Aura_Familia

Originally Posted by Spectral_Hunter

I'm not exactly sure why this comment was directed at me.

I never said making solo and small team content was more difficult. Heck, I would even argue making trials takes more effort and resources due to the greater ccomplexity in balancing it.

I'm trying to understand why players are so convinced and conditioned to believe that raids/trials are the only way to make an end game. The end should cater to all forms of playstyles like it always has been.

Originally Posted by Arilou

And here we come down to the crux of hte matte: What is "Reasonable progression"?

As it stands I'd say the non-trial team path (WST's, rewards from TF's, Apex/Tin Mage) offers a reasonable progression. Not neccessarily an ideal one, but at least one that's reasonably doable. It would take a couple of months of relatively dedicated playing, but it's doable. Mind, it could stand to be eased a bit more, but it's "reasonable" at least.

"Hermit mode" however, isn't reasonable. Now, I'm not certain it SHOULD be, but I think there's certainly a reasonable argument for impoving the rewards.

The easiest way to make it non-abusable would probably to make a strictly time-locked path for soloers: Say.... An astral merit rather than an A-merit for completing a tip mission. (the size of the reward is up for debate obviously) basically make it a daily or weekly task that can be accomplished solo and earsn you a noticeable progression, but one that is slower than doing Apex/Tin Mage or trials.

Originally Posted by Spectral_Hunter

I suppose reasonable time is determined by dev testing and player feedback. I do think the current system is unreasonable though.

Here's an interesting question for you. Why does the solo path or small team path need to be significantly slower than the trial path? Why does the trial path need to have incentives to make people want to run them?

Originally Posted by MentalMaden

My favorite character on the show and the books. Love her!

Originally Posted by eva destruction

yep, i agree with you, and i think this should apply to task forces also. I'm so sick of people in global channels asking for fillers to help them start a tf like manticore that has an arbitrarily high minimum needed to start. And if someone needs to go to bed in the sixth hour of a dr q tf....well them's the breaks. The devs need to stick to their guns or them dirty soloers will be making it impossible for everyone else to get a team for anything. Doom and stuff.

But seriously though...je-saist, you've totally outdone yourself with this post. This level of wrongness will be hard to top.

Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex

It's funny that the incarnate reward for a successful Apex is the same as the boobie prize for leeching in a trial.

Originally Posted by Zortel

1: Have the Incarnate Shifts Apply
2: The Master Of Badge requirements reward an extra Astral for Each Badge requirement fulfilled, and an Empyrean for a run where all are fulfilled.
3: Have the enemies within drop threads.
4: Have the reward table at the end award Common/Uncommon/Rare/Very Rare Thread components.

Originally Posted by Energizing_Ion

30 min = 1 empy. merit? Doesn't seem right when a Lambda/BAF/KIR take at least an hour (incl. the wait time to build the team/league up).

Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill

So, you'd be perfectly happy if, say, you just worked up an Inv/SS tank... only to have INV completely changed? Say, they decide Inv needs an aura that has a *physical* AOE effect on the enemies, and turn Dull Pain into Safety Zone, which does an AOE Knockback instead of the heal/hp boost?

Or maybe take Kinetics and turn Fulcrum Shift into a sort of Group Fly?

"Oh, I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about minor changes." If you're talking about changes to magnitude, the ever popular-to-whine-about request to change KB to KD, or changes like Electric Aura got (which changed a power *name* when they turned Conserve Power into Energize - END discount to END Discount *and a heal,*) you're not having a problem with the cottage rule. If you're talking about (say) Hide losing its end cost, you're not talking about the cottage rule. The base purpose of the power stays the same.

Do you know WHY (hint, *especially in this day and age of sometimes very expensive IO sets, for instance,) the "Cottage rule" exists? And exactly how many times it's been violated? (Once, *maybe* twice - Fold Space getting removed completely, Wormhole being moved into place and Gravity getting a pet is the only single instance I can think of, and that was an Issue 0/Issue 1 change.)

