Zombra

I'll never say no to Health and Stamina, but I don't like all my characters being Olympic level track and field stars. In many cases Swift and Hurdle make it more difficult to precisely position in combat.

You're still wrong. This was not an isolated brain fart. There is a consistent pattern of intelligent people complaining about the bad design of this system (or rather, the UI and framing of the system). Some people, perhaps many, "get it" quickly and good for them. That does not mean that it is objectively easy. No designer should congratulate themselves because "only" 40% of users find their system a huge pain in the ass. I'm not especially interested in your motivations, but you should be aware that I can't find any apparent purpose to your previous post, other than to say that anyone who struggles with the system must be stupid because it is so easy. So yes, regardless of your intent, that came across as very disrespectful. Now you know.

I mean, sure ... if you put it like that, it's also easy to beat Kasparov at chess. You just have to move the little pieces around to the right places at the right times. And those little things are so easy to pick up and move around! 😄

Factually wrong. If you were right, then no one would struggle with it; yet I am not the only person who found it confusing.

First, City of Heroes level-ups are done top down for power selection, enhancement slotting, etc. The game itself teaches you to get used to top down for dozens of hours, then changes it for no reason at all. Second, when you open the Skyrim Perk screen, it literally zooms in on the node at the very bottom of the tree. You have to zoom out to see the rest. Skyrim teaches you very blatantly that the list starts at the bottom. Incarnate does nothing like this. I'm not saying that bottom to top is inherently evil, but for the game to assume that all players will assume they should start at the bottom is indeed dumb design.

I didn't say this before, but .. y'all know it's not an actual tree, right? It's a flowchart, which normally go top to down and left to right. Sometimes skill "trees" in games do indeed go down to up or in all kinds of different directions, but it is not unnatural to start looking at the top left.

I appreciate that, and I apologize in return if the hostility in my response was hurtful. As to how exactly Incarnate could be done better, I'm not sure if that's a useful conversation at this point as I doubt anything will be changed. Certainly, anything pointing to Ramiel would be better than what we have now (which is nothing). I would definitely support changing the Ramiel popup to be very explicit about being an important intro to this whole huge endgame system. Right now, the only hint that the Incarnate system exists at all (besides the up-to-now-utterly-meaningless Abilities window) is when you suddenly start getting some weird special xp and notifications of salvage you never heard of before (oh good, more currencies!), with no warning or explanation. This all leads to the vague feeling that you should not only be doing something, but already know what you're doing. You're pushed out of the plane to parachute into enemy territory, but no one even told you what your mission is, much less how to accomplish it. Really, I don't think you should even get Incarnate xp or salvage at all until you've unlocked that storyline. By the way, I also never suggested that the Create menu (or anything) should be changed now - obviously that would cause problems for those already familiar with it. The point wasn't to fix it by flipping it over again - the point was that it was designed in a dumb way in the first place. A problem doesn't have to be "universal" to be bad, and this was done in a way that is bad. In short, you asked "What's wrong with it?" and I am simply explaining what is wrong with it. 🙂 If the Homecoming devs want to have a conversation about changing the intro to Incarnate, I'd be happy to be part of the brainstorm. Until then, the thread has served its purpose as far as I'm concerned - which was no more than for me to be able to start using the system. If the thread can be valuable in other ways or to other people, great; and I'm happy to keep responding to anyone who brings in new ideas or who needs help understanding the point.

