I should clarify they didn't sneak in the removal of gaining slots when you reach 40 on LTS or gold subbed accounts, they said they would remove it because it bypassed the character slot limit, which was the bug, gaining new slots however wasn't a bug it was a feature, and I'm assuming the fix to the actual bug, was letting us buy slots for 100zen, because purchased slots don't bypass the character slot limit.
Seeing how this game has switched dev team's hand so often and given the known incompetence of the old dev teams, isn't it the slightest bit of possible that a dev team down the line was misinformed and called it a feature when it was actually a bug? The only way to know this for sure is by looking at the game's code.
While changes this late might taste bitter, I'm willing to meet the devs here halfway. Their initial proposition was a lot more aggressive and they listened to our feedback and developed a much more tolerable alternative.
And yes, I'm glad they listened to our feedback and are developing a better alternative, how many game companies really listen to their players? but people seem to forget that, let's just be grateful atleast for that, that they listened to the feedback on the sub removal and the premium pack.
So now they robbed me another feature? Welp... nice money wasted.
No, the stipend being removed has never been mentioned.
The closest thing to it was when they were going to get rid of Subs for the Premium Pack and even then they made a point in the news thing to say that if you kept your gold sub going or had LTS you'd still get your stipend.
WebArchive to the rescue to show it was not a bug but a feature. Nice of Cryptic to now lie about this. If you wanted to remove the feature, then say you are removing the feature but do not try to say you are removing a bug.
With these pricing changes, LTSers can still basically get free characters every month Pre-100 character slots. 1 Slot for 100 Zen, or 5 for 400 Zen. LTS slots are all Gold to my knowledge, so surely you can spend a bit of your Stipend if you desperately want a new Character, and now you don't even have to grind a character to level 40 to get another one.
Remember the stipend will be going away.
Wait..I figured that wouldn't be the case, since before they confirmed stipend would be okay? Am I wrong on this one and where was this stated?
Buffing everything to stupid high levels and nerfing everything to piss poor levels yields the same results, but not the same community reactions.
Seeing how this game has switched dev team's hand so often and given the known incompetence of the old dev teams, isn't it the slightest bit of possible that a dev team down the line was misinformed and called it a feature when it was actually a bug? The only way to know this for sure is by looking at the game's code.
While changes this late might taste bitter, I'm willing to meet the devs here halfway. Their initial proposition was a lot more aggressive and they listened to our feedback and developed a much more tolerable alternative.
Nah, this is a MMO forum, it runs on an inverse version of Hanlon's Razor. Heck I've seen other game's forums call their devs things that make this thread's outcry seem like a mild sigh of disapointment by comparison for the scummy practice of... giving away free items for logging in durring special event week. It kinda puts the complaints here into perspective.
I disagree. When something is advertised as a payed feature for years it's never a good idea to call it a bugfix when you remove that feature. No matter what arcane documents you might have found that show different plans at some point in the past.
People that were already upset over the change itself, will just get more upset because they think they are being lied to. And that invites these threads full of bitter complaints. The change itself will cause enough upset already, no need to add to that by doing these kinds of change notes
Well they lied about single character costumes being cheaper. I am just sad they seemingly lied abiut this. Maybe they weren't aware it was advertised as a feature. I know Kaiserin has worked to make positive changes, like the creepies and the dances, thank you.
I appreciate the lowering of the prices thank you.
Just very bummed how they are treating people who cared enough about the game to spend at least $200 and the lifetimers i know have spent more than that in the game because of the wonderful lore and friendships that have been forged here.
I would be okay if they said Something like:
Look we want to make more content and as such we are removing a feature to try to gain the income we need to make the needed content to better the life of our game. We appreciate the time and money you have invested thank you. And to show you we appreciate you we have lowered the prices of these things.
Instead they claimed it as a bug. Super bummed right now.
Turning features into bugs has happened a few times the past few years in CO, and every time Cryptic gets called out on it. I would advice Cryptic to rethink this weird practice.
Yup, this is definitely something that never should have happened enough times to be considered "par for the course." Sad to see, once again, that the whoevers that are in charge continue to unnecessarily eroded the trust of a loyal and passionate community.
