News from PAX

Trials are the core Incarnate content, and way more complex than solo arcs - so the Trials needed to be planned first

QFT. Incarnate content was always designed to be End Game Content, ie: raid-centric. It's what many players had been asking for, for years.

Alternate solo paths for Incarnate content is... well, alternate. An addition. Not part of the original design.

I haven't seen any clarification of this, but I would turn the question around and ask if there are currently any account-wide cooldowns in the game? (I don't know of any, but I don't know every aspect of the game.)

We do know that the game currently includes multiple forms of long single-character cooldowns; the weekly strike target cooldown, for example, is almost identical to this upcoming reward cooldown on signature arcs. I would be very surprised if this was _not_ an arc-per-character cooldown like the WST.

Edit: I have no idea how the WST cooldown is currently implemented in code, but the effect is to only get that reward once per week per character (per TF?) rather than once per week per TF.

Edit again: ...and it only just occurred to me that you might mean 'across all arcs for a single character' rather than 'across all characters in the account', which is an important distinction. Is it possible for a rogue/vigilante to get WST rewards twice by doing both the TF and the SF? If not, then I'm going to assume that we get the upgraded rewards once per character per week for doing any of the signature arcs, but only for the first (or first N, like tips.) Yeah, something that needs to fleshed out in detail by the devs.

Like Shadowe, I don't agree with GG often but this time I will for the sake of, well, that she is right.

The Praetor Guard are not a 1-group effort, to most regards. Marauder needed two groups, Siege and Nightstar and even Anti-Matter needed three at max. Could you do them 1 group or so forth? Sure, the trials scale for the size. But in regard to us versus them, at their peak power they aren't going to be easy to handle.

We -need- the trials, horrid as they may be, to have the Incarnate content. Like it or not, they are the backbone to us finishing Tyrant (or whatever may be his fate). No random joe schmoe from Paragon is going to be able to tango with Chimera, Mayhem, Dominatrix, etc. You may last long enough, but you wouldn't be able to avoid defeat.

On an unrelated note (I think): I know the Incarnate storyline is kind of shoddily written, but at least they are giving us more 1group+ content besides Giant Monsters (which can be solo'd), Archvillains (Which can be solo'd), Raids (Hami/Mothership. Mothership has been trio'd and less before.), and invasions (Which are typically done in leagues now).

Is a solo path a nice idea? Hell yeah.

As an alternate, time-locked method sure.

As for the note Rsclark made: Read what he said. By the time we had pushed for it, I21's content was settled. This means in a FUTURE ISSUE (22, 23, or further back), solo path will appear most likely.

I don't know about many players, but i was asking for something to do with my 50s for years. Though that something had nothing to do with required teaming.

And the Battlaion will be even tougher

Well, somebody better tell Maria Jenkins that.

the last part was just a tongue in cheek thing

That's a straw man of sorts. Incarnate stuff was always designed around end game, trial heavy content (with the exception of the story arc that introduces the Alpha Slot). No illusions were made otherwise that I can remember. What you're asking for is Something Else™.

Besides, "many players" != "all players". I'm not silly enough to make that conclusion

Right, I get that. I understand.

But, the entire idea that an incarnate becomes stronger than they've ever been and that means... there is nothing new of note to tackle with that solo power... just boggles my mind. An incarnate easily equivalent to a team of 8 (at a minimum) can only utilize that power when teamed with 16-24 equally powerful incarnates?

I just cannot fathom why some sort of alternate/solo/small team path wasn't envisioned from the start. It is a logic fail. (And no amount of winkies overcomes it.) A slower pace of rewards is fine and acceptable - we get merits slower for solo arcs than for TF now. I just do not understand the design decision, at all. And I never will.

(That said, I am happy to see something starting to appear with the sig arcs.)

edit: in terms of full disclosure, I enjoy the trials (even Keyes), and I like the story line (mostly - though I'd like to raid the evil resistance too ).

/this.

The only people who have made any claim about solo/small team Incarnate requests supposedly making progress "at the same rate" are those who argue against it. The people REQUESTING them have - well, basically said the above.

And /signed to the comment that "If you think an alternate path is going to make your trials shrivel up and die, maybe you should look at what's wrong with them."

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I guess that means that the devs need to take a look at all the new content since I14, because people are still skipping it and heading straight to the AE

PvP is not worth focusing development time on because not enough people want to do it.

Raids are worth focusing development time on because not enough people want to do them.


Ha ha.
Maybe Paragon Studios should try gating emotes and costume pieces completely unrelated to PvP behind PvP content. Otherwise the people who enjoy PvP will (gasp) never get to do it.

Actually, most barbarians would have worn cloth. Possibly with fur details. Leather in some cases.

