Ok, how about Regular Gold slots once subscriptions run out (and they will eventually if not allowed to enter new credit card info after a card expires). Will they still be freeform? Or will there then be the forced choice to downgrade to AT, or upgrade to a FF slot? In effect, buying back each free form character or settling for something close. That effect is what I'm most concerned about for other players.
Right now there's no way to "upgrade to a Freeform Slot". If your subscription lapses, and you're not planning to go lifetime, then that character is stuck locked away until you turn it into an Archetype. Buying a freeform slot gives you one EXTRA slot on your account which you can create a new character for. So if you plan to delete your old character and recreate as a freeform, you'll have to delete or rename the old one, recreate the character, and unlock any character-specific unlocks like aura slots and event unlocks for that character to fully recreate them.
Existing freeform slots on an account should remain unchanged, so you'll keep those.
OMFG.. i hope players realizes how this will ruin the game. ALL your FF-characters will be locked if you miss ONE subscription.. Basically PWE is forcing you to either continue to sub, or buy LTS.. for a game that is no longer supported by ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT AND BUGFIXING.
I honestly hope this is the nail in the coffin, sad but true.
OMFG.. i hope players realizes how this will ruin the game. ALL your FF-characters will be locked if you miss ONE subscription.. Basically PWE is forcing you to either continue to sub, or buy LTS.. for a game that is no longer supported by ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT AND BUGFIXING.
I honestly hope this is the nail in the coffin, sad but true.
This game is still supported by active development and bugfixing. Not sure what rock you been under all this time. But, they still do development and bugfixing.
Right now there's no way to "upgrade to a Freeform Slot". If your subscription lapses, and you're not planning to go lifetime, then that character is stuck locked away until you turn it into an Archetype. Buying a freeform slot gives you one EXTRA slot on your account which you can create a new character for. So if you plan to delete your old character and recreate as a freeform, you'll have to delete or rename the old one, recreate the character, and unlock any character-specific unlocks like aura slots and event unlocks for that character to fully recreate them.
Existing freeform slots on an account should remain unchanged, so you'll keep those.
Thankfully, they said they are looking into making a purchasable store item to convert silver toons to gold.
Overall, as someone that is a LTSer, this doesn't affect me...beyond the loss of getting free character slots from hitting level 40. And with that gone, they willl enforce the 59 character slot limit that I never knew existed due to me have more than 180 slots... Though, people like me will keep all our slots, even if we delete toons.
What I am not happy about is the costume slot purchase items. They are getting rid of the current one slot for one toon (for kinda cheap) or two slots for your entire account and replacing them with two options, that, while cheaper, or, overall, more expensive. Two slots for one toon for 100 zen or five slots for one toon for 300 zen. Note that both options are for one toon...
Swordsman Online shuts down June 5th
Jade Dynasty shuts down June 5th
Premium Pack live June 6th
Except the Premium Pack isn't going to make them any additional money. The Premium Pack costs the same as a month of subbing and is a one time purchase only. So, someone who was going to sub instead pays the same $15 for the Premium Pack, but only once. Do you really think they are going to be able to come up with a new Premium Pack every month that rivals this one and is worth the same $15? No, the only "positive" thing this does for revenue is make subscribers less likely to let their existing subscriptions lapse. There must be more coming soon, because I think this actually means less money for them as it stands now.
This game is still supported by active development and bugfixing. Not sure what rock you been under all this time. But, they still do development and bugfixing.
0Really ?, then why are the professions still bugged after 4 years, why is the dino's hitbox still glitched, why is the "out of range" glitch on the dino still present on a daily basis?, why are some "spec info" misleading and giving players false information ?.
Swordsman Online shuts down June 5th
Jade Dynasty shuts down June 5th
Premium Pack live June 6th
Except the Premium Pack isn't going to make them any additional money. The Premium Pack costs the same as a month of subbing and is a one time purchase only. So, someone who was going to sub instead pays the same $15 for the Premium Pack, but only once. Do you really think they are going to be able to come up with a new Premium Pack every month that rivals this one and is worth the same $15? No, the only "positive" thing this does for revenue is make subscribers less likely to let their existing subscriptions lapse. There must be more coming soon, because I think this actually means less money for them as it stands now.
