Tired of Praetoria?

Well, I am kinda getting there. The Lore slot was just the latest frustration. I think the game has gone too heavy into Praetorian canon. It is overwhelming and we are beyond a 'saturation' point - IMO, of course.

So, I am sure the devs have all this planned out and will change course after a few more issues. This could take well over a year. I say let them do this.

My suggestion is to have a separate small team of devs make one-shot TFs. These would be not tied to any current CoH canon at all. They would be self-contained, original TFs in the mold of the ITF. Original maps, content, enemy factions etc. Maybe some innovation where you have choices and making those choices can send you some different ways along the TF; each choice causes you to branch off into a different direction (of course you could only do this so many times but it would be different). Have each TF cover something we have been asking for - one could have an underwater portion to it; another could be based in space with a space zone etc; another one could be based in Asgard or whatever - you get the idea.

These would, of course, cost the company a bit more to staff the extra people needed for this idea. I would suggest, to alleviate costs, they charge us $1 for each 'one-shot' TF they put out. They could launch one between each issue so we have a new One-Shot approx. every 4 months as well as an issue. That way we are getting a steady diet of new stuff

Anyway, just an idea. I think it came out of my feeling that this game is kinda stagnating. I think there are a lot of players here that may be tired of Praetoria and would like to see some completely original content that does not take several issues to complete. The story begins and ends with each One-Shot!

To be honest, the overwhelming focus on this area of lore when there are other, far more interesting parts out there is making me consider the future of my subscription for the first time in five years. I'll wait and see what else i20 contains but it may well be time to take a break for a few issues.

I'm not sure I'd want a TF to be lore free, I like stories. But anything other than Goatee Paragon would be very welcome.

Nope, not at all. It's a far more interesting place than the boring, flat Paragon City with it's one dimensional villains and boring missions. The only arcs I actually like in Paragon are the Faultline ones and the new mid level arcs they released since I18 (The Hollows is okay, though it gets dragged down by overly long and filler missions). The Rogue Isles, even though it has plenty of one dimensional villains, has far better story and arcs than Paragon City.

Also, are you serious suggesting micro transactions for actual content? That'll go over well with the playerbase.

Also, considering they charge us €8.99 for a couple of dozen costume pieces and some emotes (I think the price is on the high side of fair personally) do you honestly think they're going to charge us just €1 for a whole TF, that has original maps, designs, enemy groups, multiple paths (effectivly increasing the amount of missions needed) and new tech?

I think you need to stay a bit more realistic about things.

Yeah, I'm bored of Praetoria.

But I would leave the game in a heartbeat if they made us pay for extra content like TFs or missions arcs.

I would love, love, LOVE it if the Devs started fleshing out some of the lesser-used groups, like the Sky Raiders, Luddites, and others. Yes, there is a story with the Praetorians, but having a variety of enemies and stories is better than one long story. I don't know why the devs don't understand that.

I am beyond tired of Praetoria. It is the only real story content we've gotten since Issue 13.
We all get different things out of the game. It is wonderful that there are so many ways to enjoy the game. What I like are the stories. I don't care about PvP, or grinding for new stuffs.
It is no wonder then that lately I've been playing other games. I find that when I'm deciding which game to play I sit and think a moment. "Do I want to grind out another TF just to get a notice? Or experiance a new story arc in another game?"
Lately I've been picking the other game.
I like capes and tights. I love super hero comics. I would love it if there were more stories focused on those kinds of stories. I could care less about shades of grey Praetoria. I am just worried that the content of CoX is going to be rooted in Praetoria for quite some time to come.

I think the hatred for Praetorian Earth in general is a bit exaggerated, as it really is a pretty cool setting. However, the over-saturation is something that I do agree on. It's not that we have too much Praetoria, it's that we have too much Praetoria all at once, and to the exclusion of everything else. Since I18, the only non-Praetorian content we've gotten has been the Vincent Ross arc.

