Inside jokes and obscure references
By
Aghast,
Posted on: 2005-02-04 17:31 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Not sure if this has been mentioned yet - but the Hydra in the Sewer Trial (a giant, tentacled, deadly psychic alien) is a direct reference to the sublime Watchmen, as is, arguably and less directly, pretty much the entire Rikti plot one way or another.
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Ours were Harpo, Groucho, Chico, and Karl.
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Was Karl the filesharing server? 
Recently did some missions vs. Nemesis. Sent me to buildings owned by two corporations. One was named Gordonless. The other Lovewest.
James West
Artemus Gordon
Professor Loveless
All characters from "The Wild West" tv show and movie.
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I dont know if anyone has already mentioned it, but I believe one of the sky raiders was a Fight Club reference.
His name was Lt. Paulson.
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And I'm surprised that no one's picked up on the in-joke referring to an aircraft that was developed just too late to see combat in WWII, and was used in Korea and Vietnam. The mission where you're sent to stop an attack on an office building, with the commander of the enemy forces being Douglas... a Sky Raider.
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
Actually a Nebula is a cloud of gas, not a collection of stars.
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!
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As an aside... why do people call Rio de Janeiro "the city of god" when it means "river of january"? im confuzzled!1one!11!BBQ
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Dig deeper, January, from the word Janus, Roman Mythology, The god of gates and doorways. Guess they were Romans who called it that . . .
I fought the Freakshow boss Axel F and he started the encounter be telling me "Welcome to the Jungle" I'm sure that everyone remebers Guns n' Roses's song of the same name. And of course we all know the lead singer was Axel Rose, not Axel F but fairly close. Unfortunately I wasn't told by Axel F that we would have fun and games, oh well.
Axel F could also be a reference to Axel Foley from beverly hills cop. No other relation than name (and obviously the G*N*R reference is the main one) but it could be.
(The first one I bring up cause somebody mentioned Shadowrun somewhere in here)
The tech contact for levels 30 - 40 is Holsten Armitage. Armitage is the last name of the player in the SNES incarnation of Shadowrun. At the time FASA owned the liscense to Shadowrun (its WizKids or FanPro now), and Jack Emmeret wrote a source book for them. And the setting of Shadowrun is a bleak future (and the contact is either "insane" or "from the future, a very bad future").
And I would bet the Crey is a nod to Cray Inc. (a company who builds high end super computers and is constantly creating more powerful electronics).
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OK not sure if anyone already answered about some of these (wasn't able to read the entire thread). But I believe the reference to Loius Forest and the Red River one are in fact Canadian references.
Since all of these places in Founder's are about revolution and founding stuff, I came to that conclusion. the Louis one is fro Louis Riel who, with Gabriel Dumont and some other metis leaders rose up in the town of Red River in Manitoba to break away from the country of Canada to form their own sovreign nation. Of course that failed and most of them were rounded up and hung for treason, but the war lasted a good many years and the battles stretched from Manitoba through Saskachewan and ended in Alberta. Yeah that is about the most exciting thing that has happened up here.
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The Gaspee is also a Canadian geographical reference, being the name of the peninsula in south-eastern Quebec (bordering New Brunswick).
How can you say Canadian History is unexciting? We also have the Mackenzie Rebellion in Upper Canada. That was in 1837 when a bunch of guys got drunk at a bar in North Toronto and marched south along Yonge Street in the general direction of the Parliament building with torches and farm implements. They got about 5 miles to another bar where they stopped to get drunker then they already were, lost interest and went home.
True story. Canadians are maniacs, MANIACS!
"He may be arrogant, but he happens to be correct" - Ellis
"The server is full of crazies" - New_Dark_Age
Rainbow Arcana / Diamond D: Legion of Freedom - Virtue
lof.guildportal.com
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(The first one I bring up cause somebody mentioned Shadowrun somewhere in here)
The tech contact for levels 30 - 40 is Holsten Armitage. Armitage is the last name of the player in the SNES incarnation of Shadowrun. At the time FASA owned the liscense to Shadowrun (its WizKids or FanPro now), and Jack Emmeret wrote a source book for them. And the setting of Shadowrun is a bleak future (and the contact is either "insane" or "from the future, a very bad future").
And I would bet the Crey is a nod to Cray Inc. (a company who builds high end super computers and is constantly creating more powerful electronics).
