Darmian

Look, it depends on what the money wants in the end. It's always what the money wants. And it doesn't want RI taken out. Plus the political optics of it all. I mean the US mounted a war effort in Korea/Vietnam/Grenada/Afghanistan/Iraq etc, but couldn't invade Cuba? An island it HAD (and still has) A MILITARY INSTALLATION ON? So, the Etoiles remain, partly due to the fact that their ruler and his lieutenants are incarnate level supers, and frankly someone somewhere is getting paid off.

Well this has been a fascinating, though sadly NOT enlightening read. Once again we're all going in the same groove. Meh. Change SC/BB/W'burg to PVE and have done with it. RV remains the only PVP zone where PVP has a reason to even exist. That and the Arenas.

A bigger bugbear for me as a Praetorian, is not that these tips are undeliverable, they are unopenable, so you can't dismiss them either.

Praetoria. All of it. Still looks amazing.

That's still totally subjective though 🙂

Thank you kindly! Task Force Commander via Original Positron TF, Sister Psyche TF (both via Ouro), then Manticore, Citadel, Numina and Synapse. Still grants the Accolade. Next up, @cranebump, is the old Calvin Scott TF, A Mind in Danger. 🙂

Yeah, if you did the Cutter Cain arc then you won't see Steffard.

Hmm, I run a Goldsider as a Main. She's been 50 for a while now, so I *know* Praetoria. To the point of annoying my RL Discord gang by giving directions as if it were a real world place. "Yeah, that's down near Luna Palisades, just go round the corner, you can't miss it." Rogue Isles? I'd manage but I'd still get lost after a while, especially Grandville. There's that bit near Recluse's tower, where you can find yourself UNDER the street, and I was baffled as to how I got there. And eventually I ended up in The Web. I did find the old Dev area though. I'm a bit better with Paragon, and as for the Shadow Shard? Not a hope.

You know, I like this. Possibly a tweak here and there, since for example post Mot the CoT are decimated in numbers, so that's a thing. Not the spectres and demons, the "real" CoT members.

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!