Pose Questions to the Lead Writer, Joe Morrissey!
By
asarius,
Posted on: 2008-04-30 14:13 in Developers' Corner
Are there any plans in the works for developing backstory for Boomtown or plans to revamp the zone similar to how Faultline was revamped?
**Unless there's already backstory that I don't know about... :/
Will there be any further developments of the knives of artemis? We know they're associated with Malta and that they've made their way into the Rikti War Zone. Can we expect to see more from this group?
If you could choose a universe altering event for CoX what would it be, which group or groups would be involved and why?
In the upcoming issues, will the 'Storm' mentioned by Ouroboros, be further introduced, including the writer of the letters you find in certain Ouroboros missions/tfs
How do you feel that the new player created content option will mesh with the cannon of the world? Would you consider incorporating some of them into your (CoX's) mythos if the players feel strongly about particular stories. We have seen this in the past with Troy's TF, and it seemed to be very well received.
Types of Swords
My Portfolio
How much of a bribe would it take to get ahold of that story bible for a day or so?
When the CoX novels, both sets of comics and the game itself are in contradiction on a fact or issue, which one is "right'?
Where do you determine what's cannon?
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Hey, Joe.
I'm a huge fan of the 5th Column. Even though I joined with City of Villains, their story has always fascinated me, and their archvillains are without a doubt my favorites. They had a cameo in i11 with mysterious hints, i12 will probably feature lots about the Path of the Dark and the 5th, but I'm waiting for the heavy hitter - Reichsman. What happened to him? Are there any hints you could share about the possible future endeavors of the 5th Column or their heavy hitter himself?
Thanks,
The Blackguard
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Hey, Joe.
I'm a huge fan of the 5th Column. Even though I joined with City of Villains, their story has always fascinated me, and their archvillains are without a doubt my favorites. They had a cameo in i11 with mysterious hints, i12 will probably feature lots about the Path of the Dark and the 5th, but I'm waiting for the heavy hitter - Reichsman. What happened to him? Are there any hints you could share about the possible future endeavors of the 5th Column or their heavy hitter himself?
Thanks,
The Blackguard
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Isn't the Reichsman in cryo stasis in some old underground FP base in Faultline or something?
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Hey, Joe.
I'm a huge fan of the 5th Column. Even though I joined with City of Villains, their story has always fascinated me, and their archvillains are without a doubt my favorites. They had a cameo in i11 with mysterious hints, i12 will probably feature lots about the Path of the Dark and the 5th, but I'm waiting for the heavy hitter - Reichsman. What happened to him? Are there any hints you could share about the possible future endeavors of the 5th Column or their heavy hitter himself?
Thanks,
The Blackguard
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Isn't the Reichsman in cryo stasis in some old underground FP base in Faultline or something?
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Yes.
General thinking is that the revamp of Boomtown will involve Reichsman, the return and rise of the 5th Column and if Babbage roaming out there is any indication, some kind of progress on the Clockwork King arc.
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The road to villainy in Paragon City seems to be paved with good intentions.
The Circle of Thorns. Vanessa DeVore. Heck, even Frostfire started out attempting to be a hero ...
And there are characters who have become villains through no fault of their own like Terra or A Titan Named Joe.
Is there any chance that future content-- I'm leaning towards a Task Force!-- might give heroes the chance to redeem one of these characters?
Or maybe someone else? Say ...someone whose name rhymes with Dockwork Ring? 
My COX Fanfiction:
Blue's Assembled Story Links
Here's my top question, which should show what kind of a nerd I am.
The official website gives conflicting answers as to the question of what country, exactly, does the Nerva Archipelago belong to. Is it a US protectorate? A member of the British Commonwealth? An independent nation?
FWIW, having studied all the publicly available stuff, the least-contradictory answer would be for it to be a British Commonwealth nation, since we're told that the British took it over from the French, and then never told of anybody else taking it over. But there's nothing in the artwork to suggest that it's anything other than an off-shore US island, which seems to me to be a throwback to the earliest draft of the Rogue Isles overview, back when we were being told that the Rogue Isles were only 5 miles east of Rhode Island, just barely farther offshore than Peregrine Island.