There was zero to gain lying about this as opposed to just saying, "Hey heroes, some things have changed over the years and we need/want to adjust our business model for the continued operation of CO. This feature(s) will need to be discontinued moving forward."
Well, assuming it's correct that, as a subscriber, I can create FF characters on purchased 100 Zen slots after this patch, then I think it's a pretty good compromise for taking away the extra slot at 40 feature. Up until now when I got a new character idea I wanted to try I'd go off and power-level one of my other toons to 40 to open up a slot... and that can be a surprisingly un-fun way to play the game. If I can now just buy cheap slots with the stipend I'd not be likely to be spending on anything better anyway, then that seems okay to me.
The poor wording on the bug/feature issue looks very bad though - it'd be nice if the powers that be clarified their meaning and apologised for the confusion.
Will I still receive my monthly Stipend if I remain subbed/lifetime?
Yes.
That's from the original Premium Package announcement page. The Stipend only seems to be going away if your sub lapses. This does not affect LTS at all.
They did that as well with STO replace with a pack that apparently you can only purchase once on the account. And the subs active will continue to get the stipend and LTS too. I don't play Neverwinter but I would guess they did it too.
Let's all perhaps calm down a bit, and let the devs get back from brunch, or lunch, or whatever else they're doing right now. It's obvious that they DO see our complains and understand when we have issues with changes. While those issues might not always be resolved, let us give Kaizerin and the other devs time to absorb the issues that have been raised, and respond to them. If it means the opening post needs edited, or even a NEW post made, so be it.
As an LTS myself, I'm a little annoyed about the removal of the new character slot when an existing character gets to level 40, but as long as my stipend is unaffected, I can see myself saving my Zen and even paying for more in order to get a whole STASH of extra toon slots for later us without feeling too bad about it (especially as I paid 1,400 Zen for two slots just a couple of months ago *cries*).
Would I like the free slots to continue, of course! But honestly, I can live without it too. I hate grinding my characters up, especially through those last few levels. That grind from 36-40 is agony for my ADHD. Having the ability to get extra slots much more cheaply than before is a super-welcome change, and I know I'll be making use of it, regardless of if the free-at-40 feature remains locked out. Think about that for a moment. 700 Zen for 10 new slots. If you're not even close to the new 100 slot limit, that is TWENTY slots (over an extra page of those lovely, black hexagons just waiting for people to occupy them) for the same price that two once cost.
Actually, I have a question about that. I have, currently, 61 slots. If I spend $28 on 2,800 Zen to get 40 slots, will I only get 39, even though I paid for 40? Hmm… I'd not really be terribly bothered, and I know I can't fill 40 slots that quickly can fill those slots in a day if I put my mind to it, so who am I kidding? Anyway, the question stands.
So let's make our opinions known, calmly, and politely, and give the devs a moment to absorb and respond to us.
And while it would have been a little backlash, it would be a lot less if Cryptic said they are removing the feature but also drastically lowering the price of slots so LTS/active subs could still get through the stipend. But the fact they try to lie to us about it being a "bug" is just making them look bad. Because if it was truly a bug, it's been a bug in existence since launch in 2009 and actually used as a selling point in 2011 when the game went F2P to actually sub or LTS. This is now 2018 so it makes Cryptic as a company look bad when devs take that many years to fix a so-called "bug". So anything that is a known issue won't be fixed until 2027? Let us know that's how bad you are.
I see no information about discontinuing the Monthly Sub in the patch notes. So apart from the character slot and costume slot thing are these remaining unchanged @kaizerin
All right, where's all the dumb people talking about "corporate scumbaggery". You can all form a line and you'll each get a turn to talk about how dumb you are o3o
Please stop trying to cause drama.
Just ignore players like this, its all they do in game & its not a surprise they'd do the same thing in the forums, logging into the game to just cause drama, hopefully they will get muted or get their post removed...