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That Shadowrun character has to be influenced by a character of the same name in Neuromancer, by William Gibson, the father of Cyberpunk. (and therefore in many ways Shadowrun's step dad, or more likely, SR is his illegitimate son) Armitage in Neuromancer is a man who was completely insane, withdrawn from the world who had his consciousness rebuilt by an AI. AIs and Cray also seem to match.
As a side note, if there was a Shadowrun MMORPG anything like the PnP RPG I may not be here . . .
Wow, that's a lot of info Technophile, and I just thought it was funny that the clockwork are orange
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Wow, that's a lot of info Technophile, and I just thought it was funny that the clockwork are orange
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I'm not the Technophile for nothing.
And the clockwork are not only orange (well, copper actually) but they are also Blue and Silver. Those last two..well..I would be telling if I told you where to find them.
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As a side note, if there was a Shadowrun MMORPG anything like the PnP RPG I may not be here . .
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Its a pity that Microsoft has the rights but decides to do nothing with them...
*Edit* - If there was either a Fallout MMORPG or Shadowrun MMORPG I'm not sure I'd be here either (not that I dont love this game, but, well...).
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As a side note, if there was a Shadowrun MMORPG anything like the PnP RPG I may not be here . .
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Its a pity that Microsoft has the rights but decides to do nothing with them...
*Edit* - If there was either a Fallout MMORPG or Shadowrun MMORPG I'm not sure I'd be here either (not that I dont love this game, but, well...).
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aMiSs has the rights huh . . . bugger, even if they did do anything don't think I would be into it then. Thats good though in a way. I love this game too, it would have been a tuogh decision, brobably would have played both . . . 
Nobody commented on the naming over in the Shadow Shard?
In Firebase Zulu, all "Islands" are named with military abbrevations for the alphabet. Sure thing, everybody noticed this!
But in "The Storm Palace" the islands are named (from bottom to top, or from less evil to worst evil): Anger, Malice, Torment, Hatred, Fury and Destruction.
Anger leads to Malice, this leads to Torment etc until Fury leads to Destruction and the end of things.
I found one ...I think ... unless its been mentioned before ...
"Capture Lu Bew and his minions" heh I crapped ... someone else is a chinese history buff ...
There's a timed mission, mid-late 20's, where the Council and Sky Raiders invade a lab investigating the Rikti. You get the flawed invisibility and tp temp powers from it. You have to get a couple of files. One of the files? LV-426.
Hmmmm.
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I still think Peregrine Island needs a Maria Dock. (5 geek points to whoever gets that one.) 
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Maria was Horatio Hornblower's first wife.
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There's a timed mission, mid-late 20's, where the Council and Sky Raiders invade a lab investigating the Rikti. You get the flawed invisibility and tp temp powers from it. You have to get a couple of files. One of the files? LV-426.
Hmmmm.
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Wasn't LV-426 the alien planet - or was it LV-426 in the second movie when it was being terraformed - aka Acheron
------->"Sic Semper Tyrannis"<-------
Level 35-40 Rikti mission, the one with the Council agent disguised as a Rikti or whatever. (It's a bit muddled)
There's two named Rikti minions in the first room of one of the missions, named Rosen and Stren. They're apparently guards.
Rosenkratz and Guildenstern, anyone?
In the first mission of the Hess TF, you come upon a pair of robots with numerical names. In the two times I've done this mission, their names have been different. First time, they were 1337 (Leet-speak) and 8472 (the aliens who kicked the crap out of the Borg in Star Trek: Voyager). Second time, they were 5309 (we named that one Jenny) and the odd one: 8.5.18.15. Anyone have any guesses on that last one?
One and the same, mon ami.
8.5.18.15
H.E.R.O?
Of course. Dial H for HERO!
I so wanted to bring Jenny home and use it for scrap art, too.
Learned today: There _is_ a Monster Isle. It's off Hong Kong.
(Edited to fix problem)
PERC Supporter
La Pucelle (BS/SR)
Miseria Bella (Sonic/Dark)
Wrangler Annie (SS/Elec)
Coldsmoke (Ice/Dark)
Saber Maid (BS/Regen)
and others...
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Here is a movie not otherwise named, but first the quote:
Terra Volta, as you attack a group of Sky Raiders - "Remember, short controlled bursts!"
Cpl Hicks from Aliens
Cracked up the first time I saw it... great stuff.
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I think it was around that time that there is another one. Weyland, from Weyland-Yutani(SPI) Corporation-the company and bad guys from the Alien movie series. I laughed when I saw that.
I am taking my sig to MWO and MWT. Let them wonder what it means.