Come to think of it, there's my second question: What is the current answer to the question, "how far is it from Paragon City to the Etoile Islands?" 5 miles? 50? 500?
(Fire up Google Earth and zoom in on the area off-shore of Rhode Island. Or here, here it is in Google Maps: http://preview.tinyurl.com/6nph8y. Notice that there's a collection of seamounts about 400 miles southeast of Providence, RI, just north of Bermuda. If you haven't made up your minds, that's my nomination.)
Third question: Is there any kind of a travel embargo making it illegal for American citizens to travel to the Arachnos-controlled Etoile Islands, like there is with Cuba? Are the American tourists I see in Cap au Diable and St. Martial traveling there by way of Canada or Mexico, or are there direct flights?
Fourth question: What part of the world is Striga Isle in? The Caribbean? The North Atlantic? The Mediterranean? Is it close to the Rogue Isles, or hundreds of miles away?
And now for one completely unrelated question:
According to the Carnival of Shadows story arcs in game, Vanessa de Vore is ardently anti-Rikti, and fought alongside the heroes in the First Rikti War. Why don't we see Carnies in the Rikti War Zone, allied to the players the way Longbow and the Vanguard are? Why don't we see Carnie NPCs in the Vanguard base? Given Vanguard's open-door policy for villains, is Vanessa de Vore a member of Vanguard now, and if not, why not?
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The road to villainy in Paragon City seems to be paved with good intentions.
The Circle of Thorns. Vanessa DeVore. Heck, even Frostfire started out attempting to be a hero ...
And there are characters who have become villains through no fault of their own like Terra or A Titan Named Joe.
Is there any chance that future content-- I'm leaning towards a Task Force!-- might give heroes the chance to redeem one of these characters?
Or maybe someone else? Say ...someone whose name rhymes with Dockwork Ring?
[/ QUOTE ]
A CoX take on the Suicide Squad could be pretty cool.
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Hey Joe
Are there any plans to add any significant groups/forces to the game? We have the Rikti, Statesman and Recluse as well as the other lesser groups. Any others on the horizon? What's this arch-nemesis idea I hear about?
Also, just an idea, how about having the ability to go get an NPC to tag along with you when you're soloing and no one else is around. Maybe have a place that is a Super For Hire, pick an NPC and they can follow you along and help out. I don't think this will deter us from first seeking live players because NPCs are pretty 'clumsy'. Maybe it could be a Supers in training and they can follow you and try to help (they adjust to being a level or 2 lower than you). Anyway, just an idea I came up with after becoming fed up with trying to solo too many missions when no one was around. This also caused me to move to a more active server due to the lack of activity.
Thanks for listening!
There are many "villain" groups that aren't necessarily evil, and I think that makes for a more interesting experience. Malta, for instance, come across as a "policing organization" who feel they are best suited to taking care the public, but w/a bit of a Machiavellian 'end justifies the means' mindset. Even the Vahzilok see what they're doing as "perfecting humanity".
One thing the game lacks, though, is that you really only get these insights from the flavor text at the end of missions. I'd like to see more of each group's character added to their speech bubbles/combat dialog/etc.
Are there more plans for the Rikti? Since the midnight squad is so anti rikti, It makes sense, but are there any new major things. Are we going to visit the surface of their home world? Are we going to finally figure out why they hate us so much? Are we going to learn more about how a human becomes a rikti and Rikti background in general?
Hello Joe,
From a creative perspective, where do you get your inspiration for these stories and/or storylines? Comic books? Novels? Slight twists on real life events then insert fantastic elements?
Thanks for your time,
Kid Kinetix - Infinity Server
A few questions to ask:
1.) Could a player use Ouroboros to try to alter events on Praetorian Earth? (ie save Miss Liberty, alter certain events in Dominatrix's life to turn her into Lady Statesman?)
2.)The 2nd Rikti Invasion has to end sometime.. (with an appropriately hard TF/SF taking place on the Rikti Homeworld) I know you really can't talk about it too much (plot Details and such) but are there Plans for the War Zone after the Invasion is over?
Thanks for your time.
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The road to villainy in Paragon City seems to be paved with good intentions.
