Techbot Alpha

Originally Posted by Venture

Character concept is subordinate to game rules. Characters in City start as beginners. That happens to not matter in this particular case, but (e.g.) I'd laugh in the face of anyone who tried to RP their level 10 character as anything other than a slightly-experienced rookie.

Originally Posted by Arilou

^Except that at this point you are, at most, level 10. You're a nobody. You don't have the magical acumen to make anyone **** his or her pants, at least not in the obvious way.

Originally Posted by Kitsune9tails

I lol'ed.

Just off the top of my head:
wrath: this is the path where you ultimately create a superweapon or cast an uber spell that destroys the world. Your Contacts are a collection of dupes or nihilistic inventors and cultists. Your missions are full of killing off minor heroes, and you conflict with Doctor Vahzilok and Positron. The default 'voice' is that of the ultraviolent thug/sadist.

greed: this is the path where you ultimately hold hostage/horde all of the world's resources, resulting in a dystopia where only you have resources, and those are running down due to the lack of an infrastructure to produce more. Your missions are filled with robberies and capers, your Contacts are corrupt employees, and you contend with the likes of B A Brawler and Black Scorpion. The default voice is that of the amoral mercenary/businessman.

sloth: this path is all about the slavery. You conflict with Ghost Widow and Sister Psyche. Your missions are kidnappings. Your Contacts are fellow mind controllers/brainwashers and the missions are all about deception and mind screw: think the Micheal Douglas movie The Game. The default voice is that of seductive mastermind. Results in a dystopia that appears to be a utopia until you realize that sentience itself has been abolished, and you essentially are utterly alone. The default voice would be that of the elitist.

pride: all glory to me, baby. On this path, you are the cackling, cape-wearing melodramatist, playing it for all that it is worth. You contend with Statesman and Recluse because it's all about face time. You twirl your mustache, monologue, leave helpless foes in deathtraps while you go off do more important things. Your Contacts are genre savvy snarkers and easily impressed innocents. Results in an over-the-top scheme going wrong and destroying the world. The default voice would be the very stereotype of the super villain.

lust: since apparently drugs are allowed in a Teen setting and sex is not, this path is all about the purple haze. Results in a dystopia of a crumbling economy built around the equivalent of opium dens and virtual reality (!). You conflict with Bastion and Aeon. Your Contacts are dealers and bagmen, with the missions dealing with addiction and drug-addled rampages. The default voice would be that of the dangerous seducer.

envy: this is the default path that already exists. It's all about becoming acknowldedged as the most powerful being in the universe.

gluttony: this Path would be all about consuming resources, probably in the name of Science! Possibly on behalf of some insatiable entity (for the magic types). The missions would be dominated by ever greater needs and demands, and a growing sense of desperation over where and how they can be procured. Your Contacts would be suppliers and manufacturers, leading into a dystopia of a world collapsing due to a total lack of the resources you have consumed. You would contend with Scirocco and Manticore.

In other news, the motivations from the old DC PnP game work just fine as paths/voices, too.

Originally Posted by FloatingFatMan

I've suggested similar before, it's a far more sensible solution. Use the incarnate trials to actually unlock the slots initially (but provide other ways to do that too), then let the player select the branches they iXP goes towards (and you earn iXP from any level 50 mobs). It'd be a far more enjoyable way because, primarily, you're NOT forced to grind those bloody trials.

Originally Posted by Grouchybeast

The difference with CoX, though, is that anyone can create and slot Clarion if they have the time/inclination/bloody-mindedness to grind out all the parts needed for Clarion if that wasn't their first choice, just for the sake of one trial.

Originally Posted by Captiosus

See - This is what I meant a few days ago when I said that the length, mechanics, and player attitude (towards other players) of Underground is getting a little too WoW-like for my tastes.

Up until Keyes and Underground, you could have pretty much thrown together any group and been successful at MOST of the content so long as you had the basic tank/dps/heal trifecta of some sort. And your "tank" didn't even really need to be a proper tank, it could have been having multiple MMs, or crazy Scrappers or Stalkers.

Maybe I'm just an idealist, but that was always what made this game different than others. No one was sitting on a site like Elitist Jerks with min-maxxing spreadsheets trying to squeeze out the last possible point of healing or damage from the latest Flavor of the Month build. You weren't excluded from a task force or trial because your powerset within your AT was weak compared to others in the same AT or because you decided to take something crazy as a pool rather than a specific powerset. Supergroups didn't keep third party records of player performance and then bench players or specific ATs based on it.

