[SPOILERS] Issue 23-New iTrial!

Keep in mind, if I understand this correctly, that during the Black Swan fight random people lose their incarnate powers temporarily. This probably includes the level shifts, which could explain why it took so long.

It does. I asked Zwil in the chat during the stream, and he replied in the affirmative.

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

There seems to be two timelines in this game

The leveling timeline where elements of the story happen as you level and the release timeline where new events happen in the order they were released. Unfortunatly they wont ever match up meaning the story in a way can get quite confusing.

In the release timeline Marias story arc happened which eventually led to the apex tf which is the start of the invasion but those who complete it turn their attention towards praetoria through itrials. This leaves the new and upcoming heroes to deal with the remainder of the invasion in the Sutter tf. Of course in the leveling timeline it seems different due to the level you can access content.

Hypertime!!

Perfectly understandable. I can't speak for some others actions on here, but I understand it's not the only way to roleplay, and I wouldn't demand others to change how they RP. The Unionverse way probably would not work on say, Virtue, due to the greater number of roleplayers at the very least.

The style is the way it has been on Union for years, so sometimes I have trouble grasping that it doesn't happen that way or working out just -how- it works in those other ways.

For a number of people I know, game missions are something you play through and enjoy the story, take on board the information and lore conveyed within, and that's pretty much it. While I've taken Rushmore and Zortel through the Dark Astoria arcs, they've not done what's happened in the mission in character. In character, Zortel lead some searches for a missing member of the Unity Vigil in shifts, and Rushmore has been working in some of those shifts.

As for my Praetorian characters, they were in Praetoria for a few weeks to months from August 2010. Some of them may have seen Marauder about, but none of them were asked to give Cleopatra flowers and chocolates.

The game can't really provide a unique story for each character due to how MMORPGs work, so it's up to players (who chose to do so) to provide a story for their characters to prevent situations where lots of different characters claim to have all done the same thing at differing times.

Now that I've had more time after first finding out I know that now. Sorry for perpetuating that, it was just part of the shock nd the reaction to it.

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SUPPORT - IT'S NOT JUST A GROUPING OF ATs
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More Than a Game
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Why?

BTW, If the devs have not contacted you yet about AT's, they are missing out IMHO.

That's probably the best unintentional commentary on the current storytelling quality of this game that I've seen ever.

Yeah just like First Ward . . . uhhh, wait a minute.

Which did absolutely jack squat to prevent the destruction of a major part of it.

I prefer "it was just a FLESH WOUND!!!"


just saying.

Or in the other small settlements that are scraping by. Where at least one of my Praetorians actually comes from.

How do these time-locked RPers deal with multiple people on the same mission? "Well we just rescued Statesman from Tyrant. Let's do it again."

The Resistance being unable to save Praetoria on their own has been a major plot point since I18

afk, cleaning up the spit take coffee.

A Challenger Appears!

So, my point still stands; Black Swan is more of a threat than Tyrant since she takes away our Incarnate'ness....


Why can't Tyrant do the same thing?


Yes I assume that we "took" the ability to take away the connection to the well from Black Swan when we defeat her, but you don't think Tyrant would have a backup of that ability or something?

*shrugs*

No, it isn't. "Level-based story progression" was on life support to start with and got its final lethal injection with the destruction of Galaxy City, which happens at level 1. The devs keep trying to cling to this shibboleth but there are way too many inconsistencies. The one that gets trotted out most often is helping Angus McQueen stop a second Rikti invasion that's in full swing by the time you can run his arcs. They're trying to have it both ways and you just can't do that.

I finally see the visual representation of what JB wants tanker damage to be.

Some of my characters

It's actually a terrible representation, as all that damage doesn't even come from his Tanker attacks, which from the video seem to be only Jab, KO Blow and Foot Stomp/Hammer of Zeus. Aside from him spamming all those [Flow Lightning]'s, his attacks in the fight proper look fairly ineffectual.

Not to mention he didn't manage to defeat anyone with that Tartarus Judgement attack.



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I thought things happened chronologically as you leveled. Meaning that you could still create Praetorians because at level 1 those events haven't occurred yet for your character.

Or have they done away with that now? Because if they have, it seems incredibly stupid and wasteful to create 3 entirely new graphically intensive zones and several novels worth of backstory only to render it moot a year and a half later.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

Level-based Story Progression does work in-concert with Uniform Story Progression. Since you've brought up the Galaxy City tutorial, I'll use that as an example with two of my Scrappers, Daniel Eldridge and Chance.

Daniel, having been in-game for around 3-4 years or so now, went through Outbreak at level 1 for his tutorial. That has been in the past as far as current events go, and was put well into the past with the new Galaxy City tutorial.

Chance, being made maybe two months ago, went through the new Destroyed Galaxy City at level 1 for his tutorial. That, while a more recent event, is now in Chance's past (as he is a level 30 Scrapper, and has been out and away from the tutorial for some time).

Just because it was Chance's starting event doesn't mean it didn't happen for Daniel. It still happened at the same point in time for both characters, just at different points in their level range/individual narrative. For Chance, it was his beginning. For Daniel, it was just an event that happened well after he'd been level 50+(insert number here).

When you have a big, game-wide event like that, it does effect all the characters, and the measure of the effect depends on your level (if you go through the tutorial or are well past that stage).

As far as the Angus McQueen arcs go, just change 'second' to 'another', or say it's part of the larger invasion. The Rikti still have a giant ship-base in the RWZ. They still, occasionally, launch raids due to players finishing the Lady Grey TF. Now, if something changes to where the Rikti stop attacking Primal Earth altogether, then there will need to be more broad changes. Until then though, we still do have Rikti to fight, and arcs to work out with RP, and Vanguard content to run.

It's an MMO; content is adaptable insofar as how and when it applies to different characters based on when and where they are. The broad, game-wide event timeline applies to them all generally, and the individual mission arcs and Task Forces apply to them specifically, based on level.

I can think of two reasons.

1) In-Game Reason: Cole's Pride, as well as the Well. Cole may very well not wish to use such a power, because he feels, as Champion, he doesn't need to resort to such 'trickery'. He can simply rely on his overwhelming might and 'I am Good. I am Justice. You are Evil. You are Injustice!'. The Well simply wants the most powerful to protect it, thusly it wants both sides at full power.

2) Design Reason: Two different fights using the same gimmick is poor design.

No, it doesn't. When your characters meet your handwave vanishes in a puff of logic.

I keep bringing this up: Quine-Duhem Thesis. The tl;dr version is that if you try hard enough you can bamboozle yourself into believing anything. That doesn't mean you should. The amount of handwaving and looking the other way required to make "level-based story progression" work pole-vaults past the point of reason.

The way I see it is there are two options.

The story stays stagnant, and never moves forward. We get bored as hell and complain.

The story moves forward, and those who don't like it complain.

Either way, someone complains. So, we can rationalize it, and allow new players to enjoy old content, while we get new content. Or, we can move forward and erase the old content. No matter the path taken, someone complains.