Paragon Times: Outbreak Plague Rampant for 4 Years
By
0th_Power,
Posted on: 2007-09-20 24:28 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
I still say my Crisis on Infinite Servers idea warrants merit. I mean it might sound far fetched, but it would be an interesting test of the Transfer System... Besides, this whole "It's a wonderful life" theory, while exceedingly looking true, has been done to death in almost every other medium than this. I don't think the Devs are going to bring it here... Here's hopin...
Here's the thing with the Zig story, though. If it is Breakout, THE Breakout, and not one of the latter returns to Ziggursky to bust out more villains, why is it happening two years later for them than it did for us?
For us the first breakout happened at a little more than two years after Outbreak hit. The articles put it closer to four, unless this is just another attempt.
If that's true, then Jenkins could have given out the general plan after he had been captured in the first one. It would also give time for the Ballista to get set up, and would give a reason for Recluse to be there. All the other plans haven't worked, time for the personal touch, which still flubbed.
The Abrams is one of the most effective war machines on the planet. - R. Lee Ermy.
Q: How do you wreck an Abrams?
A: You crash into another one.
Here's the thing with the Zig story, though. If it is Breakout, THE Breakout, and not one of the latter returns to Ziggursky to bust out more villains, why is it happening two years later for them than it did for us?
There is a presumption that the CoH and CoV storylines are cotemporaneous. I'm not sure that really plays, but there it is.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
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Here's the thing with the Zig story, though. If it is Breakout, THE Breakout, and not one of the latter returns to Ziggursky to bust out more villains, why is it happening two years later for them than it did for us?
There is a presumption that the CoH and CoV storylines are contemporaneous. I'm not sure that really plays, but there it is.
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I'll admit I had to look up contemporaneous, but if that's true, that means that the breakout attempt in the article is now four years off of the "original" time line.
The Abrams is one of the most effective war machines on the planet. - R. Lee Ermy.
Q: How do you wreck an Abrams?
A: You crash into another one.
Issue 11 is going to add a way to switch sides. People might see this if they just looked at the basics and stopped adding things that doesn't make sense to add.
Think about these things the poster has a serpent bitting its tail; symbolizing the death of one thing and the birth of another, also symbolizing encircling of a world. The serpent is in shape of the eternity symbol; symbolizing the encircling of two opposites and the end of each to begin as the other. The article outbreak is for if your hero wasn't a hero and breakout is if your villain wasn't a villian; not if you didn't exist at all but lived an alternated past.
If it ain't broke set it on fire, then say it was a fault in the design.
Main:50 Force Encephalon Mind/Kinetic Controller, Protector Server
While i like the theory Force, if it is about switching, then would we already have done a heroic deed or two before becoming evil (On the same note, we'd have broken out before turning good too).
That would mean that Outbreak should have been stopped before the switch ever occurred/The breakout would have succeeded. Also switching doesn't account for the long list of 'dead' contacts along the right side.
Though it would be nice to see the switching option added finally.
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While i like the theory Force, if it is about switching, then would we already have done a heroic deed or two before becoming evil (On the same note, we'd have broken out before turning good too).
That would mean that Outbreak should have been stopped before the switch ever occurred/The breakout would have succeeded. Also switching doesn't account for the long list of 'dead' contacts along the right side.
Though it would be nice to see the switching option added finally.
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Not nessacerally, actually changing from hero to villian vise versa can cause a failure of the containment of outbreak and success of breakout just by changing one thing in the past. The reason is because you character didn't start in the game of the opposite game's way. Let's say in Issue 11 an arch that involves a group or maybe two twin groups of opposite goals that alter reality in there favor by altering small things in the past. In this arch you work for one group to battle the other group. In the end of the arch the opposing group changes your past since before the beginnig of your career to were instead of following the path you were meant to you follow another.
Let say if you were doing the arch with a hero and after the arch you were sent to your altered history. In this altered past your character was thinking about becoming a hero. But while traveling through the city your character saw the successes of the different villian gang see them putting fear in people, robbing pursues and gaining power. In this altered history you character is drawn to this causing instead of registering as a hero you begin a life of villiany. But since you never began as a hero you never entered Outbreak to contain the disease. Since the disease was never contained it was able to spread. And since it was able to spread it was able to infect people outside the zone. Now there is a list of contacts dead all because you past had been altered to where instead of deciding to become a hero you became a villian. Remember you didn't start in prison at the beginning of your character, you started outside free as a bird.
Now with a villian at the end of the arch you still start in prison but in this altered past you realize the errors of your ways and instead of aiding in the Breakout you decide to say put and just do you time and change you life. Your character is later released for good behavior and for not attemting to escape during the raid.
Altering just a desire from a path can cause a change in history. Your hero was responcible for containing the outbreak and your villain was responcible for aiding the breakout.
PS
If you read my entire previous post you would of seen that I'd already explained this. Just read the last sentence with the last segment being of greater importance and the last two word of being the greatest of importance.
If it ain't broke set it on fire, then say it was a fault in the design.
