rogue isles/nova praetoria population

[czis]

the unfortunate truth is there is no population, almost everyone starts in atlas park.  rogue isles doesnt have enough players for teaming at your level and in going rogue, you are shocked to pass another player on the map - its that barren. 

 

now i know in ouroboros you can run any mission and you can also switch between good/evil later in the game, so i guess you are covered for accessing CoV content.  But if you start in CoH, is there any way to go thru the Going Rogue content? 

 

i dont remember the loyalist/resistance arcs from way back when, but its just an empty shell of a world now.  so empty, i dont find myself playing those alts at all.

[Frostbiter]

I'm not sure how I did it but when I recreated Frostbiter I accidentally started him as a Praetorian and then made him Blueside. Now he has all the Praetorian arcs in Ouroboros. I'm fairly sure I used Null the Gull to do it but the new wiki says you can't.

[JasperStone]

I have played gold side up to level 20 on two characters and really did like the story arc. 

but ....

It is empty, teaming is impossible.

 

I have started a few characters redside, but always end up blue.

 

May be there is a way liven those sides through things similar to weekly strike forces.

 

Blueside has a ton of empty zones too.

[Techwright]

I have wondered of late if a concentrated effort would improve red or gold side.  Say,  a designated day for promoting temporary swaps

 to red or gold and running content, kind of like a tanker Tuesday, or perhaps have a week every quarter where xp/inf/drops are greater when running tf's and storylines in these area.  

Edited June 29, 2020 by Techwright
Clarification

[TygerDarkstorm]

On Everlasting, I always see people post in gen chat and such that redside is the best side and how the storylines are so much better, and yet, if you're not at least in the 20's-30's, there's no one really running content on redside. Blue side can sometimes get 2 separate groups for DFB going, but redside has issues forming even 1, even if I take initiative to start one. If I'm in the mood, I've had some luck starting lower level paper mission groups, but it's definitely harder to find people for than doing something blue side. So if redside really is the best side, why aren't more people around leveling like they are on blue? I see people occasionally in the low level gold zone, but I don't think about teaming much there because I'm interested in trying to read the mission text and following the storyline.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I've played gold side a number of times, always solo.  

 

For me, the problem is not that it's harder than blue side (it is, a lot harder).  It's that I'm not familiar with it and getting from point A to point B for a mission takes too much time.  If I were familiar with the Underground, I'd probably shave a minute or two of transit time, but it's just not worth it to me.

 

[Mister Mass]

2 hours ago, czis said:

now i know in ouroboros you can run any mission and you can also switch between good/evil later in the game, so i guess you are covered for accessing CoV content.  But if you start in CoH, is there any way to go thru the Going Rogue content? 

Yes.  You can access all of the goldside story arcs & morality missions via Ouroboros if you start redside or blueside.  The only thing you can't access via Ouro is the goldside tutorial.  The first zone's arcs are in the 10-14 level band on Ouro, with the middle zone's arcs in 15-19, & the final zone's arcs in 20-24.  The final missions where you choose to go to Primal Earth may be in the level 50 grouping on Ouro.

[Apparition]

2 hours ago, czis said:

the unfortunate truth is there is no population, almost everyone starts in atlas park.  rogue isles doesnt have enough players for teaming at your level and in going rogue, you are shocked to pass another player on the map - its that barren. 

 

now i know in ouroboros you can run any mission and you can also switch between good/evil later in the game, so i guess you are covered for accessing CoV content.  But if you start in CoH, is there any way to go thru the Going Rogue content? 

 

i dont remember the loyalist/resistance arcs from way back when, but its just an empty shell of a world now.  so empty, i dont find myself playing those alts at all.

You can access the Praetorian story arcs via Ouroboros Flashback as either a hero/vigilante or rogue/villain.

 

20 minutes ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

On Everlasting, I always see people post in gen chat and such that redside is the best side and how the storylines are so much better, and yet, if you're not at least in the 20's-30's, there's no one really running content on redside. Blue side can sometimes get 2 separate groups for DFB going, but redside has issues forming even 1, even if I take initiative to start one. If I'm in the mood, I've had some luck starting lower level paper mission groups, but it's definitely harder to find people for than doing something blue side. So if redside really is the best side, why aren't more people around leveling like they are on blue? I see people occasionally in the low level gold zone, but I don't think about teaming much there because I'm interested in trying to read the mission text and following the storyline.

