Issue 20 info is up!

So was I. Not all of the Incarnate powers are going to be able to be role played as part of your character's inherent powers. My Scrapper whose mutant powers are flight and regeneration is gaining the power to do AoE damage (for example) from the Well of the Furies, not from some secondary mutation.

Great points. I think what folks are simply saying is for the devs not to abandon that style of play. Story arcs are the bread and butter of building a story in this game. I think folks are just poking the devs to not forget about that. I also think a side issue is the focus on Preatoria. If you don't like that storyline, what then? I think it's one of the things that prompted that thread earlier this week that some community reps commented on, asking for feedback on what storylines should be continued/re-focused on in COH.

One of the problems with the market leader is that the Raiding Endgame system has caused the lower level areas to dry up in terms of available people to team with. Even after an expansion that was supposed to revitalize those lower level areas.

It's a constant problem with MMORPGs that keep upping the RAID system.

However with the way COH is set up I think they can avoid that.

Which is a problem for some folks, as the Well of the Furies is very origin specific.

Me I don't care. I'll take any power I can get at any time.

That's the thing though what happens next?

If a person doesn't want/isn't able to, take part in raids and so on, what are they to do? Especially when the next issue is Incarnate gated, and the issue after that? Well they can just leave, seems to be the response from the dev defense force.

Wow, what a great attitude, one I can only hope isn't shared by the devs "Oh you've been playing for seven years. Thank you, now play it the way we tell you to play, or you can **** right off!".

We've done fine without group only progression, we've done fine without 'real' time sinks and gating. Why after seven years have the devs decided to shift the spirit of the game?

Let's look at the market leader, when they add new raid content they add solo stuff as well, so that while raider Bob is getting his Tier X so he can do the raid for Tier X+1 gear, so six months down the line he can raid for Tier X+2. Solo Sue on the other hand is still able to get comparable gear on her own, at her own speed, through new missions or factions or crafting or so on.

Err, what part, if any, of the Incarnate system is mandatory?

LOL; I have to use that one.

That's a misunderstanding.


The Well of Furies isn't one origin, it is all of them. It's the reason why a rich boy whose parents got murdered trains himself to be an expert archer and kicks crime in the face, rather than pissing the family fortune away in a self destructive grief cycle. It's why a person can be born as a mutant with the ability to control fire, and not just be born with a few extra toes. It's the reason why an inventor can make a power suit, and not just a toaster. Why a scientist can be gifted with control over gravity after a lab accident, and not just end up in a hospital bed waiting to die.

Which is the whole point of the Alpha slot unlock arc.

Rather than tapping directly into the source, and thus having the source be able to tap into you. You go the other way, you become incarnate by being extra badass at what you did to reach threat/security level fifty in the first place.

From what i've seen and understood, the incarnate xp that you get unlocks the next "level" so you can then slot the powers. Once you have unlocked that level the next lot of xp automatically goes towards unlocking the next "level".
So while you wont be able to chose which order to unlock them, you can skip one entirely AFTER unlocking it.

That's not my argument. My argument goes like this. If you don't want to do that stuff, there's literally DAYS worth of solo content you can do and get great rewards for doing so. So far, the Incarnate abilities are powerful, but not more powerful than a very strong Inventions build. The most powerful Inventions builds are available through 100% solo play. You can use Ouroboros and Tips and even just farming bosses in hazard zones for rares/purples. There's plenty to do and I doubt that most of the folks complaining have done it all. Sam might have though given how long he's been here.

Actually for the first couple of years, there were much more onerous group requirements in standard content. Things like simultaneous glowies and guaranteed AVs in standard missions. So it's not exactly true that this is a new development.

Yes, it is. I have no intention of allowing specific people to ruin my fun on the forums over whatever stubborn agenda they may have, when we can coexist peacefully. I don't come to a discussion forum to challenge other people's ideas and opinions. I come to share ideas and opinions, as well as to get information. I feel no need to browbeat others and I feel no need to dominate them. This is not a discussion, not in my eyes.

A discussion focuses focuses on arguments on the subject matter at hand, not on arguments ad hominem. People who resort to these are not people I'm interested in having a discussion with any more than I'm interested in having a discussion with my cat.

My life has been much happier once I learned to stay away from peer pressure and ignore, avoid and stay away from the things I don't like, and this is one more way to do so.

Not very good, because it's a flawed, one-sided view of the situation. We are all players here, and should really have equal "rights" to be happy. It's a mistake to only ever base development resources based on those who are happy and ignore those who are not. After all, isn't that precisely why the Incarnate system was introduced? I was perfectly happy not having an end game system, but others were not. An end game system was added, and those who were unhappy before are happy now. Do you view that as a positive change?

Ironically, to claim that you claim you don't want changes to the game based on the outlooks of people currently unhappy with specific aspects of it is the ultimate act of sticking your fingers in your ears and going "LALALALALAL I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" You're happy with the game (I assume) and are arguing that those who are not should be ignored, and the problems they bring up should be ignored, as well, by virtue of being brought up by contemptible people.

Finally, it is not my "ideas" you challenge by making your claim. You are challenging my person, by virtue of dismissing me entirely for being unhappy. No good ever comes from ignoring problems.

Then you only see what you want to see. With a very few exception, all cries of martyrdom have been levelled at the player base, and in particular a select few posters. "We people" don't feel wrong by the game or by the developers. Disappointed, maybe, but you can't always get what you want. What "we people" feel wrong by is "you people" who keep insisting on "challenging" us at every turn, stoutly determined to ensure nothing we say ever goes unspat on, lest we be allowed to feel we have a voice.

