Issue 20 info is up!

And non-Praetorian Incanrate content enemies could eventually unlock pet upgrades

I'd like that. For example, Recluse is an Incarnate; there could be an Arachnos centered Incarnate TF (or just add the feature to the Statesman TF) that grants you the power to summon Arachnos pets. Or beating the ITF could let you summon Cimeroans, or perhaps Cyclops/Minotaurs - several of the high level TFs could easily be "repurposed" as Incarnate-related content. They already have as a degree after all, with the Incarnate component salvage.

There could also be an "Incarnate Challenge Setting", sort of like the "Master of" setting that seriously buffs the difficulty of those TFs so that even Incarnates find them a challenge. Beating them on that difficulty could be what unlocks the pets.

Please understand that I say this with no ill will or malice:

Put me on ignore. Put me on ignore, then look at who people are quoting when you read their posts, and if they're quoting me, then don't read said quote and don't read what they've replied. Simply avoid having any contact with me, and you will have a much easier time, if I indeed bother you so much. It's what I do for people I don't like, and it's worked wonders. In fact, I end up skipping over about half of this thread doing just that.

Again, I have nothing against you putting me on ignore, if it makes your life easier.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Yes and no. I don't say a tenth of the things I want to say, and I always feel that I've said ten times more than I should have. In my regular day to day life, I'm practically incapable of communication. I can't express myself with spoken words, person to person, face to face.

But in text, I can. I can select every word, put it exactly where I want it, proofread what I'm going to say so it actually says what I mean... text gives me a voice. A voice that I didn't have for almost three decades. And it's the only one that I have, or ever can have. I post because I need to. I need to express myself in some way, to communicate with the world outside of my mental prison. Being completely alone, cut off and incapable of saying anything to anyone is so horribly depressing, it's indescribable.

So yes, I'm okay with making several thousand posts on a forum. I have to, because it's the only way I can express myself, and I need to express myself, just as you do, as everyone does. And I want to post, to use my voice, because I spent so much of my life in silence, incapable of saying anything to anyone. It feels good to be able to speak, in any way, after so many years of being unable to do so. I'm still afraid, but I can manage and control the fear by managing and controlling what I say.

I am mentally ill, but I am still a human being, and human beings are social animals, we degenerate, emotionally and mentally, when we're incapable of socializing in any manner.

Which is moot because most of us use our global name as our forum name, so it wouldn't have been difficult for anyone to guess anyway, and doubly moot because less than half a dozen people from the forums has ever used it to connect with me in the game. Having my global name obviously visible hasn't resulted in an overwhelming surge of popularity, or even recognition. I added it to my .sig so people who didn't know my forum name was my global name would know, on the off chance that they might discover a sudden and overwhelming need to say something to me or ask a question. Primarily because I felt a responsibility as one of the more visible Trick Arrows supporters.

My Lumiverse. It started as an offhand comment when I was in a super group on Pinnacle. Someone said something about me being in my own Lumiverse. It appealed to my love for bad puns, so I took it and made it "real". It's as moot as my global name being in my .sig, because I have even fewer members in my channel than I've had forumites contact me via global name. It's a ghost town. Which is fine by me, it's my ghost town. My Lumiverse. I never expected it to become a hub of activity for the entire game, I added it for the same general reason I added the global name, in case people wanted to talk TA, or talk to me. There are a few inhabitants, nice people who I enjoy talking on the rare occasion when I don't feel like I'm ruining someone's life by interrupting whatever they were doing, but mostly, I just keep it around because I still enjoy the pun, and I keep it in my .sig because despite my bitterness about the complete lack of concern, or even awareness, that the current developer team seems to have for TA, I still maintain a futile hope that someday, it won't be the red-headed stepchild of "Buff" sets and some people will find the channel useful for discussing TA.

