Focused Feedback: Costume & Pet Reward Updates

[The Curator]

 Wave 2 Aether Prestige Rewards

Aether Prestige Costume Additions & Updates

• The Prestige Costume icons have been simplified and now there are only four, and they correspond to the Tier / Rarity of the costume.
  • Tier 1 / Common / White
  • Tier 2 / Uncommon / Yellow
  • Tier 3 / Rare / Orange
  • Tier 4 / Very Rare / Purple
• 'Mode' has been dropped from the names of costumes that change based on the body type of the user and they no longer incur a price increase on the BenevoLabs vendor.
  • Costumes that change based on the user's body type have been noted in BenevoLab vendor's offerings and in the costume power's descriptions.
• Some specific Prestige Costumes have had sheathed/holstered weapon displays enabled on them for specific body types.
  • This means your normal costume's body type must match the costume's in order for the weapon to display. The type that inherits is noted in the description.
  • Costumes that are compatible have been noted in the BenevoLab vendor's offerings and in the costume power's descriptions.

 Look for these on the vendor if you're interested! 

 

Tier 1 - Standard Costumes

• The two Vanguard costumes are now considered Tier 1 and match all standard specifics of that tier.
• The missing Wave 1 - Tier 1 costumes that changed based on the body type of the user have been enabled and priced at 10 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage each:
  • 'Costume: Crey Agent'
  • 'Costume: Olympian Guard'
  • 'Costume: Paragon Protector'
  • 'Costume: Praetorian Clockwork'
  • 'Costume: Vahzilok Eidolon'
• Forty-one new Wave 2 - Tier 1 costumes have been added to the selection on the BenevoLabs costume vendors:

NEW WAVE 2 - TIER 1 AETHER COSTUME ADDITIONS:

Spoiler

'Costume: Alpha Arachnoid'

'Costume: Arachnoid'

'Costume: Arachnos Arbiter'

'Costume: Arachnos Bane Spider'

'Costume: Arachnos Crab Spider'

'Costume: Arachnos Devoured'

'Costume: Arachnos Fateweaver'

'Costume: Arachnos Fortunata'

'Costume: Arachnos Night Widow'

'Costume: Banished Pantheon Hull'

'Costume: Cimeroran Cyclops'

'Costume: Cimeroran Minotaur'

'Costume: Circle Agony Mage'

'Costume: Circle Death Mage'

'Costume: Circle Force Mage'
'Costume: Circle Madness Mage'

'Costume: Clockwork Cog'
'Costume: Clockwork Prince'

'Costume: Council Ascendant'

'Costume: Crey Juggernaut'

'Costume: Crey Scorpinoid Tank'

'Costume: Devouring Earth Crystal'
'Costume: Devouring Earth Devoured'

'Costume: Devouring Earth Infested Devoured'

'Costume: Devouring Earth Rock'

'Costume: Devouring Earth Voice of the All-Mother'

'Costume: Dominatrix Servant'

'Costume: Goldbricker AU-Rifter'

'Costume: Golden Brickernaut'

'Costume: Nictus Cyclops'

'Costume: Nictus Minotaur'

'Costume: Rikti Commander'

'Costume: Rikti Magus'

'Costume: Rikti Master-At-Arms'

'Costume: Rikti Warlord'

'Costume: Rogue Arachnos Fortunata'

'Costume: Supa Troll'

'Costume: Tsoo Sorcerer'

'Costume: Tsoo Incarnate Sorcerer'

'Costume: Tsoo Ancestral Spirit'

'Costume: Void Hunter Harbinger'

 

Tier 2 - Legacy Costumes

• The Tier 2 costumes have been enabled on the BenevoLabs vendors, priced at 100 Prismatic Aether Particles each.
  • These costumes feature discontinued appearances.
  • The initial Wave 1 - Tier 2 costume offerings can be found in the Issue 27, Page 4's patch notes.
  • 'Costume: Legacy Circle Mage' has been renamed to 'Costume: Legacy Circle Ruin Mage'.
• Five new Wave 2 - Tier 2 Prestige Costumes have been added to the selection on the BenevoLabs costume vendors:

NEW WAVE 2 - TIER 2 AETHER COSTUME ADDITIONS:

Spoiler

 Some old-school looks for sure! 