Main:50 Force Encephalon Mind/Kinetic Controller, Protector Server
NO offense Force but i did read your entire post the last time. I fact i've been reading the whole thread. If you had started with the above post first, to give more clarity to your idea, I would have given it a bit more consideration. Just saying "alternated past" means nothing if you don't give some details to it.
This is a discussion man, you know Person A makes a point and Person B makes a counter-point. So instead of the jab lets leave it on the topic.
I've done some digging and I've found some interesting things to ponder about issue 11.
The Paragon Times issue is 11.1.3. After giving some thought to plague themes, the Bible came to mind and then it clicked that there might be clues somewhere in the articles. Chapter 11 of Revelation (specifically 11-1 through 11-3) describes 1260 days (42 biblical months) of the "Abomination of Desolation", which is later on described as including vials of plagues.
This issue of the Paragon Times is remembering the 3rd anniversary of the Outbreak Plague and the next Veteran reward is the 42 month reward. So, in this alternate timeline the plague has run rampant for almost 42 months like in Revelations.
Next, Chapter 16 of Revelations describes the plagues in which the second (and this would be like a second plague for us since the articles look like flashbacks to an alternate timeline) turns the ocean into the blood like that of a dead man. Blood of the Black Stream perhaps?
The rikti's 4 horsemen are another biblical tie in. There's also mentions of a false prophet (the Lost?) that has the uncanny power to decieve people (Nemesis?)
Again, I sincerely hope I haven't repeated anyone else's ideas since I just spent a good hour looking this stuff up.
EDIT: i could have saved myself some time if I had read Posi's dev diary sooner.... >.<
Defenders do it with protection.
Blasters do it from behind.
Tankers do it with a group.
Controllers do it with restraints.
Scrappers do it with a death wish.
Psy, you're on to the very thing that I wanted to point out. With I10, we have started an apolyptic theme. Posi told us that. at least 2 different times. What's more, you're biblical reference once again beats me to the point. You forgot to mention that the Rikti general Drag'on also represents part of the apocalypse. I however, doubt that this is an alternate time line. I think we are looking at the future of primal earth. We are gonna get new tutorials. Talos is gonna be gone. The infinity symbol also has a tie to apocalyptic themes. The snake has always represented evil as well, such as the egyptian god set. We were told the Blood of the Black stream is coming. I think it's in I11. They are supposed to be egyptian, enter set, the snake, a symbol also tied to Satan and revelations.
@Rorn ---- Blue Baron ---- Guardian
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I do believe you have "killed off" every single CoH and CoV contact there. (edit: If not, very close to all of them.)
I guess it is your way of saying goodbye, huh? 
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Doom??? 
They are turning off the servers because the transfer did not work. It is the end of CoX. Doom!!!
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For the dyslexics...Moooood!!! moooood
Lots of 50's yada yada. still finding fun things to do.
Cthulhu loves you, better start running
I�! I�! Gg�gorsch�a�bha egurtsa�ar�ug d� Dalhor! Cthluhu fthagn! Cthluhu fthagn!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages
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I've done some digging and I've found some interesting things to ponder about issue 11.
The Paragon Times issue is 11.1.3. After giving some thought to plague themes, the Bible came to mind and then it clicked that there might be clues somewhere in the articles. Chapter 11 of Revelation (specifically 11-1 through 11-3) describes 1260 days (42 biblical months) of the "Abomination of Desolation", which is later on described as including vials of plagues.
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I believe this part of your post is the most intriguing. The rest was I-10, as you pointed out in the P.S. Positron did make reference to the key players' Biblical references in the LGTF.
Back to the first part, though. I don't think that they will use the same source for two issues back-to-back like this, but maybe we could use those numbers to look up some other things. Good thinking, though.
P.S. Lol!
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For the dyslexics...Moooood!!! moooood
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P.P.S. There's some I-11 info/conjecture here.
So, neither the Outbreak success or Breakout escape happened.
Both CoH and CoV were foiled in their infancy. All level 1 Heroes and Villains failed their tutorials, and never went on to become powerful characters.
All Contacts were killed fighting the ensuing plague. Although Lord Recluse is mentioned - confirming that States/Recluse's discovering the Well of the Furies did still occur and created the pre-Rikti invasion Hero population - no second generation of Heroes or Villains was born to replenish the fallen ranks.
A paradox has occured, symbolised by the new Issue 11 wallpaper. Somehow, someone has travelled back in time and ensured that CoH and CoV never happen, and this person's action relied on the very fact that those things did happen, generating an infinate loop.
Is it something we did? Did defeating Nemesis or the Rikti in Issue 10 create the paradox? Was the Rikti invasion essential to our past? Did it even happen in the new timeline?
Issue 10 brought the game full circle. It began with an alien invasion, and ended with one. The Rikti-Human war was concluded, finishing the central storyline of the CoX universe.
Where else is there to go now, but to muddle that storyline in a "meta" story? What else is there to do, but find an interesting way to bring the game to a close...
I don't think this is the end. But it might be the beginning of the end. Whatever has happened, our next adventure will involve travelling back in the past to right the damage that has obviously been done, while maybe struggling in a new timeline where none of us are supposed to exist.
