Free Form Slot. Does it feel good for you?

nextnametaken · July 2013

Discussion elsewhere is contemplating discount Free Form slots as a solution for population erosion.

Have you bought one of these slots and stuck around long enough to talk about it?

I bought it with $45 of the money Cryptic gave me for Q hour, Alerts and
Kevin Poe after playing for free for a year. I figured it was their money anyway
and I'd satisfy my curiosity when I ran out of other things to spend virtual money on.

I barely play the free form out of my large roster of characters.
The higher I level the less luck I have finding players to team.
This in turn pretty much kills all my desire to subscribe.
I can imagine the taste of being 'ripped off' must be heavy for someone who
spent $50 in real cold hard online credit transaction.

I used to say $10 free forms for all! But even that isn't much of a draw.
The situation would be very much like "This sandwich is only $10, you can reconfigure the tomatoes under or over the lettuce ,add or remove the onions, and toast it to seventy levels of crustiness! Or, you can just have it the way our high school drop out cooks made it for free!"

Free lunch tastes better and you don't feel bad about not finishing it.
Sometimes they spit in your food though.
*shrug*

keikomyst · July 2013

I actually got my two Freeform slots for free from the FF slot grab bag event.

Yes, it feels good. It feels really good to have a freeform character and slot available I can fall back on when I want to stop subbing. Of course, all I invested into the slots were time, so my opinion is moot.

p0temk1n · July 2013

I'd like freeform slots more if they weren't so, well, overkill.

I get the game's main draw is to make your character whatever you want it to be, and freeform's the natural extension of that, but my squishy-melee-DPS dude is tanking alerts and not dying. Which tells me there's either something seriously wrong with power balance or the developers really don't expect us to cherry-pick effective powers.

Don't get me wrong, teammates tend to appreciate the Might dude that just knocks bad guys up and down (hooray, Havoc Stomp, Unleashed Rage and DU!), but I'd think freeforms would be a better investment if the game didn't get criminally easy around the 25-30 range.

flamingbunnyman · July 2013

I consider the freeform build a major highlight of the game. However, I consider the freeform slot far too expensive. That's why I bought 16 of them for $18.75 each - at least, that's how I look at it. The lifetime sub is basically a large bundle of freeform slots for less than half price, with a ton of perks (all the benefits of a Gold sub) included.

If a freeform slot were $15-20, I'd likely still be playing as a Silver, with a few purchased and/or Questionite-farmed slots.

smoochan · July 2013

p0temk1n wrote: »

I'd like freeform slots more if they weren't so, well, overkill.

I get the game's main draw is to make your character whatever you want it to be, and freeform's the natural extension of that, but my squishy-melee-DPS dude is tanking alerts and not dying. Which tells me there's either something seriously wrong with power balance or the developers really don't expect us to cherry-pick effective powers.

Don't get me wrong, teammates tend to appreciate the Might dude that just knocks bad guys up and down (hooray, Havoc Stomp, Unleashed Rage and DU!), but I'd think freeforms would be a better investment if the game didn't get criminally easy around the 25-30 range.

While I agree that a free form character can easily be made in such a way that it trivializes content, it is also quite true that over half the fun of having a free form character is just in making builds that fit themes and end up making fun characters. If you don't want content to be too overly trivialized (because, let's face it, even many Archetypes trivialize content) then just put the minimum you can into your character's ability to "tank" damage.

Keep in mind, some Alert bosses do truly miniscule damage... to the point that you couldn't actually make a character squishy enough that it would matter. Like, sub energy builder levels of damage.

nextnametaken wrote: »

Discussion elsewhere is contemplating discount Free Form slots as a solution for population erosion.

Have you bought one of these slots and stuck around long enough to talk about it?

I bought it with $45 of the money Cryptic gave me for Q hour, Alerts and
Kevin Poe after playing for free for a year. I figured it was their money anyway
and I'd satisfy my curiosity when I ran out of other things to spend virtual money on.

I barely play the free form out of my large roster of characters.
The higher I level the less luck I have finding players to team.
[...]

That actually has nothing to do with Freeforms. Is that the primary reason you don't play your Freeform character?

If the reason you don't play it is because Freeform just doesn't excite you, then of course you wouldn't see the reason that getting Freeform characters into players hands is important.

