Free 2 Play is live

GhostMachine · January 26, 2011, 12:49:35 AM

I'm a subscriber, so I can't comment on how F2P works, but I logged in for a bit earlier, and looked around a bit.

I do not care for the layout on the redesigned character selection screen at all, but I do like the new graphics on it.

Looks like subscribers get a bunch of new costume sets and costume pieces - including some that were previously preorder exclusives elsewhere, like the Vigilant Skewerhelm and Kendrium Fleethelm. (I may make a Viking hero eventually, since there's now a proper Viking costume set) Check the C-Store to see what the new costume sets are, because Gold members get them free while Silver members have to buy them.

And I'm glad there's a new loading screen. Got tired of the heroes fighting Qwyjibo screen a long time ago.

Two things I noticed:

1. Subscribers are supposed to get 400 Atari Points (the renamed C-Store currency) every month, but apparently that doesn't start until next month, I guess.

2. Hit 500 days played, and the healing device I got was a repeat of the 400 days one rather than having a shorter cooldown. But apparently the 500 days rewards include A 25 slot bag, which is nice.

bat1987 · January 26, 2011, 01:48:22 AM

Quote from: GhostMachine on January 26, 2011, 12:49:35 AM
1. Subscribers are supposed to get 400 Atari Points (the renamed C-Store currency) every month, but apparently that doesn't start until next month, I guess.

2. Hit 500 days played, and the healing device I got was a repeat of the 400 days one rather than having a shorter cooldown. But apparently the 500 days rewards include A 25 slot bag, which is nice.

1. If what I heard was true subscribers are getting them on february the 4th.

2. Gratz! You are getting Therakiel AF as well.

As for F2P, will post about it tomorrow since I tried both silver and gold accounts in beta.

Lord Elcorion · January 26, 2011, 08:30:47 AM

my net's been acting up pretty badly today so i haven't been able to log in to see what's going on.. i'm a little concerned by the fact that certain costumes sets that were already in game have been made into a purchase requirment for silver players, as well as a lot of the travel powers, since Phoenix Phyre in particular was made useing stuff that falls into the Purchase Required catagory, namely most of the cybernetic stuff, and her fire flight travel power. i'm leaning more and more towards getting a lifetime subscription with my tax return the more i see that they've changed.

GhostMachine · January 26, 2011, 09:38:55 AM

I'd go lifetime if I could afford it, but I can't.

And I do think making the travel powers something silvers have to purchase is a bad idea.

Incidentally, I am playing a F2P MMO at the moment, just not CO. I signed up for Everquest II Extended. The only money I've spent on that was to unlock a Silver account, which lets me buy items from the broker (auction house, but I can't sell, just buy) and use the chat channels. Unfortunately, you have to spend money to unlock most races and classes also, and I'm not doing that, so I can't play a Froglok Monk, for instance.

(I am not a big fan of SOE, which is one of the reasons I quit the original EQ years ago, but I have no problem giving them my money one time, just not every month)

NeoDarke · January 26, 2011, 09:57:11 AM

Wonder if this means I should update Champions? I kept meaning to sub, but funds were always too tight.

detourne_me · January 26, 2011, 11:51:07 AM

Patching right now... I wonder what will happen to my old toons now that I'm going free to play.

bat1987 · January 26, 2011, 12:34:20 PM

You'll have to convert them to a silver archetype. You won't be allowed to play with them until you do.
Be careful though, once you convert them even if u resubscribe you won't be able to make them free form again.

GhostMachine · January 26, 2011, 12:51:52 PM

Yes, so due to that if you're a returning player and going silver, you might be better off making a new account and keeping your old one inactive unless you decide to subscribe again or go lifetime.

detourne_me · January 27, 2011, 03:32:36 PM

Oh gawd this is crashing more often than fallout new Vegas. Now I know why I quit paying for it.

GhostMachine · January 27, 2011, 05:38:53 PM

I'd give it a few days then try again. I logged on for a while yesterday and had some problems, and it was probably due to a ton of people playing. Had to go use the free retcons on a couple of Sorcery heroes since they reworked the Sorcery powersets, and there were at least 9 Powerhouses in Millennium City! I haven't seen more than 3 or 4 up at once there since early last year.

(I hope I don't have to retcon any of my other heroes. So far I've only logged on those two and Midnight Crusader since F2P went live)

JeyNyce · January 27, 2011, 06:02:54 PM

I have a lifetime account with this game. Are the improvements worth me coming back to check it out?

bat1987 · January 27, 2011, 07:28:32 PM

Depends on where was the last time you logged in. Many changes occurred during the past year and IMO all of them were improvements.

