Bug Fix Please: Collection Officers not giving stars as intended

tigerofcachtice

Hi, this is a bug that has been around, and forgot about, but really frustrates new players.

The bug: the Collections Officers sells stars as a vendor, but instead of replenishing the stars in the character's portrait, it deposits an unusable star device in your inventory. New players in particular feel scammed, bad 1st impression, loss of confidence in CO.

The solution: can be 2 ways. Either a.) remove the faulty Collections Officer or b.) delete the NPC.

INB4 it's a donation. I hear ya, but new players feel like it's robbery instead, charlatanism.

eiledon

The collection agent stars have been broken since those NPCs were introduced - they certainly need to be fixed.

The ones from the charity worker near the tailors still work, although sometimes you have to stand right next to her to use them (random glitch); I presume that this tactic doesnt work for collection agent stars?

roughbearmattach

The game would be better off removing the stars from purchase from those NPCs.
It makes a terrible impression on new players.

drgmstr

roughbearmattach wrote: »

The game would be better off removing the stars from purchase from those NPCs.
It makes a terrible impression on new players.

Agreed. Ever since I started playing CO going over 2 years now I never knew about the stars until months later after joining. Whether I have no stars or all 5, never saw such a performance boost/loss that I ignored them completely.

New players who do join and I have seen this plenty of times in alerts when a team keeps getting wiped some argue how they keep losing stars and rage quit the team.

roughbearmattach

Yeah, new players think stars actually matter a lot.
They don't matter much at all, except at the lowest levels with green gera.

pantagruel01

Well, it's a detectable buff even with high end gear, it's just that the game is easy enough that you can sacrifice quite a few bonuses and still do okay.

itsbrou

Charity NPCs appear to have some sort of AOE aura that applies stars to your character.

If you buy stars from the officer and run within a 20ft radius of the Homeless Shelter Volunteer, your stars will be consumed and applied to your character. Try it for yourself.

tigerofcachtice

I tried Brou's workaround and it works. Thanks for that, Brou.

Unfortunately, the problem remains, which is that new players get confused and frustrated by the perceived rip-off and that experience bleeds into the rest of their CO experience. It leads to a lack of confidence in the game.

At least if I see a new player finding this bug, I can advise them on Brou's workaround. However, there's no way I can advise on every single case, so devs, please take note. You're doing admirable work fixing issues to drum up new players, don't let that effort go to waste with bugs like this, especially since those NPCs are so redundant.