Post-GR Trial Accounts

I finally got someone I know to try CoH(after 3 years of me playing lol).....Trying to explain how to setup his first MMO trial with the differentiating from NCSoft accounts to CoH game account to why he needs both was a challenge. I finally get him in, he gets his first character designed on my server, and confirms with me via IM the link to confirm the character registration; "Enter Praetoria"?

OMG lol

I had him save his costume and powers and go back to create it over thinking he was in such a rush he missed the Hero/Praetorian/Villain choice somehow....nope. He gets an error "you must first create a praetorian and complete the tutorial before making a hero/villain". WTF??

Most new players seem to have not a clue what Statesman, Lord Recluse, Emperor Cole, or Praetoria are, they want to play a superhero game. Why on Earth start them in Praetoria as a Praetorian, in neither City of Heroes or City of Villains, but City of Grey?? *and shiny. City of shiny Grey

Aside from them starting a....character in this alternate universe where they dont get to pick a side and see either of the main alignment zones (I planned on TPing my friend around to some of the nicest zones in coh to see) they also cant leave Praetoria(unless studio 55 changed this) until level 20. Trials can only level to 14...so they never see the "real game" before subscribing.

Praetoria is cool, but for existing players who have a basic knowledge of the lore and know what it is, throwing new people there by force with no information at all as to why they "cant be a hero or villain" is just dumb in my opinion.

And I get that the purpose is to make them play the tutorial, but why not any of the 3 tutorials? I made a praetorian and did the tutorial, and I remember the blueside being the most informative of all 3.


So I had my friend create his character with a name he didn't want to keep(which also screwed up his globalhandle), so he could finish the tutorial and logout and (hopefully, we haven't tried yet) re-roll it as a hero like we intended in the first place.

10 50's To Date! Check out Titan Sentinel; it got my CoH presence synced online

Once you've made a Praetorian, even to level 2 (immediately post tutorial), you can make a traditional Hero/Villain. I admit it could be done better but the situation's not as dire as you seem to think.

The tutorial is like only 5 minutes long - once it's done, log out, and then log in again and make a Hero or Villain

yeah, but he was new to the game...and the Praetorian tutorial doesn't even have a clear completion(whereas blue/redside its marked as ended when you teleport to the starting zone). I couldn't remember what the last objective was to tell him. I actually had to tell him he was done when he was level 2 and already digging around with Failed Experiments in an underground map for a resistance contact lol.

10 50's To Date! Check out Titan Sentinel; it got my CoH presence synced online

I recently tried another game and their "trial" consisted of one tutorial mission, and one more mission. Afterwards, I was unable to do absolutely anything; would not let me go into any zones, get any missions, or even walk on the bridge of my own spaceship. In fact the trial was so restricted that it turned me off from the game completely.

I'll take the annoyance of being forced to do a tutorial any day.

The CoH trials need some work if only to try and find away to mitigate the RMT thing without crippling the first experience interested players have with the game. Clarifying when you can make a traditional hero/villain wouldn't be a bad idea either. But at least it's not as bad as feared in the OP, with players stuck in Praetoria for the entire trial.

Well, let's be honest, the 1-20 Praetorian game is far superior to either CoH or CoVs 1-20 game. So, they're just making sure they give a good first impression.

I have asked myself about the value of Praetoria but here's the deal.

Praetoria is the best place for new players.

1. Access to all of the archetypes. CoH and CoV doesn't have this option. I created hero dominators and hero masterminds in Praetoria.
2. An enviroment created for new people. Group events pop up when you go through the zone with timers.
3. Less complexity and more fun. Just leveling and fighting. No Supergroups, no TFs. Just lots of missions.
4. By forcing Praetoria, prevent newbies from trialing the whole game and consuming the meaty content. The 20 level content is perfect even for the hardcore gamer for the trial period(7 days).
5. Newbies under trial can't tell each other but they can be added to teams. All can play/team with each other in this zone.

6. I DON'T HAVE TO TRAIN NEWBIES!!!

I disagree with the comments that this is the better content. New content without Tyrant, Desdemona, and Maelstrom sends a message.

I did Praetoria with 7 new characters using Ultramode on my new laptop and the only thing I noticed different was when I crafted stuff. The message flashed appeared differently. Since then I've turned it off to get faster game play and less lag.