Agent White

I've got both heroes and villains. Would definitely be nice to have some more strike forces, the ones we've got are pretty solid and fun and worlds better designed than several of the trials and task forces on the other side.

As for why it's less popular. Probably a combination of reasons, it really depends on the person. It's hard to make accurate blanket statements because there are dozens of exceptions.

For me? I do prefer blueside. I am a more heroic person in general, I like playing as the do gooder and beating up the bad guy and feeling good that I saved the day and stopped the evil plot. It's pretty easy and simple content to generate and even if a lot of the mechanics aren't always that fun it's not really the writing that ever bothers me. It's kind of a hero's role in life to ever be vigilant against the many and varied threats against the world.

Villainside... well, as has been said, more often than not you're treated more like an errand monkey than a super powered villain. They don't really have the freedom to pursue their own plans and the like, which is understandable given the limitations of the game's mechanics. And villains can't ever really 'win'. There's stuff where we get to feel like real villains but nothing that actually changes the status quo, even when we 'win' like Vincent Ross or Dean's arcs, things still hit back to before. And it's understandable, the game would be broken if we could really steal death rays and ancient artifacts of unfathomable power or could rob banks for millions of dollars. Our clone facility blows up, our shard of infinite power only lasts a single mission, we sell that priceless artifact for 1,000 inf, etc. There are always bigger, stronger, nastier villains out there whose plans get to come to fruition and we have to help or hinder them, but villains never get to be 'top dogs'. It doesn't really bother me, but it doesn't change the fact that Villains are always on a leash. And even when we do get some plots where we get to be the mastermind behind the plot, more often than not we get words put in our mouth. Really I don't envy the folks that write for redside, they have a lot harder job than blueside. Heroes are easy. "This is bad, you don't like bad things to happen" is the only justification absolutely -needed- blueside. Redside? What compels the character to want to do this and work for this person? Is that -too- villainous for my character? Not villainous enough? etc. The problems are legion.

The economy of zones is, honestly, kind of a hindrance too. I mean, it's nice there aren't any empty wasted zones like blueside, but at the same time my characters generally run about the same path without doing stuff like power leveling. The zones overlap a bit, but I still run the general chain along mercy->port->cap->sharkheard->nerva/martial->grandville. Not really because I want to, I just have to. I at least have the option of First Ward at 20 (though, how many times can you rerun First Ward?), but after that I generally find myself running up the same ladder, XP gains and levels come slower so there's a lot more room to do repeat contacts, doing multiple arcs and thus multiple contacts between characters (and fewer characters at that, due to Redside's intimate size). Even mixing in Cimerora and the RWZ, I still find I'm overlapping contacts. After the umpteenth run through, the scenery gets kinda stale, whereas at least Blueside I have several options available, I can go through king's row, I can go through the hollows, I can do Steel Canyon or Skyway, I can hit faultline, I can do Talos, First Ward, Croatoa, etc. It doesn't really start to collapse together until I hit Peregrine.

There's also the minor problem of locked contacts. I kinda like the idea of earning contacts via different requirements, but there's more than a fair number redside (In fact I think almost all if not all locked contacts are redside) and unless you know about them, what their unlock requirement is, and actively pursue it, more often you'll miss it. Easy example, Archmage Taraxis, super easy to unlock, just a history badge. Unless you wiki it you'll never know that and won't know where to find any of the plaques except by some very meticulous checking. As far as I can tell, there's nothing actually in game that tips you off 'hey maybe you should get this badge' etc.

Speaking of, blueside is -super super- easy on contact chains. In fact it's kind of hard to be without a contact at any given point in the game. Even if I outlevel a contact before even talking to them they'll still usually shoot me to someone else. Redside I'm pretty much required to repeatedly hit up brokers and newspaper missions to get new contacts.

And I've found redside content to be a little harder. Given, I'm still green comparatively. But I solo heavily and just from personal experience it seems like villainside missions are -extremely- prone to throwing bosses and elite bosses at you. I mean heck, compare the Shining Stars Arc to the Hearts of Darkness tutorial arcs. Most missions in shining stars when you face down multiple bosses in the same mission you have 1 or more allies. hearts of Darkness? Most times you don't. Sometimes you even face down two bosses at once. That can be kind of offputting especially when you're something squishy like a blaster or dominator and don't have all your tools yet.

And then there's just some of the weird stuff like the accolades for the different sides. Atlas Medallion is stupid easy to get and early on at that. Marshal? Gated behind the Lord Recluse Strike Force so distinctly endgame. Task Force Commander? Not that bad, a bit tedious but you can get it as soon as you can access Numina. Invader? Oh sorry, you missed that Mayhem mission, out of luck unless you port to blueside and nab TFC or get supremely lucky and join someone else doing that mayhem mission (Hope you're not a Praetorian btw!). Super tedious. Portal Jockey? Again all roads lead to Peregrine blueside, it's hard -not- to do Maria Jenkins and Tina Macintyre. Born in Battle? oh, gated behind a random GM spawn and having to take 1 million damage. You'll get it eventually but, eh I'd rather just do Maria's arc with friends (And I can solo the arcs, can't solo Scrappy). Phalanx reserve? Tons of Exploration and history badges, 2 pretty easy defeat badges and the Nemesis defeat badge, a bit tedious and can be hard, but easily doable. High Pain Threshhold? Best work on that debt badge!

