f13.net

Announcement here. (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=info&Number=10392241&bodyprev=#Post10392241)

No price set yet and it won't be until 'shortly' after I12.  I'm not a big fan of micro transactions in MMOs, but I'm really surprised it took NCNC this long to finally start selling more character slots.  It seems like such an obvious thing to do in a game where people make so many alts.

Wow.

I'll wait and see what the pricing is like and all of that, but this should be verrrry nice  :-)

Is it going to use NC coins?

I'd suggest not - the rename and server transfer options are just charged straight to your PlayNC account credit card afaik.

I12 is currently undergoing a closed beta on the test server, but the latest test server update had the unintended consequence of releasing information regarding the purchasable character slots (http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/1056/buyablecharslotsfromnewxs1.png).  Right now it looks like:

1 slot: $5.99
2 slots: $9.99
5 slots: $19.98

There's supposedly some additional information that NCNC was going to release in the official announcement that was to include the pricing, but they still haven't said what that is (possible free slots and a tie-in to Veteran Rewards was hinted at).

I like the slot limit of 36 per server, though I'm not sure why they didn't pick a more "round" number like 40. There was a rumor going around that the limit was going to be 15 (supposedly somebody poked around the pigg files and found some text about that).

The current max characters per server is 12, so perhaps it was easier to do 3 x 12 rather than 40.

Regardless: the money will roll in, from both character slot purchases and from server transfers.

Yeah, at a guess it's an interface choice.  Make the columns line up next to the existing one.

As crazy as I am about alts, I never ran out of slots.  I can see this for LOTRO and some other games, but CoX?  I can't imagine that many people would be interested.  Of course, people surprise me all the time.  Usually not in a good way.

Everyone I know in CoX has *tons* of alts and are planning on getting at least a couple of new slots when they can.

Ok, here's the official announcement. (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=10600404&page=0&vc=1#Post10600404)  The highlights:

• All current subscribers will receive 2 free character slots, each of which can be used on the specific server of their choice. This is to help you make new characters to take advantage of the new features of Issue 12, even if you already have maxed out your “home” server’s character slots.
• 1 free character slot will be granted retroactively on a yearly basis through the current Veteran Reward system. Every 12 months that a subscription is maintained will unlock an additional free character slot that the user can apply to the server of their choice. Thus, existing players will be eligible for up to 4 additional character slots at the launch of Issue 12. This will continue into the future for Veteran Rewards given out every 12 months, so you get another slot for 5 years, another one for 6 years, etc.
• Additional Optional Character Slots will be available on a purchasable basis. These are one-time fees, not an addition to your monthly subscription rate. The additional slots can be had at the following price points:

      • 1 Optional Character Slot for a one-time fee of $5.99
      • 2 Optional Character Slots for a one-time fee of $9.99
      • 5 Optional Character Slots for a one-time fee of $19.99

• Players can have up to 36 slots per server, with an update to the character selection screen that lets you re-organize your character list by Drag and Drop, as well as easily flip between up to three pages of characters available on that server. All customers benefit from these great new User Interface features included with the revisions for Optional Character Slots.

That's 6 free slots for me.  :woot:

I would've used it.  I constantly had to delete characters to make slots.  Granted a lot of them never got past 12 or so.

New powersets (or: old powersets newly available to ATs) + hero and villain alts + Epic ATs + the existing characters you don't want to delete = very easy to have 12 characters on one server

I'm interested in seeing if this kind of thing sees Freedom / Virtue hit their player cap more often, as players no longer have to go to a new server if they want more than 12 character slots.

That and making alts to power up the base, I would make a new toon since he would get more supergroup prestige and then make another to keep the prestige rolling in...  But the idea of more slots is awesome!