Do you know how credit cards work? Credit cards have an expiration date, ie. no matter how dilligent you are in keeping your sub up, your credit card will eventually expire and when that happens you won't be able to insert a new one.
Thus either buy LTS to prevent your gold toons from being locked out, or buy x (depending on toons) number of "Convert Silver to Gold Slot", that is if they ever make those.
Also additional money comes from LTS now being forced to buy FF/Character slots for additional characters, or buy a Character Limit expansion + FF/Character slots if they also ever make these.
Do you know how credit cards work? Credit cards have an expiration date, ie. no matter how dilligent you are in keeping your sub up, your credit card will eventually expire and when that happens you won't be able to insert a new one.
It's perfect possible for them to disable buying new subscriptions while still allowing people to update their payment information. Of course, 'possible' and 'will actually be done' are two separate things, but I suspect PW's target is people who buy one month or lapse and occasionally resubscribe, not people who reliably renew.
Swordsman Online shuts down June 5th
Jade Dynasty shuts down June 5th
Premium Pack live June 6th
Except the Premium Pack isn't going to make them any additional money. The Premium Pack costs the same as a month of subbing and is a one time purchase only. So, someone who was going to sub instead pays the same $15 for the Premium Pack, but only once. Do you really think they are going to be able to come up with a new Premium Pack every month that rivals this one and is worth the same $15? No, the only "positive" thing this does for revenue is make subscribers less likely to let their existing subscriptions lapse. There must be more coming soon, because I think this actually means less money for them as it stands now.
Do you know how credit cards work? Credit cards have an expiration date, ie. no matter how dilligent you are in keeping your sub up, your credit card will eventually expire and when that happens you won't be able to insert a new one.
Thus either buy LTS to prevent your gold toons from being locked out, or buy x (depending on toons) number of "Convert Silver to Gold Slot", that is if they ever make those.
Also additional money comes from LTS now being forced to buy FF/Character slots for additional characters, or buy a Character Limit expansion + FF/Character slots if they also ever make these.
There is no basis for your odd assumption that you won't be able to update your credit card information. They are still selling ZEN. That means you must still be able to update the payment information for your account.
And if you have read the posts from Cryptic you can see that if an LTS or Gold subscriber with an account in good standing adds more character slots they can continue to make freeform characters with them. They just will no longer have a mechanism to add slots if they are already at or over the 59 character slot cap. They do not have to buy FF slots. However, if a Gold does buy FF slots, those slots will stay FF even if the sub lapses.
The issue really isn't about worries that we won't be able to update CC info. It's wondering if a mechanism to re-start a stalled subscription will exist. Currently, if your CC# is expired the subscription automatically cancels. So you have to go in and re-select the subscription option to get started again.
If that menu is taken away permanently, how exactly would one re-subscribe? As the option menu will no longer exist.
That's a 100% valid concern which has not been addressed or explained.
The issue really isn't about worries that we won't be able to update CC info. It's wondering if a mechanism to re-start a stalled subscription will exist. Currently, if your CC# is expired the subscription automatically cancels. So you have to go in and re-select the subscription option to get started again.
If that menu is taken away permanently, how exactly would one re-subscribe? As the option menu will no longer exist.
That's a 100% valid concern which has not been addressed or explained.
Yeah, it looks like you won't be able to re-subscribe. I would like to suggest that if a sub lapses that they send an email with a limited time link allowing them a window to re-sub. That would take care of some concerns about accidental lapses.
The issue really isn't about worries that we won't be able to update CC info. It's wondering if a mechanism to re-start a stalled subscription will exist. Currently, if your CC# is expired the subscription automatically cancels. So you have to go in and re-select the subscription option to get started again.
If that menu is taken away permanently, how exactly would one re-subscribe? As the option menu will no longer exist.
That's a 100% valid concern which has not been addressed or explained.
This right here.
IMHO - go with a service like Paypal to auto-renew. That way you can change and update your payment information as much as you'd like without having to touch Cryptic's servers.
I mean, all this talk about reinstating a briefly lapsed subscription just points to how absolutely bizarre the idea is in the first place. Why should anyone be expected to maintain an active subscription for a game they aren't necessarily playing or risk permanently losing something from their account? I can't think of an MMO that comes anywhere near a philosophy like that. CO's whole silver/gold/freeform mess aside, it's unprecedented, and really cuts people like me who have spent somewhere around two LTSes worth of subscriptions only to be told, "Maybe we'll do something about this." At considerable expense, no doubt.
