Details on Dark Astoria Makeover?

LOL this is going to come accross as a bit self serving but DA is my favorite zone, so much so that my hero main's (Psynder lvl 51 fire/fire/scorpion blaster) back story is completely tied to the events of Dark Astoria, so screwing up the story too much is going to kill my immersion on him dating back to beta lol.

This thread has confirmed my desire to write up my "if the forumites wrote the lore" thought experiment.

Personally, I never found the fog in and of itself all that spooky. I will miss the ghosts.

I don't think we've heard anything yet about changes to the backstory, involvement of the Furious Well, etc. But I will restate what I've argued elsewhere, that players are not entitled to a say in developing the writing, no matter how invested in the game they. That is the province of artists (developers, in this case). The reader/consumer's province is to accept or to reject the final product. If people are really as angered by the incarnate backstory as they claim to be, perhaps they should begin voting with their feet. (Full disclosure: I'm not particularly impressed with it, but I don't understand why it upsets people, even after umpteen thorough explanations.)

I am glad to hear that the fog will still be present to a degree. To be sure, I was not a fan of flying through that zone and nearly running into buildings half the time, but I enjoyed the fact that it was a unique effect.

I am also glad to hear that it will become an entirely Incarnate themed zone that offers multiple ways for 1-8 players to make progress towards being an Incarnate. That thrills me to no end because, while it still sounds like it will be slower than running the trials (as promised), it also sounds like a character could spend a night running missions and street sweeping and still feel like they made some progress towards their goals.

As for the Well:

It is an integral part of the game's history, having granted powers to some of our most iconic characters (Statesman, Lord Recluse, Tyrant, etc.). I acknowledge that, and for that reason, I believe it should play a role in being an Incarnate, though I do not believe it should be the only way to gain "great power." However, the problem then is that the Devs cannot possibly input a system with any sort of structure that works for 100% of the players.

Up until now, I have been able to write off my character's specific Incarnate powers as further power mastery, while avoiding any influence from the Well:

• Ice Blaster's Cryonic Judgement and Intuition Alpha as a stronger cold blast and more strength to his freeze rays.
• Elec Blaster's Ion Judgement and Agility Alpha as (again) a stronger blast and further sapping ability.
• Super Soldier's Cardiac Alpha as a scientific enhancement that allows him to battle tirelessly.
• Energy Blaster's Paralytic Interface as a tech enhancement to his gauntlets allowing for better targeting.
• Archery Blaster's Spiritual Alpha as, well, a way to no longer wait for "arrows to recharge"

The screenshots from the summit are on UStream now, and Mot is totally the god of ROCK

The reason why I think it won't have to do with the Well is because, for starters, the Well is all over Tyrant. All of it's attention would be focused on it's "Champion" during this time where he needs as much power as possible. That means anything the Well does would be for the Praetorian storyline, which is currently still ongoing somewhere else entirely.

My other reason being that, since we're going to be facing an actual god and not a god-like being, who else would be sent in to tackle such a powerful threat than an Incarnate? Thus, we've got Incarnate content. Doesn't need to involve the Well at all. We're just facing an Incarnate-level threat. Something worthy of facing down a level 50+.

The devs have said that they're sticking true to Dark Astoria's lore. I'm willing to give them the BotD and see them bust out something great that involves the Banished Pantheon and some nightmarish plot involving the god Mot.

Going by the screenshots, the vibe I'm getting from DA is of a dream/nightmare - the war walls are colored blood red, so the whole zone light seems to have a faint red tint to it - and combined with the giant bones and twisted rocks, it makes the place seem slightly unreal and hellish.

EDIT: Some mroe about the lore - Mot is waking up because he's responing to the amount of death and destricution that there's been inParagon City for the past few years.
There is heroic and evil content in the zone, but the main story line is co-op, but there are points in the storyline when you can do things that are good or evil, and the contacts will talk to you in a different way based on your morality.
The new Trial, "Dilemma Diabolique" sees Diabolique trying to become death incarnate by tapping into the power of Mot, and it's up to the players to stop her, and protect both Primal Earth and Praetoria form her - she'll also be wearing an upgraded costume.
The mission arcs and the Trial map have a lot of new art assets, including a "disgusting" moving fllor on the Trial, and take place not only in DA but "other palces" too.