Ankylosaur

She is in AE under pets - you can add as an ally or rescue from the pets group - but she is first level.

Incredible list! Thanks for pulling this together. Note that some groups like the New Praetorians, W.I.S.D.O.M, and Freedom Phalanx ( @Heraclea ) are there as addable "bosses" or allies but can't be added to your own mobs. Do you want to include Pets as a missing mob in your list? They follow that same basic rule, they are available as bosses/rescues but not their own mob. I'd also argue that many of the characters under Generic Hero & Villain actually should be moved to their respective mob. (e.g. Slinger, who you mentioned on your Malta list is there - also Siege, Nightstar, Mr. G, ROFLSTOMP, Network, Tub Ci, Rising Vengance, Bronze Talon, Colleague, Concrete Bill, Dr. Hyperbaric, Psi Scout Lk'Onik, Agent X, Bio Pulse, etc. etc. ) New Praetorians menu Generic Villains menu Pets menu Freedom Phalanx menu

@DougGraves - so glad you enjoyed this! Very fun to make all those costumes and try to weave a story from the Alice world - which is thankfully public domain. 🙂 I've had a few ideas to make M1 a little more interesting (animated objects from the Animus Arcana) but can't modify the arc as it is dev's choice. Hope you'll consider exploring more! Most of the rest of mine involve more lore connected hooks that are underexplored (and I try to get right 🙂 ). @Darmian - thanks for the kind words. I'm slowly working on a few more but out of slots. I may be pulling some down soon. 🙂

Loyalists work and I have used them. The other source of civilians are Malaise's Crazed - even higher level though - and better armed. On the upside they are like the CoH civilians rather than the 1960s outfits. It depends on how you want to use them as to whether they will work.

handy!

All I mean is like my signature - add level ranges next to the arcs in the list above and maybe even sort them. As a personal rule of thumb, I try to make my arcs always in the same range for each mission unless there is a story reason to do so. (Policemen vs Aliens being an example of a reason as the conceit is you are reflecting (replaying in your mind?) on a story that spanned a few years so the first missions are when you were low level and the missions level up over time along with your contact.)

Granted I was playing Double XP but all I had room for was the main arc I did (Crusader). And just as a litmus test I was at +0 all the way through night ward. Though I took a few side missions in the lower levels, I never had a chance to do them, so I would think through Neutropolis there is enough content for a goldsider that wanted to explore. Plus they are such gorgeous zones I would have liked more time there and may have found more missions to do or try impersonation missions, etc. had i not outleveled them so quickly. (again my own fault for Double XP but I suspect loads of people use that). First Ward and Night Ward might already be a little thin content-wise, but this idea does not increase the number of levels they span - just shifts the levels they span up by 10. So it is no worse or better for those two zones as a result. In the end it would give a goldside path to 50 with trivial content development (Doorman intro) - and just moving some numbers around.

I actually encountered this in action so it is somehow in game for some of them. I put some level 20-29 Banished Pantheon on one of the graveyard maps and they were all drumming and casting the banished pantheon green spell without any special effort from me.

So I just played through the Praetorian content trying to stay gold and of course you tap out of content at a certain point. It's not possible to run a gold character to 50 with the current content (Pocket D AE only), and with double XP (which I suspect many use) you breeze through the lower levels. So I thought a simple fix might be to adjust the zone levels. Not sure if that is as easy as it "sounds" but I would think adjusting mob levels and spawning mobs in new level ranges and adjusting contact mission levels is the brunt of it. I know Wyvern had a level adjustment and I don't think it included an actual power adjustment so that part is possible. The Praetorian mobs already span into the next higher level range to some degree so balance-wise should be challenge enough - maybe its not optimized but should still be a solid challenge. As to whether the rest can be an easy switch or run through a script - only Dev's know. 🙂 So it would be Nova Praetoria: 1-10 Imperial City: 10-20 Neutropolis: 20-30 First Ward: 30-40 Night Ward: 40-50 Ideally you also work in an intro to Doorman so characters have a real intro to First Ward. Nightward's other-worldly-ness really feels like top level stuff already. Characters who go blue/red with Sheridan at level 30 would run into the New Praetorians and maybe Mr. G right away. Characters who go blue/red at level 50 can go right into DA and Number 6 and it feels all very related.

