The fate of Praetorian Earth in Dark Astoria? (spoilers)

That's not a Hydralisk. That's one of his fully-developed heads.

Strange eons.

The Furies don't care one way or another about how morally bankrupt Primal Earth may have become. They're only concerned with oath breakers as explained in First Ward. That is to say, if I swear to steal candy from a thousand babies by the end of the month, they'll only be gunning for me if I don't hold to that promise. Likewise if I swear to save a thousand kittens from burning trees.

They came pursuing Diabolique and happen to stay when they found DA was full of unkept promises. There presence had the unfortunate side-effect of feeding Mot.

yeah the furies are just kind of jerks. ;p

ok, good thats what i was getting at, the end of that arc may well have you making a happy thread about it.

and yes, getting the "knows no fear" badge was an experience, since rian does primarily smashing damage, the monsters taught me the value of strategy(hurt the cycs first till they all use unstoppable, turn on the minos, then mop up the cycs when they crash) i had some humbling moments :P

Yes, it is. That's precisely what a tangential, busywork plot is - more actions for the protagonists to do without any real revelations or plot advancement behind it. If the Talons were not in the story at all and Mot had simply been powered up by all the recent deaths and carnage, nothing would have changed. Stopping the Talons (twice, as a point of fact) is as meaningless a plot device as getting told I'm going to be "paid" for working with most villain-side contacts - it's saying nothing. The story sets how powerful Mot is and it could have set his power level to where it is without resorting to what amounts to two, maybe three entire arcs in Dark Astoria.

It's the exact same plot that has Unai Kemen send me to three separate dimensions to look for something that's invariably in the third dimension. You can argue that his whole arc is looking for stuff so looking for stuff and not finding it is perfectly valid. And from a technical standpoint, it is. But it doesn't make for a good story. It makes for a story that's padded.

That's exactly what I feel about the Talons of Vengeance and the Knives of Vengeance - they're padding. There's no reason to have the Knives be separate from the Talons other than to have two separate missions to end them, which are really just two versions of essentially the same mission - find Keres, kill Keres, end Knives/Talons of Vengeance. You could just as well have had the last page of Hazen's diary held by a cabal of rogue Legacy Chain and tacked on a whole arc about finding it, finding a way to break their wards, finding a map of the building and finally raiding it. It's adding hours to the game, but adding really very little to the story.

Honestly, I can see the how the Primal Talons can be involved. They have their foot in the door in Cimerora, after all, and that's a legitimate part of the story. But I spent half my time in Dark Astoria dealing with the Talons and their cronies in the Knives, and it just left that much less time for Mot, whom the story should be about. Again, I would much rather have seen more of the Circle of Thorns, who really don't exist in this arc. I'd certainly rather have had new critters for them than the entirely pointless Knives of Vengeance. Like I said - the Talons I could see, with a reduced presence, but the Knives are just unnecessary, and it seems like some degree of work went into making them.

*edit*
Again, that doesn't make the story bad. Far from it. When my biggest complaint about a new story is that there isn't enough of it, I can't really think of any bigger praise.

*edit*
Also, if there's nothing to be gained from going at missions alone (since I'm seeing this offered to me for the second time) other than bragging rights, then I'm probably not going to bother a second time

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.

London was formerly Londinium. Languages changes over time and so do place names, so perhaps somewhere someone thought "What's a Mot? Maybe they meant moths. I'll mark this as Moth Cemetery on the map."

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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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Ouro and the problem of a meddler with the time stream is actually a pretty good excuse for most new content. Generally speaking - and this is evident from this very thread - time passes as we level up. But what happens if I levelled past an event that changes in a later Issue, like the Galaxy City destruction? Well, someone messed with the timeline, my past is gone but I still remember it.

In other words, it's never explained

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.

The Trials are all about protecting Praetoria from the loyalist menace - each one deals with the dismantling of an aspect of their dictatorship, and the liberation of different parts of Praetorian society.

The BAF Trial is about stopping Tyrant releasing mindwashed Resistance prisoners back into the Resistance movement as sleeper agents, who will then carry out attacks on the Praetorian population to try and discredit the Resistance and their Primal Earth allies - the loyalists are planning to cause civilain deaths "for the greater good", and must be stopped.