And LTS really is a whole other beast, but I'm not gonna lie, this weird attempt at incentivizing it so late in the game's life seems a little disingenuous.
This game is still supported by active development and bugfixing. Not sure what rock you been under all this time. But, they still do development and bugfixing.
0Really ?, then why are the professions still bugged after 4 years, why is the dino's hitbox still glitched, why is the "out of range" glitch on the dino still present on a daily basis?, why are some "spec info" misleading and giving players false information ?.
Ohh.. and the constantly present Memoryleaks.
Just because some bugs still exist doesn't mean the game is not being worked on. Stop staring only at a few things. And funny enough, I have not experienced any of the memory leaks in a long time (and even when I did experience them, they were so far and few in between they did not matter). So, something either changed on my end, or they did do something that helped that issue. I have found that often enough, a bug or memory leak, is connected to the machine that the game is running on. In short, there might be some sort of compatability issues going on with some people.
This game is still supported by active development and bugfixing. Not sure what rock you been under all this time. But, they still do development and bugfixing.
0Really ?, then why are the professions still bugged after 4 years, why is the dino's hitbox still glitched, why is the "out of range" glitch on the dino still present on a daily basis?, why are some "spec info" misleading and giving players false information ?.
Ohh.. and the constantly present Memoryleaks.
Just because some bugs still exist doesn't mean the game is not being worked on. Stop staring only at a few things. And funny enough, I have not experienced any of the memory leaks in a long time (and even when I did experience them, they were so far and few in between they did not matter). So, something either changed on my end, or they did do something that helped that issue. I have found that often enough, a bug or memory leak, is connected to the machine that the game is running on. In short, there might be some sort of compatability issues going on with some people.
Lucky you. I've been getting them every few hours since the Save the Earth! update went live. It usually happens when I'm transferring to Millennium City from somewhere else. Thankfully, just killing the game client and restarting the game seems to clear it, but it's still pretty annoying.
Lucky you. I've been getting them every few hours since the Save the Earth! update went live. It usually happens when I'm transferring to Millennium City from somewhere else. Thankfully, just killing the game client and restarting the game seems to clear it, but it's still pretty annoying.
I've had random crashes, but not often. Maybe one a week, or less.
I really, really disagree with this decision. On the other tentacle, I'm not persuaded it's indeed the advent of DOOOOOMMM!!! that some foresee.
It does, however, cause me to wonder how many people really are subscribing monthly (and reliably) for a prolonged period. (And why they're doing that - it would make more sense to me to do what I did, save up and get an LTS. Mine paid for itself sometime last year, and now I'm into the profit period.)
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
I really, really disagree with this decision. On the other tentacle, I'm not persuaded it's indeed the advent of DOOOOOMMM!!! that some foresee.
It does, however, cause me to wonder how many people really are subscribing monthly (and reliably) for a prolonged period. (And why they're doing that - it would make more sense to me to do what I did, save up and get an LTS. Mine paid for itself sometime last year, and now I'm into the profit period.)
Unfortunately, some people may not immediately have the $300 (or when on sale, $200 USD) to throw down all at once, considering other things in life that might need a bigger chunk.
So the monthly sub can at least be managed that way for such folks and it won't put as much of dent into their cash on a month-to-month basis.
I'm a gold sub and have been for years without lapsing my sub. Early on I managed to get a discounted monthly subscription and kept on that ever since.
My personal reasons for staying on this monthly model is that I really don't notice paying just under $10 a month and $200/$300 would have been too big a chunk at once to justify it to myself. I didn't save up and wait until I had the necessary funds for an LTS because I wanted to play as a subscriber then and there and not wait months to do so.
Obviously I have paid far, far more for my sub in the long run than an LTS but I was fine by that as I loved the game and didn't begrudge it.
I haven't only paid for my sub though. I've bought a lot of Zen over the years.
I know many people in-game that follow this model. It's not as uncommon as you may think, Jon.
I really, really disagree with this decision. On the other tentacle, I'm not persuaded it's indeed the advent of DOOOOOMMM!!! that some foresee.
It does, however, cause me to wonder how many people really are subscribing monthly (and reliably) for a prolonged period. (And why they're doing that - it would make more sense to me to do what I did, save up and get an LTS. Mine paid for itself sometime last year, and now I'm into the profit period.)
