City of Heroes is going free...

[WO Saotome A.]

http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/fre..._overview.html

Fair enough, but having only 2 character slots for Premium Players that choose not to continue paying after the transition is kinda of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ move IMO.

[Dr. Oktobafest]

Hopefully they'll do it right.

[MulkyBros]

Originally Posted by WO Saotome A.

http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/fre..._overview.html

Fair enough, but having only 2 character slots for Premium Players that choose not to continue paying after the transition is kinda of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ move IMO.

Thats not technically true, you will get veteran unlocks as well for every year you've sub'd. Here's Second Measures quotes explaining it:

Originally Posted by Second Measure

So for example, if you have been a subscriber for three years, purchased Going Rogue, never bought a single extra character slot, and choose to stop paying your subscription, you will have:

Two Global Character Slot Tokens free to any non-VIP player
Plus three Global Character Slot Tokens for three years of subscription
Plus two Global Character Slot Tokens from Going Rogue
For a total of seven Global Character Slot Tokens

Frankly if thats not good enough, you could always sub again. I mean the company owes you "nothing" for free service!

[WO Saotome A.]

Originally Posted by MulkyBros

Thats not technically true, you will get veteran unlocks as well for every year you've sub'd. Here's Second Measures quotes explaining it:

Frankly if thats not good enough, you could always sub again. I mean the company owes you "nothing" for free service!

I honestly did not saw that, I saw on the chart comparison showing that both free and premium accounts have 2 slots, but 7 is actually reasonable.

Thanks for the correction.

[TruthTeller]

Funny so the daily deal is kind of a last squeeze for money out of this game. F2p here i come, who's paying to play? That is why i vallue these forums, i almost bought it.

[Veotax]

You probably should if you think you might like the game. A lot of the stuff in the pack that's being sold on Steam will be locked off from free members. You either buy it now or you buy it later. It's probably cheaper to buy it now, I can't imagine that you're going to get all of the expansion stuff and whatever else they lock-off for ten bucks

[glasseye67]

Originally Posted by Veotax

You probably should if you think you might like the game. A lot of the stuff in the pack that's being sold on Steam will be locked off from free members. You either buy it now or you buy it later. It's probably cheaper to buy it now, I can't imagine that you're going to get all of the expansion stuff and whatever else they lock-off for ten bucks

As you probably know you can download any game client but you still have to pay for the extra initial software at some point.

I have lost interest in the game but occasionally if my money allows I will buy once a month.

If anyone knows for sure, after you pick your initial characters on each server, then go pay for a month, THEN go free again, do you have to keep the same 2 characters you picked from before? (This is if you have say maybe 12 characters on one server).

[Minago]

no wonder it's going free after i13 they ran the game into the ground.

[Robotech_Master]

Originally Posted by TruthTeller

Funny so the daily deal is kind of a last squeeze for money out of this game. F2p here i come, who's paying to play? That is why i vallue these forums, i almost bought it.

You really should have bought it. It would have given you one month of game time, in which you could try the game out now—a $15 value, for only $10. And it would have given you two extra character slots in the F2P area when it launches. And other nifty stuff.

Originally Posted by glasseye67

If anyone knows for sure, after you pick your initial characters on each server, then go pay for a month, THEN go free again, do you have to keep the same 2 characters you picked from before? (This is if you have say maybe 12 characters on one server).

I seem to recall when someone asked that early on, they said they were still hashing out some problems related to doing that, but I expect it's a priority given how many people will want to do just that.

Originally Posted by Minago

no wonder it's going free after i13 they ran the game into the ground.

That's funny, that's what people say after…well, every issue. In my experience, the game has gotten significantly better as time has gone by and the developers have thrown out arbitrary limitations and added some nifty new extensions. It's a very different game from how it used to be, for sure, but I think most of the changes have been for the better.

And let's be honest here, it's not really going "free". It's going "freemium". (Or "Freem!-ium". Obscure CoH joke.) They'll give you just enough for free to make you want to shell out to get more. Even freemium players will find it worthwhile to buy a few month's worth of subscription fees or Paragon points to get the veteran reward tokens to unlock some otherwise-VIP-only abilities, such as private messaging and global channels.

(Fortunately, there are ways to get several paid months very cheaply for those with an interest in snarfing up some reward tokens.)

[WO Saotome A.]

