching it roll across the back, like some strange magic biker jacket. Makes me think the Tsoo inkmen if they get targeted for a revamp could use a combat-chest dragon ink aura to great effect.

Touch of devil's advocacy here:

- These arcs are for VIP customers or premiums can buy 'em for Paragon Bucks, right?
- We've already been told that each of these arcs will be available in perpetuity if you purchase it or remain a VIP subscriber
- IF (and big IF) this reward table is every 7 days PER signature arc, it actually becomes a bit more reasonable. Similarly it encourages rotating through the content instead of turbo-farming one or two. i.e. 5 arcs are out, 5 astral merits a week.

Again just playing devil's advocate while trying to get inside the logic of this rewards design.

I for one like the fur lined bits. Been wanting some variety other than santa boots and gerrymandered magic bolero shoulders for some time for some of my characters. SO on that note I'm happy to see these teases.

Also pleased about the male barbarian bits.

The GOOD thing about Freedom though is that if there is a palpable enough demand from friends for them to say do the labor to recreate these parts for the female model (the more butch barbarian bits), then they can without needing a Barbarian 2 Booster Pack or some nonsense. Stuff can in general can be revisited more easily from a business standpoint. And to that point, I hope they do. Even if female model versions of what is shown as male barbarian bits are NOT available at first release of these sets, I hope they do come back and port them over for female characters as well.

Good articulation of these two different types of characters.

Regarding the section quoted above, I too tend to start characters in a similar fashion. They get their gimmick that connect the name, costume and powers together. This is often tied to some sense of motivation. If not at the start, by the end of a couple run & gun RP teaming sessions, this basic motivation has emerged.

The difference when I'm on a villain is that I'll tend to grow and groom them into something nastier than merely misunderstood. One example would be a brute I have called Goldrush. After a failed lab experiment, the human he once was got transformed into a heavy solid gold man. Soon after he was picked up and experimented upon by Midas (partially out of jealousy? partially out of curiosity?). The experiments amounted to torture.

This character feels outcast, tormented and traumatized. To top it all off, he has an appetite for solid gold that he is able to liquify with a touch and then absorbs into his being (something like the mercurial boundary the T2000 displayed). Absorbing new gold gives him a high. So there's the gimmick, the look and the basic motivation, part monster, part misunderstood antihero.

His first 20 levels or so, the character that came out was one weighted down with self loathing. RPing through teamed mayhems (or any vault heist) was the highpoint, with getting those few gold bars in the cash vault representing the payoff moment of the character. Eventually though, perhaps out of my own boredom with this schtick, I started seeking more depth with the character. For months I'd been playing him as someone who didn't like feeding his addiction and definitely wasn't proud of the bad things he was doing to feed it. But as he did more bad things, I let him come to enjoy them more and more. Somewhere along the way in one particular RP session, it felt like the character finally blossomed into full blown villain when he espoused the attitude "If I'm going to be treated like an outlaw and be hated by everyone for what I am and what I've already done, I might as well enjoy myself. F*** it."

This doesn't mean he turned into a raving homicidal maniac. But he quit with the self-loathing and dropped any pretense of still regretting what he had become. He went from outlaw to gangsta.

Had he been some other alignment, I might have not made that course correction in his development. But since I wanted him to be bad, when the opportunity (in terms of RP and my own conception of him) appeared, I deliberately steered him in that direction.