I suspect it's a storyline thing. They want to get the whole Pretorian story finally over and done with. If that is the case, but I can understand why they did it - to make sure that everyone "finishes" the storyline. It's a bit of railroading for the sake of what little storyline the game has.
Mind you, I don't think that makes it a good idea in the long run, but still understandable where they're coming from.
If it's not the case, then I don't know what they're thinking.
Either way, I hope they add a solo path (or, really, ANY options) to get AIXP outside of that one trial in the near future. (I expect they will. After all, the last two issues added Dark Astoria and Night Ward respectively, which both had solo IXP story arcs) Hopefully it'll even be a half-issue so we don't have to wait until the next full issue.
Edited to add: Of course, I might just be blasé about the whole thing because I just unlocked my Alpha slot on one character late last week (and on a second character earlier today), and don't have any other slots open (let alone filled), so I'm not in any rush to get Hybrid.
Out of curiosity, how are the solo-only players doing Incarnate-wise? Everything unlocked yet? +3? T4s yet?
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Trials always get first dibs on new goodies. Solo stuff gets added later. That's just the name of the game now. People can still unlock and slot the first 5 slots on their own
Solo-only incarnate player here... After finally trudging thru the DA arcs to get the interface and judgment slots opened, I've finally quit fussing/b****ing/whining/moaning (or FBWMing as I'm accused of doing in the moment) over having to start from zero in xp to open up the lore and destiny slots. I just don't have the time usually and definitely not at once to sit thru the trials. Tis a shame as the toon (a night widow) has been a blast for the incarnate stuff. I know I have a T3 in my Alpha, maybe 4... got my T1s for Destiny and Lore ready <grumbles>... only T1 for Interface and T2 for Judgment...
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They've already said in the beta forums (+REP to whoever takes the time to dig up a link) that they plan to add solo content that gives AIXP, presumably with more difficult story arcs that require you to basically be +3 rather than curbstomping level 50 enemies.|
Originally Posted by Thunder Knight
Either way, I hope they add a solo path (or, really, ANY options) to get AIXP outside of that one trial in the near future. (I expect they will. After all, the last two issues added Dark Astoria and Night Ward respectively, which both had solo IXP story arcs) Hopefully it'll even be a half-issue so we don't have to wait until the next full issue.
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I suspect the trend will be new shinies introduced in a trial, followed by solo/small team arcs to unlock them an issue or two later. That's more or less what happened with DA.
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Originally Posted by Shizuniza
Solo-only incarnate player here... After finally trudging thru the DA arcs to get the interface and judgment slots opened, I've finally quit fussing/b****ing/whining/moaning (or FBWMing as I'm accused of doing in the moment) over having to start from zero in xp to open up the lore and destiny slots. I just don't have the time usually and definitely not at once to sit thru the trials. Tis a shame as the toon (a night widow) has been a blast for the incarnate stuff. I know I have a T3 in my Alpha, maybe 4... got my T1s for Destiny and Lore ready <grumbles>... only T1 for Interface and T2 for Judgment...
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I'm dipping my toe in with my fire/ice blaster.|
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Out of curiosity, how are the solo-only players doing Incarnate-wise? Everything unlocked yet? +3? T4s yet?
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I'll be detailing progress in my sig thread...
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I got TJ (SO/HO build with a couple of Common IO's) from Alpha Unlocked and slotted with T1 Spiritual before I22 hit to switching over to Cardiac in Alpha and having all 5 slots unlocked and slotted with T3's. I've gotten at least a second T2 going on Alpha, Interface and Lore so far and am working towards getting the T3's in Interface and Lore.|
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Out of curiosity, how are the solo-only players doing Incarnate-wise? Everything unlocked yet? +3? T4s yet?
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I'm not that worried about the T4 since I know I'm going to have to burn Empys to do it and that will take quite a bit of repeating the arcs in DA to get my weekly 2 Empys. Unless I get stupidly lucky on a reward table roll. So far, it's been only Uncommon or Common with one Rare somehow dropping.
I've also started working my Controller through the Arcs but things have picked up at work so I haven't had much time to put into her yet.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
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I would say I was "solo mostly" rather than "solo only". The way things work out I am either playing really late at night or really early in the morning. Not a lot of iTrials going on then, unfortunately. But, on a daily diet of Heather reruns for components, threads, and astrals/emps (and the rare iTrial I actually do get on) my main toon has everything at T3, and now T4 Alpha.|
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Out of curiosity, how are the solo-only players doing Incarnate-wise? Everything unlocked yet? +3? T4s yet?
