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City of Heroes: Incarnate System Previewed
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The City of Heroes development team from Paragon Studios had a great weekend during the Northern California Meet & Greet. The devs had a chance to mingle with thousands of CoH fans from around the world. In addition to a lot of other things, devs gave fans a sneak peek at the Incarnate System which will begin with the deployment of Issue 19.
Incarnate abilities are new skills and powers that work with your character’s existing power sets. The Incarnate system features at least 10 Incarnate slots that we know of. Each Incarnate slot unlocks new, customizable Incarnate abilities.
Each Incarnate slot offers multiple trees or branches that you can select from, allowing for greater customization of existing powers and even letting your character gain never-before-seen powers. Every major content update will reveal new Incarnate abilities.
Unlocking an Incarnate slot does not by itself grant new abilities. You must seek out new Incarnate components from high-level encounters. You craft the new Incarnate abilities from these new components. Crafting and selecting an Incarnate ability is not an irrevocable choice, however. Unlike Enhancements, crafted Incarnate abilities can be replaced or removed without destroying the ability.
Find out more at the CoH site.
Comments
Sounds interesting. I hope they can wrestle some more subs from this.
This is something worth talking about. I don't want to hear about them adding anymore stuff to the item shop for quite a while when the game has been devoid of actual gameplay upgrades for so long. I'd like to see some different style encounters added instead of just throwing a bizzilion stupid bots at you all at once. It would be fun to have some scripted encounters with huge monsters threatening to destroy the cities etc. Much like they do for halloween only on a more unpredictable schedule.
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
Even going to the link to the site does not offer much info. Guess we will just have to wait and see how I can improve.
It is hard to wait when you want it all.
NOW
Guess it will not be to long of a wait. 
Just me. FoxySpirit
HMMMMMMMMM......... so when does does this issue 19 sopose to come out.....sounds good i might set account to open on the issue so i can check it all on how it is setup and plays... well until then have fun all....
wsh had a video on it cant seem to see any
According to rumor from the Meet and Greet in October, the window should be mid November. November 15th seemed to crop up.
I suggest you open our accounts a bit earlier than that in order to get the full effect of Going Rogue absorbed... assuming you bought Going Rogue, which I heartily recommend.
With the games huge population increase from going rogue this is sure to add to it. The servers have been more active since going rogues launch then I've ever seen them in the past. Can't wait to try the new stuff and see more players ingame.
Sounds like a fun new system, still not really enough to make me re-sub though. When they get around to finally revamping the mission system so it's not going into the same few maps over and over again with the same 3-4 mission objectives I might consider returning. The game is tons of fun for making toons, but not as much fun to play after that for me.
Meh ... 19 Issues or 59 Issues, the game reached its pinnacle long ago. Despite the "surge" in subs since Going Rogue was released, CoX will never return to anything more than a passing fad - a quaint, multi-thousand fan niche of superhero MMO enthusiasts.
The trend / developer obsession to code ANYTHING but World of Warcraft gameplay is getting tired. Paragon's thousands versus Blizzard's millions means there's a model here from which all others should probably learn and respect. And yet this Incarnate system reminds me very much of simple talent tree abilities and buffs ... oh ... kinda like what Wow uses. :::::rolls eyes:::::
Unfortunately "Going Rogue was issued 5 years too late ... and this latest "update" will breathe little to no new life to a tired, arthritic game. I think many fans will drop away from the game again - like the tide does when it heads back out to sea. They are waiting for fresh and new ideas ... like those coming in DCUO next year.
I wanted to resub at Going Rogue but got distracted by Eve.
Anyway, I like this system even though I probably won't go back for it. I see it as innovating the endgame. I could give a damn about grinding gear, but give me some optional abilities to chase, and I'd grind with the best of them.
To whomever said this is like WoW's talent trees. This is different, something you have to chase and has almost no relationship to a talent tree except that unlocking something leads to other options. And it's not as if that was an original and unique idea in WoW. Go troll somewhere else.