Sounds like fun! 
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Tee Hee!
Great "City of Quantum Leap"...
<<ok I love that show and still watch an episode on dvd once a week.>>
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Issue 11 has to turn everything on it's ear like it seems is going to happen, so Issue 12 can resolve the shift and take us into the next major chapter in the franchise.
I don't know about everyone else, but all this conjecture has gotten me excited about what's coming up. It's encouraging to see people still approaching the concepts of the game actively. It should keep the devs excited about giving us more content down the road.
Beginning of the end, yes. The "end" is another beginning, though. Woohoo!
<QR>
Call me crazy, but I think they're laying the groundwork for a MUO tie-in.
By the time MUO releases, the CoX universe will have moved closer into Marvel-based assumptions. Magic and Natural origins will vanish, both tutorials will be replaced with a combined tutorial, all ATs will be available, PvP areas will become FFAs and your status of "villain" or "hero" will be determined by your mission choices and your actions in the PvP zones.
MUO might even wind up being nothing more than Issue 20 or some such thing, allowing CoX users access to the Marvel product without unnecessary loss of the subscriber base.
In all measurable effects, MUO will be the new generation of CoH, without the bleeding that 2nd issue MMORPGs normally bring.
Or maybe it just means the tutorials will be temporarily closed until the flood of server transfers stablizes.
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AE Story Arc #536752: Torn Asunder
An army from far, far away has been driven from their homeland and landed on Earth. They desperately need a new home and they're liking the look of ours.
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Everything through Issue 12 is going to lead to something big for the next paid expansion.
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Do you have a source for this "next paid expansion" ? They did have one planned for this year, but it was of course scrapped. I hadn't heard or seen anything on any others...
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Everything through Issue 12 is going to lead to something big for the next paid expansion.
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Do you have a source for this "next paid expansion" ? They did have one planned for this year, but it was of course scrapped. I hadn't heard or seen anything on any others...
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Nope, more conjecture!
Kidding, sorta. I'm trying to find the article that isn't necessarily clear about it, but implies this. I'll edit this post once I find it.
*Edit* I haven't found that article yet, so I removed the first sentence until I do. I will keep looking, since we are so bent on accuracy....
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It seems the contaminated will filter in small groups around select zones in both sides of CoX. Thus making the badge attainable for past heroes who did not have the opportunity for it and for villains to now attain it. (i.e. City Sewers, hanging out with Lost...and "heading to Sharkhead Isles")
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So it's all about Isolator???? yawn...........
*runs through the post screaming* CRISIS ON INFINITE SERVERS!!! *directs people to his original post on page 7 and runs like the wind to avoid the tomatoes and flames coming at him*
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MUO might even wind up being nothing more than Issue 20 or some such thing,
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No.
Because NCSoft would have to share CoX, then, with Microsoft. And it isn't.
Microsoft:Marvel Universe Online::NCSoft:City of Heroes.
I seriously doubt you would even see beta invites just for being a CoX subscriber - because that part of the database rests with NCSoft.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
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Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
As much as I love the theory of seeing a world without _you_ I'm sick to friggin death of the lazy writing in the "Lolz nemesis did it after all" I get it, Nemesis is more complex than most villains with an amazing intellect. He's our equivalent to Lex Luthor and I respect that. But to give him another arc of complete manipulation so soon after whats gone down in I10 would be just plain anticlimactic. Its like a football team running the statue of liberty play 2 downs in a row, its a great trick, but the second time everyone's ready for it and it loses its luster.
That being said I hope this is the work of a brand new villain or a very underused group of villains (or maybe even heroes who messed up royally)
It was Fussionette and Fualtline's fualt.
Shadowy Presence - Absolutely, positively worse than playing a Kheldian... --Myrmydon
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It was Fussionette and Fualtline's fualt.
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Nice!
2 Things:
-Crisis on Infinite servers is just too big of an idea. Sorry Dionon. The programming it would take to have a "rolling" event of that scale would probably crash the entire game for way too long. Case in point, the Transfer/Rename services have shown that the Training Room does not properly test something that deals with information moving from one server to another.
-Positron himself said MUO and COH would remain separate. It's an amusing idea, and maybe they will find some way to connect them abstractly (storylines). They specifically said they were going to be two different universes creatd by two different teams.
(Although I'm beginning to wonder how Jenkins could have "sung" without having been captured and interrogated before the breakout attempt was even made...)
In Breakout, the Arachnos Flyer can't get away before the radar station is blown, which was Jenkins' job. When you're sent to follow up, Jenkins is captured and about to blab.
The sequence of events would be something like: prison riot starts, without anyone knowing it was instigated by Arachnos. Jenkins slips in to blow the radar station, but gets caught. In our history, you rescue Jenkins and blow up the station. In the alternate, Jenkins blabs to his captors, who radio in to HQ that Arachnos is behind the trouble at the Zig, Ms. Liberty tips off the Zig staff and pushes the panic button.
There's still a minor flub in the story -- Ballistae weren't developed at the start of the CoV storyline. Ballista-1, whom you meet in the 20s, is the prototype.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"