What was in the Incarnate Panel?

Never said I didn't want to go.
I perfectly happy with those that were there getting access to more, but I also think more could have been done to communicate to the full audience.

Actually, I probably would accept that better.


And I appreciate the effort, but I can be disappointed at the same time.

good advice for yourself

It sounded like they aren't doing a complete makeover but instead adding new level 50-54 enemies.

They took some questions from UStream.

Thanks, Adeon.

I'm also liking the explanation of the big Trial push of the Incarnate system so far. Opinions of the whole "goatee universe" idea aside- it makes sense that a "battle of armies" would lend itself to larger raids.

I think someone on the Dev staff liked Marvel's whole Skrull Invasion/Dark Reign/Siege storyline a bit too much. BUT if they are shifting back to more individual hero focus that made this game soo good it can only be a GOOD thing.

This gives me a hope that when the Battalion arrive the Devs can strike a balance between the 2 foci- a couple larger raids to beat off the Battalion's big attacks and then "street-level" encounters with the city's heroes fighting individual plots.

EDIT: Now if they had explained the "battle of armies" angle from the beginning, there might have been less anger at the sudden shift of content focus- and the whole "we didn't know you'd want solo content" debacle could have been blunted.

It'll be way more than a couple of Trials for the Battalion

Don't forget that lore-wise, they're described as an even bigger threat than the loyalists, and that they were originally planned as a villain group to go with the Invention system, who would so powerful that players couldn't take them on solo, and even teams would need IOs to be able to stand a chance against them - the IO part has obviously been dropped, but using them as a major threat even to Incarnates suggests that the idea of tying them to a system of power advancement is still part of their basic design idea.
The Coming Storm is a cosmic conflict, a war between a force that's already devoured dozens of other planets, and the two major human dimensions of Primal Earth and Praetoria - the chances that the major battles of the war won't be played out in Trials are kinda small.

Well that's rather huge. Save up those emps and astrals peeps.

T for Teen!

Agreed. I think the thing that bothered me the most about the incarnate system is that when it was released, the Devs seemed honestly suprised that there was interest in a solo path. It showed a shocking disconnect with the playerbase.

What I am appreciative the most on this new solo path, is I can street sweep in the incarnate zone while que'd up in the turnstyle and if no trial actually starts, I won't be frustrated that I haven't made any progress at all.

I really hope the coming storm has the same options from the start without having to wait 14 months before a solo path to enjoy the content is released.

That probably comes from the fact that a lot of people were saying: Now what? Where's the endgame? Other games have raids, why don't we have them? What am I supposed to do with my all purpled up guy? Well, guess I'll go roll up a new character.

It's not that hard of a stretch, really.

A god of death worshipped by the Banished Pantheon.

According to Paragonwiki:

So it looks like the devs have just taken these small bits of lore info and really fleshed them out, rather than making up something totally new.

I always thought the issue with the raids wasn't as much they weren't aware of the player base but that they forgot they were still standing because they tried to not be a copypasta MMO. The players wanted something to do at max level so they put in game play mechanics from other popular games that have it. Maybe forgetting what makes you better for your players is the same as forgetting who your players are though.

No, no they weren't. People were asking for a solo path before it was even released. In fact, they were asking for it the very day Incarnates were announced.

This wasn't a surprising turn of events at all.

I'm of the opinion the devs knew all along, but they put the solo tract on a low priority because they wanted to push people into trials. Why? Trials needed a critical mass of players participating in them to get them off the ground as a new feature.

There are people who hate trials, people who are indifferent to trials and people who love trials. The players in the first two grounds are far more likely to trial if there's no solo alternative, and them maintaining that critical mass is the only way to facilitate the third group.


.

I believe someone also said they're working on making the turnstyle work in missions as well, so you may not be limited to street sweeping either.

I think it's more a case that the Incarnate system was designed to address the lack of an endgame/raid structure first. The lack of such system was a oft cited reason [if perhaps not entirely accurate] for folks disappointment when leaving the game.

Less social manipulation, more they wanted to deliver a feature they felt the player-base [including former players and potential players] wanted.

Speak for yourself, I like the raids, and this is the only MMO I've ever played

They are - which means that DA will almost certainly replace RWZ and PD as the staging gound for Trials.

The lack of large team content at 50 was one of the top things mentioned on the leaving surveys - and it was also mentioned a lot in that marketing survey form a couple of years ago that had the basic GR stuff outlined in it - so it was only natural that they'd work to fix that problem, which is why they created the Incarnate system, and has been pretty popular with a lot of players.

The Incarnate system is based around Trials - that's the core content, so it was important that they got them released, tweaked and balanced first of all - which is exactly what they have done - the Trials are now fully established in the game - we have 4 that are live, 2 more in beta, and a 7th one was announced at the summit yesterday, with many more to come.
They've now got a good idea of what makes a good Trial, what the times should be like, what the reward rate should be and so on - and there's now a big enough group of players with Trial experience to guide newer players through them.
The Trials are now the main stuff for 50s to do, and with the new Sewer Trial, the Haunter Mansion Trial, and the upcoming Winter Realm Trial, all new players are being taught about the basics of the LFG tab, the TUT and the general style of Trials right form level 1 and up, which will help them transition much more smoothly into the Incarnate Trials at 50 - they won't have to go through the bumpy part we went through in I20, when the player base ahd to adjust to a new type of content - Trials are now a natural part of the game 1-50.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mot

If the battle actually involved armies rather than the "I solod my first AV!" gang dialed up to 11, then maybe. But I suspect not, since the lore of the trials is clumsily written around the mechanics of the trials and could be easily re-written to account for a solo-friendly system.

No, don't. Spend them. If you hoard, they'll introduce a new currency.

I would believe this if they hadn't been told that a huge chunk of the playerbase wanted an alternative.

It's about ******* time. This is the single biggest issue I have with the bloody thing. Thanks for being the bearer of good news.

I said seemed on purpose. They have no qualms about giving transparent excuses for their motivations.

So do I. I love them actually. I just don't always have time to wait around for 45 mins for a trial to start. A slower alternate path is better than standing around waiting any time.