Making Zone Events Worthwhile

One of the quickly forgotten additions to Issue 19, was the Praetorian Zone Events. These little mini-missions allows anyone in the area to contribute to the theme of the event. For example, in Nova Praetoria you can choose to aid or hinder the protesters.

Great idea, popularized in Warhammer Online under the name Public Quests. But the zone events usually lay unused. Why? They are pretty fun from my testing of them during I19's open beta. Well, I think it has to do with the reason I've not done one since...there are shinier carrots to chase. The Zone Events don't offer anything of any value. No exp, no rewards that most of my characters can use. They're fun, but do then once for the experience (or the badges if that's your thing) and then move on. This is a waste.

I offer that with some minimal changes, these Zone Events could draw many players to participate. Following are some ideas I had for changes. These aren't intended to be exhaustive or to necessarily all be used in conjunction.

1. Scale the event better
   
   First, I would scale the event to the characters that show up. If there are higher levels there, instead of reducing their power, scale the power up of lowbie who are present and have some of Praetorias more rugged troops get into the fray.
   
   For example, if there are a group of 8 level 50s who show up, then the IDF should show up and be ready to fight. If a level 3 wanders by, they should get sidekicked to the highest person around (if they wish) so they can contribute as best they can.
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2. Give meaningful rewards
   
   First, give exp. Make this an option for characters who are leveling. This would allow, in theory, for someone to level from 1-50 in Praetoria. For some folks whose concept demands it, this could be a boon. I would also meld this with improvements to the paper missions in Praetoria.
   
   Second, the reward table should continue to gauge a player's involvement, but the rewards should consist of reward merits and even Incarnate shards if a Praetor shows up (see below).
   
   Finally, for Incarnates, since the NPCs will scale to appropriately, shards should drop. This might not even need to be said since shards will be dropping when exemplared, but let me say it anyway.
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3. Use more meaningful enemies
   
   I think when you have higher level characters, that named Praetorians like Reese (up to about 25 or so); Bobcat (for mid-levels) and even the Praetors (if an Incarnate shows up) should join the fray. This would create incentives for folks to recruit people to do them and for folks to jump in.

I think that whilst your idea has some merit there's a number of issues with it - namely you've just described a power leveller's paradise. A couple of incarnates hook up with some lowbies and farm the events ad infinitum.

That then becomes the the content players experience... just like in the early days of MA - and also as a side effect gives away a lot more of the lore to a new player from page one rather than letting them discover the story of Praetoria via the arcs themselves as intended.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

I'd like to see Incarnate-only zone events sometime.

Location, location, location! The Praetorian zone events have served as proofs of concept for more complex player events, so now it's time to come up with some for Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, either on the more popular maps or with side-wide notifications like the existing ones.

I would like Rikti Invasion to go away forever. Horrible, horrible event.