NOW to get back to the subject, it was never a bug as some have provided a link the "bug" was always there. If this was a "bug hunt" then there are so many throughout the years that have been addressed they could have started on them but instead it was a very rash decision made to try and make things easier for those that aren't LTS or an avid subscriber, it has been a common problem with most games that go F2P, they get complaints by non-subscribers about how unfair it is someone that has paid for the game "bonuses" that come with paid subscription & once they change things to suit their needs they realize the money isn't coming in as it once was, now they have to either try & once again come up with an idea on how to get the money back or just decide the game isn't really worth the effort of fixing due to lack of population & then mostly shut it down to work on a more "productive game"... have seen this done before & unfortunately will probably see it again ( i personally HOPE NOT, played since 2011, saved monthly fees to afford a LTS & have never looked back) i understand some sort of "change" must happen but why go after the main reason people went LTS... this isn't an issue of the fabled "MMO balance" & this isn't an issue of a long running "bug", some have guessed its a corporate decision & the dev team has their hands tied, if that were so, they wouldn't have changed a thing & implemented the original PREMIUM PACK, instead they did change it (somewhat), showing they did have some power to change the fate of LTS... who knows, i can only guess & this is only MY OPINION (sprays some TROLL-AWAY in the forums) on how i see this, it may be right, may be wrong, some may disagree & some may add to this but in all i do agree with those that have shown proof this WASN'T a bug, it was always there & if they do have the power to change things at any time, they should have at least had the common decency to announce said change before hand...
Well this is sad news, seems like I won't have any reason to play this game now, I might hang around and chat in game (I've made a lot of friends) but I've now got no reason to play events or anything like that. It's a sad day for me but I guess I'll find a new game to play.
A bit of an interesting development, I've seen mentioned before that LTS don't pay for character slots/them getting the slots free hurt the game: How do you figure this will change things? We still get 500z a month=5 slots at 100z each or so if we save up and buy the packs. So in reality, this whole move only helped to promote the sale of FF slots(a good thing nonetheless!) because silvers were already paying for slots, Golds probably spent money for cosmetics and costume slots/auras, and LTS spent money probably on similar things. LTS/Golds getting character slots for free literally have/had no affect really in the grand scheme of things, now that I think about it. And well, we're still getting character slots for free(which I know was said earlier in the thread) granted, it'll be annoying for those who wish to, as they'll have to divert some zen to the slots up until the cap, but still.
EDIT: I think overall though that this move was to entice new players into spending, which I think it will with the affordability of lowering slot costs of characters/FF.
Buffing everything to stupid high levels and nerfing everything to piss poor levels yields the same results, but not the same community reactions.
Guys? Perhaps I over looked it in all the free slot anger [ at which I am very angry over as well, I bought my LTS FOR THE OPEN SLOTS. Very very angry.]
But the freeform slot- if it is like the "special" gold slot in the c-store, cannot be used on existing characters- it's a new slot, it won't be able to open your sub-locked character when your sub lapses for whatever reason. Will this be changed? People need to know that.
A bug? BS, this has nothing to do with bugs or non existant technical issues. This has to do with grabbing cash.
With out the reward for leveling to 40, there is no reason to level. Making new characters and getting them to 40 is what was fun for me. With out that there's nothing to motivate me, which means there won't be anything motivating me to spend money on your products.
Well this is sad news, seems like I won't have any reason to play this game now, I might hang around and chat in game (I've made a lot of friends) but I've now got no reason to play events or anything like that. It's a sad day for me but I guess I'll find a new game to play.
You could, you know, play your existing characters.
With out the reward for leveling to 40, there is no reason to level. Making new characters and getting them to 40 is what was fun for me. With out that there's nothing to motivate me, which means there won't be anything motivating me to spend money on your products.
Really? As of today, each new character slot is £0.85 - $1. You can have five new characters a month for free, if you're patient enough to wait for your stipend. I know about the marketing strategy where companies threaten to withdraw things so as to make people willing to accept reductions in service when they say "oh you can keep it" but really this is no worse than what they should have been doing... i.e. an annual increase in the cost of subscriptions. CO is my only regular bill which hasn't gone up in the last five years, maybe we need to get used to that...
Really? As of today, each new character slot is £0.85 - $1. You can have five new characters a month for free, if you're patient enough to wait for your stipend...
If they are not already at or over the new 100 character cap, which if memory serves, guyhumual is. All the saving in the world will never get them another character.
