Golden Girl

I'd be mentally protected by Vanessa DeVore, so I'd just play along with the loyalists while I infiltrated the dictatorship

It's almost as if the humiliation of the defeat of his toughest henchpeople and rescue Statseman showed him just how dangerous Primal Earth was, and encouraged him to seek out a source of cosmic power to make his henchpeople stronger and his enemies weaker, while building a huge army of war robots to launch a full scale invasion of Primal Earth.

Tyrant's plan was actually pretty good - he just didn't count on the Menders being able to travel to the future to see the result of a loyalist victory, and then start helping the Primal Earth heroes gain Incarnate power to fight the invasion.
If Ramiel and Prometheus hadn't shown up, the loyalists would have won.

While heliping the Resistance in the survivors' compound, and working with Vanessa DeVore to help strengthen the Resistance and its allies.

But that would need a sharper turn to the right side by the loyalists - by making the turn at a lower level, it avoids having them heiling Tyrant at level 49, then smashing the dictatorship at 50.

Praetoria now extends to 40, and the turn to the good side by the loyalists is softer than if they'd left it to 50.

Aren't fascist dystopias always a cliche?

I don't do drugs

Reroll as Scrappers.

If the real world was Praetoria, I'd be infiltrating the dictatorship as a Resistance spy

The basic plot points have always been the same - GR sets up the various loyalists AVs and the different tools used by them to maintain the loyalist dictaorship, like the BAF, TPN, Keyes Island reactors and so on, and then the Trials provide the conclusion to their storylines, with the final part being fought in the exact same place that Praetorian players first arrived at in GR.

I'm pretty sure that they actually said that some fans didn't like the story, but that it was going to be wrapped up soon

If it's cobbled, then it's extremely well polished, joined-up and consistent cobbling

Both of which they did at a higher level of quality than anything previously done in the game.

I'm pretty sure that the Magisterium Trial counts as making it to the end of the storyline

That's not how the 1-20 story was written - it was written so that by level 20 everyone would either be fighting the dictatorship to free then people of Praeotria, or looking for ways to expand their own personal power - that's why the moral choices in Praetoria don't actually have any effect on your alignment until you hit 20, and even then, it doesn't have any effect on the oucome of the war, as everyone is fighting Tyrant.
GR was written with the knowledge that no matter what chcoies were made, every player would be lined up against the dictatorship once the war started - that's why there were parts of the story where they had to railroad players into picking the right side, like the confrontation with Tyrant at level 20, where the player text is written to make them hostile towards him, even if they've been heiling him for the previous 19 levels.

The Warden path is the correct path through GR, as it has the smoothest transition to blue side, and the smoothest continuation in first Ward.
Next is the Crusader path, which has an almost equally smooth transition to Primal Earth as an anarchist int he Rogue Isles, but runs into problems in First Ward, as Calvin Scott and his Crusaders are portrayed there as enemies, with no option to side with them.
Third is the loyalist power path, which also has major probelms in First Ward, as there's no selfish options there to increase your own power, and the transition to Primal Earth also assumes that the character is intelligent and patient enough to play a long game, and start over as an Arachnos minion to work their way up the ladder in the Rogue Isles to a higher level of power, instead of continuing to exploit their improved postion in the loyalist dictatorship.
Last is the responsibility loyalist path, which has no support in First Ward, or in the transition to Primal Earth, as their one reason for going, the prevention of the invasion, is undermineed at once by the Admiral Sutter TF, which starts at exactly the same level as they arrive in Primal Earth.

All of this is the natural result of GR being written from the start with the end result of the war already known to the writers - which meant that all the loyalist choices were ultimately always going to just be window dressing, as the real focus was on the Resistance, as that was the path that was designed to lead to the dimensional war at the start of the Incarnate storyline.
They still did an awesome job with the depth and variety of the GR story arcs, but the meta-story always meant that the loyalists were born losers.

It's almost like GR was a teaser to eventually encourage VIP subs

So it's rushed and drawn-out?

And it's totlaly not cobbled together - they work several Issues in advance, and GR was created along with the Praetorian war storyline - when they were working on the Precinct 5 tutorial, they knew that Tyrant and the loyalists were going to be defeated at the climax of the story.

Not with Well-empowered loyalist AVs - a dimensional war between cosmic superpowered armies needs more than 1 Issue to cover it

Kinda hard to give all the loyalist AVs a suitable beating in just one Issue

It hasn't failed, period

There's been regular Praetorian content since GR, constantly expanding the Praetorian storyline and building it up to its logical climax where we finally smash the last of the loyalists and their evil master.

Promptly = 2 years?

You mean I18, with all the build up to the loyalist invasion, was spoiled by I19, where the loyalists invaded?

It's one of the best and most impressive parts of the whole game - one huge story arc that goes from trying to turn in your Powers Division badge in the tutorial to smashing Tyrant into the dust in I23, using every game mechanic available to tell the story.

As the climax of the storyline that started almost 2 years ago in GR, the Tyrant Trial is worth the sub on its own
And if you count the beta period, then we've actually been waiting over 2 years for the fall of the loyalist dictatorship - so I23 is a big story moment in the history of the game.

It is now

Not from only 2 examples, no

In other words, he was engaging the majority of the community, and not the RPer minority.

And shout outs are fun - during the loyalist invaison last year, I got threatened by Tyrant because I made a picture of Null the Gull sitting on his throne

Then they shouldn't have dropped another hint in her personal story arc in I22