CyberSunset

Okay, I'm trying to finish my run of the unreleased mission objectives on the Beta server. I've almost gotten to the end of SSA #2.

However, I'm wondering about other things that I should look for. I know that Marchand has moved to Brickstown, and I'm assuming I'll be able to find him on Ouroboros. Anyone else that I should keep my eyes open for and tips on where to find them if they're not immediately apparent? (Like, those three fellows from the loading screen... I'm guessing Marauder, Pendragon and The Center? I'm not sure if that's who they are, but... how do they tie in to that issue?)

Sadly, I was one day away from renewing my VIP status so I can't check out any of the new Incarnate or VIP trials (alas, I was promising myself that I'd finally run the Magisterium trial "Next Time.") However, I'd also be interested to hear about any VIP-only stuff that I'm not privy to. (And if anyone else spots this list, they might want to know as well.)

I'm also finding a few little storylines in the main game that I never noticed before due to Ouroboros. To people who haven't tried them yet, I *highly* recommend the Graham Easton and Laura Lockheart contacts from Issue 22. I had no idea that they were there until this last month.)

Anyway, my hunger for lore remains insatiable, so thanks in advance for helpin' out. ;-)

Honestly, I think that'd kind of miss the point of the game. Heroes keep fighting, even though their struggle is one that will ultimately never end. The ability of heroes to keep going even once it's hopeless is the greatest strength, I think.

Besides, as a very wise hero once said, "Heroes may die, but heroism never will."

Ah! Yes, that. Many thanks.

Okay, I know that there used to be links to this stickied on all the forums, but they seem to be gone and/or reserved for VIP people now, so...

Is it possible for non-VIP people to get access to the character copy tool still? Or is that, like with so many things, long gone?

Are they removing the things that we've purchased for some characters? On the Pinnacle server, my character Warlord Taln is said to be locked because I don't have access to Beam Rifle.

However, Beam Rifle is one of the few powersets that I actually purchased. Is there some weird... "thing" happening that people know about yet?

So, we got the Lore AMA, and it was awesome. However, do you have any lore questions that probably aren't really huge enough to know that there was an answer? Any little itching questions?

I may be alone in this, but a lot of the little details that never get fully explained (or at least as far as I can see never fully explained) are some of my favorite things about the game.

Case in point: what is Caelestis? I think it's only ever really mentioned once, in Darrin Wade's arc, on a relic you recover from some Tsoo. The relic has a river on it with six different branches or streams ending it, and one of those branches of the river is scratched out. It has the word Caelestis written next to it.

The literal meaning of the word involves the sky or heaven, and there are some other mythological figures related to it (normally in the form of a sky goddess.) Not a clue what it means in the context of the game, though. Could be something about the well (a missing sixth origin for power?), a weird fourth-wall-ish reference (scrapped plans for the original winged Epic Archetypes?), or maybe the writer of that mission just liked the word. (Not sure who wrote this arc, or most arcs really.)

Anyway, that's mine. Any similar little issues for the rest of you out there that you'll wonder about from time to time?

Andy, after a string of issues where I didn't know how Paragon Studios felt about the community, you were a breath of fresh air. I often consider your arrival and the beginning of your personal interaction with the community to be one of the moments that saved the game for me during that odd expanse between Issue 12 and Going Rogue's unveiling. (Lotsa great stuff there, just kinda felt like it was coming from a void.)

I'm incredibly thankful to you, and to whatever person gave you the job. I don't post much, I'm not really a part of the community, but you always did a great job of making this more-or-less anonymous lurker feel at home.

Have fun out there, and good luck with the job hunt. :-)

(And when the game gets saved, come back and play a bit every once in a while.)

Even if they don't get a definitive answer on that, I think there are some answers that are less spoilerish than others.

Like, let's assume, for a moment, that the identity of The Letter Writer still hadn't been revealed (SPOILER: we know who it is now!) I wouldn't expect them to answer that if there was still much chance. However, if someone was to ask something smaller about a connection between different gangs (Sky Raiders and Family, for instance), then I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

These events keep showing up while I'm at work. :P I'll see what I can do. Sounds like fun!

To the writers and devs who answer our questions:

I'm incredibly grateful, and I'm also sorry, in advance, for the mind-numbing amount of work that answering all these questions will surely be.

Now, get back to work.

1) Was there a real story behind AE? My theory was always that it was a joint effort between Crey and Aeon to gain statistics on the combat abilities of heroes, but... I always sort of felt like there was more going on there than that.

2) Was there ever much thought put into the natures of Television and Radio? Or are they entities who just...are?

3) Would you say that a Well of Furies is the only way for people to attain a level of power similar to that which the Incarnates have? Entities like The Clockwork King (city-wide control over an army of tiny automatons), and Hamidon (being, well, Hamidon) seem to have powers that, on the surface of it, both far outstrip the abilities of Incarnate people while also being very different from them. One could argue that all they really have are incredibly advanced Lore slots (for custom-designing minions to their purposes), but that seems to be selling the question short a bit.

4) Did the Unseelie Court have any particular reason for showing up when and where they did? Or are they just generally fans of terror and chaos, taking Halloween as an appropriate period of time to work their business?

5) Were there plans for any further time travel zones like Ceimerora? I've always kind of wanted a Wild West zone or Ancient Egypt zone.

Yeah, it seems to have passed. This was his first character, though, so I think the tutorial was more mandatory than normal for him.

Well, it's a bit late, but I've finally convinced three friends to start playing the game (woooo!)

Two of them tried to get new characters on Pinnacle today and went through the Tutorial. When they got to the in-game event with the giant monster and the shivans, there was nothing there so they couldn't advance.

