What was in the Incarnate Panel?

Which is what's so great about an Incarnate zone - people can run missions or street sweep in the downtime between Trials.

Clumsy though it may be, I'm willing to give them that. Comic books do clusterhug crossover events where everybody dies a lot, and this game being inspired by comic books, it was a matter of time before this particular bad story entered into it. I personally hate it, but I know it's popular so, hey - let the game have that. Sure, it could have accounted for solo players with only a slight re-write, but then Praetorian Earth has been so knee-capped of late I'm willing to give them that. Praetoria is "crossover content." Fine.

I'm more interested to see whether the "solo Incarnate path" will be an actual acknowledgement of the solo playstyle or a publicity stunt with people still "expected" to run raids. In other words, does the studio have the balls to give people a choice and let raids stand on their own merits, or will they still make them mandatory for decent progress? We'll see, but I'm not hopeful. Not given the system's history.

I still hope to be wrong, though.

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.

They've already said the solo stuff will be faster than the current solo method, but slower than the Trials

I talked with Viridian after the summit was over to get a little clarification and it sounds like heroes and villains run the same basic story arcs but your decisions (As in heroic or villainous choices) play a larger role in how they turn out, with things wildly diverging towards the end based on what you decide to do.

Anyway, going back to the panel, both Astral and Empyrian merits (Along with Incarnate XP, threads, and salvage) will be available through the content in Dark Astoria, though it was noted that Empyrians (Maybe Astrals too, it wasn't clear whether they were talking about one or both) will likely have a time lock on them to keep people from getting them too fast.

In addition, they mentioned that the groups that are getting involved in this such as the Banished Pantheon and the Tsoo are getting some more powerful members, with members that were previously bosses being downgraded to Lieutenants and so on. There was some mention of Underlings being part of these group as well but I can't recall what was said. The pre-Incarnate versions of these groups are unaffected.

In terms of characters that are involved in Dark Astoria's storyline, Mot is obviously a major figure, and Diabolique will also play a part that will likely tie in to her trial. The third major character the Devs mentioned is Blue Steel, who it sounds like we may finally get to fight if we choose to (Though the Devs jokingly warned that it may not be a good idea).

Finally, it was mentioned that our incarnate shifts, normally reserved for the incarnate trials, will actually work both indoors and outdoors in Dark Astoria.

To be fair there were plenty of people that wanted non-Hamidon large group content.

Impressive.

That sounds as if, should they not choose to gate the zone completely, it could be a very rough neighborhood for a non-incarnated person to wander into.

What?
The enemies in the zone only go up to level 54, according to the keynote opening speech.

In typical 'solo numbers', that's going to be a cakewalk for T4 Incarnates unless the 54 enemies get shifts themselves like in the newer trials.


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And? I don't think the zone is really being made for people that have already maxed themselves out. This is the non-trial path for building your incarnates, as in, you've unlocked your Alpha Slot with Mender Ramiel, where do you go next? Either run trials or go to Dark Astoria and start earning threads and iXP and components to slot abilities.

There'll probably be stuff for maxed out incarnates to run too. Though I'm a little curious how the repeatable missions and such will handle level shifts given they don't factor into your threat/security level.

Still though, it's intended as an alternate place to work on building your incarnates, not as a new challenge for your maxed out pleebs.

That's...not saying much. I've been working on the non-raid path on one of my characters, and I'm currently estimating that I'll get my first non-Alpha T3 in mid-January.

But 50+3s with their T4s will still flood the place - it's the only zone with Incarnate enemies for the to fight.

Well, imagine somethign faster than that, but slower than the Trials, and you'll have an idea of what the solo path will be like

Right, the zone will be taking into account incarnates but I think for purposes of missions it will be from a starting point of 'Freshly 50' instead of designed for those people incarnated out to the gills.

Actually kind of makes you wonder if Mot himself won't be the zone event, like the seed of Hamidon was with First Ward. Giant skyscraper size monster poking around.

Then again, the Seed barely gets taken out as it is, maybe another one wouldn't be such a hot idea >>

Or, if the zone storyline is about the BP waking Mot up, then we might meet him in the final mission, getting there just in time before he fully wakes up.

So true.

During one of the ustreams a while back someone asked if they could put in a zone where people could use their incarnate shifts and it was said "aren't we alread..." before he got shushed.

Its like déjà vu.

What happens if we bring a really big pot of coffee with us?

You missed what I quoted. They won't apparently.

We saw it, it's just that they've said before they did not want to add new currencies, but would anyway if people hoarded the present currencies excessively.

as long as it's not Folgers, we should be okay.

"We've replaced Mot's usual mystical voodoo potion with Folger's Crystals. Let's see if he can tell the difference..."