If I'd designed the Incarnate system...

- The way Destiny and Judgement work would be totally different. Controllers would get control effects. Tankers would get agro and damage control effects. Blasters would get damage effects, etc... Right now, there's terribly a lot of sameness between characters that should not have that kind of sameness due to the fact that everyone can blast, buff, and debuff.

- I wouldn't have focused entirely on Praetoria with the story part of the system. Praetoria would figure in largely, but I would have included content written around the other 'High End' content. If I'd done one of two launch trials in Praetoria, the other would be in another dimension, such as on Rikti Earth.

- I'd have allowed thread drops on all level 45+ taskforces, probably at a reduced rate. Right now, there's too much of the player base focused on a tiny part of the game's content. A lot of players who'd otherwise be able to group with those characters as they would on taskforces like ITF aren't currently able to do that.

- Trials would have roughly the same mechanisms, but they'd be limited to 8 players. I personally do not like for the league system, but there's also a technical issue here. The mapserver starts to perform worse and worse with more entities on the map, including players, pets, and enemies. During the 'Escaping Prisoners' phase of BAF, a full league can bring the mapserver to its knees. Nobody knows when their powers are recharged or if any of their non-damaging powers are having an effect.

But that's just me...

If I'd designed the Incarnate System...

* It would be available from first level because... umm... I don't have a 50th level character.

* It would have deeply involved the gods and actual mythology... although getting Aphrodite and similar dieties to obey the Teen rating may have been tricky.

* Three words: Spreadsheet Booster Pack.

* In any way employing the Incarnate system automatically enters you in my Tournament complete with automatic scoring of your character and world-wide comparison with all other Tournament characters.

* Changes in the Tournament rules will result in complete deletion of ALL tournament characters and a world-wide "reset."

* Would not have set much of the Incarnate System in Praetoria since you are kicked out of Praetoria at 20th level so NO Praetorian can actually ever qualify for the existing Incarnate System.

You know what? I don't think I'd do too much different with the Incarnate system (because it's fun for my scrapper to have a blaster level nuke and my empath will stop being useless) besides broaden the mythologies involved to include Babylonian mythology with Gilgamesh as the first incarnate. (No matter how powerful you become, he would always greet you with "MONGRELS!") I also would have had Odin come in with all of Asgard as a series of coop zones, complete with an Incarnate PVP zone, I mean this whole Coming Storm business sounds like the kind of thing a paranoid "all-seeing" god would think is Ragnarok.

Oh, also, I'd add a solo Incarnate path, my present idea is a series of Solo-only TFs where you end up playing as Incarnates of the game's lore (including before they were Incarnates) and play out the moments that shaped and defined their lives to learn about the nature and power of the Incarnates. I'd balance out simply farming these by making them only give Emp merits once, Astrals a second time, then reward merits the rest of the times you run them.

Also, I wouldn't use that @#$%ing Incarnate store.
And I'd probably would have included more Judgement types and maybe a special "minimal effects" option for Destiny.

I'd also probably change some things Lore wise, I probably would have changed around a lot more, just can't quite think of the specifics right now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

If I were designing the Incarnate system, I'd probably leave everything more-or-less as it is, with one exception: I would not have introduced Incarante Threads or Astral and Empyrean Merits. Shards were fine, and I would have designed the system around Shards.

There's enough currencies as it is. We really didn't need four Incarnate currencies.

If' I'd have designed the Incarnate System:

Every shard, thread, and merit would be global and that all of your alts could use them from a pooled salvage lot.

Even the Powers would be global. As in, you earn them and unlock them on one alt and they'd be available to every 50 you have. You could then set the power on one alt, log into another alt and have the same power available.

This would give ALL players incentive to unlock EVERY powerset from every Incarnate power.

How I would limit the powers:

If you selected one power for Alpha on your main, all of your level 50 alts would be locked out of selecting a new Alpha power for 1 hour. The perfect amount of time to run an iTrial, log out, grab a new alt, then select the powers suitable for it.

For me, this would be ideal as I have 45+ 50's. Earning account unlockables (coming in 20.5) is good, but having to spend time on making all my 50's go through and recraft all of the items is going to be just as tedious as earning the Merits for the unlockables.

Just my 2inf.

Global threads, shards, and E-Merits would be wonderful, but they'd never consent to it. You'd have to pay Positron some untold number of money that I wouldn't be able to stuff in my pants.

There's not a lot I would change with the current Incarnate system, but it's not to say I think it's perfect either. Specifically, I feel the Incarnate system has a lot of needless complexity - and I say this as a player that usually likes complexity. Here's my thoughts on it so-far:

• Tier 4 abilities across the board should be revamped. It makes little sense that Tier 4 requires that Tiers 1-3 should be repeated. This is especially true in the case of the newer abilities. Oftentimes building the first couple tiers is the easy part - the hard part comes from the end-of-trial lotto and hoping you get that Rare or VRare Component, or grinding trial after trial to get the Merits to eventually buy it. Wouldn't it just be easier to just increase the costs of the Tier 4 abilities instead? Same result, with less needless complexity.
  
  
• I would not have introduced another system of currency, nor even more salvage to confuse and confound players (more on Incarnate Salvage later). I'm not a big fan of needless new currencies added into a game (usually it's a sign of poor game design), but what bothers me more is:
  
  
• Pointless Currency, or in the case of the Incarnate system, Incarnate Salvage. What is the point of Incarnate Salvage? All it does is add an unnecessary level of complexity to the system. This is made even worse as the Incarnate Salvage really makes no sense what so ever. How would a Worn Spellbook aid my Tech Mastermind, or an Superconductive Membrane aid my Magic defender. If I had designed the Incarnate system, I would have distilled all costs to just simply use shards for the abilities. No Incarnate Salvage, no Merits