Though they do have some weirdly easy ones, like Demonic is -waaay- easier to get than Archmage, or something like Force of Nature. But for the most part, not the case.

I do kind of like that Redside's GMs are actually a lil important, since pretty much all of Bluesides are just for the badge (Though Adamastor's revamp has been -quite- nice in terms of rewards). But Scrapyard can definitely be a pain since he's on a fixed timer and you -want- to pull a team together for a GM fight.

That said though, the redside Strike Forces, for however many there are, are actually pretty fun and worth running, nowhere near as tedious as a lot of the blueside task forces and trials. Honestly Mortimer Kal is one of the funnest team events in the game, not just for the really nice reward but just it's extremely enjoyable to play through. Missions are varied, not too long, not too hard, the story is kinda interesting, the maps are neat, etc.

So yeah, I enjoy redside for being different, I mean I'm paying for the game, I'm going to enjoy playing all the content. But honestly I do prefer blueside.

As long as I've been playing, TFs lock you in to the level you start it at. You can earn experience and level up and go to a trainer but you stay at the level you started it.

Zones will remain ghosted until there's good reason to inhabit them, otherwise folks will use them for their arcs or just because there's a mission door there they have to go to. Task forces, zone events that don't suck, etc. Faultline used to get run fairly often because you get access to Yin-Os and the Ouro badge as you go through it, now we've got DFB dropping SOs and anyone can ask for an ouro portal at 14. otherwise, you're just running stuff for story and badges.

The only truly problematic arc is, I believe, the Loyalist Responsibility line. It's the only one with, I think, an Elite Boss in it. Everything else has normal bosses even for 'signature' characters.

I might be wrong though, anyone wanna chime in?

The -story- in Praetoria is more than worth playing.

The problem are the mechanics attached to doing it.

Honestly, given how things have progressed I really feel like Praetoria was initially begun as a kind of grand experiment and since starting they've realized it wasn't something they either actually wanted to do or could do, or just the negative reaction, and have since shifted gears on it to what we have now.

I'm looking forward to Night Ward, I'm really enjoying all the different lore and interconnected quality the writing has taken on lately. Sadly though, I'm going to have to agree that ultimately it's just going to have the same thing happen as with First Ward. It's going to be the new shiny for a lil bit then the gimick will fade and you'll get the 0-5 folks in the zone on occasion running through the story arcs.

There's just not much really that's there that's going to keep people wanting to hang around it as any kind of hub or the like. The TUNNEL system will probably help making it more accessible, but without something really worthwhile for people to do outside of the level specific story arcs and the repeatables, not a lot of reason to hang out.

Well I think anything that's been announced is fair game at this point. Just it needs to be clear what is still being worked on, like the incarnate slot, and what seems to be pretty ready to go, like Night Ward. And the rest, yeah, not worth talking about since we won't get any new info for a while.

Hm, really a new issue with no new power sets. That is rather surprising. Guessing they're planning to push this all out a lot sooner than later then.

Pretty sure DiB has an exemp cap much lower than 50 >>

You can also speak to a detective/broker contact (there's 1 in any city zone) to receive a police radio (blueside) or newspaper (redside). Doing repeatable missions will build your reputation with the appropriate contact (the detective/broker in the zone appropriate to your level) Then you can do a special mission and afterward the contact will give you a choice of new mission contacts.

You also have the opportunity to unlock a new costume slot and the ability to wear capes. For the new costume slot, visit the tailors in Steel Canyon (blueside) or Cap Au Diable and they'll give you a mission that, upon completion, will award you a new costume slot.

Likewise, speaking to the City Representative in Atlas Park City Hall or Mr. Rodney in Cap Au Diable (use the 'find contact' button) will offer you missions that will unlock capes when you finish.

I'll usually go with travel powers based on concept, whatever feels 'right' for that character.

Otherwise, I pretty much skip pools. aside from travel powers and key powers like hasten or weave/tough, they seem pretty underpowered or not worth using.

*unjustified moral outrage. entitlement rant. slap in the face*

Done.

It's a slap in the face is what it is.

Yeah you'll be fine if you don't use them much.

I find 'em kinda handy. It's a gamble but it doesn't cost all that much, like turning a Sleep recipe into a Resistance. Can be kinda nice when you get lucky.

No Staff?

Well I'm officially taking the week off from the forums. I hope when I get back there's enough of Zwillinger and Blackpebble to have some proper services.

First Ward? You mean Night Ward? I don't recall seeing anything like that in First Ward.

And isn't that the vanity from the April Fool's joke?