Really - First Ward needs a whole Loyalist approach to the same story focused on fighting back these magic using renegades but I guess there's no point since Praetoria is all Hamidon'ed up at this point time-line wise, so playing through any of Praetoria is already time travel / ouroborus-like / taking place in the past. One of the neat things about the zone is that the contacts can change - imagine if they had implemented different contacts / stories based on your alignment. Since I don't expect the devs to make a new zone, The current devs could just expand the First Ward level range to 34 and make Night Ward 35 - 50 - i think most of the mobs span those ranges already. But the bell has already tolled on Praetoria... 🙂

I'm leveling a Praetorian and this post helped me find Doorman as he was not "given" to me. I had access to my SG so could get to First Ward but of course there was no way to kick off any stories through Jester without first talking to Doorman. As a general comment, it does seem weird that all those decisions and people that were so important leveling to level 20 play no bearing in FW, but its just one of the many pieces of cognitive dissonance between Praetoria and, well, everything. 🙂

Deciding to play a Praetorian to 50, one thing that is clearly needed is a story transition to First Ward - an alternate from the Steve Sheridan arc which I just did not play. Something that introduces Doorman and how and why he is in the Tunnels? I mean the players are actually asking for it. 🙂 Seems like a great opportunity for you @Darmian

Leveling up a a Praetorian currently and thought I might try one or two of these. It's a big ask but level ranges would be a handy add to the lists.

Mood Stone (War Mace/Stone Brute) hit level 25! I have been meaning to play the Praetorian arcs and try to get a Praetorian to 50 and this was a good excuse. 🙂 He took the Crusader route and is reunited with DeVore in First Ward. (Have the hunter selected to show a level 21 cons gray.) --- Orphaned as a child by the tragedy that is First Ward, Mood Stone always knew he had magic within him. Though he was told First Ward fell in part because of the unnatural magic use there, he knew deep inside that magic did not have to be evil. He discovered that he could manipulate the rocks around him, to have them protect him, even heal him. Fate exposed his powers. While being jumped by a gang, an officer spotted him using this earthen armor and tried to arrest him. Much to his own surprise, a rage swelled in him and Mood Stone beat him back, evading the PPD that gave chase, escaping into the tunnels beneath Nova Praetoria. There he was found by the Resistance, and taken in. He was told that magic is a natural part of the world but that its users had been purged by Cole. He learned of Vanessa DeVore, a Resistance leader who led a troupe of magicians that survived that purge and he troupe avoided Cole by living in First Ward. However it was a dangerous place - too dangerous for him to go to yet. Maybe if he could prove himself she would help him develop his skills and he could join this Carnival of Light in First Ward. Among the Resistance he was taught to fight. As he discovered more and more of the atrocities that Emperor Cole and his regime committed, he became more and more enraged. Vanessa DeVore taught him to to harness this rage and focus it in combat with a magical mace of light. While helping the resistance in the city helped him see what was possible, he knew he could only grow his skills by leaving Cole's city. Finally Vanessa felt he was ready. She directed him to speak to Doorman, who opened a path to First Ward to him. He expected to be home, to be done, to be able to join his peers and develop his skills and take the fight to Cole. But there was still so much work to do just to survive in First Ward...

