Golden Girl

Lore-wise, the Praetorians are now as important as the Rikti in the way they shape the game world, but with the added advantage that players can actually visit Praetoria and play as a Praetorian.
The Coming Storm is the next major game world shaper, but there's still more Praetorian content needed first to finish their meta-story.

You need to read the text to follow the stories

Her ghost staus is kinda vague - she can also become solid, and isn't a spirit the whole time.

Not all content - but the Praetorian content has been created at the same time as the Trials - so the major events will be played out in them - and you should also be preapred for major parts of the Coming Storm storyline to be played out in Trials too.

I don't think it sucks - it just lacks the polish, complexity and sophistication of the newer content.

These are unbreakable paths

Which ambushes spawn on top of you? They usually come running into the room, and you can see their text bubbles beofre they arrive.
Plus, clues aren't lost - they're kept for you to read once you've taken care of the ambushes, which is realistic - like if you've just set off an alarm by downloading secret information, it's unlikely that the security squad that's rushing to the scene will stop and let you check it out before they attack you

Praetoria has gotten a lot of praise for its arcs - no need to change a popular and winning style

When the game was designed, it was assumed that things like TFs would be played by a group over several days - it was part of the "casual MMO" approach they were going for - but the new design idea is to make TFs that can be played in a single short-ish session, with lots more chained objectives in each missions, meaning that fewer missions are needed for each TF.
For example, the Tin Mage TF has 3 missions, and the Apex TF only has 2 - but the chained objectives, multiple maps on missions, and in-mission talk-to objectives make them much more dynamic and faster paced than the older TFs.

Ambushes don't usually happen the middle of reading - they're triggered by doing something.

Higher level enemies aren't the same kind of challenge as a timers or ambushes - that's why we have timers and ambushes

He's one of the lead mission designers, and he's responsible for large amounts of the Praetorian content - expect more ambushes as the Paretorian storyline reaches its climax in the Incarnate content - and then expect even more in the Coming Storm - whuich has started off with some meteorites ambushing Galaxy City

That's the work of John "Protean" Hegner - also known as "Johnny Ambush" - and during the charity D&D game yesterday, he was the GM, and was using ambushes quite a lot

Ambushes and timers are 2 good ways of keeping players on their toes

I'm also pretty sure that he's never had a girlfriend

The whole game does - and always has - that's what security/threat levels are
And that's why the game has only given you a couple of powers when you start, and sent you to stop muggings and drug deals by stret gangs - even if you've created a cosmic level avatar in your head - and that's why cosmic level avatars will still be told to come back when they're more powerful by contacts who offer missions against Outcasts, and why cosmic level avatars who take a trip to Steel Canyon after Atlas park, instead of going to the Hollows or Kings Row, will see purple Clockwork that can 2-shot them.

Because Praetoria's awesome - it's added so much to the game, lore-wise, system-wise, and content-wise, and is a major part of the ongoing transformation of the game that started back in I17.

You should be prepared to be "cheated" then when defeating Mother Mayhem and in the final showdown with Tyrant

The pieces are being moved on the board, ready for the climax of the Praetotiran storyline - Katie seems good at getting us into the asylum - which is the lair of one of the last remaining loyalist AVs, who controls the enslaved thought police who we'll need to liberate, and who also holds the daughter of the recently dead leader of the Resistance - there's a reason why Mother Mayhem and her actions played such a big role in First Ward but we never got to confront her

"Most"?

You make that sound like a fact rather than a personal opinion

The closer the content is to 50, the closer it syncs with the Incarnate storyline

Thank you for that - if you send me some screenshots of your main avatar, I can see if it'd be sutiable to turn into a 3D model for you

All paths lead to the Well