Grey Pilgrim

I don't expect much out of these articles, as they're basically to inform people that don't know much about the game. About the only thing I really hope wasn't the only response is the "we want more trials bit."

I want more ways to advance with incarnates than just the two trials. Two trials isn't much, and while more trials to unlock and work on the four new powers we have now would be nice (not more trials to work on new slots but not the current round), I would like more story arcs and task forces that feature this stuff. It's nice to get in a bigger gang for these things, but I have always liked story arcs and task forces in City of Heroes, and feel like it would be most advantageous to continue that approach with the incarnate endgame stuff.

And yes, as someone else has pointed out, shards are not a viable route for the new powers. I was debating whether I should use some shards to finish completing my Rare Spiritual for my main (he's the only one I'm going to bother getting two alphas on), and I realized I was quibbling over all of 12 shards. Which sounds like a lot, but that's only 12 threads, barely a half of a common component for the new stuff. In the old system, that was enough for three commons.

Shards are not an effective way to advance with the new Incarnate slots. At all.

HBD and all that good stuff. Have fun belatedly, too!

Map design is always tricky for developers. I remember all the controversy over Halo's design (the first game). Many people complained that it was too similar and felt repetitive, and the designers pointed out that architecture would be like that. I think most of the issues came from that one... Library level, I think it was called? Where you were going up one elevator after another to fight another level of hordes of enemies. The level names even joked about it, but it was repetitive (even if I was fairly tense the whole time playing it).

Still, designers run into this issue all the time... much architecture does need to repeat to some extent, though of course the best architects out there can serve both form and function. A game designer has a whole new set of rules to work with.

I really noticed the difficulty this thread is touching on when designing for the Mission Architect. The story arc in my sig has some missions where it is EXTREMELY important that some objectives are at the start, middle, and end. Getting them to work was sometimes a challenge, and I can only imagine the devs have the same issues. You can have some missions in the open area maps, but you have to be okay with those being free form for the players (and possibly skipping around for the objectives as well).

Free form mission design can also have disadvantages from a player perspective... I know things are somewhat fun, but also a little loosey goosey with the first mission of the new Admiral Sutter TF (which is basically an open map with some indoor locations on it). I kind of liked it, but it also meant that I wanted more objective targets on my screen, which I noted in my feedback about the TF. Later missions in the TF are also a little more open, but also more confusing to find your way around the first time because things aren't quite so linear.

These are the same difficulties game masters have in tabletop roleplaying, of course. Trying to make the game seem not on rails, even though you probably only designed so many things for the players to explore and do. The devs have it here as well, of course.

There are some Praetoria lab maps with more than one route, but they are quite linear, and I suppose I would like things to have multiple routes to the end objective, just to keep the illusion of not being on rails. Still, I can understand the difficulties, and rarely bother myself with statements like "hey, I've been in this layout before," unless it's two missions in a row. I'm looking at you, Citadel Task Force!

With everything else, I suspend my disbelief. Still, it behooves the devs to have more map types, layouts, and probably more options to get to the end (when the story can support that).

Sam, the problem is that you just don't like the humor. Again, I could go with you if you were saying it was detracting from the overall storyline, but the problem for you is that you don't appreciate the joke and you just want it gone because of it. In even my most favorite comedic movies or books, I don't necessarily like or appreciate all the humor (I'm reading The Princess Bride to my wife, and while most of it is hilarious, we don't appreciate all the humor and randomness as much as others would).

That's the way humor and aesthetics is: we're not going to appreciate all the stuff out there that is considered humorous or art. I don't appreciate Picasso's Guernica like some do, but I can appreciate what it was doing and the effect it has on most people.

You know this is a tongue in cheek joke. You know this is lampshade humor (which is humorous to some, or we wouldn't even have the term). You can even acknowledge the asides and references for those who care to follow them. Yet you won't allow that some people will find that combination a good thing, even though it often is.

Just forget about the humor that you don't like. Even without it, it's still a good mission with interesting mechanics, and a challenge. You obviously like those parts more, so simply focus on those... or you can even ignore the whole story arc. I hate the Devouring Earth with a passion and avoid their missions because I don't like them. Yet others do enjoy them and play those missions (and vice versa for CoT... I like that mob group). There's nothing WRONG with that, it's just the way people are. And luckily there is more than enough content in CoX to allow us to play other stuff we like more.

Des, thanks for posting that. About time they said something... probably should have had these notes from the start. It'd be nice to know how it works a little more so we can report on any issues, but oh well.

I did wonder at times if it required some participation but was also random to some extent. I haven't ever had the ten thread table, and am usually uncommon or up (to the point where I have everything I need almost for uncommons and rares, but not enough commons when I unlock things), but I did seem to get rewards all over that did not reflect my participation.

Yeah, the Force Feedback proc is pretty good... I have it slotted in one of my Nova attacks, but Solar Flare should be good, too. I probably wouldn't choose a proc over slotting decently... even the weaker attacks should have some accuracy and damage first.

Cloak of Fear also does a small to-hit debuff, which isn't shabby to have working around you along with the fear effects. I would certainly agree that DA is end heavy, but you can build toward that well, and Cardiac is helpful for a resist set, anyway (when you get to your Alpha slot).

*added*

Hmmm, didn't see the last couple of posts, so I guess I'm chiming in more than giving new info. Oh well.

