The New Trials and Incarnates

You can say that for just about any content in the game, so I don't see a point here.

You seem to have some unrealistic expectations from an MMO. You won't see "long lasting damage" in the actual zones. The game cannot work like that. No MMO could. The zones have to remain static for new characters and players. They cannot cater to old characters/players in that way.

If they're not going to do the job right, then they shouldn't do it at all. All they managed to do was intro some new content that completely breaks immersion for anyone who actually tries to take the storyline seriously.

They build the damaged zone regions, they should drop the new assets into the existing zones and relocate newbie missions to other areas.

Or quit blowing up newbie areas, that's good too.

Completely and utterly wrong. Other MMO's can, have and DO update older content to tie up with new content. I'd mention one in particular, but forum rules forbid it.

It's a matter of resources only. So far, in i20, I've seen NOTHING to justify the secrecy of the signed NDA, and was hoping something like an old zone update was one of the things they were wanting to keep secret till launch, but nope. Instead, they waste resources on a stupid "participation ranking" system for the new trials that no one wanted, or likes.

the largest one on the market with resources several magnitudes more than ours? and even then they only were able to do it after 6+ years and was absolutely outside of any character's individual stories, old content is completely gone or reworked? the one where unique named characters respawn seconds after you killed them? that one with the immersion?

coh has the advantage of having events being instanced, so we can have actual player story driven events happen without inconveniencing or removing content from others (mostly...somebody is going to whine about numidia and zone events) but by and large, i find the immersion far better served on the instances you are on being changeable, rather than having you at risk of losing content due to developer whim or player events that you do not have any part in.

and again, a few loud players reacting at various degrees of maturity are not representative of "no one", more that forums attract a subset of personality that leads to histrionic overrreaction by a few who can generate hundreds of posts about their displeasure.

I think you, and a few other, are still not quite gettign what the Incarnate sytem is, or how it's tied into the game - there is no end to the Incarnate system.
These 10 slots aren't the only slots they can add, and no slot is limited to just 4 tress - more slots and more trees can be added, as the devs have alreayd mentioned.
There is also no end to the Trials - the current plan is to add one or more Trails with every new Issue - the Trials won't stop once all 10 slots are available, and they won't stop once Tyrant and the loyalists are defeated either.
The devs have alreayd said that once we have these 10 slots, we'll find the first Trials pretty easy, but that there's even mroe challenging content planned for higher level incarnates.
Every day, more and more players and avatars are becoming Incarnates, so the need for more and more Incarnate content is also growing, which is exactly what the devs have planned for.

The development and release on Incarnate content will only end when all other development on the game ends too.

Yeah, that.

Well, except I don't take this storyline seriously, since the devs obviously don't either (exhibit A: Fusion and Jane Tremblor). So at this point, I just consider these overdesigned TFs where every map is new and unique a colossal waste of time that could have been better spent adding more missions and arcs so we wouldn't finish an entire issue's content in four hours.

I agree with this to an extent. I would also like to see those places destroyed for a few issues.

The flip side is that in a world with this kind of power, it would not really take long to rebuild that kind of destruction.

I like the new content, and did pick up on the hints about the well, the coming storm, and Raluruu.

Just because other MMOs can do it doesn't mean it's a good idea, short of a total reboot of the entire game, which isn't what we're talking about. And I was not talking about updating content, I was talking about leaving zones demolished to accomodate missions. You completely and utterly missed the point.

World of Warcraft is what you're talking about right?

What if the dev's realized a story arc that had you go back and repair everything? or build robots that can repair things in an instance, or some such other 'explained in game' explanation for the fact that things get fixed faster then they get blown up?

Would that make you happy?

I mean seriously, this is a SUPERHERO MMO. We have gods/immortals/magicians and such that can destroy entire worlds.. why can't we have a city full of super heroes repair itself in record time?

I would say you just accurately described my "worst case scenario" for CoH. I cannot stand the direction of the new content. It's about as "Steel Shaman Unfriendly" as the Devs can make it. It has EVERYTHING I hate from other MMO's all rolled into it. Part of the reason I've always enjoyed CoH is that it didn't have all that end game crap you find elsewhere.