I also do these things in part as a means of sustaining self-sufficiency. I lost touch with my family a very long time ago, I have no friends, no significant other. I have a cat. My cat won't take care of me if I lose control of my mind again, go back into my mental prison, lose my job and end up homeless. I have no-one to rely upon but myself, and that, that one thing, scares me more than... even more than making eye contact. The thought of losing everything in this fight, of dying in some alley somewhere, starving, filthy, ragged... I can't accept that. I have to keep myself going. So I tread water, doing things like maintaining a job, going to the grocery store, trying to go to the bank regularly, and participating in online communication. In a very real sense, my life depends on my ability to do things like this, and that makes it worth the fear, the irony of a person with social anxiety disorder being a blabbermouth online and opening him/herself up to communication in a game.

"Solo a few arcs" and "get some shards" do not go together, unless you're talking of the specifically GIANT arcs like World Wide Red or To Save a Thousand Worlds, which take quite a few hours to run through. I've tried to gather Shards that way, and it's far from "log in for an hour, get a Shard."

Besides, within the context of the Incarnate system, that's only relevant for the Common Alpha, and at most the Uncommon Alpha. Everything up from that is team-only content. And, no, an intentionally prohibitive option does not count.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I don't know about Luminara's situation, but sometimes there's disabilities that can't be overcome. Just like no amount of 'can do' spirit can help a person with no legs to tap dance, there are mental disabilities that simply are, and all the 'help' in the world won't change the reality of them.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Softcapping an Invuln is fantastic. Softcapping a Willpower is amazing. Softcapping SR is kissing your sister.

For me, it has become a case of obstinance. I was willing to discuss WITH people, see their side, consider their arguments, evaluate their opinion and generally cooperate. Despite my reputation, I always prefer to cooperate with people, rather than compete with them. Ideally, I'd like a forum where I can say "I disagree" without this being considered a blood insult.

However, it was made abundantly clear to me that I was not allowed to hold or express an unpopular opinion, and that people only barely tolerated my doing so. When I decided to state my opinion more than once in more than one place, this tolerance was shattered, and I become the de-facto go-to pariah that fans of the Incarnate system can rally behind hating. That's not exactly what I was going for, but I'll take it. At least now I don't have to post an opinion again, as apparently everybody knows what I want to say better than I do, and will argue with me about what I REALLY think, which is actually kind funny when you stop to think about it.

I try to be careful in my wording. When I talk about "bad for the game," I try to phrase it as "I don't think it's good for the game." To me, this seems like a statement of opinion, but people will nevertheless take turns to tell me how I'm wrong, all the while doing nothing to convince me to think otherwise, beyond just telling me I should. I'm starting to think that if the forum bullies are going to be presenting their own opinions as fact, then I might as well skirt the line, myself.

---

What's most funny for me, though, is that no concession I make is never enough. "Wait until Issue 20!" they said, and so I waited. This didn't stop people from insulting me about being impatient despite waiting for the Issue. They told me to be patient for I21 and beyond, and I said I would be. I out-and-out said I'd give the game another couple of years. But even that doesn't seem to be enough. Oh, no, I have to LIKE the new content, or I'm a big stupid doo-doo head, because if I don't like what the developers have apparently spent so much time and effort on creating, then this makes me into a really bad man. Never you mind that they spent all their time working on things I never asked for, all the while not doing all the things I asked for, but apparently I'm not allowed to be unhappy.

I don't intend to stop being unhappy until something happens to make me happy, and I don't intend to stop talking about it as long as I'm being provoked

I do, however, intend to stop bringing it up out of context.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Oi! Thanks for brightening my day! Yeah, there's that, I completely forgot. Yeah, definitely looking forward to the Vanguad pack.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

They locked the thread because you weren't saying anything new. You think repeating the same thing many times is discussion. It's not.

They valued your input enough to respond to it. They didn't fully agree with it. That's not the same as 'not listening.' They listened and they disagreed.

Obviously, if you don't let them disagree, then you're not making a case, you're making a demand. Nothing less then agreement and capitulation to what you want will make you stop asking for the same thing over and over and over again.

And thank-you. Your argumentation has finally tipped over the edge into the abyss of complete unreasonableness. Not that asking for solo-friendly content isn't perfectly reasonable. But they way you want it and the timeteable at which you expect it isn't happening as you would like (nay, *demand*), and thus, you're indefatigably petulant about your demands. At this point, I see no point arguing with you over this anymore.

