A new itrial every issue? How about no?

One of the development goals that's been stated for City of Heroes is that there will be a new Incarnate Trial every issue.

With the addition of costume pieces that are available ONLY through incarnate trials, the new incarnate system is starting to see more like PVP to me. It seems like a system that the marketing department desperately wants to sell and is attaching more and more goodies to try to make it more palatable to me.

I'm not disparaging the work done on the trials, nor am I saying that there aren't people who like them and enjoy them. However, I would prefer them to be very occasional content. I'd personally like to avoid them altogether, but the option for that is missing out on any +50 advancement.

I hate that it's nigh-impossible to BUILD a group below 50 any more unless the WTF happens to be sub-50 taskforce.

I hate that people want to stand around in Pocket D for an hour before doing 20 minutes of content.

I hate that you can't just grab a few friends to do the content with. You have to recruit a dozen players. Sorry, devs. The LFG queue tool still 'appears' broken. Until you convince players that going with the maximum-sized group is not better than joining the queue it'll probably continue to be.

I hate that new costume pieces are tied to 2, now 3 pieces of content that are designed to be farmed. That really sucks. That sucks hard. If you want these rewards, you WILL farm this content. Hey, that rainbow aura is just what the doctor ordered for fairy characters, unicorns, or the like, but you've got to have at least one 50 and farm some trials to get it!


But what I hate more than all this is the thought that this is the new status quo. The 'new itrial every issue' statement indicates that NCSoft intends to ride in this direction for at least a while.

How many more costume pieces are going to be hidden behind a trial grind?

How many more rewards are going to require farming the same trial over and over again?

How many more times am I going to hear 'Why won't you come BAF with us instead?' when I try to recruit for lowbie groups?


How about a new itrial every other issue? We've heard of strike teams that now make up the Paragon staff. How about you guys introduce us to the strike team that will introduce a new mid-level TF every issue, or the new mission writer strike team, or the strike team that will make new costumes that aren't hidden behind grinding trials? I'd really like to meet the strike team that is creating new incarnate content that's not tied to a trial.

I'm sick of trials. I've done BAF and Lambda more than I care to. The thought of farming Keyes is daunting. I don't want to do it.

It's making me not care about the rewards. The thought of not being able to share in the rewards with my groupmates who refuse to go on trials makes me want to never play my 50s.


Please. No more trials. I've had enough.

More iTrials please, kthnxbye.

Some solo startable incarnate content please.

The upcoming hybrid model will bring around lots of players sub-50 (many of whom won't have access to incarnate content).

New powersets and lower level content (new praetoria zone and monthly story arcs) will also increase play at all levels.

I don't think 1 new incarnate trial each issue will be a bad thing, as long as it is balanced by similar sub-50 content.

Not only in every Issue - but in these mini-Issues too, to help build up the range of Trials we can choose from

I say bring us more iTrials on each issue. I love them and it's been a long time coming for us to get some true end game content. Regular Task Forces and Strike Forces are not end game content, but the iTrials seem to be filling that void that we've been asking for.

No matter what the devs bring us, it won't please anyone. I'm not a RP'er therefore Pocket D to me was a complete waste of time. But yet I continued to pay my monthly sub as I know some things I will not like nor use. So the Anit-iTrial players out there will just have to deal with it as I and many others have

I actually don't mind iTrials. I just hate the "iTrials are the center of the universe if you want to advance" part.

I was calm going into this because I never thought it would go down this way. Now that I see the lack of planning and the essentially "you can just stay low level if you don't like it, getting more powerful is not for you" attitude I am livid.

I have my fingers crossed that something will eventually be done. They've fixed other things I hated (the Lore pets being a good example). But it's still sad that the game that pretty much invented the "do as you will" style of play and came out with the awesoness that was the Alpha slot stooped to this.

You feel left out because you can't get some costume pieces without running the trials? You must really hate all of those booster packs then.

dear lord, another thread... thought this was all being discussed in 3 threads just below this one...

There is plenty of content that is being added to the game that isn't iTrial related. Plus the simple fact of the UNLOCKABLES being "exclusive" to the iTrials/Incarnate merits is only limited to the Ascension Armor for fact. The other bits are currently only available through the same Incarnate Merit vendors, but keep in mind that we have NO IDEA what the Paragon Store will offer. Breathe please.

More low level content every issue? Ew. How about no?

Still, it humors to me no end that people cried about no end game content for years and now that we're finally getting it people are complaining about all this new endgame stuff being added.

low level content? Yeah... the new tutorial is as low as you can get, plus the new 20-25 Preatorian zone, not to mention addition missions throughout.

It's optional content - no one needs to play it - not playing it doesn't affect the 1-50 part of the game at all.
If you're not interested in the Trials, then you don't really need any of the Incarnate powers, as they're designed mostly for the Trials - it's a self-contained mini-game, like the market, or bagdes, or PvP.