Melee is much better than it was, pet powers are improved, 2 adv packs added, entire zone too etc. As for the F2P patch, it didn't change the gameplay dramatically, most of the changes are cosmetic, aside from the introduction of archetypes. Also, gold players get a ton of new costumes free of charge.
All in all if u haven't been around in awhile, lots of cool stuff to check out.

JeyNyce · January 27, 2011, 08:01:15 PM

Thanks, I just might do that tonight

Figure Fan · January 27, 2011, 09:08:57 PM

I'm pretty happy with F2P so far. My computer can actually run the game now (an understatement, really) so that's obviously a plus. The character creator is good, but they seem to have omitted things like hats, hoods, and animal heads, as well as other stuff and it appears you can't buy them. Seems dumb to remove such basic costume elements. The archetypes are okay for the most part. It would have been nice to be able to choose a couple of powers on your own, sort of like in CoH.

So far so good.

Valandar · January 28, 2011, 01:02:03 AM

Funny, I can get hats, hoods, and animal heads easily. They're under "Hats and helmets", "Hoods", and "Bestial" respectively as main Head categories.

Oh, wait, you mean in F2P? Hrms...

Might wanna look and see if those categories have been removed entirely, because they probably shouldn't have been...

Meanwhile, IMHO, the single best change overall to the game was the removal of 99% of the Travel Power Removers from anything under Master Villain level (only the Botono of the Sovereign Sons still keeps her TPR). Gets rid of the single biggest buzzkill of the higher level zones.

bat1987 · January 28, 2011, 01:02:52 AM

Quote from: Figure Fan on January 27, 2011, 09:08:57 PM
I'm pretty happy with F2P so far. My computer can actually run the game now (an understatement, really) so that's obviously a plus. The character creator is good, but they seem to have omitted things like hats, hoods, and animal heads, as well as other stuff and it appears you can't buy them. Seems dumb to remove such basic costume elements.

You actually have all of those costume pieces available, maybe you missed them in CC. I tried silver account in beta and in all honesty Costume editor limits are minimal.

Figure Fan · January 28, 2011, 03:21:35 AM

Quote from: bat1987 on January 28, 2011, 01:02:52 AM
Quote from: Figure Fan on January 27, 2011, 09:08:57 PM
I'm pretty happy with F2P so far. My computer can actually run the game now (an understatement, really) so that's obviously a plus. The character creator is good, but they seem to have omitted things like hats, hoods, and animal heads, as well as other stuff and it appears you can't buy them. Seems dumb to remove such basic costume elements.

You actually have all of those costume pieces available, maybe you missed them in CC. I tried silver account in beta and in all honesty Costume editor limits are minimal.

I just looked through Head Types and Hear Wear and I don't have any of the things I mentioned. I wonder if it's a bug?

Figure Fan · January 28, 2011, 03:59:58 AM

OH DUH

I didn't realize that you could click on the section headers in the creator to change from tights to shirts, etc. Hm.

I found all of the other parts. Thanks for responding though, because it made me go through it all again.

Ryuukuro · February 01, 2011, 02:25:42 PM

I just started playing F2P on a PC that technically is too slow to run the game. Yes, it runs. I have to turn down some graphics to get a good frame rate but it's perfectly playable and I am already tempted to jump right in and subscribe. I've been waiting for a long time to try this game and when I got my new computer I was disappointed that it was one feature off from the minimum specs. It's nice to see that I can still play the game though, even if it's not at the optimum graphics level!

Valandar · February 02, 2011, 08:09:50 AM

Quote from: Ryuukuro on February 01, 2011, 02:25:42 PM
I just started playing F2P on a PC that technically is too slow to run the game. Yes, it runs. I have to turn down some graphics to get a good frame rate but it's perfectly playable and I am already tempted to jump right in and subscribe. I've been waiting for a long time to try this game and when I got my new computer I was disappointed that it was one feature off from the minimum specs. It's nice to see that I can still play the game though, even if it's not at the optimum graphics level!

One feature off? What feature?

BentonGrey · February 04, 2011, 03:47:47 AM

Well, I'm debating on whether or not it is worth it to reinstall the game. Can I reactivate my account, and will my heroes still be there? Could I realize The Rogue and Ulysses with the new system visually and power-wise? The Rogue is mostly single blade with acrobatic movement and regeneration. Ulysses was super strength and archery.

Courtnall6 · February 04, 2011, 06:57:03 AM

Visually...depends on what pieces you used when you were Gold (certain costume pieces are locked out for Silver players but can be purchased in the C-Store). Power-wise...not exactly. You can have The Rogue still as an acrobatic swordsman (The Blade Archetype)...but no regeneration. Ulysses can still be an archer (The Marksman Archetype)...but no superstrength.

