Producer Letter: About Heroic Characters...

They have answered the question...

thanks for the info Rarespoon. However disgruntled the "FREE" does not really mean free BS That SOE is continually cramming down my throat. I could see this type of behavior for free players but gold should get more for our money.

you don't have to use the one that is given to you, just remember that on 10/16 it will cost you 4,500 for the character (1,000 for the missing slot and 3,500 for the character) The purchased ones do not come with a slot either

I hate how we have to carefully pick apart each announcement to determine what they are REALLY saying. It's BS and builds poor customer rapport. Say what you mean and mean what you say and stop hiding behind smoke and mirrors of manipulating words. Because my "FREE" heroic character is gonna cost me $10.00 in addition to the $15.00 I already pay every month. So according to SOE "FREE" means 2/3 the cost of monthly service.

It is BS how we as paying customers are treated like this. If I were a free to play player I might be able to see this kind of treatment to pick at my wallet but as a paying customer I expect more.

The point of Heroic Characters, other than to make money of course, seems to be to give new players and existing players who are not at endgame the chance to get near enough to endgame to make endgame content relevant for them.

I still don't understand why the average person with 10 95/320's doesn't understand that this promotion is one of the best things that could happen for them *even if they don't create a Heroic Character themselves.* Look around you at the MMO world. Very few MMO's are making real endgame content at this point. That's because the audience for a profitable game isn't at endgame at this point.

The Heroic Characters will make SoE some needed cash. They also offer one of the few realistic paths to meaningful endgame content being in the future development plans for EQ2.

Oh I like it just fine, I am just peeved that my "free" is costing me money.

The team spent a pretty extensive amount of time (including an FAQ) to explain exactly how this system works. I'm fairly confident working on this that we did say what we meant to say.

There was no "spin" put on this. Free means at no cost to you. You are not paying for one Heroic Character even though the feature costs 3500 SC.

If you can't part with an existing character? Upgrade them. If that doesn't make sense for you to do then the best I can say is this is a completely optional service we are providing to folks who wish to use it. It's not required to progress in any way or provide access to content. It will simply bring new folks into the game and provide enjoyment to existing customers which everyone benefits from.

Thanks for the reply radarX you have been most wonderful on these forums since you have arrived and I appreciate it you do a good job. However in the FAQ or in the official announcement it was not made clear whether or not it would include a character slot. So that information was left out. Personally I feel that if I am paying OVER 2 month's of subscription service 3500 SC or $35.00 for one character that it could at least come with a slot. As far as not being able to part with a slot all my toons are already 95 why would I want to delete that for an 85?

I do like it and will probably use it, I just think that for the cost it should include a character slot if needed. I doubt that I will purchase any above my free one if I have to also purchase a slot bringing the cost to $45.00 (three month's service) for one character. I can level a LOT of characters to 85/280 in three months.

^^ Best Community Manager reply ever. Kudos

As for the Character Slot Thing, It would be nice to see Gold Subscribers getting some form of benefit as the subscription package is being lessened. This could be a somewhat easy solution. However Caith said there was stuff in the works, so I'm hopeful for that!

In your particular case? I don't think this honestly benefits you as much as it will returning and most existing players. The lack of character slot information wasn't meant to hide information, it was simply something that I had not personally verified in time to put with the FAQ.

That FAQ was reviewed by a large number of folks and getting information added to it requires quite a bit of time but I will absolutely see if we can get it updated to reflect this. Your feedback on the cost and lack of character slot is certainly valid and I'll be happy to ensure the team knows about it. It's certainly not the first time I've heard the concern.

There are some ongoing discussions regarding Gold Membership. There has been a ton of feedback and we aren't ignoring it but the when/if's of changes will be something we'll discuss as soon as we can.

Thankees for the info! I am sorry to see that it does not include a slot in that price.. I am also slightly sorry to see that the mount it includes seems to be the spitting image of the Icewind Pegasus I got as a perk with my AoD Collector's Edition. Would be nice if it were a different mount...:-/

Krono exchange for playtime or SC, Radar-dude.

Any idea if heroic characters will have mythical conversion done?

So I have spent some time getting my crafting level up to 90 while also questing and grinding to get my toon to adventure lvl 80, Now with this new lvl 85 Heroic toon I will be able to choose a class to test and get to keep, Whats not to like? However I do feel that membership should have more perks especially when you are paying a monthly fee if you are a gold sub. member and are already high lvl do you really need a bump in in game gold?
I remember playing " Champions of Norrath" and the game was an adventure.
This is still an adventure game, but once you finish the adventure it's time to move on.

No, they will not, you have to do the quests from start to finish

Because it is a new class with the new xpac. They want people to get the discos and learn the class the "hard way" first and after all that content has been consumed they will offer it as a buy. I would assume it will likely be sometime around Christmas at the earliest. /shrug

If I choose to upgrade a lvl 95 character (In fact, I only want the mount and items), is he becomes a new kind of "heroic character" and flagged with that title (even internally) ? Can we see the items before upgrading, and give them to another character on the same account ?

To summarize this thread:

SOE - Hey! Here is some free stuff. Enjoy!
Trolls - What?!?!? No free character slot? I hate this game! SOE is so stupid! I hate them too!

I just have this image in my mind of a Domino's guy showing up at the door with a free pizza and everyone complaining about not getting a free 2-liter of soda with it...

Unless something is going to change when the servers are up, I only see a cost for 3500 SC whether I upgrade or begin an 85 right off. I see nothing for the one free 85 per household.