If we start with no user data

[Remaugen]

I really want my character data, there simply has to be a way to access and include that. I invested a lot of time and effort into my 50s, they may not be perfect, but they are mine and I want them back.

Barring that, I am willing to start over, but only if there is no other choice.

[Eskreema]

Inflamatory question warning:  would you be against a vet power that would make all badges (and the associated powers etc), earned or granted, *GLOBAL TO CHARACTERS*?  What about the ability to purchase that function, i.e. Lifetime sub perk?

I would love all my toons back and this thread would be a non-issue, but i am willing to give the new devs hard earned money (define that as u will) to get myself back up to speed faster as long as it would not cap me otherwise.

[Goddangit]

Inflamatory question warning:  would you be against a vet power that would make all badges (and the associated powers etc), earned or granted, *GLOBAL TO CHARACTERS*?  What about the ability to purchase that function, i.e. Lifetime sub perk?

For my part, I would oppose this.  It makes badges meanless and valueless.  Powers... That's another thing.

Just my 2 influence.

[MWRuger]

Inflamatory question warning:  would you be against a vet power that would make all badges (and the associated powers etc), earned or granted, *GLOBAL TO CHARACTERS*?  What about the ability to purchase that function, i.e. Lifetime sub perk?

Ugh. Yes. It would make badging totally pointless and associated accolades which are mostly awarded by completing sets of badges a meaningless accomplishment. It would remove all savor from the challenge. I would never bother to badge again.

It would also make bases ridiculously easy to outfit as you would have all the the explore badges that grant the teleport beacons OR or impossible because you weren't in SG mode when you received them.

I certainly don't speak for everyone or even all badgers, but no, please don't do this.

[MWRuger]

For my part, I would oppose this.  It makes badges meanless and valueless.  Powers... That's another thing.

Just my 2 influence.

The accolade powers are based on completion of the badges, unless you make them completely seperate, there is no other way to award them. If you do, some content will never be run again. Who would run Synapse if they didn't need it for Freedom Phalanx accolade.

Katie Hannon only gets run now really for Geas of the Kindly Ones.

What about Master of badges? You certainly aren't master of anything except spending money. Bad idea. How would someone who got master of Statesman by meeting the requirements measure up against someone who bought it?

Just no.

[Triplash]

Inflamatory question warning:  would you be against a vet power that would make all badges (and the associated powers etc), earned or granted, *GLOBAL TO CHARACTERS*?  What about the ability to purchase that function, i.e. Lifetime sub perk?

ALL badges? That I'd be against. But if it were just for time-limited things like anniversaries or holiday events, that I could get behind. Mind you, just the ones that are purely for logging in. If the character has to DO something to get it, it should stay as is.

[Eskreema]

Maybe some confusion:  have to earn it at least once (some toons better than others in some cases) before it is granted account-wise.  Goddangit got it - it more a powers/abilities question for me than skill/bragging (master's badges).

[Goddangit]

Maybe some confusion:  have to earn it at least once (some toons better in some than others in some cases) before it is granted account-wise.

No.

[Skull Thuggery]

The accolade powers are based on completion of the badges, unless you make them completely seperate, there is no other way to award them. If you do, some content will never be run again. Who would run Synapse if they didn't need it for Freedom Phalanx accolade.

Katie Hannon only gets run now really for Geas of the Kindly Ones.

What about Master of badges? You certainly aren't master of anything except spending money. Bad idea. How would someone who got master of Statesman by meeting the requirements measure up against someone who bought it?

Just no.

I ran all of those TFs just for fun.

[MWRuger]

I ran all of those TFs just for fun.

I would as well but for some, I don't think they bother. Synapse is not very popular.

[Anima]

Inflamatory question warning:  would you be against a vet power that would make all badges (and the associated powers etc), earned or granted, *GLOBAL TO CHARACTERS*?  What about the ability to purchase that function, i.e. Lifetime sub perk?

I would love all my toons back and this thread would be a non-issue, but i am willing to give the new devs hard earned money (define that as u will) to get myself back up to speed faster as long as it would not cap me otherwise.

Well, I agree with peeps about how this would make a large number of badges pointless, though I do think there is maybe one category of badges I'd be ok with this for. Exploration. Just exploration badges. Because running around to points where you've already been five thousand times is kinda annoying. But for every other kind of badge, I would be opposed to this idea.

[GamingGlen]

It would also make bases ridiculously easy to outfit as you would have all the the explore badges that grant the teleport beacons OR or impossible because you weren't in SG mode when you received them.

