Some musings on the Praetorian Surge thus far

Hi all,

I'm not given to a lot of postings on things (mainly replies) and it's only when something comes up that piques my interest that I do. So the thing that's done it is the Praetorian Surge.

Don't get me wrong; I'm on Virtue and I had a lot of fun for the most part during the hours it was on and even got to say hi to Beastyle and Zwillinger in the D post-event. The odds that got thrown down in the latter parts of the event were genuinely challenging and had myself and my friends hopping around a bit.

But.

There were a couple of things I thought could've been given a bit of thought. Firstly was the instanced zones. These didn't start occurring until after the first broadcasts started going up and being in a League (as my SG and our Coalitioned friends wanted to be) caused horrendous lag. And I'm talking lag that had powers firing once every ten seconds and zoning taking nearly five minutes at times.

I personally think a little forward planning in establishing two or three instances of a zone before the start of the event would've alleviated a lot of initial unrest with things. People were preparing to dig and 'defend' the bit of turf they'd chosen and being aware of that instead of playing 'chase the mobs' would've helped give some coherency and stability to the event.

And on that, I really appreciate they were opening up zones like Siren's and Warburg, and I don't know how many even went there in the end, but if you don't want the gank, you avoid the PvP zones. And some people would be undoubtedly immature enough to do that.

I'd like to make an appeal to Zwillinger and Beastyle and Freitag and the others who ran this event to consider the tone being set. I'm not saying don't throw down the mobs, don't smack us around a bit, but don't make it RandomMobFest 2011 Part 2, either.

With all the Trials and TF's being so pointed in telling this story, I really felt opportunities were lost on two fronts, those being the story and the second being an immersive factor.

The first I mean by the randomness of the attacks. When the Rikti Raids happen, we know they're retaliatory attacks and they're largely confined to the RWZ. Cole and the Praetors should have goals, like taking out key infrastructure and points. I was a bit confused why Portal Corps wasn't a key target for a bit longer than it was...that's where I'd go if I were Cole. As much as this event is for everyone, you can tell a story at the same time and sneak in some structure to give those of us into the story something to get into.

The immersive factor hurt me from the viewpoint that multiple fights broke out right near some trainers...I know someone said (and I'm okay with being corrected) that Positron said 'they all con grey to me'...but why not jump in on the player side for once? If you can auto-scale enemies, you should be able to auto-scale allies, too. You don't have to be the ultra-powerful NPC's with more powers than allowed and be able to one-shot stuff...you can be the AV version of Positron, Brawler, Statesman even..and have them make a guest appearance. Having a trainer like Ms. Liberty just stand there with her back to the action as City Hall is being attacked is one of those things that practically screams 'missed opportunity' to me. And surely wouldn't it be fun for the Devs to participate on a player level and play with players?

I can totally understand the rationale that it's our day and it's for the players, but the Devs are players too and I for one don't mind a bit if they play the characters that they are named for, especially if they're well-known. To me, it'd be like being told 'well hey, you can play in this event...just not as your character because you're too overpowered.' If the ability exists to adjust that overpowerment and it lets you be able to play and you get to participate in the fun you've helped set up, then WHY NOT?

I really don't want this to be seen as a rant or a criticism of the event, because it was well-handled once it got rolling and the pace got sorted out...but the writer and the filmmaker in me can't help but notice some things (yes, even in a video game where you don't have to follow narrative structure) and I wanted to comment on it. I hope any rednames and players that might read this take it in the spirit that it is intended.


S.

I know what you mean. I personally had a horrible time with the lag. i joined a 48 player league and crashed twice just waiting for the event to even start.

The event itself was interesting but I think most players, myself included, were figuring it would have been similar to the Rikti or Zombie invasions.. If I stand here long enough something will come attack me. Instead we had to physically hunt down the invaders and I got a chuckle in St. Martial when the following posts came over broadcast...

Playe one: Where are they? Has anyone seen them?

Player two; (after several seconds of silence) here!

Player one: Could you be any more vague?


Hehehehe That was followed up with a direction ?? from player three that basically said "I think they are in the South South East.. I'm not real good with maps."

We also got a report that the Arachnos Fort in St. M was over run with them but for the life of me I flew around and checked that thing from end to end, side to side and top to bottom .. never saw a single Warwalker, IDT or whatever!

There had to be 3 or 4 leagues going in St. M alone and the lag got so bad I finally just gave up and logged off. I was fun while it lasted but I think I crashed 6 times and like you said i have periods where I'd fire off a power and 5 or 10 seconds later it woould actually launch at something. In one case I was on a GM and by the time the attack I selected fired.. it was dead.

I went over to Virtue last night to test 'the event'.
Justice is my home server and we receive our event tonight... so I wanted a preview of sorts.

Turned graphics to bare minimum - check!
I could freely move about but saw other 'skipping' as would indicate Lag.
My computer is:
i7 920
12 Gig Ram
Cable download speeds

Waited for event messages - check!
Went to the areas I chose and found the 50 or so heroes there.

Mobs started to drop from sky - check!
Que up power and SMACK them - check!
WAIT for next power to want to fire off - check!

Yep.. seems typical 'event' involving a lot of people in one area.

Things working as normal with no hint of improvements over last 'event' - check!

Can't wait till the 27th!
Going to make a costume for my guy consisting of a pair of shorts. Bald, nothing else, no aura's .... nothing ...
Then will put brawl on autofire and wait for it to go off. Maybe make a sandwich, clean out the garage, cut the lawn, pressure wash the house while waiting for brawl to autofire again

Serioulsy hope the improvements on Freedom will be up to the task. But ... I think Virtue told the story already.

I'll throw out a couple:

- I was hit with the usual incarnet lag-bomb type power for this event(yes i lowered my graphics didnt really help)

- I was there for almost the entire event and some how missed the "7th anniversary" gold letter title...were these handed out personally?

- Would have liked a scenario where once we defeated all the invaders we would then have to shut the portals...or vice versa!

- Now i know this one is not possible(lag wise/mehanic wise) how about having the invaders in-circle the zone and begin a systematic march towards the center...slowly closing it in...if they make it to the center... how about a zone-wide team wipe...if rebuffed a badge or io drop? :P

We did our weekly Mothership raid last night on Protector and it was a lagfest. Usually it is pretty smooth, but for some reason it was like a 1930's black and white flick that had been broken and fixed multiple times with scotch tape. Nearly everyone was complaining about it in Broadcast.

I had minimal lag on Defiant today - even when City Hall was flooded with the Praetorian Guard and other assorted stormtrooper types