 

'Costume: Clockwork Baryon'

'Costume: Clockwork Inhibitor'

'Costume: Legacy Agony Mage'

'Costume: Legacy Death Mage'

'Costume: Legacy Madness Mage'

 

Tier 3 - Premium Costumes & Effects

• The Tier 3 rewards have been enabled on the BenevoLabs vendors, priced at 250 Prismatic Aether Particles each:
  • This tier features rewards that can change or enhance the looks of your costumes.
  • Tier 3 rewards are advanced customization offerings that are limited for social and/or game performance reasons.
  • Effect powers are their own category of costume enhancement and only one can be active at a time, but they can be used at the same time as a costume power.
    • The pop-menu accolade 'Disable Costumes' option will also disable these Effect powers.
• As of Issue 27, Page 5's release, there are three Tier 3 rewards featured:
  • 'Costume: Mini Mode' that featured in last Page's notes and makes your costume's model very small.
    • Mini Mode costume cannot be used in PvP.
  • 'Effect: Ghost' which makes makes your model transparent and adds a spectral glow.
    • Tint of the glow can be customized and the transparency turned off in the power customization menu.
  • 'Effect: Shadow' which darkens your model's lighting and adds glowing eyes.
    • Tint of the eyes be customized or the eyes turned off in the power customization menu.

 

WAVE 2 - TIER 3 AETHER OFFERINGS:

Spoiler

Costume: Mini Mode:

--->

Effect: Ghost:

---> OR

Effect: Shadow:

---> OR

 Should be some creative concepts you can realize with this! 

 

Tier 4 - Deluxe Costumes

• The Tier 4 costumes have been added to the BenevoLabs vendors, priced at 1500 Prismatic Aether Particles each:
  • This tier features costumes that have bizarre looks and are oddities you won't see anywhere else.
  • As of Page 5's release, the first offered Tier 4 costumes will be 'Costume: Undefined Mode' which was formerly named 'Mode Costume: Blobby' that featured previously. Another will be made available in a few months.
  • 'Costume: Undefined Mode' automatically also comes with 'Costume: Mini Undefined Mode' for free when purchased!
    • The mini version of this costume cannot be used in PvP.
  • This costume's functionality has been upgraded and it now inherits various elements from your normal costume when used, making it possible to create some interesting and unique looks with it!

---> OR

 That sure is unusual looking! 

 

 

Seasonal Prestige Costume Additions

• Seasonal Prestige Costumes are now considered Tier 1 and match all standard specifics of that tier.
• Two new Halloween Prestige Costume rewards have been added to the various Halloween salvage vendors, priced at 10 Prismatic Aether Particles + 50 of each Halloween salvage type each:
  • 'Costume: Ancient Vampire'
  • 'Costume: Arisen Mummy'

 Spooky season is always in style! 

Prestige Costume Fixes

• Fixed an error with costumes using PlayerBeast's standard movement animations not using the correct set.
• Fixed Male Eidolon's costume having an extra boot.
• Fixed missing belt on Nemesis Lieutenant costume.

 

---

Vanity Pets

Vanity Pets Additions & Updates

• There are three new vanity pets offered by Luna corresponding to the various City of Heroes retail release anniversary months. These pets will be available for purchase each year during these months:
  • May, City of Heroes anniversary: 'Pet: Mini Statesman' vanity pet power for 2004 Reward Merits.
  • November, City of Villains anniversary: 'Pet: Mini Lord Recluse' vanity pet power for 2005 Reward Merits.
  • August, Going Rogue anniversary: 'Pet: Mini Tyrant' vanity pet power for 2010 Reward Merits.

 They're so iconic! ...and they can be yours! 

 

• 'Pet: Mini Hero 1' vanity pet power has been added to the Vanguard crafting table offerings under 'Vanity Pets' priced at 10,000 Vanguard Merits.

 Hero 1 always looks so cool, even when tiny! 

 

• All older vanity pets have been given the improved movement speed that the newer vanity pets received, which should help them keep up with their owners.
• The naming scheme for vanity pets has been standardized to 'Pet: Name'.
• Like Prestige Costumes, Vanity Pets will also now display on a character's info window so players with large collections can show them off.

