Contact: Provost Marchand (Primal Earth)

[Techwright]

I'd thought that I had done the Provost Marchand (Primal Earth) contact arc some time in the past, but now that I'm in the middle of it with a new character in its mid-30s, I can see I never did the arc.    I'm enjoying the arc but it has created a couple of questions for me:

 

1. Why is the character available at this level?  Some of the dialog seems to indicate that certain Incarnate Trials have concluded.  To my thinking that would put the character as a level 50 content giver, possibly unlocked by completion of those trials.

 

2. Quite a bit of the dialog has massive advancements in the Praetorian storyline.  However, Marchand was not a referral, rather he was just dropped into my potential contacts list and I picked him more or less at random.   Is there a list somewhere of an order to follow (for a Prime universe character) of contacts and maybe specialized missions like Task Forces, that organically develops the story to the point Marchand should theoretically take the reigns?

[Lunar Ronin]

It became clear that, towards the end of live with the Going Rogue expansion, Paragon Studios didn't really care to have a coherent game timeline.  Dark Watcher telling level fifteen characters that Statesman is dead, replacing Statesman with Positron everywhere, Provost Marchand and Mr. G giving missions at level 35 that take place after the Magisterium Incarnate trial...

 

BTW, the Mr. G (Primal Earth) story arc is the red side equivalent of the Provost Marchand (Primal Earth) story arc, and is just as easily worth doing.

 

As for a Primal Earth timeline, hoo boy.

 

 

1. The Praetorian War (old Tina MacIntyre)
2. A Hero's Hero (old Maria Jenkins)
3. The Instant Army (new Tina MacIntyre)
4. A Hero's Epic (new Maria Jenkins)
5. Apex Task Force
6. Tin Mage Task Force
7. Admiral Sutter Task Force
8. BAF Incarnate Trial
9. Lambda Sector Incarnate Trial
10. Keyes Island Reactor Incarnate Trial
11. First Ward story arcs
12. The Underground Incarnate Trial
13. TPN Campus Incarnate Trial
14. Minds of Mayhem Incarnate Trial
15. Dark Astoria (new) story arcs
16. Dilemma Diabolique Incarnate Trial
17. Night Ward story arcs
18. The Emperor's Sword (Belladonna Vetrano)
19. Magisterium Incarnate Trial
20. Void Sanction (The Major)
21. Provost Marchand (Primal Earth) story arcs
22. Mr. G (Primal Earth) story arcs
23. Praetoria's Last Gasp (Number Six)

Edited June 3 by Lunar Ronin

[Techwright]

5 minutes ago, Lunar Ronin said:

It became clear that, towards the end of live with the Going Rogue expansion, Paragon Studios didn't really care to have a coherent game timeline.  Dark Watcher telling level fifteen characters that Statesman is dead, replacing Statesman with Positron everywhere, Provost Marchand and Mr. G giving missions at level 35 that take place after the Magisterium Incarnate trial...

 

BTW, the Mr. G (Primal Earth) story arc is the red side equivalent of the Provost Marchand (Primal Earth) story arc, and is just as easily worth doing.

 

As for a Primal Earth timeline, hoo boy.

 

 

1. The Praetorian War (old Tina MacIntyre)
2. A Hero's Hero (old Maria Jenkins)
3. The Instant Army (new Tina MacIntyre)
4. A Hero's Epic (new Tina MacIntyre)
5. Apex Task Force
6. Tin Mage Task Force
7. Admiral Sutter Task Force
8. BAF Incarnate Trial
9. Lambda Sector Incarnate Trial
10. Keyes Island Reactor Incarnate Trial
11. First Ward story arcs
12. The Underground Incarnate Trial
13. TPN Campus Trial
14. Minds of Mayhem Trial
15. Dark Astoria (new) story arcs
16. Dilemma Diabolique Trial
17. Night Ward story arcs
18. The Emperor's Sword (Belladonna Vetrano)
19. Magisterium Trial
20. Void Sanction (The Major)
21. Provost Marchand (Primal Earth) story arcs
22. Mr. G (Primal Earth) story arcs
23. Praetoria's Last Gasp (Number Six)

 

Interesting.  So it is more than just Marchand or Mr. G. ?   From your list it looks like all of First Ward should be end game material unlocked upon completing the first 3 Incarnate trials.

[Uun]

Provost Marchand and Mr. G each have 3 arcs that are progressively more difficult. While you get Marchand as a contact at lvl 30 (Mr. G is introduced via the Inside Information tip mission), I tend to wait until lvl 50 to do them. I find that a character in their 30s doesn't yet have the tools to handle the difficulty, particularly the 3rd arcs.

[GM Crumpet]

I enjoy both contacts, but yeah the timeline is messed up. As for First Ward/Night Ward I believe (I may be wrong) that they are set before the fall of Praetoria as you meet characters from those arcs as refugees in Marchands arcs which are set after Praetoria is destroyed

[MTeague]

To be fair, people have been doing enough Timey-Wimey shenanigans with Ouroboros, that there is no such thing as a coherent timeline. There's 100,000 or more varients of the timeline, growing daily. Loki should be exploding a few times about now. 

 

Also, not necessarily every character had to already be lvl 50 and have taken part in incarnate trials. 

Some in theory could happened before your hero's powers manifested.

I know, I know, heresy, we are all the Main Characters of our own stories, and all the world's plot MUST revolve around us.

 

But it's no different from any other MMO.  Warcraft, you do the same raids and defeat the same bosses for several months on end, and no one bats an eye at "timelines".  New characters get levelling up through multiple expansions, and no one bats an eye at what "has already happened".  Its a game.  We plays it. We rationlize timelines however we care to, and often we just don't overthink it.

[Psyonico]

When you hit level 30 and get introduced to the contacts, the dialogue box that pops up specifically states something like “the events in this arcs take place after the events of issue 24”

 

this is a problem with the MMO format, if you want to introduce new content that isn’t a higher level than your current content, inevitably you will create continuity issues.