Golden Girl

There were complaints about both options featuring the characters down the side, as they didn't work well with smaller screens - and as one of them had been drawn just to work as down the side characters, the other option was chosen instead, as it was more flexible.

Actually, considering that the last spirit world incursion on American soil in the game was Croatoa, it's quite possible that the devs regard the CoH spirtworld/Netherworld as having a vaguely Celtic/British feel, compared to the heavy Greek/Roman feel of the "real" world.

And now they've just bumped them up from neededing IOs to take them on to needing Incarnate powers to take them on.

Well, it's the only worthwhile stuff

Did that take up all your time 1-20?

Are they? One evil dictatorship is much the same as another.

There are 2 monsters threatening the Praetorians - Tyrant and the Hamidon - we dealt with the loyalists first because they were the biggest threat to everyone.

Well, as we haven't found any torture rooms under any Primal police buildings, but in Praetoria there's one under every police building, that looks like it's government policy rather than a rogue Praetoria PD commander getting inventive.
The presence of the Seers on every street corner is seems to indicate that Mother Mayhem's throught police program has govenerment approval too, and the enslavement of the psychics to serve the dictatoship is very systematic.
Drugging the water supply is also sytematic and government approved.
The mass-murder, torture, skavery, brianwashing and drugging that goes on in Praetoria isn't the result of rogue elements in the government - it's the foundation of the government's existence - from the lowest PPD grunt all the way up to Tyrant, the dictatorship carries out crimes against humanity 24/7.

When crimes are committed on Primal Earth, heroes bring the criminals to justice - this can't be done in Praetoria, as the government are the criminals - which is why outside help was needed to take the whole dictatorship down.

I must have missed the loyalist arcs where players shut down the PPD torture chambers, released all the Seers from slavery, put a stop to the drugging of the water supply, and arrested Tyrant and the Praetors for crimes against humanity.

Flight would be hard without a leg to stand on, and fighting with a stiff arm is difficult - so either way, like Tyrant and his loyalist thugs, you're doomed to defeat.

Like I said, the SSAs are slightly detatched form the normal 1-50 leveling timeline, and seem to eb designed to cover important events that change the whole game world - for example, SSA2 apparently focuses on Villains setting up an new organization to rival Arachnos - which could mean that they're going to add a new villain group to the game - but once SSA2 was completed, not matter what level the final arc was, a new villain group could start appearing at all levels, as SSA2 sould have updated the whoel game world in the same way that SSA1 did.

Either way, it still doesn't really change the release date = time passing sytem used by the Incarnate storyline.

The SSA timeline only follows the episode numbers - levels are only used to change the challenge level for the players, or to cover some enemy groups that don''t go above or below a certain level.
For example, Statesman's death, Sister Psyche's death, and Darrin Wade's arrest all happen in the 40-50 range - but SSA2 starts off in the 30-40 bracket which makes sense in the SSA episodes = time passing system, but zero sense in the levels = time pasisng system in the normal 1-50 content.
The big difference between the Incarate storyline and the SSAs compared to the 1-50 storyline is that the 1-50 one is constantly being retconned in one way or another, even if it doesn't involve changing any of the old content - new content still affects the progress of an avatar on the way to 50 by giving new choices and bits of lore that weren't there before.

Are you sure that you hadn't also run the SPTF at some point on that avatar?

Heather was also available to plain 50s on beta - you could skip Nolan and just go through the DA portal on PI, then speak to her and she'd give you her arc.
VIP-only betas make it hard to test stuff from a non-VIP angle

I ran it with a plain 50 on beta - all my other 50s already have Alpha unlocked on the live servers.

That could be dealt with in I24 - that deals with the aftermath of the loyalist defeat.
Calvin's storyline also needs some kind of closure, so depending on how he's recovered from the news about Aurora, he might need to be taken down too - Belladonna's arc hints that there's been a split in the Resisatnce since the revelations about Aurora and Calvin.

Plenty of TF leaders just be soft then

Captain Nolan can be spoken to by a plain 50.

That's a required Alpha

Both can be played without Alpha unlocked.

That's not quite correct - because of the Alpha slot requirement, the Apex and Tin Mage Incarnate TF could quite easily end up being played after DA and the non-Alpha required Trials - Belladonna's arc, which takes palce just hours before the fall of the loyalist dictatorship, can also be played before the loyalists even invade Primal Earth - which is why the Incarnate storyline follows a release date = time passing system.

The order of release for the Incarnate content so far has been:


Issue 19 - Mender Ramiel, Apex TF, Tin Mage TF.

Issue 20 - BAF, Lambda Sector.

Issue 20.5 - Keyes Island.

Issue 21 - Underground.

Issue 21.5 - TPN, MoM.

Issue 22 - Dark Astoria, DD.

Issue 23 - Belladonna Vetrano, Magisterium.


So while these are all a mix of slotted Alpha required, Alpha required, and plain 50 access, the storyline follows a consistent timeline of release date = story progression, which is reinforced by the neat little system of lore updates given out by Prometheus as each new Trial is completed.

The SSAs work to a slightly different timeline, while the non-SSA and non-Incarnate content work to a 3rd timeline.
For example, the Penny Yin TF level range starts and ends before the SSA death of Sister Psyche and introduction of Penny as a hero.
The 1-50 timeline mostly follows a level = time passong system - the SSAs follow their own version of levels = time, but it's detatched from the 1-50 system - and the Incarnate storyline follows its own timeline, with the progress of time being measured more by content updates than level shifts.

We're halfway through the first powers - Omega isn't the end of the Incarnate abilities

But not at the cutting edge of the developing meta-story

The Incanrate Trials and storyline are the "now" of the meta-storyline - the newest Trial is always the most up to date situation in the game world - even more than the SSAs, the Incarnate system is like a comicbook, where we follow multiple unfolding stories, characters and events as part of a rolling open-ended storyline.