It would take just shy of 2 years before an LTS would will have paid for itself (vs my 3-months recurring sub). With their recent actions, I find it questionable that the game will be around long enough to recoup the cost.
The monthly rewards was the one thing that kept me subbing even during long breaks. Now, it looks like they switching from offering a carrot (monthly rewards, new slot for reaching lvl 40, etc.) to extortion ("It sure would be a shame if something were to happen to all of your characters..."). Offering me a $200-300 "insurance" policy is bullshit.
So, has there been any word on the devs (or is it just "dev" at this point?) enabling the ability to convert a Gold Freeform into a purchased Freeform?
Currently, we can't apply a purchased FF slot to an existing character. If the ability isn't added, then our current Gold FF characters will either have to retrain into an AT that we've unlocked or remain unplayable.
Naturally, some of my better-geared characters are my Gold FF characters. I'd like to have them be able to become playable as-is, rather than have to either ditch their gear* or their builds to be able to play them.
*By which I mean I'd have to reroll and regear the characters as a paid FF slot under the current system.
So, has there been any word on the devs (or is it just "dev" at this point?) enabling the ability to convert a Gold Freeform into a purchased Freeform?
Currently, we can't apply a purchased FF slot to an existing character. If the ability isn't added, then our current Gold FF characters will either have to retrain into an AT that we've unlocked or remain unplayable.
Naturally, some of my better-geared characters are my Gold FF characters. I'd like to have them be able to become playable as-is, rather than have to either ditch their gear* or their builds to be able to play them.
*By which I mean I'd have to reroll and regear the characters as a paid FF slot under the current system.
Yes that's why the conversion shenanigans are horrible, there should be a way to unlock your Gold FF characters without having to break them first and then rebuild. Just a simple unlock button, just like when you could reactivate your Gold subscription.
Hmm, I either overlooked this bit the last time I looked at the page or they updated it:
What happens to my gold characters if my sub lapses?
If your sub lapses, and you had gold characters, they will change to silver like they would normally. If you want to keep them gold, you will have to purchase a lifetime sub. Otherwise, they will have to be converted to archetypes in order to be played.
If you purchased a freeform slot, that will forever remain a freeform slot.
We are looking into the possibility of creating a purchasable item to convert silver slots into freeform slots.
That's some BS. They've had how long to prepare for this major change and they're "looking into the possibility" of a half-baked solution? So, if they create this item, it will let us convert Silver slots into freeform slots. NOT convert Gold Freeform slots into Silver (i.e., give the Gold FF slots the same properties as the purchased FF slots already have...). So, we'd have to convert our gold FFs to an AT (oh, and if we didn't have our builds written down somewhere, no way to look at them before starting the process...), *then* use the token to make that slot a FF slot? That's just . . . wow.
It's unbelievable that they didn't think of this problem and have a better solution prepared.
Another problem is this: Some of my oldest characters started as Silver ATs, then converted to Gold Freeforms. So, they'd need a retrain token to go back to being a Silver AT, since you only get one freebie per character. Will they at least be giving free retrain tokens? Seems fair, since I wouldn't have needed to go back to silver on any characters if it weren't for the change.
That's why we need something that doesn't alter caracters. They have to remain exactly the way they are, we just want an unlock not a convert/respec then convert respec again system and lose some of their gear/costume pieces etc.
Hmm, I either overlooked this bit the last time I looked at the page or they updated it:
What happens to my gold characters if my sub lapses?
If your sub lapses, and you had gold characters, they will change to silver like they would normally. If you want to keep them gold, you will have to purchase a lifetime sub. Otherwise, they will have to be converted to archetypes in order to be played.
If you purchased a freeform slot, that will forever remain a freeform slot.
We are looking into the possibility of creating a purchasable item to convert silver slots into freeform slots.
That's some BS. They've had how long to prepare for this major change and they're "looking into the possibility" of a half-baked solution? So, if they create this item, it will let us convert Silver slots into freeform slots. NOT convert Gold Freeform slots into Silver (i.e., give the Gold FF slots the same properties as the purchased FF slots already have...). So, we'd have to convert our gold FFs to an AT (oh, and if we didn't have our builds written down somewhere, no way to look at them before starting the process...), *then* use the token to make that slot a FF slot? That's just . . . wow.
