Any reason at all to make a Praetorian?

[Mithradates]

It seems all you get is a different leveling experience up to 20, and access to Praetoria? Is there any other reason for making one? 

 

The few times I've tried, the starting zones are just dead. It's just solo play up to 20, which isn't that fun.  I've never made it past 10, so I was wondering if I'm right to just stick to hero or villain?

[DougGraves]

The reason is because the content is good.  You will almost certainly solo it.  If you don't like to solo then you don't want to do it.

[Doomguide2005]

Or find a group looking to do the content.  Maybe the only thing holding others back is "there's no one else doing it" and you just need to get the ball rolling.

[merrypessimist]

You also get different versions of many badges.

[Arnabas]

Praetoria is worth doing just for the experience of a cohesive, well-made setting and story. I wish we could do more in Praetoria because it's (IMO) some of the best content in the game, visually and story-wise.

[Snarky]

really detailed environments that are beautiful.  the last (and best) story arc system.  really freaking hard content.  endless petty politics.  no escape until 20...

 

I soloed it a few times on live.  The politics in the end ruined it for me.  Give me a kill all from some criminal mastermind any day over that holier than thou crapola

[Darmian]

Depends where you are too.  We have a dedicated Praetorian origin SG on Reunion so we get regular enough small teams, 3 to 4, a few times a week. And all the above. Great content, great zone design, And....(gets on soap box...) you can keep going after 20!  Just head into First Ward!  (...gets off soap box...)

 

And even if you leave, don't design a Praetorian with the intent to be a hero or a villain later. Just enjoy the arcs along the way, you can decide at the end what you want.

[The_Warpact]

You can do the arcs up to 20 then roll into 1st ward to continue then at 30 roll into Night Ward.

I did with my VG and our Praetoria villains hit 49 tonight.

Good story lines, interesting zones, and challenging enemies. If I didn't love the Rogue Isles so much I'd hang out over there more.

[Darmian]

54 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

You can do the arcs up to 20 then roll into 1st ward to continue then at 30 roll into Night Ward.

I did with my VG and our Praetoria villains hit 49 tonight.

Good story lines, interesting zones, and challenging enemies. If I didn't love the Rogue Isles so much I'd hang out over there more.

If you want some more Praetorian based malarkey, check the last three AEs in my signature. In that order. With the caveat we don't have access to the choice mechanic or most of the maps we need, and I did a sneaky workaround for that in the second one. These three are all Loyalist ones by the way.  I'm working on a Resistance set. As for compensating for the choice?  I had to make do with more clues and more reading.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Darmian

[UltraAlt]

Praetoria does seems to be for those that don't want to team with others.

If you want to solo and experience some different gameplay, that's the reason to go for it.

Like the evolution - Be a Hero>bored with being goody-two-shoes>Play a Villain>Villains aren't all bad>Let them switch sides>superheroes are boring>make content with political facing - you can escape that political facing content to head back into the comic book realm or stick to more political facing content (who's correct? The dictators that want to create a Utopia (for themselves?) or the Underground that wants to rise up against them in the name of freedom (for themselves?)?)

 

I didn't start playing City of Heroes to get involved in all that. I don't need the game to be more like life.

I play to be a hero (well 99% of the time) ... a superhero with super powers fighting against criminal and other types of villains.

 

I did try to play it in Beta and - I can't really remember - maybe when it first when live. I didn't like the content. It wasn't enjoyable to me. And that is not just because of the horrid fluorescent light sound effect - but that did add to my lack of enjoyment.

 

And that is really what it comes down to, do you enjoy playing the Praetorian content?

If you don't, then I would suggest finding content that you enjoy playing.

[ZorkNemesis]

7 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Or find a group looking to do the content.  Maybe the only thing holding others back is "there's no one else doing it" and you just need to get the ball rolling.

Praetoria isn't really well designed for groups.  Given the experience progression it's pretty clear that it was intended to be soloed for those who want the story.  If you attempt to do the missions at anything besides +0x1 you run the risk of outleveling the story arcs and being forced to skip ahead.  I missed Praetor Sinclair's arc on one of my Loyalist Power characters because I was rolling +0x2 with bosses and murdering everything.  I ended up hitting 15 during Tami Baker's arc and the game just pushed me ahead to the Neutropolis leg.  Sinclair wouldn't even speak to me.

 

And don't even try to use T4V XP boosts, you'll miss all the moral choices that way.

