Via Positron (and, yes, over a week old, but …)
VIP Server
First and foremost, it’s optional. If you are a VIP subscriber you can play on any server. Premium and Free players can play on any server except the VIP one. Second, it’s a brand new server. We are not going to take an existing server and make it the VIP server. That would be unfair to all other server communities and counter to one of our goals, which is for your friends to try out (or come back to) City of Heroes and play with you at no cost.
I’m glad they are offering this option (to assuage the “OH NOES! NOOBS!” fears), but, honestly, I have no desire at this point to be off on a VIP server.
Supergroup Transfers (Including bases)
This is something we anticipated and are actively working on, but it likely won’t be ready for City of Heroes Freedom’s launch. We are committing to bringing you this service in the future and it won’t be just to the VIP server, it will be between any server. It will likely require the Supergroup’s Super Leader to actually execute the transfer.
That’s actually a clever idea, as they’ve made server moves easier and now created a “different” (VIP) server.
Restricted Archetypes
Free and Premium players are not allowed to make or play Masterminds, Controllers, Soldiers of Arachnos, or Kheldians. There are many reasons behind this, not the least of which is the extra CPU drain some of these Archetypes can have on the servers. We want all players (free and VIP) to have a smooth gaming experience and if that means we’re going to restrict some Archetypes to ensure that, we will.However, the Paragon Rewards program has an “unlock” for Masterminds and Controllers at Tier 5 (which is about a three-year CoH veteran status). So if you have enough veteran status at the launch of City of Heroes Freedom, you will be able to play these restricted archetypes on a Premium account on day one. As always, we’ll be chatting more about the Paragon Rewards in the coming weeks.
I just tweeted something about this that didn’t mention Arachnos or Kheldians (though both also make sense).
(Though, honestly — haven’t seen any Kheldians lately. Does anyone still play them? Tempted to give it a try, again.)
First Ward’s Level range
First Ward is a zone in Praetoria, continuing many of the storylines of that world. It takes place from levels 20 to 26.
As I suspected. Glad to see more Praetoria content.
Aw, I won’t be able to play the New Lensman or the Crimson Prophet.
🙁
Avo, if you return as a F2P player and have enough seniority from the old days (approximately 3 years worth of subscribed time) all of those ‘locked’ ATs are unlocked. They haven’t said so, yet, but I presume that if you had previously unlocked the epics (especially those of us who had to do it the old fashioned way, with 50s!) are likely to keep those unlocked as well.
The Devs are making it clear that returning players (premium) are going to get a lot more perks than simple F2P folks. It’s a classy program, so far.
I played for a bit over a year, I believe.
You don’t have to hit 50 to unlock Kheldians anymore? How do they become available now?
Just get to 20! Darn kids, get off my lawn!
Can anyone clarify if new players can unlock the epic AT’s?
I used to play long ago, but forget my password and account. I want to roll again especially since Khelds unlock at level 20. Can I unlock them as a f2p player?
It sounds like they are not automatically available. They now unlock (VIP-side) at level 20. For F2P characters, you might check the store and see if they show up there (grayed out or not).