The Tailor and Freeform are this games two biggest strengths.

jonsills · July 2013

smoochan wrote: »

I agree that a free form character can easily be made in such a way that it trivializes content, it is also quite true that over half the fun of having a free form character is just in making builds that fit themes and end up making fun characters.

For example, one of the Freeforms I'm holding in reserve for when I get my Gold back (financial issues) is Star Knight; I've built his powers entirely around his Laser Sword, which meant that when he went after Wayland Talos, he was far, far too squishy even for such a relatively simple foe. I eventually had to respec him a bit and proclaim that his alien uniform has a built-in defensive field, giving him Invulnerability so he could survive the encounter.

p0temk1n · July 2013

It might just be me, but just "making something for fun" seems counterproductive when a fair amount of the "team" content in this game involves throwing you with four other folks of varying levels at boss scenarios, some of which are timed; it feels as if I must make sure I build as well as I can so I'm not dragging an Alert down. Maybe there's some happy middle ground where a build's "fun" while still retaining the efficiency I prefer, but I've yet to find it.

kojirohellfire · July 2013

Free Form is the only real reason I'm paying $14.99 a month. A quick look at the archetypes told me that none of them would meet my specific concept requirements.

cgta1967 · July 2013

agreed. freeform building is as fun as the hours and hours spent in the costume creator.

it is well worth it just for the "try-this and see what happens" factor.

.

chaelk · July 2013

p0temk1n wrote: »

I'd like freeform slots more if they weren't so, well, overkill.

I get the game's main draw is to make your character whatever you want it to be, and freeform's the natural extension of that, but my squishy-melee-DPS dude is tanking alerts and not dying. Which tells me there's either something seriously wrong with power balance or the developers really don't expect us to cherry-pick effective powers.

Don't get me wrong, teammates tend to appreciate the Might dude that just knocks bad guys up and down (hooray, Havoc Stomp, Unleashed Rage and DU!), but I'd think freeforms would be a better investment if the game didn't get criminally easy around the 25-30 range.

I'll swap, I've just been tanking wiht a ranged/support(healer and dps) in support build. I got aggro and couldn't dump it. The other DPS couldn't get it..It happens

25-30 would be when you have your active/passive/form, third group of spec tree, non essential abilities

except if you are using the new telepathy powers. I finally added in whirlwind to get some decent aoe damage, to add to the OMG , it's awful DOT's. In alerts, it can be described as "oh god, I hope there's a competent 40 in this alert and thats at 30)

ariesmajor · July 2013

I bought both my freeform slots, and will probably get another, both of the ones I have pretty much make up my entire gameplay experience on a regular basis. Theyre definately worth it, but at the cost of 50 bucks per slot, they might as well offer gold cap raise on that one character slot plus power color choices.

lafury001200 · July 2013

Got 3 free form slots from drifter (only time I had luck with the rng, got 2 back to back.) and have purchased 4 more since then. When I come up with a concept that one of the premium at's (of which I have several) doesn't quite have enough of the powers I like for the concept , I get another freeform slot. Great value for me as each comes with 6 retcons.

That being said, the pricing of these ff slots and at's is just bewildering. For that matter, so is the sub fee. When teamed with a new player (usually a cox refugee) I try to sell freeform bigtime.

The subscription I try to portray as a good value, but as more games adopt the f2p model and people buy things a la carte, I think the prices here need to be re-evaluated. When I suggest subbing for 15, the response is usually "too much" or "my last game got shut down, don't wanna get too invested" or something along those lines. Other times the response is "would love too, but can't afford it".

Times are still really tough for many people. When I mention the ff slot or lifetime and am asked the respective prices of each the response is usually "^$&$ that". This is not a new game.

Please PW, do something about the pricing. More people in the door will mean more money for you, and a chance for all of us to have a better game.

Before anyone asks "why u no get lifetime" I will if you let me borrow a time machine and I can go back to launch.

OP- Yeah we disagree philosophically about almost everything here, but the game and the forums are separate. I'm usually teaming when not in grav. You're on my fl, hit me up if you need a team.

neuraldamage · July 2013

Earned 5, bought 2.