And no, you haven't been told your input isn't valued. You haven't. You just didn't get your way.

I'd like if they did this instead of sticking us with Praetorian pets. NONE of the pets impress me, because none of those mob type impress me. I don't see them giving us a to scale size Warwalker (the ONLY impressive one to me).

Seriously, they seem to be needlessly obsessed with that world. It ain't that impressive folks.

I was just stating to use it as both you and Sam were getting a little to serious.

/shrug

If you like the stress go right ahead.

That's part of what gets me about the whole Praetorian storyline. Incarnates feel less like the power of the gods and more like the power of the Praetorians, which is what's throwing me off, narratively speaking. I'd have thought that Incarnate status would have made us strong enough to take on a whole variety of threats, but so far the only threat we're able to take on is Marcus Cole. And maybe it's my distaste for Jack's "baby," but a Marcus Cole that is to other Marcus Coles what other Marcus Coles are to ordinary people is really straining my tolerance for Mary Sue.

Why must everything come down to that one guy and his doubles?

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Seeing as that costume set is dependant on having an active account for an extended period it doesn't count as I20 content.

...and following a failure to renew on my primary account (hence, posting on my secondary) I won't be picking it up anyway. Meh, I was planning on keeping active for a while but the I20 overview makes me a lot less bothered about doing so. That, and this thread, which is showing an unusually ugly and arrogant side to some members of this community.

Long term I can't shake the feeling that CoH's new endgame is going to turn out to be a rather good illustration of the old saying be careful what you wish for...

I dont know, the battle drones are very handy and powerfull imo. Possibly they could make each branch in the tree one for Praetoria and the other for Primal.

I do wish they'd make that a regular pack at some point, to be honest. I'd pay money for it... Even if I weren't already paying money for it, but that's besides the point.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

From what we've seen of the system so far, while some people might not like the method of how to get the powers, the powers themselves are actually very powerfull and people will finally start to feel like incarnates.

the AOEs and buffs look awesome. The pets, not so much. But that's mainly because as time goes on I'm getting more and more sick of Praetoria. But it has nothing to do with how powerful those pets may or may not be once we get to test them.

Thats fair enough and if im honest, while the pets will be nice i cannot see myself using them on a regular basis. The effects added to your attacks/team buffs on the other hand . . . . . .

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Yeah those procs are win. Some of them are as high as a 25% chance.

Again, pure win.

As an aside, is it me or does it seem like for what we've seen so far of the Incarnate System, but won't buffers and deffuing based toons become the most powerful toons? I mean with ally buffs, AOE attack, Praetorian pet backing them up, Alpha to fill any holes their builds may be, and the awesome debuff/buff procs, it seems to me that players of buffing/debuffers should be in heaven.

As I've told folks before that was Issue 18, Going Rogue. A 90%+ solo expansion. I was told to just try it, I was scolded how solo friendly COH is and how we should all embrace it. "Your endgame was coming EG", they told me.

SO I shut my trap and ran tips and even took a couple of characters through Praetoria. I didn't create 154 posts about how Praetoria sucked. I didn't troll every thread regarding Going Rogue. I complained, but then I moved on.

I could live with that, if he didn't have the gall to suggest that he really hates arguing on the forums. I tried with Sam, but all I got was nonsense from him about how others were ruining the forums for him.

As players complain about ambushes from hell, I'd argue that GR being a 90% solo expansion is VERY arguable. The devs may have meant it to be mainly soloable, but that's (besides the FORCED solo missions) NOT the perception I get from the playerbase at large.

Complete and utter nonsense. No one cares whether Sam Tow likes the Incarnate trials. What folks have been saying for months is that the developers can and should create interesting team based content. You might not like it, but if you want the rewards you should at least try it.

This martyr complex is what has gotten me to snap.

Folks like Sam don't know how good this game is for them compared to other MMORPGs. You posted even half of the nonsense I've seen, folks would tell you straight away to go find another game. Hell, I've seen the devs tell people that. Games built around social interaction are going to encourage social interaction. It's that simple.