Red side is the better side.  The story arcs are better, the zones are better, and originally the red side ATs were better than the blue side ATs.  I am biased though, as I find blue side mostly dull and boring.  But yes, the red side story lines are much better over all.

 

As to why more people aren’t running red side:

 

1.  Blue side is substantially easier.

 

2.  Many people prefer dull and boring.

 

3.  “Everyone is blue side.  Since everyone is blue side, I will play blue side as well.”

[Giovanni Valia]

I pretty much only play on redside in the Rogue Isles. That isn't to say I haven't played the blueside content, but I vastly prefer the storytelling redside. I find villains to be more interesting than heroes for various reasons; villains drive the plot. Heck, my main is a villain, all my alts are villains, and my start-up screen is CoV. There are people that play redside, it's just a smaller community.

 

 

[TygerDarkstorm]

14 minutes ago, Apparition said:

You can access the Praetorian story arcs via Ouroboros Flashback as either a hero/vigilante or rogue/villain.

 

Red side is the better side.  The story arcs are better, the zones are better, and originally the red side ATs were better than the blue side ATs.  I am biased though, as I find blue side mostly dull and boring.  But yes, the red side story lines are much better over all.

 

As to why more people aren’t running red side:

 

1.  Blue side is substantially easier.

 

2.  Many people prefer dull and boring.

 

3.  “Everyone is blue side.  Since everyone is blue side, I will play blue side as well.”

I am admittedly guilty of falling prey to 1 and 3, especially when I used to play back in like 2006ish, as a kid, I struggled heavily with the redside content and AT's. Upon my return to HC and lots of reading/research, I actually am finding that many of the villain AT's are my favorite AT's now, and I'm trying to play the redside content more. Treating it like gold and attempting to solo it so I can read the mission text and such. Tend to run more team content and team oriented builds on blue side so I can experience the trials and TF's I didn't on live.

[Skyhawke]

Gold side is my "I don't feel like dealing with people" playtime.  For my Praetorians, I turn off all chat channels except NPC chatter and live in my sound proof bubble for awhile.  Each one is very viable solo.

 

Red side I only have a couple, but they're built to solo as well.  Red side is a nice distraction as the missions aren't nearly as fresh in my mind as blue side and it almost feels like a new game.  I still monitor LFG chatter and the like and will hop over to another character blue side if it's warranted. 

 

As someone else stated, I like to read the mission text and the npc conversations.  Hard to do that blue side since teams tend to roll pretty quickly.  Gold and Red side, to me, always feel like solo time and that's not a bad thing. 

[Glacier Peak]

15 minutes ago, Giovanni Valia said:

I pretty much only play on redside in the Rogue Isles. That isn't to say I haven't played the blueside content, but I vastly prefer the storytelling redside. I find villains to be more interesting than heroes for various reasons; villains drive the plot. Heck, my main is a villain, all my alts are villains, and my start-up screen is CoV. There are people that play redside, it's just a smaller community.

 

 

That is awesome! How did you default the start up screen to the CoV background?

[Giovanni Valia]

Just now, Glacier Peak said:

That is awesome! How did you default the start up screen to the CoV background?

Add -cov to launch parameters in Tequila

[MTeague]

5 hours ago, Mister Mass said:

Yes.  You can access all of the goldside story arcs & morality missions via Ouroboros if you start redside or blueside.  The only thing you can't access via Ouro is the goldside tutorial. 

It should also be noted that since you can't do to the Tutorial, you can't take the "Undercover" mission options when doing those arcs via Ouro.

And some (not all) of the undercover choices, are very well written. 

[Herotu]

I think it would be cool to have community events in these zones, but that sort of thing is down to the players to arrange. If it's not happening... /shrug ... I guess nobody WANTS it to happen.

[Bastille Boy]

I have a bad case of altitis, and around 80% of my characters are rogues. I often put out a call for teammates when I'm doing paper missions in the 20s and 30s. I rarely get a full team, but I often get company.