Thanks for the feedback as always! Glad you liked it's move to Nerva. Made all the edits. Yeah - the Gaians are a little shoehorned in now, but as you found I came up with a reasonable justification. Could always put in DE instead but thought it would be a little boring. Overheard while wandering Nerva by the "Crey Zoo" Friendly Daemon escort destination now set correctly (must have renamed her and the waypoint was lost). It's just a bonus emergency helper as that map can be hard to navigate. Tried to fix the tube birthing sequence like this... As you break the tube: tube Object destroyed "spoken" text: >>The sound of rushing water suggests the revenant inside was sucked out of the incubation tube.<< tube Object destroyed text: From across the lab you hear an alarm and a door open, soon followed by a rush of water and a thud! Crey captors Unaware text: Another one of these ghastly revenants is born. Quick! Activate the containment field. Also the doctor was not set to attack with you - what? how did that slip through... fixed. Good to have the feedback on Dr. Wainwright who was the renamed "generic villain" Juan Hernandez (EB). I recently discovered him and substituted him for a Power Tank I had used for Dr. Wainwright originally. As to Hopkins (AV), I had used him as the final boss as I wanted someone authentically Crey in charge - but really he is never without the Countess so was not a great fit. So as an update, I have replaced Hopkins with "Crey VP Juan Hernandez" and restored Dr. Wainwright to a Power Tank.

Not sure I'll play, but maybe my rolls will inspire me to do something unusual... 56, 23, 21 - Scrapper: Dual Blade/Energy Aura 49, 56, 64 - Dom: Grav/Psi 28, 43, 59 - Corr: elec/Rad 13, 98, 81 - Brute: War Mace/Stone Hmmm... Mood Stone...

Moved 3.1 from Eden to Nerva. For the reasons, you can check the 3.1 hidden comments below, but really - its just because it is a better, more integrated experience. 😉 I also made a small but incredibly significant change in 4.3 which is too much of a spoiler but wildly obvious in retrospect and makes the entire thing more cohesive. Not that anyone is likely to play the whole series. I suspect everyone who will play it already has. 🙂(both of them 🙂 )

After realizing that the Praetorian Vanessa DeVore of the Carnival of Light is not actually walking around (because of the Underground trial) but instead trapped in her mask which is worn by Desdemona (as also seen in the primal Mr. G arcs) a major premise of this arc was undone! So I made some tweaks here to insert Desdemona into this as someone you face while she is wearing the Praetorian Vanessa DeVore mask, and then having a way that Vanessa is restored to being ambulatory before you meet her. It's a little shoehorned in but works well enough.

Made some changes to this to fit it into All That Glitters as described here...

I did circle back and add in more foreshadowing in 1.3 - a collection dialog between Cohen and Carmella 2.2 - an arachnos unit mentioning Aeon wanting to watch langston 2.3 - a collection dialog with Carmela seeking to source praetorian war works for a bigger plan 3.2 - more arachnos comments about watching mooks and langston for Aeon 4.2 - a goldbricker talking about how much easier it was to build up forces on the mainland than the isles 4.2 - a ConDev cap’n talking about how they were weighing anchor soon a few other little tweaks to existing characters and their dialog and mission dialog. With anything this large you have an idea of where you are going but don’t know all the details until you write it - so a little backfilling is to be expected. 🙂 hopefully I applied it not so liberally as to spoil the end and not so sparsely as to keep you in the total dark. There are a few other opportunities to weave in the historical antagonism between the gold brickers and Aeon too and reinforce that throughout. Update: I went in an peppered in a touch more references to the tension between Langston and Aeon throughout and modified the end to adjust the final fight to make it much more about ousting Aeon in the finale.

Has anyone had success with a more offensive build? Maybe using Stone epic pool or Cross-punch? I have a 50 elec/kin and would love to make him a little Scarptrollery, but am not convinced it would work.

I hear you and do understand - it's why I went back to add in 3.2 and give a bit more connection between the Mooks and Langstons, but even that is not so direct. However, it was never about just one big end goal. All of those stories of the Langstons were true end goals along the way too - each Langston family member had their own goals with organizations that also have their own goals, but once they had all this power by moving the needle on some of those more myopic goals - they aimed a little higher. But I feel what you are saying too and may look back through to see if I can make the end goal enemies make an antagonistic appearance here and there along the way. There are a few spots where they could fit in.