Now I'm sure someone will come in here and tell me how I should just leave, my opinion doesn't matter, and my 60 months of paid time is of no consequence because I don't like the new shiny that has completely ruined non-50 teaming on my server and turned CoH into a solo game for me.

Bitter? Why yes I am, thank you for noticing.

I really liked them. I thought some of the missions were very creative and I'm glad we keep seeing new stuff. Not everyone is going to like everything.


Like revamping Faultline? That kind of update?

It's not really me describing it - I'm just repeating what the devs have already said in various interviews, Q&As and threads

Yeah I suppose I'm just frustrated.
Despite what others have said to the contrary, this IS a pretty big decision shift for CoH. We're going from having no end game at all to that's all anyone ever talks about or does.

Hopefully it will all shake out in the long run. In the meantime I guess I'll just group when I can, which isn't very often unfortunately.

You really must play on an entirely different liberty then i do. Or, you just avoid the global channels like the plague. See, i can run just about anything i want, at any time of the day i play on. There are plenty of trials going on, but i see the weeklys going on too (currently the 2 new TFs) i also see random Task Force Commander TFs going on, and just about anything else you can think of.

I play on the exact same server you do, and i'm just not seeing the same issues you are. People are willing to run whatever, its just that the new current shiny is these trials, and some people like to progress past level 50, which is what the trials allows you to do.

O rly?

Tell that to Faultline, Eden, Boomtown and The Hollows.

There is no 'instant city rebuild' capability in Paragon, or those places wouldn't be mostly wrecked.

So, 4 zones that have been destroyed since Launch, 2 of which have been at least partially redesigned (Hollows got a technical update, Faultline got entirely redesigned) and thats your argument for why Skyway/Kings/Steel can't instantly be fixed once you exit out of an instanced map?

Whose to say a wizard didn't do it and just hit some big reset button?

Really, you can hand wave just about anything in this game, due to the fact there as so many different stories going on, not just dev created, but also player made.

Uh, the new Faultline and that villain mission where you halt the rebuilding of Boomtown say so. Faultline is full of obvious signs of construction, and Boomtown is still trashed because jerk villains keep showing up and wrecking all the mundane construction equipment they're using to try to fix the place up.

You do realize that the trope namer for A Wizard Did It was an attempt to explain away sloppy continuity, right? Invoking it doesn't exactly help your case.

All things considered, rebuilding a few broken bridges and damaged buildings is going to go faster than a zone with a huge crack in the ground, or a zone where every building is decimated.

And remember that the Rikti War affected every part of Paragon City, and the rebuilding efforts probably focused on Atlas and outward first. Boomtown and Faultline may be last on the list.

Are you primarily playing 50's though?
I'm currently leveling a new character. At one point today I was one of 3 people online in the 11-20 range. At least, that's how many showed up when I did a search. I have no idea if I could even have grouped with them because of that completely non-intuitive color coding the search window has now.

I dunno, maybe I'm just expecting too much. I would just like to occasionally get a team going doing papers, tips, story arcs, that kind of thing. I'm not always in the mood for TF's (well to be fair I'm rarely in the mood for them) but it seems these days when people say "teaming" what they really mean is "TF's".

As for global channels, I'm in LB and LFA. Maybe it's just been the time of day I'm on, but all I ever see folks talking about is the trials in those two channels.

Ah well, I'll keep plugging along. I do still enjoy the game, despite all my griping. I must admit to a certain degree of culture shock when it comes to the new content. The Devs just seem to be re-inventing the game and its direction and to be honest that bothers me a lot. I liked the old game, and don't really want to see it go.

One word. Well, two, i guess. Super-Sidekicking

It honestly doesn't matter what level you are, or what level other people are, with the ability to earn XP while exemplar-ed down, and SSK auto-exemplaring people, you can get any joe off the street and run either their missions, or yours.

If you want to do non-TFs, then just say so in LB or LFA and if people are interested then you'll get hits. If not, then use the search function, don't limit it to certain level ranges, and just let people know up front what your running. I'm sure you'll find someone to team with you

I don't think you should leave, I actually encourage you to voice your opinion as much as possible.

But I will say that I completely disagree and love the new content.