Extend Night Ward contact level range to 50

[KaizenSoze]

As it stands, only Trilogy and Fireball missions are available above level 39.

 

There is a great series of arcs unavailable, because they all cap out at level 39. Including one of my favorite arc finales where you defend the mansion.

 

Night ward is criminally under used, raising the contact level range would help.

[Greycat]

Well, they already flow from First Ward into Night Ward, level and story wise. I'd be wary of potentially causing problems with that.

 

On the plus side, if those contacts give missions past 40, the mobs exist, so they wouldn't have to be created for it.

 

Honestly, though, I think the big issue with Night Ward being underused is more one of it (and first ward) really being kind of off in a little world of their own. It's not *obvious* how to get there from finishing Praetoria, and while the contacts get thrown at you to the point of gumming up the "Find a contact" window - they're just "off somewhere, unconnected" sort of like the Shadow Shard. Connecting them to the world (and making the find a contact thing less annoying) would probably help more, short term, for introducing people to the zones.

[KaizenSoze]

47 minutes ago, Greycat said:

Well, they already flow from First Ward into Night Ward, level and story wise. I'd be wary of potentially causing problems with that.

 

On the plus side, if those contacts give missions past 40, the mobs exist, so they wouldn't have to be created for it.

Usually, the problem with extending the mobs level is they don't have enough attacks. Think Hellions at 50, they would be standing around a lot.

 

Night ward mobs don't have this issue. One of reasons they are so nasty. I don't there would be an big issue extending their levels.

[twozerofoxtrot]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

It's not *obvious* how to get there from finishing Praetoria, and while the contacts get thrown at you to the point of gumming up the "Find a contact" window - they're just "off somewhere, unconnected"

 

 

I don't think it's this. I don't think it's this at all, because it's no different than any other contact you get. Mistress Ava is hanging out in Talos, her Redside equivalent is in Cap. There are Portals right next to all the big transit hubs.

 

And yeah, they last longer. You're stuck with the First Ward intro contact all through your 20s on your contact roster. Also  Hellewise. Also pretty much everyone knows how to get Night Ward these days, as they do it to fast unlock ITFs. 

 

No, the issue with Night Ward, and First Ward, and Praetoria, and the Rogue Isles, and Shadow Shard is that they aren't part of a fast leveling track that everyone seems to trundle through. The well-worn path of 2xp through the TFC-gaining 7 TFs that conveniently come available after a DFB run or two. Or Peregrine Island boosting. 

 

It's not that it's hard to get to. It just doesn't do anything for the player other than offer new stories. If people don't care about that, they will avoid it.

Edited June 13, 2023 by twozerofoxtrot
So many typos and me with one little brain

[Arc-Mage]

The problem is the Pretorian content in general was not played on Live. All the original Dev plans / Story Lines were cut short or skipped due to the lack of players on Gold Side. 
 

Gold Side still has this problem. I will say it’s probably more popular now then it was on live but it’s still the least played side. 
 

Every complaint about Pretorian stories or lack of stories or continuity is valid. But it’s for a reason.
 

Why make new content for the least played part of the game, when there are still so many untold stories for the parts that the majority of people do play?

[Rudra]

25 minutes ago, Arc-Mage said:

The problem is the Pretorian content in general was not played on Live. All the original Dev plans / Story Lines were cut short or skipped due to the lack of players on Gold Side. 
 

Gold Side still has this problem. I will say it’s probably more popular now then it was on live but it’s still the least played side. 
 

Every complaint about Pretorian stories or lack of stories or continuity is valid. But it’s for a reason.
 

Why make new content for the least played part of the game, when there are still so many untold stories for the parts that the majority of people do play?

Probably partially because gold side, like the HEATs when they were first introduced, was meant to be a challenge for experienced players. And the difficulty factor for some missions is surprisingly tough for anyone expecting the missions to be easy.

 

And the fact that you have to know to select the Going Rogue option when you go to start making your character, that the "Going Rogue" icon under the "Freedom" icon is actually for selecting making a Praetorian character may not be helping it either. I wouldn't be surprised if that button never got more than a cursory glance during character creation as being anything other than a banner of game content.

[Arc-Mage]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

Probably partially because gold side, like the HEATs when they were first introduced, was meant to be a challenge for experienced players. And the difficulty factor for some missions is surprisingly tough for anyone expecting the missions to be easy.

 

And the fact that you have to know to select the Going Rogue option when you go to start making your character, that the "Going Rogue" icon under the "Freedom" icon is actually for selecting making a Praetorian character may not be helping it either. I wouldn't be surprised if that button never got more than a cursory glance during character creation as being anything other than a banner of game content.

Yes, that’s a good point. I believe the problem started way before Going Rogue however. When City of Villains came out it was an entirely separate game. NCSoft thought that dividing the player base was a good idea. They thought it was such a good idea they did it again with Going Rogue. Continuously dividing your player base it turns out doesn’t grow your subscriber numbers. It just makes the game feel less populated. So much so by the time Going Rogue came out there wasn’t enough players to support a third side of the game. 

[Saiyajinzoningen]

8 hours ago, Arc-Mage said:

The problem is the Pretorian content in general was not played on Live. All the original Dev plans / Story Lines were cut short or skipped due to the lack of players on Gold Side. 
 

Gold Side still has this problem. I will say it’s probably more popular now then it was on live but it’s still the least played side. 
 

Every complaint about Pretorian stories or lack of stories or continuity is valid. But it’s for a reason.
 

Why make new content for the least played part of the game, when there are still so many untold stories for the parts that the majority of people do play?

 

maybe we can use striga to tie things together? it also feels like an odd duck.....

[SwitchFade]

Sure, why not? I still won't go there.

 

Why?

 

Dark, dreary, sloggy, not intuitive to access, disparate and not interconnected with blue content, good story telling but the topic is uninteresting and feels like a penal colony.

 

If I want macabre, I can go to Croatia. If I want depressing, dark Astoria. If I want bleak and ruined, I can go to fault line, hollows, boomtown...

 

I really don't like hanging out in a dank, half finished drab little town that feels like someone tried too hard to lean into cliches and features a big floating seed blob and a weird psychedelic goldilocks path.

 

But I'm all for your suggestion, I just won't bother going there, I have tried to many times to find it interesting and it's not.

 

so, yes vote.

[Marine X]

I have always enjoyed the First Ward/Night Ward Arcs and feel it is almost a Fourth Side to the game, Call it say, Gray Side. There is a noticeable difference in both Mission Design and Story Quality, which was reflected in almost all the later additions to the game. Although I have only played 2 Praetorians so far, I almost always work those zones into the leveling path of my characters. All the content ( Arcs anyway ) is available thru Ouroboros for those that don't do the Arcs when in level range. I personally think that, as has been said a thousand times, many people come to Homecoming fresh, thinking they have to get leveled up for Endgame Content, which is not necessarily the best the game has to offer. Raising the level where these Contacts could be active would not be something I would be apposed to considering our limited amount of quality level 50+ mission content. I know that the iTrials are there, but I believe more content that can be soloed or done on small teams organically at 50 would be beneficial especially on the smaller population shards.