Darmian

As anyone who has read any of my posts can verify I'm usually calm and restrained, but frankly this is nonsense.

We appear to then be "violently in agreement", as I heard someone say once! As has been pointed out there's been a definite eliding of retention and recruitment.

Yes and no. It IS the content and it is ALSO the players. HC's goal is to move forward with the game in terms of cohesive narrative/content/powers, and as a tiny volunteer team that is seen as slow by many, but it's a fact. The rest is on us. You can argue against the content point but anecdotally at least I personally have never joined a game where the selling point was how great the community is, (Come and join the seal clubbing community! We do horrible things but the community is a joy!*) and forget about the content. I've stayed with things because of the community, but I never joined for that reason. I don't think I'm alone when I say I've tried things I thoroughly enjoyed but ended up leaving because the community itself was toxic. Again, circles. *Obvious hyperbole. I'm not suggesting AE farming or whatever is this!

I'm going to throw a spanner into the machine here, sort of. There seems to me at least to be a disconnect between what, for want of a better phase, the purpose/point of CoX is, and how players play it. There's a lot of discussion on how all the various niche communities have their role and are entitled to that and they're hurting no one and that's how they get their enjoyment, and why not? At the risk of pissing off a lot of people, the original, and I think still under the current administration, point/purpose of CoX, is to play a super powered person in the world of Paragon/RI/Praetoria. It is not to spend your entire time sitting in the AE, however much fun that is and however much that is a chosen playstyle. Choosing to do so and enjoying such a thing is entirely legitimate - and as someone who mains a level 50 Gold(!) I do know about enjoyment of personal game play choices - but it seems to this player at least that going forward that any efforts to increase player retention or to advance the game world narrative or tools will definitely focus on the world at large, and AE farming/whatever is seen as a minor part of this. Now, as has been said, validly I think, we are a sort of echo chamber here. We're going in the usual circles. However, if it ever seems that removing AE from starting zones would somehow benefit the main game then I expect it will be seriously considered. Whether or not that comes to pass or not is another thing entirely.

I'm definitely on board with this.

If you have queries or even just complaints(!) I'm happy to respond to them. All goes into the pot for making future stuff.

LOL, cheers.

In my signature! The Meteors and the Dark Deeds stuff all work together in the order they're listed. Then there's a set of Pre War Gold side Loyalist (Levels 20-25) and a set of Pre War Gold side Resistance (levels 20-25). Those two sets are built to fit in between the end of Neutropolis and the start of First Ward and each tells a story in three parts, so again in the order they're listed in. After that there's two Cimeroran ones. One's an experiment to see what a Cimerora arc would feel like if was a bit more "real life Roman", kinda, and the last one is set around the Cimerora Mot era. Five of them have been Dev Choice/Hall of Fame. They're in italics. At the moment this means they'll give you full XP/drops.

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.