Zhym

I just finished Part One, BTW. Excellent arc, and I'll be doing Part Two soon. A few quick notes: Oh, and checking the description of the arc, I think, "In the aftermath of a failure to detonate a neutron device in the Magisterium," had me thinking that this was a follow-on from the choice to defuse the bomb. And it lists morality as "Neutral"—I don't know if that can be changed to "Crusader."

Maybe you did and I just missed it. Maybe a note that this follows on from Wardog's Praetorian arc and assumes that the bomb was detonated? I mean, yeah, that kind of follows from the "after the detonation" text, but maybe just make it clearer that this assumes a particular result from that arc? I do wonder if there would be a way to make this work with either option, though. Like instead of talking about the detonation, something vague like, "When the neutron bomb plan went sideways," and then imply that there was a traitor other than the PC. There's no way it could possibly work with the same PC who did the Wardog arc and chose not to detonate the bomb, but at least it would make sense with a different character. Or maybe I'm overthinking it. :)

Yeah, I get that. It might make sense to label this as a Crusader arc, though. I've run Resistance characters through the Praetorian content, and every one, when it gets to the neutron bomb plot, is like, "Mass murder to make a point? Nah, brah, I'm not down with that."

I've just started this, and I gotta say that as someone who always chose to defuse the bomb in the mission this follows, the opening is a little discordant with its talk about the bomb going off and killing some PPD. In my version of events, I disarmed the bomb on live TV, winning the adulation of millions. Not that that's why I did it. Nope. Just a public servant doing his job, that was me... Anyway. I know it's a limitation of AE—you can't have separate intros based on what the character has done. Still, maybe there's a way to make the intro a bit more ambiguous about what happened? Although I guess the timeline where I defused the bomb doesn't leave a lot of room for wondering who the traitor was. :)

Ooh, what was the Kansas quote? Also, kudos on an amazingly detailed set of feedback. I am in awe.

I ran through the first three missions tonight and started on the fourth, but...well, I didn't finish it. I'll explain why in a moment, but first of all, well done on even trying to put a story-focused arc together. The more story authors, the better! Now, about why I didn't finish: I'm not a fan of defeat-all missions. And it turns out that every mission in this arc is a defeat-all. The third mission was on a pretty big Crey map; when I started the last mission and saw that it was also a defeat-all, on a large sewer map, that was when I noped out. Sorry. My biggest suggestion is to reconsider whether any of these missions need to be defeat-all. More generally, I think your arc would benefit from a little more text. Story-focused AE arcs need text to get the story across, and I think your arc is a little light on the narrative. I was never quite sure what I was doing or why; more explanation would help with that. That's especially true of something where you are trying to build atmosphere. The maps are the maps, so the way you build atmosphere is with the introductory text and, to some extent, the NPC dialog. Don't be afraid to type a novel—the AE character limits will prevent that anyway. And story-mode AE players are a lot more tolerant of reading than are most players. On a related note, I'd suggest using fewer clues, but having each clue contain more information. It seemed like many of the clues were just telling me my PC's reaction to something (which many people see as a no-no anyway). So make each clue meaningful and develop part of the story you're trying to tell. Some other thoughts: As @cranebump will attest, I'm not a fan of timed missions. So when I found out that the second mission was a timed defeat-all, I almost noped out there. :) In the third mission, there's a typo in the mission objective text—it started out reading, "4 4 Cannisters to destroy," then after I destroyed one it said "3 4 Cannisters to destroy," etc. The General Manager dialog was fun. If you can, try to set a consistent level range for the arc. I know that can be hard to do given the level limits for various mobs, but unless there's a decent story-based reason for it it's better to avoid too much bouncing around between levels in one arc. This is related to the "more text" comment above, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to know who Steelgrave and "The Trust Fund" were. They were referred to as if they were known quantities, but I don't recall having been told who they were. I think you've got the bones of a good arc here. It just needs a little more attention to the text (and losing the defeat-alls and the timer. )

I suspect that the reason it's so easy to outlevel Praetorian content is that leveling was much, much slower on Live. So I think it was probably possible back then to go through Praetoria and get "all" the content for a single set of morality choices. You couldn't, say, do all the Warden and Power and Responsibility and Crusader arcs in each of the three zones without pausing XP, but that wasn't really the design; the idea was to create replayability by setting up choices that would give players different experiences each time they played through. Of course, that didn't account for the fact that many of us are completists who want to be able to run everything with a single character. In answer to the question at the top of the thread, I've done it multiple ways. I've had characters level past content, usually because I'm not paying attention to my XP. Those characters never seem to get the full Praetorian experience. I've also had one or two characters go the slow route through Praetoria, doing everything and pausing XP. But my default in Praetoria is to take the middle road, swapping between Warden and Responsibility. Also, as a practical matter, stealth helps a lot in Praetoria. It's not perfect—some mobs cheerfully ignore stealth—but it does cut down the amount of time that has to be spent fighting Ghouls in really big maps.

My version of this with my DP/MA blaster is "Cimeroran Skeet Shooting." Head to the top of the fort, then Ki Push the guards off the edge and see if you can shoot them dead before they're out of range. Grand fun!

Grah! Fixed. And here I was about to say how the arc had that customary Darmian tie-in to the lore...

I finally got a chance to play through this. It's very good, @cranebump. Well done. And no timed missions! A few minor notes: I'm really looking forward to seeing @TerroirNoir2's play-through. ;)

The "Spirit of Shroud City" thing is very very cool. I remember when I played through this the first time I tried to fight it. That was...not a good idea. I wonder if a team could successfully take it on, though.

Done!

Farm-Fresh Fifties! And me already with a Supergroup name.

But are there any timed missions? 😉

/em reads thread title. "Nothing to look forward to? Gee, that sounds like a shame. Someone has run all the arcs from all the contacts, done all the sides—blue, red, and gold—has run so many incarnate missions that they've seen Praetoria fall a hundred times, gotten all the badges, and seen all that's worth seeing in AE. Once you've done that, what's left—" /em notices who the poster is. "Oh. Of course."

Perfect!

This must be the best-dressed, most chill "raver" ever. Clearly there's a VIP at Pocket D, and this is part of their Secret Service detail. He just missed the memo about how to fit in with the crowd, and he's kind of salty about it.

"Really couldn't think of a good costume and was willing to pay 5.25 billion inf for it." (At the current snapshot price of 3.5 million inf per PAP.)

I just logged in all my toons, including a couple of level 5 characters who had the name warning, and they all seemed to get the anniversary popup. I didn't check the charges of Experienced, though.

Outside of WWD, he's not that bad. Just another single-arc contact in the Rogue Isles—and the arc is actually pretty decent. But with WWD, though...hoo boy.

Wasn't everyone, in the '70s?

Don't hate Darrin Wade. Hate whoever wrote the story that made that third-string minor villain the guy who offed Statesman. :)

QFT. This is a great arc with a very satisfying finish (way more satisfying than a certain SSA...). It's been ages since I played through this, and I have no idea anymore what Aaron Ruegad's deal was. I guess I just need to play the story arc again (or I could beg someone to post a spoiler-tagged spoiler...).

I don't know, but I'm sure it has a lot of wakka-chicka in it.

I've run "Noble Intentions" twice now, and the same issue has come up both times.