Remember, barbarians invented the pants. (or trousers, if you will)

Obsidius, please understand that I'm not directing this to your post, but merely using your mention of the topic to address it.

But...

I honestly don't get why we're even having this discussion. What Matt Miller said is the basic truth of any MMO, which is that the Team path will always be faster, easier and more lucrative than the solo path, for the simple fact that teaming is a more involving, laborious process and because taming is what any MMO should encourage. That's how things should be. To ask that the solo path be as "fast" as the teaming path, or - worse yet, faster - is never going to be productive. That's not how an MMO works, and I say this as someone who doesn't team much.

Obviously, the solo path has to be less productive. Obviously, the solo path has to be more productive than to be considered pointless. Exactly where it ends up between these two points is up for debate, but the Merits of the Signature Story Arcs are not what's going to draw the line.

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.

What are my rewards for RPing?

What are my rewards for coming up with a new costume? It actually *costs* me (time, in-game and, if a pack is involved, real money.)

What are my rewards for writing up a bio?

What are my rewards for writing stuff up out-of-game?

Those are fun activities with no reward. And people do them.

Um, no, part of the fun for the trials is nto "havign a whole crapton of people running them." I don't find them fun because we have "a whole crapton of people running them." I find it part of the irritation. If "suddenly half of more of those people went away," well, quite obviously that "whole crapton of people" wasn't fun for them either.

Right now you have "a whole crapton of people" because it's the *ONLY* way of doing it - and by the way, how are all those Keyes runs? It's obviously not being run despite having "a whole crapton of people" to do it. If the other trials couldn't hold up with a true, alternate solo/small team path - there's an issue with the other trials.

I'd say i'm amazed that Posi and crew didn't even *consider* that path, but... I'm not, sadly.

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I often run content that is unrewarding. I'm swimming in Inf across many characters and have long ago unlocked my Roman costume parts. Yet I'm always up for an ITF because it's a blast.

That's why I take Posi's comment as an admission of guilt they know the Trials aren't enjoyed by a larger number of people. People will do what they think is fun. That is an ironclad assertion as old as mankind. If they're afraid people would stop running Trials with no carrot, that should be a sign.

If the people want 'quicker and easier' like the AE, who are the devs to object? I'd rather not be told what kind of content I "should" like because it warrants inferior rewards.


.

Thank you. If they can just port the Male gear onto the Female model, I think people would be a lot happier. I know I would be. If this is already in effect and just didn't make PAX, all the better.

Speaking of which, I'm not sure I'd mind porting the female costumes onto the male model, save for the high heels, lets men start to look like Him:



The rest of the female gear, though, will probably work. Yes, even the corset. Remember that batman guy from the old rotoscoped cartoon Fire and Ice? He had his loin cloth briefs come up to his chest. Sure, he looked goofy, but not all that much, considering the princess spent the whole movie running around in a string bikini.

*edit*
Turns out the dude's name is Darkwolf *snerk* and I couldn't find a decent pic of him, but there is this video of him.

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 devs

This is why I kinda keep hoping they would consult players more often when adding content. I have to say a lot of recent adds have been rather so so. The ITF is good fun and they just haven't been able to come close to matching it. It doesn't seem so tough to make something as enjoyable and I just don't see why they keep missing the mark. I hate to say it but perhaps they need to change some more devs out at Paragon. The end product has been rather underwhelming lately. I think i12 is still the best issue to date and that was a long time ago.

I thought War Witch had taken the lead dev role? It almost seems Posi is back at the helm. No offence to Posi but I really didn't enjoy his City of system adds for previous years. Install something fun and new...enough with the systems and fluff. I would gladly buy a box expansion that offered 10 high quality TFs over Going Rogue.

Not sure where that strawman comment comes from, it wasn't meant as one. Just saying as my post stated. I don't know about the other players but i was looking for 50s content as well, just not team-required, which is true.

Glad someone quoted this bit of typical GG BS or I wouldn't have seen it.

"People" have been skipping content since before I started in I3 for various reasons. Or do you not remember farms in PI? Should we, using your statement above, "roll back" all the new content since Issue 1 because of it?

And yet people are playing ITFs. People are playing Midnighter arcs. People are playing story arcs. People are playing Kai.People are playing new-Posi. People are playing the arcs re:Protean. People are running tips. People are playing post-I14 content daily. And people are playing PRE-i14 content daily. Hell, AE is mostly unoccupied. I'll see a group (or individual) there every once in a while, the exception being Freedom/Atlas with the farmers there. But that's the exception.

I'd say "try again," but I'd really rather you not.

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/this.

A mix of content, not just raid-raid-raid-grindlittlemonkey-raid. I can't see how that wouldn't have been "expected" to be wanted by the devs.

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