To be honest I have just as much fun playing my silver ATs.

zahinder · July 2013

One problem I have is that, with a few exceptions, the lack of coloring and emanation points kind of spoil the point of freeform to me.

I have to assume there is a code reason ff slots don't get the whole deal, but... meh.

(Mind you, the cost and state of the game are much more significant factors in my decision)

biffsmackwell · July 2013

lafury001200 wrote: »

Got 3 free form slots from drifter (only time I had luck with the rng, got 2 back to back.) and have purchased 4 more since then. When I come up with a concept that one of the premium at's (of which I have several) doesn't quite have enough of the powers I like for the concept , I get another freeform slot. Great value for me as each comes with 6 retcons.

That being said, the pricing of these ff slots and at's is just bewildering. For that matter, so is the sub fee. When teamed with a new player (usually a cox refugee) I try to sell freeform bigtime.

The subscription I try to portray as a good value, but as more games adopt the f2p model and people buy things a la carte, I think the prices here need to be re-evaluated. When I suggest subbing for 15, the response is usually "too much" or "my last game got shut down, don't wanna get too invested" or something along those lines. Other times the response is "would love too, but can't afford it".

Times are still really tough for many people. When I mention the ff slot or lifetime and am asked the respective prices of each the response is usually "^$&$ that". This is not a new game.

Please PW, do something about the pricing. More people in the door will mean more money for you, and a chance for all of us to have a better game.

Wonder what would happen if they had a 50% off Freeform Slots sale that lasted like a whole month. Just to test the waters. Would be cool if sales exploded.

zahinder wrote: »

One problem I have is that, with a few exceptions, the lack of coloring and emanation points kind of spoil the point of freeform to me.

I have to assume there is a code reason ff slots don't get the whole deal, but... meh.

(Mind you, the cost and state of the game are much more significant factors in my decision)

I think the reason for lack of coloring and emanation points is so that subscribers still get some unique benefits.

cgta1967 · July 2013

biffsmackwell wrote: »

...I think the reason for lack of coloring and emanation points is so that subscribers still get some unique benefits.

yup. you want all the cool features, pay a little... like the subscribers do.

.

zahinder · July 2013

That seems a rather... poor f2p strategy.

Ah well.

cgta1967 · July 2013

zahinder wrote: »

That seems a rather... poor f2p strategy.

Ah well.

please explain ??

seems pretty cut and dry to me.

"free gets some...pay gets more".

zahinder · July 2013

Because most f2p companies offer variety and cosmetics for money, or offer unlocks, rather than the choice being 'scrub, go subscribe.'

There are people who don't mind spending money but don't want to subscribe. CO complete flubs that market.

Basically, CO's approach is painfully close to 'free demo'.

cgta1967 · July 2013

.

sounds like you would be happier........subscribing.

.

biffsmackwell · July 2013

The problem is that the game started off as both Subscribtion + Cash shop. It wasn't built with just cash shop in mind, so things had to be flubbed around after the fact.

zahinder · July 2013

Yeah... same as STO.

Yet...

crosschan · July 2013

Honestly, as a vet, the Freeform Slots mean almost nothing to me because they cannot be applied to existing toons. Now this might just be me(I can accept that) but if I were going to go from my sub to a froob and could have a FF toon then I'm going to want my main and then sacrifice most of my alts to AT-Ness or hibernation. With all the perks, lore, unlocks, and such I've accumulated over the years rerolling my main into a FF Slot toon just isn't something I would like to do.

So, until such time as the FF Slot can be applied to an existing toon....I simply don't care. :cool:

clcmercy · July 2013

zahinder wrote: »

Yeah... same as STO.

Yet...

Yet Star Trek comes with a built in fanbase for the most part. Said fanbase is rather large, and STO is currently the only MMO in that universe, hence that game's "success". Not anything Craptic has done for the game.

Just thought I'd point that out.

jennymachx · July 2013

zahinder wrote: »

Because most f2p companies offer variety and cosmetics for money, or offer unlocks, rather than the choice being 'scrub, go subscribe.'

There are people who don't mind spending money but don't want to subscribe. CO complete flubs that market.

Basically, CO's approach is painfully close to 'free demo'.

I don't know about you, but if CO can be considered a "free demo", then it's one heck of a generous demo, considering that anyone can experience all of the game's current content for free with full character progression.

