Bitter but still paying...

You don't have to admit it, that's my point. The entire game is built on this premise. This is a city teeming with supers, any one of which could be amazingly powerful. But when the Envoy of Shadows shows up or the Banished Pantheon forge a ritual to trap a goddess, *I* am the only one who can stop them. Why? Where are the other 200 thousand heroes? What are they doing? Don't know, don't care, because - as Tidus would say - "This is MY story!" This is already an accepted part of the game. The owner of a particular mission is treated as the only hero available to do a particular task, and if that heroes refuses or fails, then the world is doomed, irrespective of the fact that there's a conga line of other heroes lining up to do the same thing.

Personally, I'd like to see the game treat my character of choice as a godlike entity and trust him to shine in his own missions. I'm not taking anything away from anyone, all secluded in my own, private instance and no-one is taking anything away from me since they can't enter my own, private instance. If I'm told to go defeat Hequat, I can take pride in having taken down a literal god, even though everyone and his grandma has taken down a literal god. But if I wasn't there to see it, I can pretend it didn't happen. The game can pretend I'm the most important person if the writing says I am, and I will not complain about it even if I know the writing says that to everyone.

I don't play City of Heroes to compete with other players, or to compare-and-contrast my character against theirs. In fact, that's a big reason as to why I rarely team - it's much easier to pretend my character is an unbeatable badass when I play by myself at +0x2 with no bosses or AVs than it is when I team with a bunch of power-built characters wiping the floor with +1x8 spawns with bosses by themselves, putting me to shame. It's incredibly very easy to make a character feel powerful and amazing in his own story if you don't involve other people, much less so in team-only stories. Removing context by not explicitly featuring other players is the key, in my opinion.

Personally, I don't really mind an explicit gate of Incarnate ability on Incarnate-only content. In fact, I prefer it. Let me speak of "another game" the name of which I shall not mention so soon after being modsmacked for mentioning "other games." In this other game, gear quality is denoted by stars, and being given access to a higher-level dungeon requires that you have a full set of, say, two-star gear. This doesn't guarantee you'll be strong enough to survive, but it does guarantee you'll at least have a shot. As such, I have no problem with solo Incarnate content requiring either a specific Incarnate level shift, a specific Incarnate ability and even a specific Incarnate ability Tier.

For instance, say Hequat is back and stronger than ever. To take on her, I would need to have at least a Common ability slotted in all five existing Incarnate slots. If I don't, I can't even take the mission. The contact says I'm not strong enough. By contrast, say Giovanna Scaldi is back and in the physical world. She's much stronger now, but she's still basically a psychic ghost, so all I need to be allowed to fight her is a single Common ability sloted in any of my slots. Or, for instance, an army of the undead has appeared out of... Somewhere. What is needed for someone to handle them is a Judgement power, so the only way to be allowed to take on this mission is to have at least an Uncommon Judgement.

I'm really not that bothered by requirements. So long as content exists that's Incarnate in nature but I can do by myself, I'll be happy.

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.

No argument there, that was a horrible system. Luckily, we got... Or I got the Vanguard Pack, and I no longer have to put up with that nonsense. One only hopes that a pack will show up in the Paragon Store to unlock the faux-Incarnate auras and emotes at character creation in return for paragon points as opposed to blood, sweat and tears.

An Archvillain is not solo content and you know it. Please don't try to pass off team tasks that can be done solo off as solo tasks. That's like saying that a Trial can be started by a single player and that's your solo path. It's not. Team tasks are as difficult as they are because you're expected to tackle them with a team. Simply letting people approach a team task alone is not a solution. Claiming that task is as difficult as a team task is false on its face. Because you're doing it alone, possibly with a not very solo-capable AT, it is monumentally harder.

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.

Not at all. I'm trying to keep it extremely difficult while still possible if they build for it.

You think those trials can be done solo? Hmmm...maaaaybe...but they can't be started solo, and this gives the solo path a way to get all those rewards, while keeping it at equally difficult content.

You're an Incarnate, it gets tougher.

And notice how I said they earn threads for taking out enemies in the mission. Use those threads to get the incarnate slots, objects to obtain Astrals in the mission, and thusly unlock all the Astral Merit goodies.

I truely think that makes it soloable content, while keeping it to equal level of difficulty.

Just because it's soloable doesn't mean it's easy to solo for everyone. Just like normal PvE content before incarnate levels.

It's only possible for a select few powerset combos and very few specific builds, and it's never in the slightest any fun.

This is not a solo option any more than the Trials are, that's what I'm saying. The developers have spent years telling us and demonstrating to us that Archvillains are not solo content. Even if some select few can solo them, this is not solo content. Passing off what has been officially defined as group content as solo content is disingenuous at best.

And it shouldn't. I'm gaining more power, godlike power if the briefings are to be believed. I should not be getting weaker. Yes, my enemies do get stronger, but they shouldn't be getting strong faster than I am.

No, but I'd expect it to at least be theoretically soloable for everyone. Archvillains are not intended to be soloable for everyone, Incarnates included. Making a mission that I'm supposed to keep failing, as well, is a bad idea. This is not solo content. It's the straw man of solo content developers hand out when they want to claim they're introducing solo content but don't actually want to introduce a solo path.

This is no different from the current Shards path. We were given this as a reputed solo option and it's not, because it's not viable. I want to see solo Incarnate content that's solo in more than just name only. Why does everyone who like Trials have such a big problem with me having Incarnate content I can play solo AND enjoy?

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.

The issue is of course, resource.

I have no problem with new dedicated raid-type content being introduced to CoX but I am concerned at the suggestion that they will be adding them every Issue. I've come back to the game tempted by new content but raid-type content isn't for me. So if they dedicate resource every issue to raid stuff there will be less of the rest and I won't be back for long.