Playing: Eve, LoL
Played: EQ, SWG, EQII, MxO,DDO CoX, WoW, & LoTRO
Awaiting: GW2, Rift, Earthrise, TOR
"To whomever said this is like WoW's talent trees. This is different, something you have to chase and has almost no relationship to a talent tree except that unlocking something leads to other options. And it's not as if that was an original and unique idea in WoW. Go troll somewhere else"
This coming from another expert who doesn't play anymore, right? Yeah ... ok. My post was the one right before yours and you couldn't see my name? lol I played the game for quite a while too before I gave up on it. How about you keep those flames in your fireplace -- better use for them there. ;p
Innovating the end game without increasing levels? Not offering substantive, new (or even scaled) abilities until NOW? Few to no new mission maps? What's next? Use invention system to add even more enhancement slots to powers? Maybe more badges to go hunt? How are those supergroup bases doing? Still bugged? Still expensive to equip? Is the PvP still an amazing and wasted addition to your PvE game? Still enjoying flight suppression?
Blah ... the game is tired. Maybe not as tired as Everquest or even Ultima Online (do people still play that?), but tired nonetheless - and the subs prove it. There's always a surge when an expansion is released with MMOs, but this tide will ebb as quickly as it crests. I can't see it competing well against titles coming soon ... and that's fine by me. The sooner it dies on the vine, the sooner the legitimate talent at Paragon can be assimilated by companies making games people really DO want to play.
Dellsfan. gee somebody got a grudge , look i dont like the way they turned the cash shop , or babs leaving .
Or that the forums nowadays is a JOKE , lol it looks like a kids forum , so much for communicative forum community .
But still innovations are innovations , incarnate system they are want to try a formula of grind and raids , without alienating people who dont grind and raid .
That i do appreciate , one of the reason i kept paying for 5+ years .
Now gameplay has been made tons easier , the story is more involving in going rogue , choices obvious (even if it was plagued by tons of bugs)
There community is strong , sure everybody there got like 2-3 additional accounts . so dont take subscriber base for player base .
Anyway aside from virtue in US almost all the server min max or farm greed . hopefully this expansion with incarnate system
And raids will stimulate people to do something else then do boring 54+ mobs run as endgame .
The big change in issue 19 is that fitness is base , that alone can attract more modern people .
Since fast clickers dont get punished , the incarnate system well thats nice for the oldies , but lets see how fast they can exploit the system , i would have said slap 10 more levels onto it , would been a beter deal .
But atleast the endgame content and what they said in the interviews shows they are doing (wow like) raid bosses .
Same dance and avoiding or else instant dead
, shame if they didn´t release the emo pack .
I probaly would have still been subscribed , but honestly do i miss the game , i honestly dont miss the game at all .
Only thing i guess i miss is the superb character customisation , but some other mmo´s have that too .
To be fair, there were a few in-game features in City of Heroes / Villains I always really liked:
1. sidekick / mentor system
2. costume customization
3. travel powers
4. instanced missions / instanced mission maps
Many of the big MMOs could learn from CoX's lead here ... and have to some degree, yet the arrogance in remaining exclusively not-WoW has hurt them and other titles, for sure. Design and grow it the way folks want it ... the way folks will play it ... period. Eventually the 150,000 (generous guess) subscribers will dwindle away, servers will consolidate, and game will retire ... but go YOU ... you showed THEM ... you stuck to your principles, Statesman!
Oh dont get it wrong Dell , wow did learn from CoX was the only game with badges .
WOW stole badges and turned it into achievements , achievements then gotten stolen by all other games in the world.
So dont mistake other lead game companies dont learn from City of Heroes , infact most returning subscribers each issues are game testers
To see what impact there design philosophy made , and they dropped the dont copy from wow statement .
When they made fitness pool to base (a bit too late should have happened at going rogue not now)
Finaly its not so boring to level anymore and have to 6 levels invalidate to to level 20 . to have a no feel of growth .
Well lets see if they can make up , with catch up when they always miss the que
.
But still incaranate is revolutionair , its same as grinding 10 levels , but not available to all .
(that last part might come back to haunt them )
Really....CoH/V should have been a WoW clone? Arn't there enough of those? WoW was fun and all but if all MMO's were WoW clones, why play them? Why not just grind out a new toon in WoW? Not talking, just saying.
Oh ... there's a superhero, Wow-clone out there? Where? Let's go ...
Wait for it now ...
Get it yet?
Features, function, and form of World of Warcraft merged with some features, function, and form of CoX sounds good to me. Unfortunately, the had-line developers for CoX have too much invested in the 50 level cap to change at this point ... speculation is irrelevent and about as moot as the comic book for the game is/was ...
I'll just say there is only so much function and form that can be squeezed out of the high end of this game. Invention system, Incarnate system, and coming soon ... the Inconceivable system! Yay! Go Paragon ... Let's keep NCSoft happy a few months more with another temporary surge of previous players!
/applause