Issue 23: We can talk about it now!

Official overview has dropped!

I think I'm the only person who like First Ward (solo-style, at least), so I'm excited that they're continuing to build on Praetoria. I hope that one day you can go from 1 to 50 there, although I'm pretty sure very few people will do that unless they start adding some Praetorian TFs. (iTrials don't count!)

The Mecha costumes sound sweet, but I wish we had some screenies! Hell, I'd settle for concept art.

Kind of a shame you suddenly become Resistance without much of an explanation if you played through Praetoria as a loyalist and went straight to FW.

I too like the fact that they are adding more to Praetoria. If you like to roleplay, it gives your praetorians a little more breathing room, character wise. I agree with ShadowMoka in terms of character congruency though. While the content is nice for your character, you're still essentially following the script that the developers want you to run. Though that may be a moot point already.
Praetoria did afterall come out of Going Rogue which was supposed to establish the ability to make choices in the game that hadn't been available before, like allignment. I know these zones are still new, including the ones they're talking about in I-23, but some more development in the results of your decisions would be nice. Everything in time I suppose...
When I look at the game now and how it was then, I see a flower blooming bigger than ever, with still a little room to grow. I'll bite my tongue and be thankful. ha ha...

As for the upcoming content, I'm looking forward to the new TF. It's time Emperor Cole got his hands dirty.

I didn't like First Ward, so I'm probably not gonna touch Night Ward. I kind of wish they'd continue with the quality and stories established in GR's 1-20 content than shoehorn us all into Resistance and kick us out of the city into some random barren wasteland.

Kind of saw us siding with the Resistance to begin with once Cole Declare war, it's Impossible to side with the loyalist since it's Cole little group.

First Ward story arc was great, it was Dark and fill with Drama, Night Ward is a Spin off form the events that took place in the First Ward.

There are reference to Desdemona taking the Carnival of Light Mistress Vanessa DeVore and becoming The the New Carnie leader and pretty much that means siding with the Resistance.

I'm afraid patreoria will never get the popularity it deserve. Not until we have 1-50 cotent
Is like when CoV first came out, at least we got 5 new AT, but what is the point to go gold side if we don't have new AT or story worth playing.

The -story- in Praetoria is more than worth playing.

The problem are the mechanics attached to doing it.

Honestly, given how things have progressed I really feel like Praetoria was initially begun as a kind of grand experiment and since starting they've realized it wasn't something they either actually wanted to do or could do, or just the negative reaction, and have since shifted gears on it to what we have now.

I'm looking forward to Night Ward, I'm really enjoying all the different lore and interconnected quality the writing has taken on lately. Sadly though, I'm going to have to agree that ultimately it's just going to have the same thing happen as with First Ward. It's going to be the new shiny for a lil bit then the gimick will fade and you'll get the 0-5 folks in the zone on occasion running through the story arcs.

There's just not much really that's there that's going to keep people wanting to hang around it as any kind of hub or the like. The TUNNEL system will probably help making it more accessible, but without something really worthwhile for people to do outside of the level specific story arcs and the repeatables, not a lot of reason to hang out.

If the tunnel system is a giant green tube that we warp through, ala Mario Bros., I would just die. lol

"Sorry Positron, but the princess is in another castle..." ha ha!

The Drudges look awesome and I want those face options for my characters nao! Honestly for Praetoria, I'm just over it. I still play the new arcs, and the writing is great, the 1-20 runs have some great character choices, but FW will just ignore a lot of the choices you could have made, will make your villain act completely out of character in the official story, but let you do some despicable things in repeatable mishes. I hope for better in Night Ward, but I'm not holding my breath. The devs are still taking baby steps in expanding co-op content beyond the Hero flavor.

New lower level zones = eh.

I know i23 isn't about the 1-20 Praetoria, but I really like the (1-20) Praetorian content from a story perspective. I like that you can make choices. I like that you can get little side missions when you're playing the opposite side of what you started as. I like that there's lots of cutscenes.

However, it's very difficult to team there in any meaningful way when every 5th mission or so in every story arc is a single player only mission. And there are no task forces or trials. You can't even access the new low level trials from there.

I've run a few characters through Praetoria. And have two left - one that started Loyalist and one Resistance, going through all the arcs. After that I'm probably done for good with starting in Praetoria.

As for First Ward, I ran through it with Isolators and would like to try the arcs out solo, but haven't gotten around to that yet. Will probably end up in the same situation with Night Ward.

My play time is mostly "iTrial, iTrial, iTrial, task force, iTrial, iTrial, etc.." with a smattering of "regular" teaming through Isolators and a static villains team I'm in. I do get to try new powersets but I don't get much time for new low/mid level content.

first ward stuff is ok but i dont like the really low lvl range, at least some of the contacts in the night ward can be run at lvl 50

i got a look at the mecha armor pictures and it looks sweet, very gundam-like

i personally dont ever start toons in praetoria because it feels more like a jail thaan anything since your basically locked into very few zones until lvl 20, unlike red or blue where you can just go to praetoria and run mishs with friend or street sweep, i also agree about the lack of tfs or anything really

I am most excited for the new trial and the Hybrid slot. I have been itching for a new incarnate power to play with! I think this one has a lot of potential.