Discussion: Paragon Times - 70 Years In Office
By
Alchemedic,
Posted on: 2007-09-27 14:21 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
[ QUOTE ]
But it does sort of remind me of a standard Game Master (GM) technique for writing adventures. One thing you learn is that you aren't are clever as all of your players put together. So you let you players create their own plots for you. You begin by giving out these teasers which point the players in the direction you want them to go. Then you sit back and let them speculate, imagine, guess all of these plots. You take the ones you like, change them up a bit to keep you players off guard, and then spring "your" plot on them. The players have fun playing. They congratulate themselves on being clever enough in guessing your plots not knowing your little secret.
[/ QUOTE ]
Possible, but I'd say unlikely. The trouble is, in software design, the later you make changes, the more expensive they become. I've seen statistics like: the cost of making changes during design = 10 * the cost of making changes during development = 10 * the cost of making changes during QA testing = 10 * the cost of making changes during Beta = 10 * the cost of making changes after release. So it's always considered best practices to get as complete and concrete a design as you can, and then stick to it as much as you can. (In fact, at my company, we actually spend quite a bit of time running designs through QA before dev ever gets their hands on them.)
So, unless the story is cosmetic and tacked on, they likely pinned that down a long time ago. (Of course, Kerensky did mention cosmetic changes, so....)
[ QUOTE ]
An interesting excerpt from the article about Recluse and Manticore:
[ QUOTE ]
Who were the rebels? Fish repeated this reporters question with a wry smile. Why, simple drug-traffickers
and freedom fighters. What else would they be? His shark-like smile and mirrored sunglasses belied his story.
[/ QUOTE ]
Anyone who has read Mark Bowden's "Killing Pablo" knows that Colombia is one of the most violent and wild countries on earth. Natives joke that God made Colombia so naturally beautiful that he populated it with the most bloodthirsty men on earth to balance it out. There is a lot of wild territory outside of government and police control, making the jungles a safe haven for drug-traffickers and paramilitary groups. I can't imagine what Recluse and Manticore are searching for or who the mystery "rebels" they're fighting really are, but I have a feeling it's really bad news.
[/ QUOTE ]
For some reason when I first saw the description of "Codename Cisne" I thought of the Knives of Artemis. And describing Fish as a creepy Man in Black made me think of Malta. Though that would kind of be from out of left field.
The 5th Column is the most obvious choice for what's going on down there, ultimately. South American Nazis are a cliche for a reason.
@Mindshadow
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
An interesting excerpt from the article about Recluse and Manticore:
[ QUOTE ]
Who were the rebels? Fish repeated this reporters question with a wry smile. Why, simple drug-traffickers
and freedom fighters. What else would they be? His shark-like smile and mirrored sunglasses belied his story.
[/ QUOTE ]
Anyone who has read Mark Bowden's "Killing Pablo" knows that Colombia is one of the most violent and wild countries on earth. Natives joke that God made Colombia so naturally beautiful that he populated it with the most bloodthirsty men on earth to balance it out. There is a lot of wild territory outside of government and police control, making the jungles a safe haven for drug-traffickers and paramilitary groups. I can't imagine what Recluse and Manticore are searching for or who the mystery "rebels" they're fighting really are, but I have a feeling it's really bad news.
[/ QUOTE ]
That whole story is one of the weirdest things we've seen. There are at least 3 sides fighting each other: Recluse & Manti, the mysterious rebels, and the columbian military (with, apparently, the assistance of the CIA.)
Plus, the CIA agent "Fish", with his shark-like grin, sounds an awful lot like Mako.
So Manti & Recluse vs ? vs Mako. Curiouser and Curiouser.
[/ QUOTE ]
No, I'm willing to bet that Fish is a reference to the true mastermind behind this, mr. Sean Fish, Head writer, aka God of Lore at Cox 
-C.A.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
An interesting excerpt from the article about Recluse and Manticore:
[ QUOTE ]
Who were the rebels? Fish repeated this reporters question with a wry smile. Why, simple drug-traffickers
and freedom fighters. What else would they be? His shark-like smile and mirrored sunglasses belied his story.