It's unbelievable that they didn't think of this problem and have a better solution prepared.
Another problem is this: Some of my oldest characters started as Silver ATs, then converted to Gold Freeforms. So, they'd need a retrain token to go back to being a Silver AT, since you only get one freebie per character. Will they at least be giving free retrain tokens? Seems fair, since I wouldn't have needed to go back to silver on any characters if it weren't for the change.
As far as I understand from a fairly thorough reading of all available information on this change, players will be given a retrain token to bring FF down to silver status and will be offered the ability to change them into an archetype of your choice. Now, obviously that is a horrible solution, but that does seem to be the case. It also happens to be the reason why nearly everyone I play with from my particular group has ended their subscriptions and uninstalled the game.
The Gold to Silver token already exists, it respecs your FF into a Silver AT of your choice among the ATs you've bought. But you also lose access to the Gold only costume pieces (which will be included in the Premium Pack if I'm not mistaken).
You also need the Token if your Gold character is an AT.
The Gold to Silver token already exists, it respecs your FF into a Silver AT of your choice among the ATs you've bought. But you also lose access to the Gold only costume pieces (which will be included in the Premium Pack if I'm not mistaken).
You also need the Token if your Gold character is an AT.
ONLY if the AT in question is one you get free as a sub. If it's one of the free ATs or an AT you're purchased, then the only conversion is from a gold frame to a silver frame in the character selection screen.
Hmm, I either overlooked this bit the last time I looked at the page or they updated it:
What happens to my gold characters if my sub lapses?
If your sub lapses, and you had gold characters, they will change to silver like they would normally. If you want to keep them gold, you will have to purchase a lifetime sub. Otherwise, they will have to be converted to archetypes in order to be played.
If you purchased a freeform slot, that will forever remain a freeform slot.
We are looking into the possibility of creating a purchasable item to convert silver slots into freeform slots.
That's some BS. They've had how long to prepare for this major change and they're "looking into the possibility" of a half-baked solution? So, if they create this item, it will let us convert Silver slots into freeform slots. NOT convert Gold Freeform slots into Silver (i.e., give the Gold FF slots the same properties as the purchased FF slots already have...). So, we'd have to convert our gold FFs to an AT (oh, and if we didn't have our builds written down somewhere, no way to look at them before starting the process...), *then* use the token to make that slot a FF slot? That's just . . . wow.
It's unbelievable that they didn't think of this problem and have a better solution prepared.
Another problem is this: Some of my oldest characters started as Silver ATs, then converted to Gold Freeforms. So, they'd need a retrain token to go back to being a Silver AT, since you only get one freebie per character. Will they at least be giving free retrain tokens? Seems fair, since I wouldn't have needed to go back to silver on any characters if it weren't for the change.
They've had seven years to do it and didn't. Don't expect them to follow through now.
They totally thought of it, they just don't give a crap. They've done this exact same bull before and didn't bat an eye, this is no mistake. It's history repeating and Cryptic being Cryptic.
They've had seven years to do it and didn't. Don't expect them to follow through now.
They totally thought of it, they just don't give a crap. They've done this exact same bull before and didn't bat an eye, this is no mistake. It's history repeating and Cryptic being Cryptic.
I remember. I bought CO on release, but had to quit because of of the numerous bugs. I came back to see how things were after it went FTP, and was kind of annoyed at the amount of stuff I lost, including costume pieces, even though I supported the game from launch. I just deleted my old characters and started over, since none of them were leveled up yet.
The key difference here is that they don't currently have any way to recover Gold freeform characters and keep them intact. At least with the FTP launch, we could continue to subscribe and access our characters. I always thought the Gold incentives were a little weak, but at least the option existed. There is no option other than a vague "we're thinking about it." This is a far worse situation.
As far as I understand from a fairly thorough reading of all available information on this change, players will be given a retrain token to bring FF down to silver status and will be offered the ability to change them into an archetype of your choice. Now, obviously that is a horrible solution, but that does seem to be the case. It also happens to be the reason why nearly everyone I play with from my particular group has ended their subscriptions and uninstalled the game.
That's at least somewhat good news for me. I have two characters that I don't particularly mind converting to ATs who already burned their one free retrain token. I'm not sure I'd want to grind the Zen for two tokens for them.
