Darmian

I don't know about genius but I wanted a real reason for WWD to exist, otherwise it sort of sits to one side of things up until then and doesn't make any narrative sense beyond being a thing where two major heroes die.

Right. Deep breath. We go back to Primal Earth and its Darrin Wade to start. We all know what happened in Who Will Die, and to me it seems implausible that Wade could have done it. Come up with the plan? Possibly. Actually doing it? No. And I don't even mean grasping the power to do it, that's fine. People seizing great power to do good or evil is a common theme in a super human milieu. No, it's that he has no reason to. Literally none. There's some hand waving post the event that it paves the way towards him wanting deity status but that does not work either. But there is a reason for Statesman to die when he did. Dying then removed him from participation in the defense of Primal Earth against Praetorian invasion. Statesman is alive until the opening moments of the Underground Incarnate Trial. And then in WWD, which is happening concurrently with the start of the invasion, Statesman dies. I posited that removing Statesman was a Praetorian plot. In fact I think they surely had quite a few of those. This being but one of them. Malaise and Mother Mayhem are aware of and have been seen in the Shadow Shard, so Rularuu is known about on Praetoria in some circles. Malaise used this Wade to psychically influence the Primal version to murder Statesman. In fact there are cut scenes in WWD where if you look at it from this position Malaise is simply conversing with himself or rather his Primal self, while possessing Primal Wade. Of course he's not doing that directly, just... nudging and guiding. Dropping "memories" and knowledge in as needed. Until Statesman is taken off the board. All this abuses Praetorian Wade and drives the poor guy rather mad.

Well, I do like to fit in the odd snippet of lore here and there.

Welcome back @TerroirNoir2!

Yeah. That doesn't work anymore since Soul Extraction was changed.

Yeah, @cranebump does pretty fine atmospherics!

I considered that the Hero Corps Field Analysts could be refitted to let you "in the field exemp", allowing you to "go undercover" at a lower level and access contacts or arcs you may have missed. And since this isn't an Ouro timeline quasi TF thing you could still join teams. I'm sure that sort of a flag would be hella fiddly but it would give a purpose again to the Field Analysts and the Redside Fate Weavers.

Yeah, what @cranebump said. Frankly I'm surprised at the amount you've ALREADY done! See you in the new year.

Nope. Agreed. However, there's a lot of room to wiggle the level constraints of the existing pre War zones, and add more story arcs. And frankly giving First Ward and Night Ward their own Undergounds - which exist in canon because a mission or two sends you there - would boost the side to 50.

Which ones are those?

It's not AFAIK. Or it wasn't. It's probably a matter of spawn points. Those have to be inserted manually for every new map that the Devs add to the AE. I don't know if it would be that difficult, no more than the Asteroid map.

True, but only if you're Resistance! And you can get the Commuter Badge in Spooky Atlas via Null the Gull if you're Resistance. Edit: You can GO to the Winter Forest if you're Loyalist, but you can't get the badge, same with Spooky Atlas.

Yep, afraid so. Anywhere that isn't one of the 5 Praetoria zones1, Echo Plaza or Pocket D. Obviously CoP and the Incarnate Trials are accessed from the LFG but have to be started from one of those places. And as a dedicated Praetorian Player it bugs me that I can't access RWZ more than any other! Not for the MSR and all that, but for the Number Six arc. It means there's a part of Praetoria that no Praetorian can get to! 1 Well, 8 if you include the Undergrounds for Nova Praetoria/Imperial City/Neutropolis.

Well, there weren't any changes, I just did it. Once you've worked your way through as much as you can of Nova Praetoria/Imperial City/Neutropolis, you can make your way to First Ward via the Doorkeeper in Underground Imperial, and off out into there for more Praetorian adventure. That will lead you on to Night Ward. You can definitely get to 40 by the end of Night Ward. If you have access to a Pillar of Ice and Flame in a base you can do all the Gold Side stuff you missed. It's pretty hard to do it with team mates though unless they're also Gold. I mean it can be done, it's just hella fiddly. After that you can also take part in Summer Block Busters if they're run from Echo Plaza/Pocket D/Somewhere in Praetoria. You just need to be level 15 to join. You can also do Cathedral of Pain from the same areas, and if you make it to 50 you can do the Belladonna Vetrano arcs from your base crystal again. Not to mention any of the Incarnate Trials, provided they start from the limited selection of areas listed. AE story arcs are also available if you're not farming your way up. And speaking of which, I have two trilogies of pre War Gold AEs in my sig (see sig). Set at levels 19 to 25. They're supposed to tie in to canon and fill a gap between Neutropolis and First Ward. One Loyalist and One Resistance. The seasonal events are always available too. To counteract the levels of the zone in a Trick or Treat for instance, take a mission from the Pillar of Ice and Fire in your base that exemps you down to level 1 to 20, then just don't do it. Just knock on doors instead and the monsters spawn. As for anything else? Well, who knows what the Devs are planning. Edit: Nearly forgot, there's the GM Seed of Hamidon in First Ward you can do if you can get on a team/league for it. Plus there's the three zone events across Nova/Imperial/Neutropolis as well.

The fact that the Accolade Exploration badge for St. Martial is "Johnny's Go to Gal" if you're female is troubling too.

Well, I had a "guide" to that. Ha. I imagined him being played by Paul Darrow/Avon from Blake's 7.

That's also one of the reasons (only one mind you) that I had so much fun writing Gold Side arcs. The morality of Chimera and Belladonna Vetrano is...flexible. Chimera's coldness was tricky to do, while still making him driven. And Belladonna was actually a bit more liberating and fun but equally able to make terrible choices.

Not at the moment, no, ha. Actually, apart from visits to Redside I've never written an arc set exclusively there. Hmm.

ROFL

That last one is rather odd indeed! HA!

Primal Earth has enough trouble dealing with my lot, Praetorian humans, never mind anyone else. Oh well.

Yeah, shouldn't she? I mean why not? ROFL.

Yep. You can even see that if you have a Mastermind and try controlling your pets/minions through your base.

Well, it's two things really. One, a bluff that he survives, and we know he does because he makes it out to Primal Earth after the war; and two, a reference to his actual FINAL lab, which you find on Tiberian Bluff 🙂

It would have to be a separate purchasable power. I say this as someone who mains a Gold 50 and uses the Team Transport. The Praetorian version of Team Transport is Gold trimmed (I've got a pic of it here: Praetorian Flyer). However if you cross the Rift and become a Primal (Red or Blue) then the TT changes to either the Red or Blue equivalent. So, if you want to have Praetorian Signature Summons then I think it's easier to have a separate power than to code for the original changing to a third option. I think it would need to be "only one version usable at a time" though, so you couldn't drag Positron AND Antimatter around with you.