Some of us with altitis cannot bring ourselves to delete characters, at least max level ones we've spent time on. Is it a handicap in situations like this? Yes it is, but that's how it goes sometimes.
Personally, I'm not at the cap and I will miss getting the free slot when new alts hit 40. But, as you suggest, I will use my stipend to buy more slots when the need arises until I max out and can't make more. Once that happens, I too will likely have to find another game to play to feed my superhero craving.
With out the reward for leveling to 40, there is no reason to level. Making new characters and getting them to 40 is what was fun for me. With out that there's nothing to motivate me, which means there won't be anything motivating me to spend money on your products.
Really? As of today, each new character slot is £0.85 - $1. You can have five new characters a month for free, if you're patient enough to wait for your stipend. I know about the marketing strategy where companies threaten to withdraw things so as to make people willing to accept reductions in service when they say "oh you can keep it" but really this is no worse than what they should have been doing... i.e. an annual increase in the cost of subscriptions. CO is my only regular bill which hasn't gone up in the last five years, maybe we need to get used to that...
Even if I were under the cap, the free character slot was what motivated me to go through every mission, tolerate all the bad alert pugs, and spend money for those new characters. Now that there is nothing for getting to lvl 40, there is no longer a reason to do any of those things that motivated me. I'm also not about to blindly throw money at any company, especially not one that lies to its players.
Well this is sad news, seems like I won't have any reason to play this game now, I might hang around and chat in game (I've made a lot of friends) but I've now got no reason to play events or anything like that. It's a sad day for me but I guess I'll find a new game to play.
You could, you know, play your existing characters.
I'm sorry, what? To what end? They're complete characters, 90% are level 40 already with unique costumes and back stories, I'm not interested in end game content, I got no use for costume unlocks now that I can no longer make new characters, the game is now over for me. I can still use this for RP and chat but there's no game for me now.
I'll just toss in one more voice here: trying to re-brand a long-standing feature as a 'bug' is the only part of this that makes me angry. I don't like being lied to. If you have to take features away or make things more expensive, then say so. Don't claim you're "fixing bugs" or "making costume slots cheaper" or whatever when you're provably doing nothing of the sort.
The rest of it is a mixed bag; some good, some bad. I won't be quitting the game over any of this, particularly since I'm nowhere near 100 characters myself... but I'm overall not pleased, either.
You could, you know, play your existing characters.
Welcome to CO, where making new alts is a big thing
Yep, the reason I got a LTS was because it was saving me money. Making and leveling characters was my game. I'm sure some folks will be content to get all the elite stuff and that'll keep them entertained for a while but there's nothing for me in this game sadly. I do hope CO doesn't have too many folks like me in it though because even though this game is over for me I really don't want to see it fail.
You could, you know, play your existing characters.
Welcome to CO, where making new alts is a big thing
Yep, the reason I got a LTS was because it was saving me money. Making and leveling characters was my game. I'm sure some folks will be content to get all the elite stuff and that'll keep them entertained for a while but there's nothing for me in this game sadly. I do hope CO doesn't have too many folks like me in it though because even though this game is over for me I really don't want to see it fail.
Understandable. Endgame has the issue of repetition and monotony, fix that and I would have done more. But right now it's just a month of repetition for one toon to be fully geared for...what, exactly? And it's only a month for me during periods of extensive downtime, usually it's a good 4-6 months IF I choose to pursue it.
But tangent aside: I don't know how this will go overall, I can just see why they did it from a business sense.
Buffing everything to stupid high levels and nerfing everything to piss poor levels yields the same results, but not the same community reactions.
As fun as beating up the same three cosmics is, as far as endgame content goes, it is fairly blah. It's not even something I really consider content as there's no story connected with it. QWZ is nearly abandoned and Eidolon IS abandoned. The Destroid open mission in MC so rarely gathers enough players to be worth even trying that it might as well be abandoned. That's pretty much the extent of 'endgame content' unless I've missed something. Yeah the adventure packs and comic series can be run at max level but they can also be run at level 10(unless that's changed, haven't checked lately) so that's hardly endgame. Without actual and engaging endgame content, making and level alts effectively becomes endgame content. Other than freeform and power color options, the extra character slot each time you reached 40 was a major incentive to go Gold and one of the, if not THE, major reason so many stayed with this game for so long. I just feel that even if this was a bug, which it wasn't as has been proven, it is one that really should have been left in place.