Lambda is about crippling Tyrant's millitary capacitiy to stop any new attempts at invading Primal Earth - the invasion of Primal Earth will result in the deaths of millions of people, according to the invasion plans that we get hold of in the 1-20 content - all superpowered people are to be wiped out, and then the Seers will mind scan the entire surviving population of Primal Earth, and only the people who show no signs of being potential "troublemakers" will be allowed to live in the newly expanded Praetorian empire - the loyalists are planning to carry out mass-murder/genocide on a global scale and must be stopped.

Keyes is about getting control of the power source used for the invasion portals, the warworks and the sonic fences, and stopping an insane Praetor from devastating a large part of the city in a nuclear catastrophe.
Tyrant and the loyalists wiped out almost the entire population of First Ward using the sonic fences there as a weapon, and the fences need to be removed from their control in case he tries to use them to hold the population of the city hostage - the loyalists are threatening the safety of the whole city and must be stopped.

The Underground is about discovering the lies behind the loyalist dictatorship - Tyrant has been basing his cult of personality on the lie that he defeated the Hamidon, and was chosen as emperor based on that lie - the loyalists are killing anyone who knows the truth to try and protect the lies of their master and must be stopped.

TPN is about getting the truth about Tyrant and the loyalists out to the people - all the oppression they've suffered has been based on a lie, and the war that Tyrant has started has woken up the monster that he's unable to defeat - the loyalist are trying to prevent their master being discredited in the eyes of the world and must be stopped.

MoM is about smashing the loyalist thought police and liberating the enslaved Seers - after we broadcast the truth about Tyrant and the loyalists to the people, Mother Mayhem mindwashes the entire world, except for a few mentally protect people - the loyalists have turned a whole planet into a world of mindlessly obedient slaves and must be stopped.

The Magisterium is about finally bringing Tyrant and the loyalist dictatorship down - we control Neutropolis and the power supply for the city, and have just helped Belladonna and Desdemona lead the Resistance forces and their newly liberated PPD allies to victory in Imperial City, trapping Tyrant and the last of the loyalists in Nova Praetoria - Tyrant has no more warworks to call on, and the Seers have all been set free - he's left with the last legion of his genetically enhanced stormtroopers, his secret police chief, and 3 allies who use the same forces of magic that he'd banned from his "utopia" - the loyalists are making a last stand iat the heart of their evil empire and must be finally brought to justice.

But following the level ranges lets you see the story in the correct order - there's one huge story path from the Praetorian tutorial to the Magisterium Trial - it goes from that first act of defiance against the dictatorship in the tutorial where you say you're turning in your Powers Division badge, to the return home for final fight with Tyrant in the ruined heart of his evil empire.
Along the way, we wreck the schemes of various Praetors, and meet and help people like Tunnel Rat, Noble Savage, Katie Douglas, Vanessa DeVore, Belladonna Vetrano, Anna Palatine, strengthening the Resistance and laying the groundwork for the liberation of Praetoria.

The devs hav stuck with their story for over a year and a half now, and have avoided the easy option of the Coming Storm forcing both sides to form an open ended truce to deal with it - they've actually followed through right to the finish, and given us an epic storyline with a beginning, a middle and an end, from the darkness of the dictatorship at level 1, to the light of freedom in the Trials - it's the single biggest storyline in the game, and one of the best things they've ever created.

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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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People just liked it better that way.

A quip about pigs and singing would be appropriate advice here. Philosophically I support your cause but practically it is futile, you are fighting not only the smiley one but the devs themselves.

Or "Hey guys do you think calling it Mot Cemetery will give too many people clues?" "Yeah lets be all clever and throw an h in there to totally fool everyone." (either in game or out of game)

There are only 2 sides in the dimensional war

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

We weren't at war with Praetorian Earth until Tyrant and the loyalists invaded us - like almost all the probelms the loyalists have to deal with, it was self-created

The responsibility loyalists did not invade primal earth, they were sent there before the invasion by Provost Marchand (a loyalist) to try and prevent a war.

We have always been at war with Eurasia. This is goodfact.

Which was always a going to be a failure - the only negotioantions we have in the game are aggressive ones

But you'll pleased to know that you can help Belladonna and the Resistance rescue Marchand from the loyalists during the battle to drive the stiff armers out of Imeprial City

Well, we've been suspcious of Tyrant and his thugs since Issue 1 - but we only got to open war in I19

There never has been and never will be a simple war with two sides.

This is a comicbook game

So, the Wardens and the Crusaders are all on the same page too, then?

They both want an end to Tyrant and the loyalist dictatorship