Great, the incarnate system requires completing a mission arc

I don't mind that unlocking Incarnate requires completing an arc.

I do mind a little that unlocking Incarnate requires completing one, particular arc.

It's not a bad arc. It's just going to get old. Like the cape mission, and the aura mission, and Monty. The patron arcs are a somewhat superior model, because there are four of them.

Rather than one four-door arc, it would have been interesting to see four or five arcs: say, one for each origin, or one for each of the four Alpha boost types. They wouldn't have to be wholly unique, even; just one or two unique missions per arc would make a lot of difference. It is stated that there are many paths to the Well. It would have been nice to actually have more than one path to the Well. That would make me excited about unlocking Incarnate multiple times, as it'd be a way to see the multiple paths.

Water under the bridge now, though.

When people talk about the "tedium" of having to complete new content for the Incarnate system, I have to ask myself why the content was added in the first place. Please forgive me if I'm wrong in the particulars, and I don't claim to know everything about the game, but here's my interpretation:

PROBLEM: People complained that there was no end-game in CoH. When you hit 50, people wanted something to do other than: Grind out Inf, purple-out your build, PvP, hold costume contests, roleplay, make more alts, etc.

As a result, people started proposing solutions, but most of them were based on things they saw in other games they played. The two biggest (in my estimation) of these proposals were:

1. Expanding PvP into the PvE zones (with /duel, etc). The idea being that since PvP is given as a rationale for playing your 50s instead of retiring them, it should be easier to access/more public. This was largely rejected because most people like the separation of PvE from PvP zones (which is rare in MMOs that have PvP and could be considered a selling point of CoH), don't want the associated griefing/lag, and also because they don't enjoy PvP enough to rationalize massive changes to the game to accomodate a change they wouldn't use (or would actively avoid).

2. Simply tacking on 10 more levels to the game. The idea being that this is the model most other games use when their end-game content starts getting stale. You can't retire a 50 if the new cap is 60. This idea was largely rejected because it did little to address the actual problem, since players would quickly hit 60 and start complaining about having nothing to do again. They complained that it would make their hard-earned level 50 purples obsolete. They complained that the resources needed to add the new levels would take away from content updates to the early levels which was sorely needed at the time (and I would consider Praetoria and Inherent Fitness to be attempts to address this very issue). They also complained that it would widen the gap between low level players and higher level ones even with the Super SK system, discouraging inter-level teaming.

CoH players didn't want another grind just for the sake of a grind, they wanted CONTENT, compelling, engaging, challenging content without the problems associated with either proposed solution. So the developers tried something new.



SOLUTION: A story-driven end-game that adds to character progression slowly enough that it can't be "finished" in a week, doesn't discourage (but also doesn't require) teaming, doesn't make level 50 purple enhancements obsolete, and doesn't (at least initially) require higher level zones to implement, and challenges your characters in ways they may have never been challenged before.

Naturally, not everyone will be satisfied with the implementation, but I'm absolutely amazed at how well the developers did this. Sure, people will complain that the arc is too hard, and other people will respond that the arc is SUPPOSED to be hard, because that's what we asked them to give us. People will complain that the arc will get stale, and eventually it will, but that's something they can change over time if need be (as they have done with the new cape mission, etc). Personally, I think it will be a long time before the Incarnate initiation arc gets stale for me, because I have very few 50s and because the time investment for maximizing the Incarnate system is so large (by design), that I'm only going to bother with it on characters I really, really enjoy playing. If you have the time and inclination, do it 60 or 100 times though--no one is stopping you. However, I'd argue that the lower level content will get stale much more quickly than the Incarnate arc because all of those 60 or 100 alts had to do the lower level content first (and that's why I love additions like Going Rogue).

It's a bit early to complain about the arc being old unless you got really into testing it in beta.

Although I'm pretty sure history is against me on this one we cans till hope that other paths will open in the future. Even if they are all mission arcs it would give us a choice of how we want tog et there and a fall back if we get worn out of our preferred path.

Thanks, guys. i was in a terrible mood before i read this thread. The first few pages were an amazing pick me up. Too bad it seems to have lost its thunder..

I understand the OP's point though I don't agree. I cannot imagine and will not be unlocking Incarnate on all my 50s any more than I would purple all of them.

I am thinking I might do 2 or 3 of them.