Zortel

Dinah Ewers, also known as Alraune, was bonded with a plant symbiont after being accidentally killed at an environmental protest at a secure facility surrounded by forests. She wound up eventually on the Rogue Isles, altered by the encounter with it, and started to work as an eco-terrorist against polluting companies there, as well as holding down a bar job. She soon moved to working in Pocket D, and employment opportunities came up elsewhere, finally landing her a position with the Unity Vigil hero group as a counsellor and a place she can utilize her training (having served under various rich households before heading to the Isles and learning a wide range of talents) for helping the members to relax, from manicures and pedicures, to just talking or therepy. And her door's always open for a cup of tea.

Alraune is a Plant/Thorns Dominator.

Coming over soon is a group that found themselves on the wrong side of the law, but are soon making there way back to being heroes, or at least 'good guys'. Gail Treland is an ex-black ops agent, who utilized her mutant ability to great effect in various wars and conflicts around the globe, and now she's bringing her boys to set up shop in Paragon City as a PMC.

She's a Storm controlling mutant.

They're Mercs.

They. Are. GAIL'S FORCE.

... :O

You evil wordsmith, you. D:

Good, but evil.

Emote Menu > Interact > Top Section; Praetorian Salute

/e praetoriansalute

;praetoriansalute

I just miss popdance is all

I'd disagree with the no internet thing. In one of the Arcs, you speak to a seer picking up background thought. One of the things said is:

"But Mom, I don't want to log onto school today, me and Johnny have almost levelled up in Guardians of Praetoria."

It seems that schooling is done via telecommuting, and there's MMORPGs.

Regarding Television channels, I'm of the mind set that there's several Total Praetoria Network channels. TPN News presenting the authorative word from the Administration, TPN1 with popular programming such as Blue and Gold (A Police drama show that Warrent's guest appeared on), TPN2 might have Cole approved historical/factual programs, TPN3, so forth.

From badge information, there are other city states, colonies and places that supplies are shipped out to. Parents raise children from information and NPC chatter in arcs, there's likely to be state orphanages though for those who lost their parents due to the Devouring Earth/Terrorists and other such circumstances.

Regarding other languages, seeing as Praetoria became something of a refuge for dispersed people from the word over, I'd imagine that while English is the 'state language', other worldly languages still exist. One of my characters is very much intent on keeping Chinese culture, language and history alive, another speaks Spanish and Modern Standard Arabic, in addition to English. One speaks English and German.

Swiss This Cheese - Put holes in it/open fire.

Smashy-smash - Security/back up.

Power Pellet - Powers Division Member.

Shine this Shamrock - Beat someone up/kill them.

Mindwash - Someone brainwashed by the state, likely referring to...

Cole-Aid - Enriche.

Chompette - Female enemy.

That reverberates like... - That Sounds Like

This is all sideways - This is all wrong/messed up (?)

Make like a shark - Either swim/flee, or maybe hunt/chomp (?)

Ringy-dingys - Security Alarm

Give Studio 55 a penthouse view over Imperial City, like the AE Quiet Lounge has.

Puckerface seems to be a term for Powers Division I think, but I'm not definite.

Here's a delightful little part of a screencap from a mission, the finale of Seer... 1358(?)'s arc.



This is the group that killed me. Not seen, the boss of the mission I had defeated by the skin of my teeth (Having already defeated me twice before):

1 Elite Boss (Seer 0001)
3 Even Con Seers
1 T.E.S.T Ranger Summon

And then the waves called on me.

Kinetic Melee/Willpower Scrapper, level 12. No Rise to the Challenge, No Burst, no Heightened Senses available.

TPN 6pm Bulletin, Saturday 21st August 2010

"And now some news involving our own reporter, Natasha Sheers, and two brave members of Power Division. Over you to, Natasha." Thomas Dale smiled, before looking away from the camera to the live feed cutting in.

"Thank you, Thomas." Natasha smiled. Miss Sheers was dressed in a stylish suit, her light brown hair left to flow over her shoulders and back. "Today, I was here at the Imperial Information book store with excited viewers, hoping to win a very rare copy of the latest biography of Emperor Cole, signed by the very great man himself. Sadly, terrorists felt this gathering in the hopes of getting the signed book, or purchasing their own copy, was something to loathe."

"With malicious intent, they attempted to storm the building to get the copy, and destroy it in front of our cameras, as some depraved stunt of mad minds. It was lucky for me, for the book, and for the people in attendence that two brave members of the Powers division were here to step in."

The footage cuts away to that of a rather shaky viewpoint as the cameraman scrambles back to keep filming, attendees scattering trying to get clear of the terrorist menace. Armed with high tech, illegal munitions, they start securing entry points. A burst of non-lethal energy weapon fire bowls over one advancing on Miss Sheers, several robots dropping into view along with a man in white armour. Carefully, he starts taking shots from a laser rifle, as his droid support provides covering fire. With their attentions diverted, a very short young woman in PPD uniform barrels through the doors and starts easily taking on the rest.

