Suggestion: Add a level 35-50 Preatorian Task Force or Trial that has you fight all the different members of the Hamidon family: The Seed, The Avatar, and Praetorian Hamidon himself!

[El D]

I'm down for any new content for the game, much as I think the 'In Praetoria' side of CoH's overarching story has basically run its course by this point. Still, there's enough wiggle-room plot-wise to have some 'beyond the sonic fences' exploration as 40+ Goldside content.

 

It won't change the progression of the iTrials or past follow-up arcs, but it could introduce other things. Finding some vault of magical relics that Emperor Cole hid away somewhere. Investigating a sort of proto-Portal Corporation run by a Devouring Earth-ified Dr. Brian Webb (and showcase Praetorian Hamidon slowly investigating interdimensional travel...). Discover a hidden bunker used by Chimera to dispose of political dissidents... Maybe a 'Fallout' style mini-zone themed around killing high level DE and recovering gear from dead superheroes/supervillains as a stockpile for the war with Primal Earth - one that never got used and gets recovered by some of the surviving Praetorians who make the jump to Primal Earth (so it can be introduced later Blue/Redside).

 

There are enough dangling threads on Goldside to make something with to finish off 1 to 50 with.

Edited September 8, 2022 by El D

[Rudra]

This is the part I find weird: Getting a Praetorian character to level 50, as a Praetorian, and doing the incarnate content/end game content fighting Praetoria.... That doesn't seem weird to anyone else?

 

Bear in mind, I don't care if players take their gold side characters to level 50 staying Praetorian. I've tried to. And at the end of the Night Ward content when I found there were no more arcs for me, I went Primal. So I get the desire to want to get to level 50 as a Praetorian without having to go Primal. The weirdness is the immediate jump into incarnate content fighting Praetoria. So say you're a Loyalist all the way to 50. Would you now also want an incarnate trial to oppose the BAF and Lambda iTrials? Where you stop the Primals from destroying those facilities? Would you want to continue that all the way up to getting trials to counter the Underground and negate the Magisterium? Someone please explain this to me.

 

Maybe I'm just overly focused on progression and linking stories across a character's existence, but doing a sudden jump from Loyalist Praetorian to aiding the Primals strike at your home is weird.

 

I'm not against a Praetorian TF. As long as it does not invalidate current content. I'm not against having the ability to level from 1-50 strictly as a Praetorian. (Which would be much easier to do if the current story were to be progressed so the Praetorian Hamidon could be dealt with and a post-Hamidon Praetoria could be set up for playing through.) I would like something to justify that jump at the end though. Even if the justification is an arc that for levels 49-50 explains why your Praetorian character would be willing to side with the Primals over Cole and Scott.

[lemming]

3 hours ago, Rudra said:

Even if the justification is an arc that for levels 49-50 explains why your Praetorian character would be willing to side with the Primals over Cole and Scott.

For Loyalists that were more for the Responsibility Arc (ala Marchand) or Resistance Wardens (ala Belladonna), easy.

 

For the more Chaos and Power hungry sort, Cole is in their way.   (Mr G & Praetor Duncun)

 

For someone that's still loyal to Cole (ala Manticore), it would be tricky.

[Rudra]

It is the loyal part I was mostly asking about. Thanks though.

[Grouchybeast]

7 hours ago, Rudra said:

Even if the justification is an arc that for levels 49-50 explains why your Praetorian character would be willing to side with the Primals over Cole and Scott.

 

Presumably if the player was sufficiently dedicated to RPing a Cole loyalist, then they wouldn't play the Incarnate trials, much like someone RPing a hero isn't going to switch sides and play through a lot of villain arcs even though they have so many delicious, delicious badges locked behind them.  I'm okay with letting RP choices block off content sometimes.

[Rudra]

7 hours ago, Grouchybeast said:

 

Presumably if the player was sufficiently dedicated to RPing a Cole loyalist, then they wouldn't play the Incarnate trials, much like someone RPing a hero isn't going to switch sides and play through a lot of villain arcs even though they have so many delicious, delicious badges locked behind them.  I'm okay with letting RP choices block off content sometimes.

If that is what they want, works for me.