Stalagmites seems the bread and butter of the controls, so feels like earth doms have to stay ground-bound. Any experience with an earth/savage dom that did hover and went more defense oriented with scorpion shield instead of the water spout soft control? Just curious if you think it would be viable and fun - i'm not thinking it would work without stalagmites. (I have a 50 who concept-wise, flies for travel and thought it might help going defense to avoid the occasional mez when not in dom.)

Cleaned up those clues! Thank you as always for your feedback! Some weird oversights and superfluous additions there on my part - thanks for pointing that out. And yes - cleaned up the Duke and the wailers he was trying to recruit since he lost his demon pals earlier. 🙂

No worries - the longer you take the more complete it will be and having that perspective from someone experiencing it in sequence as opposed to the order I wrote it in will give a good end to end vantage point. 🙂 Now that I am near the end (1 arc to go!), for the trivial historical interest, and it may only be interesting to me, below is the order I wrote it in. They of course are using the numbers as they ended up in sequence - and were renumbered along the way. Essentially as I wrote things, I realized I wanted to provide more context earlier in the sequence and would go back and backfill. It caused little tweaks to ones I had already written, and while I am hoping I have all the continuity right in there, your experience going through it will be a very useful check of that. Nov 2020 2.1 - Boom Time in Boomtown, Arc ID: 34715, 15 - 20 -Final 2.3 - Terawatts in Terra Volta, Arc ID: 34947, 25 - 35 - Final 3.1 - (Corporate) Espionage in Eden, Arc ID: 35058, 30 - 40 - Final 1.2 - Piracy in Port Oakes - Arc ID: 35355 - 8-12 Final 1.1 - Missing in Mercy - Arc ID: 35842 - 1-10 Final 1.3 - Capitalism in Cap Au Diable Arc ID 36056 - 12-20 - Final 3.3 - Calamity in Kallisti Wharf, Arc ID: 36693, 35 - 44 - Final 2.2 - Fortunes in Faultline, Arc ID: 37097, 20 - 29 - Final 4.1 - Risky War GameZ in the Rikti War Zone, Arc ID: 37513 , 35 - 43 -Final 4.2 - Pirates in Praetoria, 40 - 50, Arc ID: 37754 - Final 3.2 - Suspicious Maneuvering in St. Martial, Arc ID: 37948, 35 - 40 - Final 4.3 - Grand Designs in Grandville 50 - 54, - Final 3.1 - Nervy Acquisitions in the Nerva Archipelago 30-40 - Final April 2021 EDIT: In 2022, 3.1 moved back to Eden. The whole series got an update to incorporate the new Gold Brickers from the Aeon Strike force, replacing ConDev (see comments much later in the thread), and the released maps from that Strike Force. The 4.x part was an add-on that was never part of my original idea - but as you start working on things new ideas reveal themselves. It's why 2.2 and 3.2 come so late - I wanted to sprinkle in more foreshadowing/connection for 4.x. Also, it was easier to insert a .2 between the first and last arc of each X.1 and X.3 to bridge the two arcs - rather than changing the beginning and end - expanding the middle. Eventually, now that the isles were more prominent in the overall story, I changed the location of 3.1 - moving it from Eden to Nerva which works better on many levels including being able to use an outdoor map to anchor it in a sense of place. The other big thing that happened in the middle of all of this was that Wyvern was given a broader level range after the i27 release which allowed me to change the range of some of the 2.x and 3.x stuff. It's why the 3.x (which was 30 and above) did not use a Wyvern contact or have them in missions much originally - Wyvern used to cap out at level 30. I have a story conceit in 2.3 / 3.1 which explains why they are less directly involved, and I have managed to fit them in a tiny bit since the level range increase. Ultimately it made for a pretty interesting and evolving contact in the 3.x series though Lastly, one of the source ideas behind much of this, my Ghost in the Machine arc, never really ended up fitting even though it was intended to be the original finale. As Take One noted, It's too disconnected, and more of a clever AE trick than an integrated story. I may end up trying to rework it as a bit of an epilogue but more likely it remains a one-off.