[Dispari]

Okay, I'm gonna be real harsh on the costume power costs because I REALLY think they deserve it. The prices are absurdly high and I don't know why they need to be there to begin with. I know, this is beta and a place for feedback, so I'm not going to assume these are the final for sure prices, but I DO want to be VERY clear.

I want to point out that when HC launched, all the previously earnable costume powers and emotes were made free for everyone to use. If you didn't play on live, you used to have to go grind and earn the ability to use Vanguard or Roman costume pieces (and weapons). Some of those you couldn't even do until 35+. HC changed that and made it so this stuff is all free and doesn't require grind. Then the HC devs added some new emotes... and decided to lock them behind earning stuff again (the donut badge, heroside only). Then changed their mind and made it free. Then added new costume options that not only require unlocking but require an awful lot of grinding to unlock. It feels like you guys can't decide what you want to do.

Ignoring that, even if I was fine with unlock things (we can't have EVERYTHING free after all, and I'm not saying we should), the amount that you're asking is... extreme. Doing the WST gives 1-2 prismatics. Doing hardmode content can get you like 20 or so depending on the difficulty. But even if you were doing that, these TFs take about 2.5 hours to run. And some of the SINGLE individual costume options you have are 1500 prismatics. You'd have to run 75 hardmode TFs at 2.5 hours each. Or run WSTs 750 times. For ONE unlock for ONE character. And inf? Even at their current 3m each (which it's going to spike when these new requirements hit) you'd need 4.5 billion influence. And sure, that's just the highest option, there are others that only cost 10 or 250 or whatever. But that's still a huge investment of time or influence.

And I get it, you said you wanted some of these to feel accomplished and for people to "earn" them. But this isn't really earning stuff it's just... grinding. Intense, long, unnecessary grinding. I think even if you cut all the current costs to 1/10 they'd still be pretty high, but at least DOABLE. Do you guys really want to incentivize people to just... grind, for days, weeks, months to get a single costume thingy to play with? And not even getting into the fact that this punishes RPers the most who WANT to have these things for their interesting characters, but can't get them because of the intense time investment they ask.

I don't want to be mean, I just want to be clear that you're just asking the moon from players here. Even the current cheapest ones of 10 prismatics on live require running multiple WSTs or trudging through hardmode TFs on high difficulties (which a lot of people -- like RPers -- don't want to do). And they're only affordable right now because of Halloween, but as soon as that's gone, it's going to be a nightmare. This is a free game with a small community. You can't ask people to grind for hundreds of hours for a single costume.

Short version, all these prices are too high by at least a factor of 10. Seriously.

[lemming]

Just to note, that still yikes on prices.

I'd put the prices at:

 

Tier	Prismatic	Emp
One	10	2
Two	50	10
Three	100	20
Four	250	50

 

And the ability to use Emp Merits for those that might have a bunch collected.  Total spitball on the price though

[lemming]

And would there be a way to make the Costume Menu have the option of not showing unavailable Costumes & Pets?

Edited October 13, 2022 by lemming
reverse that

[Ruin Mage]

These are an optional chase cosmetic. Having high prices when there's only two hard mode TFs in-game is perfectly fine.

There's also the 2% chance per mission completion and the fact these can be sold on the market.

Having everything be easy-to-get/easy-to-access isn't sustainable forever. Though I'm not against the addition of Empyrean Merit prices, but not quite as low as Lemming put them.

[Sovera]

Not for this page, but prices like these are only okay when account wide unlocks are on the table. I don't have a glib answer though, but, dunno, purchasing a costume flags the character for a different vendor who 'sells' tokens that can be mailed or bin-ed for other alts to pick up?

[Ruin Mage]

This game does not track & handle account-based things all too well without being hacky, as far as I've heard. That's why there's not much that IS account-tracked/based.

Edited October 12, 2022 by Shadeknight

[Dispari]

2 minutes ago, Shadeknight said:

This game does not track & handle account-based things all too well without being hacky, as far as I've heard. That's why there's not much that IS account-tracked/based.

That sounds like a good reason to lower the prices. I'm from the RP server, everyone there has lots of characters. Altitis is a pretty common ailment for City players in general I hear. Hundreds of prismatics for one costume for one character is pretty unreasonable.

