I don't think the Praetorian Invasion can be taken in the same sense as the Rikti Invasion. As mentioned, it is not a city-wide event, but even more importantly, it is not a level-wide event. Only level 50 characters doing a specific Task Force will experience any aspect of this battle. For all others, it hasn't (and can't have) happened (yet).
For me, I don't know yet whether to treat it as another almost-identical dimension (Earth Sub-Prime, where bad lending didn't ruin the economy), a flash-forward to a possible future (as in Recluse's Victory), or whatever, but this war has not begun for anybody under level 50, and therefore can't be sensibly or adequately portrayed as a Unionverse wide event.
http://www.savecoh.com/
^ Which is why they should have done it properly, and put it in its own zone. As is, it's just a lazy, half hearted attempt and it falls way short.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
See this is where the generic "Somthing happened" comes in like I suggested!
Y'know all the wya back in the first few posts >.>
All we need now is Cass, CB and Pious to chime in, agreeing with everyone, and we'll have to ask Avatea to shut down Union for a few days while we all recover from the shock of all of the vocal personalities agreeing with each other.
Failing that, we ask her to organise a city-wide Malta invasion (a la the Carnie ones they did a while back).
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise 
; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
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Originally Posted by Shadowe
All we need now is Cass, CB and Pious to chime in, agreeing with everyone, and we'll have to ask Avatea to shut down Union for a few days while we all recover from the shock of all of the vocal personalities agreeing with each other.
Failing that, we ask her to organise a city-wide Malta invasion (a la the Carnie ones they did a while back). |
I've always said, I don't take the effects of a TF/Issue as having happened in character/world lore, until they have stuff that happens IC/world lore after it. Like the Faultline stuff has happened, but the war is still going on.
Hmmm, now my suspicion sense is tingling to what is going to happen in I20, I susepct disappointment however.
Brawling Cactus from a distant planet.
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Originally Posted by Zortel
 No, Devs. Just no. You do not get to say 'The Freedom Phalanx has fallen!' and not back it up. Seriously, no. If you're not going to do something right, or finish something, don't bother starting. It smacks of lazyness. It smacks of disrespect. It smacks of -Cryptic-. You wreck two zones, defeat the main hero group in the game, and don't show anything? No changes, no NPC dialogue, no nothing. You say there's invading forces, but outside of instances there's nothing. At least when That Gaming Company decide to wreck their world that have the punch to back up their words by actually CHANGING it! And what then? Is this just going to be swept to the wayside when issue 20 comes out, with the up to 24 person BAF raid? We've seen concept art for Mother's new hospital as well, but nothing yet saying there's going to be anything for the zones. Because there probably won't be. Cimeora could have just been a set of missions from Ouroboros or the Midnight Squad, instead of an empty zone of hardly anything. You waste time on that, when old zones languish, crying out for attention but being ignored. You add systems and ignore them, or cast crumbs in their direction. You're Neuron. And that's not a good thing. I'd rather have Anti-Matter. At least when he starts something he has the audacity to do it right and proper. And what about the Freedom Phalanx? They've been defeated. Even Statesman? The Big Hero? Yeah, we mock him, but casting him aside in a byword in an e-mail and then saying that the player characters are now -better- than the Freedom Phalanx? It does not compute! It is the two to ones and zeroes. For 8 months now, I've had no interest in That Other Game. And now I am interested again. Because they change things up. They tinker with abilities with no 'cottage rule', and if something doesn't work, it usually gets looked at. The only thing that really keeps me in CoH is the RP, the character customizaton, and friends. The new storylines seem to disregard the RP, the major new point of character customization, power customization, is still half done (Dread having an elemental set with a colouring, and then getting the APP and finding out nothing matches anymore. Hot Wire, Solar's character, has yellow lightning, which means if they take the Electric Mastery Pool, it's not going to look at all decent), which just leaves friends. You know what? Screw what the e-mail says. I'm going with "tension is increasing and heavily armed Praetorian incursions have begun" as Ravenswing said earlier. ((Phew, I feel better for that. Rage: It's not just a Tsoo drug.)) |
Ow! Who th- Someone get that damn kid with the wings and bow! Who does he think he is...
But yeah. This deserves quoting in full because I couldn't have put it better myself.
Z, please please please post this in a thread of it's own. It deserves it ^^
And Amen to the I20 hopes, Shadowe. Although we may well be dissapointed there...
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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For those who haven't seen the email, the appropriate section is:
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You'll note that there's no mention of the TFs which are the only place the first bullet point is actually true in.|
The Praetorian War Begins! The armies of Praetoria invade Primal Earth in the newest game update of City of Heroes®, Issue 19: Alpha Strike!
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I have never been a great fan of the idea of MMOs using level-based story progression. That works fine in a single-player game, but MMOs are cooperative. If your view of roleplaying is that "I am playing a superhero character so I am roleplaying" then you might as well be playing a single-player game. I found it one of the more annoying features of LotRO. Unfortunately, it seems to be a concept that game designers can't get past.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
bump for Nitro
The trouble is, if you do go with a real-time approach instead of the "level is time" one CoH uses, then new players get overwhelmed on entering the game. Imagine if you'd just spawned in Atlas and the World Wide Red plot was taking place and huge titans were everywhere.
It might be interesting if things are handled with the Rikti level amtch system, but even if a Sapper was even level it's too much for new players. The same thing is true for the Praetorians, since the lore states everyone who isn't an incarnate gets debuffed. It'd be slaughter in Atlas (well, Galaxy at least... Atlas's legs attract 50s like moths).
Still, the letter is lazy and heavy-handed storytelling, I think that everyone agrees on.
I don't think people are asking for Praet high level mobs in zones.
More stuff like destruction in the zones affected in-canon. The whole 'level is time' arguement can only stand up so far, before falling flat on it's face. Beating up the same villain over and over works because, y'know, theres no point to a one shot villain. Its the same thing as Joker Immunity, etc.
But the Rikti Invasion is an obvious example of it done right. Pity that certain otehr zones haven't got a minor facelift and some of the older content overhauled...
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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I think whoever wrote the email missed out the magic words "In the new Task Force(s)...", because as it stands the claim is so untrue it's absurd.
I'd say: violent clashes have taken place, tensions are rising. The fact that Praetoria exists and is a threat is now common knowledge on Primal Earth, if it wasn't already, and governments, heroes and villains are gearing up for war. In Praetoria, rumours are filtering through about the possibility of war, and many Resistance members probably know the full story.
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.