Drunkard's Walk Forums

I20 is live. Time to punch back at Praetoria!

Matrix Dragon Wrote:I20 is live. Time to punch back at Praetoria!

...Right as soon as I find where all my Channels, Friends, and assorted communication devices went.

Seriously. I they wiped my friends list, my channel list, and I can't even seem to be able to communicate with global chat. WTH?

[Admin] The Global Chat server and the In Game Mail system (Email) is offline to investigate a potential issue.

Is the message that came up on my chat screen. So globals are down atm.

However I am pleased. From my 401 shards I converted to 200ish threads. And from there I unlocked both Judgment and Interface and managed to craft a Common for both.

Void Judgment

Reactive Interface

Now I am down to 25 Threads. Totaly. Worth. It. Ended up costing for Conversions and what not 330 Mil.
 Your Void Judgement deals 475.47 points of negative energy damage to Equinox Parasite! (Hee!) The animation reminded me of typical Pbaoe Nukes just all darky dark mcDark.

So playing around a bit I seem to be bugged or its a bug in general. I can lay down an Ouro portal but I cannot target it to use which is...annoying to say the least.

And I've attempted to Tint my Judgment but the power selection wont stick.

Terr: Dropped Ouro Portals now "click" in the Glowwy midair thing, not the ground anymore.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

So, after trying 3 runs of the BAF (all fails) I have this to say.
It's interesting, but as with all PuG's, you need to pray you don't get rage monkeys that start to zerg or whine when things go bad.
only one run had such none of them, but even then we had trouble, to many 9CU's kicked our ass.
Edit: Ran a Lambda sector trial, much easier and seems more of the "punch till dead" style of play, not much to coordinate till Marauder shows up... sadly it failed because 10 looking for acid grenades didn't work out in the long run
still had more fun on that, but then there was no rage quiters that time round

do we want to try and organize a run where we can fill 16 slots or so?
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

I'd be up for that.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Oh cool, i20's here. Time to patch up the game and get going!

...So uh, when is i21 going to be out and what's that like?

As far as that goes, the one time I tried I crashed at the first cutscene, possibly even before. Overall I'd prefer to make my next attempt as part of a mostly legendaries team...
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

Now that we're live... Straight from the Official Forums:

Quote:Zombie Man's Recommended Approach to I20

Quote:1) Before I20, work to fill your Alpha Slot to at
least to Tier3 for the Level Shift and then start hording Shards. The
ITF and Hami Raids will be your most efficient source of Shards. Don't
go out of your way for Shard-based Components... they only breakdown
into just 1 Shard.

Quote: 2) Upon entering I20 (Live or in Beta),
transfer all your Shards to Threads. You can do so at a 10:10 rate once a
day (20 hour cooldown), or any time at a 10:5 rate (plus some Inf).

Quote: 3) Do not use your Threads to buy Incarnate XP
to unlock the next four slots. Don't! Your Threads will be much more
valuable to you in crafting Incarnate Abilities to put into your
Incarnate Slots. Instead, run the BAF and Lambda Trials. As you do so,
Lambda Incarnate XP will start to unlock the Interface and Destiny
slots; and the BAF Incarnate XP will start to unlock the Judgement and
Lore slots.

Quote: 4) As you unlock the Judgement and Interface
Slots (the first ones to unlock), go ahead and craft the Tier1 ability
for each AND STOP THERE. Do not be tempted to use up threads to build
the higher Tiers for those Slots. Your goal is to get the Level Shift of
the Lore and Destiny Slots (Tier3 for both).

Quote: 5) Once the Lore and Destiny slots are
unlocked, spend all your Threads to get to Tier3. The easiest way to do
that is to run at least 16 *successful* Lambda or BAF Trials. That will
give you 16 Empyrean Merits with which you can purchase the two Rare
Thread-Components you need to craft the two Tier3s. If you're lucky, you
might get a Rare component drop at the end of either Trial that will
speed up obtaining these Tier3s.

Quote: 6) There, you're done. Well... you've done
enough. You have four new Incarnate Abilities. You have a +1 Shift for
all level 45+ content from Alpha. And you have +3 Level Shift on the
Incarnate Trials (these two Trials and the new ones to come). Relax.
Everything from this point on is just gravy. Almost everything your
Incarnate character does now will drop Shards. You can now do the
Incarnate Trials when you feel like it confident you'll crush it at your
+3 Level and you'll be ready to crush the new Trials when they come and
eventually work toward Tier4 in all Incarnate Slots at your leisure.