The concept of subscription is to allow access to certain features, like emanation points and power coloring. Unlocks are just that: Unlocks. Freeform slot unlocks the freeform framework for a single use instead of an archetype. It's pretty cut and dry as stated.

itsbrou · July 2013

That's kind of a personal question, isn't it? What I put in my freeform slot and how it feels is my business. I will say that I don't regret it, and after 40, I can see myself starting right over, possibly buying other slots to fiddle with before that.

pwkardokis · July 2013

cgta1967 wrote: »

yup. you want all the cool features, pay a little... like the subscribers do.

.

I think $50 a slot counts as "a little" to any reasonable person.

ashensnow · July 2013

zahinder wrote: »

That seems a rather... poor f2p strategy.

Ah well.

I agree completely.

In a good hybrid F2P model the player's decision to subscribe or not should be a matter of how he is paying for features, not what features he can pay for.

Pretty much everything that can be had through a subscription should be available to buy through micro-transactions. The subscriber gets a good package deal while the player choosing to pay for his gaming experience through microtransactions gets to buy only what he wants, and is actually buying rather than renting his game features.

crosschan wrote: »

Honestly, as a vet, the Freeform Slots mean almost nothing to me because they cannot be applied to existing toons.:

This is a very good point.

smoochan · July 2013

zahinder wrote: »

Because most f2p companies offer variety and cosmetics for money, or offer unlocks, rather than the choice being 'scrub, go subscribe.'

There are people who don't mind spending money but don't want to subscribe. CO complete flubs that market.

Basically, CO's approach is painfully close to 'free demo'.

Are you telling me I've been playing a demo for four years? ...wait... why are subscribers in the demo with me?

fantasycharacter · July 2013

clcmercy wrote: »

Not anything Craptic has done for the game.

Just thought I'd point that out.

Well, they kind of, you know, built the game. Just thought I'd point that out.

It may have been "If you build it they will come", but it still took people to negotiate the deal and make the game. So it was actually something that Cryptic has done.

There's enough to hate. Let's not start borrowing hate

zahinder · July 2013

smoochan wrote: »

Are you telling me I've been playing a demo for four years? ...wait... why are subscribers in the demo with me?

It's only been f2p since start of 2011, so I'm not sure what you were playing before that...

But, yes.

If I wanted, I could play WoW's demo free thing for four years.

Admittedly most games have a demo limited by level or content. I'm not sure how many do things like CO.

lordofscorn · July 2013

I played this game at release, and then ventured on to play other games for a while. I spent about 5 minutes trying to play as Silver before I decided to go to Gold. It just didn't feel right. I suppose if I had never played though, I probably wouldn't have had that same feeling. However, creating characters and customization is the whole reason I play this game mainly, and Silver just feels too limited to me at the start.

zahinder · July 2013

clcmercy wrote: »

Yet Star Trek comes with a built in fanbase for the most part. Said fanbase is rather large, and STO is currently the only MMO in that universe, hence that game's "success". Not anything Craptic has done for the game.

Just thought I'd point that out.

You missed the context... the previous comment was 'CO f2p is awkward because it's a retrofit of sub and cash shop game.'

Except STO did the same thing and ended up at a different model.

So 'it's hard to go from sub to f2p' isn't a reasonable defense of where CO is, because the exact same company, rough code base, managed it much better.

Now, you can argue:
The market is different so warrants a different f2p model
The extra year between CO and STO going free gave crucial experience
Something about the older codebase of CO makes freer f2p harder

And so on. But 'moving sub to f2p is just naturally limited' doesn't fly.

smoochan · July 2013

zahinder wrote: »

It's only been f2p since start of 2011, so I'm not sure what you were playing before that...

But, yes.

If I wanted, I could play WoW's demo free thing for four years.

Admittedly most games have a demo limited by level or content. I'm not sure how many do things like CO.

That still doesn't answer why subscribers are still playing the same demo that I am.

WoW's trial is a poor, poor basis for comparison. They only let you get to like... level 20 or something? CO let's you go to max level, and lets you participate in every zone and event and instance and everything. For the comparison to be fair, CO's F2P would have to restrict you to level 10.

Anyone who played WoW's "f2p" section for four years would have to have something wrong with them...