Frankly, I won't be too hurt by the change. I usually sub for 2 to 4 months out of the year and play my AT characters in between. My ratio of Silver to Gold characters reflects this. If worse comes to worse, I'll just convert all my FF slots to an appropriate AT. I'll leave my Gold ATs in limbo until I can purchase the ATs for them.
BUT . . . There are people with dozens of capped freeforms that they'll have to deal with The current situation is seriously messed up for Gold subscribers who subbed to take full advantage of the main perk of subbing. Freeform characters were the main incentive to sub, and the reward these people get for their loyalty and providing a steady income to the game is to pull the rug out from under them? I hope they do something about this that doesn't end up as unfairly trying to milk these players for money.
Frankly, I won't be too hurt by the change. I usually sub for 2 to 4 months out of the year and play my AT characters in between. My ratio of Silver to Gold characters reflects this. If worse comes to worse, I'll just convert all my FF slots to an appropriate AT. I'll leave my Gold ATs in limbo until I can purchase the ATs for them.
Like you, I have quite a few level 40 AT's. I sub for a few months out of the year, but I buy from the Z-store as well. Usually costume bits, new AT's I really like, etc. I'm so glad now that I've purchased a few of the better Premium AT's. That was certainly money well-spent in the long run.
Also, thank the gaming gods for Kaizerin's AT revamps. Which improved ATs quite a bit. Not to mention the new ATs which all have pretty solid power choices and stats. It's one of the few saving graces of this entire debacle. However, I can't imagine being someone with nothing but FF's on their account who never went LTS. That's gotta burn -- I mean they can let their sub run, but that's a waste of money in the long-term.
Oh well, nothing left to do but to wait for the dust to clear. We just have to see how this shakes out. I'm not quitting because even at it's worse, CO is still less of a money grab than DCUO. Which actually locks all upper level playable content behind purchasable DLC's or a subscription.
Oh well, nothing left to do but to wait for the dust to clear. We just have to see how this shakes out. I'm not quitting because even at it's worse, CO is still less of a money grab than DCUO. Which actually locks all upper level playable content behind purchasable DLC's or a subscription.
You can complain. You can yell and scream and get angry as all get out and make your voice heard.
Complacency is what lets this crap go through. Too many people were complacent back then, change that now and maybe, just maybe it'll do something.
Comments
Existing freeform slots on an account should remain unchanged, so you'll keep those.
Jade Dynasty shuts down June 5th
Premium Pack live June 6th
OMFG.. i hope players realizes how this will ruin the game. ALL your FF-characters will be locked if you miss ONE subscription.. Basically PWE is forcing you to either continue to sub, or buy LTS.. for a game that is no longer supported by ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT AND BUGFIXING.
I honestly hope this is the nail in the coffin, sad but true.
Champions Online shuts down June 7th
This game is still supported by active development and bugfixing. Not sure what rock you been under all this time. But, they still do development and bugfixing.
Thankfully, they said they are looking into making a purchasable store item to convert silver toons to gold.
Overall, as someone that is a LTSer, this doesn't affect me...beyond the loss of getting free character slots from hitting level 40. And with that gone, they willl enforce the 59 character slot limit that I never knew existed due to me have more than 180 slots... Though, people like me will keep all our slots, even if we delete toons.
What I am not happy about is the costume slot purchase items. They are getting rid of the current one slot for one toon (for kinda cheap) or two slots for your entire account and replacing them with two options, that, while cheaper, or, overall, more expensive. Two slots for one toon for 100 zen or five slots for one toon for 300 zen. Note that both options are for one toon...
Except the Premium Pack isn't going to make them any additional money. The Premium Pack costs the same as a month of subbing and is a one time purchase only. So, someone who was going to sub instead pays the same $15 for the Premium Pack, but only once. Do you really think they are going to be able to come up with a new Premium Pack every month that rivals this one and is worth the same $15? No, the only "positive" thing this does for revenue is make subscribers less likely to let their existing subscriptions lapse. There must be more coming soon, because I think this actually means less money for them as it stands now.
0Really ?, then why are the professions still bugged after 4 years, why is the dino's hitbox still glitched, why is the "out of range" glitch on the dino still present on a daily basis?, why are some "spec info" misleading and giving players false information ?.
