Superfan asked:
"Massively suspects the game has only 40,000 active subscibers right now?"
No, the quick math done by one Massively writer suggested it as a possible figure, based on some generous margins and assuming everyone's subscription is on a one-month-recurring basis as opposed to the plethora of other subscription pricing plans available. The goal was to create a vague idea of how many subscribers on an active basis the game might have at the moment, since we no longer get actual subscription numbers for the game.
The problem of basing anything off revenue figures is that they're not exactly conducive to the information we want to know. Out of the money the game made, it's split between multiple subscription plans, super boosters and their close kin, and new game sales. We have no way of knowing where that split occurs, nor do we have any way of knowing how many of those subscription plans were for a long enough period that they just skipped this particular quarter. I know a couple of people who've taken a short break prior to Going Rogue, at that.
In short: the game is not dying. The game is nowhere close to dying. The game is doing pretty darn well for a six-year-old offering. Let's keep the panic down.
Tork asked:
"What's the fastest way to level up a new character?"
Get into a group that can handle insane farm spawns in Mission Architect and get very, very accustomed to doing the same map over and over. Up you go.
I know that's a boring answer to beat all boring answers, but it's true. There is no faster way to get to 50 than by farming until your eyes bleed out of your head. The next-fastest method would be to get a group that can handle x8 spawns and just run paper missions until your eyes... you know. Speeding along is the sort of thing that's been refined to a science now.
More than anything, though, one should be aware of how important it is to group up. While the game won't force you to group, I've found that a bad group usually still brings you to around the same leveling rate as going solo, and a good group will turbocharge the level process. If someone asks you if you want a group, say yes.Greg asked:
"How will APPs and PPPs interact with faction changes?"
We've had this question answered in part before, insofar as it's likely that heroes that turn into villains will be using Patron Power Pools rather than Ancillary Power Pools. (The reverse should be true as well, but that all but goes without saying.) Of course, with different pools available for each archetype, a better question might be how the various archetypes will or won't get access to certain sets. After all, Kheldians don't get access to any Ancillary pools -- but Patron pools are a storyline element as well as being a gameplay element.
Most likely, for the normal archetypes, we can expect a straight swap across the board -- Brutes and Tankers will share powersets, as will Stalkers and Scrappers or Dominators and Controllers. Either Corruptors or Masterminds will share pools with Blasters, and the other archetype will share with Defenders. As for Epics, I'm tempted to say that Soldiers and Widows will also get Tanker sets, and Kheldians will still be out in the cold. With the upcoming Incarnate system, of course, that might all be trivial after all.
Lostrock asked:
"With the new Gamestop preorder bonuses, what happens to those of us that already pre-purchased?"
We get access to Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning way earlier than anyone else. And yes, I do mean "we" here, as I'm in the exact same boat as the rest of you. I pre-purchased as soon as it was available, and I've later decided that Dual Pistols is not exactly all that and a bag of chips, so now we're here and not there. Of course, the real question is whether or not we're going to get more than just that.
I didn't want the answer to this particular question to just be based on speculation, so I took the question directly to NCsoft. They've told me that they'll have more news about this particular wrinkle in the near future. In other words? Watch this space.Live Wire asked:
"Am I going to be hugely inconvenienced if I sell off all my low-level invention stuff?"
Really, you're not going to be hugely inconvenienced if you just sell off all of your salvage and use the money you generate to kit yourself out in single-origin enhancements. You're not going to be at the highest of all possible power levels, but neither are you going to find yourself unable to do things in the game. Everything is still balanced around not requiring you to craft, and that means that characters who hate hitting the benches are still able to handle themselves.
Of course, there is one important point to consider: the speed of leveling. While it's an attractive option to try and just kit yourself out with nice enhancements funded by the Black Market, you do run into the slight problem that if you're leveling fast enough, you're going to have to replace those enhancements in short order. On the other hand, any IOs will be just as useful as you rise through the levels, which means they can provide a useful bulwark. Whether re-slotting everything every five levels is better or worse than gathering materials is a matter of player preference..
Those are our questions for this week. Are you dissatisfied? Don't worry, we'll be doing this again in about a month. Until then, you can feel free to mail any more questions, as well as comments, interesting links, or diatribes on the nature of politics to Eliot at Massively dot com. (Please do not actually send me diatribes on politics. I do not wish to read them.) Next week, we return to the wonderful world of spiders and delve into the glory that is the splitting of career paths. Fun for all ages!