It's not impossible to get the explore badges for the SG even if you have already got them for yourself.  You just have to go back to the badge location while in SG mode.

[MWRuger]

ALL badges? That I'd be against. But if it were just for time-limited things like anniversaries or holiday events, that I could get behind. Mind you, just the ones that are purely for logging in. If the character has to DO something to get it, it should stay as is.

I could live with this.

[Remidi]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but all these suggestions for packs ignore one big factor - The economy isn't what it was.  When I played CoH, I had a good job.  Right now I'm unemployed and applying for disability.  I'll have lots of time to play, at least when health allows, but I'll be broke.  I'm debating if I can afford the second account I had before, so spending hundreds of dollars on packs just isn't in the cards.  And I suspect I'm far from the only person in that boat.  I think the new owners would buy a lot of good will from the players by giving them the things that were already in the game.  There are plenty of new things that can be offered to generate revenue.

[jlbernardes]

This is all just my personal opinion on what I would feel comfortable with. I'm well aware other people won't feel comfortable with the same things I do (some would want to get more/pay less, some the opposite), but I'm not writing this to start any arguments about it, just to hopefully throw another data point that might help the buyers should they succeed in buying.

I had all vet rewards and would like to get them back (at least the useful powers and the coolest costume pieces). I would even be willing to pay again for the priviledge, although not as much as they cost the first time (say, a package with them all for $25-$30, maybe even $40, I could easily part with, much more and I would start feeling bad about it). I would not mind terribly if I had to play without many of them either.

I had bought many (but not all) of the packs with costume pieces (including those useful powers like ninja run). Again, I would like to get them back and wouldn't terribly mind paying a reasonable price for a package with most of them again, where a reasonably price means lower than I paid the first time (I'm thinking maybe the same $25 to $40 dollars tops for that). Some characters NEEDED some of those costume pieces to exist (my lion-headed, armored, titan weapons tanker for instance).

I had bought every powerset that had been released, and many of them I had not even had a chance to try yet. This would be the MOST important part for me (since many of my characters used the paid for powersets and many of the characters I had planned to play with in the future would use them). Again, I would pay for that (even before I paid for the others), but bear in mind that this is the THIRD item we're talking about that could cost $25-$40, so we're talking a total of $75-$120 here, which is not pocket change. The total of $75 for everything I had before I could see myself spending with a bit of trepidation, but mostly as something useful that would also be a show of support for the buyers. The total of $120 increases my trepidation a lot, and decreases the likelyhood I'd buy them (although, of course, they could have the individual packs be more expensive, and launch an everything pack at a discount I guess).

I never stopped paying a sub for the game and don't foresee I would stop if the game came back, so I, personally, would not mind not having those rewards that improved my non-sub-paying experience. If the sub managed to include access to those things I talked about before without me having to throw money at them (powersets, vet rewards, costume piece/power packs) I'd be very, very happy. If I paying the sub at least allowed me to get them at a discounted price, I'd be happy too.

It would be great getting the character data back, but I, personally, would still gladly play the game even if that did not happen. What I liked most in CoH was making and levelling new characters. I had at least 2 whose level only had one digit when the game shut down that I wouldn't mind at all starting from scratch with, 2 or 3 more in their early twenties which I really wanted to play and who would take me only a few hours a piece to get back there, and at least 6 characters I had planned but never made. So I have aproximatelly 10 characters I would gladly start from scratch with that could keep me happy and busy for quite a while.

If we DO get character data back, I just hope we ALSO get a lot of total character slots (not necessarily slots per servers, but slots times servers), because I had 51 characters by the time the game closed (28 incarnates, 23 which I wanted to get there - some more, some less). Sure, I could certainly pick and choose only some of the incarnates I liked best and some of the most promissing lowbies, but it would be a bit painful. I had gotten some extra slots as vet rewards and from the store, but I'm not sure I would buy them again too soon even if, at first, we had few slots. I would pick a handful of incarnates/lowbies and leave some slots open for new characters and go from there.

I'd miss my old characters, sure, but I do have their Sentinel+ data, screenshots, demorecords, MIDS builds etc. saved to remember them by (some of it is in http://www.drgamma.co.nf/ )...

What would worry me most about getting the game back is the auction house. If we did not get character data back, I'd be poor again (and I hate playing market games to get rich soon again, not to mention all the other currencies my characters had). And if we DID get the characters back, people would have money to buy things at inflated prices, and there might be a lack of recipees (even common but wanted recipees like Thunderstrikes were hard to get back then, imagine now) and other stuff for builds. It would mess up my planned builds some, but I'd still love to have this problem to contend with. And, hopefully, drop rates could be messed with in the start if the market started being a problem...