Ohh.. and the constantly present Memoryleaks.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Do you know how credit cards work? Credit cards have an expiration date, ie. no matter how dilligent you are in keeping your sub up, your credit card will eventually expire and when that happens you won't be able to insert a new one.
Thus either buy LTS to prevent your gold toons from being locked out, or buy x (depending on toons) number of "Convert Silver to Gold Slot", that is if they ever make those.
Also additional money comes from LTS now being forced to buy FF/Character slots for additional characters, or buy a Character Limit expansion + FF/Character slots if they also ever make these.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
There is no basis for your odd assumption that you won't be able to update your credit card information. They are still selling ZEN. That means you must still be able to update the payment information for your account.
Edit: You can manage payment methods from the Cryptic Studios account management page.
https://secure.crypticstudios.com/champions/menu
And if you have read the posts from Cryptic you can see that if an LTS or Gold subscriber with an account in good standing adds more character slots they can continue to make freeform characters with them. They just will no longer have a mechanism to add slots if they are already at or over the 59 character slot cap. They do not have to buy FF slots. However, if a Gold does buy FF slots, those slots will stay FF even if the sub lapses.
If that menu is taken away permanently, how exactly would one re-subscribe? As the option menu will no longer exist.
That's a 100% valid concern which has not been addressed or explained.
Yeah, it looks like you won't be able to re-subscribe. I would like to suggest that if a sub lapses that they send an email with a limited time link allowing them a window to re-sub. That would take care of some concerns about accidental lapses.
IMHO - go with a service like Paypal to auto-renew. That way you can change and update your payment information as much as you'd like without having to touch Cryptic's servers.
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And LTS really is a whole other beast, but I'm not gonna lie, this weird attempt at incentivizing it so late in the game's life seems a little disingenuous.
Just because some bugs still exist doesn't mean the game is not being worked on. Stop staring only at a few things. And funny enough, I have not experienced any of the memory leaks in a long time (and even when I did experience them, they were so far and few in between they did not matter). So, something either changed on my end, or they did do something that helped that issue. I have found that often enough, a bug or memory leak, is connected to the machine that the game is running on. In short, there might be some sort of compatability issues going on with some people.
Lucky you. I've been getting them every few hours since the Save the Earth! update went live. It usually happens when I'm transferring to Millennium City from somewhere else. Thankfully, just killing the game client and restarting the game seems to clear it, but it's still pretty annoying.
My overall reaction to this news.
*sigh* the pic won't embed properly.
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My characters
It does, however, cause me to wonder how many people really are subscribing monthly (and reliably) for a prolonged period. (And why they're doing that - it would make more sense to me to do what I did, save up and get an LTS. Mine paid for itself sometime last year, and now I'm into the profit period.)
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Unfortunately, some people may not immediately have the $300 (or when on sale, $200 USD) to throw down all at once, considering other things in life that might need a bigger chunk.
So the monthly sub can at least be managed that way for such folks and it won't put as much of dent into their cash on a month-to-month basis.
Cause humans.
My personal reasons for staying on this monthly model is that I really don't notice paying just under $10 a month and $200/$300 would have been too big a chunk at once to justify it to myself. I didn't save up and wait until I had the necessary funds for an LTS because I wanted to play as a subscriber then and there and not wait months to do so.
Obviously I have paid far, far more for my sub in the long run than an LTS but I was fine by that as I loved the game and didn't begrudge it.
I haven't only paid for my sub though. I've bought a lot of Zen over the years.
I know many people in-game that follow this model. It's not as uncommon as you may think, Jon.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
It would take just shy of 2 years before an LTS would will have paid for itself (vs my 3-months recurring sub). With their recent actions, I find it questionable that the game will be around long enough to recoup the cost.
The monthly rewards was the one thing that kept me subbing even during long breaks. Now, it looks like they switching from offering a carrot (monthly rewards, new slot for reaching lvl 40, etc.) to extortion ("It sure would be a shame if something were to happen to all of your characters..."). Offering me a $200-300 "insurance" policy is bullshit.
Currently, we can't apply a purchased FF slot to an existing character. If the ability isn't added, then our current Gold FF characters will either have to retrain into an AT that we've unlocked or remain unplayable.
Naturally, some of my better-geared characters are my Gold FF characters. I'd like to have them be able to become playable as-is, rather than have to either ditch their gear* or their builds to be able to play them.