This is a ridiculous and frankly insulting comparison. The Inventions tutorial walks you through every menu, shows you where all the buttons are, explains the meaning of every window, and guides you through the actual creation of an IO. The contact to show you the tutorial pops right up in your Contacts window. It holds your hand so tightly the circulation cuts off. Conversely, the Incarnate system never even draws attention to the Incarnate Abilities button - the button is there to be sure, but after spending dozens or more hours levelling from 1-50, it's not that weird to forget it is there at all. Who even looks at their Powers window ... ever? I don't. And once you even find it, opening it up doesn't help much without explanation. The Equip window is not really like anything else in the game, and of course when you open it up you have no powers to slot, so even if you've unlocked the slots, the window contains no actionable information. So right off we're starting with at best a "This makes no sense. Oh well, maybe later it will." Then there's the Create menu - again, the top recipes contain ingredients you literally cannot have at that point, with no way to learn about them unless you (a) happen to notice the pattern in the power names (which I did not for a long time) - or (b) exhaustively search every single one trying to find something recognizable ("Well the first 8 of these make no sense. Come on lucky #9!"). So that's not great. Lastly, we have the Convert tab, which starts off with Shard conversion. Even though I played at 50 for a lot of hours before even finding this window, I didn't have enough Shards to make anything, and I had never seen any of these incarnate salvage types before. I had no idea what any of these things were until I flipped back and forth a few times and saw that some of the powers in Create required some of these salvage types as part of (but not all of) the requirements. Yes, once you finally get to Threads, you probably have enough of them to at least start making some salvage, and yes, by the time I got to this point I was beginning to piece things together in my mind. Up until that point however the entire system was clear as mud. Looking through so many things in a row that didn't make any sense did not make it smooth and easy to finally get to where it did. And let's not pretend that there aren't a ridiculous number of currencies and intertwined loot systems in the game. Maybe I need to spend Merits to access some of this stuff? Do Enhancement Catalysts work into it somewhere? That can't be right. Maybe this has to do with Legacy Salvage I saw in the auction house menus, or maybe I need to be doing very specific Trials or TFs to even think about doing any of this, because I'm pretty sure there's stuff like that out there. Do I even have the pieces I need to start putting this puzzle together? I don't know. It's perfectly possible there are whole systems out there, of which I'm unaware, that I have to engage in to even get the pieces. Yes I figured it out eventually in this case (with minimal but key advice from other players) but as someone who doesn't like to ask for help the learning curve is far, far steeper than it needs to be here. If what you're looking for is you are smart and I am dumb, then fine - I'm happy to admit that I'm dumb, and anyone who figured all this out at a glance is smart. So good, yes, you're very smart. I don't think that invalidates my frustration, or the fact that even without a tutorial, the menus could be laid out in a way that isn't front-loaded with inaccessible jargon, and doesn't require you to start at the end and work backwards to have any hope of unraveling it.

Eh. I'm up for puzzles and mysteries, but that obviously was not the intent here. The designers simply tried to give a clear explanation and failed.

Technically, yes - the information is there, but ... is anyone else reminded of Hitchhiker's Guide? “But the plans were on display…” “On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.” “That’s the display department.” “With a flashlight.” “Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.” “So had the stairs.” “But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?” “Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.” ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Y'all I looked at the Incarnate menu again and realized that the powers start at the BOTTOM of the chart instead of at the top. I was previously clicking through starting at the top, checking a few powers and thinking that these ingredients didn't exist anywhere .... just had to go all the way down to craft the beginner ones first. Those ones I can make from those components in the Convert tab, which are made from the million threads and shards I've been getting.

Huh? Is there like a special store somewhere?

@everyone (too many to name): Thanks for all the support and good advice! I feel way less stupid now and appreciate the resources to get me to the next steps!

I agree 😄 I'm 100% asking for spoilers, at least enough to get me going. It's true I hate spoilers but I hate brick walls even more, and the game has given me a brick wall with zero info on how to get past it (while at the same time acting like I should already know all about it). As for asking in-game ... ehhh I feel like I'm more likely to get a "helpful" person who just throws a bunch of ingredients at me instead of gently guiding me towards how I'm supposed to get them myself. Forums seem like the best way to get a nuanced answer.