Well that's it. I've hit the wall. 

Specifically: This incarnate system is about a million times to grindy and complicated for me to handle or comprehend. I've tried figuring it all out. I just can't. Nor can I comprehend how I will ever have the kind of time to devote to this. I'm very disappointed. City of Heroes has never really been -about- the grind before. Not like WoW. Not like so many other MMOs. Now the end game is about nothing BUT the grind. And I'm not going to be participating. 

I'm not going to even bother trying to craft anything beyond Alpha Slots for any of my characters. 

I'll join you all on raids to get the specific badges. I'll be happy to help out where I can on multiple runs. But I'll probably never amass enough resources to create anything in the new incarnate tiers. Nor do I WANT to at this point. 

That means that in future issues, I probably won't be able to join you on the REALLY high end content. 

Once more incarnate stuff comes down the pipe, I'll probably get left behind because I won't be able to participate effectively. That's gonna sting a bit. Oh well. For some reason I'm finding it difficult to care. Screw it. I've still got the rest of the game and RP to do. 

Never, ever, ever thought I'd say this. But my enthusiasm for this game is in the basement. It's not just burnout. It's pure disillusionment.

After spending an afternoon running in several BAFs, I think I might agree with you, Logan. If there were more than two missions to gain the necessary XP on, it might be less tedious, but as it is now, I don't think I could do the "16 successful trials" from the guidelines above without becoming bored to tears. That's even assuming I have the time to dedicate to it.

Oh, I'll give it the old college try, but I'm already visualizing Evangelia as my only "serious" Incarnate character, simply because I don't want to dedicate the time and effort to apotheosizing my other 50s -- and her not even that much.

Hopefully the devs will notice this in their data mining. They've been good about admitting and fixing mistakes before; let's hope it happens here, too.

(I also can't be the only person who's a little annoyed that the Incarnate "pet" powers only give you access to Praetorian critters -- what's up with that? How is that even justified in-world?)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

It's justified, primarily, by saying you're summoning the essence of beings captured by the Well. Since I think Emperor Cole is the only Incarnate sharing his power to his minions (to futher his goals), they are the only ones upon whom you have essences to call forth.

As for the Grindy-ness, all I can say is I agree. It does seem to be rather repetitive, and it is pretty slow going. However, I think you might also be able to get similar incarnate XP and Thread rewards from the Apex and TinMage TFs. I can't say I know this for sure, but I do believe they've changed those two to be more in line with the Incarnate progression they've set up with the Trials.
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

The Well of the Furies, being a bored five year old playing with his toys, has focused most of its power on a willing slave. Emperor Cole. With all of the Wells attention on the Praetorian war, those stealing its power can call on the echoes of Coles minions.

As for the Grindiness... I'm not really seeing it. I've done somewhere between six to eight, maybe ten, trials over the past week on Alice, each of which is only 45 minutes to an hour, and I've already gotten three and a half slots unlocked, and a power in interface. I haven't managed to beat a trial yet, which means I haven't gotten as many rewards. That said, it's already starting to show similar habits to the Imperious, Reichs, Apex and Tin Mage Task Forces. Where originally it was brutal and near-impossible, it's already getting smoother as people work out plans and techniques, get an idea of what they're meant to be doing, and start to access the new powers. Judgement AOEs are very useful against Seiges 9CUs, for example.

And this is early days. There's two trials active right now, both of which are much like Tin Mage and Apex, possibly even shorter. I expect that we'll see a strike pack, much like the one for 19, with another two to three Trials, and then more in 21, its strike pack, and so on. There are frustrating moments (Spud, OM and Uni can speak of the time I startled the entire house with a cry of "FUCK!" at midnight when someone decided to trigger the Lamba Sector countdown), but this is fun. It's not a grind. It's just like everyone playing the WST to death, or pretty much the ITF being replayed into the dirt. So yeah. I'm having fun.

Whats fun for you is a grind for other people if the posts here are any indication. in the future it may feel less grindy with new/additional trials/methods of aquisition but for now? yeah. Its a grind.

