What if the raised the linit from 50 to 60?

[Arcana]

That is either really great city fan fiction, or you have access to devlogs

I can't imagine what the players would say if the Coming Storm turned out to be another Nemesis plot and progress past the Omega slot became an exercise in exemplaring below maximum power.  But I can imagine how high the bonfire would burn.  The reaction to Kheldians alone proves you'd have been able to see it from space.

[thunderforce]

Now for a long time after you hit 50 you really had not much to do. Incarnates aside if they decided to say make the cap 60, would you think they would have added more powers to the current sets or maybe make some new pools powers for over 50+. Plus slots of course.

It seems to me that incarnates and the associated material _were_ a rise to the level cap in all but name. There wasn't really any functional difference; more to do, and bigger numbers to do it with.

In the early days what you used to do on hitting 50 was go back to the character creator, which made for a much more interesting mix of players in low levels.

[Cinnder]

It seems to me that incarnates and the associated material _were_ a rise to the level cap in all but name. There wasn't really any functional difference; more to do, and bigger numbers to do it with.

I think the best part of that decision was that Incarnates didn't invalidate any hard work you had put in to maximise your regular powers.  When SWTOR first raised the level cap and I found out all the purple gear I got by grinding daily mishs would now need to be replaced, I was not happy -- to say the least.  This was a significant factor in my quitting.

In the early days what you used to do on hitting 50 was go back to the character creator, which made for a much more interesting mix of players in low levels.

I never thought about that before.  Did Incarnates decimate the population in starting zones by reducing the number of alts created?

[Arcana]

I never thought about that before.  Did Incarnates decimate the population in starting zones by reducing the number of alts created?

Even on servers with the most active Incarnate trial populations (say, Freedom), that was not my impression.  Mostly because Incarnate mission content was still ramping up and trials were reward-limited.

What it did do, at least on some servers, was reduce the number of players seeking to form or join conventional task forces.

[Mythic13]

I remember when I started 40 was the limit for a while until they made it 50.

Now for a long time after you hit 50 you really had not much to do. Incarnates aside if they decided to say make the cap 60, would you think they would have added more powers to the current sets or maybe make some new pools powers for over 50+. Plus slots of course.

Or was 50 good enough.

More boosting in AE. 

[thunderforce]

I never thought about that before.  Did Incarnates decimate the population in starting zones by reducing the number of alts created?

By Incarnates, the Union/Defiant server population was already pretty sparse. (It's a great pity that MMOs can't generally announce a server merge without appearing to be dying and without character name woes, even though it's obvious to anyone technical that hardware simply gets much faster; I think CoX would have been much stronger if we'd been squashed together relatively cosily, seeing more characters online at any given time. The STO solution where it appears to be one server, actually a cluster instancing zones with zone chat cross-instance, seems much nicer. But I digress).

But I don't think that really happened with Incarnates because it already happened with Inventions, especially with the potential to grind for Reward Merits (Croatoa, Croatoa, Croatoa... and then ITF, ITF, ITF) and with the time potentially consumed fiddling with the market. Yes, I know I think Inventions are the root of all evil and won't shut up about it; but I think it's hard to argue that people didn't spend more time on new alts when the only thing to do with a 50 was the occasional Hami raid.

[Mythic13]

I think CoX would have been much stronger if we'd been squashed together relatively cosily, seeing more characters online at any given time. The STO solution where it appears to be one server, actually a cluster instancing zones with zone chat cross-instance, seems much nicer. But I digress).

But I don't think that really happened with Incarnates because it already happened with Inventions, especially with the potential to grind for Reward Merits (Croatoa, Croatoa, Croatoa... and then ITF, ITF, ITF) and with the time potentially consumed fiddling with the market. Yes, I know I think Inventions are the root of all evil and won't shut up about it; but I think it's hard to argue that people didn't spend more time on new alts when the only thing to do with a 50 was the occasional Hami raid.

Agreed w/ all this

[MWRuger]

Actually, for me I only bothered with the incarnate stuff on one toon. Most of the time I usually did just play a different alt so even with all those factors, I always saw plenty of people at sub 50 on my server (Liberty which was apparently sparsely populated compared to some).

If people only played one toon and did nothing but grind away at incarnate stuff (which is of course up to the player) I would consider that a failure of imagination and a tragedy that they never saw all the good combinations that the game offered.

[Arcana]

Actually, for me I only bothered with the incarnate stuff on one toon. Most of the time I usually did just play a different alt so even with all those factors, I always saw plenty of people at sub 50 on my server (Liberty which was apparently sparsely populated compared to some).

If people only played one toon and did nothing but grind away at incarnate stuff (which is of course up to the player) I would consider that a failure of imagination and a tragedy that they never saw all the good combinations that the game offered.

For me I never really saw Incarnate trials as grinding.  I wanted the rewards, yes, but I guess I was one of those players for whom being pushed to find their characters' limits was, if done in moderation, generally enjoyable.  Lambda and BAF in particular.  I saw earning rewards in the trials similar to how I saw leveling low alts: enough effort to be interesting, but not enough to be intolerably tedious.  But then again, I didn't, as a rule, PL alts either, except on test (for obvious reasons).  I played the game to play the game.

[MWRuger]

Same here. I like BAF and Lamda. I was always worried that I would ruin other people's time by being awful so I didn't do many beyond those. Plus I played at really odd times so getting a full league together could be tough.

But I actually enjoyed the low level stuff and liked learning the ins and out of how the sets worked so that was still fun for me.

[Chance Jackson]

I would have loved to have the cap raised! I wanted more powers especially after the Power Pool Revamps and more levels would mean more choices and that I wouldn't have to sacrifice as many desirable powers as I did

[johnrobey]

I was happy with 50 being the max level.  I like that Incarnate took you even further, without requiring one to make yet another "final" IO build.  As it was, I had two toons with Tier 4 Incarnate who were markedly awesome--much more so than a non-Incarnate 50--but they weren't completely unstoppable, which is good, since otherwise there'd have been no challenge.  Just my two cents. 

[healix]

With all the added content for 50s', I really don't see a need to have gone to 60. Like JR said, there was more than enough challenge to play at that level. Here's hoping we will all get the chance to play them again some day...