The Forumite formerly known as Galeforce.
If you want my money, there is a fairly simple way to get it since I am fairly free with how I spend it. First, produce something I consider to be worth buying. Second, offer it up for sale. Don't lock it behind a gambling scam. If I want something, I am perfectly happy to pay for it. But I will not purchase a CHANCE to get it, When I pay money, I have a perfectly logical right to expect to get what I want.
> @morigosa said: > I'll just toss in one more voice here: trying to re-brand a long-standing feature as a 'bug' is the only part of this that makes me angry. I don't like being lied to. If you have to take features away or make things more expensive, then say so. Don't claim you're "fixing bugs" or "making costume slots cheaper" or whatever when you're provably doing nothing of the sort. >
This is my point too. If they had been honest about what they were doing and why, I may have grumbled but more likely I would have shrugged and moved on. It's the Newspeak that makes me angry. I have been told too many lies by too many people to be willing to just let it pass, especially when it is so easy to prove that it is lies.
--
Coffee, chocolate, bacon, and phasers. What more do I need?
Addressed a bug where Lifetime and subscribed accounts continued to get free character slots for every character they got to 40. It was intended that players were able to receive 1 extra slot for the first character they got to 40, but not any more after.
Thanks for fixing that pesky bug. I fixed the bug where money from my bank account went to Cryptic each month.
Well this is sad news, seems like I won't have any reason to play this game now, I might hang around and chat in game (I've made a lot of friends) but I've now got no reason to play events or anything like that. It's a sad day for me but I guess I'll find a new game to play.
You could, you know, play your existing characters.
I'm sorry, what? To what end? They're complete characters, 90% are level 40 already with unique costumes and back stories, I'm not interested in end game content, I got no use for costume unlocks now that I can no longer make new characters, the game is now over for me. I can still use this for RP and chat but there's no game for me now.
To have fun with them? Than again, by going by your post, I guess you wouldn't find it fun playing a completed character...
They're removing yet another feature from the game. That's the bottom line. You might not find this particular feature important, but it's the latest of many. I do not like that trend. I paid for access to that feature. I currently cannot justify spending any more real money on CO: I do not trust the company right now - especially not with the shady "it was a bug this whole time" justification. They either need to add substantially more content to justify the things they're taking out, or, I don't know, not take things out in the first place?
To have fun with them? Than again, by going by your post, I guess you wouldn't find it fun playing a completed character...
So I played level 40s to farm events to get costume unlocks for new characters. I used level 40s to farm missions and existing content to get costume unlocks for new characters. I used Gs to buy costume unlocks from the AH to make new characters. I leveled characters to get Gs and new character slots to make new characters. That's how I played the game. I'm well over the cap. I can't even buy character slots now. The game is over for me. Like I said before I might be able to RP with some friends but the thing I liked was making new characters and I can't do that anymore.
I do not mind 80 cents for a slot one bit. On the contrary it might be too cheap since I want the game to survive and have development budget.
But lying about this - or perhaps an honest mistake by miscommunication between departments - overwhelmed the goodwill you should generate out of a very reasonable price announcement.
Please add a branch for the 100+ people though, like perhaps a cap increase in the store.
"I'm never going to use any of these 100 chracters ever again, they're useless to me, there's no reason to play them ever, these are effectively 100 dead slots. That's why I can't delete any of the characters in them."
To have fun with them? Than again, by going by your post, I guess you wouldn't find it fun playing a completed character...
So I played level 40s to farm events to get costume unlocks for new characters. I used level 40s to farm missions and existing content to get costume unlocks for new characters. I used Gs to buy costume unlocks from the AH to make new characters. I leveled characters to get Gs and new character slots to make new characters. That's how I played the game. I'm well over the cap. I can't even buy character slots now. The game is over for me. Like I said before I might be able to RP with some friends but the thing I liked was making new characters and I can't do that anymore.