[Ruin Mage]

If they were hardlocked to a character, I'd agree with lower prices. However, aether is a sellable thing. While RPers who might want this may not want to do Hard Mode/Advanced Difficulty TFs, lowering the prices does not seem like the best idea to me unless Aether was to change.

You get free ones from the EB badges during the Halloween event. It stands to reason that they will repeat this measure for Winter and maybe other seasonal/holiday events. Making things be in demand is, while it does suck for some, healthy.

It also stands to reason that more sources outside of HM TFs, mission completion (chances), the Market, and seasonal events will come in time. Putting in the work to get a cosmetic reward isn't that (to me, specifically) big of a deal.

[Faultline]

23 minutes ago, Dispari said:

Okay, I'm gonna be real harsh on the costume power costs because I REALLY think they deserve it. The prices are absurdly high and I don't know why they need to be there to begin with.

 

1 minute ago, Dispari said:

 Hundreds of prismatics for one costume for one character is pretty unreasonable.

Most of the costumes are 10 prismatics. "Deprecated" looks are 100 prismatics in order to make them more rare, since the look itself is deprecated.

 

You're making it sound like every single option is completely unattainable. This is not true and undermines your own point.

[Cobalt Arachne]

15 minutes ago, Dispari said:

That sounds like a good reason to lower the prices. I'm from the RP server, everyone there has lots of characters. Altitis is a pretty common ailment for City players in general I hear. Hundreds of prismatics for one costume for one character is pretty unreasonable.

The T3 price points are due to the offerings being customization options that wouldn't be ideal to have on every character easily and be an abundantly common thing but low enough that somebody who really wants them can get them. For every individual person who's ultra psyched about mini mode characters, there's another who hates how they look at doesn't want to see them everywhere.

It ensures they are limited to people who actually want them to facilitate character ideas and not abundantly used for reasons like throw away meme characters or to bother people.

For the Effect toggles, which are essentially cosmetic armors, we have to be conservative with large-scale particle density access, this ensures they don't become something everyone uses constantly simply because they have easy access to it.

[Dispari]

1 minute ago, Faultline said:

Most of the costumes are 10 prismatics. "Deprecated" looks are 100 prismatics in order to make them more rare, since the look itself is deprecated.

 

You're making it sound like every single option is completely unattainable. This is not true and undermines your own point.

I don't agree. 100 is a lot when WSTs drop 1 or 2 prismatics. That's multiple hardmode TFs even, of which there are only two in the game, so lots of grinding and repeating the same content. Hell, just 10 is multiple WSTs, like I said. Do you really think hundreds of hours of grinding is a reasonable ask for one costume for one character? If you do, then I have nothing more to say.

[Ruin Mage]

You get 10 from the Halloween event.

You get 13 from a 3-Star ITF or ASF - which while not easy also isn't terribly hard if a team plays together. Though, some measure of team-making is needed for the AVs.

[Faultline]

Just now, Dispari said:

Do you really think hundreds of hours of grinding is a reasonable ask for one costume for one character? If you do, then I have nothing more to say.

 

The datamining we've been conducting since Page 4 launched doesn't support your idea that 10 prismatics is "hundreds of hours of grinding", so we're just not going to see eye to eye on this issue. I don't know what your personal acquisition rate is, but 10 prismatics for a costume is perfectly fair from a global look at how many are generated, spent, and put on the market.

[Dispari]

Halloween is temporary. Which I also already said.

High-difficulty hardmode TFs are things that are a big ask for people who aren't into difficult content (like RPers). And even at 13 that would still take 8 runs which take 2.5 hours each, for just the 100 tier.

[dom9630]

2 minutes ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

The T3 price points are due to the offerings being customization options that wouldn't be ideal to have on every character easily and be an abundantly common thing but low enough that somebody who really wants them can get them. For every individual person who's ultra psyched about mini mode characters, there's another who hates how they look at doesn't want to see them everywhere.

It ensures they are limited to people who actually want them to facilitate character ideas and not abundantly used for reasons like throw away meme characters or to bother people.

For the Effect toggles, which are essentially cosmetic armors, we have to be conservative with large-scale particle density access, this ensures they don't become something everyone uses constantly simply because they have easy access to it.