BentonGrey · February 04, 2011, 02:31:11 PM

Quote from: Courtnall6 on February 04, 2011, 06:57:03 AM
Visually...depends on what pieces you used when you were Gold (certain costume pieces are locked out for Silver players but can be purchased in the C-Store). Power-wise...not exactly. You can have The Rogue still as an acrobatic swordsman (The Blade Archetype)...but no regeneration. Ulysses can still be an archer (The Marksman Archetype)...but no superstrength.

Thanks Court, that's more or less what I thought. It doesn't really seem worth it, then.

BlueBard · February 04, 2011, 06:38:27 PM

I'm waiting until the shiny wears off a little and I can actually download the client. Last time I tried, I couldn't get any kind of dl speed.

It's pretty much a given I won't be able to play anything close to what I'd normally try to play, but at least I'd be able to kick the tires and find out if I like the CO system.

GhostMachine · February 04, 2011, 07:16:09 PM

Found out that when you get your Atari Points every month if you're Gold depends on your billing date. (If you pay 3 months at a time like me, you'll still get it every month on the date it would've been billed if you paid by the month) I won't get mine until the 11th, it seems.

Oh, and I don't know if anyone has pointed it out, but if anyone new to CO reads this, join the channel Freedom once you log in. That's how we stay in contact when people aren't on their Freedom Society member characters....or if they don't have any in FS at all.

(Incidentally, I'm not playing the game much until the crowd thins out a bit. I've logged on maybe three or four times since the F2P went live, and am actually playing Everquest 2 F2P at the moment. I'll probably start playing CO again regularly in a couple of weeks.)

UnkoMan · February 04, 2011, 09:51:51 PM

I've been having some computer troubles lately that I've just been too lazy to fix... but I will come back to this game. I haven't even tried out the Demonflame adventure pack, and it seems perfect for the Corpse.

I am interested in these Atari Points. So if I have a lifetime subscription, do I get these every month? If so, how many?

Valandar · February 05, 2011, 02:55:26 AM

Quote from: UnkoMan on February 04, 2011, 09:51:51 PM
I've been having some computer troubles lately that I've just been too lazy to fix... but I will come back to this game. I haven't even tried out the Demonflame adventure pack, and it seems perfect for the Corpse.

I am interested in these Atari Points. So if I have a lifetime subscription, do I get these every month? If so, how many?

You get 400 points every month.

And Demonflame has a MUCH better storyline than anything else Cryptic has done to date, with the POSSIBLE exception of the updated West Side MC, get your heiney in there, Unko!

Valandar · February 05, 2011, 02:55:54 AM

Quote from: UnkoMan on February 04, 2011, 09:51:51 PM
I've been having some computer troubles lately that I've just been too lazy to fix... but I will come back to this game. I haven't even tried out the Demonflame adventure pack, and it seems perfect for the Corpse.

I am interested in these Atari Points. So if I have a lifetime subscription, do I get these every month? If so, how many?

You get 400 points every month.

And Demonflame has a MUCH better storyline than anything else Cryptic has done to date, with the POSSIBLE exception of the updated West Side MC, get your heiney in there, Unko!

Courtnall6 · February 05, 2011, 05:13:47 AM

Quote from: BentonGrey on February 04, 2011, 02:31:11 PM
Quote from: Courtnall6 on February 04, 2011, 06:57:03 AM
Visually...depends on what pieces you used when you were Gold (certain costume pieces are locked out for Silver players but can be purchased in the C-Store). Power-wise...not exactly. You can have The Rogue still as an acrobatic swordsman (The Blade Archetype)...but no regeneration. Ulysses can still be an archer (The Marksman Archetype)...but no superstrength.

Thanks Court, that's more or less what I thought. It doesn't really seem worth it, then.

Unless space on your HD is an issue...installing it and trying out the Archetypes is worth it. It is free after all!

BentonGrey · February 05, 2011, 05:59:08 AM

Quote from: Courtnall6 on February 05, 2011, 05:13:47 AM
Quote from: BentonGrey on February 04, 2011, 02:31:11 PM
Quote from: Courtnall6 on February 04, 2011, 06:57:03 AM
Visually...depends on what pieces you used when you were Gold (certain costume pieces are locked out for Silver players but can be purchased in the C-Store). Power-wise...not exactly. You can have The Rogue still as an acrobatic swordsman (The Blade Archetype)...but no regeneration. Ulysses can still be an archer (The Marksman Archetype)...but no superstrength.

Thanks Court, that's more or less what I thought. It doesn't really seem worth it, then.

Unless space on your HD is an issue...installing it and trying out the Archetypes is worth it. It is free after all!

Unfortunately space is at a premium right now, so it will have to wait until I can either upgrade or clear out some space.

News:

Free 2 Play is live