Has it really only been 2.5 years? How time flies when you're

kojirohellfire · July 2013

Yeah, the comparison doesn't work at all. It's like comparing an apple to a carrot.

cgta1967 · July 2013

they are both plant foods that go well on salads ?

smoochan · July 2013

cgta1967 wrote: »

they are both plant foods that go well on salads ?

What sort of a fanboi puts apples on their salad?

cgta1967 · July 2013

not too culinary cultured are you ?

kojirohellfire · July 2013

No, Smoo's right to ask. I've never put apples on my salad either.

jonsills · July 2013

kojirohellfire wrote: »

No, Smoo's right to ask. I've never put apples on my salad either.

It's called Waldorf Salad.

nextnametaken · August 2013

nextnametaken wrote: »

Have you bought one of these slots and stuck around long enough to talk about it?

By my count only two players in the forum actually bought one of these free form slots with real money.

nepht · August 2013

For the price of a couple of packet o chips a week you can go gold.

nextnametaken · August 2013

nepht wrote: »

For the price of a couple of packet o chips a week you can go gold.

We all know that Nepht.
For the price of air I can play for free.

The question is, "Did you buy a free form slot, and do you like it?"

Very easy question to read and respond to.
Most people answered the question wrong in this thread, is seems some of them
read an entirely different question that must have sounded like "Tell me all about your subscription".

jennymachx · August 2013

nextnametaken wrote: »

Maybe my next post will be "How many of you can stay on topic without being medicated?"

nextnametaken · August 2013

That text wasn't there for a second before you jumped up to quote.

Slow day in the forums huh?

smoochan · August 2013

jonsills wrote: »

It's called Waldorf Salad.

Where's Waldorf... salad?

nextnametaken wrote: »

We all know that Nepht.
For the price of air I can play for free.

The question is, "Did you buy a free form slot, and do you like it?"

Very easy question to read and respond to.
Most people answered the question wrong in this thread, is seems some of them
read an entirely different question that must have sounded like "Tell me all about your subscription".

You kind of set yourself up for derailment when you gave really weird reasons for not using your freeform character, since that gives the impression that you're opening up the floor to a "is freeform even worth playing?" discussion.

If you want to avoid your threads getting derailed, provide a more focused initial post.

And whatever you do, for the love of Grond, don't try to force people to stay on topic, because there's nothing that will derail a thread faster than that.

jennymachx · August 2013

nextnametaken wrote: »

That text wasn't there for a second before you jumped up to quote.

Slow day in the forums huh?

Translation:

"Oh drat, someone caught onto me being an absolute D-bag before I could do a ninja-edit to revert it!"

Whatever dude.

flamingbunnyman · August 2013

smoochan wrote: »

What sort of a fanboi puts apples on their salad?

jonsills wrote: »

It's called Waldorf Salad.

Apples are good in coleslaw too.

nextnametaken · August 2013

Nobody was forcing anything.
I was just pointing out that people can't read a simple question and give the appropriate response.

I stated a simple question to the effect of "Did you buy a Free Form Slot and do you like it?"

I gave my opinion about my own personal purchase because I did buy a free form slot and no I don't really care for it.

"Did you buy a Free Form Slot and do you like it?"
That's the question, it will remain the question.

wimpazoid · August 2013

Freeform has nothing on the reasons why game population is at such an all time low that forced a subscription discount once again.

The 3 months since I stopped playing CO, I'm surprised by how barren the game is during my login recently to play the fatal error pt1. And yet somehow the servers were so badly lagging that I gave up trying to play.

smoochan · August 2013

nextnametaken wrote: »

Nobody was forcing anything.
I was just pointing out that people can't read a simple question and give the appropriate response.

I stated a simple question to the effect of "Did you buy a Free Form Slot and do you like it?"

I gave my opinion about my own personal purchase because I did buy a free form slot and no I don't really care for it.

"Did you buy a Free Form Slot and do you like it?"
That's the question, it will remain the question.

Oddly enough, and try to stay with me here, people have this odd idea that it's okay to respond to any and all parts of your post.

Weird I know, but apparently your rules only apply in "Nextnametaken Dimension".

If you only wanted people to respond to that question, then that should have been the sum total content of your initial post.

Free Form Slot. Does it feel good for you?

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