Well, I must say that got me excited again. I'm sure I won't like everything they do, and I don't like the idea of all the add-ons to make this two films, but so much of it does feel right. Too cool. Gave me fond memories of all the DVD extras from the LoTR films... there are a lot of funny, talented people on those sets.

And I have to say again that Andy Serkis is an amazing character actor: how he acts normally is nothing like Gollum, and if you never saw him as the villain Rigaud in BBC's recent version of Little Dorritt, you must now. Spectacular to see someone that good at subsuming themselves in a role.

Frosty, I will see what I can do. Like I said earlier, though, you might get more out of a select few PVP IOs than a bunch of Purples, since Purples mostly only give recharge. I'll try to come up with something this weekend, but it's been a very busy semester, and I am trying to get published besides teaching full time.

Dragon, the new trials are tough for anyone, and you do want to be careful of running around alone. For the solitary groups of mobs around at the start of BAF or Lambda, I haven't had too much trouble with my health plummeting, but other things are designed to make a solo character nervous before getting level shifts for the trials (and probably even after). The turrets around Lambda can actually ding you up pretty well if you go up against it solo, but its nothing your resists and Healing Flames can't handle. If you have teammates around, your health probably won't budge, especially if they have buffs, which many do now.

My biggest issues have actually been during the collection phase of Lambda: people tend to spread out more than they should, and all those drones buffing your enemies (and all the psi damage from the Seers) makes it easier for them to hit you. Commanders can throw out a lot of energy damage, too, which Fiery Aura doesn't resist as much as other types of damage. Some of these issues did arise from dying when I was trying to help out beleagured teammates on the first run or so, and then the experience after that was made worse by the bug where your Alpha slot's benefits were removed after you were defeated and rezzed (not around anymore, thank goodness). I was on two runs of Lambda Wednesday night where people stuck together and there were very few defeats for anyone, and none for me.

You should tank for your team, but the trials require teamwork. If you've been playing the ITF and other older TFs a lot with a Cardiac going, you can get a little cocky when running them. Don't run around on your own and work with your teammates. Aim for the level shifts from the new Incarnate powers as well: those will make a huge difference in the damage you can avoid and shrug off, perhaps/probably even more than if you pick up Barrier or a buffing Lore pet from the new powers.

Never really read any Thor, but I love the Norse and Icelandic sagas... enough so that I'm tempted to look at this. Wonder if I can "order" this to my local B & N and see if I want it after reading through for awhile. Would definitely have to wait until Christmas or the price to drop to buy it, though.

Anything you all can tell me about these stories in particular that makes them good/great?

Some more War Mace options would be nice, period. We got left in the lurch by all the ITF fun, and haven't had anything new since weapon customization came in first. Not enough "serious" options, in my opinion. I'm sure some like their baseball bats and shillelaghs, but I want more big, awesome, war mace combos: those other things look way too light for how hefty the animations are.

To mimic the title... "Uh..."

Sam, I find the pair funny in their older missions, and I find the references to work here as well. I could follow your saying it takes away from the tragedy of what is happening to Skyway (that is a lot of damage, and the NPC placement elsewhere holds true to this), but I'm not going to follow you on the humor stuff.

I think I'll go for this with my Invuln tank, whenever I can actually find the time to get him in on these (darn the need to run these trials so much). I think this will be a little less useful for Fiery Aura since it has such a good heal already that can get up in 15-20 seconds as it is.

War Mace is sheer awesome at 50s. As others have pointed out, 35 and 38 make a huge difference for the set, as those two cones are just too much fun and expand your aoe potential: you can knock down a huge swath of mobs in front of you with Crowd Control. With its tweaks long ago, War Mace is also good for ST damage.

Fire/Fire is my first tanking love, but War Mace and SS are close in line behind it for sheer fun and goodness... the only other Tank I have with an alpha at this point is my War Mace tank. Keep playing it: Shatter and Crowd Control are great fun.

Is it... really that big a deal? It's kind of stupid, I agree, and I would rather have those people inside with me. I know I'm running around trying to take out canisters or helping people out that are surrounded by mobs in there... and those mobs can lay down the hurt. It's seriously on par with spamming chat during the ITF cutscene... it got boring and pointless a long time ago.

Still, it's not the end of the world, and I don't really see it as being kickable.

Why do people honestly feel the need to make arguments like we see in this thread... like we're still back in the early days of the game and the ATs are all desperately needing adjustment? There are no bad ATs or powersets in CoH anymore: just good and better.

BillZ Bubba had a great comment in a similar thread on Stalkers, and I saved it to bring out in these threads. "In the end, all of these statements are completely useless beyond showing that no AT is obsolete as long as people continue playing them. Including stalkers."

People need to quit it with their "my AT is better than your AT!" contests. It gets old and lame, and equivalent to trying to say one Scrapper powerset is better than another Scrapper powerset. Some might be numerically a little better than the others, but they're still able to kick butt and chew bubble gum at the same time. Go play the AT and powerset you want and you'll be more happy, and we can be done with these idiotic debates.

People are debating in one of the beta forums if the rewards table is random or contribution based. I do rather wish the devs would say one way or the other, but it sure seems random from what I have seen people commenting on. My reward tables have been all over the place on GP... a few uncommons, two or three commons, and a rare... and I'm always on the same AT and doing the same stuff with him, or I have had a higher drop on times when I did "less" than with other attempts.


Masque, I wouldn't worry too much about the IXP stuff. As long as people know about it and do their best to split things up well, that's about all you can do.