[/ QUOTE ]
Anyone who has read Mark Bowden's "Killing Pablo" knows that Colombia is one of the most violent and wild countries on earth. Natives joke that God made Colombia so naturally beautiful that he populated it with the most bloodthirsty men on earth to balance it out. There is a lot of wild territory outside of government and police control, making the jungles a safe haven for drug-traffickers and paramilitary groups. I can't imagine what Recluse and Manticore are searching for or who the mystery "rebels" they're fighting really are, but I have a feeling it's really bad news.
[/ QUOTE ]
That whole story is one of the weirdest things we've seen. There are at least 3 sides fighting each other: Recluse & Manti, the mysterious rebels, and the columbian military (with, apparently, the assistance of the CIA.)
Plus, the CIA agent "Fish", with his shark-like grin, sounds an awful lot like Mako.
So Manti & Recluse vs ? vs Mako. Curiouser and Curiouser.
[/ QUOTE ]
No, I'm willing to bet that Fish is a reference to the true mastermind behind this, mr. Sean Fish, Head writer, aka God of Lore at Cox
-C.A.
[/ QUOTE ]
Possibly, but "shark-like smile?"
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ok Question, if Manticore flips in i11, what happens to his TF?
[/ QUOTE ]
Nothing.
The devs arent going to rework the entire game, this is all most likely going to invlove a new co-op zone set in an alternate timeline with a new TF open to "mixed" teams.
Could you even truely begin to fathom the outcry from all the obsessive-compulsive badge hunters out there if they changed everything around to the way it is now being represnted in the papers?
No sucsessful jail break = no jail bird badge.
Outbreak not contained = nearly impossible to get Isolator badge.
Manti being evil = no Manti TF, hence no badge for that (possibility of it being retconned out of existance).
Arachnos not running the Isles would mean an inability to gain a ton of badges villain side since so many of them require interaction with the members of Arachnos who in one way or another are helping to run the show on the Isles...
I seriously doubt that what is about to occur in I11 will change the 2 games in such a way that 1 of them (red side) would need a complete makeover. It would really piss a lot of people off.
Story arch, sure.
New Co-op zone, possibility.
New Co-op TF/SF, this has my vote for most likely to occur.
[/ QUOTE ]
Mere speculation and highly unlikely. Positron and Statesman have learned their lesson several times about badge hunters by the thousands storming them with emails and pms about taking a certain badge out. They would be fools to do all that you mentioned. YOU may be thinking on a much grander and impossible scale. Not that it wasn't a good idea but unless there's been a time line variation in my world, no that would never happen
Too much public outcry means unhappy players, badge hunters being a group of them, and thus, possible loss of accounts, defeating the purpose of developing new content.
Conclusion? Highly Unlikely.
-C.A.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ok, my apologies if you take this the wrong way, but you seem to be argueing a point with me that we both agree on.
If you had read the begining of what I had written you would see that I was ALSO explaining I do not believe that they would make any fundemental changes to the core areas of the game, everything that came after were examples of things that could be changed and why they would be bad ideas.
I am not as you said "thinking on a grander scale", I think that if at most a new co-op zone with new story archs and a new TF are involved. Thats about it. 
Please read everything a person writes before argueing with them in the future, kthanxbi. 
Thoughts:
I'm not seeing how Manti and Recluse somehow "missed" the change in timelines. It looks like their backgrounds got messed up as well; although the classified ad implies that people can be exempt from the changes.
Weren't States and Recluse superpowered even before they became incarnates? Recluse could just be have "average" superpowers, which would still make him a threat.
These are the possibilities that could happen, from what I've seen.
Flashback. This seems like a given, with the idea that you didn't make it out of outbreak, or the zig. You can jump in a time machine and do those missions that never happened.
Zone changes: Talos island becomes a hazard zone, filled with infected. Will this be a change to the zone itself, or just part of mission arcs?