EDIT: FOR ANYONE STRUGGLING OUT THERE, THERE ARE ONLY TWO THINGS I WISH WERE MADE CLEAR BY THE GAME. I could have figured out the rest myself very easily if it only told me these two things. These aren't real spoilers but I'll put them in a spoiler tag just in case: That's it. If you are like me, this will be all you need to get going and you can figure out the rest on your own. Thank you to everyone who helped me in this thread. ----------- Original post: I really don't like spoilers and walkthroughs, but it seems like the Incarnate system is obtuse to the point where there's no other choice. My original Discord posts: Is there ANY in-game explanation of the Incarnate system? I keep expecting there to be an introduction like with the invention system, but no, everyone's just saying "Whassap Incarnate bro" I did see I got a bunch of contacts at 50 but the first couple were like "So now that you're an Incarnate we need your help" and I was like uhhhhhhh okay? A helpful user directed me to Mender Ramiel's mission line, which I had completely missed in the glut of a million level 50 contacts. Ramiel never even appeared on my contact list until I sought him out. So I did all those missions, which was great and explained about what Incarnates are. It even showed me where the Incarnate Abilities menu is and told me to use the Create tab to make some abilities. This was all fine. My new problem is that the ingredients to make abilities are all things I've never heard of. Like, absolutely none of these things exist as far as I'm aware. Before I even get started I need to find something called a Favor of the Well, and an Essence of the Incarnate, and best of all a "Musculature Total Radial Revamp". You know, just normal crimefighting loot. And Mender Ramiel never mentioned any of these things, and did not give the slightest hint of how to obtain these things or what they even are. He said, in essence, "Welp, that's it, Incarnate bro! Now get ya to crafting!" I have hundreds of Incarnate Threads and I guess I can use the Convert tab to make some things, but I don't need Gluon Compounds or Meditation Techniques to create Incarnate abilities. In fact these things have no apparent use at all. Imagine being a crimefighter and getting out of bed in the morning thinking, "Hmm, I sure could go for an Cognitive Partial Radial Conversion right now. I guess I'll go fight some Tsoo and see if one drops out of their pockets." So .... am I supposed to be able to find what to do next? Like, go do every mission and task force in the game until I stumble across something? Is there a signpost I missed somewhere? Or is it intended that I go read a guide because the game itself never tells me? Again, it's weird that Ramiel seemed to think I had everything I needed. I feel like I missed a step and it's confusing. Thanks in advance for any help.

I love the option to use alternative animations for many powers. However, the special effects for Sonic Attack/Screech seem misaligned. Is it just me, or does it drive anyone else crazy that it pulls so off-center?

Ah, the old rotating binds trick. Good thinking! Thank you!

Hi. I want a keybind that cycles through selecting my pets, ideally in a consistent order, and most important, whether or not they are visible on my screen. Right now I am using target_custom_next mypet alive, which works okay, but cycles through pets based on their distance from me which is constantly changing, and more importantly only works if they are in front of me. Sometimes my pets run around, or I turn my attention to an enemy, and my bind no longer works for targeting someone because they are offscreen. I know the game can target offscreen pets as I can click their name in the pet window and select them that way. But I can't find a keybind that works to cycle through. I understand that I can do separate keybinds for every pet and these may work for offscreens, but I don't want to use 6-7 different keys. I just want one key to cycle through all my pets whether or not they are onscreen. Thanks in advance for any help, even if it is to say that you are 100% sure this cannot be done. (But please don't guess if you're not sure 🙂)

Found it!

No, but I like what I see. 🙂 The one I'm thinking of was not a comic strip but an actual voice acted cartoon. It was very crudely drawn and animated, basically like still drawings with moving mouths if I remember right.

There was a hand-drawn animated cartoon way back in the early 2000s based on City of Heroes. I remember it being pretty funny. I don't remember the names of any of the characters or their supergroup (it was something simple like "Crime Team" or "Power Friends"). I really want to watch those again. Please let me know if you remember what I'm talking about at all, and of course if you remember exactly what it was called I'm sure we'd all love to watch them again! Thank you!

Oooh! You are the real hero! Thank you @twozerofoxtrot ! 💕

I got the Rikti War Zone mission for the Unabashed badge, which cannot be fulfilled without a successful Rikti Ship Raid which ..... I can't do by myself. I also can't seem to abandon the mission, so now this thing is stuck in my open mission log forever or until I coordinate with 100 other players to complete the raid. Annoying. Thanks in advance for any insight 🙂

Figured as much. Appreciate the response!

I have a modding question. Can someone confirm that sound replacers are all or nothing? My dream is to be able to change sounds for certain characters only, e.g. add chainsaw sounds for my Titan Weapons guy with a chainsaw, but not for every Titan Weapon in the world; or change the "thick heels" walking sound to a barefoot sound for barefoot characters only. I assume this can't be done and once you change a sound file, it's changed for all characters in the world but if it CAN be done I'd love to know about it. Thanks.