AzureSkyCiel

Actually, he's a very simple way they could have fixed the KoA's whole numbers issue: have their defeat animation involve a very obvious "teleport away" effect like Maelstrom.
Maybe have an added objective to several missions involving them be to take out their portable reclaimer that allows them to pretty much refield themselves continuously in one place.

Pardon my 4channism but...

>Implying the Devs don't throw out anything over nine months old
>Implying devs bother with anything over nine months old that does not contain new shinies

It does kind of make sense why Amateurs are better than professionals in some ways with this kind of thing. Consider the following:

You want to write an AE arc about the Shining Stars post initial arcs. You have pretty much infinite time to do it as long as your subscription hasn't run out, have next to no overseeing aside from paragon wiki's lore stuff and AE's bizzare censorship. But most of all YOU'RE HAVING FUN doing it.

Now you are a developer: Positron says: "We need an arc about what happened to the Shining Stars, here are some guidelines you have to follow; include in-mission contact-type conversation tech, use a new map tileset, ignore the SSA since these are supposed to be before them. It needs to be done within a week so you can work on the story for the next Incarnate Trial."
And you're knee-deep in **** if you don't get it all done in time and as per the guidelines.
And thus, with these pressures, you're not enjoying yourself, you don't have the time you need to make sure everything's perfect as you'd like it to b- oh, wait, it can't be perfect as you'd like it, it has to meet Positron's standard of perfect. So in the end, you're not even writing your own story.
You tell me you'd care anymore.

Funny enough, there is elbow room that there's still some of the KoA alive and sane out there, okay, maybe horribly mentally shaken, but I kind of would like to see a villain arc or something where you convince the KoA to join and serve you. After all, Malta's abandoned them, the rest of the world reviles them, but you are strong, you can keep them both safe, supplied, and give them the respect they deserve.

I know my vigilante character is ultimately plotting to bring them in as the redshirts of his spec ops organization.

Huh, I only recall the one at the Finale of Time After Time doing it.
I've played at least three STFs and he's never summoned an army, a chance meeting with him in RV didn't have him summon his army.

Problem is that we already do tend to encounter NPCs who are, literally, off the scale. As mentioned, Praetorian AVs tend to do it, with the justification that they need to be that tall to be seen in Trials, but otherwise we get DE, Council/Column Mechs, Romulus, Vanguard HVAS.
It's not fair, dammit. I want to make my Soviet Robot be huge enough to clip/bust through door frames and shout: "RAARL! Your tiny, weak, CAPITALIST doors cannot hold me!"

Formerly confirmed. Now retconned or just ignored. Then again, Maelstrom's supposed to be DP/EM, Lord Recluse is supposed to be an MM (and there's only one version of him that summons minions if I recall), and Ghost Widow is a Dom who thinks Dark Miasma is a control set.

I'm pretty sure this was the devs' way of killing off the Blue Steel meme.

Well option two would be a lot like the first third option you mentioned, but hey, why don't we go balls out for this one:

Tyrant has lost sight of dealing with Hamidon and keeps trying to kill you while you're actually protecting Praetoria from Hamidon. You manage to fend both off enough to push Hamidon back and Cole finally confronts you, trying to take on too much power from the Well and goes all One-Winged Angel on us.

Beat Well Avatar Cole half to death, when a weakened Hamidon then infects Cole, making him even more monstrous than before with tentacles and stuff, and now we face down a Super Well Empowered HamidonCole.

No Adds for this one, no other objectives, only FINAL DESTINATION! I mean beating Cole and Hamidon.
Also, the trial map should use rain. And have lightning in the background.

Also, if we get giant mecha, I will be playing This non-stop for a week.

I'd actually say both at once seems likely. Like maybe once we take down Cole we basically break Praetoria's last line of defense and have to stop Hamidon ourselves. For bittersweet ending: despite our best efforts, Hamidon still ends up killing enough of Praetoria that humanity is doomed there with no hope of recovery.

For less ambiguity, Cole has become so obsessed with destroying us, he's completely neglected his duty to keep Hamidon at bay, so we need to defeat Hamidon while Cole harasses the trial groups.

It's not helped that Bonefire's not exactly the most memorable of arcs. Possibly also disappointing since this is the only arc we encounter the Petrovitch brothers and THEY'RE RUN OF THE MILL BONE DADDIES.

Not to mention if anyone was playing anyone with a heal power.

I actually think I have to agree with you here.
So the sad thing is, while Maelstrom's story is a bit more winding, there's really not much more depth to it than Desdemona's. Even sadder, it kind of goes to show there never was much in the way of a hero in Maelstrom. Only a prideful soldier who thought he deserved to be seen and treated as the best.

Now the highlighted parts always bugged me.
Military organizations tend to expressly tell you when you get into those sorts of things, 'if you are caught, captured, or in any way compromised, we will disavow your existence and association with us'
Even if they don't say it, you're supposed to know that the 'super-secret, off-the-books' line of work means "YOU GET CAPTURED, YOU ARE DEAD TO US."
And instead of accepting it, Maelstrom whined like a little b@#$%, got all emo, and grew out a non-regulatory haircut.

I cannot believe Emperor Cole found a guy who could not accept basic facts of paramilitary operations a useful soldier.

I figured as much in some of those cases.
I suppose the Twilight Men would later become Malta, but who the hell Revelation is is another matter.

Didn't the Dev Bluesteel once say he was Martial arts for his melee?