Well, I am in the same boat, but, this just means I have to actually play my 172 toons (out of the 182 slots I have). And I get where you are coming form. I just guess our way of thinking is different in the aspect of what could be fun to do with older toons. For example, I am currently using the days to activally redo builds on cahracters that have not been touched in a long time. This will take me a while. Playing around with different ideas that work better for the themes of old toons I have that is. I actually find it fun. How do I make a build that fits the theme, without making it bad? It is easier to do than one would think. But, it is still fun to see how many different builds I can build. In a form, giving an older character a new build is akin to making a new character, even if they are the same old character. It is just costly to redo all the mods...XD
A new account would require regrinding and unlocking everything, and with a lot of things going character specific. For me, that's not going to happen. I played through the content over and over again for the character slot. That was the carrot on the stick that kept me playing. That's what kept me spending money for in game items. Now that the carrot has fallen off the stick, there's nothing motivating me to keep going. Deleting characters means deleting character bound items, that's also not happening. I'd rather just go spend my time and money elsewhere.
Comments
Seeing how this game has switched dev team's hand so often and given the known incompetence of the old dev teams, isn't it the slightest bit of possible that a dev team down the line was misinformed and called it a feature when it was actually a bug? The only way to know this for sure is by looking at the game's code.
While changes this late might taste bitter, I'm willing to meet the devs here halfway. Their initial proposition was a lot more aggressive and they listened to our feedback and developed a much more tolerable alternative.
No, the stipend being removed has never been mentioned.
The closest thing to it was when they were going to get rid of Subs for the Premium Pack and even then they made a point in the news thing to say that if you kept your gold sub going or had LTS you'd still get your stipend.
WebArchive to the rescue to show it was not a bug but a feature. Nice of Cryptic to now lie about this. If you wanted to remove the feature, then say you are removing the feature but do not try to say you are removing a bug.
Wait..I figured that wouldn't be the case, since before they confirmed stipend would be okay? Am I wrong on this one and where was this stated?
42 40s, LTSer.
Nah, this is a MMO forum, it runs on an inverse version of Hanlon's Razor. Heck I've seen other game's forums call their devs things that make this thread's outcry seem like a mild sigh of disapointment by comparison for the scummy practice of... giving away free items for logging in durring special event week. It kinda puts the complaints here into perspective.
I disagree. When something is advertised as a payed feature for years it's never a good idea to call it a bugfix when you remove that feature. No matter what arcane documents you might have found that show different plans at some point in the past.
People that were already upset over the change itself, will just get more upset because they think they are being lied to. And that invites these threads full of bitter complaints. The change itself will cause enough upset already, no need to add to that by doing these kinds of change notes
Maybe they weren't aware it was advertised as a feature. I know Kaiserin has worked to make positive changes, like the creepies and the dances, thank you.
I appreciate the lowering of the prices thank you.
Just very bummed how they are treating people who cared enough about the game to spend at least $200 and the lifetimers i know have spent more than that in the game because of the wonderful lore and friendships that have been forged here.
I would be okay if they said Something like:
Look we want to make more content and as such we are removing a feature to try to gain the income we need to make the needed content to better the life of our game. We appreciate the time and money you have invested thank you. And to show you we appreciate you we have lowered the prices of these things.
Instead they claimed it as a bug. Super bummed right now.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Yup, this is definitely something that never should have happened enough times to be considered "par for the course." Sad to see, once again, that the whoevers that are in charge continue to unnecessarily eroded the trust of a loyal and passionate community.
There was zero to gain lying about this as opposed to just saying, "Hey heroes, some things have changed over the years and we need/want to adjust our business model for the continued operation of CO. This feature(s) will need to be discontinued moving forward."
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
The poor wording on the bug/feature issue looks very bad though - it'd be nice if the powers that be clarified their meaning and apologised for the confusion.
They did that as well with STO replace with a pack that apparently you can only purchase once on the account. And the subs active will continue to get the stipend and LTS too. I don't play Neverwinter but I would guess they did it too.
As an LTS myself, I'm a little annoyed about the removal of the new character slot when an existing character gets to level 40, but as long as my stipend is unaffected, I can see myself saving my Zen and even paying for more in order to get a whole STASH of extra toon slots for later us without feeling too bad about it (especially as I paid 1,400 Zen for two slots just a couple of months ago *cries*).