I know there's a way to skip the tutorial (though not for those characters anymore) but...is this a known glitch? Has anyone else encountered it?

I'll be honest...

I was tempted to buy the Sidekick when I saw ads for it. Never did, though.

Argh, so many come to mind, and then flee instantly before I can type them. Ummm...

1) Would we have seen more of The Clockwork King at higher levels, either as a redesigned entity or as more of the psychic Clockwork from the other dimension? (Plus, there was always the intriguing Metronome aspect of things.)

2) Was there a connection between psychic powers and the dark energies of the netherworld? I've heard some speculation that since so many psychic characters also have darkness powers there might be a connection there (such as with the Carnival of Shadows) or was that just a coincidence?

3) Who can I thank for putting Dr. Clayton Forrester into Grandville, and does his work with Arachnos prevent him from continuing his B-Movie experiments? I imagine Arachnos pays better than Gizmonic ever did, but probably expects more results.

4) Was there ever an in-canon explanation for why Paragon City never seemed to have individual super criminals who were unaffiliated with larger gangs? The Rogues Gallery kind of addressed this eventually, and The Clockwork King is arguably this even if he's spread himself out over an army of toys, but I always wondered why there weren't any, I dunno... "boss-level" giant monsters (as opposed to "giant monster" level ones) spawning as cat burglars mad scientists, etc.

5) When Day Jobs came out, it was said that Day Jobs were not secret identities because there was already another mechanic in mind called Secret Identity, so I was wondering how that was expected to work, exactly.

6) Elite Bosses and Arch Villains and Giant Monsters seemed to populate the upper-tiers of the enemies we could face for quite a while, but then we started seeing more and more regular Monsters showing up, along with ranks that seemed custom-fit to individuals (like Marshal Blitz being a "Marshal" type of enemy.) Given the broad array of capabilities already available for Arch Villains (comparing The Clockwork King to Reichsman paints two very different pictures), was there a reason why it was thought that these characters would need further specification from the others?

7) Do you think that City of Heroes has one particular enemy that you can point to as the "ultimate villain"? While folks like Darren Wade, Rularuu and Mot certainly provide bigger "flash in the pan" threats, they don't have the staying power of others. Lord Nemesis and Lord Recluse would seem to be the obvious choices, but other contenders (like Requiem, The Center, etc.) might also be viable options.

8) The game is absolutely littered with hints that your character is somehow involved in horrible things in the future after gaining great power, from the things said by the temporal echoes in Mender Ramiel's arc to the alternate dimension filled with ghosts who hate you. Was that related to The Coming Storm or Battalion or was it its own thing?

9) Could we get a tree of the different powers in Paragon? It's apparent that Hellions work for Outcasts who work for Warriors, and that Skuls work for/with Trolls who work for the Family, the Family works closely with the Sky Raiders sometimes, the Knives of Artemis work with Malta a lot, and I'm sure that everyone works for Nemesis in one way or another, but I was wondering if there was a specific ladder for the power structure?

10) Were Crey and Aeon up to anything more than collecting battle statistics on heroes and villains with Architect Entertainment?

11) Were there any thoughts on Croatoa getting expanded, or was that place meant to be self contained?

12) Can you provide any details for possible concepts that you had for more City of Villains zones? (I was a bit disappointed when I saw that the city built of boats was just for a task force and not some new Sky Raider-themed CoV locale.)

I'm sure I'll come up with more, but that should do for now.

Wait, wait, wait... as of yesterday I thought codes still worked, but now they haven't?

So... when players figured out a way to play the game and just use up resources that we might otherwise ask for a refund for, they "fixed" the issue so that we couldn't play?

NCSoft isn't just ending the game, they're trying to proactively destroy any chance of playing in VIP mode. That's suspiciously petty and mean spirited sounding.

Thanks for posting, and I hope you don't get in trouble for posting. (Though as Bozo the Clown said on his final episode when he decided to play the Grand Prize Game, "What're they gonna do? Fire me?")

Thanks for everything. I'm still in shock, but I'm sure that whatever the devs are going through is worse. I've not cried yet, but I'm expecting it'll be coming.

Thanks for everything you did as a dev, leading the design like a pro. (And thanks for everything War Witch did, fictionality of the character notwithstanding. )

-EDIT-

Oh, wow. An accidental FPARN. My first FPARN, too.

Zwil, thanks for putting up with us, for hosting the Coffee Talks, and for fielding/diverting all of our probing, inane, and (once in a blue moon) answerable questions.

Any chance of a Community Coffee Talk Capstone?

I do hope that Positron and the writers can answer our questions next week.

(And would it be too much to ask that Zwil be invited, too? I feel like the Community Coffee Talks need a wrap up session. I loved those things.)

Ten posts in...well, I suppose if the Peregrine Island statue had a known official name, it would've been brought up by now. Methinks that that answers that, at least in a roundabout way.

Out of curiosity, do all the major statues in the game have names or stories behind them? Some of them clearly do (M1, Cassiopeia, Atlas, that one heroine who didn't like her statue and might have been responsible for the disappearance of its designer, etc.) but there are a few that I can't find.

Case in point, some quick searches in google and the paragon wiki don't tell me the name of the giant statue in Peregrine Island (was she a hero named Peregrine?) Also, I'm fairly certain that the statues around Arenas don't have names...but then again, I don't know that.

Anyway, just idle curiosity.

For the whole question about the Dagger of Jocas, wasn't it also the key plot point of one of the higher tier Alignment Missions? I feel like it was mentioned in one of those as being an evil artifact that some Circle of Thorns-related demon was planning on using. Or maybe Desdemona was going to be using it to defeat such a demon, but you had the real one and she had a fake, or something like that.