That's not to say there isn't an element of min-maxxing to the game; There very much is, and I've played it like everyone else. But it wasn't prevalent for success as it is in other games, most notably WoW.

With Keyes and now Underground, we have players stacking perceived best group comps, FotM powerset, incarnate and pool builds and excluding other players who don't match particular criteria. That's the same kind of junk that, after years and three expansions of WoW, made me tire of that game and brought me back here. I'd really hate to see it start to become the norm here. "Incarnate trials LFM, must be at least +2, have leadership and/or clarion!".

For a game whose selling point for the last seven years has been the vast choices of powers and appearance options to craft our own hero/villain our own way, making content that causes the playerbase to eschew choice in favor of cookie cutter or required setups to win at specific content is disappointing.

But, as I said, maybe I'm an idealist.

Originally Posted by Red_X2

You know, I'll take your word on that. If anyone knows a useless post...

Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint

The whole point of having to travel to some places without using a teleporter or tram is to experience the game world. I suppose next you are going to want a tram added to DA, Striga, Eden... you get the point.

Originally Posted by Basilisk

If you think Rapier would look funny in broadsword, it would look three times a strange in Katana. The rapier is not generally a two handed weapon. It doesn't have a hilt long enough to manage a 2 handed grip, so you'd have one hand floating at the end of your sword. Plus the animations for Katana are probably even more wrong than those of broadsword. Besides, Carnies have been using broadsword animations for their rapiers for years now. I wouldn't say it looks "right," but it's not so painfully bad that people have been screaming for a change.

Originally Posted by Gemini_2099

Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner!

Originally Posted by TerraDraconis

Nope I didn't.

Lets use different terms. They introduce a new Satellite system to the game [Going Rogue] it lets you do various things new that require access to the satellites.

Later they introduce a new GPS unit [incarnates] to all subscribers but it requires access to the satellite to function. If you don't have access to the satellite it doesn't work. That said it wasn't part of the purchased satellite system. It is just something nifty introduced later that takes advantage of the satellite system being in the game.

Originally Posted by Feycat

Yes, indeed. Some people do not.

You had to have GR installed to ACCESS Incarnates.

Yet incarnates DID NOT RELEASE with GR. They were not PART of GR. GR was the gating system which allowed you to access it.

Originally Posted by Texarkana

Logic is not your strong suit, I take it?

Originally Posted by Biowraith

It's nothing like that. I'm not even sure what else to say; that analogy suggests such a fundamentally flawed understanding of what's happening here.

Originally Posted by Texarkana

There have always been 2 requirements for access to Incarnates. Having Going Rogue and subscribing.

Before Freedom, you did not have access to Incarnates if you subscribed, but did not buy Going Rogue. Conversely, if you bought Going Rogue, but did not subscribe, then you did not have access to Incarnates (or anything else).

Given that in the Freedom model you get Going Rogue access for free when you subscribe, it appears that subscribing is the only requirement, but the two requirements still stand. Therefore, owning Going Rogue, but not subscribing, means you do not have access to Incarnates (but do have access to other stuff!)

Now, do I agree with this? Not really, because of the marketing snafu that was postponing Incarnates, but that is the way it is.

Originally Posted by Winterminal

That said, a player can return and play for free, which simply was not an option in the past. So for the player to expect to get everything they left behind, now at no cost, is unreasonable. The glass is half full.

Originally Posted by Biowraith

You kinda had to subscribe to access any of its features.

Originally Posted by The_Spad_EU

Riiiiiight. So the MMO you previously subscribed to is now allowing you to come back and continue playing *without* having to pay anything and you're ******** that they're not giving you all the stuff you used to have when you *were* paying them?

People truly astonish me sometimes.

Originally Posted by TroyHickman

You're welcome.


What'd I do?

Originally Posted by Texarkana

Actually, incarnates didn't come out with Going Rogue. Going Rogue was a requirement for access to Incarnates (when they were eventually released), it didn't actually bestow access to it.

Originally Posted by IamLink

Saw this guy in the War Zone one day. Thought it was pretty damn good.