 

As someone who was extremely critical of the pricing the first time around, this seems a lot better considered. 

 

I am a little confused on the 'deluxe' costumes per the posting's wording.. Are these essentially 'wombo combos' of two other tier 3's?

[Faultline]

23 minutes ago, dom9630 said:

I am a little confused on the 'deluxe' costumes per the posting's wording.. Are these essentially 'wombo combos' of two other tier 3's?

 

The "Deluxe" costume is a meme power with a quite ugly look meant for people who have acquired tons of prismatics and want to show it off even if the result is ugly. I would advocate for a T-Shirt texture that reads "I spent 1500 prismatics and all I got was this stupid shirt", but the texture resolution isn't detailed enough.

[Dispari]

Just now, Faultline said:

The datamining we've been conducting since Page 4 launched doesn't support your idea that 10 prismatics is "hundreds of hours of grinding", so we're just not going to see eye to eye on this issue. I don't know what your personal acquisition rate is, but 10 prismatics for a costume is perfectly fair from a global look at how many are generated, spent, and put on the market.

I'm definitely not saying 10 is unreasonable or unattainable. But even the next tier up is 10x that work, and the highest tier is 150x that work. Just because the first tier IS attainable doesn't mean the other ones are. How many hours does your datamining say 250 or 1500 is? How many prismatics per hour should we be expecting exactly?

[dom9630]

1 minute ago, Faultline said:

 

The "Deluxe" costume is a meme power with a quite ugly look meant for people who have acquired tons of prismatics and want to show it off event if the result is ugly. I would advocate for a T-Shirt texture that reads "I spent 1500 prismatics and all I got was this stupid shirt", but the texture resolution isn't detailed enough.

I like your t-shirt idea better, lol.

 

One man's meme is another man's dream.

[Number Six]

And there are people who want something to work towards long term. This is for them. These are either completely new things or things that were never accessible in a permanent form outside of getting lucky at Hero-Con.

 

All the free stuff people have been getting for the last 3 years is for the people who want free stuff. There will continue to be more free stuff in the future.

 

These are diametrically opposed desires that different groups want -- neither is going to get everything they want.

[Cobalt Arachne]

4 minutes ago, dom9630 said:

 

As someone who was extremely critical of the pricing the first time around, this seems a lot better considered. 

 

I am a little confused on the 'deluxe' costumes per the posting's wording.. Are these essentially 'wombo combos' of two other tier 3's?

In a matter of speaking, they are kind of a wombo combo of sorts.

Costume: Undefined Mode changes your head, chest, gloves, hips, and boots to green blobby textures, adds the unique aura effect, and then inherits certain extra costume parts from your normal costume that it can fit on-top. Buying it also gives you Costume: Undefined Mini Mode as a bonus for free, which does all of the above + Mini Mode proportions.

Tier 4 is meant to serve as a currency sink for the people with too much aether, and to show off something weird.

[Coyotedancer]

'Glad to see the rest of the Mages in there.  Maybe the "old school" black-and-red Thorn Wielders will show up some day, too. They had a pretty distinct look compared to the current version in-game.  And 250, while still pricey, is better than 1500 for the MiniMe.

 

One thing it might be worth looking at... The Aether drops for weekly TF/SFs. For the quick, fast ones two seems okay, but for some of the others? Not so much. Doing something like a Doc Q and still getting two was pretty underwhelming, honestly. 

[Dispari]

Well, if all the devs are sold on these prices, then there's no point in continuing the conversation. I've said my piece.

[dom9630]

2 minutes ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

In a matter of speaking, they are kind of a wombo combo of sorts.

Costume: Undefined Mode changes your head, chest, gloves, hips, and boots to green blobby textures, adds the unique aura effect, and then inherits certain extra costume parts from your normal costume that it can fit on-top. Buying it also gives you Costume: Undefined Mini Mode as a bonus for free, which does all of the above + Mini Mode proportions.

Tier 4 is meant to serve as a currency sink for the people with too much aether, and to show off something weird.

If they do end up being that rare, any chances of adding the Nemesis horse to the list? I mean if we're talking about showing off something weird....

[@Ghost]

I'll pay 2000 aether particles for a bat that hits mini mode characters with a mag100 kb.