How you can take the moral high ground in this situation is beyond me. I'm not saying I've never intentionally played the bad guy in such situation, but at least when I do, I do so with the clear admission that I'll be the bad guy. You can be as much an intolerant Internet bully as is your fancy, that's fine. It comes with the territory. But you don't get to claim righteousness in doing so.

[/quote]As my wife is fond of saying, "If you don't wan't people to laugh at your beliefs, then perhaps you should not have such funny beliefs."[/QUOTE]

I agree. I should indeed not hold the funny opinions that I do, which make so many people laugh at me. Has this point not been made enough times already? Should I start a counter?

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.

Although, you didn't have to beat the K-bot from what I recall. It even had some nice alternate souvenir text if you didn't [even the weakened form later on].

But back in the early days, it sucks rather harshly to try to solo as a [most] controller before level 32. After 32, it was a joke because of perma-hasten + triple pet casts, but gah I remember how painful some missions were [Oh noes! Two bosses, I r teh bonzed]. It has improved a lot though. And this is a good thing.

Personally though, I'm ok with the ladder to the 'last level' being solo friendly, while the end-game is group/raid orientated. Now, the fake levels out of level shifts do make it awkward and different, but personally I just consider them another factor of a buff. I do understand that other people view them differently however.

I am. And this is not a new argument. It is, in fact, the same argument I made about Patron Powerpools in I7. Yes, I can see why the storyline would justify us borrowing other entities' powers, my beef isn't that it doesn't make sense. My beef is with why it was deemed necessary to write a story where we had no alternate explanations but that we are borrowing other entities' powers?

I'm well aware of the story of the Well of the Furies, and to be honest, I didn't find a problem with it originally. Back before we were given a specific explanation, I tended to interpret the Well's power more as a form of "inspiration," in that it makes us better at what we do, but doesn't actually let us do new things that we wouldn't normally be able to do with our powers. I'll have to re-examine the newer storylines, but it seems like this is no longer the case.

This represents a trend in writing that I've been arguing about for years now - the game becomes less and less tolerant towards allowing us to pretend this is our story. The old Launch content was very inclusive, permitting characters of all mentalities, all motivations and types of power. The Epics we got with I1 were even better - just more powers that could easily be used to extend the ones we already had, and seamlessly so. But ever since CoV came out, the storyline has assumed more and more, decreed more and more and excluded more and more, and we keep being allowed to borrow other people's powers, and thus lie our characters to other people narratively.

Having this as an option, such as the ability to use Vanguard gear to represent yourself as a Vanguard options is indeed very good. I'll go a step further and say that I no longer have a problem with Patron pools, now that villains got access to Epics. I mean, I might want to have some characters associate with some NPC factions, sure. But having no choice in the matter... Not my thing.

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.

Which is why I said it's a very specific origin.

NOW THAT is 10 shades of awesome.

Honestly this used to be my issue with the Patron Powers. Especially when it was used as a justification why we couldn't respec out of them. Thankfully the devs have evovled Sam.

As I already said, I can see them allowing us powers that come from the system but don't relate to the Mary Sue, Marcus Cole and his farts are omnipresent in every dimension, story we have going now, eventually.

Just . . . not right now.

Yes, I view the Incarnate system as a positive change. More people are playing the game, (from all evidence we as players can see) so how is that not positive? My closest friends are all rejuvenating their love of the game, how is that not positive?

You don't seem to understand my point. You have claimed, more than once, that you are an unhappy person, in general. I don't want that type of influence on the game. Being unhappy with something specific and giving constructive feedback is good. What you and others have been doing, lately, is NOT constructive feedback, IMO.

Sam, what you don't realize, is that I have respected you as a poster and positive influence to the game for many years. We simply differ in our viewpoints on what will continue to make the game profitable.

Yes, I am summarily dismissing many, if not all, of your ideas at this point, based upon a number of factors, not the least of which is that I think you are a 'debbie downer' in general.

That still does not NOT mean I am challenging you as a human. I am dismissing your ideas about this game, not your life outlook. I am a fairly pessimistic pragmatist myself.

Duh, humans all do that. It's how we live our lives.

I am not preventing you from having a voice, only the Mods can do that. I am expressing differing opinions, which happen to include not wanting to respect yours, for a number of reasons as discussed.

I can, and will, claim anything I like, just as you do. Does not make it a fact. Morals are a construct of belief. I choose to live in logic. I try very hard not to 'claim' anything that I cannot back up with logic. I don't care one whit about any moral high ground.

If you like. I knew when I typed that some people would be amused and others would not. Some people can't laugh at themselves, some can.

Now, to re-iterate, show me where I prevented you from expressing your opinion? This, if anything, is the martyrdom I was referring to earlier. I am not doing anything more than expressing my opinions. I am simply not doing them in a way you find pleasing. I am not aware of a rule that says I must.

I have had many posts moderated over the years. Just as you like to toss out, please feel free to report me if you like. *shrug*

I will continue to rail against misinformation and half-baked 'feelings' about how the game should be modified.

Also note, not once, NOT ONCE, will you have seen me post that more solo content should get added to the game. I am, personally, about 70% a solo player. I would LOVE that. But I am not here bashing what has been added in an effort to get more solo content added. I have had enough of this incessant whining from certain posters. I am just as allowed to let that bother me, Sam, as you are allowed to let fire you cannot change the color of in game to bother you.

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'm over here drinking some soda and wrapped in one of those fuzzy blankets cause it's so cold out tonight.

No outrage or American flags, man, I'm all Kiwi. And part Canadian. And a little Scottish or something, I think. Man, I don't think I know who I'm supposed to raise a flag for even if I wanted to.

I dont understand yet how it works...
If I want to unlock and slot lets say judgment, I cant?
I dont have interest in pets, but I do want AoE goodness NAO.