Would I like the free slots to continue, of course! But honestly, I can live without it too. I hate grinding my characters up, especially through those last few levels. That grind from 36-40 is agony for my ADHD. Having the ability to get extra slots much more cheaply than before is a super-welcome change, and I know I'll be making use of it, regardless of if the free-at-40 feature remains locked out. Think about that for a moment. 700 Zen for 10 new slots. If you're not even close to the new 100 slot limit, that is TWENTY slots (over an extra page of those lovely, black hexagons just waiting for people to occupy them) for the same price that two once cost.
Actually, I have a question about that. I have, currently, 61 slots. If I spend $28 on 2,800 Zen to get 40 slots, will I only get 39, even though I paid for 40? Hmm… I'd not really be terribly bothered, and I know I can't fill 40 slots that quickly can fill those slots in a day if I put my mind to it, so who am I kidding? Anyway, the question stands.
So let's make our opinions known, calmly, and politely, and give the devs a moment to absorb and respond to us.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
-=-=-=-=-=-(CO in-game handle: @WarCan )-=-=-=-=-=-
"Okay, you're DEAD, what do you do NEXT?"
NOW to get back to the subject, it was never a bug as some have provided a link the "bug" was always there. If this was a "bug hunt" then there are so many throughout the years that have been addressed they could have started on them but instead it was a very rash decision made to try and make things easier for those that aren't LTS or an avid subscriber, it has been a common problem with most games that go F2P, they get complaints by non-subscribers about how unfair it is someone that has paid for the game "bonuses" that come with paid subscription & once they change things to suit their needs they realize the money isn't coming in as it once was, now they have to either try & once again come up with an idea on how to get the money back or just decide the game isn't really worth the effort of fixing due to lack of population & then mostly shut it down to work on a more "productive game"... have seen this done before & unfortunately will probably see it again ( i personally HOPE NOT, played since 2011, saved monthly fees to afford a LTS & have never looked back) i understand some sort of "change" must happen but why go after the main reason people went LTS... this isn't an issue of the fabled "MMO balance" & this isn't an issue of a long running "bug", some have guessed its a corporate decision & the dev team has their hands tied, if that were so, they wouldn't have changed a thing & implemented the original PREMIUM PACK, instead they did change it (somewhat), showing they did have some power to change the fate of LTS... who knows, i can only guess & this is only MY OPINION (sprays some TROLL-AWAY in the forums) on how i see this, it may be right, may be wrong, some may disagree & some may add to this but in all i do agree with those that have shown proof this WASN'T a bug, it was always there & if they do have the power to change things at any time, they should have at least had the common decency to announce said change before hand...
EDIT: I think overall though that this move was to entice new players into spending, which I think it will with the affordability of lowering slot costs of characters/FF.
42 40s, LTSer.
But the freeform slot- if it is like the "special" gold slot in the c-store, cannot be used on existing characters- it's a new slot, it won't be able to open your sub-locked character when your sub lapses for whatever reason. Will this be changed? People need to know that.
With out the reward for leveling to 40, there is no reason to level. Making new characters and getting them to 40 is what was fun for me. With out that there's nothing to motivate me, which means there won't be anything motivating me to spend money on your products.
You could, you know, play your existing characters.
Welcome to CO, where making new alts is a big thing
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
Really? As of today, each new character slot is £0.85 - $1. You can have five new characters a month for free, if you're patient enough to wait for your stipend. I know about the marketing strategy where companies threaten to withdraw things so as to make people willing to accept reductions in service when they say "oh you can keep it" but really this is no worse than what they should have been doing... i.e. an annual increase in the cost of subscriptions. CO is my only regular bill which hasn't gone up in the last five years, maybe we need to get used to that...
If they are not already at or over the new 100 character cap, which if memory serves, guyhumual is. All the saving in the world will never get them another character.
Some of us with altitis cannot bring ourselves to delete characters, at least max level ones we've spent time on. Is it a handicap in situations like this? Yes it is, but that's how it goes sometimes.
Personally, I'm not at the cap and I will miss getting the free slot when new alts hit 40. But, as you suggest, I will use my stipend to buy more slots when the need arises until I max out and can't make more. Once that happens, I too will likely have to find another game to play to feed my superhero craving.
