Hi! Welcome back!
Some quick answers:
Midnight Squad is the name of a magic-based organization. They're on the side of good. Your first contact with them appears, IIRC at level 20 and doing the arc allows you access to the Midnighter Club zone. (Access is at any of the University sites in the game.) If you are lvl 35, that also gives you access to Cimerora, which is a zone set in the distant past and involves an offshoot of the Roman Empire.
Leveling Pact - you can enter into one of these with another player when you first create a character. A leveling pact locks your character's level to that of another player. XP is rewarded even if you miss some time playing if the other player is playing more.
Example: Player 1 and Player 2 enter into leveling pact. Player 1 plays 4 nights a week. Player 2 only plays 3 nights a week. Normally this would mean that Player 1 would outlevel Player 2 quickly. But in a leveling pact, Player 2 is awarded the same XP as player 1 regardless. So Player 2 stays at the same level even though they might not play as much.
If you have concept characters that need to stay leveled with each other, this is a good tool to use. Also good for husband/wife teams.
Merit Rewards: This is what you get now from Task Forces and story arcs rather than being awarded random rolls. You can still spend merits on random rolls for high quality items/salvage. But you can spend them on other things too.
Incarnates - yow. That requires it's own topic, really. You'd be wise to check out the info on the official website and/or forum guides. (Let me look that up)
Some quick answers:
Midnight Squad is the name of a magic-based organization. They're on the side of good. Your first contact with them appears, IIRC at level 20 and doing the arc allows you access to the Midnighter Club zone. (Access is at any of the University sites in the game.) If you are lvl 35, that also gives you access to Cimerora, which is a zone set in the distant past and involves an offshoot of the Roman Empire.
Leveling Pact - you can enter into one of these with another player when you first create a character. A leveling pact locks your character's level to that of another player. XP is rewarded even if you miss some time playing if the other player is playing more.
Example: Player 1 and Player 2 enter into leveling pact. Player 1 plays 4 nights a week. Player 2 only plays 3 nights a week. Normally this would mean that Player 1 would outlevel Player 2 quickly. But in a leveling pact, Player 2 is awarded the same XP as player 1 regardless. So Player 2 stays at the same level even though they might not play as much.
If you have concept characters that need to stay leveled with each other, this is a good tool to use. Also good for husband/wife teams.
Merit Rewards: This is what you get now from Task Forces and story arcs rather than being awarded random rolls. You can still spend merits on random rolls for high quality items/salvage. But you can spend them on other things too.
Incarnates - yow. That requires it's own topic, really. You'd be wise to check out the info on the official website and/or forum guides. (Let me look that up)