 

That said, you can still just run Message Man or Clockwork whatever's missions after level 5 if you don't care about the story, but at that point why bother playing Praetoria when you could be running DFB or door-sitting instead?

[Greycat]

Honestly, if you want a look at some of the things (like the choices, going "undercover," etc,) that were being added, it's worth one run through.

 

[KC4800]

If you enjoy knocking enemies off of roofs Neutropolis is the place to play. You don't even have to fly. Just take the stairs.

[Doomguide2005]

5 hours ago, ZorkNemesis said:

Praetoria isn't really well designed for groups.  Given the experience progression it's pretty clear that it was intended to be soloed for those who want the story.  If you attempt to do the missions at anything besides +0x1 you run the risk of outleveling the story arcs and being forced to skip ahead.  I missed Praetor Sinclair's arc on one of my Loyalist Power characters because I was rolling +0x2 with bosses and murdering everything.  I ended up hitting 15 during Tami Baker's arc and the game just pushed me ahead to the Neutropolis leg.  Sinclair wouldn't even speak to me.

 

And don't even try to use T4V XP boosts, you'll miss all the moral choices that way.

 

That said, you can still just run Message Man or Clockwork whatever's missions after level 5 if you don't care about the story, but at that point why bother playing Praetoria when you could be running DFB or door-sitting instead?

I get you.  At the same time folks run into the same issues teaming blueside.  If story and content matter to you (most of) the same things can done goldside. 

[golstat2003]

37 minutes ago, Doomguide2005 said:

I get you.  At the same time folks run into the same issues teaming blueside.  If story and content matter to you (most of) the same things can done goldside. 

Yeah if folks are interested in teaming running story arcs is hard. You can easily outlevel your arcs no matter what side you are teaming on, except if you turn off xp. And even if you do, it doesn't really show the major parts of the story (clues, talking to the contact to advance the story etc) to the rest of the team. Goldside is best done solo, just like any content that is story focused.

[Shred Monkey]

Gold side has better content if you read the missions.  If you don't read and just look to complete missions and fight stuff, it's about the same.  A few unique missions, but you are likely to miss them if you don't try to find them.

 

And then there's Bobcat.  I hate her character so much.  Every mission she gives should give an alternate option to beat her senseless.  If they're going to force us to team up with someone like that, they need to include a "what's in it for me" scenario because her personal motives make me want to vomit.

 

 

[Apparition]

20 minutes ago, golstat2003 said:

Yeah if folks are interested in teaming running story arcs is hard. You can easily outlevel your arcs no matter what side you are teaming on, except if you turn off xp. And even if you do, it doesn't really show the major parts of the story (clues, talking to the contact to advance the story etc) to the rest of the team. Goldside is best done solo, just like any content that is story focused.

 

Yep.  That's why I don't team for story arc missions.  I like to go through at my own pace, read everything, and be able to do it all if I so choose.  You can't do any of that if you team.

[Mithradates]

Thanks for the replies everyone! 

[Six-Six]

For the Emperor!

[Darmian]

WOOO!

Just now, Six-Six said:

For the Emperor!

 

[Draeth Darkstar]

Y'all are wild with your "I don't like politics," playing a superhero game.

 

Superheroes were invented to express political (specifically liberal) views. The genre is inherently political. Superman is a literal Jewish Golem created as a symbol against anti-Semitism in 1938 (read: the beginning of the Holocaust). The first published image of Captain America is of him punching Adolf Hitler in the face on the cover of Captain America #1 in 1941.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Draeth Darkstar

[Rishidian]

EVERYTHING has politics.  Some more than others.  Some more visible than others.

 

Every story, mission, quest, whatever, is political.

 

Death and Taxes may not be avoidable, but politics is where we live.

 

There is no escape.  

[Haijinx]

10 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

Gold side has better content if you read the missions.  If you don't read and just look to complete missions and fight stuff, it's about the same.  A few unique missions, but you are likely to miss them if you don't try to find them.

 

And then there's Bobcat.  I hate her character so much.  Every mission she gives should give an alternate option to beat her senseless.  If they're going to force us to team up with someone like that, they need to include a "what's in it for me" scenario because her personal motives make me want to vomit.

 

 

I feel the same way about Blue side Manticore and thus I sympathize.  

[SwitchFade]

Because...

 

Fun.

[Haijinx]

Its one of the better done dark mirror universe stories.  Better tbh than many of the comic runs that partly inspired it.  

 

Reminds me a lot of Georwell from Justice Machine.  One of the really great 80s Indy comics.