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Frustrating thing is that I can't seem to catch a Mag trial when I am on, so until something changes I'll be without Hybrid. Would love to see cross server iTrials as that may fix this.
Codewalker, I stay casual and keep it on the lowest setting. Okay, actually I've been too lazy to change it. It is more just a matter of getting the time to run through stuff. Getting the interface and judgment slots too so long timewise because of family and work. Still, I'm feeling slightly impatient about going through DA a bazillion times for lore and destiny... FBWMing again, I suppose.
If you can handle an increase in mob level, raising to even +1 seriously boosts the iXP reward rate. Unfortunately, I don't have any incarnates with any slots to unlock (other than Hybrid), so I can't go test this to tell you just how high the boost is. I was gonna say the +1 doubles it, but that doesn't seem right. Hopefully someone with actual knowledge can help out here.
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Honbrid, wow, that would be nice if it did. I will give it a try next time I play some incarnate stuff.
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I for one am loving the solo DA stuff. The mishs are varied enough that I haven't gotten tired of repeating them -- though I should stress that this is not all I do. I try to run 1 arc per day on a handful of characters that I'm trying to "Inc up" and then seek out other content.|
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Out of curiosity, how are the solo-only players doing Incarnate-wise? Everything unlocked yet? +3? T4s yet?
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My main hero needed only one T4 when i22 came out, and she got it by the end of the first run-through of the DA story. She's been re-running it for the Empyreans to unlock costume pieces in Ouro -- and now to get T3 Hybrid.
My main villain had T4 Alpha but that's all on release of i22. Running an arc a day, he now has T4 Judg, T3 Dest & Int, T2 Lore, T1 Hyb (thanks to a Magi250 unlock). And I consider him to have very bad luck in that he almost always gets common drops.
On the other hand, I have another character I have not played as much who gets an uncommon just about every time. Even with less of my focus on him and starting out with no Inc powers, he currently has T3 Alpha, T2 Judg and Int, and is at around 58% unlock on Lore and Dest.
Given that I have been splitting my time between CoH and another game, and that I really hate the long waits for iTrials when playing from my time zone, I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised at how happy I am with the way DA was implemented. Plus I like the story. :-)
Since the missions are locking into the ozone after you do them once I haven't repeated them on any character yet.
I don't know if that sucks the most, or if it is not having new missions to run for Hybrid.
Dev1: Hey we have a successful game don't we?
Dev2: Yeah pretty much
Dev1: Well lets totally change it!
Dev2: Great idea! Lets double the size of the teams you need!
Dev1: Nah, triple!
Dev2: And lets not give them any solo content either!
Dev1: We are onto a winner here 
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Originally Posted by Aggelakis
PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"
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Originally Posted by PrincessDarkstar
Since the missions are locking into the ozone after you do them once I haven't repeated them on any character yet.
I don't know if that sucks the most, or if it is not having new missions to run for Hybrid. Dev1: Hey we have a successful game don't we? Dev2: Yeah pretty much Dev1: Well lets totally change it! Dev2: Great idea! Lets double the size of the teams you need! Dev1: Nah, triple! Dev2: And lets not give them any solo content either! Dev1: We are onto a winner here |
So, back to my norm. I totally agree with this.... As I usually do with PrincessDs posts. I just don't get the mindset that decided this was a good plan...
But, I'm willing to just abstain from Hybrid for a while. I've got plenty of alts that aren't Incarnate +3s yet, and several alts charging hard for 50, too, so it's not like I'll lack for entertainment while I wait on other ways to get Hybrid.
Now, I know this was always a joke, and i would never do it. (unless you pay me...) But I know some really good gamers (the kind I wish i was, but am not that smart/clever/cool...) who do solo incarnate stuff because they don't want to PuG trials, even for a weekend. So the Devs went out of their way to create a solo path to incarnate powers. It only takes like 100 times as long, but there, they did it.
But with the new Hybrid the Devs immediately moved away from this. You have to do non solo content to get incarnate stuff. For a new ability, shouldn't the people working on it have read stuff from the last year or so of the game, and be aware of what is going on? This sounds snarky, but I cannot figure out a non snarky way to ask that question.