Little history for you:
When the devs added a fifth power in the Patron (and later Epic) pools, they didn't do so because they thought "Oh, a fifth power would be great." No. In beta (closed, at the time,) they *flat out replaced* a slew of powers. For instance, my Ice/Psy/Mace Dom had her Disruptor Blast just *replaced* with a Personal Force Field. I had no use for it, they removed a source of damage, and irritated the hell out of me. And that was one of several "we think it's useless so we're going to replace it" powers. They got a VERY good, firsthand reminder of why they should NOT just do outright power replacements, as most of those in the beta at the time were calling out for blood.

You'll notice five powers in those pools now, which by *increasing* choice is a FAR better solution.

Also, you don't "get" what Null does. NULL DOES NOT CHANGE THE POWER. He removes ONLY a movement buff *from you.* The power itself is the same - and, frankly, was useful before *AND IS STILL USEFUL* (just ask a Stone tank what they'd think if the devs just did a universal removal of the speed buff from Speed Boost.) Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes.

Remember, your "terrible" power is one that someone else *likes* and *uses.* The devs have to have a very good reason (such as a power directly counteracting an AT or powerset's abilities to a debilitating degree) before they'd likely look at it. "I don't like it when other people knock back a target," for instance, is not that sort of issue.

Originally Posted by reiella

I'd honestly suggest waiting until KIR is on farm status server-wide like BAF and Lambda are now. Your first few jumps in are going to be high stress incidents.

In more general terms, I will assume you know a few techniques that help mitigate the attacks. Yogic breathing works, it's just something you have to do before the attack sets in.

Originally Posted by Arilou

I sincerely doubt you're going to get solo incarnate content in the way you want it.

I *do* think you're going to get some kind of small team oriented stuff that might be soloable with a perfect build, though.

Originally Posted by TerraDraconis

Actually it's not.

Endgame in every single other game out there consists of either endless farming or grinding 1 or 2 raids over and over and over until the next 5 - 10 levels get released then you rush up to the new farms and raids and repeat.

As far as I can tell that is all that any game has for endgame.

What are you expecting an endgame to be that is different?

Originally Posted by Zombie Man

Not to mention the cutscene bomber who wasn't stealthed enough meaning that Marauder 'saw' him and so he ran *out* of the courtyard with Marauder in tow and thus auto-failing the whole iTrial for everyone.

Originally Posted by TonyV

No, it's just that it's not funny, it's dumb. The first time or two I saw a cutscene crashed (back in ITF days), I thought it was clever. Then everyone and their brother started doing it. "Oh, look. Another cutscene crasher."

It's like a rickroll. Five or six years ago, it was amusing. Now, it's so old that it's lame. What's next, knock-knock jokes? At least with those, there's a punchline.

Also, there's the little fact that some of us actually like to watch the cutscenes. I know, a lot of you are jaded of the trials, but since I don't play them 10 times a day, I actually don't see them very often. What you're doing is irritating because you're basically talking while someone else is trying to watch television. Personally, I hope that at some point, the devs actually auto-suppress all player models to be invisible and silence all chat during cutscenes.

I had no idea that crashing a cutscene could actually cause a failure of the trial. Add me to the camp of people for /kicking people who do it.

Originally Posted by Mjolnir875

I dont get it. Is this like a vent of some kind? If it is thats fine it, sounds like you needed it and I truly hope you feel better.

If its supposed have a point then color me confused, some people seem to be relating with anti keyes posts but that doesnt really make sense to me since your issues arent the trial but whatever this disability is.

Also, Paladins post shows theres two sides to every story.

Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex

Basically yes.

Kill the robots, fight the AV, kill the runners, kill the next AV, kill both together.

The biggest tip I can give you if you are confused is to make sure the "show league mates" option is turned on on your mini-map. It is off by default. On my some of characters I also had to hunt for and enable the League chat on a tab where I would actually see it.