Even if I were under the cap, the free character slot was what motivated me to go through every mission, tolerate all the bad alert pugs, and spend money for those new characters. Now that there is nothing for getting to lvl 40, there is no longer a reason to do any of those things that motivated me. I'm also not about to blindly throw money at any company, especially not one that lies to its players.
I'm sorry, what? To what end? They're complete characters, 90% are level 40 already with unique costumes and back stories, I'm not interested in end game content, I got no use for costume unlocks now that I can no longer make new characters, the game is now over for me. I can still use this for RP and chat but there's no game for me now.
The rest of it is a mixed bag; some good, some bad. I won't be quitting the game over any of this, particularly since I'm nowhere near 100 characters myself... but I'm overall not pleased, either.
Yep, the reason I got a LTS was because it was saving me money. Making and leveling characters was my game. I'm sure some folks will be content to get all the elite stuff and that'll keep them entertained for a while but there's nothing for me in this game sadly. I do hope CO doesn't have too many folks like me in it though because even though this game is over for me I really don't want to see it fail.
Understandable. Endgame has the issue of repetition and monotony, fix that and I would have done more. But right now it's just a month of repetition for one toon to be fully geared for...what, exactly? And it's only a month for me during periods of extensive downtime, usually it's a good 4-6 months IF I choose to pursue it.
But tangent aside: I don't know how this will go overall, I can just see why they did it from a business sense.
42 40s, LTSer.
The Forumite formerly known as Galeforce.
If you want my money, there is a fairly simple way to get it since I am fairly free with how I spend it. First, produce something I consider to be worth buying. Second, offer it up for sale. Don't lock it behind a gambling scam. If I want something, I am perfectly happy to pay for it. But I will not purchase a CHANCE to get it, When I pay money, I have a perfectly logical right to expect to get what I want.
> I'll just toss in one more voice here: trying to re-brand a long-standing feature as a 'bug' is the only part of this that makes me angry. I don't like being lied to. If you have to take features away or make things more expensive, then say so. Don't claim you're "fixing bugs" or "making costume slots cheaper" or whatever when you're provably doing nothing of the sort.
>
This is my point too. If they had been honest about what they were doing and why, I may have grumbled but more likely I would have shrugged and moved on. It's the Newspeak that makes me angry. I have been told too many lies by too many people to be willing to just let it pass, especially when it is so easy to prove that it is lies.
Coffee, chocolate, bacon, and phasers. What more do I need?
Thanks for fixing that pesky bug. I fixed the bug where money from my bank account went to Cryptic each month.
To have fun with them? Than again, by going by your post, I guess you wouldn't find it fun playing a completed character...
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
Hate to be that guy...
So I played level 40s to farm events to get costume unlocks for new characters. I used level 40s to farm missions and existing content to get costume unlocks for new characters. I used Gs to buy costume unlocks from the AH to make new characters. I leveled characters to get Gs and new character slots to make new characters. That's how I played the game. I'm well over the cap. I can't even buy character slots now. The game is over for me. Like I said before I might be able to RP with some friends but the thing I liked was making new characters and I can't do that anymore.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
I do not mind 80 cents for a slot one bit. On the contrary it might be too cheap since I want the game to survive and have development budget.
But lying about this - or perhaps an honest mistake by miscommunication between departments - overwhelmed the goodwill you should generate out of a very reasonable price announcement.
Please add a branch for the 100+ people though, like perhaps a cap increase in the store.
Some real winners being whipped up today.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Well, I am in the same boat, but, this just means I have to actually play my 172 toons (out of the 182 slots I have). And I get where you are coming form. I just guess our way of thinking is different in the aspect of what could be fun to do with older toons. For example, I am currently using the days to activally redo builds on cahracters that have not been touched in a long time. This will take me a while. Playing around with different ideas that work better for the themes of old toons I have that is. I actually find it fun. How do I make a build that fits the theme, without making it bad? It is easier to do than one would think. But, it is still fun to see how many different builds I can build. In a form, giving an older character a new build is akin to making a new character, even if they are the same old character. It is just costly to redo all the mods...XD