 

I've given up recruiting for DFBs redside, though. It takes too long even to get a team of four. Either I use Tunnel Witches in AE to level up to 13 or so, or I street-sweep my way up to level 6 or 7, make my way to Pocket D, and go to Atlas for DFB and/or powerleveling. Blueside folks have been remarkably welcoming of my obviously-not-law-abiding characters.

[Six-Six]

12 hours ago, Apparition said:

Red side is the better side.  The story arcs are better, the zones are better, and originally the red side ATs were better than the blue side ATs.  I am biased though, as I find blue side mostly dull and boring.  But yes, the red side story lines are much better over all.

and blue is much too bright. give me redside hospitals any day of the week 😃

As for Goldside, I honestly think they were on to something. Unfortunately, the devs never got the chance to finish it. I think it pulls ahead of redside content. Sadly, I have to leave at 20-25, which is my greatest frustration.

Long live Emperor Cole!

[seresibyl3]

They'd have to do some serious imbalance stuff to make redside get people - like adding another 100% bonus for villains for exp or inf, lol... 

 

 

[Six-Six]

4 minutes ago, seresibyl3 said:

They'd have to do some serious imbalance stuff to make redside get people - like adding another 100% bonus for villains for exp or inf, lol... 

 

 

not that simple. this was the weekly discussion a couple of few weeks ago. bottom line is, not everyone is cut out to be a villain. 😃

[Jolly Ogre]

18 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

That is awesome! How did you default the start up screen to the CoV background?

Just go rogue or villain and log off...when you log back in it will be CoV.

[ShardWarrior]

21 hours ago, JasperStone said:

It is empty, teaming is impossible.

Why not team up with the OP and find other like minded people to group together?

[Scientist]

6 hours ago, Six Six said:

As for Goldside, I honestly think they were on to something. Unfortunately, the devs never got the chance to finish it. I think it pulls ahead of redside content. Sadly, I have to leave at 20-25, which is my greatest frustration.

Long live Emperor Cole!

The Night Ward/First Ward content is also not bad, and there are also a couple of redside arcs that actually change dialogue and even things you find in the missions based on having done Praetorian content.  In particular the Dean McArthur/Leonard/Mr. G sequence is fun, and the Mr. G part references both your Praetorian contact with him (assuming you did him in Praetoria) and the earlier two arcs.  Especially check out everything in the intro mission to him.  The Wiki doesn't show all of that, by the way.  

 

A friend and I set up a dedicated duo to do Praetoria, and followed the "switch sides every time" guide in the Guides section of the forum to see as much as possible.  I agree the stories are good, and we had time to read them, but we also had to spend about 80% of our time with XPs turned off to do it all, which isn't everyone's cup of tea.  Then again, how many characters do you need to rush to 50? 🙂 

[MTeague]

If you have a populated SG, or even a regular (or irregular) group of global friends you often group with, consider saying "Hey, anyone want to make a redside/goldside squad?  I was thinking maybe play them on Thursdays" or something like that. 

 

It usually doesn't take much serious organization to get a group started, just the gumption to float the idea.

And worst case, they say "Nah, not interested. Thanks though".

[Twisted Toon]

3 hours ago, Six Six said:

not that simple. this was the weekly discussion a couple of few weeks ago. bottom line is, not everyone is cut out to be a villain. 😃

I am one of those people that isn't cut out to be a villain.

I have tried redside on more than one occasion.

I just don't like kicking puppies.

[Six-Six]

44 minutes ago, Scientist said:

A friend and I set up a dedicated duo to do Praetoria, and followed the "switch sides every time" guide in the Guides section of the forum to see as much as possible.  I agree the stories are good, and we had time to read them, but we also had to spend about 80% of our time with XPs turned off to do it all, which isn't everyone's cup of tea.  Then again, how many characters do you need to rush to 50? 🙂 

Awesome! I, too, have two dedicated Praetorians. One Loyalist and one Resistance (who can go to hell, Resistance scum!) Haven't been on them for a spell. I'm trying to figure out a way the have them reach 50 without leaving (because the Gold Star icon on the toon list is awesome).