I don't have tips on staying awake through the trial. You may want to consider using macros to power through it semi-afk until we get more options.

Originally Posted by Zombie Man

I like seeing how much I can get done without the help of 23 other people. I can stealth grab as many Batteries as I want (OK, the Goliaths are the exception to this); I can get the spawn guarding a terminal to follow me and fall to the lower level leaving the terminal unguarded; I can put a debuff anchor on Anti-Matter and wait for the Tanker to die and then lead him to the terminals I want to take out; and I have plenty of self-heals and a tray full of greens and Rebirth, so, I laugh at the Pulse.

So, I just need a little help at the end to kill AM.

Originally Posted by StratoNexus

Once the Canucks lost, she changed...

Originally Posted by Arilou

Specifically, they wanted people who liked running trials and liked new costume pieces a way to earn costume pieces by running trials.

Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect

And how many companies actually do what the customers say when they are told how to run their business?

You can tell them what to do all day long, they are under no obligation to listen to you.

Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan

So story arcs created by literate, careful writers who spend effort, time and inspiration on thought-out narratives and balanced mechanics have the door slammed on them by this filter, whilst textless moronic farm arcs sail through because "dgfhggh" isn't on the list.

There's not enough facepalm in the universe for this situation.

I thought Aeon used to be one of us? Doesn't he see how crap this is? What does he do all day? This is disgraceful.

Eco

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

The very WORST system for fast travel that a game can employ, from a purely aesthetic standpoint, is teleporters. As any Star Trek fan will tell you, cool as teleportation may be, it's always the CHEAPER option to more elaborate travel systems, like a shuttle lander, a train or an elevator. Anything that requires specific graphics, a specific location, its own building and has moving parts is a vastly more expensive amenity in terms of art team resources, and also a vastly more interesting thing to behold and use.

I tell you - the very WORST thing to ever happen to the Shadow Shard is the cop-out teleporters, where they just slapped a few copy-pased stargates and put a small, dinky glowy thingy in the zones to return back from. It's both bad because it looks like complete garbage and because it essentially signed the death warrant of the Mole Points system, which had its own storyline, its own locations, its own interiors and geometry and its own sense of immersion.

The last thing I want to see happen to City of Heroes is to swap the frankly very interesting train stations for Base Portal Jr.

Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan

Is there a reason why incarnaes beig able to use their abilities in all normal content is bad? At that stage they've probably done all the story arcs etc anyway, right?

I'd quite like to be able to revisit all the TFs in the game after becomigg an Incarnate, to see if I could solo them. I don't see why this is undesirable.

I'm not even sure what the point of 'endgame' conent is anyway once you've ground enough trials to fully slot your Incarnate abilities. What do you do with your toon? Just repeat iTrials fOrever?

I'm honestly baffled as to why one mission (which the iTrials I've seen essentially are) is worth doing over and over and over. It's like havg a library available and just taking out one short book and reading it repeatedly and nothing else.

Eco

Originally Posted by Biowraith

Alas, I fear Lemur Lad is correct that the devs don't view it as these are incarnate auras and incarnate emotes, they just view it as new assets and so they're dropping them into the new system. What frustrates is that in the past they've usually not gone that route - rewards were generally linked in either power or theme to the content they were put behind. I can't help but think a similar mindset to the pvp zones is at work here - they're worried that not enough people will want to run that sort of content to keep it sustainable (you do need a higher mass of population to keep the trials ticking along than most content) so they're throwing in unrelated rewards to try and entice people that don't actually want to run the trials: pvp rewards not enough to get you pvping? Then come for the badges! Incarnate powers not enough to get you into the trials? Then come for the faint emote! Possibly datamining shows me to be wrong, but I'm fairly sure it didn't work well for the pvp zones, and it definitely created some bad feeling from the non-pvping badgers etc; I think it's having a similar effect here.