"... take place after the events of i23"

[RikOz]

When reaching the right level to be introduced to Provost Marchand and start the New Praetorians storyline, the popup window notes that "This storyline takes place after the events of Issue 23" (or something like that).

 

That has left me curious as to whether those "events of Issue 23" are still available to play in-game. I'm assuming these events were the Praetorian War? Back on live, I was only around for the last year or so before the shutdown. I can't recall what "issue" the game was on at that time, but I know I didn't play anything involving the Praetorian War (outside of the references in the Shining Stars storyline). In my relatively short time I only got one character to 50, and that was not all that long before the shutdown, so I suppose it's possible that I just didn't get to that point, if it was current content at the time.

[Vanden]

Issue 23 was Night Ward. That, the eight incarnate trials, and the Belladonna Vetrano arc for level 50 characters are what the text is referring to.

Edited August 8, 2019 by Vanden

[RikOz]

Ah, okay. I did do the Night Ward stuff, but can't recall if I did the Belladonna stuff.

 

Thanks 🙂

[Jimmy]

As someone who has recently played through all of this content, the ordering is certainly a bit confusing. It's something I'd like to look at making clearer in the future.

[Oneirohero]

Like Jimmy said. The whole Marchand (and the villainous version whose name I forget) is the first (and I guess for now, only) time the timeline of City of Heroes has been broken.

 

It's been established that the five level chunks between Levels 1 and 50 occur in their own frame of time, which is why contacts cease to take your cooperation once you out level them and the strength of foes is locked to the maximum level of that arc in terms of Green-Book contacts. But for this Lv30-35 arc to come AFTER the events that are primarily Lv50 Incarnate Content breaks the long tradition set forth by the rest of the game. A lot of the low-level Villain groups actually cease to exist in the later game because of Arcs resolving their existence, much like the Lost being cured in the Castnella Arc 'Lost and Found'. I think the Trolls also meet a familiar end with some arcs cracking down on Superdine which caused them in the first place.

 

A character getting involved in events that occurred beyond their native level is more of a huge spoiler than a game-breaking issue, but what can you do when the game's integrity relies on 50 being the highest level? In City of Heroes, time's ultimate conclusion is when you complete the Incarnate System and run out of all unique Lv45-50 content. Because then everything else requires Time-travel a la Ouroboros to access once again. (The prior example assumes no teaming with lowbies, which are in themselves a form of time-travel to participate in their missions)

[Zombie Hustler]

I think the whole point was primarily to indicate that it took place post-all of the then current Praetorian content (Going Rogue, the Praetorian Incarnate trials, First Ward, Night Ward). This because the storyline and pretty much all of the characters involved were also integral (or at least present) to one degree or another during those arcs. As Jimmy points out, this probably could have been made a little more explicitly clear, particularly given that- while most of the player base at that point would have known what that meant, and how it fell into the release schedule, it isn't quite as evident to those who come into the game at a later point in time (or years later, like some now).

 

This gets even a little more confusing with the Mr. G story arc that deals with many of the same things (post-Praetorian content), but also adds in a lot of villain specific contacts that are part of/reference villain story arcs from across the entire spectrum of CoV content. Mr. G's arc is probably my favorite of all, but it does make the timeline seem a little wonky (especially since parts of it change depending on whether you ran certain CoV arcs prior to running Mr. G's.)

[nihilii]

6 hours ago, Oneirohero said:

The whole Marchand (and the villainous version whose name I forget) is the first (and I guess for now, only) time the timeline of City of Heroes has been broken.

Some other events don't seem quite linear compared to level progression. In Faultline (lvl 15-25) we help Penelope as a teenager, and we know it takes years for her to mature into the Freedom Phalanx member we see at lvl 50. But Admiral Sutter TF (lvl 20-40) makes us deal with the Praetorian invasion, which happens after Penelope reaches adulthood - and the Lady Grey TF (lvl 35-50, but originally 45-50) still gives us Penelope as a teenager with growing powers. More complicated still, the deaths of Statesman and Sister Psyche happen when you're lvl 50 but Penelope replaces Sister Psyche in IP for a lvl 20-25 TF as a fresh new Freedom Phalanx member (so, years after the Fautline event, but possibly overlapping with the Faultline arcs), and obviously neither States nor Psyche can be seen anywhere in the game world available from lvl 1 to 50.