*By which I mean I'd have to reroll and regear the characters as a paid FF slot under the current system.
That's some BS. They've had how long to prepare for this major change and they're "looking into the possibility" of a half-baked solution? So, if they create this item, it will let us convert Silver slots into freeform slots. NOT convert Gold Freeform slots into Silver (i.e., give the Gold FF slots the same properties as the purchased FF slots already have...). So, we'd have to convert our gold FFs to an AT (oh, and if we didn't have our builds written down somewhere, no way to look at them before starting the process...), *then* use the token to make that slot a FF slot? That's just . . . wow.
It's unbelievable that they didn't think of this problem and have a better solution prepared.
Another problem is this: Some of my oldest characters started as Silver ATs, then converted to Gold Freeforms. So, they'd need a retrain token to go back to being a Silver AT, since you only get one freebie per character. Will they at least be giving free retrain tokens? Seems fair, since I wouldn't have needed to go back to silver on any characters if it weren't for the change.
And for those who have been Gold for 2 years or more I fully support this: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/1211252/grandfather-in-gold-subscribers
As far as I understand from a fairly thorough reading of all available information on this change, players will be given a retrain token to bring FF down to silver status and will be offered the ability to change them into an archetype of your choice. Now, obviously that is a horrible solution, but that does seem to be the case. It also happens to be the reason why nearly everyone I play with from my particular group has ended their subscriptions and uninstalled the game.
You also need the Token if your Gold character is an AT.
ONLY if the AT in question is one you get free as a sub. If it's one of the free ATs or an AT you're purchased, then the only conversion is from a gold frame to a silver frame in the character selection screen.
championswiki.com
They've had seven years to do it and didn't. Don't expect them to follow through now.
They totally thought of it, they just don't give a crap. They've done this exact same bull before and didn't bat an eye, this is no mistake. It's history repeating and Cryptic being Cryptic.
I remember. I bought CO on release, but had to quit because of of the numerous bugs. I came back to see how things were after it went FTP, and was kind of annoyed at the amount of stuff I lost, including costume pieces, even though I supported the game from launch. I just deleted my old characters and started over, since none of them were leveled up yet.
The key difference here is that they don't currently have any way to recover Gold freeform characters and keep them intact. At least with the FTP launch, we could continue to subscribe and access our characters. I always thought the Gold incentives were a little weak, but at least the option existed. There is no option other than a vague "we're thinking about it." This is a far worse situation.
That's at least somewhat good news for me. I have two characters that I don't particularly mind converting to ATs who already burned their one free retrain token. I'm not sure I'd want to grind the Zen for two tokens for them.
Frankly, I won't be too hurt by the change. I usually sub for 2 to 4 months out of the year and play my AT characters in between. My ratio of Silver to Gold characters reflects this. If worse comes to worse, I'll just convert all my FF slots to an appropriate AT. I'll leave my Gold ATs in limbo until I can purchase the ATs for them.
BUT . . . There are people with dozens of capped freeforms that they'll have to deal with The current situation is seriously messed up for Gold subscribers who subbed to take full advantage of the main perk of subbing. Freeform characters were the main incentive to sub, and the reward these people get for their loyalty and providing a steady income to the game is to pull the rug out from under them? I hope they do something about this that doesn't end up as unfairly trying to milk these players for money.
Like you, I have quite a few level 40 AT's. I sub for a few months out of the year, but I buy from the Z-store as well. Usually costume bits, new AT's I really like, etc. I'm so glad now that I've purchased a few of the better Premium AT's. That was certainly money well-spent in the long run.
Also, thank the gaming gods for Kaizerin's AT revamps. Which improved ATs quite a bit. Not to mention the new ATs which all have pretty solid power choices and stats. It's one of the few saving graces of this entire debacle. However, I can't imagine being someone with nothing but FF's on their account who never went LTS. That's gotta burn -- I mean they can let their sub run, but that's a waste of money in the long-term.
Oh well, nothing left to do but to wait for the dust to clear. We just have to see how this shakes out. I'm not quitting because even at it's worse, CO is still less of a money grab than DCUO. Which actually locks all upper level playable content behind purchasable DLC's or a subscription.
You can complain. You can yell and scream and get angry as all get out and make your voice heard.
Complacency is what lets this crap go through. Too many people were complacent back then, change that now and maybe, just maybe it'll do something.