A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Post-survival

So we've had a week to adjust to the new state of being for City of Heroes. OK, maybe a bit less than a week, what with all of the server issues and maintenance, but it's been something close to a week. That means that as a collective playerbase, we can start looking back at the launch and taking a slightly more critical eye. We're no longer running on speculation about how the launch will go; we're running in the wake of the relaunch, expansion, whatever you want to call it.

Last week, for those of you who've forgotten already, I wrote a piece specifically about surviving the release when it went live. Now that we've had a chance to go through it, there are some things I got wrong, some things that need more elaboration, and some things that I've just revised my opinion on. Since we've all survived the head start at this point, let's look at what it actually entailed, yes?

The bits I got wrong on points

If you were going by my statements and you've been subscribed to CoH continuously, you had a pleasant surprise waiting for you when you logged in. Specifically, a surprise to the tune of an extra 400 points to spend in the store on whatever your heart desired. That might not exactly break the bank, but an extra five dollars is nothing to sneeze at, especially if you're a cheapskate like I am. But once we get over that initial rush, there's the simple question of why we're getting another bonus round of points.

Some people have theorized that the points for subscribing in October have already been applied, but I tend to doubt that. My guess is one of two things: Either another extra 400 was tossed in the pot just for early adopters or that 400 was applied retroactively if you were subscribed for June, which was when the announcement came. Whatever the case, it seems you've got a full 1600, not 1200, so I was wrong, albeit in the direction that I'd like to be, since saying you'll get less than you do is kind of a nice problem to have.

I was also wrong when I claimed that you would get extra reward tokens for spending points. As it turns out, those extra tokens come from purchasing points, not spending them. Spending your 1600 won't get you anything special, aside from a bunch of additional stuff for spending 1600 points. This does not, however, mean that it's impossible to buy your way into the upper reward tiers; it just means you can conceivably let all of those points languish after you've bought them. Why you'd do that is lost on me, but hey, I'm not you.

What's in the store?

Obviously, the biggest question for current or returning players is what sort of stuff you can actually buy. VIPs get access to First Ward, Time Manipulation, and the IDF costume sets for the low, low price of absolutely nothing additional, so there's some understandable question over whether or not there's anything for you to purchase. The short version is that yes, even if you bought every single Super Booster as it came out, there will still be stuff for you to pick up, and there is more stuff than you have points for right out of the gate.

The biggest additions are the Beam Rifle powerset (complete with some spiffy new rifles), the Barbarian costume pieces, and the extra costume slots. The costume slots in particular are going to make some people (me) giddy with joy, as they're automatically added to all of your characters right off the bat. Spiders and Widows still get a bit shafted, since it looks like they'll be able to access only four of the bought slots thanks to that archetype-only costume spot, but you can still double a character's available costumes pretty quickly.

If you haven't bought all of the Super Boosters, their components are available piecemeal -- and that goes for enhancements as well as the costume pieces. So if you wanted to be able to change your gender at the costume creator but never found the Science booster compelling, good news, you can get it separately. Individual costume parts are usually cheap, in the range of 50 points, and full sets are usually available for obviously linked elements.

You can also buy universal access to auras or capes, the usual free-to-play experience booster items (nice but hardly mandatory), and dual/team inspirations. Or the rocket board power, which is at once supremely cool and pretty unnecessary. Maybe wait until there's a sale on that one, unless you have a character whose roleplaying background absolutely requires an impersonation of Marty McFly. There are about nine million ways to get travel powers so early now that it hardly even matters (and that means that Paragon Studios took my advice, which is pretty sweet).

Where's the value?

Of course, some of you aren't really worried about what's in the store right now -- you're worried about whether or not you're going to get a better value by subscribing or just buying piecemeal. Especially if you're a returning player, there are some legacy items that will let you avoid another purchase from the store, and access to the reward tokens is going to help you out as well. Are you getting more value for the money by going free or keeping up a subscription?

The problem here, of course, is that there are a lot of variables to account for. Veteran players who have briefly stopped playing will have a lot of things on their accounts already (such as Going Rogue), meaning that there isn't a whole lot for you in the store. If you're past the level band for First Ward, the zone isn't going to be nearly as important to you. And it may be that signature arcs just aren't that important to you as a player or a person, which would certainly shove that into the optional purchases column. Of course, if you've been playing long enough to get into Tier 9 rewards, the three most valuable rewards there will require some subscription time...

Ultimately, a lot of the answer to this question is still up in the air. The signature episodes, their pricing, and the rate at which new toys are added to the store is going to impact this decision a great deal, and we just don't have answers to those questions yet. Until then, I'm going to cautiously say that you get the most bang for your buck with a subscription -- but that's assuming that as a free player, you're going to be dropping about $180 in the store a year to keep up with the paid perks. Depending on your playstyle, that may or may not be the case.

Buy me a river

So I've apparently spent an awful lot of time just talking about the marketplace and all that it entails, and I still haven't started talking about the actual content of the update. Unfortunately, that's going to have to continue for another week because there's a certain threshold beyond which an article is better split.

Feel free to share your own thoughts on value, math, or just the head start in general down in the comments or by mail to eliot@massively.com. Next week, I'm going to dive into the content like I'd planned to do this week, and the week after that I intend to finally get back to that villain spotlight that keeps getting pushed back.

By day a mild-mannered reporter, Eliot Lefebvre unveils his secret identity in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles every Wednesday. Filled with all the news that's fit to analyze and all the muck that's fit to rake, this look at City of Heroes analyzes everything from the game's connection to its four-color roots to the latest changes in the game's mechanics.