Followup:  Just as a last ditch attempt, I uninstalled and reinstalled this morning so I could give it a few more trys.  It connected the second time so it's still up.

Still would be nice to have an offline version though.

The main point of this topic was not to ask for 24/7 support but to both open another avenue for resolution as well as to serve as an illustration for anyone else with an Xbox on how the process works.

With that, the final entry:

It was explained to me that the first picture did not show the purchase as complete.  However, the second picture from Xbox.com did show the purchase as complete.  As such, it is advised for anyone experiencing this to include a picture from Xbox.com rather than directly from their Xbox.

They also asked whether I had experienced this before which was a nice proactive touch.  (I do not believe that I had or, if I did, it was too far back to remember.)

Overall final total: 2 days from first E-mail and 3 E-mails.  This could have been shaved down to 1 day and 2 E-mails if I had used an Xbox.com snip instead of a picture from my Xbox so that's on me.

Thank you for your prompt and courteous attention to this matter.

Already sent E-mail to support.  spacelords_support@mercurysteam.com  Just making this topic as well so I have 2 avenues open.

Xbox ID: Righteous Flame
Platform: Xbox One
Issue: Bought MercurySteam points on 9/25 (picture sent with E-mail) and they still have not shown up in my account.
Request: Refund money or add the 1200 points to my account.

Well, after playing antag for the first time since the Epic Forge update, it has gotten worse.  Before the update, you could, at least, do some damage as antags.  Now, with the effective removal of grapple, you can't even do that.

The only thing playing antag is good for now is lowering your MMR.

Honestly, I kinda don't mind the current setup. 

I kinda have mixed feelings about it when I win as Antagonist.  With the way it is currently, I go into it expecting to lose.  Sure, I try to win but it's not going to happen except against the most disorganized groups.  (In some ways, the broken scoring system works to my advantage as the people who go out of their way to rack up grunt kills are usually the most vulnerable.) This way, I can have fun without worrying that I'm going to ruin someone else's game.

There is one more advantage.  Playing antagonist is a guaranteed way to lower your MMR.  Given how off-balance it currently is, you're going to lose often while playing antagonist.  As such, playing Antagonist keeps my MMR low which keeps my raider games at a comfortable level of difficulty.  This is kinda important as the raider games are where I get the majority of my monthly score.  My MMR pretty much fluctuates between 26 and 31% with the wins coming from Raider and the losses coming from Antag.  (Sometimes I win on antag but those rare wins are balanced out by the rare losses on raider.)

Overall, yes, it'd be nice to have a chance at more antag wins but the way it is now has enough advantages that I don't really mind.

Eh.

I pop in every so often.  I'll probably do a match this week.

However, if I wasn't motivated to grind before (Been here since the start and I'm only level 73),  why would I be motivated to grind now?

So, I wanted to give it a whirl before I comment.  Having done that, I'm going to say that my first impression was correct on the limited spawns.

Disclaimer before I continue:  I play both Raider and Antag with a leaning towards Raider.  When it comes to choosing a character, I roll a dice.  I play roughly 4-6 matches per month normally and I've been here since the beginning.

My initial impression was that this would unfairly tilt the game towards the antag to the point that it will make my antag games a squash.  Yes, the situation of eternal stalemate has happened to me......exactly once.  I was antag and, for a little over two hours, neither side could actually move forward.  I eventually quit.   While it sucked, it is a rare enough occurrence that I do not feel it is an issue that actually needs addressing especially with a change as unbalanced as this one.

I realize that, much like offline mode (For the record, since I've seen false information on this, offline mode still doesn't work.  Disabled my internet on the XBone and it still doesn't log in.), this change is here to stay but I would request that the team reconsider this change.  All it does is unfairly penalize the raiders in favor of the antags.  I don't want my raider matches to become an exercise in futility and I don't want my antag matches to become squashes.

Thank you.