Drunkard's Walk Forums

How is it?

well, just from looking at it from a load point of view, apparently a LOT of people are enjoying it. yellow to red for server load and the occasional queue to join have been the norm all week, and from what I can tell from the overall chatter there are a lot of people who are both loving and loathing the new features (loving a lot of it, loathing seems to be mostly tied to server lag and having to deal with ghouls in P!underground)
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

Well, the new Praetorian content really does up CoH's game. Take missions, for example. There's a lot of new tech that's been introduced, like contact dialogue changing in response to optional choices you make during missions. Then there's dialogue trees with contacts...which isn't new, per-se, but they feel more like an actual flowing conversation with a spectrum of responses in the new GR stuff. And in fine RPG tradition, many of the potential responses are pretty snarky. The game even currently allows NPC contacts to 'phase out'. If you make a decision, during a mission, to kill a particular character...that NPC vanishes from the outdoor zone map. For you, at least. Other players who haven't done that mission yet, or let the NPC survive...will still be able to see the NPC.
There's a lot of stuff like that in GR...there's a few other new technical twists introduced that I can think of, but there's really no point in listing all of them. What I'm saying is this...combined with the generally higher quality of actual writing...it's pretty safe to say that, yes, this IS a major improvement to CoH. The missions really are that much better.
Praetoria as a world is also pretty visually distinct. It definitely LOOKS different, and the artists did a fantastic job creating a whole new range of maps, both indoor and outdoor. The graphics are good, and they're really designed to take advantage of Ultra Mode.
The problem is that the new Praetorian content is only levels 1-20.
Now, mind you - it's really THAT DAMN GOOD. And there is much more of it than one might expect. Only 1-20, yes, but there are both Loyalist and Resistance paths available...entirely different contact trees. But ultimately, this isn't an entirely new 1-50 experience. It may well be in the future...I'd expect them to add more content to Praetoria, and if all future content is of this greatly increased quality, then that will be awesome.
It's worth mentioning that the new side-switch system takes the form of morality missions. And the morality missions really are good - they're built to the new Going Rogue standards, after all. not the old.
But because there's a cooldown timer between morality missions, it's not like you're going to be levelling exclusively on them anyway...
So. Bottom line, is it worth coming back for Going Rogue? I dunno. I think the new stuff is definitely worth checking out - but is there enough new stuff to check out? That's debatable. Certainly a lot was added with this update, content wise, but again...not enough for you to take a new character all the way to 50.
Enough for you to take two new characters from 1-20, though...Loyalist and Resistance, natch. And dinkering about with side switching is worth a go.
-- Acyl

No no Acyl..its not called Praetoria. Its called 'Ambushtoria' because..y'know the dev's broke the ambush button...then left the remnants of the ambush button tapped down under a brick. Because yes. there is that many ambushes *Grin* But that is only a gripe if you don't like ambushes..or like my poor energy Aura brute..gets ganked by em. But if i could sum up GR with 1 word..I'd probably use 'Fresh' cause it really does feel like a breath of fresh air.

so basically there's not much for me to do on Flame, is there? : GDI Paragon - end game stuff PLZ
There is no coincidence, only necessity....
- Clow Reed

*Points at the citidel of pain trial* Theres that. I'd say..Incarnate stuff but they took that out for a later issue lol. Incarnates was the thing I was looking towards lol.

As to the ambushes - I was running a mission earlier today with Bob (running Princess Evangelia) and Foxboy (running Hilltopper (his stalker Praetorian version of Nogi)) while I was running my Dual Pistols/Energy blaster Sassinak. 

We're in a mission where we had to get a Seer out before security is called in. For various reasons (too many mobs in the way, Fox's dad having at least two different "how do I shot web" attacks), we didn't beat the clock. And security showed up just as we got to the Seer. 

Security in the form of seemingly endless waves of Syndicate thugs. And we had to make it all the way to the front door with the Seer without her getting killed. 

Scrapper, Stalker, Blaster - and no healer. Not an optimal combination, and no Stamina for any of us of course. Well we made it and IIRC we didn't actually have any deaths (or at least no need for hospital trips). But that was an INTENSE fight. Running right at the ragged edge of what was doable. If I'd had the time, I would've cued up the Kill Bill soundtrack. It was actually pretty damn cool. 

Point I'm making here is - I think the Devs did a good job tweaking the ambush spawns. There are just enough of them per team member and the timing is set just far enough apart that you CAN recover a little bit between each wave. Having a Defender along would've made things a lot smoother of course. 

I can remember a time earlier in Beta where the spawns were TOO tough. I got my ass handed to me and others did too on similar styled missions. With Seers - with Ghouls etc. And when it was brought up in the Beta forums, the Devs tweaked it until it was doable under most circumstances. 

Mind - Beta is full of players who know what they are doing. I expect to hear a lot of whining in the new few weeks from players who aren't nearly as veteran. 

But back to the above example - the fact that an all DPS team with no crowd control and no healing and only at level 10-11 with basic powers going can run a gauntlet like that is a good sign. 

I'll echo the very finely balanced ambushes.

I'm spending most of my time running a sapper^H^H^H^H^H electric troller.

I have no large damage attacks, and I find myself both fearing and looking forward to ambushes.

Fearing cause I can die if I don't pay attention to whats going on; looking forward to them cause I get more effective with larger mobs.

Then again, I don't think anyone would say I don't know what I'm doing my fenders/trollers
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

I'll correct Logan on one point -- Princess Eva went to the hospital... twice I think. But that's mainly because she was doing the "I'm in front! And loving it!" thing that scrappers do. And she paid for it -- although once was mainly because she blundered into something already going on. Beyond that, though, Logan's on the money. I was betaing during the Spawns from Hell period -- and there are several missions which are defined by their seemingly-endless waves of ambushes which took both my major test characters down quickly. Not so much this time around, even when I was running in a team of 8 last night. So yeah, definite improvement, and the fact that we could do it today just shows it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

i remember one mish that had enought Ghouls ambushing me, i got the damn killl badge.

but it was fun, the endless horde kept me on my toes and was pretty chalenging.

Heh.... Reminds me of last night, Misty asked for help in getting her Vigilante status on a mission that involved several large waves of ambushes in succession. So I fetched Regnar, and his traps MOSTLY turned the tables on them; everyone ELSE fell down at least once, but Regnar never did. Mostly cause I picked the spot and made the ambushes come to ME, where I was ready with my Triage beacon and acid mortar and bots set to agressive hold ground
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

Question for those who've played through all 20 levels of GR content so far: Do costume slots work the same way as normal? If so, you'll have only one slot to run through those 20 levels, correct?

Is there a contact you can get the Halloween slot from? Any way to have more than one costume slot while in levels 1-19 while in Praetoria?
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

Afraid you're stuck with the one slot until you get to Paragon or the Isles.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

That's going to irritate a friend who I've been tempting over there. Not even with Halloween Salvage?
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

At least until Halloween itself.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

There is a tailor in Imperial City, though. If you really want a new look, you can change your current outfit. Just can't get a new slot unlocked.
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

Well, poop. Here's hoping for Halloween.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.