The Circle of Thorns. Vanessa DeVore. Heck, even Frostfire started out attempting to be a hero ...
And there are characters who have become villains through no fault of their own like Terra or A Titan Named Joe.
Is there any chance that future content-- I'm leaning towards a Task Force!-- might give heroes the chance to redeem one of these characters?
Or maybe someone else? Say ...someone whose name rhymes with Dockwork Ring?
[/ QUOTE ]
great idea, but I'd rather see a certain Riktified Hero get redeemed first.
How much are the upcoming storyarcs from I12 going to shoehorn the players into common origins? I have natural characters that range from superhuman martial arts to superman style aliens come to earth. I have characters who get their powers from ordinary gadgets and technology, and characters who create giant robots. I have one character that is really sortof halfway between the science and magic origins.
Is this upcoming origin of powers storyline going to tell all of us exactly where all of our superpowers come from? And how do the kheldians fit into the origin specific dialogue you mentioned?
Jason Heavensrun
Swift : Freedom Server
http://www.bladeandepsilon.com/CheckmateStudios
Check out my first Architect Arc, "Bring Up the Sun", arc #339507, and let me know what you think!
This is a question I've posed to Hero 1 in the past -- I think it piqued his interest, and I'm wondering if any more has come to light.
What happened to Marshall Mayhem and Eliza Silk? The Issue 7 promos discussed two Grandville characters we'd get to meet, Marshall Mayhem (known for complex global extortion schemes) and Eliza Silk, Arachnos Keeper of Secrets. But they proved perhaps too mysterious, because I don't think either one got mentioned in the game itself.
Other questions:
Will we see more historical scenarios added to Ouroboros? I'd love to visit more bits of history: Brass Monday, the December 7, 1941 invasion, Recluse's overthrow of The Weaver.
If Hero Corps withdrew from Paragon City in ~1999 (per website background), why are their Field Analysts still around, and why are we taking missions from Henry Peter Wong? We shouldn't need a Hero Corps liason if they're not in Paragon City anymore.
Also, I'd like to ask (once again) for more development of the Color Coded Spy Agency.
"I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides." Lord Vetinari, Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.
1) If Nerva Archipelago gets a revamp, can we please have an arc that heavily deals with the Legacy Chain? Along with Wyvern, they're one of my favourite enemies in all of COV, but are sadly missing in much of the game.
2) Also, can we have some more Legacy Chain? kthxbye 
What part of phnglui mglw'nafl Cthulhu r'lyeh w'gah nagl fhtagn don't you understand?
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The road to villainy in Paragon City seems to be paved with good intentions.
The Circle of Thorns. Vanessa DeVore. Heck, even Frostfire started out attempting to be a hero ...
And there are characters who have become villains through no fault of their own like Terra or A Titan Named Joe.
Is there any chance that future content-- I'm leaning towards a Task Force!-- might give heroes the chance to redeem one of these characters?
Or maybe someone else? Say ...someone whose name rhymes with Dockwork Ring?
[/ QUOTE ]
great idea, but I'd rather see a certain Riktified Hero get redeemed first.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'd be fine with that too ... and I certainly don't expect us to be able to redeem EVERYONE ... I just want us to be able to save one of them ...
My COX Fanfiction:
Blue's Assembled Story Links
If you could change one thing about the pre-existing COH/COV lore, what would it be?
Infatum on Virtueverse
Ignoring balance issues, how do you feel about player characters getting corrupted or redeemed (i.e. switching from CoH to CoV or CoV to CoH)? Can it fit with the "Destined One" story redside?
City of Heroes Development Team Lead Writer, Joe "Hero 1" Morrissey, will be featured in a coming installment of the fan created CoH Podcast! If you haven't visited CoH Podcast before, be sure to visit their website and see what they have been up to. They deliver a regular podcast with information and tips about City of Heroes for the casual gamer.
To help the conversation roll along in the podcast, we have set up this official discussion thread to pose your questions to Joe. On Monday, May 5th we'll collect the best questions from this thread and use them in the recording session of the podcast.
If you arent familiar with whom Joe is or what he does on the City of Heroes Development Team, click here to read Joe's Issue 12 Development Diary on MMORPG.com.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
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