I really like the idea that you have a TF that involves enabling States and Recluse to become incarnates, thus allowing access to the incarnate AT as well. I think the probability on that is low, but that's just a gut feeling.
Either this is going to be a parallel dimension thing or Psicurse is at it again.
Wait.
The Vindicators. Are now the Guardians.
...oh, very, very cute, Devs. Clearly, the new threat is Canadian.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ok Question, if Manticore flips in i11, what happens to his TF?
[/ QUOTE ]
Nothing.
The devs arent going to rework the entire game, this is all most likely going to invlove a new co-op zone set in an alternate timeline with a new TF open to "mixed" teams.
Could you even truely begin to fathom the outcry from all the obsessive-compulsive badge hunters out there if they changed everything around to the way it is now being represnted in the papers?
No sucsessful jail break = no jail bird badge.
Outbreak not contained = nearly impossible to get Isolator badge.
Manti being evil = no Manti TF, hence no badge for that (possibility of it being retconned out of existance).
Arachnos not running the Isles would mean an inability to gain a ton of badges villain side since so many of them require interaction with the members of Arachnos who in one way or another are helping to run the show on the Isles...
I seriously doubt that what is about to occur in I11 will change the 2 games in such a way that 1 of them (red side) would need a complete makeover. It would really piss a lot of people off.
Story arch, sure.
New Co-op zone, possibility.
New Co-op TF/SF, this has my vote for most likely to occur.
[/ QUOTE ]
Mere speculation and highly unlikely. Positron and Statesman have learned their lesson several times about badge hunters by the thousands storming them with emails and pms about taking a certain badge out. They would be fools to do all that you mentioned. YOU may be thinking on a much grander and impossible scale. Not that it wasn't a good idea but unless there's been a time line variation in my world, no that would never happen
Too much public outcry means unhappy players, badge hunters being a group of them, and thus, possible loss of accounts, defeating the purpose of developing new content.
Conclusion? Highly Unlikely.
-C.A.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ok, my apologies if you take this the wrong way, but you seem to be argueing a point with me that we both agree on.
If you had read the begining of what I had written you would see that I was ALSO explaining I do not believe that they would make any fundemental changes to the core areas of the game, everything that came after were examples of things that could be changed and why they would be bad ideas.
I am not as you said "thinking on a grander scale", I think that if at most a new co-op zone with new story archs and a new TF are involved. Thats about it.
Please read everything a person writes before argueing with them in the future, kthanxbi.
[/ QUOTE ]
Alright, point taken. No need to yell! O_O <ducks and activates MoG!>
-C.A.
..also, no one seems to know what a mudoor is o_o
[ QUOTE ]
..also, no one seems to know what a mudoor is o_o
[/ QUOTE ]
It's a destructable object in one or two of Scirocco's patron missions -- Mu Door.
Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!
[ QUOTE ]
..also, no one seems to know what a mudoor is o_o
[/ QUOTE ]
George W Bush's spelling of mother?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
..also, no one seems to know what a mudoor is o_o
[/ QUOTE ]
George W Bush's spelling of mother?
[/ QUOTE ]
He knows how to write?
=^..^=. o O (Nothing to see. Just a cat.)
(_ _)~
*Recipient of a Sentai Sage thumbs up of approval.
..v
(==)b
anyone else catch this?
"Mr. Fish, a CIA-liaison to the Columbian military"
"His shark-like smile"
captain mako and manticore switch places?
++++FREEDOM+++++
Funeral Thirst lvl50 claws/SR stalker
Blood of the Blade lvl50 katana/regen scrapper
Stone of the Earth lvl50 stone/stone tank
Catalepsy lvl50 SS/Invul Brute
Despised-Icon lvl50 dark/dark defender
Hope Conspiracy lvl28 Ice/Kin Corruptor
Except Mako's in game name is Gideon Ray. However, the Developer that has taken the name Manticore is Sean Michael Fish.
