Dante

My honest, unmitigated opinion: a disaster.

I expect a tedious path that's designed to be so slow, it will shunt players towards iTrials if they want to make any significant progress.

I expect it to be based around Praetoria yet again, a place I couldn't care less about if it got wiped out by a Shivan meteor strike.

I expect it to use a new currency of Loner Merits which will need to be exchanged for Incarnate components for an exorbitant fee as punishment for us daring to dislike the Devs' new obsession with Trials.

I expect absolutely no plot progression apart from further railroading of my characters and their motives.

EDIT: (And of course, forgot about this one) I expect it to be entirely alignment neutral i.e. 'heroic' so that villains once again have to pretend to be heroes in order to use the system. Contacts will cite the usual 'greater threat' baloney that's been way overused as of late.


I wish I could have a more positive expectation but the fact this path wasn't considered from the outset and the ridiculous currencies, conversions and grind that is the Incarnate 'path' lead me to believe that the Devs barely grasp the desires of their playerbase anymore or any of the things that makes this MMO a success. If I'm wrong, I will happily eat my hat.

I agree with most of the recommendations in the OP. I think a better split of lethal/other damage would definitely influence my decision on what ammo to load with. I'd also up the chance of knockback on standard ammo as well so that it offered better mitigation when solo.

However this:

I'm really hoping this falls through.

Remove continuity and too many familiar things and it's no longer Dr. Who, it's just some guy in a time machine. And forgive me for being a huge cynic but this just sounds like Yates has realised his cash cow has dried up with Potter and is just grabbing for another popular British icon. Too many things have already been said that make me dread what the end result will look like.

For what it's worth, I don't think the OP's post was that aggressive, just frustrated at having his ideas dissed.

What you're proposing though, namely resetting characters every time a story or arc ends is certainly a style of RP but it's not one I've come across in over five years of RP in CoX. I'm sure there may be people out there who do it and I hope you find them. I just think that no character progression would be a dealbreaker for a lot of the roleplayers I know.

Contempt? No, I quite respect the Circle. A shadowy, secret cult from the 19th century now revived and using ancient arcane magic to battle modern day heroes? Love it.

Alas, the CoT have vanished from Paragon and instead seem to have been replaced with people who think they're in Gwar. I avoid CoT missions these days but not because of their pain in the backside powers anymore.

And necromancy on a thread about the Thorns? Nice touch.

I've never played Axe so I can't give you a fair comparison however, I can tell you that I really enjoy my BS/Shield Brute. He's only on DOs so far but Parry recharges so quickly that I can cap my melee defence with two stacked applications. And with the tendency of mobs to close to melee range, he's been able to stand in the middle of a large spawn with no real difficulties. I can only see this getting better as I level him up.

Admittedly, later on there will be lethal resistance but you'll have that with Axe too.

Excellent. I so enjoy seeing the concept art behind what we have in game. Thank you for sharing!

Militia Academy – 09/11/11

Wednesday saw another team up of the newly formed Militia Academy. Gothic Nova entered the makeshift base to find Dead Chilly and Ironhawk already present, the former having brought muffins from his new place of employment. Soon enough, the rest of the team arrived, Acumen, Eternally, Integro, Duplikate, Maiden of the Abyss and were happy to enjoy the coffee and muffins too.

They were joined by Mr Sandman, graduate from the previous Academy class, who had agreed to supervise the team for the first venture into what used to be Eastgate. Also with them were new members Siberian Howl and Spades who was teased mercilessly for his afro whereas Howl’s wolf-like tail barely warranted a mention.

They divided into two teams, Eternally accepting her role as leader of the second team although there was some debate over the comms as to who was Team 1 and who was Team A. They also encountered Spidermite, a diminutive but tough individual who desired to assist them. As the teams made light work of the Outcast and Troll infestation, team banter revolved around Kate’s entries into fashion week, previous lives and Nova’s female previous host. Bomb defusing became his task, with some hints at his previous life. He did agree to show Kate how to defuse them at her suggestion that the knowledge should be spread around.