This smacks of classic expansionitis to me. You launch a new expansion, and suddenly everything is about that, all the best stuff is there, all the new development is for that and it's involved in every facet of the old game. It's like how I6 and I7 made practically everything about Arachnos and Longbow, a legacy which still haunts us even to this day, as good vs. evil confrontations always devolve into Longbow vs. Arachnos confrontation. And now it's Longbow and Arachnos vs. Praetoria.

Balancing the Praetorian storyline with other new content NOT related to it would ease the tension by a great deal.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I agree I wouldn't want to pay extra for something like this but I assumed the devs would not employ a small separate team to do something like this due to budget. That is why I suggested $1. Having said that, maybe it is within their budget.

It would be nice to to a TF like this and have the story start and finish right then and there. I don't know why the devs have not realized you cannot do a multi-issue story arc when get 3 or 4 issues a year.

For those of you who are "tired" of Praetoria - I would hate to be in a movie theater with you when the plot of the film doesn't go in the direction you want it.

No, seriously, this is why I carry a macheté with me when I go to the movies.

I'm not tired of Praetoria. If anything I now see the whole rest of the game through the lens of Praetorian Earth. Maybe that's because I wasn't there for the launch of CoH and CoV but I was there for the launch of Praetoria.

But, to be far, I'm a biased casual who hasn't played all the task forces, raids and missions in the game umpteen times over yet. There is still a lot of material I really haven't mined out of the background yet.

I'm not tired of Praetoria yet. I think it's interesting to see a single storyline expanded over several issues - which we haven't seen before. If they can do it for this then they'll do it (I hope) for The Coming Storm and the Shadow Shard. Perhaps even the Rikti (I still want a Rikti Homeworld zone.)

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Originally Posted by TheJazMan These would, of course, cost the company a bit more to staff the extra people needed for this idea. I would suggest, to alleviate costs, they charge us $1 for each 'one-shot' TF they put out. They could launch one between each issue so we have a new One-Shot approx. every 4 months as well as an issue. That way we are getting a steady diet of new stuff

No no no. Never. NCSoft/Paragon Studios have hit a pretty sweet spot with microtransactions with the booster packs - nice to have, but by no means essential, and they don't piss people off, which is no mean feat for any P2P.

I'd pay for a new zone, a new Redside zone, with new art, new enemy groups and 10 levels of story arc content - an expansion in other words. I'd pay for that in an instant. Try and charge extra for anything less than that and I'd cancel both my subs without a second thought, because this isn't a F2P.

I thought it was just me. While I like how the quests work in Praetoria, moving forward without weird gaps, I don't really care for the setting. I think the core zones need a revamp a lot more than more Praetoria stuff needs done.

I don't mind paying out money for costumes or temp powers because it is my choice, but when actual content is being restricted due to microtransactions, then there is a problem.

Breaking NDA there starphoenix?

The 1-20 track through Praetoria is relatively well-thought out and significantly more interesting than the majority of story arcs currently in CoH.

But the TFs, Trials and endgame content seem to be discarding everything that makes Praetoria interesting; the shades-of-grey complexity and the whole theme of moral decisionmaking in favor of making it, as some have described it, Goatee Paragon. In these contexts Praetoria is basically a cheap story device to drive the punchin'.


I'm not really tired of the former Praetoria, but I could quickly get sick of the latter if it gets too invasive, and that's kind of what the Lore slot pets feel like they're doing - Trying to invade character concepts in which Praetoria doesn't really belong.

Praetoria / Incarnates, as it is currently being executed, is such a bad idea. I think what's going on is that the devs are bored with the superhero / villain game and are trying to transfer themselves to another game while keeping their current salaries and positions. They're doing it by changing the superhero game into something else.

Boo hiss.

I don't want to play a game where the goal is to fight an evil empire, and to become a god in the process of dethroning the evil god. It's the classic bad AD&D story with sci-fi scenery. Bleh.