Darmian

Of course I'm going to like this! I'm one of those people who love to make AE stories. Getting anyone to play the damn things....sheesh.

I have to say I'm not planning on submitting anything - I haven't written anything new in months due to work/life balance being whacked - but a BIG thanks for encouraging others to dip their toes in the AE writing pool. That's a definite GOOD THING in my book. Kudos.

@cranebump, I'm going to play the hell out of this. In the meantime, from me, and frankly the rest of us here, be safe and do what you have to do. I'll say no more, anything else is extraneous.

If there's a Troll Rave on in future you may as well pop along to KR and stomp on one of the (up to 3 at times) ones there, just to get your merits.

Well, I think I'm approaching it more from an RP perspective there to be honest.

As for doing First Ward, as you can see it is. Though I actually push players who are starting off in Praetoria to keep going on Gold and head straight to First Ward, it gives a different feel to the character progression.

Totally possible to do First Ward. I was just about to post that she's here, [-895.1 160.0 4426.5], rather than the loc given in the wiki.

We do try! Honestly!

As someone who doesn't farm but does play SFMA AE arcs, and writes them, what the hell would this do to a story arc? Sure, farmers probably won't play my arcs or anyone else's (generalization here, simply going for "farmers farm") but the implementation would cut across all AE because it would have to. That sounds like a whole heap of nonsense to me.

Well, MY life is lovely. It's great being me. I wake up in the afternoon with a smile on my face and joy in my heart. Why wouldn't I? CoX is back!

So the villain in the piece isn't allowed have, for want of a better phrase, villainous thoughts? Not to mention Cole, even if he wasn't a villain, is supposed to be a man who came of age in the 1920s. Give us some credit here with being able to distinguish between our own thoughts and those of a fictional villain.

Actually, I use "Dead Slab" for unconscious, rather than the actual "Unconscious" animation itself. I'll explain. You may be unlucky that 1 out of every 20 tests has that NPC lying in a twisted tangle, but usually they aren't; however when you use "Dead Slab" they get up slowly and carefully, as opposed to "Unconscious", where they just flip up weirdly, so overall you get what appears to be someone behaving rather more naturally.

It does leave a black body shape after it is defeated, yes.

First Ward and Night Ward are Praetorian, but Praetorian that can call for help from Primal. So instead of leaving Praetoria at level 20 you can head straight to First Ward via Imperial Underground and progress there; OR leave and later come back. Dark Astoria content overlaps the Praetorian War, starting just before it and I think wrapping around the end. After that you're looking at Mr. G and Provost Marchand' Primal arcs. And them existing at 35 makes mechanical progression just weird, though narratively having post War content that is sub 50 is actually fine. You just need to know about them in advance (!) and decide when you want to do them. Though that I believe is mentioned when the contacts pop up, that the events happen post issue so and so.

Apparition's Complete Guide to Praetoria - Unofficial Homecoming Wiki (cityofheroes.dev) This is pretty useful for following Praetorian content. If you stay Gold until Night Ward you can, as @ZorkNemesis says, do AE content via Pocket D - and I recommend (EGO!) the dedicated Praetorian content in my own signature - as well as taking part in the Summer Block Buster. If you make it to 50 then you can also do Incarnate Trials, provided they start from Praetoria or Pocket D or Echo Plaza, as well as the Cathedral of Pain. Holiday events are also possible, depending. Delivering Valentine tips doesn't work for instance. And then there's a set of missions from Belladonna Vetrano at 50 that have to be done via Ouro, but they're there too.

Praetorian here. Much as I adore Gold side and think a TF would be great, (writing two trilogies of AEs set there!) it would bork your experience progression from 1 to 20 through your contacts, pushing you by quite a lot of relevant material. Now, possibly a Gold TF/SF in First Ward or Night Ward would work better. The progression problem is still there (assuming you went straight from Neutropolis to First Ward rather than to Primal Earth) but not as severe as in Nova/Imperial/Neutropolis. And the "sides" are far more fluid in First Ward/Night Ward, and I refer all to Monument 9 in "The Last Word" History Badge: "So Cole is right about some things: Look around you. This is what Hamidon and the Devouring Earth are capable of. They did this much damage even with nearly a hundred super-powered beings there to combat them. Cole might be a manipulative, scheming, ruthless bastard, but at least he's able to keep Praetoria stable and free of the kind of destruction you see here. I still hate the guy: I believe that we can have peace and prosperity without the manipulation, the coercion, the oppression, but you wouldn't be standing here if Cole hadn't beaten back Hamidon's hordes. If you want to supplant the State, at a minimum you've got to be able to protect the innocent from the kind of death and destruction Hamidon can dish out." Common allies against Hamidon and so on.

It IS a bit more this month, taxes and all.

Support your friendly neighborhood Homecoming!

My issue is he told me to go talk to Bobcat!

I also remember us team wiping, which generated the "ok, now we angry! Let's go get those guys!" with the team. Ok, we then died a lot more, but by now we're getting the hang of dying.

Positron doesn't have Well enhancement, does he? I didn't think so. He's got that Fire of Prometheus shtick instead, surely.

I think dead is dead. I also think it was a mistake to erase him from the game outside of everything except "Who Will Die?". Yes, we see him in the Ouro in Maria Jenkins and now, thankfully, in the OG LRSF, but if he had even a minor presence prior to doing "Who Will Die?" and then after you do that he's phased out and replaced by Libby, then at least we'd still have him sort of. Other than that I'm voting for Time Travel and the 1932 All Stars Freedom Phalanx Founding Battle Task Force! Help The Statesman, Maiden Justice, Elementar, Vambrace and Dark Watcher against the Nemesis Hordes, in BRASS MONDAY! (not available in your locality).

Hall of Fame had two ways in, one was the 1000+ plays and the other was being nominated to that position from Dev's Choice. Admittedly I'd prefer us staying in Dev's Choice because it gives us more visibility to players than fighting against farms that will always have more plays on them, because farms.

No, that's supposed to happen. It's just that sometimes the Devs leave it longer than a month to change over. Sometimes less! But it is supposed to be two or occasionally three new Dev Choices every month with the previous ones moving to Hall of Fame.

I did enjoy this. That said, with the sheer amount of characters it might have benefitted from being a Disney+ series.