The woman, identified by TPN as Special Officer Maxi Pound, easily fighting off Resistance members armed with exo-skeletal arms. As several attempt to grab her, she easily overpowers them and throws them to the ground, before using force-bands to handcuff them. Her small size is more of an advantage than a disadvantage, easily taking people out by the legs and zooming around on an energy field emitted from her boots.

The man, Doctor Zahir Rolando, stays out of close quarters, but appears to be using his robotic back up to great effect, along with various tools from force barriers to web grenades to further restrain Resistance members. The information bars make great reference to his robotic legs, citing his fighting crime after losing them in a terrorist bombing of a restaurant.

With the criminals subdued, the pair start checking on the crowd, even as Miss Sheers heads over to thank them. The footage cuts back to Natasha.

"Sadly Zahir and Maxi were too busy working on making sure the terrorists were turned over to the authorities to stop for an interview, but I would like to thank the pair of them for their actions that ensured that the event could get back under way again. I certainly hope that this crushing defeat of an act of terrorism puts second thoughts in the minds of the sad criminal element, that seek to disrupt and destroy the peace we hold dear. I'm Natasha Sheers, and it's back to Thomas in the studio."

I for one love the arc you get from Reese. Great fun.

There's been some very tough missions though. The finale of helping Seer 1153(?), the last mission of Alec Parson's arc (So many Clockwork), and I love the 'get in and out before security arrives' missions.

[Post removed by me due to other posts being removed. Fell afoul of the new rules of the management! - Z]

I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice that the difficulty in Praetoria is rather harsher than the beginning difficulty in Paragon/Rogue Isles. Thinking on it, I've come up with some main points for me as to why these enemies are seeming tougher and harder than their vanilla game counterparts.

((Edit: To state, my two mains currently are a Kinetic Melee/Willpower Scrapper, and a Robotics/Traps Mastermind. Levels 12 and 10, respectively.))

1: There are frequent +1 spawns.
A lot of missions I've done, +1's are the norm, while Even Level enemies are the rare exception to the rule. At low levels with few enhancements (TO's at that), this puts the pressure on in fights, with them hitting harder, more accurately, taking more damage and being harder to hit.

2: There are frequent 4 Minion Mobs.
Some groups, especially Destroyers and Resistance, come in groups of 4. Sometimes, they come in groups of 4 while being +1. More enemies mean more damage taken, a longer fight, more endurance used, which leads to the next point.

3: Downtime is excessive.
There is no out of combat Regen/Recovery bonus like some MMO's. There is quite a limited inventory for inspirations, especially early on. Rest is on a 3 minute recharge timer. This means if I get taken down far enough in the End/HP stakes during a fight, I either have to rest, wait for rest to recharge, wait for the bars to recover on their own, hope I have Blue/Green Insps or enough to combine. At baseline, it takes 59.5 seconds to recover endurance from 0% to 100%, and 239.5 seconds to go from 0% to 100% health.

Take into account you'll be getting more damage and using more endurance per group due to size and enemy levels, and this can mean you'll spend a fair amount of time waiting rather than doing.

4: Enemies do more varied, and harder to deal with effects.
-Regen, -Recharge, -Def, are some of the main pains I've noticed. -Regen means it takes even longer to recover, and that mid combat natural regen is even slower. -Recharge increases the time it takes to defeat enemies, meaning you take more damage. -Def means you take more hits, leading to more damage.

5: Ambushes pile on the pressure and reduce time/means to recover HP/End
With plenty of ambushes cropping up in the missions, and long waves too, your time spent resting may get interrupted. You may not even have the time to rest. Stealth does not prevent ambushes tracking you (if they're not set to go to a location) meaning the Shadowy Presence power is useless. If you lack inspirations or combinable ones, this requires either lots of running to try and put enough distance between you and them to get some HP/End back, which may not be possible, or a trip to the hospital.

6: The new content and methods of interaction make missions more appealing to solo to experience.
With team mates missing out dialogue from conversation windows, and the quicker running of missions/gaining of EXP from team played content, I find this discourages me from teaming as I want to experience the stories. If I were teaming, I'd miss some of the great information and interaction simply due to not being the team leader. This has left me planning to do most of the content solo on some characters, with others less soloable teaming with scant regard for the new content provided. This may just be a problem that I experience, with the viewpoint that the storylines and missions, as branching and personal as they are, aren't suited to team based gameplay.

That's about it from these points. Don't get me wrong. I love GR, and haven't had this much fun in the game for a while. These are points that just niggle at me, and I wonder if others would agree or disagree. Comments are always interesting, and I also wonder what could be done to deal with some of the points.

Also, I hate the idea of Incarnate status being tied to the Well of Furies. I much prefer a system where it's inner potential in whatever form for a hero to express, letting us give our own backstory for just why they've gained the power.

Rushmore wouldn't drink from the Well of Furies, mostly because outside of the USA he can't transform. Also, the place where the well was got trashed during the events of City of Heroes: Web of Arachnos.

Just be careful when they challenge you to duels.