I personally miss Architect, the most broken, exploited, bugged and lagged issue of all times.

[Warseth]

I recently resubscribed out of boredom. The game is fine , just old.

It took me some time to get back into teams again. The F2P model is what the game needs really. It needs a new breath of life by more people playing that are new. VS those who kept playing and have their inner circle of players they rarely venture away from.


I look forward to the F2P. I have already been preparing by making several alts in Praetoria the soon to be main starting zone.

This way i can team to my hearts content and help others.

[Zekiran]

I really wish I could afford a sub again. Choosing 9 of my 120+ characters won't exactly be easy (2 + 7 years I subbed) and at least I got to tell the devs that at comic con this year. Hell I almost broke down in tears at that. :/ this game was part of my life for so long.

Not having been able to play for a while has really made me worry that I'm going to be too lost to really catch up at all to my friends. I only have 5 50s and of them, only 4 of them even got their Alpha slot opened. Now, I have no idea what is even POSSIBLE to craft or get for those guys.

But, being able to play *at all* will be nice, even if it's only briefly or with a limited number of toons. The other characters will still be there. I just have to wonder how screwed my own one-person Supergroups will be.

[White Noise]

Originally Posted by Zekiran

I really wish I could afford a sub again. Choosing 9 of my 120+ characters won't exactly be easy (2 + 7 years I subbed) and at least I got to tell the devs that at comic con this year. Hell I almost broke down in tears at that. :/ this game was part of my life for so long.

Not having been able to play for a while has really made me worry that I'm going to be too lost to really catch up at all to my friends. I only have 5 50s and of them, only 4 of them even got their Alpha slot opened. Now, I have no idea what is even POSSIBLE to craft or get for those guys.

But, being able to play *at all* will be nice, even if it's only briefly or with a limited number of toons. The other characters will still be there. I just have to wonder how screwed my own one-person Supergroups will be.

I got my 30 days out of buying GR over the Steam summer sale (and of course it went Daily special two days after the sale ended.. *sigh*), spent two weeks grinding Incarnate Trials to see what the fuss was about, managed to get some tier 3 Alpha/Interface/Judgment powers earned (for 2 whole characters) and few costume bits unlocked... and really, that was it.

Really, the only reason I could see myself resubbing for is swapping or unlocking character slots. The Incarnate system is nice I guess but rather grindy as it's per character, and there's currently only 3 trials to do over and over and over again. (and most people only run 2 of them because Keyes is a royal pain in the bottom). It also has brought out the ugly reward driven mentality that CoH has so far managed to avoid, as league formation is a little more stringent.

Who knows. I'll probably buy custume bits and perks, but they better crank their A game if they want subscribers back. Either way, the influx of new players should hopefully breathe some life into the game. What I'm really concerned about is if Freedom *doesn't* increase revenues for CoH, NC will axe it ala AA/DR/TR style, as the game isn't doing great right now with the economy.

edit: Solo SG's shouldn't be too much of an issue if you just start a second free account, invite them (with your Premium account), and invite yourself from there. Free's just can't *form* Supergroups.

[Robotech_Master]

Originally Posted by Zekiran

I really wish I could afford a sub again. Choosing 9 of my 120+ characters won't exactly be easy (2 + 7 years I subbed) and at least I got to tell the devs that at comic con this year. Hell I almost broke down in tears at that. :/ this game was part of my life for so long.

Well, you could buy a few more character slots' worth if you think you could pick a few more than just nine.

Not having been able to play for a while has really made me worry that I'm going to be too lost to really catch up at all to my friends. I only have 5 50s and of them, only 4 of them even got their Alpha slot opened. Now, I have no idea what is even POSSIBLE to craft or get for those guys.

I came back to the game after two years away and was a little confused at first, but I've been picking it up over time. To note, you won't be able to use Incarnate stuff unless you're a paying subscriber, so you might as well not worry about that part.

But, being able to play *at all* will be nice, even if it's only briefly or with a limited number of toons. The other characters will still be there. I just have to wonder how screwed my own one-person Supergroups will be.

Just to note, there are a few cheap ways to pick up some extra play time. Buying old box sets you haven't applied yet, or ordering two-month time cards from an on-line vendor that's currently selling them for $18.50. I posted a FAQ elsewhere in this forum about that.

[Zekiran]

I have *every single version* of the game with the exception of the original preorder, on my main account. heheh.