So whether or not it does make good business sense will depend entirely on whether it increases subscription numbers or subscription duration. I am sceptical that "raids" will pull in great numbers. I think CoX does better forging its own line than following in the footsteps of other MMOs

I feel much the same way. Which is why, incidentally, I think that the introduction of the ability to downgrade AVs to EBs was the single greatest addition to this game since the game began.

To be honest, personally, the best for me was when they introduced the automatic Boss->Lt downgrade -Way Back-.

Kinda sucked when I was leveling up my controller back then and pretty much couldn't advance in this one story arc [blue side] because there were two fixed bosses in one encounter group.

I can understand that. It sometimes shocks me when I remember that when I first registered on Cryptics website was the year 2000 (or just before, my memory is *rap) after seeing an article on Bluesnews.

That leaves a huge, gaping hole for no good reason. Either forced solo or forced dozen people. There is no reason you could not have what you are suggesting, but allow it for small groups.

You are one of the people I remember from the original boards. And from Beta.

Of course, I didn't use this name on those boards, so few would remember me.

People were saying solo. So I came up with a solo option. That is all.

As for the wish to feel like a god...haveing to run any content that requires you to team up to beat up one badguy, I don't know how that makes you feel like a god.

"I have unlimited power!" >_> "Oh ummm, hey, I need help beating up this AV, I can't handle him on my own."

Yeah, you could lower it to EB, but even then, tend to need to build for it. And how does that make one feel like a god?

That actually was one of the really awkward complaints about the aggro cap, aoe target caps, and gdn iirc.

Lot of characters felt 'super' [godlike works here too] being the guy who laughed at the 100s of critters smacking into them.

It'd be nice to see those sort of elements crop up again.

What name did you used to go by?

Keep singing, brother!


Yes, ONCE you've unlocked them. I can't speak for others' progress, but at a grand total of 5 iTrials, that's a loooong "once". Not everyone runs multiple iTrials a day.

--NT

OK fine, Raid haters, whatever.

If while meaning Incarnate Raid Content and referring to it as Incarnates was too far out of your comfort zone, Oh Well.

If it makes me a fool and a troll to have not properly, in your opinion, stated my thought, again, Oh Well.

Yeesh.

You mean if they had done it the way YOU want. You're not in a position to judge if it was done correctly (i.e. to maximize income in the long-term). Neither am I.

Unfortunately your idea of a solo path looks like its designed for the kind of people that do multiple raids a day.

Thats exactly what the EB setting does. Of course not all builds can solo an EB but most can. Last weekend my favourite toon smacked down Lord Recluse solo, to rescue that wimpy Stateman bloke who had got himself caught yet again! (You know I am begining to think there is more to their relationship than they let on ). I then tackled Ghost Window. Poor Stateman couldn't take it and passed out, but I defeated her and freed Positron and the rest of the Freedom Phalanx. Lord Recluse then let loose his latest war machine. The Freedom Phalanx and I attacked it and while the surviving members of the Phalanx were eventually knocked unconscious I remained on my feet and eventually took down the giant spider.

So yeah, felt pretty much like a top flight Super Hero when I finished that mission.

I was thinking about the aggro cap this week. I really would love to build a "Defend the Rainbow Bridge" kind of mission in AE with unreasonable numbers of bad guys assaulting a lone team or hero. But there's really nothing out there for me. There's no map for something like that, no unreasonable numbers of foes, and the aggro cap would make the whole thing pointless anyway.

It'd be cool if the aggro cap could be suspended in specific missions. I'd much rather see something like that in a trial rather than all the lame sequester type processes they put in to help people think the trials were a challenge.

Uh. Yeah. If you want an EASY path that's a different matter, but you shouldn't expect any olo-path to be less grind than the trials. (grindy here determined as having to run through content repeatedly). If anything the reverse, since you don't have to spend time assembling a team.

You can get uneasonable number of foes by chaining ambushes (that's how most farms work, for instance)

Solo<>Easy.

Grind<>Hard.


Soloing an EB is far more interesting and harder than a team wailing on an AV. Plus, for some strange reason, EBs seem to use wider ranges of powers than AVs. Maybe thats just because 8 characters smacking an AV causes it to do down before it does anything interesting.

If you want "Easy" you make an 8 man team and do anything.

Precisely. Generally speaking, I don't give a bag of rats whether the target I'm fighting is an elite boss, an archvillan or a giant monster. So long as I can beat it and it's more than a boss, that's all I ask for. If I could take on all the big bads as elite bosses, you can bet your peg leg I'd rush out to do just that, and have a grand old time of it. Because what I care about is not the colour of their name, but who they are, what they look like, what the game's existing plot says about them and what's actually in their description box. I feel much more accomplished fighting a bigass winged fire-breathing demon even if it's just a lieutenant than I do beating a bunch of +4 Malta soldiers who are completely out of place in the story they show up in.

I really don't see fighting Lord Recluse as fighting a meta-game construct of power balance. I see it as fighting Lord Recluse in a fight I can win. Not asking for anything more than that.

So, essentially, if I want a path in which I can gain Incarnate progress AND have fun, I'm sadly out of luck? That seems to be a running theme here. Call me cynical if you want, but if the Trials are so horribly grindy that making a solo path that doesn't bore me to tears or isn't impossibly difficult is unfair to them, then shouldn't this mean something's wrong with the Trials, rather than the solo path?

I'm serious when I ask this question, by the way. Every time I suggest anything in regard to Incarnate content, people usually give me a requirement that "It must suck at least this---> much to exist." Why?

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.