After duties, the team arrived en masse at Pocket D to chatter the rest of the night away. The bickering between Maiden and Nova continued, mostly over his continual teasing of Eternally and whether or not Maiden was abusing the souls of the dead in her summoning. Chilly and Kate eventually grew tired of the chatter and disappeared elsewhere for some private chat an event that led to most of the rest of the team leaving for the night.

I remember seeing that room before AE came out and I hoped it would be the base 'Holosuite' when there was no arc loaded. Such a pity.

The Knights of Albion
08/11/11 – Bloodlines Part 1

The Knights met in the lobby of the castle, all slightly perturbed that the green mist from Halloween had not yet dispersed. Ryan Moriarty, Dragon Chief (Griff), Folk Tale (Caitlin), Union Rose (Rachael) and Fairy Thunder (Agatha) were joined by Kirsty (Blood Covenant), who they had saved from the mad Dr Kane’s house.

Kirsty explained why she had been kidnapped and brought from Glasgow, namely that the doctor was working for a man known as ‘The King’ to find a bloodline relating to the British throne. It seemed that he was intend on stealing the crown and Dr Kane had been assisting him in some way. When Kirsty did not fit with his plans, namely by virtue of being a vampire, she was shut in a box and left to rot. She used some colourful language to describe her opinion of him while openly flirting with everyone.

The Knights, with guest in tow, returned to the mansion to find it under PPD control but were given permission to descend into the tunnels beneath it which the PPD had been unable to clear out. Finding hordes of zombies there, they dispatched them with their usual panache. Griff discovered a table containing the doctor’s journal that seemed to detail his efforts to build a zombie army. It also named his benefactor, Alistair King, of Kingfall Studios. Shortly afterwards, the Knights encountered zombies wielding various weapons including a powerful knight dressed in full plate armour although none of the Knights appreciated being attacked with huge choppers. After an intense battle, they returned to the surface and informed the PPD of their discovery.

The PPD sergeant was surprised to hear King’s name, given that he was a property developer who had helped to rebuild Paragon following the first Rikti War. Following the lead from the journal, the team headed to King’s offices in Talos. A number of approaches were suggested, Rachael deciding to lead the way with a pleasant but formal approach of heroes investigating a case. Griff maintained that they should pose as IT engineers although Aggie baulked at the prospect of hiding her wings.

On entering the office, they discovered it populated with zombies as well and so began the process of cleansing the office. They encountered someone who might have once been King’s personal secretary although now as a mindless zombie, she was far more deadly. After a heated battle, they found King’s computer and downloaded its hard drive, noticing references to ‘the Imperial Codex’ located in the Great Library. Not sure where to go from there, the Knights decided to rest, Kirsty leaping at an invitation to go back to his, much to Rachael’s apparent annoyance who declared her intention to go for a walk instead. The others were lured back to the apartment too with the promise of fresh cooking, although Kirsty insisted on stopping for ‘take-out’ on the way, the prospect of which did not make Ryan very comfortable given her blood drinking habits.

The more I think about it, the more it seems that Going Rogue was a waste of time and resources. Twenty levels of fun missions in a beautifully designed city that go nowhere. Two alignments that get dropped the moment a character gets to Primal Earth and a storyline that meshes with the current game about as well as icebergs did with the Titanic. Given how poorly the murky, 1-20 content of Praetoria relates to the Evil Goatee Paragon seen in the Incarnate content, I can't for the life of me see why the time was spent on developing that end of the game while the Incarnate System was launched with so little content. Especially as Freedom has now stolen the ability to roll up as any AT on either side.

I wonder how much better the Incarnate System would have been received if it had been launched with zones only Incarnates could enter with mission arcs, trials and task forces available for soloists, teams and leagues. The revamped Maria Jenkins arc and Ramiel's arc would have been able to establish all that was needed for the Praetorian threat if they really insisted on telling that particular story.

I can only hope that the solo and small team Incarnate content that's coming will address some of these concerns but to be honest, I'm amazed that it wasn't even considered for the launch of the system given how solo and casual friendly CoX is compared to other MMOs. Sometimes I wonder if the Devs know their own game.