[MWRuger]

For that matter you could even seed the market to jump start it. A fixed amount of inventory dumped on the market over the course of a few weeks. Yes, it would probably snapped up but if you stagger the additions you could make it harder. Plus even bids from marketeers will reduce the inf in the game.

Alos, add no crafted items. Just let people get the salvage, pay the crafting cost and place it up for sale. Don't forget that over the first few weeks, players will be adding their own recipes and salvage as well.

[Kaderie]

The accolade powers are based on completion of the badges, unless you make them completely seperate, there is no other way to award them. If you do, some content will never be run again. Who would run Synapse if they didn't need it for Freedom Phalanx accolade.

And that would be bad because...?

Seriously, "players will no longer have to run content they hate" does not strike me as bad :/

Having to regrind the +HP/+Endurance badges was an incredible grind, over and over again, for every character, and especially punitive for PvPers, because they could not be competititve without them. I'd be down for making them a global achievement. In fact, I'd be down with making all powers-attached-to-achievements an account unlock, without locking it behind the paywall, and then offer additional unlocks on a per-badge basis. If someone wants to display their "Master of Statesman"-badge on their Level 1 toon... well, what's the harm in that, if they have done it another toon?

[Serpine]

But if it were just for time-limited things like anniversaries or holiday events, that I could get behind. Mind you, just the ones that are purely for logging in. If the character has to DO something to get it, it should stay as is.

I support these sort of badges being global by default.

All other badges have to be earned, and as few as possible have money transactions involved.

[MWRuger]

And that would be bad because...?

Seriously, "players will no longer have to run content they hate" does not strike me as bad :/

Having to regrind the +HP/+Endurance badges was an incredible grind, over and over again, for every character, and especially punitive for PvPers, because they could not be competititve without them. I'd be down for making them a global achievement. In fact, I'd be down with making all powers-attached-to-achievements an account unlock, without locking it behind the paywall, and then offer additional unlocks on a per-badge basis. If someone wants to display their "Master of Statesman"-badge on their Level 1 toon... well, what's the harm in that, if they have done it another toon?

Well, maybe we should just charge 200 dollars and let someone make an immediate level 50, with all badges and any I/O's they want. I don't like grinding so let's throw in incaranate powers as well with enough to salvage to pick whatever you like as well being inf capped. This is a logical extension if you want to make the game as easy and as pointless as possible.

I have no idea what would left for you to do, but there you go. Can't even hunt Giant monsters because already got the badges for it.

Seriously, this entire line of thought is a terrible idea and outside of getting us BACK to where we were, which is the point of this thread. We didn't have this when the came closed, why should we have it now? There is no mechanism in place for this so it would have to be coded and at this time there no development tools to use to code it. But this is very unlikely to occur so dream away. Why, because it disincentivises any reason to play the game for longer than a week. It cheapens any sense of accomplishment that you might get from succeeding in the game.

But to answer your question, it wouldn't bother me a bit because I wouldn't be playing any more. Because it won't be City of Heroes and that's what I want to play.

The ideas suggested were mainly to allow us to get back what we had when the game closed, not selling us "I Win".

[Felderburg]

Well, maybe we should just charge 200 dollars and let someone make an immediate level 50, with all badges and any I/O's they want. I don't like grinding so let's throw in incaranate powers as well with enough to salvage to pick whatever you like as well being inf capped. This is a logical extension if you want to make the game as easy and as pointless as possible.
...
The ideas suggested were mainly to allow us to get back what we had when the game closed, not selling us "I Win".

As far as PvP is concerned, granting leveled characters to someone who has leveled up a character or two is not unprecedented. I didn't play it past the intro area, but it's my understanding that Guild Wars did that - once you get a leveled up level 20 (or whatever it was), you can unlock a PvP level 20 without leveling it up. I don't think you were granted the best gear, necessarily, but for people that enjoyed PvP more than grinding up to max level, that would be a pretty big thing.

Obviously the situation is different in CoH, but I don't really have a huge issue with someone leveling up a character to 50, and then being granted a higher starting level for one other character.

I support these sort of badges being global by default.

All other badges have to be earned, and as few as possible have money transactions involved.

I agree - I have alt-itis, and play pretty casually, so I ended up with just my main character being the keeper of my holiday badges. However, I wouldn't be averse to getting some sort of benefit on all characters if I use just one to grind out killing tens of thousands of Rikti monkeys (for example). Things like that can be tedious to do over and over again.

Did any badge ever have money associated with it? Other than buying the collector's edition?