If this Agent Fish is anyone, I suspect it's Manticore Sabotaging the news. Though, more realistically, I think it's probably Detective Fish (one of the Scanner Squad) got a promotion in the alternate time somehow.
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.
Sorry, but I stated that Mr. Fish was probably Mako for the same reasons, and I stand by that.
=^..^=. o O (Nothing to see. Just a cat.)
(_ _)~
*Recipient of a Sentai Sage thumbs up of approval.
..v
(==)b
[ QUOTE ]
Speaking of...I've never read Web of Arachnos, though I'd love to- where might I find a copy?
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh if only there were specialty stores that focused on selling books!
"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter
29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform
Eh, I doubt either one of them is our "Mr.Fish", really. Though, time travel and possibilities....yadda yadda yadda, you get the idea.
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.
BaB dead 
I11 is gonna shake things up a whole lot. I've never been so excited for an update so much before.
GIVE ME MORE TEASERS
++++FREEDOM+++++
Funeral Thirst lvl50 claws/SR stalker
Blood of the Blade lvl50 katana/regen scrapper
Stone of the Earth lvl50 stone/stone tank
Catalepsy lvl50 SS/Invul Brute
Despised-Icon lvl50 dark/dark defender
Hope Conspiracy lvl28 Ice/Kin Corruptor
[ QUOTE ]
So, what did we do when the game had no badges? Poor babies miss out on badges?? badges are only bragging rights, with the few exceptions being accolades that actually do something for your character before badges became completely useless ;-)
[/ QUOTE ]
Wow, could you be more of a jackass please?
"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter
29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform
[ QUOTE ]
anyone else catch this?
"Mr. Fish, a CIA-liaison to the Columbian military"
"His shark-like smile"
captain mako and manticore switch places?
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah I caught that.
I think I got it. I remember a Star Trek episode where there were two realities. The normal one and the one with the evil Enterprise crew. The episode where evil Spock was sporting a goatee.
So this is my theory based on all the clues we presently know:
We are all in the alternate timeline. Due to power fluctuations caused by a class 2 comet landing on and killing Dr. Aeon, we are transported to the real timeline.
Statesman is evil is this time line. We are all going to have "flashbacks" to the ED implemtation when we get another round of devastating nerfs.
It will feel like "Groundhogs Day" as we must repeat the Outbreak tutorial everytime we log in.
In the alternate reality Jay's Costume Request Thread is still there but its locked so you can't post... (because Jay is evil and there's nothing sexy about him). Jay's new costume "upgrades" for i11 are to replace all costumes with his three new ones: Male Citizen, Female Citizen and Huge Citizen.
Positron has combined all tasks forces into one and called it "The Positron Task Force". Its located in Steel Canyon and you have to be level 10-13 to get xp. You'll get a badge but only if you beat the dozen or so arch villains at the end and the giant monster which spawns in the Rikti War Zone. The monster is of course a 200 ft tall 5th Column soldier.
No one will be allowed to have more than 5 powers, unless you live in Columbia or your character name is Fnord. (Now we know why Recluse and Manticore bolted for Columbia).
.... then again..... maybe not....
Hell, I find it ammusing that the President Marchand, looks alot like a certain someone from a certain sue happy comicbook company who attempted to sue NCSoft/Cryptic Studios, which ever. I would like to add that the simularity is rather fitting in both looks and character.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Question!
Is there anything in the current RW arc that hints at some kind of time shift or anything. I havent done the WZ arc so a yes or no will do. But if you feel compelled to go into great detail....that's fine too haha
[/ QUOTE ]
No. There is nothing in the RWZ arcs that even hints at time travel.
[/ QUOTE ]
ty much
[ QUOTE ]
haha
Question!
Is there anything in the current RW arc that hints at some kind of time shift or anything. I havent done the WZ arc so a yes or no will do. But if you feel compelled to go into great detail....that's fine too
[/ QUOTE ]
No. There is nothing in the RWZ arcs that even hints at time travel.