Sure. If you're doing these two trials over and over again, then it's gonna be deja vu. There's no getting around that.

The thing is, the time investment that each represents isn't really that much compared to, say, a regular TF. The fact that trial segments are timed actually puts a hard cap on how long they can drag. 

And these aren't going to be the only trials. We know that. These are just the two that were ready to go with i20. The only question is how long before we see more trials getting released, and I'd wager the answer is 'not that long'. 

As Terrence indicates, repetition is an issue...but it's only an issue if you're very concerned with unlocking all the Incarnate stuff now now now. It'll be better when we have more trial options. 

New stuff gets put in, players want new shinies now. We're human. We're twitchy like that. That's natural. But, y'know. Patience, young padawan.
-- Acyl

Fwiw, the New Redside TF is oodles of fun, but the Blueside?

UTTER Terror.

Specifically, unlike the old TFs where you can grab any toons in the range of start number to full team and succeed... You need a pentad AT LEAST. And preferably at the upper end of the range instead of at the lower.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

Really? I just grabbed a team the other day and we steamrolled it. It's AWESOME.

I've only had time to run the lambda ba few times, but I agree with MD. And frankly, Terr, I'm surprised you of all people consider this a grind. It's well known how much time you spend grinding Cim, but you're not complaining about that any longer.

Its new content, and nobody yet has the magic win button like we all do for, say, ITF... but it doesn't feel any different to me than the early days of that. Including the cries of doom and despair.

Just chill a bit. Its a game, and the longer its out the easier it'll get.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

I'm calling it exactly how I see it. I know a grind when I see it. I personally don't care overly about grinds since I have all the time in the world. However I do mind when it gets in the way of the fun of my friends. And honestly you cannot tell me that the cries of doom are unexpected given how friendly this game was to people who do not have alot of time on their hands. People could kit out multiple toons casually solo if they choose to, but then Incarnate content rolls around and suddenly you need to put in alot more time and effort into grinding out boosts for a toon, much more so when you have multiple toons. Oh yeah and don't forget you need to deal with x number of random people now in Trials any of which could easily grief the rest of the trial runners..Awesomesauce. Oh, yeah don't forget people with poor connection or weaker systems who cannot handle the raids guess what? Screwd.

No its not a monstrous grind by any stretch, however it can be -very- intimidating to individuals who may only have time to run one, maybe 2 trials a night and for the first while there's a good chance your going to fail it and make a pretty pitiful amount of overall progress towards a slot. I will agree that it does get easier over time as stratagies are formulated, people get boosts but until then expect people to be frustrated and complain.

We've been really spoiled up to now with how casual the game has been, and now that things are suddenly spiking in difficulty there -will- be complaints. Moreso from people who have difficulty grouping for whatever their reasons. I'm grinding through these trials myself to get the boosts that I want then I'm dropping them like a hot F'king potato. If I wanted huge multi person raids I'd be playing Wow or EQ or the dozens of others MMO's that have endgame raiding.

After finaly getting my goal (Getting DS a Warwork pet) I felt good for a little bit... but then relaised that i probaly had to do this on 4 more toons... which was a bit of a buzz kill.

my other problem is that most PuGers are starting to get very..... "techy" if they fail. (read as, Highly abusive).

the tirlas are nice... but after some bad runs I'm going to stick it on the back burner and work on lowbie toons for a bit.

And you put your finger right on my one concern right now Terr. As said owner of a Minspec... I tried BAF once, and got mapserved out before the first cutscene. Not going to try again till I've somehow managed to upgrade the system.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

I should note that I've run in only two successful BAFs -- out of about ten runs. One was a minimum of 12 people, but we worked together like gangbusters. The other was a full 24, and it was a glorious steamroll.

But the rest? Gah. Success in the BAF at least seems heavily dependent on how good a team you get, especially on the low end, member count wise. I even unlocked my Judgment slot and built the 1st tier Void for it during the last run (and it was clear others on the team also had at least one slot acquired and filled), and we still got wiped.

And I have yet to participate in a Lambda that does not fail.

I think, in order to have fun, I ought to have at least a 50-50 chance of success at the trial...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

So, I hit a BAF that had JUST the right team. Not a single wipe, no major deaths, I didn't even need to fire off my self-rez. We OWNED it. It was awesome!